Schoolhouse Rock Ch. 04

At 4:00pm, Jerome and I left Police Headquarters separately. I drove to the Cabin and parked at the end of the driveway, which gave enough space to get the Black Beauty out of the far-side garage. An hour later, Jerome came and picked me up. We drove over the mountain and into Nextdoor County. I paid for dinner at the Hillside Diner, and I told Jerome to eat a lot, because food would be a bit limited for the next 36 hours.

Leaving the diner, we made our way back to the University-Midtown Highway via State Route 142. As we passed by The Asylum, I remembered all that had gone on there, and I felt the extremely negative energy that still emanated from that forbidding place. Jerome asked me to tell him what had gone on there, and I recounted the stories of Ned having hidden there, and us breaking Phil Kearns out of there by way of an armed invasion of the place. (Author's note: 'A Case of Revenge', Ch. 04.)

The sun was setting as we arrived at Valley Villages. We'd timed our trip to arrive at Jonathan Davis's home just after dark, hoping that anyone seeing Jerome's car come in would think it was just a son visiting his father for dinner. The garage door was up, and as Jonathan and Jerome went in the front door, I snuck out of the car and into the garage.

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

"So Terhune was murdered because he saw these drug runners at the school?" asked Jonathan as we sat at the table eating a late supper. It was 10:30pm, and I'd swept Jonathan's house for bugs, finding none.

"Looks like it." I said. "I think they had sentries out with night-vision devices, maybe drones, too. I think they saw him, saw that he was watching their operation, so they ambushed him. The medical examiner said he'd been injected with a drug as well as strangled. They may have drugged him to incapacitate him when they captured him, brought him back to his home, then strangled him in his bed to make it look like a home invasion."

"Horrible." Jonathan muttered. "That's just horrible. Man just trying to do the right thing, and gets murdered for it."

"And we don't want the same thing to happen to you, Dad." said Jerome. "So please just stay at home and don't react to anything you see or hear this weekend."

"Yet you guys are going to go down there and watch them?" Jonathan replied, looking at both of us skeptically. "If they have all this hi-tech stuff you say they have, they'll see you, too."

I grinned a small grin. "Maybe not, if what I'm planning goes well." I told them both the full plan...

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

At 3:30am, Saturday, January 26th, Jerome and I snuck out of his father's home and into the 'woods', which were actually groves of trees planted when the Valley Villages was started up, to make the previously flat farmland look a little less empty and desolate. I had a rather large, full knapsack on my back, and Jerome had a smaller one.

I had some very special binoculars, one of the 'eyes' being night-vision, to see better in the very dim light of night; and the other being an infrared detector, which would show heat signatures. I hoped both of these would help us detect any humans that were watching out for us.

I saw nothing; no drones in the air, no people moving about. I was also watching out for Sheriff Department and Police patrols, and only saw one car. It was driving around the town, and did not go towards the School complex, which was to the west of Valley Villages, very visible on very open ground.

It took over an hour, but we got to the Valley Villages Hotel complex, whose front faced east. We had come from the north, and skirted around to the south (left) side of the hotel. We went down a service drive that was not lit. Arriving at a metal door, I opened an almost invisible panel in the door and punched in a code on the keypad. We heard a loud *CLICK!* and I was able to open the door. We went inside, into inky blackness.

I used the IR binocular, and saw nothing. We got flashlights out of our rucks, and began walking down the path. The drivable path ended pretty quickly at a loading dock, and we then went down a walkway that was sloping steadily downwards. There were some rooms with bunk beds to our right, then a conference room, then a dining room. We went to the end of the hallway, which terminated at the door of a locked room. I again punched in a code on the pad next to the door, and we were able to open the door, secure it in the open position, then go inside.

"This is the control room." I said to Jerome as I flipped a switch. Some dim lights on the wall slowly came on and became brighter, but remained pretty dim as they shone their light toward the ceiling. I sat down at the control panel along the left side wall; we faced west as the crow flies.

"What is this place, sir?" asked Jerome as I began firing up the control panel. Television screens began lighting up. "It's like that underground room for Congress at the Greenbriar Hotel in West Virginia."

"Yes, that's true." I said. "This place... is the reason Valley Villages was created in the first place. Superior Bloodlines had it built when they built the hotel, and it was to be a local command-and-control center for the race war they were anticipating. Many of them were upstairs in the hotel when the FBI arrested them." (Author's note: 'Sandstorm', Ch. 02-03.)

"I came down here once before, when the FBI was going through it after Superior Bloodlines was destroyed." I continued. "There are cameras intermingled with the hotel's security cameras, but they face outward. There are infrared as well as night-vision cameras on the roof of the hotel, and also some around Valley Villages, which we can use to monitor the School complex. And I'll be able to plug into the hotel's wifi and get information off the web."

"So we can just hang out here and see what happens." Jerome said.

"Yes." I said. "What we're going to do is wait here, monitor the School and the town, then watch and see if Marcie Harper's gang comes in and starts watching for us."

"You don't think they'll bring in a shipment of drugs for this week?" asked Jerome.

"No." I said. "They may bring in something like flour or sugar, which could be used to cut cocaine with, but they won't bring in real drugs. I think they're testing to see if we're onto them, and if we come in and try to make a bust, we'll have sugar as well as egg on our faces, and the perps will know they have to disappear... and we'll never get them unless we find their next way of communicating. They may even have an ambush planned if they think we're coming."

"Do the hotel people upstairs know we're down here?" asked Jerome.

"I hope not." I said. "When the FBI came down on this place a year and a half ago, they left this facility intact, with the idea that they could use it in case of nuclear war or massive unrest... which I think is very possible in the coming years. Anyhoo, at the time they said that the hotel security people were unable to tell if people were down here nor what they were doing, in case an enemy took over the hotel itself. So I hope no one is aware of our presence here."

"Wow, neat." said Jerome, looking around. Then he frowned as he said, "Sir, what if the bad guys know this place is here? Or worse... what if they come down here to use it to monitor us?"

I gave a grim smile and said: "In that case, put your wading boots on, because we will be hip-deep in shit..."

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

We settled in. I turned on the night-vision and infrared camera and we watched on the monitors. There were no cars moving, and no people about, as far as we could tell.

I took a device out of my knapsack and plugged a cord from it into the control panel. The device's face was about the size of the larger iPhone 6, a bit larger than most smartphones, but it was over an inch thick. It was able to jam signals like a bug-jammer, but much more powerfully than the pen or disc devices that Teresa and Cindy and I had. It also had many other abilities. I called it 'Ultra Boy'... because like that member of the Legion of Superheroes, it could only use one power at a time.

"This connects to the antennas on the hotel roof." I explained. "It will intercept radio transmissions, particularly from the local Sheriff and Police. It'll help us determine if those guys are on the up-and-up, or in league with the perps."

"Wow." said Jerome. "Wait... you could use that on the TCPD, couldn't you? Find the moles, or the leakers to the Press?"

"I could." I said. "But it would be discovered pretty quickly. I only use things like this in very extreme situations... like here and now." Jerome nodded.

The device had a plug-in for earphones, so I put those in and listened to the Police frequencies as dawn broke. It sounded routine. I also checked cameras around the hotel and the town center as residents gathered to eat at the two diners and one McDonalds there.

"Not very many people at the hotel, and it's a weekend." I said. "I wonder how they keep going."

"My dad says that the Military has been booking it for conferences for high-level leaders." said Jerome. "It's pretty secure, and it's somewhat out of the way. He also told me that there is interest in converting it to a permanent living facility, and that one side might become a hospice-style care center." He told me the name of the Consortium that was in talks to create that facility.

"That's the same group building the retirement home in Apple Grove." I said. "Condos, living spaces, and then a full-care building and facility for people who increasingly cannot take care of themselves."

"Like Mrs. Griswold?" asked Jerome. I just nodded, realizing that I was confirming what the Detectives were speculating about during their work days...

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

For the first few hours, there was a certain excitement of the tension of the mission. As that began to subside, the boredom of being cooped up in an underground room with very little to do began taking over.

We had Thermos bottles of coffee, and I got out some Pop-Tarts for breakfast. We continued our vigil as we ate.

"Not a damn thing going on around the School." I said. "Which may in itself mean something. You'd think we'd be seeing cleaners or teachers or something."

"The town looks pretty normal." said Jerome. "No one's sticking out. I do have one question, sir. Do you think anyone is going to come in twelve to fifteen hours early?"

"If this were a normal drug drop, no." I said. "But if I were them, and I was setting a trap for LEOs or seeing if they were onto me, then I'd be watching for people to be coming in early. If they have people here doing that, I am hoping to spot them, but it's more important they don't spot us."

There being little else to do, I talked with Jerome. "So, Jerome," I said, "what's your goal in life, or at least with the TCPD?"

Seeing that this was a huge opportunity for him to talk with the Police Commander, Jerome said "I want to sit in your chair and have your office, sir. One day, anyway."

I smiled. "And you just might, if you keep thinking that way."

"Right now I'm working towards taking my Lieutenant exam, and getting to Advanced Academy." said Jerome.

"Good." I said. "And you're going to Advanced Academy... next month. I was going to let Captain Perlman tell you after we got back, but since we're here, I'll just tell you now. Monday, February 11th, you report to Advanced Academy."

"Awesome!" said Jerome. I could tell he was extremely happy about that.

"So, just between us and the lampposts," I said, "tell me about your MCD colleagues." This was not 'snitching'; it was 'peer review', and a test.

"They're all good, sir." said Jerome. "Teddy, my partner, he's a lot happier now that all that stuff with Janice Holloway got resolved. He's the kind of guy that will pursue something doggedly until he gets it done, and I think he's a better interrogator than he lets on."

"Joanne is the smartest Detective in the group, except for Captain Perlman and you, of course." continued Jerome. "She just needs to get interrogations down, and so do I, to be honest. Theo, he's between us and Parker... good Detective, good at muddling through, but not really great at either. Roy, he's a smart guy and a very brave man, but he's the most inexperienced of the bunch of us, even with his Vice experience."

"What about Julia Rodriguez?" I asked.

"She's good." said Jerome. "I think her Army experience has really helped her. She's observant, quick-witted, and I think she's good at judging people, like you are, sir. Everyone says 'not much gets by you', sir... and they're going to be saying that about her, one day."

"So she's going to be the next Iron Crowbar?" I asked, semi-humorously.

"Maybe, sir." Jerome said. "I get the feeling Joanne would really try hard for that, if it were like a promotion. Sure, I'd love to be there, but I'd be lying if I said I'll ever be at your level, sir, and that's not being down on myself, just an accurate appraisal of myself. But Julia... she may have what it takes. She's just a bit on the young side, too."

"As if I'm old." I said jokingly. "Seriously, I appreciate your candor. That's the mark of a good leader: you have to evaluate your people honestly and realistically, and not based on friendship."

After some more talk about who Jerome thought was doing well amongst the Uniformed Officers, I saw it was 10:00am. I said "Tell you what. During this quiet time, I'm going to go clean up and get about four hours of sleep, then I'll relieve you and you can get four hours in the afternoon."

"Yes sir." Jerome said.

I went back down the hallway to the living areas. There were showers and toilets, which worked. But the shower water did not get warm at all, so I just did my business, then shaved with the electric razor I'd brought (plug for the Braun shavers; they're excellent!). Then I laid a sheet I'd brought onto a bunk, inflated my air pillow, and lay down to get some rest...

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

2:00pm, Saturday, January 26th. I came back into the control room to see Jerome reading on his Police iPad as he watched the monitors.

"Good afternoon." I said. "Anything going on?"

"No sir." said Jerome. "Here's some power bars if you're hungry, sir." I consumed the power bars with some water as Jerome said "Looks like a normal day. It's 38 degrees outside, but there's still a few die-hards playing golf at the golf course, and a lot of more reasonable guys at the golf clubhouse, probably drinking beer and watching basketball or hockey."

Jerome continued: "No one has gone around the school, at all. I've seen some Sheriff's cars patrolling around town, and one came by here, but it looks to be routine."

"Okay, great." I said. "Go ahead and get some sleep."

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

5:10pm. The sun was getting low in the sky when I saw a pickup truck with a camper top on the back driving down the road that led around the School. I watched intently as the pickup went around the far side of the school (going north around the backside) and then reappeared to the school's right as I was looking at it. It seemed strange that a car would just loop around for no reason, so I watched it.

The road came back east through the copses of trees that Jerome and I had walked through the night before. Just as the truck got into the trees, it stopped. I switched to a camera where I could still see it better. Two men got out of the truck, wearing denim jackets and blue jeans, western boots, and with hard looks on their faces.

They went to the back of the truck and opened the camper window and truck tailgate, then brought out two drones. They set them up, then had them take off. One of the antennas on the hotel roof worked with what looked like a satellite dish up there as a simple radar system. I was able to use that to observe the flights and locations of the drones.

They flew around the school, then in wider circles over the grounds surrounding the woods. Then one of the drones set down on the roof of the school, overwatching the south road that led up to the school. The other drone returned to the truck, and was recovered and put into the back of the truck. The truck then moved out, driving along the road back towards town. Somewhat to my surprise, the two men went into the McDonalds.

Then I noticed that a car had come into the parking lot of the hotel, and two men with small suitcases went inside, as if checking in. Dammit! I thought to myself as I looked at all the other camera views...

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

6:15pm. Jerome came back into the control room. I informed him of what had happened with the pickup truck. "That's the only activity I've seen so far," I said, "but I suspect we'll see more movement soon."

"And by the way," I continued, "if someone starts coming down that hallway towards us, move fast and get behind those crates behind us." I jerked my thumb behind me. Jerome saw where I'd stacked a couple of boxes to give us cover in what would likely be the final firefight of our lives...

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

"The supply trucks should be here at 10:00pm." I said as the sun set and darkness began to envelop the land. "I'm expecting some advance scouts to come through before then."

At 7:15pm, the pickup truck that had come through in the afternoon came down the road towards the school, but its headlights were out and it was moving slowly. "They must be seeing if the drone on the roof is working." I suggested.

The truck went around the far side of the school, still going slowly. "Sir, they may have night-vision binoculars and are looking for people in the woods around the school." I nodded; that was Iron Crowbar thinking by Jerome.

The truck proceeded around the school then came to a stop at very near the same place it had stopped earlier in the day. The truck and the men were lighting up the infrared camera, and we could tell that they were getting out the drone that was in the back. It was giving off virtually no heat signature, but it was showing up on radar okay. This time the drone flew much higher into the air.

"There probably is IR on that drone." I said. "Yeah, there it goes. They're looking in the woods and right to the subdivisions, then flying near here..." I instinctively felt like ducking as the drone came close to the hotel cameras. The drone then returned towards the school.

"They're well equipped." I said.

"Sir, the battery life on that thing can't be all that great." said Jerome. "They can't patrol for two and a half hours."

"They'll probably land it and recharge it." I said. "They don't want a drone staying up in the air very long anyway, as it might get spotted. Okay, let's see what the Police are saying."

I began listening on my 'Ultra Boy' device. I also plugged my Police iPad into it, and with a program very similar to what Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart had put into the Black Beauty, I was able to see where the Police were. They were all in town at the Station, it appeared; no one was patrolling at the school, much less anywhere.

I checked around the hotel and its parking lot. There were no new cars, either parked or driving around.

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

At 8:15pm, the pickup truck made another round. It stopped at the far side of the school, sent the drone in the truck to the roof, then recovered the one that had been on the roof. The truck then drove into the trees and launched another drone, which I suspected was a third drone with a fresh battery.

Then I noticed that an SUV was driving towards the school from the left (south), just as the camper truck had. It was driving without lights. It came around, driving through the trees, but then it looked like it was going to make another loop, and was observed driving towards the school again. Infrared showed three persons in the vehicle.