Chapter 7 Plan B
Nome, April 8, 1929
The tension inside of the hospital room could be cut with a knife. O'Neal and Duke sat next to Kodi, occasionally glancing at the pristine white bandage on his side. Next to him was Victor, who had earned a few fractures from being catapulted into the lumber pile. Jake opened up the door with a new beanie on his head to cover up the bandages on him. Dusty and Jenna burst through the opening, nearly knocking him over in the process. Both rushed to the bed and jumped on top, Jenna took one look and wished Balto were here; Dusty collapsed into tears.
"Why? Why did he jump in front?" Dusty sobbed out. Jenna comforted her as best she could.
"He loves you Dusty, Balto would have done the same for me and I him."
"But it was me that deserved this; it was my fault Suki wandered off." He face went blank. "And they took her anyway." Dusty began to fall apart. The blanket over Kodi rustled and he awoke from his medically induced nightmare to the one outside of his head. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rowdy hop up to the outside window, then Muk and Luk with Boris and Stella riding Muk.
"It is not your fault Dusty." Kodi said meekly. "The important thing is everyone else is safe, we will find dad and Suki, don't worry."
"How can you say that? All four of them are in who knows where, doing who knows what. And how can you of all tell me not to worry, you were shot!"
"Yes, I was shot, defending my family; that is how I know they'll be fine. They're our family, were pretty tough." Kodi attempted to crack a smile, hopping to cheer her up. Next to them, Victor nodded his head.
"If I have learned anything from knowing you folks is that tough runs in your blood."
"What do you mean?" Jenna asked.
"All of you are tougher than you look and whether I like it or not, you're not much for surrender." Victor said looking at each of them. He then affixed his gaze strait, towards the door, where O'Neal and Duke were having a conversation.
"What kind of pig would do this?" O'Neal said, his voice filled with contempt.
"The same kind that would take puppies from their mothers and celebrate." Duke answered, using his words like daggers. "Sheriff, can we talk to you outside?" he said sticking his thumb over his shoulder at the door.
"Sure fellas." the trio walked out of the room and then out of the hospital. Rowdy saw them leave and peaked around the corner, eavesdropping. Jake closed the outside door and looked O'Neal strait in the eye.
"We're going after them."
"Who?" O'Neal was set off balance by the statement. Duke cut in and his eyes burned with a hot fury.
"You know who, the bastards that took Balto and Steele, the bastards that took pups from their mothers. The bastards who shot your best friend. The Outfit has made my shit-list, and we're going after them."
"What? Are you crazy? These jackanapes are not a street gang; they are the most dangerous organized crime syndicate in America. They have more firepower than the army and they know how to use it to boot."
"Which is why we want your help, you interrogated that fat guy Jimmy. What did he tell you?"
"Not much, just that he was 'affiliated with a certain Outfit in Chicago' and that he was a smuggler. After that, he clammed up real tight and went back to asking for a lawyer."
"Let us talk to him." Jake said.
"Jake, I love Kodi, and Balto and the others. You two are like my sons, but I will not let you go after that man, mobster or no. I already called in the cavalry; they need him to talk to him."
"O'Neal, we need to do this, I won't just stand by and let someone else handle it. These guys made this personal." Jake spoke as if he was chewing on iron. "We have a fresh source of information in your jail cell over there. Those two have saved our lives more than I would like to say, we owe them this much. That man is our best and only way to get our friends back."
"And how do you intend to do that?"
"Like you said, we need to do what is necessary to keep this place safe."
"Good gawd." The sheriff put his hands on his hips. "Alright fine, I may as well help, you two knuckleheads will do it anyway, but like I said, I already called in the Marshalls to take him tomorrow. If you are going to do what needs done, the time is now. Also, I can't be involved in what you two do; so know this, if you are caught, I'll be the one arresting you." Despite O'Neal's warning, Duke and Jake stood as resolute as redwoods. "Very well then, it looks like it is time for Plan-B." They walked across the street and Jake picked up a duffel bag he had put next to the door earlier.
"What is in there?" O'Neal asked.
"Better if you didn't know." Jake said flatly as he opened the door. He walked into the office with Duke behind him. O'Neal checked around the street and once satisfied it was empty, he closed the door behind him.
"Let me talk to him first Jake." Duke said.
"Why?"
"Because, he can't talk with a mouth full of broken teeth. Believe me, leaving this guy get a little bruised won't ruffle my feathers. But we need the information he can tell us to find them." Jake thought through what Duke said and reasoned he was right.
"I understand, I just want to find them."
"I know, so do I, and the sooner we get this done the better." Duke finished and opened the door to the jail. He slowly walked to the cell that contained Jimmy, who had his back turned to the door. Jimmy heard the footsteps behind him.
"Lawyer." he said. Duke took out the key and opened the door. Jimmy turned around. "I said law-"
"Shut up. I'm not the sheriff. I am the owner of one of the dogs your buddies stole. Needless to say, I want to find him. You know where he is."
"Really, I know where he is? Well, looks like I should be in the fortune teller business, 'cause I've got no idea what you are talking about."
"Bull, you are a smuggler with the Chicago Outfit, and like I said, I'm not with the sheriff." Duke waived at the door. The doorknob turned and the next thing Duke saw Jake walking down the hallway with his duffle bag. "You remember Jake right? Just remember I gave you a chance to talk to me." Jake opened the cell door and silently walked in.
"Wait! Wait! This guy is nuts!" Duke turned to leave." Come on! Don't leave me!" Jimmy was not sure what was scarier; the duffle bag Jake was carrying or the emotionless expression on his face.
"Then tell me where they are." Duke commanded. Jake dropped the duffle bag on the floor, it made a resounding and heavy thud as it landed. To Jimmy it may as well have been a gunshot.
"Alright alright! I'll tell you whatever you want, just make him go away!" Jimmy yelped.
"Jake go stand outside please." Duke said authoritatively. Jake followed his friend's command without a sound. After the hallway door opened and closed again, Duke turned his attention back to Jimmy "Well then, let's get to business. Where are they?" Jimmy put up his hands and the expression on his face screamed that he was scared to death.
"After we got the dogs, we were told to take them to a warehouse in Brandon Docks."
"Do you expect me to know where that is?"
"Chicago Doughboy, it's in Chicago."
"Address, now." Duke tossed him a pad and pen. Jimmy quickly picked it up and scribbled down the address.
"Thank you." Duke walked out of the room with the address and left Jimmy with the duffle bag.
"Hey, hey! What about this thing?"
"You can have them." Jimmy unzipped the bag revealing a couple dozen phone books.
"You can use one to call that lawyer." Duke strode down the hallway with a smile that would rival the Cheshire Cat. He opened the door to the lobby and held up the address.
"Jake pack our bags, were going to the Windy City."
"Chicago? Should have guessed." Jake stood and made ready to leave.
"Hold on boys." O'Neal said. "I let you do your thing in there, and don't mistake me, I am grateful. But I just can't let you two go off on a suicide mission-"
"No, "Jake spat out."We already told you we won't let someone else take care of this. There are only three people that I trust on this Me, Duke, and you. I can't trust someone I don't know, not with all these stories I've heard of corruption and cops there on the take." O'Neal slapped Jake upside the head and waived a finger in his face.
"If you would have let me finish, I was going to say, I wouldn't let you go on a suicide mission without giving you some help." With that, he took a key out of his pocket and tossed it to Duke. "Take what you want, just bring them back clean." O'Neal pointed to a back room. Duke walked up to the door and put the key into the lock. With a turn of the key, he heard a satisfactory click as the tumblers lined up and the door opened. Behind the door was the sheriff's armory. A room about the size of a large bathroom that was dominated with gun racks and boxes of ammunition. Jake walked in and picked up a weapon, he let out a low whistle.
"Hey O`Neal, are you worried were gonna be invaded or something? " he said, holding the large weapon in his hands. "What is this thing anyway?"
"Thompson sub-machine gun, there have been a rash of bank robberies lately and I wanted to be prepared." Duke picked up a shotgun and worked the pump action, a twelve gauge round popped out the side. Duke swiftly caught and examined it.
"Well I would say you are prepared for the end of the world there O'Neal." O'Neal said nothing, he just shrugged his shoulders and smirked, his grey mustached twitched, eliciting a chuckle out of Jake.
"Thanks O'Neal, this will come in handy." They also picked up a pair of rucksacks for the search and rescue teams.
"Well, this is kind of a search and rescue." Jake said, holding up the red pack.
"Ya, except with automatic weapons and a whole city of gangsters." Duke joked.
"You say potato I say potàto." Both opened the packs and put their chosen armaments into the sacks with some spare ammo. Duke put his army pistol into a shoulder holster and hid it in his jacket. Jake picked up a revolver and did the same. They both then put on the packs and walked out of the office and to the airport. Across the street at the hospital, Jenna saw them leave and stopped her conversation with Dusty.
"Look," everyone present turned their attention out the open window. "Where are they going?"
"I have no idea." Dusty said to her. Boris flapped up to the window sill and watched them walk down the hill.
"I have no idea either, but I know how to find out." He took off with Stella close behind him.
"Don't think about leaving without me fly-guy." she said as she caught up to him.
"Stella?" Boris was slightly surprised while not being surprised at all. "What are you doing?"
"Last time I checked it was called moving my wings up and down and flying." she said with an obvious hint of sarcasm.
"I mean up here. This could be dangerous." Boris said with his typical overprotective manner.
"After spending a year or two around Balto, one finds danger is like taking a bath, it happens every day."
"I hate it when you make sense like that." Both flapped over the heads of Duke and Jake. The two men turned into the air strip and Duke began to wheel out his plane.
"How long till we are ready to get out of here?" Jake asked.
"About five minutes. Do me a favor and load up our stuff." Jake did as he was asked; he checked their gear and loaded the packs into the plane's cargo compartment. Boris and Stella watched overhead from a water tower.
"Where do you think they are goin'?" Stella asked.
"No idea, go back and tell Jenna what we saw."
"So you can sneak off without me? I was born, but wasn't yesterday." She scolded and shot him a nasty look.
"Fine, we need to get into plane. I know from experience they are not very comfortable, but it is faster than us by long shot."
"Ok, I can make do with uncomfortable. But how do plan on getting on?" Jake answered her question as he left the cargo door open after tossing in the packs.
"The man is incapable of closing anything; I've gotten a few free treats out of his pantry myself." Boris flapped over to the plane and jumped in with Stella behind him. Boris closed the door after him making a metallic clang.
"Did you hear that?" Duke asked.
"Door closed, must have been the wind." Jake answered.
"Must have. Hop in, were ready to get out of here. Contact." Boris heard the engine sputter to life and the sounds of both of them clamor into the cockpits.
"Attention," Duke yelled over the engine, "keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and hang on, Chicago here we come." the plane lurched forward and they were underway. Jake felt his loss of touch with the ground as they climbed into the air as he did he may have left part of his stomach on the ground.
"Hey, Duke, is now a bad time to tell you I don't fly well?" Jake admitted. Duke opened a small compartment and took out a small bottle. He held the bottle in front of him and Jake grabbed the bottle and opened it, revealing some small pink pills.
"Air sickness pills, they did wonders on Balto when I first took him up." Jake quickly flipped two into his mouth and swallowed them. Inside the cargo space Boris and Stella were having a slightly better experience flying Air-Duke.
"All of the speed and none of the wind shear. Humans have it too easy." Stella jealously said.
"The only way to fly." Boris chirped, he sat back with his head against one of the packs. "But the sleeping accommodations could use work, what do they have here, rocks?" Boris unzipped one of the packs and was greeted by a shotgun barrel.
"Yipe!" Boris jumped out of his feathers and landed in Stella's wings.
"Fraidy-Goose." She dropped him on the floor of the plane. She trotted over to the pack and unzipped it the rest of the way. On the inside was everything but the kitchen sink. "My my my, these two really do mean business."
"I am glad we are on their side for this one." Boris said flatly. He zipped back up the bag and laid his head down on the other side of the pack, checking for any misplaced firepower first.