Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin)

Lynn patted his face. “Yes… you certainly will. Light him up, Cheese.”


Normally, Lynn treated her patients in three minute intervals of hell. She gave Majd a five minute dose of hot foot hell after I stuck the pad in his mouth to keep him from biting his own tongue off. When Lynn finished with Majd, we knew a lot about his relationship with Al-Kadi. He also confirmed our suspicions about the Pilot Hill compound’s purpose. Any imports from Carone’s ship Tempest would be quietly handled through the Marina in Monterey. Infiltrators would be passed through Nazari’s house and on to Pilot Hill. The weapons, drugs, and human trafficking were to be transferred back and forth in the same way. Al-Kadi trusted Nazari to run the operation as a middle man; but to our relief, Majd confirmed that Carone ran the operation from the ocean to Pilot Hill.

Clint joined me to transfer the nearly insane Nazari to a restraint chair. We needed to learn every detail about the compound from Sohail Bhatti and Javid Kamboh. They had lived there for a time. With Nazari completely under Lynn’s control, we would use him as a confirming witness to anything his two companions said. Bhatti wanted no part of it. The minions had to zap him twice with the cattle prod to get him in with us. Sylvio gave him a full thirty seconds of the juice to get him on the table after he crashed to the floor trying to resist. I picked him up and jammed his ass down on the table finally. We strapped him into our rocket ship to hell. This murderer knew what awaited him. He believed the videos.

We all knew well what horrors Bhatti and Kamboh visited upon humanity during their putrid lives. Bhatti began crying when he saw Nazari in the observation chair. Apparently, Bhatti recognized the face of insanity due to torture. Nazari began yipping in short quiet barks until Lynn slapped him in the back of the head. Bhatti blubbered out phrases about being duped, led astray, blackmailed, threatened, used against his will, and finally at the end as we let him ramble the poor boy screamed out for his mama. Lynn and I recognized the jargon. Isis fighters captured by the Kurds begged in the same manner. Bhatti would get the same leniency those guys received from the Kurds. Lynn spent the next thirty minutes defining pain for Bhatti. No questions were asked and no quarter given. Sohail Bhatti began hallucinating after fifteen minutes.

“I think we have you nice and toasty now Sowhat.” Lynn nicknamed him for our amusement. “Let’s start with an easy one. Majd told us the names of everyone involved with this network between the ship Tempest and Pilot Hill. Most are already dead and others soon will be. What was compartmentalized according to him is the identity of the major Kader family member who sent you and your buddy, Java. We don’t want to wait until Al-Kadi is in our hands. We want the name now.”

“Yes… I will tell you!” Instead, Bhatti began to cry again.

Lynn gave him thirty seconds of electric sheep to count. “Save the tears for someone that gives a shit. Name, please?”

“Eliah! Eliah Kader…” Bhatti passed out.

“Did you get that, Clint?”

“I heard,” Clint said from our meeting room with the kids. “I’ll make the call.”

*

Nick answered on the first ring. He wrote on his upstairs deck. Jean and Sonny across from him did their homework. Deke sprawled over Nick’s shoes while Rachel sat next to him, editing his already completed work. Quinn slept in a rocker between Rachel and Nick.

“Dead Boy… the man in New York is Eliah Kader,” Clint said. “How are you doing, brother?”

“Five by five, brother. Thanks for the name. Do I have enough time to go see my friend in New York?”

“I’m afraid not. Although it appears your intro to Al-Kadi should go smoothly, he’ll be getting suspicious because his connection to the Tempest is gone. Lynn has Fernando and Senta rehearsed to provide you with an Academy Award winning performance covering an emergency repositioning of the ship.”

“Excellent! Let me know when you want us.”

“Will do. Would you bring the family with you for safety?”

“They’ll be fine here, but thanks. Is John orchestrating our positions during my visit inside?”

“Yep. Lynn’s extracting final details on the compound from the two killers you sent to us. They lived with Al-Kadi for a time, so we should know all about his favorite places to hang out.”

“That’s very good news. If I’m familiar with where Al-Kadi would conduct a meeting along with where his men are normally positioned, I could get the drop on him and do some real damage inside.”

“That’s what we’re hoping. Talk at you soon.”

“Bye, Clint.” Nick disconnected and started writing again, only to receive a Rachel bop on the back of the head. He turned with a sigh. “What was that for?”