The Alberta Connection (11 page)

Doug tapped on the keyboard for several
minutes.

“John told me he hopes you are not offended
because he is interfacing with the FBI. He knows several key FBI
agents from the banking crisis. He can make one call and get things
done in a hurry. However, he said he would not be disturbed if you
want to take over liaison duties. I woke John up at 3:30 AM to tell
him about the vehicle switch. I don’t think he will mind if the
next time something happens, I call you first.”

Doug laughed and shut down his laptop.

Ryce looked over at Tanya and smiled. A
passenger in a wheelchair would account for a reduced daily
mileage. Now, where were they going?

Doug closed his laptop, looked over at Ryce,
stood, turned to leave the office, and then turned back to
Ryce.

“John says sticking a GPS on the vehicle was
a great idea. Let’s leave Hertz out of it.”

When Ryce held out his arms, Tanya walked
around the desk and sat in his lap. Ryce smiled.

“Now that we can track Diane and the three
musketeers, we can focus on the remaining unknown at the
cabin.”

Tanya planted a kiss on Ryce’s lips and
walked out of the office.

When Ryce walked into her work center to take
Tanya to lunch, Tanya’s group had still found nothing on the third
killer at the cabin. He was not showing up in the Navy service
record database, nor did it appear he even possessed a driver’s
license.

As they walked to the elevator, Tanya could
sense that Ryce was irritated. During the ride down to the
cafeteria, Ryce explained that he was still waiting for access to
four out of five military databases. The Army, Coast Guard, Marine,
and Air Force service heads were dragging their feet.

When Ryce and Tanya finished filling their
trays, John waved them over. Ryce selected a place directly across
from John, who looked across the table.

“I hear we made some progress this morning,
and the FBI got a GPS tracker on Diane’s new rental. That should
free up some time for other things. Unfortunately, I have not been
able to get the rest of the service heads to sign off on us playing
with their service records. The Navy was the only one who has
agreed to our requests, and I think it was because they know O2
works here. They do not want to irritate him or his minions. Did
you get the passwords, and did they give you anything?”

Ryce frowned.

“I got two names from the Navy database, but
according to the service records, they both died in Vietnam in
1975. So how could they be at the cabin? From what I could see when
I was at the cabin, the three knew how to use a weapon. But, there
is still one face we don’t have a name for.”

Ryce focused on his lunch for a few
moments.

“The two names I got were twin brothers. They
died in Bien Hoa, near Saigon, in March 1975. 1975 was a long time
ago. Where have they been since 1975?”

John smiled. “I am sure you will find the
answers.”

The remainder of lunch was eaten in silence.
How easy would it be to fall off the grid in 1975? And, in a
war-ravaged country that had just fallen to one of the most
repressive regimes in the world? Ryce frowned. Jane Fonda seemed to
enjoy what was to become the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Was there any way to find out where the three
killers had been since Vietnam? They had obviously been successful
in keeping secrets. Ryce chuckled. Doug could hack anything, but
even Doug could not hack into the records of the new Vietnam.

As Ryce slowly finished his lunch, he
contemplated the group of people he was working with. He continued
to be amazed by the things that were being accomplished. And, as he
had mentioned to Tanya one evening, he was very, very glad this
group was not on the other side of the conflict.

The afternoon passed quickly. The Mercedes
was easily tracked with the GPS installed by the FBI. Diane had
stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast and then the group had
taken I-70 West. If they continued on this interstate, their next
stop might be in Kansas City, MO.

Ryce looked around his office. The big
problem now was how to wait patiently.

Ryce checked his laptop time at 3:00 PM. He
still had lots of time to contemplate how to find the Lyste
brothers. He began to dose off. When he checked the time again, he
discovered it was after 7:00 PM. He walked to the conference room.
It was deserted. Where was everyone?

Ryce walked into the first office suite,
Suite 424. It was empty. He walked to the second office suite,
Suite 423. Also empty. He was getting a little concerned about his
wife and the members of the JBTF. Only one office suite remained to
be investigated. He walked into Suite 422.

At least nine people were huddled around one
of the 42-inch monitors. Ryce was extremely happy to see Tanya was
one of them. He could not see what they were watching and walked
closer. Tanya turned around.

“Did you know they have a feed here for
Monday Night Football on Thursday night? My Broncos are
playing.”

Chapter 15

When Ryce’s alarm
started ringing at 5:00 AM, he noticed that Tanya was already in
the shower. He got out of bed and joined her.

“You must have the same idea I have, to be in
the research center before 6:00 AM.”

Tanya laughed. “That was a brilliant idea you
had, to set up a betting pool on where Diane will stop for the
night. It gives everyone something to do besides work on what they
were assigned to do. There is over $60.00 on the board for the
person who guesses where Diane stops next. I’d like that
$60.00.”

Tanya wasn’t the only one who wanted the
money. When they arrived at the research center at 5:47 AM, at
least half of the group was already working on their assigned
projects.

After checking on all the members of his
team, Ryce walked to his office to check his email. He had one from
Matt Yearly. It had been sent at 5:01 AM. It was now 8:05 AM
according to the system clock on his laptop.

Ryce opened and read the email.

“
Ryce,

“
I hope things are going good for you and
Tanya in Idaho. It will be really good to get you back.

“
I am sorry to have to report that we lost
two agents, Brian Dodge and Wes Webb. They were sent to the cabin
last week to observe. Three days ago, they didn’t make their
scheduled report.

“
We contacted the Park Service. They sent
rangers in to check things out, and found the two agents wedged in
a culvert about a mile inside the park boundary. Both had been
shot.

“
In my humble opinion, the jackass running
this show has no damned idea what she is doing. And if she keeps
running things, we will have no one left.

“
And, I have another slightly sticky
problem that our local law enforcement brethren have asked me to
assist with. The Browning Police Department is missing three
laptops and two officers. The last radio transmission from the
officers was from north of Babb, many miles out of their
jurisdiction. Browning PD contacted someone at Homeland Security,
who said that I could help.

“
I got an email from Browning PD last
night. The crew cleaning the campgrounds near your favorite
mountain lake found two burned vehicles. When the VINs were run,
one of the vehicles belonged to the missing Browning officer. The
other vehicle had been stolen in Atlanta, Georgia, three weeks
ago.

“
If you did all of the Ranger things
needed to scout the area, you know it better than anyone I know.
Plus, you have assets I don’t have, and the Browning PD has a lot
of questions. Do you think you could put a team together and find
some answers?

“
Matt”

Ryce sat and stared at the laptop screen for
several minutes. He had two pressing questions. First, who is the
“jackass” that Matt had referred to? And, why is “she” getting JBTF
agents killed? This news was not going to make a happy day for
Tanya. Brian Dodge had been an important person in Tanya’s
life.

Second, was there anything he could do about
the Browning PD request? He had several people he could call to
check out the burned vehicle, but Browning PD probably had the same
forensic assets.

Ryce stared at the laptop screen for a few
minutes, and then began scanning his inbox to see if he had
misplaced an email. Matt surely would have used the proper name of
the “she” at some point in an email.

Ryce flipped through several pages of emails
in his inbox, looking for another email from Matt. Nothing. Had
Matt sent anything? Ryce wasn’t sure either way. He clicked on the
Deleted folder and found one sent three days earlier. Somehow, he
had accidentally deleted it. He was now glad he had set his Delete
folder to be manually cleaned. However, he needed to clean the
folder soon --- he had 734 emails in it. He quickly opened the
email from Matt.

“
Dear Ryce,

“
Congratulations on eventually becoming
the head of the Joint Border Task Force. We really need you. Now.
Not later.

“
Samantha Tanner has come over from some
government department and has taken over as head of the JBTF. I
think she said it was the FBI. So far, she hasn’t done anything
stupid, but she talks about doing things that are stupid.

“
First, she wants permanent eyes on the
cabin, up where you had your observation post. She says we can
rotate two people in there every two weeks.

“
Second, she wants to do an assault on the
cabin. I have no idea where the assault idea came from. I hope I
changed her mind. I have people watching the roads going into the
cabin, and nothing is happening. But, now she says maybe they are
coming in by helicopter. Is she out of her mind? Anyone within ten
miles of the cabin can hear a helicopter. They are just not that
quiet.

“
Please get through the training and take
over the reins.

“
Matt”

Ryce read both emails from Matt several
times. He had never heard about anyone named Samantha Tanner at the
FBI. He made a mental note to see what John knew. John had many
friends in the FBI. But, Ryce had a more important project. He
needed to talk to Tanya.

Ryce frowned. He wasn’t sure how he was going
to tell Tanya about Brian. Tanya and Brian had spent too many years
together. He slowly got up, walked into Tanya’s office, took her
hand, led her to his office, and shut the door. After he asked her
to sit, Ryce sat beside her, and told her about Brian.

Tanya’s first reaction was to squeeze Ryce’s
hand so hard he thought he might lose feeling in it. After a few
moments, she threw her arms around his neck and began sobbing.

The sobbing gradually diminished. Tanya
reached over to Ryce’s desk and pulled several tissues out of the
box. She slowly removed all her makeup, which, to Ryce’s
astonishment, was not a lot.

Tanya walked over to the apartment-sized
refrigerator, pulled out two cans of Dr. Pepper, handed Ryce one,
and popped the tab on the other.

“Brian and I met in the first grade. He gave
me my first kiss. We were high school homecoming royalty two years
in a row. I wanted five children, each one named with a letter of
his first name.

“His parents moved to Tucson, Arizona, the
day after we graduated from high school. Two days later, I applied
at the University of Arizona and got a full ride scholarship. Brian
had to go to a community college for a year before they let him
into the U of A.

“We graduated pretty high in criminal justice
and were both accepted into the FBI. We specified we wanted to be
together, but they put us on two different coasts for almost two
years. He was sent to Georgia, and I was sent to San Diego. When
they opened the Joint Border Task Force to FBI agents, we applied
independently. We didn’t tell anyone that we were a pair and kept
it quiet for about a year.”

Tanya paused, stood, and walked from the
office. Ryce considered his options and decided this was a good
time to visit the men’s room. When he returned to his office, Tanya
was applying makeup. Ryce thought she would be removing everything
again when she cleaned up a second round of tears.

“I was trying to make a baby all four years
in college, doing anything I could do to get pregnant. Nothing
worked. Then we were apart. When we got back together, I started
trying to get pregnant again. I wanted his babies.

“A few months before you came to train the
agents, he had been tested, and they said he was sterile. I was not
going to have a baby made by Brian. We talked about adopting. Then
we talked about finding an artificial insemination program. We
finally decided to steal a kid off the street. He just got more and
more distant.

“One day after we split up, I was cleaning
out the closet, and found some letters. They were from a woman I
had never heard about, someone he had a relationship with when he
was in Atlanta. She didn’t want any children and had asked him to
have a vasectomy. He got one. They had broken up just before he
applied to the JBTF.

“He couldn’t make babies with me because he
got his tubes tied, not because he was actually sterile.”

She started crying again, and grabbed a
tissue. All of the makeup she had carefully applied was
removed.

“He got a call at the office about a year
after we moved in together. He would never tell me what the call
was about or who it was from. I checked his phone records and got a
name. It wasn’t until after we broke up that I chased down the
name. The call was from the Atlanta office of the FBI. I made a
call to the number and asked about the name I had. I effectively
pieced together the facts that I had. The woman he had tied his
tubes for had been killed in a shoot out. She was also FBI. By that
time, Brian and I were not talking.