Aztec Treasure
Bait and Switch

Spider Monkey’s POV

Arrowhead Pack, Minnesota

Vic came into our bedroom as I was getting out of the shower. It had been a long day in the office, and I was ready to sleep. “Frank made contact with Maria,” he told me. “He just got off the phone with Colletta. She listened to him, but she turned down his offer of asylum here.”

Damn. Doesn’t that girl know how dangerous it is out there? She’s a seventeen-year-old with a baby in the car, and the CIA isn’t fucking around here. If they can get Julio out of Federal prison and to a black site without a trace, they can snatch her without breaking a sweat. “She did well to hide as long as she did, but it’s crazy to go it alone with what we know!”

“Cats and dogs living together isn’t natural, and there are a lot of trust issues to get through,” Vic said as he pulled the sheets down for me. “Frank gave her some money, the driver’s license you prepared, and his card so she could call if she changes her mind. He also warned her that her car was compromised. Maria will buy a car using her new name, and she’ll leave the old one for us. Frank wants to dump it near the Mexican border in Texas to throw her off.”

“I’ll have to watch tomorrow in case her car trips any more cameras; there will be plenty of them in Texas.” Wait a minute. SHIT! I got back out of bed and started throwing some sweats on. “We need to talk to the Alphas and Frank NOW.”

“Why?”

“I’ve got an idea.” Vic linked everyone to let them know. “They’re in the pool, so don’t worry about getting too dressed.”

I put on some flip-flops and followed him out the door for the quick trip over to the pool area. Everyone was sitting on chairs around the wading pool, watching the little ones playing in the shallow water under the watchful gaze of parents and nannies. Colletta was here with her youngest son Chase and daughter-in-law Rori. She was lying in the shallow water in wolf form as the children splashed nearby. “Frank will be available in a few minutes; he’s talking to Frank Donovan.”

“How is Claire doing?” We all knew about the shootout in Denver.

Colletta set down her water glass, her other hand staying on her pregnant belly bulge. “My mate is trying to convince Frank to bring his girlfriend here to recover. You were right when you said we could use Claire on our team, and Frank Donovan’s one of his closest friends. I texted him to call me.”

“Frank would be an asset around here,” Chase agreed. “I was hoping maybe he’d find a mate with one of our females, but no such luck. If he has a human girlfriend, he can’t make the change.”

“That's him,” Coletta said as her phone rang. She answered him on one of our scrambled phones. “Hey, baby. I’m here with Chase, Rori, Vic, and Spider. Where are you?”

“Interstate 80, about an hour from the airport in Lincoln.” I knew just where that was. “I left two teams in Grand Island to maintain surveillance on Maria, and I just got off the phone with Frank. I think he’s interested, but we probably won’t hear back from him for a few days.” Cheryl walked over and sat in his lap, smacking the water with her palms as she giggled. “What’s going on, Spider?”

“You still have one team with the plane, right?”

“Yes, Beta Peter and Beta Louisa from Oxbow Lake.”

I knew both of them; Peter ran their security, and Louisa was his match in every way. “Vic told me you plan to dump Maria’s old car in Texas, right?”

“Yeah. I was planning to ask one of the Texas chapters to bring a trailer up and haul it to the border after Maria gets done with it.”

“Don’t do that, sir. Send Peter and Louisa instead.”

Everyone looked at me, and the phone was silent. Chase spoke first. “Why?”

“We’ve been so afraid of the CIA tracking the car down that we haven’t realized that we WANT the CIA to track the car down.”

Vic looked at me like I was crazy. “What? How is that safe?”

“We wait until Maria is out of town and headed in a different direction and give her a big head start. Louisa can dye her hair black and use makeup to darken her skin; it won’t be perfect, but with the right clothes and a hat, she would look a little like Maria. We put trackers on Louisa and the car, then have Beta Peter as a trail car. I can tell them where the traffic cameras are, maybe even get her pulled over once to get her in the system. The bad guys figure out she’s heading south, and we use Louisa as the bait to bring them in.”

Vic’s eyes got wide. “You want to get Louisa kidnapped?”

I shook my head. “I want them to take out Maria’s car. As soon as they see who is driving, they’ll know they have the wrong person. In the meantime, Peter can take them out, and then we’ll have a link back to the CIA and their black ops people.”

No one said anything for a minute, and then Frank spoke up. “I’m sure Donovan would LOVE to find some of those CIA assholes after the shootout. Plus, if we capture a CIA team operating domestically, it would give us evidence that the CIA is behind Christian's murder and Julio’s disappearance. Without hard evidence, those fuckers will keep denying it.”

We talked for a few more minutes before Frank closed it out. “It’s a good idea, Spider. I can’t force anyone to put his mate out there as bait, so I’ll have to ask the two when I get to Lincoln. If they don’t want to do it, I’ll ask our teams for volunteers, and they can replace the two on surveillance.”

“I need to be on with them to run support and monitor for reaction,” I said.

“Nothing will happen until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest,” Frank said. “People have to sleep, including me. We’ll need to rent a chase car and set up everything. Chase, talk to Alpha Michael soon and make sure he’s all right with the plan. If not, we can see if his people can replace ours.”

The phone call ended, and Chase took the phone back to the office to talk to the Oxbow Alphas.

“Let’s get you to bed,” Vic said as he picked me up. I waved goodbye and was in bed minutes later.

By lunchtime, it was all set. Maria bought a Toyota minivan when the dealer opened up and was on the road by lunchtime. Our teams trailed behind her as she drove east on Highway 30. It was the back way to Omaha, but we had no idea where she was going. I kept the tracker display on the wall monitor in my office displaying Maria’s location plus the two trail vehicles.

My office filled up in the late afternoon as the operation got underway. Frank Grimes was back and sitting on the couch with Colletta, both of them busy on their phones. Vic was sitting next to me, and Brian Steele was working the spare computer at the other end of the desk. We’d picked a simple route for them, leaving Grand Island to the south on Route 281 and following it to the border in McAllen, Texas. Brian and I had compiled a list of numbers to use; we could spoof our cellphone to appear to originate from anywhere along the route so it would end up at the right 911 center. We also had our hacks ready to get into the Department of Transportation computers in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. I wasn’t sure if the CIA would use the same DEA traffic camera database, but I’d identified every camera along the route.

Frank left his scrambled cellphone with Beta Peter, and he called us just before five. “We’ve eaten and gassed up, and we’re ready to go,” he told us. “I’m going to leave the line open and muted.”

“Sounds good,” Vic told him. “We’re showing the trackers, and we are ready to go. Any questions?”

“Our Alpha already warned us not to take too many risks,” Peter said. “We’ll drive casual until we attract attention, then I’ll move in. Both of us have tasers and pistols, and we know the mission priority is to capture the CIA team alive.”

The next few hours were uneventful. We followed their progress south into Oklahoma, making sure she hit the traffic cameras. I entered the computer system from Hastings, Nebraska, as if I was a police officer. I then simulated a traffic stop, including a check on the Colorado registration. If anyone were monitoring DMV records, it would set off the alarms.

“Bingo,” I said as I read the FAA update. I unmuted the phone so Peter could listen in, and he’d link everything to Louisa. “The FAA just approved a short-notice training mission for a drone flight out of Fort Riley in eastern Kansas. It’s flying west at five thousand feet to central Kansas, then performing a north-south search pattern before returning to base. It looks like a daylight-only flight.”

Frank was first to ask a question. “What do they fly out of Fort Riley, Brian?”

“Hang on.” Brian did a quick search. “The Army runs AAI RQ-7 Shadow drones, which have high-quality daylight cameras, forward-looking infrared, and laser designators. If the CIA is using the base, they could have something more advanced.”

“Daylight makes sense, as you can’t pick up a license plate with FLIR. I bet they are scrambling to get teams to her south, and they’ll use the drone to guide them in. Spider, see if you can find any recently-filed charter flights landing ahead of our people in the next few hours.” Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“I’m on it, sir,” I told Frank as I got back to work. We didn’t find anything before darkness came, but that didn’t prove they hadn’t taken the bait.

Peter came off mute. “We’re going to stop for dinner up at Smith Center, boss. Louisa saw a sign for Pete’s BBQ.”

“Copy that, Peter. Leave her car where it’s visible from the road, and don’t make it obvious you are together in case you have a tail.”

“This is some empty-ass territory, Spider. It’s no wonder this place is called tornado alley. Flat as a pancake, and there’s nothing to slow it down but a picket fence that blew down in the depression era.”

“Keep the phone and the guns close.” They teased us with their sampler plates, which made the pregnant woman hungry. Vic arranged for the kitchen to deliver dinners to us, as we weren’t leaving the room. Thirty minutes later, the sun was setting, and they were back on the road.

Russell, Kansas, was where we got the first hint that something might be in play. “We might have picked up a tail,” Peter reported. “Dodge Charger with two white males inside just whipped around and pulled in behind her.”

I ran the plates through the DMV database. “Registered to National Car Rental,” I said.

“That’s our boys,” Frank told them. “Stay far enough back that they don’t pick you up as a tail. How is Louisa doing?”

“She’s driving casual. She says the passenger is on his phone, and both men are in their thirties and look military.”

Twenty minutes later, we concluded they were following the car and waiting for something. Who rents a sports car and drives it at the speed limit? Either they were waiting for the right spot or waiting for more units to box her in. Peter was staying almost a mile back as they drove down the deserted road.

“Boss, the Charger just put a red flasher on and siren. They’re pulling her over.”

“Go dark and watch, Peter. Tell Louisa to keep the gun handy, and don’t let them pull her out of the car.”

“Roger that. She’s stopped now.” You could cut the tension with a knife. “Shit, what luck! A sheriff’s car just hit its light bar and is turning around to assist on the traffic stop.”

“This should be interesting,” Frank said. “They aren’t cops in a rental car.”

“SHIT! The Deputy is down, they hit him in the neck with something, and he dropped like a rock! Louisa took off, and those two are getting back into the Charger to pursue.”

“Follow Louisa,” I told him. “I’ll call in an Officer Down.” Everyone else in the room kept watching the trackers on the displayed map while I configured my phone to spoof a number from that area. I called 911. “Officer down, officer down, Highway 281 just south of Michael’s Road! The deputy was making a traffic stop, and some guy hit him in the neck with something, and he dropped like a rock! He’s in the ditch next to his cruiser!”

“Ma’am, are the men still there?”

“No, they took off southbound.” I gave them the make, model, and license number. “I’m about a half-mile behind them. Now crossing 220th, and these assholes are flying!”

I listened as she coordinated EMS and other units to intercept, including requesting a helicopter from the State Patrol. I kept them posted using the tracker to show where they were, insisting I was in no danger and I wasn’t going to let those men get away with this. I saw the dots change as Louisa left the main road. Peter reported that he could see multiple police vehicles approaching from north and south at high speed. I got back to the 911 operator. “They spotted the responding cars, officer. They’ve turned east off 281 onto a gravel road just past Northwest 130 Road,” I told her. “I’m not taking my baby on a dirt road, but those boys aren’t getting away in that.”

“Our units have them in view. Thank you for the assist.”

I hung up and listened as Peter described the chase through the field, ending with the Charger bottoming out in the pasture. Louisa kept going back to the road, turning towards 281 again once she reached 130. “Louisa says it’s like a cop convention,” Peter said. “We’re going to drive casual and get back on track. Sorry, boss. I didn’t expect them to take down a cop.”

“This could be better,” Frank said. “The locals will charge them with assault on the Deputy, and that’s a major felony. If their identifications don’t hold up, they’ll have more. You guys keep driving, and I’ll take care of the rest. Good job, and stay safe.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Frank got on the phone with the FBI director on his private number. I could hear how pissed he was, but he also could use this to his advantage. “We’ll get those two into Federal custody as soon as possible,” Director Patterson said. “Nice job, Frank.”

“Hugh, we want to tie the CIA to this kidnapping attempt and the death of Christian Porter. Don’t say anything about Julio, or he could end up in a shallow grave.”

“I’ll keep you posted.”

Frank got on the line with Peter and updated him. “What’s your plan now?”

Peter laughed. “There’s still sixteen hours of driving to the border. We’re going to drive for a couple more hours and find a hotel for the night.”

“Take your time,” Frank said. “And keep one person on watch in the hotel; we don’t know if there are more teams out there.”

We supported them until they stopped for the night, then the party broke up. It had been a hell of a day.

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