by Finian Blake
“Security this is Bob.”
“Bob this is 13792468 dash 05. I have a priority question for you.” Bob only had to move down the priority list five names to find the priority. He knew this was one of the owners. “What can I do for you?”
“Someone tried to break into my house. Is Thomas still on scene?”
“Yes, he is. How…?”
Alex answered, “I am in the security business.” It was as much answer as Bob was going to get. “I will be back in town tomorrow. Have Thomas stay on scene and monitor events. Tell him not to let the FBI dismiss him. I will pay him triple time for his shift and tell him to use the inside of the house so they can’t use that crime scene bullshit. Have someone run the key and codes out to him personally.” Bob went to the key box and pulled the requested items. He would have to find out how Alex knew about who was on the scene.
“Anna, I need to get back there. Frank and Francesca need to get back in a few days. I will call you with what I need in our tactical kit. Have them deliver it to Santa Anna in four or five days.”
Anna vetoed the idea, “We can get what we need from Four Diamonds Frank and Francesca are touring and there is a flight leaving from Heathrow in three hours so I will have Suki fly us over in the helicopter.”
“I will take Nadia with me.”
“Like hell you will I am going home with you. Nadia can come too.” Anna made a few fast calls. Jeff, Cassandra, Alice and Grace decided to leave too. Edward, Layla and Bill wanted to come also but it was decided that it was too hot for their return, since they were the principal targets. Alex called British Airlines and booked six seats in First class and by eight AM they were ready to leave. Suki flew them directly to London on the Jet Ranger.
Thomas was surprised to learn that Alex knew he was on scene. The supervisor from the FBI had just shown up, it was ten PM and he was not happy. Somebody was using an active agent’s ID and he wanted some ass. Thomas handed him the ID for inspection. It was an official ID complete with hologram and badge. Only, the picture did not match the FAX that he received of Agent Wright. He looked at Thomas and held up the ID.
“How did you catch on that it was not an agent?”
“He was trying to break in to this house without a warrant. I had my supervisor call in to see if this was an official FBI operation, since the New York office should not be running operations out here. He keeps telling me that I don’t know what I am screwing with.”
“Where is he? I think that he needs to know what he is screwing with.” Tom led him over to the gate. Don was sitting on the concrete looking dejected. His hearing and eye sight were just now approaching normal.
“I am Agent Byrne and you are not Agent Wright.” Byrne held up the ID so that it could be seen clearly. “Agent Wright is on a flight out here. When we called him and informed him that he was in LA breaking into a house, he said that he wanted to be beside himself. He will be here in four hours. In the meantime, you are going to tell me who you are and who you work for.” Byrne looked at Tom. “Can we get him out of there?”
“No, someone tried to break him out by shooting the locking mechanism, so it is broken and we will have a technician out here soon. The whole thing is built out of welded stainless steel and designed to lock itself if tampered with. He did hand over his gun with the badge.” Tom held out a gun in a plastic bag to the supervisor.
“Thanks Tom you can go now.”
“I was instructed to stay on site until the owner arrives.”
Agent Byrne shook his head, “This is a crime scene and you cannot remain here. He will not talk in front of you.” Tom nodded his agreement, not even attempting to argue. He walked down to his car driving around to the front door. He looked over the front security gate. It was also stainless steel. All of the locks were high quality and the door jams were all reinforced. Tom walked in the house and went to the control panel at the back of the house. He hit the intercom switch which turned on the recorder, and sat back listening to the conversation. The technician showed up about an hour later. It took another hour to free Don. Tom took off his shoes and lay down on the couch trying to figure out why a townhouse had an alarm system as sophisticated as this. There was no mistaking that Don was some kind of government agent, but he was definitely not FBI. He had met assholes like this before. Whoever owned the house was in deep trouble and he felt sorry for them.
Alex and Anna finally arrived around one in the afternoon. They walked in greeting Tom as if he were a member of the family.
“I hear that they call you Tom-Tom. Suki and Mark gave me your file and sent their personal regards. Anna and I want to thank you for your efforts. We can order some food for you if you would like. My daughter Nadia will pick it up for us.”
“Tom will work just fine. I believe that I will pass on the food. Allow me to give you a quick briefing. I need to get home to my wife and daughter.” Tom ran through the events of the evening. He remembered to mention the white van that he noticed patrolling the area. Tom called back five minutes after he left.
“I have a white Ford delivery van cruising the area. What do you want me to do?”
“Give me the license plate number and go home. We will call it in to the police. If you call it in the police will want to talk to you.” Alex called the police station to report the van. Several unmarked police cars were dispatched considering the events of last night. Alex made another two calls cautioning Grace and Alice not to answer their doors.
Sam from Don’s team called in to the Farm to report the disaster. Ray answered the phone and listened to the report.
Ray was not happy, “They are our only lead. Are there any police around?”
“Ray, the police have returned to their doughnut shops and the security guard has just left. If we do this quick, I think that we can pull it off. There are three people in the house an old man, and two women. If it looks clear, I will go for the gold.” Sam followed the security car to make sure that it was leaving the area. He followed it to the freeway to be sure that it would not return. Sam made one pass to be sure that the street was empty. He had Ron go in the wardrobe bag and get a brown UPS shirt.
“Ron, block the peep hole in the door and we will push in behind you. Once we have them we can open the garage door and load them up in the garage.”
Ron got out of the van carrying a box. The other two hid around the corner of the garage with their pistols ready. Ron pressed the doorbell.
“Who’s there?”
“UPS…”
“Just leave the package at the gate.”
“I need to get a signature this is a high value shipment.”
“Alright…” There was a buzzing sound at the gate and Ron pushed it open. The other team members crouched low following him in the entry way. As they entered Anna phoned the police with a panic call. Ron knocked at the door.
“Hang on I need to get the key for the dead bolt.” Alex called through the door.
“Come on mister, I have other deliveries to make.” Ron did not like the sound of the answer.
“The police will be here in five minutes and you can tell them about your deliveries.” Alex had a hard time keeping a straight face. Ron threw his shoulder at the door hoping to knock it in. He stopped painfully against the door without budging it. Alex triggered the directional one hundred fifty decibel siren and the noise was almost paralyzing. It was accompanied by the strobes which were blinding even in the bright sun light. Sam and the team went to leave only to find out that the gate behind them was locked. They next tried to shoot the lock on the front door and force entry. The bulletproof door was secured by four dead bolts that slipped into place from the reinforced door frame when the alarm went off. Sam knew that he was screwed when the first police car pulled up. He made a panic call to the Farm. Ray picked up the phone, but all he could hear was the one hundred fifty decibel sound of the siren. When the fourth squad car pulled up Alex shut down the siren and strobes not wanting to blind the police. Alex opened t
he garage door. He almost burst out laughing when he saw the blue FBI jackets with yellow lettering standing behind the police. They were in the process of securing the van. Alex knew what they would find.
Sam’s crew was debating what to do finally placing their guns on the ground kneeling down with their hands behind their heads. People were shouting at them, but due to the fifteen-minute barrage from the sirens they could not hear a word. Alex smiled at the officer in charge.
“It’s the siren. They won’t be able to hear for another few minutes. They made several passes by the house with that van, so we decided to call just in case.” A patrolman came over looking for the officer in charge.
“You have to see this right away.” They looked in the van. There were several body bags, a stash of automatic weapons and the wardrobe bag which also had several sets of IDs for each member of the crew. There were also traces of dried blood in the drain track by the rear door. The Officer in charge went back to Alex.
“It looks like the guy from last night was part of this crew. We have to turn the situation over to the FBI this may take the rest of the day. Why do you have such a sophisticated security system?”
“We are investors and we keep large amounts of cash and jewels around from time to time. All of the neighbors in this building have the same system. I made them crazy about security.”
“Well it looks like it was worth the money. From what they have in their van, they meant to kill you. The FBI will take it now so you will have to deal with them.” Nadia and Anna came out in the garage. Nadia had just finished stashing all of the weapons in their secure storage.
Anna went into a panic, “My god they were going to kill us!” The agent looked her over carefully. Anna was the frightened little old lady and Nadia was a standout at six foot six. She was impeccably dressed and had a strong British accent.
Alex went into his act, “Relax Anna the police are right on top of things and we have the FBI here too. The situation is well in hand. Nadia’s suggestions paid off.”
The FBI agent looked at Alex, “Paid off…?”
“Yes officer, my daughter runs a security company in England.” She was born there while we were traveling, and she elected to take a UK citizenship when it came time to choose. She owns a portion of the security company that we do business with.”
“You own Four Diamonds Security?”
“I only own a portion of it,” Nadia said modestly. “Dad thought that it would be a good fit with Amazonian Security. All of the owners are women. We are a worldwide venture with offices in over thirty countries, and we have a presence on every continent.”
“How much is your father worth?”
“Somewhere around two hundred million dollars and mother is worth slightly more than that. I am worth about one hundred million myself.”
The agent thought with half a billion dollars in the pot that he knew the plot, “Nadia do you think that kidnapping could be a motive?”
“It is always a possibility.” One of the other FBI agents over heard the conversation.
“The director has sealed this investigation due to the use of false FBI identification. Mister Chalenger we will need your full cooperation.”
“Why don’t you conduct your investigation outside and we will collect ourselves inside. When you are through I am sure that you will have more questions to ask.”
Edward was just returning from his travels to check on his father, and Layla was just inhabiting, her body too.
Layla was worried, “My god they tried to sweep him in broad daylight they are getting worse under this new guy Ray. The police were there in seconds how do you think that happened.”
“Alex had it handled. He could have shot them if he wanted to. Nadia was there with him. He has some kind of a plan.”
“We have to get back there and help him,” Layla insisted.
“Layla, what we have to do is follow instructions. He brought us this far in a week. We will go back to take care of business. Nadia and Anna are as good as they get. Your father will do some training with Ray and Sidney and we can return. Randy will meet us in the gym and we will do what we are supposed to do.”
“They need our help!”
“Is that Layla talking or is it Terri.” Edward rolled over and took her in his arms.
Layla pushed him back, “It’s both people talking.” He was surprised at Layla’s answer. “I love your parents and they are in trouble.”
Edward shook his head, “They have been in trouble ever since I was born. I love my parents very much and the best way to show it is by listening to them. If we go there too early they will be concentrating on us, and that will get them killed.”
Layla went to the door in a pout. “You are right let’s go see Sarah. She wanted us to go over the maps Sarah wants us to fill in some details.”
Sarah was standing over a large table with several photos surrounding a large map.
“I am glad you are here. I wanted some idea of the elevations in these general areas.” She waived her hand over three areas of the map. I have two areas with square regular lines one hundred yards outside the fence. “They match the surrounding area for terrain, but very few natural things are that square. One is on the north side here and the other is on the south side here. They run parallel to the hills to the west, and the whole area backs to some hills a half mile away. The Farm sits slightly higher than the surrounding area. There is a dry wash that runs west and ends a hundred yards from the fence. You might investigate the defenses there.” They looked at the map carefully and made mental notes about the different requests.
“Layla and I can get everything that you need after we finish with Ray at the gym and Sidney at the gun club.”
“Thanks that will be soon enough. I still have several days until the dead line. I think that I will join you.”
Ray went straight into his lesson for the day. Layla surprised herself with her moves. Terri’s physical memories were hers. The conditioning by Ray and the others made the remembered moves possible. There were fifteen minutes into the session when Ray turned the class over to Sarah.
“We have a special move that I will have Sarah instruct.” Sarah removed one of the picks from her hair it was four inches long, a quarter inch wide and made of Titanium. There was a jeweled end and the other end was needle sharp. She walked up to a mannequin.
“This can be a handy hold out weapon. To make a kill your target is the Medulla at the base of the Atlas. It must be a precise strike and if done properly, death will be certain and quick.” Sarah pointed to three spots on the mannequin.
“A strike at the carotid arteries, heart or the eyes will disable your opponent. A punch in the Adams apple will have some effect also. Here is how you use this.” Sarah demonstrated the needed angles for each area. She took extra time with Layla to work on the necessary angles, since the other women were familiar with the move.
Bill was impressed with the deadliness of the move, “Sarah, will that really work?”
“I have used it with success twice.”
Bill pursued the issue, “How many times have you tried it?”
Sarah answered in a matter of fact voice, “I tried it twice. My sister Anna has done it successfully six times, Nadia has done it three times and Suki has done it once. Those are the ones that I know of for sure.” Bill shivered at the report. He had shot people before in Vietnam, but never killed at close quarters. Sarah rattled off the kills as if she were ordering from a menu.
The FBI was just finishing their photo survey when a pizza delivery man pulled up. They moved to stop him until Alex came out of the garage. Alex walked outside of the crime scene tape and paid the driver for six pizzas taking them inside.
“Agent Byrne your team is welcome inside for pizza when they get a chance. I ordered extra in case you are hungry. I would leave it outside but I don’t want to contaminate your crime scene with pizza crumbs.” Agent Byrne and two other agents followed him in the house. Alex placed
the boxes on the table opening the boxes. “Help yourself to any of the drinks in the fridge. I have some beer, but you are on duty.”
“Alex I have some questions that must be asked. Before we get started I would like to introduce Agent Wright from New York. He is the Agent whose name was used by the perpetrator.” Alex acknowledged the introduction while handing both agents plates. Between the first call, logging in the suspect and picking Agent Wright up from the airport, Agent Byrne had no time to even grab a snack. He decided to break a personal rule and have some pizza. He took a soda as did Agent Wright. Alex opted for a beer, Nadia and Anna chose wine.
“I would rather you didn’t drink while we are talking.”
“You are on duty. I am not. We are not suspects so…” Alex lifted his glass in a toast to both FBI agents.
“Alex may we look around your home.”
“The crime happened outside.”
“I know but I would like to get a feel for what they were after.”
“Alright but a member of the house hold must go with you.” Anna went with Agent Wright and Alex went with Agent Byrne. Nadia had the TV tuned to the security cameras and was watching the developments outside. The tour took about an hour and they came back to the kitchen with Agent Byrne resuming the questioning.
“I didn’t see any guns do you have any, Alex?”
“Yes, we keep them in the gun safes there is one in the master bedroom and one in the coat closet next to the front door.” Alex led the Agents to the coat closet. He entered a two-digit code and the safe opened. Byrne was surprised to see that he was only using a two-digit code.
“Why do you have a two-digit code?”
