Blue Steele Box Sets 2

by Remington Kane

  “What happens when you apprehend her?”

  “I’ll hand her over. What else?”

  Agent Connors crossed his arms over his massive chest. He was a big man, muscular, with sandy-blond hair and gray eyes. The gray eyes were full of suspicion.

  “I was wondering if your orders were to secure Mia Ortiz and bring her in, so she could be placed in protective custody. Someone like her might be a wealth of intelligence. She wouldn’t be the first dirt bag offered an immunity from prosecution deal for ratting out her friends.”

  “Those are not my orders. If I do find Ortiz at the compound I will hand her over to you.”

  “Or, I could leave you behind and my people and I find her for ourselves.”

  “Aw, let her come along, Ron. I’ll look after her,” Richards said.

  Connors rolled his eyes.

  “She’s married, Del. Don’t you see the ring on her finger?”

  Richards looked over Connors’ shoulder, took in my left hand, and frowned.

  “Crap, well then, do what you want, Ron, and I’ll see you around.”

  Connors and I watched Richards leave. Once the door had closed, Connors sat across from me.

  “Why should I let you come along?”

  “I was called in because the FBI and the DEA couldn’t locate Mia. I was on the job for only a few hours when I verified that she’d been staying at a hostel in San Diego that had previously been under surveillance. Listen, Agent Connors, I won’t get in your way, and another pair of eyes and a gun might not be a bad thing on a dangerous mission like this.”

  “It shouldn’t be dangerous. We’re going in there with a small army. I expect Graboro won’t know what hit him.”

  “So much the better,” I said.

  Connors stared at me for several moments before sending me a curt nod.

  “I’ll allow you to join us, but I have a condition.”

  “Yes?”

  “You’ll have to learn our mission protocols and be brought up to speed on our tactics. I don’t want you wandering around blind while inside the compound. That said, you will not in any way, shape, or form be a member of the task force. If you interfere with my mission I will cuff you and tuck you in a dark corner.”

  I smiled.

  “I won’t need any time-outs. All I’m interested in is finding Mia Ortiz and bringing her to justice.”

  “Justice for her would be a bullet to the head,” Connors said.

  I stared into his eyes.

  “If it comes to that, I won’t hesitate.”

  The following day was spent learning what I needed to know to become an unofficial member of the task force.

  Connors was pleased to learn that I spoke Spanish, although I wasn’t as fluent as the other agents. That meant that I could communicate with our colleagues from Mexico, the Policia Federal agents. They all spoke English, but it was still good that everyone could converse in both languages.

  I was impressed by the planning that had gone into the raid. Connors seemed to be taking no chances. Despite being eager to take down Graboro, if the agents sent in to scout the compound reported anything amiss, the mission would be scrubbed.

  An hour before we were set to move in, the latest satellite surveillance images were processed. They revealed that less than a dozen hostiles were inside the compound. I was hoping that one of those bodies showing up on the thermal imaging scans was my target, Mia Ortiz.

  At last, the moment arrived. Graboro’s compound faced the ocean. At one end of the property a guard stood near a wooden gate built beside a rock wall. That wall bordered a stable where Graboro kept several horses.

  Juan Graboro loved to ride on the beach at sunset with his wife. It seemed the cartel leader was also a romantic. Intelligence revealed that the wife was away visiting family, which was a break for the task force. Had she been on the premises, the people Graboro sent along to guard his wife would have been in the compound, increasing the number of hostiles the task force would have faced.

  One of the agents sent to scout ahead reported that everything looked as they’d hope it would. Connors gave the man the green light to take down the man guarding the gate that allowed access to the beach.

  Once the gate was open, I rode with Connors onto the grounds of the compound inside a jeep.

  Some of the men had night-vision equipment, but it was hardly needed because of the full moon overhead.

  As everyone left their vehicles, I found myself falling behind. I was in shape, but most of the men were faster than me and I was soon at the rear with three men and another woman agent. Right before you reached the estate there was a dip in the sandy terrain. The group I was running with moved down that slope, which took us momentarily out of sight of the shoreline. That quirk in the landscape may have saved our lives.

  The beach led to a huge elaborate garden area, beyond which lay the walls of the villa. As the agents ahead of us sped up the beach on an incline and into the garden, gunfire came from behind. From the cacophony of the sounds I knew there were hundreds of rounds being fired at once.

  The rounds flew over my head as I ducked down. They were intended for the men nearing the villa’s walls. The bullets struck their targets and brave men died.

  Chapter 49

  I moved in a crouch with my head down until I reached the end of the sandy trench I was in. When I was no longer concealed from the men charging up the beach I dove for cover behind a stone wall that was no more than waist high.

  Automatic fire raked the spot I had just vacated. A round wounded one of the agents I’d been running with, but he made it to fresh cover and lay panting.

  Officially, I was along for the raid as an observer, courtesy of a joint DEA/Policia Federal task force. Unofficially, I was just another target caught in what was looking like a major screw-up.

  The task force was comprised of forty-two agents, of which thirty-eight were directly involved in the raid.

  Intelligence reports revealed that they would be facing eleven hostiles as they moved in to arrest the cartel leader they were after.

  In reality, they were outgunned. A group of over fifty armed men emerged from the surf behind us, having moved in silently aboard large skiffs powered by paddles. Somewhere out in the ocean was the mother ship they had arrived on. I prayed that it had no more men to send against us.

  “We’ve walked into a trap!” shouted Agent Connors. Connors had allowed me to come along on the raid, but only once I promised not to get involved.

  I was going to break that promise.

  At least a third of Connor’s people went down when the men from the beach opened up on us. The rest of them had managed to scramble behind the stone walls of the villa’s decorative garden as I had, but they had yet to breach the villa’s gate. That meant that we had men both in front of us and behind us. It meant that we would soon be dead.

  I crawled along in the grass at the base of the low wall until I was beside Agent Connors and several other agents.

  “Connors,” I said. “I need you to give me a boost up. I’m going over the wall.”

  Agent Connors looked up at the ten-foot stone wall, then back at me.

  “That’s suicide. There could be men on the other side waiting to shoot anything that comes over that wall.”

  “You’re right. That’s why I’ll need a shotgun. I’ll be firing off shells the moment I make it over the wall.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “No, doing nothing is crazy. If we don’t get beyond the walls, we’ll all die out here. Someone has to open that gate.”

  A man on my right let out a shrill scream as two rounds tore into his throat. He was one of the Mexican agents. Connors and I crawled over to the man, but he had suffered severe wounds and was dying. I don’t think he even knew we were there. As he died, Connors spoke to him soothingly in Spanish.

  The next few minutes were spent in giving return fire and seeking shelter closer to the wall, where large granite statues gave us cov
er.

  I grabbed Connor’s arm.

  “I need you to give me your shotgun and any spare shells you have. I’ll need them when I go over the wall.”

  Connors moaned as a pained expression came over him.

  “Damn it, Steele. I’m sorry I brought you along on this. I may have gotten you killed.”

  “Don’t be sorry. We still have a chance. But someone has to get over this wall and open those gates.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  I smiled. Connors was in shape, but he was way too big and heavy to make it over the wall quickly. If he attempted to climb over he’d be shot before he reached the top.

  “How much do you weigh?”

  “About two-twenty.”

  “And you’re strong, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re going to toss me over that wall. I’ll get a running start, step up onto your linked hands, and then you’re going to throw me as high as you can. My guess is I’ll never touch the wall.”

  Connors thought over my plan.

  “You’re going to have a hard landing on the other side.”

  “Probably, but I’ll be prepared for it. Anyway, my sister Jenny and I used to jump off the barn roof when we were kids. It was higher than that wall.”

  “I bet you landed in straw back then.”

  “True, but I’m also no longer a little girl.”

  Another agent went down, but his injury was such that he rejoined the fight. Still, it was just a matter of time before we were overrun and slaughtered.

  “Connors? I can do it.”

  “Okay,” he said. “We’ll do it.”

  After Connors handed me his shotgun, I gave him my weapon, with a spare magazine. Along with the five shells in the Mossberg, he passed me two loose shells. He then reached in a pack on his waist and came out with something that made me smile.

  “That’s a night-vision monocular.”

  “Yes,” Connors said. “Along with a head strap. I know we’ve got a full moon, but the clouds could move in at any moment, take it.”

  We were forced to return fire and change position again. It placed us even closer to the villa wall, but we lost yet another agent to a shoulder wound.

  I latched the monocular onto my belt by its head strap. There was no time to put it on and adjust it. I needed to get over that wall.

  Connors explained the plan to several of his men, then we moved behind another row of statues while taking fire. Neither of us was hit, but granite chips stung both of us and opened up small cuts.

  After going over the plan once more, I made my move as several Mexican agents drew most of the enemy’s fire. They were fierce, skilled, and they took down several of the cartel members.

  “Now!” I said to Connors, then watched him link his hands together.

  I ran at him, stepped up onto his hands, and felt him propel me toward the sky.

  It worked. I was above the wall, at the apex of my leap, and looking down at the other side. There were no men there. No guns.

  I had been ready to blast away with the shotgun at anything I saw, but there was nothing. I landed hard atop grass, feeling the stress in my knees and a sharp pain in my right ankle. Crouching, I scurried behind a tree. Once there, I decided to put on the night-vision monocular. As I unlatched it from my belt, I froze, as I sensed danger approaching.

  I heard them coming before I saw them. Two dogs. Big dogs. Huge dogs.

  Rottweilers! said a part of my brain, while the rest of it screamed at me to run.

  I didn’t run. I aimed the shotgun at the charging hounds and prepared to fire. I didn’t want to kill the dogs. I loved dogs, but I also didn’t want to become their chew toy.

  As my finger tightened on the trigger, the pair split up. They had been headed right at me, but now they approached from both the right and the left.

  I would only have time to shoot one of them. Someone had trained them well. It didn’t matter which one I killed. Either way, I was about to die.

  Chapter 50

  Inside the safe room of Juan Graboro’s villa, I eased my right leg straight out in front of me as I sat atop the concrete floor.

  The leap over the wall had caused my knees to ache and I still felt a twinge of discomfort in the right one. I held the shotgun steady in my hands and looked across the room where Mia was aiming her own shotgun at me.

  If I fired, she would likely die or become too incapacitated to fire back at me. Likely, being the key word in that sentence. I wasn’t ready to risk my life on a likely… at least, not yet.

  “Were you the woman I saw firing at the gate guards?” Mia asked.

  “I came in over the wall.”

  “Juan has dogs roaming the grounds,” Mia said. “How did you get past them?”

  “I charmed them,” I said.

  That brought a smile to Mia’s lips.

  “I think it more likely that you used that shotgun on them. It makes me wonder how many shells you have left.”

  “I’ll only need one,” I said.

  “Not after Juan’s men open that door. When that happens, Blue Steele, I could be your only friend.”

  “We’re not friends, Mia. I would trust those trained attack dogs before I would rely on a woman like you to show mercy.”

  “A woman like me? And just what sort of woman would that be?”

  “You’re a heartless killer who cares only about money.”

  “Money is nice, but I have other interests.”

  “Is Graboro one of them? I noticed that you called him by his first name. That’s seems overly familiar for a hired gun.”

  “Juan is too old for me and he is devoted to his wife. I call him Juan because I’ve known him since I was a child, back then, he was Uncle Juan.”

  I cocked my head at that revelation.

  “Are you related somehow?”

  “He and my father were friends as children, but Juan had more ambition and went on to run the cartel.”

  “That ambition will see him spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that.”

  “You speak English like a native. Who taught you?”

  “I grew up in a tourist town that many rich Americans and Europeans visited. My father also spoke English.”

  “What about your mother?”

  “She died young.”

  Mia studied me again as two worry lines appeared between her eyebrows.

  “Juan’s dogs are exceptional. I know this because I watched them train once when I was here last year,” Mia said. “Even if you killed one, the other dog should have ripped your throat out. How did you survive them?”

  “I had help.”

  Chapter 51

  The sound of a gun firing came from high and to the right of me. It was close and distinct from all the other weapons going off beyond the wall. I had fired at the Rottweiler charging at me on my left side and missed high, as the unexpected shot had startled me. The dog was rocketing toward me, growing larger and more menacing, and I could see the saliva dripping from its mouth and hear its breath. I was out of time.

  The dog let out a yelp just as it leapt at me, then changed direction in midair, to slide to the grass beside me. When I swiveled to shoot the dog on my right, I saw that it was already down, although it was alive and panting, as was the dog at my side.

  Agent Connors dropped from the wall and limped toward me. He had been shot on the side of his right leg. A round that was no doubt sustained while he risked climbing the wall to help me. Blood was flowing from the wound and turning his pant leg red.

  We scanned our surroundings to see if our shots had gained us attention. They hadn’t. The noise must have blended in with the firefight still raging on the other side of the wall.

  “Are you injured, Steele?”

  “I’m good, thanks to you.” Connors looked down at one of the dogs he had shot. I saw that he was crying and placed a hand on his arm. “How bad is your wound?”

&n
bsp; “Not as bad as it looks, I’ll live. I’m just sick about having to shoot these dogs. I love dogs, and I’ve got two German shepherds at home.”

  “Don’t feel too bad, you saved my life.”

  Connors wiped at his tears, then pointed toward the house. “Oh no.”

  I looked to where he was gesturing and saw several men with rifles headed toward the gate. One of them carried a massive weapon that appeared to be heavy.

  “That’s a handheld M2,” Connors said. “It fires .50 rounds. That will pierce the stone walls our people are using for cover like they weren’t even there.”

  “We’ll stop them,” I said, “but there’s good news as well. It looks like they have to open the gate to use that thing. Once they unlock the gate we’ll make our move.”

  Connors nodded in agreement as a look of pain caused him to moan.

  “You don’t look well, Connors. Do you feel like you’ll pass out?”

  “I’m good, Steele. Nothing is going to keep me from letting our people inside the gate. Once we do that, we can keep Graboro’s street soldiers at bay on the beach until reinforcements arrive.”

  “Okay then,” I said. “I’ll circle around and come up on their right, you take the left.”

  “Shoot the man with the M2 first. We can’t let that thing start spitting death at our people.”

  “I understand,” I said, then sprinted away with the shotgun to get into position.

  There were three other men beside the one wielding the M2. Their weapons were formidable as well, as each had an AR-15 with a 100-round drum attached. Their intent was clear. They were seeking to get the federal agents in a pincer movement between themselves and the cartel soldiers on the beach. If that happened, the fight would be over in minutes.

  Two of the men slung their rifles across their backs so that they could unlock and open the massive metal gate of the compound.

  After getting closer and finding cover behind a stone bench, I waited, as Connors did the same. When the gate opened a crack, I fired at the man holding the M2.