The Assassin's Trail (8 page)

Mexico City

Wednesday

The Gulfstream G280 taxied toward the private aviation area of the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, far from the scrutinizing eyes of the airport’s two main terminals. As the plane came to a stop in front of an open hanger, two white Toyota Land Cruisers with dark tinted windows pulled up next to it and parked. The front cabin door of the aircraft slowly lowered. Aazim Abbas stepped cautiously onto the first step and surveyed the surrounding area. Large passenger jets taking off and landing contributed to the constant din in this section of the airport.

Satisfied he was not under surveillance, Aazim hurried down the steps and immediately entered the back seat of the second Land Cruiser. As soon as he shut the door, the two vehicle caravan started moving.

The man in the seat next to him smiled and said, “I trust your flight was uneventful?”

“Yes.” Aazim looked at the man with an icy stare. “Why did you call me down here? It was unnecessary.”

“Oh, quite the contrary. We needed to talk, away from the prying eyes and ears of the American NSA.”

The man sitting next to Abbas was dressed in a dark blue suit with a faint lighter blue pinstripe. His black hair was trimmed and professionally styled. A neatly trimmed beard accentuated his oval face. Black eyes stared out through square black spectacles perched on a prominent nose. As he smiled, his brilliant white teeth betrayed his real age.

Abbas blew out a breath with disgust. “We are careful, your highness. Very careful.”

“Yes. Yes, you’ve told me how careful you are. Maybe too careful. The Americans think these attacks are the work of one man. A deranged man, not an attack on their way of life.”

Abbas said nothing.

“Aazim, we chose you because you are aggressive. But so far your actions are that of a woman.”

Closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths, Abbas said, “On purpose. The next attack will prove we have brought jihad to their homeland. They will no longer be able to deny its existence.”

The prince nodded. “My brother and I were hoping you would dispel our concerns. When will this glorious moment occur?”

“Is my shipment still on time?”

The prince nodded his head ever so slightly.

“Good. Here is what we have planned.” Aazim Abbas proceeded to outline his proposal. 

When he was done, Prince Bandar Farad Saud sat back and laughed. “I like it. This will be a glorious moment. Now, you will be my guest until tomorrow. Then you can fly back.”

“Prince, I must be back in Dallas by tomorrow afternoon.

“You shall be, but tonight you are my guest.”

***

The sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment occupied by Billy Reid reflected his total lack of concern for frivolous possessions. His sofa and coffee table were purchased at a yard sale for twenty dollars. Gaming magazines were stacked in various locations throughout the room. His dining room consisted of a single barstool scooted under a three-foot long, waist-high breakfast bar separating the living area and kitchen. An unmade twin mattress lay on the floor of his bedroom. An old lamp atop an upside down milk crate provided the only light in the room.

However, he had a different standard when it came to his electronics. A high-end ASUS gaming laptop was his most recent acquisition. But his pride and joy was a new 60-inch 3D HD TV and Play Station purchased with cash at a local Best Buy two weeks earlier. A TV stand bought at a local Walmart provided plenty of storage for his numerous games. The TV and Play Station were procured the day after he had received the biggest paycheck of his life. Actually, it was an electronic transfer from a bank in Europe. He didn't know which one, nor did he care. The money was there.

Billy was 32 years old, ex-Army with two tours of Iraq and one in Afghanistan. His final tour in Iraq derailed what he thought would be a twenty-year army career. A roadside IED destroyed the Humvee he was driving and left him burned and deaf on his left side. The burns on his arm, chest and leg had healed, but the scars were a permanent reminder of the accident. After months in a VA hospital and an Honorable Discharge, he came home broke, divorced and bitter.

The large payday was the result of a sergeant he had met in Afghanistan contacting him with a proposal. After several months of careful thought, he accepted the challenge.

Billy had a talent, one the Army recognized with EIC Silver Badges, one for pistols and one for rifles. He was an excellent marksman and a trained sniper. Not a very marketable skill in the civilian world, especially when accompanied by deafness and scarring, but he had found a part-time job at a pistol range. The money wasn't much but it allowed him time to work at the challenges Ortega offered.

He slipped into the role of assassin easily. After following and observing the two men for several weeks, he devised the plans and methods for their demise.

The first one gave him an opening when the man’s wife left for the weekend and his girlfriend came over for a little swimming and sex in the mansion’s pool. The shot was easy, 200 yards from an elevated wooded area overlooking the back of the house. After only an hour in his hide, the man sent the girlfriend into the house for more drinks. Billy shot him as he walked around the pool. Center mass shot, one .223 slug from Billy's Remington 700, perfectly placed in the man's heart and the other hitting the upper torso as the dead man’s body fell into the pool.

Billy didn't wait for the girlfriend to return poolside. He simply crawled back over the rise, calmly walked back to his pickup and drove away. The Remington 700 had been disassembled and disposed of at various spots along the Potomac. He could always buy another 700; they were accurate right out of the shipping carton, one of the reasons he liked them.

At first he thought it would bother him, but when he saw the man, it didn't. The target had black hair with a dark complexion, reminding him of the type of men who planted the IED in Iraq. He slept fine that night and every night after.

The second target posed more of a problem. The guy worked all the time, and other than when he left for the airport, the only places he went were his office and apartment. Billy had specific instructions: the job had to be completed in Washington, D.C. Finally he decided the best opportunity would be after the man got his morning coffee. The guy followed the same routine every morning, went to the same Starbucks, got the same coffee, and then drove to his office with the top down on his expensive convertible.

The night before Billy did the job, he borrowed a motorcycle from a guy who lived in the same apartment building. The best part was the guy didn't know Billy had borrowed the bike. He returned it before the neighbor left for work. Both the SIG Sauer and the suppressor were tossed into the Potomac River later in the day.

Now Ortega had given him a new challenge, one he was concerned about. The first two men were obviously rich, but nobody knew who the hell they were. At least Billy didn’t, and since there was very little mentioned in the newspapers or on TV, apparently nobody else did either.

But this job was different. The target was a congressman, a relatively new and little known one, but still a congressman. His planning would have to be more precise and careful.

While not under a strict timeline, the job had to be completed anytime during a three-week window starting this coming Friday. Details of the congressman's itinerary for the next three weeks were provided in a package, postmarked New York City. As he read it, three opportunities were pointed out, but he would observe the congressman for a few days and see for himself. If he could find other openings, they would be preferable. Better to be unpredictable, just in case he was being set up.

He trusted Ortega, but only so far. Ortega had been a Master Sargent and Billy a Corporal, and while not close buddies, they knew and respected each other. Ortega had witnessed some of the inter-squad marksmanship competitions the Division put together. Billy was proud of the fact he won every time he entered one. After being wounded, he lost track of Ortega and never saw him again. Then one day out of the blue, Ortega made contact. But complete trust wasn’t part of the deal.

Glancing at his watch, he was due at the pistol range in an hour. After his shift, there would be time to drive by the congressman’s house and start his recon. 

Springfield, MO

Wednesday

Kruger parked his Mustang in the back of a nondescript three-story building in the center section of Springfield at half past nine in the morning. Not knowing how long it would take, he had told Stephanie not to expect him until later that evening.

JR was waiting for him in the lobby with a cup of coffee in his hand and said, “Restroom’s next to the stairs. When you're done, come on up to the second floor. I'll be in the computer room.”

Kruger smiled, took the coffee and said, “Hi, JR, nice to see you again. Yes, I had a nice drive. I'm doing well, and you?”

JR stared at Kruger, then chuckled and shrugged. Without a word, he turned and headed for the stairs.

When Kruger got to the second floor, he saw JR sitting at a work station on the far wall of the room. The room itself was the entire second floor. Support columns were used for the load bearing areas, but otherwise there were no walls. Waist-high cubicles, each one a computer terminal or Wi-Fi access station, formed a maze on the floor. After navigating the labyrinth, he joined JR at the work station.

Without turning from the two side-by-side monitors, JR said, “Joseph told me to tell you hello, and if you have time, stop by.”

“I was planning on it, as long as you don't screw around and take all day.”

JR turned around and stared at Kruger. Once he saw the smile on Kruger’s face, he nodded and said, “I deserved that, didn't I?”

Nodding, Kruger grinned, “Let's get busy.”

“Okay, what’ve you got?”

Taking the laptop out of his backpack, Kruger opened it. After the computer booted, he opened the file on Thomas Cooper, showing his photo to JR.

“I need to find this guy. I have a hunch he's responsible for the KC explosion on Monday.”

JR studied the picture. “How do you know?”

“Because I saw this man stalking one of the victims at a reception on Sunday. I acquired his fingerprints from a drinking glass he touched. He's ex-military and specialized in disarming IEDs. If he knows how to disarm explosives, I bet he can build them. The blast in KC used C4, Washington confirmed it this morning. I need to talk to him.”

“Good enough for me.” He handed Kruger a thumb drive and continued, “Copy the file to this and I'll see what we can find.”

As JR worked, Kruger wandered around the room. Four years earlier, using his computer skills, JR had changed his identity. Now, still living under his new identity, JR had built a successful business providing computer security to financial and commercial enterprises.

Ten minutes later, as Kruger wandered back to JR’s work station, he heard, “Okay. Here's what we’re going to do. First I’ll input his picture into a new facial recognition program I've been working on for the last few years. It's more advanced than the one you guys use in Washington. If he was photographed by a security camera somewhere, we’ll find him.”

Kruger pulled a legal pad from his computer bag. “Let's assume he left the KC area, probably flew out of a local or an airport within driving range. I would start with KC, Omaha, Wichita, Springfield and St. Louis. All are within a few hours’ drive of The Plaza.”

JR nodded as he typed on the keyboard. “Makes sense. I'll tap into the TSA system and run a routine comparing departing passengers at all five airports starting Monday at ten-thirty.”

Kruger looked concerned.

JR smiled, “Don't worry, it sounds complicated, but it’s not.”

“How long will it take? I don’t have all week.”

“Not long. There's a group of us like-minded individuals who have tethered our computers into a secure bot-net system. It allows us to tap unused processing power among the group.”

Exactly two minutes later, a series of files popped up on the left monitor. JR pointed to it and said, “Let's take a look at this one.” He opened the file and saw the smiling face of Thomas Cooper handing his ID to a TSA agent. “Well, well, look at what we have here,” JR mumbled to himself. He checked the file. “You nailed it, Sean. This is St. Louis, time stamp three-thirty-two p.m. Monday.”

Kruger smiled, glad his hunch was right. “Can we determine his destination?”

Shaking his head, JR started typing again. “No way of telling his departing flight from this picture, but let’s look at a few more files.”

Many of the returned files were false hits, until finally JR said, “There we are, look at this one.” He pointed to a picture of Thomas Cooper handing his boarding pass to an agent as he entered the boarding gate.

Kruger read the time stamp, “Southwest to Dallas Love Field, Monday, four-thirty-two p.m.”

JR’s fingers flew over the keyboard like a maestro pianist. As he typed, JR said, “Okay, now we shift our search to Dallas. I'll check parking lot surveillance, auto rental agencies, hotel check-in, etc. This may take a little longer because I have to access different servers instead of just one in the previous search.”

Kruger rubbed his chin with thumb and forefinger. “Can we check the flight manifest with Southwest in St. Louis to determine if he's flying under his real name?”

“Already did, and he isn't. However, if he boards another flight in Dallas, my software will compare flight manifests and determine if any names match.”

The computer started returning files rapidly as JR continued to type more instructions. Kruger could not even imagine the programming and computer power needed to process what he was witnessing. Finally, JR lifted his fingers from the keyboard.

“Now, let's see what we've got.”

Searching through the files, they determined that Cooper had traveled to the Westin City Center in downtown Dallas. He'd been caught on the hotel’s security camera getting into a taxi. The next positive ID was another TSA security camera shot of the man going through the security check at DFW. Comparing the passenger manifest of the Southwest flight from St. Louis to Dallas, the system found a similarly named passenger on an American Airline flight to Atlanta.

Kruger said, “I’ll bet Atlanta is his last stop; he's from southern Alabama. Can you do the same search in Atlanta?”

JR nodded and started typing again. The search results were plentiful in Atlanta, but the most important security camera shot was of Cooper getting into a car in a long term parking lot. This picture revealed a critical piece of information. A perfect view of the car’s license plate.

Kruger sat down and glanced at his watch. It was just after one p.m. He now knew that Cooper was somewhere in the south. He heard JR mumble something as a laser printer whined and spit out several pieces of paper. After examining them, he smiled and handed both to Kruger. One was an image of a driver’s license with Thomas Cooper's picture and an address in Atmore, AL. He looked at JR and said, “I'll be damned, you found him.”

“Yup, sometimes I even amaze myself. Now what?”

Kruger thought for a moment.

“The best thing for me to do is take a trip to Atmore. Unlike my fellow agents in Kansas City, I don’t believe this is the only individual involved. I think there are numerous individuals involved.” Kruger stared at the papers in his hand. “Since we know his address, is there any way to see if he has an email address you could access?”

JR turned back to his keyboard and typed. After studying the response, he turned back around, “He doesn't have internet access at the address, which is a meaningless statement because of cell phones. He just doesn't have any hard-wired internet access. Without some clue as to his email address, I wouldn't be able to hack into it. I'd need his laptop or cell phone.”

“Okay, I’ll try to get one of those for you.”

After leaving JR's building, Kruger sat in his car and thought through his next moves. First, he determined he wouldn't report his findings to Mint Dollar. No way, not this time. But it was time to call Alan.

“Good afternoon, Sean. Any progress on the KC incident?”

Kruger decided to keep the information he shared with Alan to a minimum. “I think so. I have a line on a person of interest in the Alabama area. Nothing concrete, but I know he was in KC this weekend and has explosives experience.”

“Should I ask how you came about this information?”

“No.”

“Okay. Do we need to involve Dollar and his team?”

“Not yet. The information is circumstantial at best. But I think it's worth my time to check it out before wasting any additional resources.”

“Fair enough. Fly down there and report back when you have more.”

“Thanks, Alan, I'll keep you posted.”

After ending the call, Kruger checked his watch. Plenty of time for a visit with Joseph before he headed back to KC. He'd fly down to Pensacola first thing in the morning.

There was no way he was going to involve Dollar at this point. No way in hell.