Chapter 12

The morning was just as calm. Before Bobby got ready to go into the office, we swam hard for about twenty minutes, then relaxed over coffee and some pancakes. While I cleaned up the kitchen and dishes, Bobby showered and got ready to leave.

When she came out of the bedroom, I whistled. "You really dress up nice, looking good, Kid."

"Thank you, kind Sir. I don't get a chance to dress up very often. With you around, I don't want to dress at all. Listen now, you have to keep all of the drapes pulled, all of the doors locked, and no loud music. When I leave, the house is supposedly empty. I showed you how the perimeter alarms work, so be sure to set them. Here's a cell phone to use in case you have to call someone. That way you won't be using the main line. I think that's all. I'll see you this evening."

Bobby got into the Expedition, made the garage door open, and left after closing it. I turned on all the alarms, making sure all the lights on the monitors were green.

My day was going to be exercising first followed by some studying. I spent an hour and a half in the gym and took a shower to clean the sweat off. I had to find some clean clothes, so I raided the inventory again for some jeans and a T-shirt. I was comfortable wearing the jeans so I didn't have to look at the damned leg all the time. Out of sight, out of mind.

I selected three of the advanced videos, one on counter-espionage, one on methods of attacking a fortified structure, and one on high-speed pursuit. After the first video, I took the written test, just before it was lunch time.

While I was finishing lunch, the cell phone rang. I reluctantly answered it. It was Bobby, she was out of breath and began rattling on about a car exploding, and that Sarah and her had run down a bad guy.

"Slow down, Bobby, tell me slowly what happened."

She said, "I'll tell you in a little while. I don't think they will have that luncheon. We're finishing our report right now and I'll be leaving. The way Sarah is acting, I might bring her home with me. I'll send her mom to stay with a neighbor. God, you won't believe all of this."

I could believe just about anything at this point. I went into my room and put on my shoulder rig just to be sure I knew where it was. I checked to be sure there was a round in the chamber.

I began checking weapons that I had been shown the day before. The MP5 at the door in the umbrella stand had a full magazine, less two rounds, from the way it looked. That was good so the spring wouldn't lock up. There was already a round in the chamber. I double-checked the safety and put it back. I checked the MP5 behind the refrigerator and it was the same, locked and loaded, the Glock in the drawer was the same. I sure hoped this place was a total unknown. There was some craziness going on.

The cell phone rang and it was Bobby saying she was about a mile away, so I should turn off the perimeter alarm. For some reason she was very curt. I asked if Sarah was with her, and she said very harshly, "None of your business, goodbye."

Something was wrong. I called the office and got Howard. I told him something was wrong with Bobby coming in. He said he was on his way, but to be prepared for anything.

I was watching for the Expedition. It came down the street slowly with a Chevy Suburban following it. I knew I was going to be at a disadvantage if I stayed in the house, so I looked quickly out in the garage. I grabbed the MP5 by the fridge and ran/hopped to the side of the upright freezer out there. Depending on where Bobby park the Expedition, I would have a clear firing path to anything in the garage or in the driveway. I was hidden from view, so I would be a surprise. I felt my pockets and cursed. I didn't have my spare magazines for my sidearm. Hoping I had time, I hopped to the kitchen door, opened the drawer, grabbed the Glock and the two extra magazines, shut the door, and hopped back to the freezer.

The garage door began to open. I watched intently. The damn windows on the Expedition were so dark you couldn't see in. The Expedition pulled in and shut down. I was hoping Bobby would automatically shut the overhead door to shut out the Suburban. Just as the rear passenger side door opened, the overhead door began going down. A man said loudly, hurry, go open the front door. I saw people getting out of the Suburban before the door shut all the way.

The guy asked, "Where will your boarder be right now?" I heard Bobby say, "He's probably in his room jacking off. That's all he ever does."

The man laughed and said, "Both of you get out, slowly, no fast moves. Stay in front of me all the way to the front door." All the doors to the Expedition were slammed shut.

Apparently there was no one else in the Expedition so I waited until the man was in full view. He was so confident he didn't even have his gun held up. I didn't do probably what you're supposed to do and I wished I had a silencer. I pulled my 9 mm and fired a single shot hitting the guy in the head. Sure hope his blood didn't get all over the garage wall. It would be hell to cover up.

Sarah and Bobby both turned toward me. I tossed the MP5 to Bobby and as I approached them, handed the Glock to Sarah with the extra two clips. I said, "We can do this two ways, raise this door and destroy the Suburban with the MP5 or go out the front and back and catch them in a three way. We have to move because they're probably going to try to kick open the door."

Bobby said, "You can't break that door or any of the windows. Let's do this. You go around, grab the other MP5 from the front door and go out the back. Go around the house to the left. There is a gate that's easy to open there. I'll give you to the count of thirty and raise this door. Sarah, you go out the back and cover to the right in case someone climbs the fence back there. Count of thirty, now go.

I began counting to thirty slowly as I nearly ran to the front door, grabbed the MP5, and ran to the back door. Sarah was right there looking out as I hopped out and went to the left. I went through the gate expecting to see someone. At the count of twenty eight I was at the right edge of the house and garage. All the doors to the Suburban were open so however many there were, they were all out of the vehicle. I peeked around the edge of the garage while sliding the safety off and to see there were five guys at the front door kicking it and a guy by a bedroom window hitting it with his gun butt.

The garage door began raising, attracting the attention of all six men. I looked down to make sure the gun was selected for single fire and looked back up. As they turned toward the garage and started toward the door, I raised the MP5 selected the nearest target and fired. I fired six successive shots downing six men quickly. I passed the gun over all six to make sure none were moving before I yelled, "Six down in front, I don't think there are any more. Go double check Sarah's position then we'll tag these guys.

Just as I heard the kitchen door open, a guy came from the far side of the house firing as fast as the gun would slide another round in the chamber. I was still partially behind the edge of the garage and I don't think he even saw me. I raised the gun and hoped this one didn't have any body armor as his head was moving around too fast. I squeezed off four rounds as fast as I could, standing the guy up and spinning him. When he was almost perfectly still, I put a fifth round in his head. He was a mess.

Bobby came back through the garage looking down the street. There didn't seem to be any other vehicles around. I told Bobby that I had called Howard and he was on his way. He would probably call for back up. If she thought he would answer his phone, she should call him and stop him from leading anyone else here.

I was expecting neighbors to be coming out of their houses, but no one came out and no sirens could be heard. Sarah came through the garage and I asked her if she had a camera. She nodded yes and I said, "Take pictures of the bodies real quick and we'll shove them in the Suburban. Hurry before they get blood on the sidewalk."

Shit, we had eight dead guys that we needed to do something with so we didn't attract attention. I said that to Bobby, but she said, "If our cover here is blown, we shut this down and open another. We may be okay, because I think this is all of them. They caught Sarah and me as we went into the garage to get the car. I think they were going to use us like they did Billy's family. They could tell we were part of the service because I was parked in a service slot.

Howard apparently told Bobby he wasn't being followed, because a car was following another Marshal that broke off from Howard to mislead whoever was following them at the time. Howard pulled up and parked blocking the driveway.

He came up and looked around. "Good, Sarah's documenting the scene. What were you going to do, Bobby?" She looked at him and pointed at me.

I said, "I want to load the bodies into the Suburban so we can get them out of sight. I also want to get the blood off the sidewalk as fast as possible. Do we need the bureau or do we have to call the Sheriff's department?"

Howard said, "We can do what we need. We're autonomous in this situation. Thank God those MP5's are quiet. No one's called the cops. Let's get the bodies in the Suburban."

I hobbled over to the Suburban and dropped the seats down so the back would be open. I went with Howard and we loaded the guy from the garage into the truck first. Howard quickly went through the guy's pockets, throwing everything from them on the ground.

He told Bobby and Sarah, "Go through those guys' pockets and pull everything out. Do the closest first so we can get him in the truck."

Bobby said, "Chuck, you do the pockets, let me put these slime balls in the truck. It's easier for me to do it. I have two good legs. Hey Sarah, write down I.D. info from each of their wallets and stuff it in their shirt pocket."

I couldn't argue, so in the essence of time, I went through the first guy's pockets quickly. While Sarah was doing the second guy, I switched to the next. We leaped-frogged till I was at the last guy, who was pretty nasty. He was the crazy fool firing at me. I cleaned out his pockets and pulled his coat up over his messy head.

Bobby and Howard had all eight guys quickly stacked in the Suburban with the doors closed. He took the keys out of the ignition then used the remote to lock it up. He said, "I'll call the bureau and have their tow truck haul this to their station so they can do the bodies. Let's gather the junk from the pockets and get them in individual plastic bags."

Thank goodness Sarah and I had kept the junk separate. All had a wallet and all had a cell phone. Some had keys, they had some change, but a couple had notes about various people, our people, written on them.

Howard had Bobby parked the Expedition the way it was supposed to be parked and he had me move the Suburban while he parked next to Bobby in the garage. To make it easier on the tow truck driver, I backed into the driveway on the Expedition's side. Then, on second thought, I parked the Suburban on the street. I was happy to get out. The smell of the bloody dead bodies was not pleasant.

We all went inside but Bobby walked out to the mailbox, looking up and down the street closely, to double check that none of the neighbors had witnessed anything.

Inside, Bobby said, "Now that I've seen how it's done, I think I can do this if it happens again."

Howard asked, "Why did you head shoot all of them?"

I looked at him like he had two heads, "Body armor."

"I didn't think of that. I guess it is pretty easy to get. If I were a shooter going into battle, I would have some. How did you think of that?"

"A lot of guys wearing towels on their head wore body armor. It sure is hard to knock those suckers down when they're wearing it too. If you can't get a head shot, you have to hit their bodies enough times to stop them, stand them up, and spin them. When they stop spinning, you head shoot 'em."

"You'll have to teach the men about that technique. The women too, for that matter." He looked at Sarah and Bobby and addressed Sarah, "Are you going to stay out here tonight?"

Sarah said, "I sure would like to. I need some downtime after that excitement. I didn't do anything, but I swear it seems like I was the one that fired every round. Who would believe a secretary could be involved in this shit."

Howard said, "Secretary, my ass, you're the Assistant Station Chief. If you didn't know that, you haven't read your mail for a couple of years."

Sarah smiled, "Yeah, yeah, I'm more of den mother than an Assistant Station Chief. Amazing, we haven't had an incident in almost fifteen years, gimp here comes along, and we have an incident a day and even get me involved."

"I'll tell you one thing, Sarah," Howard started. "Someone will come get you from this point until this thing gets put to bed; you and your mom are not alone. If I have to move you into the hotel, I will. I already have teams set up to watch everyone's family, or they are going on long trips. No repeat of what happened to Billy."

Howard cocked his head, "Sounds like the tow truck, check it out to make sure it's ours, Bobby."

Bobby hit a button and a wall in the family room opened to show a duplicate set of video monitors. It showed what must have been a familiar sight and face as Howard headed toward the door.

Outside, two men in coveralls got out of the tow truck. One went straight for the chains and lift controls on the long bed truck while the other came over to Howard.

Howard said, "Hey, Jeff, so you got assigned to this one. Sorry about so many, but our newest guy got a little firefight happy. I have all of the pocket stuff inside. I'd like to look at it and document it before I hand it over. Would that be okay?"

"Fine, just do it on forms so I don't have to do it again. I'll assign a newbie to double-check it and to tear everything apart. You didn't shut off the cell phones, did you?"

"I sure as hell did." Bobby said, "I don't know if any are GPS phones, but I didn't want to take any chances. We removed the battery on all of them. When you get them, you can do whatever you want with them but I'd bet there isn't much information you get from them."

Howard said, "Good thinking, Bobby, you've done the series on covert storage I see."

"Damn right. I've done every module having to do with this place at least three times, and several probably a half dozen times. I want whatever I do to be second nature and not have to think about it."

She turned around and looked at me, "Hell, this guy is as much of a curve as you can send me. Who ever heard of having to store a dead Deputy Marshal in protective custody. They didn't cover that one."

Jeff said, "Maybe you should write a new training module."

Bobby said, "I'll let Sarah do that. I think she'll have something to add for inside Deputy Marshals and their vulnerability. We sure didn't anticipate this one."

Howard said, "You and me both, we should have after what Billy went through. The bureau and us screwed up big time. You're taking this to the warehouse right, Jeff?"

"Right, the center needs to take this truck apart as well as autopsies on the shooters. Since you've stripped them already, it's going to be harder to identify them."

Sarah said, "We wrote down the driver's license info on each of them. It's in their shirt pockets. That'll get you started until you get the rest of the pocket junk. None of them had a lot in their wallets. So far I haven't seen any easy tells. The truck may give you more info than the shooters and their stuff."

We were all standing next to the big tow truck, with the Suburban up on the bed chained down now. Another black Suburban was coming down the street very slowly. I was watching it as the windows on our side of the truck came down. I saw what looked like a barrel stick out the window.

I said quickly but not too loud, "Everyone, in back of the truck, quick. Bobby, I'm going to try for the rifles."

Sarah still had the Glock and Bobby pulled a Glock from her waist. Jeff, Howard, and even the tow truck driver, all pulled hardware out as they moved to the back of the truck, watching the car as it approached. The tow truck driver was the only one to speak, "Damn those bastards better not shoot my new truck. Christ, it took three years of begging to get it."

I hopped to the house door and into the kitchen, grabbing the MP5 there, coming back through the front door I grabbed the MP5 from the umbrella stand. There was no time to go back to my room for my extra magazines, so I looked out the door to see the Suburban almost stopped on the other side of the tow truck. Bobby saw me coming and met me halfway grabbing the MP5, checking it for a chambered round and checking the safety and firing position. If it was where I had left it, it was still on single fire. A confident shooter always chose single fire over full auto. Bursts are good sometimes, but you can't carry enough rounds and magazines for full auto.

The truck was moving again and I could see the far side rear door open from my perspective. "They're coming out the back door on the far side," I nearly yelled.

Jeff moved around to the back edge of the tow truck, kneeling down to give himself a lower profile. The others were directly behind the tow truck now. I made it to the truck and dove underneath to roll farther under it, edging forward to get a firing angle at the near side windows. Just as the truck came even with the tow truck, a round was fired from other side of the truck. I couldn't see the shooter because of my angle, but I was looking into the eyes of the guy in the near side window. He had a surprised look on his face as he tried to get the barrel of the AK47 he had out the window. I snapped a shot and luckily hit his cheek. That distracted him long enough for me to aim before putting another round in his face.

The driver's window came down, with the driver beginning to point an automatic of some kind at me. I hit him before the gun was even pointed my way. The Suburban lurched forward, leaving two shooters on the other side of the truck fully exposed. They looked stunned and began shooting wildly toward the house. They were both hit with multiple rounds within a split second. At least one of my rounds hit each of them.