Breaking Point Part XXV

[Robbie C.]

Mindy O’Laughlin smiled as Stan switched off the tape. “That’s really good. Sounded just like one of the Narcotics surveillance teams.”

The big detective grinned. “Yeah. It’s amazing what you can do with voice filters these days. I just hope they bought it.”

“I don’t see how they couldn’t. You baited the hook perfectly.” She looked around the confined space of the Tech Room, her hair shifting as one of the rotating fans pushed air her way.

“Sorry about that. We gotta keep them going to keep the place coolish.”

“It’s ok, Stan.” She smiled, sensing he was a little uncomfortable. Sitting next to him, Lester watched needles jump and twitch on the various frequencies he was monitoring. Nothing seemed to bother him.

She was a little nervous herself, but not about the tape. It was what lay around corner that kept her heat jumping. Not only was she getting married, but she might be leaving the only career she’d ever known. And all of it could be taken away in a second by a random bullet from those Unit 8 assholes.

How Trudy stayed so cool was a puzzle to her. She’d been shot, her husband had been shot, and she still smiled and laughed and did her little drawings when she thought no one else was looking. Mindy envied her calm. But her skills had come from a different place, one with nights spent half asleep, listening with one ear for the crash that announced her father’s return from a late patrol shift and half a bottle of cheap whiskey. Her cue to hide until the shouting and crashing stopped and the snoring started.

She still twitched awake from time to time, settling back down as soon as she felt Rico’s presence in bed next to her. She was sure he knew she woke up, but he never asked. Just hugged her every morning and told her how lucky he was to have her in his life.

Lester shifted, breaking into her thoughts. “I got something. It’s down in that range we think they favor. Damned weak, though. We don’t have a good enough antenna.”

Stan pounced. “But if we got it, those two in the air sure as hell did. They’ve got shit in that plane that hasn’t been invented yet.” Reaching over, he hit the mike and made a quick transmission. “Alpha Four, two niner zero foxtrot baker.”

“Copy.” Red Ball’s voice sounded flatter than normal through the speaker.

“They got it. And now the fun starts.”

Mindy nodded. “You boys have fun. I’m gonna go check some of those property records again.”

Back in the office she shared with Trudy, Mindy tried to focus on the searched. But she kept coming back to Rico’s dark brown eyes. How much she’d tried to deny she was falling in love with him, and how strong it had been once she was finally honest with herself. Still, a corner of her mind kept chewing on the problem. Converted houses on the edges of Little Havana. Small, old apartment buildings. The three story converted kind she knew from South Boston.

Her fingers tapped on the keys, entering a search string before hitting enter to send it on its way. Narrowing her focus with each added parameter. As the results scrolled up she narrowed them by selecting only transactions in the last six months. Then narrowing again by going with foreign buyers. They all used local agents to try to hide, but the title change always showed the real buyer. And she narrowed again by those without loans. She didn’t think Unit 8 had been active long enough, or was quite rich enough, to own its own bank. Not yet, at least.

The activity also kept her from thinking of everything that could go wrong tonight. Just stay at it until Rico came bopping through those doors and they could head home together. She wasn’t sure why it was suddenly on her mind, and she wished Trudy was still here to talk to. But she’d gone home an hour ago, trusting her to hold the fort until the boys came home.

Her search finished at about the same time Rico and Sonny came through the door. She smiled, feeling a familiar tingle when she saw Rico in the street threads of Marcus. She was about to speak when Stan came bursting out of the Tech Room. “We got something. I relayed to the air boys and they’re on it now.”

Sonny smiled at Mindy, and she wondered if he could sense her nervousness. “Good, but that’s for tomorrow. They won’t be down for another hour yet, at least, so close on down and get some sleep. If they got what we hope they did, tomorrow’s gonna be damned busy.“ He turned to Rico. “I’m gonna call Jimmy and put the birds on short alert. He needs to be ready to launch within fifteen minutes of our call. Why don’t you and Mindy head on home? She looks beat.”

She nodded her thanks. “I am, boss. I just need to print this last search and we can go.”

“Solid.” Rico put his arm around her. “I could use some Bird and a quiet meal after tonight.”

She was leaning over the printer, watching the search results spool out, when she felt him press against her backside and his hands slip up around her hips. “I missed you, pretty lady.”

“I missed you, too.” She pushed back against him to show just how much she’d missed his touch. “This is almost done.”

“Mmmm.” He had strong hands, and she felt his fingers grip and release.

She felt her cheeks getting warm, knowing a bright blush was spreading under her cheekbones and hiding her freckles. “Ok, got it. Let’s get out of here before we makes fools of ourselves.”

“Didn’t you want to look through that stuff?”

“It can wait until morning. I can’t.” She smiled. “There’s something about that Marus look…”

“Yeah, and that’s the one thing Marcus don’t do fast.” Rico smiled, touching her backside again. “Did you want to get something to eat on the way home?”

“Only if it’s carry out.” The warm feeling was still settling in and calling for his touch.

“We’ll grab some Chinese from that place near Casa Cooper.”

The drive seemed slower than usual, but Mindy knew it was because of her feelings. That and her desire to leave work behind for a few hours and just enjoy being with Rico. This case had kept them jumping, and she was looking forward to down time. No matter how it came their way.

He’d just started a Bird disk on the stereo when she let the straps of her dress slip off her shoulders and shrugged the rest of the smooth silk away. The air conditioning was cool on her freckled skin, and she stood just in shadow, waiting for him to turn. When he did, she heard his gasp. “I decided food can wait.”

“I second that, pretty lady.” He closed the distance in two steps, and she felt his firm hands on her body. “I second that.” By the time they got to their food it was stone cold, but neither of them cared.

 

Castillo sat, looking out toward the sound of the waves, his habitual cup of green tea in his hand. Behind him he could hear Trudy playing the piano, the discordant bits hinting it was part of the suite she was composing in honor of Ti Ti. A faint smile floated across his face. She’d never met the man, but had somehow managed to capture some of the essence of what the Nung had been.

Moneybags had been waiting for him in the garage when he left. “Your team’s good,” he announced without fanfare. “I think they spotted two of my guys, and we got a good handle on the Unit 8 idiots. They had three men in there, and at least one of them blew his cover to your boys.”

Thinking back it brought another smile to his face. That was high praise coming from Moneybags, especially given the skill level of his team. Castillo knew his people were good, but they never operated overseas. He knew the Delta team did, and did so frequently. It was just another reminder of how the Job was changing, and how it was time to get out.

At least they’d gotten Unit 8 on the air. Stan had called just after Crockett left to confirm that. Castillo had no doubt the guys in the plane would have a fix on the transmitters, and any other traffic that flowed from those locations. He knew Unit 8 was still looking for them, but they had the edge now. Both in technology and manpower. It was the end game, and he knew that was when you needed to be most careful. Things had a way of going wrong when you relaxed in the home stretch.

The music stopped, and Trudy came out moments later to join him. “I needed a break,” she said, sitting down next to him and looking out into the darkness. “It was…”

“Getting too close.”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I could feel it. I have no other explanation.”

“And you don’t need one, my love.” She sipped her own tea and smiled. “Just like I know you’re thinking about the operation.”

“Yes. So much can still go wrong. We have the edge on those animals, but we still need to be careful.”

“Is this…” She paused, and when she continued her voice was so soft it was almost lost on the offshore breeze. “Is this the new normal?”

“Yes.” The certainty of his answer surprised him. “It is. The dealers are centralizing. Becoming cartels. Look at what’s happening in Mexico. And then there’s crack and the other cheap designer drugs. Unit 8 is a symptom, not the disease. Crushing them will send a message and buy us time. But it won’t be our fight any more.” He took a sip of tea, focusing his thoughts. “But we still need to finish this fight.”

“You think those two will find the radio?”

“Yes. They were part of the team that hunted down Pablo Escobar. The Company wants Unit 8 to go away, so they made sure we got the best tools they had access to. Moneybags and his team, Slats and Red Ball and that plane. They would have given us aviation if they had anything untraceable on hand.”

“Then why not intel?”

“Because we might find out how deep their ties go. We’ve disturbed a lot of activities as a Task Force. They won’t underestimate our ability to sniff out those ties if we get intel from them.”

“So you really think they’re connected?”

“Not now. But when they were still part of the Peruvian army I’m sure they were. They were operating against Sendero Luminoso, after all. And maybe after that, for the first years of their work against the narcos. It’s hard to say where the ties stopped.”

“But you think they did?”

“At least at the higher levels. There’s no other reason they would have green lit Unit 8 like they have.” He turned to look at her. “You’ll be with the teams hitting their locations in Miami. I want you to be sure to sieze any documents you find. I doubt we’ll have much of chance at the island.”

“You think Moneybags…”

“He’s a good man. But he will have his orders. And part of those orders is likely the destruction of any papers. He can’t insert his people on the Maimi end without attracting too much attention, and it’s also not legal for them to operate inside the U.S. So you and Mindy will have the best chance to sieze anything incriminating.”

“And add it to the insurance policy?”

“Yes.” He smiled, the slap of the waves teasing the edge of his hearing. “I’ll be glad when this is done. When we can finally rest.”

 

Slats looked around the table with a smile on his face. “We go a fix on their transmitter. That stunt last night did the trick. They were chatting away like some damned party line.”

Sonny grinned. “Glad we could be of some help. We picked up one guy in the club, but there must have been more.”

“Total of three.” Toad grinned. “But we think the other two were security. They hung way back and looked nervous as hell.”

“They won’t have much skilled manpower.” Castillo’s voice was low. “They have to spread it out based on mission requirements.”

Sonny nodded, turning back to Slats. “You plot a address?”

“We got a fix within fifty yards. It’s as close as we could get with the air traffic and them coming on and off the air like they were.” Getting up, he drew a circle on the map. “You were right about Little Havana.”

Mindy looked down at her stack of print-outs and smiled. Sonny noticed she was wearing a high-necked shirt and that Rico kept watching him from the corner of his eye. “I think I can narrow that circle.” She got up and made a much smaller circle. “There’s a converted house here. Used to be a three story townhouse but it was converted into apartments a few years back. Not a year ago it was bought by a Panamanian shell company, which happens to be owned by a Columbian shell company. Which is remarkably similar to the one that bought Red. I’m running a report now to see what other purchases those companies made in the same time frame.”

Sonny looked at Red Ball. “Can you be sure it’s the right transmitter? Last thing we want to do is roll in on some Cuban spies. Or one of those ‘covert’ Company safe houses you read about in the papers.”

“It was confirmed when they made contact with a station on Red. Or at least in Red’s direction.” Red Ball nodded. “It’s them. No question. We monitored the transmission. They were talking about Burnett and his pending deal. They had no details, but the man on the other end ordered them to deal with the situation. He wants Burnett on the team damned bad from the sound of it.”

Stan perked up. “Can I get a copy of that?”

“Brought one just for you, big guy. You might be able to clean it up better than we can. Our gear’s more suited to finding and less to listening.”

Sonny nodded. “Get on that. As soon as Mindy’s report finishes we’ll make our last-minute plans.”

“I’ll call the chief deputy and have him hold those warrant teams ready.”

“And you’d better have an extra gun somewhere.” Dave’s voice echoed from the doorway. “Cause I’ll be Goddamned if I’ll sit out the raid on the bastards who plugged me.”

He was still pale from the hospital, and Sonny though he could see a trace of unsteadiness in his walk. But Dave was back, and looked ready for action. “You give the protection detail the slip?”

“Naw. Told ‘em I wanted in on the raid and they said go for it.” He shook his head. “Didn’t think it was this close to go-time, though.”

Sonny looked at him, and then nodded. “You ever handle a pig?”

“The M-60? Sure.”

“Good. Randy? You got an extra? One of those birds is gonna have two door gunners.”

Randy snorted. “Just like you, Dave. Show up late for the party and still get to have all the fun.”

“Yeah, but I can’t handle a long gun. Ain’t sure when I’ll be able to, in point of fact. The doc…he didn’t sound too damned reassuring about that point.”

Sonny saw Randy’s eyes go a dead, cold blue and felt something grab at him deep in his chest. “I’ll get that son of a bitch for you, Dave. You got my word.”

Sonny stood up. “Let me know when you hear back from the chief deputy, Marty. Then I’ll call Jimmy and get him on strip alert. Randy, how long will you need to get into position?”

“Half an hour. Tops. But I want to be there before they know where the meeting is.”

“Done.” Sonny looked at his watch. “It’s 0800 now. I want to be ready to roll by 1000. If we can’t hit that hack, we push by a day. Timing is everything on this one, people.”

Slats cleared his throat. “Where will you want us?”

“Overhead. Monitoring and radio relay. Things will stretch past our capability once we’re in the air and heading for Red, but it’s critical we stay in communication. You can also jam their comms if you’re of the mind.”

“Roger that. Say the word and they won’t even be able to talk to themselves. We can launch as soon as you give the word and stay on station all day if that’s what it takes.”

Castillo came out of his office. “The chief deputy has three teams he can spare. One’s short a man, so I told him we could make up the difference. Deputy Blair leaving the hospital freed up one team.”

Dave chucked through his pain. “Glad to be of use.”

Sonny nodded, fighting back a sudden welling of tears in his eyes. He’d never worked with a team this strong, this capable before. And if this was their last ride, it was going to be a damned good one.

Lester stuck his head out the Tech Room door. “You guys ready to roll the tape?”

“Not yet. We need Mindy’s report.”

“I got it!” She popped out of the intel room, her blue eyes bright and papers clutched in her hand. “I tracked three properties back to those shell companies. That means they have at least four locations in Miami.” She headed for the map. “I’ll get them marked.”

“So we’ll miss one.”

Castillo shook his head. “Send the location to Metro-Dade as soon as the last raid goes in. Tell them whatever you think will work to get them rolling. If we don’t get the people, I want the house closed down. Are they all apartments?”

Mindy nodded. “Yes. Either converted or old but built that way. Two of them are close to the main house, but the last one’s down near the new marina.”

“Give that one to Metro-Dade.”

Sonny nodded. “We need to get this info to Pete as soon as we decide who’s hitting what. I’d like Brick’s team on the radio house. They know their shit and they’ve worked with us before.”

Castillo nodded. “Sergeant Castillo can go with them. Deputy O’Laughlin goes with the team hitting the converted house a block north, and Franz and Switek will take the house two blocks south. That means the light warrant team will hit that location.”

Sonny reached for the phone on the table. “I’ll give Jimmy his warning orders. Dave, can you drive?”

“Yeah. I won’t be running any stock races, but I can make it.”

“Good. You’ll take the M-60s out so they can rig their birds.”

Castillo shook his head. “No. Deputy Mather and I will take him. We need to get into position, and if we leave now we should have plenty of time. Crockett, you coordinate the final push. Let us know if anything changes or we need to abort.”

Sonny nodded. “If you take any shots, clear your position as soon as you can. Jimmy and Jackson will be picking us up from the parking lot. We won’t have much time on the ground, so you’ll have to move fast.”

Moneybags spoke up. “What about my team?”

“Your guys can get into position at any point before the meet.”

“Tell you what. Jester and Toad will go with Dave to the birds and ride in with them. Just in case. That leaves four of us to cover the meet and deal with any bad guys who show.”

“Do it.” Sonny could feel the cold adrenalin of Burnett moving through his veins. He could see the plan, like a three dimensional puzzle, falling into place before his eyes. Turning, he locked eyes with Slats. “Get airborne and do your thing. We’ll reach out if anything changes.”

Once they were gone he turned to Castillo. “You’d better get moving, too, Marty.”

“Make the call first. I want to know they’ve taken the bait.”

“One more thing.” He turned toward the Tech Room. “Stan! Roll whatever bit you’ve got ready for the meeting. This thing’s going!” Then he reached for the phone. “Let’s do this.”

 

Eduardo Salazar had just finished his morning coffee when the office door burst open. Corporal Hidalgo’s eyes were bright with excitement as he stopped in front of the desk. “Sir! We have Burnett on the phone!”

Without speaking, Salazar snatched up the receiver and hit the flashing line button. “Mr. Burnett. What a pleasant surprise.”

The voice on the other end was flat and devoid of emotion. Salazar thought he could hear airport noises in the background, and cursed their inability to trace calls. “I’ve been giving your little idea some thought.”

“And making a side deal or two. Good. Initiative is always good. Until it isn’t.”

“Look, pal. I don’t take kindly to being forced to pay some kind of tax on my own business. But I also can’t help but notice the people who don’t pay seem to be dropping dead all around me.” There was a pause, and the voice got colder. “But I also know you need my connections. My contacts. And none of those will give you the time of day if I’m dead.”

“Our position is not negotiable.”

“Make an exception. Neither of us has a choice. I refuse to pay, I get killed. You don’t change your position, I don’t cooperate and you lose my contacts when you kill me. Or you leave me alone and don’t get in my network. You’ve been here long enough to know my reputation.”

“Yes. But we’re both businessmen.”

“Yeah. So we need to meet like businessmen and sort this out. There’s a marina over by Little Havana. Good, open space so there’s no surprises. Meet me there at eleven today. I’ll have Marcus with me, and you can bring whoever the hell you want. And I wouldn’t get any ideas about trying to mess with the guy we met with the other night. Bikers have long memories.”

“We prevent trouble, not start it. And I know the marina you mention. It is a good place. We’ll see you there at eleven.” Salazar hung up, not wanting to get drawn into more conversation. “Hidalgo, get your team ready. And get the location to Corporal Valderama. The meeting place is open and has lots of shooting positions. It should make him happy. And I want his team on overwatch. Just in case,”

“Will you be going, sir?”

“Yes. Let Lieutenant Orozco know he’s in change of the safe house until we return. And tell Felix and Antonio to keep a close watch on the radios. If Metro-Dade or this Task Force is in the area I want to know.”

Once Hidalgo left, Salazar crossed the room and headed for the radios. “Get the colonel at once. I have news for him.”

 

Sonny watched as Rico hung up the phone. “Pete’s good with coordinating with Metro-Dade. I think he’s looking forward to having them sweep up the trash for a change. How’d your call go?”

“Good.” Sonny looked down at the phone, his mind working. “I think I was talking to the captain this time. At least it was someone who was in charge. He had that officer tone and spoke English damend well. We’re a go for eleven.” He raised his voice. “You get that, Stan?”

“Loud and clear, Sonny. I’ll start rolling tape in the next half hour. I got a good one ready for them. It should draw their shooter out and get him in position for Randy.” Sonny could almost see the smile on Stan’s face. “You’ll be happy to know Sonny Burnett is under surveillance by a Metro-Dade SWAT sniper unit. Just like we’d talked about.”

“So long as it keeps those assholes busy.” Sonny stared at map, trying to paint the area in his mind’s eye. “There’s a couple of coffee shops near that open area, Lots of benches before you hit the dock, too. But it’s not a real tourist favorite yet. Lots of locals, but in that neighborhood they know to take cover if any shooting starts.”

“Are we taking prisoners?”

Sonny looked at Hatchet. “I doubt that will be an option with these guys.”

“Copy that. Just wanted to know if we were doing that ‘shoot to wound’ crap.”

“Shoot to wound usually means you end up dying.”

Moneybags nodded. “My guys know the drill.”

“Good. I’ll get Castillo on the car phone and confirm the times. We don’t want the birds to be late.” Sonny looked around the room. “Everybody get changed if you need to and then equipment and comm check. We need to be ready to roll by 1030.”

Trudy nodded, looking at Mindy. “Let’s go get changed girlfriend. Then the boys can make themselves all pretty.”

Casanova grinned. “Already taken care of. I just need my mascara and my .45.”

Laughter rippled around the room, but Sonny could feel the underlying tension. Not fear…not from this group. But more an eagerness to get the thing started.

Moneybags took control of his men. “We roll at 1000. Usual protection drill. Pistols only unless these boys go nuts. I’ll have an H&K in my bag, and so will Hatchet. Load the carbines and extra ammo into the van. We’ll grab it once the shooting stops but before the birds touch down. It’s gonna be a quick change drill.”

Toad looked over at Sonny and Rico. “You got long guns you need us to hold?”

“Couple of CAR-15s in the armory with our names on ‘em.” Rico chuckled. “I’ll go collect them.”

“Ten extra mags each.” Toad’s voice left no room for debate. “Better to have too much ammo than not enough.”

The last minutes before an operation were always the hardest for Sonny. It was always when he started second-guessing himself, wondering what he’d forgotten, and running through all sorts of scenarios and variations in his head. Around him he could sense the others working, talking, going through their own pre-game rituals. Moneybags and his men were gone, leaving only the Task Force people. He could see Mindy talking to Tubbs, Lester and Stan checking their tape one last time to make sure it would run in their absence and shut off when required. And Trudy standing near the door, her eyes focused on something only she could see.

Looking at his watch, he slipped on his Ray Bans and set his face in the Burnett freeze. “Time to roll. Link up with Pete’s teams and stand by. Rico and I will leave in ten. Good luck, people. Let’s shut these bastards down.”

 

It was hot in the makeshift radio room even with three fans going, but Felix didn’t complain. He wasn’t being swarmed by insects or baked by the sun overhead. A little heat could be borne.

He turned the frequency dial slightly, homing in on what sounded like hand radios. Then he paused, listened again, and started scribbling furiously on a note pad. Tearing the sheet loose, he slid it to Antonio, who was handling the communication with the teams. “I just picked up a sniper team from Metro-Dade’s SWAT unit. It sounds like they’re setting to watch the marina meeting location.”

Antonio nodded, fixated on his own frequencies. “I’ll alert the captain. Does it sound like they’re looking to engage?”

Felix focused his entire being on the crackling voices and chuckled. “No. They sound bored. Like they were sent to just watch and report. They’re checking in as being two hundred yards from the parking lot. From the way they’re talking, they have to be on the east side.”

“I’ll let Philipe know. Maybe he’ll get a shot at another one.”

“Not without the captain’s orders.”

Antonio grimaced, adjusting his own dial. “The captain wants to know if they sound like they were tipped off about the meeting.”

“No. They did mention a phone tap, but it sounds like they’re looking for Burnett and the black man to be meeting each other. No mention of a third person.” He snickered. “They have no radio discipline.”

Antonio relayed the report and smiled. “He says good. Keep listening.”

 

They were at least partly shaded from the sun, but the tar paper on the roof was doing a great job of baking them just the same. Randy shifted, the heat taking him back to the country just below the DMZ in South Vietnam. The Arizona had been hot, too. In more ways than one.

Beside him Castillo didn’t even seem to sweat. He shifted a hair, scanning the distant rooftops on the other side of the parking lot. Once he hit the transmit button on their radio, breaking squelch to let someone know he’d received a transmission. “They took Switek’s bait. They just told their sniper there’s a Metro-Dade team within two hundred yards of the east side of the parking lot. Their return transmission puts them inside Little Havana.”

Just where we figured they’d be. “Check spots Lima 34, 26, and 22. Those are the only three that would give them a good vantage point.” Without shifting his position, Randy moved his eye from the telescopic sight to his range card. “They’re the last tall buildings. Anything else is lower.”

Castillo nodded. “That puts any shot you make at over a thousand yards.”

“Yeah. Just find ‘em for me.” Randy adjusted the scope, brining the zoom to max power and dialing in elevation. “I’ll do the rest.”

[mjcmmv]

I'm glad Dave's back! Now the crew is all together for the battle.