Chapter 3

Bob walked back to close the gate they had driven through, and Tony went to help him. Before they got the gate closed, Tony caught a glimpse of the dirt road they'd driven in on, and a large expanse of grassy fields. Beyond that he could see nothing but impenetrable, dark woods. The compound was definitely secluded, without any sign of neighbors.

"We'll go to the house," Bob said. It was old with a sagging roof, and the porch looked as though it would collapse if anyone put a foot upon it. He could see a barn behind the house, and smaller buildings clustered nearby – Tony thought he recognized a chicken coop by its shape. There was a solid-looking shed off to one side, its sides and roof made of corrugated metal. Tony would just bet the weapons were stored in there. Much of the property was overgrown with weeds and bushes, showing signs of age and neglect.

Two big SUVs and a couple of jeeps were parked out front on a grassy area, and Tony could see a large paneled van parked in a carport.

A well-built man came out of the house with a large pit bull following him. He stepped off the porch – which did not collapse – and looked Tony over. "Name's James Huston, but call me JT," he said in a friendly manner.

So, finally, he was meeting the elusive James T. Huston. They shook hands, and the dog let out a deep rumbling growl and bared his teeth. Tony immediately stepped back. He made sure not to meet the dog's eyes and hoped Huston didn't notice him sweating.

"This is Bossy." Huston smiled fondly at his muscular dog and rubbed him behind the ear.

This man had murdered two Navy men, yet he could still show affection for his dog. Tony forced a smile and said, "Good dog," hoping that covered all the bases. Bossy's response was to step forward, sniff Tony's crotch and lift his leg. Tony hopped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the stream of urine.

Huston snorted in amusement. "So, DiMaio, I hear you know your weapons. Heavy ordnance?"

"Uh, yeah. Rockets. Missiles. I can even make grenades out of pine cones, JT. Call me Tony."

With a chuckle, Huston said, "Oh, we won't be needing any exploding pine cones, will we Bob?" He looked past Tony's shoulder, where Bob stood, as if guarding the only avenue of escape. "You were aboard the Eisenhower, Tony? Had some trouble?"

Tony could tell Huston was letting him know he knew all about his background. "Yeah, I was, until… Let's just say it didn't end on a good note. It's good to be out from under the Navy's fucking thumb, you know what I mean?" Usually, a cop did his best to keep his emotions out of play, but Tony allowed a touch of deep-seated anger to reach his eyes, using his hatred for Huston to feed the fire.

"I do, indeed. I did my time, was a SEAL. Got out a year ago. Never looked back," Huston said.

"So, JT, this your place?" Tony asked, making a broad motion with his hand.

"No, it's temporary. Just a place to gather the troops," Huston replied with a knowing smile.

Tony turned his head just enough to see Bob, who was standing quietly to one side and slightly behind him. "Bob said you had some kind of plans. I'm sure interested in hearing about it."

Huston seemed to be assessing him. "We do have a plan. We've been working on it for a while now. After seeing the state of things, how ordinary folk, soldiers returning home, are given the shaft by the fat cats in Washington… well, let's just say I mean to do something to even the score."

"Even the score?"

"We're going to make sure people remember the Warheads. We'll talk details tomorrow. You should get acquainted with the others first. How many have we got now, Bob? Ten?"

Bob spoke up. "Ten recruits, with DiMaio here. We're waiting on Pinnell. Plus the guy who's bringing that delivery you're expecting tomorrow afternoon. That'll make us fourteen strong."

"Just enough to make this job work." Huston said to Tony, "DiMaio, first order of business is to make sure the men are up to speed with weapons. I'm gonna bet you're just the man to handle that."

"Yes, sir. Just show me what you've got and I'll take care of the rest," Tony said, sounding enthusiastic.

Huston seemed pleased. "Good, good. We'll talk later, when Pinnell arrives, but meantime, Bob will show you where to put your gear." Without waiting for Tony to respond, Huston walked away, his dog at his side.

As Bob led the way into the house, Tony asked, "Who is Pinnell?"

Bob halted and looked Tony directly in the eye. "Justice Pinnell, he's JT's partner in all this. Keep away from him."

"Why?" Tony wanted to ask what was being delivered, too, but decided not to press his luck.

After hesitating, Bob said in a low tone, "He's trouble. Just… just steer clear of him. Why JT keeps him around, I don't know, but nobody around here asks my opinion."

It was obvious that Bob didn't like Huston partnering with this Pinnell guy. Tony couldn't wait to meet the man. He needed to find out if Pinnell was the second person involved in the Navy men's murders.

Tony was warned the basement of the house was off-limits, but other than that, he could roam at will within the compound. The other recruits, who Tony met, seemed no different from anyone you'd meet at a bar or hardware store, at least at first glance. There were nine of them, all able-bodied, ranging from a surly twenty-year-old wearing army fatigues too big for him, to a loud, brash man who looked like he was ready to collect social security. Several had military backgrounds, but none of them seemed cream of the crop, in Tony's estimation. It struck him that these men had probably been chosen because they were expendable, which was an unsettling thought. That meant he was expendable, too, which was definitely not a good thing.

Tony made a wisecrack about The Dirty Dozen – "Very pretty, General. Very pretty. But, can they fight?" – and a couple of the men actually got the reference.

It didn't take long chatting with the men for Tony to figure out that the only people in the know were Huston himself, his partner Pinnell, and Bob, although Bob's main function seemed to be doing Huston's bidding. It didn't look like he held any power in the equation. The rest of the motley crew were just foot soldiers, expected to follow orders.

While Bob showed him where to eat, sleep and piss, Tony kept his eye out for anything that would indicate what Huston was up to, and why he had recruited these men. Unfortunately, it wasn't like they'd left a map lying around, with a big red bullseye on their target. It sounded like Huston was using the basement to plan whatever assault he had in mind. Once the recruits were told what the scheme was, Tony was going to have to find a way to relay that intel back to NCIS.

"One more thing," Bob said as he stopped in front of the corrugated metal shed and inserted a key in a big padlock on the door. Tony thought that it would be easy enough to unlock the tumblers with the lock-picking tools he had stuck in his boot. As he opened the door, Bob said, "JT wants you to make sure the men can handle the automatics. They don't touch anything else. Got that?"

The shed was certainly well stocked. There were enough automatic rifles and ammo to mount an insurrection in a third-world country. An open wooden box held a dozen or more round M67 grenades inside. Tony's attention turned to several large plastic containers stacked in the far corner of the shed. "Is that… black power? What's going on here, Bob? This is heavier than I expected. Not that I have a problem with blowing up a few things, but… I don't make a move without knowing the whole picture. No way am I gonna end up back in the brig," he said adamantly.

Bob assured him Huston would reveal everything as soon as Pinnell joined them. "It doesn't concern you. Pinnell will be handling the explosives, and he'll drive it to the scene. He needs you recruits to act as support."

There were enough explosives in that shed to make the van he'd seen parked in the carport into a mobile bomb. "So, is this Pinnell running the show? I thought Huston was," Tony said, frowning.

"Don't worry. Nobody does nothing without Huston's approval."

Tony gave a grunt that showed he wasn't at all convinced of that, but he turned back to the weapons and took stock of everything stored in the shed. The amount of explosives made him very uneasy, knowing how much damage they could do to both people and buildings. If they planned to use the explosives to set off a car bomb, the death toll could be horrifically high. For a moment Tony thought about leaving that night, under cover of darkness, to report his finds to Gibbs, but he didn't want to take off without knowing what their target was. If he remained with the Warheads and participated in the assault, there was no guarantee he could prevent it on his own. He'd sure as hell try if that was his only option, but getting back to NCIS with as much information about the Warheads' plans had to be his primary goal. Exactly how he was going to find out the details and escape in one piece, he wasn't sure.

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Cell reception was non-existent within the walls; apparently there was some sort of jammer in play. They guys complained about it, griping they missed the internet. Even if cell phones were useless within the compound, once outside the gates, they would surely become active – if they were within range of a tower.

Tony kept his phone in his pocket and surreptitiously took photos of the layout of the compound, and the men, too, when nobody was watching. It was very risky but that was the nature of being undercover. As soon as he was outside the walls and was able to get online again, he'd send all the images to NCIS. He considered going over the wall that night, sending the pictures and then returning to the compound, but they could be miles from the nearest cell tower. In the end, Tony decided to wait until he, and the recruits, were told what the plan was. That wouldn't be until the next day, from what Huston had said.

One thing, Tony was glad that with the tracking device embedded in his shoulder, the team back at NCIS knew where he was. Between Abby and McRadar, they should be able to pinpoint his location by its signal. If they'd watched his signal on the move during the trip in Bob's car, they'd have seen it disappear when he entered the Warhead's compound. It would be pretty obvious that's where he was currently located.

Although Tony had been blindfolded on the drive to this secret location, he'd paid attention to the direction of the sun and how long the trip had taken. He was sure they'd traveled due west from DC for less than two hours – to a rural location, possibly in the Shenandoah area, he surmised.

Tony had spotted several auto keys hanging on a key-holder behind the kitchen door. At least if he got in trouble and had to bug out, he figured he could steal an SUV and hightail it for DC. Nobody seemed to be guarding the gate during the daytime, but he didn't know if there was a guard at night. The heavy gate was on rollers, so it would be a matter of pushing it open before driving through. It wasn't exactly designed for a quick exit though.

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