-1Obsession-21

Disclaimer: See Prologue

A/N: A special thanks to all of you that take the time to review.

Sun Tzu The Art of War

The General who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle.

Thursday

10:45 a.m.

Chapter 14

The bay door to warehouse #1 was completely open now and "Haz" the "hazardous-duty mobile robot" had entered the area and was approaching the armored truck. Despite the multitude of people and equipment in the parking area outside of the warehouse, the only sounds that could be heard were the mechanized noises coming from the robot as it rolled toward the truck.

Don and his team stood at the rear of the command center watching the live video feed from the robot. It slowly circled the truck, capturing every angle for the men to study, finally coming to a standstill at the rear of the truck. The robot's arm lengthened and it was lowered until it hovered only a few inches off of the floor. Slowly the arm advanced and began to scan the undercarriage of the truck . Five minutes later it was moving toward the front of the vehicle to repeat the process. This time it was only a few seconds before the robot's arm came to a standstill.

"Lieutenant, we've got something" Darren Latimer had been with the bomb squad for eight years and was a pro at handling the robot. He operated it from the cab of the mobile command center. "I'll try and get a better picture of it."

He maneuvered the robot's arm around until the camera could capture the object from a different angle. The small black box containing wires and explosives was clearly visible now. The red bulb on the box was still unlit and that gave them time to disarm it. How much time though, was anyone's guess.

The bomb squad went into action. The two men wearing the protective suits grabbed their gear and headed for the truck to disarm the bomb. A smaller van was driven into the warehouse and parked alongside of the armored vehicle. Members of the bomb squad opened the rear door revealing a large concrete container. If the team couldn't disarm the bomb it would be placed into the container and either transported to a safe area or detonated inside the container. That decision rested with the two men who at that very moment were trying to disarm the bomb.

333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

10:45 a.m..

Just as Wayne started to press the button to detonate the bomb that was hidden in the barrel his cell phone rang.

"Not now." he thought irritably but he quickly glanced around for the phone. He paled a little when he realized it was the phone that Bashere had given him. "Better answer this." he thought again as he reluctantly hit the button.

"I was just going to the detonate the explosive. How the hell do you expect me to do the job if you ……..' he started to say in defense, but the caller cut him off.

"Don't set it off! I've changed my mind!" Bashere's frantic voice called out over the phone.

"What!?" Johnson exclaimed in surprise. "Who is this?" This couldn't be Bashere, the man never showed any feelings at all and this voice was full of desperation.

"You know dam well who this is and I'll say it again, DO NOT SET OFF THAT BOMB!!

Wayne winced at the volume of the voice and pulled the phone away from his ear until the man had finished yelling. When he was convinced that Bashere had finally stopped screaming he put the phone back to his ear and tried to reason with the enraged man.

"We've come too far, you can't stop it now." He set down the remote and picked up the binoculars….yes, the agents were still in the same position. "Besides, I thought you wanted them dead."

"I did, but I've discovered a better use for them and now I want them alive."

"Are you crazy? I can't leave the bomb unexploded, they might be able to trace it." he replied angrily.

"Then I suggest that you make certain that the police cannot trace it back to you." Bashere's voice had returned to the cold, unemotional tone that Johnson had become accustomed too; the voice that always made him shudder.

Wayne was silent, weighing his options. There was a slight chance that the police might be able to trace the explosives back to Paul, and then of course, back to him. If he detonated it, however, then all of the evidence would be destroyed. His hand wavered over the detonation button but he halted once again as the cold voice uttered.

"Do not cross me on this Johnson. If you set off that explosive and kill them, I promise you, that I will track you down and kill you myself. Do you understand?"

The bomber rubbed his temple in frustration. There was no doubt in his mind that Bashere would follow through with his threat.

"Okay, okay. Whatever you say."

"Excellent." the caller responded. " I grow bored with this charade and I am eager to leave this town. Do the last job tonight and we'll settle up tomorrow morning." There was pause and then. "Do you have any questions?"

"Are you sure you're not going to change your mind on that job too? " He asked , unable to hide the contempt and anger in his voice.

"I warn you Mr. Johnson, don't test my patience!" Bashere snarled over the phone. "Can you finish the job or do I need to find someone else?"

"It's not a problem…. I'll take care of it." he answered as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Good, I'll be in touch."

The line disconnected and Johnson closed the phone angrily as he shoved it into his pocket. "That dam son of a bitch!" He yelled in frustration, kicking at the side of the boat. "That's the last time we work for a Frenchman." he muttered as he paced around the small cabin.

Jeffrey's and Martinson dropped the net and hurried toward the cabin. After exchanging an anxious look Martinson asked. "What's going on? Why haven't you set off the bomb.?"

Angrily Wayne turned to his partners. "Bashere changed his mind, the s.o.b. wants them alive now."

"Why?" Jeffrey's took a step back from his partner surprised by the menacing look that his partner had given him.

"He didn't exactly tell me Harold. He just informed me that I would be next if I blew them up and since I truly believe that the man would kill me, we are leaving." Johnson glowered at his partner. "Now, if you two don't mind we need to get out of here…and hurry!"

His partners were through asking questions and practically ran to the deck and started hauling in the net. Johnson didn't need to yell at them but he needed to release some steam. If he couldn't take it out on Bashere, then he would take it out on them.

"We need to get out of here….hurry…get that net back in the boat!"

He picked up the binoculars and observed the dock. Apparently during his conversation with the Frenchman the police had discovered the bomb in the barrel. The forklift was now standing alone. All of the vehicles had been pulled back and the dogs were sniffing around the barrel.

"Dam!" he said heatedly. "They've found the bomb!"

333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

12:00 p.m.

It had taken the bomb squad another hour to disarm the second bomb and do a complete search of the warehouse for more explosives. Don and his team had to wait outside until the area had been cleared by them. Finally , the squad completed it's search and began to pack up their gear and head back to LA.

Don watched as the vehicles exited the parking lot and spotted the coroner's vans as they left the highway and approached the warehouse. The bomb squad team had searched the vehicle after disarming the bomb attached to the truck. They had been looking for more explosives but found the guard's bodies instead.

The SAC turned to his team. "Come on guys, let's get a quick look around before the coroner gets here." Once again he pulled a pair of plastic gloves from his pocket and put them on.

The rear door of the truck was ajar so Don slowly opened it the rest of the way. The area was empty except for the bodies of the guards. He climbed in to take a closer look but turned back to offer Megan a hand as she climbed up. Together they bent to examine the bodies. They couldn't really move anything until the coroner and forensics teams were finished, but they were able to get a good look at everything.

Don sighed and walked back to the edge of the truck just as the coroner and his team appeared at the entrance to the warehouse.

"Heads up Megan, it's time for us to get out of here." and true to his words he jumped down from the truck and offered another hand as she climbed down.

"Thanks." she grunted as her feet hit the cement.

Don nodded a greeting to the coroner and stepped out of his way as he and Megan made their way to the front of the vehicle to join David and Colby.

"Did you find anything?" Don asked as he came to a stop beside of them.

David shook his head. "Nothing. It looks like they cleaned it up pretty good."

"What about the guards?" Colby asked.

Don grimly answered. "One shot to the back of the head, they didn't have a chance."

"This guy is really racking up a lot of bodies." muttered Colby.

"Yeah, he sure doesn't have a problem with killing people." David agreed, watching as the first body was carried out and placed in a body bag.

"Which is why this bomb thing doesn't make any sense." Don scrubbed his hand through his hair in frustration. "Think about it….he had us right where he wanted us. All he had to do was detonate that bomb in the barrel and we'd all be dead right now; no way any of us would have gotten away from that explosion."

"That's what I would like to know." David commented. "Not that I'm complaining, you understand."

"What do you think Megan?"

She pulled her hair back and tucked it behind her ear. "What do I think? I think were dealing with a certified psychopath., that's what I think and I think were dam lucky that he changed his mind . " she paused and make eye contact with each of them. "…..but having said that, I've got to believe that he has something else in mind."

"Yeah…well that's not hard to believe." Don put on his sunglasses and walked back out into the sunlight. He looked around at the remaining personnel and asked over his shoulder. "Where's O'Connell, has anyone seen him?

The rest of the team joined him outside and they started walking toward their vehicles.

"Not since the dogs discovered the bomb in the barrel?' Colby commented thoughtfully.

Don pushed a button on his radio. "O'Connell, come in."

He shared a look with his team when he didn't get an answer right away.

"Patrick, what's your location?" Still no answer. "Okay, let's split up. Megan and I will go this way, you guys ……."

"I'm right here, Don." Patrick O'Connell suddenly appeared at his elbow.

"Where have you been and why didn't you answer when I called.?" Don pulled down his sunglasses and stared at him.

The Irishman held out his radio. "Sorry, I dropped it, I believe it's broken."

Don glanced at the pieces and asked. "That doesn't explain where you've been."

"Well…ah…actually I had to answer a phone call. My boss called, it seems my mother was rushed to the hospital this morning so I'm going to leave on the first flight back." He turned and pointed to a taxi cab as it pulled into the parking lot. "I've already called a cab, I'll have just enough time to get back to the hotel and get my things and then head for the airport. " He glanced nervously at the agents and added. " I was able to get a four o'clock flight."

"I'm sorry to hear about your Mother, I hope she'll be okay." Don offered his hand. "I'll explain everything to the AD."

The Irishman shook each of the agent's hands and turned to leave, hesitating momentarily he said. " I'm sorry, I wish I could stay and help you catch this guy." He turned to go and stopped again. "Don, would you mind telling Charlie that I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

"Sure thing, Patrick. Have a safe flight." Don agreed

They watched in silence as the Irishman headed for the cab.

Don switched back to professional and faced his team. "David , I want you and Colby to locate our forklift operator and give him a ride downtown. In the meantime, Megan and I will head back and give Charlie a call." He pulled the note from his pocket, still in the plastic bag. "Hopefully, this will give us a little more to go on."

333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

2:00 p.m.

Charlie parked his Prius and headed into the FBI building. His progress was slowed down considerably however, as he headed for the metal detector. There were a number of people ahead of him and it was taking all of his patience to wait until his turn. Finally, he went through and clipped his badge on his jacket pocket. By the time he got up to Don's office, his patience had just about run out.

He spotted the team standing in front of the boards and hurried over to join them

"Did you get another set of numbers?" he asked breathlessly.

Don turned an nodded a greeting. "Hey, Charlie. We sure did. They're over there on the board."

The young professor put down his laptop and absently grabbed a marker on his way over. He perused the paper with the numbers and then immediately wrote them on a board.

13 25 1 6 18 15 16 5 18 20 25 23 8 1 20 9

He assigned each of the numbers a letter and then moved them around, then went to the board that had the partial message written on it. He added "my property what I" to the end of the previous message. The message now read:

THE LAPD AND FBI WILL PAY FOR THEIR IMPUDENCE

I TAKE BACK MY PROPERTY

WHAT I

Don rubbed his chin as he reread the message. "Well, obviously he hasn't finished yet."

Megan handed Charlie a folder. "This is our latest data, everything that we have from the armored car heist."

Charlie opened it and quickly studied it. "This won't take long to input, your tech's will be able to do it here, I'll just give them the algorithm to use." He paused a moment as he continued to read and then asked. "What's the Asset Forfeiture Fund?"

Megan answered his question. "It's the U.S Treasury Asset Forfeiture Fund. It's a fund set up by the treasury dept to help support continued law enforcement efforts and provide restitution to crime victims."

"That was the money in the armored truck?" He glanced at his watch and sat down to review the data. "So where does it come from, the money I mean?"

David took up the explanation. "The money comes from the sale of confiscated real property. Houses, cars, boats, stuff like that. Anything that has value and is owned by a convicted criminal"

Charlie eyes widened and he rose from his seat. "That's it! Don, that's what the message is referring too." Excitedly, he rushed over to the board. "I take back my property" he read the words aloud. "That's exactly what he has been doing, he's taking back the money that was made from the sale of his property." He paced rapidly between the board and the desk. " Can you get a me a list of the property that was sold for that particular money shipment. I can narrow my search by running through that list. "

He mumbled to himself for a moment before turning and waving his arms excitedly at his brother. " This could be our "hidden set" but I won't know for sure until the algorithm runs through the new data."

"We'll get it for you Charlie." Don answered and studied the message again. "Okay, so let's run through what we have." He stuck his hands in his back pockets and turned to face his team.

"The first line says that he is going to make the FBI and LAPD pay for our impudence."

Megan pulled herself up on one of the desks and crossed her legs. "Impudence means insolent, presumptuous, brazen…." she motioned with her hands as she talked out the meaning of the word. "rude, disrespectful, audacious…." Her voice trailed off and she lowered her head thoughtfully. Suddenly she pushed herself from the desk and began to pace around the room excitedly. "Audacious…that's it!" She beamed at them but when she saw the blank looks staring back at her , she hastily explained. "Don't you see, we had the audacity to stop him and take away his property. This man won't be satisfied until he shows us that he is smarter than we are." She pointed to the notes. "That's why he's taunting us, to show us that he can beat us even if he leaves us a few clues."

Don huffed. "Killing police officers and FBI agents is a little extreme to prove that point, don't you think?"

Megan turned around and came over to stand beside Don. "For a sane person, yes, but Don were not dealing with a sane person here. This man believes he has to teach us a lesson and he's not above killing us to get his point across."

Don nodded his head. "Okay. Let's move to the next line. I take back my property. The only property so far has been the yacht, and he didn't take it back, he destroyed it."

"As I said before, I believe he is a certified psychopath. He's very obsessive with his property and if he can't have it, then no one will be allowed to have it. If it's alive, he'll kill it, if it's an object, he'll destroy it and he will take extreme measures to see that it's done. This man does not react to a sense of right or wrong…. it's his way or no way."

Don rubbed at his forehead, he could feel a headache coming on. He sighed , this just kept getting better and better; a madman on the loose and they didn't have a clue who he was or where to find him.

"Not to change the subject but exactly how do these four crimes connect?" Colby asked. "I mean, we have a bank robbery and an explosion that kills four people. A drug bust and then he tries to take us out with an explosion." he pointed to the picture of the yacht. "A yacht gets blown up and an armored car is hijacked. The guards are killed and we are in place again but he doesn't detonate the bomb." the young agent leaned back against a desk. "I don't get it."

Don silently cursed as he saw Charlie's face pale at Colby's statement. He had decided to keep that bit of information from his brother.

Charlie stepped forward. "You were almost blown up by another bomb today?"

Don quickly answered. "Not this time, Buddy. We had the bomb squad go in first"

"If the yacht was sold and the money was in the armored car, then we have our connection for those two crimes." David interrupted, which earned him a thankful look from Don. "But I don't see the connection between the bank robbery and the drug bust."

Megan walked over to her desk and sorted through some file folders. " I had the armored security company send over the files of yesterdays money hand-off, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet" She put her glasses on and started flipping through the folder.

Don turned his attention back to his brother who was still staring at him with concern in his eyes. He sighed inwardly, the last thing he needed was for Charlie to let his father know about their close call so he decided to change the subject.

"So, are you finished for the summer?"

Surprised by the question, Charlie's eyebrows rose. "Pretty much, I have a meeting tomorrow with the budget committee for next year's classes, but after that I can close my office for the summer and move on to other things."

Don leaned back against the desk. "Those other things wouldn't include a certain raven-haired female Professor, would it?"

Charlie blushed and looked away but was grinning when he looked back at his brother. "Maybe."

Don returned his grin. "Uh, huh."

"Hey guys, listen to this!" Megan exclaimed as she joined them with the folder. "The Dept of Treasury delegated the M & K Technical Services Co as the prime contractor responsible for the storage, maintenance and sale of seized and forfeited real properties. The main office is on the East Coast, but guess where the Los Angeles Branch office is located." She looked up grinning like a Cheshire cat. "The National Bank of Los Angeles, specifically the Ventura Branch."

Don's jaw dropped. "So the robbery was just a ruse, what they were really after was the date and time of the forfeited funds shipment. That's why they bombed that office, to hide the fact that the computer files were accessed."

"Right, that connects the Ventura Bank robbery and the armored car heist. How much do you want to bet that he owned a yacht that was confiscated and sold and that the money from that sale was on this particular truck?"

"No bet." Don retorted.

"Look, get me that list and I can narrow down your suspects and maybe you can catch him before he strikes again." Charlie said pointing to the message. "He hasn't finished yet, the message is still incomplete."

Don pointed toward the picture of the blown-up yacht. "David, did you get the name of the previous owner yet?"

David pulled a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through a few pages before answering. "Not yet, apparently the local records were lost in a fire." He paused and looked up at Don. "They didn't say how the fire started but I'm betting that it wasn't accidental."

"Yeah, I bet Charlie wouldn't even give you odds on that one." Colby sarcastically remarked. He met the younger man's eye. "Right, Charlie."

Charlie had a wry expression on his face as he answered. "You already know what I think about random occurrences, Colby."

Colby snickered and glanced at his partner. "Told you so."

Don turned the discussion back to the case. "Colby where are we with the bomb squad?'

"They've turned the working parts over to the forensics guys " He said as he crossed his arms. "Maybe we'll get lucky and get some prints this time."

"What happened to our forklift driver?"

David shrugged his shoulders. "He didn't hang around. LAPD is checking out his address."

Charlie closed the folder and walked around the table to stand beside Don and the other agents.

"Hey, where's Patrick?"

"He's gone, got called back to Ireland. He said to tell you good-by and thanks for your help." his brother informed him.

"Oh." he responded in a surprised voice. "That was pretty sudden wasn't it?"

"Yeah, well, it was a family emergency. He had to return right away, he didn't have much choice." Don was just turning to ask Colby a question when Charlie caught his attention.

His younger brother had glanced as his watch and suddenly hurried over to the desk where he had been sitting. He quickly closed his laptop and then stuffed it into his bag.

"Hey Chuck, what's the hurry? I thought you were finished for the summer."

"Oh, I am… but this is personal." His face reddened as he hung his bag on his shoulder and turned to leave. "Call me when you get that list and I'll come over and show Agent Stendhauser how to run the algorithm.

"See you later bro." he called back over his shoulder and hurried out of the room before Don had a chance to answer.

Don watched with amusement as Charlie almost ran into the door during his hasty departure and made a dash for the elevator. The elevator door closed and as his brother left his sight Don started to get an uneasy feeling.

"David, do me a favor. When you get in touch with that company, see if you can find out what happened to Bashere's yacht." His eyes met those of his friend and partner.

"Not a problem." David responded thoughtfully.