"They didn't know much about the others, and we didn't press them on it. The other six were already dead, so it didn't matter much. We grilled them on who was in charge, and where they were holding Finn. That's how we learned about Dixon and Smith and the security control room. I'll tell you more about the control room in a bit, if that's all right. Back to Smith?"
"Sure. Thanks for letting me lead you off topic," Bob said.
"Not a problem," Aaron said. "Smith worked in one of Dixon's clubs. Her stage name was Sylvie Skins; she was a real vixen.
"There were two more men there who worked for Dixon — Bubba and Bobby were the only names we got for them. They were street muscle — didn't seem too bright. Dixon had them watching Finn.
"We got this from eavesdropping — not from the security detail — just so you know. Bobby was new in his job; it seemed like Bubba probably recruited him. Bobby was full of big talk about what he would make Sylvie do if he got a shot at her. Bubba tried to cool him off, convince him she was dangerous. Bobby wasn't listening. He had the hots for her, and she knew it. She made Bobby pay for that later.
"Dixon planned to wait until last night to let the drugs wear off before he put Sylvie to work questioning Finn. They had no clue who he was; there was no sign they connected him to Mary. They knew about Mary, but we'll get to that in a minute.
"Sylvie had brains, aside from being sadistic and an exhibitionist. She and Dixon seemed more like partners than girlfriend and boss. They had two telephone conversations with somebody we think was Grissom, but we only heard their end of the calls.
"Both calls were about tracking down the woman responsible for the Charleston 'problem,' because the boss wanted her brought to the Exumas. Dixon said he had people working on it. They questioned 'the shrink.' That would be Samantha Peterson. She gave them Mary's address, but Mary vanished after his two guys got busted for breaking in her place after they questioned her shrink. Everybody still with me?" Aaron asked, making eye contact with each member of his audience.
Satisfied that we were following his story, Aaron said, "Okay, that's about it for the background. Let's move on to the rescue. By the time Mary and I picked up the Humvee and the weapons from our support team, we knew what we wanted to do. Mary, speak up if I miss something, okay?"
"I will, but so far, I can't add a thing."
Aaron nodded. "Thanks. There was no good way for us to sneak into the compound. All their security was geared to prevent that, so we opted to do what they weren't prepared for — a full-on frontal assault.
"We waited until Dixon and Smith were in the interrogation room with Finn. Bobby and Bubba were in there, too. We were keeping track of them using Finn's phone. Bubba had it in his pocket most of the time. We overheard him earlier, telling Bobby that the interrogation room was soundproof, so that's why we waited until they were in there to mount our assault. Sylvie was planning to make an example of Bobby to scare Finn into cooperating, so we knew there wasn't a huge rush.
"Once we made our move, I used an M72 to breach the gate, and Mary drove the Humvee through what was left. I blew the front door of the house off its hinges with 12-gauge rifled slugs, and we eliminated the security team in the confusion. We questioned the last two after we disabled them, and they told us the rest of what we needed to know, including how to get into the security control room.
"The security control room was equipped with monitors for all their surveillance systems. That includes the perimeter security system. I'll come back to that in a minute. It also was set up as a recording studio with gear to capture audio and video feeds from the interrogation room, which I mentioned was soundproof. That meant Dixon and the others didn't hear our assault.
"Mary and I sat in the control room and watched Smith — Sylvie Skins — tormenting Bobby. Supposedly, that was to scare Finn, but it was clear that she mostly did it to amuse herself and Dixon. And because Bobby pissed her off, what with his lusting after her.
"When she finally turned her attention to Finn, Mary and I made our move. We went into the studio and killed Sylvie and Bubba. We kneecapped Dixon and grilled him before we finished him off. Bobby was a bloody mess by then, hog-tied and gagged. Old Sylvie did a number on him. We removed his gag and let him tell us what he knew, which wasn't much. Then we put him out of his misery.
"I stayed behind to do a little stage management while Mary got Finn out of there. Once I set the scene to look like a rival gang wiped out the crew at Grissom's place, I called the support team for a pickup.
"We left the Humvee to point the authorities to the local rivals, and we cleared out. Any questions so far?"
"Did you learn anything about Grissom that we didn't already know?" Mike asked.
"A bit," Aaron said. "He's at a meeting in the Bahamas, down in the Exumas. We think Lavrov's having a conference. Several of his direct reports are there. Our best guess is Grissom's peers from Savannah, Charleston, and Miami are part of it. We're working to pin down exactly where they are."
"Does that mean Lavrov's letting them see his face, finally?" Bob asked.
"Maybe," Aaron said. "We have no way of knowing. I suppose he could be in disguise. Or maybe he's got somebody else running the meeting. He may be there, but staying out of sight. Or maybe he's not even there."
"Right," Bob said. "Sorry for the interruption. Please go ahead."
Aaron nodded. "We picked up some other interesting facts, too. You asked how they spotted Finn. They have a prototype installation of the latest thermal imaging hardware — the stuff that's still in development for the Defense Department. No old-fashioned active infrared stuff for them. And it's amazing. It's no wonder they spotted Finn."
"That equipment's all classified, isn't it?" Bob asked.
"That's right," Aaron said.
"How could they have gotten their hands on it?" Mike asked.
"Good question. But it gets better. We were no sooner out of there than a federal special ops team sealed off the area."
"A federal special ops team?" Mike said. "Are you sure about that? I would have figured a neighbor might have called 911 after you blew the gate. Could it have been a high-end SWAT team? Maybe local law enforcement was already watching the place, or something."
"Come on Mike. I know the difference between a SWAT team and what we saw. This unit was platoon-sized, maybe 100 troops. And besides, they were setting up a perimeter to keep people out; they weren't trying to catch whoever was inside. It was almost like they knew Dixon and company were toast and didn't care. They were worried about a follow-up assault. The big question is what they were defending."
"Are you saying they were protecting something at Grissom's place?" Mike asked.
"Exactly," Aaron said.
"And how do you know they were feds?"
"We were monitoring the communications for state and local law enforcement. They were all wondering what the feds were up to."
"Why would the feds be sealing off Grissom's place?" Mike asked. "Did they even attempt to rescue the people inside?"
"No. We were tapped into all the systems in the compound, and we broke the encryption on the feds' comm network a little while after they got set up. They knew everybody in there was dead. They were focused on keeping people out of there first, and finding out who hit the place, second."
"Are we clean?" Mike asked.
"Sparkling clean," Aaron said.
"You sure the surveillance system at Grissom's didn't record any of you during the rescue?"
"We wiped all of that; that was one reason we tapped the system before we left. We left no video or audio recordings that have a trace of us."
"That will make somebody suspicious," Bob said. "It won't take much for them to spot gaps in the surveillance."
"You're right, but by the time they figure it out, they will have wasted a lot of time, and they still won't know who pulled off the raid, or why. The only thing we couldn't clean up was what Dixon and Smith told the person they were talking to on the phone �
�� Grissom, most likely. He knows they captured someone who was watching the compound, but like I said, they don't have a clue about who Finn is, or who he's working for."
"Good job," Mike said. "Thanks, everybody. Take a breather; Bob and I will be in my cabin for a while. We need to kick this around with a few others. Let's regroup here at 1500."
After Mike and Bob left, Mary and I went back to our cabin and crashed, setting an alarm for two-thirty.
20
At three o'clock, Mary and I found Aaron sitting in the dining area of the main building with Bob and Mike.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," I said.
"No, you didn't," Mike said. "Bob and I just sat down. Before you get comfortable, though, Jill wants to spend a little time with you, Mary. She's waiting in her cabin."
Mary frowned. "I'm okay, really."
"We think you are," Bob said. "But humor us, please. She won't keep you for long. Mike and I have some admin stuff we want to cover with these two, anyway. If you miss anything, Finn can fill you in."
"All right, if you say so. Finn?"
"Yes?"
"Pay attention; there will be a quiz later."
"Yes, ma'am."
When she was gone, Bob asked, "How is she holding up, Finn?"
"We were too tired to do anything but nap just now. But she's as good as new, the best I can tell."
"Aaron, how did she deal with the attack?" Mike asked. "You felt okay about working with her?"
"Yes, there were no problems there. But I have to say, I never worked with anybody like her before."
"Tell us more," Bob said.
"Well, most of my field-ops time was spent with military people. She's different."
"Different how?" Mike asked.
"Stone cold," Aaron said. "And she's a loner. It was like watching a shark feeding, or a snake, or something. She's like a machine once the action starts. No nerves, no emotion. No wasted motion. I blew the door down, and she went in first. After that, all I did was follow her and stay out of her way.
"The first two guys came running around a corner at us with semi-automatic, sawed-off shotguns. The next thing I knew, they were sprawled on the floor. I never even saw her move, it happened so fast. Two rounds, two bodies. I don't even think she blinked. She just kept moving, never broke her stride. I felt like excess baggage, like I didn't even need to be there."
"You probably didn't," I said. "She's accustomed to working alone, remember?"
"Yeah. I noticed. She never even looked back at me. She picked up one of their shotguns on her way by and moved to the corner they came from. Dropped to the floor and stuck the shotgun around the corner with her left hand and cut loose. Emptied the magazine.
"Then she rolled around the corner and finished off the four that were writhing on the floor there. Man, that buckshot made a mess. Four more rounds from her pistol, but that was mercy killing. They were going to die anyway.
"I was worried that she would kill them all before we got to question any of them. But the next one stepped out of a door on the right side of the hallway with his hands up. He said, 'Don't shoot me — I'll help you with whatever you want.' She shot him in both shoulders, and he fell.
"When he fell, we saw his buddy behind him, pistol at the ready, planning to drop us, I guess. They probably figured we'd be distracted by the one who tried to surrender. The second one dropped his pistol and raised his hands. Mary put one in his thigh; it knocked him down. Shattered his femur.
"Then she spoke for the first time. She said, 'Cover me,' and dove through the door the last two had come from. She came out in a few seconds and said, 'That's it. Found their duty roster. Everybody's accounted for. Let's see what these two know.' And we've told you the rest."
"That's Mary," I said. "Nine rounds, eight men down. She was pissed about that extra round, I'll bet."
"She didn't seem pissed, but she did feel the need to explain it to me. Said she figured the one with his hands up was a decoy, and she didn't want him to be able to shoot when the other one showed up. Since he wasn't holding a weapon, she didn't know which hand he would use, so she disabled both."
"Who questioned those two? You? Or Mary?"
Mike asked.
"Both of us. But she was the one holding the knife. And she finished them off when we were done."
"Two more rounds?" I asked.
"No. She used the knife."
"And when you two crashed into the studio," Mike asked, "who did the shooting?"
"Mary. Like I said, she's fast. She questioned Dixon, too. And then killed him."
"It sounds like she's functioning all right," Mike said. "How was she afterward, Finn?"
"Fine. Like she used to be."
"Great. Jill's feeling good about her, but she wanted the chance to see how Mary reacted to this operation before she gave us the all-clear."
Mike's cellphone rang.
"Yes?" he answered.
He listened for a moment and said, "Good. Thanks. Come on over, both of you."
Disconnecting the call, he put the phone away. "Perfect timing. That was Jill. Mary's back in the game. Let's grab some coffee or juice while we're waiting for them."
"Aaron got an intelligence update this morning after we broke up," Mike said, once Mary and Jill joined us. "What's new, Aaron?"
"The federal special ops people disappeared about daylight — no sign they were ever there. The local police are crawling all over Grissom's place now, investigating the 'massacre,' as they're calling it. The feds told the locals they were reacting to a report of terrorist activity involving a nuclear threat. It turned out to be bogus, they said."
"That sounds like bullshit, to me," I said. "What do you suppose they were really doing?"
"We don't know yet, but we're working on it. There must have been something there that they didn't want the locals or anybody else to know about, but nobody's figured out what it was, yet. Or maybe they were worried that there might have been something, and then they learned that it wasn't there."
"So the feds went in and cleared whatever it was?" Mike asked.
"That was our first assumption, but it's not consistent with the facts that are emerging. We're monitoring what the people on site are reporting. So far, they haven't found anything we didn't already know about from when Mary and I were there. The structure is intact; they didn't break through any walls or floors looking for hiding places. There's nothing obviously missing — no voids where there used to be furniture."
"How can the police tell about the furniture?" Bob asked.
"There's enough recorded video in the surveillance control room for them to see that nothing's missing."
"Does the video show what the feds were up to?" Mike asked. "I thought you said your people were monitoring those feeds."
"Yes," Aaron said. "They've been watching ever since Mary and I left there. Here's the really odd thing: the feds never set foot in the compound. They just threw up the perimeter, and after a couple of hours, they cleared out."
"This isn't making any sense," Mike said.
"Right," Aaron said. "It sure isn't. We're missing something. The feds didn't want anybody in there, but they didn't go in, either."
"Could they have been reacting to a false alarm?" Bob asked. "You said earlier your people tapped their encrypted comm links, didn't you?"
"Yes, we were listening to their comms," Aaron said. "All we got was tactical stuff related to establishing and maintaining the perimeter. The only time we heard anything different was right before they pulled out. The unit commander told his subordinates they had the all clear from up the line, and they should clear the area ASAP."
"Your people are still monitoring the situation, I take it?" Mike asked.
"Yes. The police are going over the place with a fine-tooth comb. They tried to get warrants to search the compound several times over the last couple of years, for various reasons. They never managed to get one approved. Now that they have a crime scene to justify their s
earch, they're being extra thorough. They're taking their time. If they find anything, we'll know about it. But for now, that's all I have on the compound."
"Okay," Mike said. "Anything else?"
"Yes," Aaron said. "About the meeting in the Exumas … "
"Tell us," Bob said.
"We hacked the Bahamian Customs database. Grissom's private plane flew into Exuma International Airport; that's where they cleared into the country."
"The Exumas stretch south maybe 150 miles from Nassau," I said. "There are over 350 islands in the Exumas. Is that the airport that serves George Town?"
"Yes," Aaron said.
"So he landed at the south end of the Exumas, but there are still a lot of islands not far from there. Any clue as to where he went?"
"No, not yet. He and the pilot gave Customs a resort in George Town as their local address. The others flew in there, too. But there's no meeting going on at the resort. The pilots are hanging out there, but Grissom and his pals are somewhere else."
"How about the pilot? Or pilots?" Mary asked. "You said they're still at the resort."
"Yes, so far," Aaron said.
"So we could snatch one of them and question him," Mary said.
"Probably so," I said, "but the odds are good that they don't know where the meeting's being held. If you snatch one of them, it's just going to alert Grissom and his buddies."
"Finn's right," Aaron said, "but we're working another angle. Remember when you and I heard Dixon and his girlfriend talking to someone on the phone after they caught Finn?"
"Yes. About how I disappeared after Dixon's boys got arrested for breaking into my townhouse," Mary said.
"Right. And about the guy they caught looking over the wall. We've got all the cellphone numbers for all the people who were in the compound. We're combing through them; we probably even have Grissom's number. Once we make sense of that data, we'll look for that call we overheard. Given that we know about the timing, and that it was to or from Dixon's phone, we should be able to pin down where Grissom's phone was."
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