A New Dawn Ch. 05

"No need to get nasty," I said. "What do you mean, you've got them?"

"I mean that we've kidnapped them for ransom. You get the honor of being the ransomer. You're gonna pay me ten million dollars to get them back."

"You can't be serious. I don't have that kind of money," I lied.

"Not you, asshole. Your company."

"Richard IS the company," I said.

"That's right, he is, and that's why you're gonna pay to get him back. Ten million is chicken feed to you guys. You should be thankful that I'm not asking for more. He'll make it all back in a week. If you pay, that is. If you don't, we're going to chop them up and throw them in the river."

I looked at Meyer, who was looking back at me. We both knew that kidnappings rarely ended well, even when the ransom was paid. Kidnappers were too afraid that the victims could identify them, or were just too busy to be bothered with returning them when killing them was so much easier.

"I need proof that you have them and that they're okay."

"Figured you would," he said. There was a brief pause and then Richard Morrison was on the line.

"Hello, Johnny," he said.

"Hi boss," I said. "How are they treating you?"

"So far, so good. I authorize you to pay them," he said, knowing that I had absolutely no access to his money.

"Okay," I said. "Who do I make the check out to?"

Another pause, then: "Real funny, asshole. You've got your proof. Morrison says it will take you three days to turn stocks into cash. You've got one. Write down this account number." He spoke some numbers, an ABA bank identifier and an account. "The money goes there. I'll need it to arrive by midnight tomorrow, please. Or else."

"Got it," I said. "But if I liquidate that much of the fund, the market will know it almost instantly." I was guessing here, but it seemed like something a Johnny Dawn would say.

"That's your problem," he said.

I thought fast. "I'm going to need a phone number," I said. "I'm going to call at random times to make sure that Richard and Cyndi are still okay."

"Sure," he said. "I have throwaway cell phones and after this call we'll never be on long enough for a trace. Oh, and no cops, of course. I'll know if you call the cops in, and if you do it'll be chunks in the river."

"Okay," I said. "Deal. Just don't hurt them."

"Good boy," he said. He gave me a cell phone number to call next and hung up.

"So much for paper cuts," Meyer said. "What are you going to do?"

"First, I'm going to call Barker. Then I'm calling Buddy."

"Rescue mission?"

"Seek and destroy mission."

Meyer sighed. "I'm in," he said.

I dialed Barker's house, still on speakerphone. Tina answered.

"Hello, stud," she said. "I'm naked and aroused and only 15 minutes away. What are you going to do about it?"

Meyer rolled his eyes.

"Tina, I'm in trouble. I need Thomas."

She was instantly all business. "Wait one," she said.

Then: "Johnny. What's up?"

"You know all kinds of people in the electronics world. Do you know anyone who could figure out the location of a cell phone I have the number for?"

Silence for a while. "Maybe," he said. "Actually, I'm almost positive I do. Let me make a call and get right back to you." He broke the connection. I immediately dialed my friend Buddy Magellas.

"Impressive," Meyer said. "You did the 'I'll need a number to call' thing so you could track them down."

I nodded. "Best I could come up with on short notice."

"Pretty goddamned good."

The phone rang and as usual Jen answered. "Hello, lover," she said.

"Really, Johnny?" Meyer said. "Is there anyone you haven't fucked?"

"Meyer? Good to hear your voice! Haven't seen you in like forever," Jen said.

"Same here, Jen," he said.

"Johnny and I haven't had sex, Meyer. I've tried everything I know to make it happen. I'm starting to think maybe Johnny is gay. He's got some excuse about not wanting to cheat on his buddy Buddy."

In the background I heard, "You can have her!" Then a short scuffle and giggles.

"Backup," I said.

The scuffling stopped. Then Buddy's voice, serious now. "Talk to me."

"Kidnapping. Friends of mine. They think I'm the money mark."

"Ransom operation?"

"Seek and destroy."

"Fuck, you know I'm in, Bro."

In the background I heard, "Me too, this time, you bastards!"

"Yes, you are," I said. "Personal protection detail. They might know where I live. I need you to stay with my women while Buddy and I go hunting."

"Buddy and Meyer and you," Meyer said. I looked at him. He hadn't been in the Rangers like Buddy and me, but there was nobody I trusted more to have my back.

"Right," I said.

Jen grumbled about her assignment but agreed. She asked if I was willing to pay so she could bring her partner along. I thought about it. He was openly gay, but nobody gave him any shit about it. We had sparred several times and he could almost take me. I had taught him a few things and he picked it up quickly and I wasn't looking forward to our next sparring match. He was also perhaps the best shot with a handgun that I knew.

"No problem," I said. "As long as he can keep his mouth shut. This is going to be off the books."

"I trust him," Jen said. And that was enough for me.

"I gotta go," I said. "Barker's calling me. I'm hoping he can help me find them."

"Rog, out," Buddy said. "We'll be there in half an hour."

I pressed the button. "Rand," I said.

"I've got your guy," Barker said. "What's it all about?"

I told him.

"Well, he's in San Francisco. I can get him and his equipment here within two hours."

"How much will I owe you?" I said.

"Shut the fuck up," Barker said mildly. "Anyway, the next time you call them he'll be able to tell what network they're on and which cell tower is handling the call. And when they give you the new cell phone number, as long as it's on the same network it'll register with that cell tower and we'll be able to figure out where it is with pretty good certainty. Smart, the way you set that up."

"I just hope it works," I said.

"It'll work. What else do you need? I don't know how to help you do your job but I do have a big crapload of money."

I thought hard. "Helicopter?"

"Done. What else?"

We were going to take them in the dark, wandering around on terrain we hadn't scouted. "Might your friend have night vision goggles, or the kind of headphones that SWAT guys or SEALS wear?"

"No, but I know who does. You'll have it by the time the phone equipment gets here. What else?"

This was like a candy store for warriors. "Three silenced handguns. 9 millimeter or bigger."

Silence. Then: "This isn't strictly a police operation, is it Johnny?"

"Nope."

"Who was kidnapped?"

"Richard Morrison and his wife."

"Richard Morrison, the fund manager?"

"That's right."

"Goddammit! They're friends of mine. Guess where a big chunk of my money is invested. Shit. I know a guy who can get you what you need, I think. No records."

"They've gotta be throwaways," I said.

"They will be," Barker said.

"Thanks for all of this."

"Teach me to fight like you and we'll call it even."

"Deal," I said. "One last favor?"

"Name it."

"They might know where I live. Would it be okay if my girls and a protection detail stayed with you until this is over?"

"That's not a favor. You and your girls are welcome here any time, you know that."

"Thomas, they'll have a 16 year-old girl with them. She's still pretty innocent."

"We'll keep our clothes on."

"You don't have to do that, just keep her away from sex."

"You got it. Bye."

I hung up.

"Good friend to have," said Meyer.

"Yes," I said. Very."

This had all happened in a very short period of time. The girls were still in the bedroom, giggling about something or other.

"I'll have to tell them," I said. "And you have to call Georgia."

"She's better off not knowing."

"No, she's not. If things go bad you might not be coming back to her, or you might wind up in jail."

His eyes widened as he thought it through. This was perhaps the first time that Meyer had ever operated outside of the law.

"Shit just got real," he said.

"Fuckin' A," I said.

While Meyer called Georgia I went up to my bedroom to talk to the girls. Dawn, Jay, and Mary Beth hadn't made much progress; they were all still nude. The floor was littered with women's clothing and Laura was twirling around amidst it, modeling one of Jay's little black dresses. Dawn looked at me and the smile instantly left her face.

"What?" she said.

I sat them all down on the bed and told them. Their arms went around Laura as she reacted with shock to the news that her parents had been kidnapped. Meyer walked in and sat down.

"What are you going to do?" Mary Beth said. "Are you calling in the troops?"

"In a manner of speaking," I said. "The kidnappers said they would know if the police were involved. And that's possible. If that happens, and the kidnappers find out about it, they'll kill Laura's parents. So I'm not involving the police. Buddy, Meyer, and I are going to track them down. Thomas Barker is getting us the equipment to do it."

"What are you going to do when you find them?" Jay said.

"Free Laura's parents. Kill everyone else."

"Good," said Laura. There were tears streaming down her face. This was perhaps one of the most surreal moments of my life: my three beauties on our bed naked, hugging Laura, who was dressed to kill in a little black dress, while I talked about the possible death of her parents and what I planned to do to their kidnappers, as Meyer looked on.

"Get dressed," I said. "I'm worried that they might know where I live. Jen's coming over and taking you to Barker's house. You'll ride it out there until it's over."

My girls got up and one by one hugged me and kissed me, then went to Meyer and did the same. Nothing sexual, just an expression of love, and a last connection in case we didn't come back to them. We'd done this too many times for my comfort level. Laura watched them, then stood up and came to me and threw her arms around me and kissed me on the lips.

"Thank you, Johnny," she said. "Please bring my parents back to me."

"You got it, kid," I said. She went to kiss Meyer but he wrapped her in a bear hug and kissed her on the forehead instead. He wiped her tears away and rubbed her back.

"Johnny's pretty good at this, kid," he said. "You keep your chin up while we're gone."

Everyone was dressed and ready to move by the time Buddy and Jen showed up with Jen's partner Robbie. Laura had been overwhelmed with the emotion of the situation and had run to the bathroom to throw up. Dawn was in there helping her.

I shook Robbie's hand and thanked him for coming. "You know you can't tell anyone about this," I said.

"Tell anyone about what?"

"Good deal," I said.

"But as payment, I get to have sex with you."

I stared at him. He looked serious, and I knew from past experience that he was attracted to me. It was Jen who cracked up first, and that made Robbie start laughing too. A little joke at my expense.

"Fuck, Bro, you looked like you were gonna keel over," Buddy said, laughing.

I recovered quickly. "Naw," I said. "I was just evaluating the situation as a value proposition. Anal is out, Robbie, but I think a couple of blow jobs might be in order."

His mouth hung open.

"I want to see that," said Mary Beth.

"I meant from you," I said. "Robbie can close his eyes and pretend you're Brad Pitt."

"Okay," Mary Beth said.

"Crap, you really know how to turn a joke around," said Robbie.

Dawn and Laura came in and we cut the sex banter. My girls hugged Robbie while Jen hugged Laura and told her that she could count on me, Buddy, and Meyer. Everybody was telling Laura that.

No pressure.

Because of the number of people involved I drove us in Jay's limo to Barker's house. The electronics guy was already there. So were the guns. I shook hands with Barker.

"That was fast," I said.

"Leased jet to Van Nuys," he said. "Helicopter to Santa Monica. It's waiting for you there."

"I don't know how to thank you."

"Get them," he said.

"Count on it."

Everybody met everybody. Jen and Robbie went off to familiarize themselves with the grounds and the alarm system. Tina came to me and gave me a hug.

"Hi, hero," she said.

I hugged her back. She felt good. "Hi your own self," I said.

She pushed back and looked into my eyes. "I know we joke about it, but I really do want you."

"I want you too, Tina."

"But it's never going to happen, is it?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes. "Jealousy is a terrible thing," she said. "You two are so liberal... how can you be so jealous, too?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you need to work it out. We could all be on the same bed. I could hold hands with Tommy and you could hold hands with Dawn."

I pictured it in my head. It might work. Then again, I might kill him.

"I dunno," I said. "It might destroy the sexual tension between us. Maybe we should concentrate on enjoying that while it lasts. It doesn't happen often the way our mates let us play with anyone we're attracted to."

"True enough," she said, and hugged me tightly. "But my God, the pressure is building. The things I want to do to you, Johnny. The things I want you to do to me."

This wasn't helping my resolve. I reached up to push her away and somehow my hands magically wound up on her tits. She gasped. She was braless under a thin dress and she felt good. Very good.

"Sorry," I said. But I hadn't moved my hands.

"I'm not," she said. "Keep doing that."

I gave her tits a gentle squeeze and then let go. "I can't," I said. "I have people to kill."

She stared at me. "You're serious," she said.

"Deadly serious," I said. "They're going to kill that nice couple unless I can find them and kill them first."

"Okay, stud. Get to work. But make sure you bring yourself home safe." She kissed me softly on the lips and walked away. I turned and saw Dawn staring at me. Fuck.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"No need to be," she said. "You want her. I've already told you that you can have her. It would be hot to watch. The thing that's stopping you is in your head."

"Barker and I agreed..."

She threw her hands up in the air. "Jealousy! Do you think me having sex with him would dirty me for life in your eyes?"

"No," I said.

"I was coming out to the kitchen and stopped when I heard you tell Meyer to proposition me. Do you really want me to have sex with Meyer?"

"No, but it would be okay."

"But not with Thomas."

"No."

"And that's why you won't have sex with Tina?"

"Yes. No. Shit. Partly. I know how Thomas feels about her. I couldn't do that to him. It's the same way I feel about you. I would marry you if I could, and send everyone else away and live the rest of my life trying to make you happy."

A lone tear rolled down her cheek as she looked at me. "You would send Mary Beth and Jay packing?"

"It would be very hard, but yes."

"As if I'd let you," she said as she caressed my cheek.

Barker cleared his throat behind me. I had no idea how long he'd been there.

"Peter wants to explain the equipment to you," he said.

"Right," I said. "Gotta go, Sweetie." I gave Dawn a hug.

"I love you," she whispered in my ear. "And I always will, no matter what."

"Right back at you, lover," I said, and walked away from her.

"Those two women are trying to wear us down," Barker said as we walked.

"Yep."

"I've got your back, though."

"And I've got yours," I said. "What do you think our chances are?"

He stopped. "Over the long haul? I think we're toast."

"Me too," I said. "I like you a lot. It'll be a shame to have to kill you."

"It'll be a shame to be dead."

We shook hands and walked in to get our equipment briefing.

--------------------

We were all dressed in black. We kicked Thomas' pilot out and let Buddy fly the chopper. The fewer people who knew about this mission, the better. Buddy was rusty. We lurched all around. I thought Meyer was going to barf.

"You think you can maybe fly straight?" I said.

"Maybe," said Buddy. "I've never flown one of these before. She's a little touchy." We were heading inland and really had no idea which way to go yet.

Meyer looked green but he was working the equipment. "Got the network he called you from," he said. "And the location of the new phone. Buddy, fly one-eight-zero."

We banked right. I stared at Meyer.

"What?" he said. "I watch war movies. He looked at the screen again. "We're close," he said. "Maybe 50 klicks."

I rolled my eyes. "Klicks?"

"Just let me enjoy the moment, asshole, all right?"

Buddy talked over the radio to someone about intended altitude and heading. He had filed what he called a "joyride/check flight" flight plan, meaning that he could go basically anywhere as long as he used the right airspace. We were soon over the mostly dark hills east of Irvine.

"Getting pretty close," Meyer said. I could see only one place on our heading that it could be. It was a big chunk of land and lights were on at the house. Buddy pushed it down hard before we got close enough to alert them. The landing was perfect. We sat there until the rotor noise went away.

"You should call," Meyer said.

I put my cell on speakerphone and dialed.

"Johnny Dawn! What's happening?"

"Let me talk to them."

"How rude. You don't want to talk to me at all?"

I was silent.

"Fine. Ron, bring her in here."

Silence for a while. Then: "Johnny? Johnny, please get us out of here. Please help us, Johnny!"

"Yes, please help them, Johnny," I heard the asshole mimic in the background. There was a scuffle for the phone and then the connection went dead.

Meyer was looking at his equipment. "That's the place, all right," he said.

"And that was the sound of a woman in serious distress," I said. "I don't know what's happening but it's more than just being held captive. Let's roll."

We put on the radios and checked them. Then I pulled the guns out of a gym bag: NATO 10mm semi-automatics with silencers. I hadn't asked Thomas where they'd come from and he hadn't volunteered the information. Better not to know.

I looked at Buddy. This was going to be tough.

"You're not coming," I said.

"The fuck?"

"You can't come. You're the only one who can fly this thing. You get killed, we're all in seriously deep shit."

"Aww, man, no! Please, Johnny!"

"Sorry, Bro. Is what it is. Meyer, you ready? We gotta go. Cyndi sounded bad."

"Ready," Meyer said.

"Fuck, you better come back safe. Or Jen will kick my ass."

"That's the plan," I said.

--------------------

Meyer was in pretty good shape. We moved quickly across the dark terrain and made our way to the house we'd seen from the air. We were surrounded by dark farmland. I started worrying about what might have happened to the owners of the farm. We ran up to the front of the house and hunkered by the wall in the dark.

"Take the back," I said. "I'll go in the front. Shoot anything bad that comes out your way."

"Okay," Meyer said, and moved off into the night.

I worked my way across the front of the house and stopped next to an open window. A woman was in there, screaming and fighting. I took a breath and stood up and looked into the room. Cyndi was naked on a bed. A large man was on top of her, thrusting into her. Richard Morrison was on the floor next to them. His arms and legs were bound with plastic ties and his mouth was covered with duct tape. He was fighting to get up to help his wife. He looked like he might be about to have a stroke.

Good call this time, I thought. They were going to kill these two for sure.

"She feels good," the man who was raping Cyndi said. "Nice and tight. She's gonna make me cum real hard."

Richard banged his head into the hardwood floor. I heard him moaning through the duct tape. Cyndi was fighting with everything she had, but the guy was just too big for her.