Читать книгу When Dead Shadows Live - Don Boshard - Страница 5

The IAG was thrilled with the results of their action at the Dam even though it accomplished nothing but to send the press berserk feeding frenzy. Even more important was the press buzzing the report that terrorists had killed the family and the man who had foiled their attempt to blow up the Boulder dam. It was ecstasy to them; they were on a balloon high. Now everyone in the USA would know that you don’t fool with the IAG, for the IAG would not tolerate any interference of their plans. This knife in the heart, of would be heroes, would wake them all up, besides that, the Islamic radicals would be getting the full heat for their actions; the world would be biting at their heels. The IAG would be a name the Arabs would choose, not Americans. Their deception had been beyond their wildest dreams. Now the goal was to complete their fear mongering and drive American people into fear and loathing of today’s political atmosphere, getting them back to where the Constitution and the people were the forces that governed America. If it took killing a few people, so be it, many had died giving birth to this nation.

Their next port of entry into the collapse of the U.S. Government would be to follow their plan to disrupt the life blood of the west, the electrical grids, then move to the Midwest and then the East. The plan was elaborate and complicated but simple in the execution. They were fearless and the end would justify the means even if many people would suffer distress and be uncomfortable, it would do the people good to face a little of what their forefathers had suffered. They were confident that their plan was conceived well and that they would lead the military on a wild goose chase while the other patriot’s reestablished peace and harmony for the American People. They would be the heroes of the people or they would forfeit their lives in trying, devastating yes, but a necessary evil.

They had slandered and shamed and forget the Lady standing in New York harbor.

IAG leader, Jamison Jones, mapped out his attack plan with his lieutenant’s.

“If we hit the grid lines it will incapacitate parts of California, Nevada and Arizona. Just think what that would do to the economy and government of those states. It would knock out computers, manufacturing and Silicon Valley. It would completely destabilize the whole of the West. We would then move on to the Central and Eastern grids. By that time the government would be completely disabled, patriotism would be alive and flowing again. We failed at the dam but we won’t fail here.”

“Don’t the hospitals and Government have backup power, such as gas generators or the ability to switch to other power companies that won’t be affected by what we do?”

“Yes they do, but in many cases it will take them many hours to get service back to complete response time and that will still leave millions without power and the gas will run out. It will all catch up with them. Just picture downtown town L A with no stoplights, no directional signals, nothing to help medical, fire, or police get to their destinations. I-5 would look like a parking lot; no one would be able to move, that’s nothing new come to think of it. The sea ports would be inoperable, ships couldn’t enter or exit. Think about the airports having to divert traffic to other locations hundreds of miles away and over burdening those airports and then finding some way to transport travelers by bus or train to where ever their destinations are. If they had the fuel resources. The gas pumps wouldn’t work we would shut down refineries, pure chaos. I feel like we are throwing off the shackles of slavery and at going to be free. Now here how it works.” He went to the map and showed the towers locations. “There are three large towers in southern California and southern Nevada that are easy targets, they extending from Hoover dam and supporting the power source to a large portion of Southern California, Southern Nevada and parts of Arizona. A couple of well place explosive and the two poles and the walls come tumbling down. Take two down and double the reaction. Take three down and pandemonium. Thanks to our European supporters we have all the guns, supplies and explosives we need.”

“Aren’t you worried about who those people are?” Garrett asked. Garrett had been the weakest link in the group, worried about every little thing. He would not be in on the next section work, he would just disappear.

“Not really. They have been true to their word the whole time. Besides that they don’t really know who we are, just some supporters. They have faith in us we should have faith in them.”

Jamison knew that disrupting California was a hit on the whole of the United States. Not only would the agriculture collapse, but the entire commercial related business not to mention one of the world’s busiest ports and the highly suffocated business relating to the computer and software business. The devastation would be irreparable for a long time. He could only smile at the hard core repercussions this would have on Washington. “Everyone hates the politicians anyway, what would it be like after upsetting the economy of the United States. It would be more than hate it would be revolution,” and that’s what he wanted.

The small group gathered in the house in Baker California. A non-descript, older home that had belonged to a member of the group’s relatives. You couldn’t call it a vacation home since Baker is anything but a resort town. More like a desert stop. There was enough traffic through to make it look like the IAG was part of the passing through crowd, only stopping to get one of the Big Boy hamburgers. The world’s tallest thermometer or so city officials said, was isolate between the town and the freeway and stood fourteen stories but was not in use any more. It was erected to celebrate the hottest temperature recorded of 134 degree, but 120 degrees was nothing on a normal day, just an average day for Baker. Today the time and temperature sign at the Chevron station showed 105 degrees, a nice cool day.

Jamison and the ten other members of the IAG were bunched around the table with maps and schematics draped like a table cloth, as he handed out assignments.

“Gentlemen and I use that term loosely,” they all laughed because they knew they were as close to gentlemen as the gutter rats that inhabited the underworld of the bridges and gutters of New York. All of these people, or parasites as they liked to call them, whom they despised for living off the state would disappear under the new America. “Here are the attack points for the first leg of our journey to restoring the U S of A to the people. We will separate into two groups, five members in each group, one team hitting the grid one and the other grid two. By doing it this way if one group is disabled the other can succeed and one will be ok, but two different locations at the same time will be atomic, it will also improve our chances for success and not being caught and if we get, and before anyone realize what’s happening the poles will have been decapitated. You know what’s really, really great about this; they’ll think it’s a cyber-attack at first when they find the laptops with an explosion code along with Wi-Fi information. There won’t be much left of the computers but they will recover enough information to misdirect them. By the time the CIA track down the phony leads, it will be over with and we’ll have disabled the whole power grid for the U S. Then after that they’ll realize that this was ruse and blame it on the Arabs, which is just fine with me.” They all cheered. Exhausted by their own confidence, they were indestructible.

“Henley, you and your men hit the target one at mile post twenty two. That is approximately fifty miles inland in California. Remember to use only enough C-4 to do the job and no more. We don’t have abundance. Also take a laptop with you strapping it to another leg. Make certain that most of the mounting leg attachment places the computer close enough to the blast, but not so close as to fry the whole thing.” The C-4 was laid out on the table in two separate stacks each one labeled for location and weighing about fifty pounds.

Between the two groups we should cause enough power interruption to enrage people into thinking and reacting, goodbye government for not standing up to terrorism and protecting the people. When this is done we move east. Then just keep going till we get their attention.”

“I’ll take the second section and go back toward Boulder City and hit the tower number two along I-95. If we have time later we will hit the transmission line in Arizona.” The IAG members were ready to move out, five members in each group and miles of dust terrain to traverse. The Ford F-250 four wheel drive vehicles with metal exterior storage were perfect. They were four wheel drive equipped with the 5.4L Triton motor with the 3V SOHC heads left no doubt about power and speed. They accommodated the team’s storage needs for the explosives as well as five Serbu Super-Shorty12 gauge shot guns, for close in combat. With the heavy load shells, they could halt three or four of any potential traitors who would try to stop them if they found out about IAG plans. They knew there was little chance of that since they were in the middle of no man’s land and they were the only ones who knew the plan.

The guns, trucks and C-4 had been purchased on the black market or from different parts the county, mainly Middle America. They had also acquired ten HK-USP handguns, which they found on the internet. They used stolen credit cards to purchase these and each member was given one. The HK’s were light semi-automatic pistols that were very reliable.

The fire power they had gathered was not overwhelming but sufficient to accommodate their needs. It would have been pleasant to have a longer range rifle, AK-47 would have done, but they didn’t have storage room and didn’t want to gather attention.

Before they headed out they all put on camouflage outfits, and looked the part of desert raider. “Mount up. Everyone get to your objectives. We have four hours of day light and we want to be ready to shake up this great country by dawn. I will be happy to deal a blow to these traitorous politicians.” They all gritted their teeth and moved to the trucks. Everything was loaded and ready to go.

All that was visible now was the deathly silence of deceit and fear.

It didn’t take them long to reach their targets. Apparently they went undetected or most probably no one cared about truck prowling the desert at night, it was nothing unusual and hunters loved to hunt at night so lights in the desert meant nothing. Besides that, this was free country and people traveled where they wanted to on and off road it made no difference.

The distance was shorter for Team I. The giant power pole hung from the sky and it appeared the clouds had to circle around them to pass.

“I’m sure as hell happy that we don’t have to climb that baby. I rather do what has to be done on the ground.” Stan was the demolition expert with this group.

“Are you claustrophobic shorty?”

“Na, you dummy, it’s not claustrophobic but acrophobic and I’m not afraid of heights, they just terrorize me.” They had a good laugh at this.

The truck was vacated in a hurry about two blocks from the tower, each man took his weapons while Stan got the C—4, about thirty pounds he thought would be enough. C-4 is a very stable explosive and wouldn’t explode by just handling it, but would ignite with an electrical charge sent by radio wave from the attached burner phone which was truncated to each leg where they packed the C-4 tightly. He placed a cell phone by the computer and ran connecting wires to the other legs which he packed the same way, with the igniter fuse. The explosion on both towers would happen simultaneously when the phone rang, which were setup with the same phone number. The computer was attached about two feet below the C-4 and some of it would survive. Thank goodness they had a veteran of the Iraqi war who had spent time in communications. Each crew had a burner phone and it didn’t take him long to get them to response to same receiving number.

Jamison said before they left, he had the cell phone to set off the explosions, “One call and that’s all,” he had heard that on a television ad for an attorney somewhere in Nevada. He had to smile; here he was using an ad from the lowest life form on the planet to explain his action. These so called Legal Beagles have had their day, the new US would not need them and his plan would be the beginning of the end for the tyranny of political self-interest groups. It was radical, just natures course, victory to the strong. He looked at the tattoo on his arm and knew the rest of his secret group had the same one. He could only smile; he never thought he would wear it.

Stan attached fifteen pounds to each leg of the tower and wired them in sequence with a low voltage detonating cap in each. They aligned so when the phone rang a low impulse charge would reach the C-4 and set them off simultaneous.

Henley stood watching the road on a little knoll with his half of the two way radios. The 20/80 power binoculars gave him enough reach of the flat landscape that if a tortoise moved he could spot it. They did not want to chance being seen.

Merely twenty minutes had passed and Stan signaled he was finished. Everyone piled in the truck and headed back only slowing enough to gather up Henley. There was no speed limit in the middle of the desert so doing sixty on the dirt road was legal and the roaster tail of dust that followed them would not be visible in the dark as they made for the road.

Preciously ten minutes later the truck shook and they could see the cloud of dust rise from where the tower had been. Henley could only smile and say, “What a beautiful sight” and they continued on their way.

Just over a hundred miles away Jamison and his men had completed their task and were on their way back. They only had twenty mile of dirt road and that was very secluded. “It’s just about time. “Pull over and let’s watch the revolution start.” Jamison was the explosive expert with this group and they had done exactly like the others. He dialed the phone and the explosion rocked the truck, they looked back and watched as the spire disintegrate and disappear in the upheaval of dust and dirt earth. Jamison could imagine the others watching the exact same thing.

The same results at the same time. They were all proud of what they had done. Power interruption was going to be extremely inconvenient for many people and have a deadly effect on Washington. “Terrorists in America’s backyard” news casters and papers would bolt across America for that story and blame Washington for not protecting the American people. That was juicy stuff for the IAG.

They all arrived at the little house in Baker within 40 minutes of each other. The beer was cold and flowing wildly and cold sandwiches were great. They just all sat around and laugh and talked. “Can you believe how well that went? I don’t think the FBI or CIA have a hint of what we did or why we did it.” Henley looked at each one, “you know, we should keep a journal for our posterity. They will think we’re hero and we will be remembered as heroes. It would be great for history to know what we did and how we did it. It would be an education for future time. Our stellar deeds will live forever, especially how we pinned this on Islamic terrorists. They would head to their own homes tomorrow but for now let the party roar on.

Jamison and his men frolicked all night, making certain they didn’t attract any noisy people. It was balmy and quiet. After a few hours the beer was running out and the sandwiches gone.

“Let’s get some zz’s, life will be different tomorrow.” He looked around, “where is Juan?”

The blast ripped the quiet shroud of night, deafening and blinding as flames reached for the stars. The sound waves rocked houses five miles away in Baker and the flash of light was visible from Death Valley.

There was nothing left of the house or the humans. They were torn and a strewn mess encompassing a hundred yards or more. It was so bad you couldn’t separate human parts from building rubble and the fire did not help. The F250’s were blown hundreds of feet away, only their shells remained, there had been and explosive device in each one. There were no distinguishing features to tell one truck from another and no way to tell the serial numbers, thus not being able to identify the owners.

When the fire department and police arrive there was little or nothing to see or do. The sheriff was notified and he called in the FBI, just looking at the scene left him in awe. There was no way to fathom what type of explosive had been used let alone how much. There was nothing he could do until the Feds arrived but protect the area. It took all the yellow crime scene tape he had and gathered rope to isolate the area.

It was several hours before the FBI arrived in Baker and the big thermometer showed zero degrees as the desert roasted. It would heat up another ten to twelve degrees by noon. The black Suburban was not the best color to have in the desert but it was typical of the Feds. It wasn’t far for them to travel but they had to take off their coats and ties, even with the air conditioning blustering.

They would have liked to have a nice Bud to travel with but they were on duty and that was a no, no so Coke would have to do and the majority of it was diet.

When they arrived at the shattered remains of the house and bodies the sheriff was there to meet them. “The ME was already sifting through the ruble and separating body parts and building parts into separate stacks, a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be deciphered. He is perplexed by the whole thing.”

“This is Dr. McCaugh.” The Sheriff introduced the ME. He came down from Vegas. We don’t have the means to do this kind of work.”

“This is agents Gillespie, Sanchez, DePorta and I am agent Green.” They all shook hands and greetings. “The FBI has a special interest in this because of everything that has been going on here. Two major power lines were destroyed early this morning with similar explosives and there is reason to believe this is related to home being destroyed in Beaver Dam Arizona. We haven’t got the foggiest idea why but the mechanics are similar.”

Before they could maneuver the conversation further a tan Jeep Cherokee pulled up behind the Suburban. Two men got out, approaching and looking like cowboys, they signaled for Agent Green to meet them before they reached the others.

The four gathered far enough away so they could not be overheard. The two new arrivals showed Green their ID’s and they talked for a while then meandered over to the others.

Green introduced the new comers to the others, “This is Mr. Henry and Mr. Reeves. They were sent as observers and will be with us through the investigation. They are to be included in in all discussions and planning. Does everyone understand?” There was a stunned silence but everyone nodded they understood. “Let’s get going. Gillespie, Sanchez, you work with the ME sorting through this mess. Deporta and I will work with the Sheriff and his men laying out the bounds of the destruction. The foundation is still intact so I would guess the bomb was above ground. That’s the starting grid now let’s get going.” Henry and Reeves each went with a separate group. This was going to be a long drawn out process and they might have to bring in more support.

The sifting was the hard part. Parts of bones and internal organs, those that could be recognized, finger nails, teeth and any other body parts were gathered and placed in plastic bags. They would worry about putting the puzzle together when they got back to Vegas. The stench of burned bodies was shifting through the light breeze. If there was a cemetery in the area, even the dead would have rolled over and covered their faces.

The shattered wood and metal parts were blasted hundreds yards around the explosion zone. It looked like part of Hiroshima after the blast.

Misters Henry and Reeves did not dirty their hands on the hard work. They followed each group and reviewed what had been done and what results were found. Agent Green would moved away periodically with the two unknowns and they would discuss whatever it was they discussed.

Then Green called a meeting of the Sheriff, his other agents and the two outsiders. “This is reminiscent to the house that was destroyed in Arizona. Misters Henry and Reeves confirmed what the ME has indicated. It appears to be a serial bomber. The explosives were laid around the base of the foundation so as to level the building and everything inside along with most everything outside. This is a professional job, but why we have no idea. There is a strong association with those that bombed the power lines. Again, we don’t know why. No demands were made on anyone or anything. If there are any known agents I have no idea what they are. The foot print of the C4 will be analysis at the Quantico, Virginia. They will have us information back in two days. In the mean time we continue the investigations. We need to know who these people where, where there from and what they wanted. All indications are these are terrorists but we have no idea what they were up to or wanted. We need to go to Baker and see if anyone has a recollection of strangers in town and what they did. Sheriff, could a couple of you men go along the adjacent roads and check for any indication of traffic. Sanchez, DePorta go into town and see if anyone remembers seeing new people. Also, would you have a couple of your men hold back the mass of reporters and gawkers?”

“All there is in Baker are Truck drivers and tourists passing through. Everyone is new. How can they know one new from another new?” The Sheriff’s question was valid. How do you tell one ant from another when they are moving along the trail?

“Sheriff, your right, we have no idea what these people look like or any indication of where there from or as a matter of fact, who they are.”

“Excuse me Sheriff,” it was one of his deputies, “we found two wallets. No identification but two family pictures. Is there a way that the FBI can use the facial recognition software for a lead off these pictures?” One picture of a man and women, the other of two children.”

“Slim to none but we can try. It is better than nothing. We will send them to Quantico with other bits of evidence. In the mean time we’ll have a full FBI team out here in the morning to go over the remains. Dr. McCaugh if you wouldn’t mind sticking around until our team arrives in the morning and go over the blast site with them. I understand we have a room reserved for you in Baker, I’m certain it is a resort.” Green was carrying the load.

“Sheriff, I am also going to call in the bomb experts from the Marine base is San Diego. Sometimes they can find leads we can’t. Thank you again for all you have done and all your help.”

“You’re welcome and I hope you catch these bastards before anything else happens.”

The FBI agent said little about the pole explosions since was a matter of terrorism, but Bakes was feeling the wrath of the bomber, there was no power Baker.

“What happened to our power?” the Sheriff asked.

“We’ve heard there is a large power outage all the way to LA. I’m certain it will be resolved in a short time.” Green said with tongue in cheek.