Rachel followed with only a brief headlock on Jean to get her headed in the right direction. Deke stayed near his bowl, savoring the beer Nick had poured for him. Nick served his companions with what they wished from the new bar and refrigerator on the balcony now. He held up his own shot glass to be toasted, which the others met with theirs.
“I’ll do this in sequence, the first being Sergeant Dickerson. The explanation of how he should proceed will keep him busy until our morning meeting. I’ll call Paul afterwards to apprise him of our local issues, along with plotting to take a look at his Isis training center near Olympia. Lastly, I’ll call my agent. She should be ecstatic about my moving forth so soon on another book signing. If any of you have any objections, spit them out, including you ‘Geezer’. I have a great role to play for you as bait again.”
“Let me guess, a misdirected old putz, wandering around where he ain’t supposed to be, near the suspected Isis compound. How am I doin’?”
“Gee, you’re really good at this, Dan,” Nick said. “I better get busy before it gets any later. I’ll probably catch hell from Cassie, so I’ll touch base with her tomorrow.”
Nearly forty-five minutes later, Nick finished his calls. Jean delivered a tray of appetizers during his call to Nick’s CIA boss, before waving goodnight quietly. “Paul was all excited, thinking my suppositions sounded real good. He even told me not to bother coming over until he checked a few things. When the fog clears in the morning, I wonder what our friends in Blue will think.”
“I believe Neil thinks you’re a little nuts anyway,” Gus said. “I wish there were a way to let him in on what we do, but it’s not like Pacific Grove is little Chicago. Those mugger assholes were the first worrisome case they’ve had in quite a while. Even Neil mentioned that. An ongoing story of tourists getting mugged in a place where tourism is king makes for a long day at the police department.”
“What did Paul say about the pictures? Any hits yet?”
“Yep. He confirmed they were from a gang in San Jose with criminal records dating back to practically the moment they started walking, John. Naturally, he’s uneasy about us risking our necks locally, but he knows the deal. If we can help our guys in Blue with their hands tied behind their backs, we will. This is home. It’s not like we’re working in some gray area. We caught the bastards red handed. Making sure we didn’t have to pay for their incarceration is a bonus. Our boss loved my book signing cover plan in Olympia to check out the Isis compound.”
“I bet you didn’t tell him you planned to engage El Muerto, Payaso, and El Kabong to sort out the Isis problem,” Dan said.
“I didn’t have to. Paul immediately told me if I decided to do anything about the compound I was to exclude our heroic trio from making any movies. Heh… heh.”
“He’s right, Muerto,” Gus said. “Olympia isn’t far enough away from the Isis compound to make cartoon movies when you’re less than an hour away doing book signings.”
“Yeah, well too bad. If I’m less notable, the media would call it a ‘Crusader’ massacre of a simple Islamic village, or some such crap. We get the goods on these Isis freaks, and we can make a statement about the dangers in creating ‘No-Go for non-Muslim zones’ here in America. At the rate they’re allowing these zones in Europe for importing weapons, and training for jihad, they’ll have it all under Sharia Law in a few years.”
“Nick is right,” John said. “This must be a bloody statement. The movies we’ve done have made a difference. We are under a Death Fatwa already, because of our YouTube videos. We have hurt them. With a brutal reminder we are not done at this Isis compound, the statement will be made all over in Islamic circles. I hope you have a plan for me, Muerto. I can infiltrate these goons easily.”
“I didn’t know if you would want to risk it so soon,” Nick replied, leaning forward. “It could mean locating vital evidence for our statement. It would give Paul a blueprint for what Isis has planned in the media run underground here, where they ignore the Islamist threat no matter what they do. I want you to sleep on it. I’ll have to work out details starting tomorrow morning. We can all meet down at Carol’s beach. I’ll bring the coffee, but anyone wanting sugar packets or creamer, bring your own. I’m tired of you guys whinin’ about extras.”
“You always seem to remember the whiskey,” Dan mentioned.
“That’s for special occasions. Tomorrow morning ain’t one of them. Even with my working out every day, as always, Rachel has been making snide remarks about my small daily celebrations – ‘what if my water breaks’, ‘what if Jean breaks something at school’, ‘what if stars fall out of the sky’, ‘what if I awaken while you’re downing shots at the beach with indigestion’, ‘what if I stub my toe’.”