by Levi, Steve;
Noonan sighed sadly. “We don’t know. I did a check of all cargo just in case there was a glitch. We ended up with three packages, which was odd. One was this igloo. Then there was an antique motorcycle which isn’t an antique and a box of medical supplies.”
“Let me get this right,” said another voice. “What you are saying is out of a ton of cargo, there are only three shipments which are odd. Is there a definite link between any of those packages and the kidnapping?”
“Not that I know of,” replied Noonan.
“We could be grasping at straws,” the AIC said. “Just in case we have put a hold on all cargo so whether those packages were significant or not, they are still under lock-and-key, so to speak.”
“Is there anything else we should know?” The question had a tinge of satire and was aimed at Noonan.
‘Yesterday’s hero is today’s lackey,’ Noonan thought as he responded, “As we speak, the Seattle Police have no solid leads on where the hostages are. My office in Sandersonville is tracking this case around the clock and working with the Seattle authorities. All cell phones from the hostages have been accounted for and email to the three lap tops owned by three of the hostages have not responded. The hostages are not in any warehouse near the airport. There is no cargo which links directly with the hostages. So, in a nutshell, I have nothing but negatives to report.”
There was a moment of silence. “Ayanna,” the AIC said after seeing no one had any other questions. “What about the ultralight?”
“All I can say at this time is the ultralight picked up the gems. I saw the perp as she flew over – yes, it was a ‘she’– and she waved at me as she flew by.”
There was a soft groan from someone in the crowd.
“That’s enough,” snapped the AIC looking toward the command table. “We’ve got a long way to go before this is over.” Then he looked back to Ayanna. “Describe her.”
“Small, petite. I’d say she was about five feet tall, weighed close to 100 pounds. The ultralight looked gargantuan. She rose fast indicating the ultralight had no trouble with her weight.”
“She landed on the top deck of the Wickersham Hotel garage?”
“Affirmative, “continued Ayanna. “I’ll let the Alaska State Trooper helicopter pilot tell of the chase.”
Ayanna started to sit down but the AIC had another question.
“How did you know where to go to find the ultralight?”
“I didn’t. I just guessed. There was only one reporter at the far end of the Park Strip. She’d been the one who tracked us for the first drop, Geraldine McComber. When she and her cameraman started to beat feet to the Wickersham Hotel, I followed them. I got there just a bit ahead of her because I didn’t have to wait for a cameraman to catch up to me.”
“Where’d she get the lead?”
Someone in the audience cursed.
“That’s such a good question,” replied Ayanna hastily, “I don’t have an answer.”
“We all know now the ultralight landed on the roof of the parking garage at the Wickersham Hotel.” The AIC addressed the group. “What a lot of us do not know is why there was a special landing area for the plane. Someone had closed off the top floor of the parking garage about five minutes before the pick-up. Then they stretched some strong bungee cords between the parked cars on the roof. The bungees slowed the landing of the ultralight. The plane still hit the back wall, but at quite a reduced speed. Then the ultralight was hand-pushed around to the down incline. Once around the corner it couldn’t be seen from the air. The Alaska State Trooper helicopter was searching the ground level areas of the eastern end of the city while the ultralight was being pushed down the incline into the cover of the upper deck of the parking garage. When the trooper chopper made it directly over the top of the garage for a look, the ultralight was already on the second story down.”
“Are there any security cameras on inside of the structure?”
“Yes,” replied the AIC. “And they were operating. They showed a perfect picture of the landing and the moving of the ultralight down the ramp and around the corner. Security made the call to the police. Not much to report. The woman was wearing dark clothing and a ski mask. After the ultralight was no longer visible from the air, she walked to the Emergency Exit and stripped off her jacket and ski mask. There aren’t any security cameras in the stairwells. She kept her face away from the camera on the skywalk. We followed her across the bridge, into the lobby and then out the back door. That’s where the security camera coverage ended. She knew where every single security camera was and did not give us so much as an odd angle for a profile. She was very, very good.”
“How about the bungee cords and the ultralight?” There was a hopeful voice from someone.
“No fingerprints if that’s what you mean. The cords could have been bought at any sporting goods store anywhere in town. We ran the ultralight registration and found it had been stolen from the Oshkosh Air Show last year. We placed a call to the Oshkosh Police and all they could say was the ultralight disappeared during the show. The owner wants it back. Seems it was specially designed for power and maneuverability.”
“What a surprise,” someone said caustically. “So we have nothing?”
“Butkus is what we’ve got. We do have two mores drop to make. Maybe we’ll get lucky with one of those.”
Chapter 44
The room smelled like a wet dog. The hostages were standing around, soaked to the bone, and none of them were happy. Jim and Mittles took the brunt of the abuse. The invectives thrown their way were on par with favorite line of Oliver Hardy, “This is another fine mess you have gotten me into.”
“Well, we tried,” didn’t cut it. Everyone was shivering and angry.
The escape attempt had been an absolute failure. All 95 people rushed out of the warehouse and ran right into the cyclone fence. Then they fanned out in both directions, running along the fence as far as they could, trying to find a gate or a break in the fence. It didn’t take them long to realize they were in a fenced compound of abandoned buildings. There was razor wire on top of the fence so climbing was out of the question.
As far as attracting help was concerned, they were out of luck. There was forest on all sides of the fencing and no structures of any kind could be seen through the trees. The only break in the forest was a frontier road, double ruts in deep mud running to a doublewide gate. The gate was padlocked shut.
Then came the rain. It was a downpour. With no place to go, everyone went back into the make-shift barrack. They passed around what towels there were and everyone sat on their cots cursing Jim, Mittles and the Corporal.
The voice behind the screen was bordering on the hysterical. Apoplectic would have been a better description. He was so angry at times his voice was so loud it distorted the sound system.
Raging about how stupid their escape attempt had been, he demanded they close the bulkhead door. At the very least it would keep the rain out. For their safety, he told them, they were not to try to exit again. He, like them, was also a prisoner. He was alone in one of the buildings within the compound. He could not come out until his partner came back from a drug store run. When his partner did come back, the bulkhead door would be locked from the outside again. They were all warned his partner would be armed and there was surely going to be deaths if there was any interference in the re-locking of the door.
Then he ordered everyone to stand on one side of the room. As he read their names off the passenger manifest, they were to cross to the other side. This was to make sure everyone was present and accounted for. It was a clever way of doing it since no one could double count themselves.
Name by name he went down the list. Those who were called walked across the room and lingered on the far wall. All was going well until the voice said, “Randall McFerson.”
No one walked across the room. There was a stunned silence. Everyone looked for this Randall McFerson, whoever he was. “Don’t be shy, Corporal,” snapped th
e voice. “I’m sure you were the one behind the escape attempt. I know you are there.”
Still, no one walked across the room.
“This is not funny, Corporal,” said the voice, irritated now.
Still no one walked across the room.
“OK,” said the voice. “We’ll play it your way,” and he continued to read names off the list. When he came to the last name, no one was left on the near side of the room.
The Corporal had vanished.
Chapter 45
Even as the Command Center was shaking from its second failure, it got a call for the third delivery. The call came in on Ayanna’s cell phone. The texting read “Unknown Number.”
“I hope you have recovered from your little jog,” the voice said pleasantly.
“Oh, I have. You’ll be spending a lot of time in a place where there is no jogging,” she snapped. “At least not any cross-country jogging.”
There was laughter on the other end of the line. “You need a sense of humor, Ayanna. If you don’t have a laugh every now and again, life can be so droll.”
“I can’t find anything funny about what you are doing.”
“Ayanna! My love! You don’t see the humor in all of this? We’ve made 95 people just up and disappear. We’ve snarled every rule in the book for law and order for over 2,000 miles, snagged $10 million in gems, made the front page of just about every newspaper across the country and half of America has their radios on waiting for the next drop. I’d say we’ve done pretty well.”
“This game is not over!”
“Right you are. Right this is a game. Right now we’re winning it.”
“You’ve been lucky so far!”
“Luck has nothing to do with it. Skill, Ayanna, skill. There’s a whole new world of entrepreneurs out there. We’re the vanguard. Plan well, focus on the prize and strike. It’s all in the sleight of hand.”
“You’ve done well twice. Your luck is going to run out.”
“Not likely. Now let me speak to Captain Noonan.”
Ayanna looked up from the phone with questions in her eyes. The rest of Command Center was staring at her. They knew she was on the phone with the extortionists, they just didn’t know what she was talking about. The AIC was reaching for the phone but Ayanna just shook her head.
“He wants to talk to Captain Noonan.”
Noonan just smiled. He looked at the AIC and said, “I sort of knew this was coming.” Then he took the phone. “Noonan here.” He hit the phone button with the loudspeaker imprint to put the conversation on speaker phone. “You are on speaker phone.”
“Well, well, well,” said the voice. “We meet again.”
“We have met before?”
The statement took everyone in the room by surprise.
“Oh, yes. We have met before. The last time was many years ago.”
“I was very young then.”
“So was I,” said the extortionist. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment.”
“Should I remember you?”
“You will. It will take a while but you will. It was a long time ago. You interrupted a caper of mine. Took all my comrades. But, as the saying goes, ‘Ha, Ha, Ha, He, He, He, you got my brother but you didn’t get me.”
“You were the lucky one?”
“Yes. My brother died in prison.”
“Well, my condolences. He earned his trip to prison I suspect.”
“The price of our business.”
“Heck of a business. Are you going to tell me who you are or is this just a casual trip down Memory Lane?” Noonan listened intently.
“Oh, no. This is just a courtesy call. I want you thinking about who I am for a while. I don’t think you’ll figure it out in time to stop me. I want you to know I have been waiting to pull this caper for years. I was waiting for the stars to align so you would be here – so I could walk away with millions and tarnish your career at the same time.”
“Well,” Noonan said, “the stars must have aligned properly. But you are a long way from home free.”
“Not so far. But you are a long way from stopping the wheels we have been set in motion. We’re about half-through and so far you haven’t so much as touched us.”
“Every worm has a tendency to turn.”
“Shakespearean still, eh? Good for you. Haven’t changed in years.”
Noonan looked at the AIC and made a motion with his hand he wanted a pen or pencil. One of the officers at the table slid a pad in his direction. Noonan started taking notes, everyone at the table either reading his handwriting upside down or craning their necks to see what he had printed. Noonan looked at Ayanna as he wrote, “Have my office pull up my arrest record.”
“Are you still there, Captain?”
“Of course,” replied Noonan. “I was just indicating to the gathered throng you are gloating over your successes.”
“I am modest, I must say. Now, you are going to make the next drop.”
“Me? Why me? I don’t know the town. How are you going to make sure I can hot foot it to the phone booth where I’m supposed to be?”
“I’ll be kind. How’s that?”
“You are gracious as well. How about a hint as to who you are?”
“The hint will be when you see me. My parents say my brother and I looked alike.”
“Twins?”
“Five years apart.”
“You sound English. A clue or are you just a good actor?”
“Performer! Captain! You should know better! Actors are people who pretend to be doctors when they advertise Seltzer on television. Performers are professionals. They can become Claudius at the drop of hat or quote Prince Hamlet at a cocktail party. Actor! I think not.” Then the voice of the extortionist changed to a deep throated, boom. “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
“AS YOU LIKE IT, well done.”
“Well done, indeed. Now, on to more important things, the next drop. You will be making the next drop.”
“I am giddy with anticipation.”
“Don’t be. I’m going to add a bit of turmoil into the mix.”
“Oh?”
“You see, I know you. You are, and I am loath to admit it, very good at what you do. You are so good you are the one cog in the law and order machine which needs special handling.”
“Dare say.”
“Yes. But, as it happens, I have a natural advantage here. You see, the way to dilute quality is to mix it with inferiority.”
“A bit of a mixed metaphor, don’t you think?”
There was silence on the line for a moment. “Maybe. Word games again, Captain. OK, let’s cut to the chase. You will be making the next drop but the man who will be organizing the drop is not going to be the Federal agent who thinks he is in charge. I’m going to go right to the top.”
“The top of what?”
“The lines of authority. The man who is going to organize this drop is going to be the Head of Homeland Security for Alaska, Henry Harrison.”
The blanching of Noonan’s face was so clear everyone around the table held their breath. “You are kidding, of course.”
“On the contrary I am quite serious. In fact, I have his personal number right here. After I hang up from you, I’ll be calling him. I will expect the next drop to be made no later than 4:15. No time for shut eye. Keep this phone, by the way. I know the number.”
Then the cell phone went to buzz.
Everyone looked at Noonan with questioning eyes.
“This,” he said shaking his head and smiling at the same time, “is going to be very interesting.”
Chapter 46
“Gerry, dahling, how are you?”
“Well, you did me well the last time so I’m happy to hear from you now.”
“Good, good. I hope you are ready to travel?”
“Of, course. Where are we going this time?”
>
“Gerry! You know I don’t reveal state secrets! It’s been a busy day for you. I hope you’re not sleepy.”
“Not yet. It’s still early in the afternoon.”
“Well, you be ready to go at 4 p.m. You won’t have to put on running shoes this time but you will have to be in your car in the downtown area when I call.”
“In the downtown area?”
“Correct.”
“Any particularly place in the downtown area?”
“Not really.”
“It is not a good idea to be just anywhere in the downtown area at 4 p.m.,” Gerry said. “At 4:30 every federal, state and city worker gets off. Ten seconds later the streets are clogged.”
“Exactly why I chose 4 p.m. It will give you ten minutes to get in place.”
“So the action will happen at 4:10?”
“More or less. As long as you are in place by 4:10 – and I mean exactly 4:10, you’ll be able to capture some a-m-a-z-i-n-g footage.”
“Amazing as in Pulitzer Prize winning?”
“I’d like to think so.”
“Then I am your girl.”
Chapter 47
Henry Harrison was giddy with excitement. Had he been alone he would have been jumping for joy.
The extortionists were calling him!
Him!
HIM!
The Head of Homeland Security for Alaska!
Henry Harrison!
He was getting the call!
Not the FBI!
Not the Anchorage Police!
Him!
The extortionists clearly didn’t think the FBI was up to the job of doing it right!
Now it was his turn.
Why, he’d show ‘em.
“Yes, that is correct. And you are?”
“I am the extortionist but you already knew that. Hoping for a clue to my identity?”
“It would be nice,” said Harrison.
“OK, I’ll give you a clue.”
Harrison smiled, “Give me a moment to get a pen and piece of paper.”
