by Jamal Shakur
I listened just to loosen him up but I wasn’t interested in his heart to heart , I wanted to know hard facts about these maniacs, “ That’s very interesting and I feel for your plight but tell me something I can use that will help me and you.”
What I am about to tell you is very extraordinary but I’m not telling you any of this to save myself but to save lives , I’ve had misgivings about this from the very beginning; the high brass have drawn up plans for eventually a major attack on all fronts . First, the water supplies will be poisoned and then our military will attack all major law enforcement all over the country and also we will spice it up with the occasional murder just to keep you busy and stretch out your man power.”
“That’s a very interesting story but it’s only a story, what we need is the plans i.e. where will they strike first and the Intel on every move they are about to make.”
All I can tell you are that we were all split up into cells, the guys in the other room was a part of my cell or some call it my crew. Our mission was to plant bombs to destroy bridges in all the surrounding major cities in the East Coast. The proof of our mission is recorded on a disk that I have hidden but I want something in return.”
“And what’s that, a get out free card, the only way that’s gonna happen is if that tape had better be pretty damn good.”
“It is, by first naming all the bridges that we will hit and who our commanding officer is and where all of our rendezvous points are.”
The tape was in a place that was obvious and in plain sight, we went to the bus terminal and opened up a locker and, thereit was the tape in question.I pop the tape into the CD player, it started off with the language of a military mission; the voice on the tape that was sort of narrating the whole thing was to our surprise, Karl Ranger. He was commanding and authoritative. It was obvious that the military arm was his to command. The madness behind the destroying of the bridges was to stop reinforcements from the military. Karl had thought this thing out very well. We gave the tape to the tech guy at Quantico. The tech guy got back with me right away, “We got something, and the CD has a number of jpeg files with hidden info imbedded in them.” There looks like there is more info on this tape then was thought. There were the locations of more weapons and the list of people that were to be assassinated coupled with the places all in chronological order of attack.
Ch 52
Monday 6:00am
The weekend went without a hitch, there was no problems in any of the cities in the east coast as anticipated. We were religiously following the CD’s listing of mayhem that they had in store for John Q public but to our surprise which made us exhibit a sigh of relief everything was normal. But good things like that only happen in fairytales and we weren’t reading fiction to a group of kindergartener’s.
It started off in the morning with a warning note given to local media outlets in Philly, New York and New Jersey. The letter started off with fake sincerity and how the establishment was oppressing and stalking them, the letter stated that one of the bridges would fall down under an explosion during rush hour but that they wouldn’t tell us exactly what bridge that it would be. This was how sinister the perp was, he wanted us to suffer under the suspense, and this was his way of getting off.
A uniform officer ran into homicide division excited and shouting at the top of his lungs, “They’ve hit us in New York.” He announced excitedly.
We were watching the news which has been on all of the time since we’ve been attacked by this group. The bridge in question was The Verrazano Bridge, a suspension bridge which connects boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. They attached a hundred pounds of C4 explosives under key positions under the bridge. They were approximately fifty deaths which was a low figure seeing how that piece of road is normally packed with hundreds of cars at any given time. But I don’t think people were thinking of that, they were reflecting on how this could have been an apocalyptic event. There could have been thousands of deaths, thus the terror in terrorism was reflected on TV and other news media. People were frightened and didn’t know what to do. The Spirit Nation didn’t know it but this was a bad move strategically, the office of Homeland Security and the armed forces would be part of the hunt now and it would be a matter time before they are either captured are killed.
But a people who are fanatical and think that their way is the right way, the whole idea of defeat didn’t cross their minds. It went on like this for the next few days; it was just like 911, people seen thuggies everywhere even where they didn’t exist. The quieter it got the more nauseating it became; it was the inaction that was driving me crazy. But this guy is special, the other shoe dropped, there were seven bodies found at seven different locations, all female and this time found at different types of locales. There were a couple of bodies found at a coffee internet café as before but this time a few found at malls and at private homes. I took one of the malls. For some reason I didn’t run like a bat of hell to the scene of the crime. The deed was done and I would take my time and try to slowly analyze the entire landscape.
I arrive at the scene of the crime, there was an eerie feeling in this one, the mall was like a ghost town, the usual crowd and the loud happy voices were stifled and replaced with fear and loathing, out of the five stores in this mini mall only a fast food hamburger joint was opened with people quietly sitting in their seats in shock. The Foot Locker and other clothing stores were shut down. I talked to the intake officer about what he knew. Any eyewitness to anything was in the Burger joint. There were approximately ten people in there, that’s good a small amount to deal with would be idea. I didn’t push it; I slowly made my rounds around each table asking questions about anything that they seen. However, the consensus was that they didn’t know much, out of the ten only one person had seen anything was an elderly woman. The woman was maybe in her late seventies, I don’t think she wanted to get involved but she gives the impression of being like she was of the era that people were attached to their civic duty which is quite a contrast of today whereas no one what’s to get involved. “You have the good luck of being the only person that’s seen anything of worth, tell me what you have seen,” I said cautiously.
“Well what do you know I hit the lottery, the only thing I seen was a guy caring a woman and then leaving her in the front court where shoppers normally sit for a rest, “said the woman nonchalantly?
“Could you describe him to me, if you can please?”
“He was a white male about 6ft4, med weight with a slight scar that ran the length of the left side of face.”
“Wow, that’s very good, you’re very observant.”
She went further as if she couldn’t stop talking once she was primed, “He simply walked slowly and causally out the back exit way, there was a woman that met him who was similarly dressed as he was in all black.” You saw all that, you must have 20/20 vision. She stared at me and lifted up some large military binoculars and said, “Here’s my 20/20”.
That was real funny, she could never be undone by cross examination if the perp went to trial, the defense would be stumped attacking her for her mid seventies eyesight only to be surprised by the old binoculars in the bag trick. Chance would have it we had a sketch artist with us and drew the perp to perfection almost too perfect. Omar was leering over him while he drew; just to relieve his boredom, perhaps? “Hey, Lucky, you got to see this one, you won’t believe it.” And I was surprised right out of my mind it was Karl Ranger. But why would he be a part of this maybe he wanted to be in the field and see how it felt to kill close-up?
Karl Ranger was back at the underground compound and temple of the thuggies. He was in a happy mood, it was now established that he could kill up close and personal and not just dependent on far away targets that fell by the whiff of bullets. The whole temple was in a delightful mood, when they could kill without detection and deceive law enforcement at the same time was one of their pillars of faith.
Ch 53
I was burnt out as I
often was when I came up against some of the crazies of the world when dealing with homicide. The only cure or a temporary cure was a needed respite at home that included social contact with Momma and the kids. I arrived home at one in the morning. I took time to slowly open up the three double locks on the door so as not to alarm and awaken anyone in the house. I went directly for the kitchen opened up the refrigerator and was about to grab one of those delicious fried chicken pieces with Mac and cheese. “So the prodigal Daddy has returned,” It was Momma sitting in her favorite stool with her elbow prompted on the kitchen table giving me the evil eye. “I have returned haven’t I but it’s all good,” I said with slight humor to lighten the situation.
“So how long do you plan on staying with us, “she said sarcastically.
“Well Momma this case is very perplexing and is very unusual, it’s not just criminals that we’re dealing with but fanatics that could pull down the whole country.” I went on further but changed the conversation, “I’m going upstairs and kiss the kids and head back to the precinct, tell them I was here. I stopped at May’s room first and then Duce’s, they look like little angels even though they weren’t little anymore, Duce had to be at least 200 pounds and stood 6ft5, and May was maturing into a young lady. I really didn’t have to immediately return but too many events were developing, that couldn’t escape my notice.
I was the only one at the office. It was now about 4:00 am, I was sat up in my little cubicle and reflecting on this whole case. The rest of the squad wouldn’t be in until about 8:00 or 9:00 at the latest. I had a nice cup of latté from the coffee house down the street; I popped it into the microwave and started to drink luxuriously, like it was the best thing in the world which it was.
Omar like always was the first to arrive. The big man was energetic the first thing in the morning, no doubt this came from the dawn football practices at Temple University. He was early but still was walking in that slow slew foot walk that he often exhibited. But he was still determined and in shape for a man in his late forties. “You know all the years I been coming up here and I’ve haven’t had once to beat you up here.”
“I guess one would say that I like my job more than you.” I said sarcastically.
“With all this shit happening you’d better.” He stated further, “ You know something , I’m not the one to come up with wild conspiracy notions , but here goes; it seem to me that every time we were about to do something substantial in capturing these guys something would happen to foil our performance.”
“And what does that tell you,” I stated lazily.
“That tells me that we might have a number of moles in the department and in the FBI.”
I stare at him with my mouth wide opened, and as usual the big fellow would often come up with some crazy concepts but sometimes his notions would hit the nail square on. I had all ready took a mental note of the possibilities of just that view , after all it couldn’t go unnoticed how long Karl Ranger was a part of the thuggie movement without our knowledge. I had one person that seemed to be at all the right places at the right time and that was Agent Crenshaw of the FBI.
Just who was he , I would have to tread lightly , investigating and looking into the background of an FBI agent in good standing would throw up some red flags and often could get one reprimanded or at worse fired. But still I had a couple of good friends at the bureau which shouldn’t be a problem.
I found out from one of my sources that agent Horatio Crenshaw was a ex navy seal guy , he also did some covert ops for the CIA in middle eastern countries ; he was fluent in Arabic and Farsi and was adapt at infiltrating foreign government installations and assassinations of foreign targets that the government thought were jeopardizing US interest. How he wynd up at Quantico and working for the FBI was unclear but he had risen to be the top agent there. The suspensions for me started at the very beginning , when individuals try to get to close to me I often become suspicious of them , that special offering of coffee and Danish and info about the perps we were pursuing , didn’t engender any trust from me . Usually the way it works is that the Feds often times keep info and intelligence to themselves and try to make the collar on their own to garnish all of the headlines which would negate all that help he seemed to be giving me. He also was working undercover at the US embassy in India; no doubt his knowledge of the thuggie clan could have started then. I looked further into his file to ascertain that type of info but would have to go further. About five years ago I did some things for the CIA when I was involved in the Reaper case , they needed some Intel and I supplied it to them , I had developed a close relationship with an agent name Robert Todd and I guess it was time to hand in my chips and get some needed Intel at once.
Ch 54
Agent Crenshaw was a dedicated agent and was a real company man but the years of the brass overlooking his work and not becoming head of the FBI homicide tactical division made him very bitter. Sinclair approached him at just the right moment. The hatred and hurt he felt had amassed deeply in his psyche. Hence, it was nothing anyone could say that could stop him from not betraying the trust of his comrades. It wasn’t weird to him the double life style; he had done it before for over five years by simply infiltrating and acting the part of the undercover enemy, in his capacity and years of service , but this time he is trusted and knows the marks well and they would never suspect him in a million years.
Navy Seals taught him a lot; the many years he came in contact with C4 and other explosives helped him out tremendously. The guys at the temple were in awe of him and respected his intelligence and expertise. That was totally different than the way he was treated at Quantico, they took advantage of him, at least that’s the way he saw it in his mind. He was below the lowest man on the totem pole. Even though he wasn’t treated well, he felt conflicted; he had taken an oath and here he was portraying that very oath, God and country. But he convinced himself that he was wronged to such an extent that he must obtain revenge. It was so easy, the murders and explosives, the agents weren’t the same as they used to be. It was quite easy to deceive them and just about do what you wanted. He only had one to worry about and that was Dr Detective Lomax, he was shrewd and analytical nothing seem to get pass him without his methodically examining it, he had a suspicious mind and didn’t seem to trust anyone. He knew guys like this back in the old neighborhood , he didn’t have many friends but the ones he had he cherished , Crenshaw had tried too many small things to ally himself with Lomax but to get his full trust he would have to do something life saving to receive his undying trust. His mind worked in a bit of irony, if things weren’t going the way he wanted them to go he create a situation that fit the moment. Case in point, he had been working on something that would bring him really close to Lomax , he noted that the detective’s son was participating in basketball practice every Wednesday evening and that’s he intended to show Lomax how much dedication that he had when it came down to his fellow colleagues.
Crenshaw and a few of his buddies from the temple were quietly waiting in a dark unmarked van for at least two hours before practice began. They peered out of the window and saw Duce Lomax’s son lumbering down the path way, he was early as he usually was. They waited after the two hour practice ended. Duce was by himself as usual and walked closely by the van, the sliding door flew open and Crenshaw grabbed him and threw him down roughly to the van floor. “What the hell is going on, do you guys know my Pops a cop.” He screamed loudly.
Crenshaw laughed and began to rapidly speak. “You are very young, ‘Pops and cop’ damn that rhymes planning a rap career after you’ve retire from basketball.” Duce didn’t respond, he was still startled and the cat mask of the guy speaking to him didn’t help and the others with the other spooky masks on didn’t help any.
Crenshaw road around for about a half an hour crisscrossing into various blocks to throw off any memory of directions that Duce might try to retain. He picked up the phone with the muffle piece and began to speak; it was Lucky on the
other end. “ We have your son Duce , he’s a scrapping young man , he plays ball real well, and if it was me I would think about retiring and getting that brand new Jag.” He giggled out loudly with his mouth covered by his hands.
I was angry and perplexed at the same time, my first reaction was why Duce, what did the perp hope to accomplish by kidnapping my son. I called back at the number he gave me but so what , what did I have to give him , the last time I checked my bank statements , a big zero was the balance and characters like this already knew that . “I know you’re bewildered about your son’s abduction but when you hear why you will understand. We know you are a poor grunt civil servant who lives and dies for your job, your bank and investments are a big zero but we don’t have any use for your son but we will leave it like this, however, if any of my men or me are captured you will do your best to look the other way are we will snatch Duce all over again, or maybe Mia and Momma.” At any rate if you betray me, you will pay.
I heard this type of offer before, it was a ridicules assertion he knew quite well that I will relentlessly track him down even it is to the gates of hell, my thoughts and feelings about the perps have always been transparent and obvious there hasn’t been any cloudiness about who I’m dealing with but it seems to be a problem with some of these fools who would look and stare at the color blue until it becomes black and relentless, that’s how psychotic they are which explains why they are not tuned in to the realities around them. But like any offer from the devil it was evil but it hit the heart, who wouldn’t like to have some assurance for the safety of love ones. But one thing I’m sure about is that the devil speaks in half truths and there would be only a fifty, fifty chance for my family’s safety.
I rushed home at near break neck speed, Omar was already there stroking my sons shoulders and smiling at me, “Calm down homie, he’s ok.” I gave thanks to my old friend and gave Duce the biggest bear hug I could muster with a slight kiss on the cheek. It was only slight kiss, which produced his embarrassment about the affection I displayed but was so glad to be home that he virtually ignored the entire event. Getting the family tie thing aside, I became official like a police officer should, even though this had something to do with family, “Was their anything that you could tell me about your abductors?”
