However, even though she’d promised that she would hold the story she was working on for a while, she wasn’t just about to stop investigating the matter further—especially since Henning had been executed. Now that she knew for sure that only the U.S. government was watching her movements—not some Islamic extremist group—she felt a lot less frightened about her investigation.
At the very worst, the U.S. government could lock her behind bars for some trumped up charge, but she knew that the federal officials would not physically harm her.
Something was still nagging at her conscious about Richard Henning’s death. Victoria’s mind kept wandering back to the shooting, and back to the man she saw standing across the street. Days later, the image still seemed out of place. Why would the man just stand there and not attempt to either help or run away? And why did the man look so familiar?
Victoria didn’t believe that she had met the man before, but his face looked eerily familiar. Also, another question bothering her was the nature of a terrorist cell attack Henning. Would a terrorist cell really target just one lone man when other American targets were readily available as well?
If an isolated cell of the Haqqai network were in the United States, why wouldn’t they try to take out a lot more American targets? If this group was involved, it could have very easily planted a bomb at the hotel or engaged in any number of dirty tactics that would have resulted in a much greater loss of life.
In addition, the group hadn’t yet come forth to claim responsibility for the shooting like it had readily done when news came out about Richard Henning’s kidnapping. Things just weren’t adding up or fitting into a neat little box.
Opening up Joshua’s laptop, Victoria decided to go back to the beginning, with Henning’s first baby—his company. There had to be some critical information there that she was missing. She poured through all of the documents that she had saved on Henning’s company and had emailed to her own account before the FBI’s counter terrorism unit had confiscated her laptop computer. She even did additional online news searches of any articles that came up in the past five years involving Richard Henning and his company. Most of the news results involved Henning’s last Congressional campaign.
Victoria did have a few other information sources to check out. The first avenue was to look into the potential witness list. There might have been witnesses that the Dallas PD had not been able to interview, who were afraid to speak to the police. In addition, the Dallas Police Department may have found some additional clues in the surveillance tapes that were available from the local businesses in the area near the shooting.
Picking up her phone, Victoria dialed the Dallas Police Department’s headquarters and asked to speak with Detective Devin Sage. Devin was most likely closely involved in the police department’s shooting investigation. Of all the members of the Dallas PD, Victoria was very good friends with Devin because they virtually grew up together in the same suburban neighborhood. There were four Sage brothers in total, and they were all third generation Dallas Police Department officers.
Devin answered on the first ring.
“Hey Devin, this is Victoria Sanchez.”
“Oh, hey Victoria. How are you doing? I know that you were with former Congressman Henning when he was shot.”
“Yeah, I was. I’m doing fine, thanks. That’s actually why I was calling. I know that the shooting is still an active investigation, but I was hoping to get some information from you about what direction the Dallas PD’s investigation is heading.”
“What are you asking for exactly?”
“For starters, I know that you all had to have pulled the surveillance videos by now. Were any of them at the angle where they captured the shooting?”
“We pulled a lot of videotapes, Victoria. We’re still analyzing all of them.”
“Come on, Devin. Throw me a few kernels of information here, please.”
“Victoria, you know that this is an active case. Into the murder of a former Congressman no less, which makes it a federal investigation. The FBI is all over this case. You can’t just bat your eyelashes this time and get us to slide you some classified information on this case.”
“But doesn’t the Dallas PD have jurisdiction over the investigation?”
“Not if the crime is an act of terrorism by an extremist Islamic organization based in Pakistan.”
“But there’s no definitive evidence that the Haqqai group is involved. What if it wasn’t a terrorist attack at all?”
“You’re right. There’s no concrete evidence, yet. But the investigation is only a few days old. Regardless, the FBI would still be called upon given Henning’s status as a former Congressman. And between you and me, the Dallas PD is already swamped with homicide investigations as it is—we can definitely use the extra hands. Why are you asking all of these questions for anyway, Victoria?”
“Do you think it’s possible that Henning wasn’t killed by the Haqqai group?”
“I’ve been doing this job long enough to know that anything is possible. What information do you have that would indicate that the terrorist group wasn’t involved?”
“Instinct.”
Devin let out a loud bark of laughter at Victoria’s answer. “Yeah, well you have fun with that, Nancy Drew. Maybe things operate a little differently these days in the popular press, but instinct doesn’t hold up too well in a court of law.”
“Devin, I had Richard Henning’s blood on my hands—literally. I was one of the last people with him right before he died. I want to find out what really happened to him, who was responsible for his murder. I’m a good reporter. My instincts are not always 100 percent accurate, but they’ve hardly ever been wrong.”
“Look, Vicki, I know that the past few days have been rough on you. And I’m sorry about that, truly. I’ll let you know if there’s any information that we find out that may support your theory, but that’s the best that I can offer you at the moment. With as much heat as we’re taking on this case, I can’t provide you with any information that could potentially sabotage our investigation and later prosecution of the responsible parties.”
Chapter Nineteen
Sokol, Russia
March 15, 2012, 1900 hours
“
You jokers ready for round two?” Luke Russo asked the members of Team Fourteen who were standing in the room with him. Each of the men were handpicked for this mission. Joshua looked across the dimly lit room at Jesse.
It had been months, and now all of the SEALs who took part in the rescue of Congressman Henning were finally back together again. Even Malcolm and Will were back on deck for this mission, both of whom were highly skilled SEAL snipers.
“You just make sure that you’re ready for round two, Luke,” Joshua replied.
“Didn’t you know sir, I was born ready,” Luke responded to Joshua’s quip with a quick grin. As quickly as the lighthearted expression on Jesse’s face came, it left as he got back to the very serious task at hand. Joshua watched the younger soldier rummage through one of the weapons cases and, and finding what he was looking for, slide an ammunition cartridge into his M4 Carbine machine gun.
For the past two days, the team had practiced the operation that they were about to implement in a similar constructed mockup building in the outskirts of Moscow. All twenty-four men were now sitting in an abandoned warehouse that was located in the northwest part of Sokol, a few blocks away from the Nava pharmaceutical facility.
The FSB had had the electricity restored to the building, and they had added a few tables and chairs had been added just prior to the Team’s arrival. It was currently winter in Sokol so the temperatures during the day still didn’t quite climb out of the tens. Right now, about three feet of snow covered the ground.
Jesse Denison and Will were both checking to make sure that they had enough ammunition for their arsenal. Steel was in the process of triple checking their weapons cases to ensure that the Team had everything that it would need for t
he operation that was going go down within the next few hours.
Soon after arriving in Moscow, Team Fourteen had met up with two FSB agents who were their regional point persons for the assignment. The FSB was a part of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and functioned as Russia’s version of the FBI, ICE, Secret Service, Coast Guard, and DEA combined into one. U.S. intelligence officials had contacted the FSB when they were able to confirm leads that the stolen smallpox samples were in the Sokol region.
CIA intelligence agents had already scoped out the Nava Drug Corp facilities and had taken an array of photographs from different angles of the outside of the buildings. The agents had been in place for a few weeks and had made contacts with several of the factory workers.
One of the agents had actually been able to get a look inside of the facility. How Joshua wasn’t sure, but infiltrating secure facilities without being noticed was one of the many things that U.S. intelligence agents were particularly adept.
This agent believed that the smallpox was not being held in the main Nava Drug Corp facility, but instead within a new building that had recently been completed and staffed with a new horde of chemists and factory workers. This secondary building also had an enhanced security system and network of guards patrolling both the outside and inside of the edifice.
Agents had confirmed that these guards were not just from your average security company, but instead members of a Russian mob group named the “Kings Triad,” which was a multi-ethnic tightly run criminal organization with many different branches throughout Russia, other Eurasian countries. This criminal association was particularly dangerous because it was beginning to expand its reach beyond that of Eastern Europe.
The group’s two main bosses in Russia were Dimitriv Arshavin and Aleksandr Pushkin. Both men were on the FSB’s criminal watch list and were suspected of committing or authorizing dozens of murders. Also, both men were bonafide experts in the drug trade that was currently ravaging Eastern Europe.
The SEALs were going to be working jointly with the FSB on this raid—which was a type of cooperation that was virtually unheard of between the two countries. Normally, the Russians would not have been happy about a U.S. raid on any facility within their territory.
However, in this case, both U.S. officials and Russian officials had strong motivations in assuring the success of this limited operation. While, the FSB had agreed to a joint operation with U.S. Navy SEALs, both organizations had their list of demands from the other party.
The FSB had been after the King’s Triad for the past three years for a number of crimes ranging from racketeering, extortion, intimidation, drug trafficking, and multiple murder charges.
It would be unlikely that the FSB would gather enough evidence in this operation to take down all of the major bosses of the organization, but they had their sights set on Dimitriv Arshavin. His arrest and successful prosecution would be a huge win for the FSB, whom Arshavin had taunted for the past few years. Arshavin had been able to gain ownership of several quasi-legitimate businesses in order launder money from his very illegal narcotics and prostitution rings.
For the U.S. officials, the obvious motivations were to stop an imminent bioterrorist attack on U.S. soil and to prevent illegal narcotics from entering into U.S. territory.
The current plan of action was for SEAL Team Fourteen to strong-arm their way into the facility, and obtain and then later destroy the smallpox samples, while the FSB would provide additional agents that would serve as backup muscle.
This operation was being kept close to pocket by the FSB, and so only a few high-ranking officials in its counterintelligence unit even knew about that a raid was taking place. For obvious reasons, the FSB did not want it to get out that U.S. Navy SEALs were currently within Russian territory, and would be integral in the takedown operation.
“I was able to confirm additional information about where the samples are located within the building.”
All of the men stopped what they were doing to look up at Special Agent Khalid Abdul. Khalid was one of the CIA Agents who was working on this assignment and who had personally infiltrated the drug manufacturing facility in the past weeks. He was of average male height at around 5’10”, muscular, brown-skinned, and had closely cropped, brownish-black hair.
The Team hadn’t had too much interaction with Khalid during previous missions, but the man’s personal qualifications were exceptional. He had been born in the United States to parents who were originally from Saudi Arabia. Khalid was a graduate of Yale University and had been heavily recruited by the CIA. He had an outstanding reputation in the covert operations world.
Khalid had been undercover in Eurasia for a few years. Now that his cover had been effectively blown, since the FSB now knew that he was a CIA agent, Joshua didn’t know where Khalid was going to be relocated.
“Given the nature of this virus, the crystals of the smallpox samples are most likely going to be located in multiple vials,” Khalid continued. “In turn, these vials will likely be stored in double sealed containers that are within a type of metal cold transport device, which is similar to a small refrigerator. In addition, as suspected, the smallpox virus is not all that this group has in the works. There are multiple workers who are currently cutting and processing heroin for sale. It’s rumored that they will have another shipment of heroin coming in within the next few days. However, they likely will not wait for this shipment and will start transferring out the product that they’ve been able to finish so far.”
“And with that first shipment out of the country, they will also transport the smallpox virus right?” Joshua asked dryly.
“Yes. That’s what we suspect.”
“And where exactly is this ‘refrigerator’ located?” Will asked.
The Team watched as Khalid reached down to grab a backpack that he had brought into the room with him earlier. He took out a large yellow, square sheet of paper that he unfolded and laid it on the desk in the center of the room.
“This is a copy of the blueprint of the building. Well, at least as how I remember it from my trips inside the facility. I’ll also show you some of the photographs of the rooms and the transport device that I was able to snap, along with the satellite photographs of the building and surrounding campus.” Khalid waited as the Team and the present FSB agents gathered around the table and looked at the hand-drawn diagram.
“The facility consists of three floors, not including the basement,” Khalid continued. “The first floor contains a receptionist area with a standard back office for management personnel. At first glance, everything appears to be kosher. Upon entering the second floor, however, that’s when things get a little hairy. There are at least thirty workers, who work during the day manufacturing the drugs. To the average person it just appears that the workers are manufacturing the legitimate drugs that they are supposed to. But upon further inspection it becomes clear that the workers are actually processing heroin for distribution.”
“So where in this building are the smallpox samples being held?” Joshua asked.
“I believe that the samples are being held in a safe that is located in one of the supposedly ‘empty’ storage rooms on the third floor. But I can’t be absolutely certain about this.” The Team watched as Khalid took out a pencil and circled the room that he was talking about on the drawing that he had rendered.
“What makes you think that the samples are in this particular room?” Malcolm asked.
“I was able to gain access to the facility’s third floor and saw a heavy guard presence for this one particular room, that wasn’t the same for other rooms in the facility. Also, the guards are different for this room.”
“What do you mean the guards are different?” Joshua followed up on Malcolm’s question.
“Most of the guards who patrol the building are Russian and are most likely all members of the King’s Triad. The guards for this lone room, however, are Middle Eastern men, most likely sent in from the Haqqai ne
twork. Their only purpose in the building would be to guard the smallpox samples. Dimitriv and his men probably don’t even have a clue that the smallpox virus is being held in the facility or that their new drug partners also have a side project in the works.”
“Breaking into the safe shouldn’t be a problem, but wouldn’t they have some sort of fallback system if the room itself is breached. Like trip wires of some sort?” Luke inquired. He was standing right beside Joshua, listening intently to everything that Khalid had to say.
“That is certainly a possibility. But that’s why we’re moving in tonight after Adib Malook arrives on the scene. We’ve been tracking him for the past month. Earlier this morning, he got on a flight from Pakistan to Russia. He’s headed to this facility and he should be arriving within the next couple of hours. Based on phone calls we’ve been able to intercept, both he and Dimitriv are scheduled to meet face-to-face sometime later this evening.”
“Do we have any cover from air?” Joshua asked. When performing a raid of this kind, with so many tangos on the ground, they would need an additional edge.
One of the younger FSB agents who had earlier identified himself as Mikhail Averin spoke up. “We’ll be bringing two Ka-50N ‘Black Shark’ helicopters to the party.”
Hooyah! That was excellent news. The Russians’ famed Black Shark helicopters were beasts. The helicopters featured contra-rotating rotor systems that enabled the pilots of these aircrafts to engage in circle-strafing. Aircrafts with circle-strafing capability were a godsend in tactical operations because they allowed the pilot to fire while remaining locked on a target.
Pilots could then fly these helicopters in circles of varying altitudes while maintaining an unvarying line-of-sight. In addition, Black Shark helicopters were outfitted with armor plating, which were designed to protect the pilots from armor-piercing bullets fired from below.
Averin continued, “Once we give the signal that we have taken out the preliminary guards who are guarding the perimeter, our two air force pilots will then go into action. They will lay out rounds of fire directly into the building, from both the north and south access points, in order to cause as much confusion to the guards as possible. The pilots will also be on the scene to lay covering sprays of fire for us as long as possible. Once we hear the initial rounds fired from above, that’s our cue to go in, guns blazing at full force. The pilots will call in additional backup aircrafts if needed.”
Pushed to the Edge (SEAL Team 14) Page 20
