The Nuclear Option Ch. 01

"Thank you, Bettina." said Hacosta. "Dr. Carmela, is what the military and Police are doing legal?"

"I think the warrantless searches of people's vehicles and stopping people without probable cause is absolutely unconstitutional and a violation of our Citizens's rights." said Carmela.

"Doctor," said Hacosta, "does the military, the FBI, and the TCPD owe us an explanation of what is going on?"

"They sure do, Bill." said Carmela. "In fact, the Citizens for Police Accountability intend to sue the TCPD under the Open Records Act to be given all records of what the TCPD is doing to help the military suppress our citizens's rights and freedom of movement. And we will have lawsuits at the Federal level over the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests that were denied by the military and the FBI."

"Thank you, Dr. Carmela." said Hacosta.

Back to Bettina, who said "Channel Two News has learned that Governor Val Jared has been apprised of the situation involving what the military is calling an 'exercise', but the Governor's Office has not responded to repeated requests for comment..."

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

"I sincerely believe," said General McFarland as we watched the news, "that if the Press finds out about this, they will tell everyone as fast as they can, and start a panic that could injure or kill a lot of people."

"I agree, General." I said.

Though we'd vacated the offices on the ground floor, General McFarland had been set up in an upstairs room at the Old Mill. There was a side room, that was nothing more than a large closet, that he could go into for really private conversations, but for the most part he was sitting at the head of the conference table the Army had brought in overnight. At the moment, General McFarland, Major General Just, Jack Muscone, Laura Fredricson, and myself were the only persons in the room. Jack looked tired, as did MG Just. General McFarland not only didn't look tired, he looked almost like he was enjoying this crisis atmosphere.

I was wearing my black pullover shirt, black pants, badge on my belt, gun in a shoulder holster, the khaki trenchcoat with the inner pocket holding my red crowbar, and my Tilley Hat with the hat TCPD badge and the Parachutist Badge over it. Yes, I'd gotten some dark looks about the 'mixing of uniforms' by wearing the Airborne Wings, but I wanted everyone to be damn sure to know that they were not dealing with a dirty nasty Leg.

I'd made coffee, having learned well from Sheriff Griswold about proper asskissing. I'd been here since 5:00am, and the Old Mill was already a beehive of activity at that time, as military Officers manned phones and communications equipment, finding out everything they could. At that early hour, Hammondsville Police Chief Pascal Floyd and Detective Josh Segers had come in and given their briefing along with the Army Major that had briefed us the day before. Muscone and the FBI BAU team were there, as well.

"The truck and car were dusted for fingerprints." said Major Wedbush. "All of them were the men of the two crews, except one. It was a large, well-defined thumbprint on the inside of the right rear door of the follow car. It is so clear that we think it was deliberately left."

"Who was it?" asked the General. When Wedbush hesitated, then let his eyes drift towards me, the General said "You may speak as freely to these men as you can to me."

"No disrespect to Commander Troy," said the Major, "but this person came up in his last case." He handed a file folder to General McFarland, who opened it and read the information."

"Ah, the 'other' Tomoko Shimono." said the General. "Confirmed by the CIA, and she's a mirror image twin of the Shimono that was found dead. Major, Commander Troy briefed us on his last case, and discussed this woman as well as, what was his name? Ah, Barsbane. So keep on going with your report, Major."

"Yes, General." said Major Wedbush. "We also did further checks on the two crews. The truck crew was led by Rob Abernathy. Two Bronze Stars, one with 'V' device, in Afghanistan. Extremely good, clean record with the Green Berets. Married to Dottie Abernathy, they have two children. Finances look pretty clean; no big debts, no large amounts of money coming in, anything like that."

"The driver is named Chet Lockhart." said the Major. "His father's brother was a pharmacist in this County some years ago, but died." (Author's note: 'The Medical Murder Mystery'.) "Lockhart was a Navy SEAL, and most of his missions, and the medals that came with them, are still classified today. He is married to Nancy Lockhart, and they have no children... but she is pregnant. They live within their means, carrying no debt on their credit card, and everything else is clean."

"The 'courier' is named Randy Smith." continued the Major. "Green Beret in Iraq, but lost an eye in combat in Fallujah. He was put in for the Medal of Honor, but ended up being awarded the Silver Star instead. Very good martial artist, as well, considered clean and professional in every way. Has a wife, Sheri Smith, and a one-year-old child. He inherited some money, but there have been no unaccounted-for amounts of money coming to him, and he has no debt at all.

"However," Major Wedbush went on, "that cannot be said of the followup car crew. The two men and the third man that didn't show up had been hired only six months ago. The two men on the mission, Trent Ridge and Quint Starr, had been in the Navy SEALs, but it was not found out until we started checking the data yesterday that they had been suspected of torturing captured ISIS personnel, and they also may have tortured civilians, including raping the wives and daughters of families in front of their husbands, fathers, and brothers, then killing all of them. It looks like a lot of that couldn't be proved, and the Navy chose to sweep whatever they did know under the rug."

"And the third man of their team," said the Major, bringing out a DMV ID photo, "is this guy."

"Paco Domingo." I said when I saw it. "He wasn't in the military, though, as far as I ever heard."

"No, he wasn't." said the Major. "But he forged documents to show that he'd been in the Alabama Air National Guard. This was an old cover he used while he was an operative for the CIA. It fooled the OST into hiring him."

"Let's hear what the BAU team has on them." said General McFarland. "And what they think the perps are doing with the stolen weapon, and where they might take it."

"General," said FBI SAC Bob Rovers, standing up to give a slide presentation from his computer, "Rob Abernathy and Randy Smith were very solid soldiers, cool under fire, and methodical in their actions. In our analysis, neither is prone to rash actions in any way. Chet Lockhart also grades out well, but not to the level of the others. He always volunteered for the hard, risky missions, to which his many medals attest, and he's considered to be just that little bit on the edge."

"Trent Ridge and Quint Starr also graded out well, at least initially." said Rovers. "We were surprised to learn of the accusations against them, but upon deeper checking we found out that in the last several months they frequented strip bars and partied with prostitutes------"

"BDSM clubs?" I asked, interrupting.

"Why would you ask that?" snarled Rovers. "You visit them yourself?" There was a bit of a pall of shock at Rovers's rudeness to me, but I carried on unperturbed.

"No." I said. "But Shimono did, and she might have recruited them from there."

"Good point." said Jack Muscone, supporting me and also taking a shot at Rovers in saying that.

"Yes, it is. Carry on, Rovers." said GEN McFarland.

"Yes, General." said Rovers. "Ridge and Starr are aggressive, but smart. They would be cool in a firefight, and capable of planning an operation of this magnitude. Paco Domingo was extremely good in the martial arts and close quarters combat. We definitely see him as the kind of man that could make contacts with Shimono and Barsbane, and put together a team like the one we're facing here."

"Jerry Barsbane," said Rovers, "may be the weak link. He's mercurial, high-strung, intense, and tends to be irrational under pressure. He could be the one to fly off the handle and do something stupid. We also think he has a real hatred of Police and the military, and would not hesitate to kill LEOs------"

"Why do you say that?" I asked, impolitely interrupting.

"Our profiling methods," said Rovers irritably, "which would take too long to explain to you, suggest that. He also has Mob connections, as you know."

"Yes, I know." I said. "And that's why I asked. Would you care to explain why he left the Mob, and disassociated with them?"

"We're examining his psychological profile, not his Mob connections, Commander Troy." Rovers snarled.

"Perhaps you should examine that." said Muscone, who had gotten the point of my questions.

"For God's sake..." muttered Rovers.

"Keep going, Rovers." said GEN McFarland.

"Yes, General. "Last is the woman we're calling Tomoko Shimono, even though she's not the original Shimono that was disavowed by the CIA and attempted to steal the directed energy weapon. We believe this woman has an unlimited capacity for cruelty, enjoys killing for the sake of killing, as well as torture and inflicting pain. We believe she would set off a nuke and kill thousands, or millions, in a heartbeat if she could."

"For these reasons," said Rovers, "we believe the truck crew is dead, and that the criminals will take the weapon to a major population center to maximize the loss of life when they set it off. And yes, I said 'when', not 'if'. Our profile of these criminals suggest their intent is to detonate the weapon as opposed to a real attempt to obtain ransom. We think they'll try to get the weapon to the City or Southport, to inflict maximum damage."

"Thank you, Rovers." said General McFarland. "Troy, Muscone, anything to add to that?"

"No sir." I said. "I leave real psychology to my wife, who is actually good at it." Muscone chuckled at my little shot at the 'vaunted' BAU team. GEN McFarland peered at me, and MG Just just frowned.

"As to what happened," I said, "Shimono 2.0, as we've been calling her, must've been driving another car, and picked up the other guys or helped them in some other way to stop the truck and ultimately hijack it, then maybe she drove her cohorts off in her vehicle, leaving the other two vehicles on the road."

Hammondsville Police Chief Floyd said "Yes, Don, that's what we think happened. There is a second set of car tire marks in front of the abandoned follow-up car. What we don't understand is the truck. It was going west, but was found facing east. We've found no places along the road where a truck of that size turned around. And really no parking lots between where the truck disappeared and past where it was found, where the weapon could've been transferred."

I replied: "I suspect that is because they drove the truck down a farm road or other road somewhere to the big east-west railroad line, put the weapon on a rail car, and then drove back and parked the truck facing the other way. The railcar then made its way east into the Hammondsville Railyards."

"Where did it go from there?" asked General McFarland.

"No idea." I said. "No data yet." I passed a written note to McFarland.

As he read it, General McFarland said "You just said this woman might've been involved with the other two to hijack the truck?"

"Yes, General." I replied. "This was a well-planned, carefully orchestrated, and, to be honest, brilliantly executed operation. What the motive is, though, I can't say."

"Money, probably." said MG Just. "Ransom."

"Tell you what." said General McFarland. "Just, I want you to coordinate with Chief Floyd here and go check out the Hammondsville Railyards. Get with their State people, too. Take in Geiger counters, all of that, and check out the railcars. Have the local LEOs talk to the people that work at the Railyards, and see if they saw anything unusual yesterday or last night."

"Okay, everyone," McFarland continued, "I'd like to speak with Agent Muscone and Commander Troy alone for a moment." Everyone got up to leave the room... including Laura.

"Dr. Fredricson, you can stay." said General McFarland.

"If it's all the same, General," Laura said, "I'll step outside, also." The General nodded. Seconds later, there were only three of us in the room.

"So, what's this about?" the General said, holding up the note, which read "I need to speak with you and Muscone alone." He also did not know that this was pre-planned, and I'd asked Laura ahead of time to go out and watch the others as I talked to the General.

"General," I said, "I'm sure your people have realized this already, but I realized earlier this morning that there has to be a mole within all this. It had to be an inside job!"

To be continued.