Let Slip the Pups of War: Spot and Smudge - Book Three

by Robert Udulutch

  “Not so much,” Kelcy said.

  “Da. I apologize for this nasty business,” he said, “But don’t you worry, we’ll get this over with quickly and have you reunited with your family in no time.”

  Semion looked down at her for a long while.

  Kelcy watched his eyes move over her, and saw the Russian’s ruddy face was a knot of concentration. He looked over at Smudge, and then back to her.

  “You remind me of my daughter when she was your age,” Semion said, “And like her, I understand you are very smart. I have been told you’ve become quite the accomplished veterinary technician in a short period of time.”

  Kelcy looked up at him, but didn’t say anything.

  “What do you know about my accelerator formula?” he asked.

  “Your what?” Kelcy asked, holding his stare.

  Semion dropped his head, and shook it. “Well perhaps Marty was wrong,” Semion said as his shovel sized hands gripped the rail of her bed. “Listen to me very carefully young lady. I am going to ask you some questions. You are going to answer them quickly and completely or you will be putting your family in harm’s way. I know you are brave so I won’t bother threatening you, but I can do significant damage to your loved ones. One way or another I will find the answers I seek. You need to consider how many of their lives you are willing to jeopardize. Are we clear?”

  Kelcy nodded. She felt the handle of the scalpel, and saw Smudge slowly sliding her hind legs under her. She couldn’t see Tian around the mountain leaning over her.

  Semion smiled and said, “Excellent, then we agree to avoid any unpleasantness. How about we start with what we know. You know who I am, Da?”

  Kelcy nodded.

  “Good,” Semion said, “I also know that you have been involved from the beginning, especially with that debacle with the Dorschsteins and the former Pembury veterinarian,” Semion nodded over his shoulder as he added, “and the murders of this poor man’s family members. Therefore, I will not for a second assume you have been left in the dark about this current unfortunate situation. This is America after all, and woman are encouraged to be smart, strong, and engaged. I know you are fully aware of my accelerator compound, and the FBI’s investigation. They were obviously trying to hide your family in plain sight to draw me out, Da?”

  Kelcy nodded.

  Semion drew a deep breath and said, “Superb. See? We are getting on famously. If we continue down this logical path it just confirms what I already know. Your frugal FBI wouldn’t have covered up the accident, spent the resources to watch Pembury, and risked hanging your family out to dry unless there was an accelerated person in your family. They did, you know, hang you out to dry. You realize this, yes?”

  Kelcy nodded.

  Semion nodded back at her. He smiled and said, “I also know someone in your family has DNA that is wreaking havoc on the good doctors’ machinery. Am I, as you say, firing on all pistons?”

  Kelcy nodded.

  “Wonderful,” Semion said, “I know your soon to be twelve year old brother is apparently a savant. I also know he played a significant role in dispatching some tough partners of mine in the north, including one of the finest assets money can buy. Isn’t that correct?”

  Kelcy nodded, and then said, “Yes, but there’s a little more to it than that.”

  The panel on the wall beeped and a security guard’s voice came from the speaker, “Apologies for the interruption mister Mogevich, but you wanted to be alerted when Katia arrived. They’re pulling into the dock now.”

  Semion put his hand on Kelcy’s shoulder and said, “Thank you, young lady. You’ve done a great job. We’ll talk again soon, and I am sure my daughter is looking forward to meeting you.”

  He left her side and crossed the room. As he pulled the door open he said to Tian, “I’m going to need your talents. Are you ready to get back in the ring?”

  Tian nodded as he looked at Kelcy.

  Semion smiled a horrible smile, and left the room.

  Chapter 61

  The treatment room door banged open and Meg and Harley shoved a gurney past Tian’s bed. The assassin laying on it was awake but he was bloodied and obviously in significant pain. The man also looked like he’d been rolled down a dirty hill, and Harley didn’t look any better. He shot Tian a scowl and a frustrated head shake as he passed him.

  Katia stormed through the doorway followed by Lobb and Berluti who shuffled into the room supporting a third asset. He was limping and had dried blood caked below his ears and nose.

  As Meg guided the gurney all the way down the center aisle she said, “Put them in the beds on the back wall, near the med cabinets.” Harley helped her transfer the man from the gurney to the bed as Lobb and Berluti dumped their patient on the opposite bed.

  Marty quickly entered the room and as he washed up at the small sink asked, “What do we have?”

  “Bed one close proximity blast injuries,” Meg said from the back of the room, “tympanic rupture, ocular trauma, possible abdominal organ damage, secondary abrasion wounds. Bed two has an in-and-out GSW to the shoulder w compound acromion fracture…both are responsive.”

  Marty tended to the wounded as Meg moved the empty gurney away. She rolled it between a pair of unoccupied beds, and then pushed the gurney with the black dog closer to the teenage girl’s bed.

  The dog’s eyes were open and looking up at her but its neck was still zip tied to the gurney frame. As the gurney bumped against the bed Meg patted Smudge and winked at Kelcy before returning to Marty’s side as he called out a list of procedures.

  As Marty and Meg worked, the rest of the team walked to Tian’s bedside. He noticed all of them were in tough shape. Tian saw bits of gore and blood smeared on Katia’s neck and in her hair, and she didn’t look pleased. All of their bulletproof vests were covered in dirt and little pieces of debris. The assets standing behind Katia had a haggard look, and the tall young woman was covered in the same red smears.

  Katia took a long look at the Hogan girl. The teenager was avoiding her glare and staring innocently at the nurse and doctor. Katia said, “Semion wants to see me. You two, conference room in five.” To Tian she said, “Get that IV out and grab your gear, it’s time to get back to work.”

  Lobb and Berluti followed her out, and as the door clicked closed Harley leaned in close to Tian. Chips of drywall and dust fell from his hair and his vest onto Tian’s bed.

  “Those fuckers did it again,” Harley said quietly, “They brought in additional snipers and one of them had a freaking Howitzer. One of Semion’s British golden boys exploded right next to Katia. She’s ready to pop a gasket. On the ride back here she just stared out the window and mumbled to herself. Can’t say I blame her, it was pretty fucking insane.”

  “Have you considered it might be time we get the hell out of here?” Tian whispered.

  Harley looked at his cousin for a long moment. He said, “Tian, these people killed our family. I was worried I’d have to keep you from tearing them to pieces before Semion gets what he needs. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with me, Harley. Of course I want them all dead,” Tian said, lowering his voice to barely a whisper, “But I’m not so sure Semion’s got what it takes. He’s nuts, and this quiet little family keeps sending his best assets, and our family, home in a box. I don’t want that to be you, or me.”

  “I hear you,” Harley said, “but the gloves are off now. No more of this tranq bullshit. Katia’s ready to execute every last one of them, and I doubt papa Mogevich can stop her.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Tian said, “He’s got her on a short leash, and he’s just nutty enough to waste all of us to get what he wants. Until he finds the accelerated person in Pembury he won’t risk taking out anyone in that family who might have some answers. You should have heard him talking to that girl. He’s certifiable, and he’s far from done with them.”

  Harley drew back from his cousin and stared down at him. After a
pause he smiled, and nodded. He said, “I think that tranq softened your brain. Get Meg to pull that shit out of your arm, we got work to do. You heard Katia, conference room in four.”

  Harley paused. Tian saw his cousin’s jaw working and he knew Harley had something else to say. He started to, but then he just looked at Tian’s tattoo before he turned away and left the room.

  Marty pressed his fingers into the open hole just below the wounded asset’s clavicle and tried to move the bone back into place. A bleeder opened up and he snapped the fingers of his free hand and held it out for Meg to slap a clamp into his palm. No clamp came, and when he looked up there was no Meg, either. He looked across the room and saw the nurse standing next to Kelcy. She was removing Kelcy’s IV as the teen held Meg’s cell phone. The zip-ties holding her to the bed had been cut.

  “What the hell are you doing? Do that later,” Marty said as a squirt of blood shot up his arm, “Nurse, I need a fucking clamp!”

  Meg spoke quietly to Kelcy as she slid out the needle and taped a gauze pad to her arm. Kelcy’s thumbs flew over Meg’s phone as she nodded and typed what Meg was dictating to her, Treatment room twenty-two paces north of emergency exit number two, lab forty-five paces, guard office fifty-eight paces. Conference room sixty paces.

  Another gush of blood sprayed Marty and he dug around in the moaning man’s shoulder until he pinched the bleeder closed. Before Marty could yell for Meg again the black dog jumped onto Kelcy’s bed, taking the mattress from the gurney with it. As the mattress covered the dog and the teenage girl Meg disappeared behind it as well.

  Marty was having trouble processing what he was seeing, it looked like his nurse and the dog had just climbed into bed with Kelcy.

  Marty watched the Chinese assassin yank the IV from his muscular arm and leap from his bed. In a flash he was also under the mattress on Kelcy’s bed. Marty pulled his fingers from his patient’s shoulder and grabbed the man’s sidearm. Blood started to pump out of the wound as Marty ran up the center aisle with the gun raised.

  In the security office at the end of the hallway Peach Shampoo leaned against the door frame as Apple Hand Lotion dropped into the chair and put her boots up on the counter. She looked up at the clock, let out a long breath, and said, “In fifteen minutes I’ll have a Narragansett in one hand and a joint in the other.”

  “It’s eight in the morning,” Peach Shampoo said while picking at a string hanging from her uniform’s sleeve.

  “I don’t care,” Apple Hand Lotion said as she stretched, “It’s six at night for me. I can’t wait to get off these freaking night shifts.” She lowered her voice and said, “And away from these freaking commies, chinks, and limey bastards.”

  As Peach Shampoo smiled she let the string fall from her fingers. She looked up at the rows of monitors when one of them went dark. More of the monitors started to go blank, one at a time in quick succession. In less than two seconds half of the screens mounted to the rack in front of them were black.

  Apple Hand Lotion scanned the remaining active monitors and quickly determined it was only the exterior cameras that were out.

  One camera had tipped to an odd angle but remained active. The camera’s housing had cracked and the screen only showed half an image, but they could make out three figures darting through the snow towards the building. The attackers had assault rifles, and one of them tossed a bundle as they ran.

  As Apple Hand Lotion reached for the alarm the building shook violently and a large boom came from somewhere down the hall. She looked up at Peach Shampoo just before the security room was obliterated in a falling cascade of burning concrete and metal.

  Chapter 62

  The helicopter pilot rubbed Fulfort’s head playfully and the young man pushed his hand away. The pilot laughed and said, “Hundreds. You boys are the fucking tops. The brothers are major pleased, just don’t go getting that lucky head shot off.” He waved for Fulfort to close up the burlap sack and put it in the chopper. Ayo and Fisho followed the man back to the cockpit.

  Ayo rummaged in his bag and produced a dirty satphone as he said, “Tell them the display’s got a crack in it and I can barely see the numbers, and the crank charger’s not keeping the battery up.”

  “Is bitchin all you do, Ayo?” the man said as his chapped lips pulled back in a crooked smile, “Ya, okay, I’ll tell them. You know they insist on equipping their men with the best kit.”

  The short old bush pilot laughed, coughed, and took a long drink from his liquor filled plastic canteen. His stained t-shirt almost covered his pot belly and was as dingy as his teeth, and his helicopter.

  The sickly sounding chopper had fallen from the sky as much as it had landed. The chopper blades had thwacked the thorny scrub on the way down sending long barbs flying in all directions, and the poachers diving for cover.

  The man had flown very low over the trees, hugging the savannah floor as he picked his way south from his base on the outskirts of Swaziland. From that corrupt, land-locked nation inside South Africa he could fly from Kruger to the southern KZN almost unimpeded. Trafficking in the king’s reservation would officially get him ten years, and unofficially get him quickly pegged and fed to the vultures without ever having been put in handcuffs, but carrying just one rhino horn safely back to Banji and Bawa was worth the risk. It would pay for his gas and booze for a year.

  Ayo had called in his pickup earlier than normal as they already had two rhino horns ready for collection, and rolls of leopard and cheetah hides. The pilot didn’t like to make runs down to the reserve so close together, but the poachers had been using this secluded valley for their pickups and resupply for years and it was fairly secure. The steep walls and thick bush made it perfect for hiding, but difficult for landing.

  “My lady in Kruger said Theo was there again last week,” the pilot said as he climbed into the pilot’s seat, “Rumor is he’s pushing some crazy plan involving trained dogs to do anti-poaching.”

  “Never work,” Ayo said as he took a pull from the pilot’s booze. He passed back the filthy plastic container and said, “Been tried before, by men a lot smarter than Uncle Theo.”

  The pilot nodded, and when he saw Fisho wasn’t understanding he said, “Domesticated dogs don’t do well in the bush of the reserves. Too many things much bigger and tougher out here than they are, and anything smaller than them travels in packs. Human-raised dogs don’t hunt well in packs. Even the big dogs the Priscilla’s use in the prisons crap their nappers when they bump into a serious hyena. The last time they tried it they ran out of dogs pretty quick like.”

  The pilot hit the ignition and the engine sputtered, chugged out a ball of black smoke, and coughed a few times before dying.

  He made a sour face, and then rubbed the control stick as if it were the chopper’s male member as he cranked the ignition again. He rocked back and forth in his seat and said, “C’mon boyo, daddy needs you to get it hard.” The motor backfired and banged loudly to life as the pilot stuck out his tongue and smiled. With the transmission whining and the blades starting to spin he put his headset on, leaving one ear uncovered. He motioned for Fisho to step back, and then waved Ayo closer to him.

  He leaned next to Ayo’s ear and whispered with beer-soaked breath, “The brothers want you to keep it up. Stay out here another couple of weeks. Tell the farmers we’re sending a little advance for services rendered to their village in the meantime to keep the boy’s pretty wife happy.”

  He twisted the throttle on the collective arm between the seats and pulled the door closed right in front of Ayo’s face. As the motor revved and the skids started to bounce on the dirt Ayo ran low for cover. The chopper lifted off and the blades immediately smacked into the brush ringing the clearing. Another round of thorns sprayed the men as the pilot smiled and shot off low through the valley.

  Ayo watched the chopper disappear over the ridge as he picked a thorn out of his forearm. He was starting to think Fulfort’s luck in finding animals to poach was as much a
curse as it was a blessing. Staying on this reserve for three weeks was risky enough, adding a few more weeks could be an act of suicide. Ayo was an excellent poacher and the money was good but he had no delusions. His strike-and-evade tricks were only successful if the rangers didn’t find him. The more game he killed the greater the likelihood one of Theo’s top zealots would stumble upon him, or worse figure out his pattern and be waiting for him at the next kill site.

  Ayo also knew Fulfort’s luck was more of a curse for the son and father team. Of course the brothers never had any intentions of paying them, and if they visited the boy’s pretty wife it certainly wouldn’t be to drop off a wad of cash.

  Ayo was now certain these two men would never be allowed to leave South Africa. It would be cheaper and safer for the operation to just cancel their contract here when the time came.

  Chapter 63

  The British asset with the blown eardrums didn’t hear his associate yelling for him to run. His team mate had figured out why a group of people would dive behind a mattress, and he had made it one hop away from the bed before the wall next to them blew apart. Shrapnel from the obliterated medical cabinets, concrete, and tile cut both men to ribbons an instant after the high explosive’s concussion wave destroyed their soft organs.

  Marty fared better, mostly by dumb luck. He was half way across the treatment room with the asset’s pistol raised, still trying to figure out why his nurse, the Chinese assassin, the dog, and the girl were huddled under the mattress, when the asset screamed. Marty hadn’t understood what the man had yelled. He had just panicked and dove behind the nearest hospital bed an instant before the blast tore through the room and tipped the bed over on top of him. It saved him from most of the overpressure wave and the burning, ballistic fragments tearing up the room, but it also snapped one of his legs and cracked several ribs.

  As he brushed off hot bits of debris Marty watched the muscular Chinese assassin toss away the smoking gurney mattress and leap from Kelcy’s bed. He saw Marty, and nodded as he approached his overturned bed. Marty returned the nod, and reached out to him.