by Thomas Bloom
“Consider it done,” Dusty said. “We’re not equipped to deal with cartels. Some days we can barely handle the drunks and the burglars. This is not crime central. Just Pleasant Harbor, Potawatomie County and two underfunded and understaffed police forces.”
Chapter Seventy
Well momma, things are getting interesting. I dodged a bullet on the Chicago thing. If I had gone in to pick up these guys and they happened to be one of the folks I’ve already dealt with the cat would have been out of the bag real quick. Even so, I’ve got a problem. I can’t let any of these four see me, at least not before I’ve had a chance to see them first. Plus, Mr. Dusty says we are going to get a bunch of their guys in town just hanging out and looking for a chance to spring them. I’ve already started a mustache and I think I’ll start wearing sun glasses when I’m outside.
But that’s short term. Long term I need to get out of here and enjoy my money down south. But I need to disengage and attract as little notice as possible. If I just walk in cold and announce I’m leaving red flags are going to go up. I need to manufacture a logical and iron clad excuse for leaving. I’m thinking on it.
Chapter Seventy One
A day later the van returned with the prisoners from Chicago. As agreed, half went to the town lockup and half to the County’s. In each case there were clear instructions that they were to be in a cell alone and let out only one hour a day for supervised exercise but not at the same time. That was the weak point. Neither Dusty nor Amanda had a dedicated exercise yard. They could not let them wander the hallways in the jail or go into the common areas where regular prisoners were allowed to congregate during the day. There would be too much chance of collusion. Finally, they agreed on a temporary solution. There was a county park with a fenced in quarter mile track on the edge of town which was hardly ever used in the winter. They decided they would surround the track with police tape, transfer the prisoner to the track, give them an hour outside the van if they wanted it, and then return them. Each man would be given a winter coat, a pair of boots, a wool hat and a pair of gloves. Further, each man would have loose foot cuffs during the exercise. They could walk but they could not run. It was a weak point. If someone wanted to snatch a prisoner this would be the place to do it. But there would be four officers on site at all times. It was not a great solution but it would work for the moment. Both Dusty and Amada were anxious for the FBI backup team to arrive. With a triple killer in the background and an Arab terrorist attack on the horizon they did not want this distraction any longer than necessary, even though they had insisted that the Mexicans be brought back.
It only took a couple of days for the first of the Mexicans to show up. They arrived in three cars with two in each vehicle. They checked into a local motel and did very little. Occasionally two of them would go out and drive around town in seemingly aimless circles. Both Dusty and Amanda had ordered their officers to note the Mexican’s activities but not to stop or detain them unless they did something that threatened another person.
The prisoners were arraigned the first of the next week. After fervent pleas from Tom Cassidy they were charged with murder, attempted murder and a plethora of minor charges. Most important the Judge denied bail.
Tamourini showed up a day later with four agents. “This is all we can spare on an extended basis. Fill me in on what’s happening with the prisoners.”
After Dusty and Amanda had done so she expressed concern with the exercise routine. “We agree,” Dusty said, “but the law says that if they’re kept in a cell for twenty-three hours a day they have to be offered an hour of exercise.”
“Okay for the moment,” Tamourini said, “but we’ll have to work out something more secure. While they are there my guys will be at the park also. That gives us eight guns on site. With our contacts in Chicago we’ve found out that most of these guys are just soldiers—expendable—but one of them is a member of the inner circle and one is a mid-level captain. Their names are Alejandro Hernandez and Jesus Latavia. These are the ones they will go after.”
“Now let me fill you in on the other half of our problems. As I expected, when we got to the apartment in Lansing it had been cleaned out and no one home. We did get some more prints but they matched the ones in the garage. All this fits with a team brought in from the outside with no history in the states. We’re taking your inauguration scenario seriously, Amanda. But it’s going to be a massive security issue. We’ve got the local police, the state police and we’ll be able to free up about 100 agents for a day or so. But to really lock down the town we need several hundred to set up a much wider perimeter. So we’re asking for assistance from every police department in the state. Any help you can give us would be appreciated. Remember, if they do have a dirty bomb they only have to get close. And if the shooting starts we assume they’re all looking for martyrdom so the fact that they’re outnumbered will be immaterial. They’re just going to kill as many other people as possible before we get them. What scares me is a Trojan horse scenario. There will be hundreds of vehicles coming and going getting ready for the inauguration. And it will start several days before the event. Someone has to set up the bleachers and a grandstand. Someone has to install an audio-visual system. Someone has to bring in miscellaneous supplies. There will be all kinds of news trucks there. We’re trying to talk the Governor elect into moving the whole thing inside. Michigan State University has an auditorium big enough for it. That would simplify things immensely. But in either case we need tons of security.”
“Well, we’ll help all we can” Amada said, “but you know we both have limited staffs. Maybe we can make some calls and get a little cooperation from the other forces in the area.”
“I’ll call a friend of mine at the State Police,” Dusty said.
“Don’t bother” Tamourini said. “We’re already leaning on them.”
“I’ll call him anyway,” Dusty said. “They owe us one.”
“Well we have two weeks from today to either catch them or set up a perimeter they can’t get through. Even if we find them before they get close to the inauguration they can still blow the bomb and shoot up what they can. That’s still a nightmare scenario. They’ve passed up all the obvious easy targets—the malls, the ball games, a school—so they have to be holding up for something big. I’m sure they’ve gone deep to ground in the meantime. It would be dumb luck if we find them. They probably already had another site set up just in case. Call me after you’ve made your contacts so I know what to count on.”
Chapter Seventy One
Twelve days later Dusty, Amanda and ten of their officers left for Lansing. Dusty had left Croft in charge of operations and Amanda had done the same with her senior officer. They met at a formally vacant office building that the FBI had rented and converted into a command post. The ground floor was full of officers at desks with computers, stacks of supplies and a small armory of weapons. People were coming and going with regularity. Tamourini had a small private office and sat at her desk looking very harried. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time. Here’s the plan. The Governor elect refused to change the venue. I think he’s got images of John Kennedy delivering his inaugural speech on the capitol steps in an overcoat. So we’re stuck with the big outdoors. We have three lines of defense. The inner circle is about one hundred FBI agents. The middle circle is the State Police and the outer circle is everyone else including almost all the Lansing and East Lansing departments plus all the local departments that volunteered. You guys got us about one hundred and Detroit offered us another fifty. Thanks for your help there. Here’s a map of the Lansing area. I’ve plotted out where I want the people in the outer circle stationed. The problem is they are not used to working with us or with each other. I’d like you two to take over monitoring each of these posts to be sure they are actually manned as assigned. I’m giving each of you a radio tuned into our system. We don’t have enough of these for all the outside ring and, in any case, I don’t want them tying up the circuit with sm
all talk. They’ve been told to call nine one-one if they see anything. Everybody knows their assigned post and I’ve marked the map with each station and who’s supposed to be there. They’re all supposed to report in and be on station by one this afternoon. They will work in shifts overnight and then everyone is supposed to be on the street by nine tomorrow morning. They can make up their own schedules just so every post is continuously manned. I want you two to make a circuit of the city and be sure every post is occupied. Here are the working guidelines. They are to report any series of vehicles traveling together, especially if one of the vehicles is a truck, a van or an SUV. They are to report any sightings of two or more people traveling together who appear to be Arab. Sorry for that but I’ll deal with the ACLU later. They have the authority to stop any vehicle at any time either for a random search or because they think they see something suspicious. We have told everyone about the possibility of a bomb but have not told anyone that we might have a dirty bomb. First, that’s still speculation and, second, we don’t want to start a panic. Today is preparation, practice and just in case they try something early. The inauguration speech is at ten A.M. tomorrow morning and that will be the critical time. You’ll have to do your circuit again the first thing in the morning. Be sure everyone understands that these posts are to be manned full time until the inauguration is over and the crowd has dispersed.
“Oh, one more thing. Here’s an AK-47 and some extra magazines for each of you. You were outgunned at the warehouse and I don’t want to leave you in that situation again. Do you know how to use one of these things?”
“I’ve been checked out,” Dusty said.
Amanda said, “I’ve got a sharpshooters citation from my time in the military. I can handle it.”
“Okay, you’re good to go. Thank you so much for your help. Call me later when you’ve completed your rounds.”
Dusty and Amanda spent the next few hours doing a circuit of the city and verifying that each checkpoint was manned. There was a little confusion in several cases but they sorted it out. They each took a copy of the map and moved in opposite directions. When they met again at the other side of the city they called Tamourini and told her that each checkpoint was manned, everyone understood the rules of engagement and everyone understood that the points were to be manned until after the inauguration was over.
“Okay, everyone is in place. All we can do now is wait.”
Dusty and Amanda were up early and repeated their circuit of the city. By nine AM they reported into Tamourini that everyone was on duty as scheduled.
“Okay, why don’t each of you choose a critical intersection and just keep an eye out. If we pick anything up I’ll let you know at once.”
About 9:30 A.M. Dusty was in his car at an intersection watching traffic. So far he had seen nothing suspicious. He noted two helicopters circling overhead. One appeared to be covering the eastern half of the town and the other the west. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw an armored car cross an intersection to his right and then disappear down a residential street. The car belonged to one of the several services that picked up and dropped off cash and checks at retail establishments and financial institutions. At first it did not register because it was so common but then he thought, why is this guy going down a residential street? These cars normally had a set route and used main roads between pickups. Further, it was Sunday. No financial institutions were open and Tamourini had closed off all access inside the inner circle to members of the public except for those with tickets to the inauguration. There would be few if any retail establishments open in the inner city. If this truck gets anyplace close to the capital, Dusty thought, then something is wrong. By sticking to the side streets they may have hoped to avoid the checkpoints. He did a quick U-turn and proceeded to the street he had seen the truck enter. He got on the radio with Tamourini and filled her in.
“I’m chasing it but I don’t have it in sight. Here’s the problem. It’s an armored car probably with run free tires. A few shots are not going to penetrate the armor or even the windshield. You’re not going to be able to shoot out the tires. Christ, they could drive right up to the inauguration stand and we might not be able to stop them. There’s plenty of room inside for that crate and ten guys. It will probably take an RPG to stop it.”
Dusty glanced at his watch. It was almost ten. The inauguration would start any moment. He wished he had an unmarked car but he was stuck with his cruiser.
“Okay,” Tamourini said. “I’m putting out an APB. If we see the truck approaching the inner circle I’m getting the governor-elect off the stand. Unfortunately, I can’t clear the crowd that fast. But guess what? We’ve got two RPG’s in our gear. I’ll try to have them ready.”
“I’ve got them,” Dusty cried. “They just pulled out of a side street and they’re headed west on Michigan Avenue. They’re about to cross business I-94.”
“Shit, that brings them straight into the Capitol,” Tamourini cried. “I’m clearing out the governor-elect and we’ll try to get the crowd to vacate to the west. I’ve told everyone in the first and second ring to fire on sight but, you’re right, we aren’t going to stop it with nine millimeters and AK-47’s. Any ideas?”
“None whatsoever except get your RPG’s deployed. But wait a minute. We’re concerned about there being a bomb in that vehicle. Can you hit it with an RPG and not set the bomb off? It’s bad enough if they trigger it. It’s a lot worse if we do.”
“We’ll have to work on that.”
Dusty was now several hundred yards behind the armored vehicle. There was a small slot in each rear door but they did not appear to be open. The people in the vehicle did not know they were being followed. The driver was probably totally focused on the road in front of him. As they passed an intersection Dusty could see several state police officers firing their service revolvers at the vehicle with no discernable results. That meant they were inside the second ring and only a few minutes from the Capitol.
Dusty suddenly had a wild thought. He’d been through pursuit school and one of the tactics they had learned was to flip a vehicle to one side or the other by moving its rear end with the nose of your own car. The object was to cause the driver of the other vehicle to lose control, over react and spin out. The instructor had call it “the nudge.” They had discussed it but never practiced it. “Way to dangerous,” the instructor had said. In addition to not ever having actually performed the maneuver his second problem was that the armored car outweighed his squad car by a large factor. What he had going for him was surprise. They had no idea he was coming. He knew he had to give the armored car considerably more than a nudge and that he had to do it before they noticed him coming up behind them. He floored the accelerator, swung to the right to give himself an angle and then turned into the right rear bumper of the armored car at high speed. The results were spectacular. The rear of the armored car swung several feet to the left and then, as planned, the driver over--corrected and the rear swung a full 180 degrees in the other direction. The problem was that Dusty’s front bumper had become entangled with the rear of the other vehicle. He had not nudged them he had crashed into them. He was whipsawed in a full half circle and bounced over the curb on the side of the street at which point his vehicle landed on its passenger side. He knew he had only seconds to disengage. He thought about the AK-47 in the back seat, decided he did not have time, unhooked his seat belt, lowered the window and threw himself out of the vehicle. He ran to the far side of his car and threw himself on the ground just as a fusillade of shots rang out. He could hear the windows on his car being blown out and shells penetrating the car’s body. He crawled forward to get the engine between himself and the incoming fire. Suddenly his car started to move and he was in danger of being left stranded and exposed. The driver of the armored vehicle was trying to shake Dusty’s car. He pulled forward then backed up and jammed the car into the curb and then accelerated ahead, turned to the right and braked hard. Finally the car broke loose. Whi
le all this was going on Dusty was running in a crouch as fast as he could to keep his car between himself and the armored car. Then the armored car proceeded at full speed down Michigan Avenue.
Dusty breathed a huge sigh of relief, retrieved the AK-47 and started west as fast as he could on foot. He called Tamourini. “They’re on their way in. I slowed them down a little but now they’re free. Get ready.”
Tamourini had three problems: get the governor and his family and his entourage off the stage and to safety, start to move the rest of the crowd out of the stands and west away from the attack and, finally, get her team in a defensive perimeter to at least slow down the armored car.
After giving assignments to her team she called her RPG shooter over. “Can you take out that vehicle without hitting the rear compartment?”
“If I can get a side shot I can take out the front end and the engine compartment but because the rear compartment is armored it probably will not be severely damaged.”
“Okay, go up the street and find some cover. We’ll have to let them come in further than I want but as soon as you have a shot take it.”
She then got on her mike. “Roberts I need you here now.”
A minute later a tall, slender man carrying a tool kit came to her side.
“Here’s the deal. We’re going to disable the vehicle about two hundred yards in front of us. As soon as we do any of the bad guys that are still functional will be coming out firing. As soon as we’ve taken them out I want you in the back of the armored car. Assume there’s a bomb in there and assume they’ve activated it. Then just do your thing. Oh, and I don’t want you in the fire fight. I want you under cover. I can’t lose you. You’re the only bomb guy we have on site.”
“Yes ma’am.”
