Nano Surveillance (Dave Henson Series Book 1) (25 page)

Chapter 65 (March 27, Wednesday 12:00 noon Central Daylight Savings Time)

It was noon in downtown Dallas, Texas. Like any other workday in spring, office workers had streamed out of the city’s skyscrapers. They were having lunch outside enjoying the mild temperatures while they lasted. Summer was simply too brutally hot in Dallas to go out for an outdoor picnic lunch. Many office workers sat at open air restaurants while others simply sat in the downtown park eating a sandwich that they had purchased from a food street vendor. The conversations, however, were all on the same subject. Everyone was talking about the video of the President broadcasted across the airways and on the internet the previous night. The feelings expressed were decidedly those of outrage and disgust. The talk of impeachment was the prevailing sentiment.

At half past noon, Jane Wilson and Mary Sullivan heard distant yelling down the street from them. They had been having lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Both were wives and mothers who were fortunate enough to have jobs at an insurance company in the city. They had been venting to one another about the despicable President and congressmen featured in the video the previous night, in between bites of their sandwiches and salads.

“I never voted for that guy,” said Jane. “I saw right through him from day one when the media started marketing him to the public. You could tell he had a huge chip on his shoulder back then. He looks and talks down to everyone he speaks to.”

“I know. Every time you see him on television talking to a large audience you think you’re looking at a teacher talking to a class of first graders,” chimed in Mary.

“And where did he come from?” asked Jane. “He seemed to have rocketed to political and media stardom in a course of just a few weeks.”

“Well it’s obvious,” responded Mary. “He was a plant by international billionaires that they’ve been nurturing since he was a young orphan boy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Everyone knows that’s where he got the majority of his campaign funds. Every so often the media that worked so hard to get him elected, and protects him when he gets caught in his own lies, slips ups and accidently shows him with his rich international buddies.”      

The yelling and commotion was becoming increasingly louder as the two women commiserated about the President and the state of the country. Both Mary and Jane were looking down the street to see where the noise was coming from.

“Sounds like something is brewing down around the bend,” commented Jane.

“I wonder what it’s all about,” replied Mary. “It sounds a little wild. I can hear chanting of some kind going on.” 

The two women continued to ignore the growing noise down the street.

Jane sighed. “I’ve got to take my son to baseball practice and then drop my daughter off at her school for a play rehearsal tonight. Jack’s out of town this week so I’m pulling dual taxis service this evening.”

Mary nodded as she finished chewing the last bite of her sandwich. After swallowing the last remnant of her sandwich and washing it down with her ice tea she said, “Yeah, it sure is tough being a parent today, and especially a mother. Everybody expects so much of you, and it’s not just the kids. It’s the company, your boss, the kids’ school, and the government all making demands of your time and resources.”

Jane made another long sigh as she listened to the crescendoing yelling coming down the street. ”I just don’t know how much more I can take of it,” responded Jane. “Who knows, maybe I’ll have to jump on the bandwagon soon and start taking SSRI antidepressant medications. It seems like everyone is taking them nowadays.”

“I know,” replied Mary. “One of my teenagers is on Lexapro for his anxiety disorders and both women living on either side of me are on Zoloft. The doctors seem to hand it out like it is candy these days.”

As the two women were paying their lunch check, the source of all the yelling and commotion they were hearing came streaming around the adjacent street corner.  At least a thousand people were walking down the street carrying homemade signs that varied in style and words, but all of which had a common theme - Impeach the President. People in the lead of the ragtag protest march had bullhorns verbalizing the same message on the signs. As Jane and Mary watched they noticed people near them joining into the march and beginning to shout. It was like watching a line dance grow at a wedding.

The two women watched as the protesters marched by them. By simply observing the variation in clothing and age it was obvious to Jane and Mary that the protesters represented a wide spectrum of people. The protestors clothing varied from business suits and dresses, to uniforms and scrubs, to jeans and cutoff shorts. And in regards to age, unlike the youthful Occupy Wall Street urchins that plagued several major cities in the country years ago, these protestors ranged in age from young children up through octogenarians. Also, unlike the Occupy Wall Street crowds, these people were acting peacefully and moving on. No one was acting unruly, or urinating or defecating in the streets. They were, however, vocal and passionate in their convictions to impeach the President and members of congress.

As Jane and Mary watched the tail end of the protestors go by Jane looked at Mary and said, “Hey, you want to join in? Let’s make a stand for once in our lifetimes and march with these people.”

Mary smiled nervously back at Jane and thought for a few seconds. “Oh what the hell. Let’s do it. So we’ll be a little late back to the office. We’ll just say we were doing our civic duty.”

The two women laughed briefly at Mary’s comment. Then the two of them ran down the street and joined the growing streaming mass of protestors. Though they didn’t have any signs to hold, they quickly got into the spirit and were chanting, “Down with the President. It’s time for him and his band of cronies to go.”  

As the crowd of protestors continued to grow and march down the Dallas streets, local and state police officers, as well as Department of Homeland Security agents, watched quietly on the sidelines. One DHS agent was on his radio talking to the local Dallas field office, and getting a report that what he was observing in Dallas, was apparently developing in many other cities around the country.

Chapter 66 (March 27, Wednesday 5:00pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

              Homeland Security agents had descended upon NSurv headquarters in McCall, Idaho two hours earlier. They had found the doors locked and the facility void of any life or material information. All of the computers were missing from the premises and filing cabinets had been emptied. It was as if NSurv had packed up and moved its entire business, including its manufacturing operations. Yes there were raw materials still sitting on inventory shelves, but not a single finished or partially finished product was found on the premises.

              Agent Ted Haley walked over to his partner who was in charge of the raid and said exasperatedly, “They’ve cleaned this place out. It’s empty for all intents and purposes. The most we’ll get out of here is some fingerprints, and we already know whose we’ll find.”

              Agent Carlos Romero nodded slowly in agreement as he walked out of the NSurv building with Ted Haley trailing him. “They knew we were coming,” said Agent Romero. We shouldn’t be too surprised. They obviously have better surveillance technology and intelligence than we do. Have you heard anything from headquarters on the two guys that are missing?”

              “No, at least nothing new. They know the guys went missing after a brief stop in Grangeville, Idaho. They are currently focusing their search northeast of there in Clear Water National Forest, but so far, no sign of them or their vehicle.”

              “Okay, well let’s check out the NSurv hanger before we leave here. Maybe we can find a clue where Henson and his team ran off to in there.”

              Ted Haley and another agent cut the lock off the NSurv hangar doors and slid the large hangar doors open. All that sat in the large hanger was a small tail dragger aircraft. Off to the side was a row of workbenches and a few toolboxes. Other than that, the hangar was basically empty.

              Ted and the agent combed through the hangar and the Aviat Husky aircraft looking for any bits or pieces of information, or evidence that might provide a clue to where Henson may have ran off to. All they found was a small cardboard box with some aviation fuel receipts and an old flight log book in the Husky. The flight logbook’s last log entry was from two years ago and the fuel receipts were from various airports all over the northwestern part of the United States.  Not much, but Ted decided to take them anyways. Maybe someone else in Homeland Security could glean something useful out of them.

              Ted and the other agent returned back to the main NSurv headquarters and reported in to Agent Romero their findings. Agent Romero quickly perused the flight logbook and then sifted briefly through the fuel receipts.

              “Ted, let’s have some of our guys check out the airports listed in this logbook and where these fuel receipts came from. Maybe we’ll find someone at one of these airports that may have seen Mr. Henson in the past few days.”

              “It’s a great idea boss, but there are about two dozen different airports spread over a four hundred mile radius referenced between that logbook and the fuel receipts. That will take some time.”

              “Well time is what we don’t have a lot of, so I suggest you get as many men on this as quickly as possible.”

              “Understood. Agent Smith and I will personally participate in checking into these airports. I’ll also enlist the services of another half dozen units.”

              “Excellent. Report back to me anything that you or the other teams find of interest.”

              With his last statement, Agent Carlos Romero jumped into the waiting SUV and drove away.

              “It looks like we have our work cut out for us Agent Smith.” The young kid fresh out of college nodded smartly and proceeded to pack up his equipment next to their SUV. “In for a penny, in for a pound. I’m stoked boss and ready to start hunting.”

              Ted laughed at the kid’s response and gave him a fist pump before throwing his equipment into the backseat of the SUV.

              “Well alright, that’s the type of attitude I want to hear. Let’s get going. We’ll head out and visit the three closest airports listed in Henson’s flight logbook. Enroute we’ll call headquarters and give them the list of the other remaining two dozen airports, and ask that they have some additional teams go out and check on them. It’s going to be a long next couple of days.” 

Chapter 67 (March 27, Wednesday 5:30pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

Dave and the rest of the NSurv team sat around the dining table having hamburgers and salad, and slaking back their thirsts with some imported beers. It had been a long and grueling day. All of them had spent hours watching videos and listening to audio recordings of the various targets they had implanted with nano-dust. The recordings were overwhelming in the sense that they captured so much of what was wrong with the American political system. The corruption was just so wide spread and pervasive. The federal political corruption involved not only the President and his administration, but also a remarkable number of congressional members, and media elites, all of whom had direct or indirect connections to a handful of national and international businessmen. Businessmen that not only had a history of growing their fortunes off the backs of the American worker, but who also had an extreme leftist agenda. It was, however, the Greek businessman, media mogul, and hedge fund investor, Dimitris Barbas who was the common thread in much of the corruption. His extraordinary wealth, along with a couple of his closest billionaire friends’ resources, seemed to be the source of most of the money, and resulting control of Washington.

“The driveway entrance is nearly a quarter mile long to our building,” Dave said, after he finished wolfing down the last bite of his hamburger. “After we finish up dinner, I’m going to go out while it is still light out, and set up some surveillance cameras and motion detectors along it. Based upon the attacks already made on us, and what we saw for film footage today, there is no doubt in my mind that Barbas is working independent of the administration and has his own men hunting us down. Unlike the FBI or Department of Homeland Security forces, his men will shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Do we have any additional weapons to protect us besides my Ruger?” asked Ron.

“Yes, but not much. When I stocked this facility I also included a couple of bolt action hunting rifles and a .44 Remington Magnum pistol, along with a couple of boxes of ammunition for each.”

“Not much, but it’s better than nothing,” responded Ron.

“Let’s hope we don’t have to use it,” Dana replied.

“Dr. Gillian and Joe, do either of you have any experience using guns?” asked Ron.

“I have some experience with hunting rifles,” responded Dr. Gillian proudly. “When we moved to McCall I decided to get into hunting. I haven’t had much luck bagging any big game, but I have had some time shooting my rifle at the range.”

“Good enough,” responded Dave. “How about you Joe?”

“Not really. I shot a BB gun a lot as a kid, but nothing else.”

“Well if you’ve got some experience with a BB gun, then you at least know how to hold a gun and aim it,” said Ron.

“Overall it sounds like we are in decent shape. We’re only looking to defend ourselves here. Not launch an assault,” said Dave.

Dave stood up from the table and went over to clean his plate and silverware. Ron and Joe followed. “We’ll give you a hand setting up the surveillance equipment,” said Ron.

“While you guys are out setting up the equipment, Dr. Gillian and I will continue to work on preparing tomorrow’s video,” commented Dana. “I’ve still got some work to do on the narration.”

Dave grabbed several glass containers sitting on the kitchen counter, along with their lids.

“What are you going to do with the containers?” asked Dana.

“I didn’t bring any standard surveillance cameras with us so we’re going to have to improvise a bit. I plan to pour a small amount of nano-dust into each one of these glass containers, seal them up with their lids, and then have Ron here configure the nano-dust in each one of them into a video camera sensor. We’ll then go out and tie them up to trees along the driveway.”

“Sweet,” commented Joe. “Using state of the art nanotechnology with mayonnaise jars for common home and business surveillance applications.”

“Got to love it,” responded Ron as the three walked out to the lab.

An hour later the three men were walking down the driveway carrying their newly made video sensors, a step ladder, and some rope. They started at the entrance of the driveway and installed one sensor on each side of it. They mounted the two sensors ten feet off the ground in nearby trees and faced them out towards the main road.

After mounting the first two video sensors, and Joe testing them on his laptop to make sure they were functional, they worked their way back another fifty yards and installed another pair of video sensors.

With the sun nearly setting they installed one final pair of sensors another hundred yards further in from the driveway entrance.

“Well, with these video sensors now installed we should have fair warning of any visitors,” commented Dave, as he carried the ladder back towards their building.

“Yes, but what good is it going to do us when we see someone coming?” asked Joe. “It’s not like we have a place to go.”

“Oh, on the contrary,” said Dave. “It isn’t much, but there are remnants of an old dirt driveway behind our building. It circles around back to the main road. It’s unnoticeable from the main road, due to all of the vegetation that has grown up in front of it. None of which is too big that we couldn’t mow over it with our vehicles in the event of a necessary fast departure.”

“Great, we have a hidden back door,” joked Ron.  

The three returned to the NSurv building to call it an early night. Dr. Gillian and Dana had also just completed their work for the evening as well.

As everyone else was settling in for getting an early night sleep, Dana asked Dave if he would like to go for a short walk. She wanted to talk with him in private about a few items that were on her mind.

“No problem. Just give me a minute to grab the .44 Magnum. You never know what might be lurking outside after sunset.” He gave her a quick smile as he ran off to the back storage closet.

When he returned with the gun holstered on his side Dana asked, “You really think you need that tonight?”

“You never know. Not only do we have bad guys searching for us, we’re also in bear country. One can never be too prepared to defend himself in the back country.”

Dave and Dana walked down the long driveway. It was officially dusk. The final rays of the sun had already set and the night was growing dark quickly. There was, however, a moon out that provided a little natural light.

“So what’s up Dana?”

“I’ve been thinking more about Jeff Kolosky.”

“Really?” Dave feigned jealousy. “I didn’t realize you were so close to him.”

“No, you fool,” responded Dana, as she let out an exasperated laugh. She reached for his hand and held it tightly with hers as they continued to walk.

“I mean I think we need to contact Jeff. I think I can convince him to come around and help us. As I’ve told you before, I think he is on the bubble and could be convinced to turn on his bosses, Grivas and Barbas.”

“In what way could he help us?”

“Though the evidence we have been airing is compelling to most people, there are still many out there in the public who are susceptible of being convinced by the national press corps that all our videos are fake and distortions of the truth. That the video recording clips are taken out of context.”

“What happens if all the information we shove in front of the public’s face isn’t enough to make them react and force a change, due to the successful discrediting of it by the administration’s media friends.”

“Yes, your concerns are all valid. However, we understood these concerns, and their associated risk, since the inception of this mission when we founded NSurv.”

“But Dave, what if we could mitigate the risk of the major news networks discrediting NSurv’s revelations. What if we could actually have one of the major news networks help us out and corroborate the content of our video facts? If we could, then our chances of taking out this administration and all the other corrupt politicians along with them on Capitol Hill will greatly be improved.”

“So what are you suggesting?” asked Dave questioningly and with a bit of skepticism.

“That we use Jeff Kolosky to help us. That we have him, and effectively the ABO network corroborate our efforts.”

“Really?” laughed Dave. “You think Barbas’s ABO news network is going to help bring down its own man? Barbas has been financing Jesse Coleman since he was practically in diapers. Not a chance.”

“Dave you’re not getting it. Jeff is the Vice President of ABO’s news division. Grivas and Barbas don’t oversee his daily news operation. If we can get Kolosky to help us, he’ll do it right under the noses of his own bosses and expose them for what they are, along with the President.”

Dave was silent for a couple of minutes as they walked, thinking intently on what Dana was proposing.

“Do you really think we can get him to turn?” asked Dave.

“I think so, but I need to talk with him more to find out. I’m just not sure how we can do it without risking exposing our location.”

Dave stopped walking and thought for a moment. “We can start out by having you email him. Ron can do some clever stuff to cloak the computer’s and router’s IP addresses so that the email’s source location can’t be traced. We’ll get you set up first thing tomorrow morning so you can send him an email and gauge his mindset. If that conversation is successful, you and I can possibly arrange to have a meeting with him somewhere. We’ll have to have that meeting quickly, however. I want to air the last video by Saturday. That only gives us three days. We can’t delay it anymore as we are being desperately hunted.”

“That sounds great.” Dana turned to Dave and stood on her toes and gave him an extended and romantic kiss.

As the two started walking again Dave commented, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.”

“That’s because you’re always focused on your work,” laughed Dana. “Though I’m fully in support of our efforts, why else do you think I’d be sitting out here in the middle of nowhere with four men. Do you think it’s all for just the cause.”

Dave looked over at her and laughed. “Your right, I do fit the bill of a classic nerd.”

“No, you’re not a nerd. You’re just an intense man. It’s one of the traits I like about you so much.”

Dave stopped walking and gave Dana a warm and embracing hug. The two stood quietly and kissed one another as the moon lit up the evening sky. Cut Bank, Montana may be a rural place, but it was also a beautiful place for renewing a romantic relationship between two old friends.