"Doctor, let's go see if your patient can answer some questions. Brian, I've got units on the way. I told them to meet with the hospital security chief when they arrive. Please keep me posted on anything related to this incident, okay?"
Meinders nodded and returned to the isolation box and slipped his arms back into the gloves. He pulled an empty lead canister over then used the tongs to lift the watch from the tray and drop it into the canister. He carefully put a lid on the canister then used a grease pencil to label the canister's exterior. Then he transferred the bag into a chute that would drop it into a larger lead container under the isolation box. Once it was sealed, Meinders withdrew his arms ago and asked Denholm to check him once more with a Geiger counter.
Turner and Kincaid took an elevator to the Isolation Ward floor. The doctor took a moment to check in on his patient, get his vitals, and ensure that the medicines he'd ordered to begin treating Johnson for radiation exposure had been administered. Satisfied that his patient was healthy enough to talk with the police, Turner opened the door and waved Kincaid into the room.
Chapter 11
June 25th
Omega Mining Compound
Northwestern, AZ
The next morning found Mustafa Muhammad Al-Fakeeh driving slowly up the hill from the mine office to the dirt airstrip on the ridge above. Al-Fakeeh had to be the bearer of bad news to Abdul Aziz Mohammed Al Zahrani, which was never a good thing but a part of his job as the leader's chief lieutenant. Reaching the top of the ridge, Al-Fakeeh scanned the area until he spotted Al Zahrani, who was standing next to a crop dusting aircraft that other men were having difficulty covering with camouflage netting. Mustafa turned his vehicle toward Al Zahrani's location and accelerated.
Al Zahrani saw his lieutenant approach and saw by the set of the man's face and shoulders that he bore bad news. "Yes, Mustafa, what is it that you must tell me?" he asked.
"Amir, I am sorry that I must report...we have not been able to find Rafiq's watch. Either someone has stolen and hidden it or it is not in the compound," answered Mustafa. "I was thinking of going back to Kingman to see if it is at the warehouse."
Al Zahrani's gaze would have wilted a lesser man, but Mustafa had been with Al Zahrani for many years and had risked his life many times in Al Zahrani's service. No, the blame lay with Rafiq Aswad who had the stupidity of wearing the watch when he shouldn't have. Alas, Aswad is no longer a problem, Al Zahrani thought.
"Very well, Mustafa," said Al Zahrani. "Perhaps you may find if anyone is aware of the watch's location or its...implications. But go cautiously. Do not expose our mission." Mustafa bowed and left.
Al Zahrani turned back to the men who were struggling to get the camouflage netting over the aircraft. Ignorant fools! he thought. "Careful there! Do not tear that net!"
Al-Fakeeh drove his vehicle back to the mining office and grabbed one of the other men there who spoke English. "Come with me. We must drive to Kingman and investigate the disappearance of Rafiq's watch." The man put down the paperwork he was working on and joined Al-Fakeeh in the SUV.
The men bounced and jostled their way down the dirt road to U.S. Route 93. Their trip became faster and more comfortable once they were driving on the blacktop. Soon, they pulled into the yard of Johnson & Sons Distributors. Mustafa left his comrade in the SUV and walked up the ramp to the warehouse to look for Dave Johnson. Instead, he encountered Bill Kreel, the warehouse foreman.
"Ah, Mr. Kreel, I am here to speak with Mr. Johnson," Al-Fakeeh said.
"Wow! I'm really sorry, Mr. Al-Fakeeh," Kreel began. "Mr. Johnson wasn't feeling good yesterday and went to see his doctor."
"I am most sorry to hear this," replied Al-Fakeeh. "Have you heard anything about his condition?"
"His wife, Edna, called me last night to say that he had to have surgery on his leg. He came through the surgery OK, but he needs to stay in the hospital for a little while. He's in Mohave County General over on Beale Street."
"Well, perhaps I will go by the hospital and see if I may visit him," Al-Fakeeh said. "Thank you, Mr. Kreel." Back at his vehicle, Al-Fakeeh told his comrade what he had learned. Using his cellular telephone, Al-Fakeeh reported his findings to Al Zahrani then hopped behind the wheel for the short drive to the hospital.
Once there, Al-Fakeeh stopped at the hospital's gift shop and purchased a get well card and some flowers. He put the card unsigned in with the flowers then stepped over to the hospital's information desk. When he asked to visit Dave Johnson, the young woman at the desk responded, "I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Johnson is in the Isolation Ward and is not allowed to have visitors at this time. I could take your name and contact information and let him know that you came to see him."
Al-Fakeeh paused for a moment then said, "My information is on the card, if you would be kind enough to give him these flowers." The woman accepted the flowers and card and assured him that they would be delivered to Mr. Johnson. With that Al-Fakeeh returned to his vehicle. He thought of phoning Al Zahrani then decided to wait until he returned to the mining compound to brief his leader. Turning to his comrade, Al-Fakeeh said, "You drive us back. I must concentrate on what I will say to the Amir."
***
June 25th
ASGuard HQ
Phoenix, AZ
Back at ASGuard HQ, Marcus Roman had requested a meeting with his father and CBII Senior Agent in Charge Halsted. Once all three men were seated in the general's office, Marcus used his comm unit to pull up his email and linked it to be displayed on the large, flat screen television mounted on one wall.
"Sir," he began, addressing his father, "do you remember Josh Kincaid?"
General Titus Roman closed his eyes for a moment while tapping his memory. "Yes! He was the MP who brought you home after you ran away from home back when we lived at Fort Sill." Marcus blushed as his father's description of the event.
"Yes, yes, and no, sir!" Marcus replied. "Yes, he was an MP, and yes, he brought me to the house. No, I was not running away. I was going on a camping trip."
"By yourself and on a military installation?" asked Halsted.
Marcus rolled his eyes at the friendly teasing from his father and their mutual friend. "More importantly, Josh and I have stayed in touch over the years. He's now the police chief in Kingman, Arizona. He emailed me these images!" Marcus pulled up the images of the watch found in Dave Johnson's pants and put them onto the big screen. "He told me a man came to the hospital there with an injury and that he had this watch in his pocket. The watch is highly radioactive. Notice the numbers on the face...then there's an inscription on the back." Marcus showed the face of the watch, then the second photo of the watch's back. He zoomed in on the inscription.
Halsted leaned forward and squinted slightly at the image. "Something about '...watch, my son...strike at...infidel and...victory'. The last part is their usual, 'Allahu Akbar'."
"Pretty close, sir," said Marcus. "I had our Arabic linguists check it out. They translated it as 'Wear this watch, my son, when you strike at the hearts of the infidels and I will share in your victory! Allahu Akbar!' The injured man said it was found in front of his warehouse. He thinks a driver for one of his customers dropped it by accident. He said the driver and the customer's agent appear to be Middle Eastern."
"Anything else?" asked Halsted.
Marcus brought up a third image showing Eastern Arabic numerals. "Josh thought these might be a serial number or something."
"Marcus, email those images to me and I'll get the CBII on the case," said Halsted. Marcus tapped quickly on his comm unit then nodded to Halsted that they were on the way to his comm unit, which pinged a moment later. Then Halsted tapped away on his unit to forward the images to his agency. Ah...technology, ain't it wonderful, Titus thought.
General Roman asked, "What else do you have, son?"
Marcus smiled and answered, "Josh reports that the customer is the Omega Mining Corporation. The company owns a mine...located in the low mountains about 30 miles outside
of Kingman. I had our folks do some checking and it is a duly registered mining operation, primarily working the gold and silver deposits in that location. They employ hundreds of people...all of them immigrants or foreign nationals from the Middle East. They've taken their gold and silver into Kingman to sell and have picked up their supplies and equipment there."
Marcus paused to let his father and Halsted assimilate the information he'd provided. After a few moments of silence, Marcus said, "I'd like to fly up to Kingman, and speak with Josh and the fellow who found the watch. On the way up, we can fly close enough to the mining compound to take a looksee with a sensor package. I'd also like to request some aerial and satellite imagery from the CBII. I think there's something rotten going on at that mining camp and we need to find out what it is before it bites us in the ass."
General Roman nodded, as did Kenneth Halsted. Both men were combat veterans, able to make quick decisions on limited intel. Something was going on at the mining camp. What was the connection between the highly radioactive watch and a gold and silver mine?
"Alright, get yourself a team together and take off. I'd recommend deploying the rest of your unit to the ASGuard station in Seligman, which would put them within striking distance, if needed," said Titus Roman. "If we knew then what we know now, we probably should have kept your team deployed in that region. Oh, well. Hindsight is 20/20!"
Halsted looked Marcus Roman straight in the eyes. "Marcus, take Caldwell with you. I know...he's a pain in the ass, but he can act as liaison with the CBII for you. He can make direct calls to the Home Office, instead of you having to call me and then having me call them." Halsted shrugged his shoulders.
Marcus nodded and left the room, speaking into his comm unit as he left. Moments later he walked into his office to speak with Major Thompson, Major Dillon, Captain Hebert, and SGM Templeton. He waited a few minutes to let Caldwell arrive before starting giving orders. Marcus ordered Thompson, Dillon, and Hebert to mobilize the Legion and deploy to Seligman. "If anyone asks, it's a continuation of our field exercises in a new environment," said Marcus. "Tommi, I want a Chinook to be piloted by Hills and Mingus and two Black Hawks...whoever's on rotation. Have our gear loaded and the birds ready to rotate in 30 mikes. I also want to borrow Master Sergeants Abe Mokri and Tobias Cowen for this op."
Thompson used her comm unit to contact the pilots and have them prep their helicopters for the mission. Dillon contacted Mokri and Cowen on his comm unit and told them to gear up and head to the helipads. Before leaving, Marcus added, "Based on what we find out in Kingman, we may end up conducting a covert reconnaissance of the mining compound. I want us equipped for day and night high desert ops. Tommi, along with our ground vehicles, deploy three of our Chinooks to Seligman and put them on standby. I want five of our modified civilian ATVs on the first Chinook out. Load it up with civilian camping and hunting gear, too. I think if we're going to get close to that compound, we'll have to do it looking like a group of deer hunters out on the trail scouting for deer for this Fall's deer season. Any other air support can be pulled from the Bullhead City and Seligman stations, as needed. Any questions?" There were none and Marcus' personnel got to work. Thirty-five minutes later, he and his team were airborne, bound for Kingman, Arizona.
Twenty-five minutes later, Marcus' CH-47 Chinook took to the air followed a minute later by two heavily armed UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The three helicopters flew westward then turned northwesterly sweeping past the city of Surprise while paralleling U.S. Route 60. Outside Wickenburg, Route 60 became Route 93 and Marcus told the pilots to go to maximum altitude and to shift the three helicopters about half a mile west of the highway and to maintain that distance.
LTC Roman radioed the pilots of ASGuard 320, one of the Black Hawks, which was equipped with high resolution, gimbal-stabilized digital cameras. After giving them the GPS coordinates of the mining compound to program into the camera suite, he said, "It'll be coming up on our right about 12 miles east of the highway. We're not going to be able to get any closer or orbit the site, so I want as much as you can get on this one pass. I've requested additional satellite imagery that we'll compare to what we get. Make it count!"
Marcus gave the pilots a two minute warning as they drew near the mining camp. "Rolling!" the senior pilot called out over the radio as she turned the camera system on. The three ASGuard helicopters flew slow and straight while the cameras locked onto the target area and tracked it until it disappeared beyond the range of the cameras. "Think we got you some good shots there, Colonel! Do you want 7x10 glossies or the family portrait special?" Major Katie Kerwood asked.
Chuckling, Marcus responded, "Let me look at the proof sheet first before I make up my mind! See you on the ground! Centurion out."
The three helicopters flew on and soon the city of Kingman appeared before them. Marcus heard the voice of senior pilot, Captain "Frodo" Hills, in his earphones. "Colonel, I have ASGuard Station Kingman in sight. We've received clearance to land. Colonel Dixon will meet us at the helipad."
"Thanks, Frodo," Marcus replied. "Let's show Dix how the Legion does business!"
Captain Hills chuckled, "Yessir! Rolling in straight and fast." The noses of the three helicopters pitched down and they sped through the air rapidly closing the distance to the base which served as headquarters of the ASGuard's 2nd Border Defense Brigade. Suddenly, the trio of aircraft pitched up, dumping forward velocity and going into vertical hover. They settled softly onto their assigned landing spots, touching down virtually simultaneously.
"Well done Frodo...Lu! Be sure to pass those compliments on to the other pilots. Make sure we get the data block from the camera sent over to the base's intel officer ASAP," Marcus told Hills who acknowledged the order professionally.
Marcus and his troops released their lap belts and removed their headsets. Seated closest to the door, Templeton popped the latch and opened the door to allow the team to exit the helicopter. Everyone took a moment to stretch out the kinks in their backs and limbs then marched across the helipad to the waiting personnel and vehicles.
Stopping before the senior man waiting at the edge of the helipad, LTC Marcus Roman snapped to attention and saluted. "Colonel Dixon, a pleasure to see you again, sir!" Roman said formally.
Colonel Steve Dixon, commander of the 2nd Border Defense Brigade (Western Region), snapped to attention and returned the salute and salutation. "Dammit, Marcus, long time no see!" he said smiling and extending his right hand. The two old friends shook hands and Marcus took a moment to introduce his personnel to the colonel. Dixon shook hands with each person stopping only when he reached the tall, dark-skinned, and gray-haired figure of Sergeant Major Aaron Templeton.
"Sergeant Major? Sergeant Major Templeton?" Dixon asked incredulously, a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth. "You have got to be kidding me! Dammit, Temp, you swore you'd never let them buck you up so high that you'd become a desk jockey and miss out on all the action!"
"Well, Colonel, it's like this...someone has to keep this young buck outta trouble," Templeton said pointing towards Marcus Roman. "And if the only way I can do it is to stay in his unit, promotion or no promotion, well that's just the way it is! General Roman gave me the promo but saw the sense in keeping me in the field. Besides, I've still got a few good years and many a mile left in me!" The two old warriors stared at each other for a moment, then another, and finally gripped hands and pulled each other into a quick bear hug.
Breaking apart, Dixon looked over to Marcus, "Hey, youngster, any time you get tired of looking at Temp's ugly mug, you send him to me and I'll give 'im some honest work to do!"
"Uh uh, Dix," Marcus said, "Temp's staying with me. Like he said, he keeps me outta trouble."
"Yeah, right! Like that time in Kabul?"
"Now gentlemen, there's no need to be arguing over little ol' me," said Templeton. "And, if I recall correctly, we had to rescue your butt in Kabul, sir!"
Colonel Dixon paused, rubbed his chin then began
to laugh, "Yeah...ya did at that! Come on, you two. Hop into my vehicle and the rest will follow in the other two vehicles. Marcus, I've put my intel officer at your disposal. Once you brief me on the op, I've got vehicles ready for you and your team to take you anywhere you want to go."
"Thanks, Dix," Roman replied. "I've been thinking on the way up that it might be best if we go to the hospital in civvies and in a civilian vehicle, just in case someone's watching the hospital."
"I've got that covered, too," Dixon replied as the pulled away from the helipad. Minutes later, they pulled up at the headquarters building. Dixon led them inside and introduced his intelligence officer, a Major Michelle Mitchell, to Marcus and his team. Major Kerwood passed over the fist-sized data block to the intel officer and the woman left them to go to her office to unlock the data inside it.
In his office, Dixon introduced Marcus and his personnel to his executive officer. "Kelly, I want to sit down and talk with Colonel Roman, Agent Caldwell, and Sergeant Major Templeton for a few moments. Would you take the other personnel to get some refreshments, please." The young lieutenant colonel excused herself and left the room to join the others.
"So Marcus, how are Teresa and young Julian doing? What about your folks? I heard your mother had a scary time there of it at Goldwater!" Dixon asked.
Marcus quickly responded, "Teresa and Julian are staying with her grandparents in Sedona. Teresa's on indefinite leave for a while yet. Mom's fine. A little scratched up. Last I heard she was on her way up to Sedona to see her favorite daughter-in-law and baby grandson! Dad's doing great! He's loving being in command of the ASGuard."
Dixon spent a few minutes catching up with SGM Templeton and then spoke with Caldwell. With similar backgrounds, it was no surprise that they had a number of mutual acquaintances. Finally, Dixon got down to business, laying his command at Marcus' disposal for the investigation. Moments later, Major Mitchell returned and reported to Colonel Dixon.
The Arizona State Guard Trilogy Page 27