Chapter 10: I am.

5:04 p.m. Monday, Day 15: Construction Site Parking Lot

Previously:

They stood there while the three officers gathered and then approached them. They were in the open, Stood with non-threatening postures, hands in plain sight, so the officers didn't draw their guns, though they had their hands on them. When they got close enough one of the officers said, "That's Gerstwin on the ground. Which one of you two guys is Tarantino?"

Annie said, "I am."

"What? You?" the lead officer asked somewhat incredulously.

"Yes. May I get my driver's license out of my wallet and show you?"

By then one of the other officers was down by Gerstwin and said, "I think his knees are broken. He may have a dislocated right shoulder. Are the paramedic's on the way? Who did this to him?"

Annie said, "I did. He attacked me with that piece of rebar that's lying on the ground right over there. I was in fear for my life or grievous injury, so I defended myself."

"What did you hit him with?"

"My foot."

"Geezus, he's all torn up. Are you a martial arts expert or something?"

"Yes. Third degree black belt in free fighting. I have my card in my pocket along with my driver's license. May I take it out?"

The first officer noted how calm and relaxed she and the other two were and said, "Yeah. I'd like to see all of your driver's licenses, or at least some ID, before we go any farther with this."

They all took them out and handed them over. The third officer came forward in response to a gesture from the first, took them, and returned to his car, presumably to call them in. Annie heard a siren getting louder, then saw the paramedic truck coming and said, "I think that's the paramedics I asked for." Just as the officers turned to look, the siren shut down and the ambulance turned into the parking lot. The driver, alerted by the first officer waving, drove over near where Gerstwin was lying.

The first officer said, "What happened?"

Annie said, "My co-workers and I were leaving the site after a long day of work. We're all members of the Operating Engineers Union. He's the Union Rep. I was hired by the owner of the business when I met him at the gym last weekend. The Union Rep. was all upset by that. I'm new here, just transferred in from northern Minnesota. Mr. Gerstwin told me I was fired, that he wanted my pay for today and asked for my Union Card. He was wrong to do that. The contract clearly says management can hire any paid up union member if it's a closed shop. What he was doing was unlawful intimidation, attempted extortion, and when he tried to hit me with that rebar, assault with a deadly weapon. When he came at me with that piece of rebar, a lethal weapon, it was attempted murder. Because he came here in search of me, it should be first degree attempted murder, at a minimum second degree."

The officer said, "I get all that. What has me confused is, normally, when he's involved, we have the busted up Union Member on the ground and Mr. Gerstwin nodding while they tell us they stumbled and decline to press charges. What did you do?"

"When he attacked the first time, I took him down and restrained him on the ground. Right there. You will see the dirt on the front of his shirt and maybe on his face. He kept trying to get up, and I think he hurt his shoulder. I told him to leave me alone. I also warned him if he came after me again I'd probably have to hurt him badly because he was too big for me to fight. The man is at least three hundred pounds. I'm a hundred and fifteen pounds. The disparity of force is obvious."

The officer shook his head. Then he looked at the other two, pointed at Mike, and said, "What happened?"

Mike replied, "Exactly what she said. He attacked, I thought she was going to be squashed, and then she had him on the ground. I heard her tell him exactly what she just told you she said, and then she let him get up. We saw him pick up the rebar, but she told us not to get involved, that it wasn't our fight. She seemed to be able to hold her own, so we didn't. He went over there, picked up that piece of rebar and came right back at her with it. He took a wild left-handed swing. I thought she was going to die. She just ducked that swing and smashed his knees with a pair of sidekicks so fast I almost didn't see them. Then he was on the ground. Game over. The whole fight didn't last half a minute."

The officer turned to Rob and said, "And you, what did you see?"

"Exactly what he said."

The officer turned to the paramedics and said, "What's his condition?"

"He's got two knees that were broken sideways and a dislocated right shoulder. I'm no ME, but his injuries are consistent with her story."

Just then, the third officer returned and handed the licenses to the first officer. When queried by a look, he said, "All clean. No wants, no warrants. Not even a parking ticket on any of them. She and the blond guy both have a concealed carry license."

The first officer turned toward Rob and Annie and said, "Are you packing?"

"No. I don't carry it at work - no fun driving a bulldozer with a pistol poking you in the kidney," Annie said.

"Same here," said Rob.

The officer looked at both of them for a couple of seconds, then said, "Makes sense to me."

After that, it took a while for them to give the officer their official statements. After he called it in, and their patrol lieutenant stopped by to quiz Annie briefly, they were free to go. The lieutenant asked if Annie would be able to stop by the station to file charges, and she said she absolutely would but would tomorrow be okay? The lieutenant agreed it was. The Union Rep had long since been taken to the hospital. Something about the lieutenant's manner caused Annie to think he might know she was an FBI agent under cover. He didn't say anything, but she was fairly sure he knew that and thought Burk might be behind it.

Rob and Mike stayed until it was all over, apparently unwilling to leave her alone with the situation. She was glad for their company. When it was time for them to leave, they offered to buy her a drink. She said, "Guys, I'd love to, but I have a phone call I'm supposed to have made already, and people will wonder where I am. Maybe later in the week?"

She thought they actually looked a bit relieved by her answer, and Rob said, "Later in the week works for me. Uh, Tarantino?"

"Yeah?"

"You busted his ass."

"I did. Just to be perfectly clear, I'd do it again. Do you have a problem with that?"

She watched him intently and relaxed when he replied, "Hell no. He's had that coming for a long time. I've seen him bust people up pretty good. I think it was payback time."

"What he said goes for me," Mike added.

"We're good?"

They both replied, "We're good."

"Thanks for the support guys. See ya tomorrow?"

"Definitely. But if you don't mind, we'll walk you to your truck just to prove chivalry isn't dead yet."

"Yeah," Mike said, clearly amused by the thought, "We're parked right next to her. She can protect us." And they all laughed.

As far as Annie was concerned, it'd been a good day. She had two allies in her co-workers, and the union rep problem was behind her. She was on a first name basis with the Site Superintendent. And, most important, they didn't have a clue she was brand new to the CAT 953 B track loader. In other words, she was 'in'. And that felt pretty darn good.

8:00 p.m. Monday, Day 15: Betty Lou's Philadelphia Apartment.

She went to an Arby's drive through on the way to her apartment and picked up a turkey sandwich. As soon as she returned to her apartment and confirmed from the tell-tales it was undisturbed, she locked the door and moved into the bathroom where she turned on the faucet in the sink to provide some cover noise. After that, she inserted the earphone buds into her ears, plugged them into her Company iPhone and initiated her agreed upon encrypted daily check in call. She knew Auggie would have been alerted by her call to Langley and would probably have alerted Burk. She also knew he'd heard the whole thing via the earwig.

She saw the code that indicated they'd picked up and a few seconds later heard the encrypted version of Auggie's voice say, "Annie, are you okay?"

"Yes, Auggie. I'm just fine."

Burk interjected, "Did a lieutenant show up?"

"Yes. He seemed satisfied, asked me to come in tomorrow sometime to file charges. Megan, did you send him?"

"Yes, I thought you might figure that out."

"I didn't know for sure, but I suspected. Thanks for having my six."

"No problem. The lieutenant knows you are FBI undercover. I've worked with him before; he's one of the good guys. I just wanted to make sure nothing got off kilter due to an overzealous officer or two. The Philly police can go all agro if someone is found with a gun, permit or not."

"I stowed the gun in my truck before the cops got there. They found my Pennsylvania permit when they ran my license, but the Glock was in the truck. Nobody knows I had it with me. I handled the situation without it."

"Yeah, you did. Gerstwin's in the hospital, maybe the ER as we speak, with two smashed knees and a trashed shoulder."

"He's alive."

"He's alive. I'm beginning to think he should count his blessings. You had two witnesses?"

"Yeah, co-workers Rob Nickels and Mike Warren."

"You and they on the same page?"

"Oh yeah. They backed me up with the cops. Offered to take me out for a beer. I declined. One of them offered to walk me to my truck. The other joked that I could protect them because we were parked next to each other. We're good."

Then Burk said, "Auggie, you have any questions?"

"None right now." Annie knew she'd get a call from Auggie as soon as this call was over. She was looking forward to it.

To make that happen sooner she said, "Today went well on the job. The short report is I'm 'in' with my co-workers both as a dozer driver and as a co-worker. They haven't asked any questions that indicate even a hint of suspicion that I'm not what I'm supposed to be. The actual job, driving the dozer, wasn't hard at all. The instructor at the school had learned, somehow, that the new dozer had a grapple bucket on it, so he gave me a couple of hours of familiarization with it Sunday afternoon. Came in handy. There are some tricks that go with loading it.

"I actually had some fun. It's not something I'd want to do for a living, but for now, it's the most fun stake out I've ever done. That said, I didn't see anything on the target site that I think was significant. Any update from the Geek, or the Geek's computer, or signs of progress from anyplace?"

Burk said, "Auggie, you want to go first?"

"Sure. Annie, the bug dump today yielded nothing new: no clues about future cell plans or material acquisitions. I think most of the conversations we want to hear are being held under ground. Jo has been watching people go in and out. There are four or five people that go in there every day that we can't account for on the bugs during the day. So we hypothesize they are in the underground additions. The phone taps haven't yielded anything new either.

"We do have some clues from reports out of Peshawar that something big is planned to happen, but no schedule. There are indications, based on the locations of the conversations over heard and the speakers, that it's connected with the Philadelphia cell. That said, if we didn't know about that particular cell, we wouldn't hypothesize its existence from what we are hearing in the office and on the phone taps. We'd just know there was a cell that was active someplace in the north east, maybe near the coast."

Annie said, "Let me think." Auggie and Burk were quiet. Then Annie said, "I don't see any practical way to go in and bug the underground part of that facility even if there is a mandatory blast evacuation, which there will be tonight. I expect to be cleaning blast rubble out of a pit all day tomorrow. The pit is very close to the target warehouse end of the site. Hopefully we finish that pit before Wednesday, for if we don't, I won't be popular for calling in sick. ... Anything else? Anything from the Geek's computer?"

Auggie answered, "Stu hasn't gotten into any more files. Megan, any progress on your end?"

"Nothing. Rossabi was totally silent on the subject and said no progress when I asked. I sometimes wonder if Ross is waiting to spring that on the meeting as part of his kickoff - to look like he's in charge. Ross doesn't know about the bugs you planted, Annie. Rossabi wants it to look like the Director ordered that to happen to give Ross a heads up."

"Annie, one more thing, Rossabi wants you to call him tomorrow. He wants to do a phone intro with you to the Director's personal assistant and his administrative assistant. He thinks it's a good idea to have a backup plan for you to call the Director's office right in the meeting if Ross goes off on you. That needs to be orchestrated in advance. He has the Director's permission to do it."

Annie thought about it for a few seconds and replied, "That sounds like a really good idea to me. Is Rossabi taking care of getting it all set up?"

"Yes. He said he's given the Director enough that, with your ability to improvise, the two of you can pull this off, no problem. But it all depends on the two gate keepers letting you in, so he wants to make sure you have met them on the phone."

"Cool. I'll call him tomorrow. But right now I'm exhausted. Can we call it a day? Five a.m. is going to arrive right on time."

Megan said, "I'll drop off here and leave you two to say good night. Have a good day tomorrow Annie, Auggie."

"Thanks, I will." Annie replied, and then she saw the indication that Burk's phone had dropped off the call and said, "Hey, Auggie."

"Annie, are you really okay? I looked up this animal, Gerstwin, and he's trouble with a capital 'T'. He's been in all sort of scrapes, but ends up never being charged by anybody. He's six foot one, about three hundred pounds. He has at least a foot of reach and nearly two hundred pounds on you."

"True, but it wasn't that bad. He's closing in on a hard-lived fifty-something, had previous injuries that make him favor his left hip. I was able to make him come at me, so I could pretty much take his right arm out of commission. I had him on the ground and reefed on it as hard as I could, twice. It made crunching and popping noises. I think I did some damage in there."

"You dislocated it, tore his rotator cuff, and messed up some cartilage according to the report that came in about two minutes ago. Apparently the that lieutenant source of Burk's got a report to her from the OR."

"That explains why he had the piece of rebar in his left hand when he decided to come at me a second time. Trust me on this, he's not ambidextrous. I was able to make him take a clumsy backhand swing at me that he missed big time. That put me right next to his undefended right side so I used his arm against him and took out both his knees with the sidekicks you taught me. He isn't going to bother anybody for a while, or maybe ever."

"He has a deputy. The deputy is apparently a lot less physical. He doesn't have any complaints for battery, or even any parking tickets. My guess is he will make a call on you tomorrow, maybe when you arrive for work, to get a statement. Don't go anyplace with him, and you should be fine."

"Got it. Auggie, I miss ya."

"Miss you too. You ready to have a snack and hit the sack?"

"You forgot the bath. Got to have a bath first."

Auggie laughed and said, "Love you, Annie Walker. Have a good night."

"Love you too. Regular morning just-us check in, 5:00 a.m.?"

"Yeah. I need to get some sleep. At least I'm staying here at Langley, so I don't have far to go. Good night, Annie."

"Night, Auggie." The call ended.

6:45 a.m. Tuesday, Day 16: Betty Lou's Philadelphia Apartment.

Her personal check-in with Auggie and the encrypted official call out of the way, Annie had gotten herself to the job site with a real Subway sandwich for lunch. She'd eaten a breakfast wrap while she was there.

She knew from her phone conversation this morning that the Deputy Union Rep drove a candy apple red, tricked out, short bed Ford 2500 Power Stroke Crew Cab. She saw the truck; it hadn't been there yesterday, so he was presumably on site somewhere. She ended up parked two up from that red Ford.

She was pretty sure his presence was because of the altercation she'd had with his boss the day before. She put on her hard hat and OSHA approved safety sunglasses before getting out of the truck. Then she shifted her noise canceling earphones to hold them in both hands and slid them onto her hard hat so she had her hands free, just in case. She'd turned them on so Auggie would be able to hear what was said if he was in the office. She opened her small cooler, retrieved a bottle of water and left the cooler in the truck. She stepped out of the truck, locked it and snapped her keys onto a belt loop. She was happy the weather justified a sweatshirt, so she had on a nice, worn, sun-bleached CAT sweatshirt that concealed her Glock 26. She had the gun at 3:00 on her right hip in her custom Milt Sparks holster. A spare clip was riding outside the waistband on the other side. There was no way she was riding that dozer all day with that gun digging into her kidney. She had the Pennsylvania permit in Betty Lou's name with the NOC address in her wallet just behind her driver's license. Her FBI credentials were in the console of her truck in an envelope.

She spotted the Deputy Union Rep. He had been close to the shack, but, as she expected, he turned to intercept her as she headed toward the Site Superintendant's portable office building.

When she was within earshot he said, "Ms. Tarantino, I'm Derrick Johnson, the Deputy Union Representative. I need a few minutes of your time."

Annie turned to him and said, "Good morning to you too, Mr. Johnson. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He ignored her question and said, "What happened here last night? My boss is in the hospital recovering from surgery on both his knees and one shoulder. The police report says he attacked you and was injured when you defended yourself. It also says that no charges against you will be filed because you acted in self-defense. It says a long list of very serious charges will be filed against him by you. Am I to believe a little squirt like you did that to him all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes, you better believe I did that to him. He attacked me. Twice. Once with a lethal weapon. That guy is huge. A damn man mountain. I, as you said, am just a little squirt. I was in fear of my life or grievous physical injury, so I defended myself. It's all in the police report. You read it, right?"

"Yes, but I'd like to hear it from you. So how about you come with me to my office and tell me what happened?"

She turned, was relieved that she saw Rob and Mike approaching, turned back and said, "I'm not willingly going any place with you. We'll talk right here, in the open, in the morning sun, or we won't talk at all. Period. I've already been assaulted by your boss, who is nothing but a thug. I don't trust you. I'm not going anyplace with you. If you don't believe the police report, you won't believe me anyway, so why don't you ask them?" She pointed to Rob and Mike, "They were standing right there and saw the whole thing."

Before he could answer, she turned in the direction of Rob and Mike, got their attention, waved them over, and said, "Hey, guys, got a minute?"

Rob answered, "Sure, whatcha need Betty Lou?"

"Mr. Johnson here doesn't believe the police report about that thug Gerstwin attacking me. Needs to hear it from somebody else. You willing to tell him what you saw and heard last night?"

"Sure."

Rob and Mike altered course, stopped and took up protective positions on each side of Annie. She could see that wasn't lost on Mr. Johnson and silently thanked them. Johnson might not have a record, but he looked leaner, harder - like he'd be a lot tougher to take than Gerstwin had been. And there would be no surprise.

Rob said, "Good morning, Mr. Johnson."

"Tell me what happened last night."

"Gerstwin told her that since he hadn't assigned her to the job, she had to give him all her pay and that she was fired. She quoted the contract paragraph and told him he was lying, twice. Then he tried to take her union card away from her. She showed it to him but wouldn't let him hold it. When she put it back in her pocket he grabbed at her. She put him on the ground. Told him to relax. Told him to leave her alone. Then she let him get up."

"Let him get up? Gerstwin?"

Mike said, "Derrick, she had Gerstwin helpless on the ground. I think he hurt his shoulder trying to get away from her. He went no place till she let him get up."

"So then what happened?"

Rob continued, "After she let him get up, he grabbed a piece of rebar, the cops took it with them, and attacked her with it. That's when she took him down by breaking his knees."

Johnson turned to her and said, with some heat, "Why did you have to break his knees?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Fuck no, I'm not kidding. I'm thinking of pressing charges for excessive force."

"Good luck with that. He weighs close to three times what I weigh and has a foot of reach on me. He attacked me with a lethal weapon. The disparity of force and lethal nature of his attack made it necessary to be sure he couldn't continue to attack me. This was his second attempt. I wasn't sure I could survive a third, so I did what I could to prevent him from attacking me again. My options were limited."

"So you put him on a walker for months, or maybe the rest of his life? You think that's fair?"

"Fair? You are worried about me being fair? I'll tell you what isn't fair. A three hundred pound man attacking a hundred-fifteen pound woman with an iron bar isn't fair. You do that, you got no complaint coming if the woman is lucky enough to take you down."

She could see she'd made her point.

Mr. Johnson's response was to say, "You expect me to believe she," he jabbed his finger at Annie, "took Gerstwin down and put him in the hospital? With no help?"

Rob looked at Annie, his face showed a little fear which had to be evident to Johnson and said, "Yes sir. That's exactly what she did. The first time she got him on the ground she had him in some sort of restraining hold and told him to leave her alone. Then she let him get back up. He'd gotten a bit dirty off the parking lot, but he wasn't hurt. He grabbed a piece of rebar from that pile there and came at her with it ... I thought he was going to kill her, but then she dodged his blow and took out both his knees. He was on the ground before we could even react. The whole fight didn't last half a minute." He looked in Annie's direction and added, "No offense, Betty Lou, but you are one seriously badass ninja chick ... uh ... woman."

There was a flicker of a smile in the corner of her mouth when she replied, "Why thank you, Rob." Then she turned to Johnson and said, "We done here? The three of us need to get those machines fired up and working. We have a lot to get done. This is an incentive contract, and the boss is going to be all over us if we aren't in there pretty damn soon."

"I ... uh ... I need to see your Union Card paid up in good standing."

"You really want to go there? Okay, I'll show it to you, but don't reach for it with anything you aren't willing to lose. I need this job. Put your hands in your back pockets."

He did. She held it up; he looked at it. Annie could tell he wanted to grab it, but apparently the look on her face suggested that would be a big mistake, so he said, "Looks current. You should probably get to work." He turned and walked towards what she knew was his truck.

Rob and Mike were still standing there looking at her when Annie turned back. She said, "Thanks guys." They nodded in acknowledgement of their moment of solidarity and, as one, the three turned and headed for the site office to get their assignments. Rob said, "Betty Lou, where did you learn to fight like that? Really? I've never seen anyone, man or woman, take down a big guy like you did last night."

"Three older brothers and defending my virtue on the job for ten years. For some reason guys are under the delusion that a skinny blond has to be a helpless ditz. They always underestimate me. Big mistake. Huge. Dating and training with an ex-Special Forces guy for three years didn't hurt either."

"You still dating him?" Mike asked.

"Oh, yeah."

Annie saw Rob and Mike exchange looks and nod to each other like they'd sort of guessed what she'd just told them. Mike said, "Good for you. I wish my sister had your attitude."

When they arrived at the shack, Rob held the door for her, so she entered ahead of them. The site superintendant looked up at the three of them, nodded out the window at the departing pickup that had the Deputy Union Representative in it and said, "What was that all about?"

Annie took a step forward and went over her story once again, and Rob and Mike backed her up.

When they were done, the superintendent looked at her and said, "Betty Lou, who are you? The Incredible Hulk?"

Annie slid her slim wallet out of her back pocket, pulled out her Third Degree Black Belt card and showed it to the Superintendent. "This is the only one I have with me, but I'm a Master at Krav Maga as well."

Apparently, the normally silent Mike couldn't take it any longer. Before she could reply, he took a half-step forward and said, "Gary, don't screw with her. We saw it all. He asked for everything he got. She took him down twice. The second time he came at her with a two foot chunk of half inch rebar, and I thought she was dead, but he went to the hospital instead, and she didn't even get her hands dirty. Believe me she's a mugger's worst nightmare." Then he looked at Annie and added with unexpected insight, "The way you walk. The way you move. The way you stand there, all balanced on your feet, this isn't your first rodeo. You could have hurt him worse, much worse, couldn't you?"

"Yes,"

The superintendent looked at her for a few thoughtful seconds after she gave that one word answer, then smiled, stood, and she knew it would be all right when he said, "Just my luck. The one day I leave early the MMA holds a mixed martial arts event in the parking lot. Good for you. Gerstwin's had that coming for a decade. If you can do it, without putting me in the hospital, how about a high-five?"

Annie grinned, and they did a perfect high five that left both their hands stinging if the grimace on Gary's face was any clue.

The super grinned at all of them and said, "I have to tell the boss so he can fend off any complaints by the union officials, but I don't see a problem if the police don't. So, now that that's out of the way I need you guys to clean out that newest blast pit. The track drills finished the second half of the pit late yesterday afternoon while you were finishing up that first pit, so we had the blasting company in here again last night. They set it off about 3:00 a.m. From what I can see, and the depth of the holes their log shows, it should have pretty much pulverized the rock down to a depth of twenty feet or so. I don't want to pay delivery charges again, so I need that hole cleaned out before the last track drill leaves in case we need to touch it up and blast again. We have a dozen rock trucks scheduled to start in an hour or so. They will haul it away as fast as you can get it out of the hole. I'm going to need all three of you to keep up with the trucks - they only have a ten mile round trip haul to where they can dump."

Rob said, "No problem. Let's go wind 'em up guys."

He hesitated, apparently concerned about the 'guys' remark, then looked at Annie who let him off the hook when she offered another high-five and replied, "Roger that. Just think of me as another one of the guys. I'm totally good with that."

The high-five was a stinging success, so much so the Superintendent grimaced in sympathy. They both laughed. Annie said, "Give me a minute with Gary?"

The other two nodded and went out the door. Annie turned to the Superintendent and said, "I need to go to the station to file charges against Gerstwin. I'll do that at noon so I don't have to take any time off from work. That okay?"

"Sure. What charges?"

"Several including attempted murder."

"Really?"

"Of course. When a three hundred pound man thinks it's okay to attack a hundred-fifteen pound woman with a piece of rebar, he needs to be taken off the street for a long time. That man has been beating people for years and getting away with it. I can make this stick, and I'm damn sure going to do it. If I don't, it will be open season on me, and I'll have to get mean. Don't want that to happen."

"Last night wasn't mean?"

"Last night was a warning. I need to file charges and follow through with testimony in court. I won't allow them to plea bargain down to less than ten years without parole."

"How will you do that?"

"That's for me to know, but, Gary; I can absolutely make it stick."

"That's good to know."

"Yeah, that's the message that I need to get out. Now, Rob or Mike must have started my dozer because I think I hear three machines warming up, I need to get that machine of mine moving, or they'll be all over me about working half a day."

EN: I sure would like to know what you think about the story. Even a brief review is good.