Chapter 10

Governor’s Garden Party

For the first time in nearly a year Lee is wearing something other than his work uniforms as he’s in good casual dress for the garden party.

Lee is walking from the temporary parking lot in a farm field of the Governor’s family farm to the area behind the main house set up for the fundraising Garden Party. He’s a little early as it’s only mid-morning of a late April Saturday and most people are expected to arrive around noon as that’s when the hot food will be put out. However, Lee hopes to talk to a few people before things get too crowded and busy.

When Lee reaches the official boundary of the security cordon around the property he has to show the security guards his invitation, weapon, and his Federal Concealed Carry Permit. Although they argue about his right to keep the pistol while at the event they end up having to let him in with the handgun due to the security classification of his permit. That makes him one of only three guests carrying handguns at the event.

Soon after he walks into the event area Lee walks up to the Governor who’s busy with some last minute issues and says, “Good morning, I’m Lee Taylor, Governor. I’ve received some interesting information you should be aware of.”

While shaking hands with Lee the Governor tilts his head to the side a little, obviously listening to the radio in his ear. After a moment he smiles as he says, “I knew your face was familiar, but the name didn’t register. How is your grandfather?”

“He’s doing well, but has some business issues he has to personally attend to. Which is why he asked me to attend here for him.”

“It’s good to see he has his priorities right. Now what is it you need to tell me, Lee?”

“I’ve heard from two sources and Grandfather has heard from a third source that the state party leadership intends to nominate another person for the position of governor in the next election instead of supporting your re-election. They have in mind a younger man who’s a close friend of the new state party secretary. One of my sources says they don’t intend to tell you until the last day when they nominate the other man and leave you with insufficient time to nominate as an independent candidate. I’m told part of the reason is your refusal to perform any actions you see as being corrupt behavior and one of the new large donors wants the state to approve some actions which are of doubtful legal backing to give them a significant financial benefit at the expense of others.”

“I’ve heard some rumors, but no hard evidence yet. I take it you and your grandfather believe this information!”

“Yes, Sir. The sources are ones we trust. We’ve decided to withhold all donations until after the nominations are in, and we’ll only support you for governor. We’re also telling everyone we know of what we suspect and what we’re doing about it. Thus there will be a significant shortage in donations until it’s clear what’s happening with the nominations. I think you should suggest everyone you know to take a similar action.”

“That sounds like a good idea, and it will mean the funds go where they want them to go. I’ll mention the issue to everyone I can. Thank you for telling me what you’ve learned.”

“Another aspect to keep in mind is that Grandfather and I will make the same total of donations from our companies. Thus, if you have to be an independent nominee the amount of monies from us will be larger as we’ll redirect what we would normally have given the party for the other candidates to go to your campaign. We think this will make up for what you’ll lose from the party coffers.”

“Thank you. I’m sure I’ll need it if the party leadership dumps me.” They chat for a little longer before Lee moves on to talk to other people.

Two other people at the garden party Lee speaks to about the funding issue are Frank Morrow and Nick Franks. They both agree to use the same strategy Lee and Randolph are using to support the Governor.

While eating the finger foods provided Lee takes time to speak with many of the people at the garden party. While many of them are new to him there are also many he already knows. At one point he’s talking to a group of Federal Congressmen he’s introduced to by a Senator he knows. The group also includes a number of state legislators. They discuss many issues while snacking on the foods available.

After a suitable period of mingling Lee is thinking about leaving as he wants to return to the sorority before sunset. He knows the trip back will be a bit longer than it needs to be as he’ll be going out of his way to avoid having to drive through Riverside, so he’ll have to cross the river in another county. Thus the drive will have a segment where he’ll be going east before going south instead of south-east through Riverside. This is due to The Kelly clan using their people in Riverside to cause trouble for the people from the east side of the river. This is causing more trouble in Riverside as it means people avoid going there, which leads to less business being done there, which reduces the county taxes.

At three-thirty in the afternoon Lee is walking down the driveway of the Governor’s house as it curves around the house to the front. When he walks around the corner of the house he sees the two security guards checking a group of five men a little in front of a large black SUV with another man standing beside it. The SUV driver and four of the men look like typical Secret Service men to guard the well dressed fifth man who looks familiar to Lee, but he can’t quite place him despite his good memory for faces.

However, when the man looks up at Lee and frowns as if he doesn’t quite recognize Lee the change in facial expression brings his face into full focus and recognition for Lee, and he’s not happy with the result.

The group of men are on Lee’s left as they’re in the driveway center and Lee is on the right of the driveway heading to the temporary parking lot in the field to the right. The situation is good luck for Lee as it allows him to draw his pistol from the concealed holster in his right pocket in a way the men can’t see what he’s doing. Lee keeps walking toward the cars while keeping an eye on the group in the driveway.

Lee is almost level with the group when the well dressed man’s hand moves from his side toward his left belt. Lee is sure he’s going for a handgun so he turns while bringing his own handgun up as he yells, “Goodbye, Juggler, you traitor.”

With his yell all of the other men turn to Lee, and on seeing the gun in his hand they all go for their guns. Lee starts with the well dressed man by placing a round in his forehead while he takes two rapid steps to the right as he shifts aim. His second target, the SS type nearest Lee has his gun out when Lee’s bullet takes off the back of his head. Lee had aimed at his ear, but he moved. Everyone is now moving in some way.

The SS type on the far side gives the security guard beside him a hard shove into the other guard with his right arm while his left hand is rising with a pistol in it. The first guard stumbles into the other and both are falling to the ground as Lee’s third shot takes out the man who shoved the guard, it’s another forehead shot as Lee wants to preserve the faces but knows they’ll have on body-armor. That’s three down and three left.

The last two of the first five are now shooting at Lee and the driver is still bringing his gun up as Lee jerks back to his left. The two men with their guns up have hardly moved beyond turning to face Lee better. He fires his fourth round at the same time as they do. His target loses the top of his head at the same time incoming rounds hit him in the chest to make him stagger. Lee is knocked off balance and falling backward from the two hits as he moves to the fifth target and they both fire again. The fifth man is now moving to the side and Lee’s correction for the move isn’t as good as it could be, but it’s enough to take off the side of his head at the same time as Lee is hit in the left arm. He turns to the driver and takes aim at him. Both fire at once. Lee has no idea where the driver’s round went, but the driver loses the top of his head.

Lee is now lying on the ground and his left arm hurts. He puts his gun away, rolls over, and uses his right arm to help him get up. The two security guards are getting up off of the ground at the same time as Lee is so they point their guns at him at the same time as he activates his cell phone on a speed dial number. The guards see he’s no longer armed so they relax a bit. Lee’s phone is answered and he says, “Extension three, four,” and waits for the transfer. Then he says, “Omega Prime for The Major, urgent.” One of the guards raises his eyebrows at what he hears and he puts his gun away while waving for his partner to do the same.

Another security guard races around the side of the building, so Lee tells him, “Tell the Governor to keep everyone back there for now. We need the Sheriff and his Crime Scene people as a team of assassins just made a fatal mistake.” He glances at the other two guards, gets a nod from one, turns, and goes around the back while getting his cell phone out to make a few calls. Lee turns to the other two guards, “Can you please take high resolution images of their faces and identity documents as we need to quickly send them off for checking.” One guard nods and gets a digital camera out as he walks to the dead men.

Lee’s phone answers with a man saying, “Dallas.”

A grinning Lee says, “Debbie. You really should have your challenge writer investigated as even I know where he got that one.”

“Yeah, he does have a weird sense of codes. Now what’s up Oppie.” When Lee calls in with his Omega Identity Code he abbreviates it to O P and calls him Oppie.

Lee responds, “I’m sure you know I’m at the Governor’s garden party. I’m putting in a claim for the bounty on ’Juggler’ Jones and his hit team. They’re bleeding all over the Governor’s drive right now. All head shots so they won’t be recovering. I got Jones, Decker, Murray, Johnston, and Wells as well as an extra they had as their driver.”

“Oppie, how can you be so sure. We’ve no photos on them as their files went missing at the same time as they did.”

“I’ve met them twice before. Also, I know where there are copies of their files as they were two months before they went missing. I’ll get them to you when I can organize it. Right now I’m having someone take photos of their IDs and faces to send you so you can start an investigation as to how they had valid Secret Service IDs.”

“Valid SS IDs. I don’t like that. OK, send on. I’ll get a reaction team to your location as soon as I can.” They hang up.

The guard not taking photos walks over with a first aid kit and says, “Take your coat off so I can get at your arm.” Lee does as told, then he has to take his shirt off. The guard looks at the two rounds stuck in the body-armor and adds, “I see you’re well dressed. They do say the right clothes make the man. In this case they also keep the man alive.” They chat about the event while he bandages Lee’s arm.

A few minutes later the other guard walks over with the camera and a short lead. Lee gets out his phone, plugs the lead into the camera and his phone, then transfers the photos just taken to his phone, selects a number from his contact list, then he sends the photos to the number with his ID. The photos are quickly on their way to the Pentagon.

Lee is putting his phone away again when a Sheriff’s Deputy vehicle arrives and a Deputy gets out. He stops, looks at the two guards and Lee, shakes his head, then says, “Well, Captain, what have you got here?” He’s one of the part-timers who work on Omega projects and he knows Lee is listed as a captain in the Omega hierarchy.

“There are six dead assassins, Sergeant Suzuki. Your crime scene team will need to do the evidence collecting and will probably handle most of the case. However, there’s a team coming from Wonderland to collect the bodies for them to autopsy. This is Juggler Jones and his team I just took out of service. But keep the identities off of the comms systems, please.”

“OK, Captain. I’ll call it in as six dead and one wounded so they’ll keep the ambulance coming.” He speaks into his personal radio to let his control center know what the basic situation is. After updating control he chats with Lee and the security guards to get their statements in his notes before the rest arrive.

The next to arrive is the ambulance. The paramedics check Lee’s arm and re-bandage it. However, when they want to take him to the hospital he says, “Sorry, I can’t leave until I can hand over the scene to a suitable replacement. This is not the local Sheriff’s crime scene, although we’ll use his people. This is a Federal crime scene.”

The paramedics write up their paperwork, get him to sign off on the charges to his medical insurance, tell him to see a doctor, then leave.

The Sheriff and his Crime Scene technicians arrive and Lee says, “This is a Federal Crime Scene. However, I’d like your people to do all of the forensic work, please, Sheriff. All we really want from the event is the bodies of the dead for full identification and forensics by our specialists. A special team is on its way to deal with them.”

A very unhappy Sheriff looks at Lee for a moment then turns to the Deputy and asks, “Why did you let this youngster take over the scene, Deputy Suzuki?”

“The Captain was already here and in charge, Sheriff.” The Sheriff’s eyes go wide at the rank Suzuki gives Lee. “I suspect the special team on its way is from the Army as most of the dead are military deserters.”

“Damn.” He turns to Lee, “What are you going to let us have, other than the paperwork?”

“Sheriff, all we want is a copy of your reports and the bodies. You can take the credit and everything else. For now the identities of the dead need to be kept quiet for security reasons. In a day or two you can make their names public and even claim local security people took them down. You won’t be lying as I’m a licensed security officer and I’m sort of local to the area at the moment.”

The Sheriff laughs at the last and says, “OK. I can live with that. Why the high security for a few days.”

“They had valid Secret Service IDs and we want to trace those files before they get destroyed by whoever put them into the field.”

“OK. That makes a lot of sense. Let us know when we can give out the names.”

Just then Lee’s phone rings and he answers it to hear the Major say, “Oppie, we’ve got the photos and have got copies of the files. We’re also watching the computers with the files. Can you have the locals give out their fake identities and their real ones. I want you to panic the people behind them to see what they do.”

“That’s damn quick work, Major. I’m with the Sheriff now, so I’ll tell him he’s free to release the names now. Oh, I got winged, so I’ll be taking one of your team to be my driver to get me home.” All he gets is laughter in reply before the phone disconnects. Lee turns to the Sheriff and says, “HQ says you can release their names as soon as you like. Go with their false identities today and then give out their real identities tomorrow as if it’s taken you that long to make a proper identification. That’ll upset who it is behind their mission as no one is supposed to be able to identify them now.” He then goes about pointing to the first five and giving their real names before adding, “I don’t know who this sixth person is.”

One of the Crime Scene techs says, “I don’t know the name, but I’ve seen his face in the National Crime Database as a well known driver in New York. We’ll get his name when we run his picture at the station.”

The Crime Scene techs are finished and packing up when a helicopter arrives with a sergeant and six soldiers. The helicopter lands in the large front yard and the troops get out. When the soldiers reach the group on the drive they all snap to attention and salute Lee, and he returns the salute as he recognizes them all as being from the Eighty-second and still in the service. A few minutes later they’ve the dead in body-bags on the helicopter, the Sergeant and five soldiers loaded up, and they’re lifting off to take the dead away. The Sheriff’s people are packed up and leaving while the Sheriff is letting the Governor know what’s going on as Lee heads to his pickup with the remaining soldier so he can now go home via the local hospital who are expecting him to call in to have his wound properly dealt with. Six hours later he’s back at the sorority for the night.

Follow Up Events

The doctor puts Lee on light duties until cleared by his regular doctor, so he has to have other people driving him around for a while. It takes a few weeks, but Lee does recover from his bullet wound and bruises.

In the week after the garden party Lee arranges for his Grandfather to collect a secure container and bring it to him at the sorority. Then he has Sergeant Turner visit to hand him copies of the files Lee’s mother had made many years before so Sergeant Turner can take them to the Major in Washington so they can confirm the dead assassins. With the files as a starting point the Army can locate and recreate enough other records to confirm the contents of the files Lee has, and to confirm the five dead assassins are the wanted traitors Lee says they are.

While some information is obtained from the false Secret Service files and watching them Lee isn’t informed of the outcomes of that task. He does wonder about a few unusual car accidents in the Washington area which result in the deaths of some people of doubtful loyalties.

The local Sheriff takes the media line provided by Lee, so few people know what really happened that day, which is what Lee wants.

Some months later there’s a public disagreement between the state party leadership and the Governor when on the last day possible the Governor files a nomination as an independent candidate only a few hours before the party nominates a rising young star in the left wing of the party. The split becomes very heated when the party leadership at the state and national level find over half of their long term supporters in the state provide no donations to the party at all, but direct the maximum level of donations they can legally provide to the Governor for his bid to be elected as an independent. The redirection of the donations means the state funds are only about a third of what they expected and the national funds are down by almost a fifth. They’re very unhappy when it’s made clear to them the monies were redirected due to people not liking the way the state leadership were treating the Governor.

Sheriff Serendipity

One outcome of Lee being wounded is being on light duties which has him spending a lot of his time in his office studying the security recordings from the cameras on top of the building that look at the wider area around the sorority. He has multiple monitors for this with them each having multiple views showing at once, both the current ’live’ views and the recordings from when they were first set up. He’s not looked at them as all of the security cameras are monitored by a computer program with a number of threat scenario alarms in them, and the only event to trigger the alarms was the attempt to kidnap Diana.

However, now Lee isn’t able to do any real physical work for a few weeks he’s keeping busy by looking at the videos to see if he can spot any of the criminal activity in the area he’s to keep an eye out for.

Lee plays the recordings through a program that works at forty times normal speed when there’s no activity in the camera’s view and at five times normal speed when there is activity. The speed isn’t an issue as Lee is looking for unusual trends, and when he spots something to look at he can stop it, run it back, and play it at normal speed. Thus he doesn’t waste time watching no activity times, nor does he waste time on the day to day activities of the neighbors when they’re in the camera views.

There are a number of repeat activities that look unusual to start with, but a closer examination allows him to discount them as most relate to people doing normal activities like going to the river to fish or swim.

However, there is one activity that happens on the Saturday afternoon of the first weekend of every other month that’s just visible in the side of the camera view that’s aimed to the south of Riverside. The edge of the urban area is just in one corner of the camera view and the diagonally opposite corner has part of a very poor rural road that goes to a piece of public land beside the river four miles from Riverside. The land was deeded to the town in a will with the intent of it being made into a recreational area, but the town hasn’t done anything with it in the thirty years it’s been a town property. The county would like to develop it in the way the donor wanted done, but the town council won’t let them.