Hard Case 12: Climate of Chaos (John Harding) Read online

  “I don’t think you should do that, Dad,” Al advised with Lucas and Tommy agreeing, but adding cute names like halfwit, cement-head and moron.

  “I like it!” Kade didn’t think I was a dummy. “Can I come all the time?”

  “We’ll see. I think your momma Lora and big sis will rip me apart if I take you out here to see Hook all the time though.”

  Kade turned immediately on Lora. “Mom! I want to see Hook!”

  “Oh boy… the kid’s got game,” Tommy mumbled as Lora folded like a broken lawn chair, with Silvio and Lucas enjoying the show.

  “We…we’ll see,” Lora grabbed him up, having been labeled Mom already. She was lost the moment Kade played the Mom card.

  “I can see where this is going,” Al stated with a big smile. “That was scary stuff today, Dad. Watching you stroke the dinosaur gave me goosebumps. Hook is huge! He’s like everything we’ve researched about what can be possible with sharks. Tell the truth… don’t you think Hook might turn on you?”

  “I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t. Captain Hook seems to have an affinity for me. He knows I got the hook out of his mouth and feels some loyalty to me because of it. What he doesn’t know is I’m responsible for the hook being in his mouth in the first place. Hook got our scent because that was the first time he had ever been in danger from anything.”

  “I don’t want you getting eaten,” Al said. “You know the old-”

  “Don’t give me the frog and scorpion fable again,” I shut her down to the amusement of our companions. “I know Captain Hook’s nature.”

  “Captain Hook will never hurt you, Dad,” Kade stated. “What kind of treats do you give him?”

  That question raised an amused stir. “Food scraps, Kade. He loves pork roast the best, but he likes just about anything else we give him too.”

  “Me too. I like eating everything. I’m just like Hook.”

  Oh my, did Kade ever hit it out of the park with that line. No one, including Lora, wanted to correct his perception of what everything might mean. We docked with the quiet expertise of Lucas, with me as the deck hand. Tommy and Silvio understand I’m out all the time with Lucas for a myriad of reasons aboard Sea Wolf. Docking takes practice and concentration. The skills needed reinforced whenever the opportunity presented itself. On board Ranger, we all worked our duties, including the kids.

  “We need a story to cover Cobus becoming a happy meal for Hook. Any suggestions?” Tommy cornered me for a moment while I finished tying us up.

  “If the contractors fix the motel room fast enough, we pay the expenses, and I doubt anyone bothers about Cobus at all. Our main problem lies with finding a way to bring closure to the parents of the victims, either officially or unofficially.”

  I paused. Damn… details and human connections make being a Monster very difficult. “I’ll go see the victims’ families privately in the future. I’ll take the recording of his death with me. I should be able to gauge whether any of them want to take the killer’s side. A few decades ago, people would cheer. Now… they want to get fifteen minutes of fame on the backs of their beloved murdered family members. We’ll handle this T. Don’t give it a thought. See Vinnie and tell him the threat ended and tell him to stay out of this.”

  “Agreed. You like my idea about letting Cobus disappear without a trace, right?”

  “Yep. If anyone traces him to the La Quinta from the Assio-Warez camp, they’ll have nothing but the fact he tried to kill federal officers and was taken into custody.”

  “We may have some trouble with the bonding company who bailed Cobus out on orders from the lame duck governor and lieutenant governor,” Tommy pointed out. “You can bet they collected blood money to do the deed in the first place though.”

  “If the bonding company demands to know where Cobus was taken so they don’t need to pay off on the bond, our names will surface, but only if they trace him to the La Quinta. I think we should wait it out and see. What do we have to lose? The prick got what was coming to him. I didn’t enter this with blinders on, T. I know what needed to be done after we interrogated Cobus. Turning him over to the police would have been a joke. Dealing with Assio-Warez will be the end game. Nobody takes a contract out on me and lives. She sent an idiot. Cobus would have killed everyone in my family. I don’t plan on letting her send another message. It was only luck you knew the other guy on Cobus’s hit list. I hate luck in life and death family matters.”

  “I hear you. Let’s meet at the Warehouse tonight. We’ll invite the usual suspects. We’ll plot a course and sip a few in honor of you again surviving a Captain Hook extravaganza.”

  “Sounds good to me.” I checked the last bindings at the dock and waved at Lucas.

  Lora opened the gate with Kade pacing happily beside her. She didn’t see the mob of hoodies racing toward her from where they had been hiding. I streaked for the gate at full steam. I knew Tommy would be on my heels with Lucas and Silvio close behind them. The hoodies reached Lora, Al and Kade, dancing around, making spooky noises. The real enlightening moment happened an instant later as Kade shot out in front with his little fists up.

  “Get away!” Kade yelled.

  Yeah… okay… if someone didn’t stop me, I would kill everyone. I hit the hoodies, smashing without restraint. I broke things with every strike and kick. The hoodie wave broke. I followed, pounding them to the cement. I’m fast. When I reached their fastest runner, I slashed him to the temple with a side-hand strike. He collapsed unconscious instantly. I kicked him in the nuts. I turned to kill the rest, only to come face to face with Lucas.

  “Recon! We’re done!” Lucas had both hands on my shoulders. “Stand the fuck down! We’re okay, John! Stop… we can’t have any more dead people to explain. Hook’s full. We’ll have a hard-enough time getting past the Cobus elimination.”

  Seconds of red rage passed before I shrugged off Monster mode. “I’m good, Pap. I need to find out something while the iron is hot.”

  Lucas nodded and stepped aside. I ran to the nearest hoodie, yanking him from the cement like a two-year-old on his way to Disneyland. I shook him until he rattled. “I have a question for you. Who sent this mob? If I need to ask twice, I will break stuff on you until the only thing left is a pulverized corpse.”

  “We…we Antifa… flash mob. We move… when we get the hash tag signal. I don’t know who runs the Twitter site. It hashtag… AntifaOaklandHarass. You… the target. Know you… train on the water.”

  “How does this clown know when.”

  “Cam on the dock.”

  I dropped him. Tommy and Silvio already had my family heading for the parking lot. Lucas had been at my side, listening to the goon interview. “Achmed can break the site, Recon. We’ll find out who owns it. Your little man wanted to take on the whole bunch.”

  “Yeah… he did. It’s no wonder Hook doesn’t scare him. I’ll make sure the family gets settled at the house. I’ll call Jafar from Pain Central. He can probably bust into the site from home. I have a feeling that bug-eyed loon, Assio-Warez, runs more threads out here on the West Coast than we thought.”

  We ripped off masks and took pictures and digital fingerprints of each one. Luckily, for them and us, only thirteen made it to the flash mob harassment party. Unlucky number for the mob. It didn’t take us much time. I confiscated all their weapons and put them in my equipment bag. I made sure to put a note next to the two who brought handguns. On the way to the parking garage, Lucas expressed a doubt he had about my idea for the guilty party in this flash mob confrontation.

  “You may be right about the culprit behind the flash mob… but she hired Cobus for certain. Why would she also send a flash mob if A&W already hired a killer to target you?”

  “Good point. We do have numerous enemies still on the loose. Three big names, Gary Drowne, Neven Lewsome, and Lewsome’s secretary Mildred Myers, all have my name on their short list of people they want dead. Nick will be arresting Myers for sending those Honduran cartel guys with
fake police IDs to try and gun us down when we arrested Reanne Linestein. She took off for the hills after the attempt failed. Nat Rooks is still whining around town about being cheated out of the election for mayor.”

  “Delta Dawn has a lot on his plate. He will be going after the guy in the DOJ who set up his US Marshal friends to die – Matthew Murray. Nick’s letting his friends, Tim and Grace, try to get a warrant for fraud. They can’t get Murray for attempted murder because Nick had to kill all the guys sent to bushwhack his friends while transporting the cartel guy, Jose Cantalla, so all the people who know Murray set up the ambush are dead.”

  We reached the parking lot. “I guess we’ll need to do some research this afternoon. I’ll see if Kade wants to go with me to Pain Central. He might get a kick out of the nursery we have built in our Monster clubhouse.”

  “I think Kade likes any place you’re at.” Lucas gestured toward where I left all the writhing bodies. “Do you want to do anything about the Antifa mob?”

  “We’ll revisit the ones we find in the database as repeat offenders. Like you said, we have too much going on right now. I’ll be glad when the election is over with. What a duo we’ll have with Flo as governor and Dev in the mayor’s office.”

  “Hey… it’s Saturday,” Lucas replied. “Let’s hit the Warehouse for drinks and dinner. We can talk over loose ends there.”

  “I like your thinking, Pap. I’ll tell Jafar to put the word out. Are you going over to Pain Central right now?”

  “No. Whenever I go out to sea with Captain Hook, my Rachel wants to see me in person. Besides, I always need to talk her into going to the Warehouse. She believes you jinx the place. Every time we meet there with everyone, some kind of chaos ensues.”

  “Well… that’s just wrong.”

  “See you later. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. You’re a jinx… but an entertaining one.”

  “Gee… thanks.” I threw my bag in the back and got in my soccer mom van. “I’m sorry for the delay. Lucas and I needed to get pictures and fingerprints, along with collecting weapons. Lucas wants to get together at the Warehouse.”

  “Count me in,” Tommy said. “How’s your hands, John?”

  “I didn’t feel a thing.” I started the van and drove for home.

  “You went through thirteen guys as if they were dust bunnies under the bed, compadre,” Silvio said. “It is a good thing Lucas knows how to stop you.”

  “I had to be as tough as Kade. The little bugger wanted to fight them all.”

  “Yeah… he did,” Lora agreed. “My hero.”

  “They wanted to hurt Mom and Al,” Kade stated. “I… wanted them to go away. You blasted them, Dad. I saw you fight on TV once.”

  “Would you like to go with me to our main headquarters this afternoon? I have some work to do, but we have a neat special room for kids.”

  “Sure! I’d like that. Can Al go too?”

  “She’s allowed. Al trains with a bow and arrow there. Al also trains with throwing knives now too.”

  “I’ll go with you, Kade,” Al agreed right away. “I want to show you my target range. It’s really neat.”

  “Drive us all there, Dark Lord,” Lora said. “I’d like to see Al’s progress too.”

  “On our way.”

  “Dark Lord?” Kade grabbed hold of that tidbit of information with a vengeance. “You mean like Darth Vader from Star Wars? That is so cool.”

  “Compared to your dad, Vader is a sissy,” Tommy said.

  Kade laughed and clapped his hands. “Yeah… Darth Vader couldn’t ride Captain Hook.”

  Wouldn’t you know it, we had a limousine parked in front of Pain Central. Today seemed like the day for unwanted confrontations. As I parked the soccer mom van, the limousine driver jumped out to open the rear passenger door, allowing Neven Lewsome to exit the vehicle. Oh… goody… the soon to be unemployed New World Order lieutenant governor idiot, here to spout garbage I didn’t want to hear. Tommy and Silvio exited with me as Lewsome’s four bodyguards hurried to his side.

  I was sick of this crap. “Don’t you have some kind of duties to perform in Sacramento? You’re getting to be like toe fungus, showing up in places no one wants you.”

  Lewsome smiled like a happy turd. “I saw on the news you have a son. Questionable methods of attaining him seem to have been used, which will need some looking into. I’m here to smooth the process and-”

  I leveled his bodyguards. I don’t dance. I don’t sing, and I can’t draw worth a lick. What I do is incapacitate people. In the process of beating down the bodyguards in rapid fire form, I also shoulder thumped the lieutenant governor of California on his ass. Tommy and Silvio moved to cover Lewsome’s cohorts. I dead-lifted the squealing Lewsome onto the trunk of his limousine.

  “Let me explain something to you. No one will be bothering my son or the fact he is with me for all time. If you ever try to extort me again, you pitiful piece of shit, I will come for you in the night. I will make you disappear like a fart in the wind. I do not take bribes or play extortion politics. I kill people and I’m very good at it. This is your last warning. Never… approach me or my family again in any way. If you do… then God help you… the taxpayers will never need worry their hardworking heads about you again.”

  I grabbed his entire clothing front, lifting him straight into the air. I shook him like a wet pillowcase. “Do you understand me? No police, soldiers, or hired killers will stop me from getting to you.”

  “I understand!” Lewsome began sobbing. I stuffed him in the limo. “The rest of you ass-wipes get against the limo. We’ll be taking pictures and digital fingerprints. Grab the lapels of your suit until we help you to do what we want. Otherwise… I will break things on you until you do.”

  The bodyguards happily complied. I had beat them initially like recalcitrant kids in a Sunday school class. “Good. Get in the limo, and make your driver transport you all to a snowflake room with teddy-bears and coloring books, or wherever else anti-American dolts go. If you ever enter my purview again, I will shoot to kill. Go… go now!”

  They left in lifesaving order… because that was what it amounted to. Leave… or stay and die. “It seems as if the election doesn’t happen soon, Captain Hook will be one well fed non-participant.”

  Tommy shook his head in a mystified manner. “That Lewsome is so stupid, I have trouble believing he moves around the day without guidance and someone dressing him. He knows you. He knows he can’t bring enough guys to affect anything you do. I’m glad you shook him like a terrier shakes a rat. He looked educated for a second anyway.”

  “Once Flo gets elected, we will clean this damn state up. With voter ID in practice like Texas has, the leftist loons will be finished. No person working for a living in California chooses these communist wretches like Lewsome. They get elected through illegal aliens, the dead, stealing retirement home mail-in ballots, and tampered voting machines. They can’t beat Flo because we have this insanity covered. We can only overwhelm them this time, which we will do. In the future, this will get easier.”

  “I hope you’re right, John.” Tommy opened the door for my family. “I hate to say this; but bouncing the lieutenant governor around can get you prison time.”

  “That would be true if we didn’t have him on our HD video security threatening my family. Lora can research the best criminal lawyers in the area. I think it’s time to put one on retainer.”

  “I can do that,” Lora agreed. “I was supposed to do that a long time ago.”

  I took Kade’s hand. “When you finished your law degree and passed the Bar exam, we really only needed your general expertise for running our office. Too many of these scrapes with people like Lewsome can blow up in our faces. We need a criminal lawyer.”

  “I’ll get on it right away.”

  Al clasped Kade’s other hand. We entered Pain Central and Lora grabbed a laptop to take into our nursery.

  “We’ll be around here anyway, Sil. There aren’t any g
uests to watch. Go on home. I’ll lock up when we leave. See you later at the Warehouse.”

  “Thanks, John. Great day on the water.”

  Tommy and I adjourned to our conference table. I called Jafar while uploading the pictures and fingerprints to him. “We had a busy morning, little brother.”

  “I see that. It is good you did not need to kill anyone after the Captain Hook feeding. I’ll get all the pictures and prints entered. I will let everyone know about the Warehouse. Would six be a good time?”

  “Perfect.”

  “If nothing needing an instant response shows, Samira and I will bring Mia to dinner later. We have Halloween to look forward to with Clint Jr and Mia taking their first steps. They can accompany Kade trick-or-treating to a few houses.”

  “Al will want to take my neighbor, Della’s twins, so it will be a fun time. Clint’s neighborhood would be the best place to go.”

  “I think so too. Any neighborhood excursion is safe with Tonto and Naji along.”

  “You have that right,” I agreed. “See you later.”

  “Have you thought anymore about fighting Rudo?” Tommy asked. “He’s not backing away after you slammed him in the arm-wrestling match. The video went viral on the internet. Rudo decided to stir interest with a revenge type response, huffing and puffing on ESPN about choking you out in the cage. Rudo did a bunch of interviews on the various UFC fan pages too with his manager, Raymond Oringa.”

  “I can’t see the UFC agreeing to a match with no drawing power, so I guess we’ll wait for the results of Rudo’s publicity campaign.”

  “His ground and pound rivals Black Sabbath’s. I watched some of his fights after we met him, with Dev and Jess. They were impressed. I can understand why he’s undefeated. You were sharp as always in the water today, and damn brutal out of it.”

  “Having Kade along on the boat ride sharpened everything about our time on the water,” I replied. “Being constantly confronted because of the stupid elections annoys the hell out of me.”

  Tommy moved away from the table. “I will deliver the news to Vinnie in person. I don’t want to take a chance on a phone call.”