5. Land Baron
Marella had stayed back at the Project Guardian headquarters. She wanted to see if she could get any clue on Michael's whereabouts and… his status.
Finally succumbing to her exhaustion, she was sitting slumped, fast asleep at the expansive desk where she'd been working nonstop.
Chapman had also been busy with one of the leads that Marella thought he might be able to shed some light on, but he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and decided to call it a night. Checking in on Marella through one of the security monitors, he noticed she had fallen asleep.
He had transferred the casket and its contents to the archive vault, a place with a room attached that had the space to spread out documents and the like so that some semblance of order could be made from them. He headed down with a throw and covered her shoulders with it before he left her to rest.
She'd been through the shredder backwards with the unconfirmed news of her long-term partner and lover. He had to hand it to the veteran agent, she still had that special quality that so hard to find these days.
It was the same quality of people that Michael had uniquely wrangled together, so he sent a message to let them know of the situation before they were due to arrive at the facility that morning.
Hours later, Marella roused when she felt Dale and Branson enter the room, befor smelling the rich aroma of coffee that wafted in with them.
Dale placed one of the steaming mugs and a cream cheese bagel next to the regal woman, and the pair kept quiet while they seated themselves and waited for Marella to set the pace.
"Thanks. Just let me tidy myself up," Marella said in a croaky voice before she stood and left the room. She would normally be mortified that she didn't have herself together, but at that moment, she didn't have it in herself to care.
Besides, she needed to pee.
Branson and his niece noticed that most of the hundreds of documents had already been laid out along the surface of the expansive desktops that lined three of the walls. On closer inspection, they were all clearly marked and in order with corresponding and connecting file numbers, of which the covers had been clipped to the vertical file holders to show their sequence at a glance from the center of the room.
Marella returned.
"You look like you've made a remarkable start," Branson said, not hiding his admiration.
Marella blew across the mug before taking a sip of the hot coffee closing her eyes in appreciation as the dark liquid flowed down her throat.
"This is all Michael," Marella said, dismissing Branson's praise, "I couldn't switch off for the life of me and got totally absorbed in his work once I'd exhausted my immediate leads to his whereabouts."
Marella had started her investigation by tracking the delivery path of the casket, it had arrived at Andrews Airforce Base weeks previously inside a pine case along with a routine weapons delivery and it was only discovered when it was opened.
The case wasn't marked, the only thing we have was that it came from Fort Worth with the rest of the delivery. The shipment was from Raytheon and sent through the Lockheed Martin Corp, but the case was not on their manifest, so how did it get on the plane without being noticed?
"That's where it got interesting," Marella said lifting an index finger, "Because, a name came up that I couldn't ignore."
Branson and Dale sat at attention.
"Capt. H. S. Fellows."
Eyes grew like saucers, what were the chances? That name was purposely designed to attract their attention.
"Let me guess, the fella called Fellows doesn't exist?" Branson asked.
"No, not surprisingly. Whoever they were, signed a delivery docket at the LMC for an entire delivery from Raytheon – which is just down the road in Dallas, it could be any agent that Michael had organized as a plant along the supply chain. I've got Chapman looking into his contacts there, but the likelihood is it will come to nothing."
"Dallas has more than one Airport, I have to wonder why Fort Worth?" Dale asked knowing the lay of the land.
"I wondered that too.
Dallas Love Field is literally a thousand feet from the Raytheon complex, and the airport was conveniently closed that day. One of their runways has been under reconstruction and they had an emergency on the second one. All flights were diverted to the other Airports. The scheduled cargo flight was already on the ground with the Raytheon delivery having to be trucked to Fort Worth to hitch a ride on a C130 that was due to be delivered to Andrews for the same military exercise that some of those weapons were due to be hooked up for."
"Sounds perfectly legitimate," Branson said with mock sincerity.
"Perfectly." Marella repeated.
"I'm just waiting on Chapman to follow up on the intel and get back to me.
"So since I was wired, and already on a roll, I thought I would get a head start on the rest of it and put everything into some sort of order.
"And I started with Moffet.
"We already knew he had connections with the dark side, he proved that when the FIRM's girls turned up dead while he was in Libya. But it looks like it went way further back than that.
"When Deets came to Red Star Control to be sold on the Airwolf Project, there was a strong indication that the two men had crossed paths before and while Moffet's ego was bulging out of his helmet as usual, Deets by contrast looked really nervous as soon as he recollected Project Proteus.
"Right after that, Moffet used Airwolf to blow Red Star to bits."
Marella shook her head at the memory and what followed from that fateful day.
Marella's two companions, sat at attention with keen interest on their faces
"Well, what did he know?" Branson asked after a long pause.
"I'm not sure but what I did find that was interesting was this." She said pulling out a copy of a file labled P56-7P/*******
"This," she said holding it up, "is the Project Proteus file but, some of it is missing. Namely any clue as to what the redacted text alludes to – the paperwork that might correspond to it is simply not there." She said, flicking through the file to show the other two sleuths.
"Does that mean that there was more to Project Proteus than meets the eye? Dale asked.
"Well, let's assume so. Michael hasn't left any files that connect it to others outside of the ones for Moffet.
"By the time I got to this file," she said tapping at the next file along the desk, I started to fade but I did see that Moffet was quite the entrepreneur and had properties in Tennessee, Arizona and California."
"How did he become a Land Barron on a mad scientist test pilot's salary?" Dale asked.
Branson's mind had a clue, knowing how some of his fellow entrepreneurs made extra coin through the back door, but he would hold judgment until he read through the information that was laid in front of them.
"Well, that's what we are here for isn't it?" Marella answered before a yawn overtook her reserved facade.
"And on that note, I'll leave you guys to it and catch up later," she said handing the Project Proteus file over to Branson like a baton in a relay, before she left room.
"There sure is a lot here to look through," Dale said feeling a little overwhelmed as she scanned the copious layout around them.
"Well, it's not going to do itself, so let's get to it Kiddo," Branson said to Dale, a childhood nickname that Dale only let him use when they were alone.