Iscariot Ch. 04

"Sheriff, you've forgotten more than the rest of us know about our Town & County." I said. "Why aren't you chairing the Charter Commission?"

"Because I tricked you into doing it." Our Sheriff replied cooly. The laughter did not stop for several long moments...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FBI Special Agent In Charge Ashton Cardigan came into Martin Nash's office and said "Eureka!"

"You found something, sir?" Nash asked.

"I think we have." Cardigan said. "We narrowed the mail address search to mailbox rental centers and public storage facilities. There are three facilities in the City that do both. Over the past several years, packages from the Post Offices nearest McGinty's office and two of the safehouse he was known to rent went to one of them: Ajax Mail & Storage."

"Ajax... a name from the Trojan War, which the Consultant of Crime studied." said Nash.

Cardigan said: "When you suggested we look into packages coming from the Town & County Post Office, we cross-referenced with Ajax Mail & Storage. Nothing recent, but packages from between ten years ago and four years ago were sent to that address."

"Specific mailbox?" asked Nash.

Cardigan gave an address, then said "Suite 102. This place is tricky; they list the mailboxes as 'Apartment', such as 'Apt. 10' to mean mailbox 10; and public storage spaces as 'suites'."

"Definitely meant to deceive." said Nash. "I appreciate this, sir. Can you send something to me so we can go get a warrant?"

"It may already be in your inbox now." said Cardigan...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3:00am, Sunday, July 7th. As they parked next to the warehouse, Geiger said "Pop the trunk."

"Why?" said Barsbane, who was driving.

"There's something in the back I need to give you." said Geiger. Barsbane popped the trunk and they went back to it.

"Here, put this on under your shirt." said Geiger, handing Barsbane a vest of light armor. He got out another vest for himself.

"What the heck?" asked Barsbane skeptically.

"One thing Captain Malone taught me, that's always stuck with me." said Geiger. "Expect the unexpected. I don't know if you noticed, but Granger disappeared on us, like he's expecting something to happen."

"Yeah, I was wondering where he went." said Barsbane. "I figured Mr. Big called him in for something... but yeah, you may be right." They both took off their suit jackets and shirts, and put on the armor before getting dressed again.

"So what's the plan?" asked Geiger as they went towards the door.

"We're going to start divvying up the caches." said Barsbane. "Mr. Big is going to send some shielded SPS trucks to take the orders to the buyers in various parts of the City. A couple of those trucks will go to City Airport, where a plane will fly the load to some little backwater town out west. But that's not really my concern. Once the stuff is out the door, my job is done."

They went inside. Over the next half hour, twelve men began trickling in. One of them started up a forklift and began unloading one of the trailers, moving boxes to various points. The other workers began distributing smaller boxes into the groupings, supervised by Barsbane.

"Very efficient." said Geiger. "I get the idea you've done this before."

"Yeah, it's pretty straightforward." said Barsbane. "These guys are Mr. Big's hires from his SPS convict 'second chance' program. Great idea that was... gives us a nice pool of savvy people----"

"FEDERAL AGENTS!" shouted a voice. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS! HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Armed and armored Federal Agents of the Law began pouring into the building. Some had "FBI" on their backs, and some had "ATF" Barsbane's men were surrounded, and they were giving up. Barsbane and Geiger also raised their hands.

"Oh, shit." whispered Geiger. Barsbane looked to see what he was talking about, and he saw it too... one man coming in, wearing a trenchcoat, obviously wearing heavy armor underneath it, and wearing a Tilley Hat. He was not carrying an M-4 like most of the Federal Agents... he was carrying a red crowbar.

Walking up with him was a female BATFE agent, also in heavy armor, and carrying her service weapon, a powerful semi-automatic handgun. To their left was BATFE Special Agent In Charge Potter. And behind them was FBI Special Agent In Charge Jack Muscone and another man who was very used to operations like this; he had earned his way into the Executive Assistant Director slot.

"Mister Geigerrrrrr." I said. "Mis-terrrrr Geiger. Did you really expect to be able to betray me and the Town & County Police Force and get away with it?"

"Guess not." said Geiger weakly.

"All right." I said. "Take these guys into custody. These two..." I pointed my crowbar at Geiger and Barsbane, "will come with me---"

Time slowed down.

I saw the movement to my left, but there was nothing I could do in time as the rifle swung up.

"Look out!" I heard Geiger cry out. He grabbed Barsbane to tackle him as the M-4 was pointed at them and the Federal Agent began firing at them at a distance of just 18 feet away...

*RATTA-TATTA-TATTA!*

To be continued.