by J. T. Patten
Speaking of which, I’m going to need to mix this DNA to buy some more time.
Havens looked at the bodies of the gangsters.
Sorry, guys. Two of you boys are going to have a really bad day.
Babe, if you are looking down on me, you’re really not going to like this either.
Chapter 65
Havens finished the last bit of staging and started dialing the number on Harrison’s other phone. Before hitting send he looked at his watch.
21:45. Team should be coming back. I missed it. Shit. Oh well. Not my fault. Someone up high wanted it done. Not my business. But that kid…Shit, my kid. What was I thinking? Need to get Maggie out of the van and down to the car. Hope that’s the last of the neighbors.
Havens pulled Maggie from the van, relieved that she would never be aware of the macabre death scene that had surrounded her. As he held her in his arms and looked about the room it seemed surreal even to him. This was done with his hands. The same hands that held his helpless child. Once Maggie was outside, he’d light up the place. As he exited the building, the van of the hit team was just pulling around. He knew they would be armed and held up a waving hand.
He was met in the face by a Glock 9mm out the window of the driver’s side.
“Harrison is inside. He wants you guys to pull the van in and will debrief you. There’s a mess inside from the project he put me on, so hold your noses.”
“Who are you, man?”
“You can put that away. I’m just one of the crew. ‘Nother team. I don’t ask. You know the drill.”
“Fuckin’A. That chick dead too?” He asked, nodding towards Maggie. Others in the van started peeking out the front, craning their necks for a look. Havens knew it wasn’t to see a dead body, but instead to see if “the chick” was cute.
“Harrison doesn’t want much living.”
The man nodded to Havens in understanding and started to pull in. Havens shouted ahead to the still open driver side window.
“Um, there are a couple guys left on the ground in there. As long as you are in there, how about you start up the hopper and take care of them too.”
Need more time. Sorry, Maggie, we have about four minutes tops to get to our car.
Havens rounded the building and saw the streets were still clear. He shifted to a light jog. As he rounded a corner, he saw some silhouettes had gathered by his car. There was some sort of commotion. He assumed he would hear Cougar barking but heard nothing.
Damn. Best not be messing with my dog now. No more trouble tonight. That hit crew is also going to come looking for me in a minute when they don’t find Harrison and they smell the accelerants on the place. Maybe I can buy a minute or two and say I am Harrison pulling around the corner in another vehicle.
Havens reached into his pocket and hit Send to dial the number.
The warehouse a block over erupted with a fantastic explosion.
Holy shit, Harrison. Was that for me?
The group of young men eyeing the car focused on the fireworks display flaring into the sky from down the street. They started walking towards Havens or the lights.
“Excuse me guys, this girl is hurt. I have to get her to a hospital.”
Havens handed the detonating signal phone to one of the young men. Please, dial 9-1-1. There’s a number of people dead in there and some valuable electronics outside in the delivery trucks. I can’t let them catch on fire.”
“Yeah, man. Get going to the hospital. We’ll call the cops alright. S’all good, man.”
“Yeah, we’ll take care of things real good.”
The kids looked back at the car.
“Say, man, that your dog?”
Someone was in the driver’s seat of the car. Havens got closer to make out the silhouette behind the wheel. He saw broken glass on the street from the driver’s side door. As he neared a voice cried out.
“Help, man. Get this dog off me.”
For the second time that night, Havens had a good laugh. Cougar had her jaws around the teen’s entire head from the backseat. She was giving a low growl, her incisors pressing firmly on the boy’s skin.
Good thing I taught her to play fetch with a big soccer ball. She hasn’t popped too many of them.
“Release, Cougar!”
Obediently the dog released the boy’s now saliva-soaked head.
“Get the fuck out, kid. Go join your friends.”
Havens got Maggie into the passenger seat and feigned thanks with a cursory wave to the young hoods standing around, now torn between seeing what they could liberate from the fire and what their buddy was going to say now that he was safely out of the car.
Havens reached back and patted Cougar on the head.
“Meet your sister, pup. Sorry I’m late. We still have work to do.”
As Havens drove past the blaze, he was pleased with the outcome. His staging would be that much better now. What was left of it, thanks to Harrison. But he was especially pleased that the funding accounts, transactions for cash washing, and ownership on record that Havens set up were attributed to a now dead Harrison Mann.
X had been able to trace the funds to the origin from which Harrison had paid Havens. The account had over six hundred thousand dollars in it. X could find no legitimate ownership as it was tied to a series of offshore accounts and international companies intermingled with a law firm or two. Classic clandestine funding scheme. Havens sent an electronic signal to X. X was to then obfuscate the disappearance of those funds to an account that could not be traced for quite some time. The funds were to be used as needed by the two men “for the good of the cause.” Both agreed that it was tax payer money and should not be used personally, but they would divide it in a way so both could use it as their own operational kitty. Neither man had plans for early retirement.
Chapter 66
As Sean made his way to the new hospital where Detectives Neil and Daniels would be waiting, he called Red. He would need some help but this was someone else’s watch now. Once Maggie was settled into a room secured under a false name, Sean, Red, and the detectives met in the hospital’s empty coffee room.
“Guys, I know you realize something has been going on around here. I am not fully aware of everything or everyone involved. I no longer know what is real or what isn’t. Frankly, I think we need to leave some of it alone. What I need your help on is this. Something is going to go down in Chicago and perhaps other parts of the U.S. It will likely be orchestrated by surrogates who are supporting their own cause, but may have been manipulated to do the acts. Their resolve will be true and they will have been supported and enabled to carry out their deed. All I know is it will likely involve a mode of civilian transportation. Train or air. Probably both modes in some simultaneous manner.”
“Like another hijacking?”
“I don’t think so. Something I heard leads me to believe it could be done through cyber or RF helicopters—homemade suicide UAVs.”
“Sean, can you elaborate? That’s a pretty big space.”
“Maybe you should call in Lars Bjorklund for questioning. I think he is at a crime scene now. That’s all I can say.”
Daniels looked at Detective Neil.
“I don’t even know where to start.”
Neil concurred, “Right. Sean, if it could be anyone manipulated to do a deed, witting or unwitting, there is no way we can look for suspects or figure out an attack time. It’s futile.”
Sean nodded in agreement. This was a rather daunting task. He rapped his fingers on the table in thought.
“We know this. For a terror attack on aircraft using UAVs, we have Midway or O’Hare airport. My guess is O’Hare is too far removed from most access with the exception of the Hilton hotel right near the terminals. Window access is limited so the rooftop is the best option. That means it has to be a witting player.”
“I’m following you. So how about Midway?”
Neil was starting to think along the same thought pattern. Daniels still
looked puzzled.
“Dude, you look lost. You write this down, I’ll do the thinking with Havens,” said Neil. “Red, what do you think?”
Red, who was busy texting didn’t look up to answer. “Guys, this is a Bureau thing. Sean you should just stay with your daughter. I’ll put out an alert through FBI. You guys and CPD should wait for our assist.”
Neil wasn’t willing to let it go. “Havens, what about Midway?”
“Right. Midway, as you know, has parking garages closer to the terminals than O’Hare, and it has all those apartment buildings under the landing flight path. If I were doing anything, I’d do it there. Rail, no clue.”
“We need a profile.”
Havens looked at the men. “Us. Me, Red, Neil. Soldiers. Narrow it…Me. Someone who was a soldier who just experienced a tragedy. Can you run a profile like that? News headlines of all slaughters, domestic, that didn’t have the husband home. Pull all of those and find whereabouts. Canvas the apartments at Midway for the same. Residents and recent renters. Railroad the same. Any military veteran workers who would have access. That has to be our first stage profile.”
Red still typed away on his mobile device. “And time or day? How do we figure that? Too many variables, Sean.”
Daniels stopped writing and nodded with Red’s statement. “Red’s right. From what I can tell, we don’t know if it’s tomorrow or next week or next month.”
“Sure we do. Just thought of it. I have a license plate for a rental car. Find out when it is going to be turned in. Also check airlines. Look for a reservation under Harrison Mann.”
Red looked up at Havens but didn’t say a word.
Chapter 67
Sean remained at the private hospital continuing the bedside vigil while nurses hooked up IVs to balance Maggie’s lost fluids and toxins. The detectives and Red had left to spread the word and dig up whatever intel they could on potential suspects. Red called shortly later to inform Havens that raising the FBI terror alert required him to fly out to Washington right away. Sean was again left to his thoughts of Christina, his guilt for the price his family had paid, and the rage against those who brought it to his doorstep.
With nothing to do but sit and wait, father shifted back to operator. Havens called Daniels periodically with more thoughts about the Middle Easterner’s store. Daniels dutifully took down Havens’ comments and called back once they had some additional insights.
“Sean, FBI took over jurisdiction, apparently at the request of Red. I did get some insight from one of our officers who’s banging one of the on-scene Agents. She relayed to our guy that there were schematics found in the murdered guy’s store. As the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Red personally oversaw that his agency confiscated all materials due to the national threat. The man in the store appeared to have been beaten and robbed for small electronics but based on evidence retrieved, he had what looked to be terror ties and plans for unmanned aircraft to fly into the engines of passenger jets preparing to land or take off. Sean, that follows your hunch and narrows our target.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, plenty. Other plans the officers found indicated the store owner’s electrical engineering skills were used to enable some communications instructing how to breach the rail community.”
“I am guessing we don’t know who the owner was communicating with? Any forensic techs working on it?”
“No. Right now the powers that be are giving media interviews hyping up how it was so fortuitous…I know, big word, I’m reading a release here…that such a random act of violence could uncover a plot and trove of information pointing to nefarious networks of terrorist cells hidden within America.”
“Idiots.”
“Get this. I also learned the terrorist’s son, who is a naval serviceman, was also called in for questioning. He’s in transport from wherever he is stationed. They think he is a plant in the military to obtain classified technical information.”
“Poor kid. He’s getting set up.”
“No doubt. What do we do now, Havens? If I don’t task myself with something, I could get roped in to something else here at the station.”
“I understand. Any specific targets for the trains?”
“Seems like a few of the majors. One on the East Coast I can’t remember the name of. I don’t see it on any of the notes here. Seemed like the East Coast one was the foundation of operations for the others.”
“Acela?”
“Yeah! You know it?”
Havens chewed his lip and wiped his face with his hand although he was not sweating. “Daniels, you need to find out some info on the plane or car rental dates for Harrison Mann. If they do the Acela, it will be a real disaster.”
“Sure, I’ll check back on Mann. What’s so bad about Acela?”
“I fucking planned it! My name is on files of planning it. It was a red team exercise I did showing where the threats and vulnerabilities were. It’s my play book.”
“It could implicate you given all the other shit going on.”
“Damn. I’ve gotta fix this. I brought this on.”
“Sean, it’s not your fault.”
“It’s my world. It’s my people. These two worlds were not supposed to meet.”
“What can we do about Acela?”
“We need to get to Red. I don’t know if he’s going to be checking messages. Do you have any clout with someone on the East Coast?”
“I can check out CPD liaison. We have Feds in all the time.”
“Perfect. Here’s how Acela will go down. Even if security is heightened, it could be too late to assess any computer system breaches. Part of the issue is going to be that the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Department of Defense won’t come to an agreement on how to coordinate or respond to civil support for a cyber incident. We have to go direct to the railroad.”
“OK, what else you need? I’m not sure I know what to tell them.”
“If the bad actors did this right, all systems will show normal on the monitoring grid. The trains will have been targeted by a cyber attack against a combination of SCADA industrial railway control systems and communication protocols to fault the logic controllers and altering it to create train derailments, system shutdowns, switching, and traffic light intersection disruption. This is true of Metra lines here in Chicago too.”
“OK, hang on, I’m writing this down. Say that again.”
“Here’s what you need to know. The Acela has three core vulnerabilities that can be exploited: speed, curves, and structural weaknesses, all of which can be open to a hardware hack to throw off the yaw damper assemblies and continue the propulsion blocks while sending a false signal to the hydraulic system that normally receives a sensor signal to tile the cars on turns.”
“Dude, seriously. Slow down.”
“Write faster. You don’t have much time if this is going live. I think we only have a couple days at best. Wait. Today is Wednesday. They are not going to do it Friday since people leave work early or telecommute. The weekend won’t have many passengers. Monday is the best day, but it’s too far out.”
“Shit, you think it’s tomorrow?”
“I think so. Not only is Monday too far out, but a lot of people don’t go in as early on Monday as they do mid-week. More commuters pack in mid-week. Yeah, you need to tell the liaison all this stuff and put a speed cap on the trains for the next week if we are wrong. The tangos are planning a route stretch where the train reaches a speed of 135 mph between New York and Washington. That is what I selected due to the likely target passengers and the combination of speed and a key turn on the tracks that is risky due to surrounding terrain and civilian housing. What the train IT folks need to do is block anything that will trip the system so the speed is locked. In my report we wanted to ensure that the gyroscope sensors were tricked so they failed to adjust lateral force through the hydraulic system.”
“Holy shit, Sean.”
“Holy shit is right.
If we can’t get to Amtrak we can expect over two hundred fatalities and at least three hundred people seriously injured if the train derails near top speed.”
“How about Chicago? We don’t have turns like that.”
“In Chicago the Metra rail line could experience something similar, but if they are following this attack pattern, signals can be switched electronically to collide with another express train. I’d say easily one hundred and fifty passengers could be killed. The Middle Easterner and his so-called elusive but fictitious network will get fingered for the terror act. That will start up more domestic security programs and funding releases. You guys will be busy chasing false flags. A lot of innocent people will be blamed. Minorities. That will cause finger pointing and domestic rifts.”
“Dude, this is major conspiracy shit.”
“Just business as usual. Let me know when the appropriate people have been contacted.”
Havens stared at his daughter. He wanted to be in the field. He felt helpless here knowing his skills were needed, but he had resolved that he would not go anywhere. His daughter needed him here. It was time now to be both parents.
Sean found the television remote control and settled into a bedside chair and started flipping channels. The show Diners, Dives, and Drive-ins stopped his surfing. As a foodie, Havens knew this would be a good distraction. His phone rang within minutes. Sean recognized Detective Daniels’ number.
“Hey, detective, what’s up?”
“Sean, I think you may have something, but I’m not sure what you want us to do. I can task some officers, but Detective Neil just called and said you are right about tomorrow. There’s also some shit on the news right now that leads me to believe it may have started.”
“What’s going on?”
“Not sure. It’s unfolding now. Turn on any station. There is an attack in Minneapolis.”
“Somalis?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
Sean changed channels until he found coverage of breaking news at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. According to the news report, Somali gunmen had breached a runway access gate. The event must have occurred over an hour ago and the channel had obtained a video clip from an airport security camera feed. It showed a small non-descript rental truck smashing a back gate, driving towards the terminal then stopping abruptly. When police surrounded the truck, bewildered looking Somali armed terrorists were shown looking around the area and at one another in disbelief. Moments later the van exploded. According to the reporter, authorities believe the vehicle was remotely detonated by a terrorist still at large. Praise was being given to the airport police who had recently received a grant from Silver Star for special tactical training when their funds were cut in defense budget reductions.
