by Finian Blake
Dillon pointed the van toward I-15 and Las Vegas. It was time to begin a new life.
Layla and Edward were mentally stunned by the blast. They felt no heat as the steel balls seemed to rip through them recoiling as if their bodies had been struck. It took them both a little while longer than usual to reconnect with their bodies. Edward picked up the phone and called the security center.
“Get my father on the secure phone. I will be right over.” He waited until Layla could move and they hurried over to the center. Layla could not believe what happened. There was fire all around us. I thought that I was going to die, but there was no heat, no blast and no physical damage. I left when the roof fell in.”
Edward was shaken too, “Evan broke out through the roof of the holding cell and is still alive, although I am not sure about Ray. I think that there were only two others there. I went up slow finding that the whole place is a write off. I think that we will be in the clear now except for a note on Ray’s desk that said; ‘MOVE MIAMI SWEEPER TEAM TO COVER CHALENGER HOME’ Sarah can forget her maps. That place is no longer viable.” Edward and Layla walked into the room to find John on the phone.
“Your old man has the action turned up in LA.”
“There is more there than he knows about. Let me have the line.” Layla picked up the other line.
“Dad the whole stinking Farm just went up in smoke. One of the sweeper teams leveled the whole place.”
“What about Evan?”
“He was in a holding cell at the time and the blast knocked the cell off the end of the building. Evan is ok and I think that his replacement Ray survived too. There was a sweeper team from Miami that is supposed to check out your place. It is current time out by you so there were only four people in the building. The facility is a wreck. Can we take the place off the planning board?”
“I am not sure that they will drop their plans, but they won’t be working out of there. Hang out over there for another week and keep an eye on Ray and Evan. There was a real shit storm over here. I would like you to wait until things settle down before you return. Tell Layla that they have the crew that shot her mother in jail and it looks like they have enough evidence to make it stick.”
“Yes…,” Layla screamed into the phone.
“They haven’t been indicted yet, but the FBI agent on the case wants them really bad. Nadia is going to be out here for at least a week, so if Ted wants to come out get him a plane ticket.”
“Will do dad...”
Alex was not sure whether to be happy or not. When the Farm was running he at least knew in which direction to look and now there was the news of another sweeper team. Nadia arrived home around eleven. She looked worried.
“They connected your name to this mess through the car that you lent to Stephanie. Agent Byrne thinks that it was related to the shooting at the church. They have a connection between the agent that was blown up and the four that were arrested. It is looking like that your involvement is a mistake. Four Diamonds will do several checks a night on the house and I pushed the contractor to start repairs on the system tomorrow with all of his resources. We do enough business with him that they will give you two crews.”
“Nadia, I have some news for you. Edward called and told me that the Farm was leveled by an explosion. It looks like one of the sweeper teams was unhappy. I told him to buy Ted a first class ticket. He should be out here tomorrow.”
“I knew that you were a romantic,” Nadia stroked Alex’s cheek and smiled.
6.
FALSE SECURITY
The explosion at the Farm registered on the earthquake sensors at Edwards Air Force Base and they immediately sent a security team out to see what the cause of the blast was. When they discovered that it was the Farm they sent a full security crew to investigate. They found Evan and Ray stumbling around in the wreckage. A corpsman did first aid and had them removed to Edwards. Ray demanded a secure line even before he was treated. He called the emergency number. After he made clear the nature of the emergency, Ray was put through to the Foreman who was asleep at home.
“The Farm is a total! Between the explosion and the fire, there is nothing left. Everything went up in smoke even the claymores detonated. The whole operation is nothing but a pile of ashes. The last sweeper team blew the place up.”
The foreman said calmly, “That is a little extreme, but it was a solution that I was considering.”
Ray was livid, “If I thought of it I would not have been in it!”
“Maybe we can make them believe that you were in it.”
“Evan survived too.”
“You and Evan get on the first plane out here and do not talk to anyone. I will send someone out there to clean up your mess.”
Ray smelled a sacrifice coming. “My mess…?”
The foreman remained calm, “Yes, to clean up your mess. You had the duty when the shit hit the fan. We will transfer everybody that was working there to Alaska straight out of the farm.”
“What if they won’t go?”
“Then we arrest them under the National Secrets Act. If anything is a state secret, this is.” Raymond could not argue with that logic. Ray had a nagging feeling that the Foreman set this up with Dillon. If he was the only one left to testify the Foreman could claim that the whole thing was done without his knowledge by Ray and Evan. Suddenly, getting on a plane with Evan seemed like a very bad idea. Ray made his way back to the infirmary and discussed his thoughts with Evan.
Evan wasted no time in commenting, “Ray, I see a plane crash in our future. It’s time to leave.”
“Evan, we have had our differences in the past, but right now both of our heads’ are on the same block.”
“You have that right! The Forman is going to dust us off and hang the whole thing on us posthumously. We can grab the MP and I can take you out as a prisoner.” A male nurse walked in the room and they settled for him. Ray knocked him out dressing in his uniform. He went to the locker room and found a set of scrubs for Evan. They used the nurse’s car to leave the base going directly to Evan’s house. Evan kicked in the dry wall in his bedroom retrieving his run kit. Ray’s run kit was in Baltimore. Evan looked Ray over he was a stand out with his burns. Ray was a liability. Both men went to the kitchen. Evan pulled a couple of beers out of the fridge.
“Start your beer, and I will make us some sandwiches. Ray with those burns we are going to have to drive.”
“Yeah I guess that I am a liability.” Evan picked up a filet knife off the counter and drove it up just behind Ray’s ear. Ray went slack almost instantly. Evan was switching identities so he was not worried about anybody finding the body. Evan took a gasoline can from the garage and doused the body with the contents placing the can in Ray’s hand. He set a ten-minute fuse and drove to Las Vegas in his car which was a grey Ford Taurus. He stopped at every truck stop until he found another car that matched his. He switched the license plates and moved on quickly. They would be checking all of the public transportation in the Los Angeles area and in Las Vegas it was easy to disappear. Evan needed time to think.
Agent Byrne finally arranged to transfer his four prisoners to a federal facility in Victorville. The transfer van showed up around six AM, but the requested escort did not make it. The federal prison in Victorville had just opened and was the closest federal facility. The four men of Don’s team were loaded in a large van behind the steel double mesh separating them from the driver and safety belted to the seats. The escort had not appeared. The van pulled out and made for I-10. A car that was well in front of the van hit a pedestrian and traffic stopped. The driver was nervous with all of the pedestrian traffic around. A pole slipped out of one of the parked vans and attached a small package to the side of the van followed by a second pole with another package. In fifteen minutes traffic started to move again. The driver pulled on to the I-10 headed for I-15.
Agents Byrne and Wright were in the car that was tailing the van. There was a white van following them. The driver
knew where they were going. The charges that were planted on the side of the van had a radio control. They would wait until the prison van was almost to Victorville before they primed the device. The primary device would be detonated just before the van reached the jail after they pulled off of I-15. The van was still on I-15 when it exploded unexpectedly. The van lifted off the road and the second charge dropped from the van with the force of the explosion. A passenger in the second van pressed the trigger for the second device. It blew up in the middle of the highway.
Byrne and Wright stopped their car short of the wreckage and got out with their guns at the ready. The blast had taken out three other cars. Wright called in the incident requesting fire, police and ambulances. Agent Byrne was able to put out the fire with the fire extinguisher from the trunk. He forced the rear door of the van and checked on the prisoners. The two prisoners in the back row of seats were dead. Don and Sam in the middle row were injured but in reasonable shape. He could not get at the driver through the steel mesh and he appeared to be hurt but conscious. Byrne stepped out of the back of the van moving to the front he held up his FBI badge to the windshield to let the driver know that he was with the FBI. Agent Wright came running up to the van carrying two AR 15s.
As Byrne walked around the front of the van he saw a white van cut across the median and drive over the orange mesh barrier in front of it. He was only able to get a partial plate number. Help came from the opposite direction that the van was traveling. They were only a short distance from a fire station and the paramedics elected to cross the divider instead of driving around. The rescue crew went to the front of the van first to rescue the driver. Byrne returned to the back of the van crawling into the middle row while the Fire Department was trying to remove the driver. The rescuer called back to Byrne. “How are the prisoners?”
“It looks like two are dead and two are injured. How is the driver?”
“He is in rough shape but I think that he will make it. There is another truck pulling up now with two ambulances behind them and we will have a helicopter for the driver.” Byrne leaned over and whispered in Don’s ear.
“That’s your people trying to kill you. Going to Victorville will give them another chance. The only thing that we can do is make it look like you are dead if you are dead they won’t try to kill you.” Don silently nodded his head. “How badly are you hurt?”
“I was knocked around but I can make it.”
Byrne made his offer, “If you can take it we are going to take you and Sam out of here in body bags. We have a connection at the Coroner’s Office and we will show you as deceased.”
Don was curious, “What are my other choices?”
“We can take you to Victorville, put you in a security cell and see what happens. They are a new facility and you should be safe unless your boss finds a way around their security.” Don and Sam required no time at all to come up with an answer.
“We will take the body bags.” Don offered the hand cuffs to Byrne.
“I believe that we will keep those on. The deal is, if you cooperate I will get you out of here alive.”
Nadia was watching the repairs to the security system. The company sent out two crews to do the repairs. They were a primary vendor to Four Diamonds, so she had clout. They had another front door that they were planning to use on another job and diverted it. Nadia had a loaded AR-15 sitting on the kitchen counter. Alex came down the stairs and turned on the television.
“Check this out.”
The banner on the screen read: EXPLOSION ON I-15 CLOSES HIGHWAY. FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD. The announcer on the TV went on to say.
“Early in the morning a prison van on its way to the Federal Prison at Victorville exploded without warning. The four prisoners inside were all killed in the explosion and the driver was seriously injured being evacuated by Flight for Life. Several people were injured in related crashes. The FBI and ATF are on the scene. We will have more news as it develops.”
The helicopter had a long view of four body bags being loaded into the back of a Corners ambulance.
“Nadia I am glad that we did not let our guard down. There is going to be one hell of a shit storm in the city. Their cleanup crew is hard at work. If they blew that van in rush hour traffic, I think that we can expect a visit from them.”
Nadia observed, “Bob at Four Diamonds tells me that every law enforcement agency in southern California is on alert. There are more police cars out there than there are commuters. They have Local Police, State Police, FBI, ATF and a security team from Edwards Air Force Base. Somehow the explosion last night was reported as a propane tank explosion. It was sealed off by base security tighter than a drum. It was far enough off the road so it is just Air Force Security out there and they are not allowing fly overs. A news helicopter was met by an Apache helicopter four miles from the site.”
“Yeah, if this were a foreign country they would report it as a revolution. Those bastards don’t care how many that they kill to cover up their sins. How long before we’re secure again?”
“Alex, you are paying a fortune in overtime, but we will be secure by eight tonight. I’m having them reinforce the front door and add an extra defense for the Patio. They are installing more Halogen lights, strobe lights and I found some directional speakers that can be controlled by this remote. The speakers will focus a high energy sound on the patio that will disorient any attackers. It will last for only ten seconds and then you can reactivate it if necessary.”
“The neighbors will love that.” Alex said with a touch of sarcasm.
“The speakers are directional and the disabling sound blast of one hundred fifty decibels will be focused on the patio even though it will be heard much farther away and the lights will blind any attacker for thirty seconds. The advantage of an attack is lost when you are blind and deaf. The defenders have the advantage of wearing protection when the blast goes off.”
“Nadia, you have a point there. Have the crew upgrade Grace and Alice’s place ASAP. I want a uniform level of security across the back and front. This was the first time that we used the system in twenty-three years. The neighbors can’t complain too badly.”
“Speaking of neighbors, the two neighbors on the south side of you contacted Grace, and put their house up for sale.”
“I will have her buy both units at whatever their asking price is. It will be the quickest sale that she ever made. Schedule three crews to go in right after the closing and install identical systems.”
“What are we going to do about Edward and Layla?”
“We are going to wait for a few days to figure which direction things are going. They may take care of our problem for us, since they took out the Farm I would guess that we are up against one sweeper team. They lost three that we took out and one that they took out. The number of people that are willing to do that type of work domestically is not huge and they take a long time to replace. This is messy work and it’s illegal even if you are the government.”
“Alex, where do you think they will come from?”
“These crews will have their instructions straight from Washington. They will be ultra-dedicated and the cream of the crop. Remember that they are hunting their own. We just moved down the line as far as priorities are concerned.”
“Can we get Edward to look in on the Foreman? I think that the instructions must be coming from him.”
“We have a secure phone here. Edward might be able to come up with something.”
The Foreman was on the phone with Brian. He could not believe the carnage on the news.
“You were supposed to blow that van, after it got off the highway not in the middle of rush hour traffic! Did you misunderstand the order?”
“You were perfectly clear. We had to prime the charges on the vehicle. A dual transmission was required to set the charges off. The plan was to set them off after the van turned off the high way.”
“Well what the hell happened?”
“That area is lousy
with radio transmissions. I guess they crossed the wrong transmission. George Air Force base is up there, and they use military radio signals. There was a requirement for a dual signal, so we thought the package was safe. We were able to disable the escort vehicle, but the FBI sent a backup for the escort and they followed several cars back. We had to hold back behind the escort. We were prepared to finish the job, but the blast came unexpectedly. We could not get near enough to insure the results. We drove off across the median when the FBI started pointing in the direction of the van. If it wasn’t for the explosion at the Farm, we might have pushed harder. The Farm was only twenty miles away from where the van went off, so we figured that the security teams were still in the area.”
“Well the news says that only the driver survived and they took all of the victims out in body bags. What happened at the Farm last night?”
“We were parked across the entrance into the farm refining our assignments. Before we were ready to launch the raid, a van followed by a white Ford Taurus came in at high speed. We held back to evaluate the new situation. The van came out ten minutes later and all hell broke loose. Claymore mines exploded down the whole length of the road. The van sped off, we had three of the crew outside of the van doing surveillance and we didn’t want to abandon our people so we stayed with the target.”
“That would have been Dillon’s team. I think that we can assume that they decided to run. They took out the Farm to keep Ray from taking them out. Dillon managed to trigger the destruct command before you could initiate your raid.”
“What about the last target. My team located a boat and is scoping out that house in Huntington Beach. The police are all over the area and bagged Don’s team in the act. There is a crew doing the repairs to the house right now. We are doing some recon to see what we are up against. Every law enforcement agency in the area is out there. Hell even the DEA is out there investigating in case there is anything drug related.” Brian could not hide his total disgust with the other team’s failure.