Nano Surveillance (Dave Henson Series Book 1) (22 page)

Chapter 58 (March 26, Tuesday 8:00am Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

Dave and Dana landed in Cut Bank Municipal Airport at 6:00pm the night before. They had parked the Citation M2 in a hangar that Dave had purchased 18 months ago and used an old S60 Volvo stored in the hangar to drive to the satellite NSurv facility. On their way to the facility they had stopped at a local grocery store and stocked up on some food and supplies.

On their short flight from McCall, Idaho Dave had explained to Dana the facility that he had secretly established on the outskirts of Cut Bank City under another corporate name. The facility was a small non-descript one-story steel building located in an otherwise empty industrial park, and provided only 10,000 square feet of space. However, Dave had fully renovated and outfitted the building. Besides a state of the art laboratory that took up nearly half of the space, the building also had a kitchen area, along with sleeping quarters for ten people. In regards to the lab itself, it was completely outfitted with electrical power and benches that his team would need to perform its work. It also had racks of communication equipment already set up. All it was lacking were the computers and some electronic test equipment that Ron and the others would be driving up to the facility later in the day.

As Dave served Dana a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee in the kitchen mess room, he outlined their plans for the day. Dave and Dana would spend the morning reviewing the latest video footage that had come in over the past 24 hours from the various targets they had implanted with the nano-dust. Ron, Joe and Dr. Gillian would arrive around mid-afternoon. Upon their arrival, he’d have the three of them set up the communications equipment for another televised/internet broadcast event this evening. While they prepared the equipment for the broadcast, Dana and he would edit and put the finishing touches on the video that they would broadcast. Again, Dave wanted Dana to write the narration text for the edited film segments, and then to record the narration. The two would then overlay the narration into the edited video that they would broadcast.

“Dana, tonight I want us to really show the American public the depth and scope of the corruption in the federal government. That it involves not just the administration, but also mega-rich megalomaniac businessmen, the national press corps, and for much of the public, their own federal congressional members. They need to see unfiltered for themselves the absolute corruption that is running and destroying this country.”

Dana looked at Dave as he completed his impassioned statement to her, and shook her head in agreement before responding, “We will Dave, we will.”

The two sat quietly as they ate the rest of their breakfast. When they were finished, they cleaned up and went to the lab to begin reviewing the video feeds. Both had looks on their faces of extreme determination.  Tonight they would begin to blow the administration and the federal government wide open. They would expose the President and his team for what they truly were. An authoritarian government that was hell bent on destroying the country for its own personal gain.

Chapter 59 (March 26, Tuesday 9:00am Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

Ron was driving his red Ford Explorer northeast on Route US-12 in Montana, while Joe and Dr. Gillian followed in Dr. Gillian’s Lexus SUV. They had gotten an early start out of McCall. They had left the NSurv headquarters at 5:00am, still under the cover of darkness. They had packed the vehicles up the night before and had kept them stored in NSurv’s hangar. They only had stopped into the office this morning to get a couple of additional laptop computers that Dr. Gillian had last minute decided they might need up in Cut Bank, Montana.

Ron’s GPS had calculated the trip to take nearly ten hours even though they were only going one state east. Unfortunately, there was no direct route between McCall, Idaho and Cut Bank, Montana. Consequently, they had to take a circuitous route northeast that took them through Missoula, Montana and then up through Great Falls before they made it to the border city of Cut Bank, Montana.

They had stopped at a diner in Grangeville, Idaho an hour earlier for breakfast, and were making good progress up through Clear Water National Forest, though they were only averaging 50MPH. The road was winding and had steep grades that made the driving both interesting and challenging. There was also little traffic on it this time of the year. Ron stayed in contact with Joe and Dr. Gillian via their encrypted VHF radios, as they feared to use their cell phones and give away their position. They suspected all of their phones were probably being monitored by the government at this point.

Joe’s voice came over the radio. “Ron, we’ve had a dark blue SUV following us since we left Grangeville. The vehicle is about a quarter mile behind us and hasn’t wavered in its distance between us for the past 10 miles.”

“Alright, keep your eyes open for it. If it begins to come up on your tail let me know. I’ll pull over and let the two of you pass. I’ll then follow behind the two of you to get a better look at who they are and what they may be doing. Most likely it’s just someone else on their way to Missoula.”

“Roger that. Will let you know if anything changes.”

Fifteen minutes passed quietly before Joe came over the radio again. “Ron, the dark blue SUV is nearly on our backend. I can’t see how many people are in the vehicle as the front window is tinted.”

“Does it look like they want to pass?” asked Ron.

“No, they don’t seem to be interested in passing. It’s as if they just want to draft off the back of our vehicle.”

“Okay, I will pull away from you a bit and then pull off the side of the road and let the two of you pass. I’ll then give the two of you a quarter of a mile, before I jump back onto the road. I’ll approach the rear of their vehicle and see what they are up to.”

“Roger that and good luck.”

Ron accelerated his Ford Explorer to put some distance between him and the Lexus. As soon as he rounded the next corner in the road, he pulled off onto the soft shoulder of the road and stepped out of his car as if he was going to go relieve himself. A few seconds later the Lexus and the dark blue SUV passed him. As they pulled away from him he quickly got back into the Explorer and pulled back onto the road. While accelerating to catch up with the two vehicles he reached over and opened the vehicle’s glove box, and pulled out his Ruger LCP 0.380 ACP handgun. His head was still hurting from his attack yesterday. Today he was going to be prepared to defend himself if it came to it. He wedged the gun between the passenger seat and backrest support, as he continued to catch up to the trailing SUV. 

Lazaro watched in his rear view mirror as Ron’s vehicle caught up to them and then trailed him one hundred yards behind. Aftonio sat in the front passenger seat with a Glock 9mm Model 17 handgun in his right hand, and keeping his eyes on the Lexus in front of him. After dropping off his second man Carlos at the Boise, Idaho airport yesterday with the evidence they had collected at the NSurv facilities, Lazaro and Aftonio had been monitoring the NSurv facilities ever since. Though they were unsure where the two NSurv vehicles were headed, they had figured they were enroute to catch up with Henson and the brunette beauty Dana Cogswell who flew out of McCall last night.

Lazaro had been in contact with Barbas the previous evening. He had explained to Barbas that Henson and a few of NSurv’s employees were packing up vehicles with various pieces of lab equipment and that Henson and Cogswell had flown out of McCall around 6:30pm. Barbas asked Lazaro to sit tight until he heard back from him. At 3:00am in the morning Barbas had contacted Lazaro and given him explicit orders to take out the vehicles, but in a discrete way, and preferably in a remote area. As Lazaro drove through the winding and mountainous roads, he couldn’t help but think to himself how perfect a location the Clear Water National Forest was for taking out the vehicles. They hadn’t seen another vehicle in the past fifteen minutes and they were paralleling a steep mountain ridge. Beyond the road’s shoulder was a drop off into the forested abyss below. It was now or never. First they’d get rid of the vehicle ahead of them.

“Aftonio, we’re going to send the Lexus over the cliff on the next bend in the road. Be ready to take out their tires after I give it a nudge or two.”

As they approached the next switch back in the road, Lazaro stomped on the SUV’s gas pedal and the vehicle surged ahead. Joe had been watching the SUV constantly in the passenger side mirror and saw the SUV start to accelerate towards them. Immediately he shouted to Dr. Gillian to floor the Lexus.  Dr. Gillian had responded instantly to Joe’s command.  As a result, what would have otherwise been a hard rear end collision with the dark blue SUV was instead only a slight nudge.

Lazaro was not deterred, however. He continued to floor his vehicle and wedge it up behind the Lexus, attempting to forcibly push it off the road. Dr. Gillian used all his strength and skill to keep the Lexus on the road as he continued to keep his foot on the gas pedal.

As soon as Ron had seen the dark SUV accelerate and slam into the back of the Lexus, he knew he was going to have to take immediate offensive action if he was going to save his friends lives. Whoever was behind the wheel of the dark SUV was trying to run them off the road and over the cliff edge. He opened his window and then reached over and grabbed his Ruger. He fired two rounds into the dark SUV’s rear driver side tire and then into the rear window.  The rear window exploded into a million pieces but apparently he missed the tire. The vehicle was still under control, but now weaving like on a slalom ski course. A second later two shots came through his front windshield. Unlike the rear window in the SUV, his front window did not shatter. Instead there were two clean holes in the passenger side of the window.

Lazaro let off the gas on the SUV and Aftonio immediately pushed the upper portion of his body out of the passenger side of the vehicle to enable him to get a clear shot at the Lexus’s back tires. As Aftonio squeezed off several rounds from his gun, Ron took a couple of shots at Aftonio. Ron’s shots didn’t find their target since he was holding his gun in his left hand out the driver’s side window, but they had at least caused Aftonio to cease firing and crawl back into the SUV.

Ron could see, however, that Aftonio had hit one of the tires on the Lexus. He could see Dr. Gillian was struggling to keep the vehicle on the road as it was swerving and slowing down. Fortunately it didn’t look like the Lexus was going to go off the road. However, if Ron didn’t act swiftly and effectively, his friends could end up being executed while sitting in their lame vehicle. Ron decided it was time to play hardball with his vehicle and came up fast on the outside line of the dark SUV. As he did so, he slammed the passenger side nose of his vehicle into the backend driver’s side of the SUV.  Immediately the SUV shot off towards the left and in the direction of the road edge and cliff.

Lazaro slammed on the brakes to try to get control of the SUV and prevent it from going off the road and tumbling into the steep ravine below. Just as it looked like the vehicle was going to fly over the edge, Lazaro was able to get control of the car again and turn it back onto the road. As he did, Aftonio began firing back at Ron, who was now weaving his Explorer to avoid getting hit. Ron heard one bullet slam into the right quarter panel of the Explorer and saw another one blow off the passenger side-view mirror. Again, Ron stuck his gun out his side window and pulled the steering wheel hard to the right to get a good angled shot. As the front of the Explorer turned to the right he emptied his Ruger’s magazine clip into the SUV in front of him. The shots apparently had some affect. The man who had been hanging out of the vehicle shooting at him was now slumped unconscious over the SUV’s passenger door half hanging out. A sick feeling raced briefly through Ron’s brain, but at the same time he saw the dark SUV accelerate again and slam into the back of the Lexus and turn it nearly sideways before Dr. Gillian straightened out his vehicle again.

Ron heard Joe yell over the radio, “Get the bastard off our backs before he kills us!” Instantly Ron floored the Explorer and once again slammed the nose of his passenger’s side front quarter panel into the back quarter panel of the SUV. The SUV rocketed off towards the left again, and as it did Aftonio’s body fell completely out the passenger’s side of the vehicle. As it did, Ron had no time to react and ran the Explorer over the body. There was a brief thud and crunch as the vehicle passed over Aftonio’s lifeless body. As Ron flinched at the sound, he saw the driver of the SUV make another attempt to prevent his vehicle from flying off the road and into the rocky void below. Unfortunately this time the driver was not so lucky. The vehicle slid off the edge of the road, in what looked like slow motion to Ron, and into the abyss below. 

Ron stomped on the Explorer’s brakes next to the edge of the road where the SUV had slid off and jumped out of the car. He ran to the road’s soft shoulder and carefully looked out over the precipice and into the rocky and wooded valley below. The car had fallen nearly a 1,000 feet and lie upside down engulfed in flames. Joe raced up to Ron with Dr. Gillian trailing just behind him.

“Jeez, they nearly killed us,” Joe blurted out in between breaths.

“That apparently was their plan,” said Ron in a disgusted and slightly unsettled look.

“Do you think we should call the police?” asked Dr. Gillian.

“No, I don’t think we need the attention right now and I have a pretty good feeling these guys were well connected in Washington,” responded Ron.

“Well what do we do with him?” asked Joe as he pointed over to the mangled corpse lying in the road.

Ron grimaced for a second at the thought of what he had to do. “We need to dispose of it immediately.”

Ron ran over to the twisted body and grabbed it by its feet. He then dragged the body to the edge of the road and pushed it over the edge of the precipice while Joe and Dr. Gillian looked on in dismay. Ron looked up at the two of them and asked, “Well did you have a better idea? Do you really think this guy was any cleaner than the other one that had gone over the cliff in the SUV? Hell, he was shooting at us. He had no intention of taking any of us in alive. They were certainly no law enforcement. They were hired guns, plain and simple.”

“You’re right,” said Dr. Gillian. “They would have killed us if Ron hadn’t done what he had done. I would bet my bottom dollar that they were connected to Barbas and indirectly to the administration in Washington.”

Joe shrugged his shoulders in agreement. With the three somewhat calmed down, they went back to the Lexus and replaced the blown out tire. Ten minutes later they were back on the road and continuing on their way to Cut Bank, Montana to catch up with Dave and Dana. The entire time that had passed, from when they were attacked by the two men in the dark blue SUV, to when they completed the Lexus SUV’s tire repair, not a single vehicle had passed by them. They had been very lucky thought Ron as he followed behind Dr. Gillian and Joe. Lucky that they had survived, and lucky that no one had witnessed the incident.  A chill ran down Ron’s spine though when he completed his last thought. He realized it wouldn’t be very long before the two men in the SUV were missed, and most likely they had at least reported the direction of their travel to their superiors. All he could do was hope that a helicopter or plane wouldn’t end up on their six o’clock position, or an overhead satellite identify and track them before they got to Cut Bank.

Fortunately the rest of the 10 hour journey went much smoother and they had no additional issues up to Cut Bank. Though all three were on constant high alert for the remaining part of the trip. They had kept in constant radio contact during the rest of the trip, and kept close eyes on any vehicle passing them or trailing them. Fortunately no one else seemed to have any interest in them as they drove on.

They made it into the Cut Bank, Montana facility around 3 pm that afternoon. Dave and Dana greeted them as they drove into the parking lot. Dave couldn’t help but notice the damage to Ron’s precious Ford Explorer. Ron had always kept the vehicle in pristine shape. Looking at the dented quarter panel and holes perforating the front windshield Dave immediately knew something had happened to them on their trip.

Ron explained the entire incident to Dave and Dana as all of them unloaded the vehicles and brought the equipment into the building. It was obvious now with two attacks in as many days on NSurv that the administration and its partners were onto them and were making every effort to quietly take them out.

“Dave, we’re not going to last much longer doing this before we get killed,” said Dana. “We have been marked for termination by the administration, without prejudice.”