The Jared Chronicles | Book 3 | Chains of Tyranny

by Tippins, Rick

  Josh shook his head as they walked. “I don’t know. The old man is getting more and more paranoid about losing men and equipment.”

  The conversation was cut short by the deafening sound of the Black Hawk waiting for them not more than a hundred feet from the giant hangar doors. Both men already had their weapons and a day pack, so they ducked their heads and fought their way toward the open side door of the giant dark green helicopter. Not five seconds after both men’s feet left the tarmac, the pilot pulled the aircraft into a hover, pedal turned to his right, aligning the nose of the aircraft into the wind, and began a slow rolling taxi away from the hangar. When the helicopter was a safe distance from the hangar, the pilot pulled the collective up, and the aircraft left the paved taxiway.

  As the aircraft’s forward speed increased so did its altitude, and soon Kemper could see the airport sliding beneath them until they passed over the last perimeter fence. Kemper relaxed and glanced around the inside of the helicopter, which should have been packed with friendly and familiar faces, but was not. He knew Josh, but the man was not what Kemper considered a friendly and familiar face. He knew Josh hailed from the Special Missions Unit, and Kemper was keenly aware of the unit’s capabilities and what it took for a man to be selected into that community. Kemper fostered no worries about Josh’s adroitness in the event things went loud after they arrived at their destination. Still, Josh wasn’t one of Kemper’s SEAL brothers, and this little detail nagged at him like a slightly strained calf muscle.

  The target location was less than ten miles due east from Stockton and took only a few minutes to reach, leaving Kemper dubious as to why they hadn’t just driven out here, with as much work as it took to keep these helicopters flying. Before Kemper could give the matter further scrutiny, the crew chief held up one finger, indicating they were one minute out. The crew chief then heaved a coiled-up fast rope to the edge of the open doorway and checked to ensure the helicopter end was fastened securely to the rack that was secured inside the aircraft.

  As the helicopter went nose up with the pilot’s effort to arrest their forward airspeed, the crew chief kicked the rope out the side door and stepped out of the way, allowing Josh and Kemper the room they needed to attach themselves to the large dangling strand of hemp. Unlike rappelling, fast-roping was something operators did without the aid of any sort of device that secured them to the rope. When an operator was ready to go, he simply grabbed the rope with thickly gloved hands and swung out and away from the helicopter while performing a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. At that point the operator just slid down the rope like he was in elementary school all over again.

  Josh was first on the rope, and before he was halfway down the ninety-foot drop, Kemper hurtled down the rope, forcing Josh to hit the ground and move quickly out of the way or be crushed. Both men were on the ground in seconds, moving toward the back of the house at a dead run. As soon as the two operators were on the ground, the crew chief dropped the fast rope from the aircraft. Having a sturdy piece of rope getting tangled in the main or tail rotor would almost assuredly spell an air disaster. Kemper and Josh would collect the rope at the end of the mission and ensure it was brought back to be used again in future operations.

  Kemper didn’t look up, but by the sound of the aircraft, it was already leaving them. With Josh in the lead, both men offset themselves from the back door so if someone fired on them through the door, the bullets would pass harmlessly to their right. Once Josh reached the rear porch, it was go-time, no special tactics here. He and Kemper would have to breach the door, and if someone on the inside wanted to fight, then, by golly, they’d have a fight.

  Josh fired two suppressed rifle rounds into the door handle, causing Kemper to turn slightly, as he realized he wasn’t wearing eye protection and wished Josh had chosen to kick the door instead of unexpectedly opening fire on the damn thing. Josh did kick the door, and the door did cave in like a saltine cracker, splintering at several points as Josh crashed through and into the structure’s interior. Kemper followed and was immediately accosted by the smell of death.

  For the split second the men took to absorb their new surroundings, it struck Kemper like a lightning bolt. He knew something was off with this Josh character, but couldn’t quite put his finger on anything he could point to and definitively say that is what is wrong with the man. Josh firing rounds into the door handle was something Kemper could say was unprofessional or cowboy-esque in nature and not something Kemper or his SEALs would have done. The act was something Kemper would expect to see in an action film not on the battlefield. It was ineffectual and more dangerous to the men outside the structure than those inside. Before Kemper could reflect any further, it was go-time, his path inexorable.

  The two men quickly and silently worked their way through the structure, clearing rooms. The house consisted of a smallish living room complete with old family pictures lining three of the walls, a well-worn couch and an old tattered recliner stuffed in a corner facing an even older television. A hallway led off the living room to the bedrooms, where the rotted remains of a human were lying faceup on a bed in the first bedroom. Once the tiny home was deemed void of any threats, Kemper relaxed a hair. Josh didn’t hesitate as he returned to the front door, where he exited into the cool late morning air. As Josh crossed the yard, heading in the direction of a medium-sized red barn, he pointed toward a twenty-four-by-twenty-four-foot storage shed.

  “Clear the shed. I’ll clear this barn.”

  Again, something in Kemper’s brain twitched but failed to engage alarm bells. Josh continued on to the barn, where he flung open one of the large front doors and disappeared inside. Kemper saw his partner pass through the now open barn door before turning his full attention toward the storage shed. Kemper approached the shed and saw the door latch was already broken and hanging down by a single remaining screw. Kemper reached out with his free hand and flung the door open. The sunlight illuminated the dusty interior of a fairly normal-looking storage shed.

  The shed for the most part was empty except for a push-style lawn mower and some hand tools, which were hung neatly along one wall, where they were shrouded in cobwebs. The shed was small enough that Kemper was able to clear the entire structure without setting foot inside. Once he was sure the shed wasn’t a threat, he turned and started for the barn just as Josh emerged, wearing a broad smile.

  “Jackpot, brother,” Josh called out.

  “It’s actually here?” Kemper shot back.

  “Hell yeah it is. No key that I could see, and I don’t know shit about hot-wiring a tractor, so I’m going to call Carnegie and let him know what we have. Think you can get that thing going?”

  Kemper stretched his muscled shoulders back and gave a slight shrug. “I can try.”

  Josh nodded and dropped his pack to the ground, where he pulled out a sheet of paper with all the frequencies, check-in times, and pass codes used for identifying who they were. As Josh hunched over his pack, Kemper strode off toward the barn to see if he could get the tractor working. After Kemper passed him, Josh stole a peek from under hooded eyes, his body tensing as Kemper neared the barn door. When Kemper turned into the barn and disappeared, Josh quickly pulled his rifle around and sank into a prone position facing the barn.

  The double boom of two shotgun blasts shattered the morning silence from inside the barn as Josh flicked his rifle’s safety off.

  “I got him!” came an excited male voice from inside the barn. The voice was not Kemper’s, and for that Josh was thankful.

  “Come on out of there before that son of a bitch comes back to life and kills your ass,” Josh hollered to the man inside the barn.

  Josh had placed great thought into how he would dispatch Kemper, knowing he couldn’t simply place a shooter in a house and hope the guy got the drop on the SEAL commander. Kemper was too damn good for that plan to have more than a fifty-fifty chance of succeeding. Instead, Josh planned to clear the barn and then send Kemper inside, where his gu
ard would be substantially lower than if he were entering an unsecured structure for the first time. So far Josh’s plan seemed to have worked, as he lay in the dirt, waiting for the shooter to exit the red barn door.

  Kevin Struthers exited the barn and stopped when he saw Josh in the prone position with the rifle pointed in his direction. Before the man could protest, Josh shot him three times. The first round impacted the man’s upper lip while the next two rounds took up residency in Kevin’s torso. The poor bastard was dead before he crumpled to the ground, a confused look only a quarter of the way formed on his weathered face.

  Kevin had been employed as a security guard at the base despite a lengthy criminal record before the event. The military routinely hired private companies to man the gates of bases considered low-level security installations. Kevin worked for one such outfit, and Carnegie had noticed when the man was given authority, he usually abused it. When Kevin was tasked with watching John and Luther, Kevin would routinely withhold their food and water. When Carnegie decided Kemper must go, Josh hatched a plan that involved their little totalitarian guard. It hadn’t taken much, but after Josh made it clear there was a man who posed a threat to the base’s security, Kevin immediately agreed to do whatever Josh asked of him.

  When Josh told Kevin he wanted him to lie in ambush and kill another man, all Kevin asked was if he could ever get in trouble for what they were asking him to do. Kevin’s shameless inquiry should have troubled Josh; instead it did the opposite. A man of unconscionable character was exactly what Josh needed to effect his treacherous plan. Josh assured him Carnegie was the last word around these parts, and he was the man asking for the killing to be done. Josh and Kevin had taken one of the Humvees out to the house a couple of days before Josh and Kemper were to arrive, to familiarize Kevin with the property’s layout as well as all the details of Josh’s plan.

  The only part of the plan that felt a tiny bit sketchy to Josh was his going into the barn first, with Kevin lying in wait. Josh impressed upon Kevin that if he accidentally shot Josh, Kemper would be alerted and come and kill him. Josh told Kevin he must check any fire on the first person through the barn door no matter who it was. Kevin nodded, conveying his understanding of Josh’s treacherous plan, and Josh let it go, knowing there was risk in all of life’s operational endeavors.

  The last part of Josh’s plan involved him and Kevin going out one night and kidnapping a man from a farm thirty miles southwest of the base. The man was kept at the target farm with the tractor for two days, with Kevin making sure the man didn’t escape. Josh and Kevin rehearsed the barn exchange several times, ensuring Kevin was positioned in a spot that lent the most advantage to him. Josh knew that even a wounded Navy SEAL could best most men, so he made sure Kevin was well hidden with as much cover as possible. After going over the plan, Josh had Kevin use the tractor to dig a grave Josh told him would be for their target. In actuality, Kevin was digging his own grave.

  Josh explained to Kevin the importance of not hesitating on his shot, no matter what. Josh told Kevin that if he hesitated for even a tenth of a second, Kemper would overcome the element of surprise and kill him. Apparently, the ex-con hadn’t hesitated, and now he and Kemper lay dead not twenty feet from one another. Josh smiled inwardly at the thought of Kemper losing a gunfight to an ex-con with a shotgun. Josh had insisted Kevin use a shotgun in order to add authenticity to the scene. Kevin originally told Josh he felt more comfortable with a 9 mm handgun, and Josh had laughed in the man’s face, telling him he must have a death wish.

  Josh sighed as he made his way back to the barn, where a complete stranger was shackled to the back wall. The man’s eyes were wild with fright as Josh approached. Tape across the man’s mouth stopped him from mounting any sort of audible objection. Josh stopped fifteen feet from the man, raised his rifle, and shot him four times in the chest and stomach. The man writhed in his manacles as Josh coldly turned and walked back out into the yard. He had work to do now and didn’t feel like wasting time waiting for the man on the wall to die. While the man died, Josh would complete some other looming tasks.

  First Josh removed the shotgun from Kevin’s bloody grip and tossed it back inside the barn near where Kemper lay in a pool of his own gore. Josh stopped for a moment and fished a key out of his pants pocket, then climbed up and into the seat of the older Kubota tractor. Josh started the machine, studied the different levers and pedals, then placed the workhorse in gear. The tractor lurched forward, pinning Josh to the back of the seat as he drove out of the barn. When he was close to Kevin, Josh lowered the front bucket and stopped with the edge of the bucket nearly touching the dead man.

  Josh left the tractor running, jumped to the ground, and hurried around to the front, where he rolled Kevin’s lifeless body into the bucket. Josh returned to the tractor’s seat, manipulated the controls, and hoisted the bucket up, tilting it in a manner so Kevin wouldn’t bounce out during his ride to the hole Kevin had unknowingly dug for himself. The grave was near a feeding station for cattle. It was inside a pen where livestock would have been kept prior to their being loaded on trucks and taken to auction. There was wet cow manure a foot deep covering the immediate area around the feeding station, and Josh drove straight for this spot.

  Before his murder, Kevin had used the tractor to scrape away the top layer of cow dung and dig the grave, and now Josh would fill the grave with its digger. Josh unceremoniously dumped Kevin’s body into the hole, and with much more care than he’d shown the corpse, Josh began pushing dirt back into the pit. Once the opening was filled, Josh used the underside of the tractor’s bucket to tamp the earth down solid. With the earth tamped solid, Josh used the tractor to push the manure that Kevin had previously scooped to one side back over the freshly churned earth.

  After Josh was finished, he pulled the tractor around to the front yard and grabbed a steel rake and a shovel before returning to Kevin’s shitty grave site. Josh spent fifteen minutes raking and manipulating the manure in order to give it the appearance of having never been molested. When this exercise was completed, Josh stood back and admired his handiwork. He wasn’t concerned about a forensics team descending on the place, but he was fairly sure Kemper’s SEAL buddies would want a firsthand look at where their boss had met his demise.

  Two bodies were okay, but three dead guys, one of whom worked at the base and could possibly be recognized by any one of the SEALs, had potential to unravel the entire maleficence. Josh returned to the barn and stood over the fallen SEAL, studying the man sprawled out before him. Josh decided he would let Kemper lay where the SEAL had fallen. Josh wouldn’t disturb a thing on or around the sea commando. Next, he walked deeper into the barn where the stranger hung from two sets of police handcuffs, which were looped through two very large eyebolts set in two of the barn’s wall beams.

  Josh took out a set of keys and inserted a handcuff key into the stricken man’s left handcuff. When the cuff latch flipped open, the man swung, twirling in the air, and bounced face-first off the barn wall. Josh checked to make sure the man hadn’t shit his pants and was relieved to find the corpse wore a clean set of britches, before manipulating the body in any manner. Satisfied, Josh drove his knee up into the man’s crotch, effectively hoisting him up, mitigating some of the pressure the man’s weight put on the remaining handcuff’s locking mechanism.

  Holding the man’s weight with his knee, Josh leaned in and unlocked the second and final handcuff before stepping back and allowing the dead man to fall backward onto the hard ground. Josh dragged the man closer to the front of the barn, stopped, held the man up by placing his hands in the man’s armpits, and then dropped the lifeless corpse. The man piled up at Josh’s feet like many men he’d seen shot. With a curt nod of satisfaction, Josh retrieved the shotgun and tossed it near the man’s wrecked figure.

  Josh found a bucket, which he filled with water from a horse trough. He threw the water against the barn wall where some of the kidnapped man’s blood stained the wood. Josh rep
eated this task until the wall was free of any bodily fluids. Once the blood was gone, Josh moved a large tool cabinet, placing it directly in front of the watered-down wall. This would cover the one bullet that had ended up penetrating the man’s body and exited through the barn wall. After moving the cabinet, Josh used the rake and some loose straw to cover any signs the cabinet made when it was dragged across the barn’s dirt floor. Josh continued sanitizing the barn until all that was left from Josh’s triple murder were the two dead bodies Josh had expertly configured to represent a failed entry by a highly trained Navy SEAL and the subsequent revenge killing by the SEAL’s anguished partner.

  Outside the barn, Josh inspected the exit hole, and in the end, he rubbed some dirt over the small hole, helping it blend in with the rest of the barn’s soiled and dingy exterior. Finished, Josh walked the crime scene one last time, making absolutely sure he hadn’t missed something that would alert the remaining SEALs to any evidence of foul play. It was now time to make the call home and then play the grieving-partner role. Josh almost laughed to himself, but he was truly too exhausted to do anything other than drop into a chair on the house’s front porch, set up his comms, and make the call.

  Chapter 13

  When Jared and company approached the little homestead, the man returned to the porch, only this time he was armed with some sort of scoped deer rifle. Jared hadn’t seen the man with a weapon when the military fellows were fleecing him of livestock. Suddenly Jared felt a twinge of panic, wondering if bringing the women and Essie along was a mistake.

  “Ain’t nothing for you folks here. Might as well keep riding,” the man shouted from the dusty porch.

  Jared allowed the horse to take several more steps before pulling the animal to a stop. “We are not looking for handouts, and anything we take, we do by way of trade,” Jared hollered back at the man just as the two women appeared behind the man, framed in the doorway.