Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3)

by John Van Stry

  Thirty miles through a rainforest wasn't something most people would want to try, especially at night, but as a cougar, nothing really would want to bother Michael, in fact most things would be more than happy to leave him alone. The only thing a cougar had to worry about down here would be a jaguar, and other cats tended to leave werecats alone.

  Still, he was a little surprised when Michael came padding up to the Land Rover with two slightly smaller cats in tow, namely Jess and Gail.

  "I thought I told you two to stay back in Belize?" Mark growled at them, leaning out the window to do so.

  "Stuff it, Dad," Jess said, shifting back first, followed immediately by Gail and a somewhat embarrassed Michael.

  "We didn't want him getting lost, or hurt," Gail said. "He's never been out in a jungle by himself before."

  "Neither have you," Mark pointed out, a little angry with their tagging along.

  "All the more reason for us to come," Jess smiled at him. "Besides, we just got him and we're not going to let you get him killed."

  "Don't you start with me," Mark warned.

  "Or what?" Jess said, hands on her hips, "We're adults now, Dad. If Michael's going into trouble, we're going too. You may be our alpha, but we're a family now, the three of us, and we get to make our own decisions!"

  Mark growled and looked at Michael, who just shrugged, "Sorry, Mark. But I have to side with them, I may not like it, but push comes to shove, I'm backing the two of them over you, they're my wives now. Like she said, we're a family."

  Mark sighed heavily, "I don't like it, but I can't do anything about it now. Get in the car."

  "Did you bring any clothes?" Gale asked, as the three of them were all standing around naked.

  "For Michael, yes. For you two? No."

  "Oh well, we can buy something tomorrow," Gale sighed and the two girls got into the back seats as Michael opened the passenger's side door and started putting on the clothing that Mark had brought along for him.

  Getting in and closing the door after he'd finished dressing Michael looked at Mark and shrugged, "Sorry."

  "Eh, don't be," Mark grumbled starting the Land Rover up and pulling back out onto the road. "I'm not happy about them being here, but at least it's nice to see that you defended them. I can't whip their asses if I don't whip yours first, and well, I don't think we have the time for that."

  "Honestly, I'm glad they came with me," Michael said and turned in the seat to smile at Jess and Gail. "Going through the rainforest was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be."

  "Why's that?" Mark wondered out loud.

  "Too many distractions," Michael laughed. "I'm still pretty easily distracted by things going on around me."

  "Attention deficit disorder, a cat's biggest enemy," Jess giggled.

  Mark looked in the mirror at the two in the back seat, "And let me guess who was doing all the distracting," he snorted, shaking his head.

  "Which is why we left last night, so we could have some fun," Jess said, and giggled again.

  "So," Michael asked, "what's the plan?"

  "Let's wait until morning. Clem got in a few hours ago. Once everyone's had some rest and we've gotten some clothing for the wonder twins back there, I'll go over it."

  Mark looked up in the mirror again at his daughters, "I'll even let the two of you help, as long as you do exactly what I tell you to."

  "Oh please, Dad." Gail started.

  "Gail, dear," Michael said turning around in his seat.

  "Yes, Michael?"

  "You will listen to your father or I will put you over my knee and spank you," Michael turned and winked at Mark, "again."

  Mark laughed as Gail got very quiet and sat there fuming, as her face got very red.

  "Some dominance issues?" Mark chuckled.

  "Let's just say that I now understand exactly what Helena meant when she was talking about two-by-fours back in Washington."

  "Just wait until you have kids," Mark smirked, "it gets worse."

  Judith had been appropriately shocked when Mark turned up with two naked daughters and had gone out shopping with them the next morning, after loaning them a few things so they wouldn't draw any looks of course.

  Clem and Michael had spent that time getting acquainted. Mark was happy that he didn't have to go bang on any heads; Clem took an instant liking to Michael, which was good, because Clem could be surly if he didn't like someone, and was often rather slow to warm to people.

  Then again, as Jess was Clem's sister, Mark figured that might have helped as well. Jess had a way of getting even with Clem if he annoyed her. It usually happened when he was asleep.

  "So," Mark said as they all gathered around the table. "The plan starts off with us first doing a reconnaissance of the entire place. We'll do this in the middle of the night, as cougars. Watch out for any guards, those people are trigger-happy and have machine guns and who the hell knows what else.

  "I want to know what we're up against, before we start in on them."

  "Okay," Clem asked, "and once we know what they have, and how many of them there are, then what?"

  "We start picking them off, one by one," Mark said, looking around the table. "I don't mean killing them either. Beat them up, maul them a bit, hurt them and injure them. Chase a few off into the forest. We'll start with the guards, after a night or two of that; we'll start infiltrating the facility and start going after the workers.

  "Sooner or later, I suspect either most of them will be laid up with injuries, or they'll have run off into the woods. These people can be pretty superstitious, and a lot of them are probably sampling what they're cooking, so they should be easy targets."

  "How long are we going to be out there?" Judith asked.

  Mark shrugged, "Four, five days, maybe longer. Why?"

  "Where am I supposed to stay? I'm not furry like the rest of you."

  "I could fix that," Clem said, grinning at Judith.

  "Not in your wildest dreams, kitten," Judith said making Clem scowl and the girls laugh.

  "You can come back here," Mark told her. "Just come out once a day, to check up on us, and when we're ready to go in, we'll let you know."

  "What happens if they don't scare off so easily?" Michael asked.

  "Then," Mark said looking around the table at all of them, "I start killing them."

  Mark was surprised that there weren't any shocked expressions on anybody around the table.

  "These aren't good people, and they're responsible for at least fifteen dead back in California, and only the Lord knows how many they've killed around here. We do what we have to do, and if it comes down to you or them, make sure it's them."

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  "What about guns?" Michael asked.

  "Oh, that's easy, we take theirs."

  24: Laguna Del Tigre, Guatemala

  They left the house that had been rented for them about three hours prior to sunset. Judith had said she wanted to spend the first night with them, and would drive back in the morning. This way if there was something that they decided they needed, after doing their reconnaissance, she could go and get it for them.

  The ride out wasn't too bad, for the first forty miles, the road was actually paved rather well with a fair amount of traffic on it. But when they turned off of that, they ended up on a much more poorly maintained road, and while there was less traffic, the going was still slower because of the condition of the road. When they turned off of that road, as they got closer to their destination, the road quickly became dirt, or to be more precise: mud. The rainy season had started back in May and there was now a small creek running down the middle of the road. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of traffic on this road, so it wasn't too badly chewed up, but they were still slowed down quite a bit.

  The sun had set and it was quickly getting dark when Mark found a good place to pull the Land Rover off of the road and drive it into the brush, far enough away to not be easily seen from the road. They'd even brough
t a long a small camouflage net to help with that.

  "Okay, we're here," Mark said to the others. "Let's get everything together and get a move on. It's ten miles and I'd like to get there before midnight."

  Everyone looked outside; it was raining again, but not as heavily as it had been earlier. They all stripped down and handed their clothing to Judith who put it in a large duffle bag, and then after they all shifted she came out into the rain with them and put a set of small saddlebags onto the back of each one of them. They had packed them before leaving, a simple set of clothing for everyone, plus a few things they might need.

  "I don't think anyone is going to mistake you for pack-llama's!" Judith joked, standing back and looking at them.

  "I'll send the girls back in the morning to let you know if we need anything," Mark told her, "as well as to let you know how things went."

  "Okay," Judith said to them.

  The others all looked at Mark.

  "Yes?" he asked.

  "She speaks cougar?" Clem said.

  "Yup, very well too."

  All of Clem's facial fur suddenly puffed up.

  "Has my son been saying things around you that he shouldn't be?" Mark asked Judith.

  Judith laughed, "Oh has he now! I was going to wait to spring it on him later, but now is also a good time.

  Mark sighed and cuffed Clem with a paw.

  "What was that for?" Clem asked, shaking his head.

  "I'm sure you deserved it. I thought we'd taught you some manners."

  "But I didn't think she could hear me!"

  "And you wonder why you're always getting in fights," Mark said shaking his head. "Let's go."

  Three hours later and they made it to the edge of the drug processing laboratory. Taking a few minutes to find a safe place to put their bags for now, Mark then led them all on a slow circuit around the outskirts of the facility.

  There was a six foot high barbwire fence around the entire installation, however it was not in a very good state of repair, and they had only cleared the trees and brush back about ten feet from the fence, which was just wide enough to drive a vehicle around the outside of the perimeter.

  The twenty, one-hundred foot long, buildings were all there, as the picture had shown, lined up in two rows of ten, across from each other with a dirt road in between the two rows. They all appeared to be made out of cinderblock, and each set of ten were connect to each other at the front by a short enclosed hallway. Each building was set about ten feet from the one next to it, and the two rows were set about thirty feet apart.

  The square building at the end of the two rows was three stories tall, and while the top floor had windows and looked like an office of some sort, the bottom appeared to be a warehouse or garage. Possibly both.

  He noted the four guard towers as they circled the installation, they weren't terribly high, and each only held one man. There were lights on them, but they were all off.

  "Ugh, they're processing cocaine in there, alright," Michael grumbled as the wind shifted.

  "How can you tell?" Jess asked.

  "That smell, they use a lot of different solvents, but the smell the leaves give off as they process them, it's pretty unique."

  "I'm surprised it's not better lit, there's only a few lights scattered around."

  "They don't want to stand out too much; also those engines you hear running are their generators. Smells like diesel from here. They're not going to waste electricity on light, that could be used making product," Michael told her.

  Mark led them around to the front then, there were three more buildings here, that weren't on the photo he'd seen, but the trees spaced tightly around them probably explained it.

  "Those two are obviously barracks for the guards and the workers," Mark said, motioning with a paw to the buildings on this side of the road that came into the camp through the single closed gate. "What do you think that other one is?"

  "Find out when we get to it," Michael said with a shrug.

  When they came to the road leading up to the front gates, Mark had them dash across, one at a time.

  "What's the rush?" Clem complained, "It's dark out, they can't see us, and we're a hundred feet from the gate."

  "Because I told you to," Mark said.

  Michael went first, followed quickly by Jess, then a minute later by Gail. Sure enough, Clem just walked slowly across the road. Then jumped and fell to the ground as a rather loud gunshot rang out.

  Mark swore as Clem lay there, twitching a few times, then suddenly froze.

  "Don't," he heard Gail tell Michael, who Mark could see from this side of the road had approached the edge of the tree line and was looking at Clem lying in the road.

  Looking back towards the gate as he heard it open, Mark noticed a man was coming out with a flashlight, and was holding a rifle in his other hand. It had one hell of a big scope on it too.

  "Hey! I got a big one!" The man yelled back to the others at the gate in Spanish. "I bet he'll make a nice coat!"

  "Get back," Mark said in a soft voice and moved back in the brush further himself.

  Hunkering down Mark watched as the man came up and nudged Clem with the rifle, then turned back to the gate, "Bring the car! This one is...."

  He never finished that sentence as Clem jumped up suddenly and grabbing him by the shoulder he laid into him with all of his claws and shredded his back and sides severely as the man screamed and fell to his knees, dropping both the flashlight and the rifle he'd been carrying. Clem let go then and dashed into the trees out of sight.

  Someone from the gate opened up with a fully automatic rifle, shooting at the spot where the wounded man was, and missing horribly as people started to yell. The moment the shooting stopped Mark dashed out, grabbed the rifle in his mouth and ran into the woods, passing the others and moving a good hundred yards away from the road.

  Dropping the rifle he turned around and walked over to Clem who looked about as embarrassed as a cougar could look.

  "I'm sorry, Dad. How was I to know that they had night scopes?"

  "Clem," Mark said in a low voice.

  "Yes?"

  "You have two choices, you either do as I tell you, or you walk home."

  "But that's sixty miles!"

  "Home to Oregon," Mark growled.

  Clem ducked his head, "I'll listen."

  "You better. This isn't a game, and while a gun shot from a normal rifle won't kill you, don't you doubt that they have bigger weapons that will."

  "Well, at least we can get a better look at what's inside, before we go in," Michael said and shifting he picked up the rifle and aiming it back at the camp turned on the night sight, Sweeping it back and forth once, he took a quick scan and then turned it back off, noticing that everyone in cougar form had their ears down and were grumbling.

  "Damn, I had no idea those things were that loud," Mark said.

  "It can't be too loud, we didn't hear it from a hundred feet away," Clem said.

  "Oh, I'm sure we all heard it, but none of us knew what it was, so we ignored it, that or the noise from the generators covered it," Michael said.

  "I wonder how many of them they have?" Mark said as Michael shifted back.

  "They're pretty expensive, so I wouldn't expect them to have a lot of them," Michael said. "I guess we know who we're going after first?"

  Mark nodded, "You could say that, now let's good look at that other building. Clem you can carry the rifle."

  They padded around towards the last building, and it became obvious, as they got closer, that it was the mess hall. A flat bed trailer parked behind it had four diesel generators on it, three of which were currently running, and a large fuel oil truck was parked next to it, obviously to keep the generators supplied.

  "Okay," Mark told them, "the rest of you head back to where we dropped the packs and look around for a good spot to set up camp for the night about a five minute walk away. I'm going to nose around inside and see what I can find."

 
"Let me go with you," Michael said.

  "Why?" Mark asked him.

  "Because I know a lot about how cocaine is produced," Michael said with a shrug of his shoulders. "So I'll be able to tell you which buildings don't have what we're looking for."

  Mark nodded, it made sense. "Okay, but be careful. Anything happens, bolt for the fence, and don't get tangled in it. Just remember, take it slow, and stick to the shadows. Their sense of hearing isn't that good, their night vision sucks and they can't smell a damn thing."

  Michael ducked his head in a nod.

  Mark led Michael under the fence at a spot by the flatbed with the generators, padding between that and the fuel truck as he looked around. There were very few lights on, so shadows were everywhere, and other than the guards in the towers and the ones at the gate, there weren't that many people around.

  Of course, Clem's mauling the one guard had changed that. Three men came out of one of the barracks, two of them looking rather tired and all three sounded upset. They went and got a pickup truck from the group of vehicles parked over by the barracks buildings and then drove out of the gate.

  Mark figured they were going to retrieve their wounded comrade, and with all the commotion focused on the front gate, he and Michael moved back towards the rows of parallel buildings, going towards the north end first, as that was were the big square building was.

  They couldn't go around it, as one of the small guard towers was between it and the perimeter fence, but from here Mark could see that the front had two large roll up doors and a regular door between them. Sniffing at the doors he could smell a lot of different chemical smells.

  "Supply warehouse," Michael said, sniffing at it as well. "Lot's of solvents I think."

  Mark nodded, "Well, let's go check the others."

  Turning they padded down the road between the two rows of blockhouses. Each one had a metal rollup door, and a regular door next to that. The ones on the left looked newer than the ones on the right.