HARD CASE (A John Harding Novel - Special Ops, Cage Fighter, CIA Agent) (26 page)

“That’s good, John. Whether we need him or not I’ll rely on you to make sure he understands the situation. I vetted Kensington but I was hoping to see him in action on a less important mission before trusting him on something like this.”

“I’ll vouch for him. Let’s get going and we’ll pick him up on the way.” I called Jafar and told him to meet us at the corner of Doolittle Drive and Davis Street in my Chevy, less than a mile from the Marina.

In Denny’s utilitarian action van that looked like a medical emergency truck on the outside and a SWAT response vehicle on the inside I explained how Jafar had acted in the Tess kidnapping. We were all outfitted in blue EMT uniforms. I got a few laughs telling about our first meet up in jail. I also filled them in on some of Jafar’s skills, including languages and computers.

“This kid sounds like a natural,” Lucas acknowledged. “He speaks the enemy lingo and he’s computer savvy. Damn! I wish I’d recruited a sidekick like that instead of Gomer here.”

Casey immediately began to sob and rub his eyes comically. “You can be real hurtful, Lucas. You know that? I should have fragged you on our third mission. And to think I was going to intro you to my new girl.”

“Oh crap… that’s right… we have to save the world quick so we can get ready for dinner, Case. John, pretend like this is the last hour in one of those Jack Bauer ‘24’ episodes.”

“I heard that,” Denny called back from the driver’s seat.

Casey gestures at the added turret type bubble top above us. “I hope this’ll be high enough for you to get a shot. It’s perfect for cover but the pits if our target’s not in the open.”

I shrugged. “If I can’t get a shot we’ll go to up close and personal. Our plus is Chardin doesn’t trust anyone. That’s obvious because he let himself get seen talking with Nelson. It seems, thanks to Denny suspecting that dweeb Reddig, Chardin doesn’t suspect we know what he looks like.”

“Meaning he won’t have an army with him,” Lucas said.

“Not unless they’re a crew he’s been with since the beginning,” Casey added. “Hell, the three of us are just like him. We don’t have an entourage. He won’t have one either. I’m betting he has a boat. It’s perfect for moving around without detection out here on the coast with all of the interior within easy rented car range. If he doesn’t have a couple of loyal sidekicks Chardin would be limited to a boat he can pilot alone.”

I hadn’t thought of boat size. “You’re right, Case. We’ll have to figure that in. It may make Jafar’s approach more dangerous. Hey, Den, can I bag the henchmen?”

“Shoot to wound,” Denny called back. “If he does have a crew they may be an easier interrogation. I like Casey’s thinking. Chardin can move up and down the coast at will and dock pretty much where he wants. If… wait one.”

We heard Denny talking to someone and then sign off. “Good news. We have a boat at the Marina with Pakistani diplomatic tags. It’s a big one so he’s not alone. You still want to pick up the kid, John.”

“Yes. Call for the specifics on who has the boat docked near it. We’ll send him up to Chardin’s boat asking if they know where such and such is docked. He may be able to get us an idea of how many are on board. I hope Chardin parked it up the pier far enough so when they start screamin’ we’ll be able to get over there before they draw a crowd.”

“On it.” Denny called my request in and by the time we pulled up next to Jafar we had all the details of who owned the boat docked next to Chardin’s and the fact they were not on board.

Jafar hesitated for a moment when we stopped next to him and the back door opened. Lucas put out a hand. “C’mon aboard, kid. We need a hero.”

Jafar shook Lucas’s hand and climbed into the back with us. “Okay, so where do we pick him up at?”

Chapter Fifteen

Hunting Chardin

Even Denny laughed. I explained what we wanted him to do and briefed the kid on who to say he needed directions to find. Jafar listened intently, nodding his understanding at the appropriate times. His eyes widened a bit when I told him the boat had Pakistani registration. Casey gave him the transmitter we wanted him to carry. Although we now knew which boat Chardin was in I still wanted something we could track on Jafar.

The San Leandro Marina area consists of a sprawling area of park, coastline, restaurants and piers. It’s a beautiful bay from which you can see forever on clear days such as this one. Denny turned into the parking lot furthest from the line of piers with Casey sitting next to him reading off our position in relationship to Chardin’s boat. We had the far end of the parking lot to ourselves so Denny jockeyed us into a position at Casey’s direction where we could see the boat with a minimum of obstacles in the way. As we hoped, Chardin had ported it at the very end of the last pier in the line. I figured Chardin’s cruiser was at least an eighty footer, sleek with double-decker cabin areas. I didn’t see much in the way of deck area though which would limit his exposure considerably.

I got up in my makeshift cockpit, standing on a metal stanchion we had rigged to the floor with my sighting scope. Our bubble on the vehicle’s roof was opaque from the outside. When looking up at the extension it appeared to be a vent. The salt air breeze blowing in from the ocean cut across the parking lot at a good clip. It also rocked the vessels tied up at the pier, further adding to our difficulties.

“Good news is I have clear sight of our target boat,” I told my comrades while doing a slow scan of Chardin’s craft. “Bad news is there’s not much uncovered decking and the windows are dark tinted. Since I doubt Chardin will be dancing around outside on the small fantail, I’m not optimistic about my plan A. Plan B is we put on the siren, rev up to the pier, and Jafar leads us in like we’re answering an emergency call. I’ll charge, you guys clean.”

“Short, brutal, and oddly satisfying,” Casey remarked. “I’m in.”

“I lost my love for plan A the moment I knew he had a crew. This works for me, John,” Lucas added. “How about it, Denny?”

Denny handed me a printout of a Bertrund 800 Cruiser. “These are the floor plans for the vessel they have docked. Multi layered, so hit all the decks or Chardin will find a way to curl up somewhere and waste you lunk-heads.”

“We’ll need to get them immobilized quickly.” Denny closed his eyes for a moment before standing up. “If there’s no questions about the layout get Jafar into a uniform. You guys take floating Pakistan out to sea after securing the crew and Chardin. I’ll cruise out to you when I get a couple people out here with a boat that I can trust.”

“Can we keep the boat?” Casey’s liking the design.

“No, you can’t keep the boat. Get movin’.”

“What’d you pack for plan B, John?” Lucas asked me as we first got Jafar in a uniform with vest underneath.

“I brought the 9mm Taurus you like with the AWC Abraxas silencer. Same for Case and me. I’ll be right behind Jafar when he knocks on the door. If they open up I’ll throw in a flash/bang and we’ll get the party started.”

“What should I do after they answer my knock?” Jafar’s voice only shook slightly. Very good – too much reaction, bad, too little reaction, just as bad.

I fastened the last straps on his vest and gave him a uniform shirt with all the EMT tags the rest of us wore. We all had ball caps on. “Drop to the deck immediately. Don’t get cute and don’t look up. If things get ugly, dive into the Bay.”

“I heard you say something about this ship being of Pakistani registry. Is this legal?”

Lucas put an arm around Jafar’s shoulders. “Do like John tells you. We’ll talk later about your comfort zone. If you don’t like the way things go down today, now’s the time to find out. Anything else?”

“I’m good.” Jafar wisely decided now wasn’t the time.

Casey and I packed a first aid bag along with a few special utensils we might need on our Bay Cruise while Lucas kept an eye on the boat. We had a folding gurney to make us look real good hustling down the pier. Denny made sure Jafar knew what name to shout out while banging to come aboard the cruiser. Denny was back in the driver’s seat five minutes later. He snapped on the siren while speeding to the nearest pier access spot. Being a weekday, the sidewalk bordering the waterline and the piers that butted into it were virtually deserted. A few people ducked their heads out of the restaurant nearby but went back in after Denny turned off the siren.

Casey ran ahead to the locked gateway keeping looky-loos from meandering into the docking area. He picked the lock in seconds and held the door open for Jafar to lead us down the pier. We kept a professional no nonsense jog going toward our target while scanning with peripheral vision for interested boat owners checking us out. Since very few of the craft were doubling as domiciles I didn’t see anyone coming out to take a look.

I saw a couple shadows at the tinted windows while hunching over the gurney we were hauling between us. Jafar never hesitated. He ran across the gangplank onto the back of the boat shouting for the name of our supposed patient in distress, Alda Jameson. I had worked the gurney onto the fantail decking with Lucas and Casey carrying medical shoulder bags. A short dark, clean shaven man in a brown suit came through the back hatch waving angrily at Jafar and shouting at him in heavily accented English.

Jafar hit the deck as I ran over our greeter and tossed two flash/bangs into the boat interior. The resulting explosions elicited the screams I’d hoped for. I hurried through the smoky chaos on the main deck and chucked a couple more party favors down into the lower ship area through the hatch. Nothing to do after they went off other than get busy. Casey and I secured the three guys writhing on the floor with blood coming out of their ears and nose while Lucas dragged the unconscious greeter in and plastic tied him. Casey and Lucas then went up, weapons ready to the upper deck that hadn’t been flashed. I waited, knowing the worst of this was ahead.

The Bertram 800 had six staterooms, including the crew quarters behind the engine room. I stayed where I could keep watch until Lucas and Casey returned. We secured each stateroom while keeping an eye on the stairs leading down to the lower compartment. The search, methodical and quick, netted no other occupants. Saving the master cabin for last I kicked in the door and tossed another flash/bang while diving out of the way. Automatic weapon’s fire engulfed the cabin doorway before the flash/bang did its work. I found Chardin trying to pick up the Uzi he’d dropped, his face twisted in agony as he fought to overcome the stun grenade.

If he’d been another crewmember I might have only restrained him. Seeing as how Chardin ranked in the highest category of coldblooded assassins I kicked him in the temple, plastic tied his wrists, and slit both his Achilles Tendons with my handy dandy razor sharp knife. I then checked his dental work for any suspicious caps that he could bite down on and cheat us out of an interrogation with. Yep, we idiots working in the weird world of terrorism, assassinations and espionage do sometimes go old school with a cyanide capsule. Casey watched me without comment. Lucas still had the lower cabin access under observation. I finished by duct taping Chardin to a chair in the room.

“You didn’t trust the hypo we brought to keep him subdued, John?”

Using torn off pieces of sheeting, I wrapped my lower leg surgery on Chardin’s tendons up tightly. “I’d just worry about him, Case. Now… I ain’t worried.”

“Works for me. It’s less blood than blowing his kneecap off. We need to cap him after the questions though. He’d hold a grudge you crippled him otherwise, and come lookin’ for payback some day when a suit let him escape.”

“My thoughts exactly. Let’s go help Lucas do the lower deck and get this ship runnin’ for the horizon before somebody thinks that wasn’t fireworks.”

Lucas glanced our way when Casey and I returned to the main area. “God, this is a beautiful boat. I don’t know how but we’re keeping this, Case. We’ll cut you in for a third ownership, John.”

“Since none of this would sit well with the Pakistan government I guess we’ll have to clean up the lower hold area before we talk over places we can do makeovers in secret. First things first. Any sound downstairs?”

“Some groans but no movement on the stairs.”

I took out another stunner, went down the steps until I could launch it into the area more and let her rip. I leaped up the steps and we covered up until the blast. This one evoked a few screams so we all went down to sort out our lower hold occupants after the smoke cleared a bit. We had masks for the enclosed area and it turned out we didn’t need any weapons play. Five more crewmembers littered the deck in various stages of duress. Two were dead from my second stunner landing right on top of them. They’d popped a major blood vessel by the looks of their eyes. We don’t use those civilian friendly type stunners like S.W.A.T utilizes. Lucas and Casey searched the area while I secured my three survivors. Minutes later we scrambled up and collected Jafar while casting away with Casey powering up the engines. Jafar had gotten to his feet and kept watch down the pier after our initial onslaught.

“We drew very little attention,” Jafar said. “Where are we going?”

“Yo ho ho, we’re heading out to sea for the time being. I have to sweep this puppy for trackers while Casey drives, and Lucas tells Denny to go round up a boarding party relief crew. Have a seat up with Casey until the air clears.”

“Will we still be able to get back in time to escort Samira?”

“Thinkin’ with your little brain again, huh? Can’t say as I blame you but we have one of the premiere assassins in the world so that question will have to wait.”