Moon Dreams

by M.A. Harris

The Audit from Hell

  It was mid morning in Utah, Kathy Scudder was driving one of the office’s big white SUVs in her normal aggressively law abiding style. Her five juniors spread out in the three rows of seats. Long distance driving was not a favorite, but she felt that as the boss she had to take the wheel.

  Kathy had double degrees in law and accounting and had entered government service right after graduation. She sometimes wondered what it would have been like to practice in the private sector but ever since her father had been wiped out by the Enron disaster and committed suicide she had been determined to be a financial policeman.

  She’d spent time at all the financial acronyms, SEC, GSA, DFAS, eventually finding a place of comfortable power. From her current position she could make companies toe the line and see high roller CEO’s sweat. The Governmental Financial Auditing Board was a relatively obscure organization but it set the standards for other government agencies and did spot checks, as the regional board member she had a remarkable degree of power.

  A month ago she’d been asked to take a look at the books of the Primus Range Canal Project. With all her other duties it had taken her this long to get all the paperwork lined up and reviewed. This was a joint State and Federal program and the State auditors had let things get completely out of hand, probably because Aristide Industries had a huge reputation, a lot of power, and an amazing ability to make things at least look right. Her little tiger team of young go-getters with a wider net and more resources had sniffed blood almost immediately, in a week they’d found enough to justify a full audit of the project.

  She’d had her assistant make calls to discuss a full audit and the company had stonewalled. Now she was going in for a snap audit. She had made sure she had the ammo to back that up, a judicial writ saying she had the right, next best thing to a search warrant. She also had called the local Federal Marshals office and had the local Sheriff’s phone number.

  Her people were all equipped with recording equipment, digital cameras to take records of documents that they might not be allowed to remove. They’d also record all conversations or any physical evidence. Kathy already had a call in to a technical forensics company, people who could go over the technical crap and ferret out the wrong doing she suspected had been going on there as well.

  Primus Junction’s town line appeared ahead along with a sprouting crop of fast food places. “Starbuck’s stop?” She asked, she smiled at the happy acceptance all around.

  Ten minutes later she stood near Chuck, the youngest accountant on her team, looking up at the high bluffs. He glanced over at her, “Beautiful place, pretty remote though.”

  Kathy nodded, “The town’s dying, the canal project and New Town are supposed to rescue it.”

  He sighed, “Yeah well, if things are as badly askew as they look I guess this’ll be a ghost town in a few years.”

  Kathy nodded, angry, “That’s what this kind of crap can do to ordinary people Chuck, that’s why I got into this business.”

  He looked at her slyly out of the side of his eye, a wicked grin evident, “Oh? I thought it was because you liked making CEO’s grovel. Like you did that idiot who’d been selling the Air Force falsely certified high strength fasteners?”

  Somehow it was impossible to slap him down like she should, instead she grinned, tightly, fiercely, “Well…that’s at least a bonus.” His responding grin ignited a laugh she couldn’t stop, and she launched a cuff at the side of his head that he easily dodged, “Get back in the car Chuck, we have the government’s business to do.”

  “Yeas Bawse,” he drawled as he strolled around to the open back door.

  -o-

  The dirt road that ran from the main highway, passed the fabrication plant she’d seen reference to. It looked almost abandoned but that was often how that sort of place looked. The big staging yard at the back of the facility was comfortably full of concrete sections and equipment was moving around. Five miles on, as she turned towards the Plateau she noted a couple of vehicles ahead of her.

  “Look down there,” Pam said thoughtfully a couple of minutes later.

  Kathy looked towards the passenger side of the vehicle and pulled up on the side of the road. Below them in a shallow hollow was a small, apparently modern village. Pam spoke softly, “Most of the windows are boarded up, even the school and the church? But it looks so new?” There was something terribly lonely and abandoned about it, even from this distance.

  Something primeval twisted at Kathy’s stomach, something big was going on. The books had hinted at it, this almost proved it. She looked at the small, square cut brown hands gripping the wheel and took a deep breath. Then she squared her shoulders, took her foot off the brake and accelerated for the cut in the side of the cliff where the road vanished.

  The sign post near the turn into the cliff said, ‘20MPH,’ Kathy slowed to 20. The vehicles ahead of them were backed up almost to the corner and another sign, ‘Stop Ahead, Guard Shack, Guards are Armed’ Kathy stopped. At the shack the road was closed off by a swing arm. A big man in dark guard uniform was talking to someone in a Minivan packed as if for vacation. After a moment he waved the arm up and the van drove away. The guard was checking ID’s and the process seemed quick and painless. “Have your Government ID’s ready guys,” she called back.

  When it was their turn Kathy drove up and came to a stop, her window down. The guard scanned the vehicle, squinting at the tinting of the back windows, the friendly smile of a moment ago gone behind the silvered sunglasses, “Ma’am this is private property, please use that turnaround over there and go back the way you came.”

  Kathy shook her head, for some reason she was very careful lifting her hands off the steering wheel, “Officer, I’m Kathy Scudder, from the Governmental Financial Auditing Board. Here for a snap audit, I have a judicial writ saying that I have the right to visit AI’s Canal Project offices on the Plateau. Here is my ID.”

  He never moved, except for a cocked eyebrow, “Ma’am, you don’t have an employee badge, your vehicle’s not registered and I don’t have a visitor’s chit for you. No chit, no visit. Please use the turnaround over there and go back the way you came. Call ahead next time and make sure they send down a visitor’s chit.”

  Kathy tried to stare the guard down, to show that she was both angry and unimpressed by the shoulder holstered pistol and the guard by the gate with a rifle slung over his shoulder. “Officer, this is a Federal project, I have every right to visit whenever I feel like it, in the middle of the night if I should decide that were necessary. I have a judicial writ; all of my people are government employees with the requisite clearances. Open the gate and let me through now. I am recording this conversation from this point on, I am through fooling around.”

  “Ma’am you will not turn on any electronic equipment you have. Unless it has been cleared with project Security, any such equipment is subject to seizure if found on project property. Don’t make me enforce that rule.” He took a partial step back his legs spread out, he was impressively broad and dangerous looking.

  “You have no rights over Federal property Mister. You make a move and you’re going to be facing a judge.” Kathy was surprised to note that she wasn’t shaking, or not much.

  The guard shook his head, “Ma’am we appear to be at an impasse, I don’t particularly want to escalate this. Won’t you please turn around and go back, call the head office and tell them you’re coming and have them send me a visitor’s chit.”

  Kathy relaxed fractionally, “If you’ll allow me to use my cell phone without doing anything silly I’ll call from here while you call your superiors.”

  A sharp nod, “Fair enough, but I doubt you will get anywhere or that you’ll like what I’m told.”

  “Tell your superiors that if I do turn around I will be back with the local Sheriff to enforce my rights.”

  He shrugged blank face, “Ma’am it won’t make a difference,” Which left Kathy gap
ing.

  Chuck’s hand appeared from the back seat, it was visibly shaking, “I dialed in the financial guys number Kathy.”

  Kathy took the phone, “Thanks.”

  The next ten minutes were a study in frustration as she once more got the runaround. At last she got through to the designated financial officer, “Mr. Gifford I am at the gate to the plateau, I have the right to demand a snap audit and I am exercising that right now. Send a visitor’s chit down for me and my people right now.”

  There was silence on the other end, “Ms. Scudder, I do not see anywhere in our paperwork where you have any such right. You are also at the wrong location. Our head office is at Primus Junction.”

  “Mr. Gifford, look at section I paragraph 10, as well as section X paragraph 2 and section AJ paragraph 22. All give me the right to snap audits for various reasons, as well as scheduled audits for any reason. You have presented me with each and every reason to do a snap audit. I don’t know where you are Mr. Gifford but you are not at Primus Junction. I want access to the records Mr. Gifford, and your core computer. The office in Primus is no more than a VIP lounge.” She hoped she wasn’t wrong about where Gifford was or she’d lose a lot of psychological momentum.

  “Ah…Ms. Scudder I am not really able to give you access to our system right now, we’re undergoing a system upgrade and our people are very busy.”

  “Gifford the chit, now!” she realized with a start that she had snarled that into the mouthpiece.

  “Ah…oh dear…” he disconnected. Kathy stared at the phone in her hand like it was a snake that was about to bite her.

  The guard stepped back to the door, “Ms. Scudder, I’ve been told to get you turned around and out of here. Ma’am, you are to leave now. If you don’t, my boss has ordered a tow truck up from the fabrication plant; it will tow you off company property.” He sounded almost apologetic.

  Kathy looked out of her window, “We’re leaving, expect me back soon.”

  He sighed, “I do ma’am, unfortunately.”

  -o-

  It was past noon and there were more guards when she pulled up to the gate a second time, this time behind the Sheriff’s big black and white vehicle. Kathy watched as the Sheriff got out of the vehicle and walked forward, “Stay here.” She snapped at the others and got out.

  The Sheriff was carrying copies of all her paperwork; he was facing the lead guard, the same man Kathy had talked to, “Hap, the lady has all the paperwork that says she has every right to do what she is asking. She’s also got the backing of the Federal Marshals; they told me they’d be down here in a heartbeat if your head office doesn’t start seeing sense.”

  The guard shook his head, his face emotionless, he glanced at Kathy and back at the Sheriff, “Mike, the head office says no go. They told the lady to go to the Primus Junction office and dig there; this is not the Canal Project headquarters.”

  Kathy almost stepped in but the Sheriff spoke first, “Hap, don’t give me that crap, everyone knows that office’s nothing more than a clearing house and VIP lounge. All the accountants work up here, not back in town and there isn’t anybody but a temp there now. Don’t try and snow me, it ain’t going to work on me any more than it worked on Ms. Scudder.” Kathy realized she’d just been complimented.

  “Mike…Damn it, my orders are to not let you or her beyond this point, period, end of sentence, no give.” The guard said it quietly but there was a finality that made Kathy’s spine tingle.

  The Sheriff heard the same tone, his back straightening. “Hap!?” His voice was a protest.

  “Go back now both of you and leave this lie, please…it’ll do nobody any good to push this any further. I have my orders, Gifford has his as well.”

  Kathy called out, “Sheriff, it’s OK; I hoped they’d see sense, but this has gone far enough. I’ll head back to town.”

  The tall tanned man turned to look at her, “Ah think that’s best ma’am. I’ll follow close up behind you.” Kathy found that remarkably comforting.

  Half an hour later she stood next to the canal road on a pull off, looking back at Ship Plateau, night was drawing in fast; she had her telephone at her ear. “Yes Captain, that’s right, they turned us down flat and came within a hair of threatening physical force. I’ve already called Judge Jellico and gotten a search warrant, I need a federal agent to serve it and I want it served with the full force and majesty of the US government behind it.”

  The warm, slightly southern voice from the other end replied, “I’ve talked to the Major, discussed this with him, we’ll have two van loads of Marshals down there first thing in the morning, and two choppers as well. I ah, also chatted with Sheriff Mike Breton; he called a few minutes before you did to brief me. I don’t like what he told me at all.”

  Kathy felt a flicker of irritation then killed it dead, the Sheriff had backed her all the way and was making sure she got the backing she needed. She should feel grateful, she was grateful to him. “Good, he did as good a job as could be expected up there with those fools. I’m very grateful.”

  “He’s good folks, have dinner at his wife’s restaurant if you get a chance, she serves a good menu.” A sigh, “Well ma’am, I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “You will indeed captain, talk to you later.” She disconnected and glanced around; the Sheriff was standing a few yards away looking back at the Plateau. She walked over to him, “You were not that surprised Sherriff.”

  He shook his head, his face grim, “No Ma’am, as a lawman I never liked having heavily armed private guards here, I just got used to Hap, and his boss Tom Charret. But things have been getting out of hand recently; they’ve roughed some trespassers up, apparently with no good reason.” He bared his teeth, “I suspect they may have killed at least one person, though I couldn’t get enough evidence to even start a real investigation. Then people started vanishing, not dying I don’t think, we get letters, pictures, some of them even turn up for visits, but no one knows where they are. The village, well you saw the village, they set it up, built it real nice, now it’s all but abandoned. The Canal Project seemed to be going great guns, but stories are circulating that some of it’s just a façade.”

  Kathy looked at him in astonishment, “Why didn’t you report this to your superior?”

  He snorted, “What superior ma’am? I’m an elected official of the county, in a practical sense ah’m the senior one. There ain’t a lot of people for me to talk to except at the state level and experience makes me cautious about doing that.”

  “Oh...I suppose I hadn’t thought about it that way.” She looked out into the growing darkness. “I’m told your wife runs a good restaurant?”

  “She sure does, she’d be glad of some customers, she and Ted get lonely some evenings these days. Good thing she’s a great manager and the overhead’s real low or we’d be in a world of hurt, like some other folks.” His voice was melancholy.

  -o-

  Morning was cold and bleak, Kathy bounced on her toes, wishing her lined leather coat were even thicker and her boots better insulated. She took a sip of coffee from the insulated cup and reveled in its warmth. Her team was back in the rather barren hotel they had spent the night at, she had come out with the Sheriff to meet the Marshals. They were at a crossroads off the main road, near the wide two-lane road that followed the canal’s trace.

  Mike spoke softly, “There they are Ma’am, coming down the cut now.”

  Kathy squinted and saw two small black oblongs coming down the road. They were still miles away but distinct in the icily clear air.

  Chopper noises drew her attention to the north, as she turned two ominous black shapes were already descending towards them. She was no expert but they looked impressively black and glossy, with the seal of the Federal Marshals on the doors. They had the typical nose turret mounting cameras and searchlights. The posts in front of the big sliding doors in the side looked like machinegun mounts, tho
ugh she wasn’t an expert.

  The choppers dropped to the ground a couple of hundred feet away but the Sheriff and Kathy both ducked and looked away to stop flying grit getting in their eyes. By the time the blades were slowing to a stop the two huge black SUV’s with the Marshal’s seal on their doors were coming to a stop next to the Sheriff’s smaller black and white.

  The front passenger door on one of the cars opened and a tall black man stepped down and stretched, he called out, “Hey Mike - and I assume Ms. Scudder?”

  Mike waved back and started to walk toward the other, “Good to see you captain.”

  Kathy found herself looking a long way up, “I concur Captain Keith.”

  “Call me Malcolm, Ms. Scudder.”

  “Call me Kathy then Malcolm.”

  “Glad to.” He smiled then looked away to the distance, where the bulk of Ship Plateau was visible as a dark smudge on the horizon. His smile died, “We have twenty agents all told, six each in the vans plus a pilot and copilot and two Marshals in each of the helos. You said full force and majesty and this is about it ma’am.”

  “Uh, what do you expect to do with the choppers Malcolm?”

  “If they get really stubborn I figure I’ll fly onto the plateau ma’am. In the meantime they’ll buzz back and forth in the background while we go and talk to the guards. If they don’t open the gate I’ll drive through, unless they have tire rippers, you end up looking damn silly driving on your rims.”

  Kathy considered him thoughtfully, “You’ve done this before?”

  He nodded, “Physical part isn’t that unusual for us. Though it’s usually for weapons, or drug smuggling. First time I’ve had to do it to support an audit.” He grinned again, “It’ll give me a special cachet in the service.”

  Mike was looking very grim, “Captain, I don’t like the feel of this. Things have been getting weird around here for months, maybe longer and there may be a very real danger.”

  The Marshal looked at the Sheriff considering his comment, “OK, if you think so I’ll accept your reading of the situation. Anything you’d like to suggest?”

  The Sheriff sighed, “Caution, making sure they see you’re serious but not reckless. I don’t think they’re crazy enough to shoot at us…” He shrugged angrily, obviously frustrated at not being able to suggest anything more concrete.

  “Oh, they’ll know we’re serious but they’re the ones who’d better not get reckless. We are here to get the lady and her people access and they will get access. I have the warrant that says she and I have the right to go where we wish on that damn plateau.” He stopped but neither Kathy nor the Sheriff had anything more to say. “Right! Well Ms. Scudder, you get in the van behind me, you’ll be safe enough there. Mike you lead off, it’s still your show till they turn us down again.”

  Thirty minutes later they passed the fabrication plant, it was Wednesday, and late enough that she would have expected people to be working but the plant and the staging yard were empty. Malcolm looked out, “Not a good sign ma’am.”

  Kathy shook her head, “No it’s not. I wonder if we’ll find anyone up at the plateau or if it’s been abandoned as well.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll get access if it has.”

  The approach to the plateau was eerily quiet. Kathy watched as the big black and white ahead turned the corner, she saw the brake lights come on as it approached the gate. Then the gate and gatehouse were in sight. She drew in a breath. A massive trailer blocked the gate, the same type she had seen used to haul sections of the canal around.

  Malcolm sighed, “Well, there goes the easy option.”

  Instead of the multiple guards there was only one this time. Kathy gaped as she saw he was in body armor with an automatic rifle slung muzzle down at the ready. He had stopped the Sheriff opening his door to step down, was shaking his head to whatever Mike was saying to him.

  There was a whispered curse from beside Kathy, “Captain, up in the rocks above the guard shack, there’s some kind of ledge and I see someone up there with a rifle sighted in on us, or the Sheriff I suppose.”

  “Shit, I see it Smith. Tell Marty and his team.” As the man beside Kathy spoke into a microphone Kathy saw Malcolm twisting to look up on their side, he swore, “Another ledge up here as well, can’t see if there’s anyone there. There’s another one further up the cut, I think I see someone on that one. There’s some kind of vehicle parked just around the corner in the cut, almost out of sight, looks military, might be armed.”

  Malcolm reached for a microphone hanging from the dashboard and tapped a button, “Sheriff Breton, we’re going to head back for now. No point in staying.”

  Kathy saw a hand wave out of the window of the black and white and the door was pulled fully shut. The guard backed away cautiously. In a few moments all three vehicles were driving down the road away from the gate. Kathy realized she was shaking.

  Ten minutes later they pulled up at the junction with the canal road.

  Mike Breton was visibly shaken and angry, “The guard told me to stay in the vehicle and to turn around and get off company property. I told him that we had the search warrant he said he didn’t care, I told him I was going to arrest him and he told me to try it.” He shook his head, “He wasn’t anyone I’ve ever seen around here, and sounded more Eastern European than American and I’d swear he was a soldier, not a guard.”

  Malcolm nodded, “You didn’t see the snipers on the ledges above the guard house and up the cut?”

  “Shit, no! What the hell is going on?” the sheriff’s face darkened and his jaw bunched.

  Malcolm tapped the comm pad on his wrist and spoke into the ear boom he’d put on. “Helo One, this is Captain Keith, you read me?”

  A small voice came from the speaker on the shoulder of his bulletproof vest. “This is Helo one, Sergeant Scott, any orders Captain?”

  “Drop down and pick me up, we’re going to do an over flight of the plateau.”

  “I can do that without you on board Captain?” The small voice pointed out.

  “I know that Scott, get your ass down here and pick me up!” The captain snapped irritably.

  “Roger.”

  The Sheriff was shaking his head, “You sure that’s a good idea Captain?”

  “Who knows? But they’d be idiots to start shooting. Not that they aren’t idiots anyway, they have to know that they’ve stepped way over the line on this, the federal government isn’t going to back down on it.”

  Mike nodded, “That’s what worries me Malcolm. This makes no sense unless they are protecting something very important to someone.”

  The chopper was dropping down towards the road a hundred yards away. The Marshal Captain hesitated, his face serious, “I see your point, but I disagree, I think some yahoos really think that they can face the Law down and make it stick. I’m going to go take a look, see if there’s a good place to land and go in and talk to, or arrest, someone senior enough to make them listen.” He turned and trotted for the helicopter.

  Kathy looked at the Sheriff, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  He glanced at her, “So do I, I hope we’re both wrong.”

  The chopper lifted off with a roar and its nose dipped as it accelerated away from the Plateau. Its twin circled around to join it and they made a graceful climbing turn in formation, lining up to come back over the plateau. Kathy was watching entranced when one of the two machines exploded in mid flight.

  She screamed in shock, the crumpled, flapping ruin of its fuselage plunged out of the fireball and into the ground between where she stood and the abandoned village. The rotor spun up out of the twisting demon of red fire and black smoke, breaking apart as it went. For a few moments it seemed as if the other machine was going to be destroyed as well, it came out of the debris cloud of its sister’s death staggering and apparently out of control, heading for a collision with the cliff. But at what seemed like the last instant the pilot
got control again and stood the aircraft on its side to clear the unforgiving wall of rock.

  Kathy realized that the Sheriff was sprinting for the crumpled ruin lying on the rocky slope. Men and women were boiling out of the two big black trucks as well, running helter-skelter towards the wreckage. Before anyone got close there was a whump, and flames engulfed the remains. Kathy was certain that the initial explosion and impact with the ground had killed everyone on board, but the flames made it so terribly final. She realized she was on her knees looking into the heart of the flames. She wasn’t sure which aircraft it was, it was only human she supposed dully that she hoped it had been the aircraft Malcolm hadn’t been on, that the bodies now being cremated were those of strangers.

  The other chopper had landed on the slope well away from its dead brethren, Kathy watched hoping. Four people climbed out and ran towards the ruin; none of them were Malcolm Keith. Kathy cried for the man she had brought here to his death.