Olongapo Earp (Tequila Vikings Book 2)

by J. E. Park

  OLONGAPO

  Earp

  J.E. Park

  Copyright © 2021 J.E. Park

  Olongapo Earp

  By J.E. Park

  All rights reserved.

  Book 2 of the Tequila Vikings series

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  Cover design done by DAMONZA.COM

  ISBN: 978-1-7350940-2-1 (ebk)

  ISBN: 978-1-7350940-3-8 (pbk)

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  EPILOGUE

  Acknowledgements

  Appendix I Slang and Abbreviations

  Appendix II Rates and Rank

  About the Tequila Vikings Series

  CHAPTER 1

  M aster Chief Darrow lit a cigarette, taking one deep drag off of it before passing it through the bars of my cell. The brig of the USS Belleau Wood was supposed to be a non-smoking space, but few men were willing to correct the master chief’s behavior. They did not want him correcting theirs in return.

  I thanked Darrow for the Marlboro while blowing smoke out of my mouth, relishing the flavor. It helped dull the edge of both my hangover and the discomfort I still felt from the barrage of body blows I had endured the night before. “So, how bad do you think this is going to be?”

  “To be frank,” my master chief started, shaking his head. “I think it’s going to take a miracle to get you out of this one. Seriously, Doyle. What on earth was going through your head? You trying to catch up with Macklemore in Pearl Harbor’s holding company so the two of you can get thrown out of the Navy together?”

  There was nothing funny about the situation I was in, but I chuckled. “You know, the lieutenant blames me for Mack popping Crowley in the kisser in front of all those news cameras when we left San Diego.”

  The master chief frowned. “Well, if it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t have had the balls to stick up for his girlfriend like that. He would’ve just taken it.”

  “Yeah, that’s how the lieutenant sees it. He’s still pissed. He says it made him look bad in front of the captain. You know, Krause chewed my ass again yesterday for the whole thing. He swore all it would take was one more screw-up, one more teeny lapse in judgment, and he would toss my ass right out of the fleet.”

  I took another drag off of my cigarette. After casting my gaze toward the deck to avoid making eye contact with my master chief, I said, “I know he meant it as a threat, but once I’d killed half a bottle of tequila, it seemed more like an opportunity.”

  “Seriously?” Darrow asked, sounding quite surprised. “You want out of the Navy?”

  I shrugged. “I did last night.”

  “And now?”

  I tore my eyes off of the deck and looked back at Darrow. “Does it matter?”

  My master chief let out a long sigh and leaned back against the bars of the cell opposite mine. “Probably not. You got a plan?”

  I shook my head. “Not really. I’ve got fifty grand stashed in a Panamanian bank account thanks to some morally ambiguous Tijuana police officers, though. I guess I could start there. Remember that Green Beret I told you about that was with me in El Salvador? Finn? He was based out of Panama. He knew it pretty well. He told me about a place he liked on the Caribbean, near the border with Costa Rica. Bocas del Toro. He said it’s got great diving, some decent surfing, and awesome fishing. Maybe I’ll use the money to get a boat and start chartering scuba tours out that way. I could moonlight dropping lines for grouper.”

  Darrow pursed his lips together as he considered my idea. “Sounds nice, but I’m not sure that money will go half as far as you think it might.”

  I suspected as much. “It probably won’t, but when you think about it, how many twenty-two-year-olds get out of the Navy with that much cash? The way I see it, I’m ahead.”

  Darrow grinned. “Yeah, when you put it that way, I guess you are.”

  The two of us finished our cigarettes in silence. After I stubbed mine out, Darrow took it from me. “Why do you want out of the Navy now?” he asked, dropping my butt into an empty soda can that he was using as an ashtray. “We’re on our way to Japan, finally doing everything you told me you joined the Navy to do. You getting thrown out now means you put up with all the bullshit the military had to throw at you without reaping any of the rewards.”

  I sighed. “Master Chief, I was in a bad place last night. The weight of everything we’ve been through the past few months just became a bit much. Hannah breaking off our engagement. All that effort I put into straightening Macklemore out, only to have him blow it by ringing Crowley’s bell in public…”

  Darrow was shaking his head in disbelief. “In public? Christ, he did it on TV!”

  I grinned. “Yeah, he sure did. I hope someone kept that tape.” They did. I had no way of knowing it then, but I would see it replayed on national news a few months later.

  Shaking my head, I said, “What a waste. Macklemore was the one thing I thought I salvaged from what went down with Hulagu. Well, besides the money, of course.”

  “Does that bother you?” Darrow asked. “I can’t imagine watching those guys murder that prick is helping with all the shit you got going on in your head.”

  A few weeks before, I watched a Mexican police officer kick Sergeant Francisco Martinez into the Pacific Ocean. He was weighed down with enough towing chains to ensure his body never surfaced. The cops tortured and mutilated the man, leaving him a bloody mess, before pushing him overboard. Martinez was a monster who earned his fate, but his killing had still been a gruesome sight to behold. It should have joined the parade of horrors that often tortured my psyche, but it was conspicuously absent.

  Shrugging, I told the master chief, “Hulagu’s not what keeps me up at night. It might even be canceling out episodes I should be having of when that son-of-a-bitch tried to blow my brains out.”

  “So, you’re not having your flashbacks anymore?”

  Sighing again, I said, “I’m having them more than ever. They’re just not about Martinez. I relive the classics. My dad murdering my family. The girl I got killed in El Salvador. What I did to Randy Green. I don’t sleep much anymore. I’m exhausted. And now that Hannah left me…”

  I had to pause to keep my voice from cracking. “Well, now that she’s gone, I’m kind of lost, you know? I’ve never had a family. I thought that I’d finally get that with her, someone who’s actually waiting for me to come back somewhere. We could have made ourselves a home, a place I could go to
get away from all the booze and the fighting around here. I’m tired of it.”

  “You’re tired of it?” Darrow laughed. “Is that why you decided to get piss drunk and take on three guys off of Waikiki Beach?”

  “Yeah, that worked out a little weird.” I grinned. “You know, I was actually on those guys’ side in the beginning. I was planning on pounding on that little shit-head even before they got to him.”

  A look of confusion flashed across Darrow’s face. “Wait a minute…start from the beginning. What exactly happened?”

  I sat down on my bunk and leaned back against the bulkhead to get comfortable. “There was this guy who walked into the Pineapple Broiler with his girlfriend. He was a really pompous prick. He reminded me of the frat douche who got Mack arrested in Tijuana…”

  “The guy you messed up in Ocean Beach?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that one. Anyway, I’m in the bar, and I’d already decided to kick someone’s ass to earn my discharge. I was struggling to find a target, though. It’s Hawaii. Everyone’s here to have a good time, and I could tell most of the people around me were on a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I couldn’t bring myself to ruin their vacation. Then this prima donna rolled in and started treating the staff like trash to play the big shot in front of his girl. I figured it’d be fun to knock him down a few pegs.”

  “But you didn’t?”

  I shook my head. “I never got the chance. This guy left to use the bathroom and within thirty seconds, another dude swooped in and started talking to his date.”

  “She hot?”

  “She was cute enough, sure. Not drop-dead gorgeous, but pretty. She kind of looked familiar though, like I had seen her around somewhere. Anyway, she wasn’t interested in this other guy and blew him off. It was cool, though. The dude was a gentleman about it. He was just turning to leave when the chick’s boyfriend gets back. Now, the boyfriend didn’t take too kindly to another man giving his girl attention, so he starts making a scene about it. Long story short, this pansy-ass and his girlfriend get tossed from the bar, along with the guy he’s jawing at. Two of the other guy’s friends settle the bill and leave with him.”

  I paused to take a breath. “So, the prick with the girlfriend is really being obnoxious, talking shit all the way out the door. The other three guys are trying to be Christian about everything though, and for the most part, they’re ignoring him. I followed them out, still planning on kicking the loser’s teeth in if given the opportunity. Once they all got outside, this dufus sucker-punches one of the other three guys right in the back of the head. After that, they all turned on the dude and started whipping his ass.”

  Darrow looked perplexed. “What’d you do? Jump in to help him out because he was outnumbered?”

  “Naw,” I answered. “At first, I just watched. The punk had it coming, so I was enjoying the show. When it became obvious they were really hurting this kid, though, his girl jumped in. She got on the back of the biggest guy there, dug her nails into his face, and scratched him right across the eye. It must’ve hurt like hell. The big guy screamed bloody murder, then started wailing on her…”

  I did not have to say much more. Darrow knew I grew up watching my old man beat my mother bloody. He was aware that there was no quicker way to set me off than to see a man strike a woman. “How bad did you hurt them?”

  “Hurt them?” I laughed. “It was three against one, Master Chief. They hurt me.”

  Darrow looked relieved. He knew what I was capable of. As far as the Navy was concerned, though, I was still screwed. After I almost got Macklemore and myself killed in Mexico, the captain was clear that he would show no mercy if I was ever involved in another liberty incident. On the civilian side, though, I was only facing a drunk and disorderly charge, if anything at all. It was no more serious than a traffic ticket.

  “You know, Master Chief,” I said. “I was trying to keep a girl from getting herself hurt. The captain’s a good man. He’ll understand that. You think he’d consider…”

  “You changing your mind about wanting to get out of the Navy?” Darrow asked.

  I grimaced. “Well, let’s say I might not have thought things through yesterday.”

  Darrow crossed his arms and glared at me. “You need to start thinking things through, Doyle! You’d best begin working yourself up a solid sense of self-restraint! You crippled Randy Green because you couldn’t control yourself. Then we have you springing Macklemore from the back of a Mexican police car. That little stunt went from Mack spending a night in jail to facing years in prison for escaping custody.”

  “I got him back, though.”

  “And nearly got the two of you murdered for it! Not to mention you sparked off a drug war between two Tijuana police agencies in the process. Doyle, the captain’s not going to see you as some gallant savior of damsels in distress here. He’s going to see you as the epicenter of every major shit-show that’s landed on his desk recently. The days of your liberty antics being mildly amusing passed the minute Green started convulsing on the deck of the winch room. You’re becoming a real liability here. This one’s going to hurt you.”

  Hanging my head, I asked, “So there’s nothing you can do?”

  Darrow stood before me in thought for a couple of moments before answering. “I’ll do what I can, but you’re going to need to temper your expectations. I expect the captain to throw you out of the Navy for this. You’ve consistently shown an inability to control yourself. That can prove risky overseas. Especially where we’re headed. You get picked up by the local dicks in Sasebo, and they’re going to lock your ass up. Especially if you get into it with one of the locals. I don’t think the old man wants to risk you pulling another Mexico caper in a place like Japan. I’ll talk to him, though.”

  I stood up to show my gratitude. “Thank you so much, Master Chief. Thank you.”

  Darrow waved me back down. “Don’t go thanking me just yet. Like I said before, it’s going to take a miracle to get you out of this one.”

  *****

  Lieutenant Junior Grade Andrew Krause repeated Master Chief Darrow’s words, though in a completely different context and with an obscene amount of exuberance. “It’s going to take a miracle to get you out of this one.”

  I replied with a tone of voice designed to convey how disinterested I was in the lieutenant’s take on the situation. “So I’ve heard, sir.”

  LTJG Krause ripped the shades off his face to respond, making it the first time I had seen his eyes in months. Before saying anything, though, he squinted at the “No Smoking” sign posted above my cell. That threw him off. Inhaling a deep breath through his nose, he looked up to see the haze around the brig’s lights. He then turned toward Master Chief Darrow. “Have you been smoking in here?”

  “Yeah,” Darrow answered, subtly challenging the lieutenant to do something about it.

  Declining, Krause turned his attention back to me. “You realize you’ve had this coming, right? Sooner or later, these things catch up with you. The unauthorized corporal punishments you guys have been dishing out, undermining my authority to make me look stupid…”

  The master chief and I exchanged quizzical expressions. We never undermined the lieutenant. We did not have to. The most efficient way to embarrass our division officer was to do exactly what he told us. We proved this time after time by carrying out his orders to the letter and without hesitation. We called it “malicious obedience.”

  “…the drinking, the whoring, the fighting…you guys aren’t going to get away with that forever. We’re going to make an example out of you, Murphy. We’re going to show the crew that the USS Belleau Wood isn’t some floating fraternity house.”

  “Sir,” I asked, taking a step forward to get closer to the bars. Krause instinctively took a step back to avoid being within my reach. “Can I ask you something?”

  “What?” the lieutenant snapped.

  “My radar repair shop consistently has one of the highest readiness rates on the ship. Our gear
rarely malfunctions but when it does, we get it fixed quickly. Our spaces are spotless, our uniforms sharp, and my men show up to quarters every day on time. Why are you so eager to revel in one of us finding ourselves in trouble?”

  Krause looked at Master Chief Darrow and then back at me. A victorious smile curled up at the corners of his mouth. “Because you’re thugs, Petty Officer Murphy. You, that psycho Dixon, Metaire, and you, Master Chief. You’re all thugs. You’re also drunks. And lechers. Whoremongers. You all lack any semblance of a moral compass. You’re a stain on the tradition of the United States Navy and an affront to God…”

  I knew where the lieutenant was going. I had seen it before. He was about to go ranting about our poor, heathen souls. He was going to lament how our country was lost, entrusting its defense to those of us who, according to Krause, lived in Satan’s service. He was offended that he never saw any of my men in church and appalled that I possessed a security clearance despite my dog tags labeling me an atheist. To our division officer, that made me a Communist as well. Before he could get going, though, the ring tone of the IC line sounded off.

  Darrow answered the call and identified himself. He then muttered a couple of “okays” before hanging up. Looking at me, he said, “That was the master-at-arms. One of his men is escorting the captain down here right now. They’ll be here any second.”

  I swallowed hard. Krause did not concern me much, but Captain Stephen Fleming did. I had a great deal of respect for the captain and genuinely cared what the man thought about me. He also wielded an immense amount of power and could ruin my life in an instant if he wanted to. I stiffened to the position of attention and saw my master chief doing the same.

  Lieutenant Junior Grade Krause did not. He was so excited that he could hardly stand still.

  Now, I had spent the first thirteen years of my life praying for the Almighty to rescue me from my father’s abuse. Only when I grew to the point where I could finally fight back did the cosmos intervene. It ended my torment by allowing my old man to murder my entire family before getting himself blown away by the police. At that point, I figured out that there was no god. If there was, it was not an entity I had a lot of affection for. That said, I have been party to things, such as inconceivable coincidences, that I am at a loss to explain without invoking divine intervention. One of those occurred when the ship’s captain stepped into the brig of the USS Belleau Wood that day.