by J. C. Fields
“If someone placed an active GPS tracking unit on your car, that,” he pointed at the device, “will tell you. Just turn it on when you start your car. Once you start driving, you’ll get a tone every time any kind of tracking unit transmits your position. No tone, no device. My guess is you’ll get a tone.”
Kruger nodded and opened the door. Before getting out, he turned to Sandy. “How long do you two need to set up?”
“Couple of hours. Jimmie already knows where he wants the cameras.”
Kruger nodded. “I’ll call you when I head back.”
“Got it.”
***
When Kruger returned to his car in the south parking lot, the dimming light in the western sky indicated dusk would soon be night. He sat in the car and stared at the brightly lit hospital in front of him. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Moisture welled in his eyes and he wiped it away with the back of his hand. His job had placed Stephanie in danger twice since their marriage.
The first time involved a man hired by a serial killer he was pursuing. She and Kristin were taken from her sister’s house in Kansas City, where he thought they would be safe. JR tracked the kidnapper’s cell phone when he called to tell Kruger how to get them back. The first incident only scared her, but this time, she was physically hurt. When he started the Mustang and backed out of the parking slot, he muttered under his breath, “You’re going to pay for this, Orlov.”
Just before exiting the parking lot, he remembered to turn on the small unit given to him by Knoll. As he turned left and merged into traffic heading south, the little unit emitted a low-pitch tone. Kruger smiled, reached for his cell phone and made a call as he drove toward Joseph’s place in the country.
Knoll answered. “You heading this way?”
“Yeah, I got a tone.”
“Kind of thought you would. We’re ready. Things might get interesting tonight.”
***
Alexia used a 40-inch flat screen TV found in one of the upstairs bedrooms as a monitor. She connected it to a laptop Knoll purchased on his way back from the FedEx location. While Gibbs placed the 4G Trail Cams in the locations he picked out, she downloaded the software needed to set up the monitoring system. When Kruger walked into the house, everything was ready.
Knoll pointed to the kitchen table Alexia used as her workstation and said to Kruger, “Everything is in place and all the cameras are online.”
“Good.”
Gibbs was at the breakfast bar cleaning parts of a Weatherby Mark V CarbonMark rifle with an Armasight Gen 2+ scope attached.
Kruger stared at the rifle. “Whose gun?”
Gibbs smiled and looked up from his task. “Mine.”
Knoll chimed in, “Joseph told Jimmie, when he asked him to stay here, there were tons of deer on his property. Didn’t know we would have a predator on it as well.”
Alexia looked up from the computer and announced, “A car just drove past the camera located at the entrance.”
Kruger walked over and stood behind her.
“Did it stop?” he asked.
“Yes, for a moment, then drove off.”
Three minutes later, he watched the car slowly drive past the camera again going the opposite direction. This time the driver side was exposed to the camera. Kruger could see the fuzzy image of a male driver.
“Can you enhance the picture?”
“Not much. Pixel count on these cameras won’t allow too much detail, particularly with night vision.”
He nodded.
***
The assassin drove slowly down the dark country lane called Fairview Road, the vehicle’s headlights the only illumination. The signal from the tracking device no longer moved and appeared to be about a quarter of a mile to his west. He slowed the car and stopped briefly in front of a narrow turnoff on his right. Without knowing more information about his surroundings, he decided to see where the current road took him. Five hundred yards later, it ended. Doing a K-turn, he retraced his route and slowed to look at the only exit located on this end of the lane.
He remembered passing an exit with numerous restaurants on the highway about ten miles north. It was time to do a little research about the area. Then and only then, he would decide his next move.
Twenty minutes later, sitting in a back booth with his back to the rear wall, he ordered dinner and opened his laptop. The diner offered free WIFI so he pulled up Google Earth and explored the area.
The last path off Fairview Road led to a parcel of land five miles south of Sparta. Once found, he noted it ran to a large house occupying the center of a grassy area surrounded by woods. A circle drive could be observed in front of the home with parked vehicles present at the time the satellite image was taken. Using the distance measuring function of the website, he found the house to be right at fourteen hundred feet from Fairview Road. Exactly where the GPS tracking device indicated the Mustang should be.
He sat back in his seat and studied the area. The land appeared clear for about a hundred feet behind and to the sides of the house. From this point on, trees dominated the western side of the property. A stream labeled Fork Bull Creek lay a hundred yards north. To the south lay more open land until dense trees appeared. Measuring the distance on the website, they lay over five hundred yards away. Not knowing the property lines did not really matter to him. Knowing the topography did. With this information, a plan started to form.
***
Sandy Knoll noticed a change in Alexia. She smiled more. She wore her hair more stylish, she seemed more conscious of her looks and she even wore a touch of makeup. Her clothes no longer hid her gender and the dark circles under her eyes were gone. As he watched her interact with Jimmie, his original concerns started to dissipate as he saw a change in Jimmie. Not as drastic as Alexia, his changes were subtler. His normally biting sarcasm seemed to have lost some of its edge. And he smiled more.
One characteristic of Jimmie remained unchanged: his intensity about completing an assigned task.
Now, Gibbs looked up from reassembling his rifle. “Sandy, I don’t think anything is going to happen until closer to dawn, if then.”
Knoll nodded and Jimmie continued, “I’m going to get a few hours’ sleep, then be in position around three. Can you watch the camera feeds until then?”
“No problem. Good plan, Jimmie.”
Gibbs and Alexia walked toward the back of the house where the stairs to the second-floor bedrooms were located. Kruger had watched the exchange from the kitchen while he finished making a pot of coffee. “What do you think, Sandy?”
“Not sure. Part of me is happy for Jimmie, the other half is scratching my head and worried.”
With a half-smile, Kruger nodded.
“I spoke to him about it earlier.”
Tilting his head slightly, Knoll’s eyebrows shot up. “And?”
“He’s aware of our concerns. He doesn’t share them, but he’s aware of them.”
“Good.”
Kruger chuckled. “Our Mr. Gibbs is a bright and intelligent individual, Sandy. Like Alexia, he’s had a few demons he’s had to exorcise over the years.”
Remaining quiet, Knoll kept his gaze on Kruger.
“Did you know Jimmie’s younger sister was kidnapped and murdered when he was sixteen?”
Knoll’s eyes widened and he shook his head.
“I didn’t either until Joseph told me. I spoke to him about it a few days ago.”
“Didn’t know he had a sister. What happened?”
Kruger nodded. “He showed me a picture of her. Beautiful young girl. She had just turned fourteen when she disappeared. Jimmie told me she was a better swimmer than he was at that age.”
Knoll’s eyebrows rose again. “Damn, Jimmie’s still classified as the best swimmer the Seals ever produced.”
“Yeah, well, according to him, she was better. His parents were told by all of her swimming coaches she was bound for the Olympics. He told me who some of them were, they were
best coaches of that era.”
“Huh.”
“After she was abducted and later found murdered, it tore his mom and dad apart. The mother died of cancer two years later and his father suffered from severe depression. He later committed suicide. All of this before Jimmie joined the military.”
“Did Jimmie tell you how it made him feel?”
Kruger shook his head. “Individuals like Jimmie don’t realize how a life-changing event effects them. They bury it deep inside. I don’t know this for a fact, but I bet the death of his sister drove him to set all those swimming records with the Seals.”
Looking down the hallway toward the stairs, Knoll remained quiet. Finally, he returned his attention to Kruger and asked, “Should I quit worrying about his attraction for Alexia?”
“Yes, Dad, you should.”
Knoll chuckled. “Yeah, I do think of him that way, sometimes.”
“Don’t stop caring about him. Let him explore a relationship. He’s never allowed himself to have one until now.”
“I thought…”
With a slight smile, Kruger shook his head. “Jimmie told me he hasn’t dated much over the years. He concentrated on his military career.”
Returning his gaze to the stairs, Knoll just smiled.
Chapter 30
Southwest Missouri
By 3:10 a.m., Jimmie Gibbs occupied his sniper hide on the south side of the house. He faced the western tree line nestled in a tall patch of decorative fountain grass. Dressed in his prized Ghillie Suit, he would be basically invisible once the sun came up. A wireless communication system occupied the left side of his face with an ear-piece and a microphone in front of his lips for communicating with Alexia. She now manned the computer with the camera feeds. The scope attached to his Weatherby possessed night-vision capabilities, allowing him to scan the tree line.
“I’m all set, Alexia. Anything on the cameras?”
“Nothing at this time. Do you think he will show up, Jimmie?”
“Don’t know. All we can do is wait.”
Knoll and Kruger stood behind her. Kruger stifled a yawn before he said, “How long do we wait in the morning before we pull Jimmie out of there?”
“That’s his call. Back when I was recruiting him for Joseph’s team, I was told by one of his commanding officers that during his final series of sniper tests, Gibbs waited three days before taking his shot. Needless to say, he aced the test.”
Alexia looked up at Knoll, her eyes filled with worry. “Three days?”
A nod was her answer.
Five minutes later after staring out the back door, Kruger turned to Knoll. “I have an idea. Sandy, come with me. I think I saw something upstairs we might need.”
At fifteen minutes after 4 in the morning, Alexia caught a fleeting glimpse of movement in the northern-most camera.
“Jimmie.”
“Yeah.”
“Movement on camera one.”
Moving his night scope in that direction, only trees and brush were visible.
“Nothing on my end. Keep watching.”
Five minutes later, a shadowy image appeared briefly in the lens of camera three. Knoll pointed to the image. “There, looks like a man.”
Kruger nodded and bent over to examine the video feed. “Possibly.”
“Jimmie, something just passed camera three.” Alexia enlarged the picture, but the pixel count became compromised.
“Okay.” He moved his scope toward the area the camera covered. “I don’t see… Wait one.” An image in his scope appeared briefly in an area between cameras three and four. The shadowy figure stared toward the house, then disappeared back into the cover of the tree line.
“Alexia, I just saw someone between three and four. Enhance the images on cameras four and five.”
“Okay, Jimmie.”
Ten minutes elapsed without another glimpse of the figure. Then it became twenty minutes. Knoll said, “He may have chosen a spot not covered by the cameras.”
Kruger nodded, “But we know he’s out there.”
“Yeah.”
Alexia suddenly enlarged the image on camera six. “There.”
Kruger watched as the outer limits of the camera’s perspective showed a figure moving further out of range. “Tell Jimmie he’s between five and six.”
She relayed the message.
***
Access to the property came via a dirt path, straddling a fence and wading Fork Bull Creek, a slow-moving stream of water ranging between six and ten inches deep. With a waxing crescent moon in the east and wispy intermittent clouds, he navigated with the aid of night-vision goggles. Wearing camo pants, boots, shirt, watch cap and gloves purchased at a Walmart near the diner, he blended into his surroundings. Carrying his SR-25 rifle, he made his way westward toward the tree line behind the house. Lights were still on in the lower levels on the side facing the trees.
He watched for several minutes, but did not see any movement within the house. As he entered the tree line, he stopped and took stock of the task ahead. The angle where he stood did not offer a straight-in shot. He needed to be more perpendicular to the back of the house.
Several times, he approached the edge of the tree line to check his position. It was not until he found a location allowing him to see a sliding glass door and the interior of the home that he stopped and studied the back of the structure. Satisfied he was where he needed to be, he moved back north to seek a position where he could be further back in the tree line and still have a straight shot into the house. Laying prone, he took his gloves off, unfolded the bi-pod stand on the front side of the rifle’s barrel and sighted in on the sliding glass door.
***
Gibbs glanced at his wrist watch as the eastern sky brightened. A crescent moon appeared to be forty-five degrees above the eastern horizon as the first sign of dawn marked a new day. The motion-detecting cameras showed no movement in the tree line except for several deer seen by camera ten on the far south side of the property.
He whispered into his mic, “Any sign of him?”
“Not for thirty minutes,” Alexia answered. “We still think he’s between five and six.”
“Okay.”
Concentrating his scope on the indicated area, he switched off the night vision function and surveyed the scene in true light. Taking his time, he looked for straight horizontal lines in a world where none should exist.
***
The assassin lay still, his eye against the rifle scope, his body still as he lay in the leaf-littered floor beneath the tree canopy above him. Images could be seen moving behind the sliding door of the house. They were indistinguishable in the gloom and distorted by the glass.
His breathing was smooth and unhurried, his heartbeat slow and regular. His finger held a slight pressure on the rifle’s trigger as he waited. Minutes passed. He did not count them, he merely experienced them. Time meant nothing to him at this stage of the operation. The thrill of the hunt behind him, his quarry cornered, he merely waited for the right moment to finish the job.
An image appeared in the glass door, a tall, slender male with dark hair holding a cup of coffee. Pressure grew on the rifle trigger until it broke and sent a 7.62×51mm NATO round toward the target at 2,733 feet per second. The bullet arrived milliseconds before the sound. Immediately returning his sight to the target, he saw broken glass and no one standing.
***
The muzzle flash appeared on the right side of his scope image. Jimmie adjusted his aim and fired twice. The silence of the morning was now broken by three reverberating rifle shots and the sound of birds scattering from the sudden noise. Not unusual during deer season, but very unusual this time of year.
Jimmie waited. He felt his heart pound in his chest like it would soon explode. In reality, his heart rate remained the same. Another rifle shot and the earth exploded ten feet to his left. As the sun peeked over the eastern horizon, a brief reflection from a man-made object appeared in his scope. He fired aga
in and sent another round exactly were the reflection occurred.
The quiet and tranquility of early morning once again returned to the property five miles south of Sparta.
***
When the glass door disintegrated from the rifle shot, Alexia was secure in a room in the back portion of the house, monitoring the cameras. She jumped to her feet and ran toward the kitchen. She heard more rifle shots and screamed, “Jimmie!”
Chapter 31
Washington, D.C.
Twelve Hours Earlier
The Secretary of Education began to summarize her presentation as President Roy Griffin sat quietly. As with the other speakers during this meeting, he said little, unless requesting the speaker to clarify a statement or thanking them at the conclusion of their presentations. At his first full Cabinet meeting since taking the oath of office, he listened to each individual. Each was selected by the prior president. Several Cabinet members, prior to the start, offered their resignations again. But Griffin declined for the second time to accept them. Changes would come later.
Joseph Kincaid sat behind him, listening to each member and making notes for the conversation he would have with the president later.
When the meeting concluded, Griffin stood, thanked the group and left the room. Joseph followed. Neither spoke as they made their way to the Oval Office. They passed into the small office across from the president’s private restroom. When both were seated and the door closed, Griffin sat in the desk chair he was beginning to feel was his. Joseph sat in a cushioned chair next to the window.
“What’d you think?”
His adviser smiled. “It’s not really about what I think. What were your impressions?”
Returning the smile, the president hesitated for a moment. “I believe a few know what they’re doing and have the nation’s interest at heart.”