The Assassin's Trail (17 page)

Kansas City, MO

Saturday evening

Upgrading to first class had been easy; Kruger’s frequent flyer miles had accumulated to a point he could fly anywhere in the world first class. As the plane chased daylight across the country toward Kansas City, Kruger sat in his window seat and stared out into the early evening sky.

Before leaving FBI Headquarters, he had been briefed on interviews conducted with the supply sergeants now in custody. The one in Florida identified Ortega as the driving force behind the group. The other sergeant in Georgia told interviewers a similar story and corroborated what was known about the organization. Ortega had recruited both men in Iraq before the withdrawal. Neither of them knew the other members or where they lived. The recruiting process had been carefully done. Each man had lost close friends in the war due to poorly designed equipment. Equipment that should have protected them, but had not.

Both men were bitter and returned stateside vowing to make things right for their fallen comrades. Kruger understood their motives, and was sure they felt they were being patriotic. What he didn’t understand was why the specific targets were chosen. There was something else more sinister underlying the misplaced patriotism of the sergeants. Unless they were lying, which was a possibility, he would need to interview them personally.

He awoke just as the plane touched down in Kansas City. Realizing what was going on, he glanced at his watch and was glad to know it wasn’t too late; he called Stephanie as the plane taxied to the terminal.

***

The sounds of The Plaza winding down after a busy Saturday night served as the background to their late dinner at the breakfast bar. Kruger ate sparsely, concentrating more on several glasses of wine than his plate of pasta. Stephanie noticed and said, “You want to talk about it, or just drink a couple bottles of wine tonight?”

He smiled and looked at her. “Talk about it—and drink more wine.”

The frustration on her face was apparent as she said, “Sean, I can't help you if you keep everything inside. Talk to me.”

“Paul Stumpf will be the new director, Alan will be the new deputy director, and they offered me the SAC position in Kansas City.”

“What? You're kidding! How wonderful. When did all this happen?”

“Today.” He chuckled. “Wagner was fired while Alan and I sat in front of his desk. The president named Paul the acting director, pending congressional approval, but Paul’s got lots of contact in Congress. It’s just a matter of time.”

“This is perfect, Sean, you accepted didn't you?”

He shook his head. “No, I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

She put her fork down and looked at her husband, her head tilted slightly, her eyes sad. “I’ve worked all my career for the next promotion. Things are different now aren’t they? Any decision you or I make affects both of us.” Her melancholy vanished as she smiled and took a sip from her glass of wine. “What do you want to do?

“Not sure.” He held his glass at eye level. “I was getting used to the idea of retiring soon.” He swirled the remaining liquid in his glass watched the fingers of wine run down the side. He took another sip and continued, “If we get this baby, I really don't want to be tied down to a management job and I certainly don’t want to travel any more. Besides, being the Special Agent in Charge is time-consuming and you deal with personnel matters more than investigative matters. Not sure that’s what I want.”

She got off the bar stool, stepped over, hugged him and put her head on his shoulder. “Lately, I’ve had doubts about my job too. Do you think it’s time to make a change?”

He nodded. “Yes, I do.”

He hugged her, kissed her forehead and said, “You always help me put things in perspective. Whatever we decide, we do it together. I like that part, doing it together.”

“So do I.”

***

Later, as they lay in bed together, Kruger’s arm was around her shoulders and her head on his chest, their conversation concerned the adoption and what to do about the condos. Neither one felt comfortable raising a child just off The Plaza. So the decision was made to sell hers and start looking for a house. After the conversation, they both fell into a long silence, but neither one slept.

“Stef, let me ask you a question. The men they arrested on the army bases said they joined Ortega to make changes. They wanted to bring attention to contractors putting profit ahead of the safety for the soldiers. If this is your goal, how would you go about accomplishing it?”

She was quiet for a few moments, considering. “Work within the system, suggest the changes, get support from others to make the changes happen. Why?”

“Exactly. These guys said their goal was to draw attention to poorly manufactured equipment being used in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

She rose up on one elbow and stared at him. “These guys are killing people.”

“Yes, they are. Why?”

She was silent, a look of understanding crossed her face. “It’s not their true motive.”

“Exactly. There’s something else going on here. I understand how the military guys believe they’re helping their buddies. But someone else is using them for another purpose.”

They were quiet again. Stephanie said, “What if this is just a distraction. You mentioned an Imam in California suddenly visiting young men who attend his mosque. Is that related?”

“Don’t know.” Suddenly his weariness faded, pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. “JR keeps talking about how the contact he found in Dallas was the information provider and financier of the group. What if that person is the one manipulating the rest of them? It would make sense.”

Stephanie nodded. “All this person has to do is provide just what they wanted the team to know. Ortega wouldn't realize they were being manipulated.”

Kruger threw the sheets back, found his cell phone and sent JR a text. The call came thirty seconds later.

“Question for you,” Kruger said, “Can you zero in on the guy in Dallas?”

“Yeah. He’s in Houston right now.”

Frowning, Kruger paused for just a heartbeat, “Where exactly in Houston?”

“He keeps accessing the internet around the Port of Houston.”

“Damn.”

“What am I missing here, Sean?”

“He’s waiting on a container.”

“Uh, oh.”

“Yeah, uh, oh. Can you find what he’s looking for?”

“We don’t know his name, how would I be able to find the container? Do you know how many containers go through the Port of Houston on a daily basis?”

“No.”

“Roughly twenty five to thirty ships arrive daily. Each ship has at minimum of one thousand containers on it, and by the way, that’s a low estimate. So all of a sudden, we have, at minimum, twenty-five thousand containers arriving daily. If we narrow our search to just containers arriving from Europe and the Mediterranean area, we could narrow the number of containers, to oh, let’s say seventy-five hundred containers—a day. I don’t have the computer power or the manpower to even do that kind of a search. Plus, limiting our search to just that part of the world means we could still miss something.”

Kruger was silent, waiting for JR’s next rant.

“Even if I had the manpower, which I don’t, and had the computer power, which I don’t, who would we be looking for? Answer that question?”

“JR, take a deep breath.”

“You’re not listening to me.”

“Yes, I am. Find out who the contact is. Then finding the container becomes easy.”

Kruger could hear heavy breathing on the other end of the call. After two minutes, JR said, “Yeah… Okay, that’s how Charlie and I need to approach this. Find out who this contact is. Got it.”

The call ended abruptly. Kruger smiled, JR was on the job with a purpose. If the name could be found, he would do it.

***

The alarm clock on his nightstand showed 9:05. He had slept in. He reached for Stephanie and found her side of the bed empty. He heard music coming from the living room and smelled coffee and a fabulous combination of peppers and onions. Realizing she was probably fixing brunch, he threw the bedcovers back and grabbed a pair of boxers, a t-shirt, and sweat pants. After dressing, he brushed his teeth and headed to the kitchen.

Stephanie was pouring coffee when she saw him.

“Good morning. Do you realize this is the first morning since we've been married you slept longer than I did?” Smiling, she added, “I marked it on my calendar.”

He walked over to her and said, “Ha, ha, I was tired.”

“You drank a bottle of wine.”

He shrugged and kissed her. “What’re you doing?”

“Making us a fantastic Sunday brunch, like the ones I used to make before we got married, remember those?” she said with a grin.

He smiled and said, “Oh, yeah...”

Before he could finished the comment, his cell phone vibrated. Glancing at the caller ID, he recognized only a Kansas City area code. He frowned. “It’s local, but I’m not familiar with it.” He accepted the call.

“What did I ever do to you?” the voice said, slurring the first and last words.

Kruger looked at the ID again and said, “Who is this?”

“Of course you don't know! You don't care...” The words continued to be slurred. “You're the one that ruined my career...”

Finally recognizing the voice, Kruger said, “What do you want, Dollar?”

“What do I want? I want my career back.”

“I didn’t take it from you. You lost it.”

“Asshole.”

“Franklin, you're drunk.”

“No shit.”

“Why are you calling?”

“I've been transferred to Fargo, North Dakota as an agent. For gawd sake, I was a Special Agent in Charge, and now…” There was silence on the call. “I'm just an agent again. Because of you!”

“Franklin, the only reason you're an agent again is because you're incompetent.”

His cell phone was silent. Kruger almost ended the call when Dollar spoke again.

“You've always had it in for me Kruger. Always… Why?”

“Because you won't do the work, and you always take the easy way out. Franklin, I really don't have time for this conversation.”

After a long pause, Kruger heard, “Not my fault... The work was complicated, no one ever told me it would be complicated.”

Disgusted with the conversation, Kruger said, “How the hell did you ever get through the academy?”

His words slurred, Dollar said, “My dad pulled some strings.”

Kruger shook his head and ended the call, his good mood shattered.

“I take it he was not a happy person this morning,” Stephanie said.

“No, he's drunk, feeling sorry for himself and blaming others for his own screw-ups.”

She handed him a cup of coffee and said, “Here, take this, go take a shower and I'll have brunch ready when you're done.”

Springfield, MO

Monday

“Now that I'm here, tell me why we couldn't discuss this on the phone,” Kruger said as he removed several empty Hot Pocket wrappers from a desk chair.

The computer area was strewn with empty, crushed Mountain Dew cans, numerous Dr. Pepper bottles with varying amounts of liquid still in them and an assortment of discarded frozen food packaging. Dropping the wrappers into a nearby waste basket, he brushed crumbs from the chair before sitting down.

“What we found is too complicated to discuss over the phone, it would take too long,” JR said. “Besides, I'd have to use too many words the NSA would tag.”

“You're being paranoid JR. Trust me, no one is looking for you anymore.”

“My rules.”

Kruger held both hands up, palms toward JR. “Okay. What’ve you got?”

“Your assumption about the Dallas contact was essentially correct. We downloaded a program to his computer that allowed Charlie and me access to its hard drive. What we found at first surprised us, but then after digging further, it made sense.”

Kruger was not in the mood to deal with JR’s habit of dramatic pauses. He said, “Spit it out, JR. What did you find?”

“The computer used to communicate with Ortega was a cut-out. Its only task was to write emails to Ortega. But, somewhere along the line, the operator screwed up and left a link to his main computer, which we found.”

“And?”

“I’m getting to it, stay with me. Once we knew about the other computer, it was easy to find it accessing the internet. After downloading one of my little programs to it, the information we obtained definitely confirms your suspicions. The Dallas contact is manipulating Ortega.”

Nodding, Kruger said, “Not surprising. Did you learn who they are?”

JR smiled. “No, but we learned the answers to several other more important questions. You’ve had the suspicion these activities are a diversion from the real purpose? The answer is a definite yes. So far, the communications do not reveal the true reason. However, we do know the following. One, there is mention of help being sent to Tulsa. Two, references to Tulsa are included in several conversations about materials arriving at the Port of Houston. Third, the next diversion is the assassination of a member of Congress. Whoever it is, serves on the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Africa.”

“Do they mention any names?”

JR shook his head. Charlie was sitting at another computer across from JR. His eyes were bloodshot with dark circles under them. He said, “I’ve checked on who is currently serving on this committee.”

With his patience gone Kruger snapped at Charlie, “Spit it out.”

“All but two of the members live east of the Mississippi River. One is from Oregon and the other from California. Ortega accessed the internet in Topeka on Friday and again Saturday in Denver. He's heading west.”

Kruger stood and began pacing. He accidentally kicked an empty Mountain Dew can and watched as it tumbled across the carpet.

JR said, “We’re cross-referencing shipments from the Port to Tulsa. Over the past week there were over three hundred containers transported by truck to Tulsa. It’s going to take time, Sean, and we may never pinpoint the right containers.”

“Shit.” Kruger kept pacing. “Who are the congress members?”

“Roy Griffin in San Francisco and Marlene Osborne in Portland.” 

Kruger walked toward the conference room, “I have to make some phone calls.”

***

Kruger dialed Alan Seltzer's cell phone. The call was answered immediately.

“Alan, we think the next target is located on the west coast. It's possibly one of two congress members.”

“What do you mean, 'you think’ and ‘possibly’? You’re not sure?”

“At this stage, we aren't. But everything we know so far points toward them. Let me explain.”

Seltzer listened carefully, interrupting only once to ask a question. Finally he said, “Your reasoning is sound. What's your next step?”

“I need you to brief the Portland and San Francisco offices. We’ll need to get a team out to both members of congress for protection and surveillance. I'm going to Oregon and sending Clark to San Francisco. We're the only two individuals who can recognize Ortega on sight. We have to split up.”

“Okay, I'll call you back.”

Kruger ended the call and walked back to the cubicles where JR and Charlie were hunched over keyboards. JR said, “Sean, come here, this is interesting.”

Kruger crouched over to see what JR was staring at and said, “Yeah?”

Pointing to one of the screens on his desk, JR said, “This police report in Denver. A man named Goodman was found murdered in his warehouse. I know about this guy; he was a hacker at one time. Not a very good one, but still. His other vocation was making fake IDs, which he was very good at. Expensive, if I remember correctly, I almost used him one time. Before meeting you.”

Kruger stood back up and started pacing. “Are you suggesting?”

“Yeah, I am. Ortega.

“Does the report give the detective’s name?”

JR looked back at the screen, found the answer, wrote it on a sticky note, and handed the paper to Kruger. After reading the name, Kruger used his cell phone to call an individual at FBI Headquarters. After confirming his ID number, he asked to be patched through to the Denver Police Department. After five minutes of explaining who he was and what he needed, Detective Ray Newton finally came to the phone.

Kruger said, “Detective Newton, this is FBI Agent Sean Kruger. I'm with a special task force investigating a series of murders across the US. We have reason to believe the death of Walter Goodman may be connected.”

After a long pause, Newton finally said, “How’d the FBI come up with that idea?”

“Detective, I'm not trying to interfere with your investigation, but we know our suspect was in Denver and needed the services of a man like Goodman. I would like your permission to stop on my way to Oregon and see if my information helps you solve the case.”

“Well, right now we don’t have a lot to go on, any information would be helpful. When are you planning on being here?”

“I'll have to get back to you after I schedule my flight.” He gave the detective his cell phone number and ended the call.