Sideswiped: Book One in the Matt Blake legal thriller series

by Russell Moran

  “I was probably passed out drunk on a floor somewhere and couldn’t reach the telephone, even if I had your number.”

  Everybody cracked up, including me. Bennie had told me recently that he thinks Diana’s constant jokes about her former problem is a mentally healthy way to keep her recovery going. Maybe I should think up some substance abuse jokes about myself.

  Diana leaned over toward Rick. “But I’m feeling fine now, boss. Just ask my handsome husband.”

  “Well I’m glad you’re feeling fine now, Diana, because you have your work cut out for you,” Bellamy said after he stopped laughing. “Jim Spellman was way ahead of the FBI and CIA in his research. In the data about the first 20 names you uncovered, we found intelligence that we never had or even suspected. It’s been four years since Jim’s death, which means that some of the plots he was looking at are now coming to life. He was researching all kinds of chatter about nuclear weapons, not just oil rig sabotage. The attacks of October 15 showed what they were up to. But 10/15 wasn’t the end to some big terror spectaculars. The jihadis have some huge plans cooking, and your late husband was on to them.”

  ***

  An armed guard escorted us into FBI Director Watson’s office. I was amazed that we went through only a few security check points. Apparently Rick Bellamy holds a lot of sway around here, I thought. Rick introduced Diana and me to FBI Director Sarah Watson and CIA Director Bill Carlini. That guy Buster, the spy we met recently in Chicago, was there too.

  Sarah Watson spoke first.

  “Rick Bellamy has brought us up to speed on what you’ve found on your late husband’s hard drive, Diana. I won’t be dramatic, but let me just say that you’ve uncovered a breakthrough. With just these 20 names, you’ve enabled us to solve a lot of cases we’ve been scratching our heads over for four years. I wanted to see you and Matt, but I have a question for Rick. Are we taking Diana away from important research for this meeting?”

  “No, Director. Diana also has excellent organizational skills. I’ve assigned two sharp assistants from the IT department to work with Diana, and they’re continuing her research. They can ask any specific questions by secure phone.”

  “Special Agent Diana Spellman, welcome to the FBI. We’re proud and happy to have you,” Watson said.

  “Just one correction, Madam Director if I may,” said Diana. “As of last Saturday, I’m now Diana Blake, and this charming guy is my husband.”

  “Well congratulations are in order. Maybe I should order out for some drinks so we can celebrate.”

  “Thanks anyway, Director, but I’m a recovering drunk and I’d hate to throw up on your pretty carpet.”

  The room cracked up. Diana has an amazing way with people. I wished Bennie could be there.

  “Bill, would you like to say something,” Watson said, nodding toward CIA Director Carlini.

  “Thanks, Sarah. Buster and I have been huddling over this, and we’re both on edge. I touched base with Rick Bellamy on this subject, and I’m temporarily assigning Buster to the New York FBI office so he can work with Diana, Matt, and Rick. Your comments, Buster?”

  “Thank you Director Bill. Having met Diana and Matt before, I’m looking forward to working with them. Because the data that Diana is working on is over four years old, the water may be coming to a boil with some of the plans. Especially when we read words about nuclear weapons, we know that we have to move fast.”

  “Buster,” Carlini said “fast is the only speed you know. That’s why I’m assigning you to New York. Folks, Buster’s an easy guy to get along with, but if you see him charging down a hallway, get out of his way. I jokingly call him a human action figure.”

  “Having worked with Buster on some major cases,” said Bellamy, “I couldn’t be happier to have him aboard. He played a major part in saving my wife’s life when she was kidnapped.”

  “Well, thanks Rick. But your wife’s nifty handling of an AK-47 played a big role, especially in blasting two of the bad guys.”

  Diana and I looked at each other. We both suddenly realized that we were in a rough crowd. I’m glad they’re on our side, I thought. I’m also glad that I’m a Marine. I had a hunch that my combat experience may be more useful in the near future than my legal background.

  “Okay, folks,” said Watson. “Things are going to get hot, and we want to be the ones to raise the temperature. The name of this operation is Boiling Water.”

  Chapter 49

  Our plane landed at JFK at 8 p.m. As we got off, Rick Bellamy pulled me aside.

  “Matt, I know you owe a lot of loyalty to your father and the firm, but I have a special request. I need you to work with us on operation Boiling Water. I want to deputize you as an FBI agent. You have a military background and investigative experience, and a hell of a sharp mind. Your country needs you, Matt. Will you please consider it?”

  “I’ll call my father in Chicago, Rick.”

  My father won’t be delighted, but he’ll understand, I thought. I was happy Rick asked me to come aboard the operation. My main focus is to protect Diana, the most important person in my life. And there are a lot of people who want her dead. Being near Dee with a pistol on my hip made me feel better.

  ***

  We arrived at our apartment at 9:15 p.m. It was dark outside so we played a few minutes of catch in the living room. We’re both pretty good at fielding balls, so neither of us worried about hitting anything.

  “Rick wants me to be part of the operation, hon,” I said as I caught one of Dee’s fastballs. “He wants me to be a deputy FBI agent like you.”

  She walked across the room, threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.

  “I’ll be honest with you Matt, as if I wouldn’t be anything but. Having you work on this case makes me feel a lot safer. I know we have armed guards all around us, but I trust you more than any of them. You’ll protect me. And with the extra weapons lessons you’ve been giving me, I’ll protect you. If any jihadi creep so much as looks at you crooked, I’ll blow his fucking head off.”

  “Wow. You’re awfully tough for a rich girl.”

  “I don’t know about you, honey, but after this long day of travel, I could use a shower.”

  “Me too, Dee. Good grief, do I feel stiff.”

  “Stiff?” she said as she unbuckled my belt. “I can make that go away.”

  Time for cioppino.

  Chapter 50

  A car picked us up at 7 a.m. I convinced Diana that we needed to get to 26 Federal Plaza early every other day so we could hit the shooting range. Diana’s dad, a former soldier, did a hell of a job training her on weapons. Her time with me on the shooting range was only a refresher, but her skills got better with each practice. After we finished at the shooting range we went to the gym and played catch, of course, for 15 minutes. We’d gotten into the habit of taking our gloves with us wherever we went. But life in the Witness Protection Program meant that we seldom went far.

  We met with Rick Bellamy in the conference room next to his office.

  “You two have a great relationship just like me and my wife, Ellen, but I don’t want you working at desks next to each other. I think it’s healthy for you two to see each other at the end of the day, not having worked next to each other for hours. Matt, your office will be on the second floor.”

  Rick Bellamy wanted me to approach the gigantic pile of documents as if it were a lawsuit. Good idea, I thought. Preparing a case is the best way I know to organize thoughts, not to mention documents. We agreed to use Diana’s original organizing principle to start a file for each person named in Jim Spellman’s writings, by that person’s cartoon name that Jim had assigned, starting with Mr. Dumbo. Diana had already started files on 20 names, and her assistant researchers had added another 30 by the time I started my work. So we were up to 50 names that Jim Spellman found compelling enough to write about. Just as Diana had done with the first 20, our team researched the current status of the next 30. Dee was in charge of the project, which I
thought was a good decision by Bellamy.

  “Hey, baby, Rick wants to have a meeting in his office at 4:30.”

  I kind of like that my “team leader” calls me “baby.”

  Diana took on the chore of listing the new names and next to them, their current status. I didn’t realize that the meeting we were about to have with Rick would be gut wrenching.

  ***

  At 4:30, I walked into Rick’s office. Diana and her two assistants were already there. Dee looked at me, her pretty blue eyes as wide as saucers, with an expression that said, “You’re not going to believe this.”

  “Diana, please bring us up to date,” said Rick. “Hold onto your seats, folks. Diana is about to give us a shock.”

  Diana sat at the head of the table with her laptop off to the side.

  “Well, here we are,” said Diana, “and I’m not sure I believe it. Of the 30 new names that we came up with from Jim‘s hard drive, 29 of them are dead, and one is missing. I don’t think I’m reaching too far to say that I assume he’s dead also. And what I’m about to tell you is so weird it’s giving me a headache. Of the 30 new names, 22 of them were killed in car accidents.”

  “Sideswipe collisions?” I said.

  “Yup, sideswipes, just like the one that killed Jim.”

  “Diana, have you been able to trace the other driver or drivers? Obviously I’m wondering if Harold Morgan, the guy who killed Jim Spellman, was the driver.”

  “Rick, it almost seems that Morgan was running a school for stunt car drivers, actually stunt car killers. From the evidence I can verify so far, Morgan was the actual driver in 10 of the 22 latest crashes. You originally thought it was only five, but my research shows that Morgan was a prolific killer. The accidents happened all over the country, so nobody from law enforcement connected the dots. He used different vehicles, of course, but the same pattern is there. A pickup truck that was built like an army tank, with a steel cage to protect the driver. The trucks all had extra heavy duty suspensions, and bumpers that can only be described as armor. Of the crashes that Morgan was not directly involved in, all of the vehicles were hardened just like Morgan’s. But they weren’t as skillful as Morgan. Six of the seven drivers were killed, and the last one died recently of complications from his injuries.”

  “It almost seems like the other actors were suicide drivers,” I said.

  “Wait, something doesn’t fit,” said Diana. “If Morgan was involved in 10 crashes, wouldn’t somebody from Gulf Oil ask questions, like ‘Hey, Morgan, why are you wrecking our cars?’ ”

  “You hit that on the head, Diana,” said Rick. “The evidence is piling up like a Chicago blizzard that somebody inside Gulf Oil is involved. And it’s becoming clear that radical Islamists are at the core. They have the world’s largest mailing list of suicide volunteers. Al-Qaeda has been getting better at covering their tracks as every year goes by. But we’ve never seen such a spree of killing people to bury evidence. They’ll kill anybody who has any idea of their plans.”

  We all looked at Diana. She mopped her brow with a tissue and took a sip of water.

  “You’ll be happy to know,” said Rick, “that as we complete each part of this research, I’m feeding it directly to the CIA, through Buster. He‘s an amazing spy, and has a database that meshes with ours. Buster has a memory that never quits and comes up with hunches that everybody else misses.”

  “Rick,” said Diana, “do you think Buster may be closing in on the command and control people?”

  “Why do you ask?” said Rick.

  “Oh, I’m just mildly curious if there will be a time in the future when my husband and I stop being murder targets. Just wondering.”

  “I’m sorry Diana, I didn’t mean to be evasive. It’s just that Buster has an almost religious belief in the ‘need to know’ doctrine. You know, ‘loose lips sink ships’ and that kind of stuff. Even if a person is totally trustworthy, and that obviously includes you and Matt, it’s best not to have information unless you have an operational need to know.”

  Diana slapped the table and leaned forward, staring at Bellamy.

  “Rick, Matt and I fucking need to know.”

  Rick looked almost embarrassed. He rubbed his face with his hands and looked at the table surface. He was meeting with two murder targets, me and Diana, and he questioned whether we need to know what’s going on?

  He turned to Diana’s two assistants.

  “Ladies, if you don’t mind, I’m going to wrap this meeting up for now. I want to meet alone with the Blakes.”

  They walked out of the room. I think they were happy to leave the tension behind.

  “Part of my job is to be a jerk at times, and I feel like a jerk for questioning whether you and Matt have a need to know. Of course you do, but not necessarily the details, like names. So now let me give you a direct answer to your reasonable question. Yes, Buster is closing in on the command and control, the management, if you will, the people in charge of the operation. Right now we don’t exactly know what the operation is, but we have a strong idea.”

  “A strong idea?” I said.

  “Yes, and the idea includes the word ‘nuclear.’ We’re close, folks. We just need to be patient because we’re at a sensitive phase of the investigation, an incredibly sensitive stage. You two are murder targets, and from your research we’ve learned that al-Qaeda is quite diligent about hitting targets. If possible, please take comfort in knowing that the national security of the United States is perfectly aligned with keeping you both safe. On that you have my word, whether you need to know it or not.”

  “Rick, we trust you,” I said. “But for the past few days we’ve been counting bodies. I’m just reminding you that if it weren’t for that big traffic jam in Chicago, Diana and I would be among the dead. I think Diana agrees with me that we don’t need to know the details, but a fuzzy outline would be great, and that’s what you’ve just given us.”

  “Diana, I have an important question,” said Rick “When do you think you’ll be done with the name identification part of the project?”

  “If we work through the weekend, I think it can be done by next Thursday, Friday at the latest. I haven’t asked Matt if that’s okay with him.”

  “Hey, you’re the team leader, hon. Working this weekend is fine with me. Besides, I like the idea of being near you with my Glock loaded and ready.”

  Chapter 51

  I’ve been an FBI agent for going on 20 years and I’ve never seen a case like this. Diana and Matt Blake are two great people, and I hate keeping things from them, but I have to. Operational secrecy is essential when an investigation heats up. It’s a bitch keeping secrets from two people who are marked for murder, and the enemy’s been getting better at hitting their targets. But I think they get it. Thank God they’re both so smart. They’re also gutsy. I like them, and I’m going to do everything I can to keep them alive.

  “Buster, it’s Rick. Are you ready for our get-together? Great, my office in five minutes.”

  Buster was not included in my meeting with the Blakes and their assistants. He wanted to avoid having to answer questions, such as the one that Diana and Matt posed to me.

  “Rick, we’re close, real close. We know that the next stage of the enemy’s operation is definitely nuclear, and the targets are Manhattan, D.C., and Chicago. It will be suitcase nukes, delivered by car or truck. With current technology, they can pack a 10-kiloton punch into one of the larger suitcases. Compare that to the 12 or so kilotons in the Hiroshima bomb, and we’re looking at a fucking nightmare. We don’t know the exact locations. Somehow they’ve figured out a way to shield the weapons from our radiation detectors. But we do know who the leaders are.”

  “How did you get so far, Buster?”

  “The data that Diana Spellman fed us is the answer to your question. It confirmed some suspicions and also led us in directions we didn’t know we were heading. Also, Imam Mike is a gift from heaven. He’s given us more leads than we can trac
k in a single day.”

  Imam Mike is the most valuable mole who’s ever worked for the FBI or the CIA. He’s the imam of a mosque in Brooklyn. His full name is Muhammed Bushariff, but he prefers to be called Mike. He’s one of a small handful of Muslim clerics who got fed up with radical Islam and the non-stop killing. His daughter is a good friend of the sister of the Notre Dame quarterback who was killed in the terrorist bombing of a football game. That incident put him over the edge. Imam Mike is a patriot and a brave guy. He knows that if the jihadis discover he’s feeding us information, he’ll be killed, probably beheaded. Mike doesn’t only have a head for spying, he’s got balls.

  “Was Imam Mike able to give you locations of the four leaders?” I asked.

  “Better than that, Rick. They’re about to have an actual sit down meeting in a week, almost like a Mafia conclave. We know where the meeting will be, thanks to Mike. It’s a house in Waterford, Connecticut. He told us about the location of the ‘safe house’ over a month ago, but we just learned about the big upcoming meeting.”

  “And what are your plans for the meeting, Buster?”

  “We’re going to blow the fucking place up. Of course we’ll ‘try’ to take prisoners, but that’s not high on my list of priorities. I’m not looking to increase the population of Camp Gitmo. Rick, we’re real close. Soon that charming woman Diana and her husband will be able to walk in the sunshine.”

  “What can I do to help? Do you need an FBI SWAT team from my office?”

  “Yeah, Rick. Your guys are the best. This is likely to be a wild shootout, and I want the toughest people we can muster.”

  SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics. All major police departments as well as the 56 FBI field offices around the country have SWAT teams at their disposal. SWAT teams are used for high risk situations, such as hostage incidents. A SWAT team mission usually is more of a military type action than a typical law enforcement operation. Most police departments prefer a military background for someone to be considered for a SWAT team assignment, and some departments require it. Because of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, federal law strictly limits the use of the armed forces in domestic operations. SWAT teams fill in where the Special Forces and SEALs are precluded.