Revenge (Bone Frog Bachelor Book 3), page 12
“Have someone else bring him some water please. I’d like you to show me his file, if you have one. An application? Can I get a copy?”
“Of course. What are you looking for?”
“I’d like to see what he puts as references. An address. Let’s go to your office, is that where the files are kept?”
“No, the interns are kept in Rhea’s office. Follow me.”
I directed Rhea to bring Rory some water. While she left, I opened the drawer with all the internship contracts in it. Going through all the tabs we found Rory’s folder, and pulled it out. Opening the vanilla folder up I was surprised to find nothing in there.
Watson was quicker than I was. He bolted out of the office and ran down the hall to the conference room with the door that had been left ajar. I stood behind him as we saw the room was completely vacant. An unopened bottle of water sat on the table.
He looked at me. “We said somebody from inside didn’t we?”
“You did. You both did.”
“I don’t know how the hell he got in here, but I think he’s our man.”
Chapter 13
Marco
Riley demonstrated how the drones he’d brought were able to track and record even directions that faced the sun, and unlike a lot of other drones, that used a heat signature, these were accurate from a mile up. It made them harder to detect.
I was impressed with this new technology.
“Yeah they developed these lenses for satellites that orbit the sun, because they need to photograph sunspots and sometimes objects that are on the backside, and there’s no way to avoid the sun’s light. So they devised these to bend it, and then send it back up, but scrubbed of all the limiting rays. It’s really cool what they’re doing these days.” Riley said.
He had brought seven small drones and one large one, and he explained that the smaller drones were actually more expensive. “You’re not going to like the bill for these, Marco.”
“Then bring them back. Make sure you get them all back. I’ll sell them back to you.”
McConnell had also been fascinated not only with the drones themselves, but the computer controllers that he brought as well.
“I think I’ve invested in the wrong business. Fruit only has a shelf life of about a week—longer if it’s refrigerated. But this stuff, all the components and all the things they’re doing these days, man this is a wide open field.”
“Yeah, and since so much of the technology from China is frowned upon, although it’s technically very good, there’s a lot of room for UK based or US based companies to really make some money and capitalize on it. Notwithstanding the security aspect of it of course.”
“Of course.”
Riley explained that he was going to send two up at a time. And then recycle them so that at any one time there was always two, and the others were back in their perch uploading their information.
“The screen you have here, which is recording, is not of the quality that the signal is going to be when they send it to Marco’s computer or Norfolk. And right now I’ve got it set to just send to your computer Marco. You want me to ask Campbell if he’s got a secure server we can send it to in DC?”
“Do it. I think he should have it.”
“Okay let me take care of this, it’s going to take me about ten minutes, and I should be good to go. I’ll give him a call and see if I can get all the links.”
McConnell and I walked to the side of the living room. I needed some advice.
“So my inclination is as soon as we’ve got it analyzed, and we’re sure where we’re going and how to get there, I need to ask, are you willing to put your son in harm’s way to get us there? I mean, he’s a local kid, people have probably seen him with the truck. Unless you think he’s under suspicion. I don’t want to get your family in any more trouble than they’re already in.”
“I think we’re okay with him, he has a friend though, Abdallah, his father was a policeman in the capital, who was gunned down. Abdallah lives with his mother and sisters here, and they’re the best of friends. I think he’s sympathetic to our side of things, and if asked I think he would help us. I’d feel better if we did that.”
“Of course. You get your son to bring him over, I want to vet him first.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
It wasn’t more than an hour before we were packed, loaded, and I had verified that all the proper links were downloading to my laptop. We would leave it behind at McConnell’s residence, but I was going to take my hand-held, which would give me a mirror image of what we were recording. Riley was going to stay behind as well to man the birds. We’d have to use the sat phone because the INVISIOs wouldn’t reach that far. After speaking with Abdallah, I was satisfied we could trust him. He was eager to be of service. The kid was about the same age as Cristobel, but was roughly three inches shorter. Cristobel, on the other hand, took after his father.
Each man had their own duty bag, with their choice of fire power, and ammunition. We carried enough food for two days in case we needed it, plus water, two sat phones amongst us, and each man had an INVISIO com, so they could whisper instructions to each other.
Abdallah explained that they would be going through the brush for approximately two miles, and then they would come to a clearing, which was a favorite roundabout for people practicing with ATVs, trucks, even some limited drag racing sort of activity that the local kids did. The ground was pockmarked and devoid of vegetation unlike the rest of the area on route to their designated meetup.
“This is the most dangerous part because we have to go across this clearing, otherwise we have to go the river. And the river, is not safe.” He shook his head for emphasis.
I found his English was rather spotty, and his dialect so strong it made it difficult to understand him. But after he repeated himself a couple of times, the group all nodded their heads in agreement. I told them I was going to walk point With Abdallah after we arrived and stashed the lorry. I told Sven to carry up the rear. Juan was responsible for keeping an eye on the sides and the sky so that hopefully we had all our bases covered.
It was still very hot at 1:00 in the afternoon, and in about thirty minutes, my shirt and pants were completely drenched. I also had picked up some bug bites when I passed under a tall tree with banana type fronds that seemed to just grip the side of my face and neck. Something got deposited in my shirt and I wiggled until I got rid of it. But I knew I was going to have a pretty sizeable welt that was going to itch or worse for days.
The drone footage that was forwarded to the small laptop, was a little grainy today. But it had the capability of showing our location in relation to where we were headed, and that was a tremendous help, since it also identified barriers, streams, large structures or abandoned vehicles. The one thing we didn’t see, was burned out and damaged villages. I guessed that probably Abdallah tried to avoid those so the chances of engagement of any kind was eliminated.
We came to the clearing just as Abdallah had told us, and everything was eerily quiet. We heard the sounds of birds and other noisy animals, lizards and crickets and insects of all kinds, but nothing was heard once we hit the clearing, almost as if we had entered a dead zone.
“We walk carefully straight across.” Abdallah said. “We go two, one, one?”
Everybody nodded.
“If you hear something, you just stop. You do not run, until you know who is coming. You stop briefly to listen to where it’s coming from, and then you continue on your forward direction like you’re going where you always go, or you don’t have anything to fear.” I said.
We were adequately armed, but not so anyone would notice. Juan had stuffed his long gun in his backpack in two pieces, Sven had a short barrel Uzi type machine gun, Israeli made, and everyone had a side arm and several knives. Abdallah did not carry a weapon other than a machete, an ax, and a very long bladed serrated knife looking similar to a K-bar.
Abdallah and I walked across the clearing, choosing an area at the tip of the clearing instead of crossing at the widest point. Listening for sounds of anything around us, we walked normal speed, and buried ourselves in the brush at the other end waiting for the rest of the team. Juan was the next to follow, and he did not follow the same path that Abdallah and I did, seemingly going off into the east instead of going north. In several minutes he found us in the brush and joined us. I directed Sven.
“Okay my friend, your turn.”
“Hey Marco I hear something behind me. There’s like a truck coming. I think I should wait.”
“Is it a large truck or a vehicle of some kind, a sedan?”
“It sounds like one of those three tire delivery vehicles? It has a tiny engine. But I hear some talking so there’s more than one.”
“Get down and wait. You have some good cover?”
“Will do.”
The team on the other side of the clearing laid flat against the ground and waited. A group of three scooters with small trailers attached entered the clearing picking up speed as soon as they hit the edge. The first scooter turned abruptly and did several wheelies in the middle. Red dirt flew everywhere until their vision was completely obscured. There were shouts and cheers as the other two watched the antics of the first one.
Then the other two took their turns. One rolled his and was able to right the machine himself without any help. He was laughed at and called names. They played in the red dirt for nearly an hour, while I checked in with Sven several times to make sure he was okay.
Finally, the friends all left the scene, headed in the same direction that Abdallah and I had headed.
“We’re going to take a course correction chance. I don’t want to run into these guys again. So we’re going to head east and then we’ll get back on a direct route to the camp. You’re good to go Sven.”
Several minutes later Sven entered the clearing from the south, dodging again the widest part and instead slicing off the area to limit his visibility time. I saw him check the sky and then Sven lept over a rock and disappeared. Nobody moved.
Abdallah whispered in my ear, “Drone.”
I was hoping it was one of Riley’s, since I could barely hear it.
While we were watching the clearing, Sven came up behind me and surprised us all.
“Did you hear a drone?” I asked.
“I thought I did. It kind of sounded a little bit like a very lightweight RPG. But there’s no blast so I guess we’re good to go.”
They resumed their trek, headed east first and then corrected it to follow north. Abdallah was clearing the brush and moved them into the thickest part of the jungle so that their actions and sounds would be muffled. They encountered wild fruits, including a beautiful banana tree with bright red ripe bananas that probably was 40 feet tall. There were colorful butterflies and birds, even a monkey colony with red faces.
I followed the map, and stopped everyone about a half mile from the site.
I pointed to the screen and did not say a word. I put my hands cupping one ear to indicate I wanted them to listen.
I’d been trained to listen and smell, to take in my surroundings, as if I was a blind person. I had done hundreds of exercises blindfolded, so I could learn to spatially orient. It came in handy even though this was in the middle of the day. I could smell smoke from a campfire in three different directions. I also smelled something of a chemical nature like turpentine or pitch, perhaps somebody repairing a roof or creating a tar seal. I didn’t hear any mechanical machinery, no trucks or motors of any kind and there were surprisingly no airplanes flying overhead.
Very slowly we moved toward the red square on the box that was our target. At last, through the jungle foliage, we could see buildings patched together with concrete block and corrugated iron. There was evidence of recent tree removal, fresh hack marks, leaves being harvested, and also located a campfire pit that had been used in the past.
We also passed a burn pit, loaded with pieces of clothing, a rubber tire that smoked, nothing I wanted to look too closely at, for fear I’d see remains of a body there. Sven didn’t seem to have that same problem and with a stick rummaged through, whispering, “It’s just a trash dump. Nothing bad here.”
I called Riley on my sat.
“Anything on your end Riley? We’re in position.”
I heard the crackle on the other end and then Riley’s voice smoothing out. “No but we got some really good visuals here. I need to let you know that the senator’s monitors in DC have not come up with any large groups heading your way. But it does appear that there is a large personnel carrier on the backside furthest away from you. It could have brought in several militia units, that we haven’t seen. So be careful. They have the capacity to truck in or out maybe thirty or so.”
“Good to know. We don’t hear any motors. But we’ll watch for that.”
“Senator wants to know if your accommodations are satisfactory.”
I chuckled. “Probably one of the nicest safe houses I’ve stayed at. Tell my uncle I appreciate it. I’m just not sure how long is safe to stay there. But he’s got a full medical facility there and if we have someone injured here, we can take care of them properly. You just ask him to keep us visible. Okay?”
“Will do.”
I heard McConnell’s voice. “Everything good with Abdallah?”
“Tell Cristobel he’s fine. Thanks.”
I disconnected the call but left the sat phone turned on. I checked the handheld backup computer, and saw a miniaturized version of what Riley was looking at. Riley magnified the area, lowered the drone a bit so he could see a little more detail of the houses in the perimeter. He scanned the steeple of the church expanding the magnification, enough to see two well-armed soldiers, sleeping in the afternoon heat.
“Okay so we got two, let’s see if we can see what’s in those buildings.”
I dialed Riley again. “Can you get down to look in some of those windows? You see any traffic or evidence of traffic in and out?”
“Just watch. I didn’t notice it, but I could have missed it.”
We both watched in tandem as the drone dipped, magnified the size of the buildings so that I could see every crack, every rust mark, every divot created by gunfire. They came to one wall opposite the church, that had been made of sun-baked stone. There were sprays of automatic gunfire divots crisscrossing the stone wall, hundreds of them. The dark stains on the wall indicated it had been a site of some carnage.
Most of the dirt area in the central courtyard between the buildings, looked like it was fresh tilled or worked over soil. I decided not to tell the team that I suspected a mass grave or burial site underneath, but I guessed many of my team were already thinking that.
Remembering what McConnell had told me, I knew that the presence of a sleepy little church with some outbuildings, was something that might not flag most people’s attention. but it was exactly what he had described. This was not what it seemed, and it was dangerous.
Just then, a section of the dirt in the center courtyard, began to move and slowly a trap door opened in two halves, the dusty metal pieces falling to the sides. Up from the center of the bowels of the courtyard, came the sounds of heavy steps on a metal rail. Riley must have seen the same thing because the drone focused in on the faces of the soldiers coming up out of the courtyard.
There were three, one of them sporting a bandage across an eye that was bleeding and a wound on his forehead. But behind the three militants, I saw the unmistakable form of Karen Atkins. Her face was nearly unrecognizable. Her eyes were so swollen they were nearly shut. Her lip was cut. Her hands were bound with dirty rags in front of her. But her feet were not. Her hair was matted and caked with mud. Behind Karen, I saw Ron Hansen. And then two others.
All the hostages followed the three soldiers, with one dropping behind kicking Ron Hansen in the butt several times to speed him up. They had all been beaten, but they were walking.
And they were alive!
As they marched toward the old church, the one thing I didn’t see, was the presence of Paul Veejay.
Rest in peace brother.
Chapter 14
Shannon
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department sprung into action, like nothing I’d ever expected. They sent two staff over to my office, helping Rhea and some of the other assistants look for any kind of paperwork that had information on Rory’s whereabouts. His application and contract was already mailed out to the school, and, after I called them, they would be looking for it. But right now, the copy that was supposed to be retained on our end, was missing. He must have known this was coming.
We had always thought our biggest security issue was not people who worked here, but people who came in from the outside.
Watson asked me my opinion about why Rory would be so interested in our project.
“I have no idea. I had really not very much contact with him, and I know you’re interviewing the other interns, but it’s nothing I expected. So I didn’t look into it. I’m so sorry that we don’t have the paperwork for you.”
“Let’s hope that some of your other kids know him a little bit better. Sometimes that happens.”
I had forgotten to mention my call with attorney Grantham Webb, and kicked myself for it.
“I need to tell you about a conversation I had with an attorney. Maybe this is related, maybe it’s not, but I was looking into the paperwork for when my fiancé purchased the Towers property, and I noticed that an attorney had handled the sale. I called him up to see if perhaps they wanted to donate some of the proceeds. From looking at the paperwork, it appeared the elderly lady who sold the property was going to be donating, and I thought perhaps she might be interested in being one of our benefactors.” I shrugged my shoulders, realizing that perhaps it was a hare-brained idea, and he laughed.
“So what does this have to do with Rory?”
“Well, the attorney told me that there was an heir that was not named in this lady’s instructions. In fact, the estate was to be donated, but disposition of the estate after she died, was going to be given to her sister. And apparently her sister has recently passed. But there is another relative, and he explained to me it’s a young man. He’s suing the attorney for his handling of the sale. Do you think he could be this Rory fellow?”
