Monster

by Bernard L. DeLeo

  “Why the hell didn’t something like that trip our computer dragnet?”

  “They came up illegally from Mexico through San Diego,” Rutledge answered. “When I found out about the Detroit calls we went to work with their new name: Mercado. Mexican birth certificates and driver’s licenses were issued to them South of the Border in October of 2001. From San Diego they caught a flight, tickets purchased with cash, to Detroit. Three days later, the Mercados left Detroit for Washington, D.C.”

  “Our traveling terrorists then moved into a house in the DC suburbs, previously owned by an Iranian diplomat. The estate records show they paid cash in the sum of $239,000. Although the records of the transaction are on the up and up, no witness of money changing hands exists in the documents. The Mercados have kept a low profile. Mrs. Mercado gave birth to a baby in May of this year. Mr. Mercado is an accountant, working for a Syrian owned trading company dealing in rare oriental rugs.”

  “What’s their legal status now?” Reskova asked.

  “They’re American citizens,” Barrington answered. “At the behest of La Raza and CAIR, they were allowed to apply for American citizenship because of their supposed nationality, and by their employment.”

  “You see how smart we are here in America, Kay?”

  “Yes, Cold Mountain,” Rasheed replied solemnly. “It seems America shares the same troubles Iraq has: Iran and Syria.”

  “No warning bells went off when both a Mexican and Arab lobbying group petitioned the US government on behalf of two illegal aliens?” Reskova asked, ignoring McDaniels and Rasheed.

  “Both groups approached sympathetic ears in the House and the Senate,” Barrington answered. “Before anyone thought of piddly things like homeland security or their actual nationalities, the Mercados were ‘in like Flynn’ with a natural born American son.”

  “Better than that, Tom and I went over to take a look. They have house guests, eight in number, three women and five men. All five of the males are Middle Eastern in appearance. The women are fair of hair and complexion.”

  “What about the Mercados?” Reskova asked her.

  “If they’re Mexican, I’ll give Cold Mountain here a…”

  “Never mind,” Reskova cut her off, provoking laughter from Rasheed and Barrington. “Did you see the Mercado’s baby?”

  “Yes,” Rutledge answered, winking at McDaniels. “Cripes, Diane, get your mind out of the gutter, I was going to say a home cooked meal. The baby is indeed about four months old from what we could see and a boy by birth certificate and clothing.”

  “Do we want to know where those eight guests came from?” McDaniels asked. “Please tell me they teleported in.”

  “Ah no, no, no, Senor¢,” Rutledge replied.

  “I need to pray more to the patron Saint of idiots and imbeciles.”

  Barrington laughed. “No such Saint, amigo. Anyway, the eight houseguests and their origins are where we are at as of this moment.”

  “May I suggest a pre-emptive strike?” Rasheed asked grimly.

  “I wish,” Reskova said, leaning back in her seat, arms folded.

  “But these eight people must also be here illegally,” Rasheed pointed out.

  “They all have green cards and are working for the same trading firm as Mr. Mercado,” Barrington explained.

  “So, we wait until they blow up a school and then arrest them?” McDaniels asked, his face set in a mask of seething rage. “Have they picked out a target or should we offer to screen potential sites?”

  “That’s enough, Cold,” Reskova snapped, when she saw sympathetic looks from Barrington and Rutledge. “That was one top notch job in a very short time, you two. We really have a head start now, although our intel on this points to it happening soon, so we’re under the gun as far as time.”

  “How about a secondary team?” McDaniels asked.

  “Yes, when these scum would detonate bombs in my homeland, they would hit two or three targets at once.”

  “We did a pretty thorough search for all weird activity or contacts,” Barrington answered. “We think the Detroit calls are check-in and receiving orders. Most of the numbers cease to exist after a few calls.”

  “Do you and Jen think they’ll hit in both DC and Detroit?” Reskova asked.

  “We don’t believe they want any more operations in Detroit,” Rutledge replied.

  “If these freaks strap bombs on and slink into the school while we’re playing around, I…”

  “Stay on topic, Cold,” Reskova cut him off. “We need positive input, not rhetoric. We’ll have them under observation from now on, 24/7.”

  “Already on it. Jen and I believe they’ll use a low key approach instead of a frontal assault as was done in Russia.”

  “We’ve hashed that out and agree with your assessment. Next, we should survey all the schools in a fifty mile radius around the Mercados. Look for Middle Eastern teachers, janitors, or any other kind of job around the schools. This may be planned as an inside job using someone we don’t know about.”

  “You mean a mole even deeper than the Mercados?” McDaniels asked.

  “We’ve found them from as far back as the Gulf War,” Reskova replied. “Iraqis who’ve sought asylum and the Saudi’s of course.”

  “What did you do with them, Boss,” Rasheed asked.

  “The ones who attained citizenship are being held here. The others are at Gitmo,” Reskova responded.

  “Sometimes it is not good to be too just in your handling of deadly enemies.”

  “It’s easy, Kay, when the bureaucrats who play these dangerous games aren’t the ones dying in the name of diversity and multi-culty compassion,” McDaniels explained sarcastically. “Since you’re becoming an American, my friend, you better become accustomed to the world view it’s our fault everyone hates us.”

  “Cold!” Reskova said warningly.

  Chapter 12

  Dino

  An hour later, the team was having coffee together at their headquarters, inside the CIA complex. No one spoke, waiting for Reskova to decide how she wanted them to proceed. Reskova put her coffee cup down and looked over at Barrington and Rutledge.

  “Is there a house near the Mercado’s we could set up as a base to keep an eye on them?”

  Barrington smiled over at Rutledge as if he had won a bet and then nodded at Reskova. “We rented the house across the street from them for an exorbitant price. The owner is a consultant in Washington who only comes home on weekends. He’s single and agreed to our picking up the tab for him to stay in Washington, plus the rental fee on his house.”

  “Good thinking. Here’s what we’ll do. Cold and I will move into the house. We’ll need one of those bomb-sniffing dogs so we can casually check these people out. If the dog goes whacko, we bust them. No waiting.”

  “You’ll need a bunch of suitcases to show them you’re really moving in.” Barrington replied. “I’ll handle that. The dog’s a nice touch. It will throw them off guard.”

  “You and Cold playing house, huh?” Rutledge asked thoughtfully, rubbing her chin comically.

  “That’s enough out of you. While Tom gets some type of SUV and baggage together for us, you show Kay our operation. Stick with zeroing in on the houseguests’ background at the Mercado place. Get him up to speed on things and into a position where he can listen to any phone conversations. I imagine you two already have permission for a wire tap?”

  “Yep,” Rutledge replied. “We’ve also commandeered the absolute cutting edge sound equipment. You’ll be able to hear them breathe.”

  “Your team is very efficient,” Rasheed said admiringly. “I hope I can be of use.”

  Rutledge stood up, motioning for Rasheed to follow her. “I’ll show you around.”

  “I’ll have an SUV out front with bags and the sound equipment in an hour,” Barrington promised, standing up and exiting with Rutledge and Rasheed.

  “Let’s go get the dog, Cold. They have a special unit here where they tra
in the type of dog we need. It’s an experimental operation.”

  “In what way?” McDaniels asked, following Reskova away from the table, and toward the door.

  “This training involves specially bred dogs. These dogs have at least three generations of Sires, trained in finding anything you can think of: explosives, drugs, dead bodies, etc. How are you with animals?”

  “I guess we’ll see. I agree with Tom, the dog is a great idea.”

  * * *

  Reskova stalked out of the combination kennel and training facility. McDaniels waited outside where Reskova had told him to stay. He saw the anger in Reskova’s face. “What’s up?”

  “We’ll have to forget about the dog for now. They only have a three-year-old German Shepard. The dog just about came unglued when the trainer brought me over to him. The trainer told me the dog was the only one available but he didn’t think it would be safe for me to take him. I have to agree with him. That mutt hates me.”

  “Can you take me in to see the dog?”

  “I guess so but I thought you didn’t work with animals.”

  “I don’t but I’m pretty good with them.”

  “That won’t do me any good if the dog tries to tear my throat out,” Reskova countered.

  “Give me a chance, Boss.”

  “Okay, follow me.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the trainer, a medium height, stocky built man of about fifty, walked a full size German Shepard into the room where McDaniels and Reskova waited. “Dino’s a little short on people skills.”

  The trainer walked the dog over to them looking at McDaniels with recognition. “Say, aren’t you that guy they call Cold Mountain?”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s me for better or worse.”

  The dog began snarling at Reskova, who backed up warily. “I told you the dog hates me.”

  McDaniels walked over to the dog. He snapped his fingers with authority. Dino sat down and extended a paw up to McDaniels. McDaniels knelt down, shook the dog’s paw, and began stroking his head. A moment later, Dino licked McDaniels’ face.

  “Well I’ll be damned,” the trainer exclaimed in disbelief. “Dino’s never taken to anyone like that.”

  “What is it with you, Cold?” Reskova asked, walking up next to him. “You part Crocodile Dundee too?”

  The trainer laughed. “He must be. Dino has never licked any of us.”

  “He can do the job though, right?” Reskova asked, as McDaniels pulled her down next to him, letting Dino know Reskova was with him.

  “Dino is the best,” the trainer assured her. “I’ll get the training booklet with the list of commands you’ll need. You want to watch him for me, Mr. Mountain?”

  McDaniels took the dog’s leash from the trainer. “We’ll take good care of him.”

  After the trainer exited the room to retrieve the training command manual, McDaniels turned to Reskova, grinning. “I want this dog, Boss.”

  “This isn’t the pound, Cold. It costs a fortune to train these dogs. They can’t just hand you one like you’re a little boy with his Mommy picking a puppy out of the pet store window.”

  “Please, Mommy,” McDaniels whined comically. “I’ll walk him, and feed him, and…”

  “Enough.” Reskova laughed, holding up her hand in a stopping gesture as Dino looked from one to the other. “We only have him for this mission.”

  “Don’t make me go over your head, Boss.”

  “Don’t threaten me, Mr. Mountain.”

  * * *

  “This place is incredible, Agent Rutledge,” Rasheed said in a hushed voice as he looked over the high tech computer screens and gear. “It looks like the TV show I have watched, called NCSI. You have the big conference screens and everything.”

  “Just call me Jen. What did you think of our lab?”

  “It was even more impressive than the TV show. My friend, the Cold Mountain, taught us many things about computers and high tech surveillance gear, but we never had anything to work with like this. We did most of our learning on a field unit laptop.”

  “You really get a kick out of calling the Colonel, Cold, don’t you, Kay?”

  “Oh, I cannot tell you how much pleasure it gives me. It is an exceptionally apt name for him.”

  “So, Cold knows something about computers too, huh? He never said anything about that part of his resume.”

  “He is very proficient with them, and thanks to him, so am I. I doubt I am as good as your team, but I look forward to improving my skills.”

  “Were you with Cold during the time he was accused of collecting heads?” Rutledge asked. She beckoned Rasheed to sit down in the office chair next to her main station.

  Rasheed’s smile vanished. He sat down in the proffered chair and looked down for a moment before meeting Rutledge’s eyes again. “I am not sure how much you would want to know about that, Jen.”

  “If talking about it bothers you, forget I mentioned it. We’ll be working closely with the Colonel. I was letting my curiosity get the best of me.”

  “I can understand your interest and I have no problem with talking about it. I thought perhaps you would. Will talking with you about it get the Cold Mountain in trouble, because that I will never do.”

  “It will never go anywhere outside this room.” Rutledge leaned towards Rasheed with her arm on the computer desk. “If you’re worried about bugs in here, I sweep the room every time I walk in the door. We cannot afford any leaks.”

  “Should we not be following Agent Reskova’s order to find out about those other people with the Mercados?”

  “Taking place as we speak.” Rutledge indicated the images flashing across the two computer screens at her station. “We already fed the pictures we took of them into the recognition software tied into every law enforcement database in the world we are allied with and some we’re not allied with. We haven’t gotten a hit on any of them yet but we will. Those people didn’t just materialize out of thin air.”

  Rutledge smiled at the awe on Rasheed’s face. She figured he was coming to grips with the computing power capable of such a feat.

  “What would you like to know?”

  “What caused the Colonel to go off like that?”

  “After Cold Mountain began training our anti-terrorist group, a young man came to join us. This was during the first offensive in Fallujah in April of 2003. The foreign soldiers causing all the trouble in Fallujah had killed his parents and sister. He wanted revenge. Cold Mountain asked him how old he was. The boy told him sixteen but he could not have been more than fourteen. I looked after him. His name was Abdi.”

  “The Cold Mountain let the boy stay with us, gauging whether the young man might be a spy. He trained with us and followed Cold around like a dog. We all liked him. He never complained and he was fearless. The boy snuck out of the place we were using as our barracks. Cold followed him. When the boy went into the area of strongest resistance, Cold came back and had us set up an ambush. I was very disappointed we would probably have to kill the boy but to allow him to live would have meant our lives. The boy came back before dawn alone. When he saw our ambush he just smiled and put up his hands.”

  “Cold asked him where he had been and if anyone was following. The Cold Mountain was very grim. The boy took a handmade map out of his pocket. He handed it to Cold. It was the whereabouts of an Al Queda cell. We attacked and killed them that night but were unable to take any of them alive. The boy was treated like one of us from then on. Cold made him promise to never do anything so foolhardy again. I would go with him on all such recons afterwards. Unfortunately about six months later during the worst of the bombings the boy snuck out of camp and tried to gather information. We found his headless body the next day. Although he had been tortured brutally, the attacks we figured would come from what the boy would have told them under torture never came.”

  “Shit!”

  “Yes, it was another reminder we were not at… ah… how do you say… Disneyland. The Cold Mountain
took the boy’s death very hard.”

  “Reskova told us they found sixteen headless bodies the CIA traced to Cold.”

  Rasheed smiled grimly, shaking his head in the negative. “Those were only the show pieces. Many more were tortured and killed in the Russian mob fashion. He made a statement those cowards never forgot. I was left in charge of our group. Cold came back to us less and less. We were loyal to him out of respect and friendship. Most of all, we did not want the Cold Mountain as an enemy.”

  “You were afraid of him… his own men?” Rutledge asked, entranced by the gritty account of the time.

  “We may be brothers to the wild beasts but we do not make light of their prowess as wild beasts. I am a true brother to the Cold Mountain. My life is his to use as he wishes. My family would be dead if not for him. They will instead be Americans, as will I.”

  “I guess I understand why you like his new nickname so much.”

  “That is not the reason. It is because he looks so annoyed each time we call him by his new nickname. It is very enjoyable to see.”

  Rutledge chuckled. “Some things never change. I…”

  The program alarm dinged. They had their first match.

  * * *

  “This dog likes you very much, my friend,” Rasheed joked with McDaniels standing next to the dark blue Chevrolet SUV with the team’s latest recruit.

  “Yeah, Colonel, this looks like love at first sight,” Barrington put in. He handed the SUV keys to Reskova.

  “You guys should have seen Cold when he hooked up with the dog at the training center.” Reskova took her turn sticking the needle in while McDaniels endured the kidding in good humor. “I thought we’d walk out of there with Cold on the leash and the dog holding the loop.”

  Everyone laughed. McDaniels nodded amiably, looking over the folder Rutledge had handed them when they met up in the office. Inside were eight separate rundowns on the terrorists living with the Mercados. Three were known Chechen Muslims, all women. Dino, sitting upright next to McDaniels, rubbed his head against McDaniels’ pants leg as if to remind McDaniels he was still there. Rutledge knelt down and stroked the dog’s head.