Hard Case: Boxed Set Books 1,2 & 3 (John Harding Books)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Montoya watched a smaller signal move away and then go off. “What happened?”

  “That’s his signal he made it away. We run silent and dark now. Clint covers his back trail in a roundabout path back here, and you two pick up your tickets to wonderland tomorrow at noon… all paid up. He should be strolling in about oh-four-hundred. I’ll feed him anything I pick up in chatter or movement anywhere around him until then.”

  “I’m breaking up with him! Damn it!”

  Laredo stared over at her as if she sprouted a horn out of her forehead. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “He’s killed about a thousand people today and I didn’t even get a taste. I’ll never catch up with him. We’re through!” Montoya started laughing, still juiced from the ambush.

  Laredo chuckled and turned his attention to the screens as he widened his satellite reconnaissance area request. “You two are a pair alright. A pair of what… I don’t have a clue.”

  Chapter Six: Collecting Back Wages

  The heat from his phosphorous grenade cleanup drove Dostiene outward as he worked the perimeter of his kill zone. The screams of dying men faded with every moment of his unrelenting attack. The secondary blast from his hitting the lead vehicle with the M136 warhead, forced him back for a time while he detonated his shaped charges. He fired his Mac-10 at anything still moving within the inferno, tossing the phosphorous grenades at spaced intervals. When he had completed his perimeter circle, Clint kept his locator on for a few moments while he moved outwards to intercept anyone who had escaped the conflagration. When he was sure Laredo would know he had cleared the blast zone, Dostiene went dark.

  Setting off at a dead run with all his gear, Clint covered a hundred yards outwards in seconds, slowing as he reached the intercept perimeter before again moving in a circle around the target. He received a text from Laredo after turning to start his perimeter sweep. It stopped him cold for a moment, before having to clamp both hands over his mouth to keep from howling in laughter: ‘GF on my bk. Knife in hand. Breakup asap. Claims U killed a thou tday, she got nuthin. She’s mental. Hep me!’

  Dostiene texted back quickly before beginning his sweep – ‘U big grl!’

  Halfway through his sweep, Clint saw movement with his night-vision goggles. Two men nearing his perimeter line stumbled clumsily outward in a zigzag pattern, glancing back at the kill zone every few moments. They had handguns, but nothing else he could see. The short burst from his Mac-10 cut the legs from the two men at the ankles. He then took more careful aim and blasted the shoulders attached to the weapon carrying hands. Both men launched into screaming pain-filled shouts of surrender in Spanish.

  “Rendición… rendición!” The two men repeated their anthem every few seconds.

  Clint approached them slowly and silently. When he was near enough to see their faces clearly, his hand tensed on the Mac-10. Dostiene willed himself to relax. He smiled, the surprise of recognizing one of the men fading gradually. Clint then fired a burst that pulped the head of one uniformed Federale. The other scrambled away from the twitching corpse, crying out in pain, his one mobile hand clawing in hopeless desperation. Clint flipped him over, ignoring the scream of whining protest.

  “Well hell, if it ain’t my old buddy, Roberto Perez. Hello, Roberto. Long time, no see, amigo. I never got a chance to thank you for the special treatment you afforded me down here.”

  The man cried out in hopeless angst, his hand raised in the direction of Dostiene’s voice. “Clint? I… I couldn’t help you before. I can give you everything… everything you want. I am a Colonel now. I have contacts with… the Cartels. I can-”

  “Oh my!” Dostiene cut his plea off. “Roberto… my old friend!”

  Roberto began to sob.

  Dostiene propped the wounded man up against a nearby rock, comically dusting him off and wiping his face as he made sure the man had no more weapons. He continued in Spanish. “Hey, big R, how’s it hangin’? Listen closely. No hard feelings about my captivity under your supervision some years back. You know me, buddy. I have one of those detail oriented memories. I’ll make this simple, pal. You tell me everything, including names, dates, places, and Cartel intelligence, and I will put one right between your horns. I’m a business first type guy. You’ve been a very bad man. It’s time to pay up.”

  “But… but you killed eight men escaping. I…I was under orders to… oh hell… I will tell you nothing! You will kill me anyway!” Knowing his mercy ploy was going nowhere, he clenched his fists, rolling into a fetal position in silence.

  Dostiene smiled. “Oh Roberto, you don’t know how happy that makes me feel. I was afraid you’d just blurt it out with no pain.”

  Dostiene patted Roberto’s head while injecting him. “Here you go, buddy. This stuff will put you out for a while without damaging you. We’ll talk about what I want to know later. I have to go make sure none of your other buddies went walkabout.”

  Clint plastic tied Perez’s wrists behind his back. He duct taped his mouth, wrapped his wounded ankles in duct tape individually before taping them together, and then did Perez’s shoulder. His last perimeter search turned up nothing. When Clint returned, Perez had just begun to move around, groaning, and finally barking out thin duct tape covered screams.

  “Boy, I sure hope you have something I can use,” Clint told the wide eyed Perez, before putting on his pack. He hoisted Perez up in a fireman’s carry position. “Damn, Roberto, you’ve put on a little weight. If we had to go uphill I’d dump you in the fire.”

  Dostiene headed out on his preplanned route back to Laredo’s place, using brush tied to the back of his pack, dragging on the hard packed ground to cover his tracks. It was a tedious and torturous hour to go two miles away from his kill zone. Sweating profusely, Clint put Perez on the ground when he reached a small boulder strewn area. He ripped off Perez’s gag tape and squirted water in his mouth from a water bottle on his pack. After taking a few long sips himself, Clint squirted some over his head.

  “Oh man… that’s heaven. The rest of my escape route will be duck soup without hauling your carcass along.”

  Perez had begun to blubber incoherently, his pained features contorted hideously.

  “Here’s the deal one more time. Let me record all the stuff I asked you for, and I won’t have to hurt you like this.” Dostiene slowly lowered his boot onto Perez’s wounded ankles, calculating the man’s high pitched screams in intensity. Perez passed out. Clint brought him around again with bottled water and light slaps.

  “Madre de Dios… Madre de Dios! I’ll tell… I’ll tell!” Perez screamed out over and over until Clint covered his mouth while making shushing sounds.

  Clint took out a low light, hand held HD camcorder. Over the next forty-five minutes, Clint prompted Perez with questions meant to get the most intel while trying to trip him up. He also acquired the bank names, passwords, and account numbers where Perez had hideaway accounts. When Perez began repeating himself, Dostiene patted his cheek.

  “You’ve been a very good boy. We have whole clusters of stars over us. You watch them, and I’ll take all your pain away. For a few moments, you’ll be pain free before the trapdoor into hell opens up for your twisted soul.”

  “Clint! Please… don’t do it… I’ll make you-”

  Clint administered an injection into Perez’s neck, holding him upright as his sighs of relief subsided into his final death rattle. After covering him with loose dirt, Dostiene built a rock cairn over the corpse. Sipping water while enjoying the rapidly cooling desert air, he watched the star filled sky in comfortable silence. Five minutes later, he trekked toward the CIA safe house, chuckling as he remembered Laredo’s text.

  * * *

  Montoya strode into Laredo’s command center with restrained anger. Laredo glanced her way, noticing Tonto perked up and went to stand at her side. He waited for the verbal retribution with a shrug.

  “Still in transit.”

  Lynn sauntered over to Lared
o’s shoulder. She stroked his shoulder in friendly fashion. “I don’t mean to pry, but it’s past 4AM. You wouldn’t be withholding info on me, would you, Sparky?”

  “Not in this lifetime, Princess. Is there something about going dark electronically you don’t understand?”

  Montoya nodded and stepped away. “At least he paid my way back. When will you know he bit the big one?”

  Laredo launched out of his seat, turning on Montoya while assuming a combat ready stance. “I don’t know how far you can push this serial killer bullshit, and I don’t really care, Princess. I’d have put a bullet through your head while you were napping if I was playing you. Dostiene’s not someone you underestimate. You fuck with him… he gets back to you. I’ve already explained all the shit I know. Take it or leave it… bitch!”

  Lynn smiled, relaxing for the first time in hours. “Thanks, Laredo. I’ll be in my room.”

  Laredo relaxed as Montoya walked toward her room, wondering if he’d need to kill her if Clint’s enterprise didn’t end well. He shrugged and sat down. Clint was Clint. It would be good or it would be very bad. He resumed his monitoring position, noting Tonto had followed Montoya toward her room. He grinned at Tonto’s decision to follow Montoya. Laredo wondered if the dog knew something he didn’t.

  * * *

  At nearly 5AM, Dostiene breached the perimeter of the CIA safe-house. Laredo opened the way in from his control panel. He popped up out of his seat as Clint passed into the Command Center.

  “Damn, partner! Did you stop by the zombie apocalypse on your way back?”

  Dostiene laughed appreciatively, as he set his equipment down near Laredo’s seat. “I had to carry a bleeder for a ways until-”

  Tonto ran up to nudge Clint’s leg with Montoya following.

  “I hope that ain’t all your blood, Clint, or I got bad news for you… you’re dead.”

  “You two need to take this comedy act on the road, baby,” Clint replied, stripping off his outerwear in a bloody pile. “I was telling Laredo I had a messy bundle to carry a ways before I could give him his last rites. You’ll never guess who got clear of the Cartel Roast, brother – Roberto Perez. He had made it all the way up to Colonel.”

  Laredo’s face drained of color as his mouth sagged open. “You… you mean the guy who was supposed to be our gatekeeper down on the Guatemalan border when I dropped you into El Salvador to get Salas in oh nine? I never thought you’d work for the Company again after they threw you under the bus on that one.”

  Clint shrugged as he kicked free of all his clothing except his underwear. Laredo handed him a plastic bag from one of the desk drawers. Dostiene rammed all his bloody clothing inside of it, including his boots. “State decided since I got Salas, Perez would get tired of screwing around with me, but he was so sure I had the keys to the kingdom he didn’t want to let me go. Man, we paid him a bunch of money to make sure I passed through his checkpoint.”

  Montoya tried to keep silent, but when Clint didn’t continue, and began taking items out of his pack, she couldn’t hold back. “Don’t leave me hangin’, cowboy.”

  Dostiene grinned up at her while he handed Laredo his camcorder. “Be patient, baby. I have some stuff on my cam that just might make us three feel real good.”

  Laredo hooked up the camcorder to his computer mainframe, and began playing the video. He saw the slightly blurry image of a sobbing Perez clear up before the man began stuttering out names, places, and accounts. Laredo chuckled, shaking his head while he jotted down the account numbers. “Sucked to be him, partner. Are these numbers what I think they are?”

  “Yep. I’m hoping we’ve just regained all that Company money they paid my old buddy Roberto, plus all his ill gotten Cartel bribe money.”

  “Oh… my… God…” Laredo whispered as his hands flew over the keyboard, launching a myriad of windows on the monitor directly in front of him. “He has over two mil in Belize.”

  “See?” Clint closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “The circle is completed. Looks like I finally get my back pay bonus from that nasty time I spent with Roberto. I figure you’ll have about thirty-six hours before his accounts become untouchable. Is that going to be enough time to clean it up?”

  Laredo let out a couple fake sobs as he worked. “You can be real hurtful, Clint.”

  Dostiene laughed and patted his friend’s shoulder. “Sorry… didn’t mean to insult you. We hit the jackpot tonight. Half’s yours of course. I’ll give Lynn a taste out of mine.”

  “You will?”

  “I’d never have run into Roberto if not for you, baby. I figure that’s worth a twenty percent finders’ fee. Right, brother?”

  “Whatever you say, my friend,” Laredo replied without looking up. “I’ll have this all spic and span in all the right places before you have to head out. You haven’t changed anything from those accounts I set up for you, right?”

  “Haven’t touched a thing. I’m getting cleaned up and then pass out for the next five hours. Wake me up at ten, baby.”

  “Sure Clint.” Montoya watched Clint walk toward the bathroom with Tonto trailing him. She sighed and hunched down over Laredo’s shoulder. “How much you figure?”

  “Looks like three and a half all told,” Laredo replied in awe. “Man… you two ought to just blow off the feds and head someplace cabana boys bring you Mai Tai’s all day. As soon as I make certain I put adequate time between me and this bonanza, that’s where I’m heading.”

  “He sure is generous, but I have a hunch Clint would be unhappy sitting around on a beach all day. Like you said, he’s a believer. What the hell did Perez do to him?”

  “Don’t know, Princess, but when I dropped into a spot on the Yucatan Peninsula and picked him up, he looked like he had walked out of a death camp. He had to go to ground after contacting me for nearly half a day before making it to the LZ we set up, and guarded by some black ops friends of Clint’s you only read about in comic books. We had to do it dark and under the radar, because of Perez. I have no clue how he made it to the Yucatan.”

  “How the hell did he get away?”

  “Don’t know that either. When I asked him, he just grinned and told me one of the guards got too close.”

  “Damn! He gives me an inferiority complex.”

  Laredo laughed.

  * * *

  Dostiene’s eyes opened to slits in the dim light cast by a small lamp in the corner of his room. He catalogued where he was, the aches coursing through his body, and the fact he was not alone. Seeing Tonto lying on the covers at his feet, he turned his head slightly to his left. She breathed evenly on her side, facing him. A glance at the digital clock on Lynn’s side of the bed read nearly 9:45AM.

  “Nice outfit, baby.”

  Montoya stirred next to him with a giggle and a yawn. She was naked. “I thought maybe I’d work a little for that finder’s fee.”

  “Work?” Dostiene gripped Lynn’s hips as she slid smoothly over top of him.

  She covered his mouth with her own in a gasping moan. Tonto jumped down with a grunt.

  * * *

  They passed through the checkpoint at Antelope Wells in the rented Chevrolet Impala without incident. Lynn saw a smile of recognition on the big guard’s face. He waved Clint through with a quick gesture. Clint saw Lucas and Casey leaning to the side with big smiles on their faces.

  “I guess the payoff was to their liking,” Lynn said, looking back at the border.

  “That’s John. He’s one of ours. He would have let me through whether they did or not. My boss doesn’t leave anything up to deals with other government agencies. He wanted you to make it North unmolested.”

  “You know that John guy?”

  Dostiene glanced over at Lynn as he accelerated into the USA. “We did a little time together in exotic places. John’s a friend.”

  “You do understand that breaks the psycho code of behavior, right? We don’t have friends. We have enablers.”

  Clint laughed with unex
pected zeal at Lynn’s remark. It took a few moments before he responded. “You’re alright, baby. Okay… John’s an enabler. I got his back, and he has mine. He’s no psycho. He can use a knife like a master uses a violin. John is a man not to be fucked with.”

  Montoya saw the grim set to Dostiene’s mouth. “Got it. When do we meet up with your retard FBI enablers?”

  Dostiene laughed. “Very soon, because I’ve heard on the news the jackals did another killing. They’ll probably be… well hell… there they are now, Lynn. On the side of the road… see ‘em?”

  “Oh yeah,” Lynn replied, spotting the two they would have to work with right away.

  * * *

  Cheryl began screaming in high pitched harmony with their victim, a blonde haired, blue eyed coed from San Francisco State who looked noticeably like Cheryl.

  “Oh God… Rich… this is almost like butchering Cheryl,” Tara gasped delightedly. “We need to find one like me somewhere. This is the best West Coast adventure yet!”

  Richard looked at his two cohorts with glee. “You two are the fucking best! Yes… we’ll find a doppelganger of you Tara. She followed you around like a puppy in that bar. She thought you were the coolest thing on earth. We’ll have to hurry though. Doing this one in the same place is fucking awesome, but the risks are high.”

  “Oh my Lord… I want you bad right now…” Cheryl said, hugging Tara to her, while stroking their screaming victim. “When we get back to the house I am going to scream!”

  “The FBI dolts are going to shit when they get called into the same body drop,” Tara murmured before kissing Cheryl in a passionate embrace.

  * * *

  Sam Reeves jumped out of the driver’s seat to meet the ambling Dostiene and Montoya. “Christ… I never thought I’d be saying how glad I am to see you. We’re fucked! Those damn psychos killed another one in the same fucking place as the last one! They tortured and mutilated her exactly like the first one. I want these bastards so bad I can taste it! I can’t stand the sight of either one of you, but as God is my witness I’m your man if you can help us get these fucking monsters!”