Rehab 101

I have to take it easy, if I over do it my leg muscles spasm and I do more harm than good. Slow and easy is what I was told would do the job. I don't have time for slow and easy. I rest an hour and get back on.

I am ready to quit when I hear an airboat coming. It is Rick, Mike and Shirley. They are all grinning.

Everyone meets in the common room. There are four partners in on this camp and they each have rooms and baths of their own, the kitchen and the common room belong to all of them. It is very nice. Every thing here was hauled out on boats. They have permits from the Indian Reservation to use the launch ramp and pass through the reservation by car, truck, or boat.

Mike briefed us on the trip to the Indian Police. They really liked Chief Tommy Osceola. He was still holding the three men. The attorney had wanted to bail them all out and had the correct papers for Dade County filed with the court house. He was informed that they were not acceptable on the reservation and that an attorney licensed to appear before the tribal court was required to file the papers. Rick grinned, "The Chief told us that no matter what papers they brought him they were going to be wrong."

Mike continued saying that they had been able to listen to the three men and their attorney talking. The three and their attorney had been told that none of the people there spoke Spanish so they talked freely among them selves. Evidently the man they feared was called Antwahn.

The attorney said he was really pissed off that the first guy, had lost me. And that the other two had been so stupid as to carry when they tried to get him out. The attorney told them that someone called Big Nig was going to take Terry and Marie to my place to see if they could find out where I was. 'Marie'?

They also got names and addresses for the three goons, The two vehicles were registered to the same company. Escobar Import Export Inc. Two of the cell phones they were carrying were listed as belonging to an Antwahn Escobar at a Miami Beach address. Chief Osceola fitted each of them with a tiny bug that would enable us to hear whatever was said near them. He also put GPS transmitters and bugs on both vehicles. The Chief was also waiting for the complete rundowns on the three goons and Escobar to come in from the national crime computer.

The Chief had been briefed on some of our plans and given the background on the case. He wanted to help any way he could. He gave Mike a half dozen bugs and the recorders for them. The only problem was they had only about a five mile range. Rick figured that if we could get some of them in Escobar's house the boat PD lived on at the Marina was within range of Escobar's house and his business.

It was decided that PD would take me home that evening. I would have a small satellite radio to carry at all times. It looked like a Cell phone. It was also a GPS transmitter. I was also given a device to put in my house to turn on to wipe out the transmissions from the bugs in my house. I was only to leave it on for a few minutes at a time.

I was home by nine and got a beer and settled down for a lonely night. Ten minutes later the phone rang. It was Terry. She wanted to know where I had been. I told her an old buddy had taken me fishing. She wanted to know where. I changed the subject and asked when she could come to see me. She said she hoped it would be soon. I said I would tell her about the fishing then.She said, "tell PD I said hi!"

I replied, "When I see or talk to him again."

She said she would be in touch and hung up.

What was she trying to tell me? They knew who PD was. That was not unexpected. The clown who followed us would have called them first thing with PD's tag number. I would call the gang later and report it. I wondered if they had told her to tell me that to see if I would call and warn him. If we were up to something, that would be the first thing I would do. They couldn't know if I knew about the bugs. I wanted them to think I didn't know about the bugs. I called my brother Mike. I asked him if he had any ideas about how I could find Terry.

"Little brother, listen to me, forget her. She will get you killed. Did she tell you what they did to her? They told her three things would happen to her family if she didn't do what they wanted. All would happen at noon. The first day at noon her mother was coming home from the store. She heard a loud pop from under her car and then she had no brakes, She went right through a stop sign and hit another car. Not much damage.No one hurt. Do you remember 'Trousers' Terrie's old dog?.Yeah! Well the next day at noon there was a knock on the door. She opened the door nobody was there, then she looked down, Trousers was laying there with his throat slit. Dead. Terry left in a limo, we ain't talked to her since. They will sure as shit kill you boy, leave it be."

I said, "Thanks Mike."

I dug out the satellite radio. I turned on the bug transmission killer and hit the record button on the radio. I recorded a message telling them all I learned and suspected." I turned off the bug killer and hit the send button on the radio. It took one millisecond to send the message. On the other end the message would play out in normal speed.I crawled out on the front steps and sat and waited for a reply. I held the little radio to my ear. After a while it gave a faint beep. The message waiting light glowed softly. I pushed the play button and heard Rick's voice say they had received my message and were factoring in my info with what they had. They would get back to me in the morning. Things were starting to move a little. We would have to play it close to the vest until our plans were complete.

I saw headlights coming down the street. They slowed as they neared my house. It was a black limo. The back door opened and two women got outthere was a loud laugh and the door slammed shut and the limo drove off. I saw Terry and another girl standing looking at me. I turned and crawled back in the house. They followed me and shut the door. I turned on the recorder.

Terry looked at me and said, "this is Marie, she is my best friend. We can stay the night. You can make love to Marie but not to me," she sobbed.

"What do you mean?"

"I promised I wouldn't make love to you, so I could see you for a while."

"You made me a promise three years ago, what happened to that promise." Terry began to cry. She dropped to her knees and sobbed, her head on her legs. It was a brokenhearted wailing. I couldn't stand it. I looked at Marie, "Take her to the bathroom and she if she can stop crying, Please." As soon as the were out of sight I grabbed their purses and Terry's purse was made from large wooden beads and I pulled backing from the glue on a bug and stuck it where it looked like part of the purse. I had to just glue Marie's bug up inside the top where it couldn't be seen. When the women returned Terry was still sniffling. I held my hands up.

"It will be as you say, Terry, I am just happy to see you." Marie held her and comforted her. Marie looked at me, "She cries every day of her life over you. She loves you. This is how she keeps you alive. If she breaks her word, you die, slowly, while she watches."

"Why, why is someone doing this to her."

"To prove he is her master and that she must obey him."

"Then why are you here? To report back to him?"

" No, he doesn't trust her completely yet. She is locked."

"Locked?"

"Yes, he has had gold rings placed in her inner pussy lips, four of them, then small gold chains are secured by little gold locks so there is no way to enter her. He will know if they are tampered with. Then you die."

"Ha! Some master he is! He doesn't have the slightest idea of the obligations one takes on when they undertake to become a true master. The true master has the obligation to provide for the happiness and mental and physical well being of his slaves or pets. The use of threat or brute force shows only weakness and the true lack of ability to really control by force of will. This man is a weakling. He controls only women and weak or crippled men by fear and pain, truly a weak man himself. If he were a real master he would prove himself by going one on one against someone of equal strength. He will never do that. He will always have to have an advantage or a sly sneaky trick before he acts against another, proving he is weak and is incapable of being a true man. He does not have the sex appeal or attractiveness to get a woman with out using force, no woman would love him for himself."

Marie looked at me in horror. "You are a dead man. He will have you killed."

"You just proved my point, 'he will have me killed', not 'he will kill you.' He would be afraid to even try to kill a cripple in a wheel chair. A real coward."

Terry was looking at me in fear. I asked her, "could you ever love such a man? How about you Marie?No, don't answer. He couldn't stand the truth."

I looked at my Terry, "I love you, I don't want you hurt for me. I think it best you two go back to your master."I called a cab. They both were in tears as they left.

I stopped the recording. I pressed send. I slipped out the back door and scouted the area. There was no watcher in the back. I sat on the back porch and waited for and answer to themessage. I was using the ear plug this time and I heard the unit beep. I pressed 'play' and heard the message from my friends.

"Wow, you are really trying to get your self killed. We are about to move on that scum ball. It seems the Military Intel people are watching him too. They are sure he is involved in a scheme to sell Stinger Missiles to terrorists. Were you able to plant bugs on them? Our receivers are active now so we will pick them up. The bugs we put in the cell phones are paying off big time. Antwhan Escobar's house is under surveillance right now.We may be able to snap a trap on this guy in a day or so. Hang in there, we are crying with you buddy. Stand by for instructions tomorrow at noon. Out."

The next day at noon I was ready and listened on the ear plug to my directions, I made notes. I sent an acknowledgement.

I dialed a phone number I had been given. "Hey! Chuck here, I have some shit for you. I met with an old buddy of mine with the Cops, he said that the Feds are ready to raid Escobar's stash of missiles. They can't move for a bit. There is some shit about he and his house having diplomatic immunity or something. I'm pretty sure it's the same Escobar I am gunning for. They have to get that straightened out first, They may hit his stash though, to be sure they get the missiles. He said something about taking him down if he tries to get to his plane." I paused. "Yeah! He let Terry and some other gal stop over last night, They don't know nothing, they wouldn't tell me if they did, they are scared shitless of that asshole."

After dark I slipped out the back way after checking that the watcher was still out front. A car picked me up a block away. Sean Murphy drove. He said every thing appeared to be pulling together. Escobar had taken the bait and moved his missiles to his house. The strike against his house was to take place in the morning about three AM. He said he had a surprise for me. He told me to look in the back seat. I pulled the long case up front and knew what it was instantly. It was my sniper rifle from Desert Storm. I opened the case. Nothing had been touched since I had packed it up. I picked up ten of my custom hand loads and put them in my jacket pocket. The old girl felt good in my hands. She was not my choice for close work. But she would reach out and touch someone. Real hard. I could split a hair out to 1000 yards. Well, not quite that good, but I could put a killing shot on a man nine shots out of ten at that range. We crossed over the causeway to the Beach and headed north. We met six unmarked black vans in a parking lot behind a theater in the parking lot. At that time of the morning the theater was closed and the lot empty. We found the Ops van and listened as units reported in ready to go. An Army colonel told us everything was ready. We were at T minus thirty. I was shown where to set up as a sniper. I could see that from that location I would have complete coverage of the back of the house. That is the direction of most likely flight. There were boats and even a seaplane tied up in the back along the docks and the seawall. I asked for and got batteries for my night vision goggles and scope. I was issued a radio with a ear plug and boom microphone.

I was set up and ready about ten minutes early and got a good look at the sentries the bad guys had set up. They were not too good. They smoked and moved about too much. Very inept. I heard "Five Minutes" over the radio. At three minutes I saw dark shapes glide through the landscape foliage and near the sentries. At one minute I heard helicopters in the distance. Then came the count down to zero. I heard several soft pops and saw the sentries drop. Then there was a burst of automatic fire. Somebody missed a sentry.

Moments later there was yelling and more gunfire from the front of the house. A voice on the radio said, "They are heading for the back of the house. I could see people exit the house and move towards the dock. Flood lights suddenly illuminated the back of the house. The light blinded the night vision gear so I flipped it off.

A group of men came out of the house and exchanged fire with our guys. Several more men came out carrying bags and headed for the docks. I saw several forms exit the building from a side door. It was a man and several women. Ceasefire came the order on the radio.

The man and the women stepped into the light. The women were Terry and Marie. The man was using them as a shield. He held a gun in each hand pointed at their heads. They backed towards the dock. I had the cross hairs on his head but it was not a clear shot.

I yelled, "Antwhan, you asshole, now I will kill you and my cheating wife."

His eyes bulged and he swung the women towards me and fired a burst from his guns. As he fired I dropped my point of aim and feathered the trigger. The rifle slammed back into my shoulder, he dropped his guns and grabbed his groin.

I had just castrated him.

The women fell to the ground and were rushed away by some of our guys. The helicopters swooped in and men poured out. Men charged in from every direction. It was over.

I put the rifle in its case and walked to the front of the house. People were milling around every where. I saw Rick and Mike and went to them. They grabbed me and shook my hand. I thanked them for what they had done. I checked on Terry and Marie and found out they were being held for questioning. I called a cab and was delivered home.

Two hours later a Large SUV stopped in front of the house. I hobbled to the door. It was Rick, Mike, Keiko and Shirley.

They hugged me and wanted to know why I had disappeared. I told them I just wanted to think. I also wanted to be where Terry could find me if she wanted to.

We talked for a while and soon everyone was yawning. Rick and Mike said they would be right back. They came back in carrying a suitcase each. They made three more trips. There was a row of suitcases in the dining room. There were eight of them. Half were dark gray the balance were beige color.

Mike said, "The light colored cases belong to your wife and the girl she roomed with. They are filled with their clothes and jewelry and stuff. The others are yours. It is stuff we thought you could use. It was unclaimed. Here in this envelope is the paperwork legalizing it. You can sell some of it and put some money in the bank.

They all grinned at me. "Open one of the dark ones." said, Keiko.

I drug one out, It had to weigh eighty pounds. I unsnapped the latches and opened the case. It was filled with neatly wrapped bundles of fifty and one hundred dollar bills. There were also two canvas sacks on one side. I lifted one and untied the string around the top. I pulled the top open. I saw what appeared to be broken glass. I scooped some in my fingers and looked closer. Gems. I looked up. "Diamonds?"

"Yes, about fifty pounds of them."

"Holly shit! This is all mine?"

"Yes, everyone was trying to claim it for his agency. No one wanted the other agency to get their hands on it. We suggested that you had the best claim to it. Every one agreed, just so the other agency didn't get it."

"Any idea how much is here?"

Rick smiled, "Well Chuck, the best we can figure , on just the diamonds, at fifty pounds , figuring 1866 carats to the pound, 93,300 carats of diamonds. They wholesale at about $150.00 a carat. That comes to about $13,995,000.00, roughly. Or fourteen million. It is not my business, but if it were me, I would split those bags up and put some in safety deposit boxes around the state or country. Make a nice nest egg."

I just shook my head, I couldn't believe this. I was a millionaire, Wow! They all shook my hand or kissed me. Rick said I'll call you in the morning, meanwhile we are leaving a guard in front and one in back. Good men."

It seemed as if I were spending all my nights sitting on the front steps of my little house. It was cool and the stars were bright. I heard a car coming long before I saw it. It stopped in front, it was a cab. Two women got out and one paid the cabbie.

It was Terry and Marie. They stopped at the bottom of the steps and looked at me. I patted the steps on each side of me. They moved up and sat on each side of me. I looked at Marie, "Good Morning Marie, how are you? What do you want?"

She looked at me, tears were running down her cheeks, "Terry wants to know if we are welcome here. We want to thank you for saving us earlier."

I looked at Terry, "Good Morning Terry, how are you? What do YOU want?"

"I want to come home and be with you, but we don't know if we are welcome here?" Tears were running down her cheeks.

"You are always welcome here and so are your friends."

"You are not angry with me?"

"Why would I be angry with you? What did you do wrong?

You only did what you had to do to save the lives of the people you love. That includes me. I just want you back where you belong, if that is what you want too. I have never stopped loving you. I will always love you. Now you tell me about Marie."

"Chuckie, she is my best friend, she got me through this ordeal. She taught me to think about anything but what was going on, I learned to separate my body from my soul. She saved me when I wanted to die."

"Where is she from?"

"She really doesn't know. She was sold into slavery when she was about ten years old. She has been sold about five times. She has never been to school. She has no citizenship. We are scared for her. What will they do to her?"

"Terry, we will look after her, I will not let anything bad happen to her. I promise." They were both sobbing now. I put my arms around both of them and pulled them to me. I kissed Terry on the forehead and turned and saw Marie looking up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. I gently pressed my lips to hers. Her eyes flew open, I turned to Terry and blew on her face, her eyes opened and I tenderly pressed my lips to her lips. Her lips parted and I softly brushed my tongue between them. I didn't force my tongue, I pulled it back. She sighed and reached up and pulled my face to hers. She kissed me deeply, but there was no passion in the kiss. I knew she was having problems with her emotions. I would give her plenty of time to sort things out. I let them go and asked where they wanted to sleep. We all needed rest and time to sort things out. I told then to take the master bed room. I would find somewhere else to sleep. I showed them the cases full of their things. Terry got two gowns from her old drawer. They used the bathroom and went in the room and closed the door. After an hour I looked in on them, they were sound asleep. I sat in a chair and watched Terry sleep. She was very restless. Then she started crying in her sleep. Marie put her hand on her shoulder and she stopped crying and quietly slept. In a little while she started crying again and I picked up her hand and softly kissed it. She stopped crying. I kept holding her hand. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked at me and smiled. Her eyes closed and she went back to sleep. In the morning I woke up when she pulled her hand from me.