Fuller Part 1

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 40

Romeo and Taco briefly crouched down and set their NVGs in a bush next to them and quietly placed their M-4s on the ground. Both men stood straighter and stood perfectly still with their hands in the air as Border Patrol agents came charging in from the area surrounding them and started yelling ‘Policia’ and then demanding that everyone raise their hands and surrender in rapid Spanish. A majority of the group of suspected illegal’s were very young so to no one’s surprise they ignored the orders from the BP agents and scattered running as fast as their legs would take hoping some of them would escape. Escape meant being able to support their families and have the chance to improve their lives. And as the group disbursed they might have thought that escape was possible until ‘Omaha’ the Border Patrol’s Office of Air and Marine Helicopter swooped in from its stand-off position to render assistance to the agents on the ground and help track down any suspected illegal’s that might slip through the net the agents had surrounding the immediate area. Romeo and Taco were mildly surprised when they heard an agent come over the hill behind them and go running toward the scattering group.

Both men had lowered their hands briefly taking the scene in and quickly raised their hands above their head in surrender as they heard agents behind them and shouted “friendly” as two agents ran past them chasing their elusive targets. Even outnumbered 3 to 1 the agents were quickly detaining members of the group and seemed to have the situation under control. After the group broke up the agents were seen and heard running in every possible direction. Off to the left of Romeo and Taco heard what sounded like a scuffle and heard something hard hit human flesh. An audible groan was heard and the sound of a rocks being moved around told the men that the suspected illegal had been detained after hitting the ground hard.

Out of the mass of movement both men noticed that one of the suspected Coyotes that had originally started running directly away from them had now circled around and was heading straight toward them through the pile of blankets the group had abandoned when they had all bolted. Romeo took one step and stuck a foot out and both operators watched as the man slid across the ground churning up dust and gravel. Instantly Romeo had a pair if flex cuffs pulled from his jacket and was restraining the man while the suspected Coyote cussed at him in Spanish. It was then that Taco noticed that an agent was heading toward them at a run and he didn’t look very friendly or amused that someone had interfered with his capture.

Both men raised their hands and started speaking to the agent so that he would realize that they had radioed the call into Border Patrol. “We radioed the call into your office through the Fuller ranch.”

By this time the agent was standing 20 feet in front of them with his hand on his sidearm and shining his impossibly bright flashlight in their eyes destroying their night vision and forcing them to shield their eyes with their hands.

“Get your hands up.” The men could detect the hostility in the agent’s voice and complied with the order.

Romeo addressed the agent. “Sir, do you mind shining that spotlight on the ground so that we can see? Dam thing is blinding.”

The agent had closed the distance and was now within 15 feet of where they stood. “It’s supposed to be blinding. Now get those hands up.”

Reluctantly they moved their hands above their head and scrunched their eyes hoping to avoid any further discomfort from the intense light. Romeo moved his head to the side thinking maybe the light assaulting just one of his eyes would be preferable. Both men felt it as the light was moved toward the ground and the reflection was being used to keep an eye on them. Cautiously they opened their eyes and waited for them to adjust. In the silence they saw their friend the Border Patrol agent staring at them.

He leaned forward keeping his eyes on them the whole time only sneaking a quick look at the coyote on the ground to insure he was breathing and somewhat uninjured. “Names?” He barked. “What are your names?”

“Taco and Romeo. We’re keeping an eye on the Fuller place while he’s out of town.” replied Taco as he noticed the agent now had his firearm out and pointing at the ground.

The agent looked at them suspiciously but his level of excitement had abated and he appeared calmer than he had been moments earlier. He must be feeling better about them because he now moved the flashlight to the side a few more feet. “I don’t know who Fuller is?”

Romeo replied. “You’re on his land right now. We’ve been keeping an eye out for any crossers looking to avoid the internal checkpoint. They tear the place up and he wants them reported to you to see if you can do anything about rounding them up and keeping the damage to a minimum.”

Now the agent was letting his co-workers do the chasing while he rested and kept an eye on the suspected coyote who was just another possible illegal crosser to him. Around them and out into the desert the men could all hear the yelling of the Border Patrol agents communicating with each other and the breathless radio transmissions reporting positions and requesting assistance or giving a tally of the individuals they had in custody. Overhead the spotlight from ‘Omaha’ swung back and forth looking for suspected illegal’s that had escaped the dragnet so far. The agent moved his flashlight around the area the men had been working away from and the light stopped on the M-4s laying near them. “Keep your hands in the air boys and we’ll all be fine.”

He reached for his radio on his shoulder and mumbled into it. He finished his cryptic conversation over the radio and spoke to the men again. “Let’s just stay cool and we’ll all live to see morning.”

Taco replied. “Sir, those are our weapons and are legal in this State. We are on private property and are no threat to you or your co-workers. If you are not familiar with the situation here I’d appreciate it if called in to your dispatcher to confirm we are who we say we are.”

The agent responded. “Gentleman you may be here legally but at this point my mandate is to detain anyone that may be linked to Cartel activity. And from all the illegal’s running around here I’d guess that this is indeed Cartel activity.”

Romeo was getting a tad testy and didn’t appreciate being harassed in a place he was supposed to be. When he spoke irritation could be heard in his response. “I should notify you that we are both wearing side arms and have permits to carry concealed.” Romeo left out the part about the carry permits being legal state issued permits issued to them under false names. The hope was that that nobody would ever look at the permits too closely. If everything went the way it was supposed then they’d never have to show them to anyone. That was clearer not the case here and both men realized that they would likely be forced to burn one of their false IDs.

Romeo heard the agent coming from behind them. He and Taco had been so worried about dealing with the agent in front of them that they had temporarily lost their situational awareness. Romeo also heard the sound of someone running through the brush behind them and wished he was back at the ranch drinking decaf coffee and telling war stories. He thought that the slow and quiet movement meant that the person behind them was another Border Patrol agent coming to help disarm them.

The original agent spoke to them. “Gentleman for everyone’s protection we’re going to restrain you. Let’s do this nice and we can get everything sorted out quickly and safely. Taco I’ll ask you to take 2 steps to your right.”

Taco moved two steps to his right and that movement meant he was now directly in front Romeo. Taco was vaguely Hispanic looking if that meant he was as Hispanic looking as a member of the Swedish Bikini Team. Romeo clearly had European heritage that precluded him from being mistaken for anything resembling the common complexion of anyone that hailed from Mexico or parts south. Romeo’s bright red hair was a dead giveaway. Both Romeo and Taco had spoken with the stylist that consulted with STAG team members a few days earlier and she recommended Romeo dye his red hair black, have it cut in a style that was common south of the border and that both men start applying self tanner over their entire body twice a day until they looked more Hispanic.

The agent behind them now directed their movement since the first agent had essentially stacked the two STAG men on top of each other creating a safety issue. “The other Taco, take two steps to the right.”

Now the man stepping to his right was not amused. “Romeo, everyone calls me Romeo.” As he moved he tapped the small button on the side of his ear bud opening the channel. “Romeo to base. You better contact the boss ASAP. BP seems to think we are part of this and we are being detained.”

The coyote on the ground at their feet looked up at what was happening from a few feet away and remained perfectly still and dead silent hoping that in the confusion they might forget about him allowing him to flee south back to Mexico. Every member of the group had already paid their money to the Cartel who collected prior to trip and didn’t offer refunds or discounts on the next attempted crossing. But what the Cartel did was take a grimm view of their experienced and trusted guides being detained. More than a few guides had been killed inside the US system awaiting deportation or while serving sentences in the US Federal prison system. Mostly the guides were killed to prevent them from sharing information that would be harmful to the Cartel’s business.

“Copy Romeo. I’ll notify the boss and let him know we have a problem. Do we have a name?”

Taco glanced at the agent that had used his flashlight as a weapon. His eyes were not working correctly but he was still able to read the name of the man’s tag and responded. “Anderson with an O, first initial is L.”

“Who the hell are you talking to?” Asked the agent behind them.

Romeo was concerned that this was devolving into a bad situation. “Sir, we informed your co-worker that we observed this group of suspected illegal’s trespassing on the property and the ranch called your office. If you have any questions concerning what we observed we’d be happy to relay that information to you. Any other questions will require the presence of our lawyer.”

“Anderson, get hand cuffs on these smartasses, take their weapons and get that man off the ground and situated with the others. Then read these two their rights and transport them in your vehicle back to the station.”

“Yes sir.”

Anderson professionally cuffed the two men and relived them of their sidearm’s. Anderson with an o then proceeded to remove a hideout revolver from both men, a total of 4 folders, 2 flashlights and 6 magazines for their assorted firearms. Despite the offer to report what they had observed neither agent asked what Taco and Romeo had seen before they arrived on the scene? Both agents seemed to be surprised that the two STAG men carried more weapons on their person then either of them did. That observation and the surprise of it all didn’t manifest itself in questions about gear from the two agents but rather hostile looks like the criminals that they had been send to arrest were Romeo and Taco and not the people violating the US’s borders.

Taco spoke up having been a little more annoyed than Romeo. “Gentleman. Sir, I’ll need a receipt for the items that you have removed from my person. Our primary sidearm’s and two of the knives were quite expensive. That part of our gear was purchased by our employer and we are personally accountable for it if it should be lost, damaged or stolen.”

The agent behind them replied to the polite request. “You’ll get a copy of your personal processions when we get back to the station.”

Taco replied. “Thank you sir. We appreciate your understanding and professionalism. If you could insure that the weapons are not allowed to rub or bang against one another during transport that would be helpful and very much appreciated.”

Back at the ranch the man on the radio was on his phone trying to reach Grimm and having no success. He wasn’t aware of it but Grimm was in a small airplane between Juarez and the interrogation facility off the coast of Belize. After repeated attempts he gave up and called the emergency contact number every STAG team member had committed to memory.”

Off the coast of Belize

Dark Voice saw the keypad of the encrypted satellite phone light up before the ringer had sounded and answered before it had made a sound. “Go for Dark Voice.”

The man in Texas paused a second before speaking. “Sir, two of our people Romeo and Taco have been detained in Texas on the ranch property near El Paso by Border Patrol. I was unable to contact Grimm and was told this is the emergency number to call if he is unreachable. How to you want me to proceed?”

Dark Voice felt bile in his throat. Having members of STAG taken into US custody was less than ideal. “Any names for me?”

“Yes sir. One of the Border Patrol agents was Anderson, L. Anderson with an o.”

Dark Voice asked an important question. If they were in contact with the operatives then they had more options than if radio contact had been lost. “Are we still in radio contact with our people?”

“Affirmative sir. One of our people opened up the channel and I can hear everything that is being said. I’m recording the incident and the other operative can receive me.”

Dark Voice quickly pondered his responses possibly dangerous crisis. “Stay at this number and I’ll be back to your directly.”

Dark Voice scrolled thru his encrypted cell phone and found the number he was looking for he dialed the number waited while someone groped around in the dark and answered the phone.

“Simmons.”

“Simmons my name is unimportant but what is important to you is that we have a problem that threatens National Security. One of your people named Anderson with an o, first initial L just detained two of my people on private property outside El Paso. It is imperative that those men are released without being fingerprinted or photographed. As it is any of your people that have seen my guys are going to need to be transferred for a minimum of 90 days.”

Simmons who oversaw the Border Patrol’s effort over 300 miles of International Border had been woken from a nice dream of fishing off his own sport fishing boat somewhere in the Florida Keys and was not impressed. “So let me see if I have this correct. You wake me in the middle of the night and don’t tell me who you are or who you work for and yet I should release two of your people on your say so? You claim National Security is at stake and expect me to just fulfill your request and yet I’m not given any information that could help me justify such an action. Is that about it because for all I know this could be the Cartel playing games with me?”

Simmons paused and Dark Voice waited for the next sentence impatiently.

Simmons continued. “Sorry buddy. If we got a SNAFU then you need to go through channels like everybody else. In case you didn’t realize it the Cartel has been killing and maiming people near the border because they’re pissed we seized some of their precious dope or detained too many crossers. If my people pulled your people in then they have reason to suspect that they should be detained.”

Now Dark Voice was getting almost anxious. “Simmons my people were detained from private property and were not in procession of any illegal substance and did nothing wrong expect call your people to do their job. More than a few agencies have people working the crisis around El Paso and not everyone is able to tell you anytime we sent people in to do a job. While I know that it’s annoying as all hell we have jobs to do and my people are trying to make it safer for your people to do theirs. So if you want to insure that you’re personally blamed for the next bombing or assassination then keep it up and I’ll make your dreams come true. I’ll repeat this one more time because we are approaching the point that my people will be unable to continue their work since you will have brought them into one of your facilities. And let me be clear, if I have to make another phone call or we lose these UCs you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

All Dark Voice heard in response was an empty dial tone indicating that he had been hung up on. Dark Voice calmly hit the button to terminate the call and dialed another number from his records.

“MC White Sands. Please state authorization code.”

Dark voice recited the authorization code from memory. Otter 2424. Code phrase- Kitchen Sink. I’m requesting a Border Patrol liaison.”

“Otter 2424 code phrase acknowledged. Reply is 9 Ball. Hold for your liaison,”

The phone rang three times before someone picked-up at the temporary Homeland Security MegaCenter located on the White Sands test facility in southern New Mexico. “Border Patrol, Gomez speaking.”

Dark Voice smiled. “White sands this is Otter 2424. I have a problem that needs your delicate touch. I tried a middle management type but didn’t have any luck.”

The temporary Homeland Security MegaCenter had been located in a non-descript building that had once been used by NASA to track rockets. That was long ago and to bring the building back up to a useable condition it had recently undergone a complete asbestos abatement and been updated with all the communications capabilities that were required to cope with the demand of its new duties. Now Dark Voice’s contact at the MegaCenter chuckled. “That’s us. As gentle as a Swedish massage given by ex-East German female weight lifters taking performance enhancing drugs with a yeast infection. Who’s the problem? What do you need done and how do you want the agents and the middle manager dealt with”

“Two of my people were detained by BP on private property outside El Paso after calling in suspicious activity around an internal checkpoint and in the bust were they themselves were detained. These are undercover operatives and must not be fingerprinted, photographed and their weapon cannot be run through any database. Anyone that saw their face will be need to be transferred at least 200 miles away for 120 days or until I personally OK their return. And time is crucial at this point.”

Gomez could be heard typing on the computer in front of him. “Names of operatives?”

Dark Voice looked at his watch as he gave the information. “Romeo and Taco. Neither man will be carrying ID. The agent that detained them is named Anderson with an o, first initial L. The middle manager is named Simmons and he is some sort of area coordinator or area supervisor.

Gomez could be heard picking up another landline and dialing a number. “Supervisor Simmons. This is Gomez at White Sands sorry to wake you. Two important operatives called Romeo and Taco were detained by your people outside El Paso and we need them released immediately and their equipment returned to them. I was told that you declined to cooperate with an unknown caller who made this same request without authorization and now that you have been given clearance we need this fixed in the next few minutes.”

Dark Voice heard the BP man pause to listen to the response by the Supervisor.

“I’ll wait sir while you straighten this out and we appreciate your full cooperation in this sensitive matter.”
Dark voice pulled out his second phone and dialed the operations desk at Fuller’s ranch. He informed him that Romeo and Taco would be released in matter of minutes and to get the information they’d need to have a few people re-assigned.

Fuller Ranch

Romeo and Taco cringed each and every time they heard their weapons being banged into each other or bouncing off the man from Border Patrol’s duty belt. They had taken the time to insure that their weapons were not only good shooters but reliable as well and now some ham fisted moron was treating them like they were toys and not the important tools the men used to get their jobs done. After the brief trip once they were freed both men were required to re-zero their weapons and put 300 rounds through them to insure their accuracy and reliability was within acceptable standards. A barrel only had so many round of use until it would need to be replaced and then the process started over again. This system of double and triple checking the effectiveness of their equipment made sure that they were carrying the best equipment available. And in their line of work equipment could and often was the difference between life and death or serious injury.

The link was still open. “Base to Taco. You should be released in a few minutes. We’ll need the names of anyone that saw your face so they can be re-assigned for a few months.”

Taco leaned over toward Romeo as they walked and spoke toward his ear. “Roger” Since Taco had been cuffed he was unable to transmit on his own and had to use Romeo’s open channel.

Anderson looked at the men from where he had been walking beside them. What the hell are you talking about?” He huffed as he said it and it was apparent that he was annoyed at the two men.

Romeo replied. “Nothing sir. Nice night for a walk. It must be exciting doing your job. From what I hear it sounds like the Cartels have you guys working overtime trying to keep them on their side of the Border.”

They reached the SUV that the agent had driven the back roads to get to the bust his radio must have received something because he stopped walking and spoke to Romeo and Taco. “Hey guys we need to hold up for a second.” He then concentrated on what he was hearing. “Whiskey Hotel 22 to base, copy.” The agent paused.

As Anderson with an O paused to use his radio it was now that Romeo saw that the agent’s uniform patch was different from the uniforms they had been briefed on before their assignment on Fuller’s Ranch. The green uniform was the same as standard Border Patrol but the patch was different than what they had been shown in the Intel package they were required to read before their assignment. The briefing had mentioned that the Border Patrol was trying to see if some of their duties could be effectively be done by contract security while the crisis was taking place. Even pulling agents from other sectors they were short of what they needed and Romeo now understood that they had been detained by essentially a rent-a-cop and not a Federal Agent in performance of his duties. He was a tad put out at being detained and having to listen to his weapons be banged around like sack full of hammers.

Romeo turned to Taco while Anderson was listening to his conversation over the radio. Taco, he’s contract security and not actually a Border Patrol agent.”

The men were interrupted by the conversation taking place between Anderson with an O and his dispatcher. “Release them? Say again base.” Anderson with an O noticed the men looking at him and canted his body slightly away from them for more privacy.

Taco slid the cuffs off his stood there holding them waiting for Anderson with an O to finish his conversation.

Beside him Romeo did the same while the two men waited on their captor to finish up.

“OK, OK I understand and will release them immediately. After that I am to return to base and go home for the night. Whiskey Hotel 22 out.”

The man turned to see both Romeo and Taco holding their cuffs in their hand. “What the hell is going on? I was just told to release both of you and have been suspended pending review.”

Romeo spoke to the confused Federal Agent wanna-be. “Our weapons please. You better hope like hell you didn’t scratch anything.”

The agent paled slightly in the diffused light of his flashlight’s beam bouncing off the trucks side. He hadn’t expected to be threatened by detainees he thought were US citizens, well maybe criminals would be as brazen as to threaten him but that was what criminals often did as they tried to place the blame for the actions on the heads of the authorities and not take responsibility themselves. “I was just doing my job. We have a real problem down here and we were told to arrest anyone suspicious.” He handed the AR-15s over his shoulders to Romeo as he was speaking. The glorified security guard was now taking off his backpack to retrieve their other weapons, magazines and assortment of knives and handed the items over as the men examined them and put them in their proper place.

Taco was talking to base through his headset and confirmed they had been released. He was told that they were not to cause any noticeable injuries. He signed off thinking that maybe his interpretation of noticeable injuries and the big boss’s might differ slightly.

With their processions all tucked away Romeo pivoted slightly and send a wicked shot into Anderson’s with an O side above his duty belt. The vest absorbed some of the energy and still Anderson with an O was knocked off balance and bounced off the side of his SUV before falling to the ground. Anderson with an o was breathing hard and trying to catch his breath. “What the hell was that for?”

Romeo smiled in the dim light. “For being stupid. First of all we should never have been detained. We were on private property at the request of the owner and posed no danger to you or the others. If you had doubts you should have called the landowner to confirm we had permission to be there and he would have vouched for us. Second of all we asked nicely that you treat our weapons carefully which you failed to do. Between cleaning everything and confirming nothing was damaged while it was in your procession we’ll lose 3 hours we don’t have to spare. And thirdly no man points a gun at me and walks away without remembering that he should fear me. Consider yourself lucky, we were told that we are supposed to take it easy on you so I just thought I’d offer a love tap to show there are no hard feelings. I’d guess by the time this is over you’ll be updating your resume.”

Taco chimed in. “Now get in your vehicle and get to the station like you were told. We’ll find our own way home.”

The man turned and started to say something as Romeo again drove a fist into his side in exactly the same place. Again he staggered and fell to the ground but this time he reached for his weapon and almost touched before the man above him spoke.

Taco had pulled his sidearm and had it pointing at the man. “Another ¼ inch I shoot you where you lay. You already might have gotten us fired. I could shoot you and be out of Texas before the coroner showed up. Stand up slowly. Don’t touch your weapon and we all go home… Isn’t that how you put it?”

The man looked up to them. “Permission to stand?”

“Granted.”

As he stood Romeo pulled Anderson with an o’s pistol out of his holster and removed the spare magazines on his duty belt. He dropped the magazine on the weapon, cleared it and tossed it into the brush along with the two spare magazines from the duty belt.

Anger was etched on Anderson with an O’s face as he stared at Romeo and Taco. He was getting smarter and was out of reach of Romeo’s painful jabs. “This isn’t over.”

Taco replied “Anderson, you need to realize that it was over before it started. You had no right to detain us and we could have slipped the cuffs and killed you at anytime. Go, while you still might be able to salvage your job. If we ever see you again it would be bad, very bad. Now go.”

Anderson moved toward the driver’s door of the big SUV and jumped in like his butt was on fire and he needed to find water. He immediately started the engine and took off leaving Romeo and Taco in a cloud of dust as the SUV spit rocks from rear tires.

Over the course of their careers both men had found occasionally that shaming a man or woman even in private made an enemy of them and a small percentage of them would seek revenge so both men hoped that Anderson with in o would be transferred out of the area until the men were needed by Grimm in Juarez.

With Anderson with an o safety moving off down the road they quickly pulled out a cell phone and found their position and started moving toward where all the crossers had been detained. When the group had scattered and they had understood that they had been seen they had set their expensive NVGs in a bush and they needed to retrieve the expensive piece of equipment before heading back. With a new job it always was good not to come back from a simple mission missing thousands of dollars worth of gear.

[sssarawolf]

Thank you good to have a new chapter .

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 41

Outside Juarez

Close cleaned the lens of the high powered video camera that they were using to spy on Lee’s mansion from over a mile and a quarter away. It was the closest place they had found that covered the entrance gate to the compound and allowed them to observe the front door without being detected. She checked to be sure that the camera’s low profile tripod was firmly anchored to the ground and the protective dust cover was in place. Now she just needed to triple check the camouflaged cover was secured to the camera’s body and would not be blown away from a strong gust of wind and that the fan used to keep the expensive piece of equipment cool was operating and that the camera was ready to be operated remotely. Satisfied she flipped a discarded box she had found on the next block over and pushed two aluminum gutter spikes into the hard ground. She checked the flap that would allow air to circulate was at the proper angle and then staked it down with the last of her gutter spikes. She had done everything she could do to insure that the camera was operational so she slid away from the site slowly belly crawling out of the area and back to a shed they were using as an observation post.

The abandoned shed they co-opted as their make-shift O.P. was over 150 yards away but from what they had observed earlier in the day the security people from Lee’s compound didn’t venture that far out. Even operating under the cover of darkness she still felt exposed and was hoping the cameras didn’t need any more attention until tomorrow night when they would again sneak in and replace the power packs and run a static free cloth over the lens’s to insure the clearest image possible. The cameras they were using were state-of-the-art, had nigh-time capabilities and gave them a pretty good idea of what was going on around one of the Juarez Cartel’s leader’s expansive compound.

The surveillance from the 5 cameras that had been placed around the compound would be supplemented by a limited amount of real-time satellite imagery and a micro UAV that they had borrowed. Along with the one micro UAV 3 support personnel were assigned to them including 2 pilots and one technician. While the video capabilities of the micro UAV were decent its real strength laid in its cutting edge audio capabilities. In addition to the beyond currently available audio sensor array a new tool in the fight to gather intelligence had been entrusted to the STAG team. The micro UAV allowed them to deploy listening devices that mimicked the look and smell of real bird poop. The listening pods were the size of a large seed that might have been passed through a bird’s body and could be dropped from the micro UAV at a height of 50 feet without much risk of them being damaged. The patented two part binary formula that gave the fake poop the appearance and an odor that closely resembled the real thing. Madrago the ex-KGB Colonel that ran intelligence and counter-intelligence for the Cartel was very good so they would be somewhat limited concerning the level of surveillance they would be able to obtain without tipping the opposition off that they were under surveillance.

Despite the challenges and dangers Close was comfortable with the challenge of going head to head with a worthy opponent like ex-KGB Colonel ‘Greg’ Madrago and his army of trained intelligence specialists. Close was very aware that this operation had a lot riding on it. If they were detected Lee would likely send dozens of men to kill or capture them. If they were successful Grimm had intimated that they might finally learn who was responsible for the terrorist activity in the US that was causing the whole Southwest border area to fear what might happen next.

Close finally had crawled back to the shed and gently tapped on the wall next to the door twice. Close received the counter sign that meant it was safe to enter the house and slid through the flimsy door near the floor. The smell of sand, oil, dust and own her sweat wafted into her nose and stuck like cement. As she stood up again she seemed to be oozing perspiration from every pore on her body. The heat combined with the stress of placing the camera was nerve wracking and all she wanted to do was jump into a cool shower and then climb onto her sleeping bag and take a much needed nap. But she was heading surveillance on this mission and she needed to insure the video and audio surveillance was up and operating effectively. So instead of taking that much needed shower and getting a cat nap she went into the stifling bathroom that was really just a corner of the room separated from the main room with a curtain of sheets and used the trash bag lined 5 gallon bucket they would be using for a toilet in the abandoned shed. Close used a handful of wipes to clean up but even after cleaning up with wipes she could still smell the stink on her body.

When Close came out of the make-shift toilet she was re-focused and went over to a cheap folding table they had set up to hold some of their gear. Above the table on the wall brackets held 4 high-resolution video monitors separated by an aerial map of Lee’s compound. Each monitor was oriented and placed approximately where the camera was situated in reference to the compound. So the monitor by the front entrance on the map was connected to the camera that was actually located in the front of the house and covered the property entrance and showed the front door and so on. The monitors sitting on a cheap folding table showed the area surrounded their observation post. She watched to see that everything they needed to do their job was operating properly. Satisfied with the pictures and fairly sure she hadn’t been observed placing the last of the bulky devises, she breathed a sigh of relief and pulled a bottle of water from the cooler at her feet. She sucked down almost the whole bottle and only paused to let out a lady like belch. “Roberts everything looks good. What do you think? Anybody notice me crawling around out there?”

She had trained Roberts herself and felt of all the techs she had at her disposal that he was the most comfortable with his place on Close’s team as the head surveillance technician. He was only 25 years old and still had that feeling of invincibility that many young people are imbibed with and slowly fades as they grow older and realize that they too will get old and die like everyone else. His dark brown hair and modern boy band haircut reminded Close that she had been doing this for too many years. The pistol on his hip reminded her that this was a game that had dire consequences for losing. If she had overlooked the pistol then the two M-4s and the four grenades sitting within reach would surely tell anyone that saw them that this operation had far more risk than they were used to.

He replied to her question. “I’m happier than I should be. Everything except the toilet looks like it’s working the way it should.” As he said the word toilet it did the air quote thing. “The cameras are all operating perfectly and the covert cameras that we are using to keep an eye on us are all performing as they are supposed to and the picture is sharp. I spoke with our extreme over watch 10 minutes ago and they report that everything looks good from their end. The trucks are parked and on 30 second stand-by with drivers in the seats ready to come to our rescue if everything goes south.”


Close was glad to hear that the 4 man two vehicle team that would come get them in armored trucks if things went bad was ready, willing and able to arrive at the hide in less than 2 minutes. “Glad to hear everything is up and running. I’m hoping we don’t have to stay here too long. I cannot imagine being able to hole up here more than a few days before someone stumbles onto our position. What’s the status on the micro-UAVs?”

Roberts stared at his monitor while he answered the question. “They report that they are an hour from deploying the audio devises. I’m looking forward to them deploying the poop bugs tonight. That will really open this up for us and allow us to gather a more complete audio picture of the routine the guards follow and what they talk about. We’ll also be tagging them for names and get a better idea of how many guards there are roaming around this place.”

Close quickly pondered the information she had just been given. “Don’t forget to remind them that I want a full load poop bugs dropped near the big cat enclosures and the small keeper’s cottage next to it. We have a man there we need to keep an eye on. Poor crazy bastard is taking care of those big cats for Lee. It’s critical that when things start happening that we make arrangements for his safe EXFIL.”

Roberts made an adjustment to one of the cameras that were watching the area around their OP. He was super impressed with the nighttime capability of the cameras and would request another handful of the useful cameras after this mission were over. “Close, you’ve mentioned that guy like 5 times. We all understand that his EXFIL is a priority once we grab our guy. Have you talked to the boss since he got back?”

Close thought it was a weird question to be asked by Roberts. “No, why do you ask. Is there something we need to let the other team know about?”

Roberts watched his monitors and never turned his head away from what they were showing him as he replied to Close’s question. “Listen boss, we’ve been working together long enough for me to know when your distracted. And that guy distracts you more than anyone or anything we’ve been around together. If you ask me you’re concerned that when he calls that he’ll just talk shop. I assume you are crushing on him.”

Close smiled at the operative’s insight. “Let’s keep that to ourselves. He and I agreed that until this thing is wrapped up we stay entirely professional. No need to let the others know what’s going on it might distract them from the mission for no reason at all.”

Roberts shifted in his seat and dragged his attention from the monitors and looked at his employer for less than a second. “Honestly everyone has been super busy. I don’t think anyone else knows anything. And let’s face it the guy has a reputation for being a bad ass. I sure as hell don’t want to do anything to upset him. Imagine taking a beating and having to be seen in a Juarez hospital. The health care system in this town is worse than a joke.” Roberts smirked knowing that the chances of getting assaulted by Grimm were low but he wanted to distract his boss from pining away for the leader of their mission. He was slightly concerned that a lack of attention to detail could place Close and the other members of the surveillance team in danger. Roberts understood he was far more likely to be gunned down in a hail of poorly aimed fire from Cartel thugs than get assaulted by Grimm.

“Roberts we have a Doctor that operates in support of us and they set up a pretty good treatment room not far from here. Also we can have a fully equipped MedEvac helicopter on the ground within 30 minutes to transport you back across the border and into a trauma hospital or onto a military base if Grimm kicks your ass or you get shot or blown up. It’d make sure they’d save your life because let’s face it, training new people is a pain in the ass.” She smiled at Roberts in the strange glow of the monitors.

She turned her attention back to the bank of monitors keeping an eye on Lee’s compound. Seeing it still awed her. It resembled a mansion owned by a movie star or Fortune 500 CEO back in the US. Except for the 2 foot thick concrete walls and the 50 men that were part of the security force that guarded Lee’s compound 24/7. She had heard from the geeks that Lee had bought out, threatened and moved 200 people away from the land surrounding his property. That re-settling allowed Lee’s security people unfettered access to a perimeter that extended over a mile in every single direction. The grounds covered over 1000 acres just outside of Juarez. But unlike other Cartel leaders they had dealt with they were pretty sure that Lee slept in his bunker every night confident that the security in place was adequate to protect him. The home was built 5 years ago and resembled a fortress on paper more than it did a home and yet the amount of money Lee paid insured the home still felt like a home and just as importantly looked like just another millionaires house looking to impress anyone that saw it. The home said look I’m rich despite having specs that more resembled a bunker.

Madrago, the Cartels Intelligence and Security man had done an excellent job insuring that plans and drawings of the mansion were exceptionally hard to get a hold of. STAG techs had begged, cajoled and eventually hacked to get a copy of the Cartel leader’s palatial mansion. The team wanted to insure they had as much information on the site as possible, and blueprints and drawings were a step in the right direction. Close hadn’t talked to Grimm since she had received the plans by e-mail from him and yet she was sure she knew what he would say about the massive home. In Grimm’s understated way he’d praise the place as being efficient at discouraging a breach and then point out each and every obstacle that stood in their way and how its effectiveness could be compromised. Then he’d instill confidence in his team by praising their competence and exalting their professionalism. Then it was just a matter of explaining the way they were going to do the virtually impossible. And then after all the plans were worked out and dissected piece by piece to insure they were as prepared as possible they would do just that, accomplish the virtually impossible. They’d breach the house and drag their man out and into the light of justice.

But the longer Close looked at the plans to the house the more she felt that the job of taking Lee at his house was doomed to failure. The design and features of the house combined with housing maybe 50 people in the security force made her feel that the any mission that required them to step foot on the grounds of the mansion would result in an unacceptable number of deaths and serious injuries. In the last 5 years numerous changes could have been made to the security profile of the mansion that would render any plan they devised ill advised. She understood that the situation along the Border needed to be brought under control as quickly as possible. She just felt sacrificing people in what could possibly be a vain attempt to capture Lee was unwise. She was older and more confident in herself; she had also learned the hard way to trust her instincts. Her instincts screamed do not go any closer to this place than were they were now, too many people would die horrible deaths if they did.

Outskirts of Juarez

Grimm jumped out of the helicopter the second it touched the ground and ran bent over toward the waiting truck located 100 yards away on a seldom used dusty road. In the truck Lep sat ready to whisk them out of the area and back to the warehouse. Gracie was right behind Grimm but was struggling to keep up with the head of the STAG program. Not for the first time on the journey north Gracie wished he had brought less stuff with him. Grimm was fast and he traveled a lot lighter meaning that Gracie’s battered body felt like it was ready to burst from the effort of humping the two bags across the dusty ground trying to keep up at almost a full sprint.

As Grimm reached the truck the noise from the powerful Bell 430 helicopter became intensely loud as it powered up and lifted off the ground. Before Gracie had climbed into the backseat of the truck the sound of the 430 was quickly receded into the night. Now that it was getting quieter Grimm could hear Gracie struggling to cover the last few yards to the truck. Seated comfortably in the front seat of the truck Grimm waited while Gracie maneuvered his bags into the backseat of the truck by tossing them in and following with his own body. Gracie had barely slammed the door shut before Lep took off.

Lep had been waiting for them with the truck in gear and roared off sending gravel and small rocks skittering across the roadway and battering the underside of the truck. “Good trip Boss?”

Grimm threw his pack over the seat and hit Gracie in the chest. “We’re getting there Lep, were getting there. In a week or so one way or another I think we’ll be done in Juarez. Lee the guy we’re going after next should either be the person we’re looking for or know who is. But he’s going to be hard to get out alive. He lives in a bunker with 2 feet of re-enforced concrete between him and us and has at least 50 people on his security team full-time…” Grimm rubbed his head where he had banged it getting out of the float plane. “Lep the new guy in back is Gracie.” Grimm turned to look at Gracie in the dark “Gracie, this is Lep. He keeps an eye on things for me at the warehouse. If you need something talk to Lep.”

Lep replied to the hasty introduction as he maneuvered the truck quickly through a turn on the rough dirt road. “Hey.”

Gracie replied to casual greeting. “Good to meet you.”

The men were quiet the rest of the way to the warehouse and kept an eye out to insure that they weren’t being followed. Grimm didn’t share the problems and concerns he had about the next part of their mission and both Lep and Gracie didn’t take the time to get to know each other. They’d have some time to do that later when the Boss didn’t need to concentrate on keeping them all alive, in one piece and capturing another Cartel idiot. Gracie also understood that at some point he’d end up telling his new co-workers that Grimm had kicked his ass. That was one part of Gracie’s new job he wasn’t looking forward to.

Grimm sat thinking not about the mission but about what he was going to do with the two crooked cops that had planned on raping a young girl and talked confidently about making her mother endure the horror of watching the two men brutalize her only daughter. That was tempered by another bit of information that had been sent to him while in transit from Belize. A gangbanger in the El Paso County jail had offered information about the terrorism along the Border. In exchange he wanted to be cleared of the drug procession charge he was facing and placed in the Witness Protection Program. He told them he wanted his girlfriend and mother re-located with him to Northern California where he aspired to grow marijuana for the Medical Marijuana industry.


Grimm had read a transcript of the initial interview and had been surprised that the initial interview had named Lee as a person that could clarify who was responsible for the mayhem. The interview had taken place 3 weeks after the original incidents that had foretold that there was something going on that had serious ramifications to US Security.

As soon as it was realized that there was an issue that could spill Cartel violence onto US soil high priority bulletins were send to every Law Enforcement office in the US at the local, State and National level. The bulletin also was released and distributed to every Law Enforcement agency in all other US territories. At that point the FBI and Homeland Security correctly determined that every correctional institution in the US should be made aware of the request for information. A special bulletin was issued to Gang Intelligence specialists in every jail and prison across Texas and New Mexico and had been followed up on with calls by authorities to insure that the bulletin had been received and requesting help. Federal Agents were hard at work digging into and looking for the connections that would tell them the person or persons orchestrating the violence along the Border. To find out that a simple shoot caller ousted from the gang for failing to control his fellow incarcerated gang members and green lit by the Juarez Cartel might be able to put the pieces together seriously pissed him off. If the STAG team thought anyone in jail in the US could have helped them they would have already snatched them. Kidnapping and taking criminals of the street or pulling felons from local, state or Federal custody was a part of the STAG playbook. But from all the information that they had seen nobody high enough up the Cartel food chain was currently in custody in the US to do them any good. That a mere shoot caller in a County Jail could have saved them weeks of time, energy and effort was something Grimm would remember on the next assignment assuming they weren’t disbanded in the very near future.

He and his teammates had risked their lives and their freedom chasing the person down that was responsible for the acts of violence on US soil and it turns out that a low level cog in the massive Cartel machine might have the answer they needed all along. Homeland Security was on the ex-gangbanger and felt they would have actionable intelligence within hours. That meant that the efforts of STAG up to this point might have been a colossal waste of time, energy, effort and money. Grimm and his team could be have wrapped this mission up and be working another of the Cartels that exploited the US/Mexico Border to their advantage.

Lep pulled the truck into the warehouse and instantly the overhead door was lowered and the men climbed out.

As Grimm pulled his bag out and Gracie wrestled his luggage out of the backseat Lep moved around the truck and stood in front of Grimm waiting to be told what to do. Grimm was like clockwork and every single time he returned from being gone for a day or two he had a list of things that he needed Lep to take care of. From a logistical and security standpoint Lep had developed into Grimm’s on the ground second-in-command. Lep had found himself on operations but his true gift was his ability to organize and juggle 10 important things at one time. It was a skill-set that Grimm deeply appreciated since it made Grimm’s job easier.

Grimm turned and found Lep standing in front of him. “Lep, show Gracie were his team 3 teammates are bunking and make sure that he is properly introduced to Rosie and Ales. They need to get acquainted while his body heals up and understand what they do and how they do it. Then I need you to send me Bongo. I’ll drop my stuff and visit the crooked cops, see if they have any information that I can use. Where are they by the way?”

Lep made mental notes of what he needed to get done and replied to Grimm’s question. “Both of them are cuffed and waiting for you in the shipping container outside. It’s the blue one that faces the door. The lock combo is 10-10-10. I’ll send Bongo out there to help you. And be careful, one of them tried to bite Hector this morning. It didn’t go so well for them.”

Grimm nodded in understanding. Hector had a thing about germs and trying to bite him would annoy him in the extreme. The kind of annoyed where biters would end up badly beaten and very bloody. The thought of being bite would serious piss Hector off but if Grimm was lucky Hector hadn’t broken anyone’s jaws to teach them a lesson in manners. “What kind of shape did he leave them in?”

Lep smiled. “A lot better than you would think. One of them received a head laceration and a busted nose. The other took a kick to the crouch but is alive. I draw some blood from both of them and sent it out to the lab like you asked. Neither one of them has anything contagious. Their cholesterol is thru the roof but no AIDS, Hepatitis C, STDs or anything like that.”

“Thanks for doing that Lep.” Grimm turned to Gracie “Gracie I’ll see you later. Take it easy, get the layout of the place and interact with your team. We’ll give you a few days of light duty to heal up.” Grimm turned back to Lep. “Lep, I’m going to drop my bags and go see our guests. Don’t forget to get Bongo heading my way.” Grimm turned and took off to dump his bag in his spartan room and use the restroom and get washed up.

Gracie followed Lep who introduced him to Rosie the dog handler and Ales her partner. Ales liked Gracie immediately and seemed very comfortable around him. The three of them settled in and Rosie got Gracie up to speed and taught him a little about working with a K-9 teammate.

In his room Grimm set his bag down and took a quick look at his encrypted laptop. E-mails from 5 people were sitting there waiting for him. He got the latest on the gangbanger in El Paso County Jail and heard a report from two men Romeo and Taco about an incident at the Fuller ranch. Satisfied that everything was as it should be he headed outside to visit with the two cops that had caused him problems and turned out to be rapist to boot.

As Grimm cracked the door to the 20 foot shipping container he smelled that the men had been using the 5 gallon bucket that had been provided to them. He held the stun gun in his left hand low enough that it wasn’t noticeable. As soon as Grimm opened the door one of the corrupt cops was moving toward him in an awkward jog. With his hands behind his body and his pants pulled down Grimm was aware of his manhood flopping around and thought the cop might be attempting to urinate on him. Bodily fluids were often used in prison settings to exact revenge on correctional officers so Grimm quickly raised the stun gun and aimed for the man’s groin. Electricity coursed thru the man’s body and instantly he was on the floor of the shipping container unable to do anything but fight thru the pain of the experience.

The other man froze. He was fully dressed with his hands bound behind him with plastic flex cuffs but 30 seconds earlier was deluded enough to think that this was their chance to escape and had ran 5 feet toward Grimm before throwing on the breaks at the sight of Grimm’s pistol pointing at his chest.

Grimm nodded. “I’m Grimm. We’re going to talk some and then you’ll die. How you die is up to you. The choices are pain and torture or quick and painless. The choice is yours.”

The man that stood away from Grimm began yelling at him. “HEY ASSHOLE!”

Grimm looked at him as if he should moderate his tone or else.

“Do you know who we are? You are so screwed. We work for the Juarez Cartel. When they find out what has happened to us you’ll die a very painful death.”

Grimm nodded to acknowledge that he heard and fully understood the threat. “You think they’d stick their necks out for two corrupt cops looking to rape a young girl in front of her mother and then kill them both. My people heard everything so don’t bother to deny it. It will take them all of 10 minutes to replace you and you’re deaths will be caulked up to another loss in the latest round of Cartel violence. Everyone knows that politicians, judges, police and the military are prime targets for the Cartels. You two will be two of thousands of violent murders that will never be solved. Now that we have that out of the way tell me what you know about a Cartel guy named Lee?”

The man on the ground was able to speak and move his body again. “Nothing, we know nothing about this Lee guy. And if we did we sure as hell wouldn’t tell you anything. Typical American asshole. Americans always sticking their noses were they don’t belong. You’ll get nothing from us.”

Grimm turned around and started walking back to the door to the container. “Have it your way, talk to you soon.” Grimm stepped through the container’s door and bent down to retrieve two small speakers and set them in the container. He then removed a small can of pepper spray out of his pocket. He shook the can vigorously as he closed one of the doors and moved his arm holding the pepper spray around that door. He emptied the whole can into the small space making sure to spray in circles to evenly distribute the can’s noxious contents. “Enjoy. See you soon.” He yelled through the closed doors. He sniffed himself and was happy to learn that none or very little of the pepper spray had adhered to his clothing. Satisfied with the work he had done he put the padlock back on the containers doors.

“You needed me boss?” Bongo asked from a few feet behind Grimm. Bongo stood only 5 and half feet tall but what he lacked in height he made up for in other ways. He had the v-shaped chest of a serious bodybuilder and was a constant presence in their small make-shift gym. He was a better than average shot and Grimm had heard that he was the most loyal person you’d ever meet. “Follow me.”


Grimm led Bongo away from the container and toward the door that led back into the warehouse where their conversation wouldn’t be heard by the men in the container. “Bongo I have a seriously dirty job that needs to get done. Our surveillance team recorded these idiots planning on raping a young girl and killing her after making the mother watch. Both are crooked cops and in fact have been shaking us down for some time now. They have confessed that they are working for the Juarez Cartel but I don’t exactly know what they do for them. The surveillance team pulled these guys in and at this point they have seen too much to let remain living. We need to interrogate them and then erase them from the planet. It’s a dirty job but, I could use help and was told you are exceptionally practical about these types of things.”

Bongo nodded. “Well… To be honest I see this as an us vs. them type of deal. I have a 10 year old daughter that lives in Central Texas with her mother and the thought of her being around men like this sickens me. I’ll help anyway that I can.”

Grimm nodded. He knew that the man had a 10 year old daughter. He didn’t know that daughter lived in Texas that would definitely make things easier. “Bongo, I know you had a young daughter and that combined with reports from your time overseas made me think maybe you’re the right man for this assignment. I just dumped a small can of really hot pepper into that container so if those guys have the half ass training I think hey do they are going to be very sick boys when you open that can up in 30 minutes to flush their eyes and tend to their wounds. Right after you do that I’m going to fill the can up with pepper again and again until they give me something useful. After that I’ll take care of them myself but I need them to think you’re a decent guy trying to help them.”

Bongo smiled. Sound like we are going to play a game of good operative, bad operative. See if they’ll talk to me.”

Grimm nodded. “The Juarez Cartel is run by four men they call the Four Horseman of Malverde. In case the name Malverde isn’t familiar to you he sometimes referred to as a narco-saint. The church doesn’t recognize him as a real saint but around Sinaloa stories of his life are legend. He may have or may have not been killed around 100 years ago but the Cartel has adopted him as their collective good luck charm. One of those people they call the Four
Horseman is a man called Lee and we have good intelligence that he can tell us who is responsible for the attacks in the US. We need everything we can get on Lee so that we can take him on a fun filled all expenses paid vacation courtesy of STAG. Lee might be the key that unlocks the mystery we need to solve. If we can bag Lee we might be able to knock off, grab a few weeks of rest, a few weeks of training and get back to it knocking off the next group of criminals messing things up in the US. The men in that tin can just might have part of the information we need to get that done.” Grimm paused to see were Bongo was at.

Bongo nodded. “What ever you need I’m your guy. How long until I go to work?”

Grimm stepped over toward door to go inside the warehouse. He spoke before opening the door. “Set your watch or phone for 30 minutes and then go in with someone else to help you and treat them. After you’re done come find me and I’ll do my thing.” Grimm slid through the warehouse door and stopped. “And Bongo, one of these guys tried to bite Hector so keep an eye on them. They already know they are going to die so they are going to be looking for an opportunity to flee and save their miserable lives. In fact take someone inside with you and put Hector on the door when you’re inside. That should keep them in line.”

Bongo nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Good. Thanks for the help. ”Grimm turned and moved down the hallway anxious to look at the plans for Lee’s compound that the tech people had come up with.

[ted]

Thank you.

[nancy98]

“Rats and snakes are a problem here so the power’s that be imported a few terriers and the best rat killing tom cats they could lay their hands on. They also imported two or three mongooses from India, I think. Personally I’ve never seen the mongooses but we have found more than a few dead snakes."

They tried this on the island of St. Corix years ago. Now they have no snakes but still plenty of rats and plenty of mongoos. Snakes are the only thing that kept the rats under control. Mongoose also eat baby birds.

[stjwelding]

alangator thanks for the new chapters, I really enjoy this story and your style of writing. Thanks taking the time to share your writing with us. Looking forward to more.
Wayne

[sssarawolf]

Thank you

[stjwelding]

Just checking on this great story hoping for more, I pray that all is well with you and yours and that life is not trying to overwhelm you.
Wayne

[223shootersc]

sad now, was hoping for more

[Lone_Hawk]

Bumping for more!!!

[alangator]

Author's Note-
Sorry for the delay, my computer was infected and I had to re-write 4 chapters.
alangator

Fuller
Part 42

Afghanistan 2007

The sparsely populated and desolate landscape was spread out as far as Grimm’s eyes could see.
Grimm stood and looked over the wall of the HESCO barriers that surrounded the camp and protected it from the occasional attacks that the camp endured. Outside that cocoon of relative safety of the camp he was amazed at the mountains that soared in the distance. In between those majestic mountains the valley floor was dotted from time to time with walled compounds that housed local families that had ancestors that had lived in this valley for hundreds of year’s eking out a life in the sparsely populated and desolate location. Even after 6 months at this camp the remoteness of it all still struck him as odd despite having grown up in a rural farming community.

His view of the area surrounding the camp was cut short by the threat of a sniper scoring a lucky shot and killing him so he faded back into the OP and turned to return to his quarters. Just about all the “snipers” they dealt with here were ill-trained and wouldn’t pass the test to operate a paintball gun back home. But to change things up the Taliban or other extremists groups would send a shooter from someplace that could hit something from more than 100 yards away with just one shot. So far in the time Grimm had been at the camp a “sniper” had come within 3 feet of hitting a sentry from an estimated 400 meters away. Every man in the camp understood that eventually he would hurt or kill someone so they were very careful when they were exposed to the outside. Just like the badly aimed mortar attacks that happened from time to time it was just a matter of time before something bad happened.

Grimm headed back to his quarters but couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong with the mission scheduled for later that night. On paper it looked like another snatch of a local suspected of helping the Taliban or the extremist that filtered through the area on their way to someplace else. Grimm had spoke with Close in Intelligence multiple times and her people were telling her that they had vetted the information completely and that the target fit the profile of a local either participating in attacks or helping insurgent groups. In Afghanistan it seemed that there were always willing and unwilling locals fighting against the US military and their Allied partners but in this area that wasn’t the case for the most part and that was why Grimm was apprehensive.

Grimm had a very good professional and personal relationship with Lt. Close, the Intel officer that was assigned to his unit and he had tried twice to convince her that the operation should be postponed until they could get a better handle on what was going on. While Lt. Close looked for additional information the powers that be had dictated that the mission was going forward despite Grimm’s concerns.

Grimm entered the metal Conex-type building that acted as their living quarters and sat on the cot next his roommate and their assigned interpreter, a man called Hasim. Under normal circumstances officers bunking with interpreters were uncommon. But in reality Hasim was an operative on loan from one of Israeli’s Special Operations Units that specialized in counter-terrorism and he also spoke 5 languages and the locals summed that he was one of them. Grimm and his C.O. were the only people that knew who Hasim really was and Grimm didn’t ever allow his people to call into questions Hasim’s loyalties. As far as Grimm was concerned Hasim was one of the most talented and committed soldiers he had ever been around.

The main reason they kept Hasim’s true identity a secret was that being an interpreter in Afghanistan was dangerous enough without the added risk of the locals finding out that he was really an Israeli advisor. In comparison to their Muslim neighbors Israel’s army was much smaller so the country depended on highly trained specialized units and superior technology to protect their embattled Country against the constant threat of terrorism and military attacks from their sometimes aggressive and always intolerant neighbors. In the past Israel’s very survival had often been attributed to Israel’s elite units and what they had been able to accomplish. The Country of Israel was always surrounded and always outnumbered. Many of their neighbors in the Middle East would still love to see that Country decimated. It was a sobering thought that many a citizen of Israel understood deeply. In Israel being a member of an elite unit was a highly respected accomplishment and yet Hasim played the modest role of Afghani interpreter like a Broadway stage actor.

Hasim, Grimm’s roommate looked up from the book he had been reading. Grimm had come to learn that Hasim tended to often be found reading a spicy book that bridged the gap between a romance novel and historical fiction. Hasim set his bookmark in the book, closed it and placed it on his cot. “Capt., I see from the look on your face that you are still concerned about tonight’s mission. If you talked to Intel again and asked your C.O. for more time then you have likely done all that can be done.”

Despite Hasim’s 6 and half foot frame Grimm had seen the operative do some amazing things. If he had 50 more just like Hasim and a little more latitude from his higher-ups every extremist in this part of Afghanistan that wasn’t committed to Martyrdom would flee in fear of their life. Grimm commanded excellent soldiers but the man they called Hasim was in a class similar to what you’d find in the ranks of elite US Special Forces operators. Grimm admired the highly trained fighting men and woman that made up the US Special Operations community so that was high praise indeed. “Hasim the best I could do was say yes sir, we’ll be ready to go tonight and ask him for some overhead assets. C.O. said he take care of it. Just in case I spoke with Lt. Close and she tells me she thinks she can get something to watch our backs if he Old Man cannot make it happen.”

Hasim nodded understanding the position that Grimm was in. A good military leader valued his people and never wanted to risk his people’s lives for nothing. Their last two raids had netted a handful of innocent locals that were released shortly after their capture at the cost of two serious injuries to members of Grimm’s unit and a destroyed armored Humvee. That meant that someplace someone wasn’t doing their job and soldiers were getting hurt and killed as a result of rampant jackassery. Grimm understood they had been very lucky and feared that soon their luck would run out.

Hasim got up from his custom made cot and moved to the hooch’s mini-fridge. He pulled a plastic bottle of orange soda out of it and unscrewed the top of the bottle before drinking a third of it gone. “Look, I don’t mind doing my job and taking some risk but chasing guys that are aren’t a threat to us is asinine. I spent a whole day walking the streets of that place and it just feels poor and unimportant. I didn’t see the Toyota pick-ups and Taliban gangsters trying to blend in while at the same time intimidating and threatening the locals. Hell the girl’s school that was built there by your people is up and running. There hasn’t been any type of problem there that we know about. Local leadership seems happy to have us around and almost seem genuinely friendly and helpful.” Hasim reached back into the mini-fridge and pulled out another orange soda and handed it to Grimm.


Grimm took the offered orange soda from Hasim. “I trust you and so does my boss but he’s feeling the pressure from above. We haven’t taken one suspicious person from that area. The higher ups just assume the whole Country is infested with Taliban idiots and Jihad warriors sneaking over from Pakistan. To them, if we haven’t taken anyone from there and there haven’t been problem it must be some sort of transit or logistical hub. Intel thinks most of the attacks we are seeing are the result of locals being paid to harass us or having their family threatened. Lt. Close thinks and I hope that she’s correct that people around here are just trying to get along and not ideologically aligned with the Taliban or the other extremists peddling the Jihad crap around here. If that is the case it would explain the recent lack of fighting in the area. I think the outsiders are causing most of the problems we’re having. Not this guy whose family we’re going to scare the hell out of tonight.”

Hasim nodded and sat back down on his cot. “Tonight we’ll find out if you’re right or that the Intel. From 100 kilometers away is solid. Either way we have a job to do so I’m going to go over my gear after I take a power nap.”

Grimm replied. “Sweet dreams.”

Hasim leaned back on his bed and adjusted his pillow. “Capt., when this is over you should fly over to Israel with your friend Lt. Close and visit me. I will introduce you to my family and show you around the most beautiful beaches you’ve ever seen. When a man spends as much time in the sand and endures the hardship that we have he should bask in a sun where no one wants him dead. Or be treated to the sight of beautiful women and have his fill of good food and drink until it brings a smile to his face. Today if I’m lucky I will dream of the beaches back home and not the stain of blood we have left in the sand here.”

Hasim was asleep within 5 minutes and Grimm or Captain George Thomas Oakley from rural Minnesota began the process of checking over his gear to insure that it was ready for the night’s mission. He had checked all his equipment over once already a few hours ago but the familiar tasks of looking everything over and cleaning his weapons brought a certain sense of purpose and focus to him, it helped him push away thoughts that the mission was a mistake.

0430 Southeastern Afghanistan 30 miles from the Pakistan Border

Grimm’s men and Hasim slowly walked across the open field following the soldier swinging a metal detector back and forth looking for mines, IEDs and buried arms caches. Approaching the target’s compound through the field had some risk attached to it but they wanted surprise on their side and the best way in this circumstance to do that was to get dropped off a few hours earlier and make the 3 click hike to the compound in darkness using the night to mask their position. Grimm’s view through the NVG he wore was a landscape of flat open ground interspersed with the greenish glow of a few dark compounds. But so far everything looked quiet and nothing seemed out of place.

As they reached the compound’s walls two of Grimm’s men quietly set the composite ladders against the wall and quickly climbed up and over before dropping in the courtyard so quietly Grimm didn’t even hear them touch the ground. Grimm followed the men in front of him and dropped from the wall into a well maintained courtyard. Like many of the compounds they visited the courtyard was ringed by fruit trees and there were crops growing in raised beds to feed the members of the family that lived there. As the rest of his men bustled over the wall Grimm scanned the area for trouble. He could smell the scent of animal dung overlaid with the citrus smell of limes on a gentle wind.

The men weren’t surprised to find that the main door to the house was unlocked and they proceeded to secure the house and identify their target. While many of the raids Grimm had gone on involved shouting and protests the man they had zip tied was respectful and didn’t seem fearful. To Grimm he seemed like a man convinced of his innocence and perfectly willing to trust his captors’ to sort the mess out and return him to his family. Hasim chatted quietly with the target as Grimm’s team cleared and searched the rest of the compound. The metal detector didn’t alert to any areas to could be hiding a weapons stash. There were no IED materials and the only thing that was even slightly out of the ordinary were copies of the US citizenship tests administrated to prospective citizens back home.

The search turned up an AK-47, extra magazines, a small amount of ammunition and a few spare parts for the weapon. It was what you would expect to find in just about any house or compound in the area. It was within the guidelines of what could be kept for personal protection and the meticulously maintained weapon had not been fired recently so they continued searching finding nothing interesting. It didn’t mean the family was innocent but Grimm just felt that this was a family just trying to survive the calamity that surrounded them.

They found no incriminating materials that would support the thinking that this man or anyone in his family had sympathies with the Taliban or any other extremist group. Grimm called in the Stryker’s that were their ride home feeling as if it was another wasted effort. Grimm understood that the camp needed to establish a better relationship with the locals so that they would feel comfortable sharing information they had about any bad guys moving through the area or any IEDs that had been placed nearby. Raids like this didn’t help with that despite the fact that the C.O. regularly met with the local leaders for tea and the camp provided some basic health care to the locals.

Hasim was gently explaining to the target’s father that if his son was innocent then he would be returned to the compound in a few days with an apology. The grizzled old man looked somewhat relived that from what he saw his son was being treated with respect and not physically abused. Taliban members that moved through the area often told the locals horror stories of the treatment of people that were taken into custody and then whisked away by the US Forces never to be seen alive again. The Taliban was also fond of blaming the brutal murders they committed for spurious reasons on US forces and their partners.

When the Stryker vehicles pulled up to the house Grimm and his team along with their target were loaded in the back for the trip back to base. They had gone no more than ¼ kilometer when they were attacked. From the force of the blast it had been a 155mm artillery shell that had been hastily buried near the road and covered with sand. The men in the lead vehicle had seen the IED and been unable to stop the big lumbering Stryker’s soon enough to avoid being affected by the massive explosion. Instantly bullets hammered the outside of the Stryker’s and RPG rounds flew through the air making the night resemble the Fourth of July except for the fact that the fireworks in this case moved horizontally instead of vertically. Standard operation protocol would have called for the small convey to move through the attack except for the fact that the lead Stryker had been disabled by the IED requiring that the rest of the convey stop and lend assistance.
Troops from the Stryker dismounted and began engaging targets. Their efforts were effectively supplemented by the remotely operated .50 calibers machine guns that on top of the Stryker’s. The attackers had set up behind the safety of a wall that ran alongside a dry wadi 150 meters away. The single Mk-19 grenade launcher atop the rear Stryker operated flawlessly and sent pain and death to those that would dare attack Grimm’s convey depending on mud, brick and a slight impression in the earth’s surface to allow them to stay alive.

Grimm’s C.O. had told him that he would have air support in the area but another mission took priority and they were left waiting on Close’s Apache which was 15 minutes out. They took fire as they transferred the men from the stricken Stryker to the remaining vehicles and three of Grimm’s men were injured seriously and they had one K.I.A. Also one of the Stryker drivers was hit by shrapnel from an RPG that exploded on the disabled vehicle's slat armor.

All the men from the stricken Stryker were loaded into the remaining vehicles and as the rear ramp was coming up Grimm heard the voice of an Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt aviator and his wingman as they piloted their A-10 Thunderbolts into the fight. Call-sign Thunder 3 & 4 were a minute out and offered to help thin out the insurgents attacking Grimm’s convey. Grimm talked the aviators into action and within a minute as the convey began moving again the A-10 Thunderbolts rolled down the road and unleashed the hell of their 30mm cannons. The noise of the 30mm cannons sounded like a chorus of death and destruction.

With the study nerves of the soldier manning the Mk-19 and the help of the A-10s the convey was able to break contact and were lucky enough to avoid any other IEDs and return to their base. The news was bad for Grimm’s unit, 2 of his men had died so far with another 2 seriously injuries. If the wounded men lived their military careers were over assuming they even survived.

Once safety inside their camp rage boiled over inside Grimm and the normally thoughtful and calm Grimm fell into a fit of internal rage. It took a full 5 minutes to bring his emotions under control and as soon as he was ready he went to check in on the wounded men. They did what they could for the survivors while a chopper headed their way to evacuate the wounded men to the nearest hospital. Neither man was conscious as they were loaded aboard the helicopter and the look on the medical personnel was less than hopeful.

Grimm then headed to talk to Close and maybe vent a little of the rage he was feeling but he had been more invested in what had happened and was surly and accusatory. Close calmly listened to his verbal assault and explained her position. In the end despite Close’s reasoned argument Grimm walked out the door and understood that he had said hurtful things and had made a colossal error. It was an error that would haunt him until Close walked back into his life in Juarez.

[sssarawolf]

Oh geeez sorry to hear of such a bad problem.

[stjwelding]

alangator, Thanks for the new chapter, i am also sorry for the problems you have experienced. I hope the virus is dead and that his friends and family don't come to visit you again. Thanks for the great story.
Wayne

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 43


STAG Warehouse outside Juarez

The alarm on his cheap digital watch went off as Bongo continued to search the warehouse for Rosie the dog handler and Ales her K-9 partner. The warehouse wasn’t that big and Lep had told Bongo that Rosie was not signed out so that meant that she was on-site. He thought maybe she was a smoker and had found a place to light up without receiving any disapproving looks or having to listen to any comments. So far Bongo had seen just about everyone at the warehouse except for Rosie and Ales. The last place he looked before the single women’s restroom was the makeshift gym that a few of the guys used. He didn’t hear any noise coming from the room but still stuck his head inside the door. Rosie was dressed in typical workout attire consisting of black yoga pants and a purple semi-fitted mesh tank top. Two yoga mats were spread underneath her and she was doing a pose that made Bongo’s knees ache just watching her. Ales sat beside the mats facing the doorway watching Bongo with that ‘I’m here to protect my master and if you error I’ll bit you, hard’ look.

“Rosie, I’m sorry to bother you. Grimm gave me a task and I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind helping out.”

Rosie untangled her body and stood up slowly while looking at Bongo. “I was just finishing up. What can I help you with?” Rosie took a towel from beside her mat and wiped her face and arms off. Bongo hadn’t noticed but now that she was facing him he could see beads of sweat covered her face and arms. Maybe Yoga was a better workout than he had been led to believe.

“Grimm has two guys in a shipping container outside. They are really bad men and he needs information they have very badly. 32 minutes ago he pepper sprayed them, set some speakers in there and closed the container doors. He asked me to go in and clean them up every 30 minutes or so but these guys are bad news and he wants someone else there just in case something goes wrong. You and Ales came to mind so I thought I’d ask.”

Rosie had been absently wiping her body off with the towel and now stopped. Either she was dry now or was engrossed in what Bongo was saying. “Yea, Lep told me that surveillance heard those two talking about raping an underage girl in front her mother and maybe killing them. They sound like people the world can live without and we’d be happy to lend a hand. I’ll just need 2 minutes to get changed if that’s OK?”

Bongo nodded. “Hey the cops aren’t going anyplace. You need to grab a shower first?”

Rosie shook her head back and forth. “No, I’m not done with my work out. I’ll put on dirty clothes over my workout stuff and be ready in 60 seconds. That way when we get done I can come back here and finish up.”

Bongo replied. “Sounds like a plan. Rosie, we might be on this mission for a while and I was wondering if it’s not a problem that you could show me some of that yoga stuff. I mean you were really working up a sweat. Frankly as I’ve gotten older I understand I’m not as flexible as I used to be. This business is pretty hard on a body and I’m almost 30.”

Rosie smiled. “Bongo you’ve given me a great idea. Everyone is stuck here with spare time on their hands. Maybe I should start teaching a yoga class to help keep everyone’s fitness up. Also studies have shown that yoga can be very calming. The stuff in here isn’t going to accomplish much other than testing our tetanus boosters.”

Bongo smiled. She looked good in yoga clothes and is also funny. He’d need to remember that. “That sounds like an interesting idea. If you talk to Lep I bet he can find some yoga mats at the market or bring in some gym mats for you to use.”

Rosie began walking toward the room’s doorway to head to her room to get changed. “I’ll do that. Bongo you are full of all kinds of good ideas today. I’m actually a Certified Yoga Instructor and it would be nice to have a class again. After we get done if you want to you can join me and we can get started with your training. I’ll go easy on you to reduce the risk of injury. See you outside in a few minutes.”

Bongo nodded from the doorway. “Sounds like a plan. See you in a few.”

Rosie and Ales walked by Bongo. And despite his knowing better Bongo found the scent of Rosie’s sweat comforting, maybe even appealing. Like the smell of chocolate chip cookies at an open house. Oh crap, he might be in trouble. Bongo headed to the outside area that housed the corrupt cops and was used by Ales to do his business. He wanted to take another look at the area and see if there was anything there that could be a problem.

3 minutes later Bongo checked the supplies in the small first aid kit again. He was standing at the door of the shipping container and turned his attention to the area enclosed by the metal boxes. He had walked the area a few minutes earlier after he found Rosie and Ales and the doors to the inside of the warehouse were locked and there wasn’t anything that could be used as a weapon. There was no way the cops were going to be able to get over the containers and escape with their hands bound.

Bongo looked back and saw that Rosie and Ales looked alert and all business like. He had taken a few minutes and was now ready to enter the shipping container and treat the two corrupt policemen that Grimm had pepper sprayed 40 minutes earlier. Bongo was glad he had enlisted Rosie and Ales to watch his back. Rosie stood 10 feet back from the container and her K-9 partner Ales stood next to her and watched to see what would happen next. Grimm hadn’t recommended it but Bongo knew that many people were intensely afraid of Police dogs. Bongo was betting the two men in the container understood what a properly trained police dog was capable of. Even in a place like Mexico that had low standards for Law Enforcement these men should have been exposed to what a tremendous tool the dogs could be if trained properly.

Bongo thought maybe that since the two corrupt cops were flex-cuffed and vulnerable that the possibility being attacked by a well known Police breed like a Belgian Malinois might just make them more likely to give up hope that they could rush him and waltz away from their place of their captivity and eventual death. Grimm desperately needed the information they might have. That meant that giving up what they knew was better done now instead of later. Bongo understood that every second that they delayed in completing their objective meant a greater risk of trouble back in the US from the Cartel’s suicidal terror campaign. With that in mind he turned to Rosie and Ales. “We ready?”

Rosie gripped the leash in her hand and Bongo could see the leather flex slightly and yet the tension on the leash remained the same. Butterflies were fluttering around in Rosie’s stomach but she understood that this was work and that they had a job to so. “We’re ready.”

Bongo spun the dial to the lock and clicked it open before stepping back and swinging the door open. He held a stun gun in his strong hand and stepped back to see if the men in the container were going to try anything. Out of the corner of his eye he kept track of the door to see if it was going to swing back closed. Surprisingly the two men sat dejectedly on the ground in the corner red faced and broken. Bongo could see chunks of puke on their shirts and what might have been snot darkened other areas of their clothing. Bongo used the remote to kill the music they had been pumping into the space to disorient the men and spoke. “I’m here to get you two cleaned up. I’ve got people and a military dog outside the container and if you try something with me there will be unpleasant consequences. Do you understand?”

One of the men nodded. “Si, we just what to go home and be with our families. We weren’t really going to hurt the girl or her mother. It was all talk. We are Latin, sometimes we brag and posture but we weren’t going to hurt them. I have daughters also.”

Bongo stood at the containers entrance. “Save it, not my concern. My job is to flush your eyes and air the place out. Grimm will get what he wants, he always does. Don’t mistake his demeanor as anything other than being professional. If you deal with him as if he is some weak American then you’ll wish you had understood he is twice the man you are. Raping little girls and harassing old people and tourists for bribes is not the same as going head to head with a highly trained, highly motivated man with Grimm’s background.”

Now the other one spoke. “America, we have been making you and your countrymen our plaything for decades. Our family is unstoppable and our loss will be avenged.”

Bongo had taken out the partial plate that held more than a few of his teeth and smiled his you’re going to die smile. When he practiced it in the mirror it had a very pirate vibe to it. It was the this pirate that is going to kill you and claim your woman for his own look and not the light-hearted Pirates of the Caribbean smile that said look being a pirate is romantic. “You have something he wants and needs. He’s going to get it one way or another. Now stand up and let me hose you two down.” Bongo grabbed the hose he had set by the door before he had walked in. With one hand he pointed a stun gun at the men and with the other he sprayed them with water from a green garden hose with a sprayer attached to it. 5 minutes later Bongo was done and double checked that the locks was locked and restarted the music. He had chosen theme songs from Japanese Anime. Bongo walked quickly over toward the outer perimeter of the enclosed area and spent a few minute coughing and almost puking. The pepper residue in the container had gotten to him as he re-hydrated it with the hose but he refused to let their captives see any weakness so he had done his job quickly and waited to have a hacking fit until he was sure he was out of their sight and that they couldn’t hear him.

Rosie had tasted the pepper spray on the wind as soon as Bongo started spraying water into the container and moved back far enough that she was out of the drift of the fumes. Ales only sneezed twice during the time they stood guard so he was OK. Now that the container was locked up Rosie unhooked Ales from his leash and he quickly took the opportunity to water a few patches of grass in the enclosed area. Rosie stood and waited for Bongo to finish up. She had heard the story of how the corrupt cops had come into their custody and enjoyed helping keep them held accountable for their treachery. She also suspected that as a service to the general public and humanity in general the men would be transferred off-site to be wrung of every single morsel of information they possessed. Not just about the attacks in the US but Juarez had an alarmingly high rate of rape and murder of young woman and Grimm might just risk their Juarez and El Paso infrastructure to see if the idiot twins had any ideas or involvement any other crimes against woman.

Bongo came back to Rosie wiping his eyes. “Sorry, in that confined space it was worse than I had expected. Those guys must have been really suffering. I’ll be doing this again in an hour or so. You game to help out?”

Rosie nodded. “That would be my pleasure. I will say that I wish I had a picture of you standing there pointing a gun at them at the same time you where spraying them with the garden hose. It was a classic.

Bongo spoke totally deadpan. “Yea, that was weird. Water, the thing that gives life in one hand and a firearm, the thing that takes it in the other. Sorry but no pictures of team members allowed, no exceptions.” Now he smiled at his own feeble attempt at humor.

Rosie stood looking like she was mulling something over. “You think they are trying to convince you that they have accepted their fate and lull you into making a mistake?”

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing. It’s what I’d do if I was in this much trouble. The longer you stay alive and useful the more time you have to make something happen that will set yourself free. Anyway, if the offer for yoga lesson still stands I need to get changed. If you’re not too busy and don’t mind.”

Rosie smiled. “Let me get out of these clothes and I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Bongo replied. See you then.”

Fuller’s Office Complex


Fuller, Mongo, the dog handler and her K-9 partner had walked a majority of Fuller’s office complex the night before. The extensive underground complex meant that the task had taken hours and resulted in a small number of alerts. The K-9 handler explained that she thought that the majority of the hits were residual scents left from people that had smoked dope recently or had it in their vehicle. And with one exception all the hits were confined to the parking areas which Fuller was thankful for. The sole exception was at an upholstery shop that specialized in commercial interiors for a chain of restaurants that had been expanding despite the recent tough economic environment. Sasha Lasov the owner of the shop was from Bulgaria and had been a naturalized US citizen for almost 20 years. He seemed nice, paid rent on time and always could be found smiling.

Fuller was mildly concerned about what the K-9 cop had found last night. Fuller and Mongo decided to stop by and talk to Sasha and explain what was going on and see if he could speak to his guys and eliminate the problems. If when they walked in something seemed wrong and they suspected Sasha of doing something illegal they would ask him to participate in a tenant satisfaction study that Fuller had gotten off the internet and that Sasha could return at his convenience. If that happened and they didn’t feel comfortable talking to him then they would continue to gather evidence and see where it led them.

Mongo parked the truck and both men got out in the parking area assigned to the upholstery shop. A vehicle had driven up behind them and Fuller glanced over his shoulder. Two men in suits were climbing out of a plain sedan. They had the look and demeanor of Law Enforcement and Fuller hesitated a second.

The red headed one smiled at Fuller recognizing that Fuller had pegged them for what they were. The other one, a well muscled man with thinning blonde hair remained expressionless.

Ginger spoke. “Sorry we’re late Mr. Brown. I’m Special Agent Connor with the FBI and this is my partner Special Agent Moss. If we could have a moment of your time to speak with you and your associate we’d appreciate it. Someplace private would be best.”

Call me Fuller and this is Mongo. Follow us back to my office. We can talk privately there. I assume someone in your office can vouch for you?”

Special Agent Connor smiled. “Here are out cards. Ask for the office for the Organized Crime Task Force, everyone there is familiar with us.”

Fuller nodded and accepted the offered cards and got back in the truck.

Mongo started the truck and pulled away as Fuller fished out his phone and looked up the number for the local FBI office. As he dialed the number and Mongo pulled away Mongo spoke.

“Any idea what this is about?”

Fuller waited while the phone rang. “No idea at all. I’d guess we’ll understand more in the next 15 minutes.” Fuller confirmed the agents were legitimate FBI agents and from the referral to an Organized Crime Task Force assumed that they had something that the FBI was interested in. Fuller considered it might be something related to the man that was using his ranch down in Texas. Hopefully he hadn’t exposed himself to FBI scrutiny by allowing the ranch to be used by people he didn’t know. Sparrow vouched for the man but one never knew.

Both cars pulled up to the entrance to Fuller’s management and leasing office. It was during business hours so the two men in suits would hopefully be confused with businessman on business that involved the complex or one of Fuller’s businesses. They could be looking for space, selling insurance or may even be a supplier.

Fuller got out of the truck and walked toward the non-descript sedan. The two FBI agents quickly exited the vehicle.

Special Agent Connor spoke. “We check out?”

Fuller nodded and shook Special Agent Connor’s hand. “I’m Fuller R. Brown and this is my associate Mongo. Sorry, I always like to know who I’m really talking to if it’s possible.”

Connor shook Fuller’s hand. “We can appreciate that.” Fuller turned to Special Agent Moss who seemed like a disagreeable fellow and shook his hand. He nodded but didn’t say anything.

Special Agent Connor spoke. “Don’t pay attention to Special Agent Moss he’s concerned at the level of information we’ve been told to give to you. Usually we just say we’re with the FBI and there are things we cannot tell you without putting an investigation at risk. This is a little different from those circumstances.”

Fuller nodded that he understood. He had served his country in the military and there was a whole lot of that going on. They used the phrase need-to-know which usually meant either you were too dumb to understand something or that they didn’t trust you enough to share. “Gentleman if you would follow me we can talk in my office. Any problem if we allow my associate Mongo to join us? He is my number two here and I trust him with my life.”

Special Agent Connor nodded. “We don’t have a problem with that.”

Fuller led the other 3 men into his office and closed the door. He offered them drinks from his office refrigerator which both Special Agents refused while Mongo took a bottle of water.

The agents told Fuller and Mongo that they were investigating an employee at the upholstery shop and asked that Fuller refrain from approaching Sasha Lesov about any concerns he had. They said that an 8 month investigation had turned up some concerns and that while it appeared that Sasha Lesov was being coerced his involvement could not be ruled out at this time.

Fuller agreed to the FBI request and Special Agent Connor vowed to speak with him after the investigation was completed. Special Agent Connor thought that within a few months that either the investigation would be abandoned or arrests would be made. He assured the men that the possible crimes that they were investigating were serious but that their feeling was that no one was being tortured, murdered or sold into slavery inside Fuller’s facility. Other than that they were unable to share anymore information. Special Agent Connor told Fuller the reason he was even getting that much information is that they were aware that he was helping with a problem in Texas. Special Agent Connor confirmed that Fuller’s involvement in what was happening in Texas was classified beyond his clearance. To be allowed to even speak with Fuller he had been sworn to secrecy by a nameless woman that claimed to be part of Homeland Security. Special Agent Connor assured Fuller that access to information about the Texas thing was classified at an even higher level now and that only a few people in the CIA and in Homeland Security could access it.

The Feds left and Fuller and Mongo stood there thinking about what had just happened.

Mongo was the first to speak. “Remember 6 months ago when everything was so boring that sometimes you wished for something exciting to happen just to keep from going crazy? I miss that.”

Fuller replied. “I miss it to. It looks like we’ll have to wait to get the whole story. Feel like getting some range time in?”

Mongo nodded and smiled. “I thought you’d never ask. I have something I wanted to show you at the range anyway.”

Fuller considered what the surprise could be. “Did the launchers come in?”

Mongo just stared at him. “You’ll have to wait until we get to the range to find out.”

[stjwelding]

alangator, great chapter, you always have another event just around the corner to keep us form seeing where you are taking this story. This story has the intruge and suspense of a great mystery novel, thanks for your time and and for sharing your story with us.
Wayne

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 44

Afghanistan 2007
32 hours after the capturing the non-HVT tat led to an ambush

Grimm walked into the small metal warehouse and stood beside the metal coffin that held the remains of Hasim their pseudo interpreter. His hand gently rested on the warm metal despite the fact that the room was air conditioned. Without being told the men in Grimm’s unit now realized that their leader had formed a strong bond of friendship with Hasim. They would have guessed incorrectly that it wasn’t the loss that Grimm felt for the man under his command that had died or the 2 that had received devastating injuries but it was obvious the loss of this one man had struck a chord in their leader.

The men would be very surprised if they knew that the worse loss of the previous attack was the loss of Hasim the counter-terrorism operative acting as an affable local interpreter. While Grimm had trained and shared more time with the men in the unit the loss of a man risking everything for a Country that wasn’t his amazed and saddened Grimm to his very core. That type of commitment had to be respected despite Grimm’s inability to share that crucial information with his people.

The other reason that Grimm was off-kilter was that he had felt that the mission was ill-advised and seeing the metal coffin holding Hasim and the other man that had died re-enforced the notion that he was an un-important cog in the machinery that was the US Militaries’ efforts in Afghanistan. Grimm was the cog in a machine he no longer wished to be a part of despite the fact that a few years earlier he would have guessed that he would retire after a career in the military.

Grimm felt as if he was partly responsible for Hasim’s death. Hasim had been a highly trained counter-terrorism operative on loan from Israel. The man known as Hasim could have applied his skill-set to one of a hundred places in the world that terrorism was a concern. But fate determined that he would be with Grimm and his unit on the fateful night of his death.

When the attack had commenced and the Stryker was disabled Hasim had shimmied out of the disabled Stryker with two other ambulatory men after it had been disabled only to be struck down almost immediately by what they think had been a ricochet. He had been dragging another man from the vehicle and suffered a wound to his head that killed him instantly. They had managed to get Hasim’s body to one of the other Stryker’s and brought him back to their base.

Back at the base within 30 minutes they had cleaned the body up and prepped it for the trip back to Hasim’s homeland of Israel. Hasim’s body had been slipped into a body bag moments before Grimm walked over from hearing about the serious injuries to two of his men. Grimm was able to view the remains mere moments before the bag was to be zippered up and moved to the other side of the camp and placed in a cold storage room. Grimm knew his boss was on the radio right now making arrangements with someone from Hasim’s Country so that the brave warrior could be returned to the people that loved and cared about him.

Even now it had been over a day since the attack and yet Grimm was still distracted by the loss of Hasim. He was interrupted during his Contemplating of the loss of such a fine soldier when he sensed that he wasn’t alone in the warehouse. He turned to see a woman standing 10 feet from him. She had short dark blonde hair and the look, build and bearing of an athlete despite her age which was late 20’sor maybe even early 30s. She wore fatigues in a pattern that Grimm wasn’t familiar with and her right arm was adorned with a black ribbon.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you. I’m Sonja; I worked with the man you know as Hasim.”

“I’m Capt. George Thomas Oakley; friends call me G.T. Hasim worked with my unit.” Grimm used air quotes a practice it studiously avoided when he said Hasim name. “Let me say that I’m deeply sorry for the loss of your co-worker. He was an outstanding soldier and a really nice guy. He shouldn’t have died like this. He deserved better.”

Sonja nodded indicating that she understood his sentiment. “You know the history of my Country?”

Grimm or Capt. Oakley nodded. “Enough to know that losing people to war and conflict is far more prevalent in your country than in mine. We’ve lost people during conflicts and wars since we became a nation but your Country has lost people in war or because of terrorism almost continuously since you gained your independence in May of 48.”

Sonja smiled. “You are correct. We suffer and make the sacrifice because it is what we must do to insure the very survival of our people. The man you knew as Hasim understood that reality and would have gladly given his life to support the US military mission here. Your Country is our staunchest supporter and we offer our help here in Afghanistan to help repay a debt that can never be re-paid. I’m sad that Hasim lost his life but I’m proud of the fact that he died helping to bring something positive to an area that has suffered for so long under the harsh and brutal tyranny of relentless oppressors. Something you might not know is that the man you know as Hasim had volunteered to serve with US forces as part of a joint exchange program that utilized counter-terrorism specialists from both our Countries. We send you ours and you send us yours. The program is said to be doing very well and that program also further cements the bonds that our countries share.”

Grimm now fully understood how Hasim had been assigned to them. The US regularly exchanged or cross trained with the members of other Countries militaries. To Grimm it seemed that if you were going to target and chase terrorists that were pre-dominantly Middle Eastern then there was no better Country to help you than Israel. While Israel was known to be very secretive bunch they had more experience with Muslim extremists than the rest of the world combined. “Well I’m glad he was a volunteer. Losing him still sucks but at least he chose to be here and wasn’t being forced to help us. He had never confided in me that he volunteered for this assignment.”

Sonja replied. “That information is classified at a high level and I’d ask that it not be repeated. People a lot more experienced than you or I decided that it should have been kept from the people that they worked with so please understand it wasn’t personal. The exchange program activity reports submitted by Hasim show that he thought you’re a good person and an excellent leader. Did he ask you to come to Israel and stay with him and his family?”

Grimm thought it strange that an offer just extended yesterday would be something Sonja would ask about. “Yes he did. In fact it was just yesterday a few hours before the mission. The invitation was more like poetry or philosophy than an invitation. It flowed and made you really think about the life you were leading.”

Sonja nodded her all knowing nod. “In spite of being able to communicate in so many languages he had a way with words. He wrote some poetry that was very good and had the heart of a much older and much wiser man. The books he read however were the worst type of crap. He loaned me one once and I’d rather chase PLO terrorist through the camps unarmed than read that book.”

Grimm smiled. “I read 10 pages of one of them once and the only thing I can say is that I’d rather be illiterate than be forced to read the whole thing. Smart man, amazing soldier absolutely the worst taste in books ever.”

Sonja smiled. “I can see why Hasim liked you. Would you mind if a hugged you?”

Grimm capitulated. “I can live with that. I got something I was hoping you could take back with Hasim’s body.” Grimm reached into his pocket and pulled out a small rounded stone and offered to Sonja.

Sonja stepped to Grimm and hugged him. When she stepped back she accepted the stone and placed it in her pocket on her chest. “I will pass the stone along with the member of our team that will attend the funeral and he or she will place the stone in your absence.

Sonja had to get the body of Hasim on the transport plane to be returned to Israel. They said their goodbyes and Grimm returned to his small room. With Hasim gone the room seemed even smaller than it had been before.

Juarez

Lee, all they had was a name. No first name or last name just the name Lee. They didn’t know where or when he was born. Was he born in Mexico, the United States or from someplace in Central or South America? Surprisingly, they had many more questions than the few answers they had and it was frustrating Grimm to no end. In this day and age how could a man that was one of the leaders of such a large criminal operation and worth 10s of millions of dollars manage to stay so elusive? Even in Mexico you’d think speculation would leak out and that they’d be able to get some idea of the background of a man with so much power and influence.

Grimm’s had just gotten off his encrypted phone with support and learned that they had numerous illegal wiretaps in place that might help them get the additional information they desperately needed. That coupled with combing through and analyzing enough data to monopolize a supercomputer for 24 hours and still they had turned up bupkis. They didn’t even have Lee’s voice on tape someplace to allow them to search through voice prints that might have helped them get a line on the guy. They did know where he lived and that he was a member of the exclusive Country Club that seemed to be a magnet for every shady businessman in Juarez along with those that were involved with the Juarez Cartel.

Close had been working Lee’s compound for 2 days and the data they had been pulling made a standard snatch at that location an unlikely possibility. They did have a guy that owed them that was a member of the country Club and that was looking more and more like a possible site for the rendition. Well at this point saying he owed them wasn’t quite right it was more like they were blackmailing him and he was none too happy to be the focus of the attention of the STAG and their team of surveillance experts. One of the advantages of not being bound by laws and having a certain amount of flexibility was that you could play dirty and Grimm and his people had been getting very good at coloring outside the lines.

Grimm turned away from the make shift desk and stood up. He rolled his shoulders and willed the tension to leave his body. The attempt failed so headed down to the warehouse to spend 15 minutes as one of Darrell’s guinea pigs. The scientist had been working alone in an office near the garage for 4 days straight. He had only left the office 3 times to evaluate his software upgrades and twice to use the bathroom. Grimm had smelled the man yesterday and he was ripe and in serious need of a shower. Lep had told him that the scientist had began urinating in a milk jug 2 days ago and when the jug became full it just dumped it out the window.

Since Lee’s mansion/fortress was shaping up to be a poor snatch site they would need to most likely do the job at the exclusive Country Club that Lee belonged to that also had very good security. The chances of waltzing into the place loaded down with gear was pretty small so they would be going in light with the support of a few snipers located 300 to 400 yards away. Grimm asked Darrell to put together a micro stun gun they could dissemble and get through a sloppy pat down and the man was fascinated by the challenge.

The devise that Darrell had improvised was a much smaller version of the commercially available stun guns and was designed as a one shot devise. The device was as long an ink pen and three times as thick and Grimm was told by Darrell that the range was limited to 10 feet. The device was designed to be assembling at the snatch site after they had gotten through any security they encountered. If they deployed the stun devise then they were to put the empty unit into their pocket and grab another one if they required it.

Grimm found Darrell looking at readouts on his computer in his workshop. “Darrell you told Lep that you needed another test dummy for the latest version of your micro-stunner?”

Darrell spun around startled that someone had entered his workspace without him hearing. Grimm and his people had done it enough you’d think the jumpy scientist would be used to it by now or ask Lep to put a bell on the door of his workspace. At least tell everyone to knock so the untrained scientist would have a stroke.

Darrell regained his composure. “I’m at version Beta 4. I think this is the one. I increased the storage capacity of the capacitor and improved the efficiency of the circuit by 22% by re-designing the board. I expect that it’ll get the job done. Lep told me that it hits harder than the last version and that he felt totally out of it after he was hit.”

Grimm nodded. “Pretty busy here Darrell. Mind if we go ahead and do this?”

Darrell picked something up from his workbench and turned and pointed a devise that looked like a flashlight at Grimm’s chest and the next thing you know Grimm was on the ground unable to move. In fact if he hadn’t peed before he came in he might have voided his bladder as waves of pain rolled across his body. Of the 30 times that Grimm had been tazed in his life this was by far the worst hands down. It was so bad he was also worried that he might have chipped a tooth the current was so strong. He could feel the muscles twitching so badly that his body was wracked by movement he couldn’t control. It took twice as long as it ever had for Grimm to re-gain use of his extremities and even then his muscles screamed in protest at being used. Before he could move his arms and legs he assured Darrell that the prototype was more than adequate to get the job done. His mouth at that time was the only part of his body that did what his brain told to do despite being slightly difficult to understand. While he was suffering he told Darrell to test the devise by firing it 500 times and log the results. The STAG teams lived and died based on equipment that was tested and preformed to a greater degree of consistency than their commercially available counterparts. But for a jolt this disruptive Grimm might have a little wiggle room. He would just tell his people to keep one devise in each hand in case of a failure. First one fails immediately use the second one, no problem.

Finally Grimm was released from the bond of pain and the lack of mobility that the micro stun gun had inflicted on is body and he wondered back up to his room for a handful of ibuprofen and much needed nap. That last testing had almost taken it out of him. Luckily the tooth he feared he had chipped seemed to be in one piece. He’d have the Doc look at it in the next few days to be sure.

Fuller’s Office Complex

Fuller was excited because the last of the scabs from his Shingles had finally disappeared. It had been an unpleasant experience and yet as always he tried to learn from every experience good and bad. Fuller was not a particularly vane man but he had allowed Mongo to post a singles ad for him on a prepper dating site. Fuller was a busy type guy and the thought of dating didn’t excite him but one response from a woman about his age from 70 miles away had piqued his interest. Mary profile said her favorite activity was shooting and after reading her full profile and seeing her picture if she was willing to take a chance on a worn out guy like Fuller the least he could do was take her to a nice restaurant and buy her some good food for her unfailing belief in humanity. They did share a few pictures of their guns and Fuller had to admit the woman had great taste in firearms. The thought of a woman that had a better long range rifle than he did intrigued him. If she could actually handle the weapon he would most likely have a Facebook friend for life wither they hit it off or not. Fuller was like many preppers and when Mary requested that while they could talk about prepping she wasn’t comfortable sharing any of her preps with him. Since not many people prepped more than Fuller he thought that was an excellent suggestion. As an added measure of security neither person revealed their last name or exactly where they lived. They had also agreed to meet at a restaurant. That allowed them to both take their own vehicles and still remain anonymous as possible.

There was a knock on Fuller’s office door. “Fuller you better get moving, time is a ticking and I wanted to show you how to work the stereo. It’s not as easy to operate as you would think.”

Fuller smiled. It’s not like he was an old man, he could work a car stereo. How tough could it be? “Mongo come in and help me pick out cologne.”

Mongo walked into the office. He was wearing his apron that explained how to butcher a chicken in graphic detail. Mongo thought the apron was funny and Fuller thought that the man needed therapy. “Boss you almost ready. The roads are clear but you might want to get a move on. What’s this I hear about picking out cologne? You flip a coin and chose the one that wins the toss.” Mongo had been talking as Fuller slipped into his private bathroom. He followed Fuller into the well appointed bathroom.

On the counter-top next to the sink were 6 bottles of cologne. “I asked all the salesgirls what their favorite was and then asked for a recommendation based on my age. So I started with 5 sales girls with 10 different choices. 2 of the cologne were unisex so that excluded them immediately. One of the choices was something that has been around for like 20 years that I had never liked and one girl told me her 17 year old boyfriend wore one of them so that excluded a total of 4. I tried to pick one from the 6 remaining scents and got frustrated so I asked for samples and bought all 6. Thought maybe you might be useful as my tester since your nose is pretty amazing?”

Mongo looked at all 6 bottles. His love of coffee had come from the fact that is olfactory senses were off the charts sensitive. When his Aunt in Hawaii used to roast coffee on her back porch Mongo could tell exactly when the coffee was finished without looking at the beans. For a few years as a teenager that skill would utilized as Mongo became an apprentice taster for a large Hawaiian coffee plantation. When good coffee rolled across Mongo’s taste buds and he inhaled its aromatic aroma it was if everything on the world was OK. “Let me get a bag of beans from my office to use to cleanse my olfactory palate. If you don’t then your nose becomes confused and you miss what’s really going on smell wise.”

Fuller nodded. “Hey you’re the one with the super sniffer. Do what you must.”

Mongo turned around and headed to his office to pull a bag of coffee beans that his Aunt had sent him from his mini-fridge. He was very particular about the coffee he drank and did everything he could to insure that he had the best coffee drinking experience possible.

Mongo returned with the 1 pound bag of beans and began his testing. After each sniff he inhaled deeply from the bag of coffee to let his sense of smell re-set. In the first round 3 colognes were discarded. Two were too floral and didn’t fit Fuller’s personality. The third one was too overpowering with the smell of rosewood that conflicted with the nutmeg scent and when Mongo explained what he was smelling Fuller removed the bottle from the contest.

In round two Mongo pushed a bottle toward Fuller and continued the ritual of cleansing his olfactory palate and moving on to the next contestant. When he finished the two bottles stood in front of Fuller. “Take your shirt off, we need to field test these two. Both are infused with crisp smell of citrus and one actually has an almost barely detectable hint of muskiness that reminds me of leather. The true test is how it actually smells with your body’s individual chemistry.”

Fuller stared at Mongo. He trusted this man with his life and yet this seemed to almost border on absurd. Despite his apprehension he pulled his shirt off and dabbed a bit of each product on his wrist with a q-tip.

Mongo stood silently facing Fuller. “We have to let it sit for a minute or two that way it will interact with your body’s natural chemistry and we’ll see where we’re at. Just keep your arms spread to avoid cross contamination.”

Fuller stood with his arms outstretched like the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He felt ridiculous yet Mongo seemed to be taking his duties very seriously.

“OK, let’s see what we have.” Mongo bend over and sniffed the first one. He then went through the ritual of smelling the coffee beans and then smelled the second choice. “Um, did you do any shooting at the range today by any chance?”

Fuller lowered his arms. “Just a 50 round box testing out that new trigger in my old AR. Why? You smell powder?”

Mongo nodded. Believe it or not if she is a shooter I think we’re cooking with fire. The scent smells very nice and if she’s really in your personal space she might be able to pick out a hint of powder. Many shooters love the smell of powder. The cologne is a classy blend of citrus and musky smell that seems to work well together. I think she’ll like it. Now wash that other side off with unscented soap and then run a cotton ball with alcohol over the site you need to get moving.” Mongo paused and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a fat round disk a little wider that the size of a silver dollar that had a keychain on the end. He handed it to Fuller.

Fuller looked at the keychain and then realized what the disk likely contained. On the sterling silver cover the brand of fuller’s ranch in Texas was artfully engraved. “Is this what I think it is?”

Mongo smiled. “They’re brand new and they even came in your size. Just in case things go very well.”

Fuller was moved that Mongo was so interested in his life and considered himself lucky to have such a good and understanding friend. “Thanks, I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Now I better get moving if I want to be 15 minutes early.” Fuller was a tad embarrassed yet slipped the disk into his pocket. “I assume you just twist off the lid.”

Mongo smiled. “Like they say, easy peasy.”

The men moved on toward the garage. Fuller hadn’t wanted to take his own vehicle so he had asked to borrow Mongo’s personal truck in exchange for loaning Mongo his 1966 Mustang Fastback for the night.

Fuller got into truck he had borrowed from Mongo that most complicated car stereo Fuller had ever seen. Mongo spent 5 minutes trying to explain how it worked before he looked at Fuller and laughed. “You go someplace might want to just get a cab it’s only a few bucks or we can rent a big fancy sedan and I can act as your chauffeur if the date goes longer.”

Fuller started the truck. “I’ll make it work. Be careful with the Mustang and if you put gas in it remember it uses high octane and you have to add the additive.”

Mongo nodded. He didn’t want Fuller to feel bad but he had no intention of driving Fuller’s Mustang. Fuller had bought the car in high school and sold it to a local kid after he enlisted in the Marines to raise cash. When he left the Marines he found the car wrecked sitting in the barn of the man whose son had wrecked the car and earned two DUI in 2 years while Fuller had been gone. It was a wonder the car had survived at all and Fuller had the car restored to better than new condition while he was working overseas for a PMC.

Mongo just waved as Fuller drove away.

Fuller had barely left the complex when his phone rang showing a blocked number. He answered it on the second ring while waving at the gate guard. “Fuller.”

“Fuller, we met out in the desert recently and share an interest in birds. Does that ring a bell?”

Fuller instantly knew the call was from the man he had met in the desert and that was using his ranch for a base of operations in some super secret project. “Yes it does everything OK down your way?”

Grimm regretted having to say what he had to say. “Look I know this may seem silly but we looked into your date for tonight and I wanted to call you and let you know she seems like a nice lady. No red flags that we could find and we really looked. I know you two are keeping it on first name basis but if she is as good in person as she is on paper you’re a lucky man.”

Fuller replied. “Thanks for the head’s up. I appreciate it.”

Grimm continued. “Sorry about being so noisy.”

Fuller considered quickly and understood why what was done was done and why. “I understand. No hard feeling, we’re good.”

Grimm was relieved that Fuller seemed to be fine with what they had done. “To make it up I’m covering dinner and we have arranged for a town car from a local for afterwards. The vehicle will take you to anyplace you want. You have the car till 8am if you need it. The car will be a black Mercedes sedan and the driver is named Paco. I’ve heard he is an excellent driver.”

Fuller snickered. “Well if we use him I’ll let you know how he did.”

Grimm nodded to himself. “Have fun.” And hung up his encrypted phone.

Juarez

Grimm sat down on his cot and looked at his watch. It was time to check in and see how much progress Close had made with the two corrupt Mexican cops. They had broken yesterday and agreed that if their families were spared they’d talk about anything Grimm wanted. So far all the information they had given seemed to be reliable but then Close had a way of getting people to open up. Grimm was glad the men had seen reason and that he didn’t have to keep putting psychological pressure on them. As another side benefit Rosie was now teaching yoga in the gym and 5 guys were trying to keep up with her. Bongo seemed to be the best student but Grimm suspected he had an ulterior motive. Yesterday Bongo had been talking about getting hurt over-doing what he called a ‘big toe pose’. Even Ales Rosie’s dog seemed to genuinely like the man.

[stjwelding]

alangator Thanks for the chapter, always a good find when it's a chapter form you, thanks for the time and sharing your story with us.
Wayne

[sssarawolf]

Thank you for the new chapter .

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 45
Field’s Property

Tim and Becky waited at the front door of their home while the invited guest to their property drove his vehicle up the driveway. The old green 4 wheel drive Ford pick-up was 30 years old and yet Tim noticed that the engine purred like it was very well maintained as it came to a stop in front of them and the motor was switched off.

The gray haired man that had been referred by Cole Smith down the road and the Field’s apocalypse partners slid out of the truck was at least 70 maybe considerably older but moved like a much younger man. He spoke as soon as his feet hit the ground. “Mr. and Mrs. Fields, I’m Jedidiah Cappet. Most folks just call me Jed.” In the time that it took to say hi and say his name his was standing in front of the Fields with his hand out.

The men shook hands as Tim spoke. “I’m Tim Field’s and this is my wife Becky. We appreciate you taking the time to come out and take a look at our property. We’re really interested in putting in some fruit trees and our neighbor Cole Smith said that you’re the man to talk to.”

Mr. Cappet had turned and shook hands with Becky in a more gentlemanly way than he had with Tim. “I’m always happy to help people interested in growing fruit trees and any friend of Cole Smith is good enough for me. It’s sad but not as much call for growing fruit these days as there used to be. Now, most people are happy enough to buy them pretty apples or peaches at the grocery store or at one of those organic places rather than grow their own. Stuff from the store tastes flat to me and Lord only knows the condition that the fruits were grown under. It’s nice to see that not everyone has abandoned the old ways. My family has been growing fruit and keeping bees in this county for almost 100 years now. Some people think my clover honey is the best in the county.”

Tim nodded. “We bought some at the street fair a few months ago and I’m no expert but that was great tasting honey.”

Becky added “And it beats worrying about any toxic chemicals being used by the growers or the bottlers slipping Chinese honey into their product to raise margins.


Mr. Cappet nodded that he understood. Many people had concerns about the safety of food sourced from China every since the whole lead in children’s toys and melamine in pet food a few years back. The sad thing is that the amount of “organic” food sourced from China was on the rise and there is a chance that certified organic stuff from china doesn’t meet the US guidelines. “Speaking of honey I’ve got more bees that I can manage so if you ever need bees you call me and we’ll get you set-up. I do wild hive removal for a few pest control companies so every time I turn around I’m adding bees to my hives. Now let’s take a look at this property and see where the best place to put your orchard is.” Mr. Cappet paused. “You said something about a golf cart.”

Tim smiled. “Yes sir, let me go get it. Can we offer you something to drink? We have fresh made iced tea or lemonade from a mix.”

Mr. Cappet nodded. “Half lemonade, half iced tea with tons of ice would truly hit the spot. I know it’s not hot out but Arnold Palmer’s sure taste mighty fine regardless of what Mother Nature’s doing outside.”

Becky replied to the request. “I’ll grab your Arnold Palmer while Tim grabs the cart out of the outbuilding.

Tim headed off to get the golf cart while Becky went inside and made Mr. Cappet his refreshment. A few minutes later both were sitting in the cart as they headed off with Mr. Cappers to tour the property. Both were looking forward to setting up their own orchard and picking fruit from their own property. The orchard wouldn’t be big enough if they ever had to use the shelter but it was a vital and important step to self-sufficiency that was inexpensive compared the money invested in the shelter.

They toured the whole property and Mr. Cappet had asked Tim to stop a few times so he could look at something and kick the dirt. 20 minutes later the trio stepped off the cart near the area that housed a shelter entrance that Tim thought might be a good location to place his new orchard.
“Mr. Cappet if we could use this area that would be great for us. We wanted the orchard away from the house just in case at some point we did incorporate bees into our plans and we wanted the orchard away from preying eyes. Don’t want kid’s hopping the fence and helping themselves and risk them getting hurt.”

Jed nodded. “I like kids about as much as the next guy but the adults are just as bad or worse. I really dislike people trespassing on my land. Seems like every year it gets worse and worse. You mentioned that you two are fairly new to the area and I don’t know if you’ve had problems but between the people hunting without permission, dumping trash and dropped unwanted pets off it really irritates me to no end. This is farm and ranch land out here not a rural dump with no fees. Also find my share dead and skinned or butchered animals. If you don’t have one you might want to think about a backhoe or a tractor that you can dig with it’ll make clean up easier.”

Tim nodded. “A friend loaned a backhoe to us until we can buy his or find one we can afford.”

“Good, you’ll need it with this much property.” Mr. Cappet pulled a pocket knife from his pants and bends down slowly and turned up a piece of the orchard grass that was growing under their feet. He then lifted the soil to his eyes and examined it. Then he crumbled it in his hand and smelled it. Despite the nippiness in the air anticipation was written clearly on his face. “The soil is going to need to nutrients unless you want to bury a dead cat in each hole but the drainage looks good enough to get the job done.”

Tim looked at the experienced old man. He had heard the saying about burying a dead animal in the hole for fruit trees and really wanted to know if Mr. Cappet had ever done it or been told by family members about it being done. Despite his curiosity he refrained. “Amendments to the soil we can do. Not really sure we’re the burying a dead cat types if you know what I mean?”

Mr. Cappet nodded. “Me neither. My father told me that his father usually did bury something dead in the hole but that was before they developed such good fertilizers and understood about making your own soil amendments. Personally I use worm casing and a few other things. I’ll give you a list of what you’re going to need. Also if you don’t hunt you might want to find someone to keep the varmints under control and thin the deer out. There is nothing worse than to expend all that effort and come out one day and find you trees and bushes bare during the growing season or ruined by deer.”

Becky nodded. “We have a good friend that hunts and he has asked to hunt the property. Hopefully that will keep the deer population under control. What else does he need to be on the lookout for?”

Mr. Cappet smiled. “All the predators like raccoon and possum plus deer. And if he sees a feral hog make sure he knows to shoot it. So far we’ve been lucky in this area and kept the hogs out but them pigs is spreading like wildfire. In some areas they think that people are capturing the feral hogs and releasing them so that they have more hunting opportunities either for profit or just for sport. Those hogs are mean and will eat us all out of house in home unless they are kept in check.”

Tim replied. “Our friend has a ranch in Texas so he’s not a big fan of feral hogs. I’m sure if he sees them he’ll try his best to take them out.”

Mr. Cappet replied. “Good, dam hogs root up everything and can spread disease. If he’s from Texas and has a ranch I’m sure he knows once you see hogs you need to trap and hunt them until they’re gone. Things bred like crazy and it doesn’t take much to lose control of a property. Other than that I think we’re good here. I’ll schedule your plantings in 5 or 6 weeks. You and I will walk the area then and we’ll mark were each tree goes. Should only take half a day to get everything in the ground and get you started.”

The trio piled back into the golf cart and headed back to the house and Mr. Cappet’s old truck.

Mr. Cappet sure did look in his element behind the wheel of that old truck as he drove down the drive.

As Tim and Becky watched the orchard man drive away they smiled at each other. Becky nudged her husband in the side. “Don’t forget to tell Fuller about the fruit trees. Knowing him he’ll ask us to increase the size of the orchard. The man doesn’t do anything half way.”

Tim smiled at his wife’s comment. Both the Field’s really liked having a man like Fuller supplementing their preps. Not only was he well funded but he seemed to get genuinely excited every time something was done to improve the property. Fuller had shared recently that while in his heart he was 100% Texan he was very comfortable here and was enjoying the experience. He shared that while he loved his ranch and living outside El Paso he hadn’t realized how much the border had changed the way he saw the world. He said being here made him absolutely convinced that the border needed to be brought under control at all costs. Unless those costs were the constant battle ICE was waging on everyday people in an attempt to win the effort to stop drugs from coming across the Border. Things like internal ICE checkpoints and interdiction efforts along the highways often resulted in innocent people being essentially harassed while they groped around trying to get a handle on the problem. It further demonstrated that while the government had good intentions their ineffective methods too often penalized law abiding citizens. The confrontational stance of Law Enforcement vs. War on Drugs too often alienated the citizenry. It was the type of evasiveness that had been driving more and more people to scream that a more complete fence should be built and that US troops be stationed along the US/Mexico border.

When you don’t live in a border state or even near the border it’s easy to just say that if the government does built more fence the coyotes will take crossers into ever increasingly dangerous areas in an attempt to gain illegal entry. The deaths that have resulted in failed crossing attempts by land, air and sea are tragic and yet the security of a nation and her people lies in the balance. And while compassionate US citizens regret the lives lost many understand that the key to our country’s security lies in being able to regulate and fully understand who has been granted access to it.

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 46
Authors Note- This installment has violence and disturbing imagery that might not be suitable for sensitive readers including younger readers.

Outside Juarez

After three days of surveying Lee’s compound Close was disappointed that they were being told by Grimm that they needed to pull their video and audio equipment and move the surveillance back almost ¾ of a mile. Activity around the perimeter of Lee’s estate even at a mile out had increased and men they had not seen before and looked Caucasian began working the area with high powered optics so it was only a matter of time before they were ‘made’. The only good news about the additional personnel is that they heard on the audio gear that the men were speaking Russian and spoke no Spanish at all. That told Grimm that despite Gregg Madrago being approached and offered a sweet deal to hasten his retirement that he had brought in specialists that had been trained in Russia. Grimm assumed the worse so the new people were most likely ex-Spetsnaz mercenaries. Grimm had also heard from Cat, the US Intelligence asset inside Lee’s compound that was overseeing the big cats and he reported that over a dozen new people had been brought in. they didn’t get close enough to him for him to make any assessments but Cat said they looked and acted like very well trained professional soldiers. Lee had also sequestered all employees so Cat wouldn’t be unable to sneak away again until they broke the cartel up.

Grimm called all the people in the warehouse together for a meeting to relay what they knew and what they thought they knew. He told them that he thought the new security people were likely some type of ex-Spetsnaz that had become mercenaries. The term was so broad that getting into the history of the program or the specifics of what branches inside Russia that had or were still utilized Special Operations units and calling them Spetsnaz seemed unlikely to help. He just wanted to let his people know that if these new people did have that level of specialized training that they should be very wary of underestimating them. Spetsnaz was notorious for their brutal training and at times they had shown to be especially brutal in combat or while conducting counter-terrorism operations.

Largo, one of his heavy weapon and breeching specialists was foolish enough to say that the mercenaries were just doing what they were doing and that was fighting, kidnapping and killing people for money. Despite the shock of what Largo said Grimm explained that the difference between a person fighting for their countries’ interest like they were and the Russians working for an organization that provided drugs to children, murdered people at will and trafficked in human misery was huge. He felt that while he respected Largo’s point of view he was clearly not a good fit for what they were doing here. In fact Grimm was disappointed that Largo had managed to pass all the psychological hurdles that the STAG program had set in place to avoid such a problem. The screening process to join the program relied on what was thought to be the most comprehensive evaluations currently being used by any branch of the US military or the US Intelligence community. But just like the hiring process for any company or government job occasionally someone slips through that is ill-suited for the work. In this case it would seem that Largo had beliefs that conflict with STAG’s stated mission. Largo would be transferred within a day or so and spend the rest of his time at the facility in Belize. As soon as Juarez was wrapped up he’d sit down with Largo explain what was expected of him and pay off the man’s contract in full and disperse his share of the bonus to help insure his cooperation and future silence. He would also remind Largo that failure to abide by the set behavioral guidelines concerning ex-STAG team members could prove unhealthy. It was a guideline that Dark Voice had insisted on and every man had given their word and understood what would happen if they ever broke that word. Grimm understood the rationale behind Dark Voices demand and knew that it helped keep him and his people safe down the road. At some point in the future those overly restrictive guidelines might prove to be a lifesaver. As agreed by all parties no mention of STAG would be allowed for 20 years or until the unit historian let them know it was safe to talk about what they had done. At that point they would still be very restricted about what they could share. Grimm would remind Largo to take plenty of sunscreen because despite the black hair dye and self tanning crème Largo was using in real life Largo was red headed and very fair skinned.

If there was any good news it was that they had gotten word that the gangbanger in the El Paso County jail had cut a deal to be placed in the witness protection program along with his mother and his pregnant girlfriend. After the paperwork had been signed he started sharing what he knew. The gangbanger had been to a building that Lee used to initiate his new people 4 years ago. It was likely that Lee moved his operation around and yet it was another tidbit that might prove to be useful. Someone e-mailed the summery of the interview to Grimm and he passed it along to Close for further examination. The directions were simple once Close saw the notes from the interview and heard what had happened to the gangbanger that night. 11 members of the gang had shown up at a restaurant in Juarez where they were told a man wanted to talk to them about working with his organization. When they arrived they learned that Lee, a powerful and respected member of the Juarez Cartel owned the restaurant which was nice even by El Paso standards. Lee bought them all dinner and acted like the magnanimous host. As they broke bread, or in this case ate sushi and drank premium Sake Lee memorized them by telling them of the respect other gangs in El Paso would give them and of all the money they’d earn working for his organization. To further cement the arrangement his people loaded them into passenger vans, took their phones, wanded them, covered their heads and drove for 15 minutes to an abandoned looking building. The interview stated that the trip had started from Lee’s restaurant and taken a right once they cleared the parking lot and driven for approximately 10 minutes, then turned right again and drove for another 5 minutes before stopping across the street from a warehouse with a blue bull painted on it. Taking the hoods off before being inside the building and not driving around to disorient the passengers had been a mistake and Close assumed the incident had happened before Gregg Madrago the ex-KGB man had began working for the cartel. Close just hoped that the cautious Cartel leader had felt comfortable enough in Juarez to forgo good tradecraft again and was still using the same building.

The gang banger soon to turn professional pot grower to support his family also had given up an address for a house that the Cartel used outside El Paso to stash money in as recently as 3 or 4 weeks ago. The gang banger estimated that the house often contained up to 3 million dollars (US) and was owned by a woman from Mexico that had become a naturalized US citizen. Usually these people had a regular straight job and the only connection they had with the Cartel was that Cartel money was stored in their home until it could be smuggled someplace safer. Grimm had been told that it wasn’t uncommon for regular citizens to agree to let their homes be used by the Cartels either for profit or to insure the safety of family members still in Mexico. A minimum of two cartel guards lived in the house 24 hours a day as renters and were said to be heavily armed.
The Cartel’s reach extended over into the US and no one that knew about the stash house would be foolish enough to try to take the money. The penalty for getting caught by the Cartel would be a slow agonizing death along with the death of your family or anyone you cared about.

Almost as soon as Grimm heard about the warehouse he asked Close to find it. She and her team started at the restaurant and drove for 10 minutes before turning right and had found the building with the blue bull within 30 minutes. They had missed the correct turn by 5 blocks but a simple grid search put them exactly where they needed to be. They also found an observation spot 300 meters away that granted them an angle that would allow them to see inside the building when the door was open. At that distance audio was doable and they also managed to drill the metal sill and slid a fiber optic camera inside that gave them some video capabilities.

Now the waiting game began and patience was paramount to gaining more desperately needed intelligence about Lee and his movements. Lee’s mansion wasn’t looking like a very good snatch site and as they ran through the possible places they could safely extract Lee they were concerned that the goal just might be too costly. A few hours earlier Roberts had called from the mansion surveillance and reported that one of the new people had been blown up by what Grimm assumed was a land mine. Roberts also reported that the mangled body was taken toward the big cat enclosures and an argument broke out between one of the new people and one of the guards. Grimm assumed that if they were going to feed the body to the big cats that one of the Russians might have something to say about that.

But for now there main goal was to find out if the warehouse location was still active after 4 years and if so then they would contemplate the feasibility of doing their snatch at the location across from the blue bull since the house was looking very much like a non-starter and the property might be mined. As they re-focused their attention to the warehouse Close and her most talented tech Roberts would be alternating watching the warehouse and another team would take over at the mansion now that the OP was almost two miles from the actual mansion. One of the techs reported that despite being almost 2 miles away from the house they could still hear the lion roar at night.

Two nights after setting up to watch the building two men identified as Lee’s bodyguards from the video at the estate pulled up at just before dusk and opened the overhead doors, turned on the lights and started moving stuff around. An hour later a van showed up and started moving what looked to be catering equipment, food and liquor into the building. The beer was obvious since they could read the labels and it was delivered by a beer truck that was marked with the name of a local distributor. Close was excited since this might be something interesting so she reported the activity to Grimm and waited for additional people to help out with surveillance and provide another layer of security.

Grimm moved half his people that weren’t going to be watching the mansion to the warehouse site that Close had under surveillance and had them wait in vehicles as close as they could without arousing suspicion. The snipers and their spotters ghosted into the surrounding area looking for positions that would allow them to observe every side of the target building should their skill-set be required.

Around 10pm while scrunched up on a warm roof Grimm received a report that a motorcade complete with outriders was heading their way and the vehicles had been identified as belonging to Lee. Close and Grimm watched as Lee stepped out of his armored Suburban and strode purposefully toward the warehouse on the edge of Juarez surrounded by 15 security men as if he owned the place because Close had checked and after much effort learned that he did in fact own the place and every other building within 100 yards of where he stood. Before they walked into the warehouse Lee’s bodyguards had set their phones on a table just outside the door and underwent a head to toe search that included being wanded to detect recording devises and forgotten phones. That was supplemented by a pat down by two different men from Lee’s security entourage acting as site security. Lee stood with his men patiently as they were subjected to the security measures that Gregg Madrago the ex-KGB Colonel had recommended and Lee had wisely implemented. But Lee didn’t always follow Madrago’s recommendations and had failed to move the site of their bi-monthly get-together’s. Lee had killed his first man inside the building that he now owned and the site had a special place in his mindset. Close was excited because they now had a clear picture of Lee. It was something they hadn’t had until now.

The method they used to determine who was in charge of site security was as simple as writing down everyone’s name and placing the slips of paper into a hat. In this case it had been Lee’s stylish fedora that had been custom made for him in Panama by a half blind 80 year old man with severe arthritis. Earlier today Lee had reached into the white felt hat with a light charcoal grey band and pulled two names from the hat. The two chosen bodyguards had arrived at the site 3 hours before the party and had searched it for recording devises and made sure the cater dropped off the correct food and booze. Their job was to oversee the party and insure that security was up to Lee’s high standards and that there were no serious problems.

Lee and his entourage had arrived in a 5 vehicle motorcade escorted by 6 motorcycle outriders dressed as Juarez cops. The outriders took off as soon as the entourage piled out of the vehicles but the STAG people didn’t have the people to follow them so the question of them being real or fake cops would be answered later. And despite of the helmets the motorcyclist wore they had clear and crisp pictures of the men escorting lee. The Mexican cartels were notorious for using fake uniforms in the commission of crimes to fool the police, military, other cartels and the public.

Grimm had been told by his support people back in the US that they had obtained information that pointed to the fact that every vehicle in the motorcade was armored and provided the same level of tactical options and ballistic protection as the specialized vehicle used for the motorcades of the President of the United States and other high ranking VIPs across the world. From the roof of the building they were watching from Grimm could see that one of the large and heavy Suburban’s actually had a pop up panel in the rear of the vehicles roof that would allow a fully functional mini-gun to be raised above the vehicles roof and fired at a perceived threat. If the vehicle was equipped with a hard to acquire mini-gun it might be mounted with a specialized ring mount assembly. It is speculated that the US President’s motorcade used a similar set-up.

Close and Grimm strained to hear what was going on thru the headphones they were wearing. Despite the high levels of noises the room went silent as Lee entered and the high end audio gear functioned flawlessly while recording every syllable spoken.

As Lee strode into the room it became quiet. No one wanted to gain the bosses attention since it was a crapshoot if the violent and unpredictable Cartel leader would laugh or smile at what you had said or not. On numerous occasions someone had made a comment that had offended Lee and a day or two later the sicarios would show up to deliver them back to the warehouse with their hands tied behind their back and a bag over their head. No one wanted to take the chance, the risk usually wasn’t worth it. Lee had a reputation as a man that demanded loyalty and accomplishment above all else. Often people that failed to measure up to Lee’s standards were guests of a gathering like this as attendee’s that didn’t have access to the bar or the buffet.

For STAG tonight’s gathering would provide glimpse into the mind of one of the leaders of the Juarez Cartel. From what they could see the space was sparse and contained little other than a 15 foot bar fashioned from disused wooden pallets and topped with shiny marble and a few square bat tables. The shabby chic bar ran alongside one of the wall and a man was behind the bar handing out bottles of beer and pouring shots of top shelf tequila. They didn’t know it but Lee had very discerning brand preferences so only one type of beer and one type of tequila were available. They also didn’t know that if anyone wanted something different they kept it to themselves since Lee was one of the most feared of the Juarez Cartel leaders. Food was also spread across the bar and the men in the room served themselves buffet style.

In the center of the room two heavy metal chairs were bolted to the floor. The chairs were directly in front of each other and mere inches separated the seats from each other. Even from where they watched Close and Grimm speculated that the stains on the two chairs were dried blood. The STAG people could only speculate what the chairs would be used for. If they had blood on them it was likely to be something uncivilized.

Grimm could barely make out the thing along the back wall near the single disgusting bathroom. They know it was disgusting because when they had placed the video camera in the door sill one of the techs had looked through the dirty window and seen that it was in bad shape. The object they saw looked like a wall type devise that was sheathed in plates of ½ inch high strength steel. They couldn’t see the first run Kevlar manufactured in the US that backed the metal. The 10 foot wide wall stood out from the building’s concrete outer walls and resembled a portable wall that sat on a dozen very heavy duty casters. They also didn’t understand yet that the portable wall of steel was center stage in tonight’s assembly and had been designed by Lee and every man in the room understood its intended purpose. Behind the portable wall unseen by the STAG people was a series of levers and gears that allowed the steel to separate horizontally in the middle of the wall and be opened to allow it to accommodate the size of the torso of any man less than 7 feet tall.

Lee stood in the middle of the crowd of close to 30 men. Most were trusted members of his organization while 10 of the men were ready to join the ranks of Lee’s personal bodyguards. Lee’s smile was reptilian as he surveyed the room’s occupants. These were his favorite get-togethers, nights when he showed the men that worked for him how powerful he was and what happened if you disappointed or betrayed him. Lee spoke loudly to be heard across the room. “Gentleman, I trust the bar is up and running and everyone has eaten.”

At this a cheer went up as the men showed the appreciation for the generous buffet and the copious amount of alcohol they would consume thru the night. As an added incentive men that didn’t act enthusiastically might gain Lee’s attention. Lee generated fear in his people and demanded respect so he was given his due as the atmosphere became charged with excitement at the prospect of tonight’s festivities.

Lee raised his hands to calm the mildly drunk crowd. “Well, if everyone is set then we should get started. As you might have heard five men and one woman will be sitting in the hot seat tonight. Unfortunately I’m being told that the propane hose for the hot seat cracked so there will be no fire tonight to speed things along. All 6 people have disappointed me by failing to accomplish their assigned duties or by stealing from me. As you know the one survivor from tonight’s contest will be patched up, given enough money to leave town and dropped at the bus station. At that point I would ask that they never show their face in Juarez again. We also have 10 men that are ready to face their trial by fire to become full members of our little group and we wish them luck.” Lee paused and took a drink out of the water bottle he was holding and began to address the crowd again. “OK, let’s bring out the first hot seat contestants. As you know the contestants draw lots and the winners are allowed to choose their opponents. However, we will decide which weapons they use to fight each other.”

The crowd cheered as a man and a woman were led into the room from a side door. One of the spotters had reported that a van had pulled up while Lee’s people were going thru security. The guards pulled the hoods off the two prisoners. The woman turned out to be attractive and was maybe in her early of mid-30s. The man was heavy set and his face was dominated by close set eyes that gave the impression that he was as mean as a snake. Both prisoners looked very aware of their situation and had the look of the recently condemned. Almost instantly the woman smiled at the crowd showing her perfect teeth and used her cuffed hands to raise her shirt and gave the spectators a glimpse of her surgically enhanced chest.

The crowd went wild and Lee smiled at her attempt to sway the brutal men that surrounded her. Little did she know if she did indeed win tonight’s competition she would be subjected to foul acts of a nature that she would wish she had died in the blood stained chair she was about to be strapped into. But now she was hoping that the crowd would chose implements that might favor her instead of the brutish man walking in front of her. She stuck her foot out and the cuffed man lost his balance and fell to the ground. As he was pulled to his feet by his guard he lunged at the woman and tried to kick her. The guards next to him took offense and one of them drove a fist into his side that was heard across the room. The audio was so good that both Grimm and Close could make out the sound of the man’s breathe being forcibly expelled from his lungs. The stocky man staggered momentarily before gaining his balance and giving the guard a mad dog look.

The guard glared at the man daring him to continue to be a problem. “Vamoose.”

The handcuffed man complied and was more careful with what he was doing. He had to win this challenge without taking any damage because the other men waiting outside looked to be in good shape. They were smugglers or others that worked with their bodies so the size difference between him and the other might not work in his favor as much as fighting against this woman.

Lee had noticed that when the woman had lifted her shirt that the man with close set eyes smiled. Lee didn’t know if it was desire for the woman or the thought that she would be an easy opponent that amused him. The man didn’t work directly for Lee but worked for a man that was 3 levels down and had been a drug courier for 4 years ferrying marijuana and then cocaine over the border and into the US. The man with the mean eyes had abandoned a load just over the border in Texas and cost Lee and the organization a lot of money. Tonight he would be held accountable for that mistake.

As always the contestants had been offered alcohol before the fight and Lee had been told as he walked in that the heavy set man and the woman had either taken 3 or 4 shots of the premium tequila offered to them. Lee didn’t know but the woman had stuck her finger in the shot glass as she lifted the shot of tequila to her lips causing the glass to overflow and spilling some of the liquid on the ground. That meant that she had decreased the volume of the alcohol in the shot glass that might affect her thinking and her movements. Almost right after the last shoe she went to the bathroom and puked up as much of the alcohol as she could in an attempt to stay clear headed and as sharp as possible.

The heavy set man had spent a few years up north working on roofing crews before his career as a drug mule and was in good shape despite being slightly overweight. Unfortunately the heavy set man had been drunk while crossing over into the US and had beaten his fellow drug mule and the whole group except for him was caught and arrested by the Border Patrol. The heavy set man made another mistake with alcohol when he had let the offer of free booze cloud his judgment when he was given the choice of opponents.

The smuggler had chosen the woman thinking how hard could it be to kill a woman? He had been beating women all this life and had never met one that ever made him think he could be physically beaten or killed by one. He had forgotten or had never known that women had been surviving in a man’s world since the dawn of time. What he couldn’t have known was that this particular woman was cagey. She had managed a baby mill in the US for 4 years without as much as a rating on her County Health Inspection of less than 90.

So the two fighters were strapped into the chairs. The legs were restrained with 2 inch Velcro straps and then their waists fastened around the chair limiting their movement below the waist. Just before the fight the hands would be held by the guards until the signal was given by Lee and then the guards would release their hands and the fight would begin. Before their hands were bound both fighters twisted and turned to see what they were and were not capable of while being restrained from the waist down. Two guards stood next to them while they got comfortable with what they could do. The guards had warned them that if they touched each other they would be hit. At this point the man would be able to utilize his upper body strength while the woman would be hampered by her lack of upper body strength. But in a fight sometimes things are not as they look.

The guards gave Lee the thumbs up to let him know everything was ready to go and Lee stood up to resume his M.C. duties. “I’m told we are ready to proceed. The heavy set man is Hector and until 4 days ago he worked for me. Hector has a problem with alcohol and got drunk while working. This caused product to be lost and 4 men to be detained by the US Border Patrol. So now Hector finds himself here fighting for his life. If Hector loses it would make me very happy.”

At this one of the guards punched Hector in the face to distract him before the fight.

Lee held up his hand. “Enough, Hector has a long enough night ahead of him. Anyway, Catalina was in charge of my clinic in Texas that’s assists unwed mothers. Her job was to provide a safe environment for mothers that wanted to have children to be put up for adoption. In an attempt to pad her numbers she allowed white mothers with black or Hispanic partners to take up valuable and expensive beds.” Lee turned toward Catalina. “Catalina sweetheart. We need white babies because they offer the most profit. We prefer them with blonde hair and blue eyes and you failed to insure that’s what we paid for. Others fulfill the need of the overseas adoptions for multi-cultural babies not us. We give people the chance to adopt an American baby that looks American and was born to an American mother. I hope you understand the nature of your mistakes and how it impacts our business?”

Catalina leaned over and lowered her head. “Sorry boss. I was told that the fathers in each case were white. I would have never accepted the mothers into the program if I had known. These girls are not always nice girls. They lie and often have had multiple partners in a short time span.”

Lee nodded as if he understood how mistakes could be made. Despite that Catalina answered to Lee and for them to make money in the adoption racket then they needed white babies. He replied to Catalina’s statement. “Catalina, do you have any additional ideas that will decrease the likelihood of this happening again?”

Catalina now smiled and nodded her head vigorously. “Yes, various simple tests that can be administrated as early as the first trimester can detect birth defects and later other tests can give us a better idea of paternity. We can then establish who the dad is to insure that we are satisfied with the biological parent’s suitability for the program. Pair that with looking for clues as to how the pregnancy is progressing and we are sure to raise our success rate overall. We don’t want problem or difficult pregnancies so this offers an opportunity to pre-screen applicants to insure their suitability. Also to increase profit we could offer the banking of cord blood which in rare cases can be used to treat certain diseases. As technology advances more diseases will benefit from having cord blood stem cells and tissue in storage.”

Lee nodded to Catalina that he had understood what she was saying. “Catalina, have you ever talked to your boss about this idea of yours? We are always looking for ways to maximize profits.”

Catalina nodded. “I have on numerous occasions but currently cord blood and stem cells are rarely used to save a child’s life. And yet the Cord Blood industry is growing by leaps and bounds by marketing the idea directly to parents and educating them about the new treatments that are in the works that depend on cord blood or tissue. We need to focus on what the adoptive parents want and not what is actually useful with currently available technology. The parents understand that they have no compatibility with the child and that as technology progresses the value of the banked material continues to increase. I see great opportunity to establish a legitimate cord blood storage facility that would allow money to be filtered to it from the home and made clean.”

[Lone_Hawk]

Thanks for the new chapter!

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 47

Lee paused as he considered what Catalina had said. He was constantly searching for ways to clean money and taking more money from the legitimate charity that assisted mothers with unwanted pregnancies find good adoptive parents seemed like a good idea. Funneling more of that money to a legitimate business appealed to him. “Catalina, what is your training and how did you come to work for us?”

Catalina replied. “I was an obstetrics nurse at a well respected hospital for 10 years. A few years ago my brother owed someone that works for you money and tried to run. I quit my job, dropped out of pharmacy school and assumed his debt to keep my family safe. I’m happy to say that the debt has been paid off.”

Lee scratched his head absentmindedly. “I appreciate you taking care of that obligation and I’m interested in your ideas but I’m not convinced it is worth my effort so here is what I will do. You will fight one match. If you win this one match you have your old job back and an opportunity to stay alive and remain gainfully employed. Since I might want you to win and will be rooting for you I will even let you pick the weapon.”

Catalina smiled. “Thank you, I appreciate that.”

Lee smiled. “Bring the cart out.”

The cart had been taken from one of the SUVs and now was pushed into the rundown warehouse. It looked like a medieval torture set and had everything from clubs and brass knuckles to surgical scalpels and gutter spikes. The fans enjoyed the baseball bats and the pruning shears the most but Lee had granted Catalina her choice of weapons.

As soon as Catalina saw the surgical scalpels she was excited. She was a nurse but had been around scalpels all her working career so that combined with her knowledge of human anatomy might tip the scales in her favor. She had also noticed her opponent had two fingers on his right hand that looked like they had been broken and not immobilized properly while they healed. She hoped that he had some functionality issues that would tip the balance in her favor.

Lee waited until the cart was beside the fighters. “Catalina, what say you.”

Despite knowing better Catalina smiled as she answered. “I elect to use the scalpels. I’ll take the one with the red handle please.”

The man with snake eyes spoke quickly. “Ha. You chose which weapon we use but I get first pick. I’ll take the red pair you little bitch.”

Lee smiled at the pair. “Hector is correct; it is his right to choice which weapon from the weapons you pick he wants.”

From the corner a man walked toward them carrying two 2 foot lengths of 2inch by 2inch pine and what looked like a blanket in the other. He set the Kevlar blanket on their lap and then set the scalpel one side and the piece of wood on the other. “Use these any way you see fit.” Both fighters had been told repeatedly that this fight allowed only engagement above the waist.

Catalina wind milled her arms around to get them loose and to judge how far she could reach. Satisfied that she could reach her target easily she smiled at her opponent. “Now that I think about it and see that scalpel up close it looks like it needs to be sharpened. Good luck.”

Hector began to protest. “You tricked.” Lee said something so hector clamed up. Hector was furious at being in this position and even now blamed everyone except himself for his predicament.

“Hector silence. Gentleman, as you know the rules are simple. There are no rules once they have sat in the chair and have been restrained other than that no blows below the belt are allowed. The ropes please.”

Two men stepped up and maneuvered ropes over the fighter’s wrists so that the contestant’s arms were at their side and stepped on them.

Catalina had formulated her strategy and seemed calm and confident. She looked down at the scalpel in her lap planning the best way to win this fight. Hector was twitching around trying to look at the blade of the scalpel in his lap and a look of fear was etched on his face. In the last few minutes his confidence had wavered and he now feared that he would die in a matter of minutes. He had allowed the dirty woman to trick him. She would pay for what she had tried to do with her life. He was going to enjoy watching the blood drip from her body and puddle on the concrete under her chair. For a split second he believed that was what was going to happen right before the fight began. Then self doubt intruded into his thinking process and he second guessed his strategy.

Lee smiled anticipating the coming violence and finished his instruction to the room. “On three the men will step off the ropes and you will fight to the death. One, two, three.”

Both men stepped off the ropes and the contestants whipped their arms up to clear the ropes out of the way.

As the two men stepped off the ropes on the floor that held both opponents arms to their side Hector was shocked at the lightening fast reflexes that the woman processed. She had the scalpel in her hand and had struck him in the neck before he could even raise an arm to protect himself. The deep thrust of the scalpel was followed quickly by a twist as Catalina ripped the scalpel to the side and severed his jugular vein and nicked something else inside his neck. Hector was stunned and unable to move except to try to wrap his thick arms around his neck to protect it. But his body didn’t do what he had told it to. He needed to protect his neck and stop any bleeding that might be occurring. A wave of dizziness washed over him as he understood that he would be dead within moments. His only goal now was to make sure the woman also bled and died like him or be wounded enough to render her unable to fulfill her promise to Lee. The woman then swung her weight into another blow that again sliced into his throat and she opened up something in the other side. When he had been stabbed blood had shot out from the wounds and sprayed into the crowd and they all cheered as Hectors lifeblood left his body and stained the clothes of the men standing near the fighting area. His hands finally reached to his neck to staunch the bleeding. But he understood that it was all futile and that he had made mistakes. Within seconds his body had just lost too much blood and he was growing weaker with every passing second. As he tried to slow down the blood flow he tried desperately to speak. His throat was mangled and he was just bleeding out too fast and he slumped in the chair. The Velcro around his waist held him in the chair as his body voided its contents.

The woman sat patiently waited to see if the job had been done while the heavy set man remained dazed. She relaxed the grip on the scalpel and that allowed blood to circulate in her hands again. With her left hand she picked up the piece of wood on her lap and swung it with every ounce of energy she could muster and hit Hector on the top of his slumped head. The blow sent a vibration up her arm as pain radiated from her wrist and elbow. She was excited that she had made it virtually unscathed through the round and found that she had enjoyed taking Hector’s life. She had been a victim of abuse from men all her life. To be able to now turn the tide was a huge adrenalin rush for her.

Lee smiled at the assembled crowd. “Catalina is our winner. The men and I would like to thank her for the entertainment she provided us both before the match and during her heroic victory. Please escort her to the backstage area and hose her down and find her some clean clothes to wear. Make sure you burn what she is wearing. Also make sure she gets something to eat and drink if she desires it. Catalina I will see you after we’re done tonight. You have been given a second chance, do not disappoint me again.”

“Thank you. Thank you. I will make sure you don’t regret giving me a second chance. I learned my lesson.” The men in the crowd all laughed and cheered as Catalina was unhooked from the chair and as she stood she raised her arms in victory as hector’s blood dripped off her chin. Then she gave the room a thumbs up while the men cheered and encouraged her to continue the show she had hinted at earlier. She had managed to find a way to save her life and she wasn’t going to entertain a room of violent and drunk low life Cartel animals.

The men in the room know that there would now be a 10 minutes intermission and made their way to the bar or the restroom. More than a few of the more experienced men stepped outside to relive themselves and avoided the bathroom that smelled so bad even men that were raised in and lived in a third world country were leery of using it. The most experienced men always took something to curtail their bodies need to defecate. It was far better to wait until tomorrow morning when they could use a restroom that was clean rather than be forced to risk the bathroom or to crap in the bushes and miss any of the show.

While the video they had just watched was less than hi-def both Close and Grimm was mortified at what they had just witnessed. The Cartel had bypassed cock and dog fighting and pitted people against each other in a fight to the death. Both understood that the Cartel was brutal but the images they had just seen would stay with them for some time. After hearing that the Cartel was now trafficking in babies it was even worse than they had imagined. From what they had heard Lee mentioned that both the fighters were on the Cartel payroll so they felt no sympathy for them. But the baby thing really pissed Grimm off and he would put people on tracking down the facility as soon as he could in the hopes of getting it shut down as soon as was humanly possible.

Grimm was the first to speak. “If we had a Carl Gustav in the vehicles I’m not sure I wouldn’t be tempted to level that place with everyone in it.”

He was referring to the Carl Gustav, an 84 mm recoilless rifle that was known as the M3. The weapon had been designed in the late 40s and had been used every since by many different armies across the world. But modern design innovations to the warheads meant that the ammunition excelled at two major tasks. The first was a high explosive fragmentation warhead that was programmable. It could be used against enemy fighters in depressions or behind walls. The second was a warhead that had a delayed fuse that would enter a building or bunker before detonating. It was highly effective at destroying the structure and killing the occupants. These weapons had not only proved effective by the Special Operations community but to regular Army and Marine units in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

When he was deployed Grimm was the best shot in his unit despite being an officer and had used the weapon to kill hostile forces under both sets of circumstances. One of the warheads available seemed to excel at destroying small or poorly constructed buildings. That was the one he wished he had in the vehicles right now. He fantasized briefly about how he would kill every man inside the building before turning his attention back to the job at hand.

Over near the bar there was a brief altercation. Two men had made a wager on the outcome of the first bout and hard feelings were in the air between the two. A few punches were thrown before their co-workers managed to pull them apart.

Lee stepped over to the two men. While fighting among the men was normally tolerated he asked and was told what the problem was. He glared at both men now being restrained by their co-workers. “Whoever lost needs to pay up. If I ever hear of you two getting into again you both will be sitting in those chairs risking your lives to entertain us. Is that clear?”

The men both shook their head and the men around them released them. Both men stepped toward each other and shook hands and then embraced as was often done between the men under Lee’s command. The hugs were followed by back slapping and joking before the two men headed to the bar to celebrate their new found admiration for each other with more alcohol they didn’t need.

Lee continued to watch the room for signs of any problems other than fighting or arguing. Lee was concerned that someone in his part of the organization was leaking information to someone in the US. Recently people had gone missing. No one with any sense challenged the Juarez Cartel. They had recently fended off a bitter yet brief war with another cartel and had sent those people back to where they had come from wishing that they hadn’t gotten so greedy. Gregg Madrago had devised a psychological warfare campaign that only stopped when the offending Cartel made overtures of peace, agreed to pay for their folly and removed all the leaders that had instigated the conflict. As of now the Juarez Cartel was square with the other smaller Cartel and had even agreed to do business together as partners. As the offended party the Juarez Cartel was entitled to 65% of the profit while the other Cartel was thrilled to receive the other 35%.

In the last few years the Juarez Cartel had adopted a very effective leadership hierarchy similar to what a few big time Mafia families had used against US Law Enforcement organizations at the beginning of the RICO era. Their effective leader was unknown to all but a few within the organization and idle gossip about who was in charge was squashed. The Cartel spent extensively on intelligence and counter-intelligence gathering and was always careful to assure that as few pictures of them were available as possible. One day those pictures might surface and allow Law Enforcement to ID them. Lee planned on a comfy retirement preceded by extensive plastic surgery in Buenos Aires so having pictures of him floating around wasn’t going to work. While many of his co-workers would die as part of the Juarez Cartel Lee considered himself smarter than that. He planned on reaching his earnings goal and faking his own death. Recently a man that had undergone extensive plastic surgery and acted as Lee’s body double would be put in positions where he could be assassinated or photographed. Lee had gotten the idea form Saddam Hussein who effectively fooled or confused some of his enemies for years.

One of the problems the cartel members had in starting over was that facial recognition software had gotten to the point that it was a highly effective tool in Law Enforcement. Every picture of wanted criminals or suspected terrorists was fed into the database and was used to constantly search for people that were trying to stay anonymous. By using the photos of the body double it was going to make the job of finding Lee that much harder once he was free of this dangerous life. When Lee’s plan to leave the Cartel was put into action his double would be sacrificed to insure Lee’s future safety.

Madrago the ex-KGB Colonel that ran the Juarez Cartel’s intelligence and counter-intelligence efforts had also recommended that the men in the leadership of the Cartel invest time and money to acquire every picture of them ever taken. Many people that had known the Cartel leaders when they were younger had been tracked down and re-located or killed. Lee preferred dead but 2 of the leaders had sent people away to work in southern Mexico away from Juarez or found them good jobs in one of Mexico tourist destinations. The leaders that had allowed people that could ID them to live hoped those people were beyond the reach of the US and the traitorous Mexicans that sided with the US and their unwarranted persecution of Cartel members.

After 15 minutes the next fight started and it was even more violent than the fight the woman called Catalina had won. By the time they had left the warehouse to head back to their base Grimm was mortified at what he had seen. The Cartel was every bit as violent and sadistic as the people he had fought overseas. The problem here was that his Country, his beloved Country shared a border with these people that put no value on human life. He had seen the statistics from Mexico’s drug war and had seen pictures but this night had given him a whole new perspective on the job they were doing. On the way back he vowed to hit the stash house outside El Paso. The team was entitled to 50% of any cash they seized while the rest went back into their operating budget. Grimm intended to drag enough bonus money out of these operations that when the men were used up and called it quits they had a tidy nest egg to see them through the nightmares that they would have to deal with.

The next morning the crew that had gone to the warehouse was slowly beginning to get up and moving around. Grimm never knew exactly when the opportunity to run a mission would present itself so he tried to keep his people’s work schedule limited to 8-12 hours a day. People that were sleep deprived and under a great of pressure to perform well were more likely to make mistakes during Ops so all the operators were also encouraged to sleep 8 hours a night if it was possible. Enough of the people in the STAG program had extensive combat experience so they slept when they had the opportunity and Grimm seldom noticed anyone that seemed to be tired from a lack of good rest. Some of the people would look as if they were suffering from the effects of stress. They all understood that they had an important job that would cost lives in the US if they didn’t do it to the best of their ability.

Grimm was walking toward the shower when he heard laughter coming from the room that housed Rosie, Ales, Gracie and the rest of Team 3. He could not hear what was being said but the laughter carried down the hallway clearly. He quietly walked down the hall to see what was so funny and peeked around the corner. He wasn’t surprised to see Rose and Gracie watching something on someone’s laptop. And Bongo stood in the middle of the trio while Ales watched the door. Once Ales saw it was Grimm the loyal Belgian Malinois put its head back down and closed its eyes.

Suddenly Bongo spoke. “Did you see that? That was hilarious, I swear if we watch that video again I might pee myself from laughing so hard.”

Rosie added her 2 cents. “Did that first video remind you of anyone we know?”

“Yes it did, but you might want to keep that to yourself.” Replied Gracie.

The small group shifted slightly and Grimm could make out a funny internet cat video that they were all watching. The part he saw before the group shifted again showed a cat in the sink with the water from the faucet cascading over the cat’s head. What was next? Human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria? He was especially surprised to see Rosie watching a cat video regardless of how funny it was. She had identified herself as a dog person and had given the impression that she didn’t care for cats very much. If he had to guess he thought maybe Rosie and Bongo had formed a very good bond.

In fact despite the fact that Team 3 had recently added 2 members and a K-9 partner Grimm speculated that Team 3 was the most socially compatible of all the units that he had. If he was honest putting people into Teams had been something that sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. Most people couldn’t get along with everyone and yet in this case he was thankful that Team 3 seemed to be working well together. He was also considering moving Bongo to Team 3 since he seemed to be with them all the time now anyway. His only concern was that Rosie and Bongo would become too close and that they might be distracted.

“Bongo, a word please.”

Grimm walked toward the hallway while Bongo followed. When they were 10 feet down the hallway Grimm turned back to Bongo. “Listen, I need to know if you could work with Team 3. They are nice but I want to make sure that if the winds chance that both you and Rosie will stay professional.”

Bongo nodded. “We’re keeping it professional and that Gracie is a hell of a fighter. I’d love to be assigned to them if you need me there.”

Grimm scratched his short hair. “I’ll tell Lep and you can move your stuff over first thing tomorrow. Anyway, that’s all I needed. You can go back to watching cat videos on the internet.”

Bongo blushed as if had been caught doing something wrong. “Not my idea. Gracie offered to go get lunch if we agreed to watch the videos he had seen posted on the internet.”

Grimm shook his head. He didn’t hate cats but one of his men watching the videos and laughing like a 12 year old seemed wrong somehow. “Just be careful or one of the other guys will sneak in and take a picture of you watching cat videos on the internet. That would be embarrassing.”

Bongo had been a great deal of help during the incident preparing the corrupt cops for effective interrogation. “I’ll make sure no one sees me doing it boss. It’s just that while Rosie doesn’t like cats she finds cat videos either super cute or absolutely hilarious.”

Grimm nodded. How many hours of sleep did you get last night?”

Bongo looked at the ground. “Maybe 6 hours.”

Grimm spoke as he walked down the hallway. “Grab a nap and I’ll talk to you later. I might need help with our friends outside.”

[sssarawolf]

Thank you, good to see another chapter

[stjwelding]

alangator thanks for more of this great story.
Wayne

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 48

STAG Warehouse
Juarez

Bongo slid into the window van’s middle set of seats next to the two corrupt cops and turned and glanced at them. He had been the men’s link to medical attention and while they appreciated what he had done for them to relieve some of the discomfort of being pepper sprayed neither of the soon to be dead men confused Bongo for anything but what he was. He was another of the jailers assigned to guard the despicable men as they took their last trip into and around Juarez. Bongo slid hoods over the two men’s faces and waited. Both men had struggled to make sense of what had happened to them in the last 5 days and were quiet, stranded and forced to examine their personal thoughts.

Grimm set a black duffle bag on the floor in the front passenger side and climbed in next to Lep who was driving. Grimm then bend down and reached into the bag and made sure the sub-machine gun in the bag was loaded and ready to use if they needed it before swinging the door shut. Grimm thought his promise to allow the men’s families’ to live if they continued to cooperate would force them to behave but he wasn’t 100% sure they wouldn’t change their minds once they began moving around town and time quickly began to slip away from them. That was why Bongo sat next to the door beside them and Grimm and everyone else was carrying weapons and wearing Kevlar. If the cops were really sly they might be able to lead them into an area that would get them in trouble.

Behind Bongo and the two doomed cops sat Romeo. Romeo had just recently gotten into Juarez after being assigned guard duty at the ranch outside El Paso. Romeo was pleased that he was chosen for this assignment. He was still getting a feeling of the warehouse and the operations that they would be running here in Juarez so time to interact with the other STAG members was welcome. Special Operators depended on teamwork and understanding each other so the more time they all spent together the better.

Grimm had picked the two new men for tonight’s tour of Juarez because he was impressed with the job Taco and Romeo had done at the ranch outside El Paso. Romeo’s partner from El Paso Taco would be with another man they called Yolo in an SUV following the window van all night. If the cops tried to make a run for it or tried to get the attention of police or the military and a fight ensued Taco and his partner would be another layer of defense they would utilize to fight their way to safety.

Grimm looked back at Bongo and made sure the hoods over both men’s heads where properly in place. “Bongo, we ready?”

Bongo nodded to himself. “As ready as we need to be.”

“Good.” Grimm spoke into his encrypted phone’s wireless earpiece. “We’re moving. Stay where I asked you to.”

The two vehicles pulled out of the warehouse and headed to their first stop. The vehicles bounced around as they made their way through town on poorly maintained roads. For a city that officially claimed to have over 1.5 million residents the roads were mostly in some a state of disrepair. Other than poor roads another challenge of driving in Juarez at night was that too many local drivers on the road were drunk, on drugs or drunk and on drugs. Weaving vehicles and vehicles that were going way too fast or excruciatingly slow were everywhere around them as they drove. That was why Lep was at the wheel of the van as they headed to their first stop. Of all their operators Grimm thought Lep was maybe the best driver they had for conditions like what they dealt with in Juarez. Lep also spoke excellent Spanish which could be a tremendous asset if they ran into trouble.

After 30 minutes the van came to a stop and the SUV drove a half block down the road and pulled over.

Grimm turned to Bongo. “Unhood them.”

When the masks came off both men blinked rapidly. The corrupt cop whose block they were on started begging the in Spanish to spare the life of his family. Tears dribbled down his face looked haunted by fear and despair. Grimm waited a minute and let the man’s grief and concern for his family to be brought under control and the begging to stop.

Grimm spoke softly so the men would really have to listen to hear what he was saying. “We have a deal. I will honor that agreement and I wanted to impress upon you that I fully expect you to honor it as well. No games, tricks or anything else and I will honor the bargain we made. Any problem you cause me will be a problem that your family pays for. We clear?”

Both men responded with a chorus of Si’s as they frantically shook their heads up and down to emphasize to Grimm they fully understood what he had just told them. Bongo slipped the hoods back over their heads. Despite Grimm assurances the man who had seen his house continued to sob quietly. The two vehicle convey was off again and it was 30 minutes before they slowed down again and bumped onto a rough road. Grimm gave Bongo a look from the front seat and again the hoods were removed from the men’s heads. They rapidly blinked their eyes in an effort to adjust to the hood being off and to regain their bearings.

The man on the inside of the seat by the window spoke. It was the same man that had been crying 15 minutes earlier. When he spoke it was as if he was detached from what was going on around him. “Go left at the next corner. We are very close.”

Lep turned and headed down a dark gravel road. The road was in bad shape so they idled along at 10 miles an hour. 20 minutes later Grimm could see where the ground might have been disturbed. To most people it was just sand but to Grimm the area looked different form the ground that surrounded it.

“Stop.” One of the men in the backseat said. “Next to that rock is where we put a few bodies. One was named Carmen from the South and the other two where peasants from Honduras. We never know their names.”

Lep put the van in park and Grimm slid out the passenger side door making sure to close the door quietly. He flipped on his flashlight to its lowest setting and walked over to the rock. He took a GPS reading and saved it to the GPS’s memory and walked back to the van and got in. “It’s marked. Let’s get to the next one.”

Lep slipped the van into gear and the hoods were slipped back over the heads of the prisoners. They made their way to the next spot on the map that had been marked after getting back to a paved road. There next stop was 50 minutes away and the van was perfectly quiet the whole way. The men in the hoods occasionally heard Grimm shift his body to be sure that the SUV was still following them. They had nothing to say. They had done things, and shortly they would pay for the things they had done. They had always told themselves that in Juarez everybody did things so they were no different than everyone else. They had never thought that they would be the ones be driven to these spots with their hands bound by plastic restraints. The Cartel man they worked for always said good things about the job they did for the Cartel. In the last few days the enormity of their actions were sinking in and it scared them to death. Both men had prayed and prayed wishing and hoping and finally begging God that this moment was a dream they would wake up from. Last night they had fallen asleep crying and when they awoke they were still in the metal shipping container with the stuffy air and stinking bucket. The omelets they were given for breakfast confirmed that this was all too real and that soon they would die just like the people they had buried in the desert.

The van bounced down another desolate gravel road as they neared the next location the cops had shown Grimm on a satellite map off the internet. Bongo removed the hoods from the two corrupt cops. Neither man spoke but even in the low light of the back of the van Bongo could see a nervous look on their faces. This dump site had more bodies and was the last site they would visit before the night ended.

Grimm spoke from the front of the van. “Tell the driver when he needs to slow down.”

The man next to Bongo replied. “Ahi, 100 meters down on the left hand side. There should be an old purpura couch right next to where we need to stop.”

Lep and Grimm both scanned the area in front of them until Lep spotted the couch 10 meters off the road. He slowed down, pulled over and slipped the van into park before turning the headlights off.

Grimm repeated the process of flicking his flashlight on and walking over to the area he thought had been disturbed. The area was 30 by 30 and Grimm had been told by the prisoners that they had buried over 20 bodies where he stood. 5 or 10 of the bodies were men that the two men had killed at the behest of the Juarez cartel. The other bodies were of women that they had abducted, abused and killed. The two men had confided to Close that many of the women had been in Mexico illegally from Central and South America. They confessed that they never know their names or even bothered to ask. The two men just picked them from the crowds of illegal’s waiting in and around Juarez for a chance to cross over into the US. They were people that were hard for their families to track because of the nature of their visit to Juarez. The two murderers saw them as women they could treat how they wanted and dispose of them afterwards without much risk of being caught. Grimm knew that some of the women buried here would never be identified and their families would never know their fate. To Grimm the one thing worse than a death of a loved one was not ever knowing what happened to someone you cared deeply about after they had gone missing. Juarez had a reputation. If a woman you cared about was missing she was most likely prostituting herself and was ashamed of what she was doing or she dead.

So Grimm again marked the GPS position of the possible grave site and walked back to the van. As he slid into his seat he felt his adrenalin start to flow. What he had seen and heard from the two corrupt cops in the last few days upset him so he found himself counting the minutes until they would kill the two men sitting in the backseat of the van. It would be quick and painless as he had promised but the anticipation was building inside him. These men didn’t deserve to walk the same earth or breathe the same air as decent people. Grimm would rectify that tonight. He had made peace with the decision to kill the men days ago and would feel very little guilt after he had actually done it.

Lep put the van in gear and pulled away with the SUV following closely behind them. The vehicles slowly made their way down the potholed gravel road. Grimm turned around and nodded at Bongo and Romeo. Romeo pulled two auto-injectors from the bag at his feet. He pulled the caps off the devises and got his balance before leaning forward and placing them at the two men’s necks. He pressed the buttons at the same time and the two men struggled in their bindings and with the seatbelts that confined their movements. Within seconds the powerful drugs that had been pumped into their bodies took effect and the men slumped forward with their chins on their chests. The sound of them breathing filled the eerily quiet van.

When they reached the main road the van pulled over and both Bongo and Romeo got out of the van and headed back to the SUV for the ride back to the warehouse. Both men climbed into the SUV and the vehicle headed off down the road. The van turned around and headed back into the deserted area. When they were back at the purple couch Lep pulled the van over and switched the motor off.

Both men exited the van and moved toward the side door. They quickly donned latex gloves and pulled the bodies of the corrupt cops from their seats and dragged them over toward the couch they had parked near 20 minutes ago. Lep walked back to the van and pulled a plastic 5 gallon bucket of liquid out of the back. In the other hand he carried a 5 gallon can of gas. Grimm was staging the bodies to give the impression he wanted. Lep carried the two containers back to Grimm standing near the couch with the inert bodies at his feet.

The men poured the contents of the 5 gallon bucket over the bodies and waited 5 minutes for the chemicals to do their job. Then Grimm poured the gas over the two unconscious bodies before stepping back. Fumes from the gas were heavy in the air so Grimm stepped farther back before pulling a flare from his pants pocket and lighting it. He then threw the flare at the men’s bodies and they instantly erupted in flames. Both men could feel the heat on their skin before walking back over and standing next to the van.

The men stood there for another few minutes to be sure that the fire wouldn’t go out until it had a chance to incinerate any evidence they may have been left on the bodies. Lep returned the bucket and the gas can to the back of the van while Grimm pulled the IDs he had taken from the men and used a small can of specially formulated spray to eliminate any DNA or trace evidence from the IDs. Satisfied that the IDs were evidence free Grimm walked closer to the fire and dropped them on the ground and placed a rock on them to keep them from blowing away in the wind. Satisfied they had completed their task and everything was clean of their DNA Grimm and Lep got into the van. After they were situated in the van Lep started the van and they pulled away and headed back to the main road. When the van was back at the warehouse they would switch out the tires for a new set that was slightly worn and one of the guys would re-paint the van to insure nobody could link it to the murder site or the body dumping ground. Grimm was happy the incident with the two corrupt Juarez cops was over and hoped that the GPS coordinates would allow the bodies of the women to be recovered and identified. The people that had been killed on orders of the Cartel were statistically more likely to be involved with the Cartel so Grimm was less worried about them being identified.

Neither man spoke for most of the trip back to the warehouse. They both understood that the men they had just killed were very bad people and both Grimm and Lep truly hoped that the local Police would recover the bodies the two corrupt cops had buried at the two sites. The families and loved ones deserved to know what had happened but for now a tip from a trusted US Law Enforcement officer would be the very best they could do. The LEO would say that the tip came from a highly trusted source using undisclosed methods and that the men responsible for the buried bodies were they themselves killed and dumped at the second site as punishment. There would be questions from the Mexican authorities but they wouldn’t be given additional information due to an ongoing investigation and the need to protect the source of the tip. The Mexicans would be forced to find the bodies and investigate the murders themselves but they would be offered help from the US to insure that as many of the bodies could be identified as possible.

When they were 10 minutes from the warehouse Lep broke the silence. “The food courier is coming tomorrow. Do you need to make any changes to the menu? If you do I can call him when we get back.”

Grimm considered the question. Twice a week a truck from El Paso transported their food/water and other supplies to the warehouse. Somewhere in El Paso a personal chef had rented a commercial kitchen and spent 4 days a week preparing their food so that a courier could bring it down and re-stock the 2 refrigerators and the freezer at the warehouse. The personal chef had worked on movies in Canada and for minor celebrities in Los Angeles. He made almost everything from scratch and tended to provide healthy meals that were tasty. For breakfast at the warehouse everyone was on their own but for the lunches the chef sent down trays of healthy sandwiches on gluten-free, diary-free multi-grain bread. The bread was one of the few things that the chef bought pre-made and that was because Grimm had been toying with the idea of going gluten-free and had found gluten-free bread he loved. Most the meals they ate for dinner were flash frozen and stored in the freezer or in large coolers packed with dry ice. When someone wanted one of the dinner entrees they pulled it out and either stuck it in the microwave or placed it in the oven to heat it up. Grimm replied to Lep’s question. “I think we’re good. You might want to check with Romeo and Taco and see if they have any requests or special diets they’re following. Also ask Rosie if Ales is OK with the food she has been getting for him. I was outside yesterday when Ales was doing his business and it was all kinds of foul. I could smell it from 10 feet away and it was bad. She might want to make sure the chef knows he’s cooking for a dog since they can’t usually digest lactose.”

Lep nodded. “I never told the chef he’s cooking for a dog so he might be using dairy in something. I’ll figure something out with Rosie and see what we can do so the chef never knows it’s for a dog. Some of those chefs can be picky about who they cook for.”


Grimm thought about it for a second. “Just tell him we have someone with an allergy to dairy and we need to know when he’s using diary in something. He’ll understand. Those personal chefs are trained to deal with food allergies. I don’t think he would mind cooking for a dog at all. When we hired him his resume said he had cooked for pets before and indicated that he was fine with it. But it’s you call.”

I’ll take care of it and talk to the new guys.”

Grimm reached down and picked up the bag now that they were almost to the warehouse and took a peek at its contents. “Any idea what the special is for dinner tomorrow?”

Lep nodded in Grimm’s general direction. “Turkey lasagna, low-gluten garlic bread with or without cheese and green beans. Chef told me he tried a new Thai coconut iced tea recipe that he thinks we’ll like and is sending 10 gallons of the stuff.”

Grimm pondered his schedule for tomorrow hoping he’d be able to stay at the warehouse so he could have the turkey lasagna for dinner. “Thai coconut iced tea should be interesting.”

Lep pulled into the parking lot for the warehouse. “I know, right”












Field’s Property Shelter

None of the traps had worked in the last 4 days so Fuller and Mongo sat in the hunting stand they had erected. It was in the middle of the main living area and included the bedrooms and the kitchen area of the shelter. The blind sat 6 feet off the ground and gave them a commanding view of the room. The windows in the elevated nylon blind allowed them good angles into the corners where they thought they might need to shoot the intruders. Each man was wearing scent blocker and held a high-performance air rifles equipped with thermal scope in their hand. They had been almost motionless for 3 hours waiting for an opportunity to end this.

20 feet from where they sat were bait stations in the form of disposable plastic plates that had been stacked with canned mackerel and smoked fish. To increase the likelihood of success shallow pans of honey had been arranged next to pans of plain water. For good measure they had opened a bag of marshmallows and randomly spread them around to increase the chances of a successful hunt.

Fuller heard a noise to their left and gently tapped Mongo on his enormous leg. They had been scanning the area with NVG’s and Mongo nodded to Fuller that he had heard the noise. Fuller flipped his NVG’s up and put the air rifle to his eye as Mongo did the same. Instantly Fuller saw the heat signatures of a mother raccoon trailed by 3 young kits. And while he felt bad about killing the mother raccoon instead of re-locating it the species had a reputation of tearing stuff up and making a mess of anything they lived near that interested them. Fuller was developing the Field’s property as a managed deer habitat so all raccoons needed to be removed from the area by any means necessary. Possum, fox, coyotes and bobcats were also a concern but for now raccoons had invaded the shelter. Raccoons were notoriously cagey and hard to get rid of and that combined with the failure of the live traps meant Fuller was left with little choice.

It had been 5 days since Tim Field’s had discovered that something was living in the shelter and when Fuller examined the scat and watched the trail cameras left in the shelter he had quickly indentified the culprits as a mother raccoon and her three kits. The raccoon family had trashed some supplies, damaged some doors and learned to turn on the water in a kitchen sink which drained a large storage tank dry. Unable to live trap the raccoons this was the only way they saw of getting rid of the elusive black masked intruders.
Fuller tapped Mongo once. Fuller would shoot the mother and Mongo needed to shoot one of the kits before they ran away. Mongo lined his shot up and waited to hear Fuller’s shot. Fuller fired and Mongo followed his shot almost instantaneously. Both the mother raccoon and one of her kits lay on the concrete floor dead. The other two kits ran toward the mechanical room and neither man was able to get a follow-up shot. With two down and two to go the men finally left their perch and were able to use the restroom. Now that the mother was gone they hoped that the inexperienced kits would be easier to capture or kill.

After their bathroom break they rubbed sanitizer on their hands and ate a snack in the dark while wearing their NVG and listening for noises they could use to locate the rest of their quarry. They didn’t talk, they had a job to do and the quicker they completed it the quicker they could move onto the next thing on their to-do lists. As they ate they could hear movement near the main shelter door in the other room. Suddenly they heard the trap’s door slip down and then they heard at least one raccoon trying to escape the trap. Both men finished up and moved toward the main door while looking through the thermal optics on the air rifles. While they used the bathroom and eaten their snack they had left the lights turned off. They wanted the raccoons to move around like it was dark and not hide in one of the many places that would provide them refuge.

Before they were halfway across the room both men could see the two remaining kits trapped in the wire trap and staring at them with their freakish glowing eye. Now that the kits were trapped it was just a matter of putting the trap in the back of the truck and transporting the youngsters to a wild animal rescue operation that they had found. The other places they had called weren’t accepting raccoons at this time. This one almost didn’t either but Fuller offered a $100.00 donation and all of a sudden it was come on down we’ll take care of those little guys for you.

Fuller was glad this was over. Now it was time to clean the mess the raccoons had made up and drop them at their new home.

[sssarawolf]

Thank you for the new chapters, sorry I didn't comment earlier.

[freshPotatoes]

Thank you for the new update !! Can't wait to read what happens next.

[stjwelding]

alangator it is always a great day when I find new chapters from you I really enjoy this story thanks for your time and for posting it for us.
Wayne

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 49

Shopping District Juarez

Gracie smiled at the man standing in front of the green and yellow wrapped food truck wearing a spotless white chef’s apron and donning a chef’s hat just in case someone would confuse him for anything but what he was. The food truck was parked on the corner of an upscale shopping area in Juarez that catered to the wealthy that still made the violent city their home or that were visiting the city that was notorious for its criminal activity and high murder rate. The graphics on the food truck were very well done and pulled your eye to the truck and the smells of freshly grilled meat and vegetables were carried by the gentle breeze. As Gracie rushed to catch up he was reminded that tonight for dinner their chef in El Paso was sending them trays of lasagna with garlic bread and green beans. Lep had mentioned that the chef was also sending up gallons of Thai coconut iced tea. Gracie had never tried coconut iced tea but he loved coconut so he was looking forward to trying it.

He put the thoughts of dinner out of his mind and spotted Close and Rosie as they merrily headed toward another of the upscale shops that filled one of Juarez’s more exclusive shopping districts. Since every location they considered using to abduct Lee so far had issues so they were preparing for the fact that the Country Club was looking more and more like a place they would need to snatch Lee from. The good news was that they had leverage over a guy that was a member of the country club and they had convinced him after making a $50,000 cash payment that he should allow one of the STAG team members to accompany him to lunch in a few days so they could see the place for themselves. He didn’t ask exactly why they needed to see the place he just slid the 5 $10,000 packets of cash into an inner pocket on his hand made suit. If the member had been given the opportunity he would have flatly refused to help anyone gain access to the club. There were people that were members of the country club that would literally torture and kill you if they felt you wronged them in some way so if someone was smart and enjoyed living they were very careful about how they interacted with the other members of the Juarez most dangerous and expensive Country Club. Allowing a US Law Enforcement or Intelligence agent to visit the club meant the member that issued the invite was at great risk if anyone ever found out what had happened. Knowing or not knowing didn’t matter, if you did something that helped the US Government chase or capture Juarez criminals you were killed.

The member just like US Law Enforcement understood that the criminal element based in and around Juarez was constantly evolving and ruthless. The Country Club member that STAG had threatened coerced and bribed into granting them access to the Club had made a good living for over 15 years by minding his own business and being the definition of trustworthy, dependable and discrete. He was an educated man of what he considered refined tastes that was forced to make a living dealing with the mostly uneducated cretins that dealt in human misery and pain and profited handsomely off the blood of others without any guilt. Only he knew that as he slid the 5 packets of cash into his suit pocket that his days of working with Juarez criminals was to quickly come to an end. Maybe the authorities in the US would be interested in what he knew and insert him into the Witness Protection Plan in exchange for his insight into the workings of the Juarez underworld. He had heard Portland and Seattle were excellent places to raise a family and his wife, 20 years his junior was a week into her second trimester. It would be his first child despite his age.

The reason that Gracie was wandering around the shopping district is that Close needed an outfit that would blend in at the country club where the worst of the worst of Juarez hung out and tried to impress each other with the status their ill-gotten gains had afforded them. Close would be the member’s date and she needed to look good doing it. The surveillance of the Country Club for the past two days had been done from over a 1000 feet away but the crystal clear images captured with the hi-end video and camera gear were outstanding quality and allowed them to use cutting edge facial recognition to identify numerous known or wanted criminals and learn that many members of the club were often in the company of likely or known prostitutes from all over the Americas’ and Europe. One member even imported his lady friends from the notorious bars and brothels of Bangkok Thailand.

During the long range surveillance they had also used equipment that mimicked a cell phone tower and compiled data that they and other agencies would use in investigations in the future. They now had access to dozens of cell phones that were used by the elite players of Juarez’s criminal underworld. There was a good chance that the higher ups would contact people that worked beneath them so that meant more cells to trace and track since the elite always needed a legion of minions to actual do the work that they profited from. If US Law Enforcement were lucky they would be able to follow the tracked cells all the way down to the street level coyotes, and smugglers that moved people and drugs into the US. The cell tracking might also allow Law Enforcement in the US to identify and track the people that were part of the billion dollar cartel. Despite the fact that many criminals constantly changed out their phones by keeping tabs on all the phones at the same time they were bound to re-establish contact with the phone used by their targets when they called the numbers of others inside their individual network. The only possible way to ditch the electronic surveillance was if the whole network changed phones at the same time and didn’t use any of the phone that were being tracked. If that happened then STAG would just find a place where cartel members were gathered and begin the process over again. The equipment that they had used to crack the cell network wasn’t cheap or easy to acquire but it seemed like it would be an important tool for operatives on the ground and was faster and more secure than involving the NSA or the other intelligence resources that STAG worked with. The key to combating these types of organizations was often being flexible enough to adapt and act rapidly on any intelligence they were able to acquire.

Many criminal groups around the world relied heavily on the bureaucratic barriers that hampered Law Enforcement’s ability to track them and adversely affect their illegal or immoral business. STAG was designed to be light and flexible so hopefully as they progressed they’d just get better at what they were doing. The key would be speed and acting quickly on actionable intelligence.

The interesting thing about learning that so many of the women at the Country Club were professionals was that it meant that another Juarez bad guy bringing his girlfriend or mistress to lunch was no big deal and nobody should give Close a second look despite the fact that she was clearly not Hispanic or European. But still, she had a job to do and clothes were another layer to the character that she would be playing. With that in mind it was important for her to blend in and not attract attention for any the wrong reasons.

Close had spoken with the STAG team’s wardrobe consultant in the US. The consultant had viewed pictures of the woman that frequented the Country Club and since she knew which women were likely prostitutes the consultant was able to formulate a general list of criteria for Close to follow when she picked up her outfit. The consultant had given Close a very specific list of criteria that she needed to follow to insure that she easily adapted to her surroundings. Close decided that with all the men around the only one even remotely qualified to help in her quest for the perfect undercover outfit would be the only woman whose sense of style she trusted on this mission and that had been Rosie. Bongo was back at the warehouse with Ales and Gracie was acting as their escort since Juarez could be a very dangerous place for females out wandering alone. No one seeing Close and Rosie would know that they had military backgrounds and were exceptionally well trained fighters carrying small yet lethal handguns. The shop owners and employees of the nicer stores were accustomed to bodyguards traveling with semi-wealthy and wealthy clients so no one had given Gracie a second thought as he hung back and kept an eye on things. Gracie hoped the assignment would be uneventful, that would mean he wouldn’t have to cripple or kill anyone.

The shop that the two women had gone into was the 4th of their shopping trip and Gracie who wasn’t into shopping for women stuff was tiring of the constant comments he was forced to listen to. He liked and respected both women but the way they two of them dissected each options made him wish he was someplace else. If an outfit worked it worked, it seemed pretty simple to him. As he walked in the shop Close was heading toward the area that held the fitting rooms. A salesgirl walked beside Close and made small talk. When they reached the back of the store the attractive salesgirl held a door open for Close. Gracie had moved toward the middle of the store just in time to hear Close speaking to the salesgirl.

Close was stopped next to the salesgirl who had directed her into the small room. “Can I speak to the manager please?”

The salesgirl who was in her early 20s and who spoke English with a barely noticeable accent nodded. “I’ll get her for you if you can wait just a minute.”

Close’s face morphed into a sincere smile. “No problem, I can wait.”

Rosie watched what was taking place from beside a rack of dresses and Gracie saw her squish up her face as if she was confused. They were there to find an outfit, not make friends.

The salesgirl disappeared into the back of the store and returned 30 seconds later trailed by a matronly woman in a vibrant purple dress. Gracie was glad to see that the dress ended well below the woman’s knees. Recently every time he turned around he saw women who were slaves to fashion try to adopt current trends despite the fact that their age or body types clearly favored a more appropriate style. The older woman did however move across the room slowly on 3 or 4 inch heels that looked like a marvel of modern engineering. “I’m Kha, I manage this store. How can I assist you today?”

Close smiled with her left hand resting on the handle to the dressing room. “I have an important date with a semi-important man. I need you to look me in the eye and tell me that this dressing room isn’t equipped with any video cameras. My friend would be upset if I were to tell him that I saw a video on the internet of me parading around in my bra and panties.”

Kha the manager manufactured a slightly put out look on her face. “Off course there are no cameras in our dressing room. That would be illegal and I run a respectable business here. However, the light in that dressing room has been wonky recently. I’d recommend the one next to it. I think you’ll find the light is better and there is an extra hook on the door for your things. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

Close answered the question Kha the store manager had asked. “Do you do alterations in-house? I have a piece of shape wear that needs a pocket sewn into it, for safety reasons.”

This Kha understood. Juarez was a town that had a large number of people involved in smuggling and in the recent past the city had been referred to as the most dangerous city in the world outside active war zones. The in-store seamstress had sewn in pocket or panels for drugs, money, papers and weapons. “We offer that service of course and we are very discreet. Ana has much experience with that type of thing and she is almost always able to get the work done the same day. Let’s try that dress on and see if it works for you.” Kha touched her left ear to let her son in the back know that everything was OK. Kha’s 25 year old son lived above the store with his mother and acted as the store’s in-house security. When the salesgirl had told Kha a client wanted a word Kha had told her son to keep an eye on the stores cameras to make sure everything was OK. He was a good boy but a serious injury sustained while working construction in Iowa meant that he was not able to do construction work anymore and the young man had moved back in with his mother. Kha had offered to let him live with her and he supplemented his income from the store by taking videos of clients in the fitting rooms. Kha wasn’t stupid and knew what her son was doing to make ends meet. But her son never sold a video until the clothes being tried on were a season out-of-date. They also changed the look of the fitting rooms every few months to reduce the chance of someone recognizing the room on the internet and tracking it back to them. So far their efforts had paid off and the scam had brought in some extra cash.

Close walked into the fitting room and studied it to see if there were any obvious cameras. She didn’t want to be connected to Juarez at this point in time and if a video of her half naked surfaced it would not only embarrass her but place her here. With her military specialty if it was known that she was in Juarez during this time there was a small chance that someone would link her to what had been going on. So as a pre-caution both woman wore oversized glasses and wide brimmed hats to shadow their faces as much as possible. Both woman had even applied fake moles and Close had the edge of a tattoo poking out of her shirt on the back of her neck. You could never be too careful when your life depended on it.

Satisfied she wasn’t being watched she slid off her dress jeans and took off her shirt. Across her right hip bone was a fake tattoo of a rainbow that was the brand that a “business manager” in Houston applied to the bodies of every girl that worked for him. These business manager types thought of the woman that slept with men for money that worked for them as their property and almost always either tattooed them or branded them to show their “ownership”. Close slid the dress over her head and turned around to see how it looked in the mirror as she tugged on it and moved around. The dress met all the requirements set forth by the wardrobe consultant and looked good on her. “Ro Ro. You mind stepping in here and seeing what you think.”

“Sure.” Rosie jiggled the knob and waited while Close turned around and unlocked the door.

Rosie stepped in and looked at Close standing in front of a three way mirror. “That’s the dress. Let the bodyguard look at it and see what he thinks.”

Close smiled as she continued to move around seeing how the dress moved when she moved. She bent over and was pleased that the dress hiked up a few inches yet still maintained her modesty. She didn’t feel that it was too tight yet it did draw attention to her best features without being overly trampy. It seemed to be a perfect match for what she needed. Close was a tough ex-soldier and had been to war, but a girl always likes to feel pretty. “Can you ask him to step inside?”

Rosie turned and whisked through the door. “I’m on it.”

Rosie walked across the store and softly asked Gracie to follow her in English. “We need a man’s opinion.”

Gracie replied. “Si.”

Gracie followed Rosie to the dressing room. He knocked quietly while the salesgirl stared at him as if saying no fooling around in here. Close swung the door open and Gracie watched as Close swung around for his benefit. He carefully looked Close up and down seeking problems that could arise if she was forced to fight for her life. Looking good was important but Gracie was all about being ready for just about anything.

Gracie stepped into the changing room and bend toward Close so that he could speak into Close’s ear without the salesgirl hearing him. “Will you be able to fight in it if you have to?”

Close nodded yes in answer to his question.

Instead of answering he gave Close a thumbs up indicating that he liked the dress she had chosen. Close nodded and Gracie went back to the front door and continued to watch the street for trouble.

Close smiled at the salesgirl and picked up her purse. She dug around until a piece of shape wear came out of the bag in her hand. “Kha said you have a seamstress that can alter this for me today.”

The salesgirl smiled. “That dress looks marvelous on you. I like the way the hem is just the right length. If you need shoes we have a friend that owns a shoe store just down the street. If you tell her we sent you she’ll show you the knockoffs in the back room. Just let me go get Ana and we can get you taken care of.” The salesgirl turned and walked toward the back room satisfied now that she had earned a small commission on the dress. The base pay at the shop was paltry and commissions paid what few bills she had.

Close closed the door and took the dress off and slid into the shape wear piece she intended to wear underneath the dress. The garment was similar to a slip that had a bra built into it that actually did the work of a bra. The spandex and Lycra was designed to minimize bulges and show an attractive profile. So Close wrestled to jam her body into the garment and was cursing under her breath by the time she was done. She then slid the dress over her head and looked in the mirror again. Moving in the garment felt weird and going to the bathroom was going to be a challenge but the dress worked even better with the shape wear underneath it. She hiked up the hem of the dress to figure out where she wanted the pockets in the slip portion of the garment to be placed where they wouldn’t be noticed.


A few minutes later the salesgirl was back. She gently knocked on the door and Close opened it while Gracie watched the street and Rosie looked through the racks of clothes. Standing behind the salesgirl was a much older woman. “This is our seamstress Ana. She doesn’t speak much English but she is an excellent seamstress. Show her what want done and she will do it for you. I asked her and she can get the alterations done by 5pm if you are willing to pay a slight rush fee.”

Close didn’t miss that they were being taken advantage of. “Tell her I’ll give her an extra 100 US is she gets it done by 1pm. I have a lunch date and this dress is absolutely perfect for it.”

The salesgirl looked at Ana who smiled and nodded. “Let’s get you measured out so that Ana can get started. What is it you want done?”

Close again hiked the hem of the dress up to expose the shape wear and explained the two pockets she wanted sewn into the skirt section of the slip. One would hold a wireless video recorder with a small battery and the other would hold a small composite knife. Close didn’t like knives much but sneaking a gun onto the Country Club grounds sounded impossible so I knife would have to do.

Ana marked the piece of shape wear with chalk and carefully inspected the fabric of the garment to make sure that the pockets wouldn’t cause an unsightly bulge and that she had marked the perfect position for them. The whole purpose of shape wear was to minimize bulges not create them where none should be. Ana was satisfied she understood the work that needed to be done and told Close in Spanish to return in an hour as she slid the $100.00 bill into her bra.




Fuller

Fuller walked into the restaurant and saw Mary sitting at a table in the bar. For their second date she had worn a black silk or synthetic blouse and a black velour knee length skirt with black tights and a pair of matching boots. The boots were the tall ones Fuller found irresistible. Her hair was in a bun or twist Fuller didn’t know what it was called all he cared was that it nicely complimented the shape of her face.

The pair made eye contact and Mary smiled. Fuller walked over confidently as he noticed a waiter checking out Mary’s legs despite her modest tights in an unprofessional manner. He detoured over to the young man. He leaned toward the kid that was no older than his early 20s. “Hey, eyes up top.”

The spell had been broken. “Ah sorry sir. I was distracted there for a second. What can I help you with?”

Fuller smiled. “Your distraction is my date and was hoping that you could make your staring at her a little less obvious. We don’t want the woman to become uncomfortable do we?” The last sentence was said with some menace in his voice.

“Sorry sir. Can I get you something from the bar? Perhaps, a glass of wine for you and your date while you wait for your table?”
Fuller considered the question. “Let me sit-down for a minute and I’ll let you know.”

As Fuller walked back to the table he caught a glimpse of the black Mercedes sedan sitting in front of the restaurant idling. The driver was seated in the driver’s seat waiting to see of Fuller would be in need of the luxury vehicle. Again Grimm had ordered a car for Fuller and had requested the limousine service assign Paco as Fuller’s driver. Someone with the mystery man’s unit’s had already done a full background check on the driver and screened him to insure that he didn’t pose a security risk. Fuller tapped on the edge of his cell phone that now held Paco’s cell number. If things went well tonight maybe he would use the car. Mary didn’t seem like the type that would hold it against him.

Mary smiled as he got to the table. She had a mouth full of gleaming white teeth and a really good smile. The smile conveyed her confidence but wasn’t conceded or demanding. Confidence was one thing Fuller found very attractive in women over a certain age. The smile seemed to be telling him trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

Fuller looked into her warm and inviting eyes as he stood at the table. “You look great. I’m a huge fan of those boots they look amazing on you.”

Mary smiled again and stood up to model her outfit by doing a quick spin. The skirt rose slightly as she spun and she managed to not knock over an older woman walking by. She was giggling at the near miss as she sat back down. “Fuller you flatter a girl. Thank you for noticing. And I might mention that you look very handsome and smell even better. What is that scent you are wearing?”

Fuller smiled and almost laughed aloud. “The name eludes me. But, if I told you what I went through to find it you might fall off your chair and roll around on the ground as you laughed at me.”

Mary nodded. “Well we can’t have that before we eat dinner. Is everything alright? I saw you talking to the waiter and he looked a little embarrassed. Then as you walked over you were staring at that black Mercedes out front.”

Fuller smiled. “The waiter was ogling you and I asked him to be more discrete.”

Mary gently smacked his arm. “Hey, who said I didn’t want to be ogled, if that is even a word.”

Fuller slid into the seat across from Mary. “I didn’t tell him to stop. I simply requested he be a tad more tactful and keep his mouth closed while he did it.”

Mary smiled at the way Fuller had phrased his reply. She was flattered at the younger man’s attention despite Fuller’s attempt to keep her virtue intact. ” Ok, I guess that’s OK as long as you didn’t run him off. What’s up with the car is it yours?”

Fuller stared back toward the front window. “Not really. A business acquaintance rented it for us if we want to use it after dinner. He thought it would help us keep our cars private. You know that whole prepper mindset of keeping things close to the vest.”

Now Mary laughed out loud. After a few seconds she replied to what Fuller had said. “I’m sorry Fuller R. Brown but I might have cheated a little. I’m very cautious by nature and after our last date I might have done a quick internet search and figured out who you were. A single girl in the big city needs to be careful. There are too many men that are trolling for woman that they can take advantage of. From what I pieced together you’re like the third most prepared entity in town after the US government and FEMA. When I get to know you better would you tell me if that shelter of yours you call underground office space pays for itself?”

Fuller was a little surprised that Mary had figured out who he was so easily. “Mary that could be a question for another day but I’ll skip ahead and say that my underground office complex is mildly profitable. I’m not going to retire soon but I make a decent living. It seems you know the basics of my story, what about yours? You feel comfortable enough to share?”

Mary nodded. “Fair is fair. Mary Ellen Rose and I live in Lexington Missouri. I own three businesses’ including the local independent insurance agency, a tanning salon and an East Coast style pizza joint. I also own half of the local bail bonds company but frankly that place is more of a headache than it’s worth. An acquaintance talked me into investing in it and I wish I hadn’t. The insurance agency is my bread and butter but the other two businesses make a few bucks and its one way to make sure that they don’t leave town like so many local businesses’ have. Those big discount places are terrible for smaller towns and have made it almost impossible for local places to survive and remain profitable enough to stay in business. My business is conducted locally and not over the internet or inside a gigantic warehouse teeming with merchandise freshly shipped from China and those other places were labor and environmental rules don’t apply. Prep-wise I stock things including guns and ammo and have a secure place to go to if things ever go bad.”

Fuller nodded. “That sounds fair enough to me. I’m not very familiar with Lexington. Maybe we can get a drink and order some food and you can tell about your hometown. Then maybe after that we can use that car outside and find a movie worth seeing.” Without waiting for an answer Fuller turned to look for the waiter that had been staring at Mary earlier. Fuller spied him delivering drinks two table away and nodded that they were ready to order.

The waiter nodded back and quickly asked if the table needed anything else after he set the last drink down. The tough guy with the woman wearing the black skirt looked like a good tipper and he needed the money for school so he immediately stepped over to take their order. Maybe if he was lucky this was a special night for the couple and they would order champagne or a nice bottle of wince to celebrate something or load up off the desert cart. 3 weeks ago a man had ordered every desert off the cart for him and his date and then tipped the waiter almost 25 %.

The couple treated the waiter well and he ended up with a 20% tip. So many times people came in to have a meal at the restaurant which was popular and known for its good food and treated the waiter poorly, blamed him for problems that originated in the kitchen or only tipped him 10%. It was always nice to serve nice people that appreciated the effort he put forth.

Fuller returned from washing his hands after dinner and sat back down.

Mary smiled. “Well, I think dinner went well again. You mentioned something about maybe a movie?”

Fuller nodded. “You said something about that one you hadn’t seen yet so if you’re game we can go see that. I already bought the tickets online when I was gone to the men’s room. If we’re lucky there will be a limited numbers of teenagers sharing he theatre with us.”

Mary nodded. “You want to grab the car while I freshen up?”

Fuller smiled. “I’d be honored.”

[sssarawolf]

thank you .

[stjwelding]

Thank you, a great story.
Wayne

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 50

Austin Texas

The office was located in a newer 4 story building in Austin’s technology corridor. It encompassed half of the top floor of the building was almost 10,000 square feet. The space cost well over $25,000 a month and that didn’t include janitorial service or any utilities. 3 months ago a popular local interior designer had re-designed the space to fit the needs of her client, a start-up tech company. She had personally hand-picked each and every piece of furniture that now occupied the space. The break room and its selection of games and other kid-like distractions had been chosen by a specialized consultant that operated out of Silicon Valley. The designer then designed and oversaw the installation of a custom lighting package that showcased the space in exactly the correct light. A centralized programmable system that pumped in what could be mistakenly described as white noise gave the sense of privacy and made each workers personal space feel more private. The sound masking system was designed to decreased auditory distractions and increase worker productivity, accuracy and increase job satisfaction. After all the effort of designing the office’s layout, taking the time to hand pick each piece of furniture and artwork and re-designing the lighting deciding on the perfect color of low-VOC paint to make the overall effort ‘pop’ seemed like child’s play for the well-known designer. From the first step inside the office the space screamed that the business it contained was an up and coming security technology concern that was poised to capitalize on the changing times that 9-11 had left in its horrific aftermath.

As Dark Voice exited the elevator and entered the space from the short hallway he was reminded of how much the place was costing the program. POINT Solutions was involved in the development of video technology that was designed to aid law enforcement in the unrelenting fight against crime and aid in the tracking of persons suspected of being involved in terrorism by co-opting video systems that were normally accessible to Law Enforcement and occasionally systems that weren’t. The popularity and low price of video systems that were networked meant that if you had an IP address for a video camera it was a relatively easy to gain access to it and see what it was monitoring in real time or gain unfettered access to its achieve of stored digital images.

Dark Voice was standing in front of the well dressed receptionist sitting at the waist high desk as she quickly forwarded a call and turned to him. She was blonde and now that she was looking directly at Dark Voice he quickly realized she was stunning. The kind of beautiful women Texas was known for. Her nametag said her name was Sunshine.

She spoke to him in a slow cadence and an ever so slight Texas accent could be heard. “Welcome to Person of Interest Tracking Solutions. How can I help you today?”

Dark Voice smiled. “Hello Sunshine I’m Mr. Johnson. I have a 10 o’clock with Mark and Mark.”

Yes Mr. Johnson they’re expecting you. I’ll let them know you’re here. Can I get you a beverage or perhaps a coffee? We have a full service coffee bar. Might I recommend an energizing espresso or a nice latte?”

Dark Voice smiled. Despite his background and his age he always seemed to be able to get pretty young women to smile and strive to please him. “Sunshine what do you recommend?”

Sunshine’s smile brightened and showed off her perfect teeth and stunning smile. She seemed pleased that someone had taken the interest in what she thought and had asked for her opinion. Usually men simply wanted to know if she would go out with them and she was forced to try to deflect the invitation tactfully and let them down easily. Being pretty wasn’t always easy. “Well, I’m very careful about my weight so I usually have a skinny mocha. Its mocha, espresso, steamed low-fat milk and topped with just the right amount of foam.”

Dark Voice smiled. “Sunshine I think that sounds about perfect. Is there any chance I can get just a small sprinkle of cinnamon on top to give it some added character?”

Sunshine smiled again. “Mr. Johnson, consider me your personal barista. I’ll take care of that for you. Let me tell Mark and Mark that you’re here and then give me a few minutes and I’ll get that for you. There might be a chocolate chip cookie stashed in the back if you’re interested. We have them delivered from a bakery across town and they are insanely delish.”

Dark Voice nodded. “Sunshine you just might be my favorite person today. A cookie sounds like it just might hit the spot.”

“I’m on it.” Sunshine picked up the phone and dialed a number and spoke quietly when it was answered. She stood and spoke to Dark Voice aka Mr. Johnson. “I’ll just get your skinny prepared and see if I can find that cookie for you.”

Dark Voice nodded. Now that she had mentioned it he could use a snack since the private jet that had brought him to Austin from just outside D.C. wasn’t stocked with anything other than premium coffee paired with an assortment of grocery store quality donuts. Dark Voice didn’t care for donuts and he had told the aircrew that he preferred croissants or bagels three times already but he seldom gave them much advanced notice before he flew so he understood how he seemed to always end up with donuts. “I anxiously anticipate your return.”

Sunshine left the reception area smiling and seconds later Mark Bogens and Mark de Marco strode down the wide hallway side by side.

Both Marks had served in the intelligence community. Mark Bogens was 50ish and totally forgettable despite his athletic build and the fact he stood well over 6 feet tall. The only thing that might make him standout was his full head of light blonde hair and an expensive haircut. He had a fine career at the NSA and had retired a few years earlier to pursue the opportunities available in the private sector post 9-11. Mark de Marco was almost 65 and reminded Dark Voice of someone’s grandfather despite the fact the both he and de Marco was about the same age. With his head of distinguished silver hair and golfers tan it was easy to imagine him out on the weekends playing golf, sailing on the nearest lake or taking his grand kids out for ice cream after a soccer game. But Mark de Marco had actually been a field agent that had survived years working in the intelligence hot spots around the world. De Marco’s friendly and affable persona hid the tough as nails operative that he had been and still was. Dark Voice had hand-picked both men for their current jobs and considered them to be consummate intelligence professionals in their prime.

The three men shook hands and made small talk while they headed back to the conference room reserved for the founding partners of the company. As they walked to the conference room the trio passed the spacious break room flanked by a pool table, a ping pong table and numerous vintage pinball machines. In keeping with the tech trend the office had incorporated the games as workplace distractions to relieve stress and encourage employee productivity. The office even boasted 4 small nap and relaxation suites designed to relieve stress and increase worker productivity. Dark Voice thought that for what they were paying the techs they should be able to power through the day on coffee and energy drinks and save the napping for their own time but he just financed the company and had little to do with its day-to-day operations. Mark and Mark were competent and dependable leaders and they had explained to D.V. that the trend in tech was to grant their employees a wide berth to reassure them that they mattered to the company and were considered valuable commodities. Both men claimed things like pool tables, pinball machines, fancy coffee, free gourmet cookies and nap suits greatly reduced the probability that their people could be poached by the opportunist headhunters that were always searching for ambitious programmers and technology workers looking to move someplace else. If the headhunters brought in qualified workers and delivered them to another companies they stood to earn large placement fees for themselves and their company. Each and every programmer and hi-tech worker they had at POINT Solutions had migrated from Government service and all had Government clearances that were extremely valuable to the company so the company was constantly looking for ways to insure 100% employee retention.

As the men filled into the private conference room Mark de Marco hit a switch on the wall and the windows were transformed from clear to an opaque hue that made visual surveillance of their meeting almost impossible. He set what looked like a common smart phone down on the table and touched the side of the devise. The screen turned green and the men took their seats. They know that Dark Voice had ordered something from Sunshine so they waited while she finished making it.

A few minutes after they had sat down Sunshine entered carrying a large ceramic coffee cup with a stylized drawing of Pluto on it. Some people were still upset that the once mighty planet had been downgraded to dwarf planet status hence the mug. In her other hand she held a large chocolate chip cookie wrapped in clear plastic and a white paper napkin. “Here you go. You need anything else you let me know.” She set the cup in front of Dark Voice and placed the wrapped cookie beside it. “Enjoy the cookie and I hope you like the skinny.”

Dark Voice nodded. “Sunshine, that looks great. I should be good. Thank you for taking the time to make this for me and tracking down that cookie for me it looks great.”

Sunshine nodded.”You’re quite welcome. See you later.” She turned and left the room pulling the door closed behind her until the latch clicked.

The three men had studiously avoided watching her walking away. Despite their age they understood that younger woman especially the really attractive ones were very sensitive to anything that could be considered sexual harassment. In this day in age even if they were watching her and not her rear end it could be taken the wrong way and the last thing POINT Solutions needed was a lawsuit that might ask uncomfortable questions about ownership and where the company had gotten their start-up capital. The initial capital to start the company had come from an almost untraceable source and had been routed through a dozen shell and holding companies. But technology and the post-9-11 landscape made total secrecy a myth that was only believed by people that lived and worked outside the intelligence community. The three men sitting in the POINT Solutions conference room were insiders and understood exactly where they were vulnerable.

Mark Bogens smiled and started off the meeting. “DV thanks for flying in on such short notice. As you know we have people creating activity for all the people currently working outside the country and collecting receipts for the cash they are spending as they travel around. They think they are gathering data for companies that are interesting in improving their customer experience. As they go around town doing the “job” we assigned them we track them in the video systems we can access. At that point we obscure their face, misfile the data or erase the video footprint they leave behind. Last night one of them was involved in a car accident with a drunk driver in a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He looks like he’ll be fine but we are stuck for a replacement for 4 to 5 days and we wanted to bring you up to speed and get your input on how to proceed.”

Dark Voice aka Mr. Johnson thought about the problem for a few seconds. “Which team member was the man linked to?”

Mark de Marco answered. “A sniper you call Grinchito.”

Dark Voice groaned audibly. “We need him in Juarez for something coming up in the next few days. No way we can get someone that looks less like him than is optimal in the next 24 hours? Hell I’d settle for same height and body type. The hair and eyes we can get around with contacts and hair dye. I just need someone that looks vaguely like him collecting receipts and we’ll be sure that we have the video footprint monitored and it should be close enough.”

Mark de Marco replied to the question. “When we were searching for people to undertake this task the computers filtered through over 200,000 applicants across the country to stand in for the movements of your team members. The people we assigned where chosen because they somewhat resembled the contractor assigned to your team and were willing to accept the job. In many cases that meant travel within 200 miles and some applicants we would have preferred weren’t in a position to do that. The process to get to that point was time consuming and expensive. We used cutting edge facial recognition software and attempted to get the best match possible based on the perimeters that the software used and that our consultant recommended. Applicants were then screened for a variety of issues including education, ability to follow assigned tasks, linguistic compatibility and psychological make-up. I think we did a pretty good job considering the task we were assigned and the sheer numbers of applicants we started with. After time the people they interacted with might have identified the contactor as the person they had seen and that combined with a paper trail and a lack of solid indisputable video proof would have left them a solid alibi that could withstand some scrutiny. In some cases we offered more money and that was the thing that got them to accept the job. However, we seldom were able to hire our first choice as we explained after you had seen the hiring records that followed the process from beginning to end. Many of the applicants that declined the job offer either found another position that thought was a better fit for them or were unwilling to travel so extensively. The person we need now is located in Ohio and we would need him to travel to Michigan to keep up the paper trail that was started there. I know we are close to being done in Juarez so we offered significantly more money than we offered any other contractor to date. But he is wrapping things up in Ohio as quick as he can and needs a few days. If we’re lucky that means 2, if we’re not it’ll likely be 4 or 5.”

Dark Voice nodded. He understood that when it was all said and done money was one of the best motivators there was. “Call him and offer him a $5,000 cash bonus if he can get to Michigan and take over within 24 hours and gives us 14 continuous days of work.”

Mark Bogens nodded. “We can try but the guy has a young daughter he is co-raising with his ex wife. The mother has primary custody and is unwilling to keep the daughter on his assigned days. So he’s trying to make arrangements with his mother to cover those days until he gets back. But $5,000 just might get the job done. Can we offer any more if he asks?”

“Increase his lodging per diem. Strike that. Put him up in one of the nicer chain places and tell him we need daily reports for the hotel’s corporate Headquarters. Also offer a couple of $1,000 gift cards under the table to anywhere he wants them from if he can get there under my time limit. Hell, tell him if he accepts the job and gets there in 24 hours we’ll comp him a trip to anywhere in the US for a 5 day vacation including airfare, lodging and meals.”

Mark de Marco smiled at DV. The two men had worked together when both had officially been on the payroll of Uncle Sam and genuinely liked each other. They had both been involved in Intel work at the end of the Cold War and yearned for those simpler days and the challenges that they posed. That era had given away to this new world of highly organized trans-national criminal syndicates and the threat of terrorism that could conceivably bring Weapons of Massive Destruction to American shores. “We’ll make the offer as soon as this meeting is over. You want to hang around and make sure we get this buttoned up?”

DV nodded. “I need to see a man in town about a 1911. Give me a few hours and we can meet back here after lunch say 1pm. Unless, you two want to take me to lunch and explain why it’s a good idea to keep Austin weird?”

Mark Bogens smiled. “You asked us about that gunsmith 6 months ago and we ordered you two already. Hope we got it right. They were done last month and are in the safe waiting for your inspection. They are very, very nice weapons and the workmanship is better than excellent. Instead of seeing the guy you could take them out and run some rounds through them at our gun club. If you aren’t happy with them then one of us can run you over and have him make the changes you want after we eat lunch.”

DV nodded and took a sip of his skinny and then a bite of the big cookie. Sunshine had been right the beverage was good and the cookie was a perfect complement to the drink. He used the napkin to wipe his mouth. It wasn’t a good idea to appear to be messy to co-workers. “I knew there was a reason I teamed up with you two guys. I cannot wait to see those beauties. There’s nothing like gripping a 1911 and sending lead downrange. Sometimes it makes me forget how old I am.”

Mark de Marco nodded. “I’ll take care of the Michigan problem. You two go shoot. I know Bogens has been dying to fire those weapons since the day he picked them up. Take Sunshine with you, her dad owns the range we use. But keep it quiet. If the techs or the R&D people find out they’d make her life more difficult than just hitting on her 8 hours a day. Not one of them in either department is a gun person. Apparently, its fine to spend all their free time playing first person shooting games but it’s uncivilized to own guns and if there is a problem they think they can dial 911 and magic fairies will whisk them up in a cocoon of velvety safety. For very smart people they are hard to understand sometimes.”

Mark Bogens replied. “Most of them are too young to know what they don’t know. They might change their minds someday. We keep our guns out of sight and don’t have any pictures of us in camouflage in our office or talk about hunting or shooting and that seems to be working for us so far.”

D.V. nodded that he understood. Even at the CIA near the end of his career he noticed that some of the younger employees seemed to look at guns as a necessary evil and not the tool that had defended their country and secured their rights for over 200 years. Nobody would have guessed a generation or two ago that people that worked for the CIA would be anti-gun. It was just another depressing sign of the times. D.V. thought that a mindset like that didn’t have a place in Law Enforcement, the Intelligence community or in the military. But it was becoming more apparent to DV that those types of institutions were hiring people that had anti-gun mind-sets. Technology seemed to be the vehicle that drove those professions now more than ever and not the simple yet elegant firearms that pushed back the darkness and made the country safe. “I assume you two ordered spare magazines since I didn’t bring any.”

Bogens nodded. “50 of them so that if a few of them prove unreliable in your new guns you’re still in good shape. Also they were tough to get so we ordered a few extra just in case they get scarce again. I swear chasing down firearms, ammo and mags is getting ridiculous. Most off the shelf pistols and ARs are back-ordered and the dealers are hiking the price up on them and ammo. If Sunshine’s dad can get it we get standard pricing but anyplace else we’re paying a premium. We’d love to get the name of your connection.”

D.V. picked up his encrypted phone and scrolled through the stored numbers. He found the number he was searching for and hit a number. Seconds later he spoke to someone that had answered his call. “I need a list of firearms dealers we’re associated with. Send it to my panda account.” He ended the call and turned to the Marks. “It’ll be in your e-mail box within an hour. I’ll also give you the alias I use when I deal with them. Personal use only please.”

De Marco shook his head up and down and an amused look ran across it. “I think we’ll remember that. You two can head out while I make the call to Ohio. I’ll check to see if Sunshine wants to go with you.”

Dark Voice replied. “Show me the way to the gun safe and let me take a look at those weapons. I’m really excited to see what you ordered for me and how they turned out.”

Mark Bogens led Dark Voice to his office to retrieve the two 1911’s. As Dark Voice sat at Mark’s smaller conference table he admired the workmanship and examined every square inch of the finely made weapon. He was old enough that he had a special place in his heart for 1911’s and these two were some of the finest examples that he had ever seen. If they shoot as good as they looked they might be his 2 new favorite weapons.

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 51

Juarez

Close sat in the van with Lep and waited for Benny, her lunch date. She had managed to find out his real name and run a background check on him. She learned that Benny was born Benjamin Clearwater White III in Sandusky Ohio in August of 1967. He was a normal kid and had attended a State University in the mid-west and had earned a degree in Economics. He spent the next year in Cleveland working at a branch office of a Wall Street firm before resigning. During that time he had passed the tests to sell securities and commodities and there were no complaints or disciplinary actions in his file. After resigning it appeared that he left the US and was arrested shortly after in Juarez for a fight that ended up with two men in the hospital. There were no records of him living in the US after that. Border Security was much more lax back then so no records of his movements back and forth across the Border were in the system prior to 2002. But in the post 9-11 environment keeping track of border crosser and tracking their habits had become a priority. Since that time he had crossed over bi-weekly in or near El Paso

Close was a tad nervous at today’s assignment. Grimm had told Close that Benny preferred to tell people he was in the investment business. But the records and surveillance they had pieced together told the story of a successful high level money launderer that started companies around the world and moved illegal profits from Cartel operations around to make the money look more respectable. She was meeting Benny in front of a popular upscale restaurant that catered to the upper and business class in Juarez. Many of the restaurants patrons were owners of medium sized garment or manufacturing plants. A few honest public employees and politicians also were known to frequent the place known for its above average American food and clean kitchen. It was a respectable and safe place to bring US partners or American investors to have a leisurely meal where they could almost but not quite forget how dangerous Juarez truly was. Many of the business owners had just kept up the habit eating at the place and the restaurant was thriving as a result.

Lep nodded in the direction of a luxury sedan that was pulling up next to them on the street. “It looks like your ride is here. We’ll be keeping an eye on you and Benny understands what happens to him if you’re hurt in any way. Grimm doesn’t want you taking unnecessary chances so play it safe and stay focused. Lunch should take over an hour so smile, eat your meal, try to get the layout of the place and try to look like you’re having fun. Good luck.”

Close nodded at the abbreviated pep talk. She really appreciated the sentiment but the sooner they got the person causing trouble in the US the sooner she could get out of Juarez. “I should be fine. I’ve done this before and Benny will keep me safe or he’ll wish he had. He’s met Grimm and if he wasn’t afraid of him he would have passed on doing this. Hopefully they have good seafood. I could go for a lobster and some crab dipped in melted unsalted butter.”

Lep just shook his head. “The seafood is flown in fresh daily so you should get your wish.”

They both saw the signal and Close stepped down from the van and entered the luxury car’s rich interior. Instantly she smelled the subtle scent of the leather that covered the seats and the door panels. The dash was paneled in rich, expensive looking wood and all the read-outs were digital.
Benny was about what Close had expected. Handsome despite the fact he was rapidly approaching 50, athletic, very well dressed in a dark tan double breasted suit with a expressionist tie and shoes nicer than Close’s. Once she was inside the vehicle and belted in he began his summery of the country club’s inner workings and they reviewed her back-story. She was based out of Houston and was doing a few days in town as a special request to her manager. He was a VIP client and they usually met in El Paso or the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He repeatedly cautioned her to always remember that these men despite their fine clothes and seemingly charming manners were violent and unpredictable murderers that thought nothing of torturing and beheading people to sent as message to others than might betray or disappoint them. He also mentioned that it might be a good idea for her to view his man parts on the off-chance it came up in conversation. He didn’t have any tattoos or any distinguishing marks so he felt that just seeing his manhood would provide all the cover they needed.
Close considered the suggestion for a few seconds before she answered. “Listen you seem like a decent enough guy all things considered but I don’t get paid enough for that. And you know the guy I work for. If I was you I’d rather take my chances with the murderous thugs than him. He is a tad protective of his people. Let’s just go have a pleasant lunch and make small talk about celebrity gossip and movies. In and out. I’ll get the information I need and you get to keep that stack of cash for your trouble.”

The man quickly looked at her. “Fair enough. How’s your Spanish?”

I’ve got a little but it’s far from great.”

He nodded as he watched the road. “OK, English it is. What about you. Anything I should see or know about?”

Close refused to disclose any information that might link her to Juarez. And other than her fake tattoo she wasn’t adorned with any ink or noticeable moles or birthmarks. Hell this wasn’t even a shade of hair color or a hair style she had ever used back in the US. “I’m pretty tall so I usually wear a size 8 or a 10 and my feet are a size 9.if anyone asks I never disclose my real name, my age, where I was born or my weight. It’s a girl thing, most women will understand that. And I buy all my own clothes and any intimates you request so you don’t know exactly how tall I am or what my sizes are. I prefer 2003 Dom Perignon and only drink Stoli vodka over ice. I do yoga every morning and workout 3 to 4 times a week. No allergies and I eat red meat sparingly.”

As he passed a slow moving bus he nodded to himself. “I’m the client so generally I do what I do. A lot of the girls around the club have substance abuse problems so they aren’t very detail oriented other than the physical stuff which is how they make their living. If they get paid they are happy and talk that ridiculous talk meant to pacify men and make them think they are special. These men usually don’t respect women so they have little interest in all that info but it’s good to know. You can never be too careful. Here we are.”

Benny gently turned the expensive car into the drive that led to the club and Close could feel the inside of her stomach growl. She was way past hungry. Maybe if the food was any good it would distract her from being nervous. Undercover sucked. Maybe she should have listened to her mother and become a nurse like her. The money in nursing was decent and the benefits were respectable.


Close waited while the door man opened the door of the luxury sedan she was sitting in. Her lunch companion was already out the door and walked around the front of the car. Close carefully slid around in her seat and stood on the 2 and ½ heels she and Rosie had purchased the day before. She had managed to find an out of the way hairdresser that had very positive reviews and would take her as a walk-in with the promise of a generous gratuity in US dollars. The interior of the salon was well maintained and didn’t have cameras in it. She treated herself to a mani-pedi and then underwent a cut to remove any split ends she had and then received a luxurious blow out. She had spent 45 minutes on her make-up and Lep had dropped her at a popular upscale restaurant to wait for their coerced Juarez businessman.


The medium blue sleeve-less dress almost shimmered in the mid-day sun. It was a knockoff of a well-known designer’s resort collection from the previous year. The hem hit her just below the knee and hid the scars on her legs from a childhood of running around with the neighbor boys, playing soccer competitively through high school and being in the military. The lack of sleeves showed off her defined arms and a light sprinkling of very fine blonde hair that snaked up to her elbow.

As Close walked across the entryway she tried to take in as much information as she could while remembering that she was wearing heels that could trip her up at a moment’s notice. In the reception area she glanced over toward the reception desk and saw a large Hispanic man complaining about something in Spanish. Close could see the stress the female clerk was feeling on her face. She was smiling but inside she was very worried. She kept nodding and offering to adjust his monthly statement but still the man was trying to make his point and his voice seemed to be getting louder.

Benny nodded at the girl at the reception desk and she nodded in return as he headed toward the restaurant. Not surprisingly the French firm that had designed and built the country club had stuck with the Spanish hacienda theme with massive wooden doors, exposed beams and stucco in a tone that closely matched the surrounding hills and fields. But at the moment Close was more concerned about the slick looking 18 inch terra cotta tiles she was treading across in new heels she had forgot to scuff. Even the stair risers had Mexican inspired graphics to add a bite of color. All and all the look was very upscale and Close even liked the arched opening that led from room to room.

Now she stood by Benny at the hostess stand and took in the restaurant or as they called it the dining room. Half the tables were occupied and scanning the room Close could feel the evil emanating from some of the guests eating a leisurely lunch. Booths ringed the outside wall separated by chest high partitions topped with exotic looking plants. The inside tables were heavy looking and wooden with 3 inch tops. They seemed to have ample room at each setting to allow larger people to have room to spread out.

Benny leaned over to the hostess and whispered in her ear as he grasped her hand and passed her a cash tip. The hostess gave a knowing nod and turned to Close. “Please follow me and I’ll get you two seated.”

Close followed the hostess and Benny to their table and carefully sat down to avoid her dress riding up. As the hostess walked past she gave Close a knowing look. Smug would have been the best way to describe the look and Close would have loved to have smacked the woman around until that smugness was replaced by a different expression. But instead Close picked up the menu off the table and smiled at Benny playing the attentive escort eager to please and comply with his every whim and desire. As Benny spoke she scanned the menu locking on the section that described the seafood. Her Spanish wasn’t great but she saw the magic words. Lobster and crab. It was then that she again remembered that she had a job to do and that she was very hungry. She would be ordering both lobster and crab since Benny was paying for lunch and she was very hungry. She was shook out of her stupor.

“I asked if we should start out with a bottle of wine. They really have a decent cellar and I’m not working the rest of the day.”

Close smiled at her lunch companion. “I’m having the lobster and crab for lunch so something that goes with those would be perfect. Perhaps, a nice bottle of chardonnay or pinot grigio?”

Benny nodded. “An excellent choice. The seafood here is flown in daily and very good so I think I’ll have the lobster and crab also. Let’s start off with a bottle of champagne and go from there. I believe you mentioned that you prefer the ’03 Dom”

At that precise time the sommelier stepped to the table. “Mr. Benny it’s good to see you again. Are you and your guest ready to order something to go with lunch?”

“Paco I think we are going to have the lobster and the crab. Any wine suggestions we should know about?”

Paco nodded. “We just received 10 cases of 2006 Domaine Carneros Le Reve. They call it something else but basically its California champagne. That estate is next to Napa Valley and was started by Claude Taittinger of Taittinger fame. The reviews have been very good and I had a glass at breakfast yesterday and I think you’ll like it with your meal. It’s an excellent sparkling wine and is always a nice way to begin a meal. Or if you prefer we can find a nice bottle of chardonnay for you. I’m thinking of a pleasant chardonnay that I just adore but would need to run down to the cellar to make sure we have some left. We had a huge birthday party the other night and well the racks are looking a tad bare.”

Benny smiled the knowing smile of men that moved in the same circles as rich people. He understood how they lived and when they wanted something money was seldom a problem.

“Paco, let’s go with the California Sparkling. It’s my way of supporting the country that I was born in.”

Paco nodded and headed off to procure the California bubbly.

Benny looked up from the menu he was using as a prop. “If the California isn’t to your standards let me know and we’ll order something else.”

Close smiled playing the attentive lunch companion. “I’m sure the bottle he mentioned will be acceptable. I’m more interested in the food than the drink.”

Benny set the menu down on the table. “Well, let’s get a waiter over here and get you some food then. If you’d care to start with an appetizer the mushroom caps with bread crumbs and parmesan is very good. The artichoke dip is also very good and they make all the chips in-house.”

“Let’s have both shall we?” With lunch decided and the wine choice made Close began scanning the room and the adjoining ones to gather information for Grimm. She noticed that one of the swarthy bodyguards at a table on the other side of the dining room was taking notice of her. She visualized the face and tried to see if she had ever interacted with him. But with a military career she had been exposed to literally 100’s if not 1000’s of men and women and remembering each and every one of them was almost impossible. So she immersed herself in lunch small talk and hoped that the man had been staring at her because of her dress and not her past. If she was lucky the situation would resolve itself when the man’s boss finished his meal and they group left. If not the situation could turn bad.

Outside the grounds of the Country Club

Grimm scanned the front entrance to the country club through the high powered spotting scope. Because of the angle he was able to see inside the building to where the hostess stood and the tables directly behind her. They had made a mistake and should have told Benny to ask for a table that would allow them to keep an eye on Close. She was a highly trained operative but the Cartel had very good intelligence network compared to what Close was used to. The angle put a dark skinned man inside his view and Grimm noticed that he had been glancing over at the other side of the room after Benny and Close had walked in. Grimm didn’t know where Close was sitting but his internal alarm was going off. “Grinchito, get some pictures of the dark skinned man directly in front of us in the dining room and run a facial on him. Try the military database first. He seems to be taking an interest in something and it might be our girl.”

Grinchito the sniper moved over and snapped a few pictures using top of the line equipment. He stared at the image on the screen and sent the pictures to the analysts back in the US. “I’ve got a few good ones and there are in the hands of our people. Hold one.” Grinchito touched the devise on his ear. “I need facial on that guy and I need it 2 minutes ago. Tyr military databases first. We might have a situation.” He paused and listened to the reply. “Fair enough we’ll be waiting.”

“Grimm they’re on it. They say might have something back in 3 to 5 minutes.”

Grimm continued to watch as he dialed Close’s phone. “Thanks. I’m calling her to see if she has any ideas.” Grimm paused as the encrypted phone rang through.

Close answered the phone on the third ring. “Hello dad.”

Grimm lowered his voice despite being alone with Grinchito hidden by a low camouflage blind. “There’s a dark skinned guy taking an interest on your side of the room. Is it you he is interested in?”

Close replied while smiling at Benny. “Yes dad I know that. I don’t know why, if you could let me know when you know I’d appreciate it.” She paused despite the fact that Grimm hadn’t said anything. “Yes, yes I’ll talk to you later. Tell mom I said thanks.” She broke the connection and returned to her lunch companion.

Grimm put the phone down. “She said she noticed the guy and doesn’t think she knows him.”

The men waited for a call and watched the man do his job. He was a bodyguard that much was clear. He was at the table but clearly not involved or concerned with what was being said and he was constantly scanning the room looking for trouble. He seemed to be back in work mode and hadn’t been staring like he had when she first entered the room. Or Grimm thought and hoped. While he didn’t have a shirt on that said he was an American Grimm just thought for some reason that he was. That and his job meant he had likely served in the US military and the analysts had excellent access to that database so they should know something shortly.

Grimm’s encrypted phone vibrated and he answered it. He listened, asked the analyst to repeat a spelling and disconnected the call.

“He was at Bragg the same time as Close was. Their paths might have crossed or not. I have his name service record and current employer. He’s doing close protection for a US citizen based in New Mexico that has legitimate concerns here and in the US. The employer is clean so he might be paying tribute or negotiating protection for his places here. Who knows?”

Grimm dialed the number programmed into his phone and waited while it was answered. He was surprised the phone was answered in English. “Hostess desk please.” Grimm waited on hold while the call was forwarded to the hostess desk.

“Blue Room. Lupe speaking. How can I assist you?”

“Lupe I’m looking for a guest I need to get a hold of.”

Lupe paused. She always was very careful when dealing with members and their entourages. “Name sir?”

“Lupe he’s a dark skinned American answers to R3. He’s a bodyguard with an American enjoying lunch with a member.”

Lupe considered the request. “Bodyguards were usually not a concern and he wasn’t a member so instead of risking a problem she decided o be helpful. “A moment sir and I’ll see if he’s here. May I ask whose calling?”

Grimm felt bad but he needed to deal with this quickly. It had already been 10 minutes since Benny and Close had entered the dining room. “Please let him know its Timothy Eugene. I’m sure he’ll be willing to interrupt his lunch to speak to me.”

The phone went back to the music on hold. He must be getting old because a version of a NIN song had been converted to elevator music and he didn’t think it was too bad all things considered.

The phone was picked up. This is R3. Who is this?”

Grimm slowly answered. The key to making a good threat was to inject some menace into your voice. “Duane, a friend is having lunch across the room from you and I wanted to make sure you didn’t say anything to anyone that would cause her any trouble. I’ve seen your military record and it says you’re a good egg so I know we wouldn’t want to have a problem with you. If you could just enjoy lunch and forget you ever saw her then we’ll drop 5K into your account back home.”

“And if I don’t do as you asked?”

Grimm paused momentarily. “It’s in my power to significantly inconvenience you. You know frozen bank accounts and watch lists. Things like that and maybe worse. National Security is at stake so I know you understand. Duane when I say never ever mention it a mean never. Your record in the military was good so I’ll forward your name to a guy I know that can find you a better gig than weekends in Juarez. He’s a security headhunter and is dialed in to the system.”

Duane had been thinking about the stick he had been threatened with and much preferred the carrot. “I can live with that. You need the account number?”

Grimm smiled. “Duane I already sent the money before I called you. I know you’d see the light and act accordingly. Pleasure doing business with you. Stay safe.” Grimm disconnected the call and turned to Grinchito. “He says he’s on board.”

Grinchito had been looking through the camera at Duane as Grimm had talked to the man and was convinced he would do the right thing. He didn’t look scared but he looked like he had accepted what was happening. “You better call our girl and let her know we have it under control.”

Grimm was already dialing. Close answered the phone. “He was at Bragg the same time as you assigned to the motor pool. He must have recognized you and might have been trying to place you. We came to an agreement and I think we’ll be fine. We’ll track his comms and see if anything comes up but I think we’re good.”

Close smiled glad had her back. “He seems to have found other things to watch on TV so that’s good. Let me know if anything else interesting happens.” She disconnected the call and looked across the table to Benny.

Benny slowly sipped his sparkling wine and felt the bubbles tickle the back of his nose. “Is everything OK?”

Close nodded. “We’re having issues with my dad. He has a memory problem and sometimes he can be a real pain in the butt trying to manage his care from so far away.”

Benny sipped more wine. “I get that. I have my mother in a nice place just outside of El Paso. Her memory isn’t what it used to be.”

Close nodded. “I can be rough.”

Austin Texas

Dark Voice strolled into the Person of Interest Tracking Solutions office behind Mark and Sunshine. He could smell the gunpowder on him and his clothes and thought it was maybe one of the best smells ever. He had been super impressed with the two weapons the Mark’s had chosen for him and floored at how well they had shot. The people that had made the weapons were skilled craftsman and these were the best weapons that he owned. He had also been impressed with Sunshine’s shooting. Despite having a vaguely hippie/new age name she was a crack shot and had bested him by a far margin. Her dad was a great gun guy. He was an ex-history professor at the University of Texas and still looked like a teacher of some sort. He wore khakis and a sport coat paired with comfortable dress shoes. Dark Voice had caught a glimpse of his concealed handgun but the man didn’t wear any of the clothing one often associates with the industry. No camo, industry tees, camo pants or riggers belt for him. He was an excellent example of the face of the shooting sports.

Dark Voice watched as Sunshine took over from her replacement and Mark headed toward the back. He followed Mark back and into the reserved conference room. The other Mark was seated in there eating a sandwich and drinking a diet soda. de Marco wrapped the sandwich up and pushed it away as Dark Voice pulled the door shut. Mark Bogens hit the switch on the wall and the glass went foggy and then he placed the smart phone looking devise on the table and the men all waited for the green screen to lit up.

After a minute the screen went green.

De Marco smiled. “He took the bonus money and the gift card deal. He’ll travel tomorrow and be on-site by late afternoon. He seems excited and highly motivated so we should be good. Sorry we had to drag you down her but if things went the other way we wanted you to be able to manage the situation your way.”

Dark Voice nodded. “Hey, better safe than sorry. Glad we could get it worked out so quickly. And did I mention that those 1911s are unbelievable. Best shooting 1911s I’ve ever held in my hands. I want to thank both of you for the gift. I will treasure those weapons until the day I die and I appreciate it more than you can imagine. When the action down south gets taken care of maybe we can all get together and go shooting for a few days. A guy that I know in Arkansas has a training facility that specializes in carbine training and he’s been asking me for two years to come down and check it out. The accommodations are rustic but I’ve seen pictures of the courses and the trainers are top notch so it might be fun if you guys can tear yourself away from this place.”

Mark de Marco nodded. “Depending on dates I’m in.”

Mark Bogens nodded. “You buy the AR’s?”

Dark Voice nodded. “That and the glass and the ammo.”

Bogens smiled. “Hey you’re the boss. Your wish is my command.”

[stjwelding]

alangator thanks for the new chapter, its always a treat to find new chapter form you. Great story line and very well written and thought out.
Wayne

[223shootersc]

Good stuff, as always thanks

[sssarawolf]

Thank you

[Lone_Hawk]

Thank you for the new chapters...

[stjwelding]

Alangator Thank you for this great story, and thank you for taking the time to write and post your story's for us, have a happy and blessed Thanks Giving.
Wayne

[alangator]

Fuller
Part 52

Author’s Note- I’ve been trying to tie a number of chapters together as I move to wrap this section of the story up and it’s slowed my postings up. Last month I was watching a show on TV that portrayed a tactical strategy I had written about weeks ago that I don’t think I had ever seen or read about before. I’m still going to keep the story as it was written but will acknowledge that the idea was seen recently on TV.

I guess what I’m saying is that by posting at a more languid pace recently it allowed what might have been an original idea to be overtaken by the massive amount of content that is now available to us through a variety of sources. I strive to incorporate interesting characters, original ideas and original storylines into my writing. My hope is that when you see a different twist on even old ideas it enhances the experience of reading the story.
alangator

Inside the Country Club Dining Room

Close looked briefly at the man across the room to confirm that he had quit staring and was pleased to see that he now had absolutely no interest in her in was staring at the screen of his phone. As he smiled and looked pleased with himself she tried to place the face but wasn’t having any luck at it. Satisfied that the situation was handled she returned her attention to Benny as he finished telling her about a “friends” birthday party and the popular 90s grunge act that had been the entertainment.

As what Benny had been saying sunk in she gasped. “No way. You saw them in concert at a birthday party here in Juarez? I thought they had broken up because of their quote, musical differences? When was this?”

Benny smiled at his luck. He was happy to find something that interested Close that would keep the conversation going and avoid any awkward gaps. Part of his plan to avoid being caught was to distract her conversationally. She seemed calm and professional but the men in the upper ranks of the cartel were predatory by nature and seemed to able to sense when something was off. So he continued his story. “This was last summer around the middle of July. And they did break up. My friend found their ex-manager who now manages the ex-lead singer and kept offering them money until everyone finally said yes. Well except for the bassist who is dead. He died a few years ago in a car accident on an icy road in Washington State. But hey, it’s easy to replace a bassist and they brought in some session guy from LA. It was by far the best concert I’ve ever attended and I’ve seen almost all the huge bands from the 70s, 80s and 90s that were worth seeing. With only about 200 attendees it was more like being at a club watching a band trying to make it than guys that have been in the industry professionally for almost 20 years. The band even did a few covers and they were very well done. And the sound, the sound was perfect. I heard that the sound guy was actually a studio engineer from LA that is working on the ex-lead singer’s next album.” Benny paused to see if Close had any other thoughts regarding his experience.

Close was excited but she understood that she had to be careful not to be loud. The last thing she needed to do was attract attention to Benny and herself. So when she spoke it was almost a whisper. “Please tell me you got pictures.”

Benny reached into his pocket to unsheathe his smart phone to share the pictures of her.

At that moment the waiter in black dress pants, a crisply starched shirt and a blue Jerry Garcia tie that looked like waves stepped to their table. “Mr. Benny it’s good to see you, and with such a pretty companion. Would you care to hear the specials or have you decided what you’ll be having for lunch already?”

Close noticed his accent when speaking English was very soft. She’s guess he had been taught English at a young age and spent time in the US.

Benny nodded at the waiter. “Loc we’ll be starting with the stuffed mushroom caps and an order of the artichoke dip. Then we’ll need two orders of the crab and three of the lobster.” He paused and turned to Close. “Did I miss anything?”

Close smiled and looked at the server. She was playing the part of the younger woman being pampered by the older man. It was something that happened everyday in this place and Benny was just carrying on a tradition as old as time. “I think I’ll skip the salad today. Just bring me lots of melted butter with my meal and bread if you have it. I’ll be using all my points for today and tomorrow so I want it to be worth it.”

Loc smiled and Close noticed he had perfect teeth and she would have bet they had been bleached recently.

“The breads are baked in-house every morning. Today we have rolls, small artisanal loafs and crusty parmesan croissants. I’ll bring you a basket of each and you can decide which you prefer. And of course I’ll make sure you have plenty of butter.”
Close gave the waiter a thumb up to indicate that she was satisfied with his plan to get her fed. “Thank you I’d appreciate that. The crusty parmesan croissants sound delish.”

Loc nodded and turned back to Benny. “They are very popular. Mr. Benny anything else I can do for you? If not I’ll get this order right in and we should have your appetizers out in 20 minutes or so.”

Benny smiled. “We should be good. If we think of anything else I’ll let you know. Paco is down in the cellar getting us a nice bottle to go with the meal.”

Loc nodded at the response and turned and headed toward the back of the dining room and into the kitchen. He liked Mr. Benny better than most of the club’s members. Many of the club’s members were obviously Cartel people or worked closely with the Cartel in some way but Mr. Benny never lost his cool with the staff and he treated the Cartel people as if he was as afraid of them just like everyone at the club was. That meant that while he might work for those people he wasn’t one of them. Also Loc had seen Benny’s wife weekly for the last year or so and she seemed nice and was very friendly to the staff. Loc hoped Mr. Benny hadn’t fallen back into bad habits. Loc entered the order into the POS system and went to make sure the wine was coming up to the table shortly. For an experienced waiter such as Loc there was nothing worse than lunch being served before the wine made it to the table. That could be awkward and almost always negatively affected his tip. It was something that wasn’t his fault but diners often blamed him for the mix up and docked his tip. If Loc was going to work in this den of criminals and murdering psychopaths and risk his life he expected to be well compensated.

Benny smiled at Close and glanced down at her Smartphone on the table. He spoke in a soft tone so he wouldn’t be overheard by anyone at a nearby table. “After lunch we can walk around like I’m trying to impress you with my club. The locker rooms are off-limits for non-members but other than that you should get a good idea of the layout of the place.”

Close smiled and also looked at her smart phone sitting on the table. The screen showed green so she was satisfied that the devise was doing its job of layering the table with audio and electrical interference that made eavesdropping almost impossible. If a recording of their conversation was run through a supercomputer and filtered using NSA level software when the light was green on her Smartphone the audio could be decoded within 30-48 hours. With any luck they would be done and sitting back in the US by then. Satisfied they were safe she took a drink of her water and almost stopped herself mid-swallow before setting the glass down and picking it back up and staring at it.

Benny smiled knowing what was going through her mind. “It’s treated on-site and is triple filtered for your protection. Best water in Juarez or so the club’s brochure says. I’ve never heard of the water making anyone sick so you should be perfectly fine. Since I’ve lived here I’ve had some issues that might have been water related so I’m very careful and I drink the water from here without worrying about it. At home I have a top of the line system that is basically a smaller version of the one here and I’ve never had a problem. The key to not getting sick down here if you’re not used to the water is a good system and maintaining the equipment to the manufacture’s specifications. If you buy bottled water make sure it comes from a good store that you trust. There is a lot of bottled water in the stores with counterfeit labels from American or European companies that is tap water with bleach added before they bottle it. Sometimes the bleach works, sometimes it isn’t enough to keep you from getting sick. My water guy has a degree in chemical engineering from a US university. He tells me he has over 100 clients in and around Juarez. I’d guess he makes a pretty good living at it.”

Close took another sip of the cold water and enjoyed the sensation of it sliding down her throat. This was the first time since being in Juarez she had drank water from a real glass with ice in it and she was enjoying the normalcy of it. She’d be sure to pass on the information about the water guy to Grimm. It might be useful at some point. A way for an American to gain access to Cartel homes would be very useful. “That guy has got to eat to. No different here than anywhere else. And after all he’s helping people by insuring that they have safe water available to drink, cook and shower with.”

Benny smiled. He liked this woman, she was funny and he thought that his wife would like her also. And since Benny thought his wife would like this woman he decided to share a story from their life together. “I think my wife would adore you so I’m going to tell a story about us I think you might find entertaining. My wife is always telling me that the people she is forced to socialize with for my work scare her and the men are constantly asking her to bed. We avoid as many invitations as possible but sometimes we are forced to go for business. So we are committed to one maybe two parties a month and you know about what I do so these are not parties normal people attend by choice. But now that my wife is pregnant she is especially adamant about not attending them. It’s better now that my wife is pregnant. For the last few months I have attended a few gathering alone and nothing was said about my wife’s absence. We saw a Doctor and explained that my wife was just too tired to attend social engagements and asked for an excuse that would not make our friends feel bad that we hadn’t attended their functions. The Doctor was very understanding and recommended a few ideas and gave us a diagnosis to use that would satisfy the ego of the hosts and hostesses that threw the parties. The condition is not highly dangerous to mother or baby but women that have experienced it would understand why she and sometimes I are absent. Of course I’m truly terrified of lying to the men I work for. But is this really the type of life someone wants a child exposed to? I am basically a banker or a business manager. These men do terrible things to people and their families. We don’t want our child exposed to this lifestyle.”

Close covered her mouth as she spoke. “Benny now is the perfect time to start over for you and your family. We desperately need information about who is causing problems in the US and need to deconstruct the Cartel here in Juarez. Talk to your wife about cutting a deal. You have the power to cripple the Cartel and we and the people in Law Enforcement in the US are willing to overlook your involvement.”

Benny looked scared at what Close had said. “I will talk to her about what you have suggested but she has people here. What will they do without us? Will they be tortured or killed if we leave?”

Close covered her mouth again as if she was working at a piece of stuck food. “Pack them up and take them with you if you are sure you can trust them. They would have a much better life in the US than here.”

Benny thought about it a second. “I think I’d like that. There is too much pain, misery and death here.”

By then the appetizers were at their table and they continued to make small talk through the meal. Close concentrated on staying in character and learning as much as she could about the club while Benny thought about the possibility of leaving his adopted homeland and returning to the US.

Close and Benny gorged themselves at lunch and polished off a little over a bottle of sparkling wine. When their waiter Loc came to see if they would be having dessert Close ordered 20 pieces of the tiramisu to go. As she ordered the dessert she winked at the waiter and assumed that his imagination would automatically think it was for some type of dirty fun. Either his knowing smile meant that’s what he thought or he was happy to see the check increased with the take-out added on. That was the reaction she was hoping for so she just played her part as a professional companion willing to serve her client to the best of her ability.

With lunch finished, the tiramisu boxed and in the cooler Benny led Close on a guest tour of the facility. As they moved through the building the video equipment was recording hi-res footage of the Country Club for later use.

STAG warehouse

Lep threw the canvas bags of dirty laundry into the back of the van while the driver sat patiently at the wheel playing Sudoku on a STAG issued smart phone. The driver had been in the US Air Force and once held a very high clearance level. Despite his past and that he was trusted he was never allowed to enter the warehouse any further than the loading area to insure that if the driver was captured or bribed that no additional information could be gained from the driver other than the warehouse’s location. He was also told each and every time he made the trip that personal electronics were not to be taken with him on his journey to the warehouse under any circumstances. Lep had already carted the prepared meals, sandwiches, snacks, bottled water and other drinks into the area they used as a kitchen/dining area and put them in their respective places. Another team member was examining the food items and bottled drinks for electronic emissions and signs of tampering. Now Lep was just loading the vehicle up for its return journey back to the catering kitchen in El Paso. The second the van left the bags of clean laundry off to the side would be scanned for electronic emissions and if they were free of tracking devises, listening devises and explosives they would be distributed to team members.

Whenever the van from the El Paso catering kitchen delivered food and other misc. supplies each member of the team send a bag of their dirty laundry back into the US and received their bag of fresh laundry in return. The system was less than perfect and a logistical headache for Lep but operators needed clean clothes and running down to the nearest laundry mat or drop-off place was an operational risk Grimm was unwilling and unable to tolerate. The less time they spent wandering around the less chance of someone taking an interest in the out of place Americans.

There were also safeguards in place on the other side of the border designed to keep the STAG team as safe as possible. The vehicle that delivered their food, laundry and other supplies was always parked inside the loading area of the catering kitchen and guarded. The catering kitchen had extensive security in place and the whole facility was monitored in-house and remotely 24 hours a day. When the vehicle needed fuel two people went, one pumped and paid and the other stood next to it the whole time and scanned their surroundings for trouble. When the van left the catering kitchen and was headed toward the Border crossing it was followed by a chase car from a different location to insure that it wasn’t under any type of surveillance. On the Mexico side of the border another vehicle from the STAG warehouse picked up the task of following the vehicle to insure that it entered the warehouse property clean of all tails and other surveillance. Once inside the warehouse a quick yet full scan was made of the vehicle to insure that it didn’t have any tracking equipment on it and that nobody had planted a bomb on it while it had been in the US.

The STAG team was applying increasing amounts of pressure to the Juarez Cartel so the risk of them being discovered by the cartel or the Police and Military that often fed information to the Juarez Cartel grew every day. Grimm understood that they might have overstayed their welcome in Juarez and was looking forward to wrapping this operation up and heading back to the US for some much needed R&R and some mission specific team training. Unofficially Grimm had been told that there was chatter by low level cartel members that had been told by their boss’s that there were people operating against the cartel and a reward had been offered for information about anyone that might have disrupted or harmed cartel business. Grimm was amused that the amount mentioned was now up to a paltry $5,000 (US). They had been forced to destroy dogs that were worth more than that outside the city. Grimm assumed that cartel leadership didn’t want their people to understand the scope of the threat to the cartel and a huge bounty would sent shockwaves across the city and would have alerted other cartels that the Juarez Cartel was weak or vulnerable. That could mean another group might take a risk and try to seize control of Juarez and the profitable corridors the Juarez Cartel controlled. Sometimes power and strength are really about what other people think as much as anything that might be tangible. The same could be said of weakness and in the Cartel game if a competitor looked weak that was the time to attack him and take what they controlled as your own. A turf war at this point would undermine the strides and efforts that the Juarez Cartel had been making since the war with their rivals had been worked out. Any type of war cost precious money and that was the one things many in the Juarez Cartel valued above all else. Most of the people could and would be replaced if something happened to them. It was always about the money.

When Federal Law Enforcement in the US fought the Cartels they always tried to follow and target the cartel money that was moved by banks through fronts and dummy companies but it was really hard to get at. At the Border they scrutinized people coming into the US and they were now also concentrating people that were crossing into Mexico for guns, ammo and of course cash. That meant that Law Enforcement had two opportunities to put the bite on the cartels as they crossed into the US and again when they tried to move guns and cash back into Mexico. The people they arrested, the illegal’s that they sent back and the drugs they seized were quickly replaced by other people and more drugs and the cycle began anew. Drug seizures and arrests were great but the money in big enough chunks was the thing that could break the cartel’s back. The cartels needed money; it was as simple as that.

Juarez

The three men from Team 3 stood in front of Grimm as he decided how to handle what had happened earlier. Managing people was sometimes a chore and as he prepared to counsel them or sent them back to US he was determined to give the men the benefit of the doubt if he could. “Do you know why your whole team is here?”

The leader of the team a man they called Chief nodded. “We had a few beers at lunch earlier today while we tracking some of Lee’s guys. It was my call and I take full responsibility. As leader of the team it’s my job to determine what steps need to be taken to keep us invisible. While what happened is somewhat inconsistent with stated guidelines I stand by my decision. I do apologize for the departure. I can assure you that it was just two beers each.”

Grimm nodded at Chief. He had determined that he would give each man the choice of their punishment. “Here’s where we’re at. I know you guys are an effective team and I don’t want to break you up. That being said you did violate guidelines you knew were in place for the protection of the unit. The guidelines are tried and true and there is a reason we adhere to them a majority of the time and that is that they mostly work. I’m responsible for every aspect of this operation and I’m unhappy about your little happy hour. So, if any of you aren’t happy here I’ll release you and you’ll be paid off and will receive one half of the divided bonus you originally agreed to. We might be able to take down a cash house so the bonus might be pretty big. Or you can stay and accept being docked two days pay. If you need to talk among yourselves you can step down the hall and speak in private.”

Chief looked Grimm in the eye. “Grimm we understand we are doing important work here and have no intention of disappointing you again. We will accept the punishment, it’s more than fair.”

Grimm spoke as he looked at each man to reinforce his determination that the rules and guidelines be followed at all times. He also wanted them to understand that if there was a deviation that they better have a very good reason for it. “The matter is now closed and this was your one warning so no more mistakes. Chief can I have a word please?”

Chief nodded as the other two men left Grimm’s room. They were high achieving type-A personalities that had thrived in the world of Special Operations. The men were all brave, smart, cunning, strong and tactically proficient and Grimm was relieved that they had elected to stay the course and remain in the program. He had seen their service files and worked with each of the men that he had just dressed down and they were a credit to themselves and their country.

Grimm waited until the men were down the hallway. He sat and pointed to the seat next to Chief. “Look I know you guys are tight but they look up to you and it’s important that you toe the line. No more ignoring the guidelines. We clear?”

The man in charge of Team 5 nodded. “It won’t happen again Grimm. We were trying to blend in and I went with drunken ex-pat. Sorry for breaking the rules. It won’t happen again.”

Grimm sat and looked at the man in front of him. “Ordering beer and acting like you’re drinking them I’m fine with but that didn’t turn out to be the case here. I admire and appreciate the job you guys did today. I’ve read the report from today’s missions and there is no doubt in my mind that you and your team mates are highly trained and tirelessly committed professionals. We can’t afford to lose anyone so let’s make sure we don’t have another conversation like this one. You’ve been around so I expect you to understand when you need to go off the playbook and improvise. From everything I understand this might not have been a great time to get creative.”

The man they called Chief stared at Grimm. “I agree. We ended up drawing some attention to ourselves that was negative. So we ended up putting three locals in the hospital. I understand that this isn’t a resort town that thrives on tourist dollars and ignores the bad actions of the tourist for the sake of tourism money. The cartel owns this place and operates this town like a miniature fiefdom. Have you heard back from the video people? Are we clear or did they get pictures of us?”

Grimm leaned back. “You should be fine. All they found was some grainy images and they erased them from the system. You mentioned that you wiped down the victims with the sheets before you left. What are the chances that you left DNA?”

Chief shifted in his chair. “We had 3 minutes and I think we got it all. No one was cut so the only way they’d get a DNA sample would be skin cells or sweat and without obvious blood stains chances are the locals wouldn’t swab for trace. Can we monitor the situation at all or is that out of our control?”

Grimm stood to indicate that the meeting was drawing to a close. “We have people scanning reports from the police and the military and looking for anything that mentions the incident. Also a program is looking for keywords in voice, text and e-mail communications and if they turn anything up we’ll deal with it. We should be OK for something this minor but the more injury we inflict the greater the chances of the locals taking an interest in us and that would be very bad.”

The Chief stood. “I can assure you we have no intention of standing here again because we made a mistake.”

Grimm stood. “Good, now get back to work. We’re going to be busy for the next few days.”

“You’re the boss. Be nice to get some work done.” Chief turned and headed out the door and into the hallway.

Grimm sat back down at his desk thinking the man was correct. Things were coming to a close. He was feeling it and looking forward to the next part of the operation. If they could find the person or people that had been causing trouble in the US they could eliminate them and that network and pullback to the US. After that with what they now knew the techs and the authorities on the ground could wage an effective campaign against the Juarez Cartel from the streets and their computers located in high security office space inside the US. Grimm was again drawn into considering technology. Every day it was changing more and more of the dangerous game Grimm had dedicated his life to. Grimm swung the door of his mini fridge open and pulled a bottle from it. He opened a bottle of the orange soda his friend from Israel had always drunk. He paused as the syrupy sweet concoction slid down his throat remembering another man dedicated to protecting his country and the sacrifice he had made to insure its safety and continued prosperity.

[alangator]

Fuller Part 53


The next morning after a light breakfast Grimm grabbed Lep and headed out in the van to pick up a passenger that was not a STAG team member. The stranger reacted to the signal that indicated that Grimm and Lep were his ride by nodding and slipping into the rear of the van through the side door after maneuvering two large hard sided suitcases through it. As they pulled out from the side entrance of a bus station he spoke to the men in the front seats. Both men noticed that his English had an unfamiliar accent.

“I am King. You are to take me to my workspace? I have much to do.”

Grimm turned around to see the man’s face more clearly. He was white and had the body and posture of a man of 40 or so. His brown hair was slightly shaggy and unremarkable. Grimm assumed he was wearing a wig of some sort and colored contacts. If you saw this man on the street most people would have a hard time describing him he was that plain. “I’m Grimm and this is Lep. We’ll have you there within an hour or so. First we need to clear the back and then find a nice quiet place to search you and your stuff for hitchhikers.”

The man in the back nodded to himself and because of the angle Grimm hadn’t seen it. “Of course. Better safe than sorry. I didn’t know what you had at the workspace so I brought my own bang and a few specialty tools. I’m very peculiar about the quality of the materials that I work with. I only use supplies and components that I trust 100%. I got to town two days ago and acquired all the materials that I need to get the job done. Yesterday while I was gathering supplies a Russian Special Forces guy tracked me for a few hours. Anything I should know?”

Grimm hated trusting strangers and this guy was 100% mercenary so he gave a version of the story that had elements of the truth in it. “The Cartel knows they have been losing people and are tracking strangers that fit a profile. Mainly that means a guy like you. A White guy in Juarez looking for explosives is either part of the team that is responsible for their losses or is the guy that is causing trouble in the US. So either way you popped up on their radar. How’d you shake him?”

The man they were to call King paused. “I killed him and stuck him in the trunk of a stolen car. Then I tracked down the guy that sold me the bang and added his body to the trunk before incinerating both men and the vehicle in a parking garage without cameras.”

Grimm considered what King had done and was not too happy about it. King seemed to have a kill first and ask questions later mentality and sometimes that could be dangerous. Grimm surmised that the Russian had been one of the ex-Spetsnaz mercenaries that Madrago had brought into town recently. The people in Belize might have been able to acquire information from the Russian despite the fierce reputation of the operators from Spetsnaz. They were said to be one of the toughest groups of operators in the world and were rumored to be highly trained in defeating even barbaric interrogation techniques. People could resist interrogation efforts from a man. But the team in Belize had the newest generation of drugs used to enhance the interrogation experience. These new drugs were very effective and often took the choice of not reveling anything from the subject. “I need an address of where the actions took place and a description of the vehicle you used and we’ll scrub the video sources in the area.”

King paused. “Soon technology will render us all obsolete. It will all be satellites and Predator strikes.” He pulled something from his shirt pocket. “I have written the information down for you already.” He reached up to hand Grimm a piece of paper.

Grimm took the scrap of paper and examined the information it contained. When he had taken the paper he noticed that King wore form fitting flesh colored gloves. They weren’t latex or leather but a realistic looking silicone that was similar to what was used for state-of-the-art prosthetics. Grimm looked at the notes and wasn’t surprised. The small block printing would be very hard to match to anything and Grimm thought it might have been written with his left or non-dominate hand since the slant of the writing seemed like that of a lefty. Grimm had to appreciate the man’s commitment and professionalism. “I’ll forward the information to my people and they’ll take care of what they can.”

The rest of their ride passed in silence. The whole time Grimm felt the man watching him and felt the attention to detail the man recorded for future reference. It was if King was planning Grimm’s death and getting the chance to watch his target was the most fascinating thing that he had to do. Grimm didn’t like the feeling at all. The man had been referred but it made Grimm wander how many men King had met like this and later killed at the behest of unseen people operating behind the scenes.

Lep found an out of the way alley and Grimm searched all of King’s belongings after donning latex gloves. As he patted king down and scanned him for electronic emissions King looked him in the face.

“You felt it didn’t you?”

Grimm glanced at King briefly. “You sizing me up? Trying to understand the best way to end my life. Yes, I know you. Like they say it takes one to know one.”

King almost smiled. “Yes they do say that don’t they. I was not paid to kill you or any of your people and I’m no threat to you. It’s a little exercise I do to keep sharp. I never assume that after I complete my work that my employer won’t decide to kill me instead of paying me. It would be cleaner than someone knowing who paid for a killing or why the killing was done.”

Grimm stared King in the eyes. “Not many people are aware of what we are doing or where we are holed up. If I thought for a second you were here to kill me one or both of us would be dead by now. So how about you take in the depressing yet interesting surroundings that are Juarez Mexico. If you’re like me a place like this is truly fascinating. So much death and misery surround us and it’s all about greed, power and money.”

King nodded. “In a few ways the cartels are like us. They trust only their own and are distrustful of outsiders. The price of being wrong or making a mistake can be torture followed by death. It can be the same for men like us.”

Grimm was finished with his search and was sure King was clean of any tracking or listening equipment. “Thanks for reminding me. We can head in now.”

The men headed back to the van and Lep slid his pistol into its holster on his hip. This King guy was seriously creepy. Like the Grim Reaper creepy and Lep wanted to be away from him as quickly as possible.

When they arrived at the warehouse all the other operators had been told to stay in their rooms until the bomber was safely in his part of the warehouse. Grimm didn’t want King to be able to identify anyone other than Lep and himself. Prior to King’s arrival all trash had been removed and the warehouse had been sprayed with the chemicals that were corrosive to DNA. Rosie took Ales and she and Bongo spent time driving around Juarez timing escape routes that they might be using in the next few days. Grimm had been worried that the dog might have sensitivity to the harsh chemicals that they had used so he found a way for the distraction to be useful to the team. Grimm wasn’t taking a chance the man would take samples and have DNA evidence of their involvement in this thing.

Grimm walked King to a secluded area of the warehouse and showed him to his room. The 20 by 30 foot area hadn’t been used by STAG people and had been outfitted for their guest with a workbench, a fridge and three cases of water. An adjoining bathroom meant the man could work without having to leave the room he was assigned to. Since King would be doing some cutting and welding Grimm had given him a room that had its own windows that could be opened when needed. The room was also away from the main living area of everyone else so the noise wouldn’t bother them.

“I think we have everything you need. For operational security I ask that you stay in this room. If you need anything pick up the phone and ask for Lep or me. He’ll bring your meals to you or we can stock the fridge and bring in a microwave. Questions?”

King stared at the room happy the electrical looked adequate for his needs and the plasma cutter and MIG welder were brand new. King truly loved tools and equipment. When possible he depended on only the best he could get. “I can do sandwiches, it might be the easiest. I’ll need to work through the night and room service isn’t my style. My main concern right now is good equipment and reliable power. I have some design and assembly work to do and I need good power.”

Grimm understood. “The electrical is good and should meet all your needs. It was gone through by a master electrician before we arrived so there shouldn’t be a problem. The other equipment is brand new and from good manufacturers. How long before you’re ready?”

King looked at the room and thought a second. “The devises will be assembled and ready for testing tonight before I sleep. If you want you can see the car operate tomorrow morning. Will that be soon enough?”

Grimm nodded pleased with the answer. “That sounds good. Now tell me what you want on your sandwiches and I’ll chase those down for you before I get back to work.”

King replied. “I’d like turkey on wheat if you have it and some mayo or mustard. Maybe 4 big sandwiches or so to get me started, I didn’t get to eat today.”

Grimm replied to the order. “Give me 15 minutes and I’ll get those ready for you. Anything else come to mind?”

King looked over the room again. He knew it was his prison and he was fine with that. That feeling he sometimes felt that something was wrong wasn’t in evidence and for that he was thankful. After Grimm left to get his meal King headed to the small bathroom to splash water in his face to get his blood moving. While he was in there he noticed a selection of cleaners that would erase his DNA from any surface. It was nice to be working with well funded and smart people. Anything that cut down his risk of being caught pleased him greatly. He walked out of the bathroom and placed the explosives often referred to as bang in the safest place available to him and began working.

Two hours later King had assembled both radio controlled vehicles and mocked up the explosives with children’s clay. He then tested the motors and the steering for any problems. Both vehicles and the detonators operated flawlessly.

King had engineered, built and rigged the chassis himself and it didn’t actually have a body on it. It was nothing more than a delivery devise for the 2 pounds of eastern bloc C-4 and 2 pounds of fragmented copper designed with sharp edges to increase the blast’s lethality. Grimm had been assured by King that he had run the numbers and done computer simulations and that the RC car and the beer kegs that he would rig with an additional 5 pound of C4 each meant that the mortality rate inside the building would be well over 50% with serious injuries affecting almost every occupant of the building. Grimm had been assured that damage would be mostly limited to the warehouse and collateral damage would be minimal. Titanium wire the size of a coat hanger reinforced a light weight carbon fiber frame that housed two high-output electric drive motors attached to the rear wheels in tandem so that if one failed the vehicle would still be capable of forward movement. Two custom made low profile batteries would power the motors and the controls that operated the vehicle’s steering as well as provide power for the detonator that would trigger the explosion. The RC controls of the over-sized vehicles were slightly different from what you might find in a high end hobby store. The controls used an encrypted frequency that was practically immune to jamming by equipment available to civilians regardless of how much money they had or who they found that was corrupt in the US military to divert equipment. The frequency was a proprietary one used by the US Military and no recorded instance of jamming was on record. A similar type of frequency was also used for the radio controlled detonator that would initiate the explosion. Above and below the C-4 and the outer ring of purpose designed shrapnel were two thin steel plates that would act to direct the blast in a 360 degree arc at ankle to knee level. Those not killed by the blast would suffer debilitating injuries and would hopefully die of shock or blood loss. The vehicle wasn’t fast by RC standards but it was quiet and packed a hell of a wallop.

The technician, the man known to Grimm by the name King was a mystery. Dark Voice had told Grimm that the man had been recommended by a trusted contact and was exceptionally discreet. The man that had referred King swore to Dark Voice that King was the best man the US Intelligence apparatus had access to when this type of thing was wanted or needed. In addition to being trustworthy and discreet King was also known to be secretive and a whiz with anything mechanical. Dark Voice had told Grimm that the man was rumored to have a degree in mechanical and chemical engineering from a top-flight University in the US or Europe but no one knew for sure since the man remained a mystery despite efforts by the US Intelligence community in trying to figure out who he really was and where he had come from. They did feel that in the last 10 years they had been using him that he hadn’t worked for any group or organization that fought or acted against the US or her closest Allies. What Grimm did know was that when King spoke English it imprinted on Grimm’s sub-conscious as if he had spent time in Israel or maybe South Africa. Grimm also thought he might hear a native speaker of French he just couldn’t tell and neither could the linguistics experts in the CIA or the NSA.

King had been brought to Juarez to bomb a meeting at the warehouse where the team had observed the fight to the death enjoyed by Lee and his people. The plan to bomb the warehouse meeting site was pretty simple. The phone and text intercepts told them that Lee had called a meeting at the warehouse he used for initiations and meting out punishments for tomorrow tonight. If they were able to snatch Lee tomorrow afternoon at his Country Club they would use a software program to digitally alter a voice to sound like Lee’s. They would call Lee’s head bodyguard and bump the meeting up to an earlier time and tell the bodyguard that he was visiting a lady friend that lived in one of the large homes on the golf course. Lee’s fake conversation to his people would hint at a liaison with a woman involved with maybe a General or a high ranking bureaucrat in the Juarez or Mexican government. Lee would appear to be flaunting his power by shaming a VIP by bedding his wife or a trusted mistress. The STAG people hoped that the assemblage of bodyguards waiting at the bar at the Country Club would assume that she belonged to someone important and continue to sip beer and tear through the menu of the club oblivious to Lee’s absence. The bodyguards had seen Lee do this before when he had made a special friend and didn’t think anything of it since the club boasted excellent security and everyone on the grounds and in the homes that faced the golf course had undergone a background check done by Gregg Madrago the ex-KGB Colonel that handled intelligence and counter-intelligence for the Juarez Cartel. As the meeting at the warehouse draw closer they as Lee would send a majority of his bodyguards to the meeting while some of the bodyguards waited for Lee at the country club. When the count was high enough at the meeting and the other sites were ready King would run the RC vehicle into the building and detonate it and the two beer kegs at the same time. It was fairly simple assuming they could actually snatch Lee but it required the specialized equipment King was fabricating.

Grimm could have just snatched Lee and transported him to the Belize facility and see what useful information could be drawn out of him. But Lee’s people and the black market baby dealer named Catalina in Texas were the stuff of nightmares and Grimm was determined to exact a measure of justice. Grimm felt action was called for so he called and requested some latitude from Dark Voice. Dark Voice understood what Grimm wanted to do and Grimm was happy to learn that Dark Voice supported his unorthodox recommendations. They weren’t doing this job for any other reason than to stop the problems in the US and then move on and dismantle another cartel’s operations. But sometimes emotions come into play and what they had observed and seen on poor video at the warehouse had profoundly affected both men. So King, a man that specialized in this type of operation was found and hired. Hopefully King’s talents could be put to good use.

With the remote controlled vehicles assembled and tested King turned to the task of fabricating the beer kegs. The 16 gallon stainless steel kegs required that he use a combination of a plasma cutter and a MIG welder to deconstruct and then reconstruct the kegs after he placed the C-4, shrapnel and the detonators in them. As a precaution he had Grimm acquire 10 matching kegs to insure that he had a perfect looking example after his work was done.

The precision that was required of the job was exacting and King discarded his first effort as unacceptable after he had removed the bottom of the stainless steel keg. The second effort was better as he began to get a better feel for the equipment and the process but he again discarded the work since it failed to meet his standards. King’s third and fourth efforts at removing the bottom of the kegs were almost perfection and King smiled as he washed his hands after grinding of some rough edges inside the keg. With the bottom of the keg removed he started the process extending the poppet valve to accommodate an insert that would actually now hold the beer so that the keg would be functional. King then slid a canister that would hold beer inside the kegs and attached it to the valve above. The next step was to weld a metal ring directly underneath it to hold it in place. King carefully slid the bomb into the void and switched the devise on. He then welded a piece of stainless that resembled the bottom of a keg into the bottom approximately where the original bottom had been. Then he pressure tested the new vessels and they held. Then he went to the boxes of items that had been supplied to him by Grimm. King used a home brewing kegging system available over the internet to pump 11 gallons of fresh beer into each keg. The then set the kegs on a portable scale he had brought with him. After consulting a chart he added another 53 ounces of beer to one keg and 82 ounces to the other and admired his handiwork.

King’s keg weighted exactly the same weight as any other 16 gallon keg sold in the US. If a delivery driver carted either keg into a bar, restaurant or liquor store the driver would never feel the difference because the weight was that close. King loved the intricate details of what he did. It was one of the things that made him so efficient at his work.

He called down to Lep who came and got the kegs with a two wheeler and took them to a make shift cooler they had rigged. The kegs would be covered in ice so that when they were delivered they would be ice cold.

Both radio controlled vehicles were done, tested and ready to go. As were both beer kegs. King was as prepared for tomorrow as he was going to get. So he laid down for a short nap after he set the alarm clock that had been provided to him for 5am. Since tomorrow might be a busy day he wanted an early start. King was a little tired from his recent days of travel and then the work he had done since arriving in Juarez so he was glad for some sleep. He had found that he was able to function perfectly for up to 5 days with no more than 4 hours of sleep a day. Last night after disposing of the bodies of the Russian and the arms merchant he had gotten 9 hours of sleep so as long as they wrapped this up in the next 3 or 4 days he was good with only a limited amount of sleep tonight.