A Shadow of Death in The Woods (29 page)

Chapter 50

Bingo

Snake was tooling down the highway, aiming to meet up with the truck and car coming from Ohio. He was in frequent phone contact with Captain. It was almost like the old days in the army.

Snake had Nick with him. Nick had a driver’s license and could drive. Snake needed a backup driver because they might be following this truck for a long time. He sort of knew Nick in high school. Nick didn’t graduate and they didn’t hang around together in school but Snake kind of remembered him. Nick had just gotten out of prison and was looking for a job. He was in for manslaughter. He killed a guy in a bar fight and had no regrets about it. Nick was not a guy you wanted to mess with. Captain had authorized Snake to pay Nick. Nick was along for the ride because he was being paid although he also wanted to help take down a guy who would steal a little boy on his way home from school. Nobody except other pedophiles liked pedophiles.

Their car wasn’t fancy but it was reliable. They needed a reliable ride because being on time for this job was super critical. Snake’s main set of wheels was his motorcycle but you couldn’t ride a Harley on a job like this.

They had been following the SUV for hours. It looked like the SUV was headed for Texas or New Mexico with the money. Either would make sense for drug runners. It could be a long drive. Snake and Nick started rotating driving.

In the morning they pulled into El Paso, Texas. The SUV showed no signs of stopping. It turned into a small paved road to an estate in the hills surrounding the city. It was a huge estate hidden behind a gated fence. They had only one vehicle following the SUV now because there was no traffic to hide in. Besides they had the tracking devices on the SUV.

They captured the GPS coordinates of the estate. Snake knew that Captain and his guys back in West Virginia would be looking up the estate from satellite photographs. They also had the mailing address.

It looked just like a place a drug lord would have. It was isolated in the hills. Perfect.

Captain had called Snake with instructions. His assignment was clear; find out everything there was to know about the estate.

They drove around in the hills and found a spot overlooking the place. Snake had binoculars and studied the estate. There wasn’t a lot to see but Snake noticed that there was a satellite dish on the house. Captain had asked him to look for a dish. That meant that they didn’t have cable service. There were no power or phone lines going in the place either. Snake guessed that they had a generator for electrical power and they shipped in fuel for the engine. This guy was off the grid. Perfect.

Snake took many photos of the estate and surrounding area, using a telephoto lens. As soon as he got a cell phone signal on his way to El Paso, he would stop and email the photos to Captain.

Snake drove into the city. He sent Nick to make contact with a biker gang in the area. Snake rented a new Mercedes. The Captain had been clear that they were to use no credit cards and leave no trail. Well, he and Nick were not going to leave a trail that could be traced back to anyone on the team. Snake had a pocket full of credit cards with matching driver licenses. You couldn’t rent cars with cash. Snake used a card and driver license to rent the Mercedes. He even picked up the extra insurance. Why not? He wasn’t paying for it. The credit card company would be stuck with the bill. Is this a great country or what? Perfect.

He then went to an upscale clothing store and bought a complete outfit that would blend with the people in El Paso, including cowboy boots and hat. He used the same credit card. It was probably the last time he would use it; the card would be hot soon. Snake then went to the county recorder office and looked up the tax records on the estate. There he found that the estate was owned by a corporation. Bummer. That wasn’t much help.

Snake then started going to all the real estate offices with a tale about an estate that he had seen. He wanted one just like it. In fact, he wanted the estate it if was for sale. He was ready to pay millions. People salivated but most couldn’t help him.

Finally, he found an agent that knew about the place. He didn’t know the owner but he knew about the estate, where it was and remembered when it was built. Snake chatted up the agent and was able to find out the architect’s name who designed the estate. It was an architectural firm in El Paso. This was promising.

He looked up the location of the architectural firm and cased it. It was a nice two-story building in a business area. The adjacent buildings were all office buildings, just the kind of buildings that would be empty at night as soon as the cleaning people had finished their cleaning. Perfect.

Snake linked back up with Nick and turned the Mercedes back in. Snake was interested in what Nick had learned. Over a Mexican fast food dinner they talked about what they had found.

Nick had located a couple of gang members. He told them they were looking for a pedophile. That loosened tongues. The word on the street in the drug world was that there was a drug lord living in the hills. He was a big time dealer and you couldn’t buy drugs from him unless you were a big dealer. There were also rumors that the guy was a pedophile. This was hearsay and not the facts that the Captain needed but it was a strong indicator. It was a vector.

The problem was that Captain had to be absolutely sure. Snake had already figured out that Captain was going to attack the place. He would go in, killing everyone in his path. He couldn’t afford to be wrong. You can’t say “oops” in a situation like that.

They had some free time in the evening while the cleaning people did their thing. Nick had a lead on another guy. They went to see him in a dive. The music was blaring. Snake swore that Americans were going to go deaf listening to such loud music. Well, now that he thought about it maybe they had already gone deaf and that is why the music was so loud.

It wasn’t the kind of bar where you might run into your Sunday school teacher. They moved around and found their contact in the back with some friends. Snake bought them a round of drinks. Beers. You didn’t drink fancy in a place like this. When the drinks came, the three of them moved out the back door with their drinks so they could talk. There weren’t any introductions. It was better that it was anonymous.

The biker told them that he was familiar with the dealer in the mansion. Not many people had seen the dealer. He said that the dealer was very big in drugs. He imported drugs from Mexico and distributed them all over the U.S. He was big in mary jane. He even had storage facilities on his estate although he tried not to keep too much around. He tried to move the stuff quickly. Lastly, he confirmed that the guy was a pedophile. Not many people liked dealing with him because of that but he had the drugs. Money and drugs trumped.

Snake thanked the guy and they left. By the time they got to the architectural office, it would be late. Maybe the cleaning staff would be done by now. Actually Snake hoped that they wouldn’t be done. He liked to see them finish up and leave. That way you knew for sure they were gone. It was always bad if the cleaning staff showed up while you were working.

They made their way to the office building and parked nearby. They watched the building and they could see some lights on and some off. They could see people in there, probably the cleaning people. Snake and Nick waited, keeping an eye out for patrolling police. It was very quiet. Finally, the lights went off and a panel truck with the cleaning company name on the side pulled out from behind the building and drove off down the street. Perfect.

Snake had brought his tools. When talking with Captain, he figured that it might lead to something like this. Drugs were Snake’s business but when he was coming up, he had been an excellent thief. He made good money at it but it was a hands-on business and Snake was looking for a management job where other people took the risks. That didn’t work out the first time or Snake wouldn’t have been in prison. This time it was going to be different but right now he was going back to his old profession.

Snake pulled the car around to the back of the building. He took out his bag of tools and left Nick in the car. If a cop came around, Nick could give him a phone call and could move the car.

In less than five minutes Snake was in the building. There wasn’t much security because who would ever want to break into an architect’s office? They had no cash around. Snake was after something else. He went from office to office until he found what he was looking for, CAD work stations.

He fired up a work station and started going through the files. He drew the shades and had the lights on. He figured no one would be looking for the same reason no one ever thought someone would break in here.

They had the computers password protected. He pulled out a memory stick with software on it designed to hack the password. In fifteen minutes he was in the computer.

After a few more minutes he figured out their filing scheme and from there it was a short time before he found what he was looking for, the building plans for the mansion. Bingo! He saved a printer image to a memory stick. He turned off the office lights before leaving. No point in wasting electricity.

As soon as they were clear, Snake phoned Captain with all the information and sent him copies of the drawings. Modern communications in action. Perfect.

Captain sounded happy with the data, especially the word about the drug guy being a pedophile. That was critical to make sure they were going in the right place. The estate plans were a bonus. Snake had drawings showing the house’s floor plans, guesthouse plans, guardhouse plans and plans showing the fence and landscaping. They had everything. Captain told him to hang tight. He would be there the next day.

Snake and Nick went to a house and pulled into the driveway to sleep a few hours. The police never bothered a car parked in a driveway. You just had to get out of there before the owner woke up. They would get some sleep and then link up with Captain. Perfect.

In the morning they left before the people in the house got up so the police wouldn’t be called. They went to a restaurant for a leisurely breakfast; they had plenty of time.

Snake and Nick went to a Walmart, parked in a remote corner of the lot and went to sleep. No one bothered you in a Walmart parking lot during the day. The Captain would call them that night to check the plans. If everything was set, Snake and Nick could head back to Kansas City.

Chapter 51

The Plan

We were to meet the rest of the crew in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We would fly out there in Bob’s plane and meet them in a safe house. The guys we were meeting would arrange vehicles and we would drive to El Paso. This way it couldn’t be proved that we had been near El Paso. Bob had set up a cover story that we were on a business trip to account for our time and he arranged to have records of our flights destroyed and other records created for a diversion. We would all use cash and no credit cards would be allowed. Meanwhile guys in another city were using our credit cards for motel rooms and meals, creating the impression that we were there. And, yeah, we were issued untraceable throw-away phones.

It was agreed that Mike would supply the tools, i.e. guns. There was a discussion of what guns would be needed. He had already collected a large arsenal with ammunition.

The hardest gun to get was the sniper rifle that they planned on using to take out the satellite dish. Another aspect of Mike was revealed by the fact that he had no trouble coming up with the weapons. They were flown in from Philadelphia.

The plan was to take out the satellite service and then send in a phony service truck. Hidden inside the truck would be two armed guys in the back and the driver and his assistant in the front. Snake had photographed the local satellite service trucks and a truck was being put together that would be a look-alike.

The satellite truck would be driven to the gate. The guard would want to see what was in the back of the truck. When the doors opened, two of our guys would kill the guard by shooting him in the head with a silenced gun. His head would be wrapped in a towel and he would be put into the back of the satellite truck while one of our guys dressed like the guard would take the guard’s place. This had to be done quickly and shielded by the panel truck doors so it couldn’t be seen on camera. The gates would be opened and the truck would drive to the house. The driver and his assistant would go to the door. The driver would use an untraceable military tazer on the person opening the door, man or woman. Killing the person was discussed but it was pointed out that the person might be needed for information, say for example, if the drug lord’s personal assistant opened the door.

The other guy in the back of the satellite truck would get out and be ready for the roaming guard and his dogs. This guy was an expert shot and fast. He would take out the guard and the two dogs. It took nerves of steel to do this but everyone seemed comfortable with the guy doing it. Apparently he had done similar things in the army.

They would proceed into the house, tazing everyone and then securing them with heavy duty cable ties. If there were too many risks, the people would be shot with silenced guns. To have guns handy for this, special guns had been made that looked like power drill motors. They were put in holsters on their tool belts, looking like standard tools. The highest priority was to pull this off without any of our guys getting hurt, even if that meant we didn’t find any drugs or money. So, if there were questions, they were to shoot first, think later.

As soon as the place was secured they would phone us. We would proceed to the estate in two SUVs. I would drive one SUV and the safecracker would drive the other SUV. He would open the safe that most likely would be in the house. Drug dealers can’t use banks like the rest of us. They deal in large amounts of cash and they need a place to securely store it safe from fire, flood and thieves.

We would all converge on the estate, crack the safe, find Will and exit, leaving no one alive. Everyone seemed happy with the plan. I had no real way of assessing whether it was a good plan or not. It sounded risky to me. The guys on the estate were going to be armed and they would be shooting back. The plan was to hit them hard and quickly so there was little shooting. The plan had only the bad guys dying. I wondered what would really happen. Still it was my only chance of finding Will. I was in. It would be the ride of my life.