Tin Man

by Dale Brown

  trailer and set up thirty feet away.

  "Is very simple," the soldier explained. "You not

  touch any chemicals. You attach chemical tanks

  here and here . . . attach power plug here "He

  worked the controls as he explained the hookup

  procedures, while a dozen senior Brotherhood members

  , highly experienced in cooking methamphetamme

  , stood right beside him watching every step.

  They would be the ones who would teach the other

  chapter members how to use the device. They marveled

  at its cleanliness, efficiency, and safety.

  An hour later the tank was opened up, and the

  specialists examined the result of the first stage of

  the process. inside the mixing tank were more than

  thirty pounds of clean, pure chloropseudoephedrine.

  "Is ready for hydrogenation," the Aryan Brigade soldier

  said. "We leave inside. No touch, no filter, no

  dry. The machine, it do everything." The Brother- A

  hood cookers couldn't believe it-thirty pounds of

  absolutely pure chloropseudoephedrine in the tank

  ready for hydrogenation, and they didn't have to

  race against deadly sulfur dioxide or risk being

  burned by hydrochloric-acid gas. There was no

  smell, no residue outside the tank, nothing. The

  waste by-products,of the first reaction were collected

  inside a separate tank, ready for burial.

  Even as the second step of the process was began,

  discussions started about how the batch was going

  to be distributed, how much would go to each designated

  member, and how the money was going to be

  paid. Thirty pounds of almost-ready methampheti

  amine was worth between two and three hundred

  thousand dollars, maybe more, and every one of the

  members and pledges was arguing about getting his

  fair share-plenty of customers were out there waiting

  . As the hydrogenator was being sealed up and

  pressurized, money was already being collected.

  I'l wait here," the German commando said. "We

  insp ect product together. I am responsible for unit

  until you pay."

  "We want you to wait outside, Himmler," said

  the president of the Brotherhood chapter. "We don't

  need you listening in on our distribution plans."

  "Ich gehe nicht! I not leave until product is inspected!"

  "You leave now because I tell you to leave!" the

  biker ordered. The unarmed German had no option.

  They gave him a bottle of whiskey and the woman

  of his choice to keep him company, then escorted

  him to the propane-refill station in front of Toby's

  and told him to wait until summoned. A Brotherhood

  pledge was assigned to guard him.

  While the commando and his guard took a seat

  on a picnic bench behind the propane tank, the

  biker woman went into Toby's to pee, buy a pack of

  cigarettes, and chat with the clerk. She was gone no

  more than ten minutes, but when she came back,

  she found the Brotherhood pledge dead and the German

  gone. In panic, she dashed back to the barn to

  tell the Brotherhood members.

  just as she reached the barn, the world dissolved

  into a ball of blue-yellow fire and a searing blast of

  heat that she felt for a fraction of a second before

  she was vaporized. The mile-wide fireball consurned

  the barn, the farmhouse, Toby's Market, the

  propane tank, and thirty houses and businesses surrounding

  the blast site. The column of fire stretched

  two thousand feet up into the night sky. The concussion

  shattered windows and awoke people from

  their sleep for miles around.

  But that was not the only such blast. Throughout

  the night, in sites all over the state of California,

  enormous mushroom-cloud-like fireballs erupted

  without warning. In locations as far north as Chico,

  as far south as Los Angeles, as far east as Death

  Valley, and as far west as Oakland and San Francisco

  , huge explosions ripped the night sky, instantly

  killing hordes of drug cookers and dealers

  and not only wiping out members of the Satan's

  Brotherhood, but devastating other biker gangs as

  well. In several areas, the methamphetamine hydrogenators

  were located in the basements of apartment

  complexes and in the middle of crowded

  urban areas. Hundreds of innocent bystanders and

  residents died in the blasts.

  MoIn

  a few short hours, the Satan's Brotherhood

  rship

  torcycle Club, as well as much of the membe

  of several other biker gangs and many Mexican

  and Asian methamphetamine gangs, had virtually

  ceased to exist.

  SACRAMENTO CONVENTION CENTER, J STREET,

  SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

  SATURDAY, 7 MARCH 1998, 0708 PT

  n times of emergency anywhere in the city or

  county, the Sacramento Convention Center in

  the heart of the city was transformed into a crisis

  nimand center. In a matter of hours, telephone

  and radio networks were set up in several of the

  hospitality suites, with the brain trusts of the city

  and county administration in a command suite and

  other staff and support agencies in the others, all of

  them connected by phone, runners, and the Central

  Dispatch communications center. As the crisis

  grew, additional suites were commandeered. All the

  rooms were tied in to the various safety, maintenance

  , welfare, and administration offices throughout

  the county, each with its own command center

  in place. Representatives from outside state and federal

  agencies also came to the command suite as

  summoned.

  The mayor of the city of Sacramento, Edward

  Servantez, strode into the side entrance of the convention

  center, escorted by a plainclothes police officer

  who had been assigned to him, as to most

  other major city officials, after the Sacramento Live!

  shooting. Servantez, a short, dark, handsome lawyer

  and former state legislator in his late fifties, was

  accustomed to starting his day early. Accompanying

  him this morning was one of his aides; the chief

  of police, Arthur Barona; and the city manager.

  Servantez was in his third and last term as mayor

  of Sacramento, and as such he had been through

  several crisis-management-team exercises and a few

  real ones, mostly for natural disasters such as the

  devastating floods of 1986 and 1997. But no matter

  how many times he and his staff practiced or implemented

  the crisis-management plan, it always

  seemed to turn into a barely controlled bedlam.

  During the exercises, the staff would often call

  time-outs to discuss what they were doing wrong

  and how to get back on track, but it never helped.

  And during real emergencies, of course, there was

  no such thing as a time-out.

  . Servantez removed his jacket, loosened his tie,

  and took his seat at the center of the head table,

  situated on a raised platform at t
he rear of the suite.

  To his right were the other city representativesthe

  deputy mayor, city manager, city attorney, fire

  chief, director of public works, city council repre-

  .sentative, and Barona. To his left were the chairman

  of the county board of supervisors, Madeleine

  Adams; the sheriff and undersheriff; the district

  attorney; the county fire chief; and the county commissioner

  for public works. Places were also reserved

  at the head table for representatives from the

  California Office of Emergency Services, the governor's

  office, the California Highway Patrol, the National

  Guard, the state attorney general, the FBI,

  and other state and federal agencies. A briefer's podium

  , rear-projection screen, and PA system were

  set up opposite the head table. There were two tables

  of staff members to the right of the table, and a

  communication center and refreshment table on the

  left.

  All the necessary players were now present, so

  Servantez said to Chairman Adams, "Let's get

  started, shall we? Can we please get a situation and

  update briefing?"

  "Yes, Mr. Mayor." She nodded to the Sacramento

  County undersheriff and he stepped up to the lectem

  . A map of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, and

  Yolo counties came up on the large rear-projection

  screen. "At ten-thirty-seven last night an explosion

  and fire was reported in the area around E Street and

  Market in Rio Linda," the undersheriff began. "The

  first fire units on the scene reported several homes

  and businesses on fire or heavily damaged by an explosion

  , and the call was upgraded to four alarms.

  Four square city blocks were affected by the blast.

  Upon further investigation, firefighters discovered

  remnants of precursor chemicals used in the manufacture

  of methamphetamines . . ."

  "Precursor chemicals?" the city public works director

  asked. "What's that?"

  "In simple terms, they're the intermediate chemicals

  that are produced before making the final product

  ," the undersheriff explained. "It's a felony to

  make or possess these precursor chemicals, just as it

  is to make or possess meth itself.

  "The fire captain called in both county

  HAZMAT teams and sheriff's narcotics investigators

  , who took command of the scene," the undersheriff

  went on. "The death toll appears to be quite

  high: Investigators estimate over a hundred deaths

  and several dozen injuries as a result of this one

  blast."

  "Are you suggesting this was basically a narcotics

  case?" Mayor Servantez interjected. "That's a

  staggering loss of life."

  Captain Tom Chandler of the police department's

  Special Investigations Division stepped up

  to the lectern to respond. "No, Mr. Mayor; we don't

  believe so, because approximately twenty minutes

  later, a similar large-scale explosion occurred in the

  Oak Park section of the city. it was of comparable

  intensity, destroying homes within one block of the

  blast and damaging every structure within four

  square blocks. The casualty count was similarly

  high-in this case, over one hundred and forty

  deaths and almost a hundred injuries. Then there

  was another explosion in the Northgate and Levee

  Road section of the city just a few minutes later.

  This one occurred in a storage room under a multifamily

  apartment building. The death toll is expected

  to exceed two hundred."

  "My God," Servantez breathed, shaken by the

  numbers. "What do we have here? A serial

  bomber?"

  "Perhaps, sir," Chandler replied, "but it doesn't

  quite fit the pattern. The blasts were close together

  time-wise but spread out in terms of distance. Serial

  bombers, even a group of bombers, usually strike

  targets close together but spread out time-wise."

  "Then what? A gang war? Clumsy drug chemists

  ?"

  "Perhaps all of the above, Mr. Mayor," Chandler

  replied. "These were not the only explosions that

  occurred last night. in all, there were four blasts in

  the city, six in the county, and seven more in El

  Dorado, Placer, and Yolo counties. Similar explosions

  have been reported in San Francisco, Oakland,

  Stockton, Bakersfield, and Los Angelesa total of

  almost thirty powerful explosions, with death tolls

  ranging from a few dozen to over three hundred and

  extensive injuries."

  "So what the hell have you found out?"

  "All of the explosions have two things in cornmon

  : traces of methamphetamine precursor chemi-

  cals found at the blast scene, and a large number of

  gang members at each location, usually members

  of biker gangs," Chandler said. "The large numbers

  of gang members indicate a gang chapter meeting,

  maybe even an instructional meeting on how to

  cook methamphetamines. The pattern of the deaths

  at each location suggests that there was very little

  or no warning, possibly ruling out intentional explosions

  or an attack by outside forces. Those killed

  in the blasts seemed to be very close to the blast

  center, as if observing or guarding the site.

  "At the very least, it appears likely that everyone

  at the blast scenes wanted to be there-these do not

  seem to be executions or assassinations," Chandler

  concluded. "And while this or any other particular

  blast could have been a booby trap or experiment

  gone wrong, the similarity to other explosions

  throughout the state does seem to rule out an accident

  . One or two such blasts in one night could be a

  coincidence. Almost thirty of them, even if spread

  out in terms of distance, is no coincidence."

  "We've had meth-lab explosions in the past," the

  county fire chief pointed out. "But compared to any

  others, these blasts are enormous."

  "That's right," Chandler said. "A regular-size

  meth-lab explosion might substantially damage or

  set fire to a two-bedroom house or typical barn, or

  destroy a storage shed. These explosions destroyed

  entire city blocks, perhaps eighteen homes, and

  damaged many more. This means that the labs in

  question are many times larger than the usual labs

  we've seen. Plus, there are a lot more of them. So

  someone is making large meth-labs, big enough to

  destroy or damage almost two dozen homes at a

  time but disguised well enough to escape notice. Ws

  a very serious development. We're wondering how

  many labs like these didn't blow up.,,

  "Any estimate on how much meth these labs can

  make?" the mayor asked.

  "Hard to say, sir," Chandler said. "We're guessing

  as much as twenty pounds or even more-that's

  at least a quarter of a million dollars' worth at a

  time. The power of the explosions suggests that the

  meth cookers are using hydrogen gas as part of the

&n
bsp; cooking process, which is highly explosive when

  mixed with oxygen. A small meth lab might use a

  few cubic feet of hydrogen pressurized to thirty or

  forty psi-pounds per square inch. These labs must

  have been using perhaps two or three hundred

  times that amount. And the quality of the drug produced

  by the hydrogenation method is very goodthe

  product can be cut several times to increase its

  value and distribution tremendously."

  "So what's the situation now?" the county commissioner

  asked.

  "Critical," the undersheriff replied. "We've

  called for this crisis team because our resources,

  both city and county, are stretched beyond the

  limit. Both the city and the county have split up our

  narcotics-investigation teams and made them primaries

  on pieced-together narcotics-investigation

  teams, augmented by other detectives and patrol officers

  . We're using firemen and reservists to secure

  crime scenes, and because every blast scene involves

  hazardous materials, these untrained personnel

  are in great danger. We can't borrow Narcotics

  officers from neighboring counties because most of

  them are involved with investigating their own

  meth-lab explosions. And all of the area hospitals

  are clogged with casualties. We've got a real emergency

  situation here, Mr. Mayor, Madame Chairman

  .

  Adams spread her hands and looked at the city

  officials to her right. "It sounds to me like we need

  some help in handling the emergency, " she said.

  "Undersheriff Wilkins, what are you specifically requesting

  ?"

  "We need immediate help in securing and investigating

  the crime scenes and getting as many of our

  cops back on patrol as possible," the undersheriff

  replied. "Since the California Bureau of Narcotics

  Enforcement is likely to be busy investigating all

  the lab explosions statewide, we should request

  immediate support from the Drug Enforcement

  Agency, the FBI, and Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms-and

  we should ask the governor to mobilize

  the National Guard. We're requesting that the Infrastructure

  Protection and Security Plan be implemented

  immediately, and we simply don't have the

  manpower. All of our communications and utilities

  could be shut down."

  "Excuse me, Chairman Adams, Undersheriff Wilkins