A Fortune in Blood: A Florida Action Adventure Novel (Scott Jarvis Private Investigator Book 7)

by Scott Cook

  “Fuck!” I yelped, continuing to roll to my left.

  The man, probably an officer since he was inside the trailer, was struggling to collect himself when I rolled onto his back and pinned his knife hand. I wrenched the blade from his grasp, not without some effort, and dragged the lethal edge across his throat.

  “Red! What happened?” Clay asked as he swapped out another magazine, “and pass me some ordinance! Dec? You okay?”

  “One moment please,” I said calmly as I rolled off my opponent and got to my knees. I could feel a warm trickle running down my lower left leg. “Your request is in process and will be answered in the order in which it was received… damn…”

  I pulled two fragmentation grenades from my rig and tossed them to Clay, who was lying on his belly facing the way we’d come. With the relative cover of the two trailers, we weren’t in immediate danger, but that wouldn’t last long.

  “I’m okay,” Declan said in a nervous tone, “but Rosalita…”

  I looked at the two of them through my monocular. Declan was sitting with his back up against one of the wheels of the trailer cradling the young woman’s head in his lap. I could see that her black uniform was wet. Thanks to my night vision, I had a pretty good idea of her condition.

  There was a large and expanding splotch of deeper black on her chest. She was breathing, but it didn’t look good.

  I moved closer and touched her near her breasts. The fabric of her shirt was soaked. She blinked up at me.

  “Is Declan…?” She wheezed.

  “Take it easy,” I soothed, “Don’t try to talk, just lie still. We’ll get you out of here. He’s okay. Thank you.”

  She actually smiled at me, “They said you would come… I wish it had been sooner… I’m sorry, I…”

  She drew a shuddering breath and coughed once, spattering blood across her lips and chin. Then her body went limp and she was still.

  Declan looked at her and then at me. He had tears streaming down his face. I squeezed his shoulder, “its okay, Dec. It’s gonna be okay.”

  “Is she…” He asked in a small quavering voice.

  “Yeah,” I said softly, “yeah…”

  Chapter 34

  “Scott, its gettin’ crowded out there!” Clay called over the din of shouts and gunfire.

  The two trailers we were hiding between were suddenly spattered with automatic weapons fire. A fusillade of 5.56 rounds tore into them over our heads.

  “Yeah, it’s not any better over here,” I retorted, setting my weapon to rock and roll and dumping what was left of my magazine toward Garcia’s RV and then shifting my aim to where the rounds had originated.

  I suddenly had a spike of fear in my belly. I hoped those hadn’t been Blue team’s shots.

  “All teams,” I shouted, “Red one and Red four are pinned down between trailers one and two. With objective two!”

  “Si, amigo!” This was Umberto. “I have seen. Blue two and I are trying to get to you… but there are at least two squads covering the big RV from the east.”

  “Red one, Red two,” Juan said. “Red three is moving in. I’m further down and can’t get to you directly. I can make my way through the trees but…”

  “Negative, Red two,” I replied, “Maintain position to cover our retreat. What about you, Blue Two? You’re in the same relative position as Red two, correct?”

  Santino cursed, “Affirmative. But I can follow the crowd. It’s pretty disorganized at the motor pool.”

  He’d have to slog his way either right through the camp or along the northern tree line. Since Blue team had already opened fire from there, that position would probably be covered by dozens of enemy weapons by now.

  “Negative, Blue two… too risky,” I said bitterly. “Suggest blue team circle west toward hills and then rendezvous with us near trailers and we’ll all retreat in a body.”

  It was always preferable to attack before dawn. The primary reason for this was that your enemy would be most disorganized then. Most would be in deep sleep and it would take them a long time to get sorted out in the chaos and darkness. However, that wouldn’t last forever. And with odds of something like twenty to one, our element of surprise had long since vanished, thanks to that damned Palmer.

  “Anybody see that damned Palmer?” I griped.

  No positive responses.

  I sighed and looked at Declan, who was still sitting against the trailer holding Rosalita’s head. The woman’s life had left her moments before, but the boy had nothing else he could do.

  “Here, buddy,” I said, handing him the Sig Sauer. “I know you can shoot. You ever fire a semi-automatic?”

  “Yeah…” He said hesitantly.

  I handed him two magazines, “Just point it and shoot any bad guys who get close, okay?”

  He nodded but I wasn’t all that confident he would. I hoped he wouldn’t and certainly hoped he wouldn’t have to. Yet the feeling of the weapon in his hands seemed to buoy him up a bit. Then I remembered another less deadly but equally useful function to the weapon. I pulled the thermal scope from my chest rig and showed him how to attach it to the pistol.

  “Look through the scope,” I told him, “it’s thermal. Heat vision. You can see through walls with it and everything. Take a look around and tell me what you see.”

  “You letting my kid play with guns?” Clay joked.

  “Well, somebody’s got to corrupt him,” I quipped back. “Since you’re all hung up on readin’ and writin’ and other useless junk.”

  “The three R’s,” Clay said as he emptied another mag, “Don’t forget the rithmatic.”

  I scoffed, “that starts with an A, ya’ ignant bastid’.”

  “You start with an A.”

  Declan laughed, that was good to hear.

  “Red one, Red three, comin’ in hot!” Lisa shouted over the earwig. “West of the tents… could use a distraction!”

  Clay rose to his knees, dropped the AR and held a frag grenade in his right hand. With his left, he pulled the pin and threw it not far from where I’d thrown my flash grenade, “Red four… frag!”

  The explosion was impressive, even from thirty or more yards away. Another chorus of screams and shrieks this time, but not of surprise. These were the real thing, made as hundreds of razor sharp shards of iron blasted into multiple vulnerable and pitifully frail human bodies.

  From behind the trailer, I heard a woman scream in pain. My heart seemed to skip a beat when I realized that I’d heard the scream over my earwig, too. It was Lisa’s scream of agony.

  Something heavy slid to the ground and rolled under the trailer. Declan yelped in surprise.

  “Red three?” I asked in a voice that sounded like it’d been squeezed out through a drink straw.

  “I’m hit,” Lisa groaned from under the trailer.

  Declan immediately squirmed under to help her. My heart was racing in fear but I couldn’t stop to ponder it. I could see a horde of soldiers moving toward our position, using vehicles and other objects to make their way closer. Our temporary hidey hole was about to get very popular.

  “Gunny!”

  This voice had come over a PA system. It sounded familiar and that was confirmed when Clay growled Garcia’s name.

  “Señor Jarvis, is that you out there causing me so much grief?” Garcia asked in a tone of amusement.

  “Congrats on the promotion, Gunny,” I teased.

  “You better recognize…” Clay quipped.

  “I have Miles Palmer with me,” Garcia continued. “This is useless. Let us talk this out like men, compadres! Cease fire and I’ll order my soldiers to cease fire as well.”

  I watched as Lisa and Declan appeared from under the trailer. With my night vision, I could see that her BDU blouse above her left breast was coated in blood and the stain was spreading fast.

  “Dec…” I began, feeling a cold lump in my guts, “can you go into this trailer? See if there are any towels or blankets or anything?”

&n
bsp; He nodded and looked desperately pale and afraid. I smiled at him and even Lisa did, too.

  “It’s okay, cutie,” she said in obvious pain, “thanks for helping me under there. I’ll be okay, it’s not as bad as it looks.”

  Declan looked at Lisa and then at Rosalita’s lifeless body and then back at Lisa. I got the impression that he’d gotten to like the young Costa Rican woman. And I knew he’d always liked Lisa.

  “Hurry up, Dec,” I said firmly but not unkindly, “and be careful. Anybody in there?”

  He used his scope and shook his head no. I didn’t think there would be, the last occupant having come at me with a combat knife. I waved him in.

  When I moved closer to Lisa, I noticed for the first time in several minutes that my lower left BDU trouser leg was wet. The sharp pain in my calf reminded me that I might also need some medical attention.

  “Let me show my good will first,” Garcia was saying. “Todo personal… dejar de disparar!”

  “All teams,” I said, “If they stop, you stop… for now.”

  A silence descended on the camp. Well, it wasn’t silence by any means. It was only that with fifty or more automatic weapons suddenly going quiet, it made the cacophony of night birds and Spanish voices seem tranquil by comparison.

  I leaned in close to Lisa, “How is it? Can you breathe?”

  She nodded, “Hurts… a little hard to breathe, but not terrible. I’m starting to feel a little cold, though.”

  That was not a good sign. I regretted more than I can even express that we didn’t have a field surgical kit or combat medikit with us. Of all the things to overlook…

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Grenade went off… thought I was clear to cross… but somebody got me…” She said.

  “Okay, okay… take it easy and lie quiet now,” I soothed, stroking her sweaty hair. “It’s gonna be all right, Marine.”

  She smiled a little, “Guess… guess I’m in the club now, huh?”

  I chuckled, “Yeah, lucky you.”

  “Clay… Scott… its Miles,” Came Palmer’s voice over the PA. He did not sound scared or even nervous. That suddenly filled me with rage. “I think we can work this out. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

  I was getting very tired of hearing him say that.

  “Damned Palmer…” I growled. “How the hell do they expect us to communicate with them?”

  “I think we can use the earwigs,” Clay said. “Though I don’t know how… not familiar with this design.”

  “Anybody?” I asked the team in general. “Blue one, this is your gear, how do we change freqs?”

  No response.

  “Blue one?” I queried again, my spirits sinking a little lower.

  Conklin and I had never been friends. Not because we couldn’t be friends… it was more that circumstances didn’t allow it. We didn’t spend enough time together to develop trust. I respected his abilities, but he’d pretty much always gotten me in trouble since I’d known him. Although this time and the last had started to build that bridge.

  However his silence was ominous. If he’d been taken out, then we were down two team members and badly outnumbered.

  There was a slow exhalation over the comm and Santino said in a soft yet flat tone, “Red one… Blue two… press the power button twice and hold. The unit will cycle through the frequencies. When you come to the one you want, push the button again to hold on it. We should all do the same. And I have had no visual on Blue one in some time.”

  “Yeah, roger that. First, I want all of you to rendezvous to the south. Blue team, meet up with Red two and get ready to head to the river… Changing freqs now,” I said quietly and did as Santino instructed before any of them could object. Within seconds, my earwig came to life with Palmer’s voice and I hit the button.

  “…just wanted to help these people take back what’s rightfully theirs,” The traitorous son of a bitch was blathering on.

  Declan came out carrying a couple of blankets and towels. Together we pressed the towels to the front as well as the back of Lisa’s BDU and put one under her head to act as a pillow. Then we wrapped her up in the blankets.

  There was an extra dish towel that he’d grabbed and I took that. I rolled up my sopping trouser leg and examined my wound. The knife had slashed across the thick part of the calf, along the back of my leg, leaving a four inch long laceration that might be as much as an inch deep. It was bleeding steadily but not pulsing. The blade hadn’t cut an artery, but the blood loss was still serious.

  I wrapped the towel around my leg and knotted it. I then eased the pant leg over this again. I looked up and saw Declan was watching.

  “That guy got you?” He asked nervously.

  I grinned, “Just a flesh wound, big guy. Not too bad.”

  “I think there’s a first aid kit, too,” he said eagerly. “Want me to get that?”

  “Yeah, get it, pal. And a roll of tape if you can find one,” Clay said, coming over to inspect the situation. “Good job.”

  “Palmer,” I said coldly, “can you hear me?”

  “Scott? Yes… I can hear you.”

  “Sound off,” I ordered.

  “Red two… Blue two… Blue three…“ Juan, Santino and Umberto. No Conklin again.

  “What the Christ do you want, Palmer?” I asked heatedly. “To prove how much more of a piece of shit you are?”

  “This is a bad situation, señor,” Garcia cut in. It was odd hearing him echo across the compound as well as through my left ear. “Many people have been hurt and killed tonight.”

  “And unless you let us leave,” Clay said. “There will be more… a lot more.”

  “That’s right,” I added. “You two idiots started this. Kidnapping innocent women and children? Running drugs maybe? White slavery certainly… and raping your prisoners. I told you the other day and I’ll say it again, Garcia. You’re not a rebel fighting for his people. You’re a power-hungry warlord scumbag. A murdering, kidnapping rapist. Just as bad as those you profess to hate.”

  A string of oaths erupted simultaneously from the PA and our comms, both Spanish and English. Clay looked back at me with a crooked smile on his face, “Diplomatic.”

  I thought I heard someone guffaw over the earwig. I only shrugged, “He needs to hear the truth.”

  “Your truth, cabron!” Garcia barked.

  “There is only one truth. That’s what makes it the truth, ya’ moron!” I snapped.

  There was an ominous silence that seemed to go on forever. Long enough for Declan to return with a pitifully small first aid kit.

  The only thing of any value was an anti-coagulant powder. I tore this open and eased Lisa to a sitting position. I could clearly see the thick blood stain on the back of her BDU blouse where the round had exited.

  “This might hurt,” I said, packing the powder into the two bullet holes.

  She gasped but made no other objection. I re-applied the towels and sheet and eased her back down again, “That’ll help with the bleeding for a bit. Just lie quiet, now.”

  “What about you?” Declan asked quietly.

  “Get any tape?” I asked.

  He handed over a mostly used roll of duct tape. I grinned, rolled up my trouser leg and began to wrap tape around the towel. Since I had the tape, I could undo the knot and wrap the leg a bit better, “If ya’ can’t fix it… duck it!”

  Then Palmer came on, “Scott, Clay… what do you want?”

  “We’re leaving with my son,” Clay said angrily, “you two do whatever you need to do, but I’m not going to be a party to it, Miles. You’ve betrayed our friendship for your own personal gain. I want nothing to do with you or your friends here. As for you, Garcia… I’ll be damned if I help you attack that station.”

  “Red one, Red two… there are men flanking you from between the tents!” Juan announced.

  “Confirmed!” Umberto chimed in. “Tell them to fall back, Miles.”

  “Umberto?”
Miles asked. “I never thought you’d betray me.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I all but roared. “Goddamned Palmer! Who do you think you are? You’re a lying, cheating backstabbing piece of garbage. You gave up the right to claim indignation a long time ago. We’re leaving, so pull your goddamned men back, Garcia, or my team and I will mow them down!”

  Garcia laughed, “You’re heavily outnumbered, pendejo. You don’t stand—“

  To our right, two explosions erupted in what was left of the tents. Bright flashes and the roar of released energy preceded the screams of a dozen men caught in the deadly blast. Then two automatic weapons barked out, sending sixty rounds into the burning tents and the people who still remained there.

  The world once again went crazy. Shouting, screaming and shooting.

  “I think that’s our queue,” Clay said, getting to his feet. “We’re gonna have to make a run for the south forest. Can you walk on that leg?”

  He looked at Declan and Lisa and then at me. I nodded.

  “Okay, pal,” Clay said, “I want you to climb on my back and hang on tight, okay?”

  Declan stood but looked down at Lisa with a frown. I gave him a quick hug, “Don’t worry, I’ve got her. You go with your dad.”

  Before we moved, Clay and I split up Lisa’s magazines. Clay was out and I had two left. Lisa had three. I gave them to Clay and kept my two. We both swapped out what we had for full mags.

  Declan climbed onto Clay’s back and I bundled Lisa up into my arms. The moment I put weight on my leg and stood, a red hot poker of pain shot up my leg and I had to grit my teeth to keep from letting out a rather unmanly utterance. I could put weight on the leg, that didn’t seem to be the problem. It was that every time I stepped, it felt as if another knife was being driven to the bone.

  In addition to this hindrance, I wouldn’t be able to shoot at all carrying Lisa like that. I could throw her over my shoulder, but I was worried that such rough treatment would only do more damage.

  “Don’t worry about me,” She said softly. “Just get them out of here… Miles won’t let anything happen to me.”