Chapter 45

The next morning, I get Jane to take me to Radio Shack to get a few supplies, then I am back in my hotel room putting the equipment together. For lunch, we have room service. As we are finishing up our meal, the phone rings. I answer it, “Hello?”

“Trent, It’s Jason.”

“What’s your answer?”

“We’re in. So, what is the plan for the guns?”

“Not over the phone.” Meet me at Humpty’s for supper.”

“6”

“Works for me.”

“See you then.”

“Bye.”

I hang up and tell Gun, “It looks like we have our patsy. We will all need to go for supper at 6. I will need one of you in the restaurant with me and the other taking pictures. I need his face, his vehicle and license plate as a minimum. Here is a disposable camera. There is a 1 Hour Photo at the mall.”

Convincing Jason to pull off the next part of the plan is the only tricky part. Hopefully, playing to his ego will work. I am a bit nervous, but I have gone over everything numerous times, so I turn the TV on and try to distract myself as I finish putting together the gear. When I am finished, I head next door to Jane’s room and knock on the door.

“Coming.”

She opens the door and lets me in. I enter her room and tell Jane, “You need to learn how to use this.” I hand her what looks like the handset from an old phone with a rotary dial on it. The wire dangles with two small alligator clips.

“What is it for?”

“We need to get the police to leave town so that Jason and his crew can rob the police station.”

“How do we do that with this?”

“It is easier than you think. There is no 911 up here. At night there are only two police officers on duty, patrolling the city. This police station is responsible for everything from here to 300 km up the highway. You are going to head north. About 45 minutes out of town, there is a restaurant on the left-hand side of the road. It has the best moose burgers you will ever taste. You are going to go on the roof and connect this to the phone line. I made it easy for you. This clip has green tape on it, so connect it to the green wire. This one is black. Connect it to the black wire. Ignore all the others.

“Then phone this number. It is the number to the Fort Grand RCMP. There is only one person in that building, and he is a civilian that is there to look after the prisoners. The call will be routed to the Deer Lake detachment. You will talk quietly and pretend to panic, saying that there is somebody in your home and you escaped to the restaurant to make the call. Let them know the person is armed, and you are afraid for your life because he seems to be looking for your husband, who isn’t home. He went to Fort Nelson for the evening, visiting his cousin. The cop will want to keep you on the phone. After 15 minutes, disconnect and get out of there.”

“Won’t they just phone the police captain and wake up some more police officers?”

“Mike will take care of cutting his phone line. Deer Lake doesn’t have any other numbers, and the one guy in the Fort Grand station doesn’t have access to the phone list. Deer Lake will send a car or two, and it is an hour drive to Fort Grand.”

“Mike’s guy will cut the phone lines to the police station so the civilian can’t phone anybody, and the police will not know anything is wrong until their armoury is cleaned out. Jason will have just shy of an hour to have his crew out of there.”

We spend the rest of the time going over the specifics, only stopping when Gun knocks on the door to let us know it is time for us to meet Jason. In the vehicle, Gun informs Jane that all she needs to do is to sit and watch.

We get to Humpty’s a few minutes early, and I head in first with Jane a minute behind, so we don’t appear to be together.

I don’t particularly like the food here. I chose it because it isn’t a place that Jason or his Filipino friends frequent, so there is little chance of anybody connecting me with him. Even so, Jason is a bundle of nerves as he walks in. He doesn’t see me at first. I raise my arm so he can see me. By the time he has reached my table, he has looked everybody in the dining room in the eye. He hesitates to sit down, so I quietly instruct him, “Sit down for fuck sakes and relax. We haven’t done anything. We are just two friends connecting over supper.”

He slides into my booth, across from me.

“Look at the menu and order something. My treat.”

I wait until we are done ordering before I begin.

“How many guys do you have?”

“27.”

“Good, the more, the merrier. We should be able to get weapons for at least that many.”

“Where are the guns?”

“In the police station.”

“NO WAY...”

I cut him off, “Not so loud. Do you want to get us caught.”

“We ain’t breaking into no cop shop.”

“Relax. At night there are two cops on duty. There is one civilian in the police station, and he doesn’t have access to the basement where the armoury is. My guys have the risky part. They will create a distraction and draw the cops out of town.

“What you need to do is first thing tomorrow morning, rent a moving van from Deer Lake. Pay cash for it. Park it in the ICBC Claim Centre, beside your grandma’s house. Remove the licence plate, so it’s harder to track you. In it, place two large bolt cutters to cut the locks on the gun racks. They are high-quality locks, so you need the biggest bolt cutters you can find. You need four pry-bars. They need to be at least 3 feet long to pry open the gun lockers. Most important, you need a cutting torch. The door into the basement is steel, and so is the door into the armoury.

“You will get a call at your Grandmother’s between 2 and 3 in the morning. From that time, you will have one hour to complete your task. Move the van to the entrance to the cop’s parking lot. You will park beside the basement entrance. Use the cutting torch to cut the door open. At the bottom of the stairs, turn left, and you are facing the armoury door. Use the torch on that door too.

“Once you are inside, grab everything, and I mean everything. If they are anything like the military, they remove the part of the weapon that holds the firing pin before they put it away. What may look like a useless piece of metal may be an essential part. Not all of the firing pins will be there. Don’t worry, they are at another location, and we will be picking them up for you.

“Once the van is loaded, drive it to a buddy’s place and unload it. DO NOT SPEED. Put the plates back on, and the following morning, return the van.”

“That is our part. What are you doing during all of this? I mean, we shouldn’t have to take all the risks.”

“The police chief and the police stations need their phone lines cut. You will not see it happen because the line is at the far end of the building. We need to steal the missing firing pins, and at the same time, we need to be an hour out of town making a phone call, so the police leave town in a hurry to rescue a woman who is being hunted. You have the easy risk-free job, so stop your whining, or I will find somebody with balls enough to do the job.”

“No need to get your panties in a knot. We got this.”

“What is your cut in all of this going to be, anyway?”

“25% ... Just so you don’t forget, I wrote it all down for you. I expect you to give me a call by noon tomorrow, stating that you are ready to go. Then somebody will phone your grandma in the early hours of the morning to let you know you are safe to proceed.”

The note I give him is in the handwriting of a temp I hired last month.

We quickly finish our meal, pretending to be friends and entertaining one another with small talk. After he leaves, I enter the foyer between the restaurant and gas station and use the payphone to make a call.

Somebody answers, “Hello.”

“It’s me. How many men do you have?”

“Including those watching your friends, I have three plus myself.”

“Good. I have some assignments for you tomorrow night. Meet me, same place and time as last time.”

Mike doesn’t answer. He just hangs up the phone.

When I am done on the phone, Jane is waiting for me, and we head out to the SUV, where Gun is waiting. I ask him, “Did you get the pictures?”

“Not a problem. This is your last chance, kid. After you meet with Mike in the morning, there is no backing out. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. If either of you wants out, knowing a bunch of people will be killed, I won’t hold it against you.”

Jane states, “We have come this far. Might as well finish the job.”

Gun says, “It’s not like we haven’t done similar things for our nations.”

The next morning I meet Mike in the park again. This time, I just hand him an envelope with his instructions and leave. We don’t even say hi.

After the meet, we head back to the hotel to have breakfast and hang out. Right at 1200, the phone to my room rings and I answer, “Hello.”

Jason is on the other end of the line, saying, “We are ready.”

“Good, everything is a go. I’ll phone when you are to proceed.”

The only thing left to do is install the radio in the rental vehicle. Once that is done, the three of us settle in for a nap. It should be a long night.

For supper, we head north to scout the restaurant. I don’t want there to be any surprises. There are only two buildings in the middle of nowhere, the restaurant/general store and the owner’s residence. The restaurant/general store building is bigger than you would expect, but it is the last such place for more than an hour’s drive.

After we take our seats, Jane comments, “This place sure is busy.”

I inform her, “It tends to be at least this busy during meal hours. It may be in the middle of nowhere, but it is surrounded by Indian reservations, Mennonite colonies and oil fields. It is also the only good place to eat between Fort Nelson and Fort Grand. That is a four-hour drive.”

Looking at the menu Gun comments, “I have never seen a restaurant serve moose, bear or bison.”

“I don’t know where they get their moose or bear. I don’t think it is legal to serve wild game. The majority of all domestic bison are all within two hundred miles of here. I don’t think there are any wild bison left.”

Neither Jane nor Gun had bison before, so we decide to each get a bison burger. Next to moose, it is my favourite meat. As is typical of this place, the meal is incredible. It looks like some third-rate greasy spoon, but the food they serve is spectacular.

On the way out, we sit in the Suburban for a few minutes, looking the place over. Jane needs a way onto the roof to tap into the phone line, but she can’t use a ladder because we don’t want anybody to stop and see what is going on. There isn’t much traffic around here at 2 am, but we don’t want to leave anything to chance.

From here, it is just a matter of waiting. At 1 am, Jane heads north in the rental car. At 0130, Gun and I head to Tompkins Truckstop, 10 km north of town. Any cop leaving town to get to the restaurant will have to pass by the truck stop. We park beside the truck bays to the shop. It is a place that people would expect a vehicle to be parked for the night, but out of sight of the gas station, so the attendant won’t suspect anything.

At 0150, Jane is on the radio saying, “Mother Bear, in position. Climbing the hill now.”

We chose the wording of her message so it would sound like a trucker talking to her friends. There aren’t many women truckers up here, especially in 1990, but she sounds like an experienced trucker, so anybody hearing it won’t question things.

Gun answers back, “Ten-four, over and out.”

That just means message received and end of conversation.

Now we wait. Jane is supposed to make her call to the police at 0200. We have no way to communicate with her while she is on the roof. In 1990 any radio big enough to reach such distances would be impractical for her to carry onto the roof. She must have done her job because at 0202 a police car speeds by with lights and siren on.

Ten minutes later, the second cop still hasn’t passed by.

Gun asks, “How do we call this off?”

“We can’t.”

“Are you telling me that we don’t have a way out of this mess?”

“Oh, no. We are covered. Let’s say that the one cop stays in town. So far, everything going on will look like kids getting into mischief. The IC (Person on the top of the command structure) of the police station had his phone line cut. A little more serious is that the police station itself had the phone lines cut. Then somebody broke into the cadet locker and stole the 22s and the breechblocks for the C1A1s in the police armoury. No harm has been done. The cop may show up at the high school, but Mike and his guys can handle one cop.”

“So, what is the damage?”

He asks that just as we hear the police car coming towards us. It is 0216, and the town is now void of any police presence. It will be another 10 minutes before the school’s burglar alarm goes off. The Deer Lake RCMP will receive that alarm and send somebody, but they are an hour away and will not be in a hurry, figuring it is just a bunch of kids. They don’t know about the parts of assault rifles stored in the school.

Mike’s team has it easy. At 0200, they cut the phone lines to the officer’s house in command of the Fort Grand police detachment. At 0215, they cut the phone lines to the police station. From there, they head to the Sr high school. It is where the local cadet corps meets.

In the gym, on top of the bleachers, there is a door to a small room. It is the storage room for the cadet corps. In it is a gun locker containing 3 Lee-Enfield .22 conversion rifles and the breechblocks for most of the assault rifles in the police station. There are also a half dozen cases of ammunition for the assault weapons and one case for the .22s.

Gun drives us to the school to wait for Mike and his crew. We aren’t there to help them. We just want to be sure that they are there, meaning they have cut the cop shop’s phone lines.

When we see them, we head to Humpty’s. It is only four blocks away and is the closest accessible payphone. Gun fills up with gas as I make the call.

I dial, and James answers, “Hello.”

All I say is, “Go,” then I hang up.

After Gun has paid for the gas, we head back to the school. The van that Mike and his crew arrived in is gone, and there is graffiti on the side of the gym with things like, ‘Cadets are gay,” written in large letters. I never asked him to do the graffiti, but it is a nice touch. The school break-in will look a lot less like it is connected to the police break-in, especially if they trashed the place.

As we are pulling away, over the radio, we hear, “Mother Bear here. Package delivered, and I am coming home.”

Gun replies, “Roger, over and out.”

She got out just in time. At the speed the first cop was going, he would be arriving at the restaurant shortly.

Gun and I drive by the police station but don’t stop. The van is in place, and nobody is in sight. I am a bit surprised by this because they have already gotten through the first door. The guy operating the cutting torch must know what he is doing.

There is nothing more Gun and I can do, so we head to the hotel and go to bed.

In the morning, I turn on the TV to the start of the local news. The usual preamble to start the show is cut short, and the camera focuses on one of the news anchors. Above her left shoulder is a picture of the Fort Grand police station.

The anchorwoman begins, “Last night an off-duty police officer was shot dead outside the Fort Grand Police station. We don’t have a lot to go on at this time. For some reason, both on-duty police were called out of town. Normally what happens when both on duty cars are called out of the area, the local police chief is called, and he wakes an on-call police officer to come on duty. For some reason Cpl. John Hermon was called instead. We don’t know why he went to the police station, but once he showed up, a shootout erupted. During the ensuing gunfight, the Cpl was killed. At this time, we do not know who the perpetrators are, nor do we know how many men were involved.”

I kick Gun’s bed and wake him up. “Get up. We need to meet with Mike to give us the stuff I had him steal for us. We’ll eat breakfast when we get back. This time Mike has us meet 7 km south of town overlooking the Peace River Valley. It is the perfect spot for dealings such as we are conducting. There are three road exits, and if things go wrong and the police block all three, you could flee on foot. There is no way somebody could follow you in a car, and there are so many places you could come out of the forest, it isn’t funny. To top it all off, the forest is dense enough they can’t use helicopters to search for you. I’m surprised that Mike knows of the place. If you’re not a local, it isn’t easy to find.

We get there, and Mike is waiting for us in the van he used last night. As usual, there is no greeting, he just gets right to it, “There was something you left off your list.”

“Shit, the magazines, I hope you brought them anyway.”

“Ya, we got them. I figured there would be no sense stealing breechblocks if there were no magazines.”

We load the stuff in the back of the SUV before I continue talking business. “If all goes well, we will conduct the raid.” I hand Mike a small envelope then let Gun continue. He is the one that planned the raid, so I figure it is only right that he explains it to Mike. I tune them out and look at the spectacular view, reminiscing about the few good memories I have of the area. I spent a lot of time avoiding people wandering these hills and conversing with the wildlife.