Kitabı oku: «Hazard Zone», sayfa 3

4

After finishing up with the security manager, Bolan decided to give the property a quick visual inspection. Kowal had happily agreed. Though the man seemed more than competent, another set of eyes might spot something new or different. First, Bolan went up to Amber’s floor and checked out the condominium, which was still protected by police tape and unchanged from the night of her death. Then, he went all the way to the roof, which turned out to be unremarkable—as did the beach, the patio and the walkways around the main resort building. In short, nothing jumped out at him as out of place.

Walking along the rear of the building, Bolan heard two male voices on the other side of a brick screening wall, and he stopped to listen. The conversation was unclear, but both men seemed to be unhappy with their jobs. He started to dismiss them and move on, when they walked away from the area with their backs to him. One of the men wore a sleeveless T-shirt, and it revealed a heavily inked tattoo that looked all too familiar—the symbol of the Undead Posse.

Pausing to take another look, Bolan saw that the other man sported the same tattoo. Two people from the Undead Posse working here felt like a lot more than a coincidence to him. Bolan decided to follow them to see if they led him somewhere interesting—or at least somewhere he might be able to ask them some questions in a more private setting.

Bolan followed the two men as they left the employee’s entrance and exit area and walked toward a private parking lot shielded from sight by a row of massive palm trees and a vine-covered iron fence. They rounded the corner and Bolan walked a bit faster, not wanting to lose them. As he came around the fence, he saw that they had paused, and one had drawn a compact semiautomatic handgun.

Bolan hit the ground in a dive roll just as the shot rang out. He didn’t stop his movement, just kept the roll moving forward until he found his feet, then launched himself full force into the man with the handgun, driving his head like a battering ram into his gut and knocking him to the ground.

The man lost his grip on the gun, which bounced and clattered over the pavement of the parking lot. Out of the corner of his eye, Bolan saw the second man take off running. He’d have to finish this one quickly if he had any hope at all of catching up. He drove his knee piston-style into the crotch of the man beneath him, then shifted as the man groaned in pain and dropped the knee into his rib cage. Bolan felt at least one give way beneath his weight, and the groan became a breathy scream.

“Who are you?” Bolan demanded, leaning back slightly to let the man breathe.

Through a grimace of pain, the man said, “Death!” He spit the word as he brought around a hidden knife with his free hand, trying to stab the blade into Bolan’s neck.

The Executioner grabbed his wrist before he could connect, silently thanking his lucky stars that he’d seen it coming, and twisted the joint. As the man fought beneath him, Bolan contorted the wrist further, the ligaments snapping as he pushed it down, down, and then with a final shove stuck the blade into the man’s throat. The nameless thug twitched beneath him, then sagged in the release of death.

“Damn it,” he muttered, pushing himself up off the body that lay on the ground. He looked around for the other man, and saw him slipping into a Jeep on the far side of the parking lot. Knowing he had no time, Bolan leaped to his feet and took off running back toward the resort and the street where he’d parked his rental car. He ran all out, shouting for the guard to open the pedestrian gate.

The man came out looking stunned at Bolan’s sudden appearance.

“Open it!” Bolan yelled as he slammed into the gate. “Open it now!”

The guard hurried into his shack, and the big American saw the Jeep pull out of the employee lot two blocks down. The gate buzzed and Bolan shoved himself through it.

“What’s going—” the guard tried to say as he ran past.

Bolan didn’t have time for conversation. He raced to his car and jumped in, gunned the engine and took off after the Jeep.

The roads were crowded enough that he had to weave through traffic like a madman. Tires squealed and horns honked as he forced his vehicle past irritated drivers until he saw the Jeep ahead of him by several blocks and he felt comfortable enough to slow down. The traffic thinned as the Jeep headed out of Montego Bay, back toward Kingston. He stayed back as far as he could, noting how the driver of the Jeep was moving along the street carelessly and dangerously. It careened around cars that were moving slower than he wanted to go, and a couple of times he nearly caused an accident. Still, Bolan didn’t think the man could see that he was being followed so much as he was in a hurry to get away.

The Jeep continued on down the highway, and Bolan was thankful that this was really the only road between the two cities. A number of vehicles stayed on the highway the whole time, so there was no reason for the driver of the Jeep to think he was being followed simply because Bolan’s car happened to be behind him. It took a couple of hours for them to reach Kingston, and then he had no choice but to move closer.

The late-afternoon traffic was getting heavier and heavier, and if Bolan lost his mark, then all of this would have been for nothing. The soldier wished he hadn’t had to kill the man back at the resort. No doubt that Kowal and Kroger would be upset by another death on the property—even a necessary one.

The heart of Kingston was the polar opposite of Montego Bay, which was mostly a tourist area. Kept clean and inviting, with signs of wealth the hallmark of the coastal area, Montego Bay was welcoming and looked safe. The heart of Kingston was anything but hospitable: it was a place for the locals, mostly members of Jamaican posses. Spray-painted graffiti, rusted or burned-out cars and garbage in the streets made for a stunning contrast to where he’d just come from.

As the Jeep got closer to the Tivoli Gardens district, Bolan began to wish he was in an armored truck, instead of a four-door rental car that wouldn’t hold off a determined attack by a Chihuahua, let alone a gang of Jamaican thugs.

The fighting in the Tivoli Gardens area was practically legend, and the area had been highlighted in his mission briefing materials as extremely dangerous to outsiders. He knew that already. One large graffiti sign said Shoes of Jamaica and had an arrow pointing to a bloody shoe on the ground.

Bolan maneuvered his car through large stacks of pallets, and vehicles that were parked partly in the road. He was making another turn when the Jeep stopped and cars swarmed from different directions to pin his vehicle between them. Two cars were behind him, the Jeep in front and another blocked the exit to his right as several Jamaicans got out of their cars and began to move in on his rental. Two men were holding crowbars, while a third held a bat with massive nails through the end.

“Here we go,” Bolan muttered, watching in his mirror as the closer of them reached the back of his car. He slammed the stick into Reverse and gunned the engine. The tires screeched and the man tried to get out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough. The rear bumper crunched into his legs, and he let out a scream of agony even as he smashed the crowbar he was carrying into the back windshield. The glass spidered but somehow held.

Bolan shifted into First and floored the gas pedal, ramming into the back end of the Jeep and narrowly missing the man he’d been following, who’d gotten out and was approaching his car with the others. The Jeep shuddered with the impact and rolled forward slightly, offering a narrow exit. The sudden burst of gunfire from behind made it more than clear to Bolan that it was time to go. But first it seemed as if making a point was necessary.

The Executioner drew his Desert Eagle, aimed through the passenger window and fired. The .50-caliber round shattered the safety glass with ease and made a mess of the nearest posse member. The entrance wound was bad, but the exit wound was worse, and the velocity knocked the man backward into the vehicle he’d been driving, a bloody, dying heap.

Another burst of gunfire blew out Bolan’s back window, and he ducked lower, shoved the car into gear and aimed for the small opening. His car clipped the Jeep with the grating sound of metal, but he managed to make it through. Behind him, angry shouts and gunshots continued, and he knew they’d follow. Considering his mode of transportation, Bolan considered himself extremely lucky to have all four tires and a vehicle that ran at all.

The other vehicles were behind him in seconds, still shooting. Bolan whipped around a corner and found himself in a narrow lane that was crowded with wooden pallets and ended in a rusted chain-link fence. With the other cars right behind him, he didn’t have any other choices but to floor the accelerator, shift and plow straight ahead. The pallets shattered with a crash and wooden splinters flew in all directions. He ducked again as he hit the fence, which gave way before him, but not before a large section of it smashed into his windshield, spidering the glass.

Obviously, the people living in the area were not unaccustomed to gunfire. Whereas most people would stay hidden, Bolan saw these residents running out of their homes to see what was going on. He yanked hard on the steering wheel, choosing the first street that went away from the residential buildings.

Just as he glanced in the mirror, a burst of automatic gunfire sounded and took out the last of his rear windshield. Bullets pounded into the heavy cloth seats. Bolan accelerated until he saw a large truck blocking the road in front of him. “Damn it,” he said, tapping the brakes and looking for a way to pass. Knowing it was a risk, he started to move around, but another barrage of gunfire took out the back tires of the truck and the sudden change in speeds forced them together. Metal crunched, and Bolan slammed on the brakes, letting the truck go past, then he downshifted, popped the clutch and moved to the other side of the truck, which was weaving all over the road.

He steered around another corner, only to see an oncoming pickup truck headed straight for him. In the bed, two men opened fire with mini-MAC-10s. “Son of a—” he said as two trails of bullets ran up the length of his hood. Bolan ducked, then popped back up, the Desert Eagle in hand. He fired off five quick shots, and the final one smashed the engine block of the truck. Smoke rolled as it skidded to a halt.

Bolan rocketed past the slowing vehicle and slammed on his brakes as he realized he was at a dead end. He locked the car into Reverse, spinning it and spearheading his way back into the oncoming cars. The slam from the side caught Bolan by surprise and knocked his car into an apartment building.

Gunfire poured in through the windows as Bolan shoved the driver’s seat backward and shimmied into the rear area. He opened the pass-through compartment, pulled out his briefcase and opened it in one smooth motion. The gunfire suddenly stopped, and he could hear a voice shouting, “Enough! Enough! Stop!”

Pulling two grenades out of the case, he pulled the pins and waited three seconds. Then he popped through the sunroof like a paramilitary jack-in-the-box and tossed the bombs directly at the feet of the men closing in on his vehicle. They detonated milliseconds after impact, and the explosions ripped through the gang. Screams sounded as shrapnel tore into their bodies.

Bolan grabbed the case in one hand as he bailed out of the car. It contained his primary arsenal and there was no way he was leaving it behind.

He whipped around the corner and into an alley as the first rounds of renewed gunfire sounded behind him. Using the building as cover, he put the case on the ground and rapidly assembled the Tavor MTAR-21 mini assault rifle inside it. Slamming the magazine home, he risked a quick look around the corner.

They were headed his way once more.

“Persistent,” Bolan muttered, glancing down the alleyway. He needed to either end this or escape—and fast. The risks to his mission were mounting quickly. He couldn’t do the job if he was seriously injured, killed or captured, but these men obviously didn’t care about civilian casualties, either. They were in an area of rundown apartment buildings and a few shops. With all the gunfire, sooner or later there were going to be people hurt or dead who had nothing to do with the situation.

He risked another look and opened up with the Tavor in short, sharp bursts. The building facades echoed with the sound, and two of the approaching posse members went down before the others found cover.

5

Jacob Crisp stared out the window at the small market that filled the streets below his window. He smiled as the armored police vehicles drove by and bystanders threw rotted fruits and vegetables at the intruding vehicles. The irony that they were protesting in small ways because of his supposed death and all of the things that his posse had created was not lost on him. The vehicles continued out of the square, and Jacob closed the wooden shutter, blocking out further opportunity for distraction, and returned his attention to the men behind him.

Bastiene Durene was his most loyal companion. At six foot he was a couple of inches taller than Crisp, but leaner and meaner. Everyone called him Spook because he seemed to appear and disappear without any evidence. It made him an effective killer and an even more effective spy. He had almost left Spook out of his reincarnation, but he knew that the man would find out eventually anyway and then only see the slight as a betrayal.

The other man was a newly hired gun, Christofer Denham, a drug smuggler with the right connections whom he had done some time with. He had also built up a lot of trust with the senator’s daughter and knew just the right channels to get anything, anytime, anywhere.

“I don’t like this, man,” Spook said.

“You sound like an old mother hen, my man. What is your concern? We’ve dealt with the authorities before,” Crisp said.

“Not like this. The stakes have never been so high.”

“You knew they’d turn up the heat,” Denham snapped. “What did you expect? That they’d not send every hired gun in the States down here looking?

“This is exactly what we want, and we want to keep them looking here. We want to keep them looking in the places that don’t matter anymore. Every time they get close, they will find that the trail of bodies is the only thing that will keep them company. This man…this Cooper, he will be the same as all the others—dead. Is everything set up at the cemetery?” Crisp asked.

“Yeah, they’ll be ready with what we need. Do you have everything you’ll need?” Spook asked Denham.

“All set. This should be even more satisfying than the girl.”

“The Obeah man has to do his ceremony. You’ll give him what he needs for later?”

“It’ll all be set. Just make sure my payment is ready before I get there, or the only thing leaking from those bodies will be rotting flesh.”

ANDERS PACED in his office, waiting for the phone call. He picked up a file from the desk and absently flipped through it, trying anything to relieve the tension that was starting to build. The intensity of the whole operation had increased dramatically with the death of the senator. The daughter would have been enough to get the point across, but killing the senator was putting everything in jeopardy.

The phone rang and he paused in midstep. It rang again, snapping him out of his contemplation. He flipped the cover of the folder closed and dropped it onto the desk as he picked up the phone.

“Anders.”

“I got your message. What’s so damn urgent?”

“I’ve had every damn agency you can name down here, including the CIA. You didn’t tell me to expect a spook.”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be surprised at a visit from Jesus H. Christ himself. The White House is telling everyone that getting to those responsible is a high-level priority, and there’s a lot of pressure for an immediate or sooner resolution.”

Anders sighed. “You’ve got to slow things down up there. This whole thing is going to spin out of control at this rate. We can’t keep all of this in order and not expect the heat to fall on us,” he said.

“You need to relax. None of this is unexpected. Of course they’re going to investigate. We want them to, remember? As long as you do your job, all roads are going to lead to the Undead Posse. There is nothing that connects us to those morons, plus they are happy to take the glory.”

“And the casualties?” Anders asked. “There’s going to be more casualties. Maybe a lot more before this is over.”

“The posse can damn well take those, too,” he said. “It’s one of the better reasons to use them.”

BOLAN DUCKED behind an old abandoned Buick that had two flat tires on one side. He reloaded, quietly chambering the next round and then checking how much ammo he had left. With only two spare magazines for the Tavor and one more for his Desert Eagle, he was going to have to get out of there fast. He didn’t have the ammo for a sustained firefight.

He scanned the alley behind him. Aside from the piles of trash and a rusted-out garbage bin, he didn’t see much in the way of an escape route. At the end of the alley, he could hear the shouts of the posse members as they debated who was going in after him. Popping up over the trunk of the Buick, he fired another short burst from the Tavor, sending everyone back into cover. “Damn,” he said.

The light tap on his shoulder caused him to spin and nearly pull the trigger on a kid that couldn’t have been more than twelve. “Hey, mister,” he whispered. He grinned at Bolan.

“Kid, you better get out of here now,” Bolan said. “You’re going to get hurt.”

The boy smiled and asked, “You want to get out of here?”

Bolan quickly reassessed. “Where? How?”

“How much?” the kid asked.

“Fifty,” Bolan said.

The kid shook his head. “A hundred.”

“Done,” he said. “When we’re clear.”

“Then let’s go,” he said, gesturing back into the alley. “Before more of them come.”

Bolan popped up once more over the car and fired a two-second burst, then turned and followed the boy who wove his way past garbage bins and piles of trash as if he knew the path by heart. He bounded past a stack of moldy mattresses, then turned and gestured toward a crack in the brick wall of the building. “There,” he said.

“It’s a crack in the wall,” Bolan replied, taking a quick glance behind them. “Neither one of us will fit.”

“That’s the idea,” the kid said, then leaned forward and pushed.

Bolan watched in amazement as the wall slid backward, revealing a dark opening beyond.

“Inside,” the boy said. “Hurry.”

THE BOY COULD ALMOST stand as they moved through the tunnel, but the fit was a little tighter for Bolan. They reached the end of the passageway and came out almost a block from where they began. Seeing no signs of followers, Bolan holstered his pistol before stepping out onto the street and following the boy into a café.

The little shop was literally a hole in the wall, barely bigger than the hidden tunnel they’d used to get there. The building was one of the many casualties of the constant fighting between the posses and the government. The front stone entrance that had once held double doors now stood open, and the tables were visible to any passerby. The roof remained intact, and the owner had placed several tropical plants to soften the jagged stone edges. There was no remnant of rubble or debris, and it was clear that the damage had been done for some time. Apparently the owner had no intention of re-creating the closed front in the immediate future.

Bolan walked in, noticed the menu written on a chalk-board and sat at the first available table. He glanced around as he ran through his options. Getting shot at and running for his life was not something new to him, but the lack of leads was troubling. He considered going back to the embassy for more information, but his gut said that everything there was not as it should be and someone had told the posse he was coming.

The boy, who’d told Bolan to sit down, then disappeared. When he returned he waltzed up to Bolan’s table with a pitcher of water in his hand.

“What can I get ya?”

“You can start with some answers,” Bolan said. “Now you’re a waiter? Ten minutes ago, you were my rescuer.”

“I do what makes money,” he said, shrugging. Then he looked emphatically at Bolan. “And you owe me some.”

“So I do,” he said, pulling out his wallet. He removed a hundred-dollar bill and handed it to the kid. “That makes us square,” he said. “Unless you want to earn more.”

“I always want to earn more,” the boy replied. “You think I want to live here forever?”

“All right, then I’ll take today’s special—the goat—and some information.”

“The special is ten dollars,” he said, “but information will cost you more.”

“I can pay,” he said. “But not until I know if what you can tell me is worth anything.”

“Mister, there are two kinds of guys that come here, ones from here and ones looking for someone from here. No one says they want information if they are looking for the best fishing spot, eh?”

“I’d say you’re right, but that still doesn’t tell me if any information you have might be useful.”

“I saved your life, didn’t I?”

Bolan smiled. “Maybe,” he said. “It was getting tight back there. Food first, then information. We’ll see what it’s worth after you talk.”

The kid shrugged and started to turn back to the kitchen, which Bolan assumed was on the other side of the wall…somewhere. When dining local, he’d long since learned it was better to eat and not ask too many questions.

“Hey, kid, what’s your name?” he asked.

“Reggie Dequain.”

“All right, Reggie. It’s good to meet you. I’m Matt.”

“I’ll get your food, Matt,” he said, then skipped away.

Bolan drained a glass of water, refilled it from the pitcher the boy had left on the table and waited. Several minutes passed before Reggie returned, bearing a large plate in one hand. He set it on the table and produced some silverware wrapped in a paper napkin. The food smelled good.

The curry goat was served over a large bed of rice, and fried plantains were stacked to one side. Bolan removed the silverware from the napkin and dug in, grinning at the boy as the mild spices hit his stomach. The soldier ate quickly and in silence, finishing it all, knowing that he might not get another chance to eat for hours.

Reggie was unusually patient for a kid and kept his silence while Bolan ate. When he’d finished and put his napkin on the empty plate, Reggie picked it up and put it in a bus tub on the other side of the room. Then he returned and sat back down.

“Okay, Reggie, let’s talk.”

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

“I want to know about the Undead Posse,” Bolan said. “Everything you know and anything you’ve heard.”

“Mister, that’s gonna be big expensive.”

“Name your price,” he said.

“Ten thousand dollars,” Reggie said, not even pausing.

“Good knowing you, kid,” he said. “Thanks for the food.” He took a ten-dollar bill out of his wallet and put it on the table. “That ought to cover lunch.”

“How about five thousand?”

“You have cable television, Reggie?” Bolan asked. “You must, because you sound like you’ve been watching too many movies. No deal. Have a nice day.” He stood up, pushing his chair away from the table.

“Okay, okay,” Reggie said. “How about another hundred? With what you gave me earlier, I can finish paying the rent.”

Disgusted that a kid would have to be in that position, but knowing that by comparison with much he had seen, the boy had it easier than many, he nodded. “That I can do.”

Bolan pulled the money out of his wallet and passed it over to him.

“Now, tell me what you know about the Undead Posse.”

“The one’s chasing you? Bad mojo,” he said. “Double bad.”

Reggie jumped up from the table and made a run for the exit, but Bolan anticipated the move and grabbed him as he went by.

“Hey, let me go!”

“So this is the information that a hundred dollars gets me?”

“On the Undead Posse, yeah, that’s all you get. No one talks to the cops about the Undead unless they want to be…you know…the dead.”

“Look, kid, I’m not the cops. You helped me out with them back there, right?”

“That was easy,” he said. “They couldn’t see me!”

“I’m just trying to figure out some stuff,” Bolan said. “If you help me, I’ll double that hundred I just gave you.”

Reggie was looking hard enough at his shoes that Bolan thought they might turn into Hermes sandals and fly him out of his current predicament. He held on to the boy tighter. Reggie looked up and stared into his eyes. Bolan could see the trace amounts of fear and confusion. The soldier reached into his pocket and pulled out the next hundred.

“Here, you take the money. We sit. We talk. If you don’t like where the conversation goes we stop talking and you take the money and go on your way. Deal?”

Reggie waited another minute. He reached out to take the money. Bolan pulled his hand away and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay,” the kid said.

Bolan handed him the money and waved Reggie back to his chair. Bolan took his seat at the table.

“Now, there are posses all over the place around here, and most like to hear their exploits shouted to the rafters. What makes the Undead Posse different?”

“They aren’t like the others.”

“How?’

“They have magic.”

“Magic?’

“You don’t believe me. You’re an American, you don’t believe in anything.”

“I didn’t say I don’t believe you, I just want to understand.”

“You believe in magic?” Reggie asked.

“I’ve seen a lot of things, especially here in Jamaica. Some can’t be explained very easily. I don’t know if it’s magic, but I’m willing to look at all the possibilities.”

Reggie looked at him and smiled.

“You’re different.”

“I’m something all right. Tell me about the magic.”

“They perform dark rituals in the May Pen cemetery. The spirits there are restless. They make them do things.”

“What kinds of things?”

Before he could answer, an old woman came out of the back. “Don’t you be talkin’ ’bout that stuff, boy! You know better!”

Reggie rolled his eyes at Bolan. “It’s just talk, Gram,” he said. “Besides, he’s payin’!”

“It don’t matter what he pays. If he keeps diggin’ around, the Spook will get him.” She shook a dried-up old chicken foot in Bolan’s direction to emphasize her point.

“The Spook?” he asked.

“He ain’t real,” Reggie said. “At least, I don’t think so. He runs with the Undead Posse.”

Before he could continue, the boy stood up and guided the old woman back into the kitchen. Under his breath, Bolan heard him talk about the rent money and the woman muttering about curses.

When he returned, Bolan said, “You were telling me about the posse’s magic?”

“They made that girl kill her father.”

“How do you know about that?”

“The stories started after she died. The streets said that they put a spirit inside her and that she would kill him. They used her to kill her own family.”

Reggie looked down into his cup. His hands trembled and Bolan waited for him to say more, but after a few minutes he knew he wouldn’t.

“Reggie, one more question, and you can go.”

“What?”

“Where is the cemetery?”