The second excerpt from Flooding Hollywood. This is the second Mike Scott thriller.
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“So, you’re telling me God has made you his servant and his tool to cleanse the earth. I think you’re just another lunatic. Just like all the rest. The voice you hear in your head isn’t God,” Mike said. He didn’t really have a plan at the moment, but he had to try to get out and stop the bomb from destroying the dam. He needed to find a way to get past Runyan and his men outside.
“Oh, the nonbelievers. I told you, you were just as bad as all the vile creatures that cover this earth and make it unclean. You’re just as bad, because you defend them. You could convert to our side, Mike. You could repent and be forgiven of your actions, because you didn’t know the error of your ways. But, no, I don’t believe that will happen. You are with them. You have no love in you for God. You just love the world and the evil that is in it. You love the sodomites. You love the Muslims, the Asians and the Mexicans and all the rest. They are the problem with this world. They are the ones destroying it, with their lies and their money. They take away opportunities from good people like me and my men. They take our jobs and our women. They take our pride and our opportunity,” Runyan fumed, finally beginning to expose the roots of his delusion.
“But I thought the most important commandment, according to Jesus, was to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul,” Mike said, trying to stall until he found a way out of the house.
“That’s true, Mike. That’s true. You did learn something on your mother’s knee when you were growing up. Maybe there is hope for you yet. Those words of Jesus are the most important things I live by and that is what I teach my men. All of the words of Jesus are sacred to us. That’s what drives us and makes us who we are today,” Runyan readily agreed, suddenly sounding more rational, as if appeased by hearing scripture. He had a flash that Mike might be turning to his side and wanted to make the most of it.
“The next thing Jesus said was that you should love your neighbor as yourself. Isn’t that right? Now, how can you tell me you hate everyone around you and that they are all corrupt and vile, when God, through Jesus, tells you to love everyone else in the world? You might be able to hate what some people do, like killing innocents by blowing up dams and destroying ships in harbors, but you aren’t supposed to hate other people. You are supposed to reach out to them with love. Aren’t you?” Mike asked. “I haven’t heard you say anything about love. I’ve heard you preaching about hate and I’ve heard you preaching your prejudice, but not about love. Where does that come in?”
“You,” Runyan screamed. “You just don’t know what you’re talking about. Even Satan can quote the scripture. In fact, the Bible teaches that he knows it better than most people. He twists the word of God around and can spew it out to justify anything. You must be filled with Satan. Get thee behind me, Satan,” Runyan exploded, his eyes bulging.
Mike was surprised that Runyan’s men didn’t come rushing in to help him at this point. The man was in full meltdown. His eyes and his body language spoke of a complete lack of coherence. He was completely out of control.
“You must be in with the evil gays. They are the ones taking over this country. They are the ones taking over this world. They are the true evil alive today in this…”
Runyan had backed himself up near the open door in his fit. In mid-sentence, he broke off and crumpled to the floor. Mike first suspected he had had an aneurism or a stroke, until Max stepped in through the door over him. Mike was so surprised he laughed.
Max was holding a baseball bat in one hand. He had just used it on Runyan. Standing over the unconscious zealot, Max looked down at him and said, “I thought it was time someone shut him up. Don’t you agree?”
Grinning, Max stepped forward and pulled a knife from his pocket. He began working on Diane’s ropes.
“So, how did you find us? What did you do?” Mike asked, still in shock at the sudden turn of events.
“Diane left a message for me. I tried to call the cops, but they thought I was just calling in a prank. They said they would get someone up here as soon as they could, but because they didn’t think it was an emergency, it wouldn’t be immediately. After the thing yesterday in the harbor, there have been prank calls all over the city. It’s been all over the news,” Max explained.
“But what about Runyan’s other men?” Mike asked, waiting his turn to get free.
“There were only two of them out there. I pretended to be a lost hiker and caught them off guard. I hosted a survival show on cable for a while. I know how to take care of myself,” he said as he finished cutting through Diane’s bonds. She stood up and went over to check on Runyan, who fell away from the door, in the corner.
“Well, I sure appreciate your help on this one,” Mike said.
Suddenly, two more of Runyan’s men burst through the door. They had come back from an errand and found their two friends unconscious on the floor. Mike, Diane and Max all heard the deafening roar of a vintage military issue Colt .45 handgun going off in the small room. The relatively big and slow-moving bullet immediately knocked Max down, delivering its punch and releasing all of its built up energy into his body. Max nearly flipped as he was struck in the leg, the close-range attack knocking his feet out from under him.
Mike’s hands were still tied as Max had just begun to free him. Mike rose up off the floor, preparing to fight off the attack from the zealots come to protect their master. But Diane charged in first. Her hands were free.
Trained to fight on movie sets, her instructors had taught her that she had to know how to throw a real punch before she could ever throw a fake movie punch and make it look real. She would have had a black belt if she trained with a traditional martial arts school and entered competitions.
As she rose up from her crouched position checking on Runyan, she launched herself into the air and kicked the man holding the gun in the upper abdomen, doubling him over. The second zealot appeared to be unarmed, but Diane didn’t take any chances. As soon as her feet hit the floor, she jumped again, this time in a reverse spin kick that landed her foot against the back of his neck, knocking him to the floor as well. She then stepped forward and struck the first man across the back of the neck and shoulders with a forearm blow, driving him to the ground.
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Flooding Hollywood is available in softcover and on Kindle. It is also part of the Mike Scott Boxed set.