by Thomas Shaw
“Well let’s see what we’ve got,” Carlos said breaking the silence. “I made a hundred thousand from both the other guys, then sold the girls for another hundred thousand to my buddies in Cuba so that’s four hundred thousand plus another hundred thousand for Marta, that makes half a mill right there. Now if you’ve done your part I’ll add another mill to my bank account. Do you realize how long it would take me to make that kind money selling drugs to those preppy college kids, not to mention how risky that is?
I’ve made so much money by kidnapping some of this worthless trash and selling them to the Cuban sex trade that I think I’ll retire and buy a little retreat in the Bahamas. So you see Dr. Merrill, I’ve got to eliminate you just like I did with those other guys or my life expectancy would be less than those idiots that bombed the Boston Marathon.”
At that moment Ed swung his body weight from left to right causing his chair to tip over crashing into Marta’s chair tipping them both over like dominos. Just as he hit the floor he uttered the word… “Clear!”
At that same moment the two doors at the front of the building swung open. Carlos immediately killed the lights and turned to face the doors while instinctively reached for the heavy caliber handgun in his shoulder holster. His eyes glanced down to help guide his hand when he saw the ruby red dot dancing around the second button on his shirt. This would be the last thing he would ever see. The Seal Teams assault rifle was set to a three burst auto-fire. The three high powered bullets passed through the laser dot on Carlos’ chest ripping through his heart. The impact was so great it lifted him off the floor sending him flying, landing on his back. The second gang member followed the same fate from the laser dot on his chest.
Ed’s earpiece crackled to life,
“Blue 1 – two down.”
“Blue 2 – three down.”
“Blue 3 – one down, moving in for clean up.”
Seconds later Ed felt someone cutting the bindings off his hands and legs and was helping him to his feet. Marta had been released in the same manner but was so weak she couldn’t stand on her own. Two Seal Team members were ushering Ed and his daughter out the back door to a waiting van. Without lights on this property it was as dark outside as it was inside. The nondescript van was setup like an emergency vehicle with a stretcher on the left side and four bucket seats on the right. Within a minute the van was moving out of the back parking lot toward the surface streets that would take them to the highway leading back to Homestead Air force base. Ed could see the IV bag swinging on the hook over his daughters head as he watched the nurse tend to Marta.
Inside the gym all the bodies had been moved to the back door as a staging area where each one was put in its own body-bag. The cleaning crew wiped away all traces of evidence and helped move the bodies into the next waiting van which moved onto the same surface streets making its way to Homestead. As soon as the van’s turned south onto Highway 1 the drivers would attach a red and blue flashing emergency light on the top of their van and accelerate to a steady 90 miles per hour.
Twenty minutes later the van carrying Ed and his daughter pulled up to the smaller side door on their special hangar and were immediately transferred to the waiting Gulfstream. The inside of the plane looked more like a critical care operating room than a corporate jet. Two minutes later the second van pulled through the hangar door and stopped in-between the two high performance helicopters. Three body bags were transferred to each of the waiting helicopters. A 45 pound weight was added to each body bag as they made ready to depart right behind the Gulfstream.
It was just past 11:00 pm when Ed and his daughter were airborne and heading north back to Quantico. Moments later the two helicopters lifted off directly from the tarmac and headed southeast flying low to stay under Miami centers radar until they reached Biscayne Bay; then turned due east. Two hundred miles later they had arrived at a point in the Atlantic Ocean where the edge of the continental shelf and the Gulf Stream dropped off to an incredible five mile depth. As they hovered a few feet above the water the body bags were dispatched one at a time where they began their long journey to the ocean floor. Having finished their mission the helicopters climbed to altitude for their return flight to a private airstrip just outside of Fort Lauderdale.
Twenty minutes later, in the Gulfstream, Marta’s vital signs were beginning to stabilize and at that same moment six body bags landed feet first at a little over twenty thousand feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean where they would spend eternity in total darkness.
Code blue was complete.
7
Quantico Virginia… the next day
Ed was exhausted after his trip to Florida and the stress of checking Marta into the best drug rehab hospital in Virginia. It was a little after noon when he hung up the phone telling his ex-wife a story she would accept on why Marta was in the hospital and would need her help for the next several weeks.
It had only been a day and a half since he had left the “ice house” but he felt compelled to just drop in to see if everything was OK.
He had no sooner stepped into his office when SAM announced with uncharacteristic urgency that she had intercepted an email that was sent to the Department of Defense with the words Code-5 in the subject line.
Ed’s adrenalin system when to full alert when he heard the words Code-5. “Who in the hell sent that email,” Ed demanded.
“It was sent to the DOD from an encrypted computer located at the Livermore Labs in California,” SAM explained.
“Get me a name immediately,” Ed said extremely agitated.
Minutes later Ed’s private line began to ring. It was SAM voice on the other end. “I have Larry from Dr. Goodman’s team on the line; he said he was the one who sent the email.”
“This better be good,” Ed said as he heard the clicking on the line but not waiting for a response.
“Dr. Merrill, I know this looks like a breach of security but we felt it was so important and this was the only way we could think of to get in touch with you. Steve is on the secure line in my office with me and needs to tell you about a meeting he just had with Tom Goodman; you know… that’s Dr. Goodman’s son.”
“Dr. Merrill this is Steve and I just had a most unnerving conversation with Tommy Goodman and his girlfriend Julie something. Apparently they both know a lot about our project Code-5 and think it must have something to do with Don’s disappearance and they also think their house is bugged.”
“What makes them think that Don has disappeared?” Ed asked.
“Tommy said he hasn’t heard from his dad in over six months, which isn’t unusual but Don was a no-show for his graduation last month which caused him so much concern that he drove all the way from Stillwater, Oklahoma to California just to see what’s going on. When they arrived in Tracy they found their house was bugged which raised their suspensions even more. One of the neighbors tells him they saw a strange mid-eastern man who rented a house just down the street from Dr. Goodman’s home and he has also recently disappeared. Tommy pulled some letters out of this guy’s mail box and took pictures of its contents on his cell phone before putting everything back. He feels like there is information on some of the pictures he took that may shed light on where his father is.”
“Send me all the information you have,” Dr. Merrill snapped, still pissed off that the security of Code-5 had been breached. “Wait for my call,” then he abruptly hung-up.
“SAM… what the hell is going on,” He blurted out to his empty room. “OK SAM here’s what we do,” Dr. Merrill said after quickly regaining his composure. “Analyze the information Steve is sending us and let’s go over it just as soon as possible.”
Ed headed for the mess hall for a bite to eat, maybe that would help subdue the sinking feeling he was having.
Four hours later, SAM breaks the silence. “I have received the information from Steven and after careful analysis have developed four different strategies to pursue.”
“Before we go any fu
rther, has Dr. Goodman been kidnapped?” Dr. Merrill asked tentatively.
“I can’t say, at this time, that he was kidnapped but he is definitely missing. I was able to track him all the way to his house in Tracy California four days ago but have not been able to follow any movement since then,” was her cryptic response.
“Let’s go over your strategies, I’ve got to come up with something and it’s got to be quick.” For the next two hours Dr. Merrill and SAM were locked in heated discussion.
It was 3:30 pm in California when Steve’s encrypted phone rang. Dr. Merrill did the talking, “I’ve reinstated Code-5; as you are aware its security has been breached by Tom Goodman along with your e-mail to the DOD, so I’ll need to find some other way to close this project once and for all. SAM and I have developed a strategy that we are going to activate that will help us find Dr. Goodman. He is in fact missing. I am sending you a top secret parcel that will have the necessary information and technology that you will need to present to Tom and Julie who will be the primary participants in our new Code-5 project;” Dr. Merrill hung-up after a quick confirmation that they understood his message.
Steve looked at Larry and said, “Do you think these kids have any idea what they are getting into?”
They both shook their heads at the same time.
At four o’clock in the afternoon Julies cell phone rings. Tom answers with a quick, “Hello”.
“Is there some place we can meet, but don’t say anything over the phone?”
“The same place we met the last time, in 30 minutes,” was all Tom said.
Thirty minutes later Tom and Julie pulled into the Lawrence Livermore parking lot with two plain white Ford sedans following 100 yards behind. Steve was waiting for them in the same spot they had met a couple of days earlier.
Tom stepped out of his car with his back to the street where the two Fords had stopped. After some quick conversation with Steve, Tom slid back into his Corvette.
“What was that all about?” Julie blurted out, not being able to stand the suspense.
Tom quickly held his finger to his lips, indicating for her to put everything on hold for a few minutes as he started the car, moved out of the parking lot and pulled onto Interstate 580 heading east. As soon as he was at highway speed he turned on the radio turning the volume up. Julie leaned over so she could hear what he was saying.
“I told Steve to meet us at the abandon pumping station we went to the other day. He said he has information about my Dad and needs our help to find him. We’re supposed to meet him sometime tomorrow.”
As far as Tom was concerned tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough. He needed something to relieve the stress, when he suddenly looked over at Julie.
“What?”… was all she said?
8
Tom and Julie woke up relaxed after a night of intense love making. “Let’s go to Perko’s and have one of their great breakfasts’,” Tom said as he headed for the shower. He suddenly remembered the listening devices and held his fingers toward his ears.
Forty five minutes later they headed out for breakfast. Just for fun Tom took the most roundabout way to Perko’s he could come up with but to his surprise he didn’t see any white Fords trailing discretely behind him. In fact there was no one following them.
While having breakfast Julie’s phone rang for the second time since they started their trip. After a few minutes of conversation, Tom punched the “End Call” button and turned to Julie. “Steve wants to meet with us at the old pumping station. I’m going to text him directions so he can find it”.
Minutes later Tom and Julie are heading east toward their rendezvous point with Steve and Larry. Since they were much closer to the pumping station than the Livermore location they arrived almost 40 minutes ahead of them.
“Steve said he had some things he wanted to show us but was very cryptic in the way he talked. It was like he is worried that someone is listening in to his conversations. I don’t see how we could be of concern to anyone simply by asking them to look up a phone number?” Tom said with implied innocents.
Tom and Julie bantered about different scenarios that they thought might come out of this meeting with Steve and Larry as they waited but had no idea how wrong they would be.
They finally looked up to see a nondescript white ford turn down the dirt road leading to the pumping station. They soon could see two people in the car, it was Steve and Larry. They pulled up next to the Corvette, stopped and both men got out and walked back to the open trunk. They all sat down on the blanket Julie had spread out on the ground, making a circle around the briefcase that was sitting in the middle.
Steve broke the silence when he says, “We got ahold of Dr. Merrill”, while he grimaced and rolled his eyes to make the point that Dr. Merrill wasn’t too happy to hear that Code-5 had been compromised.
“He traced the numbers and information we sent him which turned out to give us some insight into to the whereabouts of your father.”
Tom immediately jumped in, “You found him?” he almost shouted.
“No, we didn’t find him but it looks like he may have been kidnapped by a terrorists group called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or better known as ISIS. It’s another core group of terrorists like Al-Qaida but much more aggressive. It appears they have sleeper cells all over the world, even here in the US. Dr. Merrill thinks that one of these sleeper cells was here in the bay area and they somehow found out that your dad was involved in the black opps program we know as Code-5. SAM thinks they are after the Computerized Behavioral Modification software your dad has developed.”
“Isn’t that the software that runs the “Black Hole” or the sensory deprivation thing we read about…?” Tom tried to stop but it was too late.
Larry was on it in a flash, “Where did you read about the sensory deprivation chamber?” He shot back.
“OK… OK I’ll tell you when the time is right but right now I think it may jeopardize my father’s safety, so let’s just let it lie. Let me rephrase my statement, let’s just say I understand what you are saying,” Tom said, ending the conversation.
“Look”, Steve said. “Let’s cut to the chase. Dr. Merrill thinks your dad has been kidnapped by ISIS and is probably being held somewhere in Iran. The tenuous situation we are in with Iran makes it impossible to for us to negotiate for his release. Bringing attention to this kidnapping, if that’s what it is, may give ISIS the initiative to display his head on Al-Jazeera’s TV. Dr. Merrill and SAM have come up with a plan but need your help to pull it off without starting World War III. He has to know that both of you are in, without any question.”
Tom glanced at Julie and without hesitation they both said in unison, “We’re in.”
Without any further delay Steve opened the briefcase and pulled out two manila envelopes, one for Tom and one for Julie.
Without asking for permission Tom dumped the contents of his folder out on the blanket. Several packets of letter sized paper fell out along with some credit cards, a passport and what looked like an airline ticket. He picked it up and looked at the destination, it was for Sidney, Australia.
“What’s this?” Tom said holding up the ticket.
“We’ll get to that later,” Steve said, “but we need to do first things first.”
Larry reached into the briefcase and pulled out a small jewelry box. He opened it and to Tom’s surprise there were two wedding rings and two rubberized looking things about the size of a pea.
“For the rest of this mission you guys are going to be married, you’ll read more about this in your dossier,” Steve said as he handed each one a ring.
“Now for the fun part,” Steve said as he pulled out a small bottle of liquid and a pair of tweezers. “OK Julie you first.”
Steve moved behind and slightly to the side of Julie. He pulled the hair back over her right ear and ask her to tilt her head toward her left side. With an eyedropper he placed two drops of this special liquid in her right ear then usi
ng the tweezers he delicately placed the rubberized pea shaped object deep in her ear. She jerked back a little but the process was over in less than a couple of seconds.
“Just let that settle in for a few minutes,” Larry said as he turned to Tom, “Your next.”
Tom was a little more hesitant when he asked, “What is this thing for?”
Larry explained that the device he was putting in their ear was a super high tech trans/ceiver with GPS capability. In other words this device would allow SAM to communicate back and forth with each of you independently and at the same time she will know exactly where you are.
Tom immediately thought about the device he had read about in Code-5 that they had surgically implanted behind Jim Petersons ear. It sounded like this was something out of Area 51. Things were starting to get a little spooky but he knew that he and Julie had signed up for the long haul. There was no turning back until he had found his dad.
9
Tom and Julie arrived back at their home with a sack full of Chinese food and the briefcase which they sat down on the kitchen table and settled in to start the long process of reading their dossiers. After several hours of communicating with SAM and going over their dossiers Tom looks up and says, “Well at least a couple of things are clear; #1 it looks like we have new identities and #2 it looks like they reactivated Code-5.”
“This really makes me nervous,” Julie added. “They want to change your name to Jim Peterson; wasn’t he the guy that just got killed a couple of months ago?”
“I know what you mean,” Tom responded. “But I can see their point about how detrimental it would be to use my real name.”