Ring of Fire (14 page)

“I am pleased to describe our facilities and what makes them impenetrable. If you knew this part of the country, you would understand. The Boundary Waters are sacred territory to true Minnesotans like me. They’ve been invaded by granolas and do-gooders but some of the land is still pristine, unreachable by anything but off roads, and you have to know where they are. My site’s close to the border. Most important, it’s next to my airstrip. From the outside, my facility looks like a bunch of worn down tents and old campfires. Inside it looks like DuPontfuckingLaboratories. Enough equipment, beakers, flasks, vats, heating devices to turn your ‘raw materials’ into gold by the end of the weekend. We’ll transfer the crystal to the various end locations in my fleet of private planes. The best part? Come Monday morning, there’s going to be an unfortunate forest fire. Poof, the whole damn site will be up in flames and all the evidence with it.”

Jeb couldn’t hold back a gleeful snort. “You know how careless campers can be. Or, then again, perhaps you don’t.”

The Mexican’s voice was soft, but the dangerous edge sliced through the air and hit Jeb in the throat.

“Don’t be misled,
mi amigo
. There is nothing about you or your Northern Minnesota culture I do not understand. Well, perhaps there is one thing. I do not know how a reasonably intelligent
varón
such as yourself can hold such demented personal views. Have you not heard that in a few short decades, the majority of people in your country will have skin as brown as those
Mexicanos
cutting your grass?”

Jeb choked back the bile raging in his throat. He held the cellphone away from his ear, as though somehow the bastard could see through it. With an effort he focused on the next words coming through the phone.

“
Senor
Jones, there is a package on your doorstep. It would be good for you to open it. Its contents are, how do you say it? Instructive. The men you see are those who did not manage their consignment as carefully as I know that you will.

“Buenos días, mi amigo. Salud!”

Jeb watched the DVD for the third time before he was able to stand. He didn’t know which was more gruesome, the heads rolling on the floor of the dirty cantina or the beheaded bodies hanging from the rafters. He decided the worst was the sound of the chain-saw the masked man held in his big hands. It was dripping with blood and gore. It took Jeb a full five minutes after the screen went blank to realize the sound of the chain-saw he heard was the Mexicans sawing logs for his massive stone fireplace.

~~~

Nate focused his laser pointer on the wide screen monitor that took up half of the conference room wall. He pointed to nondescript looking tents at the top of screen. Walking back to the laptop on the table he zeroed in on the tents.

“As you can see, the satellite image captures the site, but this device allows us to magnify it about a thousand percent. We can see the dirt in a guy’s short hair with this little tool.”

The Chief groaned.

“Fuck, I’m getting too old for this crap. Damn, I remember when we would stake out a site for days, sitting in a filthy van pretending we were derelicts too drunk to drive. By the end of the surveillance, we smelled worse than any drunks. Even then, we never knew what was inside until we got inside.”

Dan nodded his head in agreement.

“I’m with you, Chief. Hell, I think as a young recruit I was on some of those same surveillances.

“I gotta ask, Nate, although I know you probably can’t tell me. Where the hell did you get this information, know this site was there? I know you got sources. But man, this is dynamite.”

“You can ask, but I can’t tell you. It’s bad enough that I know who he is.”

“That bad?”

Nate shared a troubled glance with the Chief.

“Worse.”

Nate knew his expression must give away the pain he was feeling when Dan nodded in understanding and changed the subject.

Jerking his head at Sam who was standing by Nate’s side, Dan asked, “Did Hollywood here haggle for these toys? Hell, Sam, you probably know even more about this shit than Nate does. You big city boys have more toys than you’ve got hands to play with.”

Sam smiled. “We do, but there isn’t anything we have that Nate isn’t familiar with. Nothing against Chicadia Falls, Minnesota, my friend, but Nate could be Chief of any city in the country.”

The Chief growled. “That’s what I keep telling him, but he insists he’s gotta stay here, God knows why!”

Nate guffawed. “You know why, Chief. How else are you gonna stay out of trouble? But you’re, right Dan. The Feds have some cool toys. When they’ll share.”

“Were they as surprised by your information, as I was, Nate?”

“Yeah, Chief. As you predicted. My undercover guys were speechless. They couldn’t believe it. They’d scanned this site for a couple of months but wrote it off as an abandoned campsite.”

The Chief’s brow furrowed.

“Who else knows, Nate?”

“Just the four of us. You knew from the beginning. I told Dan this morning and Sam a couple days ago. Given that the op has national implications, Sam was able to bring in a special SWAT team from L.A. You’ll be glad to know dropping your name still yields big time results, Chief.”

The Chief grunted. “Next time you use my name, you could ask me first.”

Nate winked at him. “Hell, gotta give you something to bitch about.”

The older man grinned then sat back in his chair, any semblance of humor fleeing, underscoring the seriousness of the mission. He glared at Nate.

“When are you going in and how?”

“Tonight.”

Nate handed the pointer to Sam.

“I’ll let Hollywood give the deets. He likes being on stage. You guys know how shy I am.”

When the laughter settled, Nate added, “Before you begin, I’m gonna bring in Peterson.” He nodded to the Chief and Dan as he flipped on his phone. “Mark’s our lead undercover guy from the DEA. He and his team have been on the ground for a couple of days, setting up. I met Mark in Afghanistan. When I heard he went legit, I insisted that the Feds let him run their part of the op—which by the way, in Fedspeak, this mission doesn’t exist.

“Hey, Mark, welcome to our team. Speak up, buddy. But talk nice. My boss is here. He has tender ears.”

The Chief growled. “You’re sure as fuck right about that, Stryker. Welcome Mark. Any guy with stones big enough to go undercover with this cocky asshole is okay with me.”

“Ahem. I’m pleased to meet you, Chief Roberts. And yes, I’ll watch my language, Nate. Your ‘boss’ comes as advertised.”

Sam took control of the discussion, using the laser to identify the points of interest, the entry ways and exits and the proximity of the site to the airfields Jeb operated.

“The only way the trucks can get in here is on these roads. They’re barely passible but the trucks are heavy duty. We’ll let them get as close to the makeshift lab as they can. My SWAT dudes are going to come in from here and here. Mark and his gang have already laid the fuses.”

At that point Mark broke in. “I hate to tell you righteous fellows but you’ll learn it soon enough. I don’t care how tight an operation is. When we are dealing with this much raw shit, I can’t guarantee we’re gonna be able to contain it. No matter how hard we try, we lose up to half of what we confiscate before it ever gets logged in the books.”

Sam asked, “Who siphons it? Inside or outside?”

Mark’s disgruntled sigh was audible.

“Both.”

Nate spoke up, directing his words to the speaker phone.

“You won’t have to worry about that tonight, Mark. We’re gonna handle the shipment Northern Minnesota style.”

“Do I wanna know what that means, Nate?”

“Probably not, bro. Just know when
we
blow up shit there ain’t nothin’ left to steal. Right, Chief?”

The Chief grinned. “Good to know I taught you something, Nate. Now if you’d just get your damn hair cut.”

As Sam was winding up, there was a sharp knock on the door.

Nate nodded to Sam and the screen on the monitor went blank as Sam powered down the laptop.

Nate strode to the door and opened it with a frown. “I told you we didn’t want to be disturbed….”

A flustered Nadine stood to the side of a visibly angry Erin.

As Erin marched in her head high, splotches of red marking her cheeks, the Chief rose, glancing at his watch.

“Whoops. I think I have a meeting to go…”

Erin’s command was brusque.

“Sit down, Chief. You too, Dan.”

She threw Sam a glance thick with disgust.

“As for you, Sam, this was probably as much your idea as Nate’s.”

She whirled back to face the Chief.

“Since you’re his boss, Chief Roberts, I presume you can overrule him when he does something unethical.”

The Chief huffed a heartfelt sigh but couldn’t hide the twinkle in his eyes.

“Ah, hell, Erin. What’s he done now?”

Chapter 16

“What’s he done now, Chief? Where do I start?!”

Erin faced the Chief, her voice ringing with passion.

“He has overstepped his boundaries egregiously, even more than usual.”

The Chief frowned and pressed his lips in a tight line and nodded to the angry woman glaring at him.

“Well, now, Erin, given that Detective Stryker doesn’t think he has boundaries, he must have done something pretty bad to have you so riled up.”

“Riled up doesn’t begin to describe the way I feel. It’s bad enough what he did but how he did it hurts even worse. This… this… arrogant man left me in our bed this morning after a very loving night whispering how much he loves me. Coward that he is, he didn’t have the decency to tell me that behind my back he’d undermined everything that I stand for.”

“Now Erin, this does sound serious. Nothing like a kiss on the cheek followed by a hasty retreat to get a woman’s dander up. I thought our hotshot detective was smart enough to know that.”

Nate didn’t blame him when the Chief took a step backwards. The flames burning in Erin’s eyes looked as though they could catch the whole damn room on fire. He started to move toward her but she held up her hand to stop him. Without looking at him, she continued to address the Chief.

“Just so you understand, Sir,
your
detective instructed
my
boss to remove me from active duty. To be specific, according to Captain Lang,
your
detective indicated that if he saw me doing anything more than writing reports or leading school tours at the Firehouse he would dismember Captain Lang and present the package to his wife in a velvet box with a big red bow.”

The Chief’s eyes widened and he glowered at Nate but couldn’t hide the smile quirking his lips.

“Erin, much as I’d like to jerk a knot in this arrogant guy’s tail, Nate and I have an arrangement. We’ve agreed not to interfere with each other’s judgment regarding personnel matters.”

Erin advanced on the Chief, her voice rising dangerously.

“Chief Roberts, your detective has interfered in personnel matters that are so far outside his purview, that he warrants being relieved of his duties immediate….”

Nate stepped forward, placing himself between Erin and his boss.

“Erin, honey, listen to me. I know you’re angry and you have reason to be—”

Erin whirled to face him.

“Angry? Damn you, Nate. You have no idea how angry I am. And don’t you ‘honey’ me. My name is Lt. McFadden and I am a qualified firefighter working for the Chicadia Falls Fire Department. My immediate boss is Capt. Lang and his boss is Chief Halloran.
Nowhere
in the chain of command at the Firehouse is the name of an egotistical asshole named Nathan Stryker. Moreover, I have a wall of accolades testifying to my bravery and my excellent performance on duty….”

Nate reached out for her but she lurched away. At least he’d gotten close enough to keep his voice low.

“Erin, you know damn well this is not about your capability, your courage or any other thing to do with your performance. It’s… it’s about me, Erin.”

When she frowned and stepped back, Nate moved to press his advantage, but she was too quick.

“What about you, Detective? That you are an overbearing, overprotective caveman who doesn’t believe his ‘woman’ has the brains of a gnat and that without him in the picture, she couldn’t wipe her own ass?”

Nate reared back and a delighted grin swept his face.

“Damn, honey. You’ve been around those firefighting assholes so long you’re starting to talk like them. Careful, baby, you’re turning me on.”

The anger on Erin’s face crumpled for an instant and Nate saw signs of tears in her eyes. Before she could answer, he took hold of her hand, and held her gaze. She needed to understand how serious this was.

“Look Erin, I was wrong to talk to Connor without talking to you first. And yeah, don’t blame Connor. He disagreed, but….”

Erin yanked her hand away and threw an angry look over her shoulder at the Chief who’d stepped out of her immediate range.

“But like everyone else, including Chief Roberts, you bullied Connor into obeying your orders. You did what you always do, Nate. Gave a command and assumed everyone would fall in line, eager to obey the Master of the Universe. Well, just so you know—”

Nate cut through her outrage. “Erin, stop.”

Nate was glad that he had enough authority with her that she knew when he’d reached his limit.

“Erin. Listen. To. Me. This isn’t only about me, it’s about you. You know very well how dangerous both Jeb and Cougar are. They will do anything it takes to keep from going down.”

He included the other men in the room in his glance.

“We are about to embark on a mission that is going to blow this whole goddamn enterprise sky high. And if you think for a minute that Jeb won’t know who is responsible, you’re not nearly as smart as I know you are.”

He grabbed for both her hands and pulled her closer refusing to let her look away, holding her in place with his implacable gaze.

“When Jeb’s little kingdom is lying in ruins he’s going to come after me—but not me directly. He will come after me through the people I love—the ones he thinks are most vulnerable. First and foremost that is you, Erin. It also includes the Chief and in a crazy way, it includes Sam. Jeb can’t bear the thought that I’ve chosen a black man as my partner—a role he thought as a kid that he would play.”