Brute Force

Chapter 45

Counting Joey Benavides, there were nine bodies on the boat by the time Thibodaux and Miyagi made it to the hatch outside where Ronnie was being held. But for the guard on the top deck, Miyagi had taken care of all of them with her sword. Thibodaux, a man who had taken many lives himself since joining the Marine Corps was still amazed by the deadly, machinelike grace this woman displayed in battle.

They’d seen Garcia on the monitor and knew she was alone behind the hatch with Agent Walter. The image was fuzzy and they couldn’t be sure what he had in his hand, but it looked like a knife. Whatever he held, Walter was still oblivious to the fact that he had no more friends on his boat.

Miyagi shoved open the hatch, allowing Thibodaux in first with his weapon since silence was no longer an issue. Walter stood with his back to the hatch. Garcia was directly behind him, arms above her head, attached to a four-foot metal bar. There was too big a chance that the 10mm bullets would rip through Walter’s body and hit her for Thibodaux to shoot. Stepping forward enough to let Miyagi in behind him, he dropped to one knee and raised the muzzle of the H&K upward, releasing a burst of a half-dozen rounds at the pulley that held the handcuff bar suspended.

Ronnie rolled her eyes upward at the creak of the opening hatch, vaguely wondering which of the guards had come to watch the show. Through the mental haze of her torture, she saw a familiar eye patch — but out of context, she couldn’t place it. When Emiko Miyagi flowed in next like the unstoppable force that she was, Ronnie felt her heart begin to race. Adrenaline flooded her limbs. Reanimated, her head snapped up and she spat a mixture of blood and bile into Agent Walter’s eyes. She didn’t care if he hit her again, as long as his attention was toward her and not the hatch.

She could see Thibodaux over Walter’s shoulder and watched him take a knee as he aimed the H&K. Gunfire rattled the room. Brass clattered against the metal deck. The cable above her head gave a loud twang as it parted under the barrage of lead.

Ronnie collapsed on top of Walter as he fell backwards, bashing him in the face again and again with the bar. The first blow separated his nose at the bridge, peeling it downward so hung more off than on. Subsequent blows broke several teeth. Screaming in a voice an octave higher than before, he tried to throw her off, but Miyagi pinned him to the deck with an extremely painful but non-life-threatening sword through his shoulder above the collarbone. Jacques stood on the opposite hand while he bent to release Ronnie from the cuffs.

Ronnie screamed through the pain in her shoulders as she snatched up the fallen syringe and held it above Walter’s eye. Her hand shook. Her chest heaved. Every fiber of her body wanted to kill him and be done with it.

“Tell us what you know about Drake and McKeon,” she said, a line of spittle dangling from her lips as she looked down at this man who’d been about to rape and murder her. Fury alone helped her keep a grip on the syringe.

Walter shook his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.

“Who’s running them?” She pressed the tip of the needle against his eyelid with a trembling hand, bringing a flood of tears. “What’s their endgame?”

“McKeon hates the President,” Walter all but shrieked. He panted, regaining a measure of his composure. “They’re not working on anything together. I can swear to that.”

Thibodaux stomped on the man’s wrist. “Cochons!” he spat. “Quit tellin’ us what they ain’t doing.”

“Okay, Okay…” Walter nodded quickly, catching his breath. “I know McKeon and his wife are running the show.”

“You mean the Japanese girl?” Miyagi ground her blade back and forth in the wound to get his attention.

Walter clenched his eyes at the new wave of pain. “The scary tatted one?” He shook her head. “No. You’d think he was with her as much as she’s with him, but he and his wife… they have some seriously long talks.”

“And you know this how?” Thibodaux asked, raising the brow on his good eye.

“He thinks his burner phone is secret.” Walter took a deep breath. “Knowing things, keeping tabs… it’s what I do. Life insurance. You know?”

“So what’s their plan?” Ronnie said. She was fading fast and was afraid she might pass out at any moment.

“I’m not up on the phone all the time,” he said, blowing blood-bubbles out the wound in the bridge of his nose. “I just listen in… now and again. He talks to someone in Pakistan, I can tell you that much.”

“You’re going to have to tell us a lot more than that,” Ronnie said.

“I will,” Walter said. “I swear it. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“Oh,” Ronnie said, injecting the contents of the syringe into the man’s neck. “I know you will.”

She fell into Thibodaux’s arms while Miyagi rolled the drug-addled Walter onto his belly and handcuffed him behind his back.

Ronnie felt her eyes sag. “Senator Gorski,” she said, looking up at Jacques and forcing herself to stay focused. “Did you find her?”

Thibodaux nodded. “Monitors up top show several prisoners in cells on the lower deck. I’m pretty sure one of them is her.” He looked hard at Ronnie. “What’s that stuff you just gave him?”

“Krokodil,” she said, regretting the hasty action. “I know I shouldn’t have taken the risk.”

“Hell, one dose won’t kill him.” Thibodaux helped her to her feet, nodding to the dead GQ in the corner. “That your doing?”

Garcia tried to stand, nearly passing out from the searing pain in her shoulders. The episode with GQ seemed ages ago. Out of habit, ingrained from months of training, she took a deep breath and stooped to find the Snake Slayer where it lay just inside the hatch.

“Looks to me like you went easy on Walter,” Thibodaux said. He put a big hand on her shoulder. “You good to go, kiddo?”

Garcia flipped up the derringer’s twin barrels, checking to see that it was still loaded with one shell before aiming it at Walter’s belly for a moment of fantasy. “I’m walking off the boat with this piece of shit in chains.” She prodded Walter with her bare foot to make sure he saw her with the pistol. “I am outstanding.”