The Remote Traveler (The Remote Series Book 1)

by Finian Blake

  Felix sat and listened in stunned silence. He finally managed to choke out his next question.

  “Is there anything left to back up your story?”

  “Yes. Sean kept backup files under lock and key at my place. Evan did not know about the other files.”

  “What about the pit on your farm?”

  “The sewer line was put in from the road and I had the septic system removed. Just the thought of it being used for a burial pit gives me the shivers. Evan thought that it was funny.” Pauline pointed to her neck. “He thought it was funny when he did this to me.” Pauline broke down in tears.

  The director stepped out of the room with Felix. They both leaned heavily on the wall.

  “Director, I hope that I am wrong. Does ‘Sweeper Team’ mean what I think it does?”

  The director hung his head, “Yes, Senator Mudson and Sean were running an operation that eliminated threats to National Security. We became aware of it a few weeks ago when the local police shot and killed four members of a sweeper team carrying false FBI IDs. We were bringing three other members of another team back here on a Lear jet to testify when it crashed into the Atlantic. If it weren’t for their screw up, The FBI might be getting blamed for these ‘Sweeps’. Those IDs were perfect and they were in the names of active agents. We also found the files that Pauline described under lock and key in her house.”

  “Evan was staying at her place and Senator Mudson did have a room filled with woman’s clothing there too. The woman that she mentioned was raped in her hotel, and the police started an investigation. She was cleared to the hospital and the ambulance that she was transported in was found in Delaware with two dead hijackers in it. The gurney from the ambulance was found buried in the septic pit at Pauline’s farm with two bodies on it. Evan has disappeared and the funds that she described are missing, forensics is still working on that one. We obtained a search warrant for Senator Mudson’s house and found a brief case containing $180,000 with Evan’s and the Senator’s fingerprints on it. At the motel they found Senator Mudson’s fingerprints on the bondage gear, ATM receipts, cash, booze bottles, and condoms. “

  Owen hung his head, “Pauline told an ugly story. Running something like that through court will be a cesspool. It would be in the news for months while it went through court, and when it hits court it is sure to leak. How many witnesses are left to testify?”

  “It appears that she and Evan are the only living witnesses left. Pauline volunteered to testify against Evan without immunity. She claims that she feels partially responsible for what happened.”

  Felix was still in disbelief, “I suppose if Pauline goes to trial everything that she told us will come out in court.”

  “That and more will come out. Remember that she gave us the short form. I believe that jaywalking is the only crime that she missed in the long form. And I am sure that her attorney will want to include the blackmail evidence that we found as part of the record.”

  The director was panicked. “We can seal the records.”

  Felix was decidedly unsettled, “What about leaks?”

  “Shit, give me a few days to look this over.” The director stopped to collect himself. “Get Pauline admitted to the Brigg at Quantico. No one is to talk to her and she is not to leave her cell. Put her in under a false name. Every person that has contact with her will be logged, verified and re-verified. I want to make it clear that no ID will be accepted without being verified and re-verified. Make it clear that any guard that has conversation with her will be re-assigned to the Aleutians. We can hide this long enough to develop a plausible story.”

  Evan finally pried the locks on Pauline’s bag open in his hotel room dumping the contents on the bed. Besides clothing he found her false papers and $5,000. Her $300,000 was not there. Pauline believed in banks and numbered accounts. After watching the news, he had no doubt that Pauline would be cutting a deal with the FBI. Evan considered his options drinking an entire bottle of Irish whiskey as he did. Her false papers would only hurt him since they were in his possession. He would keep the $5,000, but he desperately needed the big bucks. Evan was screwed he could become a fugitive, become a mercenary, kill Pauline or hunt down the two targets that he had originally started out to find, but he did not know who they were. If they did start looking for him he should start by changing his appearance. He needed to keep moving. The Cayman Islands seemed like a good place to start since his bank was there, or Pauline might have her run kit at her place. His personal fund was $200,000 which seemed like a lot of money. It was not enough to run for the rest of his life.

  At one AM Ted stood on the flight deck of the HMS Invincible fifty miles off the coast of Oman and there was a light wind with a half moon. The seas in the Gulf of Oman were almost flat and there were three choppers on deck ready to launch. The maintenance crew had been through each aircraft. They would brief in half an hour. Ted planned the raid, but could not go with them. He was a civilian now and the commander would not risk a civilian on this mission. It was a deliberate slap in his face that General Smyth had personally arranged. He moved below to the briefing room. Edward was standing by the door. He didn’t look happy.

  “They moved Todd and one other prisoner. The building is now empty.”

  “Which way did they go?”

  “They are headed north along the coast road. They are using three Land Rovers. There is one hostage in each car. There are three armed men in each vehicle. I figure if we hit them now they will kill the hostages. We have to abort.”

  “Thanks let’s find the Colonel.” They only had to step into the briefing room to find him.

  “Colonel Sir, we have information that they have moved the hostages.” We have an empty target.”

  The Colonel stiffened. “I have been ordered to conduct this raid and we will conduct it as planned. All communications are going through me and I have had no such communication.”

  Ted tried to push, “But sir…”

  “You will conduct your briefing and the raid will launch.” Ted knew that there was no chance of convincing the Colonel not to do the raid.” Ted preformed the briefing and watched the choppers preparing to leave catching one of the members of the primary group that he knew, slipping him a small digital camera.

  “Take as many pictures as you can. I would like interior and exterior also. Slip the camera back to me when you come back.”

  “No problem Sargent.”

  The one chopper left twenty minutes early. They commandeered a truck and drove up to the compound. The other two choppers would land north and south of the building when the truck passed a certain point to take blocking a position. The two choppers flew in tight formation until the coast was in sight. The choppers split north and south landing on the road just as the truck pulled up in front of the compound as the first team hit the compound. They raced to each building only to find them empty. The empty chopper landed in front of the compound with the officer in charge radioing that the mission was a bust. Ted’s friend shot thirty pictures before leaving as requested. Scott was in the briefing room with the Colonel when the ‘bust’ message came through. The colonel flared at him.

  “You see I told you that this fortune teller rubbish would never work. The buildings were completely empty.”

  “We told you that before we briefed.” Ted fired right back.

  “Stand down sergeant.”

  “I am not a sergeant. I’m a civilian remember. Edward told the Colonel that we had an empty target, but the colonel would not let go.”

  “Scott, I told you that this fortune teller rot would never work,” the Cornel groused. Scott did not have time to answer. He waited for the choppers to land so that Ted could retrieve the camera and had a chopper fly Edward, Ted and him to Muscat. A Royal Air Force jet was waiting to fly them to Manchester. Ted fumed the whole way back. Scott was glad that the Colonel was not with them.

  “Ted, we will need time to put another plan together. Why did you have those pictures t
aken?”

  “I wanted to prove how accurate Edward was. Someone gave us away. You cleared this with the Sultan didn’t you?”

  “We had to. They are a friendly government. We were required to contact them with a request for the raid.”

  “You know that these countries are riddled with informants. They were tipped off.”

  “We can’t just send our troops in. We don’t have that many friends in the area.”

  “Suki has a lot of friends in the area. Keep the SAS on standby off the coast so that they think we will still use them.”

  “If we do that they will move Todd as far in land as they can.”

  “I hope so we have several contracts inland. I’ll talk Lynn and Nadia into using our people.”

  “Ted, if we don’t clear things with the Sultan. I won’t be able to use SAS resources.”

  “We won’t need them. Suki has set up enough security forces in the area. The only thing that will be needed is a blind eye. You can even invite him and the Sultan out to the HMS Invincible to inspect the ‘Boys’. There will be no doubt that you did not participate.” Scott perked up considerably.

  “She did say that your full resources were available to us.”

  “I called Layla and she is tracking the kidnappers.

  Scott was confused, “No calls went out from the Invincible.”

  Edward touched his head, “We have a direct link.”

  “It would be tough if you decided to cheat on her.”

  “I wouldn’t think of it.” It took a while for Scott to catch on to the joke, but he eventually chuckled.

  “I see what you mean. Does she have a temper?”

  Edward’s voice was emphatic. “She has a bad temper and a good imagination.”

  The plane landed in Manchester and a customs van met the aircraft. Scott was surprised to see a woman wearing a customs uniform with a dog standing next to the van.

  “We are a special flight; customs will be unnecessary.”

  “Scott you will follow the rules and like it!” He looked closely at the face under the hat.

  “Susan, what are you doing here?”

  “Government salary isn’t enough, so I moonlight as an accountant,” Susan smiled. “I was working and decided to say hello to my brother. I still handle the dogs for Customs, and the dogs are my passion.”

  “Just ask for a raise,” Scott joked thinking about the irony of her working two jobs, since he knew her real situation. She sprayed Edward’s pants with a puff from a hidden bulb and Shultz went straight for his zipper. Edward jumped back to keep from being knocked over by the healthy animal.

  “I’m sorry sir but we will have to frisk the area that the dog indicated.”

  “Dad told me about that one.” Edward laughed at her statement. “I am not going to be frisked by my sister.”

  Scott repeated, “Dad…?”

  “Yes, Alex is our father. Edward, Sarah is waiting for you at the editing studio. Victoria is waiting outside the gate with the Bentley.”

  Victoria drove straight in the garage and closed the door. She accompanied the men to the elevator. Ted handed her the camera. Sarah had the chip processed in minutes. She laid the photos out electronically on the light table matching the team’s mockup almost perfectly. Scott doubted Edward no more.

  “Was Layla able to find Todd?” Sarah did not seem positive.

  “They keep moving stop and go. The general direction seems to be north. There aren’t many roads and the speeds are restricted so travel is slow. It looks like they are holding by the intersection of Highway one and highway seven.” Sarah looked at the map. “Let’s push them west. Scott, call the Sultan and say that we want a raid in Shinas.” Scott called the Foreign Office and had them make a formal emergency request. Edward went into his meditative state and joined the three rovers at the intersection. Todd was in one rover and there was another hostage in the other. The leader of the group seemed to be in the third Rover with an unknown person. Edward watched as the time passed. Layla moved in and Edward moved out. In a little over an hour the leader received a call on his cell phone. He pulled out a map pointing at highway seven. He indicated the town of Mahdha and the Land Rovers drove off quickly to the west. Layla returned to her body.

  “They are going to an area called Mahdha. We can go back later and check out the exact location.” Scott was floored by the speed of the information. “I think that the hostage Harry was looking for is there too.”

  “I think that we can say that there is a highly placed leak. It only took a little over an hour to get the information to the kidnappers. Looking at the time line, they received the request faster than we could make the request. We have zero chance of rescuing the hostages if we go through channels. Sarah does Suki have anything in that area?”

  “Suki did some work for oil companies in that area. It has an open border with the U.A.E. Suki will work up the area with Sarah and have something in half an hour. I believe that there is an airport in Al Ain. There is oil all over the area. There seems to be a good road complex there. Depending on which side of Mahdha they choose we are looking at fifteen or twenty miles to the airport. We can put the Ark down at several points. It can land on any straight stretch of road.” Scott looked at Alex.

  “The Ark…?”

  “Yes, it is Suki’s first aircraft. The Ark is a de Havilland Caribou. It can take twenty fully equipped troops and with the rear ramp we can take two or three motor cycles. It can land on roadways and dirt strips, and all that our Pilot needs is four hundred meters to land or take off in. We have reserve tanks on it so we can squeeze sixteen hundred miles out of it, if we limit it to a three quarter load. We can load here taking three fuel stops to get there. Let’s get Harry in on this.

  Lynn chaired the meeting around the light table. Nadia, Sarah, Harry, Scott, Anna, Layla, Edward and Alex were huddled around the table. Sarah had the maps.

  Lynn started, “Scott, we have all of the resources to work this. Nadia will run the mission. Do you want to use the SAS and go through channels or go through the back door with us?”

  “Lynn, this move will damage relations with the Sultan.”

  “We are not working for you. Your sister hired private mercenaries to rescue her cousin. We are working for the families of the hostages.”

  Scott sounded unsure, “She doesn’t have that kind of money.”

  “If she has a ‘fiver’ we’re good.” Scott looked at Lynn in disbelief.

  Susan stepped up from behind him, “If she pays us anything, we are working for her not you.”

  Scott smiled and reached in his wallet, “She gave me five pounds just this morning. Here this is from my sister.”

  Susan turned to Harry, “I guess that we are working for your sister. Harry, I believe that would be ten dollars in US currency.” Harry ripped his pocket getting his wallet out of his pants to give Susan a ten. Susan gave her sister a broad smile.

  “Lynn our clients are paid in full. We may proceed.”

  Lynn cleared her throat... “So, we have been approached by the families of the hostages and they have formally asked us to rescue their loved ones. How does the board vote? Nadia and Sarah voted yes with their twenty percent. Susan voted yes with her fifteen percent and Lynn voted her proxies with a yes. “We have one hundred percent approval from the board. Nadia and Sarah, you may proceed.

  Sarah laid out her maps on the light table. She pointed to a spot on the map a few miles from Al Ain.

  “Mahdha is eighteen miles from Al Ain. Half of the area is flat desert and the other half is rugged foot hills. There is a narrow pass in the middle of the area that acts as a transition. We feel that they will choose an area near the pass because there are three good roads that would provide a variety of exits. The UAE has an open boarder with Oman at that point. We can send in a few people by commercial aircraft to arrange trucks for transport which will take six hundred pounds off of our payload for the Ark, and let us go with full fuel tanks for m
aximum range. The Ark can land at a dirt strip on the Emirates side of the boarder and off load our supplies. Ralph and Anna will fly the Ark to Al Ain and service the plane. Victoria and Nadia can use motor cycles to secure a high spot on the west side of the pass and we will use our Russian equipment to cover any accusations of British involvement. Suki, pick your team. We can discuss the rest when Edward and Layla do their recon.”

  Sarah turned to Suki, “Are you going to lead this operation?”

  Suki took the question quickly, “No, I passed leadership to Ted and Nadia and the call is theirs.”

  Ted turned to Nadia, “You know our resources better than I do. Why don’t you make the call?”

  Nadia looked around the room. “Ted, Carl, Sidney, Randy, Jamie, and Marjani will go in for the rescue.” Alex you can drive a truck and hold the outside. Ralph and Anna can do the flying. We will bring Layla and Edward for onsite Intel. For the pass I will use Barrett fifties with Victoria. We will use the AN-ninety fours and about six RPG sevens should be enough for the on sight rescue. Carl and Jamie can put together an ordinance kit.” Harry coughed loudly to get Nadia’s attention.

  “I would like to go too.” Nadia was going to dismiss him but decided to find out what his back ground was.

  “We have all trained together before what is your history?”

  “I was a Recon Marine for ten years before going to the CIA.” Nadia thought for a minute and looked at Alex. He gave an imperceptible nod.

  “Ted, take Harry to the training area. If he checks out, we will use him for a second driver with Alex to hold the outside of the compound. Having a backup truck will help things.” Nadia couldn’t resist the slam. “Take Alex with you and see if he remembers which end of a gun that the bullets come out of. The rest of the team will meet you up there.” Alex gave a loud cough and a quiet chuckle.

  Ted led the way up the hill with Harry and Alex close behind. While they were changing into their sweats, Harry stopped Alex.