The Sharps Unleashed, page 13
The Jeep pulls up where the previous car had stopped, and the same two men come out to greet the driver, who hasn’t gotten out of the Jeep . They talk for a few minutes, and then the men back up and the ranger gets out. He opens the back end of the Jeep , and hands the men a small duffle bag, and the men hand him a wad of money.
“I guess we know how they’ve kept this secret.”
“Yeah, but what do you think is in the bag?”
“Medication maybe? The ranger offices are stocked with pain medications and antibiotics for emergencies. It would be very easy to get injured out here and getting to the hospital would take time and effort.”
“True.”
They watch the Jeep leave, and then watch the two men go back inside the saw mill. They wait for ten minutes, but nothing new happens. They look at each other and nod before getting up to leave.
As they’re coming down the hill, they hear a rustling in the woods. They stop and pull their pistols out to be ready. Robin and Grace press their backs together and they watch and listen.
Suddenly, a large pure white wolf walks out from behind some bushes, and it bares its fangs in a vicious snarl. Grace moves to stand next to Robin to face off with it with their guns aimed. The wolf shoots forward and leaps at Grace, who is too slow to pull the trigger. Robin shoves her out of the way, and the wolf’s paws land on Robin’s shoulders. Robin falls to her back with the wolf on top of her barking and snarling, but not attacking her.
Robin remains perfectly still, worried that if she attempts to move her arm to shoot the wolf that it will bite her neck or face. Grace is standing next to her trembling in fear and not sure how to handle this either. If she misses her shot, she’ll kill or wound Robin.
A wolf howls in the distance, and the white wolf perks its ears up, and looks around, sniffing the air. It looks at Robin and Grace once more, and then takes off into the woods. Grace slumps down to her knees next to Robin, releasing a deep sigh of relief.
“Oh, my god. I had no idea if I should risk the shot or not.”
Robin sits up and wipes her face on her sleeve, wiping the wolf’s spit off.
“Yeah, that was crazy.”
“Thanks for jumping in the way.” Robin smiles and meets Grace halfway to kiss her lips. “Always, babe. Let’s get out of here before the wolf comes back.”
“Your jacket is torn. Did its claws cut you?” Robin looks down and shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so. I didn’t feel anything.”
“Let me check, just to be safe.” Grace sheaths her pistol, and then pulls Robin’s jacket open. She glides her fingers over her tank top and smiles. “No holes.”
They make a quick, but quiet descent down the hill, and then back up another to make their way back to the other mill. They stop for a ten-minute break to hydrate and eat some protein bars, then get back on the move.
They keep checking with the camera and thermal imaging to make sure they’re not coming up on anyone, or any more wolves. When they’re within two hundred yards, they stop and crouch down behind a large boulder.
At only a whisper, Grace says, “We shouldn’t get any closer than this. There are too many guys watching the perimeter. The heat blobs look like they’ve doubled. There has to be at least a hundred, maybe two hundred guys in there. Hey, look through that fourth window from the left.”
“Andre. Son of a bitch. Let’s get out of here. We need to get some teams in here right away.”
Chapter Seventeen
As they’re getting back in their Hummer , David calls, so Grace answers through the truck’s Bluetooth.
“Hey, we’re on our way out. We need to…”
“There’s been an incident.” Robin and Grace share a look of dread while David pauses. “A work van pulled into the Yellow Ridge Toll Station. The driver got out and ran away from the van. Highway Patrol chased him on foot and caught him, but he pressed a detonator and the van exploded, taking out the entire north bound side. Every fire station, ambulances, and police are being directed to the site. We don’t have a death toll yet, but we’re guessing close to thirty. There are eight lanes on the north bound side, and every one of them had an attendant in them. It’s rush hour with people getting to work, so we’re guessing at least sixteen vehicles would have been within blast range. Traffic is stacking up and it’s making it hard for emergency crews to get there. Two choppers have been deployed to airlift survivors in critical condition.”
“Goddamn it!”
Robin slams a fist down on the dashboard and Grace tenses her jaw for a moment as she tries to push down the grief of so many innocent lives lost.
“The other toll stations have been put on high alert and Highway Patrol is sending more cruisers to be on standby. Look, we’re… Hold up… What? Mary Mother of God, you can’t be serious. Sharp, another toll station was hit.”
“Which one?”
“Henderson.”
“That’s west bound. We need to shut down the Martin’s Bridge station. They may be trying to trap everyone in or direct all attention away from the bridge so they can get out of town with their cargo. We need a big team here to do this raid. There are at least one hundred, maybe two hundred, armed men in one mill and about a dozen in the other.”
“Sharp, I just don’t know if we can get you that big of a team right now with these two disasters.”
“Call in the National Guard to the toll stations and get the agents here. If we don’t bring these guys down, more people are going to die. We’re going to try to shut down all of their routes so they can’t get out, but we need boots on the ground within the hour. Send me the army if you have to – just get me at least a hundred trained men and women.”
“Hodgins is making the calls. We’ll have some backup to you as soon as we can. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Oh, do not engage the park rangers. There’s at least one traitor among them. We watched one of them exchange unidentified goods and money with what looks like the command center. Robin is sending you details on how many men we need for each mill so you can send them to the right locations.”
“It’s sent.”
“I got it.”
“Any word on the sanitation van?”
“No. Highway Patrol has been out looking for it. The company said their workers are allowed to take the vans home. The company called each employee with vans out, and it appears the van was stolen from their driveway overnight. The employee has been brought in for questioning.”
“So, we potentially have one more van out looking to blow something up. Fuck.”
“The sooner you can lock those assholes in those mills, the better.”
“We’re on it.”
Grace disconnects the call, and both of them say, “Goddamn it”, at the same time.
“You know we might be on our own to shut these guys down, right? If one more target is hit, our emergency crews are going to be way too spread out and overwhelmed to get here.” Grace tightens her hands on the steering wheel in angered frustration and nods. “Yeah, I know. God, all of those innocent people. This isn’t about people being mad at a broken system that rewards the rich and steals from the poor. This is just assholes wanting to be seen, by any means necessary.”
“I just told Jones to get that fork at the bottom of Snake Pass shut down and to get to Gray Back Park so we can work out a plan.”
“Ok, we’re going to close this road up here that leads to the main mill. I’m nearly there.”
Robin sits anxiously drumming her thumb on the side of her door while Grace drives. As soon as the truck stops, they rip open the doors and jump out. They look around, and then open the back of the Hummer . Grace and Robin work together to wrap a chain around a large fallen tree, and then secure it to the tow hitch. Grace drives backwards, and the tree slowly yanks out of the woods and across the roadway. They repeat the task with three more fallen trees and several large rocks weighing at least four hundred pounds each.
“That should at least buy us twenty minutes, depending on if they have the equipment to remove the obstructions.”
Chapter Eighteen
As Grace is about to come to a stop next to Eric’s cruiser, a truck comes rushing by on the other side of them.
“Follow them. That’s the same truck I saw outside of the hardware store.”
Grace quickly spins around, with the other officers jumping in their cruisers to take chase with them. The Hummer ’s engine roars as Grace slams the gas pedal down to catch up to the truck.
Robin pulls her pistol out, makes sure the safety is off and there’s a round in the chamber. She leans out her window, and shoots the passenger’s side mirror out, then leans across Grace, being careful not to be in her vision, and shoots the driver’s side mirror out. The passenger leans out of his window with a gun, but Robin is quick and shoots his arm, causing him to drop his gun out of the window and he slump forward. Robin takes two shots at the rear window, and the bullets pierce it, but don’t shatter it.
“If I can get this next shot through my same hole and hit his hand, I think you should make us pie tonight.”
“Deal.”
Robin loads a fresh magazine in her pistol and leans out the window. The Hummer bounces with the uneven terrain, and the truck they’re in pursuit of starts swerving to mess up Robin’s aim. She watches his behavior for a few moments, and noticing a pattern, she calculates and takes her shot.
“Got him.”
The truck swerves dangerously for a tree, but the driver corrects it just in time, and slides to a stop, spinning around to face them. Grace stops the Hummer and both of them take aim with their pistols. They jump out of the truck, with the other officers closing in on them with their guns raised.
“Get out of the truck with your hands in the air!”
While Robin reads them their Miranda Rights, the men stumble out of the truck, holding their wounds, and walk towards the hood of the truck.
“Come any closer and I push this button and a lot of people are going to die. Just get…”
Robin takes a shot, shooting the man in his wrist, which causes him to drop the bomb detonator. The other man tries to lunge for it, and Grace shoots him twice. He falls to the ground not moving, so they give their attention to groaning man on his knees with his right hand cradled against his chest.
“Where did you plant the bombs?”
“You’re too late. It doesn’t matter what you do. We…”
Robin walks forward and presses the barrel of her pistol to his forehead, causing him to release a panicked whimpering yelp.
“You tell us everything, or I’m playing target practice with your fingers, toes, and ears. We’ll just see how many I have to shoot off till you decide you’re ready to talk.”
“You wouldn’t…”
Robin moves her pistol to take aim for his right ear, and he whimpers and shakes his head, falling back against the truck bumper. His movement causes the other officers to move in closer, so they’re on the sides of Grace and Robin with their rifles and pistols aimed for the man’s chest .
“Ok, stop. I’ll talk.”
“Where are the bombs?”
“We planted three inside City Hall.”
He groans in pain and whimpers from the gunshot wounds in his wrist and hand.
“Where?”
“The basement.”
“Are they on a timer?”
“If I don’t push that button, they’ll go off in thirty minutes. You’ve got like twenty minutes left.”
“Dobrowsky, call it in.”
Captain Dobrowsky steps away with his hands shaking and clumsily punches in the numbers on his phone for City Hall. He has never been in such a high stress situation with such a major threat level like this. He hasn’t had a cigarette in hours and his hand is itching to dig the pack out of his breast pocket to try to calm his nerves.
While he takes care of making the necessary calls to prevent any loss of life in City Hall, Robin asks the man, “Are there any more bombs planted or headed anywhere?”
“Come on, I need medical attention. I’ll tell you everything, just get me a doctor.”
Grace steps forward, placing the barrel of her gun to his temple, and says, “Stop whining like a pig, and fucking talk. If you don’t, your usefulness runs out. Do you know what we do with things that don’t serve a purpose anymore? It becomes trash and we get rid of it.”
“You’re cops; you can’t just…”
“I can do whatever the fuck I think is the right thing to do. Don’t think for a second that you can count on the law to save you now that you’ve been caught breaking it and are faced with certain death. ”
“There’s a van on its way to Chamberlain. After City Hall blows, they’ll order a mandatory evacuation of the town. Once Chamberlain is flooded with refugees, it will be blown up. Thousands, probably tens of thousands will be toast.”
He releases a small laugh and Grace kicks him in his wounded hand, making him scream in pain.
“Why are you doing this? What’s the point?”
“To take away these mother fuckers sense of security. Our government sends us over to other countries to blow’em up and shoot’em up for the good of the world. Then we come home and we’re treated like dirt. We’re paid next to nothing if we’re medically discharged. And if we still got a fit body and mind, it’s hard for us to find jobs. We put our lives on the line for this country, and they just throw us out with the trash like you say. I did my years of service to this nation, and you know what it got me? Nothing, except being called a murderer and racist. We’re sick of the hypocrisy.”
“Who’s running things?”
“I don’t know. Only a few people know. But he’s loaded and highly connected. He’s paying us really good.”
“Are there other operations like this anywhere else?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s the plan after you blow up Chamberlain?”
The man’s head lulls on his shoulders, and he slumps forward panting for air and groaning in pain.
“I need a doctor.”
“They’re busy with the innocent wounded you targeted at the toll stations.”
“What happened at the toll stations?”
Robin and Grace ignore Dobrowsky’s question, and Robin aims for the man’s forehead.
“Answer the question. ”
“We have the supplies to lay low for a while. Then we’re relocating. I don’t know where. We got two big-rigs we’ll pack up and leave.”
“Watch him.”
Grace sheaths her pistol and goes to the back of the Hummer . She pulls out a medical bag and kneels down next to the man. She puts a pair of medical gloves on and pulls a glass bottle and syringe from the bag.
“Are you allergic to morphine?”
“No.”
Grace cleans a patch on the man’s arm with an alcohol swab, and then injects him with a high dose of morphine. The man’s face pinches in pain for a moment, and then he slumps back in relief. Using a squeeze bottle of sterile water, Grace flushes his wounds.
She holds up a stick, and says, “Put this between your teeth.”
The man chomps down on the wood, and his face grimaces in anticipation of the pain.
“Jones and Newton, hold him down.”
Eric and Brandon quickly obey Robin, and they lay him down on the ground, holding his shoulders and legs still.
Grace uses a couple of pairs of tweezers to dig the bullet out of his hand, which became lodged between his bones. The second bullet he sustained went straight through his wrist, so Grace needs to cauterize the wound to get it to stop bleeding.
“This is going to hurt like hell. Hold him really good.”
The man releases a whimper around the wood between his teeth, and tightly closes his eyes with tears streaming down his temples and behind his ears. Grace injects some morphine around the wound to try to dull his nerves to the pain, and then ignites a small blow torch. She lightly draws it over the wound, charring the flesh to seal it, which fills the air with an unpleasant smell that twists their stomachs in nausea. The man screams in agony and tries to thrash around, but Eric and Brandon hold him down. When she finishes, she packs the wounds with gauze, and wraps his hand and wrist.
“Pat him down, then put him in the back of a cruiser. We’ll have an ambulance meet us at our point of entry.”
Jones and Newton feel around to see if he has any weapons on him. They find a cellphone, a boot knife, and a pistol before they help him stand up. The man is groggy and weak from the loss of blood and the morphine, so they basically have to carry him to the car.
“Sharp, for fucks sake, tell me what the hell is going on. You totally went against…”
“Captain, be quiet. We don’t have time for your lecture on ethics and the book.”
“You are still under my command, Sharp!” Robin pulls out her FBI badge and flashes it open. “Actually, I’m not. You are under my command. Now, all of you group around.”
Officers Sandra Conner, Brandon Newton, Eric Jones, and Captain Dobrowsky move in closer, looking terrified and kind of shocked. Eric also looks like he’s been punched in the stomach since Robin showed her FBI badge.
Robin explains their findings from their scouting mission, and that they need to move in on both locations simultaneously.
“Were those toll stations really hit?” Robin and Grace nod at Sandra’s question, and Sandra’s face looks very concerned and her eyes tear up. “Can I please make a call?”
“Yes.”
Sandra quickly walks away with her cellphone out and Grace places a hand on Robin’s arm as she presses a button on her ear piece.
“Sharp? ”
“Yeah, David, go ahead.”
“Good news and bad news. The army and a dozen federal agents are on their way to your current location. They should be there in five minutes and you’ll have seventy at your command. That’s the best we can do at the moment. We’ll have reinforcements to follow your initial wave – maybe in twenty minutes.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“City Hall blew up. They got it evacuated, but the bomb squad couldn’t get in there and find the bombs in time. Hodgins is furious – a team was on site to prevent this. They don’t know how those guys pulled that off.”
