The Shack: An Unstoppable Man

With me stuck in the chair, Sheree walked over and took the folders from Tara. Sheree smiled delightedly but didn't say a word.

Delaney echoed my deep breath and gave a not-very-convincing smile. "What he said." She stopped and focused on Benjamin. "You hurt her, Benjy, and I swear to God, they'll never even find your fucking body."

That, at least, sounded convincing.

Tara's reaction caught me off guard. She just smiled a little softly as she looked at him. "I did warn you. They're a little overprotective."

He didn't even look disturbed. "I can live with that."

I studied him for a moment. He was too damn clean-cut, way too goddamn earnest. He actually meant well. I looked at Delaney. "Jesus, we have a lot of work to do with this one."

She looked at him in mock horror. "I know, he's like a good guy or something." She shivered in revulsion. "I didn't think those even really existed. I thought they were like unicorns or something."

Ben had a flicker of amusement, but Tara ignored our comments. "I think we have a pretty good idea of what's going on." She looked over at us. "Delaney's inheritance? It's actually a bounty on her head."

"What?" Both Delaney and I said it at the same time.

"We found an account list in his papers. It totals to just over a hundred thirty-five million dollars. If Delaney dies, the money goes to a Croatian unregistered trust. It looks like the ownership of the trust passes to different entities. Could be people or organizations."

I eyed her. "And who would that be?"

Benjamin answered. "We don't know. I'm pretty sure we can chase that all we want and never get an answer. But the ownership passed to William Douglas Halston three months ago and passes to the next owner in three years and nine months. And it will transition to someone new every four years after that."

I looked at him. "That's legal?"

"Judge Knowlton's staff looked into it. It's legal. Nothing says that the holder of the trust has to kill Delaney; they could just sit and do nothing."

"But we don't know who."

Tara nodded. "We don't know. But I'm betting this isn't a good thing."

Benjamin looked at her. "Not if Halston is an example of the type of people who will get it."

"So I'm worth a hundred thirty-five million dollars dead." Delaney's eyes widened, and she made a sound that might have been a suppressed laugh.

"To some really bad people." Stratton had his agent face on as he looked at all of us in turn.

"And my old school principal said I'd never amount to anything." Delaney fell back with a slightly unhinged giggle.

"This is some kind of fucked-up game that Calloway set up." Tara slapped another folder down.

"No...no." Delaney sat up. "No. He meant what he said. Darwin."

"Darwin." I looked at Delaney. She'd understood before I had. "That son of a bitch set it up as a fucking test."

Delaney's lip curled in a snarl. "Worthy. That old fucker wanted to make sure I'm worthy."

I closed my eyes for a moment. "That's why he bought that platinum-plated health insurance for her and ensured she could take any classes she wants. He wanted to make sure she was at the top of her game for this."

Sheree pursed her lips and adjusted her glasses, looking over the stack of papers. "Billy didn't get the papers for the ownership of the trust until after they shot up the salvage yard. That's why he protected Delaney and went after Adidas. He didn't want to risk losing the money on a technicality."

Delaney grimaced. "Shit. I thought he liked me, at least a little."

I shifted myself in the chair; the damn leg was going to hurt for a long time. "I think he did, as much as he liked anyone. But that wasn't going to stop him from getting the money."

"So what do we do?" Tara stared through the table.

I leaned back. "We make sure she's worthy."

Sheree nodded thoughtfully.

The agent looked at Delaney for a moment then back at me. "What does that mean?"

I looked up at the ceiling. "We're in the jungle now."

Delaney completed it for me. "And if you're in the jungle, you're in the food chain."

Both Tara and her newly minted boyfriend looked at us, puzzled.

I snorted and looked at them. "First rule of the jungle."

"Don't be food." Delaney's answer was harsh and flat. "Or be a porcupine. Be so much trouble to eat you're not worth the effort."

"A hundred and thirty-five million dollars is worth a lot of effort." Ben held a hand up helplessly.

"You can't spend money if you're dead." I straightened up. "We know some people who can help. I'll call Kurt and see what kind of deal we can set up."

Delaney's lip twitched as she turned to look at me. "I'm not hiding out at Camp Mayhem until I'm an old lady."

"It'd be suicide for anything short of an army to go after you there, but Billy's dead, and it sounds like we have almost four years before the next transfer. That's a fuck long time to prepare."

"Who the hell is Kurt?" Ben looked at Tara in confusion.

"He runs a private military company down in Texas. They train bodyguards." Sheree smiled disarmingly. "Oh, and Delaney goes to a sort of...summer camp there."

"Mercenaries." Stratton said it flatly, but I could see he was starting to get the barest glimpse of the kind of shit he'd managed to land in.

Sheree smiled disarmingly. "Mercenaries are illegal, some kinda UN thing, back 'fore you were born."

Delaney bared her teeth. It was probably supposed to be a smile, but it was more like the hungry grin of a hyena than anything else. "I'll work for Kurt. He'd take it personally if anything happened to me. Even if they get me, they won't live long enough to enjoy it."

I started to respond to her, then stopped and looked at Tara. "All of this trust stuff; how did you find out?"

"It was in Billy's papers; it's all kind of spelled out." Her voice trailed off, and she suddenly looked puzzled. "That doesn't make sense, does it? Why would they tell him all that?"

I choked off a chuckle. "That wasn't for him. That was for us. Calloway gave that to him so we'd see it."

Tara shook her head. "How would he know you'd see it?"

"Calloway knew we'd take down Halston. He expected us to kill him. He wanted to make sure we'd know the rules of the fucking game."

"How would he know that you could kill Halston?" Ben looked at us suspiciously.

"Darwin." Delaney stared down at the toes of her boots.

I looked at Tara and decided to trust her judgement about Stratton. "People have tried to kill Delaney before."

"Stein?" Ben's reaction was flat and emotionless.

"Stein. And several others."

"And these several others, what happened to them?" He sounded a touch more curious than accusing.

Sheree leaned forward with an open, honest smile. "It was that karma thing. They made bad life choices."

Delaney smiled, if it could be called that. "It was them or me."

"I don't want to know the details, do I?"

Tara shook her head. "You don't. You'll have to trust me that these were the kind of things that police can't really stop."

He gave Tara a very studied look. "You quit a very high-paying job to go work for Lodestone. Is that connected to this?"

Tara nodded. "Things happened, and then I...saw things I couldn't unsee. I couldn't just stand by and let certain things go on without helping."

Ben smiled at her and took her hand. "So I guess I'm not the only 'real good guy' in the room."

Tara blushed, and Delaney shivered in mock disgust. "Ugh. Just don't get any of that shit on us."

"I'm with Delaney on this one. This is going to be hard enough without trying to save the world."

I pulled myself up and grabbed my crutch, then fished the cellphone out of my pocket. Sheree had retrieved it from the lockbox. I looked at the pulsing "K2" Icon on the screen. "I've got a phone call to make."

*****

"K2 Executive Services, how may I direct your call?"

"This is Lester Dawes. I need to speak with Kurt."

"One moment, please."

The line clicked over, and Kurt came on. "Needles? Tell me you're interested in some work."

I sighed. "Yes and no. We've got a problem, but it may work to your benefit. First, though, I have to ask. What are you and Katie planning for the girls?"

He fell quiet for a moment. "Honestly? Katie wants to see if we can bring them on. They've already got more training than most professional couriers ever get. Maybe courier jobs at first, some shadow work, then protective details. If we can get them all on board, it'd be perfect; they're a damn good team." He chuckled. "Your girl is a helluva driver. One of the best I've ever seen. She'll probably be better than you in a couple years."

"I hope so; I'm putting in a lot of time teaching her. By the way, I'm not sure about protective details. Delaney may draw some fire; she's kind of radioactive." I went on to explain everything that had happened.

He wasn't particularly surprised, but then I assumed Kimmi had told him about our problem with Calloway Junior. "You really seem to have a knack for trouble. You got shot again?"

"A .380 in the leg. A cheap hideaway gun."

"Lucky you." I could almost hear him shaking his head. "We can use her, even if she's a bit hot. I'll have people put out the word that she's one of ours, and we'd find it annoying if anyone takes a shot at her. That will keep most of the flies off. Serious players may still try, though." He paused. "You said William Douglas Halston, right?"

"That was him."

I could hear him tapping on a keyboard. "We've heard of him. Small team stuff, but supposedly very good. Anything, and I mean anything, for money. Got on the wrong side of the eight ball down south and had to run for it."

"He got on the wrong side of Delaney this time."

Kurt gave a short barking laugh. "That was a really bad idea. She works damn hard to be on her best behavior here, but we can tell. Helluva temper."

"Yeah. He's getting buried in a couple separate boxes. Any chance he has any team members who might try to settle the score?"

"It doesn't look like he had more than six or seven guys, and he was the man holding them together. No other active associations after he headed north. How many were killed?"

"Probably seven counting him. Billy, Mark Osteen and Carlos Jimenez, plus whoever was in the other Charger we sent into Eagle River."

"If you missed any, they're probably somewhere on the other side of the globe. The three you named were the heavy hitters, pretty hard guys."

"The papers were in his name, so if any of his guys are still alive, there's no real reason for them to come after Delaney."

"Yeah, these aren't the kind of guys who go for noble things like revenge. Strictly cash-on-the-barrelhead types."

"I got that impression."

"We'll get a ruggedized, secure phone in the mail for Delaney in the next couple of days. It'll be iris and voiceprint secure."

"I have no idea how to set that up."

"She does."

"Really."

"Yeah, we may have, um, used the girls on a couple, you know, live training runs...just some surveillance work." He sounded a bit guilty.

"Delaney neglected to mention that." I tried to decide whether or not to be pissed off. "But she'd have told me if I had thought to ask. You know that, right?"

"Teenagers. You know how they are. They did great, really. We brought in a specialist to train them beforehand. Maybe the best in the business."

"Now that you mention it, Delaney did say something about the training."

"They performed like pros. No problems at all. They were invisible." He paused. "I know that was over the line, but we needed to push them a bit and see how they'd do."

I pushed down a wave of annoyance. Kurt was just doing it the way we'd always done it. Train, test, then do a "soft run" on an easy mission to make sure the lessons soaked in properly. It was the right way. "Yeah. That was over the line. From now on, you tell me."

"I wouldn't take any real risks with them, Needles. You know that. We had them covered with a full team."

"I trust you, Kurt, I really do. But she's my daughter. No more live missions without letting me know. Just until she's eighteen."

I could almost hear him shrug. "Got it."

"As long as we're good with that, you've got a probationary employee."

*****

Movie Night

*****

I looked around the cabin as the credits rolled on Tora! Tora! Tora!. Sheree was resting against me, sound asleep, hand gripping my shirt possessively. Delaney had her head at the other end of the huge couch, her feet resting across Sheree's legs.

Tiffany had called from Barbados, but Sheree had talked her out of coming home early from her honeymoon, although it had been a close call. I fully expected to catch hell from her pretty much as soon as she got off the plane.

As for Tara, she and Benjamin Stratton were off on a three-day excursion to the beach. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but it didn't matter. It was her choice, and that was all there was to that. At least for me. Delaney had dropped enough not-so-veiled threats on her own. I was a little worried about whether his morals would eventually get in the way of things that might have to be done, but we could cross that bridge when we came to it.

I stretched over, wincing a bit at the pain in my leg, picked up the remote, turned the sound all the way down, and flicked it back over from the movie to the regular television station, preparing to turn it off.

Something caught my eye.

Why was she on TV? And why was she between the governor and the Speaker of the House?

The governor's wife stood nearby with a plastic smile, watchful eyes focused intensely on her.

Something scrolled across the bottom of the screen, and I took a second to make sense of it.

...Governor Appoints Widow to Replace the Late Senator Morris...

Fuck me to tears.

Post Production Notes:

We love writing this series. Needles & Delaney have a rapport that just seems to flow so easily; it is more like watching a movie than trying to write a story. It is also, by far, the longest single piece we've written. We aimed for 23K words and ended up with over 37K words. Obviously there are more stories in this series to write, and we are working on them.

I know I mentioned it up front, but really, special thanks again to all of the editors and beta readers who have ever helped us. This just couldn't happen without them. The sheer number of corrections is mind-numbing, and they are necessary. When we write, is nearly impossible for us to see our own mistakes - we just fall back into the tale. This story is far better for their help and suggestions and there is no way to overstate that.

The readers here are incredible - the support you have given us is just phenomenal. In all seriousness, we might have managed to post a couple stories without all the feedback and support, but we'd never have posted fifty.

The Missus, has been, as usual, irreplaceable and irrepressible. We bounce the stories off each other, making up scenes over the kitchen counter, in the truck as we go to pick up feed and sitting on the couch with glasses of wine and scotch. We were stunned at just how much we enjoy doing this together, and our only regret is that we are always so busy that it's hard to find the time to do more. The last couple years have been a bit crazy, but we think we can see some light and some breathing space to do more.

Finally, we've novelized the first three stories in the Needles and Delaney series, adding about 25K words to them, and put it up as an ebook on Amazon under the title: "Needles and Delaney." We won't stop posting here, of course, and you certainly don't have to buy a copy to know what is going on in the series, but a lot of people have asked us to do this, so why not? Besides, story theft has struck several writers on many websites, and one way to mitigate that is to get it up there ourselves. We seriously never pictured ourselves putting out a book; for us, this still very much about the sheer fun of sharing stories around the campfire.

We still have an endless supply of story ideas - Amos's story, Jinxy's story, a couple of pulp detective pieces, a really creepy jungle adventure pulp based on real life, some science fiction pieces...and on and on. More ideas than time to write, but we are working on them. The next story, "The Shack: Milk Run" is already at 20K words, so we hope to get it hammered out and polished up quickly.