The Remote Traveler (The Remote Series Book 1)

by Finian Blake

  The Foreman asked, “How do you know that they were broken?”

  Evan was losing it again, “The girl’s car was parked at the turnoff for the farm and used to set the desert on fire. They damn near burnt us out. They stopped the car twenty yards short of the sensors that we installed on both sides of the road. One more foot and we would have had them!”

  “What if, the sensors were spotted?”

  “I doubt that boss, we used the latest technology. The units were several yards off of the road. Their team knew where the sensors were and what their range was. Hell, we have to use a detector to find them when they need repair and we were the ones that put them there.” Evan was doing a magnificent job of feeding his own paranoia.

  “So, would you say that this group is sophisticated?”

  “They were obviously better than my people and I had the best available. Five of my people were subdued and interrogated before they were killed. I have no idea of what they spilled but they made an attack on the farm just hours after we retrieved the bodies.”

  The foreman assumed a casual tone, “Well, my assistant Raymond is out at the Farm cleaning up your mess.”

  “What is he doing with my men?” Evan spent four years with this crew and he was close to them.

  “Raymond is loading them on a bus and driving it off a cliff. There will be a hell of a fire. The accident will happen near Edwards AFB. They will take the bodies to the base and our people will do the autopsy there. The families will be able to give their loved ones a descent burial with full honors. The full line of duty benefits will be paid. I know that it is a shitty thing to do, but the families will know what happened to their loved ones. It is the best thing that we can manage and with cremation there will not be any missed slugs.” Evan hung his head for several minutes. Finally, he looked the Foreman in the eyes.

  “It is shitty, but we can’t tell the families that their men died because they were out killing our citizens. It will have to do.” The fire came back into Evan’s eyes. “What are we going to do about this stray team?”

  “We don’t even know who they are. I checked the CIA and they have no domestic teams.”

  Evan had a sound of desperation in his voice. “Are you going to send me back? I need to see this through.”

  “I will have an eight-man team out there in less than a day. Ray is putting a cap on loose talk right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The foreman said flatly, “Anybody that shoots their mouth off is going to do six months at a weather station in the Aleutian Islands. If you will accept those conditions, you can take the Farm back.

  “What if I turn you down?”

  “You can enjoy the weather in the Aleutians.”

  Evan surrendered, “I will take the Farm.”

  “Good, when you get there send Raymond back. He has a congressional briefing with Senator Mudson the day after tomorrow.”

  Layla and Edward drove back to the house in a brand new Volkswagen Beetle. She thought it was a cute car. It was the turbo version and had every accessory that Volkswagen offered. She was surprised when Edward wrote out a check for the car. They did some shopping while the car was being prepared and when they pulled up to the house the back seat was crammed full with packages requiring several trips into the house with packages. She was dressed in new denim shorts and a halter top. Her hair was cut back several inches and it was obvious that she had a spa treatment. Layla took her packages up to Edward’s room.

  “You were most kind to pay for all of my purchases today, but how can you afford to do that on a martial arts instructor’s salary?

  “I don’t take a salary,” Edward smiled.

  Layla was stunned, “Do you live off of your parents?”

  “No, when I was born my parents each put a million dollars in an account for me. My brother’s mother is an investment counselor. She has been investing my money since I was born. The two million has grown considerably over the last twenty-five years.” Layla had to ask.

  “How much are you worth?”

  Edward said casually, “I would have to ask Lynn. It has been growing at the rate of twenty percent per year for the last twenty-five years. Some of those years it actually doubled. Lynn has all of the figures she pays the taxes and does all of my banking. All that I know is that none of my checks have bounced.”

  Layla shook her head, “Edward, you have that much money and still live with mom and dad?”

  “I like them. They have always backed me up, and they taught me things that nobody else knows. Dad insisted that I hide my identity when he found out that the CIA was running this program. Officially my parents are deceased. Alice kept her last name and that is Smirnoff. She has been in practice since just after I was born. She does much better in real estate. Her partner is our neighbor Grace. Between the two of them they own fifteen million square feet of commercial space around the country and at least five million of it is here in southern California.” Layla was floored by the revelation, because she never heard of this family. She thought that she knew Edward. The CIA always did such a good job at doing security clearances.

  Layla pressed, “What about your parents?”

  “They lease the townhouse and cars. Otherwise they are investors. They have interests all over the world in just about every country that you can think of. Mom has her money and dad has his. They had a colorful past. I am not sure where it came from or how much they are worth, but it is considerable. All of my sisters and brothers have a situation similar to mine. My sisters all have their own businesses and my brothers are in the British Army with my sister Lynn running their businesses.”

  “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

  “Besides Alice there is Noah, Adam, Susan, Lynn, Nadia, Angela, Nina, Irina, Filiipa, Cassandra, Victoria and Pam.”

  Layla was confused, “You introduced Cassandra as your cousin.”

  “She is my cousin and my step sister. That one is tricky, and will need some explaining. I can’t do it right now. We need to wait until we get to England.”

  “Why are we going to England?”

  Edward did not hesitate. “We need a safe place to hide for a week or so, while we find out what is going on. No place is safer or more pleasant than the Amazon Inn. It is also the best place to do our research from they have a secure main frame computer and state of the art communications. Aunt Suki is an electrical engineer and gets most of the equipment before it hits the retail market.”

  Anna and Nia came in with their packages. Nia had also under gone a complete transformation. Edward and Layla were sitting on the couch.

  “Where are Bill and Alex?” Edward looked in the garage.

  “The car is still gone. Alex was going to the bank. I think he wanted to finish his promise. Try his cell.” Anna dialed the cell phone and Alex answered.

  Alex sounded excited, “We are just leaving to pick up your new papers at Jeff’s studio. Meet us and we will go to the bank from there. We need Nia’s signature so that we can make the transfer’s.”

  Anna turned to Edward and Layla, “Why don’t you have Layla drive you down there in that cute little Beetle? It is hers isn’t it?” Layla squealed loudly when Anna called her car cute.

  “Edward bought it for me and he also bought me a load of cute clothes.” Nia raised an eye brow.

  “He spent a lot of money on you. What are you giving him?” A concerned look came over Layla’s face.

  Layla was offended. “Mother, what are you suggesting?”

  “Well he dropped a load of money on you.”

  Anna had to bite her tongue to avoid saying something ugly. “Why don’t you two stay here? We won’t be that long.”

  Nia snapped back, “We need to go with them and I would love a ride in Layla’s new car.” Edward let the comment pass. They went out to the car. Nia kept pushing. “Why don’t you get in back with your mother? I’m sure that Layla wants me up front with her.” Nia pushed the seat forward so t
hat Anna could get in the back seat. After they hit the road, Layla made a comment that she hoped would soften her mother’s resistance.

  “Edward just wrote out a check for it and put the car in my name.”

  Nia was not even close to being happy. “Well his father shot up your car.” Edward put his hand on Anna’s arm to keep her from reaching over the front seat.

  Anna said, “Layla, why don’t you turn up the AC it is getting warm back here.” Layla was thankful that it was only a ten-minute drive to Jeff’s place. When they arrived Alex passed out the ID’s, “It will be Monday before the information is in the system, but we can use the Social Security number to start your account. The passports will be good to use on Tuesday. I set up a flight to Manchester and made reservations at the Inn.” Bill was pumped up about the trip.

  Nia looked less than thrilled, “Why are we going on a trip when we have so much to do here?”

  Bill was getting frustrated, “Alex explained that we need enough time to get a handle on things. Anna was supposed to explain the same thing to you while you were shopping. Those weren’t spit wads that they were throwing at us. They tried to kill all of us. Do you really think that we could have taken those men? We are coming out of this in damn fine shape. We haven’t taken a vacation in years. Right now we have to get this account opened up, so let’s get going.” Bill was trying hard to bring Nia back to the necessities.

  Nia pushed, “I will ride with Layla. Anna and Edward can ride with you.”

  Bill snapped, “Layla and Edward are going home and we are going to the bank and taking care of business. Shut up and get in the car, now.” Nia started to say something. “Not one word, get in the car now!” Nia went out to the car in a huff. Layla and Edward hustled out to her car. They jumped in and drove off before anybody could get out of the door. Bill held the door of the Mercedes open for Nia. She got in the car with a bitter frown on her face. “The sooner we get there and take care of business. The sooner we will return.” Nia flopped in the seat, an unwilling participant.

  When they got to the bank, the four people were shown into a private office. The banker came in the room and filled out the paper work for the new account. Nia filled out the cards in silence with Bill. Next the banker produced the transfer. It was for $600,000 even. Bill looked at the amount.

  “That is $60,000 more than we discussed.”

  Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I talked to Grace. The par on the contents is twenty percent. I upped the figure to account for the difference.” Bill smiled and shook Alex’s hand.

  “That is most generous of you. You’re an honest man.”

  Nia was not going to be bought, “He turned everything into ashes.” The papers for the house were next. Nia grumped again. “All of these lines are blank including the sale date.” Alex tried to center her.

  “We may need to use different dates. You don’t mind if I recover some of the expenses do you?”

  “Why not, all you are getting are the ashes that you made.” She dashed off a signature and walked out of the room.

  Bill gave Alex and Anna a pleading look. “She still hasn’t come to grips with the situation. I need to work with her.”

  “That’s why we need this vacation. Nia can work on things where she is safe.” When they walked out of the bank, Nia was leaning against the car waiting for them.

  Nia was still upset, “If everything is settled I would like to go to your home. I would like a few words with my baby.” Nia pushed into the car as soon as the door was opened. The ride home was silent. When they pulled in the garage Nia jumped out and ran upstairs. Bill Looked at Alex.

  “She is around the bend on Jane. Jane was a difficult delivery and Nia can’t have any more children. She is kind of possessive with her. As Jane grew up things got worse. When she went to college, Nia went gung ho on the church. She did everything that she could to stop Jane from living at college. The house and the church were her anchors. Nia wanted Jane to marry a young man from the church choir. Edward is a real shock to her, and the closer that he gets the crazier she gets.”

  “You seem to have a handle on things.”

  “I did a little studying while I was in Vietnam. I believe that the only way that I can hold on to Jane, is to let her go. Nia is driving her away. The tighter that she holds on, the farther away Jane moves.”

  Alex said, “We will try to work with her, but I will not forbid Edward to court her. I believe that they love each other.”

  “I believe that you are right. I will not forbid her either.” Bill extended his hand and Alex shook it. Anna gave him a hug.

  “We will work with her on this.” Bill gave her a hug and went off in search of Nia.

  The C 20 F which is the military version of a Gulfstream four landed at Edwards. Raymond met the aircraft. He walked up to Evan in a formal manner.

  “It is good to see you back. We did the cleanup and I have a file here for you. The missing assistant’s name is Jane Baxter and she lives with her parents, Bill and Stephanie Baxter. She is an only child. Bill works as an aircraft mechanic at Lockheed and Stephanie works as a medical receptionist. We pulled the security clearance for Bill. “We have a fairly complete version of the situation. Doctor Swift was running the project and we have his profile. Jane was his assistant so we have a reasonable work up on her. The project’s name is Edward Case. He was not classified so the checks were not difficult. Edward was originally seeing Doctor Swift for a sleep disorder. We checked out his parents and found that they both died in a car crash, when he was twenty. It was in the newspapers. He lives in an apartment in Huntington Beach. He paid cash for all of his visits and Doctor Swift forbid any contact between patients and staff, so any relationship is doubtful. When we reran the clearance we came up with something strange. Edward’s apartment was leased for two years.”

  Evan looked at Ray, “What is so strange about that?”

  “His rent was paid two years in advance in cash, plus one other thing.” He waited until Evan was about to ask. “He died two months after his parents did from his injuries in the crash, about twenty years ago.”

  “And nobody picked that up?”

  “He was a patient, the project was low level and the hope of it succeeding was remote. It was a way of justifying Doctor Swift’s services for other purposes. He was a hell of a resource and the CIA wanted to keep him available for other reasons. Births and deaths are both recorded by Vital Statistics, but births and deaths are recorded separately.”

  “So, how did he get all of the help? This isn’t a case of a Good Samaritan stepping in to help? They took out twelve experienced men and damn near burnt us out. They also reacted faster than I could even hope to, even with the assets on hand. We are talking about men and equipment. Speaking of which, I need at least two more teams.”

  “We have two sweeper teams coming in from New York and will leave the Miami team in place. They will be here in the next hour. You can read my report while we wait for them.”

  Evan went to the security office to read the reports. Bill Baxter’s report held the most help. It listed several friends as references including his pastor. There was a note that he was heavily involved in his church. His wife was a deaconess in the church and directed the choir. The report showed that two of his personal references were also church members.

  “It seems like it might be a good investment of manpower to watch the church. We can put another team on Edward’s apartment, and I want to go over that with a fine tooth comb. Have you sent a team over there yet?”

  “I didn’t want to tip our hand. We have two men keeping an eye on it to see if anyone shows up, but they are two members of the disposal team and not skilled help.” Evan called his assistant Yvonne at the Farm.

  “I want a full forensics team to sweep that house with a fine tooth comb. Tomorrow is Saturday I want everybody over there to tear that place apart. Interview all of the neighbors and go through it for prints. Get the Huntington Beach police and the FBI.
The ATF is involved so get them out there too.”

  “What do I use for a cover?”

  “Her car was found in the desert shot full of holes, her home was shot up and she is missing, so are her parents. Say that she was kidnaped and tell the ATF that the arms were black ops. We are investigating everyone that she knew including her boyfriend. This is Friday night. I want this complete by this time tomorrow night. I want one full team available for the church on Sunday and I want pictures of Jane, Bill, Stephanie and Edward all over town. Show them as possible kidnap victims. See if they have passports and find out if they ever left the country. Check for family friends and hotels, these people have to stay somewhere.”

  “The house will be quick. When I said that it burned to the ground, I wasn’t kidding. Nothing over six inches tall is left. Their two cars were in the Garage at the time and who ever set the fire used accelerants. With few exceptions it’s all ash. The fire was so hot that even the foundation was damaged.”

  While he was waiting Evan made arrangements for base housing for the two new teams since it would be the easiest thing to work with. The C- 20 rolled on to the parking spot and dropped the stairs. Seven young men and a woman exited the aircraft. They introduced themselves to Evan. He took them to the Farm in the bus for the formal briefing. After giving the teams a detailed tour of the Farm and introducing the new team to the support teams, Evan started his briefing.

  “Lady and gentlemen we are up against a skilled opponent that is both smart and ruthless. They are mobile and well equipped. You are here to replace twelve skilled members of three sweeper teams that died conducting this sweep. There were no wounded. Those that did not die from their wounds were executed. This happened in less than a three-hour period. They have the ability to respond with force almost instantly. The nasty part of this is that we don’t have a clue as to who they are.”

  Valery the only woman on the team wanted more information. “How far can we take things? We are going to be in the public eye more than I am comfortable with. Our job is to do discreet work and clean up after ourselves.”