Nano Surveillance (Dave Henson Series Book 1)

by Mark Donovan

  He had gotten up early to clear his head, formulate the team’s next step, and to get some much needed exercise. Since the release of the Buenos Aires video he had been unable to get in any exercise until today. Besides the physical benefits, running always helped him sort out problems and formulate ideas. He knew his team didn’t have much time left to complete their mission. He had no doubt that the administration would eventually track them down and most likely attempt to terminate them on the spot. They were going to need to finish editing the collected surveillance information and release the remaining couple of videos in the next few days if they wanted to complete their work and save their hides. Last night’s video had already made its effect on the country.

  Several major cities saw spontaneous protests break out during the night. The people were demanding the impeachment of the President and the removal of the Congress. All of the talking heads on the news channels were beside themselves as they commented on the video. You could tell from their faces and words that they didn’t know whether to continue to support their man in the White House or to turn on him. Their internal conflicts were evident and palpable by their on-air words and actions.

  Dave also realized the administration would not take the events last night sitting down. He knew the President was desperate and would release the full force of the military and the Department of Homeland Security on hunting them down. He was sure that the President had already figured out that they had also caught him negotiating with Barbas and the Chinese billionaire businessman Chung Lee for major contracts associated with the TMA bill. Even more damning were the President’s expressed reasons for enacting the TMA legislation. When the country understood his internal feelings towards his own country, the public would be demanding more than his impeachment. They’d want his head served on a plate.

  As Dave jogged the final hundred yards back to the NSurv building he saw Dana and Ron standing outside.

  “So what brings you two out so early in the morning?” asked Dave as he came to rest in front of the two of them.

  “Well we were both looking for you,” responded Dana. “You’ve been gone for nearly an hour and we were starting to get a little concerned. Plus we have some news for you.”

  “Really? You two missed me. I’m touched.” He gasped as he tried to catch his breath. The lack of exercise and the high altitude had really taken its toll on his body.

  Dave walked over to a picnic table that was located next to their building and took a seat. As he leaned back against the table and let the endorphins kick in he commented, “Man this is some beautiful country.”

  “It’s beautiful. I’ll give you that,” commented Ron, “But it’s a little more remote than I prefer.”

  “Yes, it’s a little more rural than what I’m used to,” commented Dana. “However, it’s a perfect location for the situation we currently find ourselves in.”

  “And that’s exactly why I chose it,” said Dave. “It’s remote, beautiful, and perfect for us completing our work.”

  “Speaking of our work,” interjected Dana. “We have some new information that we wanted to bring to your attention.”

  “So what’s up? Did we hear more from our nano-Canaries last night?”

  “As a matter of fact we received an interesting video feed this morning from the Oval Office, courtesy of Chief of Staff Ken Hardy,” responded Ron. “Suffice it to say the folks on Capitol Hill are getting very nervous. The Speaker of the House met with the President and Ken Hardy this morning and recommended that the TMA legislation be put on the back burner for a while. Apparently many congressional members, particularly the ones we featured in last night’s video, are panicking for their careers.”

  “Excellent. That was the affect we wanted to produce,” Dave commented.

  “Yes, but unfortunately the President was successful in convincing the Speaker of the House to press on with the introduction of the TMA legislation to the House, regardless of the congressional members’ concerns,” responded Dana. “He plans to introduce the legislation to the chamber next week.”

  “Frankly this news is not unexpected,” Dave commented, as he took a sip of water from his bottle. “As a matter of fact, I expected no less from the administration, and quite frankly I prefer it. It’s time for us to bring this President and all of his corrupt political cronies down. We’ve already recorded all the intelligence we need to take them out.”

  “Yes, and we got a little bit more on record today,” interjected Ron. “The President said in no uncertain terms to the Speaker of the House that he will apply whatever pressure is necessary on certain congressional members to get their votes, including blackmail and physical threats. Of course he didn’t outright use those words, but the inference was unmistakable in a court of public opinion.”

  “He also promised the Speaker of the House that he would find and terminate us swiftly,” Dana commented. “He indicated he had FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents hot on our trail, though he did admit our trail had gone cold.”

  “Good, then we have some time,” said Dave as he stood up and stretched his tightening hamstrings.

  “Though he had said our trail had gone cold, it won’t take them long to find it again,” responded Dana in a concerned voice. “I’m sure the men that Ron took out had communicated their rough position and direction of travel before their demise.”

  “True, but as we said, we’re in some rural country and in a non-descript building. As long as we stay off of our cell phones and keep a low profile here in Cut Bank, we should have the time we need to complete our work,” said Dave.

  “Speaking of phones, I forgot to mention to you that Jeff Kolosky tried contacting me last night. I didn’t pick up nor listen to his voice mail, but I would suspect they are trying to locate us via him.”

  “Yes, I am sure they are employing every possible tactic they can to locate us. We need to make sure all of us keep our cell phones off going forward. I’ll make sure to talk with Joe and Dr. Gillian about this.”

  “What about Jeff?” asked Dana. “Do you think we should contact him in some way? I’m still pretty convinced that he is not totally onboard with Grivas and Barbas. We may be able to turn him and use him to our advantage.”

  “Agreed, however, we’ll need to contact him in such a way that our location can’t be compromised. Let me think on this a bit. In the meantime, I need to get cleaned up and get something to eat. Then we need to get to work.”

  The three filed back into the building. As they did, Dana offered to warm up for Dave some left over pancakes the rest of the team had had already.

  Chapter 65 (March 27, Wednesday 12:00 noon Central Daylight Savings Time)

  It was noon in downtown Dallas, Texas. Like any other workday in spring, office workers had streamed out of the city’s skyscrapers. They were having lunch outside enjoying the mild temperatures while they lasted. Summer was simply too brutally hot in Dallas to go out for an outdoor picnic lunch. Many office workers sat at open air restaurants while others simply sat in the downtown park eating a sandwich that they had purchased from a food street vendor. The conversations, however, were all on the same subject. Everyone was talking about the video of the President broadcasted across the airways and on the internet the previous night. The feelings expressed were decidedly those of outrage and disgust. The talk of impeachment was the prevailing sentiment.

  At half past noon, Jane Wilson and Mary Sullivan heard distant yelling down the street from them. They had been having lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Both were wives and mothers who were fortunate enough to have jobs at an insurance company in the city. They had been venting to one another about the despicable President and congressmen featured in the video the previous night, in between bites of their sandwiches and salads.

  “I never voted for that guy,” said Jane. “I saw right through him from day one when the media started marketing him to the public. You could tell he had a huge chip on his shoulder back then. He lo
oks and talks down to everyone he speaks to.”

  “I know. Every time you see him on television talking to a large audience you think you’re looking at a teacher talking to a class of first graders,” chimed in Mary.

  “And where did he come from?” asked Jane. “He seemed to have rocketed to political and media stardom in a course of just a few weeks.”

  “Well it’s obvious,” responded Mary. “He was a plant by international billionaires that they’ve been nurturing since he was a young orphan boy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Everyone knows that’s where he got the majority of his campaign funds. Every so often the media that worked so hard to get him elected, and protects him when he gets caught in his own lies, slips ups and accidently shows him with his rich international buddies.”

  The yelling and commotion was becoming increasingly louder as the two women commiserated about the President and the state of the country. Both Mary and Jane were looking down the street to see where the noise was coming from.

  “Sounds like something is brewing down around the bend,” commented Jane.

  “I wonder what it’s all about,” replied Mary. “It sounds a little wild. I can hear chanting of some kind going on.”

  The two women continued to ignore the growing noise down the street.

  Jane sighed. “I’ve got to take my son to baseball practice and then drop my daughter off at her school for a play rehearsal tonight. Jack’s out of town this week so I’m pulling dual taxis service this evening.”

  Mary nodded as she finished chewing the last bite of her sandwich. After swallowing the last remnant of her sandwich and washing it down with her ice tea she said, “Yeah, it sure is tough being a parent today, and especially a mother. Everybody expects so much of you, and it’s not just the kids. It’s the company, your boss, the kids’ school, and the government all making demands of your time and resources.”

  Jane made another long sigh as she listened to the crescendoing yelling coming down the street. ”I just don’t know how much more I can take of it,” responded Jane. “Who knows, maybe I’ll have to jump on the bandwagon soon and start taking SSRI antidepressant medications. It seems like everyone is taking them nowadays.”

  “I know,” replied Mary. “One of my teenagers is on Lexapro for his anxiety disorders and both women living on either side of me are on Zoloft. The doctors seem to hand it out like it is candy these days.”

  As the two women were paying their lunch check, the source of all the yelling and commotion they were hearing came streaming around the adjacent street corner. At least a thousand people were walking down the street carrying homemade signs that varied in style and words, but all of which had a common theme - Impeach the President. People in the lead of the ragtag protest march had bullhorns verbalizing the same message on the signs. As Jane and Mary watched they noticed people near them joining into the march and beginning to shout. It was like watching a line dance grow at a wedding.

  The two women watched as the protesters marched by them. By simply observing the variation in clothing and age it was obvious to Jane and Mary that the protesters represented a wide spectrum of people. The protestors clothing varied from business suits and dresses, to uniforms and scrubs, to jeans and cutoff shorts. And in regards to age, unlike the youthful Occupy Wall Street urchins that plagued several major cities in the country years ago, these protestors ranged in age from young children up through octogenarians. Also, unlike the Occupy Wall Street crowds, these people were acting peacefully and moving on. No one was acting unruly, or urinating or defecating in the streets. They were, however, vocal and passionate in their convictions to impeach the President and members of congress.

  As Jane and Mary watched the tail end of the protestors go by Jane looked at Mary and said, “Hey, you want to join in? Let’s make a stand for once in our lifetimes and march with these people.”

  Mary smiled nervously back at Jane and thought for a few seconds. “Oh what the hell. Let’s do it. So we’ll be a little late back to the office. We’ll just say we were doing our civic duty.”

  The two women laughed briefly at Mary’s comment. Then the two of them ran down the street and joined the growing streaming mass of protestors. Though they didn’t have any signs to hold, they quickly got into the spirit and were chanting, “Down with the President. It’s time for him and his band of cronies to go.”

  As the crowd of protestors continued to grow and march down the Dallas streets, local and state police officers, as well as Department of Homeland Security agents, watched quietly on the sidelines. One DHS agent was on his radio talking to the local Dallas field office, and getting a report that what he was observing in Dallas, was apparently developing in many other cities around the country.

  Chapter 66 (March 27, Wednesday 5:00pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

  Homeland Security agents had descended upon NSurv headquarters in McCall, Idaho two hours earlier. They had found the doors locked and the facility void of any life or material information. All of the computers were missing from the premises and filing cabinets had been emptied. It was as if NSurv had packed up and moved its entire business, including its manufacturing operations. Yes there were raw materials still sitting on inventory shelves, but not a single finished or partially finished product was found on the premises.

  Agent Ted Haley walked over to his partner who was in charge of the raid and said exasperatedly, “They’ve cleaned this place out. It’s empty for all intents and purposes. The most we’ll get out of here is some fingerprints, and we already know whose we’ll find.”

  Agent Carlos Romero nodded slowly in agreement as he walked out of the NSurv building with Ted Haley trailing him. “They knew we were coming,” said Agent Romero. We shouldn’t be too surprised. They obviously have better surveillance technology and intelligence than we do. Have you heard anything from headquarters on the two guys that are missing?”

  “No, at least nothing new. They know the guys went missing after a brief stop in Grangeville, Idaho. They are currently focusing their search northeast of there in Clear Water National Forest, but so far, no sign of them or their vehicle.”

  “Okay, well let’s check out the NSurv hanger before we leave here. Maybe we can find a clue where Henson and his team ran off to in there.”

  Ted Haley and another agent cut the lock off the NSurv hangar doors and slid the large hangar doors open. All that sat in the large hanger was a small tail dragger aircraft. Off to the side was a row of workbenches and a few toolboxes. Other than that, the hangar was basically empty.

  Ted and the agent combed through the hangar and the Aviat Husky aircraft looking for any bits or pieces of information, or evidence that might provide a clue to where Henson may have ran off to. All they found was a small cardboard box with some aviation fuel receipts and an old flight log book in the Husky. The flight logbook’s last log entry was from two years ago and the fuel receipts were from various airports all over the northwestern part of the United States. Not much, but Ted decided to take them anyways. Maybe someone else in Homeland Security could glean something useful out of them.

  Ted and the other agent returned back to the main NSurv headquarters and reported in to Agent Romero their findings. Agent Romero quickly perused the flight logbook and then sifted briefly through the fuel receipts.

  “Ted, let’s have some of our guys check out the airports listed in this logbook and where these fuel receipts came from. Maybe we’ll find someone at one of these airports that may have seen Mr. Henson in the past few days.”

  “It’s a great idea boss, but there are about two dozen different airports spread over a four hundred mile radius referenced between that logbook and the fuel receipts. That will take some time.”

  “Well time is what we don’t have a lot of, so I suggest you get as many men on this as quickly as possible.”

  “Understood. Agent Smith and I will personally participate in checking into these airports. I’ll also enlist the services of another
half dozen units.”

  “Excellent. Report back to me anything that you or the other teams find of interest.”

  With his last statement, Agent Carlos Romero jumped into the waiting SUV and drove away.

  “It looks like we have our work cut out for us Agent Smith.” The young kid fresh out of college nodded smartly and proceeded to pack up his equipment next to their SUV. “In for a penny, in for a pound. I’m stoked boss and ready to start hunting.”

  Ted laughed at the kid’s response and gave him a fist pump before throwing his equipment into the backseat of the SUV.

  “Well alright, that’s the type of attitude I want to hear. Let’s get going. We’ll head out and visit the three closest airports listed in Henson’s flight logbook. Enroute we’ll call headquarters and give them the list of the other remaining two dozen airports, and ask that they have some additional teams go out and check on them. It’s going to be a long next couple of days.”

  Chapter 67 (March 27, Wednesday 5:30pm Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

  Dave and the rest of the NSurv team sat around the dining table having hamburgers and salad, and slaking back their thirsts with some imported beers. It had been a long and grueling day. All of them had spent hours watching videos and listening to audio recordings of the various targets they had implanted with nano-dust. The recordings were overwhelming in the sense that they captured so much of what was wrong with the American political system. The corruption was just so wide spread and pervasive. The federal political corruption involved not only the President and his administration, but also a remarkable number of congressional members, and media elites, all of whom had direct or indirect connections to a handful of national and international businessmen. Businessmen that not only had a history of growing their fortunes off the backs of the American worker, but who also had an extreme leftist agenda. It was, however, the Greek businessman, media mogul, and hedge fund investor, Dimitris Barbas who was the common thread in much of the corruption. His extraordinary wealth, along with a couple of his closest billionaire friends’ resources, seemed to be the source of most of the money, and resulting control of Washington.