“Boss we may have company,” he said while pointing at the surveillance camera screens.
The team leader looked up and could see a minivan make an aggressive turn right for the safe house. He pointed at the camera as two more minivans were right behind the first one. He estimated they had about four minutes until shit was about to get real.
He yelled down the hall to the sleeping agents to get them up and smashed the panic button. The safe house erupted with bustling activity as the agents grabbed their assault rifles and donned their flak jackets. Medical staff attempted to move Pedro to the steel reinforced basement.
Quickly, the team leader began barking out orders and set his team in defensive positions to protect the house. An open line of communication automatically began with a dispatch center as soon as the panic button was activated. Over the speaker system a dispatcher attempted to establish contact with the team leader.
“Smith, Smith, report your status,” asked the dispatcher with concern.
The seasoned agent chuckled. “Don’t worry ‘Cake Lady,’ I hear ya. We’ve got three in bound minivans to our location, we need reinforcements ASAP.”
The fact the agent called the dispatcher by her nickname put her at ease a little. “Copy that, we have an eight-man team in-bound, ETA six minutes.”
“That leaves us three minutes to hold down the fort. Once the suspects arrive, I’ll try to give you a body count,” replied Smith to the dispatcher.
“Copy that, we just got the go ahead to scramble two DOJ helicopters to your location, ETA six to seven minutes.” He hoped that would be enough time.
The four-man team was confident in their abilities, but hearing two helicopters were headed their way helped tremendously. He made eye contact with the team members one by one and told them to rely on their training.
“We got this fellas!” said their leader.
In unison the group replied, “Hoo-rah!”
He looked out the large living room window and saw the three minivans stirring up dust as they accelerated. He thought tactically the vans would stop short of the house. The suspects would exit the vans and spread out, then try to use the vans for cover while firing on the house. He was not prepared for what happened next.
Two minivans stopped short right outside the chain link fence surrounding the home. The third minivan picked up speed, jumped the curb, blew right through the fence, and slammed into the side of the house near the family room. The driver jumped out, threw two flash-bang grenades, and started firing rounds in the direction of the dazed protection team.
None of the agents could hear anything due to the flash-bang grenades; so he resorted to sign language to move the team as one. The dispatch center also couldn’t hear a thing, which rendered them useless.
The agents carefully fired rounds in small bursts in an effort to keep the suspects from advancing further into the damaged safe house. They counted six men in each van and the kamikaze driver from the third van. One of the team members picked up movement out of his peripheral vision, spun, and put two unaccounted suspects down.
In a stack formation, the two suspect teams with shields in front began slowly moving toward the house. A loud thump followed by a second thump indicated the suspects had just sent tear gas into the safe house. The agents had to stop firing on the suspects to don their air masks. This allowed the two suspect teams to move quickly and up to the threshold of the house where the van had driven through the family room. The protection team fired on the suspect teams furiously in an effort to prevent them from breaching. Every member of the protection team had been nicked or hit by bullets by this time. If the remaining suspects took the front half of the house, it was likely every member of the four-man team would end up dead. On top of that, their objective and assigned duty to protect Pedro would fail if they allowed that to happen.
The team leader looked to his left just as one of his team members took a round in the neck, killing him instantly. He saw the shooter that had just killed his friend and fired an entire magazine into the man. The suspect was dead before he hit the floor.
As he reloaded his rifle, he was hit in the leg from a bullet and it knocked him to the floor. He tried to push himself back up but couldn’t put any weight on the injured leg. One of the other team members jumped over a couch and came over to the team leader’s aid.
The situation was critical and the remaining members of the protection team were being pushed back and overrun. One of the team members was dead, and another was pinned down and out of ammunition. The team leader lobbed percussion grenades and flash-bangs to disrupt the suspects. He was down, but not out. The remaining team member tried to protect the team leader as the firing stopped briefly because the suspects had been dazed by the flash-bang grenades. It didn’t last long, and within a minute, they could see the suspects were trying to flank them. If they were able to do so, they’d easily take over the house.
Suddenly, the suspects and the protection team members looked up to see two helicopters with dual mounted fifty caliber machine guns materialize out of nowhere. The pilots spun the guns hot and began showering the suspects with hundreds of bullets shredding them and their vehicles to pieces. The trailing DOJ support team skidded just in front of the two suspect minivans. Agents jumped out and began firing on the remaining suspects who’d survived the strafe from the helicopters. Two suspects were left. Instead of surrendering, they tried
to press forward even though they were clearly overmatched now.
Systematically, the remaining suspects were hunted down and killed by the agents. Medics made it to the safe house and began trying to help the injured protection team members. Communication was finally re-established with the dispatch center. Although things were hectic, everyone wanted to know the status of Pedro.
The support teams entered the proper codes to gain access to the safe room in the basement. They found the medical staff working feverishly trying to keep Pedro alive. The charge nurse advised that Pedro had a heart attack almost immediately after being moved down to the basement and they were trying to bring him back to life. What was left of the protection team and the responding support team stood there silently watching helplessly. The men exchanged shocked looks and were in disbelief. They had survived the attempt by the suspects to take over the house, but now a medical issue was putting Pedro in severe danger.
Three minutes later the man some had given their lives to protect was officially pronounced dead. It was a harrowing moment. So many resources had been exhausted to protect Pedro from killers and a medical complication actually killed him. Many of the law enforcement members stood with their heads down and shook their heads in disgust.
Medical staff worked on the team leader’s leg, but he demanded someone get him into contact with Doug Kovach. There will be hell to pay, he thought.
Chapter 24
* * *
Dix grabbed the nearest conference room and ushered his team inside. He noticed they were exhausted, but they had no time to rest.
“Ok guys, you aren’t going to believe this, but Felipe told me his brother, Jose Calderon, is our target.”
Sullivan jumped in, “Are you kidding me, he told you that?” Romero looked worried and Petersen was shocked.
“He sure did. It’s a dying declaration and supports the other information we have about Jose Calderon,” replied Dix. Based on Felipe’s dying words he told the team that Jose would be coming for the money because it belonged to someone in their family.
“I’ll take Petersen with me and we will get some surveillance teams on El Diablo and Jose’s home,” said Romero. He had no idea how this had unraveled so quickly, but he expected a phone call from Calderon any minute. He wrestled with what he would tell Calderon, because he saw an opportunity to take over if Calderon was apprehended or killed.
“Ok, once you have that set up, we need to meet up again and stick together as a team. I’d say you have about an hour to get the teams together, briefed, and put in
place. My biggest concern is the warehouse and how to catch Jose with the money,” replied Dix.
Sullivan said, “I’ll work on that with you. We can walk through it and create a game plan. We’ll get Petersen and Romero up to speed when we meet back up.” She found herself disappointed because she hoped to work with Petersen. There was something about him that made her want to be near him.
“Excellent,” replied Dix. He was excited the team had caught a break and was eager to set a trap for Jose Calderon. All of the sudden Dix realized he needed to update Kovach, but he was nowhere to be found after the team split up.
Chapter 25
* * *
Romero and Petersen walked down to the SAT (Special Apprehension Team) office and asked the sergeant for assistance. He advised he had approximately twelve men in plain clothes that could split up and cover two locations.
When Romero told him who the primary target was, the sergeant did a double take. The same sergeant sat on an advisory board at San Diego State University with Calderon.
He asked, “You sure we’re talking about the same person? The man who volunteers time at the orphanage and hospital, built the high school gym, and sits on several advisory boards throughout the county?”
“I’m afraid so,” answered Romero. He was trying his best to really sell the angst.
The confirmation rocked the sergeant and compelled him to prod further, “Who fingered him? Some Confidential Informant? This better be good information, otherwise the lawsuits are going to be huge.”
“I get your concern. This started from CI information, but was confirmed by Jose’s brother, Felipe Calderon.”
“Felipe Calderon was Jose Calderon’s brother? Holy crap, this is crazy stuff. By the way, who’s this guy,” he said as he pointed at Petersen.
Petersen stretched his hand out, “My name is Steve Petersen. I was visiting your beautiful town and ended up getting into a shooting. I’m supposed to be on a time out, but you know how that goes.”
He laughed and while shaking Petersen’s hand said, “You poor bastard. Pleasure to meet you. My men are pretty good. You guys give them a briefing in thirty minutes and we’ll get out there to see what we can see.”
Petersen thanked him and they left the office and headed upstairs to get to a computer to make an operational plan for the surveillance.
*****
Sullivan and Dix headed over to the Sheriff Office’s evidence warehouse to get the staff up to speed and start planning.
“Dix, the lieutenant over at the warehouse is a real ass. He’s going to want to take over this thing and if he doesn’t feel like he’s getting a chance to make decisions he’ll pose a real problem,” said Sullivan.
“Okay, thanks for the heads up. I’ve dealt with several of those types over the years. We’ll do what we can to keep him involved and see if we can pull this off.”
Sullivan was skeptical that Jose Calderon would come for the money. She did not think a man this slick, who’d operated under the nose of local law enforcement for decades, would slip up and get personally involved with trying to steal money from a law enforcement warehouse. Her gut told her to share her thoughts with Dix.
“I’m not too sure we should be overly excited about this warehouse thing. Jose Calderon is essentially a pillar of the community and has obviously pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes for a long time. I don’t think he will personally show up to hit the warehouse.” She knew she was talking to a living legend and was worried about how he would take her criticism.
Dix was thinking the same thing and was impressed with her reasoning.
“You know, I was just thinking the same thing, but I have a theory. I think the only way Jose can pull this off is to heavily rely on his informant, our leak, in the case. This person is going to have to be at the warehouse when this goes down. I think Jose will be very close by to ensure the leak doesn’t do something foolish, and to make sure the money is grabbed. What do you think?”
Sullivan hadn’t considered that angle, but it sounded good to her. “I think you’re right. He’s going to be close. The question is whether we can locate him and whether he has the money.”
Dix replied, “That’s going to be tough, but we have to try. I’m guessing we have a few hours to plan and we need people to set up at the warehouse.”
Sullivan nodded. “We’re going to have to reach out to other agencies to get as many people we can to cover Jose and the warehouse. That may complicate things.”
“Yup, we need bodies so we’re going to have to take the risk by using people from all over,” replied Dix.
Sullivan wondered what Jose Calderon was doing at the moment. She was confident he would have his second or third in charge handle the actual attempt on the money while supervising from a distance. She proposed the idea to Dix.
“I agree. Jose will still want to call the shots, but be on the periphery. I’ll check with Kovach when he shows up again to see if he knows anything more about Jose’s crew.”
“I’ll jump on the computer and start playing with addresses, vehicles, and phone numbers we’ve gotten to see if we get any hits. I’ll check with the local databases to see if we get lucky and find someone related to this case and Jose,” replied Sullivan. She fired up a computer and began plowing through public data and local police reports.
Dix worked on coordinating warehouse staff and locating Kovach. Something isn’t right with Doug, he thought. Dix found himself fighting a constant pain in his stomach about Kovach. It was a pain that normally meant there was a problem. In this situation, he really didn’t want to believe that Kovach could somehow be involved. However, he never seemed to be around when all the problems sprung up and the fact remained that Pedro was his informant. Dix ultimately hoped in the end Kovach would have nothing to do with any of this.
Chapter 26
* * *
Dix was catching a cat nap when Kovach shook his shoulder and said, “Hey, wake up buddy! I have several updates to share with you and the team, and we need to game plan the whole warehouse situation ASAP.”
Dix yawned and looked around for a coffee maker. He noticed Kovach looked like crap.
“Man you look terrible. I need some coffee, and I think you do too.”
Kovach wasn’t feeling well and thought maybe a cup of coffee would help.
“I’ll send someone to get us some coffee. Where’s the rest of the team?”
“Petersen and Romero are getting people on Jose Calderon’s business and home to watch him. Sullivan is scouring the local and state databases to see if we get any leads on other members of Jose’s crew,” he checked his watch, “Everyone should be here in ten minutes or so,” replied Dix.
Kovach wondered just how much Dix knew about his ordeal. The fact the team was already putting surveillance on Jose demonstrated to Kovach they were moving fast.
“What do you have?” Dix asked. He was excited to hear what Kovach may have dug up.
“I received a phone call from a retired cop who lives across the street from where my daughter goes to school. He thought he noticed some suspicious men watching the school and called me. I sent a few units out there and they scooped up four men, all armed, all recently arrived from Mexico.”
With great concern Dix replied, “Jesus, you think they had anything to do with you or your daughter?”
“Unfortunately the cops found a picture of my daughter in the pants pocket of one of them.”
Dix’s heart dropped. He immediately abandoned his suspicions that Kovach was in some way associated to the case. He felt terrible for Kovach and couldn’t imagine having to worry about his own family like this.
“Man that’s creepy. Are they saying anything?”
“Not a word. It gets worse. I called my wife and told her to meet me at the school. When she went outside to get in her car, she noticed a large van parked next to her car that she had never seen before. She called me back and I rolled over there with some cover units. There were fi
ve guys in the van, all armed, all recently arrived from Mexico.” Kovach did not tell Dix how there was originally six guys in the van and how he tortured the man before cutting his head off and delivering it to Jose Calderon.
Dix had never feared a man, but the resources and boldness of Jose Calderon were frightening to him. The fact Kovach had to deal with this made him feel guilty for even considering that he might be wrapped up in this mess.
“I’m sorry Doug. I’m happy everyone is okay. We’re going to get this bastard, but we have to have clear heads. You sure you’re up for this?”
“I’m absolutely sure!” replied Kovach as he noticed Petersen and Romero approach.
The team gathered together in a large conference room. Tension was clearly in the air. They needed a break in the case as their spirit had been depleted as of late.
Kovach casually greeted the team and jumped right into the updates.
“Without getting into all the details, I’m going to get you guys up to speed. Suspected cartel members were apprehended at my wife’s work and my daughter’s school.”
Romero had to interrupt, “What the hell is going on? Cartel guys? Watching your family?” He honestly had no idea what Kovach was talking about, but it concerned him quite a bit because it meant Calderon was making mistakes.
Kovach held his hand up to stop Romero and said, “Just let me finish. There have to be more cartel people here in San Diego. The quicker we get eyes on Jose, the quicker we get a handle on this.”
Petersen exchanged a curious look with Dix and the rest of the team members. Dix could tell Petersen was skeptic of the whole thing. Dix assumed there were too many coincidences for Petersen.
“Guys, let’s stay focused. We need to hear everything Kovach has so we know how to proceed,” Dix said to the group.
Kovach continued, “We have people trying to get the cartel people to talk, but there’s nothing yet to tie them to Jose Calderon. That isn’t even the worse of it.”
The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) Page 10