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

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  “Roger that,” Dave finished.

  Dan motioned for the Seals to gather over near the wall. “We’ve been asked if we want to go on a side mission to pick up a CIA op, who’s being held near here. It’s voluntary only.”

  His team looked at him as if Dan had grown a third eye.

  “When do we leave?” Bull asked, looking around at his grinning teammates.

  “As soon as Peace gets down here with the woman, and the three CIA guys going with us,” Dan replied. “We may only have to secure the perimeter, while the woman takes Peace, and the three CIA guys right to their man.”

  “Dave?” Dan called out over his com unit. “It’s a go.”

  “Good deal,” Dave acknowledged. “We just received a Sat photo of the safe house area. They set up some kind of post, about a hundred yards up the road. It seems either Alvarez was leaving out some valuable info, or he didn’t know what Senorita Matuse put in place.”

  “Can you tell how many?”

  “I count five. Any ideas?”

  “My team gets out a few hundred yards away from the post, and gets into position to take out the men there when we get the clear sign from Peace,” Dan suggested.

  “You mean let Peace chance getting through the stop with that bitch from hell?”

  “Let Peace worry about his safe ticket, Sir,” Dan chuckled. “He can be very persuasive. As you say, she knows she’s supposed to live.”

  “He is at that,” Dave mused. “I like it, Lieutenant. I’ll give you updates from the satellite surveillance; but stay silent unless there’s something new I see in the photos. You’ll have about three hours. After that, all hell will be breaking loose with Mexico, and we’ll need to get this tanker underway for a safe port.”

  “We’ll get it done, if it can be done,” Dan replied. “If you’re monitoring, feel free to jump in.”

  “Only if necessary, Lieutenant. I’ll be listening.”

  “Here comes Peace, with our rescue crew. We’ll be taking the big limo, Alvarez and the woman came in.”

  “Good luck. Ibrim will have a GPS unit with him, so we’ll be following you every step of the way,” Dave finished, as Peace walked up to Dan with the woman, accompanied by the three CIA men.

  The woman appeared much less belligerent than when Dan had seen her on the ship. She glanced occasionally with fear at the CIA op, Septien. Peace had retained his disguise, as did the other CIA men.

  “It seems your lady friend has seen fit to become a bit more cooperative,” Dan said.

  “Yea, she and Septien have been bonding,” Peace replied.

  “Oh yes, the lady and I have become great friends,” Septien added with a smile, as he took a cringing Senorita Matuse by the arm. “Is that not so, Chiquita?”

  “She is most eager to correct her ill behavior in this matter,” Septien added, when the woman turned away from him, closing her eyes as if in fear of being hit.

  “We’ll be taking the big limo,” Dan indicated the stretch limousine. “We can all fit comfortably. My team exits two hundred yards before we get to their little outpost they set up to block the road. We’ll move on the men there until we hear you have your man. It will be most important this woman gets you through, if you are to have any chance to rescue your man alive.”

  “I’ll drive,” Mancuso said, walking past the Seals toward the driver’s side door of the limousine.

  Peace looked around gratefully at his teammates. “Thanks guys. Julio’s a good man.”

  “It’s what we do, Peace,” Doc replied, checking Peace’s shoulder wound for bleed through. “You good to go?”

  “I’ll get it done, Doc,” Peace replied. “Just save some painkillers for the celebration.”

  “Will do,” Doc laughed.

  “Let’s load up,” Dan said. “Pick spots inside where we can get out fast and quiet. I want our driver to barely slow down.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Julio’s Rescue

  Forty-five minutes later, Mancuso spoke to them over the limo intercom. “One minute, Lieutenant.”

  One minute later, as the limousine slowed to a crawl in the dust of the little used road, the rear doors opened slightly. Seal Team Six left the back of the vehicle, and lay still along the sides of the road, while Dan and Bull focused in on the terrain ahead. When they were certain their leaving the limousine had gone undetected, Dan whispered ‘clear’ to Mancuso, after getting a nod from Bull on the other side of the road. Mancuso sped up towards the outpost.

  As they approached the hastily made up obstruction, Peace could see it consisted mostly of sandbags. The sandbags, piled four feet high, reinforced a tent housing the men watching the road, from the elements. Two men stood out from the small dwelling, with AK47’s strapped over their shoulders. As the limousine approached, they gripped their weapons loosely at the ready. Both men wore khaki’s, with matching caps, as if they were part of a military force. One wore a close-cropped beard, while the other sported a thick black mustache. Neither man appeared very surprised at seeing the approaching limousine.

  Mancuso slowed, opening his window, his right hand holding a MAC 10 just out of sight. In the back, Peace pulled the pin on a grenade, and held it to his side between he and the woman. Septien and Ibrim both held MAC 10’s under their jackets. Peace nudged the woman in the side, and she rolled down her window. The bearded guard had looked in curiously at Mancuso, but as he looked back to see the woman’s face inside the limo, he tensed almost as if coming to attention.

  “Senorita Matuse?!” The bearded man exclaimed, leaning over slightly to peer into the car.

  “We have come to question the prisoner. Senor Faisel wishes to interrogate him personally,” the woman stated, using her familiar haughty tone, sweat forming on her upper lip at the proximity of the armed grenade.

  Peace could see three other seated men in khaki’s, playing cards at a table, which took up nearly the entire tent, leaving only room for the chairs. Peace offered a bored, angry stare up at the bearded guard, who backed up and saluted the woman.

  “Very well, Senorita, I will call ahead, and let them know you are coming.”

  The woman closed the window without any further acknowledgement, and Mancuso drove towards the house. Peace slid the release pin back in place on the grenade. A split second later, he held his knife in hand. He caressed the woman’s cringing face with the flat of the blade, as Peace leaned nearer to her.

  “You did well, Connie, old girl,” Peace whispered. “Remember, if anything happens in there before we get Julio, I will gut you like a fish, and leave you to die holding your entrails in your hands. Do you understand?”

  The woman nodded, biting her lip to keep from crying out. “I…I will do as you say, Señor. These men will do as I say.”

  “We are so going to have a little chat after this is over,” Septien commented, smiling happily from his seat across from her. “It seems you are just as Peace says, a big fish. How did a cheap little whore like you get so… hey… wait a minute, Peace?”

  “What,” Peace said, suddenly on alert, looking out at the house just ahead.

  “You don’t suppose this little bitch is related to that Colonel…” Septien grinned as a shadow crossed the woman’s face, before she could look away.

  “Oh Peace, we must take care of this big fish,” Septien said, as Ibrim, who sat next to him had noticed the same haunted look on the woman’s face, nodded in agreement.

  Comprehension flooded into Peace’s face, replaced instantly by anger. “Jesus, what a friggin’ couple of dummies Julio and I are. Connie is Colonel Martine’s liaison, and he would only trust someone very near to him, a daughter perhaps?”

  The woman remained silent, looking down at the floor of the limousine. Peace patted her hand.

  “No matter,” Peace sighed. “We’ll get to the bottom of that mystery later.”

  “It does explain all this fascination with khaki uniforms,” Ibrim
added. “The Senorita here must think she’s a big time revolutionary.”

  “Remember, Julio and I have been around the block, and she snowed us, but good,” Peace commented through clenched teeth. “Don’t ever turn your back on this bitch.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Septien grinned. “Ibrim and I aren’t little softies like you and Julio.”

  Peace barked out a short laugh in appreciation of the jibe, in spite of the seriousness of their situation. “I had that coming.”

  “One man greeting party, and he ain’t Mexican,” Mancuso called out over the intercom.

  Peace gripped the woman by the neck, forcing her to look out the tinted glass as the limousine pulled up in front of a tall, bearded man of Middle Eastern origin, holding an AK47 slung over his shoulder.

  “Does he know Faisel?” Peace asked, squeezing her neck.

  “N…No, no one has seen Faisel before. This man is from Yemen. His name is Haider Saleh.”

  “Do your best acting, my little princess,” Peace urged. “Your life depends on the performance.”

  Mancuso jumped out of the vehicle, and slipped past the unmoving Saleh, to open the passenger door. Matuse stepped out of the vehicle primly, simply nodding at Saleh. Saleh watched Peace, Septien, and Ibrim exit the vehicle with a bored expression on his face.

  “Haider,” Matuse said in Spanish, gesturing back at Peace. “Señor Faisel, and his men are going to question the spy. Take us to him.”

  Saleh looked at the group for a moment, before nodding. “You could have saved a trip out here by simply relaying your questions to us.”

  “We can no longer trust our communications so close to our objective,” Matuse replied. “If the Americans intercept our signal, it will ruin everything.”

  “Yes, Senorita Matuse,” Saleh acknowledged thoughtfully. “You are right, of course. Come with me.”

  Saleh turned without another word to lead the group through the interior of the safe-house, and down into the subbasement. Two Mexicans were sitting on stools near the workbench, Peace had used during his last visit. They looked up curiously as Saleh led the woman, and Peace’s group down. A bloody, beaten, naked husk of a man, slumped unconscious in a straight-backed chair, near the small firing range. A wire harness, with electrodes attached to different parts of the man’s body, was connected to a makeshift amplifier powered by a car battery near the chair.

  Septien and Ibrim shot the Mexican soldiers. Peace drove his fist into the base of Saleh’s neck, tearing the AK47 from his shoulder as the man dropped to the floor. Using the butt of the weapon, Peace smashed it into the small of the man’s back, provoking an ear-piercing scream from his victim. Septien had immediately swung his weapon back to the stunned Senorita Matuse.

  “Get on the floor, bitch!” Septien screamed in her face.

  The woman dropped immediately face down to the floor.

  “It’s a go, Dan,” Peace relayed to his Seal Team leader. “We have the house.”

  “Roger that,” Dan’s voice replied in his ear.

  Peace hurried over to Julio’s tortured body, cutting the restraints from his ankles, waist, and arms. While he was gently removing the wire harness from his rasping friend, Julio groaned. His swollen eyes peered at Peace’s face without recognition for a moment, and then his bloody lips spread into a lopsided, grotesque grin.

  “Ah… Poncho,” Julio whispered, as Ibrim and Septien joined Peace, once the moaning Saleh had been plastic tied along with the woman.

  “Ah… Cisco,” Peace answered softly. “You didn’t give up the Porsche, did you, compadre?”

  “What… you… think I’m some kind of pussy?” Julio groaned, as Peace helped him stand with Septien’s help. Julio smiled painfully at Ibrim and Septien with recognition. “How… the hell…”

  Gunfire, and muffled explosions erupted outside, coming from where the makeshift guard bunker had been.

  “We’re coming in, Peace,” Dan’s voice came over the com unit in his ear.

  “Sounds like you didn’t like the bunker situation,” Peace acknowledged, as he and Septien helped Julio towards the stairs, while Ibrim collected Senorita Matuse.

  “Correcto,” Dan replied. “Be there in a moment.”

  Julio halted suddenly, seeing Ibrim with the woman responsible for him being there. He looked at Septien, rather than Peace. “Edwardo?”

  “Si, amigo,” Septien said gently.

  “Can I kill this woman?”

  “Sadly, no,” Septien shook his head. “She is a very big fish we will need to exploit at this time.”

  Julio smiled groggily at the cowering woman, who would not meet his eyes. “You and I will be together again one day, Chiquita. Oh… what good times we will have.”

  Before either Septien or Ibrim could react, Peace had moved from Julio to Matuse in a split second. He slipped behind her, yanked her head back by the hair, and had his knife blade poised under her throat. The woman’s eyes were like saucers, as she gasped in fear. A thin line of blood welled up under Peace’s razor sharp blade. Ibrim looked at Septien, who shrugged, while supporting Julio. Ibrim backed away.

  “Speak, Cisco,” Peace whispered fiercely, “and we will make due without her help.”

  Julio stared at the woman longingly for a moment, but then shook his head slightly, leaning heavily on Septien. “Use her… Peace. I…I will settle with her one day. Come… I have some… clothes upstairs. Can you help me… get clean… Poncho?”

  Peace released the sobbing Matuse into Ibrim’s care, and grasped Julio around the waist, carefully avoiding contact with his wounded shoulder. “Of course, Cisco. I will have you looking like Errol Flynn in an hour.”

  Septien met Peace’s eyes, as Julio chuckled at the remark. “We could interrogate her here for a while, after Julio gets cleaned up.” Matuse cried out, pushing back against a grinning Ibrim.

  Peace simply smiled, and grabbed the railing for support on the way upstairs. “We better get Julio the hell out of here before we attract any more attention. He needs some rehab, right Cisco?”

  “Yes…Poncho, I think a long rehab. It…it is good of you guys to come for me.”

  “What, you think we were going to write your ass off just because you have no judgment when it comes to women?” Septien quipped.

  Julio’s laugh turned into a cough. When he could speak, he nodded at Septien, as they neared the top of the staircase. “She was very good. Is that not so, Poncho?”

  “Yea, Cisco,” Peace admitted. “She made fools out of both of us.”

  “It will all work out… yes?”

  “If she wants to keep her skin,” Peace whispered to his friend.

  Dan and Bull were standing inside the main entrance, with the team positioned around the safe house. Doc was waiting right at the top of the staircase with his bag. Peace smiled at his friends.

  “We have a live one, Doc.”

  “I see that,” Doc replied, taking Septien’s place with Julio.

  “I’ll help him clean up, while you access the damage, if that’s okay?” Peace suggested.

  Doc nodded. “Sounds good, lead the way.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Bull dropped a groaning Saleh at the top of the stairs, and dragged him over to the doorway, where Dan, Septien, and Ibrim discussed Senorita Matuse’s enhanced role.

  “We’ll have to carry this one, Lieutenant,” Bull said, indicating the fallen man. “I think his back’s broke.”

  “I’ll have Doc look at him as…” Dan began, when Dave’s voice spoke loudly in his ear.

  “Head’s up, Lieutenant, you have an armored column approaching your position.”

  “Shit,” Dan replied, looking up at Bull, and giving him a hand gesture to get ready to move.

  “I have a Wart Hog on its way to you, with three Apaches,” Dave continued. “ETA forty-five minutes. The bad guys arrive in thirty.”

  “What do they have?”

  “Looks like four light armored assault vehicles,” D
ave said.

  “I don’t suppose you could send a fighter?” Dan suggested. “We have your man, but he’s in bad shape.”

  “We have a game going on with the Mexican government, Dan,” Dave explained. “No further resistance if we stay below the radar.”

  “We’re worried about the Mexican air force?” Dan asked incredulously.

  “International incidents are like a chess game, my friend. Can you delay until you get help?”

  “I’ll let you know,” Dan sighed.

  Bull had rounded up everyone, and helped a still limping Julio over with Doc and Peace. Seal Team Six had turned the limousine around, and were ready to go.

  “Trouble?” Peace asked.

  “Incoming, four assault vehicles, twenty-five minutes away, with our cavalry forty-five away,” Dan answered curtly. “Did you pack your sniper rifle?”

  Peace nodded.

  “I have an idea. I need you to go out to where the bunker used to be, and stop the armored column a hundred yards from your position. Bull and I will split up on both sides of the column, and give them something to think about until we get help.”

  “Nice one,” Peace smiled approvingly. “Mancuso can limo us out to our positions in plenty of time to set up. Ibrim can stay with Julio and our prisoners, while Septien spots for me.”

  Dan looked around the small group, as the others nodded their assent. “Let’s get it done then. I’ll let Dave know what we’re doing, so the flyboys don’t get too far from the armored column with the rockets.”

  Twenty-five minutes later, Peace sat perched with his sniper rifle over what remained of the sandbag wall, facing away from the house, towards the incoming road. Septien swept the area slowly with a digital sighting scope, starting at the horizon, and working slightly to each side.

  “Would you have killed her, Peace?” Septien asked, as he kept his attention focused on the horizon.

  “In a heartbeat,” Peace answered without hesitation.

  “Her death could have caused other casualties on our side.”

  “You didn’t ask me if I had thought it through,” Peace replied. “You asked me if I would have killed her.”