by L C Lang
“What’s the deal with the list of codes?” Palmer asked.
“Fitzpatrick apparently requested it as a means of faith between them. Fitzpatrick handed the man an envelope. I am sure it was money, but I don’t know how much. Fitzpatrick told me he paid him extra too. Oh, there is a contract too. I doubt it is in his briefcase. I am not convinced the codes are right. Besides, I doubt a professional hacker is going to hand over the codes he used. He did say he had hid the shell codes on multiple levels.” She paused a moment. “Oh, I just thought of something else. Fitzpatrick was apparently setting someone up to take the fall for this. I think it was his boss. He gave the hacker an e-mail address. I guess the e-mail address is going to show up as the originating source of the hacking. Apparently, Fitzpatrick doesn’t think much of his boss. He said his boss has been taking credit for things he has been doing, so this was his way of getting back at him. I think he wants his boss’s job.”
Palmer shook his head. “I’ve heard the tension in FEMA is high. Guess now we know why. Anyway, this hacker did almost the same thing a year and a half ago in Ohio, so he is a pro at hiding the codes he used.” He paused a moment, then looked at McWilliams, who had now came back. “Did you get ahold of the office?”
“Yes, talked to Donovan. I filled him in on what is going on. He is getting a crew ready now. We just have to get the information to them.”
Palmer nodded. “Okay, will you take care of that? The company names are on the six screens, so you will have something to work with.” McWilliams nodded, and Palmer handed him the computer. McWilliams walked back to the SUV and got inside. Then Palmer turned back to Maggie.
“Is he going to drive the computer back to New York?”
Palmer shook his head. “No, this is a high tech SUV. We have a computer uplink, so he can send every file that is on the computer.”
Maggie nodded. She would really like to see it, but right now, she had more to tell him.
“Okay. There is one more thing,” Palmer said.
“What’s that?”
“Where’s the flight crew? They aren’t still inside, are they?”
Maggie shook her head. “No, I got them out before I went inside.”
“Good. Where are they?”
Maggie nodded. “I’ll get them.”
Palmer shook his head. “Just tell me where they are and we’ll get them.”
“No, sir. Because I wasn’t sure who could be trusted around here, I told them not to come out until I told them to.”
Palmer paused a moment, then nodded. “Probably a good idea. Okay, go ahead.”
As she walked towards the woods to the south, she looked at the house. Three fire trucks were now getting the fire under control. The house was still smoking, but she was sure that would end soon. At least the fire was out. Jack had been loaded into an ambulance and it was now pulling out. When she got near the end of the house, she stopped. Palmer stopped next to her. Maggie pointed to the basement door.
“They were kept in the basement in separate rooms. Their luggage is still down there. Any chance they will be able to take their luggage with them when they leave?”
Palmer looked at her. “Is the basement door unlocked?”
“Yes. So are the room doors. I found the key to open the doors.” She pulled the key out of her pocket and handed it to him.
“Okay.” He signaled the SWAT team leader over to him. He gave him instructions to get the luggage and personal effects out. The man nodded, and then signaled two other men to help. Then they headed for the basement door.
Maggie and Palmer began walking again. Thirty feet later, Maggie stopped.
“Just a minute.” Maggie walked to the edge of the southern part of the woods. She stopped near to where she knew they were. At least she hoped they were still there. They had to have seen everything that had been going on. She hoped they hadn’t panicked and took off.
“Captain Murphy, you and your crew can come out now.”
A few moments later, one by one, all seven came out. Captain Murphy walked up to her, a questioning look on his face.
“Who are these men?” Captain Murphy asked, nodding towards Palmer.
“He is with the FBI. This is Special Agent Palmer. Did you call them?”
Murphy nodded. “Yes, I did. I told him what you told me to.” He handed her cell phone back to her.
Agent Palmer walked up to him, extending his hand out to him. “Captain Murphy. I am Special Agent Darren Palmer. I am glad to finally meet you. We need to talk to you and your crew to find out what happened. We will try to make it as short as possible. Then we’ll make sure you all get home to your families.”
Captain Murphy shook Agent Palmer’s hand. Then he turned to Maggie.
“Thank you for getting us out. I don’t know what would have happened to us. I do know you saved our lives. We heard the men coming through the edge of the trees. We all got scared and went as far back as we could and hid. Then we saw the house catch fire.” He shook his head. “The man who brought our food seemed different today. I didn’t get a good feeling about it. I wonder now if they would have left us inside and let the house burn down.”
Maggie shook her head. “No, they wouldn’t have. I heard them say that you were to be let go tomorrow morning. It was someone else who caused the fire. Still, I am glad I saw you the day you got out of the tour bus. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known any of you were in there.”
He shook his head. “You know, I don’t even remember how we got here. I had started a diary, writing down things as I remembered them. I can’t remember much past the take off.
“They must have given you something,” she said.
He nodded. “They might have. I just don’t remember. They did give us a lot to drink.”
Maggie nodded. “Something was probably in the drinks.”
John nodded. “I’m just glad it’s over. My wife isn’t in good health, and I’ve been worried about her.”
“You’re wife is just fine,” Palmer said. “She’s been leading the barrage of calls before and after they found the plane.”
John looked confused. “They found the plane?”
Palmer nodded. “Yes. It was located in eastern Quebec Province, Canada.”
“Canada?” John Murphy shook his head. “That’s incredible. I just don’t remember anything.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Palmer said. “Now, if you and your crew will follow me, we’ll get you started on your way back home.”
Just then, the sound of an approaching helicopter got their attention. A moment later, it came into view. It was a large military type helicopter. It landed on the ground, a hundred feet away. Once the rotors had stopped, Palmer led the group toward the helicopter. A few moments later, the three SWAT team members brought the crews luggage and loaded them on the helicopter. Once the flight crew, and Fitzpatrick and Walter, and their two SWAT escorts, got on-board, the helicopter lifted off the ground. Maggie watched until it was out of sight.
“What’s going to happen to them?” she asked Palmer, who was now standing beside her.
“They are going to be airlifted back to New York. There are several agents waiting to talk to them. They might not get much out of them, based on what Capt. Murphy said. But, they will be able to tell how they were treated and what the conditions were.”
“As far as I could tell, they were well fed. The rooms are only about ten by twelve feet and there is a small bathroom in each room. They seem to have been given everything they needed.”
“Except their freedom.”
Maggie nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay, we need to talk now about this man Whitcomb, and the woman. How long ago did they leave?”
“They left about a half an hour or so ago. They are in a black Lincoln. I’m not sure of the year, but I’ve got the plate number.” She pulled her notepad from her jeans back pocket and gave him the license plate number. “It’s probably a rental. Fitzpatrick drove the car in late this a
fternoon. I heard them say they were heading to Buffalo, New York. They were going to ditch the car at the airport and then take the tour bus into western Canada. It is probably the same bus I saw them bring the flight crew in on. It is a white bus, with about five darkened windows on each side. No name on it, though. Apparently, the other two are waiting on the bus.”
“Did you get the license plate number of the bus?”
Maggie shook her head. “No, I didn’t.”
“That’s okay, we will find the bus, and we will find the car before it gets to New York.”
“I hope you find them. After they stay in Canada for a while, they are going to head back to Europe again. It’s all on the tape.”
“Okay. I will get the word out on them. Somebody will find the car.”
“I really didn’t get a real good look at any of them.”
“That’s alright. We have pictures of all of them. They will know who to look for.”
Maggie glanced at her watch at the same time Palmer did.
Only five more hours to go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Maggie sat across the table from the two FBI agents. It was now four o’clock in the morning and they were in a conference room in the county sheriff’s office. She had just finished giving her testimony on when she first saw the tour bus, what she had done and what she had heard. They had already listened to the tape recording, but wanted to get more detail. She figured Agent Palmer was going to yell at her again for going in before they got there, but he didn’t. She was grateful for that, because she knew she had made the right decision.
They had also asked Maggie about her service with the Indianapolis Metro Homicide Division. They had taken both of her guns to run a ballistics test on them. She admitted she shot Jack. Because of what they had heard on the tape, Palmer said there wouldn’t be any problems. Still, protocol forced them to put her gun through a check.
Maggie now waited to see if they had any more questions. Agent Palmer was going through his notes.
“Okay, well, I think that is all for now. Do you have any questions?”
She thought about it for a moment. “Yes, actually I do. What exactly happened to Captain Murphy’s plane?”
Palmer nodded. “The flight left at nine-thirty Friday morning from London. On-board were six passengers. A large tour group was supposed to be on the flight, but they canceled at the last minute. I suspect this was all Fitzpatrick’s doing. We still have to check on that. All six of the passengers are ex-patriots. Two of them are certified pilots and were the one’s who flew the plane. Once the plane Captain Murphy was flying had taken off, they hijacked it. One of the flight attendants remembered smelling something just before she blacked out. We figure they had put some kind of gas throughout the plane and disabled the crew. Then they took Captain Murphy and his first officer out of the cockpit and the two certified pilots took over. They had turned off the transponder, which is why no one could trace where the plane was. The plane ended up at a very remote airport in eastern Canada and left here. At some point in Canada, everyone got in the tour bus and came into the U.S. They found bogus passports for everyone on the tour bus for when they crossed the border.”
Maggie shook her head. “They really thought this all out, didn’t they? Did they get all of them?”
He nodded. “Yes, they did. They found the Lincoln about a hundred miles from here an hour after we put the word out. They were well on their way to New York. Agents out of Pennsylvania found the tour bus parked in the long-term parking at the Buffalo International airport. They found the two pilots sleeping inside the bus. They subdued them with no problem. The bus is on its way to Washington, where we will have forensics check it out.”
“So, they went to all that trouble just to get the hacker back in the U.S.?
Palmer nodded. “Yes. Whitcomb had caused problems with the power grid in Ohio about a year and a half ago. After he took off, CIA agents finally found him in England. They finally located him when he began hacking into places in England and the U.S. They also found he had now had a group with him. Lisa Morrison, the blonde-haired girl with the earring in her eyebrow, we believe is his girlfriend and he has been teaching her the tricks of the trade. The others were mainly back-up for Whitcomb. Sort of security in numbers. Two CIA agents found them last Thursday. They called in support to raid them, but by the time they got there, the two men were gone.”
“Were those the two men they found on the plane?”
Palmer nodded. “Yes. The other female passenger is an expert shooter. She is a former cop, who shot an unarmed man in Washington, D.C., but she took off before her trial. While she hasn’t admitted it yet, we believe she is the one who shot the two CIA agents. They found a gun on her, but they also found two dismantled guns on the tour bus. The two pilots were guarding them until their friends got back. We confiscated the guns and testing is in process right now to see if one of them killed the two CIA agents. They also found a canister of sleeping gas on the bus too.”
“Sleeping gas? How did they get that on the plane?”
He shrugged. “That’s a good question. They checked the luggage of the four in the Lincoln and found small empty cosmetic bottles. If the security didn’t pick up the gas, then I would say the visual security check just thought it was a small bottle of perfume or cologne. It doesn’t take much to put someone out. They also found Rohypnol on the bus. They probably put it in the drinks Captain Murphy talked about. The only thing we don’t know is how they got from the plane in Quebec to the bus. We are still working on that.”
Maggie shook her head. “I don’t understand. If Whitcomb is a hacker, he really doesn’t need to be in the U.S. to hack into companies here. So, why did he take the chance to come back here.”
Palmer nodded. “That’s a good question. I do know things were getting hot for Whitcomb and his group. The CIA would find where they were at and they would have to disappear again. From the paperwork they found in Whitcomb’s car, he had practiced getting into the companies. When the CIA began getting too close too fast, they decided they needed to leave England. That is when Fitzpatrick set up the situation that got them on the flight by themselves.”
Maggie shook her head. The whole situation was worse than she thought it would be.
Palmer continued. “They all have outstanding warrants from the U.S., so they will be added to the current charges. My boss notified the Federal prosecuting attorney at midnight. He called in his whole staff. They are already working on a list of charges, which was getting longer every time we notified them of what we had found. No question, they will all be in prison for the rest of their lives. Fitzpatrick lawyered out right away, so that ended that. He is being charged with terrorism, so he will be spending the rest of his life in jail.
“We made a copy of your tape and made a printed version too. The President and the Administrator of FEMA were notified about what happened, but they will see the transcript later this morning, along with the council of the Homeland Security. Our boss called them after we let him know what was going on here. He said the President wasn’t in a good mood after he was briefed. He is going to be even less thrilled when he hears your tape. You got a lot of good information on it.”
Maggie nodded. “I had hoped the tape would come out all right.”
“It did. The voices were clear. Where were you when you started the tape?”
“Did you see the loveseat, or what was left of it, near the door to the right in the living room?” Palmer nodded. “Well, the door to the room was partly closed when I got to the living room. I could hear them talking inside. So, I made a quick dash to the loveseat, and then hid behind it. I had no sooner got there, than someone opened the door more, so I could definitely hear the conversations. I just held the tape recorder towards the doorway and hoped I caught everything.”
“Well, you did. We got a copy of the tape for the Federal prosecutor’s too. They are going to have a heyday with it. That was a good idea.”
“I couldn’t believe what I heard. Once I realized what was going on, I couldn’t believe someone would actually do this to their own countrymen.”
“It’s terrorism. The worst part is that it was Americans against Americans. And Fitzgerald was behind it.”
“His problem was that he had a vendetta against his boss. Maybe he really was doing a lot of good when the disasters hit. Maybe his boss is a jerk who takes credit for what someone else has done. But, this wasn’t the way to deal with the problem.”
Palmer nodded. “That’s true. It’s too bad his good reputation can never be redeemed.” He leaned forward across the table. “Oh, and you didn’t hear this from me. But, the word is that the President isn’t all that thrilled with the Administrator, so a change in the Administrator is in the near future.”
Maggie nodded. “Guess another reorganization of FEMA will be coming soon. Again.”
Palmer laughed. So did McWilliams. “Yeah, that’s a guarantee.” He paused a moment. “I do have one more question. Who is Jack Westin? We couldn’t find him in Fitzpatrick’s group.”
She took a deep breath. “Well, you do know he is the local police chief.” Palmer nodded. “Okay, he is also my ex-husband. After we divorced six years ago, I took my maiden name back.”
“Well, that explains part of it. We heard what he said on the tape.”
“Jack always wanted more than he had. Our marriage included. He worked for years to be the police chief. I can’t believe he blew it. And, all for greed. His intentions were good. He has lived in this area his whole life. I am sure he did want to see the town have more than what they have. He just went about it the wrong way. Because he was from here, he knew my house was a rental. What he didn’t know was that my renter left a month ago.”
He nodded. “Do you think he would have shot you?”
