Dying Breath (Cobra Book 2) Page 19
“I hope to Christ you’re right,” he repeated. “Either way you should go into quarantine right away.”
“Yeah, unfortunately that’s not possible, sir. I need to clean this car, clean my room and get the hell out of Dodge. And you, with all due respect, need to make arrangements to intercept that ship before the Chinese get hold of it. If we have the vaccine instead of them, they won’t trigger the epidemic.”
He grunted. “I wish I shared your confidence.”
“Yeah, I wish I did, too.”
I hung up and took the car to a car wash. By the time I was done there wasn’t a particle in the car. I dropped it at a public parking lot and took a taxi back to my hotel. There I gave my room the same treatment as the hire car and called Scotty.
“What?”
“All good?”
“Ay, why not?”
“Where were you last night? I missed you?”
“I was at my favorite whorehouse, and I have six babes who remember it vividly. You remember when you’ve been with a Scotsman, y’know.”
“I believe you. If you’re ever in my part of the world, drop in and say hello.”
“I’ll do that, pal. Hang loose.”
“You too.”
I took a taxi to the airport and bought a first-class ticket to New York as William Fitzgerald. I had an anxious two-hour wait in the VIP lounge, but by three PM we were in the air and rising high over the southern Pacific Ocean. Somewhere down there, I thought, as the afternoon sun cast vast sheets of silver over the black water, somewhere down there was the cargo ship, headed for China, loaded with vaccines which, if they reached their destination, would trigger the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Probably millions.
I had my lunch, popped a sleeping pill with a large Scotch and allowed myself to slip into oblivion.
* * *
It was two AM by the time I opened the door to my small, blue clapboard house on Shore Drive at Eastchester Bay. I dropped my bag beside the sofa, dumped my coat on top and made my way to the kitchen. There I brewed some strong black coffee and laced it generously with Scotch. I had slept too long on the plane and my mind was buzzing. I made a ham and cheese sandwich and carried it and the coffee to the sofa. There I switched on the TV and turned to CNN.
The first scene to appear on the screen was a large cargo ship on the high seas. Alongside it was a US Navy ship. A man’s voice was speaking over the image.
“It is not clear yet precisely what’s happening, John, but it seems that just a couple of hours ago, the USS Buccaneer intercepted and boarded the Chinese vessel, Chénxīng, which, according to unofficial and unconfirmed sources, was transporting stolen cargo. It is quite extraordinary, John. I don’t think there is anything like this in recent history that we can compare it to, unless we turn to Cold War fiction, but that is the story so far...”
A second, female voice interrupted and the shot cut back to the studio where the anchors were sitting behind their desk. The woman was saying:
“In fact we are right now receiving a statement from AMBI, the American bio-chemicals giant, who tell us they will be holding a press conference later today. For now, Ms. Angela Goldbloom, director of research and development at AMBI, has issued a statement to the effect that an unspecified amount of a highly sensitive vaccine had gone missing from one of their warehouses at Rayong, in Thailand, and that intelligence received a suggestion that the vaccine had been loaded aboard the Chinese cargo ship, Chénxīng. It seems AMBI contacted the US authorities and, once the ship was in international waters, the USS Buccaneer was instructed to take action…”
I sighed and switched off the TV. Angela Goldbloom. Was that any better than Heilong Li? I didn’t know, but it depressed me all the same.
Fifteen minutes later the phone rang. I picked it up.
“Yeah?”
“Harry, it’s Buddy.”
“So in the end the bastards won anyhow, huh?”
“In this game the bastards always win, Harry. If they didn’t, there would be no need for Cobra.”
I gave a listless snort that didn’t quite make it to a laugh. “I guess.”
“How are you?”
“Fine.”
“You should see one of our friendly doctors.”
“I’m fine. I just need a few days off.”
“OK, but the first sign of anything…”
“I’ll go and see the doc. Don’t worry.”
“All right, get some rest. And, Harry?”
“Yeah, what?”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, sure. Take care, sir.”
Epilogue
Three days and two thousand miles later I was at Sulfur Springs again. I left my Jeep in the Roast Buck Eatery parking lot and scanned the other trucks there. It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. Rex Trent’s white Ford was parked not far from my truck. So I figured Rex Trent was inside. I hoped he was with his pal, Jacob.
I crossed the lot and pushed through the door. It didn’t take me long to spot him. He was sitting up at the bar with his lackey, and each of them had a beer on the bar in front of him. I crossed the floor until I was standing behind Trent. He heard me and he could feel me, but he didn’t look around.
“Good morning, Mr. Trent.”
Now he turned to look at me, slow, taking his time. “Do I know you, son?”
“I explained to you last time we met, that I am not your son. We have met, yes, but I don’t believe you know me. If you did, you would not have stolen my elk.”
Now he turned fully around on his stool and leaned his elbows on the bar. Jacob turned with him, grinning, anticipating fun.
“Now, let me see if I understand you…son, are you callin’ me a thief?”
“You owe me a bull elk. I am happy to take the going price. But you should know that I do not plan to leave Sulfur Springs without either my elk or due payment in cash.”
They looked at each other and laughed. I said:
“And there is another thing: when we last met you threatened to kill me. I am going to need either an apology, or for you to make good on that threat.” The smile faded from his face and his eyes became dangerous. I pressed him a little more. “So that will be three hundred dollars and an apology.”
He telegraphed the right cross well in advance. I stepped to the left and drove my right fist deep into Jacob’s gut while Trent stumbled off his stool, drawn by the weight of his punch. I grabbed Jacob’s hair with my left hand and smashed my right fist into his jaw. His legs turned to jelly, I let him drop to the floor and turned.
Trent was charging me, his arms wide for a crushing bear hug. I could have given him a straight right to the jaw, but I didn’t want him unconscious. I wanted him hurting. So I drove that straight right into his nose instead. I felt the cartilage crunch under my knuckles, and the warm gush of blood. He staggered back. His eyes were wide with pain and his hands cupped over nose and mouth. I stepped in close and drove my fists, right, left, right, hard into his floating ribs.
He dropped to his knees, vomiting profusely onto the floor. I took a handful of his permed gray hair and dragged him stumbling to his feet again. Holding him there, I turned to look around me. There were maybe a dozen people, seated at tables and at the bar, all staring, expressionless. A couple might have been tourists, but I figured most were locals.
I spoke loud, looking at them all: “You going to kill me, Rex?”
He was wheezing badly, his hands flailing. “Please don’t hit me anymore, please…”
“I asked you a question, Rex. You threatened to kill me. Are you going to make good on that threat and kill me, Rex?”
“No, no, of course not!”
“Then I am going to need an apology.”
“I’m sorry, please don’t hit me again. I am sorry. I apologize.”
“And now I am going to need three hundred bucks for the elk you stole from me.”
His bottom lip was quivering and he started to cry as
he fumbled in his jacket and pulled out his wallet. I watched him pull out three hundred bucks and hand them to me. I took them from his fingers and stuffed them in my back pocket. Then I let go of his hair and grabbed a fistful of his collar, dragged him close up to my face and snarled.
“Now, I am going to be here next season, and I had better not hear any stories about Rex Trent terrorizing hunters and townsfolk, or I am going to come looking for you, and next time, asshole, I will not be so gentle. Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes…”
“Mr. Bauer.”
“Yes, Mr. Bauer.”
I dumped him in a chair and stepped outside into the early September sun. I crossed the parking lot to my Jeep and stood looking up into the mountains. I am no philosopher, but the mountains have a way of making a man ask himself questions, the kind of questions that have no easy answers; or maybe no answer at all. Right then I was thinking about the elk, and the coyote and all the animals that live in the wilds. And I wondered, what kind of god creates a world where the only way to survive is by eating other living creatures? What kind of god creates a world where the only way to live is by killing?
I didn’t know the answer. Maybe there was no answer. But one thing I did know was that my destiny on this Earth was to fight and to kill, like the wild animals in the forest. That would be the way, until I took my final, dying breath.
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Also By Blake Banner
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DEAD COLD MYSTERY SERIES
An Ace and a Pair (Book 1)
Two Bare Arms (Book 2)
Garden of the Damned (Book 3)
Let Us Prey (Book 4)
The Sins of the Father (Book 5)
Strange and Sinister Path (Book 6)
The Heart to Kill (Book 7)
Unnatural Murder (Book 8)
Fire from Heaven (Book 9)
To Kill Upon A Kiss (Book 10)
Murder Most Scottish (Book 11)
The Butcher of Whitechapel (Book 12)
Little Dead Riding Hood (Book 13)
Trick or Treat (Book 14)
Blood Into Win (Book 15)
Jack In The Box (Book 16)
The Fall Moon (Book 17)
Blood in Babylon (Book 18)
Death in Dexter (Book 19)
Mustang Sally (Book 20)
A Christmas Killing (Book 21)
Mommy's Little Killer (Book 22)
Dead Cold Box Set #1: Books 1-4 (SAVE 40%)
Dead Cold Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (SAVE 25%)
Dead Cold Box Set #3: Books 9-12 (SAVE 25%)
Dead Cold Box Set #4: Books 13-16 (SAVE 25%)
Dead Cold Box Set #5: Books 17-20 (SAVE 25%)
THE OMEGA SERIES
Dawn of the Hunter (Book 1)
Double Edged Blade (Book 2)
The Storm (Book 3)
The Hand of War (Book 4)
A Harvest of Blood (Book 5)
To Rule in Hell (Book 6)
Kill: One (Book 7)
Powder Burn (Book 8)
Kill: Two (Book 9)
Unleashed (Book 10)
The Omicron Kill (Book 11)
9mm Justice (Book 12)
Kill: Four (Book 13)
Death In Freedom (Book 14)
Endgame (Book 15)
Omega Box Set #1: Books 1-4 (SAVE 25%)
Omega Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (SAVE 25%)
Omega Box Set #3: Books 9-12 (SAVE 25%)
Omega Box Set #4: Books 13-15 (SAVE 33%)