“General Moody. We just got a communication from Homeland Security. One of the units working on the terrorist attacks ran across a pornography group. They have just sent us a recording of an interrogation of some terrorists. Apparently there are four kids that have or had a flash drive with information regarding the attacks and now the kids are in the hands of some pornographers. They are asking for our help.”
“Set up the recording in the conference room and assemble the staff. We might as well review it together.”
After reviewing the recording General Moody spoke to the staff,
“It definitely sounds like something we want to jump into. We might be able to help them and also pull off a sting and get some more trash off the streets. Major Nelson, take our G 3 and get to California, call the Air Force and request transportation for when you get there. You will probably need one or two helicopters. Take Sergeant Morris and Sergeant Frank with you. We will get set up here to run the sting operation. Any questions?”
Everyone looked at Tony.
“Is this what you saw coming Tony?”
Tony nodded his head and left the room.
Chapter 67
“Are you worried about what Clyde said about the cartel?”
“No, we knew this would happen at some point. All they know is there is a drug cartel. They don’t know who we are. All they know is they got paid to make the nerve gas. The trail goes cold because we never told Clyde enough to cause trouble. As long as the flash drive was destroyed I’m not concerned.”
Chapter 68
The entire staff were meeting around the conference table as Victor outlined where they stood. It was a very grim assembly.
Deputy Director Collins asked, “Is there any possibility of getting anything more from the video the kids shot?”
“Our analysts have been over and over it. There are a couple things they aren’t sure of, but they can understand everything that was said before and after, so it is unlikely they will get any more useful information.”
“And there is no possibility that what was in the pan wasn’t the flash drive?” asked Collins.
“Anything’s possible, but the terrorists were convinced and our men don’t think Clyde is lying. He appears to be scared to death.”
Ben said, “You said flash drive. What about the second flash drive?”
Everyone turned and stared at Ben.
“What second flash drive?”
“The younger girl, Sarah, made a second flash drive when she made the first one. Larry and Jason were out of the room when she made it. They came in just after she was done. I wasn’t told the first flash drive was destroyed until just now.”
“Get that SEAL on the phone. Find out if they checked for another flash drive.”
Victor called back to the Meth lab.
“This is Jacobs.”
“Jacobs, we found out they made another flash drive. Did Clyde say anything about it?”
“It never came up. No one said anything about a second flash drive. I’ll go find out.”
Jacobs walked over to Clyde who was now tied back in the chair. He looked over at the knife and then back to Clyde and said,
“It seems you have not been very truthful with us. We want to know about the other flash drive.”
Clyde, his breath coming quick, replied, “What are you talking about another flash drive? The terrorists looked and they couldn’t find one.”
“We found out they made another flash drive. How did the terrorists look for it?”
“We have equipment to look for electronic bugs. My boss is paranoid. Joseph got some of the equipment out and checked the kids and everyplace the kids were at. They only found the one. If there is another flash drive, it’s not here.”
“Ben, are you sure there’s another flash drive?”
“She said she made one. I wasn’t there, but I don’t see any reason she would make that up. It could be anywhere now.”
“Those kids are smart and very resourceful. I bet they hid one and gave the terrorists the other one. If it was hidden far enough away, the equipment wouldn’t detect it. We need to find those kids and keep looking for the flash drive.”
“Jacobs, it appears the kids made another flash drive that the terrorists missed. They might have hidden it at your location. You need to find it. Get the equipment and check the area yourself and then call back.”
Chapter 69
The ACU team had been listening in to the conversations between the SEALS and Homeland Security.
“Sergeant Frank, I’m going to send you to the meth lab to help find that flash drive. From what I am hearing from the interrogation, the kids probably hid it. They might have hid it before they got to the meth lab, but I doubt it. My guess is it’s close to the lab. We also need to find out where the kids are. I want you on the ground to find what they missed. Sergeant Morris and I are going further east to about where we think the pornographers are so we are ready when you give us more information. If we don’t find the flash drive before we find the kids, we will probably have to go in and look for the flash drive and ruin our sting. If we have to we will, but I would much prefer to do both. We are getting close to the helicopters.”
Major Nelson leaned forward to talk to the pilot,
“Can we land on that road to meet the helicopters? We don’t have time to get to an airport and fly back to this area.”
“I can contact the local police, have them block the road, and land there. You do know how hard this is on a G-3 don’t you.”
“Yes. You’ve told me enough times. We can get another jet when we need it. We can’t get back time, just land.”
“Manuel, you better come in here and listen to this.”
Manuel came in and Jorge replayed the last tape from the surveillance equipment at the meth lab.
“I can’t believe this, he said. “There’s another flash drive. That idiot Joseph failed again. Do we have anyone competent in the area?”
“We have a team we sent in to clean up a small time dealer that thought he could come into one of our areas. Should I pull them in?”
“Get them up to speed. We can take care of the dealer later. I want that flash drive destroyed and I want to deal with those kids personally.”
“Our biggest problem now is nobody knows where the kids are.”
“Clyde sent them to his cousin. He doesn’t know where his cousin is?”
“Apparently all he knows is his cousin has a compound east of him and about an hour away. The SEAL team has been interrogating him and not getting anything. They want the kids and flash drive as bad as we do.”
“We have to get that flash drive before they do. Call all the staff right now. There has to be a way to get ahead of those SEALS.”
Jorge played the recording of the interrogation to the assembled staff in the conference room and his eyes panning the room, asked,
“Any ideas? I can’t emphasize how important that flash drive might be.”
“Do we know for sure what’s on it?”
“No. We don’t think they had any way to trace this back to us, but judging from how incompetent Joseph has been so far I am concerned,” said Manuel.
“Should we contact Joseph and tell him about the second flash drive so he is trying to find them also?”
“We already have, under the assumption it probably won’t help, but it couldn’t hurt.”
“The main problem is the SEALS are pulling a lot of resources and we have one team in the area.”
“I have an idea,” said Jesus as he sat with his eyes closed listening and thinking.
All eyes turned to Jesus as Manuel said, “I hoped you would. Your age and experience has proven invaluable on many occasions.”
“First of all I would like to say I am impressed by the pornographers operation and would like to meet the person that set it up. We could always use a mind like that for what we do. But ge
tting back to our problem, Jorge we need you to hack into the computers for Fed Ex and UPS. Look for numerous small packages sent out all over the world from a location within that cell tower area. Also look for occasional large heavy deliveries to the same address.”
“I can do this from here on my laptop.”
“Put it up on the large plasma.”
They all looked at addresses popping up on the plasma.
“OK, that’s all of them. UPS and Fed EX are both up. It looks like 4 properties fit that criteria.”
“Now get Google maps up and get a close up on each property, and let’s find any that would work for their operation.”
Jesus was intent. “That location is a retail store. That would be impossible. That one is an industrial area with a number of other businesses too close. That would be very difficult. The third one is a large farm house, with a lot of property around it and it looks like the whole property is fenced. The last one is a house in a tract with other houses close by. Number three is a winner. I would give you 95% that is the location. We start with the house.”
“Jesus, once again you have come through. Jorge, direct our crew to that site. They need to destroy the flash drive at all costs. It would be ideal if we could get the kids back so I can deal with them personally, but if they had to kill them, that would also be acceptable. The other parts of my overall plans are still intact. In spite of this setback, we will still accomplish my goals.”
The staff at Homeland Security had been monitoring the SEAL teams.
“Where’s the other SEAL team?”
“We sent them to the area of the cell phone tower, however it’s a large area. They are set up in the middle and hidden. They also have a stealth helicopter with infrared capabilities in the air. The problem is knowing what to look for now. They are waiting for the ACU team to join them.”
“Jacobs, there’s someone here to see you.”
Sergeant Frank from the ACU came in and introduced himself.
“I’m Sergeant Frank. Did they tell you I was coming?”
“They said you were coming and to extend to you any possible assistance, but they didn’t say who you are and where you are from but you look like Special Forces to me.”
“Let’s just say I’m here to help you and we’re on the same side,” said Frank. “Where I’m from isn’t important. What I really need to do is find that flash drive. Do you think you can get any more information from him?” he said, pointing to Clyde.
“You’re welcome to try, but I don’t think he knows anything else.”
“I have been listening to your interrogation, and I would have to agree. What do you know about where the kids were when they were at this property?”
“They arrived in the middle of the night dead tired. Clyde and Fred didn’t wake up. The farm house and barn are designed to look deserted from the outside. The kids opened the barn door, drove the dune buggy in and closed the door. They crashed over on those bales of hay and in the dune buggy and slept. Clyde locked them in that storeroom until Joseph came. Sarah gave Joseph the flash drive and then he searched them with a detector wand and didn’t find anything else. He also searched the dune buggy and the inside of the barn. Then I searched all these areas again and didn’t find another flash drive. The equipment works because we tested it on one of our flash drives. So if they hid another flash drive, it’s outside and we have no idea where to look. We tried searching the area by the outside of the house and barn with no success.”
“Jorge, how is our team doing?”
“We have a problem. They were in a new SUV and it broke down. They are on a road in the middle of the desert and haven’t seen another vehicle for a long time. Unless someone comes by they can hijack, it will be a long time until they can get it repaired and drive to the pornographers studio.”
“It is incredible how the little things ruin plans. Call Joseph and direct him to the location. Explain how essential it is to destroy that flash drive. When this is over we are going to have to eliminate Joseph. He has proven too incompetent to be associated with.”
Jorge called Joseph and gave him the location of the pornographer’s studio.
“Jorge, you seem quiet. Is there something wrong? asked Manuel’s father.
Jorge didn’t say anything for a minute.
“Jorge, I value your opinions. You have helped me on many occasions. I would like your input,” said Manuel.
“I don’t think you should eliminate Joseph. He has failed, but I don’t think it’s his fault. We have given him conflicting instructions and he has been the victim of bad luck. We still need terrorists for our overall plan and he is the most dedicated and competent I have ever seen in spite of what has happened. If we eliminate him, we are going to lose a lot of time and will have to eventually find a terrorist to work with that is inferior to Joseph. I think we need to keep Joseph.”
There was silence for a minute and Manuel’s father spoke up.
“You know he’s right, Manuel. It is easy to let passions get in the way of intelligent decisions. That is why we have people like Jorge and Jesus to keep us from making bad choices.”
“You’re right. Thank you, Jorge. That’s why I like you. You have the courage to correct me when I’m wrong and the intelligence to do what you are told when the decision is made. Keep Joseph, but remind him I don’t tolerate failure. It will make him try harder.”
Jorge called Joseph and explained that there will likely be opposition at the pornographer’s compound.
“It is essential that you’re not captured. We have a lot of other work you need to take care of. You are of no use to us dead. Use your men and stand back to observe. That’s what a smart leader does.”
“I won’t send my men into a place I won’t go,” stated Joseph.
“We understand that, Joseph. But you aren’t one of those chosen to be a martyr. We need you for the rest of the operation. That’s what we hired you for. Be smart. Do you need to talk to your Imam for clarification?”
“No, that won’t be necessary. They won’t capture me.”
Chapter 70
ACU Headquarters New Mexico
The staff was meeting around the conference table reviewing their status. General Moody asked,
“Are all the computers set up to analyze the video stream?”
“Everything is ready on the technical end. NSA is ready. We should be able to pinpoint their location within seconds. There won’t be any other video streams coming out of that area with illegal pornography on them.”
“Call Sergeant Frank and see if he has had any progress with that additional flash drive. If we don’t find it, as soon as we have a location on those kids, we have to assume it is still with them and go in immediately. I would hate to do that and ruin the sting only to find they don’t have it with them.”
All the kids were in a large room at the pornographer’s compound with several beds in the corners, two sofas and several chairs. There was a bathroom with no door, and a lot of lighting and tripods for cameras. Sarah and Cody were sitting together on one of the sofas. Sarah said to Cody,
“You know when I said this day couldn’t get any worse? You were right, I was wrong. It got a lot worse. What do you think these bands are around our wrists?”
Cody lifted his arm and inspected the band around his wrist. He saw two plastic covered cables going into a thick leather band that was locked to his wrist. The two cables went into a hole in the wall about 20 feet away. He saw the cables from Sarah’s wrist go into a similar hole in an adjacent wall.
“I don’t know, Sarah. These are wire steel cables covered in plastic. They’re super strong. It’s like the cables on our boat winch. But I don’t know why they would have two. One of these could tow a car. And they disappear into these leather bands around our wrists.”
“The cables are long enough that we can go anyplace in the room. I don’
t get it, Cody.”
They sat for a minute looking at the cables.
“Cody, what do you think is going to happen to us? You seem really worried. Do you know anything about people like this?”
Cody was hesitant to respond. “I had an experience that gave me more information than I ever wanted a year ago. My best friend Jacob’s dad caught us looking at pornography.”
“That must have been awkward, what did he do?” said Sarah.
“He called my dad, and they called a friend of theirs and we had a barbeque and swim party.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows, “That’s the type of punishment I like to get. What else did they do?” she asked puzzled.
“Jacob and I had no idea what was going on, they totally blindsided us. He didn’t catch us while we were looking. He saw that we had been on a site and had a computer geek go into the computer and see where we had been. So after we had our food they said we needed to talk about something. They pulled out a printout and said this is where you guys have been on the internet. It showed all the sites we were at and what these sites were like. Before we even had time to realize what happened, our dads said we aren’t in trouble, but we need to understand the affects of what we did. Then they introduced us to their friend who’s a divorce attorney. They wanted him to talk to us. It was awkward at first, but he’s easy to talk to and he put us at ease right away. He said if we weren’t curious at age 13 we wouldn’t be normal, but he deals with this all the time and we need to know how it affects people and what the consequences were. So then he started describing what was on the sites we saw and the difference between what we saw and real life.”
“That must have been uncomfortable!”