Chapter 43

Monday morning all hell broke loose.

Because we'd stayed out very late with Hussein and his friends at the casino, Winnie and I were sitting on the back deck enjoying a late breakfast. The music had been particularly enjoyable, the crowd was large, but happy, and the company was as usual. We talked about the stock swap.

Now that the lawyers had ironed out the bugs, the deal was suddenly going great guns, and our little enterprise was on schedule. The Judge was pleased, and his lawyers were thrilled. Our breakfast talk was all about home and how soon we'd get back there. After being a government vagabond for so many years, Winnie discovered how nice it was to have a home and family. Now that she knew, she wanted it all the time.

For some stupid reason I thought we safe from harm, and when I heard the gunshots, I thought that someone was putting off fireworks, until glass around us began to explode. I grabbed Winnie just as she grabbed me, and we tumbled to the floor, temporarily out of the direct line of fire, and I could hear Edward, Jack and the team returning fire.

We stayed down because we were unarmed. Jack knew where we were and had to know we weren't returning fire, so I felt sure that he'd fight his way over to us as fast as possible. When I saw him shimmying down the deck, I kicked over two tables to give him a little more cover. He nodded his thanks and tossed a pistol to me, then another for Winnie.

Now armed and mad as hell, I reversed course and headed to the spot where the anchor chain and spool would turn back any small arms fire, and looked for an enemy to engage. Our unwelcome visitors rewarded me almost instantly, when a sure Darwin Award winner tried to charge our position.

He was so close by the time I lined up on him, that his head made an awful, sick, wet sound when I shot him.

I was shooting for his waist.

So sue me. I suck at this.

Get over it.

Our attackers didn't count on fire coming from all sides at once, and my lucky shot broke their spirit. Edwards' guys poured a deadly steam of fire into their midst, as they scrambled for cover and safety. Jack's guys were waiting in ambush and cut them to pieces when they turned and charged that way.

The last two tried to escape by going right over Winnie and me, and we each put one down. Winnie killed hers with a beautiful chest shot, and I put six out of seven rounds somewhere into mine.

BUT

He stopped shooting, stopped running towards us, and stopped breathing, in that order – so – I won that one.

Everything was over before the police arrived. Of the five hundred and thirty five national police officers in the country of Monaco, I think all but two came to our yacht, but only after we did all the work. The entire Corps des Sapeurs-Pompiers, Monaco's version of SWAT, arrived quite quickly, put out a perimeter, began to mark and collect evidence, tag bodies, and question survivors.

They were polite, firm, extremely professional, and above all, on our side. They took it as a personal insult that some ruffians tried to attack a rich, American, super yacht in their harbor, and endanger the continued flow of our money into their local businesses. When I introduced them to Edward, as our head of security, they lost interest in me completely, much to my relief. Edward and Jack dealt with the official visitors, while Winnie and I gave the Judge a full report.

Besides the police, I swear we drew about half of the thirty-five thousand residents of the country, to gawk at our mega yacht full of bullet holes. Over the course of the afternoon, thousands of sightseers came as close as the national police force would let them. Their objective was to catch a glimpse of any one of us, so they could dine out on the 'tragic attempted robbery' at the casino marina.

I wasn't sure how to explain the extensive damage to our yacht to our insurance carrier. Hopefully Colleen and Jim would know how to proceed.

For twelve hours police officials came and went, politicos arrived with their entourage and paid us a series of courtesy calls, to express their shock and outrage that we were attacked while visiting Monaco. I shook hands with everyone from the mayor to the head of the military, and many others that I had no idea who they were or what they did. For all I knew I could have been making small talk with the national pastry chef. It was that big a circus.

Hussein and Massoud were very obvious by their absence. Whoever came after us had to be their enemies, and the worrying thing was wondering whether they even knew who was after them. We wouldn't be visiting the casino that night, so I sent word to Hussein by way of the hotel manager, that due the 'unfortunate episode earlier in the day, we would be on the yacht, in case they needed us.'

Jack was all over us, giving us no privacy at all. He was way too wound up, and I finally pushed him into the safe room and asked what had him so worried. "We got an ID on a couple of the shooters. Carl, they are big time ISIS washouts. You need to hear this – the two we identified were kicked out of ISIS for being too radical. Think about that!"

I did...

... a lot.

The Judge sent Mr. No Name to personally oversee the final phase of our stock buyout, and Mr. No Name brought with him some very angry looking men who had unusual bulges all over their bodies. Those guys were armed and ready to start a war.