Chapter 36

John walked back over to Gunny and asked “Do you think Allina can be trusted?”

“Yes, but I’m not about to approach her. That crew smells like a counter OP. If that’s the case, they will not talk. Better to just let things unfold as they have already as it’s likely compartmentalized by the relevant countries.

I’m damn sure going to be asking for more money for putting my ass on the line like this. If they are a counter OP, I sure as hell hope they are leak proof.”

John looked at Gunny and said “You may want to show Allina, Siderov’s photo and tell her to watch for him. If he’s involved in this, he’s probably watching us now.”

Gunny replied “That’s a bad idea. Siderov may be with these people. I believe the chances of these people being together by chance are right up there with finding an honest politician. Agata told me something was cooking as the company had a government mandated security sweep three weeks ago. Her friends in other industries have told her of several sabotage attempts, the most recent at one of the power boilers that serve this area. That pretty much firms up the state actor theory in my book. So, we should keep a low profile and play our part in my opinion.”

John replied, “Our part will be over in another twenty-four hours anyway.”

Watching the activities John saw the crane hooking up to a blade. He turned on his monitoring equipment and waited for the lift. When the lift started, he saw the load spike, but nothing over the baseline so it was all good.

After three more hours, all the blades were loaded and the drivers were in their cabs sleeping.

John looked at everyone and said “We need to turn in one of these vehicles and check out of the hotel. Let’s get moving.”

In another two hours they had all had a shower, turned in one of the cars at the airport, loaded up their bags into the remaining cars, and were back waiting on Pixy to arrive. During this time, two other escort vans had arrived. Pixy pulled in at 1700. After a round of hugs, she pulled John and Gunny aside to speak to them.

Looking at John she said “Henrik knows it’s a state actor, specifically Russia. The drivers and escort crews are part of the E.U. response. When we asked about the guy in the picture you sent, we all got pulled in by Europol and questioned regarding why we were asking. Point being, that guy is with Europol. The only reason we haven’t been pulled off of this is politics. Henrik said to pass on his apologies, but the people making these calls are beyond his pay grade.”

John looked at Gunny then back at Pixy, “We need to turn in the cars and get a camper to travel with.”

Gunny pulled her phone out and called the airport making the arrangements.

Fifteen minutes prior to the scheduled departure time, Gunny pulled up in a Winnebago RV camper.

The crew made quick work of loading their gear. Two of PWI’s crew would stay with the monitoring escort van at all times, everyone else would be in the RV.

Looking at it, John said “I hope that thing has a coffee maker.”

Marty and John were taking first watch in the monitoring escort.

After the convoy got moving, John found himself surprised how well they made time.

Looking at the driver he said “We are moving right along. We’ll be outside of Ruhner Berge two hours early at this pace.” The guy having the personality of a goat, just nodded his head.

Marty called John to the back “John, can you take a look at this?”

Going to the back, he leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen. It was a camera that had been placed on the lead truck in IR laser mode. Looking at the frequency listed, he saw it was in the nominal range for a targeting laser.

“What the fuck??”

The return was too steady to be a police radar, and too coherent to be a long-distance source.

John got on his burner phone and called Gunny.

When she picked up, he said “The lead escort van, is being painted with a targeting laser. It has to be close, try to get eyes on anything on the road or in the sky pacing us.”

“Understood” she replied then hung up.

Marty looked at John and asked “Are we in danger?”

“No, I don’t think so. But we definitely need to know where it’s coming from.”

Looking through the back glass while they were on an incline on the road, John saw Gunny pull in front of a refrigerated truck then break check them. At that same time, the laser stopped painting the van.

Gunny called “Did your laser get interrupted?”

“Yes, as soon as you brake checked that asshole.”

“We are going to overtake the convoy at the next opportunity. We will meet you at the *autohof.”

“Probably wise after that brake check” John replied.

“See you soon” she said as she passed the convoy and then hung up.

Of course, the driver had overheard all this. A few moments after John was back in the passenger seat, the driver turned to John and said in a French accent “My name is Jean Paul. If I understood what I heard correctly, we had been painted by a targeting laser? From where did this come from?”

John didn’t see any sense in hiding this, so he looked at the hook-nosed man and said “You see that Scania pulling a refrigerated trailer? It came from there best we can tell.”

Jean Paul studied his mirror for a bit “I see it.”

Jean Paul fidgeted with his neck for moment. It was the clue John needed to realize Jean Paul was subvocalizing into a throat mike.

Then Jean Paul spoke on the CB instructing the convoy to take both lanes as the permit said there was a restriction up ahead.

At that order, the convoy drove down the middle of the road, effectively blocking all traffic behind them.

John pulled out his copy of the permit and saw there was in fact a narrowing of the road 25 kilometers away. He hoped the early transition didn’t raise any flags.

Two hours later they pulled into the Autohof. The driver positioned the escort so it had a view of the blades.

John looked at Marty and said “Set it all to record. Then go take a bathroom break.”