Chapter 04

Warfare

During the weeks following Victor’s delivery of information Lee visits the various buildings in the reports to evaluate them. When he can work out a safe way to do so he later pays a sneak visit to install a few listening devices, cameras, and some remote controlled explosives in four of their operational buildings. Putting the devices in isn’t easy because he installs ultra small units which feed to, and are powered from, another unit via a thin cable. Thus Lee has to ensure both the device and its cable are hidden. He also has to place the control unit where he can have easy unobserved access to it later to learn what was recorded. By using such a system he knows the usual detectors used for locating listening devices won’t detect his units because most of the devices in use transmit a radio signal and it’s the radio transmission the detectors pick up. Lee manages to bug the facility used by the Drug Operation to cut, repackage, and distribute the drugs of the shipments they receive; the warehouse set up for use by the new Kidnapping Operation within the Enforcement group; the office used for the coordination of the Financial Activities; and the office used for the coordination of the Gambling Operations. Lee deemed the others as not worth the effort because there appears to be little organizational planning going on in the those buildings, other than the reports of daily events of the building itself and those based there.

Lee learns a lot of information during the first two weeks of observing the Garibaldi Organization, but the most important is how wide open the residence of Guido Garibaldi is when he goes away for three days to be at a special meeting. It’s to be at a day long meeting so he has to spend the day before it and after it driving to and from the meeting. His home will have only one member of security staff and two household staff while he’s away because he’s taking the rest of his personal security staff to the meeting with him. Lee uses the opportunity to penetrate the house to install some cameras and listening devices in Guido’s office. Due to how the residence is built he has to run the controls to a concealed microwave transmitter near the roof to feed a recorder in a tree outside of the fence.

During this time Lee learns a lot about the organization’s operations which he then uses to start planning his counter attack. One important item he learns is Ricardo is having a very hard time hiring suitable replacements he likes for those killed in the attack on Lee’s parents.

Every other evening Lee visits each bugged location to get the latest information downloads. By using voice operated recorders the time when no one is speaking isn’t noted. The full recording has a time stamp with each recording, but the time isn’t given in the audio only version Lee listens to while traveling between the recorders. While this means he gets to hear the discussions quicker it means he can’t note the time of the talk until he reviews the recording after he returns home. However, the time isn’t relevant to most of what’s recorded, so it’s not an issue.

One thing made very clear to Lee from all of the information he has is once he starts to take action he needs to be very fast or they’ll be able to regroup and be able to stop him from achieving a successful conclusion. So while the first few weeks of intelligence is very useful in working out how to attack each sub-group it’s also clear he’ll have major issues with the timing of his attacks. He can get one or maybe two groups before the rest know they’re under attack, but he needs to hit them so fast he can take out most of them before the news of the first hits reaches the rest.

Realizing he can’t get them all at once Lee decides he needs to act when he can take out the new kill team, the kidnap group, and the drug group. However, the men in the three groups rarely gather together on the same day. Lee soon confirms there is a window of opportunity to inflict serious harm on some Fridays if he acts fast enough because every other Friday morning the kill team gathers for shooting practice at a gun club Ricardo owns, and every third Friday morning the drug leaders make a major buy then the afternoon is spent preparing the drugs for distribution. Thus every sixth Friday there’s an opportunity to take out both groups within a one hour period by starting at the gun club just before the end of their practice then moving on to attack the drug lab. Wanting to get more than just the those two has Lee waiting to see if a better opportunity arises. However, one Thursday an intelligence run in his second month of watching them establishes Lee’s attack schedule for him because the kidnapping team had a meeting on Wednesday to plan a kidnapping on Friday afternoon. The recording gives the time and day of the kidnapping of a woman and her three daughters, but their names and the location aren’t mentioned. They plan to meet with a contact to hand over the victims at the warehouse in the late afternoon tomorrow.

When Lee returns home after the intelligence run he gets out a map of the city to study it while he reviews his information. Tomorrow looks to be his best chance to start his attack with the maximum damage, but even if it wasn’t the need to intercept the kidnap victims means he must act tomorrow. The schedule will be close, but Lee thinks it’s one he can meet: 12:00 to hit the kill team at the gun club, 13:15 to hit the drug factory, 16:00 to hit the kidnap team at the warehouse. The key will be taking out the kill team before they can call anyone. If he gets them all then the normal gun club staff will be making the police report when they come on duty at 13:30. The kidnap team will be committed to their plan and out of contact, or if they somehow learn of the earlier hits they’re likely to abort the kidnapping; either way, Lee saves the victims.

First Blood

From his research Lee knows when Ricardo takes his team to the gun club they travel in a minibus and enter as a group then they lock the door behind them. The entry takes five minutes with the security system turned off until after they’re in, then the security zone for the front of the building is turned on until they’re ready to leave. Lee has to be ready to enter while the system is turned off. From earlier visits to the club he knows its layout as well as how to get in and through the secure area in less time than Ricardo’s team takes to enter. Lee arrives at the club before they do, hides his electric bike in bushes at the side of the club where it won’t be seen, and he sets up to enter the gun club when they do.

Lee is hiding near the window he intends to enter by. He’s already put on a pair of latex gloves and undone the window’s latch but the alarm will go off if the window is opened while the security system is live, so he waits as he doesn’t have a keys to get in the front door or range door to access the security panels set just inside the doors. He sees their bus drive by on the road. Being at the side of the building Lee can’t see them so he has to rely on the sounds they make. A few minutes later he hears them exit the bus. A short wait then he can hear people walking on the tiled entry of the gun club. That’s Lee’s cue, so he stands up from behind the bush hiding him, takes a step to the building, slides the window up, smiles when there’s no alarm, climbs in the window, turns to close and lock the window, then quietly makes his way through the back rooms of the main area to a storeroom of the range area.

Once he’s in the storeroom Lee relaxes. This room is part of the range security zone and not the main building, so the alarm for the room isn’t on while Ricardo and his men are using the range. Lee waits until he hears them taking turns on the pistol range before he opens one of the many gun safes bolted to the walls of this room. This safe and its contents was set up for Lee by a friend of a friend who’s now overseas, so they won’t be suspected in the action. The gun can’t be traced to any of them. Lee removes the 12 gauge Atchisson Assault Shotgun from the locker, picks up the thirty-two round drum magazine, loads the magazine with number four shot shells from the box in the safe, and he locks the safe again. These three inch shells have two hundred and fifty pellets in each one. While the energy per pellet is low the number of pellets ensures a good coverage over the target area of the gun. At close range a few of the small pellets will be just as fatal as buckshot. Once the magazine is loaded Lee loads a shell in the breech then puts another in the magazine to give him a total of thirty-three rounds for the twelve men in the range. Now all Lee has to do is wait until it’s time for action, so he sits down.

At 11:50 the vibration of Lee’s phone alarm stirs him to action. He stands, takes out his phone to turn the alarm off, and returns it to his pocket before he puts on a second pair of latex gloves then he picks up the shotgun. After checking the gun is ready he carefully opens the storeroom door, peeks out, and smiles when he can see only the backs of the men at the rifle range section about twenty feet away from him. Ricardo is standing behind all of the men at the line firing at targets. Lee moves out and stays close to the back wall while he walks toward them, then he stops where he has a good line of sight on them all. He waits.

About a minute after Lee takes up his position the gunmen stop firing as they empty their magazines. They remove the magazine, put their gun down, and start to reload the magazine from the boxes of bullets they have on the counter in front of them. When the last man stops shooting Lee raises the shotgun, takes aim at the man nearest him, pulls the trigger back, and sweeps the automatic shotgun along the line of men with the gun at the same height as their heads. They all react with the sound of the first shot, but it takes time they don’t have to move out of the line of fire sweeping across them. Lee lowers his aim when the men start to drop down out of the original line of fire, but his change catches them as well.

Unlike the gunmen he hired Ricardo is slow to react to the sound of the shotgun and the sight of his men having their heads blown apart by the storm of pellets sweeping across them. Ricardo reaches into his coat to pull out his revolver at the same time as Lee sweeps the shotgun from the last of the gunmen around to target Ricardo. When Lee turns to shoot Ricardo the shotgun is about thigh high on Ricardo due to Lee lowering his aim for the last few gunmen who’d dropped down to try and get under the storm of death. Lee sweeps the gun across Ricardo’s thighs then up and across his chest at the same time Ricardo draws his gun from its holster and out from under his coat. However, he doesn’t have time to turn it toward Lee before he screams in pain as the pellets rip his thighs apart before they move up to shred his hand and forearm. The gun stops firing when it runs out of shells, but the job is done. At three hundred rounds per minute it only takes a little over six and a half seconds to fire the thirty-three rounds. Lee surveys the eleven headless bodies at the firing line and the bloody screaming mess that’s Ricardo. All of his thighs and forearms are shredded messes pouring Ricardo’s blood out of the torn up arteries in all four limbs.

Lee walks over to stare down at Ricardo and says, “You started the war, now I’m finishing it.” Ricardo is in great pain and he knows he’s dying but he’s still lucid enough to realize who this gunman must be, despite him wearing a face mask and gloves. However, Ricardo can’t understand how a teenage boy can be so deadly. Lee drops the shotgun, strips off the outer pair of black latex gloves he’s wearing, drops them beside the gun, and walks past the dying Ricardo to the entrance to the main building. At the door Lee enters the security code to turn off the alarm then he walks through the building, out of the front door, and around to his bike. He mounts the bike, puts his helmet on, and he rides away.

Second Strike

Lee stops in the alley behind the warehouse used to cut the drugs at 13:04. He made good time riding across the city. He parks the bike, gets out his tablet, and he goes up to the disguised control box for his spying system. Once he plugs in the USB cable from the tablet to the box Lee has a real-time feed of what’s going on in the main room.

All of the key players are sitting or standing around the table they use to cut and repackage the drugs. Naturally the two men in charge aren’t doing any work, but they are standing at the table to keep a close eye on the work. Lee smiles as he enters a few commands into the tablet. A moment later the explosives he’d previously planted by pushing them into the corner of the table top and the sides of the table go off in response to the detonators’ radio signal. The edges of the table are turned into a storm of splinters that rips apart the chests and arms of those sitting at the table while it shreds the thighs of those standing beside the table. Only a few die in the explosions, but they’ll all die within several minutes. Lee watches for a moment before the charges set to destroy the spying devices go off to ensure there’s no traceable evidence left. Lee dismounts the recorder, stands, and he walks off while thinking, They sure do have good sound proofing in the building. I listened hard, but I couldn’t hear the explosions despite knowing when they were happening.

On reaching the bike Lee puts the tablet and recorder in his pannier before putting his helmet on, mounting the bike, and riding away to his next target. Due to having a lot of time before the kidnapping group Lee decides to check on the main gambling and prostitution offices first.

Two Easy Strikes

When Lee checks the live feed at the office for the financial activities the room is empty so he leaves there and goes to the gambling main office. He’s in luck. The boss in charge of the gambling is talking to his main assistant and two other men while handing out some money. Lee smiles and enters codes into his tablet. He watches as the four men are killed when the desk explodes. This time Lee can hear the sound of the explosives going off, and the noise is soon followed by the destruction of the cameras and listening devices. A few minutes later that recorder is put away in the bike and Lee is once more on the road to a new target. There’s still a long time for him to wait before Lee can deal with the kidnappers, so he doubles back to check on the office for the financial activities. This time the man in charge is sitting at his desk while going through reports. It only takes a moment for Lee to set off the explosives at this location then he rides away with this recorder as well.

While riding to his next target Lee thinks about the situation, I’m lucky to have caught both of those last two groups this afternoon as they have no regular schedules. Taking out Ricardo, his kill team, and the two drug bosses means the only gunmen Guido has left are his personal security people and the kidnap group. With the kidnap group on a communications blackout while on an operation I should be able to deal with them today as well. All of this should have Guido in a panic, I hope. Soon I’ll have to tell Victor what’s happened today.

Killing Kidnappers

Lee arrives at the kidnapper’s warehouse with plenty of time to spare. He hides his bike near the target building. He strips off the latex gloves he’s been wearing all day, gets another two pairs out of his pannier and puts them on. He expects to be doing some more shooting so he’s now wearing a double pair again, just like in his first attack. This way he can safely leave the pair with gunpowder on them at the site and know they don’t have any of his skin cells or finger prints on them due to the gloves he has on under them. He takes the time to really check the area for other people before he removes the sound suppressor and .25 ACP sub-sonic pistol from its hiding place on the bike to put them in his pocket, along with a box of extra rounds.

After checking the recorder to see if the building is empty Lee moves to the entry point he’d prepared on prior visits. Ten minutes later Lee is lying on the steel catwalk above the parking area within the building. From here he can see through the main door into the office and cell area Garibaldi had built in the warehouse. To get here he had to climb up the outside of the building to enter by a section of wall he ’fixed’ to allow him access because the warehouse roof and the unused floor area are set with traps and alarms. By coming through the wall and using the walkways to service the lights Lee is able to avoid all of the traps. While he waits Lee thinks, I wonder if they know about these thin steel walkways up here above the lights. If they do it was silly of them not to set alarms on them. However, since the only ladder to them I can see is built into the backside of one of the central supports I do wonder if they realize it’s a ladder and there’s a reason for it to be there. It’s odd, in a way, such access ladders are usually attached to the walls. I’m just glad they were dumb or lazy enough to leave this way open for me to use to gain access to the building.

Lee settles down to wait in as comfortable a position as he can on the narrow steel walkway right above one of the lights so they can’t see him at all because of the bright light below him. He surprises himself when the sound of the large vehicle door opening wakes him up. He holds perfectly still while he watches the van drive in and park near the office area. The man at the doorway hits the button to lower the door and he stands there until it’s shut, then he turns off the power to the door before walking to the van. While that’s happening the other four men are moving a woman and three girls from the van into the cell area. All of the prisoners are gagged and their arms are secured behind their backs.

The man walking back from the door is their leader and he’s saying, “Just stick them all in the main cage for now. The buyer is due here at any moment, so get ready for him.” The others all acknowledge their orders while they’re busy carrying them out. Lee waits and watches.

Ten minutes later one of them walks out to open the door to let in an SUV with very dark windows. It parks, the driver gets out, and he opens the door for the passenger. The kidnapper boss comes out to greet his guest then the two go into the office area. Lee can see they stop to look at the prisoners before entering the inner office. The driver stays beside the car while the man at the door goes back into the office. He soon joins the other three worker bees at a table then one deals the cards. From his position Lee can tell they can’t see the driver nor he them.

Lee takes the pistol and sound suppressor out of his pocket, attaches the suppressor, turns on the laser sight, reaches to his right until the hand with the pistol is clear of the walkway, then he moves his hand until the red dot of the laser is resting on the ear of the driver. Lee fires, and the driver slumps down onto the car then to the floor without making any noise Lee can hear. The low soft sound of the low power .25 ACP sub-sonic round is only just heard by Lee, so he’s sure no one else heard it.

Lee slowly stands, removes the coil of rope tied to the rail, and walks along the walkway to just above the car while watching the office area as he thinks, Damned handy for the previous owners to leave the rope here. I suspect they used it to lift the lights up to the walkway, but I don’t know why. However, it means I knew I didn’t have to bring a rope with me. It’s in good condition for its age as I suspect being inside has helped it last.

On reaching the point closest to the car Lee ties the rope to the rail and he lowers it down to the floor. A tug to test the knot is secure then he moves between the rails while holding the rope. After a moment to slowly slide down the rope he’s standing in front of the car. First is to drag the dead driver around the car to be out of sight if anyone comes out of the office before Lee is ready for his next action. Then he replaces the fired round in the pistol with one from his pocket, and he empties the attached little canvas bag used to catch the cases of the fired rounds.

Once again ready for action Lee takes slow, careful, soundless steps to the office doorway. He gets out a small mirror on a telescoping rod that’s used to inspect under cars and he uses it to look into the office without sticking his head around the edge of the doorway. All is as it was before with the four men playing cards while the four prisoners in the cell sit on the same bunk for mutual comfort.

Lee puts the mirror away, takes a deep breath, then he steps around the doorway while bringing his gun on target as he enters the room. Due to having to step in and turn to his left Lee is sweeping the gun across the room from right to left. The man sitting at the table directly opposite Lee sees movement in the doorway so he looks up. He spots Lee with the gun in his hand so he drops his cards as he goes for his own gun. The others react to his action by dropping their cards and reaching for their guns. They aren’t fast enough. Lee has his laser sight on the right-hand man’s head while the first man’s cards are still falling, Lee fires and continues his smooth turn left. It’s debatable if this man dropping his cards was due to his own will or him dying as the timing is that close. The man with his back to Lee is the next in line and his cards are almost to the table when Lee’s round enters the back of his head to remove his interest in all things. The man opposite who started the reaction is next, but he has only enough time to start to draw his gun from its shoulder holster before Lee’s round enters his forehead to scramble his brains. The last man is both turning and pushing his chair over sideways when Lee’s aim reaches the man. Lee lowers his aim. The bullet enters the man’s chin from below, close to his throat due to how he’s falling over sideways in an effort to drop below the line of fire. The effort didn’t save him. Lee is the only person close enough to hear the sounds of the gun and none of the men make any sounds, but the falling chair is very loud.