Chapter 13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trevor found the south door leading to the parking lot. The crowd had begun to dissipate. The roar of automobile, truck and motorcycle engines firing up all around him was nearly deafening. He saw no black Ford truck, but did see a long line of vehicles slowly making their way to the exit. Barkley could still be inside the compound, Trevor thought.

He approached a large biker just mounting his Harley Davidson. The woman with him was already seated. The biker was muscular and shirtless, wearing only a blue jean vest. His tanned skin was covered in tattoos. Sunglasses were positioned on top of his head. His jet-black hair was oily and back.

“I need to borrow your bike,” Trevor said to the biker in a serious but monotone voice.

The biker turned and looked at his rider, a large-breasted, plus-sized woman with teased out blonde hair. Her tank top was two sizes too small; her tattoo covered breasts were spilling out of it. She took a long drag from a cigar, blowing the smoke in Trevor’s direction. The biker chuckled, and turned back to Trevor.

“You forgot the magic word,” he said.

“Please,” Trevor replied.

“Piss off!” the biker barked.

“It’s not a request,” Trevor said, glaring at the biker. “Look, I’d rather not embarrass you in front of your woman, but I need to borrow your bike. I’ll bring it back--- you know--- in a while--- hopefully.”

“Listen, asshole,” the biker began, pointing his finger at Trevor’s chest. “Back the fu…”

Trevor cut the biker off mid-sentence with a blow to the Adam’s apple. The biker grabbed his neck as Trevor pulled him off the Harley by the head of his hair. The Navy SEAL flashed the woman an icy stare, “Off,” he said. “Now.”

The woman looked at her boyfriend, now writhing on the ground holding his own neck. Her eyes widened in fear. She quickly dismounted. Trevor hopped on the bike and fired up the engine. He looked down at biker, still writhing in pain.

Two more bikers who had witnessed the incident approached Trevor. He stopped them in their tracks with an icy stare. One of the men looked at the SEAL, then at the fallen biker. Trevor shook his head at them. Both men backed away slowly. Trevor looked down at the fallen man.

“Try to relax,” he said. “I didn’t hit you that hard. You’ll be good as new in fifteen minutes… maybe thirty. With any luck, I’ll be back within an hour. If not, well… sorry.”

Trevor revved the engine and hit the gas, fishtailing before heading out. He began to systematically weave through the cars, trucks and motorcycles, looking for Barkley’s truck. He drove along the long line of cars and trucks moving at a stop-and-go crawl, waiting to leave the premises. He was just about to give up when he saw the black Ford making its way through the exit, turning right. The right turn seemed odd. The only road leading back to town was to the left.

Trevor revved the engine of the Harley and scooted past all the cars and trucks to the front of the line, drawing loud honks and screams of protests from others. He made his way through the exit and turned right to follow the Ford. He cut the headlight on the motorcycle hoping Barkley would not catch his presence in the rear-view mirror. The strategy failed. Within seconds of the Harley making the right turn the Ford began to speed up. Trevor flipped on the headlights and continued pursuit.

The truck was jacked up, forcing the rig to slow as it took sharp corners, allowing the Harley to catch up easily. Trevor pulled up alongside the black Ford. The driver’s side window was down.

“You’re not getting away, Barkley!” Trevor screamed. “You owe me answers. Pull over now.” The force of the wind made him nearly inaudible.

“Can’t do it, man!” Barkley screamed back, the wind all but muffling his reply as well. “If I give them up, they’ll kill me.”

“I’ll kill you if you don’t pull over,” Trevor screamed back.

The black Ford swerved left forcing Trevor off the road. The Harley ran into a ditch. Trevor struggled to maintain control. He almost wiped out but recovered at the last second. He made his way back to the road. Barkley turned right onto a small road that ran around Pines Lake.

The Harley pulled alongside the truck again, but this time not as far up as the cab. Instead, Trevor hung back, riding alongside the rear bed of the vehicle. Barkley caught sight of Trevor through the side mirror and again the black Ford swerved hard to the left. Trevor anticipated the move, however, and leapt from the motorcycle catching and holding onto the side of the truck bed as it swerved toward him. The driverless motorcycle spun out of control and rolled out of sight into the ditch.

Through the side mirror Barkley saw that Trevor was hanging onto the side of the truck bed. He swerved hard to the left and then to the right, trying to shake him. It didn’t work. Trevor managed to get one leg up over the side and hoisted himself into the truck bed.

Barkley swerved his truck violently once again, in an effort to dislodge his unwanted passenger. Trevor reached up and grabbed the luggage rack positioned on the top of cab and held tight. The violent swerving jerked his body back and forth but the luggage rack held fast.

Trevor then heard a loud blast. He looked down and saw a bullet hole in the rear windshield of the truck. Barkley had pointed his gun over his shoulder and recklessly fired at him through the rear glass while driving. From the position of the hole, Trevor saw that the bullet had missed hitting him in the side by mere inches. Feeling that the next shot would come at any second and that he might not be as lucky this time, Trevor used the luggage rack to brace himself and lifted his left leg, knowing that the glass would be weakened in the area of the bullet hole.

In a single powerful motion the Navy SEAL slammed his foot through the glass, hitting Barkley on his right shoulder in the process. Trevor grimaced as he felt broken glass cut into his leg. The power of the blow from Trevor’s foot slammed Barkley’s body to into the steering wheel forcing the truck to drift off the road toward the lake. Trevor pulled his leg from the window and held fast to the luggage rack on the top of the cab to avoid being thrown from the vehicle. Barkley tried to regain control but the heavy truck’s momentum sent it into the lake.

Trevor leapt from the truck into the water just prior to the crash. He felt the icy cold of the water as he slipped under for a few seconds. When he surfaced, he saw the cab of the truck was quickly filling with water, and the vehicle was rapidly sinking.

Trevor swam to the truck and dove as it submerged. The night sky was dark but a full moon afforded him enough light to see that Barkley appeared unconscious. Trevor opened the door and grabbed the man by the shirt and pulled him from the cab of the vehicle. A minute later he was dragging Barkley to the bank of the lake.

He slapped Barkley across the face, “Wake up, you son-of-a-bitch!” he yelled. He shook the man by his lapels. He hit the man hard on the chest.

Barkley spit water from his mouth and began coughing. He was laying on his back attempting to prop himself up on his elbows. Trevor stood and brought his foot down on the man’s chest, flattening him out.

“Hey man!” he screamed at Trevor. “You damn-near killed me.”

“I suppose shooting at me was your way of showing affection?” Trevor fired back. “Where is Orfali? Where is Honor?”

“Who’s Orfali?” Barkley replied, still breathing hard.

Trevor stood over Barkley and lowered himself, his knees resting on the man’s shoulders, preventing him from sitting up or moving his arms. He balled his fist and punched Barkley hard on his right cheek bone, “Wrong answer!” he screamed.

Barkley howled in pain, “Dammit! That hurt!” he screamed. “Look man, I can’t give them up. They’ll kill me.”

Trevor pulled the knife Paco had given him with his left hand and pointed it at Barkley’s face.

“You can take your chances with them or with me,” he said. “They have my fiancée. I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back, even if that means slicing small pieces of skin off your face until you talk.”

“Okay, okay,” he yelled. “I’ll talk.”

Trevor stood.

“So, you have met them?” Trevor said. “You’ve talked with them?”

“Yeah, I have,” he said. Trevor moved off him.

“Talk,” he said.

Barkley sat up on his elbows, trying to catch his breath. “They got here two days ago. A couple of my boys told me these A-rabs showed up in Yelm, all mysterious-like. We thought they were running drugs or guns or something in my territory, so my boys and I paid them a visit. I saw one of them in a coffee shop in downtown Yelm. I followed him into The Pines. They saw us though and confronted us about a mile out of town.”

“You thought you were going to flex your muscles and show them who was boss?” Trevor said. “I take it that didn’t work out well for you.”

Barkley sat up and nodded, “No, it didn’t. It was a bad idea,” he said. “These boys are very serious. Like you said, they are well-financed, and they have firepower.”

“They turned you around pretty quick?” Trevor asked.

“I had six of my best men,” he said. “They surrounded and disarmed us in seconds.”

“How many of them are there?”

“Don’t know for sure,” he said. “Ten… maybe… twelve? I don’t know. Maybe more. They arrived in four black vans. Paco saw them unloading equipment. They are well-armed. They had lots of other equipment too. Real space age stuff--- computers, cameras and monitors and things.”

It was worse than he thought. In the first attempts the kidnappers were relatively unprepared, bringing ten lightly armed, rather inexperienced men, not realizing Honor was with two Navy Seals. Orfali was taking no chances this time. The team with him was certainly well trained and heavily armed.

“Did you see my fiancée with them?” Trevor asked.

“No,” Barkley said. “They weren’t in much of a mood to share information. They said they had business in town and would only be here for a few days and then would be out of my town forever. They told me all they wanted was for me to keep my mouth shut and look the other way for a few days and all would be good. Then they made some pretty serious threats about what they would do to my organization, my town and my ass if I let anyone know they were there. I came away with a distinct feeling that this A-rab could back up all his threats.”

“Did they leave you a way to contact them?” Trevor asked.

“No,” Barkley lied.

“Where are they?” Trevor asked.

Barkley paused. Trevor touched the handle on his blade again. The bald man sighed and stood. He pointed over the water.

“Across the lake,” he said. “As the crow flies, you’re standing less than two miles from their cabin.”

He pointed to an area southwest of their current position.

“How do you know that?” Trevor asked.

“The guy who owns that cabin died a few months ago,” he said. “His son rents it out to hunters. His son also comes to my fights. He told me an A-rab just rented it yesterday--- cash money at three times the asking rate. Has to be them.”

Trevor looked across the lake. The full moon illuminated the bank on the other side, but all he saw were trees. A wave of emotion overwhelmed him momentarily. The love of his life could be a short distance away from where he stood and in the hands of terrorists. He wondered what they might be doing to her; how they were treating her.

He’d been on tours where women had been held hostage by groups like Orfali’s. He’d seen hostages subjected to atrocities and unspeakable acts of savagery. If he were risking only his own life, he’d find that cabin and take on the whole lot of them and end this here and now. But neither he or Honor would survive such a reckless, ill-advised attack. He swallowed hard, trying to suppress the anger building inside him. For Honor’s sake, he needed to keep a clear head.

“They’re pretty damn smart,” Barkley said.

“How so?” Trevor asked.

“They have people scattered about,” Barkley said. “They’ll know if anyone approaches in time to move your woman. My guess is they have good backup plans. They have a hacker, too, I heard. He’s plugged into the city’s camera systems. If a S.W.A.T. team gets within five miles of this place by air or land all they are going to find is a cloud of dust when they get here.”

Trevor considered the implications. His original idea was still the best plan. The operation needed to be covert, and he now had a couple of advantages. He knew how many there were and where they were.

“Do you know the area around that cabin?’ Trevor asked Barkley.

“Like the back of my hand,” Barkley replied. “Why?”

Good. Hold on. Trevor called Wolf.

“Talk to me,” Wolf said, answering on the first ring.

 “Wolf!” he said. “I know where she’s at.”

“How do you know?” he asked.

Trevor took him through what had happened.

“How’s your ankle?” Trevor asked.

“I don’t know,” Wolf said. “It’s swollen. I’m not mobile. I think it’s time to bring in the cavalry.”

“You mean call in the FBI or CIA?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“No,” Trevor said. “Absolutely not. I’m going in.”

“Wait!” Wolf screamed. “Without me? You can’t. It’s suicide.”

“Don’t call the cavalry, Wolf,” he said. “Orfali has the technology. They’re plugged into the city’s cameras. If any law enforcement begins to mobilize, he will know and Honor is dead. Promise me you will not call anyone in.”

“Boot, you need help. There was an outside chance with me, you and Snake together, but that’s gone.”

“Promise me, Wolf!” Trevor insisted.

The phone line went silent for a moment. Finally, Trevor heard a sigh.

“Okay,” Wolf said.

“It’s on me now. Thank you for everything.”

“Don’t be silly, Boot,” Wolf replied. “You can’t…”

“You’ve been a great friend to me, but I have to do this my way. Thanks Wolf.”

“Wait! Boot! Wait!”

The line went dead.

Trevor called Snake.

“I have good news and bad news, Snake,” he said.

“What’s the good news?” he asked.

“You are not going to have to play the role of Chris Carpenter after all.”

“Oh, yeah?” he responded. “What’s the bad news?”

“I could use a really good Navy SEAL. Wolf is laid up in the hospital. Our odds just got a lot worse, but I’m going in as planned. I need a man at my six. And I need those weapons you brought.”

“I’m in,” Snake said.

“But Snake…”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a one-way ticket, man.”

“Tell me where you are,” he said, without hesitation. “I’m on my way, and I have a surprise.”