Chapter 41
LPOV
Stephanie called her sister. "Are you alone and secure?" she asked the second Mallory answered.
"I'm sorry dad, but I can't talk to you right now. Your appointment was today? In a few hours? I completely forgot," she said. Mallory was telling us she wasn't alone and she needed to leave immediately.
"I've got it handled. Wait for Ace. Fifteen minutes at Granger," Stephanie said before hanging up. Calling a number I didn't recognize, Steph said, "Granger, fifteen, Price."
"Ace?" Ranger questioned when she hung up the call.
"Sorry, Ace is Craig Price. He'll pick up his sister on top of Granger tower. Now I just have to call my friend to notify her," Steph said before leaving my lap and the conference room. She paced outside the room as she talked to someone.
We continued making the final plans regarding Rangeman Atlanta. "If anyone in this room says anything to anyone outside of this building, they will be fired. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir," we all replied. Everyone except for Lester, Enrique, Tank, Bobby, Hector, Cal, Woody, Manny, Steph and I were dismissed.
Rangeman lawyers entered the room. They had all documents prepared for the dissolution of Rangeman Atlanta. Since I was the acting CEO, I was required to sign the documents. Ranger signed his name below mine. Cal, Woody, Tank, Lester, Manny and Bobby also signed them. "We'll file these immediately," Phil stated before exiting the room.
All letterhead needed to be removed from their systems. Security systems were no longer backed by Rangeman. Clients would need to be notified. I knew Stephanie would want her sister back home before we implement the changes.
Hector was using the laptop to make all the necessary changes. He wasn't going to push the updates until he knew Mallory was safe. Stephanie entered the room and took the seat next to Hector. She set her phone on the table beside her. "Mal will call once she's picked up," she explained.
"Any trouble leaving?" Tank asked.
"None that I could detect on the camera feed. Luckily she was still carrying her bag," Steph answered.
SPOV
The situation in Atlanta was worse than ever. If I had realized Dixon was the man Sonya introduced me to, I would have said something sooner. He was introduced to me as Greg Dexter. His Rangeman photo was the same as the photo in his Navy record. It looks like he had cheek and chin surgery.
"Ranger, when did you meet Dixon?" I asked.
"Six years ago. He was part of a special ops mission. We worked well together and he proved to be a good leader to his men," Ranger replied.
"Dixon started working at Rangeman Atlanta 3 years ago. When he was on his last mission around two and a half years ago, he was hit in the face. He had reconstructive surgery to fix his broken cheekbones and jaw," Lester added.
"Didn't he think to replace his Rangeman ID?" I wondered out loud.
"Apparently not," Ranger growled.
Hmmm… how convenient for him. I was itching to use Hector's laptop. Binkie knocked before entering the room. He gave me a laptop to use. "You're a lifesaver Bink, thank you," I said as he sat next to me.
Opening his laptop, he asked, "What do you need me to do?"
"Download all Atlanta staff emails from the Rangeman exchange server. I need to have hardcopies of every attachment," I ordered. "Let me sign in for you." I used my administration credentials to log onto the server and pushed the laptop back to him. "Don't delete anything. Back up everything to this IP," I said while entering the address for my personal server.
"Where is this saving?" Binkie wisely asked.
Hector leaned across me to check the address and smiled. "Angel's private server at home," he replied.
Ranger asked, "Babe?"
"We need to have a backup copy not affiliated with Rangeman. I promise not to use the data for my own personal gain," I said completely serious.
"Proceed," he said giving me permission.
"You heard the boss Bink, proceed," I joked. "You too Hector."
"Someone's trying to access the exchange server," Hector stated in Spanish.
"Dixon?" I asked. He quickly confirmed. "His credentials were revoked. I doubt he can get through." As a precaution, I blocked Dixon's IP address. My phone chimed. I read the message and stated, "It's go time men. Mallory is safe. Time to activate operation Dissolve Rangeman Atlanta."
Binkie spent time backing up every email. He was also printing every attachment and email. We had more than enough evidence to back our case with the courts. All I needed was an email linking one detective Joseph Morelli to this corruption.
"Angel," Hector said to get my attention. "Look," he pointed to his screen. Buried deep in the Atlanta server was some very incriminating evidence.
"Oh my God." I was completely stunned. "Luke, we need to call in Joe Juniak." The proverbial shit was about to hit the fan.
Decompressing after our mission should be taking priority, but this was too important to leave for the others. We needed to take calculated steps to make these heinous men pay for their crimes.
I grabbed my phone to call my dad. "Hey Daddy, I need you at Rangeman Trenton. How soon can you get here?"
"Give me twenty," he answered before hanging up.
Hector was tracing back the origin of the video he found. There's always a digital foot print when videos are sent via email, which Binkie just discovered. I told Hector the video was sent through an email. He pulled up another program to find the video footprint.
While he worked on his task, I was contacting all our current, but loyal, Atlanta clients. I apologized on behalf of Rangeman and assured them we were working hard to rectify the problem. "Please call our Trenton branch if you have any questions or concerns," I said before giving them our number. I also told them we were closing our Atlanta branch and to arrange for alternate security. They would be refunded any money paid in advance.
Lester and I called every contract client and discovered most of them signed with new companies. It explained why they were trying to hide their actions. Through their extreme lack of professionalism, Atlanta lost all their major clients. Rangeman lost respect within the community.
LPOV
Once again Stephanie, Hector and Binkie uncovered everything there was to learn about our Atlanta comrades. It's a shame to close the branch, but we weren't given any other choice. They tried to hide their activity in various locations on the server, but once Hector found one file, he was able to find all the others. "Not very original," he mumbled in Spanish.
Stephanie laughed, "Actually I thought it was kind of funny. I wonder who the Monty Python fan is."
"Monty Python?" Ranger asked.
"You haven't seen them? It's a British surreal comedy troupe. They created the TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus," she tried to explain. "If you check the file names, you would notice they're the top 10 sketches. The Spanish Inquisition, Four Yorkeshiremen, Nudge Nudge, Dead Parrot, Argument clinic, Lumberjack Song, Spam, Dirty Fork, The Ministry of Silly Walks and The Funniest Joke in the World. Hector and I have watched them multiple times."
Hector started laughing, "Nudge nudge, say no more." Ranger raised an eyebrow.
"What did I tell you? I bet that idiot didn't think we'd understand Monty Python references," she laughed.
"Fools," Ranger answered smiling.
Frank arrived at the same time as Joe Juniak. They were lead to the conference room by Hal. "Can someone grab us another few laptops? We're busy backing up information using these ones," Steph asked.
Hal nodded and left. He returned within minutes with another laptop. "Luke, can you sign into the Rangeman system?" Steph asked.
I quickly followed her instructions before opening the link to her private server. "Sweetheart, I need the credentials to login," I stated.
"Think my love. You can guess what your credentials are," she hinted. It didn't take me long to figure out what she used for my credentials. For my username I entered ' ' and entered the date we entered Trenton combined with her birthday and the type of gymnastics medal she won. "Did you get in?" she asked.
"I did. The password was a bit of a challenge," I answered.
"Yet you were able to login," she joked. "It's because you know me so well."
"Are they always this mushy?" Enrique asked.
"Surprisingly, no they aren't. This is the first time we've seen them interact this way," Lester confessed.
"It's because we have no more secrets between us," Steph stated. "Once again you distracted us Lester." She pointed at my laptop, silently telling me to retrieve the videos.
I did as she asked and projected the video onto the conference room screen. As clear as day, you could see and hear Joseph Morelli, Greg Dixon and Damien Dietz making plans to capture the elusive Eclipse. They were planning to use him to undermine Rangeman and siphon funds from the Rangeman accounts.
The file was dated just over 2 years ago. Dixon was bragging he was working as Rangeman Atlanta manager. He promised to help Morelli lure Stephanie back to Trenton.
Opening the next file, I pressed play on the video. Joe Morelli is seen visiting EE Martin in Newark. He's talking to the manager, threatening FBI involvement for money laundering. He asked to see the employee records.
When the manager gave him access to the files, he modified Stephanie's employee reviews. Her exemplary work record was changed to her being lazy. She had other people do the work while she received all the credit.
Joe once again stressed he could get the FBI to shut down his business. Fearing jail time, they sold the company. We all know the new owners used the employee reviews to cut loose the less than stellar employees. Stephanie's termination was directly related to Joe changing her employment review.
A few more videos were played. Each one worse than the one before. Joe was seen in every video with either Dixon or Dietz. We had irrefutable proof Joe, Dixon and Dietz were conspiring to destroy Rangeman. Dietz was in military prison for treason. The case against him was strong.
In the final video, Joe and Dixon incriminated themselves. They were conspiring to kill Ranger, thinking he was Stephanie's romantic interest.
Both Juniak and Frank were furious. Ranger was calling his military and FBI contacts. It was time to put these two men in jail where they belong.
Stephanie was vibrating from anger. Her entire life was uprooted because of Joseph Morelli. Every time she tried to make something of her life, he would interfere and force her onto another path. I imagine one of those times pushed her to join the Army.
"This needs to be handled very delicately," Juniak stated. "I suggest we catch Dixon first. Is there any way we can lure him here?"
"It's possible," Ranger announced. He used his phone to call the man himself. Dixon readily agreed to come to Trenton. It almost seemed to easy.
"We should track his movements," Stephanie suggested. "I wouldn't be surprised if he meets with Morelli."
Tank excused himself to make arrangements to handle the Rangeman Atlanta men. He was asking our best men from Boston, Miami and Trenton to storm the Atlanta office once Dixon is on his flight to Trenton.
Ranger was seething. I have never seen him so angry as he is in this moment. Stephanie was itching to do something. Her eyes kept flicking to Ranger, as though she was needing to fuel her hate fire.
Once her eyes connected with mine, her expression softened. She moved back around the table to sit in my lap. "I want to be angry at Joe, but I can't. If it wasn't for his misguided interference, I never would have met you or my Merry Men. Besides, I really hated my job at EE Martin." Lifting her chin towards Ranger, she whispered, "Do you mind?" I shook my head.
I watched my wife move towards Ranger and push his chair back. "Batman," she quietly said before sitting on his lap. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she squeezed him tight. A tear appeared in the corner of his eye.
He buried his face into Stephanie's shoulder and shook his head as she whispered to him. She kissed his forehead before tipping his head up to look in his eyes. Her fingers brushed his eyes. "Thanks Babe, I needed that," he said just loud enough for me to hear. With a pat to his cheek, she left his lap to return to mine.
Stephanie gave me a kiss before returning to her laptop. I quickly glanced at Ranger and noticed his lip was curled into a small smile. He was finally okay with our marriage. My wife was watching our silent exchange. When she caught my eye, she winked.
"He's on his way to the roof," Hector announced. A Rangeman helicopter was waiting for Dixon, to bring him to Trenton. It wasn't scheduled to arrive until tomorrow morning, which means he requested it earlier.
SPOV
I finally got my friend back. He's genuinely sorry for his sexual advances. We were becoming close friends when he tried to cross the line. This man deserves to be happy. You can't always get everything you want out of life, but you still have to deal with the consequences of your actions. I noticed a significant change in his behaviour after our mission. He may be an amazing and generous man, but you definitely do not want to get on his bad side.
Ranger used the laptop Enrique grabbed for his brother. He entered his credentials to pull up the helicopter manifest. A slight smile indicated everything was going according to plan.
"Hey, can we join this party?" Mallory asked after knocking on the door.
"Enter," Ranger snapped.
Mallory walked into the room and gave Juniak a raised eyebrow. Dad quickly introduced them. She sat next to Manny to give us an update. I wasn't surprised they treated her like she had a disease. "I literally could have done anything and they wouldn't have stopped me. It was as though I was completely invisible. The only person who paid me any attention was Dixon. He's not a nice man."