Chapter 31

I woke up at ten, sitting up quickly, knowing I had slept late. The house was quiet, so I knew I was alone. After using the bathroom, I walked into the kitchen and found a note on the table. Bobby had written, "We didn't want to wake you, so warm up some coffee in the microwave and make one of the Jimmy Dean breakfast bowls. We're all at work doing the required annual file cleaning and reviews, see you soon ... Love, Bobby."

I thought for a second how tough it was to have all of the office staff in on a Saturday but it only happens where it's required once or twice a year.

Instead of coffee, I opened the door to the patio and hopped out to the pool, where, to wake up, I jumped in and swam laps at a moderate pace. Once out of the pool, I had to hop over to the shower and scrub off, then hop through the house to the bedroom. After putting my leg on, I shaved before I had coffee and a breakfast bowl.

Wanda called the house and told me, "John called the house earlier, so at this second, I'm in the office. Bobby and Marie are working in the station waiting for you to come in. Get dressed and come in, I have your bag packed.

I pulled up to my parking spot behind the building about eleven-thirty. On the way to my office, I stopped in to say hi to Marie and Bobby. Bobby was busy with something, so I just waved and went on to my office.

Marie said, "You have been really busy lately, and it looks like you'll be even busier. We're happy to have you here for a few hours anyway."

Wanda gave me a radiant smile, welcoming me back. I thanked her quietly for letting me sleep and told her I felt for her having to come in on Saturday.

After turning in the paper work for the station change, I handed her the station's incident reports they had given me while I was there. Wanda said, "Yesterday, I thought you would be home for a few days, but you're needed in Boise, Idaho. Several escapees have apparently joined together to make a stand up in the mountains. D.C. wants you to be there so all of the current directives are adhered to. They would prefer a bloodless capture, but they understand that this could be a bad one."

"When do I leave, Wanda?"

"Now that you're up, I'll call out to the charter people. That will be the fastest way now. All the connecting flights have left for the day. I have a bag packed with clothes appropriate for the terrain where you will be, including your heavy boots. You might be leaving within the hour."

I checked my inbox to see no one was putting anything in it right now. I said, "If I have a full crew, I'll work on e-mails and write my station report for Oklahoma City. If not, then I'll just be busier when we get this one done."

Wanda said my bag was in the Escalade, so we stopped by the station to get the keys. Bobby said, "I'll go down with you. I need to go get us some sandwiches."

Down at the cars, Bobby gave me a big kiss and said, "Be careful, this isn't going to be a good one. There are eleven very dangerous escapees from all over that have gotten together. No one can even figure out how they know each other. Try to get some rest on the way out there, as you haven't had a good night's sleep yet."

After hugs and kisses from both women, I loaded my briefcase and pre-packed bag into the car and headed back out to the airport.

The crazy little girl was to be my pilot today. Another girl that I was told was still in training for commercial flying accompanied her. She didn't have enough hours yet, but was in the process of getting them.

This was good; I could work on e-mail as well as anything else Wanda wanted from me. The best part was that I could get a nap.

My e-mail folder didn't have much and all the inquiries were easy to answer. I did my station change report, then IM'd Wanda, telling her I would contact her after my nap.

The next thing I knew, the cute little pilot was shaking me, "Come on, Chuck, I understand you have work to do. We're in Boise and there are men here to take you away. Give us a call when you want to go home. Since we were told you would be here a while, we're going back home."

The men took me to their small station where I was thoroughly briefed about the eleven escapees and the location where they were holed up. It was thought from the way the shack was built, that it was built over a natural cave. Depending on how deep the cave was, we could be fighting the entire battle only to lose them inside.

"Is there any documentation about this cabin and who may have lived there before?"

One of the men said, "The old man that used to live up there died a couple of years ago. The ranger up there said no one had been in the place since the old man died. There is a granddaughter that lived in town that had visited the man extensively. Hopefully, she will be at the station in the morning to answer questions for us."

I looked at the video of the area again and inspected the photos that had been taken of the cabin. Several of the photos had one or two of the escapees outside cutting wood or moving more rocks in front of the cabin wall.

That night, I ate well, and after a nightcap, I went to bed early, ready to work out a plan to capture eleven dangerous men the next day.

Sunday morning, several deputies and the Station Chief joined me for breakfast. All the men were locals and knew the terrain well. Our hope was that the granddaughter would have something for us.

At the station, a lady in her forties, dressed in jeans and a wool shirt, was waiting for us. The men got her coffee and a donut, and settled down to listen to her. She confirmed that the cabin was built as the front to a cave that her grandfather had made habitable. She said that a circular hearth heated the cave, with the smoke escaping though a natural chimney.

We knew that many of the old miners that prospected in areas such as this, dug escape tunnels in case they were trapped by cave-ins. The granddaughter said, "There are three escape tunnels that gramps had. If you don't know where to look for them inside, you'll never find them. I can show you where they come out, but you might have a hard time getting in through them. The center tunnel is the biggest and would probably be the easiest to get in, if you wanted to."

We drove out to the site, but kept out of sight as we didn't want the escapees to know we knew where they were. The place was a circus, with some local law enforcement ready if we needed them, a couple of newspaper people, and a rep from the ACLU, who advised everyone that he would decide whether we gave the men an opportunity to give up or not. I told the ACLU guy and the two newspaper men to make sure they stayed where the cars were, as they might give our positions away or be in the line of fire if the men inside decided to shoot.

This was just what we needed at a capture where the escapees are armed, newspaper people and the ACLU.

The granddaughter walked us around the mountain to show us the three tunnel entrances. Next, she took us up the mountain to show us the two natural chimneys. Smoke was only coming from one of them.

Back down at the vehicles, she drew a diagram of the inside and what we might expect to find inside.

My only idea was to fill the place with tear gas that would send them outside. We could use a pepper gas, but we would have to go in it afterward to get the bad guys, so that was nixed because it would take a week to get the cave area cleared.

We decided to go take a look at all three tunnels and our side of the doors. Both of the side tunnels that the granddaughter said would be difficult to open were in decent shape, while the center tunnel was in excellent condition. There was a bar across the door that would not allow the door to open into the tunnel. That was strange, wonder why the bar was outside, instead of inside.

Now what I would like to do was to drop a flash bang down the chimney and while they were recovering come in from both directions. The problem was, would the flash bang bring down the cave?

The final plan was to cover the two side tunnels, then stop up the chimneys. As the smoke filled the cabin and the cave, someone would come out to find out what was wrong. We would capture them one by one, or a couple at a time, until we had them all or they were overcome by smoke.

When all the men were positioned, the signal was given to cover the chimneys. It took almost twenty minutes before the door opened and two of the men came out looking around. When they were satisfied they were safe, they headed up the mountain on a path that led to the top. The two were easily captured, handcuffed, and led back down a different route that couldn't be seen from the cabin.

About five minutes later, two more men came out looking around and hollering for their fellow escapees. When they didn't hear a reply, they went back in and came back out with handguns. They continued looking around as they began going up the hill to clear the chimneys.

Once again, the two were easily captured, cuffed, and taken to join the other two in a large van designed to haul prisoners.

The good news was that we had only seven guys left in the cabin. The bad news was that they were now aware something was wrong. Soon the windows and door were open, letting smoke out. We could hear a motor had been started and smoke was pouring out the windows letting us know the motor we heard was a generator that powered a fan that cleared the smoke from the cabin and cave.

One of the more aggressive deputies wanted to start rolling hand grenades down the chimneys, plus drop a half a dozen flash bangs at once before charging the cabin.

I thought that we might as well follow procedures and commandeered a powered bullhorn. First I told the seven men we thought were inside they had this opportunity to throw out their weapons and come out with their hands up.

Nothing.

I told the men that we were in sufficient numbers to overpower them and possibly kill all of them.

Nothing.

I signaled for everyone to fire five rounds into the cabin through windows and the door. We heard a single yell of pain. I told them again that they had a chance to give up.

Nothing.

I had two experienced men each fire two RPGs into the cabin. One fired through the door and the other fired through an open window. After the four RPGs, I called again to give them the opportunity for them to give up.

Nothing.

I called together all of our men and said, "I want four men to load up on flash bangs and each drop two down the chimneys. With eight of those things going off, the cave may collapse, but if not, the men inside should be incapacitated. You other men get to either side of the cabin and when the eighth goes off, you all charge the door. Be careful we don't know how prepared the seven inside are. The second team will go through the rear door in the center tunnel. You will fire at any movement before anyone has an opportunity to fire at you. Don't hesitate, we've given them all the chances we can."

The four with the ordnance ran up the mountain, while the other men got into position on each side of the cabin.

I used the bullhorn to give the escapees one last chance. When there was no response, I signaled go.

I had talked one of the other men out of his .308 sniper rifle and had settled down into a prone firing position, sighting in at the door. This was not a group that seemed to want to give up.

The flash bangs began going off, and before the eighth went off, men were coming out the front door. The first two both had their hands to their heads, but the one behind them came out with what looked like an SKS, looking around quickly. The last three came out and didn't even look to see where they were shooting, but began spraying everything in front of them which included the two escapees with their hands on their heads.

I fired three successive rounds, knocking down all three of the men that were firing. They were motionless, obviously dead. Feeling a little self-conscious because no one else was firing, I picked up the bull horn and told the remaining men to put down their weapons as they were surrounded.

The idiot with the SKS fired at me and this time, several men shot him at the same time. This made another escapee, who just came out of the cabin, begin firing in our direction and he was quickly cut down by several riflemen.

Two more men came out of the cabin, dropped their rifles, and stood with their hands in the air. Now the script became even more confused, as there were thirteen total, not just the eleven escapees.

When the men were cuffed and in the prisoner van, we began checking out the cabin. They had enough food to last them through the winter plus enough ammunition to begin a small war. The crazy part was the money; how did they get it? There was about fifty grand in cash for them to use. Who in the world did these guys know? We did save six escapees out of the eleven, but ended up with two unknown dead men.

One of the ACLU observers came up to me and asked, "Was it necessary to have killed those first three men?"

"They were shooting at us, at me, at my men, and at you. If I had let them continue to shoot at us, they would have hit someone, possibly killed one of my men, possibly even you. I can't have that. I fired only after being provoked. These men, even you, are my responsibility. Make sure that is included in your report."

The Station Chief came up to me and said, "Sorry you had to take out those three, but you had the best angle at them. You saw my guys take out the other two later. It's not like they're afraid to act."

"No sweat. They didn't know what kind of trouble they would get into if they did fire. I made up their minds for them. Your men did well."

The Station Chief and the granddaughter went into the cabin as she would know where any hiding places might be. While they were doing that I asked the local law to search the area thoroughly, looking for the vehicle or vehicles that these men used to get out here. There's no way they walked the fifty miles from Boise.

Around noon, a local sheriff's deputy showed up with a pile of sandwiches. The now large congregation of law enforcement personnel happily took a break from the gruesome cleanup going on. The local sheriff had been searching for the suspected vehicles and had not even found tracks other than our own. Any earlier tracks would be totally obscured now after all our traffic.

The Station Chief was able to have a helicopter begin an air search, sweeping the area, looking for newly dead foliage or even cleared areas that could be roadways.

Around three, the helicopter crew spotted some suspicious brush lower on the mountain from where the cabin was located. Upon inspection, we found a cave with two stolen mini-vans.

It was time for me to get out of there, so I said, "I guess that wraps it up here Chief, we have six to send to maximum security, and seven to send home to where ever home was for them. It's always a shame to have to tell someone that news. What else can I help you with while I'm here?"

Ed Landing, the local Chief, said, "You did what I needed. As soon as the prison released information that some prisoners had left the premises without permission, the newspapers were pushing the alarm button. As more information came out, the ACLU got involved, saying we couldn't hunt these really dangerous criminals down like animals. My constituents wanted them caught immediately, but the other faction didn't want us to use force."

The man looked around before continuing, "At first there were just the original four that walked off, but a witness said that a lot more than that had broken into a local gun store where the escapees stole a couple of dozen rifles and handguns. According to the other prison releases around the northwest, we were able to account for seven more escapees that had been heading this way. We'll probably never know how they got together, but it would be nice to find out how they were able to get so much cash."

I suggested, "Before you send the escapees back, interrogate them thoroughly, letting them know they will probably get an additional ten to fifteen years added to their sentence for jail break and armed resistance. Make sure you tell them that Leavenworth or somewhere like that will be expecting them. Perhaps a deal can be made."