B.B.U.S.A. (Buying Back the United States of America)

by Lessil Richards

  “Well, I guess you can’t control everything.” Bob said disappointedly. “You best be on your way and see if you can switch seats so you are able to observe Leo and perhaps listen in on any conversations he might have prior to arresting him in O’Hare. Since I didn’t hear from you I had nothing arranged as far as back up goes in Denver anyway. I’ll have three organization guys meet you at the gate in O’Hare. The four of you can take him into custody as discretely as possible once on the ground. Try not to involve airport security if you can help it. If you have to flash ID, please use DEA to be consistent with what I used this morning, okay?”

  “No problem. Good idea! I’ll get close enough to listen discreetly to any conversations he might have. I’ll keep you abreast of what I find out. Thanks for sending me on this one. I appreciate your confidence in me. I won’t let you down.”

  “You’re welcome, but play it smart and don’t underestimate him. Call me from Chicago when you have him in custody for instructions on how to dispose of him without anyone finding out. I have some ideas floating around in my head right now, but we have to make sure that his demise does not look suspicious in any way or can be traced back to us. Okay, you have a plane to catch, get going!”

  “Well boys, let’s finish lunch, and make a couple of calls to the mid-west district, then retire for some sleep.”

  After lunch Bob dismissed Florin and John, and made the necessary calls himself. He figured that he would enjoy at least four hours of sleep before hearing from Ervin with the good news that Leo was in custody and at a safe house. He locked the two front conference room doors and entered his adjoining room heading straight for the king sized bed. He placed his 9mm pistol and holster as well as his cell phone on the night stand next to the bed. He kicked off his shoes and crawled under the covers hoping that the coffee he just consumed would not keep him awake.

  Ervin was proud to be Bob’s right hand man. He felt even more important than he had when working for the CIA. Now, he was still serving his beloved country in an important undercover operation that allowed him to be whatever agency he desired at the time. Both Bob and he had been issued several legitimate ID’s, though they rarely used them. He could be virtually any agency. He could appear and disappear without a trace. Other than Bob, he truly answered to no one. Ervin didn’t fully understand how they got paid or how Bob always had the cash to pay them, but that really did not matter much. He was well paid and Bob was as reliable as the rising or setting sun.

  He knew that he was a valued asset to the B.B.U.S.A. and a very important part of the team, truly Bob’s right hand man. He was proud that he would soon be the one to make the final arrest. Making it through the crowd to the gate with five minutes to spare, he darted into the restroom, partly hoping to find Leo standing alone at a urinal. After a quick glance inside the busy restroom he relieved himself, washed his hands, and then ran for the boarding area.

  He made his way to his seat, eyeing the passengers, desperately trying to identify Leo without being noticed himself. He sat down in his assigned seat without having seen Leo, and then rummaged through his coat pocket to find the copy of Leo’s itinerary that the TSA agents had given him. To Ervin the circumstances of the day felt surreal, as if time was playing tricks on him. He only had a couple of hours of sleep on the plane heading to Denver. He was feeling slightly lethargic and his brain was not functioning as sharp as it should be. He looked at the itinerary for a second time, forcing his eyes to focus on the tiny lettering. He finally found what he was looking for: Leo’s seat number for the flight from Denver to Chicago. Once they were in the air he would make his way to the bathroom and attempt to find a seat closer to Leo.

  Ervin connected his lap belt and stretched his injured leg. He sat still, almost in a trance while massaging the sore spot where Leo had kicked him. His mind began to wander. Perhaps he would be able to follow Leo directly to a bathroom after the flight. He reasoned that most people went to the nearest bathroom after being cooped up on a flight for hours. Once there, he might be able to get a clean hit on him. If he caught him in the restroom, he might be able to kill him, rob him, and leave his body slumped in a stall. It would look just like another mugging. If he could show Bob how well he could handle himself with solo assignments, perhaps someday he too would be made head of a district.

  Ervin laid his head back on the seat, while one hand kept massaging his injured leg as he patiently waited for takeoff. A slight smile tugged at the edge of his mouth as he began planning how he would kill Leo in the bathroom stall.

  Chapter 7

  Sarah had been extremely busy since Leo had left, on his business trip to the west coast, three days earlier. She had already made all the necessary arrangements for a long vacation. Natasha, the current office manager, would be the acting broker in Sarah’s place. Sarah told Natasha that they were flying to Texas to visit her father for a while, and then might end up meeting Leo in Mexico for a much-needed vacation. Natasha sensed that she wanted to tell her more but did not press the issue.

  Natasha was a beautiful young woman with a double major in both business and finance, plus she had her own Broker’s License. She was extremely capable, and had become a valuable asset to Leo and Sarah’s business. Natasha enjoyed running the business, and looked forward to receiving the customary 10% of all profits.

  Sarah had packed, and arranged their travel itinerary, while always keeping a close eye on her sons. As both boys had grown considerably since their last trip and Traykie, for one, no longer resembled the child in the picture on his passport, it was time to get new pictures. After completing her to do list, they returned home.

  She also called the travel agency, confirmed their flights, and paid via her debit card. Once finished she printed the E-tickets and placed them in her purse. Other than steadying her nerves and running by the bank and the real estate office one last time, she would be prepared for the upcoming adventure.

  She was concerned about Leo’s safety. She knew they had agreed he would not call her until she reached her father’s home in Austin. He was afraid that their phone lines might be tapped. She missed him and half hoped he would call anyway. She desperately wanted to hear his voice and have him reassure her that everything was going to be fine. She hated the waiting game.

  Earlier in their marriage, while the boys were very young and before the real estate business was profitable, Leo had joined a Type II Wildland Firefighting Crew. He was naturally in good shape for the arduous demands of the fire crew, but Sarah hated waiting for the intermittent phone calls to let her know that he was still all right.

  He ended up fighting fires for five seasons with Blue Goose III. The money was good and Leo thrived on the challenges but also hated being apart from his wife and sons. Each time he was called out he was practically guaranteed to be out for sixteen days. They always had a travel day to the fire which was typically out of the state, then fourteen days of back-breaking work and a day’s travel home.

  Some summers he would merely be home for two or three days and then be called out again. He was always gone June, July, August, and usually most of September. The physical demands of the job did affect his body, making many everyday tasks more strenuous than they once had been, but he just accepted it as part of the job. However, as the boys got bigger and wanted to tumble and rough house and ride on Leo’s back, he realized that the demands of firefighting were beginning to interfere with his love for his family. He did not want to spend another summer away from them.

  Luckily, he made a fair amount of money in real estate and the extra from fighting fire was not as necessary as it had originally been. He excelled on the crew and rapidly rose through the ranks qualifying for squad leader at the end of his second season. He completed the necessary fire classes, had his task books signed off, and qualified for both crew boss and IC 5 at the end of his fourth season. Leo took over the crew at the beginning of his fifth season when the twenty year veteran Crew Boss was forced to retire at age fi
fty-seven. Leo was content with his firefighting accomplishments and had a brand new appreciation for working in an air conditioned office in real estate vs. the rigors and heat of fighting fire.

  Sarah hated watching the news when he was out with his crew, as it always covered the most devastating fires. She would have loved to call to be sure he was okay, but frequently he simply was unreachable. Leo’s crew was often helicoptered deep into terrain devoid of roads and cell towers. Hours seemed to turn into days and days into weeks when he was out with his crew. To make matters worse, as soon as he was called out for a fire, it always seemed like either one of the boys or Sarah would get ill.

  She remembered the despair and utter helplessness she felt when both she and Traykie went in for a tonsillectomy while Leo was fighting fire. They were both so miserable, and when he finally called home, she could hardly talk on the phone. Her voice was hoarse and sounded awful, and her throat felt as if she had swallowed razor blades. When Leo heard what had happened he threatened to walk right off the mountain and hitchhike home. No, she certainly did not miss the five seasons of his firefighting career.

  Sarah had a gift of a sort. She had the innate ability to see things before they transpired. She also had the ability to sense when loved ones were in peril. Experiencing daja-vu was nearly a daily occurrence for her. She had sensed that Leo was hurt, and that his life was in danger. She worried relentlessly, but tried her best to hide it from the boys. She really did not care if the phones were bugged or not, she needed to hear his voice and know that he was okay. She closed her eyes, willing him to call her.

  Lying down on the edge of their king sized bed, she tried to calm herself before going back in the living room to check on the boys. She took a deep breath and cleared her mind. At times, the gift interfered with her daily life. She was always thinking of a multitude of “what ifs.” She had a hard time turning off her brain in order to sleep at night. With the worst case scenario ‘what ifs’ in her mind, she often had to resort to time outs for meditation and deep breathing. If she did not calm herself, she would undoubtedly let the unnecessary worry take over.

  Worrying, was the downside to her gift. At times, it became hard to separate the two. Naturally, all people worry about mowing the lawn, turning off the coffee pot, remembering to set the alarm clock, forgetting to place meat out to thaw for dinner and so forth. That, coupled with her gift, was hard to take, especially when she slept less than five hours a night. Only through prayer, deep breathing, and frequent meditation had she learned to cope with her gift.

  Leo was a little apprehensive of her gift. He believed science and religion should agree. He believed in what he deemed reality, and if he could not see it, feel it, smell it, touch it, or explain it, either it did not occur, or he had failed to figure out the science of it. Most things had a reasonable explanation. His opinion had, however, been swayed from time to time witnessing firsthand the harsh reality of Sarah’s gift.

  The year following his last summer of fighting fire, a young man had called him late on a Saturday evening. He was extremely distressed. The young man and his wife had both been on Leo’s fire crew the previous summer. Leo had befriended the couple and felt sorry for the young wife as the husband seemed abusive.

  Leo had an established exercise regimen for his firefighters. Those who chose not to participate were not called out for fires. There were more than thirty well-qualified available members of the Blue Goose III fire crew, so he picked only the most physically fit and able bodied fire fighters.

  The crew had a stellar reputation and was thought of as a hotshot crew. Blue Goose III was a self-contained unit with their own fire cash, tool truck and two crew buggies. They had all of their own supplies from tools, to chain saws, tents, cases of MRE’s, radios and most everything a hotshot crew had, except for the number of seasoned veterans.

  Most hotshot crews averaged around eight years of experience per fire fighter. Leo’s crew admittedly had less experienced fire fighters, however they only recruited strong, young capable rookies, and arguably dug as much line if not more than the hotshot crews. When Blue Goose III pulled up to a fire and verified their red cards to the fire management, they were ready to go fight fire within the hour.

  Many other crews would arrive in yellow school buses without any supplies. Those crews would waste the better part of a day checking out tents, sleeping bags, tools, radios, batteries, MRE’s, gloves, and hard hats.

  Blue Goose III looked like an elite unit arriving at a fire. All members were in excellent physical condition, all with short hair, no piercings, and gear was new and in good shape. Any crew was only as good as its weakest member. All crews worked in a single file line. They walked to a fire through treacherous conditions, one behind the other, following the Crew Boss, and could only move as fast as the slowest or weakest link. When it came to digging line, it again depended on their physical endurance and that of the weakest person on the crew. Blue Goose III’s reputation preceded it as their weakest was usually better than many other crews’ best.

  The summer prior to the young man’s desperate phone call, his wife had been injured. That summer, their crew had been dispatched to fight the “East Fork” fire in northeast Utah. They were assigned to “Bravo Division,” an area that covered the steepest portion of the fire and was four miles from the nearest road.

  That particular fire had been the most arduous of Leo’s career. After eleven days of constant work, and no showers, the crew was exhausted and beat up, and the young lady had simply lost her footing. She tripped over a root and fell down a thirty-foot embankment, overextending her leg in the process and damaging both ligament and cartilage in her knee.

  Hays, the crew boss trainee and their only EMT, made the decision to call for Life Flight. To make room for the helicopter, sawyers had to level a Knoll nearly half the size of a football field, and Leo and Hays carried the young lady the hundred yards from the embankment.

  The sound of the helicopter was devastatingly loud. Life Flight’s helicopter wasn’t the same as those that dropped buckets of water on the fire. The rotor wash was unbelievably strong. Leo hung back at the edge of the tree line in order to communicate by radio to the pilot, while Hays remained with the injured firefighter.

  Some of the remaining trees around the edge of the manmade clearing cracked and blew over. The visibility was no better than a dust storm. At one point Leo could no longer see the victim sitting on the ground, only the outline of Hays kneeling next to her trying to protect her from the rotor wash and flying debris. At last, the rescuer repelled to the ground and detached his line. The helicopter pilot flew a short distance away giving them time to secure the young lady’s leg in a Velcro leg brace, and harness her to the rescue worker.

  Leo radioed for the Life Flight pilot to return. Hays stayed with the victim and rescuer till they had both been safely lifted off the ground. The injured firefighter was harnessed to the Life Flight rescuer, and dangled from the bottom of the helicopter just above the tree tops, till Leo finally lost sight of them over a wooded hill. They dangled that way for nine miles till the pilot could land in a clearing and get the young lady and rescuer inside the helicopter. He felt awful about the incident but was proud of the crew’s combined efforts to get the young firefighter to safety and on to needed medical help.

  Leo received several updates over the next few days and was able to pick her up from the Salt Lake City Intermountain Medical Center on their way back to Boise at the end of the fire. The crew felt demoralized and was noticeably fatigued. The “East Fork” fire completed their season, and it was also the last year Leo fought fire. He happily signed and completed Hays’ final task book, and knew the crew would be in good hands the following year, with Hays at the helm.

  Because of her injury, the young lady would never be able to fight fire again. Since the “East Fork” fire was his first actual summer as Crew Boss for Blue Goose III, Leo personally felt responsible. However, during that summer Leo saw the yo
ung lady find her self-confidence and stand up for herself in her marriage. He kept in contact with her from time to time via e-mail.

  She enrolled in college and divorced her husband. She explained to Leo that she would always love her ex-husband, but together as husband and wife they simply were not good for each other. She recovered from her surgeries and thanked Leo many times for getting her into running as that had become her solace. She loved to get up early and start her morning with a sunrise run, then shower, have breakfast, and attend her classes. She told him that running was her “me time.”

  He was proud that he had impacted her with a positive outlook on life and introduced her to the love and solitude of running. He had spoken highly of her to Sarah. Sarah had met her briefly at one of the training runs prior to the accident. They had merely exchanged a few pleasantries.

  When Leo heard from the trembling young man on the phone that his ex-wife had died that evening, due to a hit and run accident while she had been out jogging that morning, he was equally devastated. When Leo offered his condolences and told him what his ex-wife had relayed to Leo in her last e-mail, the part that she would always love her ex-husband; the young man broke down and wailed on the phone. He listened as the young man openly sobbed and then assured him he would be kept in his prayers.

  Leo ended the call and felt overwhelmed with grief and guilt. Would she still be alive if she had never met him? Would she be unhappily married, but still alive had she not found her self-confidence out on the “East Fork” fire? Leo hung his head in grief. He felt at least partially responsible for her love of running, the very thing she thanked him for many times, and the last thing she had done before dying.

  As he was alone in the bedroom dealing with the impact of the news, Sarah walked in and wrapped her arms around her husband. He looked up at her through clouded eyes and mentioned the accident. She nodded, and said she knew. Leo was flabbergasted and found himself in further disbelief. How could she know?