by Bob Blink
“That leaves the matter of Widner’s guest the other day,” Carlson said. “While we are reasonably certain it’s Abdul-Khabir ibn Barir, we’ve been unable to prove that conclusively. He is staying in an upscale residence with a woman we assume is a girlfriend.”
“It’s time we focus more attention on Mr. Khabir,” Jake said pointedly. “That’s a task for Laney and myself, however . . .”
“What’s the matter, Jake?” Carlson asked.
Jake hesitated. He considered the consequences, then decided it had to be done.
“I want to change the flow of events somewhat,” he replied finally.
“I thought your whole strategy was based on keeping things the same?” Laney asked surprised.
“It is, or has been,” Jake agreed. “What I want to do won’t really be that different, so long as you and Carlson go along with me. You and I are supposed to drive back to Newport News today and break into Abdul-Khabir’s place. That means a long day with a lot of driving, going there and returning back here. We did it before, and both of us broke into the house. The thing is, there was more security than expected, and while we were able to verify that Kahbir was there as well as get a quick look at his laptop, I had to back-track to prevent us from getting caught. That means we really can’t repeat the actual break-in anyway. Last time we were able to call Carlson around 8 PM with what we’d learned, and were back here in Washington about midnight.”
“Then why don’t we do it again?” Laney asked. “We’d at least get a look at where this character lives.”
“Because there is something else that I think I need to do this time around. I know what we are going to find in Newport News, and think I should simply tell both of you what it is, and ask you not to act on it until tonight. That should keep the flow the same and allow us to do something else.”
“Are you certain that some subtle thing won’t be different, that might change how things turn out?” Carlson asked. “Something that you and Jim might have talked about during the drive?”
“I’m certain,” Jake replied
“What is so important that you want to do that wasn’t part of the events last time?” Laney asked.
“I want to break into Graper’s home,” Jake said simply.
“Graper?” Laney asked. “Why now? Can’t it wait until this is all over?”
“I’m afraid that time is working against me, and by then it might be too late to contain whatever it is that Graper knows. He’s the key to what started this whole thing for me. Besides, he’s going to get wounded, and will be sidelined and staying at home before much longer. That will make a break-in impossible. At the moment he’s still assigned to watching the factory, and is gone most nights. It’s a perfect time.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ll have to do this without back-tracking?” Carlson asked.
“That’s true,” Jake admitted. “I actually believe I could if needed, but the plan has to be that we get in and out without relying on that capability. I never realized how much I’ve come to depend on it.”
“And what do you plan to do with what you learn?” Carlson asked.
“That depends on what we find. This is all as new to me as you. We haven’t followed this path before, but it’s what I came back here to accomplish. In case I can’t loop back later, I can’t risk missing the opportunity.”
Carlson was silent for a long moment. “You really think this is safe?”
Jake nodded. “I don’t think there will be any consequences of Laney and my not going to Newport News, but there could be if something goes wrong with the break-in tonight. That’s why we’ll have to be very careful. In the worst case, I might have to risk a back-track.”
“And if that goes badly?” Carlson asked. “We still don’t know how this terrorist plot will all turn out.”
“Then you’ll have to contact Karin. She has the written summary of the events that are coming and how you should proceed.”
Carlson sighed. “Okay, since you aren’t going to be driving all day, what are you going to be doing?”
“We need to find out everything we can about Varennikov,” Jake said. “We’ll be breaking into his place tomorrow.”
“Is that a change also?” Laney asked uncomfortably.
“No, we did that last time around.”
“And how did it go?”
“Not well,” Jake said, without elaborating. Then he turned to Carlson. He didn’t want to tell Laney what had happened, even if it all worked out in the end. News like that might stifle his enthusiasm for the task.
“Tonight we will verify that Khabir is someone they think of as the controller. He is directing the location for each of the canisters being installed, and has that information on his computer. Each day he gives new directions to someone at the factory. The information on his laptop is normally encrypted, except when he accesses the file to make additions and status notations. The file shows which units are in place, and where the remaining ones will be located. His computer also links via an internet connection to a remotely located transmitter that he will trigger at the appropriate time to cause the canisters to release their poisons.”
“You can’t have learned all of that in the visit planned for tonight?” Carlson said.
“Actually, I didn’t. Some of what I just told you we learn later. But we did learn who he is and that his computer is key to resolving this situation. I know the brand and model. We tried to steal it, but that didn’t work out well, so I back-tracked and we dropped that approach.”
“So how did your visit help us?” Carlson asked.
“We verified who Khabir is, and we got the details on the computer. Tonight, when I called you with that information, you contacted someone you know to get some expert help. We want to put something inside Khabir’s computer that will give us access to his unencrypted files. That’s how we are going to learn where all of the canisters will be located.”
“But you don’t want me to take any action before then?”
“That’s right. Act as if you don’t know what I have just told you until then. And then, you only reveal what you know about the model of computer, not what I told you we would find in the files on it.”
“Earlier I was starting to understand why Karin didn’t like it when you back-tracked around her. You always knew what is going to be discussed. Now I’m starting to wish you hadn’t told me in advance. How do you keep all of this straight? I assume this means that you will be going back to Khabir’s place later to make some kind of modification to his computer?”
“That’s correct. Laney and I will break in again, or in this case I guess it will be for the first time, and it can’t be avoided since we have to make the modification mentioned. This trip will also be very tricky, because Khabir and his girlfriend will be home. I had to back-track six times when we did this before because of complications and being discovered before we found a way to accomplish what we needed to do without being revealed to them. We will have to hope I can recall just when and where I did that so we can negotiate our way through his place without getting caught.”
Laney was shaking his head. He didn’t like what he was hearing. Not only did their proposed actions violate FBI procedures, but it seemed far too risky.
Jake smiled.
“Hey, you said you wanted to know what was coming.”
Chapter 38
In the early afternoon, Jake and Laney made a trip to the Virginia suburbs where Graper lived. It was a considerable drive, nearly forty minutes, but an increasing number of those who worked in the nation’s capital were moving to such places to live. A great many communities had sprung up over the past decade or two, and Don Graper had been one of those who’d succumbed to the temptation and relocated, despite the longer drive.
They followed the graphic and verbal instructions from the GPS unit mounted in the dash, as neither had been here before. Jake found the trip almost exhilarating. For only the second time since coming to Washin
gton, if he counted the brief minutes spent chasing after Varennikov and then Graper the other night, he was doing something new and not simply following a path he’d completed once before.
“Turn right at the corner,” Jake instructed Laney who was driving. He wasn’t used to the voice generated instructions, and was watching the screen in between glances at the area outside the vehicle. The voice in the unit echoed his directions a moment later. A couple more turns brought them to Graper’s street.
The houses in this neighborhood were built in a valley between a pair of heavily wooded hills. The lots were surprisingly large, and most of the homes were made of brick and the majority were two stories. The trees on the lots were clearly more recently planted than those on the hills in the background. They were considerably smaller, and looked as if they might have had five to ten years of growth since they’d been put in place. When they approached Graper’s address, they could see his place was one of the few single story residences on the block. Far smaller than the majority of the structures, it was still a very nice house, set well back from the street with a large long driveway. A stone fence set off the back yard, while the front yard was liberally populated with oak trees, far from their eventual size.
Both men scanned the house as they drove by. Graper’s car was parked in the driveway. It was likely he was inside asleep after the long night tracking the teams from the factory that had been installing more of the poisonous canisters. They drove by at moderate speed, and circled around a later block, and made a second pass. There was no street behind Graper’s, but his house was only the third from a corner, and when they drove the side street they could see that it would be possible to approach through the trees on the hill to the back wall of his property. That was probably the better route in, and Jake was equipped as always when he was on assignment with a full set of burglar tools. There were few house locks that would give him a problem.
Confident they knew the route, Graper’s house and its relative location to his neighbors, and the path they would take to approach later in the day, they drove back out of the area toward the main road. Instead of heading back, they continued up the road and looked for alternate approaches, discovering there were only two roads leading into the neighborhood. Finally they headed back into Washington. They would return much later that night for the attempted break-in.
“What do you think?” Laney asked as they looked across the open space separating them from the block fence from their vantage point in the trees. Carlson had called a moment before indicating Don Graper was currently involved in following the vans as they made their nightly trek to different target locations. He wouldn’t be home for hours.
Jake surveyed the house. The front porch light was on. They’d seen that when they had driven by a short time earlier. The living room light was on as well, at least one light. That actually helped them. They knew he lived alone and was out. But the light being on would provide them with illumination once they were inside, and other lights being turned on would draw less attention from the outside as compared to a totally dark house.
“Let’s go,” Jake replied after a moment’s hesitation. He slipped on the thin gloves that would prevent any fingerprints.
Moving silently, Jake in the lead, they moved down the hill and out of the trees. The back wall they had to scale, the only door padlocked from the inside where they had no access. Once in the backyard, they could see the large patio and the double sliding doors that led into the back of the house. A faint glow from the light in the living room could been seen in the back room. Happily, the curtain was open, so they could have a look inside before making a move.
As expected, Jake had little trouble with the lock, and after a moment, the two men slipped silently inside, closing the sliding glass door behind them. Jake thought little about what they were doing, but Laney was somewhat uncomfortable. This violated what he had long believed. They were committing a felony by their actions, and Jake wouldn’t be undoing it later by one of his back-tracks.
Once inside they started a preliminary check to verify they were alone. While Graper was single and they had Carlson’s call to verify he was engaged elsewhere, one always checked. It was good they did. Almost immediately they heard the sound of voices from down the hall. Laney looked at Jake who shrugged his shoulders. Moving slowly, they moved in the direction of the sounds, and discovered the door at the far end of the hallway closed. The voices were coming from there.
“Televison,” Jake whispered softly.
“But who is it?” Laney asked back.
On a narrow hallway table under a large mirror was a land line telephone, a small ashtray, and a woman’s purse.
“Graper must have a girlfriend,” Laney said softly as he walked to the purse and looked inside. He withdrew a large bulging wallet. It only took him a moment to identify the likely resident. He showed the license in the wallet to Jake. The picture and name told him everything. Next to the picture of a woman in her late sixties was the name and address.
Sandra Graper
1423 W. Holland Street
Laguna Beach, California
“His mother,” Laney said. “Shit! We couldn’t have known she was here. She must be visiting. Probably a plan made before all of this started.”
“Here’s something else,” Laney said, handing Jake an airline ticket. Apparently Graper’s mother was scheduled to fly to New York the next day.
“Wonderful timing,” Jake said. “Why couldn’t she have left this morning? It’s unlikely she can hear us over the television. We’ll just have to be extra careful.”
Laney looked doubtful, but Jake pointed toward the front of the house. They quickly scanned the open rooms and found little of interest.
“Well have to check his bedroom,” Jake said.
The bedroom was across the hall from the closed room. They would be taking a chance, but Jake indicated he thought it was worth it. Carefully, they retraced their steps down the hall, then stepped into Graper’s bedroom. Once inside, Jake slowly drew the door closed and switched on the light. The disadvantage of closing the door was they wouldn’t know if his mom came out of her room. The advantage was the closed door helped muffle any sounds they made, and allowed them to turn on the light. Fumbling around in the dark wasn’t going to achieve anything.
The bedroom wasn’t that large, but had been modified to turn a small alcove into a tiny office. There was no door, but the work area was set off from the living space, and in an area where it was private from the rest of the house. If they were going to find anything, there was a good chance it would be there.
Moving together, they headed over to the desk in the tiny office. Jake could see that the computer was on, but in sleep mode. He wiggled the mouse, and was surprised that when the computer woke up and the monitor came alive, it was to a desktop and not some kind of log in screen. Graper apparently didn’t feel the need for any security. That suggested there might be nothing to find.
Laney searched the desk while Jake scanned the files on the computer. Nothing jumped out at him. He ran a check on file entries by date, believing anything of interest would be recent. Nothing appeared related. He’d like to copy the contents of the entire disk, but there were over six hundred gigabytes of files on the hard disk, and he didn’t have portable memory anywhere near that large with him. Instead he simply copied all the files less than a month old. Then he checked the email. There was nothing that looked interesting, but he copied the recent entries as well.
“Look at this,” Laney said, handing Jake a pad of paper with a single page of scribbles.
There wasn’t much on the single page, but what was there was revealing. The names “Trask” and “Mathews” were connected by a doubled ended arrow and followed by a pair of large question marks. Graper had somehow made the connection between the two aliases Jake had used. Even more telling were the names “Kerns” and “LoBue” separated by a dashed, almost like a hyphenated name, again followed by a question mark.
“There’s no doubt he’s made the connection,” Jake said, staring at the page.
“He hasn’t linked the names to who you really are,” Laney observed.
That didn’t matter. Jake knew Graper, or someone would make the connection.
“Oh boy,” Laney said. He’d been looking through the center drawer of the desk while Jake had been preoccupied with the pad.
“What did you find?” Jake asked.
Laney showed him the small gray address and phone book that Graper had kept in the desk. There were surprisingly few names in the book, but Laney had it open to a page that listed only three names. His finger was pointing at one of them.
Jake read the name. Lucio Rizzo.
The name was unfamiliar to him, but he could feel a chill as he read it. He was certain what it had to mean.
“Who is this Rizzo?” he asked, certain from his reaction that Laney knew.
“You told Carlson and me that you were certain your problems were tied in with the Chicago Mob under Franco Boitano. Depending on who you ask, Lucio Rizzo is the second or third in command under Franco. Why would Graper have his name and number in a personal address book?”
Jake looked at the number and memorized it. He recognized the Chicago area code from some of his checking earlier.
“He’s got to be dirty,” Laney said, without waiting for Jake to respond. “Here is your link to the group that is after you.”
“There’s no way to be certain if he’s contacted Rizzo with what he suspects yet,” Jake said unhappily. He could envision the need to risk a back-track to nip this at an earlier time, and have to live through these events yet again, assuming he survived the loop-back. He’d hoped he was early enough.
