I heard them say something about a small air strip near Vincent. Do a search and see what's there."
A moment later Ryan says, "Yeah, I got it. It's an old abandoned airstrip off some county road south west of Vincent. I'm looking at a satellite picture of it now."
Turning to Ryan, Jim asks, "See any place hide without being seen?"
"Looks like a thicket of trees at the west end of the runway. The wind here is from the west so, assuming it's the same over there, the west end of the strip where the plane will probably come to a stop. Looks perfect," answers Ryan.
"Well, lets get the hell out there and watch. We can probably be there a lot quicker from here then they can," replies Jim.
"You catch all that Ben?"
"Yep. I'll try to hook up with you guys when I get there. Don't get caught."
"You neither. We're on our way. "
"I'll keep you posted," says Ben as he hangs up.
Jim say, "You heard him, lets go."
Ryan says, "My car's nearest. I parked it in the faculty lot."
"Haven't you got enough tickets?"
"I have a fake license plate on it. Don't worry. And I've got my camera bag in the trunk."
They get up and dash to the parking lot.
Ryan hops in the driver's seat, Jim gets in on the passenger side. Jim calls Ben and says they're on their way.
Leaving town, they head east on 1st Ave, North on 32nd Street east on County Road D18 then north on Vincent avenue. After about 20 minutes, they turn east onto an unpaved road that winds through the corn fields.
New the air strip, Ryan pulls off onto a disused, unmarked gravel road overgrown with weeds that they spotted on the satellite image. At the end of the road, near the runway, is the grove of trees.
Ryan drives slowly so as not to kick up a dust plume which would be visible for miles in the flat terrain. Spotting the thicket of trees, he parks the car under a thick canopy of maple on the west end of the runway. A small hill is between them and the runway.
Ryan grabs his camera bag and they scramble up the small hill. It has a commanding view of the air strip but they are hidden by the dense thicket of shade trees and bushes.
Ryan mounts his camera with a long telephoto lens on small tripod. He checks the camera focus. They're ready. Jim calls Ben to let him know.
"According the GPS we're real close to the airfield," says Ben. "I'm still on the paved road but they turned onto a dirt road abut five minutes ago."
"Ok, says Jim. "I can see a dust plume now. I make it at about a mile from here."
"Ok, I'm gonna take this next cross road and circle around behind you guys and wait on the blacktop. They're all yours now."
"That's them," says Jim to the others, pointing, as he catches the reflection of afternoon sun off one of the windshields approaching from the east. Jim and the others lie flat.
The SUV and sedan come into view at the far end of the strip They cross onto then drive down the old cracked concrete runway and stop at a wooded area not far from Jim's position where there are some old picnic tables.
Mark and Shane Bader get out and walk over to the tables. Mark sits on one, Shane lights a cigarette and paces. Ryan focuses his camera and begins taking pictures.
They hear the sound of a distant jet engine. They scan the horizon. A moment later a large private jet roars overhead at low altitude, banks steeply into a 180-degree turn, and begins a landing approach. It touches down a moment later. Engines reversing loudly, it rumbles to a stop in a cloud of dust, only a few hundred feet away from Jim's position. The plane's door quickly opens and a flight of metal stairs descends. Two guys exit.
"Who are the guys in uniform?" asks Jim.
"One's an admiral and they other appears to be an Army general," says Ryan looking at the camera display showing the telephoto lens images. "I can probably enhance the images later and read their name tags."
Mark and Shane Bader jog over and shake hands. The general, first looking furtively around, takes Mark aside, leans over and speaks to him. Mark nods and signals to Bader, now standing a few feet away. Bader turns and enters the jet.
"This seems like a lot more than your basic, simple assassination," says Ryan, taking off his earphones.
After about fifteen minutes, they see movement at the plane's door.
Bader emerges but remains on the top stair as he turns to shake hands with shadowy figures inside the jet.
Sucking wind he says, "Holy shit!"
Bader turns and walks down the remaining stairs, the stairs retract, the door closes and the jet engines roar to life and the plane taxis full circle.
Slowly rolling to the other end of the strip it turns again. The engines thunder and it begins its takeoff roll. It rises into the air only a few hundred feet from the grove of trees, rocketing above them in a deafening blast. It shoots into the sky, banks steeply and disappears to the south.
Jim says, "Ok what did you see?"
"Vice-President Robert Jennings and, in the background, it looked like Senator Harry Rhodes, you know, the majority leader from the Fed Senate, DeWitt's pal."
"Holy shit!" exclaims Jim.
They watch as Shane and Mark drive off, now heading in the direction of Ft. Dodge. Ryan and Jim quickly pack up and rendezvous with Ben and then, likewise, return to Ft. Dodge.
Time: 2:30 PM
Jim drives while Ryan copies the pictures to his laptop. Then he calls Ben and Phil and turns on the speaker phone.
Ben says, "Well, I listened to the recording from the restaurant while you two were out plane spotting. You're right, that was the VP and Senator Rhodes you saw. The brass you saw were Admiral Steve Black and General Roger Simpson. Black is the head of NSA and Simpson is commander of Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region also known as JFHQ-NCR."
"This doesn't sound good," says Jim. "The damned NSA is a political cancer eating away at this country."
"It gets worse. It seems they have a completely coordinated attack in mind. And this guy Bader has all the details, he's the ring master. This isn't a simple assassination. It's a coup d'etat."
"Oh nice," says Ryan. "Details?"
"None. I expect that's what they were discussing on the plane," says Ben. "Looks like we gotta work on finding out what this Bader guy is up to. He's got all the details and he kept mentioning his laptop. We better start with him. I'm sending the pictures I took of Bader at the restaurant. Anyone recognize him?"
"You don't think he'd be stupid enough to have it all on something that insecure?" says Jim.
"Sure, why not? But it'll be seriously encrypted, I'm sure. Not much use to anyone without the password," says Phil. "Better than writing things on paper."
"Is there anyway to break into it?"
"Yeah, might be possible, if we can get at it. But it won't be easy," replies Phil.
"It would help if we knew where he's staying," says Ryan.
"Hey, wait. Now that I see his picture, I know who he is. I should have recognized his name from the charge tickets," says Phil. "He's at the Carrington Motor Lodge where I work part-time. He has a big suite with a private balcony overlooking the indoor pool area. You know, big pool, some tropical gardens, a lounge and bar area and dining tables all around the pool. Like a Caribbean resort in the middle of Iowa."
"You've seen him?"
"Yeah. I see him a lot. And he always has a laptop with him."
"If we could get hold of that laptop, we could might be able to do something," says Ryan.
"Everyone meet at the Union at 5 pm. I think I got a plan."
"Will do," acknowledge Ben and Phil as they disconnect.
"I need to call Andy. He's the one we need. He's hacked even more systems on campus than I have," says Jim.
"Right, he's the one."
"Call him, fill him in and see if he can meet us at the Union."
Ryan calls Andy. He explains to him what's happened. Andy says he'll help and agrees to meet them after he gets off work from DiscountMart.
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Andy signs off and they call Phil.
"Tell us more about what you know about Bader."
"He's a big celeb at the lodge. He comes down for a few drinks every night around 7 pm. I've served him. Tips pretty well."
"Brings his laptop?"
"Oh yes."
"How does he connect? WiFi or a 4G rig?"
"WiFi, with an encrypted VPN."
"How do you know?"
"He told me. He needs to get a password to use the house WiFi at the bar. It has a different password than the rest of the hotel and they change it every day. I was talking to him and I asked if he was worried about security using a public WiFi hotspot."
"Where is the WiFi router?"
"In a small room behind the bar. It connects the bar area to the hotel Ethernet backbone."
"I'm thinking we should try to hack it. Is there anyway to get Andy in there?"
"Well, he belongs somewhere, I guess. But yeah, No one ever goes in that closet, I can sneak him in when no one's looking. Have him dressed up as a repairman in case anyone asks questions."
"Will do. Ok, see you at the Union."
"Catch you later."
Time: 5:00 PM
Phil joins Ben, Jim, Andy and Ryan who are already at the at the Union. They explain the situation to Andy.
Phil says, "Andy, you got any clothes you could use to pretend to be a network repairman?"
"Sure, from my summer job. I was an installer for comcrap."
"Good, you need to blend in."
"Whata'ya have in mind?"
"We're gonna try to hack Bader's laptop via the WiFi link."
"Hell, that's no problem."
"He uses a VPN."
"Again, not a problem."
"We can get you into the network closet behind the bar. When Bader comes down to supper, he'll connect through that node."
"Are you really sure