Chapter 7 Walden
Marc Manoso was 2 inches shorter than Carlos, but the parts weren't quite as perfectly aligned as in Carlos and Fernando. He was still lovely, hot and charming but not Fernando. He was also married with two children. I blanched, "Children? Carlos is out of his mind sending you. Is this some punishment?"
"Carlos and Danger, head of Miami office, told me not to bond this guy out, but I didn't listen. Now I have to come get him. Consequences."
"I'd rather he had taken you to the mats. If you get killed, it is on me? No thanks."
"Carlos said you are the second best apprehension agent."
"And the first would be..."
"Carlos."
"That man has a serious ego problem."
March chuckled, "He does, but he's earned it. He also mentioned you are Uncle Fernando's woman."
My eyes narrowed, "That is between Fernando and me and no business of the family."
Marc backed off, "No offense, most in the family assumes Fernando is gay since he isn't seen with women other than family. Plus he's a great dancer."
"I suspect all Manoso men are great dancers."
"Sure," he shrugged, "he taught us. For years I thought he owned a dance studio or danced on Broadway."
I laughed, "I fell in love with him when I was 12 when I saw him dance the Tango at my family's home."
"So you are an item."
"Yes, since my last year at West Point," I sighed. "You should see my frequent traveler points to New York. But it is strictly secret no family needs to know. I'll kill Ranger next time I see him."
"I wanna watch."
I growled. He laughed.
We traced the skip to Walden Colorado in North Park, a small mountain community in northern Colorado. Cattle ranches, hay fields, small town all surrounded by private and national forest lands. North Park is lovely; mountains, head waters of the North Platte river, ponds, meadows, and mosquitoes. I once heard the mosquitoes in North Park were called turkey fuckers due to their large size. I wasn't arguing.
We found the fugitive's cabin and did a drive by with Marc's toys.
"Yeow!" Marc said. "This place is alive with sensors!"
"Where?" I asked.
"If I were to guess, I'd say everywhere; the perimeters, the road, even the meadow up front. What is he trying to do, keep deer off the property?"
I was thinking more along the line of DEA helicopters, or worse, but kept it to myself. "What's the power source?"
He's on the grid, but he's got several drop lines. Just how often does the power company service these lines? How much he's pulling I can't tell without a look at the line and transformers, but as paranoid as he appears to be, I'd expect you will also find major generators for backup when the rural power goes out. What do you think he's doing?"
I thought for a moment, "Way too many possibilities: drug storage or manufacture is first thought, second is hiding stuff…guns come to mind. After that who knows." I didn't feel saying refining plutonium might be a possibility. Marc wasn't familiar with my sense of humor.
We set up surveillance on a ridge overlooking the property. We could see both the front and much of the back. The sides were heavily wooded. For two days we watched. With Marc's toys we went exploring the perimeters and found very quickly they were heavily monitored with cameras, motion detectors and pressure plates. I didn't think the fugitive was watching wildlife.
"He's got himself a Ft. Knox there," I said.
"Maybe air drop, Marc suggested."
"We'd have to land on the roof like Santa."
Unless this guy is some freak worried about a Zombie invasion, this is far to protected with expensive equipment for a guy wanted for smuggling drugs or arms. There's something else going on. We needed more back up, like a battalion. On the other hand, one or two people might be able to penetrate. Suddenly I wished the Manoso next to me was Carlos, not Marc.
We couldn't identify all the electronics radiating form the property and not knowing if one device could pick up cell phones, I sent Marc into Walden, some miles down the road to find a land line and report to Bob Simon and Manoso what we were finding.
Late on day three or actually early on day four we were ready to move in. I hoped the hole I saw in the security coverage wasn't a trap.
"Step exactly where I step," I told Marc. "There are ground sensors...think land mines without the boom..." I hoped.
We went through the forest taking care to go far in before angling back towards the cabin through a weak section in the electrical defense.
"You ever work with a flash bang Marc?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's part of our training. Illegal as hell but Carlos doesn't care."
"Maybe you can design something that blinds and confuses without waking the neighbors," I offered.
"I've been thinking about it," he answered sincerely.
We entered quickly tossing in the flash-bang but found not one man, but three. We had only seen one man, our fugitive, in our reconnaissance. All three men had been asleep and did not react quickly. Weapons were drawn but we were faster. Marc's FTA was a thinning blonde with a goatee, but the two extra were Middle Eastern. All we had said was "Bond Apprehension" so I immediately I told Marc to only speak Spanish to me and I lowered my voice to mimic a man. Hopefully everyone was too sleepy to note my initial higher voice.
We were totally covered, balaclavas and helmets. Only our eyes were visible. Our ballistic vests read Bond Enforcement/Oficial de Bonos. We immediately hand cuffed all three, though legally it was shaky if I could detain the Middle East guys; no apprehension papers. I didn't gag the Middle Eastern gentlemen hoping they would talk to one another and I could figure out what was happening.
I spoke Spanish to Marc, "Take your man and go back. Call Bob, you can use your cell. Let him know you are coming and he'll meet you. Also call you cousin. Between Bob and Carlos, they will know what I need here. I'll stay. Don't argue, just do it."
I knew the hell storm Marc would incur for leaving me behind. Sorry Marc.
Before the sun rose, Marc and his fugitive were gone. I sat with the two other gentlemen. They tried taking to me in English, I pretended I didn't understand. They only heard Spanish from me and apparently neither spoke the language. They complained to one another about needed to empty their bladders, tough.
I looked around and found the control board and monitors for the security and mumbled surprise in Spanish. I was keeping my voice deep to maintain the deception. I moved around the cabin searching for clues while I listened to them talk to each other in Arabic.
I returned to the control board. I was fairly proficient with electronics but there were things here I had no clue what they were for. There were more circuits than what was needed for perimeter protection. The longer I looked, the more concerned the Arabic speakers became. I shrugged partially put their minds at ease, and somewhat I truly didn't know what some of the items were. This whole thing felt bad, real bad.
I found cable ties in a cabinet which I used to further secure the men's feet to the chairs. I had heard them talk among themselves in Arabic about "the others are coming" and realized I might have unwelcome visitors at some point. Neither man talked much after revealing possible guests, so I decided to gag them. I needed to investigate that circuit board but didn't want them hearing or seeing me. Each had an iPod so I put the buds in their ears, taped them in place, and turned on their devices. For added protection I blind folded them: See, Hear, Speak no Evil and forget about getting out of the chairs. Once they were secure I went back to the control panel and took pictures. I sent the pictures to Hector in Trenton. Maybe he could explain what I had.
Hector called immediately and I answered in Spanish.
"Explique" was all I said.
Perimentro de seguridad, deteccion de movimiento, camaras, cerraduras electronias muy sofisticadas. –Perimeter security, motion detection, cameras, and very sophisticated electronic locks.
The locks surprised me. I wondered where they were; in the overly lazed meadow?
Pueden ser desactivados?—can they be deactivated? I asked.
Muy cuidadosamente—very carefully. Y ventilacion y sensors—and ventilation and sensors.
Que tipo?—what type?
No lo se—I don't know.
Mierda I said.
Si
Where was the ventilation, what was inside that ventilation and sensors were required? I didn't like possible scenarios.
Carefully I checked around the house and then gradually moved outward. I watched the ground for any unusual track patterns and examined the 25 foot cut face behind the cabin. I relaxed my eyes and mind and just gazed, not looking for anything in particular but rather something that shouldn't be there. Gradually I saw it. Plant selection was wrong. Mather Nature didn't do this. Also the plants were not naturally placed. Some were together than naturally couldn't occur. Rocks that had been turned when reset. The natural striations in the rock grain ran counter to one another. The smaller gravel wasn't the same type of stone than the rest of the hill. Someone had been working on the cut face. I slowly approached and stopped suddenly. A small metal object protruded from the ground to the side, IR security detector. I raised my rifle scope and set it to read heat signatures. The approach to the hillside was crisscrossed with IR detectors. This explained the extra circuits on the security board indoors. I found free rocks and set a boundary line across the access designating a do not cross line for whoever my boss would send.
Oh geez, I ran back to the security board and found the circuits for the driveway. Whoever would come would probably come barreling down the drive. I doubt Marc's insistence that the drive and all access was monitored would filter down to the cavalry. Two hours later, I was right. HLS came tearing down the road. I stood in the lower road with my hands out to the side but my rifle and handguns still on me.
"Identify yourself," the tall then man demanded as four rifles were pointed in my direction.
"Bail Bonds, I shouted in as much of an accent as I could muster. Then in Spanish I told them I'd rather not give my name.
The person in charge blew out, "Bull Shit! Who here speaks Spanish? Ben?"
"Yes sir," a large darker man stepped forward. As he walked towards me, I smirked behind my balaclava, it was Ben Carson from the Army Intel Iraq years before.
"Me llamo Benito, hablo espanol."
I answered in Spanish trying to keep my voice deep like a man's, "Show no emotion Sargent, I am former Major Cathy Castillo, Intel. I'm trying to keep my identity from the assholes up in the cabin. I don't need Homeland blowing my cover."
Ben blinked, "I understand ma'am. Heard you died in Iraq. Nice to see you...sorta...again. What's going on?"
I explained as much as I could until his commander, Stinson, demanded to know what we were talking about.
"Sir, the bond apprehension agent found two Middle East men in the cabin while looking for a fugitive out of Miami. He says this whole property has state of the art security, lasers, IR, CCTV, and pressure sensors which is extreme for someone wanted for contraband. In fact this road may be mined. He has not attempted to deactivate the system as it may be booby-trapped. He suggest bomb detection experts be called in especially for the bridge up ahead."
"That's a bunch of Bull Shit," yelled Stinson. "What the hell does a spic from Miami know about booby-traps?
I looked at Ben for a translation though I perfectly understood. I imagined bomb techs in Miami and elsewhere being offended enough to knock Stinson's block off. When I got the translation I pointed to a nearby tree and the camera hidden and said to Ben in Spanish, "Smile, you are on Candid Camera". I then handed my rifle to Ben with the heat scope and told him to look around. He did and whistled, "Geeez..."
Then turning back to Stinson he exclaimed, "Sir, this place is hot!"
Not wanting to risk the vehicles on the drive, the two vehicles were left and the men began walking, nearly single file up the road to the cabin. At the bridge one man jumped down and reported back, "Yeah, C4 here. Two different detonation devices: pressure and remote."
Everyone suddenly realized the seriousness of the situation, especially me.