The Spirit Survives Read online

  “We’re going to have to be patient and wait,” Bo grumbled.

  “I’m hungry as hell,” Cherokee said, “Can’t we get something to eat and come back?”

  “Hell no!” was Bo’s immediate reply.

  Cherokee sulked as they waited. One encouraging thought had already entered his mind. The girl was sexy as hell and beautiful. He was still horny from the night before when his fling with Marge had gone south. This girl would do just fine to fulfill his cravings.

  Two hours passed while both men sat silently. Bo just stared straight ahead as Cherokee chain smoked his Camels. Bo and Cherokee waited silently for two hours in their Ford SUV. Then at about 11:30 a.m. Veronika Ivanova appeared in the doorway of the University of Wisconsin’s fine arts building and it was time for action. There were no other people in the parking lot, so if they acted quickly, Bo and Cherokee could nab her in a matter of seconds.

  Bo reached into the back seat and retrieved the gag and the plastic restraints he had placed there earlier and handed the items to Cherokee. Cherokee put them in his pocket. “Okay Cherokee, we do this just like we have in the past. You distract her and I’ll subdue her and keep her from screaming. Then you restrain her.”

  Cherokee knew exactly what to do. He and Bo had done this many times. He got out of the SUV and stood behind it as Veronika approached her BMW. “Excuse me,” Cherokee sounded distressed, “I’m trying to find the student center. I’m supposed to meet my niece there to take her to lunch. Can you direct me? I seem to be lost.”

  Veronika smiled and said, “Yes sir.”

  As Cherokee listened to her giving him the directions, he recognized a slight Russian accent. This turned him on even more.

  Bo had gotten out of the SUV and worked his way around it until he was behind the girl. She pointed while giving directions as Bo approached her. He slammed his hand tightly over her mouth to keep her from screaming and wrapped his other arm around her and held her tightly. Cherokee grabbed the plastic restraints from his pocket and pulled them tight around her wrists. He did the same with her ankles. He stuffed a cloth in her mouth as Bo removed his hand. Cherokee opened the back hatch of the SUV and Bo stuffed her body inside and slammed the hatch. Both men got back into the SUV. Bo started the engine and drove out of the parking lot. The entire abduction took less than a minute.

  Veronika was struggling and grunting in the back, but she was well secured.

  Bo always disposed of a hit at least fifty to one-hundred miles from where he abducted them. That made it much more difficult to find the body. Time destroyed evidence. Some of Bo’s hits were never found.

  That morning, while waiting on Cherokee to show up for breakfast, which he never did, Bo had looked at a map of the state. He observed that Lookout Mountain was about a ninety-minute drive from Green Bay. That location, which was remote, appeared to be a good area to kill the girl and dispose of the body. There would be plenty of places on that mountain to hide the body so it would never be found. Bo had copied down the directions to Lookout Mountain, using the map as the reference. He retrieved the directions from his pocket and handed them to Cherokee.

  “Okay man, you’re the navigator. We’re going to Lookout Mountain. You can have your fun when we get there.”

  Cherokee grasped the directions and smiled. This was going to be more enjoyable than he had imagined.

  After about an hour and a half they arrived at Lookout Mountain. The place looked totally deserted. Bo found an empty parking area with a path leading down to a small valley. The valley appeared to be the perfect spot to finalize the hit. He’d let Cherokee do his thing and when Cherokee was finished, Bo’s plan was to choke the girl to death and bury her. There was no sense wasting a bullet. The place was remote and her body would probably never be found. He took his shovel out of the back of the SUV. Cherokee reached in to get the girl. She tried to kick him in the face. He just grabbed her ankles and dragged her out of the back of the SUV. Her head bounced on the ground, and she attempted to scream. The cloth that was stuffed in her mouth reduced the scream to a muffled grunt. Cherokee reached down and slapped her face hard. He hissed at her, “Stop kicking or I’ll do some kicking myself!”

  She calmed down, but the wild look of fear remained in her eyes. Cherokee picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

  Bo was laughing at the entire encounter. He chuckled again as he put the shovel over his shoulder and followed Cherokee down the path to the little clearing.

  Cherokee found a flat area and dumped the girl on the ground. The forced of hitting the ground temporarily knocked the breath out of her. She appeared to be choking so Cherokee removed the cloth from her mouth. She could scream all she wanted to, no one would hear her in this deserted area. Anyway, women screaming turned him on.

  When Veronika caught her breath, she did not scream. She looked up at Cherokee, squinted her eyes and exclaimed, “Shithead, do you know who my father is?”

  Cherokee laughed at her as Bo walked up beside him.

  Bo threw the shovel to the ground and replied, “I don’t give a damn who your father is. He can’t help you now, sweetheart.”

  “Both of you are already dead men for touching me.” Veronkia’s voice trembled. “If you do anything else to me, he’ll cut off your balls and stuff them down your throat before he kills you!”

  The girl had Bo’s attention now. This sweet young thing had guts, and he was curious. “Okay bitch, what is this tough guy’s name?”

  Veronika looked confident and composed when she replied, “Sergey Ivanova.”

  Bo glanced at Cherokee. Both knew instantly that they were up shit-creek without a paddle if they were ever connected to the abduction of Sergey Ivanova’s daughter. Sergey was one of the top bosses in the Russian Mafia in the United States. Bo now understood why he was paid $50,000 for the hit. Cold chills ran up his spine while he considered this new information.

  Cherokee broke the silence. “Listen, we already have her, and she knows our faces. We’re both dead men if she ever has the opportunity to tell her father about us. I say we complete the job. We have to make sure her body is never found. We can cut up the corpse and bury it in ten different places. Let’s just get on with it. We don’t have a choice.”

  Bo thought that for once Cherokee made sense. They were too far down this road to turn back now. Bo was fully aware of the power and the brutality of the Russian Mafia. He might even have to kill Cherokee to make sure there was never a chance that Sergey could connect him to his daughter’s death. “Okay Cherokee, let get this done.”

  Veronika heard the entire conversation. She panicked and screamed.

  Cherokee straddled her and struck her across the face, and she spat at him. This hellcat was turning him on. Time for some fun. “Bo, cut the restraints from her hands and feet. I can’t screw her like this,” he said in a raspy voice.

  Bo thought, What the hell. He was getting a little turned on himself. He cut the plastic ties on her feet and walked around and did the same thing to her hands. He held her hands as Cherokee fumbled with his zipper. The girl squirmed wildly when Cherokee tried to part her legs and enter her.

  “Bo, go spread her feet apart for me, I’ll get the hands,”

  Cherokee pinned her arms down as Bo scurried around and grabbed her ankles and spread her legs apart. Cherokee was ready and forced himself inside her. She must have been a virgin as blood oozed from his entry into her vagina. This made Cherokee even hornier when he realized that he had a cherry. It didn’t take him long to have a very happy ending.

  Veronika lay motionless as Cherokee got off her violated body. Bo released her feet. As Cherokee was buckling his belt and zipping up, she kicked viciously and hit him full force in the groin. He doubled up from the pain. Bo jogged around and kicked her twice in the head. That should keep her quiet for awhile.

  As they were plotting on what to do next, a shout cracked the still mountain air. Both men looked up and saw a strange man running toward them.
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  Bo reached behind his back and grabbed the Colt .45 from his belt. He heard another grunt from Veronika as he leveled the pistol at the approaching stranger. Instinctively he turned the pistol and shot Veronika in the head. He whipped the pistol around quickly when he heard rumbling and felt the ground shaking beneath his feet, but was momentarily distracted by the loud noise. He recovered and quickly turned and fired a shot at the now fleeing man. He fired again as the man veered side to side, running up the trail from the valley, and yelled “He saw us kill Veronika, get him. Don’t let him get away!”

  Cherokee took off in a dead run after the man. Bo watched him scrambling up the trail grabbing at the man’s ankles. The ground was shaking violently and objects were flying through the air.

  And then he realized that a twister had him directly in its path.

  Chapter 8

  I lowered the flashlight from the timber wolf’s shining eyes. The light had only temporarily blinded him, and I was in no shape to ward off an attack. Looking around for a weapon, I found nothing but a fist-sized rock and grabbed it for protection.

  The growling turned into something that sounded like a baby’s whine. With the rock held firmly in my right hand, I raised the flashlight with my left hand. When the light hit his eyes, he growled again. The wolf tried to get up, but faltered and crumbled to the ground. I shined the light on the lower part of his body. His right front leg was twisted and bloody. It appeared badly broken. I assumed that I would be safe from an attack, for the time being. I decided to take my chances, reasoning that his pain was too intense for him to come after me.

  I turned the flashlight back to Ponytail. His crumpled body was about twenty feet to my left, about ten feet from where the wolf was lying. I didn’t know if he was dead, or lying there just waiting to shoot me.

  I crawled slowly and quietly toward him, not wanting to frighten or excite the wolf. Ponytail could present as much danger as the animal. The gash on my head was throbbing, but my arms and legs seemed to be in good working order. When I got to him, my fingers went immediately to his throat and probed his neck for a pulse. It was weak. Unless someone showed up quickly, he would die.

  He was lying face down, rocks covering his left leg up to the knee. Even though he was a killer and a rapist, he was a human being. Even though he’d tried to kill me, I’d have to do all I could to keep him alive until help arrived.

  I moved to the lower leg area and began removing loose rocks and piled them to the side. After a few minutes, I uncovered his leg down to the ankle. It was lodged tightly between two huge boulders, and it had had been completely crushed.

  I sat back and relaxed for a moment, deciding what to do next and having no way of knowing the extent of his internal injuries. I moved back to his upper body and lifted his head. On the left side of his face, the cheekbone was crushed and bloody and his eyeball bulged out of its socket. There did not appear to be any other cuts or abrasions on his head or face. I could do nothing to assist him other than hope that help would arrive soon.

  Noticing his wallet protruding from his back pocket, I removed it to look for some identification. There was a lot of cash stuffed in the bill section. I sifted through his credit cards and found his driver’s license. His name was Cherokee Alvarez, from Chicago. Having lived in Chicago, I recognized the address as one of the upscale condo buildings just outside the city. Cherokee was a rapist and accessory to murder, so I could only assume that he was a very successful criminal. I placed the wallet back in his pocket and continued to search him. In the front right pocket of his jeans was a cigarette lighter. It might come in handy, so I put it in my pocket. In the other pocket was a money clip with more cash, a switchblade knife, and a small packet containing a white powder. I tasted it and concluded that it was cocaine. I put the switchblade and the cocaine in my pocket. In the upper right pocket of his shirt was a pack of Camels. The other shirt pocket contained a pack of Juicy Fruit gum. I took both these items with me, then crept back to my spot, twenty feet away, so I could keep an eye on Cherokee and the wolf.

  During my Navy Seal survival courses, I had been trained to use everything available to survive. Some items could be put to much different uses than what they were meant for.

  It was time to take inventory of everything I had. There was no noise from the wolf and Cherokee was out cold. I placed the knife, cocaine, lighter, gum and Camels on the ground beside me. My eyes had adjusted to the dim light, so I put down the flashlight alongside the other items. I reached over and moved the first aid kit to the area and unzipped my back pack to remove all the items I had brought with me for the hiking trip. I took the things out and put them with the inventory. My assets included: a length of nylon rope, two bottles of water, a container of hand sanitizer, a can of sardines, two cans of Vienna sausages, a pack of low sodium crackers, an apple, and a towel. I had also wrapped three slices of bread and two packets of mustard in aluminum foil. What can I say? I like my snacks and one of my favorites is Vienna sausage sandwiches with mustard.

  After examining my complete inventory, I knew there was enough to survive for at least a few days. I was hoping that a search party was already looking for me. If my car had survived the twister, the authorities could easily trace it to me and realize that I was missing. There was enough identification in the car to lead them to Leah to inform her of the situation.

  My head had begun aching again so I lay down to rest for a few minutes and think. I fashioned a pillow from the towel in my inventory and put it on the ground to lay my head on. I braced myself with both arms and reclined. As my head touched the towel, I felt movement under it and heard a rattling noise. Quickly jerking my head up, I grabbed the flashlight and slowly lifted the towel. I gasped and jumped back as a large snake slithered away. Its skin was a rust-orange with black crossbars. The black tail was capped by a tan rattle. I had seen pictures of a timber rattlesnake before. This one was a prize specimen. It disappeared behind the rocks about seven to eight feet behind me and stopped rattling. After getting my ragged breath back to normal, I grasped that the danger had increased significantly. Night was falling and it became pitch black in the cave. I looked toward the hole above me and no light filtered in. The moon must have been covered with dark clouds. The damp night air made me shiver and the blackness help me understand what it feels like to be blind.

  I began to doubt my ability to survive.

  Chapter 9

  Bo ran for his life. He didn’t think of Veronika’s dead body lying behind him. He didn’t think of Cherokee running after the man. His only thought was, I’ve got to save my ass!

  He was able to run about two-hundred feet away as the twister passed over the spot where the dead girl lay in a pool of blood. He dived to the ground, covered his head and drew into a fetal position as the world exploded around him. Rocks and soil hit his body. It felt as if someone were shooting him with buckshot.

  As rapidly as it had begun, the ground stopped shaking as the tornado moved past him and up the mountain. It appeared to be following the same path that Cherokee and the stranger had taken. Bo leapt to his feet to check for injuries. He was bleeding in several places where the flying dirt and rocks had struck him. The most damage was on his back and buttocks. Being curled up in a fetal position had protected his head. Other than hurting, his arms and legs were functional. Apparently, he had no broken bones. His Colt .45 was about five feet from him. He walked over, picked it up and put it in his belt. He could still hear a distant roar, but the danger had passed. He walked back to the area where Veronika’s body had been; it had vanished. The twister took it away to lord knows where. Bo was hoping that it had been ripped into pieces. The path where Cherokee had run had also disappeared. There was nothing left but a massive pile of rocks. Maybe the tornado had taken care of his problem with Cherokee knowing too much. He hoped that the man who had interrupted his hit was also dead.

  Bo couldn’t take the chance that the man had survived. He had to do everything he could to conf
irm that the guy was dead. In the unlikely event that the man survived, his life would be worthless. He didn’t give a shit about Cherokee, but the witness had to be silenced, if not by the tornado, then by Bo Lopez. Bo stopped for a moment and listened. Everything was eerily quiet. The tornado had hushed every living thing on that part of the mountain. The silence sent chills up his spine. Bo made his way back to his rented SUV. The only damage he noticed was a cracked window on the driver’s side. He unlocked the vehicle, got in and started the SUV. He decided that he ought to find a place to get cleaned up and change clothes. He needed time to plan what to do next.

  He put his vehicle in gear, backed out, and started down the winding mountain road. After about half a mile he saw a small parking area with a car parked. The black Lexus was left beside a sign that read, “Hiking Trails”. The automobile had not been there when he and Cherokee had passed the area earlier. There certainly was a probability that the Lexus belonged to the man he was worried about.

  Bo was a professional, he took nothing for granted. He pulled in and parked beside the car. He attempted to open the door, but it was locked. Bo picked up a rock, walked to the driver’s side and busted the window. He banged out the remaining glass and reached through the window to open the glove compartment. He didn’t open the door out of fear of setting off an alarm. Nearly everyone stored their registration and insurance cards in the glove compartment. He grasped the warranty book and pulled it out. The insurance card was encased in plastic inside the book. Bo took it out and threw the book on the seat. The owner’s name was Ben Harris. The card listed a Chicago address. He put the card in his pocket and rummaged through the glove compartment and found a thick envelope. The return address on the envelope was Allied Moving and Storage.