Chapter 30

I woke up to the sound of my phone making it's alarm noise. Lisa moaned, "Can't we put this off for a day?"

"Too late, Baby Cakes, we have all those people coming to serve the warrant, plus the observers." We moved to the bathroom and I continued, "Everything worked out yesterday, and the only one of the observers to act as if we might have been heavy-handed was the guy. Considering he came to the DOJ from the ACLU and was a major volunteer for NLADA (National Legal Aid and Defense Association), he's never going to be on our side."

Lisa said, "Yesterday was hairy and a little too close for comfort. Our own people didn't have decent intelligence about that operation or how many people were hiding out there. Who would believe that a couple of escaped prisoners could set up and run an operation like that."

"We don't have very good intelligence on this guy we're going after this morning either, except that he's been difficult to keep up with and has put up a fight every time he's been apprehended. Pinellas County Sheriff's department reported him at a former fellow inmate's house day before yesterday. They want in on this with their SWAT team as the man in the warrant is now suspected of several local robberies."

We were showered, I was shaved, both of us dressed, and out the door on the way to the station in under twenty minutes. We traded the Lincoln for the Impala and swapped our equipment cases over. We pulled our vests out and were putting them on as we went across the street. We met with the Deputies and the observers, who were now acting nervous, inside the station. Everyone had some coffee while we went over the floor plan of the house where the suspect on the warrant was located. I explained, "The Pinellas County Sheriff's Department SWAT team is going to be with us and we'll probably let them lead us inside. They have a few warrants for who they consider dangerous persons that may also be on premises. They think our joint effort will be enough to capture them all. I want our men to be ready in reserve. I want the observers to be parked so they have a view of the proceedings." I looked at the observers and said, "You will have our head cam video and audio of what we're doing, but you must stay in the protected vehicle. We know the primary person in the warrants is vicious. Let's roll, we'll meet the Pinellas people before we make contact."

The Pinellas County SWAT team was at the designated location, and said they had already deployed personnel behind the house so the subject couldn't escape from the back. I checked the armor on all our men and prepared to breach the door.

We ran to the door and rammed it immediately. It didn't give. The heavy ram bounced off the door making a horrendous noise. I waved everyone off and placed a charge on the hinge points and lock latch, and strung the connection through them all.

I nodded and the door exploded into tiny fragments, but the surprise was now lost. I ran in and looked around, expecting fire from anywhere, but none came. Lisa and six SWAT team members were following me. I yelled for some of the men to clear the downstairs rooms as I ran up the stairs and was confronted by four closed doors. The floor plan from the county building permit said there was a bathroom between two bedrooms, so I figured one had to be a bathroom and it would be between the two non-master bedrooms. With Lisa and three SWAT team members with me, I kicked the suspected bathroom door in.

It was the bathroom door, and no one was inside. I motioned for one of the SWAT team members to go inside as there was a door to both rooms on either side toward the rooms. I stood on the side of the door to the right of the bathroom and motioned for the man with the ram to move.

The door burst open as the ram hit it, and rounds blasted out of the doorway. I yelled to put their weapons down and they would be given legal help. I kept the banter up to tell them to come out with their hands in the air and we would take them into custody, but not harm them, and they would be treated as the law said they should be.

One of the men said they were coming out after a long pause. They all came out and we immediately cuffed and chained them before they were led downstairs away from more potential gun fire.

We focused on the other side of the bathroom when the room was cleared. We left the Deputy on the other side of the bathroom watching the door from that room.

I motioned for the men to use the ram to bust the door open, and then retreat as quickly as possible.

As quickly as possible wasn't fast enough. Both ramming men were hit, but not bad. I had leapt into the space they had created and was continuously firing single rounds at targets that presented themselves. I kept swiveling around to make sure no one else was firing at us as more SWAT team members swarmed the area.

I had both wounded SWAT team members go downstairs and outside to get medical attention. A paramedic unit would have to be called. I asked them to send two more men up as replacements.

We found one of the people on our warrants, but still had to find the primary person of our warrants, plus the suspects on some open Pinellas County warrants. The doorway at the end of the hall was the only place we hadn't opened.

While we were preparing to clear that room, we heard over the handheld radios that the curtains in the upstairs back bedroom windows had moved, so we now knew that the room was occupied. We just didn't know by how many. We approached the door, staying close to the walls.

I hollered, "We know this room is occupied. Put any weapons down and yell that you're willing to give up. We will provide you safe passage to jail. Resistance will probably result in your death, so surrender."

Nothing, there was no response. I hollered again, "We'll be coming in. Surrender, we don't want to harm you.

There was still no response.

I tried the door and it was locked. The man with the ram was on the other side of the door, so I motioned for him to bust it open. He swung the ram and backed against the wall. The door flew open, but there were no gunshots.

The SWAT team member and I peeked around the doorway and didn't see anyone. We moved into the room and looked behind and underneath everything. The closet had a closed access panel to the attic, so the person or persons could have gone up there. We radioed for a remote cam and lights so we could check it out.

We carefully pulled the handle on the access stairway and unfolded it until the stairway stretched through the closet doorway into the room. A SWAT team member came up with a contraption that had a camera and very bright lights on it. He moved the light up into the attic and did a slow sweep of the area. We saw nothing and the only place to hide would be behind air ducts. The man took a step and looked like he was running his finger over the area just inside the attic. He said, "They didn't come up here or they would have scuffed this area. The dust hasn't been disturbed.

Where in the heck did the guy or guys go? The team member with the camera came down, folded the stairway up, and was staring at the closet. He went in and knocked on the walls to see if there might be a panel that we couldn't detect. Nothing was hollow that shouldn't be. Lisa pointed at the floor and said, "Most of the clothes are hung up nicely, but there are several dresses and shirts laying with a bunch of shoes. Don't you think that's strange?"

We began pulling the clothes and shoes from the closet floor. The mass of clothing and shoes came out as a unit, glued or sewn together. We moved that clump of clothing until a square cut area was visible in the carpet. The carpet wouldn't lift when I tried to pull it up. I asked the SWAT team members if they had a pry bar. They did and he rushed downstairs to get the tool. I walked from the room, looking at the walls to make sure there couldn't be a false wall. I went to the stairway and small balcony and was comparing the upstairs master bedroom area to the downstairs.

Lisa was near me and I told her, "I think I know what the guy has done. Come on, let's go downstairs and check."

There were only two SWAT team members downstairs as lookouts, I motioned toward them, pointed to my eyes, and pointed to the downstairs bedroom. It was directly beneath the master bedroom. I'd bet the closet was going to be directly beneath the upstairs closet.

I whispered to the two SWAT team members to be ready. I backed away from that doorway and radioed for the men at the rear and side of the house to be ready. The SWAT team leader was moving Deputy Marshals to help cover those areas.

Lisa and I walked into the kitchen to see if the men out back were ready, and turned to go back through the house to the rear downstairs bedroom. We heard yelling and rounds going off. The sound of an AK on rapid fire filled the air as the noise came closer and closer. Lisa was squatting on the other side of an archway from me as a single man came running through nearly constantly firing. I saw the barrel canister attached under his rifle and realized he wasn't going to run out of ammo quickly.

Lisa fired, but hit the man's armor. He swung around and shot at her, but missed. I shot a leg and he stumbled but kept on moving outside to the front of the house where almost no one was. Dave who had heard the gunshots was in the Suburban watching, and was ready to help if necessary.

I watched in slow motion horror as the idiot male observer jumped out of the Suburban and yelled at him, "Don't be a fool, these people want to kill you. Stop, give up, they'll kill you."

The man running swung his weapon toward the nut job observer and ripped him from groin, over his vest and put one right between his eyes in his forehead.

Dave had jumped out the driver's side door and leveled at the man with his Glock. He triple tapped the guy with all three in the head. The man fell with the AK still firing. Dave was hit in the calf of his leg, but the danger was now over.

I heard Dave cursing as he wrapped something around his wound and hollered for someone to call the paramedics. They were already on scene for the minor wounds of the two SWAT team members, so they were able to get to him immediately.

One of the female observers was standing beside the downed fellow observer crying. She was saying, "We were told to stay inside the car. Why would he do something stupid like that? He could have gotten us all killed."

The other female observer was sitting with her legs out of the truck, shaking her head while throwing up.

Lisa was being looked at as she had been hit in the vest, but something had ricocheted off and cut her. It was then that I felt the pain in my thigh just before I passed out.

Where the heck am I?

As I came around, I could see nothing but white, and felt all kinds of restraints on me. Gina's face appeared over me as I groaned. She kissed me and said, "Oh my love, I'm so happy you're still with me."

Brandy's face came into view as she said, "He's tougher than the average bear. A little wound like that won't get him."

A tiny dark-skinned face kissed my lips, and said, "You better not leave us while we're pregnant with your five new children."

Gina came back and said, "I wanted another, but the girls said I shouldn't, and I now wish I had so I could show you how much I love you and how much I want you to be with me and us."

It was Frieda who cemented it, "What the fuck, Buster? You just can't go on being target practice for these assholes. Shoot first and screw whoever wants to keep them alive."

Lisa leaned over me and said, "I guess he got you when he sprayed the both of us. Dave is going to be fine, and the two SWAT team guys didn't even come to the hospital. We now both have at least another month off."

I asked, "What happened that I'm in here? Why the big deal over a thigh wound?"

A nurse was with the family entourage and said, "He hit an artery. You were losing blood fast and keeled over. Your partner luckily saw it and put a tourniquet on your leg. Much more and you would have bled out. You know you have a lot of patches on you now. You might want to consider a new line of work."

That received a lot of agreement, "Yeah!", "He should learn," and "We'll tie him down for a while."

I was told they had given me four units of blood to restock what I had lost. The doc who came in told me that he was able to repair the artery and it was flowing properly. He did say that I was close to losing more of my right leg, but he luckily didn't have to amputate more of it.

When I asked why I had been out for what I considered a long time, he said, "Your body was putting you back together. This one was close and I would have to guess that your body was telling you to recover before you woke up."

Lisa said, "You've been cleared by the observers as far as being a bad guy. They even said you used too much restraint before returning fire. They discounted clearing that one room of the three with rifles. So what do you think? Should we use the thirty plus days for a trip to Mexico for a show, or go back to Australia to try to go to some more cities there?"

I had to laugh as she was acting like Bonita in her desire to keep on playing instead of her usual temperament of hunting bad guys. "Let me get out of here first, and then we'll talk. Hey, Doc, what's the prognosis for me getting out of here?"

The man in the white coat and stethoscope around his neck said, "You can probably go home any time now that you're awake; just no hard or crazy exercising and no firefights for a while. You know you might want to consider a line of work that's less threatening. You seem to have a lot of places on you that look like bullet wounds. You do know that you can't be lucky forever, don't you?"

I had to restrain myself from telling him to keep his opinions to himself, but then, I also knew he was probably right. I not only needed more protection, I might want to stop handling problems like the one we just did.

Lisa said, "We cleared that warrant and Pinellas County cleared three of theirs. There was some guy and girl still in the closet downstairs, but they were unarmed and were very docile when they came out. The takedown was messy, but it was done with observers. The observer who died is said to have been a real radical, and his death was because of his own negligence. Dave was fully cleared. He had to go before a board for shooting the gunman, but he's cleared there too."

"How long have I been out, Lisa?"

"Over two days, Honey Bunch. You scared the bejesus out of us. I didn't even know you were hit until you fell over and your pant leg was saturated with blood. I showed the world your dingle dangle, since you were commando as usual. I used your belt to stop the blood flow and they got you here fast. Now, let's see what it takes to get you home."

Judy came and kissed me. She said, "Thank you for staying with us, Chuck. We all love you so much and our babies need their daddy."

Nancy was about the same, and said, "You've given me my girl, and my boy is in my tummy. You better cool it so you can teach your kid to throw a ball, Big Guy."

Hearing the girls tell me that I had to think about discontinuing to do some of the work we did and that was making me a little crazy. I was probably going to be given the time to consider that dilemma.

It took most of the afternoon to get me out of the St. Petersburg hospital, back across the bridge, and home. All the women of my house were there to meet me, including Tina who immediately wanted to look at the area where they had cut on my thigh. I told her, "It's only been an hour since the nurse checked the area and re-bandaged me, Tina. Do you have the stuff to recover the wound?"

"Damn straight I do. I'm cussing myself for not being there to help you when both my buds get wounded in the same gunfight. You gotta wait for me so I can help."

Aunt Etta told Tina, "You know that you're the doc around here, and we don't need you shot up too. Why don't we keep you in reserve to patch these two up."

Tina looked at Aunt Etta funny and said, "You'd be in there shooting them up too if you had the chance. Don't give me any shit about being Annie Oakley when I know your background."

Aunt Etta laughed and said, "You'll make a good partner for my brother's crazy son."

"I'm already a partner, and now that I'm finally a real genuine doctor, I might become a real wife and mother of that partner's kids."

I asked Tina, "Did I miss something. Isn't there supposed to be a ceremony when you become a doc?"

"There will be, Lover. You'll see me get the honor this Saturday night. You do know that I'm not only a g-y-n and obstetrics doc, but also a genuine emergency room trauma doc? Now that's a real classification."

"That's really great, Tina. You have to be very proud. Your mom and dad are probably wandering around passing out your cards. Doc Tina at your service. From babies, to broken pussies, broken bones, and bullet holes. Tina saves the day."

Tina looked at me with her mouth open for a second, and then threw something at me. I have no idea what it was, but it was followed with a tackle and kiss that told me she still loved me.

We went to the patio as a group, and joined the early crowd. Bonita ran up to me and asked, "Are you okay? Are you going to be able to play again? Can you play tonight? How about Lisa? Can she play?"

You have to laugh at the kid's one-track mind. I told her, "Take a breath, Nita, we're all going to be able to play, but give us a chance to relax a bit. I just got out of the hospital."

Bonita came in my arms to hug me, and said, "I know, Chuck, but I worry that I won't have my two music buddies with me when I play. You're my master, you're my mentor. I think I said that right, and you're my future husband with your other women."

I didn't laugh, but had to choke it back. I hugged her to me and said, "Not to worry, we'll try to play with you tomorrow."

Steve came in a little after five and came over to me. "So how are you, Dude? We were all told you were fine and just hanging out in la la land until your body was ready for you to come back."

"I'm good, Steve. I'll be up to full strength in a couple of days."

The man smiled at me and suggested, "Go to Hawaii and get the architects' plans approved and the new property work underway while you're recovering. Katana called me to see if he could help us, and I told him we would get with him right away. Go there, hire the man, and make him the contact and boss for the project. Take him to our other hotels and resorts to show him what we want for perfection. He saw us here, so he should know what we want there."

Brandy was nearby and came to sit with me. She softly said, "Let's do that. Let's go to Hawaii for a week or two. We'll wait until after Tina's graduation and go Sunday. She might be able to come with us. I'm not sure what her plans are."

Lisa was sipping something Ruth had fixed her, and commented, "I think that's a great idea. I've talked to Jane a few times, and I know she would enjoy seeing us all." She looked around at our family and said, "What do you think? Will we all fit in a G5 or do we need to use the 737 again. We almost need an aircraft between the G550 and the 737."

Tiny is always up for more aircraft, and said, "How about I look at the industry again and see what might be out there. Other than the possibility of finding a BBJ for sale, your 737-600C is about as good as it gets. I'm not sure whether I can match it with an Embraer 170, but you would have to order a green aircraft and have it built out on your own. They are cheap, but don't have the range of your 737 because you have the ER package on it. The Sheik who owned your 737 before had it tricked out with everything that was available. He got rid of it for a 318, and I think he's going to order a new 737-900 because he likes the Boeing better."

I told Lisa, "We'll just have to plan on the 737 and decide on whether we want to fly it or bring a crew along. We might as well get a full crew and enjoy ourselves if we end up taking most of the family. There's no sense in making that trip and being worn out from flying it too."

Lisa said, "You know this is almost overdoing it. We're flying a 737 around like it was little Cessna, but we do have a very big family."

"Ben says that I haven't been spending any of my property money, so we'll burn a bunch getting over there and back. This is for a good reason with the new property being built out, so it's really all expenses. We're just letting everyone ride along, is all."

I called the CS&S Air Charter desk and asked about our favorite 737 and told them that I would need it from Sunday on, for a minimum of two weeks, and that I'd like to get the same crew we had for the concert tour. The girl said the aircraft showed as available, and asked if she should put a hold on the aircraft? I locked up the reservation, and she said she would contact the crew to see if they were available.

The two pilots who flew us before were about six feet from me at the bar, so I asked them, "Want to fly to Hawaii for me? I think the whole family is going, so it's probably best if Lisa and I are just on standby or your backups. Going to Costa Rica is no big deal, but the flight over to Hawaii is tough with the kids needing to be loose."

The guy who was usually the command pilot said, "We're ready when you are. We had such a good time in Hawaii the last time that I'm sure we'll be able to have as much fun again. We don't burn any bridges, and we try to make a lot of friends who we can visit again and again. Your buddy, Bear, over there introduced us to a whole bunch of very classy ladies. He said they had to be tops or else Crystal would have never hired them."

"The charter office will be calling to ask if you can leave Sunday, so just let them know." Lisa winked at me and said, "That was easy."

We went home right after supper so I could go to bed early. I wasn't attacked, but I was shown love by all the women. I had to call Maria, because she wanted to hear from me that I was alright and that I was still okay with her seeing if Tom and Zena were for her.

Maria came to the phone after Shannon answered, and said, "It's so good that you are okay and not seriously hurt. All of us worried about you. Little Juanita misses all her buddies, but there are other little ones here for her to play with. Shannon and Joanie are just wonderful with the way they love our little girl. Do you know they are like us and all sleep in the same bed? Tom is like you too because he likes to love us all up when he can. I like them and they may be what I'm looking for. Thank you for letting me experiment."

I was happy for Maria and hoped she would find the happiness she was looking for. I think she would latch on and never let go if some big Latin guy would come up to her and take hold of her. Tom Parks might be the best way for her to go.

I was up reasonably early the next morning, and decided to try some gentle Tai Chi. I was joined out on the lawn by Lisa, Jan, Don, Wanda, Taiying, Sing, Marie, and even Dennis. I was being careful not to pull on the stitches, and did the loosening stretches that help the muscles stay supple with minimal stress.

The rest of the house jumped in the pool when we brought our personal exercise to a close, while I sat on a deck chair and watched. A little one came walking out to me and wanted up. It was Farah, and her sister was right behind her. I had both in my lap when Frieda came out and stood in front of me with her fists on her hips. The two little girls were telling me something important when Frieda said, "You two little imps, you can't keep sneaking off on me like that." To me she said, "I'm so glad we've already taught them to float and sort of swim. They could still drown, but I think they would stay afloat until I missed them. I have to watch them every second or they are walking off to say hi to someone. You're an easy target, you know."