Ch 9 The Recording, The Morse Code, and The Secondary Location
Everything went as expected. Narcissists tend to act in predictable ways, one being they are too superior to make any mistakes. They are too good to get caught. The moment that Governor Blake walked back into his office he called Negan from his office phone. The Governor was just as big of a narcissist as Negan and the idea that he would be caught never even crossed his mind once. Well maybe once during the speech, but he convinced himself that he covered all of his tracks well. It was that cockiness that had him reaching for his office phone instead of his cell phone, which would not have mattered in the first place. Blake figured his office line was secure.
"What the FUCK did you do?" Blake yelled through the phone with gritted teeth. "How did they find out it was you?"
"I'm not gonna win huh Governor, well you better make sure that I do fucking win and that I don't get caught!" Screamed Negan right back, "or you and your shitty little one-eyed operation will go down with me friend."
"Are you at the sanctuary?" said an uneasy Blake.
"Were else would I be you fucking dickwad, why?" Asked Negan.
"What are you going to do with the wife and kid?" asked Blake.
"I'm gonna marry Michonne and raise her daughter as my own and make more little Michonne and Negan babies along the way," Said a self-assured Negan grinning wide at Michonne while he spoke.
Blake closed his eye and took a deep breath. Negan had lost his mind, and he was going to get him caught and locked up. He was not going to spend the rest of his life locked in a cage because of Negan. He needed an idea on how to get rid of Negan permanently and come off looking like the hero that saved the day at the same time. So right then and there he came up with a scheme that would kill two birds with one stone. He would send Negan to a new location and have him killed. His cabin was the perfect place he thought. There was not a neighbor for miles. A remote location where they would not find his body for years, if ever. He would have his henchman Martinez take care of the trash. He could not risk him talking to the police about their mutual illegal activities.
Phillip Blake has been a friend of Negan's family for years, and between all his connections, he got Negan out of a lot of messed up shit. There were a few times he did not think it would be possible, like when Negan was stalking that woman, but money reigns supreme. Payoff the right person and covering anything up becomes a non-issue. Negan was off, not right in the head but Blake was always there to help him out of whatever sticky situation he got himself into. Not out of some misplaced loyalty, but because of the almighty dollar. Negan helped keep Blakes pockets full of cash, and with big money comes much power. It is what eventually got him from mayor to Governor. Hell, Blake had his eye on the Presidency.
It was Blake's idea to have Negan join the police academy and become and officer. It paid to have someone on the inside, and activities such as confiscating drugs, money, and weapons from the evidence room would be easy to cover up. As Negan progressed in his career, he became more power hungry and more deranged in going about getting that power and status. For Negan, status was even more important than power. He had Blake make sure to keep his promotions coming, and Blake was happy to do it, because with each promotion came more, you guessed it, money. They were running a million-dollar criminal empire. The only problem was Negan's obsessive appetites. They were getting harder and harder for Blake to control; he could only cover them up and pray that they did not escalate and expose them all. He knew one day Negan was going to go too far and he would have to end him. It looked like today was that day. Depending on what the wife and kid knew, he might have to terminate them also. If there was one thing Negan loved to do, it was to talk and brag. It was like his hobby and his passion. He probably told them everything to make himself look big. If he did, Michonne and Abigail would have to die along with Negan. He would have to take the hit of not being the hero. He would kill them and have their bodies moved back to the sanctuary so there would be no connection to him and a dead Negan would take the fall for everything. Nothing was going to stop his rise, so he told Negan the new plan.
"You need to move to new location," said The Governor.
Governor Blake had the idea to have Negan's associate call the police hotline and give a credible but false tip to throw them off their trail and their location. He was bothered that he had to explain to Negan why he could not be the one to call the hotline.
"Why Simon? Why can't I fucking call," asked Negan who wanted to use this as another opportunity to make a grand speech and boast about himself.
"Because you idiot they will recognize your voice, they already think you are involved, but they can't prove it!" Fumed Blake.
Blake told Negan to be ready to immediately move the wife and kid to a secondary location after they made the call. They didn't state the location on the phone directly but instead used a code. Negan hung up with the Governor and informed Simon of the plan, not in code. Told Simon out right exactly what they were doing and where they were going after the call. He also wrote a speech for Simon, a rather long boastful one. Simon almost rolled his eyes at his boss, but then he looked at Dwight's face and down at Lucile and thought better of it.
"Negan, if you make that call from here won't they be able to trace it," asked a terrified Simon, "especially since the speech is so long?"
"No, but they can triangulate it but by the time they get over here, and get their pathetic fucking foot soldiers moving, we will have already moved to the Governor's hunting cabin. When they get here, we will be long gone." Said Negan as he went to tell he crew to get the vehicle ready to move to the new location and to prepare the ladies to move immediately after the call.
Abigail was playing attention to everything. And from where she was sitting, she was spitting distance from the phone that was being used. Close enough to send a message, but with her mouth taped, she had to use another method to communicate. She was able to tear the button from the end of her sleeve and as Simon talked, Abigail tapped. Michonne saw her daughter tapping away and thought it was a coping mechanism. She was worried for her daughter and cried at what she thought was a nervous tic she was developing. She was terrified that her daughter would not come out of this situation mentality healthy. Simon called the tip line and talked and talked and talked some more and Abigail tapped and tapped and tapped right along with him. Rick, and the gang had more than enough time to triangulate their primary location and send the officers rushing in. They were dispatched to a warehouse area where "The Sanctuary" was located, but they really did not specifically know which warehouse it was. There were several in the area and they might easily slip away before they found the right one where Negan was holding Rick's family.
Rick and team were all at the police station listening to the recordings that FBI made of the Governor talking to Negan and the one most importantly to Rick, the recording of the call that came directly from the kidnappers. They needed to identify the secondary location the governor told Negan to transfer his family to just in case his family was already moved before the officers could get to them. Rick knew in his gut that they were already gone, otherwise he would have been the first one out at the sanctuary.
Abraham was listening intently to the Simon recording, which was unusually long and braggy. He was trying to concentrate but all the chatter was taking away his focus.
"Shhhh be quiet," said Abraham but no one was listening.
"HEY," Abraham roared, "SHUT THE FUCK UP, I NEED TO FOCUS!"
Everyone stopped talking and moving, you could hear a pin drop and all eyes were now on Abraham wondering exactly what it was he was focused on. Rick looked at him intently hoping he had some breakthrough with the recording.
"Glen play that back again, and y'all keep quiet," demanded Abraham.
Glen played back the recording and Abraham grabbed a pen and paper and started writing furiously. As he continued to write a wide grin spread across his mustached face.
"Well hot damn Rick, ain't your wife smart," said Abraham, everybody still eyeing him wondering what he knew that they did not. Rick was getting anxious with the red-haired man.
"What do you mean Abraham," pleaded Rick, "tell me what you know!"
"Morse Code, that tapping in the background was damn Morse Code, I learned it in the army!" Yelled an excited Abraham.
"My wife don't know Morse code?" Rick said confused eyes squinted trying to remember if she did, but then had a moment of clarity, "but I bet my genius kid does!" Rick said remembering the conversation with his wife earlier in the day.
Abraham looked at the message that Abigail had brilliantly tapped out. She really was a genius. "abandoned warehouse, sanctuary, move to governor's cabin soon, woods, take old gravel road no main street, near stream. Don't come to warehouse. Leaving soon. "
"Hey, they plan to move to that secondary location before we can start a foot search, and I know the secondary location. It's a cabin in the woods, something about the Governor's cabin and your kid even managed to get some good search points out, near a stream of water, and they were told by the Governor to take on old gravel road when they drove there, so not a main street. She said don't bother with the warehouse, they are leaving that location," finished Abraham.
"Shane, you and Darryl and see what you can find out about a cabin Blake owns, and don't tell the FBI just yet, QUICK!", hollered Rick, "That kid of mine, I'm so proud of her."
"The FBI left for the sanctuary with the APD, but they left us access," said Darryl as he walked to the computer the FBI had set up along with the APD laptops.
Shane and Darryl used the FBI computer database as it had a wider and faster and more accurate search parameter. The search resulted in a property, a luxury hunting lodge deep in the woods that showed Phillip Blake as the sole owner. They took the address and ran back in with the rest of the group and marked the location on the map. The noticed it was indeed by a steam and there were several old backroads to the location.
"We need to go now!" Yelled Shane.
Rick needed to make a stop at home to get a few thangs before they went to the Governor's cabin. He needed to be ready. Although everyone was officially involved and, on their way, out to the woods, part of this mission was going to be handled strictly by Rick and his team. The FBI and a butt load of Atlanta PD were burning the road on the way from the sanctuary after Rick called in the location, but Rick would not allow anyone else to take on certain aspects of this mission and possibly allow Negan to get away with his family. He didn't want to risk the FBI taking over and barging in before they could get his family out of the path of possible gunfire. He would not take that chance. Negan would pay, and if some stuff and thangs needed to go down, then he needed that to stay as quiet as possible. The woods were big and there would be a huge area to search, but Rick knew exactly where to go, the FBI did not. His daughter made sure of that. He told the FBI the general location, but not the exact location. When Negan was running his mouth, he gave Simon the directions on exactly how to get there. If Abigail had not added that information, it would have taken them hours to stumble across the property.
They all entered the Rick's house and watched Rick walk away towards his destination in his backyard. Shane turned to the team taking advantage of Rick' absence to give them some much needed information. Shane specifically was only talking to the new crew, Abraham and Noah, Rosita and T-Dog. The old dogs already knew the deal.