Un-Connected (24 page)

“The SUV was definitely a special ops van.  It
was armored and had a lot of stuff stripped out of it. For example a gun rack
had been bolted down just behind the front seats.  There were other signs of
stuff being mounted to the dash or a console being removed which would have had
a lot of electronics gear.”

“The van didn’t have a license plate but they
assumed it would be similar to the one Deb had photographed earlier with her
phone.  So the guy had been killed and then probably they striped the van.  Or
maybe they striped it and then had him drive it out to where they killed him. 
Either way it was the van used at the Fairfax house and it was the guy that
struggled with and killed Rebecca.” 

“They pulled information off the van to help
identify other vans.  They had three small antennas on the top of the van just
about a foot in front of the back doors.  There was about a foot and a half
distance between them with the middle one centered on the roof.  There had been
a roof air conditioner and a generator.  There had been a black GPS pot in the
center left to right and front to back.  Everything there was black and what
had been removed from the outside must have been black.”

“The FBI decided to put out an alert to a
very few states to be on the lookout for more black vans.  They didn’t want it
to be a general alert for several reasons.  The occupants would be very
dangerous to whoever stopped them.  They would have to be approached with
enormous caution.  It was certain they would have fully automatic rifles.  The
SUVs would be armored.”

“Texas State Police normally carried fully
automatic M16s so they were one of the states the FBI contacted.  They wanted a
slow roll out also to keep from alerting whoever was in command of the black
SUVs.  They contacted the Ohio State Police and the Virginia State Police.”

“They were asked to quietly be on the lookout
for very dark SUVs that fit the description of the one found in Virginia.  
They were to try to get them pulled over in an unpopulated area.  They were to
call swat and all the backup they could get and everyone was to stay back at
least half a mile at all times.  The FBI was to be alerted as soon as
possible.  The stops were to be undertaken with extreme caution.”

Then Jim paused as if to catch his breath. 

“I will get a note out on all postings about
the Fairfax killing that Benjamin Raines has been cleared of Rebecca’s death.
We won’t give details yet, but that will take nearly all of the heat off of
you.”

I couldn’t respond very fast and Deb thanked him
for us.  Then I thanked her for helping me.  She held my hand.

Deb and I went on about our trucking and
house planning and we didn’t hear from Jim for a couple of days.

Then one morning about 11 am we got a call
from Jim.  He was excited. 

“We have a black SUV spotted.  Are you in a
place where no one can hear your phone?”

“Yes we are at home.”

“Good, the tech guys say I can patch the
sound through to you.  Be sure not to make any noise so they won’t hear you. 
The Texas State Police have a black SUV they are following going out of the
Dallas metro area.  They are staying well back to keep from alerting the SUV.  Their
radios are using a new frequency that the scanners don’t pick up yet.  The SUV
is northeast bound on I-30.  They don’t want to engage it until it is out of
town farther so they are fewer people around.”

“If you are ready I will patch the sound
through to you and you can listen in on the police radio.  Don’t forget to not
make a sound.”

“Okay, we got it.” Deb and I both said
quietly.

Then we heard a couple of low pitched clicks
and then we could hear a low static in the background.  Very little was being
said.  They were using police codes so we didn’t know what they were saying all
the time.  Deb got on the computer and searched police codes so we could follow
what was going on.  She increased the screen font so when she put in a code the
meaning would come up large enough to easily read.

Someone was calling out mile markers and
since that happened about once a minute they were going about sixty miles an
hour. 

“Unit 16. Why are we doing the take down
here?  Do we realize there is a concrete median wall, a ditch, two lanes of
interstate in this direction, another ditch, a frontage road, another ditch and
a fence?”

“Unit 4. There are less people here.”

It was quiet for several seconds.

“Unit 16. There is a lot of space to cover
from concrete wall to fence.”

“Unit 4. 10-3, ”

Then we heard them say there were nine units currently
in place with five ahead of the SUV and four following.  They were not together
so no one that saw them would be suspicious.  They also had a couple of swat
teams they were scrambling.  The lead car tailing the SUV had two officers and
they already had their M16s ready. 

“Unit 4. Code 11.”

That meant call up the swat teams.  They were
getting ready. 

Then we heard a louder command than we had
heard before. 

“Unit 4. Code 3.”

Someone had told them to approach the SUV and
all of a sudden the voice activity jumped.  There were lots of people checking
in or something but lots of people were talking now.  A helicopter that was a
couple of miles away said the SUV was slowing down.  Maybe they picked up the
police chatter.  Everyone was listening now.  Every time the lead car had
passed an exit the cars that were blocking that exit got in behind the lead.

Then we heard the lead car tell about closing
in on the SUV with lights and siren on.  They had just passed an interstate
exit so the SUV could not easily get off.  There was no reaction from the SUV
for several minutes.  Three police cars blocked the next exit and three blocked
the on ramp anticipating possibly even being rammed by the SUV.  

The lead car was about 100 yards back now and
everyone was pulling off the road except the SUV.  So it became obvious in
about two minutes that they were following the SUV and not one of the other
vehicles.  Within another minute or so the SUV took off.  The lead car stayed
with it reading off his speed every few seconds.  They were now going 145 miles
per hour.  The SUV moved to the right lane probably expecting to exit and when
they got close enough to see the exit blocked they pulled over to the second lane
and went faster. 

About ten miles ahead the police stopped some
semis and got them crossways to the interstate.  They had it blocked from the concrete
median wall to the fence beyond the frontage road and the three ditches.  It
must have taken five or six semis to span that far.  There were more police
cars joining the take down and were heavily blocking the exits. 

Now all the chasing cars were side by side
and four deep in each lane and growing.  There were more police cars on the
frontage road running two and three deep there.  The helicopter got in closer. 
One swat team was about three miles northeast from the trucks.  They entered
the interstate at an off ramp going southwest on the northeast bound side of
the road.  They would be coming up on the semi trucks in about another couple
of minutes.

Another swat team was about to get on the
interstate just behind the SUV.  The police now had blocked all on ramps and
off ramps with at least tripled up cars so the SUV couldn’t easily get off the
interstate that way. 

You could feel the tension in the air.  The
officers’ voices were getting louder and the pitch of their voices was getting
higher.  The lead car got closer and used their loud speaker to tell the SUV to
pullover.

The back doors of the SUV opened and two men
lying prone across a seat opened fire on the lead cars.  The police backed off
and told everyone they had been fired on with fully automatic weapons.  They
had taken fire and now everyone knew they were in a gun battle with no doubts
about the intent in the SUV.

The take down was getting closer and it
wasn’t looking easy.  Within about another minute the SUV was in sight of the
semis blocking the highway.  It quickly slowed down and then stopped and then
sat there for a second. 

The pursuing cars all stopped about 300 yards
back and made a blockade.

Then the SUV turned around and headed back
toward the chasing cars.  They were only a few yards between them now and the
SUV was headed for a ditch to try to get around the blockade.  Several cars deep
were blocking everything from the median wall to the fence.  They now had a
blockade in both directions.  The police cars were three deep most places and
now were five deep on the interstate. More cars were filling in the gaps by the
second.

The SUV turned back toward the semis and went
about 300 yards that direction and then turned around.  They came at the
blockade gaining speed as fast as they could.  They were going to try to ram
their way through. 

The police were yelling on their radios now. 
The ones on the interstate were bracing for impact.  The SUV was probably going
to hit them going at least 75 miles per hour.  The impact was enormous.  Cars
flew back and spun around in all directions like the worst NASCAR wreck you had
ever seen.  The chain reaction totaled most of the cars close to the impact and
slowed the SUV but didn’t stop it.  It was down to about ten miles per hour now
and burning rubber to push the last cars out of the way.  The remaining two
cars in each lane were just pushed out of the way simply because the SUB was bigger
and heavier.  It left two piles of mangled cars behind them. 

There was a lot of chatter about where the
SUV was and about the well being of the policemen in the blockade.  This time
the police had opened fire on the SUV but it was armored and their bullets
didn’t seem to be effective.  The SUV had totally broken through the blockade. 

More police cars pulled onto the interstate
in pursuit.  Deb and I couldn’t tell but it sounded like there must have been
over thirty police cars by now.  Then we heard a swat truck was pulling on the
highway southwest of the car blockade and ahead of the SUV.  Then the swat guys
saw the SUV about a mile ahead and closing really fast.  They headed toward
each other like they were playing “chicken”. 

Then the swat van turned sideways blocking as
much of the two lanes of the highway as it could while other cars filled in. 
The police and swat team started exiting their vehicles.  Swat had a couple of
.50 caliber rifles and began to unload on the SUV driver and front tires. 

The SUV wouldn’t be able to ram the Swat van
out of the way and if they went in the ditch at the speed they were going they
would probably turn over.  It started to slow down and headed for the ditch by
the concrete median wall.  They intended to ram the cars there and try to break
through again.

Then the passenger side front tire blew and
the SUV swerved toward the median wall and hit it.  The driver was really good
because he kept the SUV from rolling or getting out of control.  He bounced off
the wall and straightened the van toward the cars and hit the gas.  The front
tire was digging into the soft dirt but the SUV was picking up speed.  There
were now .50 caliber holes in the windshield so the driver wasn’t safe in the
seat any longer.  They shot out another tire on the driver side and though the
engine RPMs got louder the van was slowing down.  A .50 caliber shot took out
the SUV motor with a loud whine and killed all their power.  They weren’t going
anywhere now.

All the doors of the SUV flew open and the real
firefight began. 

A couple of guys from the SUV jumped the
median and ran out into the west bound traffic trying to flag down a vehicle
they could commandeer.  A police car east of there stopped and a couple of
officers jumped the concrete wall and blocked traffic so no more cars came
close to the guys on that side.  The helicopter was close enough and police
beside the median were close enough they opened fire on them trying to pin
those guys down.  One was down quickly in a lot of blood and the other dropped
to the pavement and was prone trying to shoot back at the police behind the
wall and in the helicopter.  That was a real losing position and he soon dropped
his weapon and raised his hands.

The firefight was now focused on the SUV.  There
was blood running out of the SUV.  There still were lots of shots coming from
inside.  The driver had dropped out of sight and was probably one of the two
firing through the side doors.  Two others were firing out the back doors. Then
there was a loud cease fire command on the radio.  The police stopped firing. 
A policeman on a loud speaker told the SUV people to lay down their guns and
come out slowly with their hands in the air. 

The SUV guys quit shooting.  It was silent
for what seemed a long time.  Then there was chatter.  An open palm was shown
at the side SUV door.  People were coming out without guns.  One was okay and was
helping another one who was bleeding badly and couldn’t stand without his help. 
The driver wasn’t moving.  Another guy in the SUV was badly wounded and could
barely move.  He dropped his gun.  There was one more in the SUV who was badly
wounded and unconscious but still alive. 

There were ambulances at the scene in just a
couple of minutes.  Several dozen ambulances had been scrambled from all over. 
The state police had been afraid there would be a lot of injuries.  The
policemen in the first breached blockade appeared to be okay.  They were shaken
up and several were headed to the hospital but none had broken necks, backs or
other bones.  Several were badly bruised up but they would be okay.