“I can’t believe I’m standing here talking to you, Kevin. Jesus, it’s good to see you.”
“Man, after you left, we got military help on a bit grander scale. We received word you bushwhacked so many supply trucks, they’d have to start attacking us with clubs.” Kevin looked towards the group still at bay near the terminal entrance. “I see a couple of familiar faces by the door. Where the hell did you find Steve and his son?”
“At the end really. Things got exciting all at once. We can catch up on old times later. I guess we caused a stir with the way I conducted our entrance. Do you have control over our landing stuff?”
“This place remains one of the tightest security spots around. They shoot down anyone without clearance, and they have a force of about five hundred men here on rotating guard twenty-four hours a day. I’m here to integrate you back into our community. I must admit, you caused a bit of commotion with the way you decided to come in. What’s this all about Jack?”
“Too long of a story for now, my friend. If you say it’s okay, I’ll allow the unloading to get started.”
“It’s clear, and once we get done with the unloading, there will be the transport to worry about over to the Medical Center. I still have a core of about fifty men still with me. You know a lot of them. They will be along the route to the Medical Center, where we can drop off your supplies, and then we can settle you in. I have a patient waiting for you a little ways away from the Center. I couldn’t move him. It’s Larry, they lured him into a bad spot, using his dog for bait, and then they gut-shot him, and left him to die. We didn’t find him until almost four hours later. He thought he could get the dog back without backup. He’s in a lot of pain, so we need to hurry. Do you have any painkillers with you? Even the military here only has some weak-ass pills. We’ve all been waiting for you guys to show up with some decent medical supplies.”
Jack nodded. “Bring in a couple of your men to oversee the unloading and to get the trucks loaded, while I go with you, Steve, and my brothers over to get him. No time to talk details now, so go ahead, and get things started. I will fill everyone in.”
Kevin nodded and hurried away. Jack returned to his group, and explained the situation. “Peter, I want you and John to watch the loading; and make sure the inventory matches the list, and we don’t have any little surprises, like tracking devices and stuff. I want you kids to stay on guard through the whole thing. Pick your spots carefully, and stay alert.”
“Will we be able to move Larry after we get to him,” Steve asked.
“I’ll get the medical kit off of the transport. I wish we had the Doc with us now, but that can’t be helped. The morphine should help, but I have no idea how bad he is. Go ahead and get started, while I apologize to the crew, and get the medical kit.”
Jack watched Steve and Mitch position the kids, where they had some cover, and good vision over the loading area. Paul waited for Kevin to come back and direct his men. Jack walked over to where the flight and ground crews waited under John’s watch. Jack turned to the pilot.
“I’m sorry for all of this, Bill, but it couldn’t be helped. Someday I will explain it all to you. No one got hurt or killed. Let’s leave it at that. I need the medical kit off of the transport, and all of you can go on about your unloading duties.”
“We know why you went this route, Jack,” the pilot replied. “We all know Kardel, and I think I know what you suspected. I didn’t say anything on the plane, because why would you believe me. In any case, there’re no hard feelings.” The man stuck out his hand, and Jack took it, wondering how many other people on the base suspected Kardel to be playing his own game.
Later, with the medical kit in hand, and Wolf with Sarah, Jack joined Kevin, Steve, and his brothers where he had first met Kevin. Steve had Kevin around the neck as he walked up. Steve saw him approach, and let loose of Kevin’s neck.
“This disrespectful turd asked me if we had plastic surgeons at the main base, because they must have sucked two hundred pounds of fat out of me.”
Kevin rubbed his neck. “No reason to get violent, dude. It’s just the only part on him I recognize is that ugly bulbous nose.”
“Why you… no good…” Steve went for him again, but Jack’s look brought him up short.
“Let’s get Larry, and save the hellos for later, okay?”
“We can only make Larry comfortable, Jack,” Kevin said grimly. “The corpsman here at the base tried to help him, but we found him too late.”
Outside, they climbed into an old Chevrolet Malibu station wagon, Kevin owned. Jack sat silently, thinking about how empty the streets looked. He could tell there had been crews going over the streets, because things were not anywhere near as bad as he had pictured them. It took about ten minutes to get to a single level dwelling on 15th Avenue. Kevin steered in front of the place, and everyone exited the car quickly. The street was dead quiet, with no movement, leading Jack to wonder how many people were really left alive here.
Jack followed Kevin into the cramped quarters, and saw a figure writhing weakly on a bed in the back of the room. He motioned for his brothers to take up guard outside the door, and at the only window. Kevin motioned his own man away from the bed, as Steve and Jack walked up. Jack could barely recognize Larry Franco, who he had known as a customer, friend, and fellow soldier for over twenty years. He, Steve, and Peter had fought with Larry and Kevin from the first few days of the attack, after the virus outbreak. Steve went to one side, and Jack to the other. Steve knelt down next to the bed, and gripped Larry’s hand gently.
“Christ… Larry, I would have never left if I’d known you would get into this much trouble.”
Larry heard him, and squinted up out of pain filled eyes. He looked first at Steve, and then up at Jack. He tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace of pain. “Hello boys.”
Jack bared his arm from the covers, and injected him with the morphine shot he had brought. They watched Larry’s face relax, and he opened his eyes again. “Thank God you and Steve brought me some good stuff. I wanted to die with a little dignity, instead of screaming for it.”
Jack put his hand on Larry’s arm. “How did this happen Larry?”
“I fucked up, Jack. The fighting tapered off months ago, but we were warned about gang infiltration,” Larry coughed up a bloody froth.
“Screw it, Larry, don’t talk anymore.” Steve put in.
“We know about the infiltration. We’ll get you over to the medical complex. We have a Doctor flying in and…”
Larry shook his head. “I ain’t going anywhere boys,” he said, smiling peacefully, as the morphine did its work. “No need to start torturing me, just when you have me feeling okay.”
Jack stripped back the covers and looked down at the sea of blood and waste. He covered his friend over again gently, and looked at Steve with death written in his face. Kevin walked over, and gripped Jack’s arm, which had started shaking. He smiled painfully at Jack, and shook his head. “He and I have been over that ground already, Jack.”
“They took Shadow, Jack. I let him out for a moment, because he was barking at the door of the place I was staying at. I thought no one knew about it. Then he was gone. They contacted me the next day. They said if I brought them some food, and if I came alone…”
“I told the God damn fool it was a trap, but he wouldn’t listen,” Kevin finished.
“It was the gang we had been watching and reporting on. They must have at least a couple hundred guys. They had cut my Shadow dog up, Jack. I brought them food, but they cut my baby up anyway just for spite. They laughed and gut-shot me. I deserved it for being so stupid.”
“Easy Larry, easy,” Jack urged. “Don’t try and talk anymore, Larry. I…”
Larry reached and gripped his arm. “Listen Jack… don’t underestimate these guys. It’s like we heard, they aren’t like no gang members I ever saw. Kevin can tell you. I…” and he was gone. All the pain had drained from his bloodless face, and with it his lif
e.
Jack held his arm for a moment, and then placed it back gently over his chest. He looked at Steve, who had turned away, with his head in his hands. Kevin moved around Jack, and closed Larry’s eyes for the last time. He looked at his friend for a long moment, and then pulled the cover over his head. Kevin turned to Jack, able once again to speak.
“I want revenge, Jack! I don’t much care about the law, or the war being over. I never had a friend like this man here, and his stupid dog. He pulled my black ass out of places I’d already kissed it goodbye in. We went through four years of hell, just so some rag tag desertin’ mother fuckers could waste him, and his stupid dog, in the middle of some God forsaken alley.”
“Kevin,” Jack said, reaching a hand to grip the man’s shoulder. “I wish…”
Kevin turned slowly. “We tried to get those assholes at Base to take this threat seriously about these pieces of shit, but they kept saying it was just a gang. Even when we reported on them making raids on the armory, and taking shots at the Airport, we got the same bullshit. They have thousands of troops around here still. We could have cleaned out the bastards before they got Larry and his stupid dog. We…”
“I know Kevin,” Jack interrupted. “We were going to explain what we’ve learned once we settled in. They don’t want the gangs gone. They want to control them. They need something to use against the populace, just like they did with them before the war.”
“And you all are here to see to it,” Kevin asked angrily. “Man, I used to think I knew you guys! What kind of convoluted bullshit you tryin’ to feed me.”
“I told you what they wanted. I came here to rain on their parade. I brought my family, Steve, and Peter. Do you think I came here to let bygones be bygones with a bunch of ex-commie soldiers, and use them against my own people?”
Steve stood up, rubbed his eyes, and ran his hands back through his hair. He came over and put his arm around Kevin’s shoulders. “Jack knew Larry for over twenty years, Kevin. We’re here to set things right, and God help anything getting in our way.”
Kevin looked into the grim faces around him, and knew the truth. He smiled, and reached over to pat his dead friend’s side. “You and your stupid dog rest easy my old, and good friend.” He looked up again, and the smile was gone. “Let the cuttin’ begin.”
Chapter 27
The Loss
It took a twenty-four hour period of solid hard labor to get Dr. Morrison’s Medical Center set up. Jack moved his people into the huge manor house in Piedmont, along with all of their gear. They set up perimeter guards, with night vision goggles, and sniper rifles over the Medical Center, and the living quarters. Jack moved all of Kevin’s men, and their families into the house also, calling it only half-jokingly, Fort America.
Jack, Kevin, and Steve prepared Larry's body for burial, along with the remains of his dog, Shadow. Jack drove to the Presidio, and picked out a spot to bury his friend. He took Wolf with him, and a shovel. He worked for six straight hours digging the grave, making sure it would hold the casket easily, and deeply. Walking down to the ocean, he washed off the crusted dirt from his upper body in the cold ocean surf. Sitting quietly in the gusty cold San Francisco air, he watched the waves smash into the rocks as the day ended. It had been a long time since he had sat by the ocean.
After returning to their new living quarters, he and Wolf walked past one of Kevin’s men at the gate wearing full battle gear, and backed up by a fifty caliber machine gun nest. He spotted the snipers on the rooftop, and nodded approvingly at the way they had trimmed back the foliage around the mansion. He found his brothers, Kevin, Steve, and Peter at the huge dining table with an open bottle of Bushmills, and six shot glasses.
“Where are the kids,” Jack asked, as he sat down in front of one of the shot glasses. Wolf’s water dish, and food dish were laid out next to Jack’s chair, and the dog happily attacked his meal.
“They went to bed early. We put them on a rotating guard schedule, and told them they needed to relieve the mid-watch,” Paul replied.
“The Doc?”
“At the Medical Center,” Mitch answered. “She said to tell you she would be staying there for the next couple of days, until she had her program ready to start. The fence has been fired up, and the guards are in place. Steve and Peter set up a live monitoring station there, so we have surveillance from here also. We have cameras everywhere around the perimeter there, and here.”
“All the live cams feed right into the room over there,” Steve pointed to a room just off the dining area, where Jack could see banks of monitors with lit screens.
“We waited for you,” Kevin announced. “Did you find a spot?”
“I found a beauty. It won’t make him or Shadow feel any better, but he ought to get a laugh looking down on the rest of us blubbering around a hole in the ground.”
They all laughed as Peter pointed at the head stone he had carved for Larry and the dog. Jack went over and examined it. Carved on it in ornate lettering was part of the 23rd Psalm: Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Larry Franco and Shadow walked through the valley; and while they did, all who walked with them feared a little less.
“Man, that’s beautiful work Peter,” Jack said in awe.
“Kevin wrote down what to say on it.”
Jack came back, and clapped a hand on Kevin’s shoulder as he took a seat next to him. “I figured that.”
“What now,” Kevin asked, “and when?”
Jack leaned a little, picked up the bottle of Bushmills, and poured them all a shot. He sat down with his shot glass in hand. “I thought about a toast I read in an old Robert E. Howard story, about his character Conan the Barbarian. The story goes where Conan had befriended a settler named Balthus, and a dog named Slasher, along the Pict border, the Picts being an ancient warlike tribe. Balthus and Slasher gave their lives in a last stand to save the other settlers retreating to a fort. Conan heard about it from another survivor in a tavern, after the Picts had been repulsed.” Jack looked around at the grim faces at the table, and then at the shot glass in front of him. “I give that same toast now. He was a man. I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the dog, who knew no fear.” Jack lifted the shot glass in the air and drank it down, followed by the rest.
Kevin stood and filled the glasses. He sat down, with his shot glass raised, to be joined quickly by the rest. “I know that Conan story. The name of it was ‘Beyond the Black River’. The rest of the oath Conan swore in the story went like this: The heads of ten Picts shall pay for his, and seven heads for the dog, who was a better warrior than many a man.” Kevin drank his shot down, and the rest followed his example.
Kevin looked at Jack. “Did you forget the rest of the oath on purpose Jack?”
Jack met his friend’s questioning stare with a smile on his face, and eyes glaring coldly through the red-rimmed coloring from the dirt and wind at the Presidio. “I forget nothing, my friend. I left it out, because the numbers are too fucking low.”
“Yeah!” Kevin shouted, and pounded the table in front of him. He poured for them again, and raised his glass as he kept standing. The others stood with him. They clicked their glasses together, and drank silently.
Jack put the lid on the bottle. “Let’s get some sleep. We will bury Larry and Shadow tomorrow morning, and then we start positioning ourselves to take care of this dirty business.”
They moved toward their rooms, and Jack pulled Paul back. “Where’s John?”
“I gave him the room first on the right, at the head of the stairs. I told him to stay out of Kevin’s sight, until we have a more opportune time to introduce them.”
“Great thinking, brother,” Jack said. “We’ll need him tomorrow.”
“Do you have something specific in mind, besides random mayhem?”
“We need a couple of prisoners to question. I’m sure Kevin has a good idea of the layout inside this building they’re using, but we
could use some inside information if we want to get them all.”
“How are your ribs holding up?”
“Not bad. I worked all day without the bandage, and they only ached in certain positions, even when I was digging. All the workouts have helped.”
“The side of your face still looks like you want to create a new superhero: Scarman.”
“Ho, ho, ho, you are so funny. I don’t have to impersonate James Bond, I just have to kill as many people.”
“I heard it was pretty tough over there today huh?”
“We’re not used to losing anybody, Paul. When I went into the mountains at the Army’s request, Kevin, Larry, and Steve thought of it as a death sentence. I never did. I knew I was cracking up, and it helped me to know I would not be endangering anyone else. Kevin and Larry stayed through it all. Now with the end in sight, they get hosed by the Government they’ve been fighting for.”
“Do you have any ideas on life after we double-cross Kardel?”
“We have to work the computers, and get through to someone higher than Kardel, who can help us. We’ll have to hold our own until then. He won’t be over anxious to send troops against us.”
“You weren’t going to attack these guys this fast, were you?”
“No,” Jack admitted. “I like the change in plan. Between the Government protecting them, and them raiding for weapons, anything could happen.”
“I’m beat.” Paul yawned. “I put you in the room next to John’s… same side. Does John know you have a tracer in him?”
Jack shrugged. “Who cares. We can’t afford any more wildcards in this hand, Paul, no matter whose feelings get hurt. I have to get a shower. Goodnight, Paul.”
“What time do we go tomorrow morning, brother?”
“Just before light, if I can drag my old carcass out of the bed. If I can’t, better send Wolf to wake me.”
Paul laughed. “With pleasure.”
The two brothers turned and walked up together. Wolf padded along behind, the bone they had gotten him for dinner still hanging from his mouth.
American Survival (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 5) Page 28