Barracuda (29 page)

Andrej heard the weapon being readied and dove
for cover. He saw the muzzled flashes of his opponent’s gun and
fired back in that direction. A furious gunfight took place in the
darkness of his office.

***

Hiroshi’s heavily armed staff did their best to
act professionally and keep the guests calm, but the frightened
tourists ran blindly across the great lawn toward the hotel. People
fell over the many chairs and lawn ornaments, and the fallen ones
were trampled by others in desperate flight.

The staff wore white dinner jackets, so they
were easy to spot, even in the dark. They helped the injured while
cleverly concealing the fact that they were armed to the teeth.
Hiroshi’s people’s only concern was to help the VIPs and let the
Russian enforcers handle the rebels.

When the hotel lights went out, everybody froze
where they were. It was like a telepathically sent message
understood by all: the hotel was not safe! Suddenly, a volley of
gunfire erupted from the building, and the guests all fell to their
faces on the moist grass.

“Don’t anybody move!” Hiroshi ordered in a
booming voice. “Stay where you are!” He barked out orders in
Japanese to his staff. Soon the white-coated waiters were an armed
army rushing the hotel.

***

Andrej’s thugs were scattering about looking for
the rebels when they heard the gunfire coming from the hotel. After
a few tense calls on the radios, all the henchmen converged on the
hotel. Some came running, while others drove up in golf carts.

The Russians were armed with both weapons and
flashlights, while the Japanese were armed with pistols and
glass-covered candles. Soon the two armies reached the front of the
hotel and confronted each other. Each army waited anxiously for
orders from their bosses. They all knew that tensions were running
high between Hiroshi and Andrej, and that that a deadly conflict
was inevitable, but neither side wanted to be the first aggressor.
A nervous standoff developed.

***

Micko and the others watched in horror as the
barged listed forward and the fireworks ordinance flowed toward the
hotel and the patrons seated on the great lawn. In moments, the
lawn was thrown into a pyre of fiery chaos. The grisly scene was
viewed in grim silence until Micko exclaimed, “It’s pulling the
barge toward the dock!”

The others tore their eyes away from the ghastly
sight of lawn explosions and people on fire and looked at the boat.
The barge had been turned into a battering ram as it rammed into
the dock, spilling live ordinance all over the wharf. The sound of
splintering wood was deafening, but not half as loud as the
exploding fuel barrels and dynamite in the shed. The fifty
five-gallon barrels of fuel ignited immediately, and the ensuing
fire ravaged the dynamite shed; then the blaze lit the
explosives.

Celestial quickly started the
Hummingbird
’s engines and pulled away from the harbor. He
made it just in time, as the entire pier was quickly engulfed in
fire. The inferno consumed all of the fishing boats as the
terrified villagers ran for their lives. The once peaceful
fireworks display on this idyllic island setting had turned into a
conflagration from hell.

The crew on the
Hummingbird
were helpless
as they sat out on the windy atoll watching the unstoppable
catastrophe unfold. The exploding dynamite sent the fiery
fifty-five-gallon drums of fuel flying skyward. Some flew
harmlessly out into the lagoon, but one nearly hit the
Hummingbird
. The passengers all ducked as the drum landed
ten feet in front of them, spilling a wall of fuel-powered
flames.

All were in silent shock as Celestial once again
maneuvered the boat out of danger. Then there was a final
excruciating blast, and all onboard watched as one of the fiery
drums flew into the air toward the hotel. The barrel seemed to
hesitate in midair before it crashed through the opulent glass
skylight of the casino. The entire interior must have caught on
fire immediately because the casino was soon lit up like a
Christmas tree with flames licking out the exploding windows and
racing toward the hotel proper.

***

It stayed away from the wharf and the holocaust,
hiding in deep water so that the noise and the shockwaves could not
reach It. Later, It heard a noise: the sound that the oblong enemy
made. It raced up from the depths and was about to launch an attack
on the archenemy when the surface water lit up like daylight. It
receded into the deep again, wary of this new adversary.

***

Chuu could hear explosions outside the hotel
that were too close to be the fireworks from the lagoon. He also
heard people screaming in both agony and fear. Something terrible
was going on outside, and he was in a fight to the death in
Andrej’s office.

The adversaries stopped shooting at each other
for a moment as they each tried to reassess their situation. Chuu
could barely make out the doorway through which he wanted to exit.
He grabbed something hard off the floor where he was hiding and
threw it through one of the office windows. The object crashed
loudly through the glass, and Andrej began shooting in that
direction. Chuu ran for the door and had almost cleared the room
when he felt a burning sensation in his left shoulder. He ran
noisily down the hallway and into the stairwell with Andrej in hot
pursuit. The two fired recklessly at each other’s shadows as they
raced down the stairs and across the lobby toward the main
doors.

Chuu exited the doors and stood on the ornate
porch, staring in disbelief. His gun dangled from his left hand as
he held his right hand to the wound on his left shoulder. But the
pain was nothing compared to the pain he felt as he looked upon the
great lawn. He saw several people lying immobile and burning, while
others were writhing in agony all across his beautiful manicured
lawn. Ordinance from the fireworks barge were exploding, sending
tufts of turf flying like shrapnel. The gorgeous bandstand and food
settings were askew and burning. Dozens of horrified guests lay on
the ground helplessly waiting for direction, and the Japanese and
the Russians were in an armed Mexican standoff.

This moment of visual horror proved to be Chuu’s
misfortune as Andrej pumped three slugs into his back. Chuu fell to
the ground like a sack of potatoes. This was a moment of total
shock to all. The entire island seemed to have turned into an
asylum. The past five minutes had been hellish, but all eyes were
on Chuu’s prone body. The man with the laughing eyebrows stared
upward with unseeing eyes.

Andrej stood over his vanquished enemy with a
sneer. Suddenly, a quick burst of shots rang out, and he dropped to
his knees. Blood spilled out of mortal wounds in his chest, turning
his white tuxedo crimson.

This scene was played out in the light of
sporadic fires and looked so surreal. The darkness of the hotel was
in the background and the shadows were off to the sides, but the
fires lit up the deadly action on the porch.

Andrej looked curiously at Hiroshi and then at
the smoking gun in his hand. A look of understanding flickered in
his eyes just before they rolled back into his head and he fell on
his face, dead.

Without a word spoken, the Japanese and Russian
enforcers opened fire on each other in close combat. In seconds,
hundreds of rounds were fired from semi-automatic handguns. Bodies
dropped like flies, and there was a large cloud of cordite from the
discharged gunpowder hovering over the great lawn. When the
combatants stopped to reload, simultaneously, it seemed, the
petrified guests took this opportunity to run clumsily into the
hotel lobby. Those brave enough to peer out from behind their
hiding spots saw the firefight carnage, and then they saw the dock
explode in fiery fury.

In a horrifying moment, the casino and hotel
were bathed in firelight. The fifty five-gallon drum exploded on
impact with such force that the fuel washed over the casino and
restaurant with a tidal wave of flames. The ornate hanging rugs and
carpet ignited almost as fast as the table linens. Within minutes
of the crash, a wall of flames consumed the casino and the Neptune
lounge, and then spilled into the lobby, igniting the large front
desk and leather lounge chairs.

The number of shooting combatants was reduced
dramatically by the time the fire engulfed the Majestic Hotel. In a
grandstand of arrogant machismo, the rival gangs stood nearly
toe-to-toe, shooting as fast as they could squeeze the
triggers.

The Russian and Japanese mobsters finally ran
out of bullets and resigned themselves to hand-to-hand combat.
Bleeding and dying, they struck each other with empty guns and
flashlights until the last fighters were left to watch the blood
ebb from their numerous wounds. Exhausted and slowly succumbing to
their fatal injuries, the last of the warriors could only hurl
curses at their enemies as they perished at the foot of the burning
hotel.

The grandeur of the Majestic Hotel and Casino
was reduced to ashes reminiscent of Sodom and Gomorrah. The
residents lay dead or dying, while the survivors fled to a simple
village of humble hamlets. VIPs who would never even speak to a
villager begged for mercy and a place to seek refuge. All the money
in the world could not save them from the terrible carnage that
befell their sumptuous resort.

***

Looking from the atoll toward the shore, the men
aboard the
Hummingbird
viewed a scene straight out of a
Hollywood movie. The water between them and the shore was
flickering with orange flames that danced in the cool breeze,
distorting the images on the other side. The men watched as harried
VIPs ran from one scene of certain death to another. Finally, they
saw the survivors dash from the burning hotel and seek refuge in
the poverty-stricken village.

They could see the dead bodies strewn about, distorted by the
flames on the water in the foreground and the flames of the hotel
in the background. The entire scene seemed so ridiculous. It seemed
horribly karmic that something like this could happen to wealthy
crooks, politicians, and prosperous entrepreneurs.

“This defies my worst nightmare,” Dr. Collins
whispered.

Regis took his hat off and placed it over his
heart in reverence to the dead.

“This is
not
the way I wanted things to
turn out,” Micko said quietly.

“Live by the sword, die by the sword,” Celestial
remarked, apparently unmoved by the devastation.

“Thank God all our work is in Regis’ hut,” James
commented in a faint voice.

“Look!” Regis pointed toward the Bikini resort,
where the men could see the
Thor
racing toward them.

The
Thor
pulled alongside the
Hummingbird
, and after a brief discussion and explanation,
the
Thor
’s captain, Shorty, asked, “Is there anything we can
do to help?”

Before anyone could respond, the
Hummingbird
was rammed from below, making it list heavily
toward the port side. Scuba geared clamored, and tools fell as the
men grabbed for stable footing.

“It’s that damn freak fish!” James
exclaimed.

“Celestial, drive out to the
Apogon
,”
Micko ordered. “I have an idea. Shorty, go inshore at the village
and see if you can help the survivors, but stay way clear of the
remaining pier.”

His leg was throbbing and his heart grieved for
the innocent victims, but his brain was running at full throttle.
All his detective instincts were back. He may have been laid up for
a year, but nobody handled pressure like an NYPD detective.

Micko knew what needed to be done—and he knew
how to do it right. The
Thor
would pull into shallow water
and the crew would help get the VIPs aboard and take them to the
Bikini resort for shelter and first aid. Flacka and the rebels were
safe because the enforcers were all gone. The Bible was safe on
Bokbata Island, and the scientists’ work was safe in the village.
The FBI would arrive in the morning to clean up the mess, so there
was one important task left. The mutant barracuda was the only
problem left to solve.

Micko explained his plan to the others during
the ten-minute ride to the resting place of the
Apogon
. They
all strenuously objected, but to no avail. Micko was determined.
James helped Micko climb into the professor’s re-breather suit and
the gas mix was set for a 190-foot dive.

“We have no full tanks for you to decompress
with, so you must stay within the limits of the re-breather,” Dr.
Collins urged as he removed his special dive computer and handed it
to Micko. “If it starts to beep, you’ve exceeded your bottom time
and need to decompress, which is now impossible.”

“I’ll keep an eye on it, Doc,” Micko assured
him, “but right now, I’m more afraid of becoming a late night snack
for that bastard.”

Celestial angled the
Hummingbird
to the
mooring, and Regis tied in. They all huddled around Micko as he
prepared to dive.

“I want all you guys to hold up your left hand
and place your right hand over your heart,” Micko instructed.

The men followed the instruction.

“By the police powers invested in me, I now
deputize you all in the name of the NYPD. If anything happens to
me, you all have the power of peace officers—but if I come back, I
want the deputy badges back,” Micko joked.

The detective prepared to drop over the side of
the boat and into the water. “Celestial, throw all your lights on
the water to attract the beast, and the rest of you guys should
throw things into the water in the opposite direction of me. Let’s
see if we can keep him busy until I reach the sub.”

A second later, Micko was in the water, making a
rapid descent along the mooring line. He kept this bright u/w light
off during the descent into the pitch-black abyss. Since the
re-breather didn’t spit out bubbles like conventional scuba, Micko
hoped to get into position before he had to use the u/w light,
which would undoubtedly alert the barracuda of his presence. He had
no knowledge of the ultra-sensitive lateral lines on this mutant
fish.