Operation Bayou Angel

by Margaret Kay

  Sherman nodded.

  “I’ll go with you. Then you should come back here and pick Madison up. Your adoring girlfriend needs to go to court with you, warrant in hand, in case your brother doesn’t get released to you. I’ll stay here with Brielle while you’re gone and if that Sheriff comes back, he’ll be greeted with my badge and surely won’t know what the fuck is going on.” He chuckled at the thought of it. He carried CIA creds. “And in the meantime, Brielle, you need to do some work to back up your cover story of being at that protest in New Orleans. We’ll sneak you out somehow tomorrow morning and drop you in New Orleans.”

  “Please tell me you turned off your cell phone and any other devices you have,” Madison said.

  “Yes. It’s been off since before I left my apartment to come here, so Bobby and I could plan my little visit to the BioDynamix facility. To create my story, I need to do some research on this protest, online research.”

  “I’ll loan you my phone,” Madison said.

  Brielle nodded her head. “Thanks.”

  “I highly recommend you rethink staying here. You can come back with us, would be a hell of a lot safer for you,” Cooper said.

  “I’m not leaving,” she said. Her voice was firm.

  “Oh hell, then I’m not leaving either,” Sherman said. “It’s not safe for you here, Brielle. Why don’t you understand that?”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me,” she argued. “Do you really think those guys came over here all the way from China just to hurt me?”

  “China?” Sherman demanded. “What the hell? This is the first time you’ve mentioned they’re Chinese.”

  “What does it matter what their nationality is? Yeah, most of the workers living in those FEMA trailers are Chinese or Chinese American’s. I don’t know which.”

  Sherman’s head was about to explode. This was a whole different ballgame now. “Do you have any clue what all the Chinese are in to? And that just ratchetted up the danger level for you. Those people in Beijing have no regard for human life, not their own people’s and not yours.”

  Just then, Cooper’s phone rang. It was Shepherd. He stood and paced near the door as he answered. “Hey Shep. I think I know why you’re calling.”

  “What the fuck, Coop?” Were Shepherd’s clipped words in greeting. “Smith just notified me the workers he is seeing on the feed from that plant in Louisiana are mostly Chinese. Why am I hearing this from him?”

  “We just found out, ourselves.” His gaze shot daggers at Brielle.

  “The principals who are on the corporate filings are all American names, headquartered in New Jersey, but Smith was reviewing footage and just notified me we have trailers full of Chinese on that property.”

  “Our girl just informed us of that fact and that she broke into that warehouse the other night when Bobby Sherman was arrested to take the fall for her. There is no product at all in that warehouse, nothing coming in or going out.”

  “I’m going to loop in the FBI, Homeland, and the CIA. This just became a high priority case. Sloan is getting back from Cleveland tonight. I’ll send him down. I may pull the rest of Delta Team from the DEA Partner Mission to check out the names and addresses in Jersey or send them down your way if they’re needed.”

  Cooper glanced around at the interior of the boat. “We’re going to need to find a new base of operations, a safehouse.”

  “And you need to get your witness secured,” Shepherd ordered.

  “We still need to get Bobby Sherman out of here,” Cooper said. “We could send them both up on the plane that brings Sloan in.”

  Sherman’s eyebrows raised. Good, Sloan was coming down. He’d feel a lot better with his partner, onsite. He wished the remainder of Delta Team would come down too.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Brielle argued, picking up on Cooper’s statement of sending them both up. “I have valuable information on this, local contacts. I can be helpful.”

  Cooper shot her a glare of warning.

  When her eyes met Brian’s, he too regarded her sternly. She glanced at Madison, who looked worried, not mad. “I can help. I’m from here. I know people. I work as a bayou guide. I have resources available to get you in and out unnoticed.”

  “You are also in more danger than you realize,” Madison said gently.

  “That’s where all of you come in. You’ll keep me safe.” Her eyes went to Brian. “I trust you.”

  “At this point it’s not about trust. The Chinese are dangerous. The Chinese mafia runs drugs, human trafficking, illegal gambling, all sorts of bad shit. The PRC is the biggest sponsor of cybercrime in the world, initiating attacks on systems here in the U.S. and all over the world. I’m not sure who these people are, but they aren’t up to anything good, that’s for sure,” Sherman replied.

  “The Chinese don’t have to be on our soil to commit cybercrimes,” Madison said. “I’d cross that off the list.”

  “All right, we’ll be in touch after court,” Cooper said, and then he ended his call with Shepherd. He turned back to the table. “Shepherd is bringing the FBI, CIA, and Homeland in on this.”

  Brielle huffed a sarcastic laugh. “Isn’t that overkill? We still don’t even know who they are or what exactly they are doing.”

  All three of the gazes back at her, told her they didn’t think it was. They were so serious; a chill went through her.

  “We need to find a new place to stay. This is too exposed,” Cooper said.

  “So, Sloan is coming in tonight?” Sherman asked.

  “Yeah, he gets back from Cleveland this evening and Shepherd will send him right down,” Cooper said. “He may even send the rest of Alpha and Delta.”

  Brielle wasn’t sure what that meant, but the one thing she was sure it did mean was that these three people would be sticking around to investigate BioDynamix. And they’d be sticking around to protect her, as well. That was good.

  “Highway one runs all the way to Port Fourchon. That area has a lot of oil coming into the port, so I’m sure the government has a facility or two down that way we can take over as our base. It’s only a half hour away. That would be the perfect place,” Sherman suggested.

  Cooper tapped out a text to Shepherd to ask about that port and a possible safehouse for them there. “You’ll more than likely have to check Bobby into a rehab facility within twenty-four hours if he’s released to you.”

  “I want it up north. I already did some research. There is a highly rated facility near the office. They work with the courts and Bobby won’t be able to just walk out of there.”

  “Bobby doesn’t have a drug problem. It was faked for me to get away,” Brielle argued. “You can’t seriously be planning to put him into rehab, are you?”

  “If the court remands him to rehab, he has to be in a locked down residential treatment center for a minimum of thirty days or until that facility deems him adequately recovered,” Sherman said. This would be a three-peat for him. He knew the laws well.

  “That’s not fair! He doesn’t need to be there.”

  “Brielle, the court doesn’t know he faked it. This is how it works. Because of the charges against him, it’s going to be either prison time or rehab and you can bet the court will check up on him,” Sherman said. Personally, he didn’t think another thirty days would hurt Bobby any.

  Brielle grabbed her forehead with both hands and massaged it. “God, I feel so bad about this. Bobby was just helping me. What if we discover something very illegal is going on at that BioDynamix plant? Will that be enough to overturn the court decision?” She watched the three of them exchange glances that she couldn’t read.

  “We’ll figure that out when we get there,” Cooper said.

  Brielle wasn’t sure what that meant, but it didn’t sound like it would be enough to get Bobby released. She never should have let him be the diversion, her cover. If anything bad happened to Bobby because of her, she’d never forgive herself.

  Delta

  Sherman an
d Cooper were both dressed in blue jeans and short-sleeved polo shirts. Sherman drove the Mustang convertible with the top down to the BioDynamix facility. On the drive there, Cooper considered their options. The main purpose of this visit was to get them to drop the charges against Bobby. But they also needed to do a little recon to try to figure out what was going on at that plant. This may be their only opportunity to legally step foot inside that facility.

  “The way I see it, we’ve got two options,” Cooper said. “We declare ourselves as federal agents right away in hopes that will make them more cooperative towards dropping the charges against your brother, or we keep that info to ourselves and you go in as just the brother wanting to make restitution.”

  Sherman nodded. “I’ve been thinking the same thing, evaluating how each scenario will help to achieve our mission objectives. We do need to see if we can get any intel on exactly what’s going on out there, too. That’s as important as getting the charges against Bobby dropped.”

  “As soon as we say federal agent, their guard will be up,” Cooper said.

  “It’ll already be up. If the Sheriff is on their payroll as Brielle thinks, they’re already going to know I’m a federal agent. I say we walk in there with our badges and guns on our hips, in full view.”

  “Bobby’s your brother, so it’s your call.”

  “Thanks, Coop, I appreciate that. Yeah, that’s how I want to play it. Getting Bobby off is primary. We can dig into that business other ways after Bobby is safely up north.”

  “And Brielle?” Cooper asked.

  Sherman laughed out loud. “Now that is one young lady that I don’t know what to do with. There’s no doubt she has a lot of great local contacts that could be beneficial in figuring this out, but she’s reckless. Pulling a stunt like breaking into that place and getting Bobby arrested because of it.” He shook his head.

  “Not to mention the illegal camera surveillance,” Cooper added, “that led right back to her.”

  “Why do reporters always think they’re invincible, that the bad guys aren’t going to kill them to keep them quiet? That girl put herself in more danger than she is aware of, and that’s without the Sheriff’s focus on her.” Sherman paused and shook his head again. “The fucking Chinese,” he swore.

  “Smith and the digital team are looking hard at the Chinese at that plant. So far, there are no links to Beijing, so Shepherd is thinking Chinese Mafia. He’s trying to pinpoint which Triad they might be.”

  “I wish Garcia was at HQ. It’s not that I don’t trust Smith, it’s just that I know how tenacious Garcia is.”

  “Smith and the rest of the team need to have opportunities to take the lead and prove themselves. We can’t rely on Garcia for everything. The man is going to be a father and needs to step back and work only fifty or sixty hours a week.” He chuckled.

  Sherman laughed at that, as well. It was true. Many of the team members worked more hours than having a family would accommodate. Both Jackson and Doc had reduced their hours to fifty a week when they were at HQ, and they’d both reduced their field time. Garcia would, too. Alpha Team was becoming a part-time field team. Cooper had taken on a lot of the administrative functions at HQ. And Madison pulled more shifts in Ops because of Alpha Team’s reduced schedule, which wasn’t a bad thing. She was very effective there.

  They rolled up on the twelve-foot high chain-link fence that surrounded the large BioDynamix facility. This fence was new. It hadn’t been here when this place was the old fish cannery. Very little of that old building remained, just the two-story brick office building portion. The majority of the large plant structure was new construction, Sherman noted.

  Both men pulled their badges from their pockets and held them up to the guard within the little bus stop structure on the outside of the closed gate. “Federal agents to see your chief of security or your CEO, in regard to the break-in the other night,” Sherman said.

  The gate guard got on the phone. After several lengthy minutes of him waiting silently with the phone pressed to his ear, he acknowledged whoever he spoke with, hung up the phone, and turned back to Sherman and Cooper. “Please drive forward to the brick building and go within. Mr. Spencer, our Chief of Security, will meet you at the reception desk.”

  “Thank you,” Sherman acknowledged. After they’d passed through the gate, he whispered to Cooper. “He’s not a local.”

  “Not from Jersey, either,” Cooper added.

  The car drove up the long, winding drive that wove its way through the oak trees. Coming onto the straightaway, the rows of FEMA-type trailers were seen in the main parking lot. Cooper counted the rows, eight across and five deep. Forty trailers. He would bet that three to four Chinese slept within each trailer. He wouldn’t call it living in them because if they were working twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week, that wasn’t living.

  Sherman parked in front of the brick office building. Both men affixed their badges and guns onto their hips. They passed through the double entry doors and came up to the reception desk where a young woman, who appeared to be in her late twenties, sat. She seemed surprised to see them enter.

  “Hi, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Sherman said, making sure his accent was thick. “I’m Special Agent Brian Sherman and this here is Special Agent John Cooper. We’re supposed to meet a Mr. Spencer here.” He flashed his credentials in front of her face for a brief second.

  The receptionist’s eyes darted between the two of them. “I’m sure Mr. Spencer will be here shortly.”

  Both men’s eyes casually glanced around the lobby and reception area. There was no signage whatsoever, no company directory of names, the company name wasn’t even displayed within the building. Then Sherman’s eyes discreetly viewed the receptionist’s desk. There weren’t any papers on the desk. There was not even a name plate in front of her, just her computer.

  She was a local girl; Sherman knew right away. Her Cajun accent was heavy. “And you are?”

  “Tina Landry.”

  “Ah, Tina,” Sherman said with a smile. “I think we may have a mutual friend.” He paused and dropped his voice down low as he leaned over her reception desk. “Miss Brielle Jarboe.” He stared hard at her.

  All the color drained out of Tina Landry’s face. Her eyes went wide, and Sherman swore if she could have hopped up out of her chair and ran away, she would have.

  “Not really a friend, more of an acquaintance, someone I used to know, a long time ago,” Tina stammered.

  Sherman pulled one of his cards from his wallet. It had only his name and phone number, no title, nothing else on it. He handed it to her. “In case you ever need anything, anything at all.”

  She politely took the card from him and set it on her desk. Sherman was sure she’d hand it over to the Chief of Security the second they left, but just maybe she wouldn’t. She was scared, so it was worth a try. Just then the sound of heavy footsteps quickly approaching was heard. From their left, a large man barreled down the linoleum floor, his eyes fixed on them.

  Sherman stepped forward with a smile, producing his credentials. “Special Agent Brian Sherman, ATF,” he said.

  The man’s dark eyes studied the credentials. Then his gaze met Sherman’s. “You any relation to Robert Sherman?” He had a New Jersey accent.

  “Yes, sir,” Sherman said. “Bobby’s my little brother. I’m here to ask you to drop the criminal charges. I’m prepared to make full restitution on his behalf.”

  Cooper presented his hand. “I’m Special Agent John Cooper,” he said, without mentioning that his badge and credentials said CIA.

  “Mike Spencer,” the man said, shaking Cooper’s hand. “Chief of Security here at BioDynamix.”

  “What exactly is it that BioDynamix does?” Cooper asked.

  “Cancer research,” Spencer replied. “Bio-identicals, a targeted way to fight the strongest cancer cells in the worst cases.” He paused and chuckled. “That’s the extent of my knowledge on what our scientists do.”
r />   Both Cooper and Sherman chuckled along with him.

  “I’m sorry my brother trespassed and caused damage to property and I surely do hope he didn’t interfere with any of the important work y’all are doing here,” Sherman said, laying his accent on heavy. “But he was just high and wandering around. He didn’t mean no harm.”

  “We’re always on guard for others trying to rip off our research,” Spencer said. “We can agree that wasn’t the case with your brother. Even the Sheriff doesn’t think Bobby was working for anyone, trying to steal our secrets.”

  “He wasn’t,” Sherman guaranteed. “If I offer restitution in court this afternoon, will y’all accept it and drop the charges? Prosecution and incarceration aren’t going to get my brother off the drugs, but remand into a drug treatment facility will.”