Gaining Forward Momentum

This takes place after Dancing Outside the Lines.

Thank you so much for all the positive feedback and nice reviews you've posted for this story. I really appreciate it. You guys are the best :)

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Extra special thanks to Margaret for Beta-ing my story and deeming this chapter good to go :). Thank you Margaret :)

I don't own the characters, just taking them for a spin :)

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Chapter 29 — The Bunker Above

"Well Hallelujah!" David said looking at Hal cuffed and on the floor. "I didn't think it would be possible for two women to get someone the size of Hal down."

"Steph's done it before, single-handedly," Lula added with a toothy grin as I unlocked Hal's cuffs and helped him up. "You just try keeping her away from something she wants to do. You'll see."

Hopefully Charlie McKenna read into what Lula was saying. I was heading to Florida tomorrow to take the bastard down, sanctioned or not.

"Cupcake," Joe said, having picked up just enough information to know what we had in mind, "you're not planning on doing that to Briggs, are you?"

"Yes. And as you can see, we were able to get Hal to the ground and cuffed in a matter of seconds. It's the element of surprise. Do we look like we could take down a 265-pound man?"

"I object. I object big-time," Joe said, getting all worked up and red in the face. "You are NOT going down to Florida to play crime stopper."

"Joe, I'm not playing at anything. I'm 100% serious about this and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Manoso, what are you putting her up to? I'll kill you bare-handed if anything happens to her."

"I didn't put Stephanie up to anything. This was her and Lula's idea and there will be nine of my men right there along side of them for backup. Nothing is going to happen to either of them. They know what they're doing."

Joe had me so pissed off with his ranting and raving. I looked to Lula and then to Morelli and in less time than it took to get Hal, we had Joe to the ground and cuffed. He was so busy giving Carlos a hard time he wasn't paying one bit of attention to the two of us. Two down, Briggs to go.

"Joe, I should leave you tied up," I said. "Can't you see we've been practicing this? We'll be ok." And we just got in today's practice while showing Charlie McKenna just how much butt we could kick.

Everyone was laughing but Joe and I as Lula uncuffed him and helped him to his feet. I was as serious as I could get. God damn Joe and his macho ideas.

"David do you want to call Janet back with this or should I?" Charlie asked, seemingly now in our court.

"I'll call her and vouch for them," David replied. "If we want to ensure that she hears us, I suggest you call her too."

Since neither Joe nor Hal had a weapon in their hand during our takedowns, Antonio wanted us to practice at least once more using the disarming techniques he'd been working with us on. We headed out to the gym for a quick session with him and Hector. Charlie, David, Joe and Hal followed us out. I guessed Joe and Hal still couldn't believe we'd taken them down and wanted to see what else we could do. I didn't care that we had an audience. All I cared about was getting Briggs into custody and I was pretty sure Lula and I could do it even without help from Brett and the guys.

It looked like Charlie and David were impressed with the methods Antonio had been teaching us. Maybe he'd be offered a job with Homeland Security or SOG after this was over with. He certainly deserved some recognition. Without him Lula and I would still be floundering around and trying to sit on people to get them to the ground.

I had noticed that David was on his phone while we were having our practice session. "Stephanie, Lula, can you come here?" he asked, still talking to whoever he was talking to.

Lula and I walked over to him and he handed me his phone. "I have Janet Napolitano on the line. I've been telling her about you and Lula and what you've been able to accomplish and she wants to talk to you."

Oh shit. Please don't try to dissuade me. "Hi Janet. This is Stephanie Plum."

"Hi Stephanie. David just sent me video of your practice session with Lula and I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed." I put David's phone on speaker so Lula could hear what she was saying too. "I feel the need to apologize for not taking you seriously when Charlie McKenna first mentioned you. I'd still like some CIA involvement, but I understand the time sensitivity and I know I can't pull together a team overnight. I'll sanction this if you keep me in the loop and allow David White to come down to Florida with you. He can be our CIA eyes."

I didn't know what to say. This was as much Carlos' call as it was mine. So far he had Brett, the seven other Rangemen, Hector, Lula and I working on this case.

"Thank you Janet. I have no problem with David's involvement and I can certainly keep you in the loop, but I don't feel this is solely my decision to make. My fiancé, Carlos Manoso and his company Rangeman have been instrumental in putting this together and if it's ok with you, I'd like to talk to him first."

"I've heard all about Ranger and Rangeman. Yes of course, talk it over with him. You can get back to me either through David or Charlie. It was nice speaking with you and I hope we have an opportunity to meet one of these days. Oh. And by the way, you two reminded me of Charlie's Angels; beautiful yet deadly."

I said goodbye to Janet and handed David back his phone. Holy shit. I just spoke with the Director of Homeland Security. I looked up and both David and Charlie were smiling at Lula and I.

"I've got to get back to Trenton for a meeting," Charlie said, offering his hand. "But I agree with Janet and I was very impressed with the both of you too. Good luck tomorrow. I hope it all works out. I'll be in touch."

As Charlie was leaving, Carlos entered the gym and the two spoke briefly before Charlie went back out towards his car. Carlos came over and put his arm around me. "I hear you two were a big hit."

"Uh. I guess. Listen, I have something I want to talk to you about…" And I told him about my conversation with Janet Napolitano.

"I have no problem with David going down to Florida with you, Hector and Lula. In fact it might be less conspicuous if there were four of you. I've already secured a NetJets plane for tomorrow morning. It'll be at Monmouth at 8 am. I asked Jason to go over the plane with a fine-tooth comb before you take off. I'm still worried about a breach in our security there."

"And I'm worried about everything. I wished we knew who Briggs was working with. He set up hits in six different parts of the country at the same time. There were four guys in that car. If there were four guys at every hit, that's twenty-four people. He has to be working with some organized group. Do we have any ideas?"

"I have a few ideas Babe, but nothing concrete. We're working on it. We've ID'd the dead guys, so that's a start. Hector and Hal are running them through every conceivable database there is to try to find a match. I'm sure we'll have a better idea in a few hours."

"Carlos?"

"Yes Babe."

"I love you."

"I love you too. You'll do fine. I have great faith in you and Lula. Tank does too."

I stirred and he held me close and whispered in my ear. "Shhh. It'll all be ok."

"Can I help Hector and Hal with the searches? It'll keep my mind off things."

"I think they have it under control, but if you want to help them go through the data that pops up, I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Tank wants to take his grandmother and Lula back to his house. I pretty sure he wants to check on damage from the attack and to make sure his grandmother is ok after what she's been through here."

"His grandmother's a tough lady. After you guys went upstairs —and by the way you have to show me what's up there — I went to check on her and she was telling Lula, Charlie and Jason about her participation in the race riots of the 1960s. She's a lot stronger than you guys give her credit for."

"I bet she is. After Tank leaves I'll show you what we have upstairs."

"I didn't even know we had an attic. From the outside this looks like a one story structure. Can you stand up there?"

"Yeah Babe you can. It's quite deceiving. And that was the point of my setting up what's there. I imagined someday I'd be attacked here. I don't think it's over yet and I want to show you how to activate the staircase and few other things in case you're here by yourself and the house falls under siege again. Let's go back to inside and say goodbye to Tank. I'm pretty sure we'll be getting a visit from either Captain Sprano or Sergeant Garcia of the Belmar PD at some point today too. Someone's already called Ramos to ask about us."

"Yeah, I spoke with him too. He called my cell after he gave you a positive ID on Flumerri's photo. He mentioned those names. He said he's worked with them before. Our cover is blown now too, right?"

"What cover Babe?"

"The Pardos. Isn't that who the Belmar police think live here? Marc and Samantha Pardo?"

"Babe that cover was blown when the police showed up after Malone shot one of my men responding to his threat outside. The Belmar police know we live here, but that the house is owned by the Pardos. We couldn't keep up the charade so I had a conversation with Captain Sprano months ago."

"You've met him?"

"No. We spoke on the phone. But I have a feeling I'll meet him today."

"I have another question. Is Alexander Ramos half Spanish? He has the same last name as Manny."

"Good question. The surname 'Ramos' is both a Greek name and a Spanish and Portuguese name. It's also an Anglo name as in Ramsey, like Ram's last name. I've been told its origins are Latin and it means olive branch."

"I was just wondering. Alexander has such a Greek accent. I just couldn't see him as being anything other than Greek."

"You should ask him about it. I'm sure he knows more than I do."

When we got back to the house Tank, Lula and Etta Mae were leaving. Jason and Hal were following them back in one of the para-aramid reinforced Explorers in case there was still a threat at their house. Hector was in Carlos' office with two laptops set up.

"Chica, Ranger said you wanted to help. Hal had been running the names of the dead men against known para-military groups in the U.S. You can help by checking to see if he's had any success."

"And what were you running?"

"I thought they might belong to a white supremacy group so I'm cross-referencing them against the KKK and the Aryan Nations. Among others."

"Any luck?"

"Hal started while we were working with Antonio. His search should be just about ready to read. Mine needs probably another hour."

I looked over at the computer Hector pointed to as belonging to Hal. The data was still spinning and so far it didn't look like any connections were made. I'd give it another half an hour.

"It doesn't look like he's made any hits yet. Carlos promised he'd show me what's in the attic. I'll be back in a little while."

"Have fun."

"Thanks. You know where to find us if you need us."

I went back out to the living room where Carlos was talking to Bobby. "Babe, we're concerned that whoever we're dealing with has made some connections. We just asked Ram and Cal to pick up Ashley and Megan and bring them here. And we're worried about David's family in DC. I've sent a NetJets plane to pick them up and bring them here too. I'm sorry but we're going to have a full house."

"What about Devon? If they've made the Megan and Ashley connection to us, I'm betting they have Devon and his family on the radar too."

"I'm moving them to Rangeman. They can have our apartment on seven. It's as secure as Fort Knox. Ella is setting it up for them."

"This is serious, isn't it? Hector thinks it's the KKK. You said you had some ideas. Want to share?"

"Let me take you up to the attic first. I'm inclined to agree with Hector. Since this started I've thought some white supremacy group was involved. Our organization is made up primarily of minorities. Hal, Ram, Cal, Brett, Vince, Woody and you are pretty much the only 'white bread' people in our group. If there's someone who hates me for my choice of partners, they are not going to belong to an open-minded organization. Aryan Nations came to my mind too."

"Can we go upstairs? I'd like to see what you've set up before the Belmar PD arrive. Or before we have a match on the two dead guys."

Carlos walked over to our foyer and touched a piece of the molding just to the right of the front door. It popped open to reveal a panel that looked similar to our video keypads, but without the video.

"Babe, just touch here and the panel will open. It's spring-loaded; you don't have to press very hard. It's just slightly out of people's reach and so far no one has accidently hit it. Then just press this center button and the trap door will slide open. The down arrow right below it will lower the stairs and the up arrow above it will raise them."

Carlos lowered the stairs and I followed him up. He was right. We could very easily stand in the space, especially in the center where the roof rose to an apex. I noticed windows underneath the eaves. They were not noticeable from outside and because of the height you could see out, past our gate and beyond to the street. There was a device with an iPhone attached to it at one of the windows.

"What's this?"

"It's a high-powered cell scope. We used it to take pictures of the men in the car. When I thought the man in the back seat was Flumerri, I texted the image to Ramos for verification. There's a gun safe in this closet where we have weapons and full combat gear. An iris scan and password are necessary to open the safe. The one you use at home will work here. We are linked in to our video keypads remotely in case someone is smart enough to tamper with our electrical system, and we can manage any function of the house from here as well. On the other side we have similar scopes with full beach range. We can see well into the Atlantic and if necessary we can take out a submarine or assault vessel from here. It's all very sophisticated and state-of-the-art."

"This is very scary Carlos. It seems like something the U.S. government should know about."

"They do Babe and if we were at war, this house would be open to the armed forces and the president."

We heard a voice calling to us from the stairs below. "Stephanie? Ranger? Is it ok if I come up?"

It was Joe. I looked at Carlos. He was the one who created this secret arsenal. Inviting Joe up wasn't my decision to make.

"Come on up Joe," Carlos called back. "I was just showing Stephanie our bunker."

Joe came up the stairs and did a 360º when he got to the top. He let out a low whistle. "Just how equipped are you?"

"The federal government has this place on its list of approved bunkers in case of war. We pretty much have everything. As you can see we have high-powered scopes that can see well out into the Atlantic and under the water. In the gun safe there's weaponry that can disable a nuclear sub."

"Is all of this legal?"

"Legal, approved and accounted for. Washington knows what's here."

"When you first started setting up shop in Trenton, I asked about you and I was told to mind my own business. Is this why?"

"Probably not. I've only had this house since last fall. All of this is new. Was it Juniak that told you to butt out? He was told to give me and my men carte blanche. Sometimes he can be quite blunt."

"Yeah, it was Juniak. So he knows about all of this too?"

"Joe, I'm not hiding anything. Yes, he knows."

"So why is Stephanie seeing this for the first time today if you're not hiding anything?"

That was a good question. I wondered myself why Carlos had never mentioned this before. He'd told me many times he had no secrets from me.

"Honestly I didn't want to scare you Babe," Carlos said, addressing me with the answer to Joe's question. "When the time was right, I would have taken you up here. And it looks like the time was right today. I wasn't sure how you would feel living with a two-ton megabomb arsenal above you."

Yeah and I still didn't know how I felt. But before I had a chance to ponder it further another voice called up to us.

"Belmar PD is at the gate," Bobby announced. "And unless you want them upstairs, I suggest coming down now."

We all turned and made our way down the stairs with Joe in the lead. Once the three of us were down, Carlos punched the keypad on the wall and the staircase went back up, the trap door shut and the attic arsenal was back to being hidden away.

Carlos opened the front door to let whoever was visiting from the Belmar PD in.

"Carlos Manoso?" One of the officers asked, walking to the door and shaking Carlos' outstretched hand.

"Yes and this is my fiancé Stephanie Plum," he said ushering me to his side.

"I'm Captain Pasquale Sprano, but you can call me Charlie, everyone else does. And this is Sergeant Artie Garcia."

"We spoke on the phone, nice to finally meet you. I had a feeling you'd be paying us a visit today. Come in."

Carlos introduced the officers to Joe and Bobby. I guessed the other guys saw the car arrive on the video keypads and Hector and David came out to the foyer to extend their greetings too. Thankfully most of our small army were either 'out' or had already left, so it didn't look like we kept a platoon of men here.

Carlos was quite forthcoming with the officers and told them about his company, Briggs and our uncertainness about just who attacked us this morning.

"We got an ID on the two dead men and we are running a search right now to try to cross reference them with any existing vigilantes in any of the data bases available to us. Come back to my office and I'll show you what we have."

As we passed through the living room on our way to Carlos' office, Captain Sprano stopped at the Frida Khalo painting. "I heard about this painting. Officer Reynolds was quite taken with it."

"Yeah. So was Officer Higgins, who we later found out wasn't an officer at all," I said, alluding to the FBI agent who showed up here to check out Carlos.

"I'm sorry about that," Captain Sprano said. "This town has some very influential people living in it. I'm sorry someone got the wrong idea and brought in the FBI. But now that we know who you really are and everything is above board, you shouldn't have any more problems."

Yeah, wait till someone finds out about the two-ton megabomb arsenal upstairs, I thought to myself.

Joe and the officers talked shop for a few minutes while we waited to see if there were any hits on the searches. Then Joe announced that he had to get back to Trenton. He shook hands with the officers, Carlos, Hector, Bobby and David and I walked him to the door.

"Cupcake do you feel safe with all that equipment upstairs?" he asked.

"I'm getting used to it Joe. I'll be fine. And I'm sorry Lula and I took you down and cuffed you earlier. I just needed to prove a few points."

"It's ok. Just take care of yourself," Joe said, kissing me goodbye on the cheek. "And good luck tomorrow."