Infinite Exposure

by Roland Hughes

  “Excellent. I have a feeling they are going to bring your subsidiary a lot of new profit.”

  “I can only hope. We don't get the bonuses or the margins you guys get. We need massive volume to make any kind of money at all. We shall see what their next order looks like.”

  “Agreed.”

  This was shaping up to be quite a day. The board had signed off on the second secured site almost before Nikolaus had presented the idea. The Lutton bombings had them worried about keeping all of their eggs in one basket as well. The designers had already finished the specifications for the site and they were sent off to the construction companies who would be handling the construction. Just this morning the liaison provided by the Chinese government had called to inform him the necessary monies had been received and the first crew was out prepping the site. The major utility connections should be out to the site inside of a week.

  “I don't know if you are the one to talk with about this,” Nikolaus began, “but I was wondering if there was any way we could speed up the construction process?”

  “Depends on the weather. We have regulations about how many hours the workers can report on their time cards, but some of the crews have been willing to work extra hours when they are paid in cash without reporting the time. Usually they end up working an evening shift under the lights. Of course, you would need an on-site concrete mixer for that to be feasible.”

  “Could one be obtained?”

  “Easily, for the correct price.”

  “Are you willing to handle obtaining it and paying the crew members willing to work the extra time at night?

  “Not for free.”

  “Oh, of course not.”

  “How would you get the money to me? It would be a lot of cash.”

  “Will the crew accept euros?”

  “It could be converted easily enough.”

  “How about South African currency?”

  “I could find someone from the South African embassy to exchange it for me.”

  “Good. Do you have a shipping address? I will pack the funds in medical supply containers and ship it to you.”

  “You don't even know how much I need.”

  “I assume we could revisit that topic after you see how much I send you.”

  The man gave him an address. Nikolaus used a disposable cell phone and called a contact at the secured location. He told him to pull all of the containers containing South African currency and two of the containers containing euros. Cover the bar codes on the containers with some other label, then he gave him the address of where to ship everything. He also told the man to adjust the inventory for those two currencies accordingly.

  Even if this only speeds us up three days, he thought, it was worth it to finally be rid of that South African currency. He had been sitting on that stuff almost a year now and could find no takers for it.

  With that done, Nikolaus decided to amuse himself and see if the distributor had already placed another order. When he ran the report he was stunned to see they had placed two orders. One apparently as soon as they had wired the money to pay the first invoice, and another as soon as they had been called about the credit limit increase.

  A few mouse clicks showed they were only taking two and three containers at a time of the currency, but nearly emptying the warehouses of the generic products. The second order had moved up to generic prescription drugs for cholesterol and some other common heart conditions. A few more orders like this and the brand name division was going to demand they get access to their catalog. They had ordered almost their entire credit limit.

  ***

  The Brit burned a CD containing all of the information they had pertaining to al-Qaeda operations in America. He also burned a copy of the CD and gave it to Hans after handwriting on it the date and that it was given to the Americans. He told Hans to send it some place for safe keeping. Hans looked at him rather funny and the Brit responded, “At some point this is going to all blow up. We are going to need to know what we told to whom when the hammer falls. Right now, the rest of the world hasn't decided to throw out the Rules of Engagement and open back up the wholesale slaughter counter. No offense, but the last time we did that was against your people and there is a lot of fall out happening from it even today.”

  Hans nodded, knowing it was the truth. There had been a lot of soft-life educated-type people writing articles about the Allied bombing campaign which exterminated entire German cities. A lot of party members back home still carried some resentment about it, but oddly not as many as Hans would have expected, and far fewer than in the countries which had actually carried out the bombings.

  “You honestly believe there will be another international war crimes trial over this and we will be sitting in defendant's chairs?”

  “No. I think you and I will either manage to disappear or we will both be sitting at ground zero when the leaders of this decide to tie off loose ends. Give this to someone who will keep it in a safe place and let it surface if we happen to be tied off.”

  With that, the Brit left and endured a four-hour bus ride one way to meet his contact. People from civilized countries tend to hate buses and use them only when they had to. As bad as the buses are in those countries, they look like a shiny new Mercedes compared to the bus the Brit was riding on. Thank God the windows opened. No air conditioning, the bus was packed, and some people had animals with them.

  He arrived at yet another IT center. One cluster of shiny new modern buildings surrounded by squalor. He found a place on the street that wasn't too crowded and opened up a disposable cell phone to call his contact.

  “Hello.”

  “I have some information for you, can we meet?”

  “Where?”

  “I just got off the bus.”

  “Oh. I'll be there in 10 minutes.”

  The contact arrived right on time. The Brit handed him the CD.

  “What's this.”

  “All we currently have on al-Qaeda in the U.S. Don't ask for more or where it came from as I cannot say.”

  “Understood.”

  The man put the CD in his shoulder bag then asked, “What's the birds-eye view?”

  “Email traffic to and from al-Qaeda members. Attack plans for both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sears Tower.”

  The Brit watched his contact's eyes widen involuntarily, then he asked, “Enough for an arrest?”

  “If you don't have to divulge your source and go through the court system. More than enough to get a warrant and search for legal evidence. Doubt you will find it though. Most of these operatives seem to use libraries and Internet cafés to communicate.”

  “That has been the problem, but right now we have to go through due process.”

  “Well, if you can arrange for a covert flight in and out, I know some people who could snatch some of these operatives for you, interrogate them off U.S. soil, then you will never hear from them again.”

  “I don't have the clearance to authorize it yet. Should be coming though. We shall see what the high-IQ boys think of this stuff and what they are willing to risk on it.”

  “There's my return bus. Good hunting.”

  “And to you.”

  The Brit climbed aboard for another hot, sweaty and smelly four-hour bus ride back to headquarters. He made a mental note when he got back to go to one of the apartments and take a shower.

  ***

  Hans had just returned to the headquarters from shipping off the CD to Vladimir. Of all the people Hans knew on this operation, Vladimir was the most likely to keep something like that safe in a manner that ensured it would be discovered when the time was right. He was pretty sure Vladimir would be one of the loose ends tied off with them if this all went bad, but his contacts in the Russian mob would ensure the world found out about what the Americans knew and when.

  The phone started to ring before Hans sat down. It was the three-man team from the apartment complex.

  “Hello.”

 
“A package just arrived here.”

  “Good, I was expecting it. Bring it over when you come to report in.”

  “It's a bit large for one guy to carry through the street unnoticed.”

  “Will it fit in the trunk of a car?”

  “It should.”

  “Bring a cab most of the way and carry it from there then.”

  “Will do.”

  “Thanks,”

  “Wait!”

  “What?”

  “I was really calling to tell you another person just showed up in the hub residence. It looks like they sent another trainee to this hub instead of sending him to the original trainer.”

  “Looks like the Brit was correct. I will inform the man in the suit and we will schedule a time to nab them.”

  “Can you get some dart pistols or sleeping gas?”

  “Why?”

  “We have been thinking. Someone will notice in this apartment complex if we make any noise taking them down. Sleeping gas could be fed in through the holes we already have while their air conditioning is running so they don't hear the hiss.”

  “You don't think people walking around in gas masks will get noticed?”

  “That is why we also thought about dart guns. We need to cart them out unconscious, then occupy their apartment for a few days quietly collecting their machines, or running them ourselves.”

  “Bring the package to me and I will ask the Brit about obtaining some equipment.”

  They hung up and Hans wrote an email to the man in the suit. He copied Vladimir on it as well.

  All,

  A second trainee has arrived at the hub. Need to schedule a grab. Team wants to take them quiet with tranquilizers of some kind and continue operating the hub for a little while.

  Hans

  With the email sent, Hans started reading through his own email to kill time waiting for the package. He had wished it could have been shipped here, but that simply wasn't an option. Any large package arriving at this location would be a major tip off to the local authorities something naughty was going on here. You simply didn't see FedEx and UPS trucks in this area.

  Half way through his email he heard the sound of someone dropping a package outside the door and some cussing. He got up and let in the team member along with the package.

  “Did we get an answer back yet?”

  “It will probably be a day or two. We still need time to obtain a vehicle, some form of tranquilizer and map out an exit strategy. You forget, the government doesn't know we are here or condones our operation.”

  “Probably have to have a boat meet us at Mangalore” replied the team member. “Not just any boat, it has to be able to make it to Pakistan.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Do you think we could charter a plane, drug them, and fly them back in coffins, at least until we take off?”

  “Quite a bit of risk for a few guys who probably cannot tell us more than we already know.”

  “True. I doubt we could talk the suit into flying a Huey out to meet the boat once we hit international waters. Harness and cable the guys up into it, keep them drugged, and fly them to the air strip for a ride to the interrogation camp.”

  “They may want to interrogate them in Pakistan for a while before sending them on. There is one piece of information we are looking for that they might be able to tell us.”

  “Am I allowed to know what that is?”

  “How they do the transfer between hubs. This new operator and the one already in training will get some of the email load from either the original trainer or the one currently training them. How do they notify the people in the field that they are to use a new hub?”

  “We are currently trapping all email messages in both directions are we not?”

  “Yes.”

  “Simply wait two weeks. We will have the messages trapped. Let our team try cracking them before we snatch and interrogate.”

  “That might work.”

  “While I'm here, do you happen to have some local currency? We don't want to pass around foreign currency and their isn't much of a place to do conversions.”

  Hans opened his wallet and gave him all of the local currency he had.

  “What will you do for food?”

  “I will have more tomorrow. I will probably hand you each an envelope tomorrow so you have operational funds.”

  “About time, rent will be due soon.”

  With that, the man left and Hans took the package to a windowless room in the building to open it. The cardboard he could easily burn to get rid of, except he might use it under his sleeping bag. Given the way this operation functioned he couldn't stay in a hotel that far away. The thought was appealing, but there would be too much risk and too much lost time. What if one of the band of roving hoodlums saw the satellite dishes and decided to rob the place? No, somebody had to be here at all times now.

  Inside of the box was a big yellow hard plastic shipping case. It had every kind of language label on it indicating it was medical supplies packed in dry ice and not to be opened in an uncontrolled environment. He cut away the front side of the carton and pulled the container out. Two tumbler locks built into the case held it closed.

  Hans picked up the satellite phone and called Nikolaus at his office.

  “This is Nikolaus.”

  “Hans here. Your package arrived, but I need the pair of three digit combinations to open it.”

  “Hold please.” There was a shuffling of papers, then Nikolaus said “Do you have a pen?”

  “Yes”

  “9-1-1 and 8-8-8.”

  “Not very secure.”

  “You didn't guess them.”

  “I didn't try. What is with the Chinese good fortune number?”

  “I was feeling whimsical about the new secured location.”

  “Wow! You did get a whale.”

  “They are even helping build the facility. One more year of this and everybody's hands will be too dirty to wipe clean.”

  Hans tried the combinations and the case unlocked. He lifted the lid and gave a low whistle. “Twinkies.”

  “What?”

  “It is what some grifters call shrink wrapped bundles of money. Twinkies with green filling is the whole phrase, but they are usually talking about American dollars.”

  “Well, there will be another case of Twinkies coming to you next week.”

  “Hold off on that for a while.”

  “Why?”

  “The current hub operator just got another to train. Waiting for instructions from the higher ups on when to grab them and how to get them out of the country. We may be tying this one off in a week.”

  “Oh.”

  “This will make the escape route easier to plan though.”

  “How much is here?”

  “I don't know.”

  “What?”

  “I know what the total amount we had was, I have no idea how much is in each container.”

  “Oh.”

  “Good hunting.”

  With the conversation over, Hans started looking around for some envelopes. Large Manila envelopes. Even that wasn't going to use up an entire Twinkie. He definitely had to burn the plastic before anyone saw it. The container would have to stay hidden in this room with junk piled on top of it. When he finished stuffing the envelops he remembered to reload his wallet. There was still a short stack of cash left over from the first Twinkie. He put a Twinkie in the bottom drawer of his desk and the Brit's.

  Hans relaxed for a little while eating an MRE and thinking. Finally he gathered up the meal packaging along with the Twinkie wrapper, took all of the trash outside to the little burn pile he had set up and watched it all burn.

  Some time later when Hans was dozing off, the Brit returned to headquarters. He only needed to report in, then he could bum a shower from the apartment where the three guys were staying at. The sound of him coming in woke Hans and a reflex had him drawing a weapon.

  “Nice to see you've sti
ll got it,” said the Brit. “Why so jumpy?”

  “One of us has to be here at all times now.”

  The Brit gave him a puzzled look. Hans got up and walked to his desk. He picked up the loose cash he had left lying there and brought it back to the Brit.

  “Get yourself a room for the night along with a good meal and a hot shower. I'll take tonight's watch.”

  The Brit cocked an eye at him.

  “We received some liquid assets to make the operation go more smoothly. Given the equipment we have here and the way people have been knocking over empty places, we cannot take the risk. It's not just our equipment anymore.”

  “Fine. I made the drop. They won't ask for more, but they may ask us to do a snatch for them?”

  “You didn't ...”

  “Relax. They have to go through due process if they bag anybody on their soil. If they turn a blind eye to a foreigner and his plane they have deniability. It all depends on how much they believe what is on the disk. Their ability to believe seems to be widening given what they are finding with their own surveillance.”

  “They volunteer anything?”

  “No. Just that attitudes are changing at the top and they expect to be able to authorize wide-scale round ups soon.”

  “We just asked for authorization to round up as well.”

  “A new trainee?”

  “Aye. Showed up today. Sent a request off asking for a when and an exit plan. Haven't heard a response yet.”

  “That reminds me. Need to see if you can buy us a vehicle we could hide three people in that could make it to Mangalore. The team also wants you to get some dart pistols or other fast-acting tranquilizer capability. You've done quite a few ops here, so I assume you have the contacts for such things.”

  The Brit held up the handful of cash and said, “This won't be enough to get all of that.”

  “Open your bottom desk drawer”

  “That'll work. What is in Mangalore?”

  “Nothing yet. We are speculating we will have to bribe some kind of fishing boat to get us out to international waters where a Huey can rendezvous and hoist the guys up for a flight to Pakistan. The team is hoping to run the current email hub themselves for a little while before packing up the equipment.”