Chapter 24
One if by land… Two if by sea… Or maybe… a jet for me.
“Hey buddy, can you help me out here?” I walked up to the fence at the front gate unfolding a map trying to look as lost and innocent as I could. The guard inside the shack seemed to want no part of coming outside to help me out.
“Hey, come on buddy, come out here a minute.” The guard just waved his hand to dismiss me. I couldn’t let him off that easy. I started to shake the fence to regain his attention. If he wasn’t going to be polite enough to help, maybe he’d be a big enough jerk to come out and yell at me for shaking his fence. Sure enough, here comes my jerk, and he was none too happy I hadn’t just given up and walked on down the street.
“Get the hell off that fence you moron.” He growled out.
That was all I needed to get his voice down. My hand went up to scratch my head and Stacy took the guy out with a clean shot right through the side of his head. The bad news was she hit him so dead center it knocked him back from the fence so I couldn’t reach him.
Stacy, Meea and Tony were behind me in a flash looking through the gate at the fallen guard.
“You alright with this Stacy?”
Stacy was staring at the first person she had ever killed and she didn’t even know the man. “I’m fine.” She looked up at me knowing I needed her to be OK. I bent over and kissed her forehead as I stepped over to inspect the gate.
“And thanks for not missing.” Meea bent down and hugged Stacy tightly, knowing what it was like to be responsible for ending another person’s life. Even though Meea never saw the twenty or so men on the gunboats she had killed I knew she still thought about it.
“We need those keys to get in this gate.” I said.
“I’ll get the dogs to drag him over.” Meea replied.
Click. “Don’t bother, I got it.” Tony said as the gate lock clicked open.
“So you’re a lock smith too?” Stacy said looking up at Tony.
“Just a hobby. Give me a minute and I’ll have the monitors and cameras down.”
“Meea can you get those dogs fired up enough to go in there and do some damage?”
“Oh, yeah, these guys live for the kill, it won’t be hard.”
We made our way over to the front door were Meea gathered the pack of guard dogs by the door. After spending just a minute with them they looked more than ready to do her bidding. We cracked the door and the man eating attack dogs flew in looking for the fight. A few sporadic gunshots went off, but then, all you could hear were low deep growls and snarling. Not one person made it to a door or window alive.
Meea turned to me and said softly. “Its over.”
I made a call to Marty to see if he was able to pick up and give me an update but he didn’t respond. Stacy gave me a concerned look but I shook my head to say it was OK. If anything at all were underway Marty would not break focus to answer.
We found two vans completely loaded top to bottom with C4, and two empty vans that were prepped and ready for loading. The C4 for them was still in crates on the floor beside the vans.
“I’m going to make a phone call. Tony, I need you to wire all this up to remote detonate. Meea I need you to go get the operations truck we came in, and back it up to the door here.
“What are we doing now, Wilson?” Meea asked as she headed for the door.
“Were going to make sure this is the last time we hear from Mr. Toma and Mr. Chang.”
My phone rang. “Hello Marty, talk to me, were on target here.”
“Were through the wire, four patrol guards are down and Steven and I are walking the perimeter. Rachel and Chels have been in the hut for about five minutes. When we make our way back toward the hole in the fence, the girls and hopefully twelve SA agents will meet us there and we’re off for the chopper… how’s Stacy?”
“Kicking ass as usual. Over and out.”
I used the voice from the guard at the front gate to make my call.
“Hello Mr. Toma, I’m very sorry to bother you sir but I thought you should know the C4 we loaded into the two vans is breaking down into a powder substance and may not be stable, I think you need to see this sir.”
“Shit Peters can’t you do anything right! I’m going to pick up Mr. Chang and we’ll be right down.” SLAM
Stacy grinned at me. “How did that go?”
“Just as you said it would, they were pissed and both are coming.”
Tony was just finishing up as Meea backed up to the door.
“Let’s go guys. Tony, are we good?”
“Do you realize the size of explosion this will make?” Tony asked.
“It’s fine Tony. It’s two o’clock in the morning at a dock warehouse owned by crooks and mercenaries. Nobody will get hurt that’s not supposed to get hurt.”
Meea pulled off the road at the entrance to the industrial district. It was not hard to tell when Mr. Toma and Mr. Chang drove by, they had the only Bentley cruising the neighborhood at this hour. They would only have to be within a fifty yards of the warehouse, when Tony hit the button, to be eliminated.
From where we chose to stop I could see the entrance to the warehouse using the scope on the sniper rifle. I watched through scope as the two men parked just oust side the warehouse and hurried inside.
“Hit it Tony.” Boom…! WOW…!
“Ok… ok, so I underestimated the blast a little.” I said as the two adjacent warehouses were annihilated. We all looked on in awe for a good two minutes.
“Real shame about that Bentley though,” Tony said, as we all watched the large mushroom cloud rise into the sky.
“Yeah, I should have tried to figure a way to save the car huh.”
Stacy looked at me with her eye’s widening, as I hit the speed-dial for Marty again.
“Hello, Marty?”
“We got them… we got them all… but there’s a problem…” the line went dead.
Stacy caught the look on my face.
“What, what happened, you tell me the truth Wilson!” Stacy demanded.
Meea and Tony were both staring at me now too.
“All I heard was Marty say they got them all… and that there was a problem. Then the phone went dead.”
Stacy grabbed the phone from my hand and tried it, and tried it.
“Give me the phone Stacy.” She handed it back with tears in her eyes. Meea was trying to comfort her telling her it would be OK and not to worry.
“Hello, Dr. Ishmail, I need your help right now.”
“Wilson, are you OK? We saw the explosion…my god!”
“Were all fine here sir, but I need what ever you have in the Bahamas area to start a search and rescue around the Southway Airline maintenance strip. You’re looking for sixteen SA members. Yes, sir. Thank you, good bye.”
“What’s going on, Wilson?” I could tell, Stacy was letting her imagination run.
“Stacy, you need to calm down so you can focus if I need you. Marty saying there was a problem could be that they were out of beer for the flight home, you just never know when it comes to Marty.” She stopped fidgeting and smiled at me but I knew she could read me like a book and knew I was as anxious and as nervous as she was.
Ring… “Hello.”
“Wilson, its Dr. Ishmail.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There are two F-19 fighter jets over the area now. There is no sight of the Helicopter, but…”
“Yes, but what?”
“They are tracking two jets that just took off from the maintenance air strip with no flight plans. Both jets are the small executive style and both look to be armed.”
“Wilson, Wilson!” Tony, was calling up front to me from the back of our truck where he staring into one of his a monitors.
“I’m busy, Tony, can it wait?”
“Absolutely not…” I got out of the seat and moved quickly to the back of the truck where Tony had some equipment set up.
“Dr. Ishmail.”
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“Yes, Wilson.”
“Have the fighters shoot down the jet that’s trailing right now.” I said, with no inflection or hesitation in my voice.
“Ok.” Was all the doctor said in reply.
“What do you have, Tony.”
“Two boats coming in hot and riding very low in the water. They will be under the bridge in just a minute.”
“Meea, do you have anything in the area?”
“Yes, but were too far out for me to contact them.”
“Tony can you control your guns under the bridge from here?”
“Sure, no problem.”
“The guns we installed have the best bullets fired per second ratio of any machine gun made. They’ll put a bullet in every square inch of a football field in under ten seconds. Let’s see what they’ll do to a boat filled with C4.”
I watched the camera from behind Tony as he used the guidance system on the guns and opened fire. It’s hard to describe what that many bullets hitting the water in a constant flow looks like. I guess it most compared to the trail a jet boat leaves in the water going at top speed. The trail of spray was high and fast in the water as Tony guided the spray of screaming ammo at the oncoming boats. They were literally cut in half by the spray of bullets and then in what seemed like a delayed reaction they exploded into two huge water mushrooms.
“Dr. Ishmail, what’s happening?” I asked, back on the cell phone.
“The executive jet in back was just attempting to open fire when the rockets from our fighter hit her taking it out of the sky. We’re getting Morse code, believe it or not, from the lead jet now stating that they’re SA agents in route back to Kennedy Airforce base just out side of Palm Bay Florida. They’re also asking for flight instructions for the Class A27 executive jet they’re flying in.”
“Now that sounds like Marty for sure.” Stacy was right beside me grabbing my hand when I mentioned Marty’s name. She wanted filled in immediately.
“Doctor, please pass on the message that I’ll pick up Melissa and meet them all back in Palm Bay, and add a PS. Landing on the ground has got to be easier than landing on a yacht in the ocean, and good luck’.”
“Wilson!” Stacy was pulling on my arm to start spilling information or else.
“Easy hot rod, jeesh. Marty apparently decided the chopper was too slow so he traded up for an executive jet. He’s also asking for instructions on how to land.”
Meea looked at me, her eyebrows tightening. Stacy had tears in her eyes but also started laughing at the same time.
“He’s going to land a jet?” Meea said seeming way more frightened now than Stacy did.
“They’ll be alright Meea, I can tell.” Stacy said, smiling.
“How can you be so sure?” Meea looked at Stacy like she must have gone over the edge.
“If he had any doubt he couldn’t land he would have asked to talk to me. Since in his mind, Marty knows he can pull it off, he’ll in no way feel the need to tell me about it or even want me to know about this.”
“Men.” Stacy and Meea now laughed and cried at the same time all the way back to the boat.
When we got back to the boat it was already dawn. Melissa and Kobe were still sound asleep on the living room couch.
“Welcome back,” the captain greeted, as we boarded. “I had the cook prepare a large breakfast for you since I knew you would be hungry.”
“Thank you, captain.”
“The chopper pilot said he would be refueled and ready to take off for the airport within the hour.”
We packed everyone’s personal belongings before waking Melissa for the trip home. After eating and feeding the tiger one last time we boarded the helicopter for the flight to the airport. A government plane was waiting for us to take us back to Florida when our helicopter touched down.
Before taking off I received two phone calls. The first was from the President of the United States thanking us for our service, and the second, letting me know Marty’s plane just touched down without any complications. I was thankful for the second call more thankful than anyone would ever know.