by J. M. LeDuc
“If we are going to get a closer look at the church, I just want to be prepared,” Charlie answered.
Sin beamed in admiration. “I love the way your mind works.”
26
Sin and Charlie rowed a blacked out skiff through the rough waters behind the church. Each was dressed in all black, including having their faces blacked out. Once behind the church, they dropped a small anchor off shore so the boat couldn’t hit any of the rocks and alert security.
Charlie signaled Sin with his hands and they both dropped into the water from opposite sides of the boat. It didn’t take but a few minutes for both of them to make their way to the thirty foot rock retaining wall that separated the church from the gulf.
The wall, although slippery from algae, had enough foot and hand holds so they were able to free climb without ropes or gear. Once over the wall, they donned night-vision goggles. Charlie hand signaled Sin and they headed for the back side of the church. They knew this would be the best vantage point where the security cameras couldn’t reach.
Using an old fashion slimjim—a thin steel bar used for unlocking car doors―to pop the window lock, they gained entrance into the church. Exactly two minutes later, they stood in the waiting room outside of Heap’s office.
As they readied themselves to break in Heap’s office, Sin went over the plan in her head one more time—the plan was simple, they needed to see what was in the room behind Heap’s private office and then they would make their way to the large room behind the sanctuary. In each location, pictures would be taken and they would be out in less than ten minutes. They knew they would probably trip a silent alarm, but they would deal with that when and if the time arose. They hoped for an easy in and out.
Sin kept watch as Charlie picked the lock to Heap’s office. Things were going smooth, too smooth for her liking. Once inside the office, they quickly went through his desk and files but found nothing out of the ordinary. Charlie turned on Heap’s computer. The hard-drive was safeguarded with a password, so Charlie shoved a thumb-drive into the USB slot and downloaded all the files.
He would have to try to break the encryption later.
While he was waiting for the download to complete, Sin picked the lock on the inner office.
Entering, Sin noticed a couple things of interest. First, there appeared to be a woman’s touch to the décor. This must be Maggie’s office, she thought. Her next thought was, why does his wife need an office?
She tried to open the desk drawers—locked. The file cabinets—the same. She quickly picked the lock on the desk and rummaged through the drawers. There seemed to be nothing worth locking up.
As she opened the file cabinet, Charlie tapped her on the back and pointed to his watch. Time was running short. She nodded, opened the file drawers, and flipped through the folders. She found one labeled, orphanage, opened it and was startled to see snapshots of girls. She didn’t have time to process what she was looking at, so she quickly took pictures of them with her phone and replaced the file. At the same time, Charlie downloaded the computer files to another thumb-drive.
The two of them made their way back out the same way they came in making sure not to leave any tracks.
Making their way toward the sanctuary, they both heard voices.
“She’s in the prophet’s office. Our orders are to take her alive, so no shooting.”
Sin ducked behind a stone column and signaled Charlie who had done the same about twenty feet away.
“They think I’m alone,” Sin mouthed.
Charlie smirked. They’d known each other for so long that Sin had no doubt he could read her thoughts and anticipate her plans.
Sin waited until her pursuers entered Heap’s office before running for the door behind the altar. Charlie remained hidden in the back of the church while Sin picked the lock.
“She’s now in the sanctuary.”
“Why the hell did you make us go to Heap’s office?”
“Hell, I’m just following this signal. Now, shut up and stay low. We have her outnumbered four to one. She’s ours now.”
Charlie stayed hidden while Sin remained in plain sight.
She pretended to be having trouble picking the lock. The plan was to take care of their ‘friends’ here before they entered unknown territory.
Charlie waited until the first three passed him before grabbing the fourth in a chokehold. He quickly subdued the assailant and dragged the unconscious body behind the pillar.
“Freeze!” yelled the first guard. “Arms in the air before I shoot.”
Sin slowly raised her arms, eyeing her pistol holstered near her belt buckle.
“Turn around nice and slow or I’ll put a bullet in that pretty little head of yours.”
Sin recognized York’s voice. She didn’t turn, but spoke to stall for time. “How did you find me? I didn’t see you out front.”
“I told you I was better than any Special Forces piece of crap,” York boasted. “I was tailing you even before you drove onto the property.”
Dumb son of a bitch, Sin thought, he doesn’t even know how we gained entrance.
She stood her ground as his footsteps neared. She knew this was going to come down to timing.
“I said turn around,” York yelled.
Sin didn’t respond, she just stared at the face on her watch. She knew Charlie could see what was going on and as soon as York was in position he would give her the ‘go’ sign.
Adrenaline surged through her body as York’s footsteps neared. Sin began to tingle to the point that she thought she would burst. Just when she didn’t think she could hold off one more minute, she saw a red light flash on her watch.
At the same time, York grabbed her shoulder, Sin spun, knocked the gun from his hand, kneed him in the groin, jumped on his chest, pulled her semiautomatic from her waist holster, and held it against his throat. His eyes darted back and forth.
“Looking for someone?” she seethed. “No one is coming to your aid, dumbass. Do you think I would come alone?”
York’s eyes dilated and sweat poured from his forehead.
Sin’s expression turned to stone as she leaned into York and whispered, “I had inside help. You better recheck your friends.”
Sin felt his body tighten and a guttural sound rose from deep in his chest. As the growl escaped his mouth, Sin cracked open his skull like a walnut with the butt end of her pistol.
Charlie emerged from the shadows and held out a hand. Sin grabbed it and stood up. “What did you tell the big fella to piss him off?”
Sin smiled. “I told him I had inside help and to check his friends.”
Charlie shook his head and waved Sin through the open door.
Sin had a hard time delineating all the specifics of the room due to the green tinge from the night-vision goggles. “I’m turning on the lights,” she said. “I need a better look around.”
“Let’s be quick,” Charlie said. “Someone may see them from the outside.”
Sin pushed her goggle up onto her forehead and flipped on the lights.
She stood still, glued to her spot, and took in her surroundings. “It really is a damn movie studio.”
Charlie knew what Sin was thinking. “Stay objective as we process the scene.”
As Charlie went to work on the computers, Sin stood behind the camera that was set up in the middle of the room and followed its sight. It was aimed at the stage. She ran on to the stage, pulled a bottle of luminal out of her pack and sprayed the surface. “Charlie shut the lights off for a moment,” she said.
He did and blotches―small and large―glowed red.
“Shit,” she moaned. “There is blood everywhere up here.”
“Hurry up and take some pictures, so I can turn the lights back on,” Charlie huffed.
Her blood pressure was rising, and her head was spinning as she took the pictures. If I find out those girls were tortured and killed on film, I will castrate the motherfucker responsible. As soon as she
snapped the last photo, Sin asked Charlie to turn the lights turned back on.
Charlie started the download sequence on the computer and then he took in the rest of the room. He pointed to twelve monitors, all of which faced the main stage. They were in three rows, set up in a stadium type of arrangement. “That’s a strange configuration for the monitors to be in,” he said.
Sin shook off her emotions and stood next to him. “You’re the expert, what do you think?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “Start taking pictures of the entire room while I finish downloading the files. We don’t have much time before others show up.”
Sin snapped her head toward him. “Who?”
“Not sure, but just before the last guard entered the sanctuary, I heard him call in for back-up. I heard him say that ten minutes was too long, but he and York would try to hold you until they got here. That was eight minutes and fifteen seconds ago.”
The two of them crawled out the same windows they had entered as they heard the sirens and screeching tires in the front of the church. They stayed low, climbed back down the wall, and were in the boat before anyone else saw them.
27
Back at the Johnson place, Sin sat in the library watching Charlie try to play the video they downloaded from the studio.
He banged his fist on his desk in frustration. “They used some professional encryption software on the hard-drives and videos we found in the studio. It’s going to take time to break it.”
Sin sifted through the papers on her lap and waved him off unceremoniously. “You figured out the grassy knoll,” she said sarcastically, “you’ll figure this out.”
His shoulders slumped and he elicited a sigh, part in embarrassment, part because that was the one conspiracy that still ate at him.
Flipping through the transcripts from Heap’s office computer, Sin was getting more exasperated with each page. “This is all bullshit,” she said. “It’s just him sending out threatening emails to his underlings and kowtowing to his wife. Pussy.”
Charlie sat on the edge of his desk and pointed to the pile of papers. “Turn to the last page.”
As Sin read, her temperature rose. “Veloz!” she screamed. “He’s talking about Veloz!”
Charlie put his arms out as if they would somehow stop Sin’s anger. “We don’t know that, it just mentions a contact in Nicaragua who is sending a shipment of girls.”
Sin threw the papers at Charlie. “Bullshit,” she yelled. “It talks about money—lots of money—changing hands. No one buys girls so they can come live in a fucking orphanage.”
“So what do you plan on doing,” Charlie said in frustration, “go after him?”
“Damn right!”
“That’s suicide!” Charlie yelled back. “I won’t let you go. I’ll have no part of it.”
“You’re not my goddamn father,” she poked his chest with her middle finger, “and I don’t need your permission to do anything.” She ran her hands through her hair, clenched her fists, and squeezed the roots. “Grr,” she shrieked. “Girls are dying all around us, and I’m getting nowhere in this sand flea of a frickin’ town. Veloz may not be the supplier, but I would damn well bet he knows who is.” She looked straight into Charlie’s eyes. “You said it yourself. They sent me on a suicide mission. Well, damn it, if I’m going out, I’m taking someone with me.”
Charlie pulled at his beard. “Sinclair, think about what you’re saying.”
“I’m tired of thinking,” she raged. “The time for thinking is over. It’s time for action.”
Charlie put his hands up. “I give up,” he said, “but I’m not letting you go alone. I’m coming with you.”
Sin’s heart rate began to descend as she paced the room. “I need you here, Charlie. If I promise not to go alone, will you help me?”
“Whose help are you going to get?”
“The same people who have helped keep me alive since I left the bureau.”
“Your unit? You think they will?”
“For Veloz? They’d sell their first born.” Sin thought about what she just said and cringed. “Bad analogy.”
Charlie held his arms out and Sin hugged him tight.
“We haven’t screamed at each other like that since you were sixteen,” he said.
“You always were the only person I could vent on who didn’t hate me afterward,” she sighed.
“There were others, Sinclair, you just didn’t give them a chance.”
Maybe that’s one of the reasons fate brought me back here, she thought.
For a while, they sat with a hot mug of coffee in each other’s company, yet in the depths of solitude.
Charlie broke the ‘Zen-like’ mood. “We need to talk about you.”
“What about me?”
“You know damn well, York will tell the authorities that you were the one who broke in.”
Sin’s expression turned somber.
Charlie’s eyebrows rose as if he had just thought of something.
“What?” Sin said.
“How the hell did they know you were there, yet they had no idea I was there?”
“I think that was a run on sentence,” Sin smirked. She then tapped her wrist. “The government mole was able to track my moves. Whoever the mole is, he or she was able to access my microchip.”
“We need to get you the hell out of dodge and contact Graham and Westcott.”
Sin sat, motionless, and tapped the ceramic mug with her nails.
“What are you thinking?” Charlie asked.
“We can’t contact anyone because we have no idea how deep the subterfuge runs.”
“Okay, but we still have you to deal with. What—”
Sin rubbed her wrist over the implant and bit her lip hard as a sly smile came over her.
“What are you thinking?” Charlie asked.
“I need to contact Dr. O’Rourke and then I will let you know if my plan has any merit.”
Charlie pulled a burn phone out of his desk drawer handed it to Sin.
An hour later, Dr. O’Rourke was sitting at the kitchen table listening to Sin’s story.
“So let me get this straight. You’re not a Sergeant but an FBI agent who was sent here to investigate the killing of other agents, and a possible sex ring involving girls from the orphanage.” Dr. O’Rourke’s voice rose as she spoke—an auditory cue of disbelief.
“That’s the gist if it,” Sin said. “I had been out of the country on assignment. When my superiors heard about my father, they knew they had the perfect ploy.”
“And,” Dr. O’Rourke continued, “they micro-chipped you so you could be followed like some dog?”
Sin stood and leaned in close to the doc. “I don’t appreciate the dog comment, but yeah, that’s about right.”
“And you want me to remove it,” Dr. O’Rourke looked around. “here—in a non-sterile environment?”
Sin took a deep, calming breath and sat back down. “Look, Deborah, I know I’m asking a lot from you, but before we talk about removing the chip, I need to pick your brain.”
Dr. O’Rourke crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “About?”
“When I was chipped, I was told to remove it if I ever got in trouble. I was told that if it no longer was in contact with my body, an emergency signal would be activated and reinforcements would be sent.” The doc opened her mouth to speak, but Sin held up her hand to stop her. “I want to know if it can be removed without the signal going off.”
“I’m a doctor, not an IT specialist, how would I know?”
Charlie, who had stayed quiet to this point interjected. “If you will let me, I think I might be able to shed some light on the matter.”
Dr. O’Rourke nodded.
“The government has been doing some experimenting with micro-chipping their covert ops units. It’s a way of keeping tabs on them when they are deep under cover.”
Dr. O’Rourke nodded. “Go on.”
“The chip is temper
ature controlled. As long as it stays in contact with living tissue or,” he held up a finger for emphasis, “maybe a living lab culture that would also be at body temp, the alarm won’t trigger.”
Now it was Dr. O’Rourke’s turn to interrupt. “So, if I can remove the chip and transfer it to a tissue culture, it should stay active.”
“Right,” Charlie smiled.
“But,” Dr. O’Rourke addressed Sin, “if it tracks your moves, won’t it seem suspicious if it stays in one place?”
“It won’t stay in one place,” Charlie said.
“Care to explain?” the doc said.
“Yeah,” Sin joined in. “I’d like to hear this one, Obi-wan Kenobi.”
“You remove it, and I will take care of moving it,” Charlie snickered.
“I’m beginning to think you really are crazy,” Sin said.
“Crazy as a fox,” Dr. O’Rourke said. “That plan just might work.”
Dr. O’Rourke felt Sin’s wrist. “There are a lot of nerve endings in this area. It’s going to hurt afterward.”
Sin rolled her eyes. “Hell, that beats the way the FBI wanted me to extract it.”
“Which is?” Dr. O’Rourke asked.
“Bite it out of my own wrist.”
Dr. O’Rourke looked at Charlie and pointed at Sin, “She’s wrong, she is the crazy one.”
When Dr. O’Rourke finished the procedure, she wrapped Sin’s sutures with medical tape. “So,” she said, “you never said where you would be while your chip is vacationing in the Florida Keys.”
“The less you know, the better,” Sin said through gritted teeth.
“I think we’re past that point, don’t you?”
Sin took a deep breath, puffed out her cheeks, and exhaled through pursed lips. “I’m going to Central America to cut off the head of a snake.”
After Dr. O’Rourke left, Sin went outside and made a phone call. Coming back in, she placed her hand on Charlie’s forearm. “I contacted my unit. They are meeting me in Honduras. From there we will plan the attack on Veloz. The way I figure, this should be a three day mission, tops.”
