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

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “I’m always around for a consult. Just call my partner Tommy or I if my friend Chad wants a second opinion.” I clasped Danny boy’s shoulder. “I know you want this gig to work, but you need to think things through or you’re going to blow it for everyone.”

  “I want us to be more than pretend,” Dan replied.

  “You might do just that if you take it slow. It’s not bad theater to get the bad guys in on it where possible. When you find them, see if they’d like to playact a bit before giving themselves up. Hell, if your show does well in the ratings, some bad guys will want you bunch to take them in. They like the spotlight as much as anyone. Figure out your bottom line and how much it would take to sweeten the pot if they’re receptive to giving up with a little playacting.”

  “You’re right. Maybe we could buy a little safety. I’ll be more careful about picking jobs too.” Dan held out his hand and I shook it. “Did you guys really think the show rocked?”

  “You had us all riveted in place, and the humor was low key and hilarious, especially Kev’s face when his precious Buffster hurt herself.”

  That drew more laughter, with the Buffster hugging the cringing Kevin. Kensy suddenly turned to Lynn, gripping Lynn’s left hand in both of hers. “Wait! I know you now. I saw you protecting the Afghani girl that speaks out for womens’ rights. You had a wig on. You really shredded that guy who threw the shoe.”

  Lynn pointed a finger at Kensy. “Do what I say, not as I do, you little brat.”

  Kensy laughed. “I hear you. You’re bigger than I am. I bet Dan would love for you to do a guest appearance. We’d break viewing records.”

  Lynn smiled. “You’re beginning to annoy me, kid.”

  “Think about it, Lynn. If we get the right opportunity, you’d be the badass ringer that shows up and rocks the bad guys’ world.”

  “Kensy’s right, Ms. Montoya,” Dan agreed, being respectful, because he knew who Lynn was. “You would be an instant hit, with fans of the show calling for more appearances.”

  “I’ll think about it, but you bunch have to stay alive long enough to make the show a hit. I admit it’s kind of fun thinking about something as whacky as that, but my boss Denny’s head would probably explode if I ever got that kind of notoriety.”

  “I thought John was your boss.” Kensy looked confused, as did her companions.

  I turned that question away. “That part is another gig, Kensy. We have to go. We’ll take the drug dealer and his buddies with us for the time being. Take Tavor in, and treat him with respect. He’s a bad guy for now, but he played his part real well. He might be a good consideration as an addition to your crew - a bad guy turned from the dark side, when he gets out of jail.”

  “Damn! That’s good.” Dan looked over at Tavor with a different perspective. “Ex Hell’s Angel, turned from the dark side – I like it!”

  Maybe I should have been in the movie business. The Dark Lord, agent to the stars.

  Chapter Seventeen: Preparations

  I swam the Bay water with pissed off determination. Not only had my boat, The Lora, been confiscated by Tommy, Devon, Jesse, and Jafar, I was now being tortured next to her on a daily basis. The assholes fished, brought aboard dependents, partied, and made sure I was miserable – all in addition to a barrage of full contact ending exercises using my board striking ploy. The last couple of weeks since we had made shark bait out of the drug dealer and his friends due to unexpected crimes we found out they were guilty of, the guys were making my days hell on earth.

  After long periods of time in my inadequate wetsuit shell, I batted the pokes I got from my sadistic training crew almost instinctually. Naturally, this made for constant stress in the water, because any poke getting by my guard, caused an intake of seawater, along with the resulting choking spasms while getting my breath back in the midst of a redoubled attack from all hands on deck as punishment. Consequently, I was in the best shape of my life.

  Some added problems cropped up after our return to home base. My Russian mobster friend, Alexi Fiialkov had been fired as The Destroyer’s handler and agent. The same Middle Eastern contingent that had handled my former foe Abdul, The Terrible - The Syrian Slayer, bought out The Destroyer’s contract at Subotic’s insistence. As is his way, Alexi said nothing about the setback. I know he doesn’t want a war with Subotic’s new owners. It did place a shadow over the process now, because the new backers would probably buy their way into controlling the refs, as well as the judging panel. It’s all exciting to me. I had my crew with me no matter what. I’d be prepared. That Subotic thought I’d be a stepping stone to taking my place on the UFC docket was just business. Losing Alexi from the mix did not bode well. We had other operations depending on our continued fraternization. Besides, I liked Alexi.

  I plodded into the last realm of my ocean torture, letting thoughts of my present day logistics and enterprises keep me occupied. At least I didn’t have to do ‘The Bump’ with some Bay Area sharks this session. I’m an admitted idiot. When I get bumped, I want to get me a piece. It’s both my plus side thinking, and my minus side thinking. If this shit with training is stuck in Tommy’s head, I will end up ridin’ a shark like they do in those island type places. Then I notice it. With my excellent peripheral vision, I see Tommy sneaking into position for a hurtful strike. I grin and wait like a big shark. Tommy leans too far over, lances at me, and I don’t block the strike – I grab it. Rolling with the striking pole I see Tommy’s look of stunned anguish as he lets loose of the pole, and loses his balance. Oh yeah!

  Tommy hits the water, and comes up in sputtering panic mode. Then it dawns on me. Tommy can’t swim. I approach him carefully. Tommy’s a big guy, and rescuing panicking big guys in the water requires caution. His hyper moving arms and feet are keeping his head up for gasping breaths, but he’s stunned. I hold my hands up in placating form.

  “I’m right here T! Focus, brother. I’m with you. Relax on your back! I got you!”

  Hearing my voice, the panic leaves Tommy’s face. He knows I’d die before letting anything happen to him. He lets himself go, arching into a back position. I move in immediately and balance him. “That’s it, brother! Relax. The boat’s right next to you. We’ll have you out in a second.”

  Realizing what was happening, Tommy had all hands on deck ready for extraction. They had him on the low fantail of The Lora in seconds. I thought well okay, a shortened training episode from hell. Wrong. As I tried to follow Tommy up onto the fantail, the ungrateful prick bops me in the forehead with gasping admonition.

  “Where… the fuck do you think you’re going, meat?”

  My short lived ray of hope was squashed in an instant. Damn it!

  * * *

  I came out of the shower, feeling marginally better. The guys were all fishing with pretty decent results by the looks of our ice chest. My sparring would of course be the next part when the pirates I sailed with finished their fishing time. Tommy glanced up at me with a grin. I pointed at him with attitude.

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me you couldn’t swim? Where’s your life jacket?”

  The guys laughed, but I didn’t plan on this being a he-haw. “I want to know right now if you other three dodos know how to swim, and how well.”

  “My people don’t swim,” Jesse answered.

  Devon laughed, but raised his hand. “I can swim real well. I guess I’m the exception to Jess’s ‘my people’ comment.”

  “My people don’t swim either,” Jafar added to more laughter.

  “New rules aboard this boat – life jackets for all. Even expert swimmers panic when they hit the cold ocean water in this area, especially when land is out of sight. Shit, Jess, if your big ass ever fell overboard, we’d have to tow you back to port.”

  More laughter.

  “That was one quick grab and roll, John,” Tommy said. “You may hate this training ploy, but a reaction time like that after being in the damn ocean ice water is hell of impressive. I’m beginning to like y
our chances against the Destroyer. If we can get your secret leg strike working more than seventy percent of the time, it’s going to be a long night for Subotic.”

  “I feel uncomfortable with you getting optimistic, T. Next thing will be you saying I can knock him out.”

  “I said I like your chances. I didn’t say I’d lost my mind. Tell the Dark Lord what his chances of knocking out Subotic are guys.”

  “Sorry, John, not happenin’.” Dev shook his head. “Jess and I saw the Big O hit him flush on the nighty-night spot. He didn’t even blink. Subotic has one of those skulls made of iron. Stick with the leg strike.”

  “And whatever you do, brother, don’t let him hit you.” Jess porked me, knowing I block far too many punches with my head.

  “Your ground game is as good as anyone I’ve ever seen, but we don’t know how well Subotic does on the mat. No one’s taken him there yet,” Tommy added.

  “I have watched his YouTube fights many times,” Jafar spoke up for the first time. “He has cement stanchions for legs, John. His opponents try to get him off his feet, but cannot do it. Plus, he punches downward with horrible power.”

  “The kid’s right,” Dev said. “He can knock a guy out with either hand striking down. If you try a takedown, you’ll need to drive him into the cage first, so he can’t unload on you.”

  At least we’re talking out my future demise. “Let’s head back and get the mat time in.”

  “This boat’s great, John,” Tommy replied. “It’s even better because you took it off Captain Ahab. At least we have a craft we’re allowed to use.”

  “If I’d known you guys were going to turn my life into a living hell with it, I’d have blown it up.”

  “You know this is great training,” Tommy replied. “Besides, Lora has her name on it. Even Ahab can’t take it away now. It’s a beauty. We’ll obey your lifejacket rule though.”

  “Doing ocean cruises when you can’t swim seems a little odd to me.”

  “I don’t need to do any swimming with my pole in one hand and a beer in the other, John,” Jess informed me. “Hell, you swim well enough for all of us, but lifejacket it is from now on. I didn’t like watchin’ T floundering around out there like a harpooned tuna.”

  Laughing at the conversation while keeping an eye on his notebook computer, Jafar kept typing in broken spurts of frenetic finger movements.

  “What the heck are you into, J?” I moved over to get a look at his screen. After a moment I wasn’t smiling anymore. “You have the big fish on line. Damn.”

  Jafar glanced up and nodded. “Clint, Laredo, and I are taking turns playing our Sinaloa Cartel oil scam gang. They like the money we’ve been flashing due to our recent acquisitions. They’re hooked. I doubt they believe any law enforcement agency could have the financial accounts we have in place. The questioning now from them is more on a personal basis with our cover couple. Clint’s handling that. I feed in suggestions when I see something he can use. This is the fishing I’ve been doing. We let them play out on the line a little, and then draw them back tight.”

  “Are you guys any closer to getting an invitation at sea?”

  “Done deal. We haven’t set a date, because we’re playing hard to get. Clint wants them begging us for a meet up. Not having a deadline really helps. We’re monitoring their activity closely, because we don’t want anything happening to the people they have already taken.”

  “Man, that’s good work, kid. It looks like Ahab will have to leave port for a change, instead of sitting on the Wolf at the dock, shining the railing with one hand, his deck chair with the other, and shining the deck with his special waxing slippers.”

  “You really got him good taking over The Lora, John,” Jess said. “He hates seeing us heading out to sea every day under your flag instead of his. I think he makes sure he’s on board The Sea Wolf early so that he can monitor us when you’re getting taken out to be tortured by Tommy.”

  He’s right. “Yeah, the prick always has a smile and wave for me when we leave port. You guys holding up fishing poles and beers always brings the frown back though. I don’t understand why he doesn’t just come along. Casey’s usually with us to pour salt on the wound, but I think Suzie’s reigning in our mate Case a bit. He has to appease his woman. Take us in, T. Let’s get the rest of this crap done so I can pick up Al from school. I’m going to break a couple boards today, boys.”

  “With your defense, Dark Lord, you’ll have to if you plan to make it out of the first round.”

  Boinked again. “Gee, thanks T. You’d better leave the pole poking to your fellow ingrates here. I’m thinking if you don’t, you really will need a lifejacket.”

  “We’re done with the poles,” Tommy replied with a wave off for me. “We’ll be using bean bag guns from now on.”

  “I’d rethink that statement if you don’t want to eat that bean bag gun, partner.”

  * * *

  Alexi waved at me from his seat at the far end of the bar. I nodded while saying hi to my numerous police acquaintances in The Warehouse Bar. Marla tended bar. It being a Friday night, she had her hands full, but a big smile and wave for me.

  “I’ll put your usual by your partner in crime at the end of the bar, Champ.”

  “Thanks, Marla. It’ll sure go down good tonight after that sadistic session Tommy put me through today.”

  “He needs to if you want to live through that fight tomorrow night with Bigfoot.”

  I nod appreciatively as my police department buddies enjoy Marla’s sendup of my prospects in Saturday’s late night matchup. “I have a more optimistic view of my chances than all of you do apparently. No hard feelings when I knock the prick out in the first ten seconds, right?”

  By the immediate ongoing laughter, you’d have thought I told the joke of the decade. Damn. I need to work on my bar presence. I should walk into the bar with a glowering menace all over my features like my old buddy Van Rankin used to do… before I killed him in the cage. Maybe that would get me a little fan consideration. I shook hands with the smiling Alexi Fiialkov.

  “It is good to see you, John.”

  “I figured when you called you must have gathered all the ins and outs of this fight tomorrow night, my friend. I’m sorry Subotic wasn’t smart enough to stay away from that conclave from the Mideast. I bet the new Al Jazeera America network is happy though.”

  Alexi chuckled. “Yes, they are quite pleased. While no other network can televise an illegal betting fight forum in the Oakland warehouse, Al Jazeera will do it anyway with no fear of retribution. I admit to having planned on exploiting that very fact. The Mideast group is well connected, and capable of carrot and stick tactics I no longer pursue. They reached Demetrius through religion, pulling the infidel card. Demetrius is a devout Muslim. I tried to explain religion and this fight game have nothing to do with each other, but his family and friends have been pressuring him to have nothing to do with unbelievers.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t yank the rights for using the renovated fight building.” I toasted Marla while sipping the double she’d placed in front of me. I chased it with half my beer, and enjoyed the feeling right down to my toes.

  “I have a contract with them for overseas rights. I do not cut my nose off to spite my face. Your fight tomorrow will be profitable. I wanted to meet with you here, because my contract with them allows for their choosing of the referees and judges with stipulation they have certified credentials. I will look closely at them, but money is a very unruly participant in the process. I was allowed to make a valid recommendation for referee. I chose our very capable Jack Korlos. Whether they accept my choice or not is unknown. I will fight their bringing in of a ringer, and I’ve told them so in no uncertain terms.”

  That’s good news. “Listen, Alexi, if I can get Jack as a referee, I don’t give a shit what kind of ringers they pick for the judges. We both know if the fight by some miracle goes the distance, I ain’t getting any decision. At least if Jack’s t
he referee, I won’t have some asshole stopping the fight every time I get a strike in.”

  “Good. I am happy you do not look at this through rose colored glasses. You will not win a decision, but no force on earth can get Jack to play this out any other way than the up and up. It is the main reason I hired him exclusively. He is an honorable man.”

  “You got that right.” If I lose, it won’t be because Jack Korlos screwed me. I threw down my shot with real optimism. Marla was watching as I finished off my beer. She replaced both. “Good Lord, Alexi, I hope you can pull that off. I’ll owe you one.”

  “If you allow me to continue to have your ear for future ventures, that is all I ask.”

  “That’s a no brainer. I’m sorry Demetrius turned out to be such a naïve idiot.”

  Alexi took a large gulp of his own drink. “Yes… it was an oversight mistake I will never allow to happen again.”

  Boy, if I was that Mideast contingent, I’d be very careful about anything with a thread back to Fiialkov. When you deal with him straight up, he’s a good business man. If you break contracts with him, he never forgets, and he has contacts that can haunt someone he doesn’t like forever. Even we don’t know how he infiltrated Interpol, but his connection has come in handy. When someone can upstage Denny, the Spawn of Satan, you can bank on them being more powerful behind the scenes than in front of them.

  “Jafar told me you’re feeding logistics to him about our upcoming voyage. I want you to know we appreciate the help.”

  Alexi nodded. “It is a small thing, John. I have interests at cross purposes to the gang fronting for the Sinaloa Cartel. If your team is successful in its endeavors, I will proceed with acquiring some oil interests in the area. I have held off, because the cartel makes honest business pursuits nearly impossible. I would not be surprised if they are allowed to continue, they will eventually develop a pirate force out in the Gulf of Mexico. I have word of your new boat acquisition. It is a very fine craft, but an extremely uncomfortable training tool.”