Peace - A Navy SEALS Novel (DeLeo's Action Thriller Singles Book 3)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “I’ve seen him under duress. He can take it, but I would feel better if we had someone we trust with him.”

  “The rest of the team would jump at the chance, but they may not be attached to you like me and Dan,” Bull laughed. “Besides, like you said, we have too many in the know already, with four of us. What about Ed. Hell, he drove riverboats in Vietnam, and he’s kept his hand in on our off duty dive weekends. The cheapskate won’t buy his own boat though, otherwise we wouldn’t have to rent.”

  “He knows what a money hole owning a boat is,” Peace added. “Nancy would carve me up like an onion shredder if she found out I was using Ed on some whacko ninja assault.”

  “On the other hand, we’d have a pro on the boat, who would not hesitate to kill if someone wanders along while we’re on shore. If I know Ed, his feet won’t even touch the ground after you tell him, he’ll be so up for it.”

  “He’ll be ecstatic until he thinks about Nancy. We’ll have to cover ourselves with a dive trip, because Becky would take her turn with the knife if I don’t bring Dan back just like he left. God, this is suddenly getting out of hand. I’m starting to think I’d be better off letting him come and get me.”

  “What’s this? You ain’t going all whiny on me, are you, Peace?”

  “No Chief,” Peace sighed. “I’m just contemplating how many things can go wrong, and how many people could get hurt.”

  “When do we go?”

  “I’m going to need at least two weeks to get all the details down on his place there. I’ve been to Ensenada, so I’m familiar with the city.

  Have you ever been there, Bull?”

  “Tijuana’s as far as I’ve gone into Mexico. So, when do we go?”

  “Soon.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Chuck

  “Oh sweet Jesus,” Peace exclaimed as Jill opened the door to her room.

  Jill pulled him inside, and shut the door. She gestured at her outfit, consisting of black garter belt, nylons, black high heels, and a sheer, silky black top, which only came down to her waist. Jill’s long blonde hair curled over the side of her face as she struck a pose for a stunned Peace.

  “How do you like my new clothes?”

  “Oh sweet Jesus,” Peace whispered again.

  Two hours later, Jill watched Peace putting on his fatigues to return to base.

  “I guess you did miss me,” Jill sighed. “Will you be coming up to see me next week?”

  “Something’s come up, and I have to take care of some business,” Peace answered.

  “What’s that mean exactly?”

  “Just what I said, Jill. Dan, Bull, Ed, and the San Diego police are already watching every move I make. I hope you’re not joining in on the stakeout.”

  Jill recognized the tension in his voice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like I was interrogating you.”

  Peace leaned down to kiss her gently on the mouth. “You didn’t. Can you do me a favor, and be unreachable next weekend, especially if any of my erstwhile friends try to get hold of you?”

  “A lie?”

  “Avoidance, Honey, avoidance.”

  “You can count on me, Sir,” Jill said, saluting.

  “I didn’t have time to ask before, but did you take a bus down here?” Peace asked.

  “Nope, my cast’s off. Did you like my car?”

  “Is yours the silver Lexus out front?”

  “Yep,” Jill answered, grabbing Peace’s arm as he drew back. “My Dad wants me to come with him tonight to a dinner. Some high ups in the legal field will be there, and he would like me to meet them.”

  “So, you have to go right away,” Peace tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice.

  “I’m afraid so,” Jill laughed, “but I like the thought of leaving you wanting more.”

  Peace grabbed her up roughly in his arms. “I’ll give you wanting more.”

  “Peace!” Jill gasped. “You’ll be late getting back.”

  “I don’t think so,” Peace replied, forcing her back. “I feel the need for speed.”

  __

  “Peace, is that you?”

  Peace nodded. The huge bear of a man stepped back from his doorway, allowing Peace to walk into the motel room. The door closed behind him. Peace turned and stuck out his hand in greeting.

  “How’re you doing, Chuck?”

  The man smiled brightly and grasped Peace’s hand as if they were old friends. “Long time no see, my friend. First class disguise you have there, but I would know those eyes anywhere. I was surprised when I went to the drop and you wanted to see me. I thought things were going real well. Is something wrong? “

  Peace wore a dark gray Armani suit, and had donned a full face, short trimmed beard. “I found out what a dud I’ve been as a secret agent. I’m more like Secret Squirrel.”

  Chuck laughed appreciatively, gesturing for Peace to sit down on one of the cheap chairs by the room desk. He poured both of them a cup of coffee from the room pot. Setting one cup down in front of Peace, and then easing into the other chair with his, the big man leaned back comfortably. “Look, Peace, all our people have ups and downs. This can’t be anything so serious it won’t blow over if you keep a low profile for a while. This is straight from Brett, the job you did on Batiste’s little operation was masterful. He’s even forgiven you for the fact you were supposed to be watching him, not wasting him.”

  “I made a few blunders,” Peace admitted, sipping his coffee. “I met this woman…”

  “Jill Gregory, yea we’re all over it. Her family checks out, and…”

  “You have someone on me in the restaurant?”

  “We did, until Batiste tried to whack you. I had to pull him out so we could keep a low profile. He told me if not for that big Seal friend of yours, you would have done for Batiste on the spot. Anyway, we know Ms. Gregory was one of the kids in Chile you and the team pulled out.”

  “What put you on to…” Peace shook his head. “She started asking around about me.”

  Chuck nodded, grinning knowingly at Peace. “Very good. She started asking about a scarred up Seal, and word reached us we needed to get your back. Events sort of took off on you after that. All the pieces started falling into place with one little coed impressing arm wrestling match.”

  “You know me better than that,” Peace laughed. “Dink wanted to do a hell of a lot more than just arm wrestle. I set him off somehow, and he was getting ready to go berserko on me.”

  “I know. Our guy told me you did some quick thinking in there. He couldn’t see it all from the restaurant, but he was right next to the booths you were having the run in at. He heard everything.”

  “The pasty-faced guy with brown hair and glasses, reading a newspaper, with a blue sweater and jeans,” Peace said, after closing his eyes for a moment. “I saw him when I went to order their shrimp.”

  “I keep forgetting about that damn total recall of yours,” Chuck said wonderingly. “You must be the life of the party when you play Trivial

  Pursuit. I won’t tell Ben you said he was pasty-faced.”

  “You really didn’t have to exterminate those two cops. We’d have watched out for your girlfriend. That was a nice piece of work, and they led to their main man in the department. You kind of shut down our little program with a more international angle when you wiped out all the locals though.”

  “Those cops were going to make my life miserable, Chuck. They had a frame up in mind, which would have compromised me big time. It almost did anyway. If not for Inspector Gadget, Lewiston, I’d have still been keeping an eye on Batiste’s operation.”

  “You could have let them have him.”

  “No, I couldn’t,” Peace replied, his face tightening.

  Chuck put up both hands, smiling to ease his words. “It was just a comment Brett laid on me, and I wanted to enter it in the discussion.”

  “We were at the end of the line anyway. Either Daddy was going to make the move or not. He still has his
operation here, whether his son’s dead or not.”

  “True, but you nailed Batiste’s operational commander, so whoever takes over, will have to come from Mexico. Batiste won’t trust some hired hand up here to oversee bringing the nuke parts in, and getting them to the cell we’re watching in LA.”

  “Has he started investigating what happened yet?” Peace asked.

  “His goons arrived a couple of days ago. You’ve probably already heard on the news about some mysterious gang deaths in the area. He’ll be getting around to you soon enough, so what’s went wrong?”

  “I’ve been compromised, and I don’t mean just suspicions. Ed, Dan, and Bull all are on to me. The Chief already outlined the plan I was going to use Lewiston in. They’re insisting on going along on what they think is a preemptive strike on a guy out to get me.”

  “Let them help you. I have no objection.”

  “Forget it,” Peace said angrily. “I ain’t dragging them into this shit. I’ll quit first. When Dave recruited me after we returned from Syria, and had you contact me, you told me no one would be involved in anything I did for you.”

  “I know, Peace,” Chuck replied calmly, “but your Seal Team already works with CIA anyhow. Just as you said, our guy Dave put us onto you in Syria. You speak the lingo fluently. Dave was CIA, and when you impressed him, you impressed us.”

  “I know that, but if anything happened in country down in Mexico, you can write me off as a whacko loner on his own. That ain’t going to happen with my friends.”

  “You didn’t have any qualms about dealing a hand to Lewiston,” Chuck pointed out.

  “He’s dead already if we don’t get Batiste. They’ll tie up loose ends real quick. You have someone on him and his family, don’t you?”

  “We have him covered. Okay, so what’s the plan then if you aren’t going to use Lewiston?”

  “I’m going across the border like this. That’s why I wanted to meet with you. I’ll need papers to get in with my new look.”

  “Peace, we know Batiste has the nuke parts in Ensenada, but we still don’t know who his supplier is. If you do some kind of frontal assault, we’ll never find out who is behind the shipment. We kind of wanted to thread you in, so you could find out the next rung on the ladder, and make a trip under the cover of a Seal mission to fix it at its source, comprende? Did your buddies find out you’ve learned Chinese?”

  “No, I dropped hints I was studying up on it. I trade phrases with Tony Chin. He just thinks I’m a natural with languages, and I get to practice. If this goes where you originally thought it might go, the Navy won’t let you borrow a Seal Team to try something on Chinese soil.”

  “That’s what you think, oh naive one. If we get a target, and we believe we can get irrefutable proof at the location, it’s already been decided to go for it. We may bring Delta in on it too.”

  Peace whistled. “That’s a suicide mission.”

  “Not with back up. We’re sick of fooling around with the Chinese. If they’re actually behind this importation of nukes into the country, it’s been decided we need to take a stand. One other thing, before I forget, Detective Mobry accessed your FBI file under the guise of Homeland Security.”

  “Shit, what’s in there?”

  “Too much about your skills,” Chuck replied truthfully. “We’ve already amended it, and flagged it. Anyone else snooping around in any of your records, military or otherwise, will be getting a dose of whoop ass. Anyway, we have a go to take care of business no matter where the trail leads from Batiste.”

  “What if the next rung leads back to the Middle East?”

  “Same deal, only we won’t even bother being as careful when we hit them initially. Your buddies are Seals. They ain’t going to be safe in the coming year anyway.”

  “I don’t care. They’re out of this one. I’ll get the info you need if it’s there.”

  “You’ll probably have to discuss it with Batiste personally,” Chuck pointed out.

  “So?”

  Chuck laughed. “You are getting to be one cold blooded son of a bitch, ain’t you?”

  “Lewiston called me that already, only I think he threw in psycho too,” Peace observed. “Hell, my own friends think the same thing now, and what’s more, they took it for granted. Dan knew I did that pervert out in front of his son’s pre-school.”

  This bit of information made Chuck straighten in his chair and lean forward. “You weren’t kidding about being compromised. He’s been keeping that one under wraps all this time?”

  “Yea, and he told Bull about it too. I told you I haven’t been near as smart as I thought I was.”

  “You shouldn’t be that surprised, now that I think about it,” Chuck replied, rubbing his chin. “We put two and two together pretty quick when you went rogue on us. Your Lieutenant is no dummy. Brett almost wrote you off for pulling that stunt.”

  “Rogue, my ass,” Peace said quietly. “I told you about it. It just so happened you already knew.”

  “You’re too valuable to us, Peace. We can’t have you playing superhero every time you feel the urge.”

  “Too bad.”

  Chuck laughed. “Like I said, we all have our ups and downs. Brett trusts you to make the right decisions, and I do too. How serious are you about Ms. Gregory?”

  “I asked her to marry me.”

  “Jesus H. Christ Palomino,” Chuck whispered. “Are you kidding?”

  “Nope.”

  “In your particular line of field work, I think it would be obvious why it’s a bad idea to pretend like you can have an Ozzie and Harriet existence in the background.”

  “It might be hard, but not impossible.”

  “True,” Chuck agreed, “but I’ve tried it, and it didn’t work out. Nobody could tell me any different though at the time. It’s the absences that’ll break you.”

  “Jill’s imprisonment made her a lot more like me than anyone could know. You may be right, but I’m not passing on this chance.”

  “You’ve earned it; but I had to make a stab at convincing you otherwise, just from my personal experience.”

  “Nobody could live with you for any length of time, Chuck.”

  “Oh, that hurt,” Chuck laughed. “We’ll see how you do in the future, Ozzie. Then we’ll have another talk. I set up for a photo shoot already. Step over here, and I’ll take your passport photo. How long before you want to go down?”

  “Next weekend.”

  “The Rover Boys are hounding you that much, huh?”

  “And then some,” Peace admitted. “They want to have tactical meetings already. I’m putting them off by saying I need more time to narrow my information down.”

  “Langley reported an unauthorized hit on their systems,” Chuck observed. “That wasn’t Wild Warrior up to his old Berzerkley tricks, was it?”

  “Hey, you were the one who told me to use my old worms to test out the system occasionally,” Peace reminded him as he sat down in front of Chuck’s small setup and backdrop. “Just remember, if they ever do find a way to nail me, you’re supposed to ride to the rescue.”

  “What fun would that be. Isn’t it the thrill of being caught, which makes the whole thing worth it?”

  “Don’t play around with me on that,” Peace warned. “One thing I am not going down for is a traitor to my country.”

  “Not going to happen, young man,” Chuck assured him. “Smile.”

  After the brief photo shoot, the two men sat at the desk again with fresh coffee.

  “I’ll leave your new stuff at the drop before midnight tomorrow. We’ll be using the same guy down in Ensenada as the last time you were down there.”

  “Julio?”

  “Yea, he said to say hi, and he looks forward to seeing you again.”

  “He is a first class spotter. Too bad we won’t be going out, spending a couple of days lounging around, and then hitting the target as he eats lunch. I hardly had to unpack my bags. Julio made the whole gig go by without a hitc
h.”

  “Yea, if a shot from half a mile away can be called a cinch.”

  “A spotter is a must for a shot like that, and like I said, Julio knows how it’s done,” Peace said.

  “You’ll have more than a little interference getting to Batiste. Any ideas on an approach?”

  “I only just today downloaded the schematics for his building,” Peace explained. “I’ll know more after I get a look at them.”

  “Julio has the intel on guards, alarms, and all that crap. I’ll put them in with your other papers. Do you need backup?”

  “Not if I want to get in and get out.”

  “That’s the other valuable thing about you, Peace,” Chuck mused. “Not many of us have went through torture and captivity. You know what to expect.”

  “It doesn’t mean I’ll be any more resistant to it.”

  “No, but if you go on the job anyway, knowing what could happen if you’re caught, it makes us a bit more confident in you.”

  “With all the reasons I could cop to if I’m caught, I should be able to steer them to the lone gunman theory. Better yet,” Peace grinned comically, “I’ll make sure I don’t get caught.”

  “Always the most effective way,” Chuck replied smiling. “Now, how are you traveling?”

  “I’ll ditch the wreck I bought to stave off SDPD notice once I get across the border. It has Arizona plates on it they won’t be on to for at least a month. I’ll need to trade Julio for something else to drive back up.”

  “I’ll tell him. He’ll come to you. Once you get through studying, leave the name of the place you plan on staying at when you pick up your new papers. Anything you get from Batiste, leave it with Julio. Pick a nice place with a lobby, and I’ll have Julio get together with you there.”

  Peace stood up and shook hands with Chuck. “I appreciate your understanding on this. I’m aware of how goofy all this looks to Brett and you. You could always have me bumped off like they do in the spy movies.”

  “What, and deprive the world of a first class lounge singer?” Chuck laughed. “You have a hell of a cover. If Ms. Gregory actually marries you, it will get even deeper. We’re human. If there were no complications, then I’d worry. Be careful down there, Peace. Bring us something back to enable the next step.”