Shaw tried to break Caesar’s grip but quickly realized that even if he’d been at full strength, Caesar was too powerful. His eyes started to bulge out and his knees buckled.
Caesar, obviously sensing victory, said, “First your lady and now you. Nice little pair. She died without making a sound when I pumped the round in her brain.” He tightened his grip. “And I can see the same silent exit for you, asshole.”
At the man’s words, Shaw’s mind went entirely blank, and then with a scream he broke Caesar’s grip from around his throat. He bent the man’s arm back so far and with such violence that he wrenched it completely from its socket.
“You,” Shaw said.
Caesar dropped to his knees, vomiting from the pain. Shaw smashed him in the face with one of his size fourteens, toppling the man onto his back.
“Are.”
A knife flashed in Caesar’s good hand, but only for a second before Shaw tore it free with a strength born of rage.
He plunged the blade straight into the man’s gut and then slowly walked it up Caesar’s torso, cleaving flesh and bone along the route until he stopped at the man’s throat. Caesar was just about to die when Shaw pulled his pistol, cleared the jam, cycled in a fresh round, took aim, and fired it into the man’s forehead.
“Dead,” Shaw finished.
CHAPTER 98
A LARGE CHOPPER CIRCLED THE SHILOH. Over a PA system a man’s voice said, “FBI, we are boarding this ship. This is the FBI, we are boarding this ship.”
A hundred meters away the Italian police boat was skimming toward the ship. As the chopper landed on the helipad and the police boat tied up to the yacht Nicolas Creel stood imperturbably in the middle of it all.
The FBI and Frank wanted to arrest Creel on the spot. The Italian police insisted that this could not be done. They spent the next twenty minutes arguing, with neither side making any inroads.
“Mr. Creel is within Italian waters.”
“And what does the FBI want with me anyway?” Creel said innocently. “It can’t be tax evasion. I’m not a U.S. citizen.”
Frank piped up, “Tax evasion! How about creating global mayhem? How does that grab you, asshole?”
Creel turned to the Italian police captain. “I have no idea what this man is raving about. They’ve invaded my yacht. Guns have been fired. Some of my men have been injured and even killed I believe. I’m the one who should be pressing charges. You were just out here, Officer. Did you see anything amiss?”
The policeman glowered at Frank. “Nothing at all, Mr. Creel. And now I will escort these men to shore.”
“I’ll be along to press charges against them.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” an FBI agent said. “We have the full power of the United States behind us.”
“Well, you are not in the United States,” the policeman retorted. “You have no jurisdiction here.”
“Actually they do.”
All heads turned as Shaw came down the steps from the bridge.
Creel stared up at him. “I’m listening.”
“The kidnapping of an American citizen,” Shaw said.
“Who?” snapped the Italian police officer.
“Katie James!” Frank bellowed. “I suppose you’ve heard of her, Katie James?”
“She is here, you are saying this?” the officer exclaimed.
“She is not here,” Creel said smugly.
“Really?”
They all turned again as Katie stepped onto the deck. Now Creel paled and he looked out to the water in bewilderment.
“Your guys took the woman who was killed, I guess your wife, in the body bag after Shaw made the switch,” Katie said. “They didn’t bother to check that it was me in there. We were about the same size and weight.”
The Italian policeman looked at Creel. “Your wife is dead?”
“Of course she isn’t. She’s not here. I had her taken back to town. You must have seen the launch pass by.”
“And then how did Katie get here?” Frank said.
“Same as he did,” Creel said, pointing at Shaw. “Obviously, they’re trespassing.
Katie held up her broken arm. “The tracking device wasn’t in the cast. It was in me.” She pointed to the wound on her arm. “They cut me open at the same spot as my compound fracture to put the transmitter inside me.” She looked over at Shaw. “It was a technique I recently became acquainted with.”
“That is how we followed her here,” the FBI agent said. “And then we got a distress call from Shaw and came charging in.”
“I am confused,” the Italian policeman said. “What is all this about?”
“This man-” Katie started to say before Creel interrupted.
“She’s been making these outlandish accusations on the Internet. Now I suppose she’s going to say that I’m some criminal mastermind, Officer. Which is absolutely preposterous.”
“He kidnapped me,” Katie said.
“And I’m saying I didn’t. It’s your word against mine. Hardly the stuff of a successful prosecution.”
“Mr. Creel is building an orphanage in our town,” the Italian said.
“I don’t give a shit if he’s gold-plating every road you got,” Frank exclaimed. “We are taking his ass with us.”
“I do not think so.”
Creel said, “Officer, I will remain here, on my yacht. I’ll call my lawyer and these things will be dealt with in an orderly, legal fashion.”
“He also has a submarine on here,” Shaw pointed out.
Creel rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes, let me escape in a submarine. Very James Bond.” He studied Shaw closely. “But I believe the facts will show there is a violent criminal on board. This man murdered my personal bodyguard. Look at the blood on his hands and shirt.”
Shaw was indeed covered in Caesar’s blood.
Creel added, “Go up on the bridge and see for yourself.”
One of the policemen ran up, then came right back down looking green and making the sign of the cross. “My God, he has been mutilated.”
The officer looked at Shaw. “Did you kill that man?”
“Yes.”
Creel said triumphantly, “At last, a confession.”
“I killed him in self-defense. I didn’t exactly get this way all by myself.” He indicated his bruised face and torn shirt.
“That’s for an Italian court to decide. Officer, please take this murderer off my boat immediately.”
The policeman drew his weapon, as did his men. Frank and the FBI agents did the same.
“No,” said Shaw. “I’ll go with them.”
He looked at Creel. “This isn’t over.”
“Of course it isn’t. You’ll bring your ludicrous charges and my team of lawyers will fight them and by the time it’s over I’ll still be a free man loved by the world while you rot in prison. Now that’s what I call justice.”
Shaw launched himself at Creel before he was pulled off. No one saw Shaw’s hand slip inside the man’s pocket.
A breathless Creel said, “And now you can add assault charges to the list.”
“Come on, Shaw,” Frank said. “We’ll get this all straightened out. And you,” he said, pointing at Creel. “You try to get off the boat in a sub, a chopper, or a freaking spaceship, your ass is history.”
“Good-bye, gentlemen. I look forward to addressing all of this in court and to seeing each of you suitably punished,” Creel said coolly. He faced Shaw and smiled broadly. “And I’ll think of you every time I’m on my yacht.”
After the chopper and boat left, Nicolas Creel retired to his stateroom. He had numerous phone calls to make to deal with this mess, the first being to the men who were no doubt planting his fourth wife in Italian soil right now. Yet he would get it all worked out. He always did. It would just take a little time, a little money, and a little ingenuity mixed with nerve. That’s all it ever took.