Old Growth & Ivy (The Spook Hills Trilogy Book 1) (30 page)

A couple of days later, upon obtaining
the legal authority and with Ivy and Brian on the line, Steve called for the
team of FBI agents and federal geologists he had lined up to mobilize for
exploration of the mines.   One of the shafts to the tunnels went to
the surface on property adjacent to the land owned by
CCE
Mining.  Fortunately that mine entrance was out of sight of the Bunker
behind a series of land undulations.  The cover story for the exploration
team was a reported gas leak in the area.  New Mexico has the third
largest natural gas reserves in the nation, making it a plausible cover
story.  While most of the reserves are located northwest of the Santa Fe
area in a region called the San Juan Basin and in the southwest corner of New
Mexico in the Permian Basin, the cover story was at least plausible. 

Now that she was part of the
investigation, Ivy found herself as energized by the thrill of the chase as
Steve was.  He designated her as the coordinator for the mine exploration
work, which meant she was on call 24/7 as the team worked in shifts round the
clock stealthily exploring the mine tunnels, staying wary of security devices
as they edged underground onto the Fuentes land.  Ivy had been cautioned
that if they encountered a major cave-in, they might have to call the operation
off.  The team could deal with small ones by making their way over and
around rubble and shoring up the roof or top of the tunnel as they went. 
It sounded dangerous to her, but the team leader was confident in their precautionary
measures. 

Steve found himself walking back and
forth outside of the barn.  Even though it was raining lightly, the moist
air was welcome after the dry summer and fall.  At last the case was
moving forward!  He loved it when the pace accelerated on a case. 
They were now in the chase.  Once the phones and video calls quieted down
the day before, he called the team together for a meeting over dinner. 
Mathew and Moll had driven out to pick up meals like they did when they
celebrated their break-through on finding the Fuentes in Florida.  This
time they camped out in the nearly-finished house with the comfort of the
furnace running.

He was so proud of Ivy.  She
functioned now like any other agent, participating in the meetings on equal
footing.  She teamed up well with the former agents, but took ownership of
her task on the mine exploration.  Steve watched how she worked with the
three former agents, trying to learn from her team-player style. 

Steve had a hunch that the traveling
twin would return to see Eduardo for Thanksgiving weekend, keeping up some
semblance of family traditions.  If his hunch was wrong, he would keep
adjusting the timeframe until they could pounce.  He would not move in
until at least two brothers were together in the Bunker.  That evening,
they laid out the schedule for the sting.  Ivy asked if they were
traveling to New Mexico.  They tossed that around for a while and agreed
that Ivy, Brian and Steve would go to a hotel in Santa Fe if all proceeded as
they expected, with their rogue agent Lenny joining them.  Steve would
need to be close to the action, but he did not want to leave Ivy.  Mathew
would stay at Spook Hills with Moll and two trusted agents from Operation Spook
Hills to defend their property, just in case another strike was
scheduled.  However they would be in phone and video contact with the
Santa Fe team.  They now had a wooden gate reinforced with bars of
titanium installed on the driveway.  Although the perps could crash
through it with an armored vehicle or they could go around it, at least the
gate would present a deterrent.

Every day brought new updates. 
The cell phone authorization was signed that morning.  Steve had the
equipment lined up and a team out of Los Angeles ready to put it in place that
night.  All wireless traffic to and from the Bunker would be picked up by
a surveillance van hidden off the road.  When they did the installation
that night, Steve would have audio to the team leader and receive camera shots
of the setup.  The team installing the equipment would give him access to
the recordings when they were intercepted going in and out of the Bunker. 

They hoped to have the search warrant
to inspect the Fuentes FEDEX, UPS and DHL packages the next day.  All they
needed was one package containing large amounts of cash, but Steve wanted to
have several inspected packages from different carriers so that they could
establish a pattern.  The teams inspecting the packages would be local FBI
agents briefed to make certain each package appeared untouched after their
inspection. 

Provided they could obtain these
additional forms of evidence, they would then have stealth teams sweep the
Fuentes properties undercover at night to devise a strategy for bypassing
security detection devices.  Once those plans were in place, he, Ivy and
Brian, would fly to Santa Fe, to meet up with Lenny and an FBI SWAT team
assembled from the Albuquerque and Los Angeles offices.  With all of
Steve's requests going through the Chief, he was getting all the cooperation
required, and he knew he could be darn demanding. 

Today the Chief privately told him
that his secret probe had identified two FBI men and one woman as potential
moles.  In an unusual move, he had brought in undercover CIA operatives
skilled in computer systems analysis to identify any moles.  The CIA
operatives were reputed to be performing an information security audit on
Sentinel.  The suspects included Steve's old boss, an information security
guru and a supervisor in charge of interdepartmental data requests.  This
info on the moles was so top secret, Steve could not even tell Mathew or Ivy
about it.  Inwardly he felt justified in the contempt he had for his old
boss.  The evidence the CIA found was in their unusual computer access
authorities, some of which were later over-written, but caught in the
simultaneous off-site backup of the security tables and audit trails. 

The CIA was now tapping into the
suspected moles’ bank accounts, their tax filings, and other personal financial
information, seeking evidence of excess funds.  It would be a sorry day
for the FBI if there were three turncoats, but it was essential to identify and
arrest the moles.  Apparently the DEA would come under similar scrutiny in
the coming weeks.  Since the arrests were not yet made, the activities of
the Spook Hills gang had to remain covert.

That night Mathew was working in his
room in the new house, setting up a docking station for his laptop, adding
speakers, a large screen monitor and gaming gear.  He was torn between
wanting to be with Steve and Ivy in Santa Fe for the sting on the Fuentes and
defending Spook Hills on a contingency basis.  Steve had guaranteed that
he, Ivy and Brian would be well away from the actual sting when it went down,
but Mathew found it hard to imagine Steve sitting on the sidelines.  He
suspected that Steve would be in a Bu-Van fully equipped with audio and video
so he could monitor the team and ensure that the Fuentes were brought to
justice. 

Once the Fuentes were in custody, the
operation and files would transition from the Spook Hills gang to a regular FBI
team out of the D.C. office that would, in Steve's lingo, do the mopping
up.  They would seize the assets, comb the records and computer equipment,
shut down operations internationally and prepare the case for
prosecution.  While it was probable that the Spook Hills gang would have
their depositions taken and perhaps be called upon to testify, for the most
part they would be out of any case follow-up. 

Mathew thought about his FBI
career.  He would miss the intellectual challenge along with the assurance
that he was serving his nation.  He would miss the teams, even though with
having Steve, Brian and Moll close by, he would still have the best of the
best.  However that part of his life would be over.  He would have
the memories, a slightly bum leg as a reminder and most importantly, great
friends as he moved on with his life.

The waiting on the Fuentes case made
him tense.  He felt as if he were suspended in a pool of viscous liquid,
where no matter how hard he struggled, a strong current within the pool kept
him away from the shore where his future lay.  He could see it there in
front of him.  He could close his eyes and visualize the future he wanted
in his mind's eye but the Fuentes brothers’ devious minds and drug cartel
stymied his progress. 

With the electronic gear in place, the
team was now receiving the traffic from the Fuentes cell tower. 
Communications between the brothers happened at least once a day.  Cristo
was the twin in communication with Eduardo and thus far, only Cristo.  The
conversations moved between English and Spanish.  Steve set Fred up with a
laptop at his safe house to translate them into all-English transcripts. 
Generally the calls were reporting collections and deliveries -- a summing up
of stops by city.  One particular conversation, which was the longest one,
surprised him and the team:

Eduardo: 
"Cristo, tell me about the negotiations today."

Cristo: 
"Arrogant fuckers.  These people are ready to slit my throat and take
over.  Now that the first meeting is finished, I'll use my phone from the
yacht."

Eduardo:
 "Good.  I have lost one brother this year.  I don’t want
to lose you too."

Cristo:
 "Losing Cruze was so hard.  I miss him, Eduardo.  He was
my best half." 

Steve
noticed that Cristo's voice sounded choked up when he spoke of Cruze, whereas
before his voice had a harsh edge to it.

Cristo:
"To confirm, the deal is that they wire half the money to the account in
Cuba.  When that is verified, a courier takes them keys for the hangars,
planes and yachts in Colombia, but not the locations."

Eduardo:
"Did they go for the $100 million?"

Cristo:
"No.  Cheapskates.  They laughed.  I said that was the
price or no deal.  They want the financials."

Eduardo:
"Send them the portfolio I gave you.  No names."

Cristo: 
"Sending it to them electronically tomorrow."

Eduardo:
"Then they bite or we move on.  It is a steal at $100 million.
 We will shut down and pull out rather than give it away.  Stay cool,
my brother."

Cristo: 
"These dudes worry me.  I think I should change locations."

Eduardo:
"Move the yacht up to Corpus Christi.  Easier to escape then. 
Too dangerous so close to Mexico.  Do it tonight."

Cristo:
"You have all the contacts, locations, pickup sites and drop sites
organized?"

Eduardo: 
"Four lists in your folder on the server – hold onto them until the second
half of their payment is confirmed.  Is the doppelganger out and about in
Bogota?"

Cristo: 
"Sure is -- regular flash party man, this one."

Eduardo: 
"All the better.  When this is over, we send him to party
heaven."

Cristo:
"What are we doing about those fucking FBI vigilantes?"

Eduardo: 
"I have thought about that, Cristo.  We do nothing until after this
sale is closed.  Then we hit them hard, wipe out the house, the barns, and
the fucking vines.  All of it.  All of them."

Cristo:
"And then we retire."

Eduardo:
 "Maybe dabble with the banks.  We will see.  Soon it will
be goodbye drug world.  Hello
CCE
Ventures." 

Cristo
sniggered.

Steve sat back and thought.  He
found the way they spoke of their drug operations as a regular business with
financials and portfolios to be ironic.  Did they really envision
themselves as a couple of entrepreneurs?  Listening to the actual voices,
Eduardo's was high pitched for a man.  He sounded asthmatic too. 
Steve wondered if his voice box had been damaged when he was held captive all
those years ago.  Cristo's voice was more masculine with a little Spanish
inflection in his speech.  Steve had the team listen to this conversation
as well as read the transcript.  With hearing their voices, the Fuentes
became more than mythical figures.

Steve was interested that they wanted
out of the drug business.  He put his feet up on the worktable and leaned
back.  We will be happy to help them out of the drug business.  In
fact, we will help them out of all the businesses they have.  He still
wanted to find cash in those packages.  That would be the proverbial nail
in the coffin.  He checked at his watch.  Ten a.m. -- time for an
update from Ivy and Brian on the exploration of the old mine tunnels. 

"Chief," Ivy said with that
little glint she had in her eye whenever she called him 'Chief', as if she
found it amusing to report to him on this case. 

"The geological team has
progressed underground to the Fuentes property," she continued.

Brian put up a diagram of the mines on
the projector.  "The red solid line shows their path.  Where it
is a dotted line, they had to clear rubble, shore the area up and
continue.  They have a probe that goes ahead of them -- a little robot
with a flexible wheel base that can climb over uneven ground and small
rubble."

Steve nodded after tracing the line of
the tunnel in the air with his forefinger, committing it to memory.

"I had them send this photo of
the robot.  Here are some shots of the mine too.  You can see that
these tunnels are old and crude.  The timbers shoring them up are not in
the best of shape."

After reviewing the photographs and
the slow progress into the mines, Steve began to worry about the planned
sting. 

"Yesterday they encountered a big
cave in," Brian said when Ivy flipped up another photo of the
tunnel.  "After checking the area for potential hazards including
noxious gases, they started to clear a hole through it.  They shored up
the ceiling of the tunnel and then moved the rubble along the sides of the mine
to eliminate carting it up to the surface."

Steve watched him nod over to Ivy and
he realized they each had a look of suppressed excitement.

"Early this morning, about a
hundred feet after the big cave-in, they found this!"  She flashed up
a photo of a newly constructed steel and cement wall reinforced with steel
beams.  Both Ivy and Brian were smiling triumphantly.  Steve stared
at it, scarcely able to believe his eyes.

"Bingo.  Pay
Dirt!"  He grinned back at them, elated that their hunch on the
tunnels and the bank was proving likely.  The Fuentes escape tunnel or
some underground chamber had to run behind that new wall.

Mathew had been watching from his
worktable, but now got up to stare more closely at the photograph on the
screen.  "What does the geo team do now?  Cutting through that
wall will set off alarms.  The noise alone could do it."  

"Have they taken any soundings of
the area?" asked Steve.

"Yes.  There is an empty
space on the other side of the wall, but the metal may distort the waves, so
the readings could be off.  Here's what they have so far."  She
put up a diagram that showed the possible path of the tunnel on the other side
of the wall.  It was running northeast to southwest.

"Put that original mine map back
up."

Steve studied it and quickly Ivy
flipped up an overlay showing where the explored tunnel came in and where the
soundings indicated the Fuentes tunnel might run, at least for a short
distance.

"I'll get the stealth team set
for tonight.  They will go on the Fuentes property from around
here."  He pointed to an area of back acreage.  "They will
search for security devices, cameras most likely, and figure out how to
redirect them or avoid them.  This will be recon only."

"And our mine team?"

"Let's not push our luck. Have
them put in monitoring cameras.  Then they should clear out and return to
base camp in Albuquerque, but stay at the ready to go down that shaft on the
Fuentes property.  Likely that will be in good repair, although it will
have tons of security."

He stared at the mine map with the
overlay and smiled at them.  "Great findings!  Give my
appreciation to the geo team.  It's all coming together!  Now we need
a few packages of dough."

"Chief?" Brian asked.

"Yeah?"

"I think Moll or I should be
there when the packages are opened.  We have to be sure it is done right,
photos taken and sealed back up so that each package appears undisturbed."

"Not sure we can do that with the
timing."

"We can if we get the info when
the package first enters the system.  We can then be on location in the
carrier's hub city.  We intercept as it comes into the hub, inspect the
package and send it off as scheduled.  Using the hub city gives us time to
get there and keeps us away from any potential local spies near the
Fuentes."

Steve nodded.  "As long as
it is easy to coordinate."

"The fraud divisions for the
carriers are all over this -- very cooperative.  For packages that
originate internationally, we'll get to the first U.S. city where it will
hit."

"Want a Bubird on standby in
Portland?"

"Really?"  Brian's
normally masculine voice squeaked he was so surprised.  "You can do
that?"

Steve raised an eyebrow in response.

"Dumb question.  Of course
you can.  I meant you would do that for us?  Much easier and
faster.  Then we can jet from hub to hub as the delivery info comes
in.  We may have to split up, but we'll work that out.  Uh, how do I
schedule the plane?"

"You'll have a number to call to
arrange the next flight.  Give as much warning as you can in case a backup
flight crew is required.  Call me with any problems or if you need a
second 'Bird."

"Got it Chief!"

Steve glanced over at Ivy.  Then
and as always when he let his mind wander from work, he felt a lurch of
happiness at having her nearby.  "How about spending Thanksgiving in
Santa Fe?" 

"Sure," she said with a grim
smile.  "As long as we’re there to cook a couple of turkeys."

Steve nodded.  Since they would
be holed up in a hotel or in a surveillance van, they would not see any action
first hand.  However he had to be there for the pre-sting preparations to
ensure that the arrest operation went as smoothly as possible.  Once it
was over, he wanted to look the Fuentes in the eyes when they were taken off to
be incarcerated and he wanted to see what Moll dubbed, "The First
Consolidated Bank of the Fuentes."

***

Steve reminded Ivy of a man doing a
jigsaw puzzle, picking up pieces, finding where they fit, and then methodically
completing the picture.  He was systematic about it, tracking it all in
his head.  He also understood new information quickly and stored it away. 
After the short briefing Brian and Ivy gave him on exploring mineshafts and
tunnels, he sounded like an expert.  Hearing him on the phone that same
day, discussing what type of team he wanted and relentlessly pursuing his
timeframe, made Ivy sit back in awe.  Seeing
him
in action, Ivy better appreciated that he was one of the greats in his business
-- the FBI.

As Thanksgiving neared, Ivy felt like
a cat walking on a narrow ledge, unsure if she should have her claws out or
not.  Every nerve was taut.  With the mineshaft exploration, she had
made a real contribution to their case against the Fuentes.  Their plan
was to fly to Santa Fe on Tuesday. Ivy could see that Mathew was torn between
being with them and protecting their home and his precious vines.  While
he opted to stay at Spook Hills, he would be in phone and/or video contact with
Steve.  This land and vineyard are his future -- this was where he needed
to be.

***

The recent team meeting left Steve
satisfied with their pre-sting plans.  He had his list to verify
arrangements with all the teams.  The best news had come in that
evening.  So far, Moll and Brian inspected four packages sent by FEDEX
from Corpus Christi via the FEDEX hub in Fort Worth.  Inside each one were
two reams of paper.  When they carefully removed the paper that sealed
each ream, they discovered a few sheets of paper on top, then below those
sheets was a stack of paper where the inside had been cut out, creating a
hollow rectangular block.  Inside that block were stacks of currency. 
Another few whole pages were on the bottom of the stack.  From the
outside, it looked like any other ream of paper.  Two such reams fit into
the UPS box side by side with a little space for packing paper.  The
packages weighed between 10 and 12 pounds. Three stacks of hundreds (U.S.) had
been in each ream in three boxes.  Three stacks of Mexican 500-peso bills
in each ream were in a similar box.  In total, ten such boxes had been
dropped at five FEDEX and UPS locations in the city.  The drops followed
the receipt of large DHL boxes originating in Mexico at the warehouse address
of a Fuentes company branch, also in Corpus Christi.  The DHL boxes had
been shipped from Mexico the same day as the phone conversation about the sale
of the drug business they had picked up, right before Cristo left for Corpus
Christi.

Ivy's hunch was right about the
masquerade mailers.  Two of the boxes examined were the same size as the
express delivery boxes, but were in plain brown cardboard, taped up with
Amazon.com tape and had express delivery slips and stickers applied. 
While they would have to alert Amazon's fraud division, Steve decided to delay
that until after the sting under the guise of the need for secrecy.