Chapter 18 Alternate.
Three weeks went by until our next call. I spent time planning how to sink a freighter on the ocean. The one thing in my favor was it kept to a predictable schedule of departure times. It seemed the best way would be to use a shaped charge held against the hull by magnets set to explode by a timer. As slowly as it moved it took nine days to cross the Atlantic, after it cleared the Bahamas. Eight days to reach the Suez Canal after passing the Straits of Gibraltar.
I could build the trigger myself, a wristwatch with a calendar-alarm function. Finding shaped explosives was another matter. My second call went to our friends at WSMR, they were sworn to secrecy just like us. I honestly explained to them what I wanted to do and why. He said he'd build it for me, he remembered seeing the story about the kidnappings on the TV and it really made him mad.
Our next call came from Colorado and like so many others there was no terrorism but was a case the FBI wanted us to intervene to avoid turning it into another blood bath with dead children and mothers.
There was a religious order called the Andromeda Society. They believed a returning comet could transport their souls to another galaxy and were discussing mass suicide. Word of the plans leaked out and police started to investigate, but after they found out which comet was due and its arrival was next year they decided to infiltrate the order to try to get the entire story and possibly ruin their suicide plans.
The order was well armed because they'd been robbed twice in the past and felt they were too large to go unnoticed and too rural to expect police help so they adopted a DIY attitude. Rumors in town said they even had a booby trapped perimeter and a couple homemade automatic rifles.
They lived on fifty eight acres in a two story building with twenty small bedrooms and two large dormitory buildings, a large kitchen and dining hall, they had a school and a medical clinic, a craft shop, welding, machining, and about 100 adults lived there all year. Some kids went to public school, some were home schooled. The leader of the order Bruce Stanley was a divinity school drop-out and twice convicted thief turned into a self-taught preacher and Bible expert. Locals said the only reason why he didn't become a TV preacher was because of his bad acne scarring and very crooked teeth, other than that he was an excellent and very motivating public speaker.
Bruce was born and raised in the area and was considered a con-man by people he knew personally before the formation of the order.
Now the FBI had warrants for his arrest but were unable to safely capture him they wanted another option and that was our specialty. During their explanation they made it clear there were two separate issues at hand, the outstanding warrants and the alleged suicide plan. Then they said they needed our help because we were the guys to call when Plan A and Plan B failed.
They said Bruce was nearly impossible to catch in town because he wore disguises and drove twenty different vehicles or travelled on horseback, but they felt the safest way to capture him would be at a store in town because he would probably not endanger the general public. They said he only carried a small pistol in town.
The main thing they needed was our help with was arresting Bruce, they would handle the alleged suicide plans themselves after he was in custody. In my mind I pictured Bruce as a local guy, well known and respected in certain social circles, but he pissed off the government for not having the proper paperwork to conduct business. I really hoped it was the Alamosa PD that did the investigations and not the FBI.
We drove up to Colorado in David's truck on I-25 then west to Alamosa on Route 160. Alamosa was an old railroad town, now mostly farming and tourism with several historic attractions in town that attracted a lot of visitors. Even with mountains in the distance nearly all the way around most of the land around the town was as flat as a pool table, with a few exceptions. We called the town cop on the way across Highway 160 and agreed to meet him near their compound, take Highway-17, 2.7 miles north of town and park on the shoulder, he'd meet us there.
At our turn was a large gas station with the odd name of Loaf N Jug, across the street was a restaurant and a liquor store. Alamosa wasn't the nicest looking town, but we're from El Paso, which isn't the nicest looking city either. We drove north exactly 2.7 miles and pulled off the two lane road at a spot where there was a ditch crossing for farm tractors, moments later a police car pulled up behind us with its lights on like a traffic stop. We stayed in the truck and waited to see what happened, David closely watched his side mirror.
A tall slender man in blue jeans and a tan cop shirt with a badge and a pistol on his belt got out and walked up to David's window. David mumbled all he was missing were spurs and mirrored sunglasses, then we snickered as his knuckles wrapped on the window.
"You the guys?"
"Depends." David replied, I was surprised he didn't call him, 'pardoner.'
"I ran your plate when you turned at the gas station and it came back with an advisory to not detain, impound, or investigate. I've only seen them before on diplomat cars," he said but David had little to say. He sat there with both hands on the wheel, but I think he was watching the cop's hands in the mirror outside.
Then he started up again, "Listen, we need yer help. Can I show you guys somethin?" David glanced at me then told him, "Sure!" He gestured for us to follow him, which was odd considering where we were. Within two football fields of us there was nothing but a paved road, utility poles, weeds, and rocks.
We walked away from our vehicles across an open field that was mostly short weeds and rocks, the entire area looked like high altitude desert. We walked east across the field for about ten minutes, I looked behind and saw our vehicles sitting there, his police car lights were still flashing, his motor still running.
Walking across the field of short dead weeds and rocks he asked about our operation so David gave him about the same explanation he'd give if invited to speak at 4th grade Career Day. I've heard this speech before, he did it also to convey that answering lots of questions precipitated lots of non-answers and hurt feelings. We told him we were Seals and had worked together for nine years and were considered the best in the country, but we were not detectives or bill collectors, nor were we hired killers. He said we were very well armed and trained. Then the cop started telling us about his law enforcement career.
We were walking across the moonscape field and could see in every direction at least ten miles to the closest mountains. This entire area looked like it got brutally cold in the winter too.
We reached a high spot then started down the other side. In the distance we saw what looked like a two-story building with a few smaller buildings around it and some fences and barns. I thought I saw the tiny silhouette of a cow or two. All of that stuff was probably a few miles ahead of us to the south.
"That's it, the Andromeda Society. This is about the only place we can observe them without being observed ourselves. He raised his hand and pointed to a group of boulders sticking out of the ground, we walked towards it. Eventually we got there but the high ground blocked the view of our cars. It looked like a natural outcropping of volcanic boulders, but when we got closer we saw stuff: a small antenna aimed at town, a solar panel, and a camera with a long lens aimed at the compound. He said it took one photo every 60 seconds and sent it to town and ended up in police email every hour. Two of the rocks were very large, much bigger than a car, they were worn smooth on the outside, probably been sitting there for a long time.
All the small aluminum boxes were screwed into the granite with those bolts they fired from a screw shooting gun that used .22 caliber black powder rounds. I suppose they were actually nails and not really screws.
We sat on some rocks and he repeated most of the story we'd already heard: rumors of mass suicide, they supposedly had a mine field, the main guy had several outstanding felony warrants related to selling and buying arms at swap meets but not doing the required registration paperwork, nor did Bruce have a firearms permit to sell weapons anyway.
He said they knew about the warrants because the first summonses were sent by registered mail, orders to appear before the local judge and post a bond. But Bruce ignored all of them, which was when stories from members leaked out about the planned suicide next year when the comet arrived.
David asked what utilities they had and the cop said they had a telephone line and that was all, they made their own electricity and got their water from a well, buried their trash on the site, and someone went to town twice a week for groceries, mostly meat, veggies, flour, and occasionally whiskey or rum. They grew lots of their own food and sold plastic rifle kits and tractor repair parts online for money. He said they heard they had two very expensive 3D printers and made full-auto mod kits for different rifles.
We started walking back towards our vehicles and he asked us to come to the police station early tomorrow morning and he'd show us what information they had on the people living there. He explained that when they got Bruce in custody most people felt he would talk endlessly about their plans for the future and the comet too. Bruce was a preacher because he liked to talk. He spent a lot of money on lawyers because he talked too much sometimes.
We shook hands and he left in his squad car, we drove back to town and got a hotel room. David said this one was weird. I agreed but said we'll see the rest of the story tomorrow.
We discussed ordering drones out of Denver but decided to wait to see what plans for Bruce's capture they'd already devised.
At 9am after breakfast at Waffle House we drove to the cop shop and saw dozens of photos of Bruce taken by different retail security cameras in town to illustrate how well he disguised himself. Unfortunately for him though he was rather tall which made him nearly impossible to hide. The cops told David they believed Bruce never considered his height to be an identifying feature, which was strange.
They believed the store they used the most was the indoor farmer's market near the Loaf N Jug, it was a produce stand with one long center aisle that also sold food in cans or jars. David suggested we could install a simple IR light beam alarm near the entrance at 6'4" above the floor that would alert us when the beam was broken we could eliminate most of the shoppers with almost no effort. He got on the phone and found the stuff we needed and had our office ship it here next day air to the police department.
That afternoon we looked at our online resources and found and ordered the perfect kit for this job, delivery sometime tomorrow. Working with the manager we temporarily hid the fire exit doors and exit signs too. The market building had sprinklers so there was no chance of a big fire anyway.
That evening we spent a few hours at a local cowboy bar drinking beer and watching their dance contest. The music was decent and the beer on top was Coors Lite.
At the hotel we slept in separate beds since the town appeared to have no gay community, we saw no familiar flags or anything to tell the world they welcomed non-traditional families. It wasn't a problem because we dealt with that in El Paso, but not that often.
Day #2 in Alamosa, Colorado.
Our package was delivered that afternoon to the police department, we took it to the produce market and installed the light beam boxes on the walls. Both plugged into wall outlets and were easy to set-up. We mounted the sender and receiver with double sided tape and plugged them in and aimed it until the red light went out. David put a battery in the remote then I walked in the door with my arm in the air over my head, it broke the invisible beam and made the remote vibrate like an old pocket pager, easy breezy. And it looked like we might not need spiders on this Op.
They assigned us one city cop deputy, a volunteer that was a physically large local boy, probably into body building too. He'd obviously lifted a lot of iron. We explained our mission was to take someone into custody without injury or property damage if possible, but he'd possibly put up a fight. It would be three against one in the middle of a produce market with civilians around. We warned him not to discuss this Op with anyone, since this was a small town it could jeopardize the plan and our safety too.
It was likely our target would be armed, maybe just a knife but if we caught him from behind our plan should work. Our goal was to cuff him, hands and ankles and put him inside a police car, after that he was their problem. The kid agreed to help and said he'd heard of the cult but knew nothing about them or their leader. I explained that our target had five felony warrants and was considered armed and dangerous. Our goal was to catch him in a way that would limit the danger: silent and fast, from behind, by surprise, and off balance. Grab him around the neck and pull him backwards to the floor then we pounce on him and get both sets of cuffs on him, then everyone goes home uninjured afterward.
We spent that entire day in the market pretending to look over the produce while the light beam watched the door, a few people (and one bird) set it off but none of them were our target so we went back to the hotel (at closing time) and spent the night, the kid agreed to work with us until we caught the guy. When asked by vendors in the market we told them we were watching for an escaped prisoner from up in Florence.
Day #3 in Alamosa, Colorado.
Same as day #2, false alarms but no Bruce. But each hour we spent inside the market moved us closer, the police said he was seen in the store at least once a week, always in disguises, but always with a cowboy hat, boots, and a long waxed moustache.
Cowboy hats and boots were very common in Alamosa but not guys that were over 6'4" tall.
During our hours at the market we'd gotten to know a few of the vendors, one of them looked like a metrosexual young guy about our age with a slight gay accent but he never set off my gaydar, so I decided he was just gay sounding but hetero. I had a hard time wondering why any woman would marry a man that talked like a hissy fag but said he was straight, maybe he was a liar.
I asked the deputy why he volunteered for local cops and he said his grandfather was the chief thirty years ago and his dad was a lawyer so he felt compelled but still hadn't decided what to do with his life. I suggested college and tried to promote the idea and discussed different degrees. I've talked to young people like him before. By being a body builder and having a large upper body sort of sent mixed messages to people about the person's character. I don't think he realized there was a big disconnect between his personality and the way he looked. He said he got asked to help people move appliances all the time, and had trouble keeping girlfriends. I sort of got the impression he had an unusually short dick but really big balls.
At 6pm the store closed for the day and we went out for dinner again then back to the hotel. Our volunteer deputy did not want to have dinner with us but he said he'd be back at 9am tomorrow. David suggested he was uncomfortable being around a married gay couple.
Day #4 in Alamosa, Colorado.
At 9am the manager unlocked the wide front door and turned the sign around. A large box truck was parked in the street unloading cases of fresh fruits and vegetables through the side door, most of their stuff came from California.
As the driver climbed up into the cab the receiver vibrated in David's shirt pocket, he dropped a spoon on the concrete market floor which was our warning signal. I was in the back of the store with our helper and David sat in one of the booths near the front door where he could watch out the windows and see everyone that set off the receiver.
In walked a tall slender man, looked to be in his 40s with a cowboy hat and boots, handlebar moustache, and a long sleeve plaid shirt above slender jeans with dirt stains on his knees. David glanced at me with a stressed look on his face and slowly nodded yes. I set down my bunches of carrots and nodded at the deputy and slowly headed up the main aisle, the guy stopped at a booth that sold pale white celery, we were very close looking at the melons and discussing ripeness. Behind us the kid was teaching Bruce how they changed color with controlled light exposure, no chemicals were used. David arrived from the front, I saw one open handcuff hidden in his hand.
David said out loud, "Let's go!" and all three of us pounced on Bruce. With the advantage of a surprise attack from behind we pulled him backwards to the concrete floor. We hit the floor hard. A woman nearby screamed repeatedly and dropped her shopping basket and stepped away from our wrestling match.
Without warning the kid used his big muscles to pull Bruce's ankles together and got them cuffed. While he did that David managed to get one wrist cuffed but Bruce held the other one tightly under his body. We watched for a few seconds then the deputy grabbed his hidden arm and yanked it out, and closed the cuff around the other wrist. It probably took twenty seconds of heavy breathing and the sounds of scuffling on the floor when we all heard the last handcuff click around his other wrist. Bruce lay on his side in the middle of the wide aisle but didn't have anything to say. One of the booth ladies was already on the phone calling 911 and in two minutes we heard sirens outside. The rest of the people in the store were too startled to do anything but watch with their mouths wide open. Several people ran out the front door expecting to see things escalate into a hostage situation.
We checked everyone out and the kid looked exhausted and a little roughed-up, might have been more of a struggle than he anticipated. Lifting weights was a lot different from taking a large 45 year old cowboy into custody.
We kept Bruce on the floor and I noticed the deputy's face was getting redder, he looked sweatier, and he looked weird in the eyes so David walked him outside into fresh air and got him seated on a bench outside the front door while I stayed with our prisoner in the middle aisle of the market. I asked the pale celery guy to call for an ambulance after Bruce said he was having chest pain.
Police ran in the door and Bruce repeated his complaint of chest pain, they assured him an ambulance was on the way.
I told the police he was now their prisoner and went outside to look at our volunteer deputy who now looked worse. I checked the pulse on his wrist and found it was faint and very fast so we got him to lie down on the sidewalk and I screamed at the ambulance crew this kid seemed to be in SVT, he needed an IV and immediate transport to the ER or cardioversion.
They left their primary patient on the floor in the market and put the monitor on the kid and found he had a heart rate of 190 and was gasping for air, while one guy started an IV the over guy cut his shirt open and got meds ready to convert him back to a safe rhythm. One of the EMTs called for another ambulance to the produce market.
The kid's upper body was covered in sweat and he looked like death, almost all the color was gone from his lips and face. One of the EMTs tried to get him to bare down like he was constipated but it didn't change anything, one of their crew raised his legs and held them in the air. They hung a bag of saline and one of them loaded a syringe with some heart drug and got ready to inject him, another guy put an oxygen mask on him. I saw the second ambulance turn onto Main Street a few blocks away.
I glanced into the market and Bruce looked fine on the floor except he was pissed, in pain, and now talking up a storm about his rights.
As they were about to medicate our helper his heart rate suddenly slowed and he said he felt dizzy and might vomit any second. He turned his head and puked on the sidewalk and his heart rate slowed to the 40s then back to the 70s and held steady. The other EMS crew ran into the market with their cart and snatched Bruce off the floor and transported him to the hospital while our crew loaded our young deputy into their ambulance and got ready to leave too. Not a good day to be working in the ER.
I noticed our deputy had a very nice smooth chest, nice chest mounds. He had a nice belly button and small dime size dark red titties that I really wanted to lick but it was nice to see his hairless muscular chest and stomach. I thought to myself that it was too bad cardioversion wasn't done by hand-stroking the erect penis! Some people said part of a man's brain was in his dick, too bad part of his heart wasn't there too!
Both ambulances left and our job was done. Now it was up to them to sort out what to do with the religious community outside their town. David took down the light beam alarm and put it in his truck. The chief of police took us for a lunch at 11am, huge burgers at the Loaf N Jug and thanked us for a happy ending to their dilemma, "And thank God the FBI didn't burst in with guns blasting."
We got checked out of the hotel two hours late but the town cop vouched for us and we weren't charged for an additional day. We got to Albuquerque after a five hour 90mph sprint down I-25 and got a hotel room.
The next day we took the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway ride on the far northeast side of town when it first opened in the morning then drove back to El Paso that afternoon. It usually took us four hours to drive from Albuquerque to the Texas state line if we didn't stop anywhere.
On I-25 I brought up the subject of sinking the freighter again, but David wanted to forget about it. I knew if we let them go the kidnappings would continue somewhere else. So I invoked our solemn plea for help, which he could not refuse. It was an agreement we made before we got married that when invoked must be honored.
Within ten days I'd finished my design for an underwater device to sink that ship. From our study of their tracking info once they left Texas they sailed east around the tip of Florida to West Palm Beach, then turned east and cleared Grand Bahama Island, then nine days across the Atlantic Ocean to Gibraltar.
I designed a controller inside a small plastic box, and the trigger out of a Casio alarm watch and a photo strobe. At the alarm time the watch triggered the strobe and flashed, but it this one would fire the blasting caps and fire the shaped explosives which had to be a specific distance from the steel hull. After it tested I'd partially fill the tiny box with epoxy so there was no way the sea water could attack the strobe circuits. The watch was already designed for underwater use by scuba divers and was good down to 100 feet. For this application it would never be more than fifteen feet underwater.
David suggested we drive to Corpus and swim the channel and place it manually wearing wet suits and snorkel gear. It would make some noise when placed but if they were loading nobody would notice a muffled thud on the side of the hull. They'd probably think it was a manatee or something.
This freighter hauled finished diesel fuel from Saudi Arabia to Texas and containers back. From the records we saw offloading the fuel took two days, they loaded containers at the same time they offloaded the fuel. After inspection it left immediately for Arabia. They had been making these crossings for years and always followed the same schedule. Four days after leaving Texas they were between Florida and The Bahamas and on the fifth day they'd be a few hundred miles out on the Atlantic.
I found a place online to order large powerful magnets, we'd need about twenty of them. Once that device was stuck to their hull it would take an act of God to remove it. When the thing blasted it would make a hole in the hull about the size of a 32 inch diagonal TV screen, which would be a lot of water and probably cause the ship to quickly capsize. The explosives guys we talked so said it would easily blast through the inner hull too if it had one.
Contact the author: borischenaz gmail