The Cleansing

by Shane Crosby

  “What are we going to do with the Doc?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You know he can’t go. No questions asked. He should stay here.”

  “May I interject, please?”

  “Sure, Doc.”

  “I may not have been in combat like you, but I’ve been in volatile situations. How do you think I know your brother?”

  “We understand that, but that wasn’t something you did all the time. It was a fluke.”

  “I never forgot it and I survived. I created a bunker that’s more secure than your US military base.”

  “This is all true, however, being in the field where we could possibly be confronted by the enemy is not a place for any civilian. You’ll slow us down. We have to keep you alive and ourselves.”

  “I know how to use a weapon.”

  “Doc, using a weapon to protect your home is totally different than having people shoot at you with automatic weapons from a perched position and in the air. You have to hide shoot, stay alive and hit your target.”

  “I can do it. Your brother is already in control of the cameras and security what could possibly happen?”

  “See, that’s why he’s staying here.”

  “Sorry, doc. If something happened to you, I could never forgive myself. Besides, Dub and Mase need you here to protect them.”

  Dub hits Scott in the arm. “OW!”

  “Oh, did that hurt?”

  “Hey, both of you cut it out. We have to finish getting ready.”

  “I think you’re going to mess this up.”

  “Doc, please stop worrying. We’ll do fine.”

  “Are we ready?”

  In unison. “Ready.”

  Trevor

  Jumping in that van and rolling out with my brothers to go on a mission was reminiscent of my old SEAL days. I knew I missed it. I just didn’t know how much. Being a SEAL was so rewarding, the problem is like everything in life there’s a season. Your season as a SEAL always feels like it ends too quickly. I’m just one of many who find themselves sitting in their living room saying, “I wish” I wish I could go back to the time when I was a part of that elite team that enabled my country’s citizens to sleep peacefully each night. It’s an amazing feeling, one that will never be replaced not with marriage, children or anything in between.

  We went out to scout for a place to park a week earlier. As we approached the vicinity of the first crematory, we pulled into that location covered it with tree branches and walked the remaining distance. We cut the fence and entered the property. I could hear J in my ear telling me the coast was clear to proceed further.

  As we approached the door, we used a universal key to open the lock. It’s nice to have friends in the intelligence world and even better to have family. When we entered the building I was in front Scott and Don took the sides. I gave the signal to advance. I tapped into everything I learned while I was a SEAL. I know they say if you don’t use it you lose it but tonight, that’s not the case. I was looking like a well-oiled machine leading my troops on an exploratory mission.

  We got deeper into the building and checked each room until we got to the location of the oven. I wanted so badly to turn on some lights. The only light we had was on our head and the high beams we brought with us. It was so dark it reminded me of being in the desert, except in here, there weren’t any stars or light by the moon. If you looked up pitch black in the dictionary, they would use this as an example.

  In the darkness, it wasn’t easy to locate anything let alone the perfect limb or jaw bone for the doc to extract DNA. We’d covered a lot of area and hadn’t found anything remotely resembling a human limb. I wasn’t too sure if we’d made the right decision to come in here. Until, I kicked a human head. I mean it rolled right across the floor. When I looked up and shined my flashlight straight ahead, if not for the fact that my brothers would never let me live it down, I would’ve screamed like Jamie Lee Curtis in the Jason Movie. The further we advanced into this one area, it became more gruesome. There were body parts laying around like it was a department store. There were burned legs, torsos; feet were lying around the oven. It was literally so much death in front of us for a fraction of a second we lost focus on why we were there. We were all standing around like stone in total disbelief at what we were seeing. J called our names repeatedly before we responded.

  “Hey you there? Trev?”

  “Yeah, sorry.”

  “Hey man, let’s get something to take back to the Doc so we can get the hell out of here.”

  “I’m with that.”

  “What’s going on in there?”

  “J, you don’t want to know. Did you get what you need?”

  “There’s too much of what we need in here, trust us, we should be good.”

  “Scott, these bodies are burned too badly I don’t think it’s going to work.”

  “Okay, let’s see if we can find a jaw bone.”

  We looked around and miraculously we did locate a jaw bone that hadn’t been through the fire as long, but it was burned pretty badly.

  “There’s not much here that’s salvageable. Here’s another one.”

  “Let’s just take these and get to the other site.”

  “J, we’re leaving here going to the next location.”

  “Got it.”

  At the second location, our arrival and entry was much of the same with a few variations. When we entered the building, we felt a little more confident about where to go. They were set up the same so we went straight to the oven. What we saw there mirrored the first location. Burned bodies on the floor, I almost slide and fell on blood that I’m certain was of someone’s loved one. I couldn’t imagine meeting an end as heinous as this. We gathered what we needed and left.

  On the way back to the bunker, no one said anything. We’d just witnessed the worse part of humanity. Animals don’t behave like this, just killing for sport. This must be what it was like living in Africa during the reign of Idi Amin.

  MONSTERS DO EXIST

  Trevor

  We started hitting the locations in the evening in Germany. After we’d gotten to through the last one, we packed up and headed to Paris. We didn’t arrive in time to go in under the cover of darkness so we had to postpone entry into that location for the next day.

  The entire time we were in Paris, we couldn’t rest. We studied the layout, the way we’d enter and we had driven by to check out the outside. Of course, it had the same security setup. We placed a call to brother J, just to make sure he was ready, he was. After ensuring our that we had everything we needed to pull this off successfully. We all attempted the possible; sleep.

  We remained inside the hotel for the better part of the next day. We played cards, studied the map and checked in with the fellas back at the Bunker. For this trip, Mase and Dub would be left behind; something they both detested. With baby brother watching from the sky, we were certain we could handle things. Even if something jumped off, Jared would see it coming first, allowing us to exit the building or mount an amazing defense.

  As the day progressed and the city began to be covered up with darkness, we double check our gear and headed down to the van.

  We picked a hotel that was far from where we needed to go. A quick fifteen minute ride and we were on site.

  When we arrived, and entered into the third crematory, my first thought was, they all must’ve had the same designer. This place looked much like the other two, body parts burned beyond recognition, human ashes were on the floor. It looked like the salt piles in Gochian. It was tough to accept these mountainous piles of substance used to be live, living breathing human beings. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. After the other two, I didn’t think I could be shocked ever again in my life but tonight, I see that I was wrong. We collected anything that looked like it hadn’t been charred too badly and started to exit the building. On this visit, we tripped over something that we couldn’t resist taking. It was a laptop. We placed it inside a
container that will kill any tracking devices and drove all night back to Berlin.

  The first thing we did when we arrived back home was take a shower. I don’t know about the others but I burned my clothes. I just couldn’t think of wearing them again. As I walked around those places the other night and again tonight, I couldn’t help but wonder what created these people. How could it possibly be the God I know? The God my mother praises and worships not just on Sunday, but every day. The merciful God we learned about in Sunday school and Church couldn’t have had a hand in creating people like this. As I close my eyes trying to get some sleep, my mind continues to take a tour of those places, the crematories, the bodies, the blood, human ashes growing higher and higher each day. One thing is certain, parents lie to their children about monsters; they do exist. And, I’m a witness to what they’re capable of.

  CHAPTER THIRTY - NINE

  ANOTHER PUZZLE PIECE

  BUNKER

  Trevor

  When we returned from Paris, we gave everything to the doc for him to analyze. I didn’t want to hear anything else about those places. I now the others felt the same. I’ve never had such a difficult time falling asleep as I did last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see those bones piled on top of each other. Discarded as if they were nothing but pieces of paper we throw away every day. I’ve never thought about the Jewish Holocaust. It’s never once crossed my mind, until I saw those bones. I guess this is why the doc is so upset about that Nazi Gerhardt Richter.

  Out of brotherly love, I wanted to do whatever necessary to solve this case, but after witnessing firsthand what these people are capable of, I have a renewed determination to make them face punishment for what they’ve done.

  Scott enters the room....

  “Hey guys, I stayed up all night trying to crack this laptop password and got nowhere. I sent a message to J and he called me back this morning. He’s going to send us a disk that will mirror the hard drive.”

  “I’m not the tech geek so you’ll have to speak normal.”

  “Copy the hard drive onto another disc and then stick the little disc into another computer so we can see what’s on it. Capisce?”

  “How would you like another broken finger?”

  “Considering you’re still seeing double, I doubt I have to worry about that from you.”

  “Good one.”

  “Yeah, I thought so.”

  “Nothing funny about that at all.”

  “That’s because it’s about you.”

  “Cool it everyone. Go on Scott.”

  “Anyway, we should be receiving a package from J tomorrow.”

  “I wonder if it would’ve been better sending it to him.”

  “Nah, let’s keep it here. If we need to send it to J, we can still do that. Let’s go see what progress the Doc has made on those samples.”

  “I’ll catch up.”

  Mase enters the room..

  “Hey Doc, any progress?”

  “This isn’t something you can rush, I have to extract the tissue from the teeth. It’s a process. I think these bodies are burned too badly to get any concrete results.”

  “So, we walk through the depths of hell and came out empty handed, huh? Nothing useful?”

  “The other items you returned with, I don’t think they’re going to be useful. I can try them, but I’m thinking they’re a little too damaged. I’m not too sure about any of them. We’ll see.”

  “When you extract the tissue and the DNA what are you going to compare it to?”

  “I can answer that. There’s a database that list the DNA of people who are arrested.”

  “They implemented that a few years back.”

  “The United States is way behind Europe. They always are. They don’t swab the mouths of every person arrested, do they?”

  “No, only felonies.”

  “We won’t get a match, but in Europe with these bodies, we just might.”

  “I’ll bet we will.”

  “First we have to get a good DNA profile. Once they go through fire, it makes it a bit difficult, especially fire this hot. A crematory is designed to turn bodies into ash.”

  “Hopefully we got some good pieces.”

  “I hope so too, because I’ll need a therapist for the next century of my life after what we saw.”

  “What happened in there? You guys never told us.”

  “And, I never will.”

  “Trevor, what happened?”

  “You don’t want to know, Dub. I’ll just say it was tragic. I’ll be glad when we’re done with this damn case.”

  NEWS

  BUNKER

  Jared Morgan calling....

  “Alvarez.”

  “Hey Bro, what you got?”

  “I have some information on your businesses. The properties are owned by your lady, Miriam Petrovich but the day to day activities are handled by Melania Popovich. Popovich Industries was started by her grandfather. They purchase companies, restructure them and some they sell, some they keep. Melania is the daughter of one Boris Popovich,Jr. Now he might sound familiar and that would be because he’s been into everything. He was suspected of attempting to purchase plutonium. In fact, a shipment that was rumored to be his was stopped by the United States and held until it was later destroyed. He never has his name on anything, that’s why it’s been so difficult to stop him. There was a plot to take him out years ago but something happened and he didn’t show. Everyone in the intelligence world believed the Intelligence community had a mole, this was never confirmed but the CIA changed the way they handle things. It’s not clear, though if they knew each other or if it means nothing. Now, Dub believed the CIA was using Gerhardt for Intel. There’s information inside Gerhardt’s file that has a reference to Popovich, but it isn’t junior. It’s senior. Someone else tipped off junior.”

  “But who?”

  “The old man Stravosky was correct. Gerhardt did come to the United States with the aid of the US. He was also correct about Gerhardt staying with his cousin. Whose last name is Buchanan, but I haven’t figured out the connection in that note. Another thing, Boris’ father had like two or three sets of kids. He was in the first set, which means he’s old but don’t let his age fool you. He’s ruthless and will do anything to stay hidden and keep his businesses running. Nothing is above him, make sure you let everyone know that. He has six sons and two daughters. He too, has different sets of kids, Melania is in the second set. And, that includes two out of wedlock. When I looked up his dad, Boris Roman Popovich, Sr., he was some high ranking official in the KGB. He had close ties to the President of Russia and there are pictures of him with the President. Before you ask, I don’t know how close. It just references the President. I’m still researching all of this. What exactly was the nature of their relationship I haven’t pinpointed. Now, in his background, a child is mentioned one he had with a mistress during the Afghan and Russia war But, it specifically states, he’s rumored to have had a child. I don’t know what to make of that. Since they’re saying it’s a rumor, the child may not even exist. There’s no other mention of this possible kid. I’ll try to see if he’s real, but I don’t want to spend time chasing my tail. Your mystery lady, Miriam. I have nothing on her yet. Keep in mind, someone else is working hard to remove all of this information. I don’t know what’s going on, but someone went through a lot of trouble making sure this information couldn’t be deleted. They were prepared for that because they setup a failsafe to maintain those records and send them to me only. I’ll keep working on it.”

  “The fact that the CIA mentions the kid, doesn’t that warrant a little risk of possibly chasing your tail?”

  “We’ll see. Anyway, Boris Roman Popovich, Sr. was characterized as being a tyrant of sort and ruthless. It does say this rumored child was the last of his children. I’m trying to see if I can find pictures of the last child and of Gerhardt’s children. I’m looking for their names, too,”

  “Wow Bro, you’ve be
en on your game. I’ll let the others know all of this.”

  “I’m sending it in an email to Don. He can brief everyone.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Did you get the disc.”

  “Yep sure did, today. How are things with you?”

  “Good.“

  “Everyone else?”

  “Mase is healing nicely. He’s complaining because he says now he has two holes in his body.”

  “His back and now side.”

  “Right. Dub is getting better. Everyone is on the mend. Scott’s fingers are healing. We’re getting there slowly.”

  “Good. Let me know if you need anything else.”

  “We will.”

  “I’ll be in touch.”

  (Click)

  CHAPTER FORTY

  PUTTING PIECES TOGETHER

  BUNKER

  Mase

  I wasn’t one for being on the ground searching for insurgents. I liked to be above all of that so I chose to become a fighter pilot. My brothers will argue that my job is more dangerous. I have further to fall, rockets and bullets are being lodged at me. I don’t have any place to shield myself in the sky. They’ll go on and on trying to get me to see things their way, but I never do. Being in the air, having that view of the world brings everything into perspective for me. I love it up there and wouldn’t have it any other way.

  My job has taught me to think of a different approach to things. The saying where there’s a will there’s a way, pretty much applies to any obstacle you hit on this road we call life. I’ve always believed that and we were taught this. I’ve never been presented with a situation that has shed any doubt on that, until now.

  I’ve spent the better portion of the night going through the laptop we retrieved from the crematory. It’s a treasure trove of information, none that can help us though. I’ll present my findings to the group, maybe someone can come up with a solution and that old saying can maintain its ability to spur human beings on to accomplish fetes seemingly impossible.