Blood Debts: A Miami Vice Reunion
by Anne Trembley
If anything, what kept them together was their brotherhood, more than
the fight. The fight brought them together, that's true. When that was
gone, they still had that connection, that love.
And THAT is the real victory......
Chapter 1 :: Chapter 2 ::
Chapter 3 :: Chapter 4 ::
Chapter 5 :: Chapter 6 ::
Chapter 7 ::
Chapter 8 :: Chapter 9 ::
Chapter 10 :: Chapter 11 ::
Chapter 12 :: Chapter 13 ::
Chapter 14 ::
Chapter 15 :: Chapter 16 ::
Chapter 17 :: Chapter 18 ::
Chapter 19 :: Chapter 20 ::
Chapter 21
Chapter 7
Rico put the handset down. He was not happy.
"They disappeared into traffic, that's gotta be why they've been hanging
around these shipping lanes."
Sonny
looked up, shook wet hair off his face and coughed, "let's just
get him back to Miami."
Rico revved the boat up and turned North East. The other boats
caught up with them heading north.
The big yacht disappeared so thoroughly that Switek believed they were
using some sophisticated radio and radar jammer. They could be
anywhere now, and Stan Switek had a strong wish to call in the Airforce
to blow the damn boat out of the water. At the same time he
appreciated the technology used by these people. He had heard one
single squeal of communications traffic from the boat before it vanished,
and he didn't have the equipment required to record it for later
work. He spent the trip back to the Cruz docks cursing that
omission and wondering just what piece of information was so
important? And who was it aimed for? It was something he
thought about a lot on the long trip back toward Miami.
All the small fleet of boats reached the Cruz docks within 30 minutes of
each other. Gina had called in an ambulance to meet the incoming
scarab. Both she and Phillipe ran down to meet the sleek craft,
carrying blankets from emergency lockers.
Waves slapped and sloshed against the dockside as Sonny swung the
gleaming scarab in against the tire pads. Rico threw a line up and
Stan caught it and tied off in record time. Sonny tossed the bow
line up to Arnie. When the scarab was secure, Sonny and Rico passed
Castillo's limp water sodden body up to Stan and Arnie. The coming
dawn had brought a faint chill to the sea breeze, as the whole world
changed to visible shades of deep inky blue. They wrapped Castillo
in the blankets. He showed no signs of regaining
consciousness. Sonny sat in his soaked clothes shivering, wishing
he still smoked, wishing the ambulance would hurry, wishing he could line
the Lieutenant's kidnappers up against a wall and...
They all thanked Phillipe profusely, but his response was a dignified
regret that he could not have done more, and a sadly knowing glance at
all of them. "You may need my help again. Don't hesitate to
call me." He smiled with rueful grace at Gina,
"Thank you."
Monday, Washington D.C.
The heavy
brocade drapes were open in the office. Giving an expensive view of
the D.C. cityscape. The office itself had every possible tangible
decoration signifying power. From huge solid teak desk to rare
animal heads on the wall.
Dale Menton sat at the desk, comforting himself with the dream that he
would have a few people's heads stuffed to hang on the walls. He
wore an $1800 hand tailored silk suit, which strove hopelessly to improve
the reality of a short pudgy body addicted to rich food and allergic to
exercise.
His expensive assistant approached diffidently
and stood waiting until Menton waved a hand and then he placed a leather
folder on Menton's desk with the soft words,
"You have a call from Mr. Armata in Miami."
No emotion showed on Menton's face, but a sharp grinding pain stabbed his
stomach ulcer. He had come back to D.C. uneasily aware that there
were loose ends in Florida. The reputation of Emil 'the cowboy' was
beyond question. But other people had been involved. Too many
other people. Reese had been recommended by his CIA/FBI contacts as an
ex-government agent who would do anything for the right price without
scruple.
With a curious lack of introspection, Dale Menton despised Reese as
nothing but hired scum. He knew that Reese would not approve of a
full cleanup, so he had Armata dispose of the take-down crew when they
showed up for their payoff. The Chinese had disappeared while
Armata was driving him to the Docks to catch a boat. Menton assumed
he was probably fishbait along with the van now. Armata always
enjoyed cleanup work. Menton was paying a lot of money to Armata to
keep tabs on the police in Florida. Even if he had been forced to
give up trying to track Reese. Reese was a wild card and a
dangerous loose end.... Scowling with irritation he put the phone
to his ear.
"What?"
"An unidentified Hispanic man was brought into Bayshore Hospital by
members of the Miami OCB unit."
Menton literally stopped breathing, cold fire ran up his spine
threatening to make his head explode. His eyes bulged with a
curious mixture of fear and rage. His voice was a sharp sputter
through gritted teeth.
"I want to know everything. Do you understand me? I will be
there in 4 hours."
He slammed the phone down. Breathing harshly in fury. After
spending weeks flying back and forth between Miami and D.C. at strange
hours of the day and night, Menton's face was showing the strain, and his
temper becoming more fragile each day. What the HELL is going
on? And what the Hell is Reese doing?
Monday, 8:02 AM OCB
Arnie yawned until his jaw
cracked as he opened his locker, and pulled out a blazing yellow Hawaiian
shirt with large blue flowers on it. Stan Switek turned his head
and winced.
"Gah! I'm blinded!"
Trudy walked around the corner at that moment and recoiled.
"I don't need coffee after seeing that! You aren't going to wear
that are you?"
Arnie shrugged with surprise.
"I guess it's kinda loud."
"So's gunfire. It's gonna keep ME awake wondering where you got
it."
Arnie looked at the shirt as if expecting it to say something.
"Funny, I don't remember. Maybe Salvation Army? I just needed
something for emergencies like now."
Trudy opened her locker and pulled out a bag with clothing in it.
"Rico called, he's bringing breakfast so you better hurry up."
8:58 AM - OCB conference room,
Sunlight streamed through the glass windows of the OCB conference
room. There was no sign of the Feds anymore, whatever files they
had been going through were part of two boxes at the end of the
table. Rico asked at random, "Anybody know when the Feds
left?"
Gina looked disgustedly at the coffee cups littering every flat surface
in the room. "The slobs left this morning, Pepe said they came in
while he was finishing night cleanup and just took their stuff and
left. I guess we're supposed to be happy they put our files in
boxes instead of dropping them on the floor."
Rico understood why it rankled her. The files were trashed, he
didn't have to look to know that. Everyone here had hours and hours
to look forward to, putting things in the right order and in the right
files. Coffee cups littered the table. Arnie stood at the
open door looking out. The group at the table included Stan, Marco, Gina,
Trudy, as well as Rico. The black man studied Marco. Tall,
lanky without looking skinny. His almost black hair reminded him a
little of some of Crockett's worse haircuts. The spade beard was
right in style. Rico thought the diamond ear pin perfect. He
had not yet thought to ask what Marco's cover name was.
Gina yawned hugely,
"I'm getting too old for these all night shows."
Rico smiled at her skintight dress and raised his eyebrows.
"It doesn't show."
Gina grinned and shot him with a fingertip.
Trudy looked up from the notes she was going through and frowned at Stan
Doubtfully,
"You don't think he's really going to buy Rico as Ding?"
Stan rolled his eyes toward the ceiling.
"You have no idea what this guy will buy."
Arnie glanced at Stan with a frown.
"You mean he didn't question ANY of that paperwork you buried him
with?"
Stan smiled and nodded.
"Not a peep. I said the Lieutenant checks all the paperwork we turn
out. And I made sure Ding's file picture was exchanged for
an old one of Rico's."
Trudy had trouble not laughing, "Bad boy Stan, You just better get
everything back in place before the Lieutenant gets back."
Rico looked up from a file he was reading.
"How soon you expecting McKinnin or the Feds?"
Stan's voice was sour.
"Now that's an
interesting thing. The Feds moved out last night some time and they
took over a room at Metro Dade.
"You think they were ever really looking for Castillo?"
"Hell, I'm not sure what kind of Feds they really are."
Arnie spoke up then.
"I think we've got 10 minutes before Mckinin makes it in."
Rico looked at the others.
"I think something crawled out of a real old sewer to get him. None
of the leads we followed did us any good until that guy on the boat
showed up. I looked up the boat's registry, we got a name and it
might be a good idea to go talk to the man again."
The older ones looked at each other. Arnie and Marco looked at them
with questions in their eyes. Arnie finally asked,
"What do you mean?"
Rico's mouth tightened, he felt somehow 'wrong' to be speaking of any of
this.
"Castillo's got more past then most of us. And a lot of its
enemies."
Marco's eyebrows drew together, "Everyone's got enemies."
Stan gave Marco a long look.
"Maybe. But the Lieutenant's are a lot stranger. More
like Godzilla's brothers, and I'm not sure how we start
looking."
Trudy had been scribbling notes for some time.
"I'm going to get on the net. Some of the stuff you told me that
guy on the boat said, got me remembering old Interpol reports I read a
long time ago. And that ship's name."
Stan nodded, "Sonny mentioned that Izzy has a lead on the muscle who
missed the payoff."
She was about to say more when Arnie stepped away from the door
hissing.
"He's coming!"
A few old favors called in had assured that McKinnin would be late.
Everyone suddenly looked innocent as McKinnin stumbled in with a
disorganized wad of papers.
Blood Debts: A Miami Vice Reunion
