Chapter 66

Chuck

I was on the patio with all of my family, and Steve and his family, about to relax after getting back from a really strenuous mission. I was just about to have my first sip of a drink when my cell phone began ringing.

"Johnson,"

Wanda's voice came through the phone, "You need to listen to your voice mail messages. You're needed as soon as you can get there."

"Who needs me and where Wanda?" I asked this as I moved out the door of the patio.

There was concern in her voice when she said, "The Secret Service needs you in Detroit as soon as you can get there. Not only that, the Marshal Service is trying to get you to go to the same location too. You need to grab Nightfox and head out. Oh yeah, you should probably take Lisa with you too, as this is supposed to be as serious as what you just did. I have to call everyone back as soon as I've contacted you. How soon can you leave?"

"Oh shit, Wanda, I'm tired and need a break. Nightfox and Lisa are going to be tired too. But if we're really needed, I guess we can leave in an hour. Considering everything, have someone meet us up there in three hours." I took a deep breath and asked, "Can't this wait until the morning?"

Wanda said, "I don't know all the details, but the Secret Service has already formed a team of near a hundred men. They have a leader, but they need you because you've done this before and you know what to expect and what to look for. They are already near engagement now and need you as soon as possible."

"Okay, okay, we'll be there between two and half and three hours, max. It's right at five now, so say about eight at the latest."

"I'll monitor your progress with your GPS on your phone," Wanda said softly, "I'm sure everyone else will be doing that too."

I hung up and was turning around to go get Lisa and Nightfox. They were both standing there. I said, "Detroit, same problem. We are to meet a team of a hundred for this one; it must be really big or more difficult. Sorry, Sam, but we need to roll. Lisa, you can dodge this one if you want."

Lisa said, "No, I heard what Wanda was saying. I'm supposed to go."

The three of us went inside to advise everyone we had to go again. There was the usual "Do you have to?" and "Can't someone else do it?" I just said, "This is our job. When they need us, they need us. Lisa's going to come to help me with the flying."

As we gave more hugs and kisses to family, I saw a look of fear on Mercy's face. When I hugged her, I said, "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

Mercy said, "I have a bad feeling about this. Be careful, Chuck. Take care of Lisa too."

On the way back to the house, I handed my cell to Lisa, "Call the airpark and have the Citation fueled and ready." I said to Nightfox, "Dress in fatigues, I get the feeling we'll be in the thick of things as soon as we land."

Lisa was holding my cell phone to her ear and said to me, "Jimmy already has the Citation torn down for the inspection it needed. They are suggesting a Lear, is that okay?"

"It'll have to be, tell them to have it fueled and ready. We need to burn."

At the house, the three of us went to our dressing areas and soon re-appeared in fatigues, with our armor already on. We checked our duffel bags to make sure we had some clean clothes and our field vests. I dug out the box of explosive rounds, refilled the magazines, and also filled the magazine for my collapsible MP5. While I was doing that, Lisa was doing the same with her equipment. I hollered to Nightfox to make sure he had extra rounds. He came in with two magazines in hand and said, "I need some rounds for these. Do you have enough?"

In less than twenty minutes after I got off the phone with Wanda, we were loading our equipment into my car. A big cart came into the driveway and my ladies, along with Mercy and Kathy, got out carrying some big bags. Kathy said, "We women won't let you guys leave without something to eat. We made a bunch of sandwiches and small bowl type plates so you can have something to eat. There are some bottles of iced tea too."

We got more hugs and kisses. Nightfox got a hug from his little Maria and even Kathy, then we got into my car and left, waving at those we were leaving.

At the airpark, the Lear was out on the tarmac in front of the hangar with the engines running. As we began loading our equipment, Jimmy came out and said, "I did a good preflight for you and made sure everything is ready, including the coffee. DeDe said this was some kind of emergency, so I stayed to get you ready."

"Thanks, Jimmy; it is some kind of an emergency. Tell DeDe I'm not sure when I can get this aircraft back. Hope it doesn't screw up our charters."

Jimmy laughed, "It's yours anyway. This is the first Lear you got. Remember the rat aircraft you brought back, or rather that I flew back? This is it. See you when you get back, Chuck, you too, Lisa."

No one seemed to think our wearing fatigues was unusual. I guess I did enough weird stuff that fatigues just added to the mystical nature of my life.

In a couple of minutes, we were blasting down the runway, rotating into a steep climb, heading almost due north. Lisa was busy calling in a flight plan, and I could see Nightfox on the CCTV monitor in the cabin on the satellite phone. All three of us finished our duties at about the same time. Nightfox had already pushed the button on the coffee maker, poured some coffee, and handed it to us. He sat in the little jump seat next to the cockpit door and said, "I talked to central briefing and they said a convoy of trucks have been tracked from a northern Canadian mosque. Intelligence has it that the trucks were going to cross into Detroit to get to the planned objective. Briefing says this is part of the same major multiple strike plan as the group in Seattle."

Mentally, I said, "Fuck, more fucking explosives to deal with."

My head was flooded with multiple voices, "Watch your mouth or your mind, Chuck."

I looked across at Lisa and she was smiling at me. She said, "That was Mercy, and I think that other voice must be her mother."

I shook my head and forced myself to close off my mind so I wasn't a broadcast center for all the telepaths of the world. I said to Lisa, "Are you ready for more of the same? This is beginning to get old. Somehow our government has got to become more proactive with these guys. We can't let them continue to penetrate our borders before we try to capture them. We need to get rid of them before they get here."

Lisa said, "I know what you mean, but how are they going to do that? The only way would be to close the borders. Our trade and traffic with Canada is too heavy to shut down the borders for total or complete searches for everything that comes across. The same with Mexico, we have to come up with a better way."

When we landed in Detroit two hours later, two cars moved toward the aircraft as we were being waved into a parking position. Ground personnel chocked the wheels for me as I shut down. When I opened the door two men were holding up Secret Service IDs, and two were holding up Deputy Marshal badges and IDs. I almost laughed.

I announced to both sets of men, "I think this one will begin as a Secret Service mission and end as a Deputy Marshal event. You two Deputies, give me a minute with these guys and I'll brief you."

I waved the two non-deputies to me and asked, "How much of this is out to the Bureau and Marshal Service?"

One of the Secret Service men said, "It's all over the feds here in Detroit. Hopefully, it doesn't leak all the way to the people trying to blow us up. We need to capture them and their explosives. The Marshal Service was brought in because they aren't big on leaks like the Bureau. They will hold it down. So far, the Bureau doesn't seem interested and think we're chasing our tails."

I waved the deputies over to us and said, "Since you guys are in on this, I need to reiterate, whatever you see, hear, and do having to do with this case will be totally erased from your memory when it's over. If you have a problem with that, you need to resign ASAP. This operation does not need to be publicized. You'll know why as more of it comes down. If we're still alive then, you'll understand."

The four men all looked at each other with a variety of emotions running across their faces. I think most of what I was seeing was disbelief. We unloaded our gear into a Marshal Service Suburban and rode to the same warehouse district I had been to when I was involved with the previous gangland style intrusion with the escapees. We parked near a pure white motor home, with a guy in a dark suit standing by the door holding an MP5.

I approached the guard and showed him my ID. After he inspected it, he spoke into his wrist, then held his hand up by his ear. He looked at me and said, "Go on in." Lisa and Nightfox were going to follow me but he held his rifle up barring the way. I was quick to touch the man's arm, and said, "They are part of my team." I turned to Sam and Lisa and said, "Show your IDs."

The guard repeated the process, including having a conversation with his watch. He just nodded at us and stood aside as I pushed the button that opened the door.

Inside, the motor home was an electronic operations center. The front of the big bus was like a conference room without a table. There were seats in a circle with an opening in the front and the rear for traffic. There were two men sitting there, and both stood as I came in. The older of the two asked, "Chuck Johnson, right?"

I nodded, then pointing to Lisa and Sam, and said, "This is my travel team. What's up and what's your plan?"

The guy waved for us to sit and handed me an eight by ten photo of three large semis, with an SUV in front, and another following. The man said, "This first photo is of the group as they left the original mosque compound."

He handed me a second eight by ten that showed five semis with the same two SUVs. He said, "This is how they are now after another two trucks joined them. They are about a hundred fifty miles out, moving along at about a hundred kilometers per hour, you know, about sixty miles an hour. They'll be ready to cross the border in about an hour and a half to two hours unless they stop. They should be about ready to get fuel as they have been traveling nonstop for almost four hours."

I asked again, "So, what's your plan? Are you going to let them get into the city? You should be detonating those trucks out in the country and never let them near heavy population."

The guy said, "CIA didn't want to set the trucks off in Canada, and it's now to the point that we are going to have to try to capture the trucks and hope they don't set them off. We have a little information about them, though. When they were refueling the last time, each of the trucks loaded with about two hundred gallons of fuel in their tanks, then pumped another four hundred gallons of fuel into a special fuel receptacle on the trailer. When our man was up near the trailer, he said there was a heavy smell of nitrogen fertilizer."

While we were talking, someone from one of the positions back in the motor home came forward with a piece of paper. He handed it to the man talking to us and returned to his seat.

The guy said, "This confirms what we have been thinking. One of trucks just pulled away and is now parking at the loading docks at the baseball stadium in Toronto. That means the trucks have to be about two hundred miles away or at least three hours. We need to do something about the truck up there. Let me call our Canadian counterparts to see if there are any functions up there tonight."

The man got up and went to one of the communication positions behind the seating area, put on a headset, and started talking. We could see him talking and nodding while writing down information. When he finished, he put the headset on the table and came back to the seating area. He said, "There isn't anything tonight, but there is supposed to be something tomorrow evening. We may have to wait to take that truck, but we need to find out if the detonator is a cell phone or on a timing device. We're watching the truck right now and should have more information soon."

I asked, "What is your intelligence on this so far? What are the targets?"

He said, "The way we have it now, is that all the targets are baseball stadiums. Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Toronto. What do you think; about thirty thousand or so per ballpark, so about a hundred fifty-thousand people in total?"

The number of potential deaths stunned me, and I could tell it was as surprising to Lisa and Sam. I said, "We have to take these trucks before they can be set off. We have to get at the truck up in Toronto to see how it's put together so we can disable all of them."

The man said, "If all else fails, we'll shut down all cell phone traffic until we get them disarmed, but I don't want to try that in case they have a martyr on board to set the whole thing off. That would be the easiest way. Just check your watch and set if off when the time comes."

I suggested, "Okay, let's watch and take the truck in Toronto, then the one in Detroit while there is no one at the stadiums. We'll stop the other three on highways away from heavier populations. If they blow out there, there will be a lot less collateral damage."

The man asked, "Are you willing to risk getting caught by the authorities up in Canada trying to do this? The CIA isn't worth a hoot up there lately and won't do anything risky."

"Yeah," I said. "I'll run up and take care of that one, but you'll need to take the one here in Detroit and then capture the three other trucks out in the countryside."

Sam and Lisa looked at me, "You guys will come with me. It'll take the three of us to do something like this anyway." I looked at Lisa and Nightfox, "Do you have your passports?"

She smiled and said, "It's in my gun case."

Nightfox nodded to me and I knew mine, or at least a copy of mine, was in my gun case. I said to the lead guy, "This is my cell phone number. We're on our way to take out that truck up there, or at least disable it. If you hear anything at all about the truck up there, call me. Ah, can you get me a helicopter to get us up there fast? We need to make tracks real quick if we're going to get back here to help."

The man nodded, pointed to a location on his big map, and said, "Get to here, at this park on the other side of the border. A chopper will pick you up and drop you near where the truck is. It will wait for you. Stay in touch with them."

I asked as we stood, "Do you have any handheld radios we can use? That would make everything faster. We'll use ear buds so the speakers won't give us away."

The man had one of his men bring three radios with fresh batteries. They showed us the frequencies we needed to use and we left. Outside I told the two Secret Service men, "We need your car unless you want to drive us into Windsor. We're on our way to Toronto."

Both of the men said, "I'll check with the boss. We should go with you since we're CIA liaison agents for up there. If something happens we can get us out quick. Did you order a chopper?"

When I nodded, the man spoke to his watch then listened. He got a smile on his face then said to us, "Let's go. Now we can do this. Brief us on the way."

The three of us broke out our collapsible rifles and put them at our feet. When we crossed the border, the Canadian guards looked at the IDs and passports of five people wearing fatigues very warily and waved us through. We arrived at a small park at the same time a helicopter was landing. We only took what we would need, our recently acquired night vision equipment, our rifles, some extra ammo, and our Kbars. What else would we need?"

While in the helicopter, we all put our ear buds into our ears and arranged our handheld radios so we could get at them easily. While we were in the air, one of our Secret Servicemen held his radio up and pointed to a frequency position. We all turned our radios on and turned to the frequency. We heard, "The truck driver has gone around his trailer and appears to have locked it up and is moving away from the rig. We got up close enough to hear him tell the dock people that he would be back tomorrow evening to unload before he moved on. They gave him permission to leave his truck. We'll pick him up as he moves through the city. We want to make sure he's not being watched and someone isn't waiting to pick him up."

Our helicopter set down in a parking lot on the other side of the stadium. We quickly moved around the stadium until we got to the shipping and receiving area. There were three trailers there, but only one trailer with a tractor attached. That was our target.

We split up, one of the Secret Service men and Nightfox moved out to keep watch and to make sure there was no one watching the truck. This area was hidden from the public, so it was easy to make sure no one was watching.

One of the Secret Service men brought out a field strength meter as we approached the truck. We walked around the truck and trailer very slowly watching for movement on the meter dial telling us if there was anything broadcasting from within the truck. While we walked around the truck I saw a bunch of duct tape on side of the trailer with some wires coming out from under the tape going into the trailer.

I slowly peeled off the tape and found a cell phone. I used my Kbar to cut the wires from the phone then began looking for anything else. Lisa tugged at my shirt sleeve and pointed high on the side of the trailer. There was another mass of duct tape with wires coming out of it. I climbed up on top of the trailer and lay down on the roof so I could lean over and pull the tape off. I cut those wires and dropped the cell phone down to Lisa. While I was up there, I went completely around the truck to make sure there wasn't anything else that was obvious.

Back down on the ground, the agent was messing with the lock on the back doors of the trailer attempting to pick it. Lisa said, "Let me" and pulled what looked like a pocket knife, but this one had several small tools. With a flick of her wrist, the lock popped open.

The inside of the trailer was full of barrels that were filled with diesel fuel soaked nitrogen crystal fertilizer. Each barrel had a detonator taped to the top inside of the barrel. Lisa and I quickly began cutting the wires to the detonators while the agents were pulling the tape loose and putting the detonators into a plastic garbage bag they had with them. There were eighty barrels lined up in four rows of twenty. This would be enough to totally destroy the stadium and everyone inside. These people were monsters.

I suggested to the agents, "Let's make it look like the cell phones are still in place and lock this thing up. Lisa, find something to jam the lock so it can't be opened with a key or by picking it. That should discourage anyone trying to get into the truck."

We found some trash that we rolled up and put under the two sets of duct tape. I had to climb to the top of the trailer again to do the high one. We pushed the wires under the tape and it looked as it did when we came up to it.

I said, "Come on, let's get back to Detroit. If the terrorists do the same thing there, we'll know what to do and how to handle it. Let's move it."

We made our way back to the helicopter and were soon on our way back to Detroit. While we were flying back, over our ear buds we heard, "The driver of the Toronto truck had an accident. He was accidentally run over as he was crossing the road to get to a service station. Two men ran out from the service station to help him, but the man is dead. The two men left after emergency vehicles arrived on the scene, but we have them under surveillance. We will keep you posted."

All five of us nodded to each other. One of the agents talked into his watch, then listened. He said to us, "The Detroit truck is moving toward the baseball stadium right now. There was an afternoon game, so no one is there tonight. I'm going to redirect the helicopter to cross the border and land at the stadium so we can watch and disable the truck."

We landed on the opposite side of the stadium from where the shipping and receiving dock was. Just like in Toronto, we made our way around the stadium and looked over a wall to see the driver checking the two cell phones on the trailer. We watched him pull a gym bag from the truck cab before locking it. He moved toward the gate and had a few words with a guard there, then walked down the street. I said to the two agents, "See if this guy is being tailed. Call in, or do what you have to do, so he is followed. Lisa and I will drop into the lot and work on the truck. Advise us of what you find out. If you find out he's being watched, come help, but don't go through the gate. The guard can't see back to the truck, so we can stay undetected."

Lisa and I scanned the fences and didn't see any security cameras aimed at the truck. We both dropped over the ten foot fence and went to the truck. We found the two cell phones in the exact same positions on the trailer as in Toronto. I replaced the cell phones with trash and quickly stuck the wires under the tape. Lisa opened the trailer and the three of us were cutting the wires to the detonators when the two agents showed up. The one said, "One of our teams is following the guy. He's heading up the street toward where a truck stop is right now."

The agents took another plastic bag and began pulling the detonators and putting them into the bag. When we finished, Lisa disabled the lock on the trailer and we left.

The five of us did a man over man exit over the fence and walked around the stadium to the helicopter. From there, we went back to the headquarters motor home that we had been in before.

Inside, we found out that the trucks had split up and were heading in three different directions. The plan was to cause each of them to have breakdowns out in the country, capture the driver, and disable the bombs. We would drive empty trucks to the stadiums and walk away, similar to the other locations, so no one would suspect before all five trucks were accounted for. We also wanted to capture whoever was picking up the drivers.

The man who had briefed us before, said, "There's one more thing for you to do while you're here. Our men have a place that we need some help penetrating. It is in the warehouse area we're in now, but is very heavily guarded. We don't know how many people are guarding it, but there are a lot. The reason this is important to us is that it is a money factory. They are producing counterfeit fives, tens, twenties, and hundreds. Their bills are near perfect, even the ink. They haven't shipped any yet, but a couple of bills have shown up from their workers. They are paying their printers with counterfeits. I need you to evaluate how to get in and take it down."

I asked, "Why don't you just use the National Guard and take the building."

"We want to make sure we get the plates, paper, and ink. If we get all of the materials, they can't just move next door and start over. The other thing is this operation may be run by the same people that want to blow things up. A lot of guys with turbans and beards are coming and going from the building. You've had direct experience with these people, not many others have."

I could see Sam wince at being told we had more terrorists to deal with. "Okay, let's go look at this place. I'm sure you have it under surveillance, why not just show us the tapes?"

The guy said, "You need to see it first hand. You might get a better idea."

We walked outside and one of the agents we had just been with took us for a walk. The building in question was just two blocks away. What we saw was a building that took up an entire block, similar to the other buildings in the area. An agent handed me a pair of field glasses and I looked at the side of the building we were on. I could see a guard house at the outer fence, and another guard shack outside the building, next to a door and near the loading docks. There was nothing else to see. We walked completely around the building and found nothing unusual.

What appeared to be a large office area was in the front of the building. We walked up to the dark windows to see if we could see anything. When you looked through the tinted windows, you could see the office area was empty, no furniture, nor anything else. We could see light coming through some small windows in doors leading to the back, the factory area. You could also hear the hum and rhythmic machine noise of printing presses.

Nightfox said, "Let's get some cameras and come back. We can easily get through these doors and put some cameras through the walls to show us the factory area. If we had four cameras with wide angle lenses, we should be able to cover all of it. That will give us what we need to know."

Lisa agreed and said the doors would be no problem unless there was an alarm. We walked back to the headquarters bus and told the leader there what we wanted to do.

He had a tech bring us four cameras with small wide-angle lenses. The tech said, "Take some duct tape so you can mount the camera remote from the lens. There is a ten-inch wire that goes between the lens and camera. Make sure it is plugged in properly before you leave. Here's a small kit that should help you mount the lenses anywhere."

We had our assigned agents drive us to the building and had them watch for us. One agent in with us, and one agent outside as a lookout. Lisa was through the outer door in seconds. The girl has a knack for locks. We did a good recon through the door windows and discovered steps leading to a second floor. Upstairs was perfect. We were able to use light switch boxes to push the small lenses through the warehouse/factory drywall to mount them. We taped the cameras inside the wall and screwed the light switches back in place. I called in with my radio and asked if there were visuals on the cameras. It took a few seconds and there was an "Okay, got them all. Good work."

We left with Lisa re-locking the front door. When we got back to the headquarters bus, the lead guy said, "Go get some rest. We'll take you to a hotel and you can review what we have seen in the morning. I'm going to sack out too."

Nightfox, Lisa, and I were taken to a decent hotel where we could get something to eat. I told the two, "Even though it's after midnight, I'm going to the bar and have a beer. If you want to join me, do so, but I'm going regardless."

Both of them looked at me strangely and accompanied me. Lisa had a beer, while Sam had a glass of iced tea. When we were finished, I said, "Now for a decent meal and some sleep. I think we've been burning ourselves out a little lately." The hotel had a twenty-four restaurant.

Lisa said, "We have been busy, but I've never been in the field like this. Are you guys always this busy?"

Nightfox said, "I usually only had one mission a month, but since I met this guy, I've been busy constantly. I think the Marshal Service he works for is a bunch of slave drivers. They are constantly on his back to do something."

"Oh, Nightfox, it isn't that bad. Between the two services, we have been busy, but one by itself hasn't been too bad. We've just pulled some strange duty, that's all."

After we ate, we went to our rooms. Lisa and I took off our clothes and barely kissed before we were both asleep.

I had requested a five thirty wakeup call and was startled by the phone when it rang, seemingly only seconds after we went to sleep. I looked at my watch and saw it was only three AM. I answered it, "Johnson."

The man from the headquarters bus was on the phone, "A truck just arrived at the factory and we can see them using forklifts to load counterfeit bills. There must be billions of dollars in bills there."

"Okay, I'll be right there. Ah, get some more men there. You can use the Bureau and Marshal Service for this too. Surround the building, and if the truck leaves, take it down as soon as it gets a couple of blocks away. Send your drivers for us."

I called Nightfox's room and he groggily answered. After explaining to him what was happening, he said he would meet us in ten and hung up. Lisa was already putting her clothes on. We both regretted not showering before going to bed, but we did wash our faces and brushed our teeth.

Nightfox met us in the hall and we went downstairs where we were met by our agents. They drove us back to the headquarters bus, where the lead man said, "Okay, we have a dozen Deputy Marshals and a dozen special agents surrounding the building. Check out the cameras. They show the truck almost full now. That's a lot of bills. Look at the equipment. They have eighteen big presses working twenty-four seven. It looks like they inspect every sheet of bills that comes off the press. That is some operation."

I said, "If you take the truck, we have to take the building at the same time. I think we should take the truck, then the same men can push through the back gate, while a group goes through the front office and surprises them."

Lisa said, "The inside of the front doors have push to open bars. We can disable those so no one can run out that way. There are four doors from the office to the factory area. We will need four units to go through there."