Corps Justice Boxed Set: Books 1-3: Back to War, Council of Patriots, Prime Asset

by C. G. Cooper

  “I know what you’re thinking, Doc, but our options are limited. We know where they’re keeping Neil so we’ve gotta go get him.”

  “But how do we know for sure that he’s up there?”

  Cal was getting tired of the conversation. Brian was one of his best friends, but the last thing he needed right now was to have his judgment questioned.

  “It’s all we’ve got to go on. Look, I gave everyone the chance to stay back. If you think it’s such a bad idea feel free to turn around now,” Cal noticed a couple of the men around them glance back in concern.

  “You know I wouldn’t do that, Cal. I just want to make sure you’ve thought this whole thing through. I’m not trying to make waves. I just want to help.”

  Cal calmed in response to Brian’s conciliatory tone. The stress was getting to him. He knew he had to be careful and keep his temper in check. Nothing good came of barking at his team.

  “Sorry, Doc. Just forget what I said. I couldn’t do this without you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Just make sure you catch Top when he falls out back there,” Cal said loudly enough for the huge Marine Master Sergeant to hear.

  “I heard that!” Trent boomed as loudly as he dared.

  The men around them chuckled quietly.

  “Seriously though, Doc, we just need to get up there as soon as we can. I’m afraid of what they’re planning for Neil.”

  “Yeah,” Brian said absently.

  It was good that they had the winding path to worry about because it was impossible to imagine the fate of their friend. By now they’d all heard the stories about Nick Ponder’s exploits. There wasn’t a man in the group that didn’t want to see the man in jail or dead.

  Brian dropped back to the rear of the formation and left Cal to his thoughts.

  Chapter 24

  Grand Teton Mountain Range

  8:17am, September 28th

  “Okay, I’m in,” announced Neil.

  Ponder strained to make sense of the code on the monitor. A second later the screen changed and displayed the control panel of the Shiloh Wind Power Plant in Bird’s Landing, California.

  “Shut it down,” Ponder ordered.

  He’d told Neil on their first attempt that the test was to shut down the plant’s power for a full minute. Neil knew it would be an easy feat with his computer prowess. Hell, with his own equipment he’d have done it in less than five minutes. In Ponder’s lair he’d had to build a hacking system from scratch. Although labor intensive, it had allowed Patel to imbed some extra code into the program. He hoped it would be enough to alert his friends of his location.

  “I said shut it down!”

  Neil did as he was told.

  +++

  Miles away at the Shiloh Wind Power Plant, Bernice Ormand was monitoring the plant’s computer systems. She’d been in the control room since 6:00am and casually swept her gaze across the assorted meters. Bernice still marveled at the newly computerized system. She’d been at the power plant since it opened in 2006. Back then they’d installed a very rudimentary monitoring system just to get the plant built under budget. It wasn’t until the new President was elected in 2008, and his green energy funding went into effect, that the Shiloh Wind Power Plant installed a completely computer driven monitoring system.

  Bernice sipped her second green tea of the morning as she jotted down some notes in the plant’s logbook. As she went to complete her entry, all the screens on the panel went dark.

  “What in the world?” Bernice said.

  She grabbed the phone and dialed the station manager.

  “Stan, it’s Bernice. The monitoring system just went down.”

  “I’m checking one of the turbines right now. I’ll be up in five minutes.”

  Stan seemed unconcerned and his attitude served to calm Bernice’s nerves. She’d never seen this happen before. They’d had intermittent issues with malfunctioning turbines in the past, but the monitoring systems had always performed flawlessly. By the time she’d collected her thoughts enough to grab the logbook the computer screens flickered back to life.

  Huh. I better call Stan back, she thought. Bernice picked up the phone and dialed the manager’s number again.

  “The computers are back online, Stan.”

  “Good. Let me know if it happens again. Thanks, Bernice.”

  She hung up the phone, entered the incident into the logbook, then grabbed her Soduku puzzle book and dove into her unfinished brainteaser.

  +++

  “The system is back online,” Neil declared somberly.

  “Well I’ll be damned!” Ponder exulted. “Get him back to his cell so I can make a phone call,” he told his employee.

  As the jailer took Patel back to his room, Ponder pulled out his cell phone and dialed his contact’s number.

  “Yeah, it’s me. Are you happy now?” Ponder asked.

  “We have received confirmation of the test results. One half of the purchase price will be deposited into escrow. I will email you the deposit receipt momentarily.” The line went dead.

  Ponder almost drooled at the thought. He was so close to wrapping up the deal. Now he could focus on tying up some loose ends. With barely concealed glee he placed another call.

  “Are you there yet?” he asked his right hand man.

  “Almost,” Trapper said breathlessly. Ponder could hear the man being jostled as he rode.

  “Good. We just passed our test so the buy is a go.”

  “Congrats, Boss. How about I take care of our friends and then you buy the first round in Bora Bora?”

  “You got it,” Ponder responded, almost cheerfully.

  He replaced the phone in his pocket and allowed himself a second to take in the moment. In a matter of hours he would be a very rich man.

  +++

  The buyer’s agent answered the silent ringing.

  “Yes?”

  “You have authorization to proceed.”

  “Understood.” The man ended the call and scanned the surrounding area. His men were ready for a fight. They moved silently through the mountainous terrain, ever vigilant through years of hard training. He wondered if the seller even suspected what would soon happen. Doubtful. The arrogant Americans never suspected treachery when a payday was close at hand. They were greedy and short-sighted. It was all the more reason to crush them. The foreign emissary relished the thought and plodded along with his assassins.

  Chapter 25

  Camp Spartan, Arrington, TN

  11:20am CST, September 28th

  True to Jack Malone’s word, the investigation progressed swiftly. SSI employees were accommodating and the FBI agents were courteous in their questioning. Marjorie Haines was hopeful that it would all end soon. She had more important things to do than monitor their visitors.

  Her phone rang and she answered. “Haines.”

  “Marge, it’s Dunn. I’ve got something you need to see right now.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In the Batcave.”

  Haines looked at her watch then over at the FBI teams going through paperwork. Jack Malone had left earlier to take a tour of the campus.

  “Give me a minute to excuse myself and I’ll be right down, Todd.”

  Marge checked to make sure that the investigators didn’t need her for a few minutes, and then headed to meet up with SSI security chief.

  +++

  Dunn was staring at a computer screen when Marge entered the Batcave. He had two of Neil’s computer techs assisting. They were watching a video. As she got closer, she realized the recording was of Agent Malone.

  “What’s going on, Todd?”

  Dunn turned around, surprised by the interruption. “Oh hey, that was fast.”

  “It sounded important so I got over here as quickly as I could.”

  “It is. Come take a look.”

  The two techs made room as Haines squeezed in to get a better view.
>
  “Tell me what I’m looking at.”

  The tech with a head full of unruly red hair spoke up first. “Well, Ms. Haines, Mr. Dunn told us to keep tabs on all the FBI guys. It was pretty easy until this guy…”

  “Agent Malone,” Haines furnished.

  “Yeah, until Agent Malone went on a tour of the campus with Kendall from operations.”

  Haines was confused. “What do you mean until?”

  The tech scratched his scraggly beard, unfazed by Marge’s tone. “Well, as long as he was in one of our buildings it was easy to jump from one camera to the next and follow him. It was when he went outside that we had a problem.”

  “How so?” Haines asked impatiently.

  “We have a limited number of cameras in the outdoor areas. They’re mostly at the front gate and around the perimeter. There’s usually no need to have them. So that posed a slight problem. How could we watch and listen in on what he was doing?”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “Bowser.”

  “Your name is Bowser?”

  “Actually my name’s Patrick but everybody calls me Bowser.”

  “Okay, Bowser, tell me what you did to fix the problem.”

  “You know that Neil built his Baby Birds a while back…”

  Baby Bird was the nickname the SSI operators had given to Neil’s tiny surveillance drone. The thing looked like a helicopter, fit in the palm of your hand and could be controlled hands-free with a special pair of sunglasses similar to the eye control systems used by Apache pilots.

  “…and we’ve outfitted a couple of them with long range microphones. We launched two of them to follow Agent Malone while he was outside.”

  “Bowser, this is all very fascinating, but would you please mind getting to the point?” Haines requested as politely as she could muster.

  “Sorry, Ms. Haines. Anyway, long story short, once they got near the chow hall Agent Malone asks if he can use one of the Porta-Johns the construction crews are using. He said he had too much coffee and really had to take a leak.”

  Haines rolled her eyes and motioned for the young tech to hurry up with his explanation.

  “So he walks over to the Porta-John and, once he’s out of earshot from Kendall, he pulls out his cell phone.”

  Dunn interrupted, “So that’s where we’ll start the video for you.”

  Bowser took the cue and started the video. It showed Agent Malone walking to the blue porta-potty. He paused just as someone would do if their phone rang in their pocket. Malone extracted his cell phone, pressed a button, then held it to his ear.

  “Hey, I’m in.” The recording was scratchy, but Haines could make out every word.

  Malone listened to the person on the other end of the call.

  “Yeah. After I take this little tour and let them soften up a bit I’ll ask for your little buddy Zheng. Once I get my hands on him, I’ll order him to start opening up all the locked doors in this place.”

  He listened again and nodded.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll get him out of here, but it’s gonna cost you extra.”

  Malone paused to listen and then chuckled. “Sure, I’m ready for a little vacation too. Let’s wrap this up and then I’ll use some of my accrued leave. At least the Bureau gives me that much. I’ll call you in a couple hours.”

  Haines’s normally calm face raged red. “Do we know who he talked to?”

  “Bowser tracked it to a tower in the Jackson Hole area,” Dunn answered, dead serious. “You want me to take care of this?”

  Haines thought for a moment. What they should do is turn the piece-of-shit-Malone in to his superiors. But Haines came from a warrior background. Her father was a former Special Forces soldier who’d fought in Vietnam. She probably would have tried to become an infantry officer if the military allowed it.

  “I’ll take care of Agent Malone. Bowser, can you email that video to me?” Bowser nodded. “Todd, would you mind setting up one of your interrogation rooms?”

  The two techs looked at Haines in awe. They’d heard rumors of her physical prowess, and she was undoubtedly beautiful, but seeing the lioness come out right before their eyes was astonishing.

  Dunn and Haines went to leave, but Bowser had one more question.

  “Hey, Ms. Haines, what’s Z…uh, I mean what’s Terrence Zheng got to do with all this?”

  Haines stopped and turned around. “Loose lips sink ships, gentlemen. You won’t be seeing Mr. Zheng any time soon.”

  Without another word, she turned away and left the room, Dunn in tow.

  Bowser looked at his companion in wide-eyed wonder. “I call dibs on Zheng’s Xbox profile!”

  +++

  Dunn split off as Haines walked swiftly to the security desk. “Can you please ask Agent Malone to join me in the lower level observation deck?” she asked the large sentry.

  “Yes, Ms. Haines. I’ll escort him down personally.”

  “Thank you.”

  Haines headed back toward the Batcave. As an afterthought, she pulled out her phone as she walked.

  “Travis, I think we’ve found the connection.”

  +++

  Fifteen minutes later, Malone, escorted by the guard, entered the gallery overlooking the interrogation rooms. With a nod from Dunn, the guard left and Malone joined him and Haines.

  “So what’s up?” Malone asked conspiratorially. “Is this where you do your secret interrogations?”

  Haines answered with a dry laugh. “I just thought you might like to see this and get a quick tour. It’s state of the art and where we do all our training for new SSI personnel going into the field.”

  “Nice,” Malone admired as he gazed down at the brightly lit rooms. “Lead on, Ms. Haines!”

  Dunn made no move to follow. “You’re not coming with us, Dunn?” Agent Malone asked.

  “I’ve got some things to take care of upstairs. We’ll have lunch waiting for you when you’re finished here.” Dunn headed to the stairwell and disappeared.

  Haines led Malone to the control room first. He gave it a cursory examination and, once satisfied, indicated they should move on to the lower rooms.

  They stepped down the side staircase and entered the first room they encountered.

  “As you can see, we have cameras installed there and there,” Haines pointed to the locations of the observation equipment. “And anyone in the gallery can watch through the one-way window.”

  Agent Malone traced his hand along the edge of the metal table in the center of the room. He stared at Haines lasciviously. “You want to tell me why you really wanted to get me down here…alone?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jack,” Haines answered in feigned surprise.

  “You could’ve gotten anyone to show me this place. Why did you want to bring me down here?”

  Haines looked back at Malone with an embarrassed shrug. “Am I that obvious?” she asked innocently.

  Agent Malone’s eyes lit up as he moved closer to the attractive attorney. “Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised.”

  “Oh?”

  “You’re surrounded by these meatheads all day long. I’m not surprised you’re more attracted to the polished type.”

  “And you’re saying you’re the polished type?” Haines purred.

  “I am.”

  “So what should we do now?”

  Malone glanced up to the invisible cameras. “What about witnesses?” he asked.

  “I turned those off when we were in the control room.”

  “And what about someone seeing us from the gallery?”

  Haines smiled mischievously. “I told Dunn to give us some time alone. We should have plenty of time.” She slinked up to Malone and placed a hand on his chest. Suddenly, he seemed nervous and uncertain.

  “Would you feel more comfortable if I turned off the lights?” Haines asked.

  Malone could only nod through parched lips and slowed brain function. Is this really happening?

>   Haines walked to the door and turned off the lights. The room was thrust into darkness except for the small amount of light seeping in through the one-way mirror.

  “Where are you, Jack?”

  “Over here,” Malone responded hoarsely. He started to loosen his tie so he could breathe.

  Seconds later, Haines’s hands were back on his chest and he could feel her hot breath on his neck.

  “So how do you want to do this?” he asked.

  “I thought we’d get to know each other a little bit first,” she teased, yanking down playfully on his tie.

  “Uh, sure. What would you like to know?”

  “Oh, I just have one question for you, Jack.” She grazed her nose along his jaw line, and he shuddered in anticipation.

  “Okay. What’s your question, Ms. Haines?”

  She took his head in her hands and brought his ear down to her mouth. “I just want to know one thing. How long did it take before you turned traitor?”

  Before Malone had time to respond, Haines blasted her knee into his groin. As he doubled over in pain, she bent down and whispered in his ear one last time. “Now you know why they call me The Hammer, you piece of shit.”

  Grabbing his head again, she slammed her knee into his temple and let him drop unconscious onto the floor. Marge checked to see that he had a pulse, then grabbed the handcuffs from Malone’s belt and strapped his two hands behind his back. After relieving the crooked agent of his sidearm, Haines left the room to fetch Dr. Higgins.

  +++

  Agent Jack Malone kicked and screamed as Dr. Higgins wheeled in his tools. The guards had strapped him to a gurney as he lay unconscious.

  “I don’t know what that bitch told you, but you guys are in some deep shit. I am an FBI agent!”