by J. T. Patten
The Sergeant Major gripped Draeger’s wrist tightly, preventing him from getting up. “You willll follow my orders and assist me with this boy.”
“Sorry…Top…. this ain’t working for me. He’s a goner. I have work to do and then have to get the hell out of Dodge with my own troubles.”
The Sergeant Major’s grip held fast, and the stronger man pulled Draeger closer to him. “Sir, you willll assist me.”
“You have two dead dudes right here. I can help you get them to the street so your other boys can collect them. I have to go.”
“Negative!”
“Sorry, Top, but this is bigger than you. You just became collateral damage.”
Draeger flicked the blade surprising the soldier, and thrust it into his carotid artery with the tip moving towards the brain stem. Another push and a slight turn of the wrist. The seasoned combat soldier fell back dead. Draeger moved quickly to take the various clean uniform pieces off the three fallen men to cobble a relatively unbloodied uniform of his own. Fortunately, he was wearing his mid-height camel-colored boots that would suffice for his new appearance without having to take the time to try on shoes and risk undue exposure. He outfitted himself with the battle kit and made for the door.
Upon his exit, he was immediately picked up by another passing Humvee full of soldiers stopping for a map check. They motioned for Draeger, now visible as a U.S. Army Ranger, to hop in quickly.
The phone rang.
The ringing seemed curiously long and Draeger picked up.
“Hey, you there? Where did you go? I tried calling you back a half dozen times.”
Draeger’s gaze was fixated on a point beyond his office wall. He blinked. “What?”
“I said I was trying to reach you after I dropped the phone. What are you doing?”
“I’m busy now. Have to call you back.” Draeger ended the call and sat back in his chair.
How did I get so fucked up?
He put his head in his hands and closed his eyes.
I’m so damn tired. Shit. How did my coffee get cold so fast? I’m fucking losing it.
Chapter 42
Sean Havens sat across from Harrison Mann. Havens was giddy with anticipation of sharing his plans.
“So this is how it is going to start. Roughly, anyway. And high level so you get the gist. Robbery and killing of a Muslim store owner which will be set up to look like Latinos did it. That is then going to piss off some of the black gangs and some crime bosses when heat comes into their area due to the heightened violence as an excuse to make some opportunistic crackdowns. Some hot head in the black gangs will end up killing a few Hispanic gang members. You bring in your team to get the top Hispanic gang leaders and make it look like African American gangs. This gives you a week to knock off some key individuals on both sides and get inside the books of the Middle Eastern targets by investigating the shop owner murder. You can get some secondary effects of community outrage with editorials about the dead Muslim man to be inflammatory towards police and the Hispanic community. While you’re investigating the Middle Easterner you have the opportunity for INS raids and you can detain any other Muslims that could be of interest. The next leg is tied from the African American gangs to this Somali guy you have up in Minnesota. He obviously will have a number of Somalis wittingly or unwittingly involved in his affairs of gun running and trafficking that you guys cite here on this page. I see it ties in to that military spouse who is being harassed in Minneapolis. Depending on where you mix in the drugs, that can be the link to this Rockford drug dealer that you have listed here with the heroin trails going down the major highways in a star formation to other Midwest states. I took into consideration each specific gang, the family details that you had, logistics, and how to make the hits according to area patterns and frequency. It solves your prime targets, the ancillary ones, and most importantly covers all the military family issues immediately so they are safer right away. I could easily work the military family issues in the area. Frankly, I’d like it, but I didn’t see that many of them. I was under the impression there would be more.”
Havens sat back for some answers and the overall impression of his summary while Harrison digested it all.
“Havens, in theory it works but how do I orchestrate it for my guys?” Harrison was shaking his head. “You have us running in a ton of different directions in too short of time.”
“You don’t orchestrate it for your guys. I will. How much real time do I have and how much money and men can I have? I will do all the recce and find a business with a big lot in a shitty part of town where folks won’t notice a small fleet of vehicles and some dudes coming and going behind chain link fences. I can have that done in a month while you go after the threats to the spouses, and over the course of a few months we unravel the rest.”
Harrison’s eyebrow rose. “Months?”
“I found a storage business on the west side of the city that is for sale. Place is pretty run down with some decent abandoned equipment, and I suspect that due to the neighborhood and lack of activity, the business plan was not too well thought out and they don’t have a solid customer base. Probably had loans for the equipment that are in default. That gives us cover to do some stuff and move some vehicles around like we are fixing the place up. I figure we have a month to shuffle stuff around while neighbors try to see what the business will be. By then we bug out to a sub site and start executing on these targets.”
Harrison readjusted his posture and leaned in with greater interest, but his concern still dwelled on the timing. “I’m listening.”
“Not much more to say at this point. I just need some cash to buy the place, some cash to go out and buy some vehicles and equipment. I plan to set up camp in Englewood and Garfield Park. Streets are empty during the day so no one catches a stray bullet. There are fewer formally run gangs to shake us down too. CPD has been really pressuring the organized aspect of their gang leadership structure so there are more cliques of a handful of members that are loosely affiliated to a parent gang. We just need to be mindful of the cameras they have all over the city.”
Harrison cut Havens off. “We have vehicles. We got a deal on some surveillance vehicles that were dinged up and repurposed.”
This time Havens waved off Harrison. “No way. They won’t look local. I want local inner city cars and vans that come off the street from each of the ethnic areas. That includes all the shit they have in their backseats, on their windows, Bondo, mismatched hubcaps, and most importantly local DNA that can be used. Fingerprints, hair, the whole gamut. Pure native. It will take a little extra work on my part, but if I can even get the vehicles from homes with known criminal offenders, it just solidifies the stories that we plant. Plus, some of these folks will recognize the cars from those neighborhoods and give them a pass, which will buy us some time. If I don’t change over all plates and paperwork, that buys us more time and if we need to ditch a car, keeps the pattern of life intact. We just dump it somewhere with the keys in the vehicle. I want to be able to slap a plumbing, electrical, painting or landscaping logo on any one of them at any time to best mirror the situation. And I want some of the real stuff that goes with them. A lot of businesses are going under, so I may be able to buy one with a real phone number and logo with a legitimate bonding number for one stop shop use.”
“How much do you need?”
Havens pulled out another sheet of paper and handed it to Harrison.
Harrison reviewed the spreadsheet.
“How do you know the businesses can be procured for this little?”
“I found out that the warehouse and its lot is going into foreclosure. The amount you see is what they owe to the bank. Taxes have been paid. The owner is an old city worker who just wants to get out from under it. He has some good equipment on the property too that will solidify our cover. If we wanted to, we could probably sell some of it off and recoup operational funds. The other items on the budget I found on Craigslist and in the newspaper
s.”
“I suppose you talked to the owner?”
“‘Sean Havens’ didn’t but ‘someone’ did. It’s legit. Don’t tell me that you can’t get that kind of money for an op. It’s cheap. I can pick up these cars and vans for under $30K total. Probably half that.”
“No, Havens, I actually think this is realistic. What is this incidental cost? Fake moustaches, sunglasses, and trench coats?”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s whatever I need it for. Pocket money to make this work. I’m sure you can get the amount. It’s a tenth of what I would normally ask for of any entity that is serious about getting something done. Call your boss and make it happen.”
“Draeg…” Harrison stopped himself short. “…pery truck for sale down the road from Roosevelt and Halstead that I just saw today. That might look good, right?”
Harrison hoped his near slip would go unnoticed. He held his breath and could feel his heartbeat. Havens was looking at a few pages of his plan and noticed Harrison’s hand flex out while he was talking about the drapery truck.
“What? Sorry, I was looking at something here I have to fix.”
Shit. What did I just miss? Something just happened. What did he just say or not say?
“Nothing. I was just trying to help, but you seem to have this under control. I think I can work with this budget. Remember, you also have a budget for your incidentals. Let me give you an account for that. You figure out how you want to clean the money. We have it linked to some LLCs from Delaware and Nevada for now. I will leave you a message and tell you where to pick up the cash in the next day or two. Good work.”
“And what about my team?”
“Ah, we don’t really work like that. I told you that before. We will coordinate the tactical. You plan it and design what we need to do and we will handle everything with our contractors to your specifications. I am sure you can appreciate that.”
“Yeah, as long as you don’t deviate I am ok with that. They better be professional because I don’t like my plans screwed up. They go down to the very detail if they are going to work and if the course of action seems to miss the desired outcome, I don’t go to a contingency plan as much as I dynamically shape the situation to get back on track. I will need to be somewhere near there with comms to direct or redirect.”
“Havens you just worry about your end. I will worry about the rest.”
“That’s not really how I work best.”
“Well, frankly, I don’t give a shit. You do your job and I will do mine. Be the professional I hear you are and follow orders. You needed the job, right? We gave you a job. Orders are orders.”
“I’m not much on orders.”
“Yeah?” Harrison got up from the table. “You will get your cash and in one week we will speak next about your plan of action for execution a day or two after.”
“Fine. Where will you train them for the pre-execution?”
“What don’t you get? I will handle it.” We don’t train, we do. No one needs to know anything beforehand. “You just make sure your CONOP reads like a fucking Hollywood script.”
“Sure, Harrison. Like a B action movie it is.”
“And like I told you before, cut the time frame down to a month for everything. Not another word. Just do it. My orders were changed to step things up quickly. The winds have shifted in Washington.”
Chapter 43
Eight days later Havens had procured the operating platform of a secure site and vehicles were being purchased throughout the city. He had received the financing on time in cash. Through a number of unrelated transactions, Havens laundered the funds in the event that the monies were marked by some governing authority to which he was not privy.
While making these purchases he donned the garb and look of the areas he was entering and paid careful attention to the times of day when light was dim and traffic was heaviest. He made little small talk unless not doing so would have been noticeable. And the small talk he did engage in remained brief, often employing a plausible excuse as to why he had to move on. Havens made use of public transportation and congested pedestrian areas where possible. His end of the plan had come together with few trails left outside of the ones he intended to leave.
Harrison, for his part, was able to obtain the finances with little prodding. Draeger knew the basics of what Havens would plan and had prepared to facilitate the requests, doing his own routine of transferring funds and receiving cash monies to stay under the bank regulations established to detect suspicious activity like money laundering. Harrison shared that the first leg of the operation would go down in three days. He hinted that the first assault could occur later that evening if they got the go ahead.
Following his discussion with Harrison, Draeger decided to call Havens under the pretext of inquiring about Maggie’s health. While they were on the line he steered the conversation towards improvised unmanned aerial vehicles and whether Havens thought they were a viable threat to military aircraft in the Middle Eastern theater. Prescott Draeger took a chance with the detailed topic, but then again, he wouldn’t hesitate the pull the tail of a mean dog just to get a thrill. Havens proved to be rather knowledgeable about the topic, having written a homemade UAV threat piece a year prior, and he was pleased to have someone solicit his opinion. Draeger, however, zoned out during the more technical part of the conversation having already gotten exactly what he wanted from the interaction.
Havens remained concerned about the operation being compromised if preparations were not being properly made according to his strict guidelines. If the team accomplished its mission it would be with a lot of luck. This approach was using too little advanced work. Havens fretted over it at night. He was losing sleep and had a hard time concentrating on anything other than the plans. During the hours of tossing and turning, he started to think of Christina, Maggie, and the past. When his eyelids became heavy enough to drift into sleep, a detail would pop into his mind about the operational planning. Another hour of sleep lost.
He would have liked to have run the issues past Draeger just as Draeger had recently bounced a few ideas off his friend, but knew OPSEC was paramount to Havens even if both men were on the same side. Despite being compartmented to need to know, which could mean the program, the tasking, and target, to name a few, Havens didn’t like to take chances with disclosure. It was a line people just didn’t cross, unless of course, they were using hypotheticals as a workaround, but even that was done by only the closest of trusted agent relationships in the business.
Havens was always a proponent of advance operations that were less tactical and more a gauge of sociocultural considerations in order to better appreciate the holistic environment in which they would be engaging. Havens found Harrison’s approach to be sloppy and sloppy didn’t happen if operations were planned with the appropriate consideration to the ancillary effects and scenarios that could manifest themselves with little warning. He was being forced to cut corners, put his stamp on things, but not be involved.
Havens would have to recce the sites again on his own and just keep it to himself. Precision in planning required the utmost attention to details to ward off potential surprise. Or so he told himself. In truth, any time that he let up on the gas his thoughts would shift to Christina and Maggie.
Havens pushed himself to keep busy despite complete fatigue and self-induced sleep deprivation. Having a new dog in the house also kept thoughts of his loved ones tucked away. The dog, Cougar, named after his temporary pet octopus, had been leaving plenty of trails of waste and wreckage around the house, providing a perfect therapeutic distraction for Sean. The two quickly developed a love-hate relationship as they vied for dominance and space in the house now filling with off-limits rooms.
Chapter 44
Lars had been out of pocket for the past twenty-four hours. He had explained to Sean that a lot of cases needed to be finished up and that he would be mostly away over the weekend and out of touch packing and what not. Havens paid little mind
considering he would make a last run to some sites in the evening with a focus on the Middle Eastern shop owner.
On the surface the shop owner appeared to be fairly benign. He ran a business that had been established at the same location for eight years. The man sold second rate electronics, could provide prepaid stored value debit or credit cards, and likely also supported some informal monetary transfers, often termed as hawala.
While Havens didn’t have the luxury of time or a mandate to investigate, his distrust of the list troubled him. He would have to pay a visit to scratch this itch and decided to drive to the shop for an onsite inspection. What to wear so I don’t look like a cop or a fed…How do I play this out? Why would I be stopping by this store in this neighborhood? Ah. Need that sport coat and glasses. Get the other wallet. Cash.
Lars pulled up to the storefront he had been directed to. He gave it a quick glance to confirm the address and went around the block again. He scanned the nearby parking lots, street parking, and restaurant parking to see where he could camp out this evening. His tasking tonight was rather out of the norm for him. He was to be called in to support an undercover government raid if any casualties occurred. An unfamiliar admin from a nearby precinct had left a message on his voicemail to give him the tip. His presence now could put the raid at risk if anyone grew suspicious, so he made sure he would only pass by the site once and remain at least a few blocks away in a manner that would not cause alarm.
Perfect. A burrito storefront with side building parking. Hmmm. Maybe a taco or two now just to see if it was worthy of a return. It may also provide a plausible reason to come back tonight. Big cop type with the munchies while working the area. Not absurd.
Havens rounded the corner and scanned the streets. It was a nice looking Latino area with a typical amount of gang tagging and graffiti to show who ran the area and who should stay out. If he stayed on the main drag at this time of day it would not rouse any suspicion. He had selected a white 1998 Toyota Corolla from the fleet with a University of Illinois‑Chicago sticker on the back window. With a brown suede sport coat and some trendy but affordable spectacles, the getup was a bit overkill of the poor academic role.