Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin)
Bernard Lee DeLeo
Chapter One
Summer Camp Revisited
“Emily Waterson,” Nick repeated after cutting another razor slice along his strapped down victim’s stomach, evoking more muffled screams. “Powder our friend a little, Johnny.”
Gus moved aside to allow his friend past with the bleach spray bottle. After the application, Nick waited five full minutes of burning agony for the man on the gurney down in his underground facility near the Carmel Valley house he gave to Johnny Groves. Nick nodded at Gus who washed the blood and bleach away, adding some salve.
“We don’t like to waste time, Conrad. When I remove your gag I better hear the answers to every question I can think of about your buddies Les and Burt. I told you we already know who they are and who you are. Being strapped in our hell room made no impression on you. Now that we have the ‘you can’t torture me’ and ‘I want my lawyer’ out of the way, you need to understand the rules of this interrogation, little buddy.”
Gus removed the gag from Conrad’s mouth. Nick gave him a sip of water through a straw as he gasped for breath around it. Conrad Al Sabi, a Saudi national worked for the Kingdom. Ever since 9/11, Nick had known with sixteen terrorist bombers and the mastermind being citizens of Saudi Arabia, it wasn’t rocket science to conclude the Wahhabi cave dwellers fomented the attack. The failed kidnapping of Emily Waterson, Jean and her friend Sonny had uncovered at summer camp, represented a direct tie back to the Kingdom. Nick planned to solve the mystery with Conrad.
“We are buying up real estate!” Conrad sobbed and gasped, working feeling into his mouth. “I…I have my orders. The conglomerate of Wahhabi investors in the Kingdom sent us to buy land in remote sites. The other land purchaser died… in Washington state. A compound built there acted as a training center… to…to establish a Canadian conduit into America. It was located near Onalaska… but it was mysteriously destroyed.”
“I believe we had the pleasure of making that compound extinct, right guys?”
“Yes, Muerto,” Johnny replied. “We salted the earth on that operation.”
“I am cursed of Allah! You three are that ‘Unholy Trio’ set of murderers.” Conrad made a grave error and paid for it immediately with pain.
When Gus removed the gag this time, Conrad knew better than to make judgement calls from a position of representing an Islamist sect Nick felt should be exterminated. “I assume now you realize calling American patriots murderers because we confront you chicken-shit throat slitters will get you punished.”
“Yes!” Conrad cried real tears with great wracking sobs. “I…I will tell all! I know you three. It is rumored your ‘Unholy Trio’ was behind the ocean liner massacre.”
Gus moved between Nick and Conrad as his scalpel poised for a return trip. Nick gritted his teeth and nodded at his old friend. “Slow learner. If you mean helped execute vicious shithead pirates, and their enabling Iranian backers, hoping to endanger thousands of innocent people on the cruise ship ‘Starlight of the Seas’ then yep… that was us. I learned some new interrogation methods from a very unique patriot in our sister group, the Monster Squad: Lynn Montoya Dostiene. We killed until the ocean ran red with Muslim murderer blood. You’re blessed because you’ll be one of the few who ever knows anything about that very successful black op. You won’t live to tell about it anyway. The interesting part is that the Kingdom knows about the ‘Starlight’ op. It makes sense. The Kingdom finances most everything of a terrorist nature all over the globe.”
Realization dawned on Conrad with Nick’s words – he would not be surviving the interrogation. He saw in his captors’ eyes his only reward for cooperation lie in no further pain. Al-Sabi closed his eyes. “Saran Al-Kadi is my boss. Saran marked Emily Waterson for kidnapping by those two dolts. I hope you tortured them to death!”
“I didn’t have time,” Nick said. “Stay on topic or you can make up for my missed opportunity. We know Emily’s Father is Bret Waterson, a state senator. What’s his role in all this?”
“He…he has begun blocking our land acquisitions in California as if he either knows of our ambitions or he is being fed information from a different source. Al-Kadi felt we could gain an upper hand by snatching Emily as proof we could touch them at any time. Dealing with the senator through the Les and Burt idiots, we hoped to negotiate his daughter’s release once we made clear what he needed to do.”