by Alec Peche
"Any thoughts on Lark’s whereabouts or what make and model of car she might be in?"
"We checked the vehicle purchase records of her company. We don't know if she has a company car. If she does, it's likely one of 3 models, a silver four-door sedan, a large black SUV, or a black Hummer. I can give you the make and models if you spot anybody, but I think it's more important to look for vehicle body types. We believe that there are likely 4 people in the vehicle. We've swooped down on a few silver sedans and nearly caused the drivers to go off the road in surprise. We are going to fly to your vehicle to give you an escort to the Sheriff's station. We will then return to the field."
As Agent O'Sullivan looked up through her windshield, she saw the FBI helicopter. It had been a wild day. From the fast departure to drive to the rest stop to pick up Jill, to the handcuffing of her partner inside the Sheriff's car, she hadn't had time to process everything. Typically, she would have analyzed how the situation had gone down at the rest stop. She and Agent Brown had been partners for nearly 2 years. After observing his behavior while locking him in the squad car, she had no doubt that Lark's company had figured out how to exploit her partner.
In the backseat Jill was composing in her head the e-mail to her friends in Wisconsin and a phone call to Nathan. She rather thought it would be interesting as a bystander to watch how her day had gone so far. Most people would think that it had to be a vivid dream. Surely no small town grape grower got chased by black ops helicopters in essentially her own backyard. She supposed that it was good that she could maintain a sense of humor about the situation.
They spotted the Sheriff's station up ahead on the right. Deputy Davis escorted Jill and her dog inside the station. There she met Lieutenant Garcia. The Stanislaus County Sheriff headquarters were in a different location. Three uniformed officers as well as a dispatcher stood inside the building. Deputy Davis, in consultation with Agents O'Sullivan and Lansky, concluded that they could leave Jill in the lieutenant’s protection with Deputy Davis. The agents would retrieve the Sheriff squad car if for no other reason so that Deputy Davis could get back to Palisades Valley. She handed Agent Lansky the part that had disabled the car with specific instructions on how to do the repair. Agent Lansky was expected back at the Sheriff’s station in 25 to 30 minutes.
Deputy Davis briefed Lieutenant Garcia on Jill's case, and the incident that morning at a rest stop in his jurisdiction. As that was state land, he would leave any cleanup of the rest area to the Highway Patrol. Jill was not sure if the lieutenant would have believed her far-fetched story if it were not for the backup of Deputy Davis and the FBI agents.
In the air, the FBI helicopter searched for signs of a car that might contain Lark. On the ground, Agents Lansky and O'Sullivan had reached the disabled Sheriff’s squad car containing Agent Brown. He knew that his life with the FBI was over and he had nothing to lose and much to gain by talking about Lark. He wore a tracker that was monitored. The 2 agents needed to stop the tracking abilities of the device, but they did not want to lose it as evidence. In the end they decided to dig a hole and bury it in an evidence bag about 2 feet down. That would make it harder to detect and yet they could move the vehicles and Agent Brown without worry of being tracked by Lark.
Surprisingly, although he had been stuck in the Sheriff's squad car for 30 minutes, Lark had not approached the vehicle. Agent Brown was asked why he had assisted Lark. Sadly, it was for money, one million dollars to be precise. He had figured that he would not actually cause Jill's death. The little information that he provided to Lark about Jill’s location seemed minimal when stacked against Lark's helicopter, manpower support, and arsenal of weapons. Lark would win in the end, and he may as well get paid as a side benefit. As he had nearly died in the explosion at Graeme’s, he felt like he needed to find a safer line of work. The payment would ease his transition to a new future.
After that explanation, Agent O'Sullivan was depressed over the lack of ethics of her former partner. She had liked the guy and now questioned her own judgment about the character of her fellow agent. She would be morose later. At the moment they needed to find Lark. Agent Lansky headed back to the Sheriff's station with Deputy Davis’s squad car.
The search continued for Lark’s car. This part of California was primarily farmland, which should have made the search easier for the car, but they had been at it for more than an hour and had not sighted the car nor did they have a sense of its direction. At some point, Lark would need medical care for the gunshot wound in her leg.
Agent Ortiz had been studying Lark's company in detail. It was her conclusion that she leased or owned 30 to 50 helicopters, 250 to 300 vehicles, had an endless number of weapons and ammunitions, and there were multiple company locations across the country. Furthermore, on her staff she had athletic trainers, martial arts experts, several physicians, a physical therapist, and nurses. It wasn't clear to her if the medical staff was used for deployments around the world or for treatment and recovery of injuries suffered by employees during training in this country. She placed a conference call to others in the air and on the ground.
"Lark likely has an endless supply of transportation options and weapons. It appears as though she can even get medical care without going to an emergency room that might report her gunshot wound. This assumes that the wound was not severe. We have had experts in the FBI review the camera footage from our helicopter at the rest stop. While there was minimal blood in the abandoned helicopter, we believe that she could be suffering from a mortal wound if she doesn’t get care in another hour. The large bone in her upper leg is likely fractured, which will cause internal bleeding inside the thigh,” stated Agent Ortiz.
One of her staff members needed her attention, so she asked the people in the field to hold. "Agent Ortiz, we just received a report from a hospital emergency room located 40 miles from the rest stop. An unidentified female was dropped off by 3 masked men in a silver sedan. They quickly exited and were not available to answer questions posed by the staff treating the woman. She has been rushed to surgery, and she is listed in critical condition. She arrived in shock, unconscious, and with a bullet wound in her thigh."
"Thank you, Agent Williams and please stay in communication with that hospital. I will dispatch someone there now, and they should arrive within the next 10 to 15 minutes.” Instructed Agent Ortiz.
She returned to the conference call with her field team and she advised the helicopter to head for the hospital.
"I need you to report to Stanislaus Community Hospital immediately. A female matching Lark’s description was dropped off by 3 males who subsequently disappeared. Her prognosis is poor as to whether she will survive the surgery on her wounded leg. I would like one officer stationed at her bedside or as close as we can get to the surgical suite. Let's quickly get a positive identification on her. I would like another officer to confiscate any video footage outside the emergency room that identifies her and the other 3 men."
Agent Ortiz called the nursing supervisor at the hospital to inform her of the FBI’s interest in a particular female patient and the pending arrival of the agents by helicopter. She also notified Lieutenant Garcia as the hospital was likely in his area.
Twelve minutes later the helicopter landed and unloaded the FBI team at the hospital’s helicopter pad. The helicopter lifted off to find parking elsewhere as it could not block any medical helicopters from reaching the hospital. Agent O'Sullivan arrived 7 minutes later in her car.
Hospital security personnel met them, and they divided into 2 groups. One group departed for a conference room outside of the sterile environment of the operating room.
As Lark was considered under arrest, some medical information was transmitted to the agents. She had arrived in critical condition with low blood pressure and a weak pulse. She was not conscious. She was determined to have a broken femur with internal bleeding from the broken bone and a nicked vein.
“The hospital began providing care to the woman more
than an hour after she incurred her injury. That greatly increases the odds that she will not survive the surgery to repair her leg. Given the excessive internal bleeding and blood loss, her body’s natural response would cause it to release proteins into the blood throughout the body to promote clotting. One of these blood clots could cut off the blood supply to the liver, the brain, or the kidneys, which can cause them to stop working. Normally, if we got someone in within 60 minutes after an initial injury, the repair is actually not that complicated. Right now, the greatest risk to her is blood clots… or if she runs out of protein, bleeding to death,” explained a nurse from the operating room.
The agents sat down to wait. They had a fingerprint scanner to use on the female to positively identify her. To the hospital, she was simply Jane Doe.
In another part of the hospital, the second group of agents reviewed the camera footage from the time that the female had been dropped off at the emergency room. One of the men wore the same clothing as one of the men who had accompanied Lark at the rest stop had worn. They all wore gloves and had ski masks over their heads. Bare skin showed above their gloves but below the edge of their jackets. All 3 suspects were Caucasian and male. The FBI used facial recognition software to identify Lark's companion at the rest stop. No match had been made to U.S. passport databases. Now an attempt was being made to match it with data from Interpol.
Both FBI teams were at a standstill, hampered by a lack of information. Meanwhile, in the Stanislaus Sheriff station, Jill relaxed when she heard about the condition of the as-yet-to-be-identified Lark. At least she was in custody. It sounded like Lark was fighting for her life in the operating room. Two questions remained for her. Was this Lark? And where were her men, and were they still after Jill?
The nurse returned to the group of agents assembled in the surgery waiting room.
“Jane Doe expired on the operating table. We believe that a blood clot traveled to her heart, where it blocked the blood supply to that muscle. Despite repeated attempts, we could not revive her. Staff members are cleaning her up before we transport her to the hospital morgue. We will come and get you in about 10 minutes when we move her. We can stop at that time and give you a chance to visually identify her and run your fingerprint verification. If she is your suspect, then will you take responsibility to notify her family?”
“Thank you. We will await the opportunity to identify her. If it is our suspect, she has no next of kin that we are aware of, but we will take responsibility for the notification to her company and the attorney representing her estate,” responded Agent Jackson, the leader of the helicopter team.
Agent Jackson updated all parties on Jane Doe’s death and sat down to wait. It had been a long day. Ten minutes passed and the nurse appeared to take the agents to Jane Doe’s gurney. Agent Jackson carried an iPad with several pictures of Lark. In addition, it contained the software for fingerprint verification.
"Visually, she looks like our suspect Lark Sumac.” He held her fingers to the fingerprint scanner and waited for a match. “Since she did some defense contracting, we know that her fingerprints are in the system."
The iPad beeped and indicated that Jane Doe had indeed been positively identified as Lark Sumac. He wanted to take a look at the bullet wound but knew that he would be stepping over the line of her medical privacy rights. He'd learn more about the bullet wound by obtaining the coroner’s report of her death. Someone pulled the sheet up over her head and continued the journey toward the morgue.
Agent Jackson notified all parties that Lark Sumac was confirmed deceased. That left only one loose end.
Chapter 32
Agent Ortiz was trying to identify one of the men in Lark's group. Had Lark issued a dying order for Jill to be killed, and if so, were her men going to follow that order? A review of the company revealed that she was Chairman and CEO. A CFO signed tax filings, otherwise there were no other names associated with the company. A search of the media about her company revealed very little data. The company had generally managed to stay out of the news for over 20 years. She would contact company headquarters to see who was in charge in her absence.
In the interim she would have Jill and the dog transported on the FBI helicopter to the safehouse. Until she knew the direction of Lark's men, the Bureau would strive to keep Jill safe. She left a message for Agent O'Sullivan, who then contacted her via conference call with Deputy Davis and Jill. Both Deputy Davis and Agent O'Sullivan were in agreement that Jill should go to the San Francisco safehouse. Jill agreed with this as well. Deputy Davis was heading back to the Palisades Valley. Given the uncertainty as to whether Lark’s men were still pursuing Jill, Sheriff Arstand was happy that someone else was keeping Jill safe. He had a heck of a mess on his hands to clean up, and it would be weeks before the station was back to normal.
The FBI helicopter landed close to the Stanislaus Sheriff station. Agent O'Sullivan was transporting Agent Brown back to San Francisco to be booked into jail. Jill would have new agents by her side for the immediate future. She gave Deputy Davis a heartfelt hug, as she had done much to keep Jill safe over the past several weeks.
Taking a reluctant Trixie to the helicopter, she climbed aboard with the dog. The agents buckled her into her seat and gave her headphones to reduce the noise and keep her connected to the other agents onboard the helicopter. Trixie was likewise placed in a harness so that she wouldn't be tossed around the interior of the helicopter as it made sharp turns. She barked when they took off, but the first swooping turn had her quickly lying down and looking terrified. It would be a 40 minute trip before they landed in San Francisco.
Jill needed to get word to Nathan. On the advice of Deputy Davis she had powered off her cell phone and removed the battery on the off chance that someone was tracking her movement. She had been off line for about 5 hours now. If Nathan had tried to reach her and couldn't, he likely would have contacted his friend Sheriff Arstand to see if something was going on. She could only hope that he had gotten lost in an artistic frenzy creating labels and other concepts for his friend in Washington.
When they landed in San Francisco, Jill asked for a few minutes alone on the roof to call Nathan.
"Nathan, how has your day been going so far?"
"When I couldn't reach your cell phone earlier I called the Sheriff to see if anything was going on. You have had a busy day, and I am so happy to hear your voice right now."
Jill gave him a briefing about what had happened over the past few hours and the fact that Trixie was with her in the safehouse.
"I was sort of hoping that you would get lost in your art and not worry about me today. I'm sorry I couldn't contact you sooner, but frankly, we didn't know the extent of Lark's tracking abilities. Given that some of her company’s work is done in secret, no one was really sure what technological abilities she had. It turns out that she had less technological capabilities and more extortion skills when it came to Agent Brown. The FBI agents are waiting for me down below, and I’m going back into a secure location until we can figure out if Lark's team members are targeting me. I don't know when I'll call you again, but I'm hoping to be completely free from this case within 24 hours.”
“Really appreciate the call. I know you have had a rough day. Love you, take care."
"Love you back, good night.” Jill ended the phone conversation with a sigh and proceeded into the building.
Inside the door someone waited to escort Trixie and Jill to a conference room. Inside the conference room, Jill met up with Agent Ortiz and a couple of new agents. She was introduced to the new agents who would be guarding her in the same safehouse location across the street.
They had the added complication of taking Trixie outside for frequent bathroom breaks. In the end, one of the staff members was a dog lover who offered to take Trixie home with her. Her husband worked from home, and Trixie would have company all day. More importantly, in the Bureau's eyes, no one would have the distraction of the dog, including Jill herself, if th
e situation got sticky again.
Agent Ortiz directed a briefing concerning theories about Lark's team members. She had reached out to the Bureau’s behavioral analysis unit for evaluation by its experts.
“In addition, I received back from Interpol a facial match for Lark's teammate in the rest stop attack. He was identified as Arben Frroku, an Albanian national wanted by Interpol for a category labeled homicide committed in other special circumstances.”
Jill asked "What are the special circumstances?”
"According to Interpol, he is wanted for the murder of a police officer, which is a special classification."
Jill added sarcastically. “Great background. Do we have any idea of his loyalty to Lark? Did they have a relationship? Interesting that he is also from Albania."
"He's a bad person, otherwise Interpol would not be after him. He has been on the run for nearly 20 years. Unless he stands to inherit Lark's company or he is seeking revenge for her death, we think he will disappear."
“Have the FBI behavioral people been able to speculate about his personal relationship with Lark? It seems that the tape of him at the rest stop and of the men dropping her off at the hospital would tell us something about the depth of his relationship with Lark and possibly point to his likely desire to continue to pursue me versus hiding from Interpol.”
“They warn me that with little to evaluate beyond the few seconds of tape we gave them, their accuracy would be very questionable. Thus, they have declined to give us an opinion. So we have to assume worst-case scenario that he will continue Lark's mission until we get sufficient information to the contrary," stated Agent Ortiz.
"Who is in charge of Lark's company upon her death? Do we know anything about the workings of her company, the Board of Directors? Isn’t it privately held? Can we get any information from the IRS about the company?” suggested Jill.
"Good idea, Jill. We have also sent an alert to Homeland Security for distribution to all points of exit from the United States. The company has a major office in San Diego. If I were him, I would get in a boat and sail south to Mexico, have some plastic surgery, and re-emerge several months from now.”