I headed across town opposite of the location of the motel I was just in. On the way, I made multiple turns to see if anyone was following me, but saw no one on the streets and no cars that appeared to be following me.
I moved as quickly as I could while trying to avoid speeding. I headed for a small grocery store I’d picked out on the other side of town and pulled in the parking lot next to a minivan, the kind that soccer moms drive. I pulled up to it and turned off my second rental, waiting to see if there was any movement around me. None I could see.
Finally satisfied that no one was following me, I headed slowly back to the highway and out of town.
CHAPTER 11
Jansen was almost looking forward to reporting what had just happened to his men. It didn’t matter to him that Atlanta was three hours ahead of him — about 4 a.m. in Georgia. The phone call was going to be embarrassing, but not for him. The people at Waxman Industries were sure this had been a good idea from the outset. They’d wanted to send a signal to Nick, to intimidate him¾but attempting to do so by beating him up was just stupid. Jansen had pointed that out but was overruled. This wasn’t a setback of any significance, but he’d have to be more careful now. He’d lost a measure of control over the situation and would have to find a way to compensate for that.
He got out his satellite phone and dialed Waxman Industries. He’d met the man who was his contact in Atlanta only once after they’d finalized the plan for the job. He’d insisted on this. He didn’t want the man hiding behind the phone, so he’d goaded him into a meeting. He also knew it would be easier to intimidate the man in person than on the phone. Intimidation was important in this line of business. And so it was to Jansen.
That meeting had been in a roadhouse in Arizona, along Highway 40. The man from Atlanta seemed to know a good deal about him, which made him wonder how he came by his information. The company had good intel on him… things that only the military would know.
The job Waxman Industries wanted him for was to lead a team of company men on a mission that the Waxman executives felt he was uniquely qualified for. He was to get inside The Headlands power plant and take control of the facility. His contact had given him some information as to why Waxman wanted this done, but Jansen knew he wasn’t getting the whole reason. He didn’t like operating with incomplete information, but he didn’t seem to have a choice.
Taking over a nuclear power plant wasn’t going to be easy. Although it was only a civilian facility, nuclear power plants were well protected. You didn’t just walk in with a gun and hold them up. They had layers of security that he would have to beat. They’d have security staff that carried loaded guns and were prepared to shoot to kill if necessary. It took time, planning, and money… lots of money. In addition to the job itself, he was being paid handsomely for his work. He was making more on this one job than he had his entire tour in the military. But it would have had to be a significant sum for him to take the risk this job required. As it happened, Jansen was looking for work. So he agreed to take this on.
After that meeting, Jansen did some research on Waxman Industries. He found the usual boilerplate, which of course made the company look respectable on the outside. To anyone not looking further, there was nothing to arouse suspicion. He found it was a private corporation specializing in brokering the buying and selling of component parts used in commercial electrical power plants, including those used at the large nuclear power plants. They did business with a variety of countries, but it appeared their major client was China.
When the phone rang in Atlanta, it was again answered with a trite, “Yes?”
“This is Jansen.”
“Yes?”
“We sent Connor a message, as you directed me to do earlier.”
“And?”
Jansen paused before he continued. “It didn’t go quite as you’d expected.”
The voice on the other end of the phone showed no emotion whatsoever. “What exactly do you mean?”
“Those boys you sent me confronted him in a bar. They’re now in a hospital. I told you not to underestimate Connor. It probably would have worked just fine if I’d had my own hand-picked men, instead of these boys of yours.”
One condition of the job was that Jansen had to use men provided by Waxman Industries. These men were already a known commodity to Waxman, had been screened and had done jobs for them in the past. The experience from those jobs provided them with training in how to take orders and a good enough reason to stay physically fit. Jansen would have preferred to have his own men — ones he knew and had worked with before — but he’d agreed to use theirs — reluctantly. And now look at them. Before today, he would have said they looked like a capable lot.
“We hired you to coordinate this effort and implement the plan, not to complain about the resources provided. The men at your disposal are all well trained, I can assure you. Perhaps it’s leadership that is lacking.”
Jansen ignored the intended slight. “Leadership of this mission is fine. I’m just going to have to provide more oversight of the team.
The man from Waxman sounded a bit irritated. “What’s your next move? Are we still on track, or do you anticipate any more unexpected activities?”
Jansen thought about a pithy response but decided it would be best not to provide the man at Waxman with any more reasons to criticize his performance. “We’re on track.”
“Very well. Call me when the next phase is complete.” With that, the line went dead.
Jansen hung up the phone, pushed back in his chair, put a toothpick in his mouth, and smiled.
CHAPTER 12
I’d scouted out a safe house when I first got into town. I always had a backup plan when on assignment. This time, my backup plan included a small cabin in the woods that was off the beaten path — one that I’d previously rented remotely through an online realty agent. As far as the agent knew, I was just a guy looking to be alone in the woods to do God knows what, which is nothing unusual for northern California. I wanted to blend in. Be invisible in plain sight, which would be easy to do here in this little backwater community.
The house was in an area where there was no cell service. That was intentional on my part and didn’t concern me because I traveled with a satellite phone. The lack of cell service limited communications by anyone else, though, so I was sure no bad guys would want to be out here. Should any of them actually stumble upon me, they’d have bigger concerns than just communications. Since my run-in with the men in The Tavern, I was on alert now and would not be an easy target.
When I arrived at the cabin, I got out of the car and took out my weapon, holding it in my left hand and just let it hang low by my side, having decided it would be better to have it in my hand than not. I looked around to see if there were any signs that anyone had been here since I was a week ago. The door appeared to still be locked and the ground looked unremarkable, which was reassuring, but only to a point. I went inside and paused for a moment to listen — another activity that many people don’t do. I just stood still for a moment but didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.
I crossed over to a closet, locked with my own padlock. Seeing it intact and nothing else being out of place, I put my weapon away and opened the closet to look for the small, secure gang-box I’d left there. I pulled it out and put it on the kitchen table, opened it, and spread out the contents, including an assortment of communications gear, a computer loaded with programs you can’t get at Best Buy, a satellite up-link, my satellite phone, additional weapons and ammunition, some ‘traveling money’ as I call it, several passports, and a few other items.