Operation Bayou Angel

by Margaret Kay

  Each day when he left, he went right back to the police station. No side trips, no stops, no phone calls.

  The second suspicious occurrence was the housing in the trailers. The first row of five trailers had no Chinese in them, except one in the middle. It housed one Chinese man, who they identified as the man who had stepped out back during the rainstorm to have a smoke with Mike Spencer. The three gate guards lived in one of them. Mike Spencer in a third, two other white men they had no ID on in the fourth, three other men, two Hispanic and one black man, who they had no ID on were housed in the fifth. They assumed these men to be the management.

  The remainder of the trailers housed Chinese men and women. Five of the trailers in the next row each housed four Chinese men, all who were armed. The ten remaining trailers housed who they assumed to be the workers, four to a trailer. Forty women in all. If the Parish workers appeared frightened or unenthusiastic, these women could only be described as zombies. How they entered and exited their trailers at shift change, accompanied by armed guards, could only be described as the movements of inmates in a maximum-security prison.

  The team decided it was time to approach Tina Landry.

  The SUV pulled up in front of Tina Landry’s four room clapboard home. The front drapes were drawn, but it was obvious that she was home. Her car sat in her driveway, and her front door was open. Cooper turned in his seat to view Brielle, who sat in the middle of the backseat between Sherman and Sloan. Lambchop sat in the front passenger seat beside him. “Remember, don’t tell her too much, just enough to get her to agree to help us.”

  Brielle nodded. “She needs to know that BioDynamix is under investigation by federal authorities. If she thinks she won’t have a job much longer, I think she’ll be more apt to cooperate.”

  “I doubt any of the Parish workers at that plant know what’s going on there,” Sherman said. “The most we can hope for is that she’ll agree to plug in that flash drive for us.”

  “We’ll see,” Cooper said. He got out of the car.

  The others followed. Brielle slid out behind Brian. Landon stayed in front of her, sandwiching her between the two men. She had the ballcap on, and even though it was dark out, her sunglasses. When they reached the front door, the men stepped back, allowing Brielle to be in the doorway.

  Glancing in, she saw Tina’s son, Toby, seated on the floor watching cartoons on the television. His hair had gotten longer since Brielle had seen him last. He had an adorable mop of curly black hair atop his head. Tina was in the kitchen area, which shared the front room of the house with the living room. She was at the stove, her back to the door.

  Brielle removed her sunglasses. She tried the door handle. It was unlocked. She opened the door and went in. The men followed her and closed the front door once they were all inside. The small room was suddenly crowded.

  “Bree-bree,” Toby squealed in delight.

  Tina turned, and a horrified expression fixed on her face. She rushed to her son and lifted him from the floor. She held him tightly to herself. “What are you doing here?”

  The four men from Shepherd Security displayed their badges. “Federal authorities,” Cooper said.

  “You?” Tina Landry questioned, her eyes going between Cooper and Sherman. “You came into work.”

  “Tina, it’s okay,” Brielle said. “These men are here to protect us. We need to talk.”

  “I can’t say anything,” Tina said.

  “Then just listen,” Sherman said. “Tina, you know who I am, don’t you?”

  Tina nodded, still clutching her son in her arms.

  “I’m from the Parish, a Cajun, and proud of it. I’m also a federal agent and we’re down here investigating that BioDynamix facility you work at. We’re convinced there is something very illegal going on inside that place.”

  “Your NDA isn’t going to mean anything when these guys close that plant down,” Brielle said. “I know you’re afraid of getting fired, and that’s why you won’t talk to me about it.”

  Tina Landry closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m legitimately afraid of them, not just of getting fired. We all are.”

  “Then why haven’t you quit?” Brielle asked.

  “I’m afraid to,” Tina said. “Bradley Johnson quit and then he died in a car accident the next day. I don’t think it was an accident.”

  The men from Shepherd Security exchanged glances. Brielle wasn’t sure what that meant. Did they believe Tina?

  “What’s going on inside that plant?” Cooper asked.

  Tina shook her head. “I don’t know. They say we do cancer research there and that’s why everything is hush-hush, but I don’t believe that.”

  “What can you tell us about the Chinese living in those trailers?” Cooper asked.

  “Nothing. We don’t ever cross paths with them. They have their own entrance into the plant that they come and go through. They aren’t in the lunchroom when any of us are. They even have their own bathrooms. There is one plant window I can look in once in a while when I’m near the lunchroom and I see them up in their workspace, what we call the tower, but I can’t tell what they’re doing. There’s lab equipment, and it’s a sterile room. They wear protective clothing. That’s all I know.”

  “You’re the front desk receptionist. What do the others do there who were hired from the Parish?” Sherman asked.

  “Some maintain the grounds, cut the grass and such. Others are janitors, keep the inside clean. Jorie Newton and Chris Fischer are the only two who clean in the tower, but they’re even more afraid than I am. They won’t talk to you, so don’t even try. About five others are the maintenance and HVAC mechanics. They employ another six in the food service area, got a full cafeteria going. I think it’s to feed the Chinese workers from the trailers. The Halliday sisters and Bev Oakdie are in the accounting department, responsible for us getting paid.”

  “Do you fill out an on-line timecard?” Sherman asked.

  Tina nodded.

  He pulled the flash drive from his pocket. “We need you to insert this flash drive into a network computer.”

  “No, they’ll know I did it.”

  “If you insert it right before you leave for the night, we won’t activate it until you are out of that facility and in our protective custody. We’ll keep you and your son safe,” Sherman guaranteed her.

  Tina’s eyes darted to Brielle. “Please don’t ask me to do this.”

  “There’s no one else who can,” Brielle said. “Tina, you know Sheriff Henderson has made my life hell since my first post on BioDynamix. He’s helping them to do something illegal. I’m sure of it.”

  “They make us leave our stuff in lockers when we enter, even our phones. We have to use company phones, even for me to touch bases with my sitter. I know they are monitoring all our communications, probably even listening into our conversations in the lunchroom which are few and far between. Everyone is afraid to say anything. We go through what looks like an x-ray machine at the airport when we leave or enter the locker room. What if they find that flash drive on me?”

  “Then you claim ignorance on how it got in your pocket. Let them suspect one of your coworkers of slipping it there, or even us,” Lambchop said.

  “Don’t insert this into your own computer but find one that anyone would have access to and insert it into that one,” Sherman said.

  “What will it do?” Tina asked.

  “Give us access to their network so we can see what they’re really up to,” Cooper said.

  Tina took the flash drive from Sherman. She nodded. “Tomorrow?”

  “Yes, at the end of your shift. We’ll wait till we see your car drive out of the parking lot before we activate it. Go directly to your sitter and pick up your son. And then drive up to New Orleans.” Sherman paused and produced a slip of paper from his pocket. “This is the address to the regional FBI office. They’ll be expecting you. They will put you up in a hotel and keep you and your son protected until this is over.”r />
  Tina nodded. Her eyes went to Brielle. “You’re sure about this?”

  Brielle stepped forward and wrapped Tina in an embrace. “I trust these men, Tina. And I know that there is something very illegal going on at that plant. This is the only way for them to get the proof.”

  “We’ll also look into Bradley Johnson’s death,” Cooper said. “The more charges against them, the better.”

  “Thank you,” Tina said. “I think they killed him.”

  “One more thing,” Cooper said. “Who are their IT guys? Do you have any names we can run?”

  Tina shook her head. “I know there has to be someone who takes care of all the computers, but I’ve never seen or met anyone. If we have a technology problem, we open a ticket. We never actually speak to anyone. A few months ago, I accidently spilled a bottle of water on my keyboard. I dumped it, but the keys stopped working. I put a ticket in. It was Mike Spencer, the head of security, who brought me a new keyboard and told me not to drink anything at my desk ever again. He may have acted pleasant when you came to the office the other day, but he’s not a nice man. I steer clear of him.”

  “Thank you, Tina,” Cooper said.

  “Be safe.” Brielle gave her a final hug and stepped back.

  “Keep your place locked up tonight and have your bags packed and in the trunk of your car when you leave for work tomorrow,” Sherman said. “That phone number below the address is to our Operations Center, manned around the clock. If you feel threatened at any point, call it and identify yourself. They’ll send help.”

  Oscar

  Tina had not slept well. She was not only nervous, but exhausted when she went to work the next morning. She’d packed a small bag with her and Toby’s things and placed it in the trunk before she even woke Toby up to get him ready for daycare.

  Her anxiety multiplied after she dropped him at the sitter and drove to work. She parked in the offsite lot ten minutes earlier than normal. There were only a few other cars in the lot, their drivers still seated within them. No one tended to get out of their cars until the bus was seen driving up the long driveway towards the gate. She fingered the flash drive in the deep pocket of her favorite black pants, praying the x-ray machine wouldn’t detect it.

  She had a hard time breathing as the bus neared the building. She followed the others off the bus and went right into the locker room, where she stowed her purse in her locker. Then she waited in line to go through the doorway that they all knew was an x-ray machine. No alarms ever went off, but she knew Mike Spencer had paid others a visit shortly after they arrived in their work area and questioned them about pocket contents. She’d heard he’d even physically searched a few people.

  She went to her desk and got busy with her normal morning work, waiting, worrying that Mike Spencer would suddenly appear. Thankfully, he never did. The day went by without incident and she relaxed until the end of the day neared and she would have to plant the flash drive.

  She’d already decided that she would put it into the freestanding PC within the locker room. She knew it was on the network as some people would use it to submit their timecard on the way out of the building. Others used it to surf the web over lunch. It was one of the few computers that could be used to access the outside internet.

  After she’d shut her own PC down and tidied her desk, she walked into the locker room and grabbed her purse from her locker. She lingered by the PC, which sat in the far corner away from the door and figured she could lean against it and slip the flash drive in, unseen by her coworkers. Her hand shook as she grabbed it from her pocket. She took a deep breath and inserted the small flash drive into the computer.

  Then she stepped away from the PC and made her way through the tangle of bodies in the room and exited into the hallway. People still lined the hallway, waiting for the bus. She gazed out the window and saw it hadn’t arrived yet. It was late. It normally sat there right at five-thirty, when they all got off work. Of all days for it to be late! All she wanted to do was get out of that building and go get Toby.

  The bus pulled up at five-thirty-five. She breathed out a sigh of relief and stepped towards the outer door. She was nearly out the door when she felt a hand grab her shoulder from behind. She turned her head to see Mike Spencer behind her.

  “A word, please, Tina,” he said pleasantly. He pulled her into the alcove near the door where another man waited, a man she’d never seen before. He had dark red hair and wore glasses. “We’ll be taking these,” Spencer said, taking her car keys from her hand. He handed them to the other man. “Pull her car around to the north access road and keep it hidden beneath the trees.”

  The man nodded and stepped away. He exited the building with the other employees and boarded the bus. Only a few of the employees were left in the hallway, filing out the door. Her eyes went to them, and she contemplated screaming out for help. It was as though Mike Spencer could read her mind.

  “Don’t do it,” he warned. He showed her a gun he pulled from under his shirt, which had been stuck in the front of his pants. “No one, including you, has to get hurt. I just need some answers.”

  After the others were all gone, and the bus pulled away, Spencer led her back into the plant, through doors she’d never gone through. Before she knew it, he opened a door at the base of what she and the others called the tower, the three-story building within the building that was nestled against the old brick structure.

  Those monitoring the satellite feed from both HQ and at the Coast Guard building at Port Fourchon, watched intently as the Parish workers filed out of the building and boarded the bus, as they did every day at five-thirty-five on the dot. They watched the bus drive down the long drive and through the gate which opened as they approached. It pulled into the small parking lot thirty feet past the gate guard’s small structure. They watched the workers get into their cars and then the cars, one by one, pulled out of the lot.

  “Okay, she’s away. I’m activating the flash drive now,” Garcia said. He clicked a few keys and navigated his way through several menus. “I’m in. They have a partitioned network, administration and finance is open.” He clicked while remaining silent for two full minutes. “I’m copying the data now.” He initiated the command to run the script to copy all the files. “Now I’m trying to gain access to the rest of their network. They have some robust firewalling, so give me a few minutes. I want to get access to their security cameras next.”

  Brielle’s fascinated gaze was fixed on the monitor; a mirror image of what Garcia was working on. She saw one side of the screen showing file after file being copied, the names of each file flashing briefly as the program worked through each file on that portion of the network. The other side of the screen showed Garcia’s attempts to breach the other half of the network.

  They waited in silence and watched for nearly an hour while Garcia tried everything possible to gain access to the second side of the network. Finally, through a file on the admin side, which Garcia determined was accessible from the other firewalled side of the network, Garcia was able to hack his way in. He brought up the camera feeds, thirty in all. Ten were exterior views. He flipped right through them, concentrating on the interior feeds.

  The cameras that showed hallways, showed empty hallways. The two cameras that were within the warehouse showed a vacant space. Another camera was focused on the empty lobby, Tina Landry’s reception desk clearly and purposely in the camera’s eye. The same held true for the cameras that monitored an office that they all assumed was where the finance people sat, the girls who ran payroll and entered purchase orders.

  Two cameras covered the kitchen and cafeteria areas. They were placed to observe the people. There was no other possible motive for the way in which the cameras were positioned.

  “I guess Tina was right. The workers were being observed every second,” Brielle said.

  Two cameras in the worker’s locker room covered all of it. And those in the bathrooms were the most disturbing. The placement of t
he cameras in the ceiling gave the users of the bathrooms no privacy. Finally, Garcia accessed the camera feed within a room of workers cloaked in protective clothing. It was a lab of some sort.

  “There has to be a dozen workers in that room,” Madison said. There was equipment everyone from Shepherd Security recognized from the many drug busts they’d conducted on manufacturing labs.

  “What are they doing?” Brielle asked.

  “Making drugs. Legal or illegal is the question,” Madison said.