Blunt Force by JB Roth

Author:JB Roth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indigo River Publishing
Published: 2023-11-21T17:24:51+00:00

Chapter 19

Ollie started jerking the Zodiac around, and I held on for dear life to the rope lining the side. I had my phone in my other hand, thumb poised over the screen, one tap away from dialing CJ’s sat phone to tell her to send the Coast Guard and their .50-cals our way.

But the shot never came, and Ollie straightened the boat and slowed us down, back on a leisurely straight line to the warehouses. I sat down next to Ruiz, adrenaline pumping.

“This guy does not like you very much,” I said.

I locked the phone and stuffed it back in my pocket. My eyes trailed our course, keeping an eye on the receding Rio behind us. At my side, Ruiz was clearing a path ahead with his own gaze, alert to any kind of trouble.

“You could say that,” he said. “And he hated Morant. Remember the civil war plantation problem we were talking about?”

“I take it he’s part of the problem.”

Tension still ran through Ruiz’s arms and shoulders, bulging his muscles as surely as if he was lifting a barbell. He talked without looking at me, gazing firmly ahead of the Zodiac’s course while I continued to clear our rear.

“He is,” Ruiz said. “His name is Brett Dagheretti. He’s a former sheriff in some backwater county who somehow weaseled his way to be the Rio’s Chief Security Officer. See, some linguists in suits and ties told corporate that a southern drawl sounds friendly to foreigners. So, they started looking to the Old South to recruit security officers who interact with customs and law enforcement in ports of call. Altogether, it’s not a problem. Most of them are great. The top officers in our New York ships are men I’d serve with or drink with any time. Dagheretti’s rotten.”

“In other ways besides his bigotry?”

“I don’t understand how he was ever law enforcement. He’s much happier turning a blind eye to drugs and petty crime than keeping a semblance of order. The Rio’s a mess. And Dagheretti and his people think they have more power on board than the captain, so it’s not likely to get better. In practice, they may even be right.

“Owen had started the long work of cleaning things up. He and Dagheretti clashed early and often. For a while, we all managed to fake civility. Now, the kind of confrontation you witnessed is par for the course. Except for the gun. That’s new—and unauthorized.”

“Unauthorized enough to get him canned?” I asked.

“He has friends too, but possibly. I have not yet decided whether to play that card.”

I digested all that as we sailed past the Coast Guard RHIB. Ruiz waved, and the crew chief waved back. He’d seen us come in, and we were moving away from the ships. I let out a sigh of relief. I wanted those machine guns on our side in case the shit hit the fan. Short of that, I had no desire to explain why I entered a U.S. port facility under false pretenses.

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