Hohenbruck Army Base

Day 4

08:15 hrs, Thursday

"Gather round, you lot." Ox bellowed.

"Right, then. Get yourselves settled." Roper patted Ox to quiet him. The old codge glowered at the team before settling his rather sizable frame into an office chair. Roper noticed he was not the only one who waited, expectantly, to see if the chair would hold. "Where are we?"

"We've started going through the personnel records, Boss. Nothing yet. A bunch of choirboys over there." Jilly started. "I've been talking with the AG's office to get warrants to check out the banks records. Most of the lads have their accounts back in the UK. I'm liaising with UK SIB to get those."

"We checked through them before." Roper conceded. Donnell nodded. "We're going to have to go deeper. Johnson's too clever to recruit someone who would be suspicious right out of the gate."

"I've also had UK SIB start poking about into their personal lives and families. Haven't heard back from them yet."

"All right. Dig deep, Jilly. I want to know everything and anything about everyone in that depot. Also, go back through the records to see who has worked there over the past couple of years. Shane was only here a short while before the irregularities showed up in his bank records. Johnson has been building up to this so there might have been someone before Shane."

"Right, Boss. UK SIB did get back to us about something. They checked out Shane's mum. Checked out her kitchen as well. Turns out that her refridgerator is twenty years old, contradicting Shane's statement. She's also not exactly rolling in it, if you know what I mean. If Shane handed over the insurance money, she doesn't have it or she's still hiding it."

"Did you find out anything at all about Sgt. Foley." Donnell asked. Jilly shook her head.

"No, by all appearances, a career soldier. Not a spot on his records. His commanding officer seems to think rather highly of him." Jilly quirked her face.

"What is it?"

"You met him, Boss?"

"Yeah."

"He's a strange duck, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't trust anyone who is that neat."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Look at him. Everyone seems to think he runs everything in that building. If something is going on, he must know something."

"Right, Boss." She looked over at John and Miles. John was all ready taking notes with Miles watching over his shoulder, pointing out spelling mistakes. Roper shook his head.

"What else?"

"The surveillance is up and running." Donnell reported. "We've got the whole building fitted with cameras and mics."

"Where are you monitoring from?"

"We've got a truck parked round back. Its mixed in with some parked lorries so no one should notice."

"Have we got anything so far?"

"Not unless you could the mannequin twins running about like complete idiots."

"The mannequin twins?" Ox grumped.

"Just wait. You'll meet them before we're done here, I imagine. Watch for flying tape guns, if you value that gorgeous nose of yours." Roper suppressed a laugh as Ox touched his many times broken, gnarled nose.

"All right, I'll be by this afternoon to check it out. Have you got a schedule worked out to cover it?"

"Yeah, Boss," Donnell calling him 'Boss' seemed odd to Roper. "The boys are taking the night shift. Jilly and Ox are taking the day shift. You and I get the evening shift. I've got a couple of RMPs taking watch now."

"That's not going to please the missus much, is it? Or is that the point?" Ox poked.

"He's right. Donnell, you take the day shift. Jilly, Ox, can I get a volunteer to take over evening shift?"

"Spending each and every evening with you, Boss?" Jilly arched her brow.

"She's just dying to, you know, Boss. Better watch out. With Jacks down in the front lines, she's a bit randy these days."

"What? With the likes of him?" Jilly jabbed a finger in Roper's direction. "Not likely. I like a little meat on my men, if you know what I mean." She winked at him as she settled down behind her desk. Ox's whole body jiggled with his laughter. "Be happy to, Boss."

"You'd better bring a weapon, sir, keep yourself safe."

"Settle down, you two." Roper wandered back up to the front of the room. "Rather her than the likes of you." The Owens boys danced around Ox, poking him in the stomach, jostling him about. "All right, all right. Mike, what time do you need to me to be there?"

"Four o'clock. Come round the back so no one sees you."

"Right. Anything else?"

"Well, if I can get anything said around here." Ox grumped.

"Well?"

"I'm meeting with the locals this evening. We need to find out how much is actually coming through. See if we can get a right schedule, you know." Ox tried to sound business-like, failing miserably.

"All right, back to work then, all of you. We need to find something to justify this operation." Roper rapped the board.

"Roper." Bruce jogged after him as he left the office. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, Bruce, what is it?" Roper kept going, checking his watch. He needed to be at the surveillance truck in ten minutes.

"Have you spoken to Jo yet?" Bruce huffed as they came outside.

"We had a conversation. Why?"

"Did she seem right to you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"There's something wrong." Roper stopped. Bruce almost toppled Roper off his feet.

"What?"

"I don't know. She won't talk to me."

"Well, what makes you think there's something wrong?"

"Nothing specific."

"Bruce, I really don't have time for this."

"She lets Frost run all over her. That's not our Jo." Roper looked him in the face. Bruce peered at him, helplessly. "There's something wrong but she won't let me help. What are we going to do?" Bruce asked, more like begging.

"There's nothing we can do. Jo's got a mind of her own. If she doesn't want to talk about it, she isn't going to."

"And that's it? We aren't going to doing anything at all?"

"What do you want me to do?" Roper asked.

"She's my mate. I'm not going to just stand by while she crumbles in front of me." Roper just stood there. "She listens to you."

"Since when? Jo doesn't listen to anyone." He argued.

"So you won't try to talk to her?"

"I all ready did. She isn't ready."

"She driving herself mad. She's always out at the ranges and running."

"She's got to take a fitness test before she's returned to full active duty."

"That's not for a couple of weeks, at least. She's trying to do too much."

"Look, Bruce, I don't know what to tell you. When she's ready, she'll open up. Until then, there's nothing we can do." Roper tried to push past him. Bruce used his bulk to stop him. For the first time, Roper saw something akin to malice.

"Listen, I stood by while you twisted her round and played with her heart. I'm not going to stand about and watch while she drives herself to madness." Roper stepped back at his venom. Bruce stared at him hard before pushing past him back into the offices.

Roper just stood there a moment.

"Something wrong, Boss?" Jilly asked. Roper looked over at her. "You've been sitting here for three hours without a word."

"Was I supposed to be the entertainment for you?" Roper tried to joke. Jilly did not bite.

"She's been out at the ranges every night." Jilly told him, not having to say her name. Roper looked at the monitors, watching Foley tidy up his office for the night.

"Who?"

"Whatever. You know, everyone couldn't make out why you didn't take Burns position. You knew she was coming back, didn't you?" Roper frowned at her forthrightness.

"No. No, I didn't. It didn't have anything to do with it anyway." He tried to brush her off.

"Oh, right, you were waiting for our motley crew, is that it?"

"You didn't want me?" Roper jested, uncomfortably.

"God, right. I would've killed myself if Frost came over. Poor kids over there. I can't imagine what it must be like to work with her, much less under her." Jilly scoffed. "Right coss, if you don't mind me saying." Roper chuckled.

"Well, you better stay in line or I'll make a trade. You for old Hornsby then you'll get your wish." Jilly rolled her eyes.

"Is she all right then?"

"Who? Frost?"

"No, Jo."

"I wouldn't know." Roper wanted to reprimand her but it was a part of his new position that he had not gotten comfortable with yet.

"Oh, come on. Everyone knows, Boss. You're not fooling anyone."

"SSgt McNamara." Roper said as sternly as he could muster. Jilly made a noise.

"Step over the line, did I, Boss?"

"Quite. You might want to think about hopping back across it. We've got a job to do here."

"I hadn't noticed. Is he cleaning his boots again?" Jilly motioned to the monitor. Foley was indeed polishing his boots. "There's something wrong with that man." Roper chuckled.

They sat in silence, watching as the lads went about locking up the depot for the evening. Roper's mobile chirped.

"Boss," it was Ox. "The locals think the shipments are coming in every other week by the traffic stops and the supply on the streets."

"They're sure about that?"

"Yeah, they've got tables and summations, bloody Germans. You know what they're like." Roper laughed. "The line is though, they think the shipments are coming in every two weeks."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah." Jilly got up, checking out the front window as someone walked by. "They've got round the clock surveillance on Johnson. They can't catch him anywhere near any drugs. They even tossed his flat and didn't find anything. They haven't found any connection between him and anyone on base."

"How long are they going to keep up the surveillance?"

"No end date as yet but they can't keep it up forever. He's supplying both Hohenbruck and Hamburg so the shipments are sizable but if he's bringing it in uncut, then even a boot size shipment could service them."

"Have they figured out where the lab is? If Johnson is cutting this stuff up after delivery, then he has to be doing it somewhere."

"Right, Boss. They haven't found it yet. They seem to think that if we can find the shipments coming in, then we can follow it and roll up the whole operation."

"They would, wouldn't they?"

"Sorry, Boss."

"No, that's all right. Get yourself a pint. You've done good." Roper clicked his mobile closed.

"What?" Jilly asked.

"The locals think that if we can catch a shipment coming in, we can follow it through Johnson's whole organization."

"Well, yeah. Wouldn't that be nice. And then they can take all the credit. Looks like everyone is out for the night." Foley locked the front doors.

"We'll see if anyone is scurrying about after hours. I wish we could get manifests and check all the crates going through here."

"That wouldn't tip them off at all."

"Couldn't we get a copy from the the bases shipping in?" Jilly mused the suggestion.

"I suppose but there's going to be talk."

"But if the other bases think they're the ones under suspicion, then we could do spot checks. A crack down on all depots instead of just this one. I imagine that we're not the only place where questionable shipments are moving about. We'd have to get orders from higher up."

"Admitting that we've got a problem here."

"I don't mind admitting it, as long as we clean it up."

"You're a braver man than most."

"We could also check to see what nights shipments aren't coming in and getting in there."

"Do you think they'd leave something in there over night?"

"It's a thought at least."

They lapsed into silence again.

"You two seem like a really good fit."

"Shut up."

"Shutting up, Boss." She actually giggled.