Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) (22 page)

“We’re hoping they get pissed and hit the beach house,” Lynn said.

“We’ll be in full armor,” I continued. “We’ll have Agent Tonto and Agent Naji with us. Once they get inside the house, it will be a werewolf party. If any of the masked numb-nuts have weapons, let Clint handle them. The Cheeseburger will put any others the dogs or Clint need help with to sleep. Jess will have the action van parked somewhere away from the house and out of sight, ready to move quickly. Lynn and Jafar will be with Samira, making sure there are no mistakes made. Once they’re down, we restrain and load them for their final trip anywhere. If we can do this without shooting, that would be best. Breaking the toys slightly or having them gnawed on is acceptable. They’re all going to hell after we give them a proper taste of it here on earth first. If there aren’t any questions, let’s get over to the beach house and bait the trap. You okay with all this, Jess. You and Tommy need to stop the driver if they use one instead of all of them assaulting the house.”

“Hell yeah. I’m glad to have a piece of this. Nothing with a soul, not man nor beast, would ever do such a thing as in these damn pictures to innocent kids. T and I will get the driver. I hope they take the bait.”

“Don’t worry, Jess,” Lynn said. “When Clint tracks the digital signal, we can collect whoever is on the other end. You know how persuasive I can be.”

Jess smiled. “Oh yeah.”

Chapter Eight

Real Monsters

We worked quickly and deliberately to establish our presence on the ‘Dark Web’. Jafar already worked a data mining operation on the ‘Dark Web’ for possible encoded terrorist traffic. Samira would use his neutral avatar once Jafar entered into Vendetta’s entrapment with cleaned laptop. Lynn and I acted as triangulating reference points for Clint to add computing power and signal strength. Networked together, Jafar and Clint could get constant update flash signals when Vendetta began nibbling at the bait. Jafar worked using the beach house WiFi signal while the rest of us were networked into Clint’s satellite super laptop. Clint never bragged about it, but I think that laptop he built might be in the artificial intelligence category. He even rigged it to inform, harass, and yell at him in Lynn’s voice. It was a work of art. Lynn’s assistants, Dannie and Amara, looked after Clint Jr. and Mia in the Dostiene castle’s pediatrics wing.

Jafar assaulted Vendetta’s bait site with minor phishing threads with his laptop camera taped over, feeling them out as the worm virus he automatically received from their site worked into his laptop’s code. The site used all the first class horror props from ‘The Ring’ movie, with HD visions of vicious spirits seemingly peering into Jafar’s computer. Then the message board jutted onto the screen accompanied by the eerie chords of horror theme music from a number of movies such as the original ‘Psycho’ shower scene with high pitched striking notes. The goofy sounds did make Agents Tonto and Naji glance away from their meat basted rawhide bone treats.

“We own you,” Vendetta claimed on the message board. “We know exactly where you are. We’ll collect you soon unless we get what we want.”

Jafar moved the laptop to where an enticingly dressed Samira sat ready with bored expression to hook them completely. She removed the camera cover. Clint nodded. Vendetta was watching her.

“Oh there you are,” Samira mocked them with a dismissive gesture. “You couldn’t collect seashells at the shore, poser. You’re watching me and you know where I am. Oh no… I’m so frightened. Who the hell are you anyway, some little pimple faced boy hiding in his Mommy’s cellar. I’m the real deal. What? You think I’d use a laptop in the ‘Dark’ with personal stuff on it? Get a life, little boy, and stop haunting the ‘Dark’ with your play toys. Only grownups interact on the ‘Dark’.”

We all did a humorous double take to make sure the one speaking was our sweet Samira, mommy of baby Mia. Her performance nailed Vendetta instantly. Some clown wearing a ‘Guy Fawkes’ mask as in the movie ‘Vendetta’ swam into view with a visually stunning flame trail, complete with the eerie music hit parade. It reminded me of Nick’s torture palace in Carmel Valley. His or her voice was synthesized with some creepy horror character monotone meant to freeze the recipient’s blood. I figured the masked moron was Donovan Neely. Although he wore dark robes, he stupidly jabbed a finger at Samira on screen in a threatening manner. The idiot must never have been made fun of in his creature feature persona. The hand definitely was a male’s hand.

“You don’t know who you’re fuckin’ with, bitch! You look dirty. I’ll give you an acid bath! I know how to do it so you scream for a day of hell!”

Samira yawned, stretched, and reclined a bit with a sultry look of arrogance. “You are such a tool. I thought this badass site would be more entertaining. Hey… I know what you can do, Poser. Do you have any tweezers and a magnifying glass around? If you do, maybe you could beat off for me.”

Oh my God, only Clint could stay on mission. Samira caught the rest of us off guard with that ace. The rest of us were in full on amusement suppression control. Vendetta lost it completely. He screamed at the screen, struck the stuff off the desk in a rage, and only kept from smashing his screen because a couple of feminine arms wrestled him from behind with a female voice urging him to stop. It was very entertaining. Through it all Samira sat sighing with boredom and checking her nails. She glanced at the screen for a second, smiling with a disdainful look I know she observed and learned from Lynn.

“I see you have a little girl friend with you, Poser. Cut the comedy act, Charlie Brown, and get Lucy to give you a blow job or something. I know… have Lucy spank you like she does when you two boring tools are in the same drawer together too long.”

We almost lost Clint on that one.

Although shaking with his girlfriend’s arms still around him, Vendetta sat again with his fists clenched in rage. His synthesized horror voice continued the threatening tune to music he began the interaction with. “We know right where you are, bitch! You’re at a beach house in Alameda. Best call a cop to protect you. I will make you scream for death!”

Samira giggled. “Sure you will. I’m vacationing at a beach house, Wanky. So what? You little chicken shit teenage hacker wannabes are so cute. Get out of the ‘Dark’, Wanky, before you get hurt. Save some money. They have those amazing pills for making your dick bigger now. I bet they could get you to an inch and a half in no time. You’ll feel so much better about yourself, you might even be able to get out of Mom’s cellar. See ya, Wanky.”

Samira shut the laptop case and removed the battery. The celebration began the moment Samira disconnected with Lynn hugging her like a long lost doll. Finally able to enjoy Samira’s amazing performance, we did so for an inappropriate amount of time while Clint worked. He finished his final touches and joined us.

“That was the funniest stuff I’ve heard since the Dark Lord knocked out Rattler and told the guys he told him ‘Happy Valentines Day’. You were incredible, Sam. I know the punk’s address. You’re not going to believe this. I think we’re all agreed that was Neely in his scary mask. He and his girlfriend are hiding out three blocks from Pain Central.”

“Oh, how wonderful,” Lynn chimed in. “They’ll be ever so close to home. Maybe we can drive by there so they can wave on the way to hell.”

“It gets even better,” Clint continued. He gestured us to his screen where we watched an HD depiction of a signal tracker on the move. “The idiot took his laptop and cell-phone with him, both of which I own.”

“It worked.” Jafar bumped fists with Clint. “I admit to having some doubt we could get past the encryption security Vendetta would be using with our Trojan.”

“Samira made him bat-shit crazy. His alarms were probably going off and the short time he had to prevent it passed. I’m sure she released the dogs of war on his machine to clean it after, not knowing I’d already recognized his security code. I played with it while Sam kept him raving until I became one with his security protocols. Vendetta’s safety net looks for attacks on data source code. Our Trojan simply burrows into his GPS source code. If he had checked the outgoing signals more closely, Neely would have probably noticed us. Instead, he called his cohorts to rage against the machine. He and Jill are going up the hill to fetch a pail of payback, but instead we’re going to take his crown-”

“And grind his bones for my bread,” Lynn whispered.

We watched with fascination as Neely drove around gathering his crew on short notice. Clint and Jafar didn’t stop there. They anticipated routes, hacked into traffic cams along the way, and retrieved shots of Neely with Woodrow next to him. Donovan ground his teeth in clenched mouth fury with Woodrow appearing to be anticipating something special. The last shot on the way to our beach house once the other four in their group entered the couple’s van depicted Jillian with ‘Hawkes’ mask already on and others bobbing up behind her.

“They’re coming, Tommy. I’ll let you know the moment the assault group hit the house. Neely’s so mad I think he might take everyone with him inside. I’ll let you know.”

“Okay, John,” Tommy replied. “That was really Samira working the guppy?”

“Sure was, T. We almost blew the whole gig trying to keep quiet.”

“Oh man, Jess and I were howling. It reminded me of the time you did the Robot as the Dark Lord in front of Rattler before the last round. I bet Neely’s even madder than Ratler was.”

“I would have to agree. They should be arriving in about five minutes. I want them blocked in once we establish everyone that’s coming is inside.”

“I got that,” Jess said. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

The van drove slowly with lights off into a spot one house down from our beach house. Five exited the man, including Neely. A ‘Fawkes’ masked man took over the driver’s position. They approached stealthily enough in their black robes and masks. To a regular citizen, this would be just like a creepy horror movie. To my Monsters, it ranked with the most fun ever. The anticipation to take these murderous sickos off the streets before they killed and destroyed countless others, when no one else could find them, rivaled anything we’d done on a personal level. The combination of Samira’s smack-down of Neely, baiting him here, and the big tuna swallowing the hook gave us all a buzz.

We’d locked the door so Neely wouldn’t get suspicious, but we didn’t lock the dead bolt in place. He picked the lock easily. They silently drifted in, unaware of the opposing canine statues on either side of the entryway. There were no weapons in evidence. We had the TV playing softly in the living room. They creeped toward the sound like lemmings toward the waterfall. I don’t often wear brass knuckles, but when I do, I like to use them.

“Guard!” Clint called out.

“Now, Jess!” I ordered our outside strike force.

The werewolf party erupted in stereophonic HD sound as Agents Tonto and Naji reduced five horror movie wannabes to writhing hulks on the floor. All but one, that is. The fifth at the rear was the recipient of my brass knuckle hello to his rib cage. I cracked at least three of his ribs. The fact he was pulling what looked like a Glock from his robes made me decide to put him down. If Clint had to shoot him with weapon in hand, he would have put one between his horns, thereby pissing Cruella Deville off. We were all in agreement there would be closure on Neely’s gang in a way seldom seen.

“Jess ripped the driver to the street right through the window,” Tommy announced.

“Did you break my toy, Jess?”

Jess sighed. “No Crue. He’ll fit through a driver’s side window better now, but he’s still breathing. He’s whining a little.”

“Good warmup,” Crue replied. “He’ll be thinking he’s going to the hospital, and then a lockup somewhere he thinks he’ll get his lawyer to sue the city for police brutality. I love surprises, don’t you?”

“Oh yeah,” Jess answered.

Samira walked amongst the now restrained Vendetta gang, pulling off masks until she found Neely. Naji had given the Vendetta leader a substantial hicky on his neck where Samira’s guardian canine ripped Neely to the floor. Samira smiled at the sweating and terrified murderer while petting Agent Naji.

“Hi Poser. It’s very nice to see you. I have some friends here who will make sure you never ever come for anyone again. Let me see now.” Samira stood and kicked Neely in the nuts. She listened to him wail like a banshee for a moment. “You were very rude to me.”

We were enjoying our usually outgoing ambassador for women’s rights in Islam with much amusement. Neely’s girlfriend, the giggling mutant, stared sullenly at Samira as our friend knelt next to her with the ever watchful Naji. “I know what you have done. I would have Naji tear your face off if not for the fact I know you will be treated to a much more horrible ending.”

“You don’t scare me, bitch! We’re going to own your asses for this!”

Samira laughed with delight, clapping her hands together while straightening and turning toward an equally entertained Lynn. “She thinks she is going to Disneyland!”

“I think she does, little Sis. What a treasure this is,” Lynn replied. “Look at all the scary masks we have now. Weren’t they just the best creepy-crawlers you ever saw, Cheese?”

“I don’t believe they liked our werewolf party.”

“Thank you for reminding me,” Lynn said. “Agent Tonto. Please join me.”

Lynn pointed at Neely’s outraged girlfriend. “Water.”

Agent Tonto promptly peed on Jillian’s face. Not to be outdone, Agent Naji took his cue from Tonto and repeated the trick on the screaming, sputtering Woodrow. Oh my, did we ever have a Monster moment over our canine pals’ joint efforts at humor. By then, even with so little conversation taking place, the other masked cretins began to get the message. They began protesting their innocence, saying they were drawn into this horrible movie game on a lark. They had no idea what would happen. We Monsters listened politely while still able to appreciate Donovan and Jillian’s small agonies.