A Dubious Terrain (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 4)

by Gerald J Kubicki

  Suddenly the lights came down in the arena and Danta Lopez was standing in the center of the ring looking regal in an all-white suit. He surveyed the crowd and held his arms up as he turned to all sides of the ring. The fans gave him a nice welcome.

  “I want to welcome everyone to the initial bout for the Latino Domination Association.” There was a huge applause from the Latinos in the crowd. Many regular fight enthusiasts began looking around and realized the crowd was very heavily Latino. Not all the crowd seemed like they belonged there. Many were common street thugs.

  Lopez continued. “The goal of the LDA is to take on and fight anyone who has the machismo to fight our Latino champions. He gestured to seven hard looking Latinos that stood in the ring. They were all dressed in gym shorts, muscle tee shirts and expensive bright colored gym shoes. They had no boxing gloves. They just stood there looking very tough. The crowd went wild again.

  “My fighters will take on anyone. There are no rules for these fights, no weight classes and the loser must clearly admit defeat or be knocked out.” The blood thirsty crowd roared again. The smell of imminent violence was in the air. Testosterone radiated from the ring. Banyon noticed Loni beginning to fidget in her seat.

  “And to insure that everyone will fight hard,” Lopez spouted. “If my fighters lose, they will immediately be deported.” He pointed to the Border Patrol men clustered by the back entrance. The crowd immediately booed and hissed. The Border Patrol men just stood there and did not react to the bad reception.

  “Now let me introduce you to Mr. Anthony Rinaldi, your ringmaster,” Lopez announced. He stood smiling while the man entered the ring. He then turned the microphone over to the smiling well-dressed short announcer. Danta Lopez left the stage, his part was over.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen,” Rinaldi drew out the announcement. “We had twenty challengers tonight who have signed up to fight. This just proves the legitimacy of this league. Are you ready for some real fighting?” The crowd once again roared with frenzy. Men were jumping up and down like children.

  The portly announcer continued. “The two men that will fight each round will be decided by lottery. One fighter will come from the LDA and one from the challengers.

  “That doesn’t seem fair,” Loni whispered into Banyon’s ear.

  “I don’t think it was meant to be,” replied Banyon.

  “Let’s see who will fight the first bout. The LDA fighters must continue to fight until all the challengers have fought. That means that several of the LDA members will have to fight more than one bout.”

  Electricity seemed to shoot across the arena. Many people were already screaming, stomping their feet and raising their fists in victory. Almost all of them were Latinos. Banyon was beginning to feel a little intimidated by all the noise and activity in the crowd. As he studied the people, he noticed that many of the Latino men appeared to be no stranger to violence. He wondered how so many tough men could afford the high price of a ticket for this event. Many looked like they were dirt poor. He began to think maybe Lopez had seeded the crowd with men who knew how to fight. When he glanced at Loni he realized she was reaching the same conclusion. He wondered if there was another plan afoot.

  “This is going to get ugly,” she yelled into Banyon’s ear.

  “And soon,” he answered.

  “And now let’s have the lottery for the first match,” Rinaldi announced as he stepped back and gestured with the opening his arms.

  Two very pretty Latino girls in bikinis appeared on the canvas carrying two clear plastic drums. They proceeded to the center of the ring and on Rinaldi’s command they each drew out a number. Rinaldi took the numbers and announced that the number four Latino would fight the number ten challenger. Quickly the two men entered the ring, bouncing and shadow boxing. There were no trainers or promoters with them. Soon a bell sounded. There would be only one round. They would fight until only one was left.

  Loni leaped up from her seat and started shouting. She was clearly cheering for the white fighter. He was about six inches taller and about fifty muscled-pounds heavier than the Latino fighter. The match lasted less than thirty seconds. The white fighter landed an upper cut and the Latino fighter was out before he hit the canvas. Half the crowd cheered and half the crowd booed loudly.

  “That was an auspicious beginning for the Latinos,” Banyon shouted above the crowd noise in the arena.

  “This is dubious terrain for all the fighters,” Loni yelled back at him, “But I love it. Isn’t this exciting?”

  Banyon said nothing, but watched as two new numbers were drawn and two more fighters entered the ring. This bout lasted for more than ten minutes. Both fighters were on the verge of exhaustion. The crowd was in complete frenzy. The Latino fighter eventually took a punch under his chin. The Latinos lost again.

  As Banyon looked about the arena he saw people already squaring off. He was sure several fights would breakout before these matches ended and now wondered if this was all planned as one of the diversions.

  He turned to Loni and said, “We need to get out of here. There is going to be a brawl and I don’t want to be in the middle of it.”

  “That’s okay,” she yelled. “Gerut is leaving too. It must be time for the next diversion to start. It is seven thirty. He is definitely following a timetable.”

  Colt and Loni slipped through the now standing crowd and exited the arena. They were soon walking along the long corridor that led back to the MGM. John Gerut was twenty steps ahead of them and seemed lost in thought.

  Banyon pressed his ear com and said, “Gerut is on the move.”

  “Acknowledged,” came back immediately.

  Within a few seconds a message came in from the control center. “There is movement inside the convention center. Looks like more than one person.”

  Banyon heard, “acknowledged several times.”

  ***

  Loni and Colt followed Gerut through the casino, through the registration area and down the long hall to the self-parking garage. It had been a long walk. When Gerut reached level three of the parking lot, he entered a blue paneled van. He spent a minute inside the van and then took off. Loni wrote down the license plate and called in the number to the control center. They acknowledged the call and said an unmarked car would pick him up as he exited the MGM parking lot. They then started for their car, which was located on level four.

  Suddenly Banyon heard his phone ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and went to answer it while a surprised Loni looked on.

  “Hello?” he said.

  “We must talk immediately,” a voice said.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  “Colt, I didn’t hear your phone ring,” Loni said as she watched a perplexed Banyon stare at the phone. He was acting a little strange to her. He had a look of complete confusion on his face. She had never seen him that way.

  “Actually, it didn’t,” he replied.

  “I don’t understand?” she managed.

  “It was a message for me” he said.

  “But, no one called you,” she stated.

  “It was from Wolf. This is the way that Wolf lets me know we need to talk,” he answered as he shook the phone for emphasis.

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “He has only done it once before. Whatever he wants, it must be important. I need to talk to him now.”

  “If we go to the top floor, it will be private enough for you to talk. I’ll watch to make sure that no one bothers you,” Loni offered.

  They quickly ran up the stairs and went to the far corner of the parking lot. There was no one else around. Loni kept watch to make sure they weren’t interrupted. She was in her protect mode as he headed to the upper corner of the huge garage.

  “Wolf, what do you want, I’m busy?” Banyon yelled out as he leaned against the corner of the wall.

  “You must help him,” Wolf spoke in an older tired voice Banyon had never heard before. It was the voice of someone defeated. The voice sou
nded like someone who had given up all hope. Banyon sensed trouble was ahead.

  “Help who?” Banyon asked. Wolf had never asked for any favors before. Great concern suddenly filled him.

  “He will die tonight if you don’t help him.”

  “Who will die?” Banyon reiterated.

  “You can’t let that happen. There isn’t much time. I will tell you what is planned and you must save him.”

  “Who are you talking about? I thought you could not give me information that will change history?”

  “That is true Colton,” Wolf said in a sad voice.

  “What has gotten you so upset?”

  “And once I give the information to help him, I may never be able to speak to you again. I will have violated a condition of the curse. But you must save him Colton. I have no choice in the matter.”

  Thinking quickly Banyon said, “Wolf, don’t do it. Don’t break the curse. There must be another way,” he pleaded.

  “But I must. There is no other way and there is no time. You must help him right now. He is being forced to be one of the assassins. They are already on the way and will be in the crowd in just a few minutes.”

  “Who is one of the assassins?” Banyon screamed. Loni turned her head for just a second and tried to gauge what was going on. Banyon was very frustrated as Wolf had not given him any information.

  “Eric Grey that is who,” Wolf finally replied. “And his real name, as you know, is Eric Hand. Doesn’t that name sound familiar to you?”

  “When I first heard the name I thought I had heard it before, but could not place where,” replied Banyon.

  “It’s not your fault. You could not possibly of known.”

  “So, what is your connection? Why is he so important to you?”

  “You haven’t heard his name before, but you did read the name Sally Hand before. Her name was in my autobiography.”

  “Wolf, you’re right. She was part of your autobiography. I remember I read that she helped you during the war. He must be related to her, right?”

  “Yes, he is, but this is more important than that.”

  “How?”

  “When I was doing the research on the boy, I discovered something I thought was completely impossible.”

  “It’s something about Eric Hand, right?”

  “You understand now. That is why I must risk all, so you can help him before it is too late, before he is killed.”

  “But, who is he to you, Wolf?” Banyon asked.

  “My grandson.”

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Danta Lopez had quickly gone from the fight ring at the MGM directly to his waiting limousine outside the Garden Arena. He intended to be as far away from the MGM as possible, as soon as possible. He made sure he could see John Gerut in the crowd before taking off. Stay John, good boy, now stay, he thought.

  He knew he was on the verge of accomplishing something that almost never happened before. Danta Lopez intended to retire. Most drug lords never have a chance to retire, they usually died on the job, but he expected to be one of the lucky ones.

  He realized it was time to retire when John Gerut approached him with a proposition. Gerut wanted to own the Lopez Cartel. Gerut told Danta he was going to be under investigation and would lose everything when the government was done, but Gerut said he could stop the investigation long enough for Lopez to cash out. All he had to do was one small favor for Gerut. A middleman named Joe Campo would handle all the details. Gerut also said he would pay Lopez around sixty million dollars cash for the organization. Payment was to be made tonight at midnight at the Lopez warehouse. Gerut had been true to his word and had stopped the investigation several months ago, by claiming Homeland Security believed there were terrorist activities being conducted by the Lopez Cartel. No other agency could investigate Lopez for now.

  But Lopez was no fool. He knew Gerut was very powerful and really intended to steal everything, including his organization from Lopez. He knew Gerut would have several top notched assassins surround the building tonight and Lopez would never step outside the door again. He knew this because it was exactly what Lopez would do.

  So, Lopez had quickly left the fight card and headed to his warehouse in Las Vegas to destroy his records. He had made a separate deal with another drug cartel and had sold all his trade routes, Border Patrol people in his pocket and his distribution system. The money, three hundred million dollars was already on deposit in the Cayman Islands and safe. Lopez expected to be long gone when Gerut showed up for their meeting at the warehouse.

  In fact he intended to already be out of the country and headed for Costa Rica under a new name and identity. He had rented a plane under the name of Ramon Ramirez. He once again wondered if his wife and children would miss him at all.

  Chapter Fifty

  Colton Banyon and Loni Chen raced through the MGM parking lot down the stairs and back into the big casino. They knew the protest was scheduled to take place at eight fifteen sharp in the very front of the MGM. That was when the assassins would strike. It was almost a quarter of a mile away from where they were and it was eight o’clock sharp. They didn’t have any time to spare, so they were running.

  Loni had not heard the conversation between the spirit Wolf and Colt. Colt had not given her many details about what Wolf had told him. There wasn’t enough time, but she could see that Colt needed to do try to save Eric Grey. She had no choice but to help him, even though the odds seemed against a rescue.

  Colt had only told her Eric Grey was the actual grandson of Wolf and this was a matter of honor and family. Colt told her Wolf had discovered that he had a grandson while he was attempting to gather information for the FBI on the suspect Eric Hand. He said Wolf had waited for Banyon to check in with him, but when he didn’t, Wolf was compelled to contact him. He also said Wolf had told him something about the future and he might not be able to talk to Wolf anymore. Banyon told her that if Wolf told him about what would happen in the future, the curse could be broken.

  She had not heard how Wolf had discovered he had a grandson, but Wolf had told Banyon he did have a suspicion and also one clue. When Sally had disappeared from the Bahamas during the war, she had left a goodbye letter for Wolf. In the letter she said she was taking a little bit of Wolf with her. He never realized she meant she was pregnant with his child. Suddenly, he realized Eric Grey could be his grandchild. That he actually had living relatives.

  So, Wolf went back in history until he found the time when Sally Hand had left him during the war. He followed her life and observed the birth of his daughter. Wolf watched their daughter grow, mature and eventually deliver a baby boy named Eric. Unfortunately the unwed mother died during childbirth. This was a crushing blow to Wolf. But, the grandson, Eric, had lived. Sally had actually raised the baby until he reached adulthood, teaching him many things about how to survive in the complicated world. Wolf followed his progress throughout his young life. He watched as she trained him to defend himself and watched proudly as he made the decision to become a Navy Seal. He had been a good boy and had joined the Navy because his Grandmother told him tales of her war experiences.

  Wolf eventually witnessed the death of his only true love, Sally Hand. He was once again crushed. He then watched in horror as Eric’s life, without support, spiraled downhill and Wolf viewed with distain the events that had led Eric to his current life threatening situation. He knew he had to help Eric. He had to redeem himself for his failure to support Sally and his unknown family for all their lives. He could have easily done it when he was alive. He had been very rich. His honor demanded it. Loni knew nothing about Eric Hand, but she understood honor and redemption. She decided that she would help Colt even if her life was in peril. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

  Loni, who was younger and in better shape than Banyon spoke into her earpiece as she loped along, following the much slower Banyon.

  “Gamble, Chen here. We have a crisis.

  “Go ahead,” she he
ard Agent Gamble respond.

  “One of the assassins is tied to Colt’s past. Colt is determined to help him. We know when and where the attempted assassination will occur. Don’t ask how, but we will need several of your men to arrest the Homeland Security undercover man who is supposed to kill the assassin as soon as he attempts to take a shot at the mayor.”

  “Can you identify all the assassins?” Gamble came back with concern in his voice. There are three of them remember.”

  “Yes,” Loni answered, “Colt told me the other assassins are young Mexican boys and will be herder by Homeland Security men.”

  “I’ll get back to you,” Agent Gamble replied.

  She did not hear a reply until she was twenty feet away from the front door. “See the man in the red Boston Red Sox baseball cap. He will be just outside the main entrance. He will do what you tell him.”

  She ran through the revolving doors and skidded to a stop in front a FBI type man in a red hat. Banyon continued cutting through the building mass of people. Banyon was heading for a specific spot in front of the crowd. The man looked familiar.

  “Is that you Detective Pellegrino?” she breathlessly asked as she leaned forward to catch her breath?

  “Well I’ll be, it is me Steve Pellegrino — from Jacksonville,” he replied as he flexed his biceps that showed from under his short-sleeve shirt. It was two sizes too small. Loni and Colt had run into Pellegrino when they were chasing some supremacists in a previous adventure. He had helped uncover some Nazis.

  “I can’t believe you are here,” Loni exclaimed.

  “Good to see you, babe,” he flirted.

  “What are you doing here?” Loni asked him while still trying to catch her breath. When she last saw him, he had just gotten promoted.

  “Well, I’m on special assignment, a task force for the FBI. An Agent Kriss recruited me to help knock down some bad guys. Next thing I know, I’m on a plane to Las Vegas. I barely had time to pack my pajamas.”