Chapter 15
2018
Still in shock over realizing all that John had told them was real, and after returning from a poorly thought out trip to the hospital to see John, Melanie and Jeremy were back at the Town House and ready to see what was next after the RAGBRAI Run. The envelope contained a second safe deposit key and instructions. Jeremy and Melanie read it at the same time.
By now you should be seeing the Yen dropping and know that what I have told you is real. The market will drop over the next day or two and rebound back up to where it was, or better, within the week. The phone call you made started a run about half way through what would have been a larger run; this will alert the MMG that something is wrong. The original run was waiting for the Yen to bubble slightly, allow the MMG related media to pump up the Yen, maximizing the bubble. Then the RAGBRAI story would go out, creating a worldwide sell off frenzy.
One of the hidden components of the run is to have material delivered to the MMG leadership to let them know that I have passed my information on prior to my death. This will alert them to a new holder of the information and create a deterrent that should be enough to continue to hold back the black ops group. At the same time it will also let them know that my death will not ruin the organization, or throw the world into a tailspin. You can imagine what would happen if almost 700 of the world’s leaders in all areas would be exposed. Do not, I repeat, do not deviate from these instructions. The next few days will be the most dangerous for you. Now is the easiest time for you to be exposed.
“Damn it”, said Jeremy, “damn.” Knowing he had allowed them to be exposed.
The instructions continued. There is a second safe deposit box and a second bank location. This one is in a fictitious name I have created for Jeremy. The ID and other needed identification are in this envelope. Go direct to the bank and return without stopping anywhere, as I have said, they will be watching for you now. We will continue this once you collect the second group of packets.
Jeremy stood and started toward the door.
“I need to go and get the contents of the safe deposit box, do you want to come?”
“Do you think we were exposed?” Melanie said.
“Possibly, but we don’t have any way to know at this point.”
“I don’t want to be alone”, she said.
“I understand”, said Jeremy, “let’s go”.
Two parties had been listening in and would follow them to the bank. Both were watching, looking for an opportunity to learn more. Neither team was aware of the other.
“RM to PE, we have them sir. Picked them up where expected and followed to hideout. Operation copy and extract is a go, sir.” was the call from the 2 man team that had picked up the trail at the hospital.
“Watch them close! We have reinforcements scrambling at this time. They should arrive 21:45 hours. Wait for them to move. Good job.”
“Thank you, sir. We will continue recon.”
The second party was made up on one person that had been sent down out of the Minneapolis area. “Snake 7 to Snake 1, I have picked up the trail. I repeat I have picked up the trail. Please advise.”
But there was no reply. “Snake 7 to Snake 1, please respond.”
The bank had a front door entrance by the road and one in the rear. Jeremy pulled around back to be sure they were not seen from the road. As they entered the bank it was mostly empty. Jeremy watched to see if anyone was too interested in them. Getting the contents of the deposit box was uneventful, maybe this will be ok, Jeremy thought.
Jeremy checked both ways prior to pulling out. He wanted to see if someone was parked, waiting for them. His training had taught him to memorize what vehicles there were and to watch for them as he drove. A Jeep Grand Cherokee was parked in the direction he turned and pulled out slightly ahead of them, but it continued on when he turned. When he made his final turn he saw another Cherokee in the distance, was it the same one? He decided to travel past his destination and turn back later. Except for Melanie getting upset that he passed the rental town house, the rest of the trip was uneventful.
The two-man team in the Cherokee that had been following them came to rest a block and a half away but with a view of the town house and Jeremy’s truck. The listening devises they were using could pick up a mouse running around in the house. They had been sent by Aiah to get in the house and get copies of the information. They checked in to report the trip to the bank and return. They were advised to continue to wait for the reinforcements.
Another vehicle pulled behind the church across the street from the entrance to the Viola Suites complex, about a block from the townhome. He wired in to Hamlet Security that he had followed them to the bank, was continuing to watch, and was waiting for instruction. There was no return communication. He wondered what happened to the urgency of him getting down here and finding these two.
Once in the house Jeremy opened the packet. There were a dozen envelopes with names like org chart, the Ten, The 60, The C6. The top pack said open immediately if you have deviated!
Not even asking Melanie, Jeremy opened the Don’t Deviate envelope. Inside was a scathing message from John directed at him.
Damn it Jeremy, you, of all people, should understand the rules of hiding. I expected Melanie to deviate, to try to come see me at the hospital again, but I thought you were stronger than this! Don’t do it again.
Assume you are being listened to and watched!
This packet is filled with ANOTHER set of IDs for you and Melanie. These will be the last I have available. You will now be married. You need to get out of town tonight. Everything you say and do could be recorded now. We have no idea what the MMG may know. They are the best spy network in the world; if they have found you they will know everything you do and say! Do not discuss this, or anything you do not want them to hear; follow my directions completely and you should be fine. I have planned for this.
If they are onto you, they will watch you for an opportunity to sneak in and take, or copy, the information you have. They may even have a plan to do this after you go to bed tonight. You do have power in this situation, and they do need to know how much you know, but you cannot let them find out what I have given you. Take the packets, the laptop, and the phones with you. Jeremy, leave nothing, and clean the place of prints. They may know who you both are, but let’s give them something to work for. The more time they waste trying to figure things out the less time they have to look for you.
At 6 PM call for a pizza delivery by Jake’s Pizza, phone number 555-123-3456. Order a Jake’s vegan specialty pizza. There is no vegan specialty pizza at Jake’s, but there is someone waiting for your contact. Be ready when the pizza delivery man comes. As he approaches the house you and Melanie need to be outside in the front bushes. With the early evening winter sundown you will have the cover of darkness. You need to sneak out the back of the house after you order. Work your way slowly around to the front bushes in the east side of the driveway, in preparation for your rescue. The delivery man will leave his side door open for you to crawl into. He will knock on the door, he will carry on a conversation, pretending you answered, go in, and make it look like you paid him. Be very careful to move carefully into the van, they will see motion if you are not careful. They will be on high alert!
There is a timer in the bag to use to control light movement. Plug it into any wall outlet and set it so the lights turn off at 10 PM. This will make it look like you have gone to bed as you make your escape.
You will exit with the pizza man, who will supply you with a new vehicle registered under your new name. There are face masks in the bag for you to wear as you leave town. This organization can see all posted cameras and they have a computer that will find you if your face is seen. As long as you are not followed you will be able to get to the new car without being seen.
With the credit cards in the envelope you can get a room outside of Rochester. I would recommend Minneapolis, Saint Paul, or Duluth, if you
want to go that far. I do not have additional help for you going forward – be careful and do not deviate again!
Until you get out of town you must consider yourselves at risk. These people are the best. They will not watch next time; they will just come after you.
Don’t mess up again!
Jeremy put his right index finger up to his lips to instruct Melanie to not speak. He grabbed a note pad and wrote down that she needed to read the letter, not to worry, they would be ok.
As she read the letter she wrote a note. Another identity to remember – good grief!
Why me, thought Jeremy, why me.
Down the block there was a Jeep Grand Cherokee with two men in it that were set for the night. They were to watch and make sure the marks did not leave. Reinforcements would be here later and then they would make their move after the marks were asleep. They needed to drug the 2 and find whatever they could without them knowing it happened. These two were important for some reason and they did not want to let their leader down, people die for much less.
A second vehicle, sent by Hamlet Security, was watching, waiting. He had not received his new orders. He wondered why no one seemed to care about these people they had sent him to watch.
On the other side of the world Aiah was excited his team knew where they were. He needed to figure out how things would work, what was the first step in the Run Bettle had created to expose the MMG? He did not want the run to start until he was ready. He needed to get those documents they had picked up earlier at the bank. Hopefully they could drug them during the night and copy everything. The goal was to know how it would work, then push them, and let them start the destruction of the MMG. With foreknowledge of what would happen and when, he could interrupt the information on himself, take credit for finding and releasing the information on the dastardly workings of the MMG, and be in a position to take the leadership role over the C6. Then on to world domination!
Darkness descended and grackles came to the trees behind the town house to bed for the night. They were loud, dirty birds that snarled, cawed like someone hacking something up, and they were in a cackle that seemed like the hundreds. Every night the same thing, right at dusk.
Jeremy stood within view of the windows and made a call to order pizza.
“Jake’s Pizza!”
“Hi”, Jeremy said, “I would like to order a pizza for delivery.”
“Sure, what would you like?”
“I would like the Jake’s Vegan pizza, large.”
“The vegan pizza sir?”
“Yes”, said Jeremy,” the Jakes Vegan Specialty pizza.” He said slowly.
“Certainly sir”, said the man on the phone, “and where would you like this delivered?”
Jake gave him the address, got a lead time of 45 minutes, and the phone call completed.
The men watching heard bits and pieces over the grackle noise.
“Veggie pizza”, what a waste!” said the first one, “Got to have meat to be a pizza.”
“Run a check on Jakes Pizza”, he said to the other.
“Confirmed, just down the street.”
They discussed their plan of action. Wait for the pizza to be delivered. Watch for the lights to go out. Sneak up and slide a tiny metal tube under the front door and pump in a highly concentrated vapor that would fill the home and put the 2 inside to sleep for the night. They sneak in, copy everything, leave, and the inhabitants think they got the best night’s sleep ever! Easy as could be. Boy, will the boss be happy!
After 20 minutes Jeremy put the final touches on the light timer. About 3 hours after they were gone the lights would go out. They would be long gone, already well on their way to a new location with new identities.
As he opened the back door it creaked, loudly. They moved out slowly until they had passed the door. Closing the door was much quieter. They lingered out back for a minute or so, then slowly made their way around the house on the side opposite the road entrance. The final 30 yards or so was fairly open on the way to the bushes. They crept along on their hands and knees to be sure they weren’t seen, just in case someone was watching. Once they made the bushes they could relax. Both could not wait for the pizza delivery.
A suburban came around the corner with a big Jake’s Pizza sign on the top and slowly made its way to the town home.
“Action!” said one of the men in the Jeep.
One held a high-tech bionic ear and the other had a high power scope, both connected to a computer and monitor. The scope was strong enough to read the guy’s name tag, if he had one.
He watched as the delivery person parked, moved around the vehicle, opened the far side door, and pulled out an insulated pizza delivery bag. Widening his view, he could see the front of the house and the delivery man. He watched the pizza man with great interest. This could be just a pizza delivery or could be a contact. He had to be sure this was just another delivery.
What he did not see were 2 people crawling to the open door, lifting themselves ever so slowly into the floor of the back seat, making sure not to rock the suburban. Jeremy helped Melanie in a way she did not appreciate; she would need to discuss that with him later.
The lone person parked by the church could not believe that they were getting a pizza delivery. Rule number 1 of hiding is to introduce no one into your life, unless it is absolutely necessary. He wished he had some direction, something was going on. He exited the car to go and get a better look.
The man with the scope watched, and the sound man listened, as the delivery man knocked on the door, slowly opened the front door with a free hand under his coat, and covered both sides of the conversation. The delivery man pulled it off without those watching or listening catching on.
Once complete, the delivery man returned to the suburban, put away the insulated bag, shut the side door, and drove off.
“Pizza sounds good,” said the man with the scope, “I would love to get something to eat.”
By the time the MMG operative made it to a small group of trees by the Town House the Pizza delivery was over and the driver was getting back in the Suburban. He moved back to the car. It is too cold and dark in Minnesota this time of year to be waiting outside unless absolutely necessary.
2 hours later Jeremy and Melanie were a good hour north of Rochester. They had top quality masks, new phones, laptops, and new identities. The delivery person that helped them no longer works at Jake’s Pizza, he was now heading out of town also. Melanie worried about the rest of the people that worked at Jake’s Pizza; they would probably be tortured, all because she did not follow directions. She felt very guilty and responsible. This, she thought, will take some time to get over.
“We need to find a place to stay,” Jeremy said, “someplace out of the way. They will be watching hotels and motels, looking for someone that just stopped for the night without reservations. So much of the vacancies are listed on the Internet now, you can actually find leads by what closes late at night.”
“Check to see if there is a ball game or something downtown Minneapolis tonight. The Timberwolves or Wild may be playing a home game tonight. We need to disappear!”
Additional manpower, for the Aiah group, showed up, as expected, around 9:45 via the Rochester Airport. They met up with the Cherokee and started their move. They were all dressed in black and started moving toward the house. As they crossed the main road leading to the town house they moved one-by-one under the cover of darkness.
The lone MMG operative noticed movement in the vicinity of a dark spot created by two street lamps being too far apart. He had counted 3 people so far. The townhouse looked to be under attack. He got out and moved toward the house.
One person from the Aiah group crept up to the front door. A tiny tube was pushed in through the door seal and a large amount of concentrated gas was pumped into the house. Estimated time to put everyone to sleep was about 5 minutes. He moved off to the side of the house to wait.
The MMG op moved closer. He activ
ated his video camera attached to his glasses; the stream would go to Hamlet Security. He could see 4 people from his current vantage point. They were staged, waiting for something. He checked out the house and saw a 5th person. This person looked to have already done something and was waiting to enter with the rest of them. He did not dare call out to Hamlet; he would just stream the video and wait for instruction.
The 6th member of the Aiah team had responsibility to watch the perimeter. He noticed that MMG op had crossed the road in stealth mode and was watching the proceedings. From his vantage point he had a muzzled rifle pointed at the MMG op as he watched through the scope. He caught a reflection of a video camera and determined that this op was showing too much. He gently pulled the trigger and the MMG op dropped into the underbrush.
A lone computer in the back end of Hamlet Security was receiving a video that showed the bark of a tree. No one was watching; they were too concerned with the MMG leadership being under fire. Their op in Rochester was dying and no one was even paying attention.
After 5 minutes the Aiah group entered the house wearing masks. As they started looking around it quickly became apparent that they had a problem, the inhabitants were gone. Where, how?
“The pizza delivery! It was a fake!”
“What was the name of that place? Jake’s pizza?”
2 shots rang out as the leader executed the 2 that had been watching the house. He may have just arrived but somebody had to pay for the hell he would get from Aiah.
Melanie and Jeremy had confirmed a Minnesota Wild hockey game would be ending about the time they got to downtown Minneapolis. Wearing their masks they were traveling north on Highway 52. Jeremy pulled off and found a room on line and booked a reservation. There should be a few others doing the same as they decide to stay in town after the game. He noticed Melanie was asleep, finally he thought, peace and quiet.
Aiah was up early waiting for the call. Finally he would have the last piece, the coolest piece. Bettle had put it together to hold the MMG from doing black ops, and soon Aiah would use it to his advantage! Jonathan is dead and the newbies don’t even know who people are yet. People are dying, he is rising, and soon… Aiah’s phone rang.
“Aiah!” He answered. “How did it go?”
“They got away boss. They were gone before we got here”, said leader 1. “Apparently there was a pizza delivery and we think they snuck into the vehicle as the pizza was being delivered.”
“I want the lead team executed!” said Aiah, “no one lets me down like this”
“Already done, sir,” said leader one. “We also had an MMG visitor. I am not sure how much he saw, but he had a camera attached. My belief is he saw us assembling for the strike”
“Damn,” said Aiah, “now the MMG knows there is another team after John Bettle’s stuff.”