“I’m only making this offer because you’re a cop. If you’re smart, you’ll take it. Go away somewhere and don’t come back for a week. By then this will be over.”
“Even if you win this fight, Grey will still be here, Tanner.”
“No, he won’t be.”
“You’re saying you’ll kill him?”
“I warned him. He didn’t listen.”
The chief mopped his brow with an already sweaty hand.
“There are more bikers, a lot more bikers.”
“I’ll kill them too.”
The chief looked into Tanner’s eyes and saw the truth looking back at him.
“I’ll go away.”
“Smart man.”
The chief seemed to limp as he walked back to his vehicle.
Kendra shook her head. “He was really willing to kill you for Grey.”
“I’m sure he would have been rewarded for it.”
“Like a hit man?”
“I kill for money, Kendra, but not under orders from anyone. The contracts I take are on people who need killing.”
“Like Randolph Grey?”
“Yes, but that will be my pleasure.”
“And my granddaddy, he was like you, he only killed men like Grey or those bikers?”
“It’s part of being a Tanner. We never kill the innocent.”
Kendra stared out toward the road. “Those bikers will be coming again.”
“And they’re not innocent.”
“My boy is. I don’t want him witnessing this slaughter.”
“Keep him with you inside the house. I can handle things alone tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, and remember, stay away from the windows, and remain in the middle of the house.”
“And what about you?”
“I’ll be keeping my head down.”
Kendra sighed. “This used to be such a peaceful place.”
“And it will be again.”
Kendra gave Tanner a quick hug, then turned and headed for the house. When she was halfway there, they heard the roar of multiple engines growing closer.
“They’re here!” Kendra called.
Tanner looked at the driveway and viewed a glow like an early dawn approaching. Drake and the Miami Dixie Devils had arrived.
98
Talk!
THE MEON VALLEY, ENGLAND, OCTOBER 2003
Canterbury was awake when Cody and Romeo reached their vehicle. The man was on the ground and straining to free his wrists from the handcuffs that bound them. Cody took hold of him and sat him up with his back against the off-road vehicle.
Romeo reached down, gripped a corner of the tape across Canterbury’s mouth, and ripped it away. The sting of the tape coming off made Canterbury cry out. Cody slapped his bald head to get his attention.
“Your people are all dead.”
An immense look of disbelief filled Canterbury’s eyes as he processed that statement.
“All of them?” Canterbury looked past Cody and Romeo. “How many of you are there?”
“Two,” Cody said. “It only took two of us to rip apart your phony commune and kill the scum you worked with. Now you’re going to tell us everything we want to know.”
Canterbury shook his head in disbelief. “They can’t all be dead. I have twenty-five men, many of whom have fought in conflicts around the world. Two… boys… it’s not possible.”
“We’re not boys, we’re trained assassins and the men who destroyed Livingston’s bomb factory. We want Livingston, Canterbury. You’re going to help us find him.”
“I have no idea where he is.”
Romeo reached down and gripped Canterbury under his chin.
“You’ve known the man for years and now we know you’ve never really left his group. If that were true, you wouldn’t be supplying him with members and arms. Listen, dude, you’re a dead man either way, but if you talk, you’ll save yourself a world of hurt.”
Canterbury wrest his chin free of Romeo’s grasp and stared up defiantly at him.
“I am still a member of Green Wrath, a trusted member. I won’t tell you a damn thing.”
Romeo’s hand returned to Canterbury’s chin and he thumped the man’s head back against the vehicle three times in rapid succession. With Canterbury stunned and unable to fight back, Romeo flipped him onto his stomach.
When Romeo brought out the pair of pliers he’d kept from Canterbury’s toolbox, Cody wondered what he intended to do with them. He got his answer when Romeo used the tool to pry off one of Canterbury’s thumbnails.
Cody was just able to slap a hand over Canterbury’s mouth before the scream could emerge in full. Even muffled by his hand the cry expressed the agony he was feeling. Another nail followed, then another, and Canterbury was on the verge of passing out from the pain.
Romeo got down on his knees and leaned over to talk into Canterbury’s ear.
“The woman Livingston abducted in London is someone I love. If you don’t help me find her, I’m going to take out all my anger on you.”
“I’ll help… help… just, just no more. Oh, good Lord, the pain.”
“It’s no less than you were planning to do to me earlier.”
“Where can we find Livingston?” Cody said.
Between gasps of pain, Canterbury told them everything he knew.
* * *
It was dark by the time they were ready to leave the area. They had moved Canterbury into the trees on the odd chance that someone might wander along.
Despite the cool air, the man was drenched in sweat. At a point when Romeo thought Canterbury might be holding back, two more fingernails had been ripped away. A threat to do the same to his testicles followed. After that, the man was broken and even began to ramble.
While he had no idea where Emma might be, he did have information that might lead the boys to Livingston. They had three locations to check out.
Cody positioned himself in such a way that Canterbury would have to turn his head to the left to look at him, and away from Romeo. Canterbury did so and said what he had already stated six times. The torture had made him more than compliant, it had made him eager to please, and as was human nature, he still harbored hope that he might survive his ordeal. It made him appear pathetic.
“Those locations, I can’t guarantee that Garth will be there.”
“We understand that,” Cody said.
“I told you everything, truly I did.”
“We know.”
The back of Canterbury’s skull erupted in a spray of gore from the single shot Romeo fired at him. After Cody took the time to clean himself up and change clothes, the boys were off. They had three locations to check out and were hopeful that Garth Livingston would be at one of them.
* * *
The first location seemed the most promising as Canterbury knew for a fact that Livingston had been there recently. He was correct, for it was the Oxford cottage Livingston had been staying in at the time of the boys’ attack on his cell group.
The cottage was empty and offered up no further clues. While passing through London on their way north, Cody called and spoke to Kay.
“We have news and also something to give you.”
“I’m at my flat.”
“Give us twenty minutes,” Cody said.
* * *
Kay looked at Cody and Romeo as her eyes grew large with wonder.
“They’re all dead? Twenty-six men?”
“Yes, and we have two more locations to check out,” Cody said.
Romeo handed her the disk drive he had claimed from Canterbury’s computer.
“See what you can find on that. You might also want to let someone know about the commune. There’s an arsenal still hidden there along with some explosives.”
Romeo went on to explain about the hidden staircase behind the rolling fireplace.
“I know how to let this get to the right people without becoming involved, and I’ll get on that disk after you leave
.”
As they were exiting the apartment, Kay kissed Romeo on the cheek.
“Go find your lady.”
“I will,” Romeo said.
The boys went back out into the night with two chances remaining to save Emma’s life.
99
Lambs To The Slaughter
THE BOUDREAUX FARM, LOUISIANA, JANUARY 2019
Gator was riding at the front of a very large pack beside the leader of the Miami Dixie Devils, the red-headed man named Drake. They were fifty-seven strong with the survivors from last night’s attack added to their numbers.
Drake raised up a ham-sized fist, giving the signal to stop. They were halfway down the farm’s winding driveway and still out of view of anyone inside the house.
“What’s this plan you said you had?” Gator asked, as he shouted to be heard over the sound of the motors. “I don’t want to ride into anymore traps.”
Drake grinned. “You won’t be.” Drake took out a phone and sent off a text message. Behind them, twelve of the motorcycles moved up until they were at the front. When Gator looked at the men, he could see that they were all young and wearing the white cloth vests that marked them as the club’s fresh recruits.
“If you want to be a Dixie Devil you’ve got to prove yourselves,” Drake told the men. His booming voice was clear even over the sound of the bikes. “There’s a man at that farm up ahead who killed some of our brothers. I’m gonna let you guys have first crack at him.”
“Just one man?”
That question came from a blond kid who was nineteen. Gator thought the peach fuzz covering his face might be considered a beard, by some.
“That’s right,” Drake said. “You twelve against one man. Hell, if you can’t beat one guy, you’ll never be a real Dixie Devil.”
“He’s a dead man!” shouted one of the other recruits.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” Drake said. “Go kill that fucker.”
A cry went up from the men. After revving their bikes, they raced off down the driveway with murder on their minds.
Gator laughed. “They’ll all be dead soon.”
“Yeah, but they’ll also set off any traps Tanner has set up. Once he runs out of tricks we move in and finish him off.”
“If people hear about this it will be a lot harder to get recruits.”
“We’ll have guys begging to join us once we kill Tanner. And he’s mine, Gator, you hear me? Tanner is mine.”
“You can have him, but I want the woman. I can’t kill her, but I can hurt her, and that bitch needs to be taught a lesson.”
Drake put on his helmet. “Let’s go see what tricks Tanner has up his sleeve.”
* * *
Tanner stood in front of the house while illuminated by a pair of floodlights. He heard the caravan of bikers pause out on the driveway and wondered what it meant. When only a fraction of the motorcycles appeared and headed his way, he understood that they were to be sacrificed.
As a chess player, Tanner appreciated the concept of sacrificing pawns to capture a king. He was willing to oblige, while knowing that it would make the remaining men overconfident.
Tough strands of fishing line had been strung up between two trees. It produced a huge network of thin, nearly invisible cords that stretched across the driveway and to several yards on either side of it. There were multiple strands resembling a spider’s web. The blond kid who had spoken to Drake was the first to reach them. His momentum caused several strands to break, but one strand bit into his neck while another hit him in the chest. He tumbled from his bike and took out two other riders. Those two took out several more before the rest collided with the fishing wire.
What had been an organized charging party of twelve became a writhing confusion of bodies struggling to free themselves from the wire biting into their flesh. The blond kid lay dying, as blood spurted from his wound. Another man had broken a leg in his fall, while still another punk lay with his legs trapped beneath the weight of a motorcycle. A second bike was pressing down on the side of his face. The hot engine seared his flesh and he writhed in agony. The scream was bloodcurdling.
Tanner brought up a rifle and began firing. Several shots were sent his way, but he had taken cover behind the tractor. When there was no more movement visible among the pile near the garage, Tanner reloaded and readied himself for the next wave of bikers. He had purposely used a tactic similar to the trench trick employed the night before. If they were foolish enough to believe he had run out of ideas, they might think the threat ended and come at him en mass.
* * *
Drake watched from the mouth of the driveway as his recruits ran into some sort of unseen obstruction and were thrown off their rides. One of the men went flying through the air, then just hung there upside down, like a fly caught in a web. When Tanner used the rifle to kill, he did so with unerring accuracy.
“Listen up! Tanner has done his best and now it’s our turn. Spread out, come at him from different directions, and stay off the path leading to the house. Keep your eyes open, though. He might have another trick up his sleeve.”
* * *
Tanner was all out of tricks and done with playing games.
As the remaining men thundered across the meadow, headed his way, Tanner crouched behind the tractor. He removed a device from his pocket that resembled a television remote control. The numbers one through twelve were backlit with red lights. After Tanner input a four-digit code, all the lights turned green.
* * *
Gator sped past a tubular object lying atop the ground as he rode beside Drake. He had seen such a device before and a jolt of fear passed through him as he realized what it was.
A pipe bomb!
Gator increased his speed hoping to leave the bomb far enough behind him so that he could avoid its projectiles. A second passed, then two, three, and Gator left the bomb behind and closed in on Tanner’s position. Gator was thinking that the bomb must have been a dud when his headlight illuminated another one twenty feet in front of him. There was a bright flash, a moment of searing pain, and the sensation of flying backwards through the air.
* * *
Tanner had placed the twelve bombs in a large, loose circular pattern. He had waited until the bikers entered that circle before detonating the devices. Forty-five men and their machines were shredded and broken by thousands of ball-bearings. One of the men’s bikes exploded and added to the deadly effect.
The Dixie Devils had sent dozens of men against one, and as good as he was at killing, Tanner knew that he needed help in overcoming such odds. An equalizer was what was called for, the bombs had been that equalizer. As promised by Duke, the blasts were directional. That meant that anyone within that circle of death received shrapnel from multiple devices, and possibly all of them.
The tractor had taken several hits from ball bearings sent forth from the bombs which had been aimed toward the house. Tanner had heard the pinging of the strikes against the machine. Fortunately, those projectiles were sent forth from the bombs farthest from his position.
A quick look at the house revealed two broken windows and minor damage to the front steps. If Kendra and Jake had stayed in the middle of the farmhouse as instructed, they should be fine.
Tanner emerged from behind the tractor with his rifle at the ready. After the roar of the motorcycle engines and the booming of the bombs, the relative silence was jarring.
Every bike had been damaged to the point that they no longer functioned. The same was true of most of their riders. However, moans were heard, and survivors were scattered among the dead.
One such man was Drake. The red-headed giant not only survived but was attempting to rise up on his hands and knees. Or rather, his hand and knees, since the end of his left arm was now a stump pumping out blood.
Tanner walked to his position and stood looking down at him. The red beard was covered in far redder blood. There was a hole where his nose had been.
Drake opened his mout
h. The only thing that came out of it was blood. He collapsed back atop the grass, exhaled a gurgling breath, and expired.
Tanner fired no mercy rounds despite the obvious agony some of the men were suffering through. He felt no pity toward them. They had come to the home of a Tanner bent on mayhem and had met the fate of anyone foolish enough to attempt such an atrocity.
Gator was among the survivors and lying on his back. He watched Tanner’s approach with a face glazed with fear and pain. He’d been so close to one of the blasts that it had blown his pants off him. No genitals remained nor barely any flesh on the area surrounding his right knee, but Tanner took notice that the alligator boots were spotless.
“It looks like you’re going to die with your boots on, Gator.”
Gator shuddered violently, coughed up blood, and went the way of all flesh.
After walking the field of death, Tanner headed for the house to give Kendra the news that the war was over. All that was left to do, was to bury the enemy’s dead.
100
Search & Rescue
SOMEWHERE NORTH OF LONDON, OCTOBER 2003
The second location showed promise. There were a number of young men hanging out in front of the home, which was located on a lake. Since it was the off-season, most of the lake rentals were empty.
“I don’t see any weapons, do you?” Romeo asked.
“No, but they could be under the jackets they’re wearing.”
“I want to get closer and get a look inside.”
Romeo was about to move in when the sound of a car was followed by the beam of its headlights. The vehicle pulled into the driveway of the home and five young women got out. They greeted the men with smiles and laughter, then they all went inside, and the music started up.
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