Chapter 19 (end Bk 1)

THE MEETING

Jose Garcia and Billy Williams each rode with 5 of their closest people in separate cars south from the freeway for 4 miles. Jose was driving and when the odometer said 4 miles he applied the brakes. Billy’s car pulled up beside Jose’s car and left his lights on. Billy told his men to grab the chairs and set them up. Jose did the same. The chairs were set up in the lights facing each other. 12 chairs were set up, Jose and Billy walked toward each other and stopped when they were close enough to shake hands. They stood there and looked at each other for several minutes. Each wanted the other to make a move of some kind. They were looking into each other eyes. Jose and Billy both decided that enough was enough, time to do something. They both winked at the other and both laughed. They shook hands and sat down.

The others stood staring at the rival gang members. Jose and Billy both felt at ease. They both believed that this meeting was going to make history. The two biggest gangs in West Valley were going to cooperate, work together, and become bigger and stronger. Billy was telling Jose about his dream of absorbing all of the little gangs. He grimaced, sneered and said, “They will join us or die.” At that instant, Billy’s face dissolved. An instant later Jose heard a “Clap” in the distance. Too late, Jose realized that the “Clap” was a silencer. One of Billy’s men drew his pistol and shot Jose in the chest. Jose’s last thought was, ‘This is a set up, Mickel has tricked me!’

+++++++++++++++

AARON

By 11 PM Aaron had seen a lot of cars pull off the freeway. He had lost count of the number. Two of them drove straight south. If they veered to the right or left, Cole would not be in firing range. With the old tracks going straight, they had assumed that the gang bangers would stop within Coles range. At that distance, Aaron couldn’t see what was going on. He got ready; he pulled his rifle and attached the night scope. He opened the little shooting window in front and lifted the rests into place.
Through the scope, the Mexicans and blacks were standing around in groups of 5 to 10. There were probably 30 to 40 people there. They were warily watching each other. Suddenly, they all tensed; Aaron figured they had heard gunfire from the south. Aaron squeezed the trigger and a big black guy with silver chains and a nasty scar on his face fell over. From the position of his mouth, Aaron assumed that he was screaming. At that point all hell broke loose. Aaron watched as every person there pulled out his gun and started shooting. The Mexicans were getting the best of the blacks, so Aaron knocked down a few of the Mexicans. It was down to 3 Mexicans still standing. Aaron calmly picked each of them off. When one would fall, the others would fire at the bodies lying around thinking that there were still some who were still shooting at them. Another fell, the last guy was shooting as fast as he could into each body that looked like it still held life. And then there was none!

Aaron watched for a few minutes through the scope. No one moved. He pulled onto the freeway and started toward the exit. As he pulled off, there were bodies everywhere. None of them were moving. He pulled through them trying to avoid running over any of them. He opened his windows to listen for any shooting coming from the south. He couldn’t hear anything.

As his odometer approached 4 miles, he slowed down. He saw a man standing in the tracks beside the two cars. Thankfully it was Cole. There were bodies lying all around the cars. Cole got in and said, “Nothing better than a good plan. What took you so long? I was done here and could hear shooting for a long time…maybe 2 or 3 minutes!”
Laughing Aaron said, “Cole I would like you to meet Mickel.” Aaron then told him exactly what happened up at the exit ramp. Cole then related what had transpired since he got out of the motor home.

“When you left me, I got down in my fox hole and settled in. I made a chair and it was almost comfortable. I was thinking that I took the wrong position. You were in a nice climate controlled chair watching the sun go down in beautiful, barren western Utah. The only vegetation was a few scraggly bushes along the road and off in the distance. In the hole, it was getting warm, especially if I put the blanket over me. I saw 2 cars coming toward me, so I put the blanket over my head and hoped they wouldn’t run over me. They only missed me by about 20 feet! They turned around somewhere to the south and came back toward me. This time they were closer. I figure probably 10 feet this time! Anyway, any miss is as good as a mile. I could see the lights gathering at the exit ramp.

Then I saw the two sets of lights coming toward me. I hoped their odometer was the same as ours. They pulled up about 100 yards from me. The cars pulled up beside each other. 6 people got out of each car. Somebody put 12 chairs folding chairs up, 6 facing 6 in the light. The lights raised hell with my scope. I turned off the night scope until most of the shooting was over. Anyway, Garcia and Williams stood there and looked at each other for a few minutes then laughed, sat down there and were talking. It seemed to be a nice quiet meeting, so I decided it was time to liven it up a little. I wanted to see if I could line them up so that I could get them both with one shot, but they didn’t cooperate. Billy Williams had this sneering look on his face, so I shot him first. Then like you described, all hell broke loose. I shot out the lights so that I could turn the night scope back on. By that time there were only 2 black guys still standing. I plugged one and the last one was shooting in all directions. One bullet came awfully close to me. So I dropped him. I was still watching them as I saw you start coming this way. They’re all dead. I picked up a few of the better 9 MM pistols for our collection. I also picked up my cartridges and filled in the fox hole. We need to get back on the freeway and head for the office. Can you imagine the publicity when this carnage is reported? I hope it takes a little time so that our tracks are at least partially filled in?

Aaron pulled back through the bodies strewn around the clearing between the cars. “I think that I only ran over 1 of those bodies. Hope he doesn’t mind.”
As they drove down the ramp and onto the freeway, Mickel said, “I don’t believe what I just saw. How could 2 guys take out about 40 heavily armed gang members? Who are you guys?”

“I’m afraid that we can’t tell you who we are. There are some newspaper stories about Robin Hood.”

“Robin Hood, you’re kidding! Everybody is talking about you! I’ve read all the reports in the paper and watched the stories on TV when I could. That’s so cool. I can’t believe that Robin Hood is a couple of white guys! I just knew that you had to be Hispanic!”

“It’s true, a lot of what you read in the newspaper is slanted and sometimes complete fiction, but in the case of the stories about Robin Hood, they’re pretty much accurate,” said Aaron.

“It’s our turn to ask you the same question, but before we do, please don’t tell us any names of your police contact. You’re obviously undercover. Anyway, tell us about you and how you got to be here tonight.”

“My police contact gave me a code name to use, so I’ll use it when I get to that point.” Mickel went through his life starting when he and his family came to America. He finished with how he told “Paul” about the meeting and was told not to go, and when he said there was no way out of it, he was told to sneak out of the “Killing Zone” and go back to the motor home.”

It sounds like your police contact is looking out for you. I’m glad you got the word. How did you manage to not be included in the group that was meeting out away from the rest of them?

“When I got the word from Paul to find a way to stay away from the meeting, I tried to get excused from the meeting, Jose got really mad and even though I had been his number 1 for years, he decided that I was a coward and he didn’t want me to be in the Elite circle that was going to make history as they met with the 6 from the other gang. The rest of the gang all picked up the idea and wouldn’t talk to me or even look at me. When I went to take a leak and snuck down under the overpass, I don’t think anybody missed me at all. In their minds, I was already dead. They figured that Jose would find a reason to have me killed. Jose wouldn’t tolerate any cowardice or hesitation when he ordered something to be done. Good thing he got mad at me, or I would be dead.”

“Yep, if you had been in either group when the shooting started, you wouldn’t be sitting here talking to us.”

“I just can’t believe it. I’m sitting and talking to Robin Hood. It would be so cool if I could tell somebody.” He hesitated and added, “You know, all of my friends were members of the gang. The only people left who I considered friends are my family. I wonder what “Paul” has planned for me now.”

“I would guess this would be a perfect time to become a legal American and go to college and get an education. Going to school somewhere a long way from here would be a good idea I would think,” said Cole. “It just occurred to me, does the gang have any money lying around.”

“Wow, I had forgotten about that. Yes, there is quite a lot of it in the office. Jose didn’t trust banks and didn’t know where to put it. He said that “one of these days he was going to go to the Bahamas or Switzerland and make a big deposit. I’m the only person, except Jose, that knows where it’s at or how to get it. I don’t remember the address, but I can direct you there.”

They drove to a seedy part of Salt Lake City, pulling up to what looked like an old abandoned warehouse. A chain link fence was locked with a big combination lock. Signs were posted all along the fence BEWARE OF DOGS. When they pulled up to the gate, 2 huge Dobermans ran at them growling and snarling. Mickel told them to “shut up”; they stopped snarling and laid down whining, watching Mickel and waging their tails like little puppies.

“If Jose got rid of me, he would have to kill these dogs. I’m the only person who can handle them. Since we put them in here, we haven’t had anybody get over the fence. Before the dogs, there was always somebody snooping around the building.”
They drove to a side door. It was chained with another big combination lock. Mickel unlocked it and they drove the motor home inside. Mickel closed the door and locked it from the inside. He flipped on the lights. Cole and Aaron were amazed. The inside of the old ratty looking warehouse looked like a modern, spotless laboratory. Tables with bright lights and scales were lined up along one wall. Other tables were lined up in rows. Most of the tables were piled high with different kinds of drugs. They recognized cocaine and crak. Mickel identified the others as whatever the latest designer drug the market wanted.

“The people who worked in here were all illegals and were paid an hourly rate of $10 per hour.” Mickel directed them into the next room. Tables lined the wall. This time there were suitcases of cash.

“We, the gang, Jose, were supposed to pay the drug supplier tomorrow. Those suitcases are all supposed to be picked up by armed people at 10 AM in the morning. When they show up and can’t get in the building there will be hell to pay. Since I’m the only member of the gang still alive, they’ll come after me, if they knew I’m still alive.”
In that case, we must talk to “Paul” and make sure that he positively identifies you as one of the dead bodies that will be recovered sometime tomorrow,” said Cole. “How much money is here?”

“Probably about $1.5 million. There should be about that much more in Jose’s safe.”
“Where’s the safe?”

“You’re standing on it. Move over here.”

Mickel opened the fuse box on the wall. He pushed two buttons at the same time and the floor opened up. Then an elevator raised a large walk in safe up to floor level. A combination lock was on the front of it. Mickel unlocked the door and swung it open. “I was worried that he may have changed the combination.” As the door opened, Mickel said something in Spanish and then said, “That son of a bitch! You can tell approximately how much money is in here by counting the briefcases. From the money that he split with the gang members, I figured that he had approximately $1.5 million. Each suitcase has $250,000 in it. There are 16 suitcases that I can see. There is at least $4 million in here! If the gang knew that he was cheating them, he would not have lived as long as he did.”

Looking at the floor of the safe, Aaron noticed a piece of plywood that seemed out of place at the bottom of a steel safe. “Is there something beneath that plywood?”
Mickel handed Cole and Aaron the briefcases and lifted the plywood. “How much is a bar of gold bullion worth?”

“How many bars are in there,” asked Aaron?

“I count 8 of them.”

“Does anybody have any idea what the value of gold is,” asked Mickel?
“I heard a commercial that said that gold is priced at about $800 or more per ounce. How heavy are the bars?”

Mickel picked up a bar. “I would guess one bar would weigh about 25 pounds. I’m pretty good with math. So 8 times 25 would be 200 pounds. 200 pounds times 16 would be 3200 ounces. 3200 ounces times 800 is just about 2.5 million. So with my rough math, if gold is worth $800 about, the value would be approximately 2.5 million dollars. What are we going to do with all of this money and gold?”

“We’ll take it and store it away. We’ll figure what to do with it later. For now, let’s get it loaded in the “Tank”,” said Cole.

They wiped down everything that they could remember touching, pulled the motor home out of the warehouse, locked it up, locked up the front gate, and drove out toward the office.

“I hate to leave those 2 dogs, but I don’t know what else to do with them.”

“When the bag men show up for the money, the dogs will keep them out of the warehouse. The police will be there to take the bag men down and will also handle the dogs. I would expect they will shoot them with tranquilizer darts and go from there. I think that you should call Paul and fill him in on what has happened and what’s about to happen. Leave out the part about how much money and gold we have in the motor home unless he asks. If he asks, then tell him. I don’t think that he’ll want to know the amount.” Cole handed his cell phone to Mickel.

Mickel called “Paul” and went through what had happened so far. He was more excited about being with Robin Hood than anything else that had happened during the last 12 hours. “He wants me to stay with you until he can make some arrangements. As far as anyone can know, I was killed last night. Even my parents can’t know that I’m still alive. If there is any shred of evidence that’s found that will link me to the theft of the money and the gold, the drug organization won’t rest until they find me. I have over $100,000 in my bank account. “Paul” will make sure that my parents get it. I had put them down as beneficiaries on the bank paperwork. That way if the bad guys somehow find out about the bank account, it will still look like I’m dead.”

They pulled into the secure parking area behind the FREEDOM PLUS office and parked. “Since the girls don’t think that we will be home until at least early Tuesday, I guess we should get comfortable. Mickel, you can sleep in the fold out bed in the back or there is another fold out bed above the front seats, take your pick.”

+++++++++++++++

SALT FLATS GUNFIGHT

Byron James, a Utah State Trooper with 8 years experience on the force, pulled off Interstate 80, Exit #6. It was about 6:30 AM. He liked this patrol route. Most nights between midnight and 8 AM, he drove back and forth between Salt Lake City and the Nevada State line with very little action. Tonight he had been taking care of all kinds of problems near Salt Lake City. First it was helping out with a drunk driving stop, then he got caught up in an accident where a trucker went to sleep, went off the freeway, across the median and up on the opposite lane, hitting another truck head on. A car that was following the truck had been pinned under the wreckage. By the time it was all cleaned up and the paperwork completed, it was almost time to head home for the night.

One trip out to Wendover, and back, and he would be done for the night. He stopped at the Exit #6 stop sign, yawned, and pulled across the freeway. He checked the freeway to see if some drunken gambler was on his way back to Salt Lake City trying to break some speed records. He usually nailed two or three per night out here. There were no headlights coming toward him. His gaze swept back in front of him and he noticed some cars sitting in the clearing against the highway boundary fence. The next thing he noticed in the headlight beam was a pair of tennis shoe covered feet sticking out beyond one of the cars. “It’s going to be a long day” he said to himself as he flipped on his overhead lights and pulled closer.

The combined dispatch service received the call at 6:34 AM. It had been relayed to the office by the salt flats relay station. “Request all available law enforcement, crime scene teams and medical emergency personnel to respond. Multiple deaths at mile marker #6, Interstate 80 East of the Nevada State Line. No survivors encountered, cancel life flight emergency response.” We need 31 body bags, probably should bring a few extra just in case. Tow trucks are also needed. 11 vehicles are parked at scene.” People monitoring the police dispatch communications, immediately took note. 31 body bags! The feeding frenzy that ensued in the news departments of the big radio and TV stations in Salt Lake City was conducted amid chaos. 31 body bags needed at one location?

Every available police officer on the west side of Salt Lake County dropped whatever duty they could drop and sped toward the Nevada State Line; they were followed by reporters and cameramen from all TV and radio stations. Traffic report helicopters immediately headed west and cancelled all live traffic reports until further notice.
The traffic on west bound Interstate 80 is usually sparse from Salt Lake City West to Tooele this time of day as most traffic is eastbound toward Salt Lake City. This morning I-80 was filled to the brim with law enforcement vehicles, ambulances, tow trucks, and news vehicles from radio, TV stations and newspapers. The news people all wanted to be the first one on the scene and make that first “Exclusive Live on the Scene Report.”

The helicopters arrived first, circling the area and taking pictures of the carnage below. 12 cars and 31 bodies were displayed for all to see on the TV Special Report. The Special Report was picked up and rebroadcast nationwide. It’s not every day that the American people are treated to a spectacle like this. Storms can sometimes generate this kind of body count, and soldiers at war, but these are civilians! News directors at every news outlet in Utah and many in neighboring states went live to cover all of the information coming in from the Utah salt flats.

The first law enforcement personnel arrived soon after the helicopters and helped Byron James block the road going down to the crime scene and put up the yellow crime scene tape all around the cars and bodies and prepare for the onslaught of news people that they knew were on the way.
The helicopter footage was being fed to the TV and Radio stations. The reporters who had arrived on the scene were trying to get good pictures and to get some law enforcement people on camera. It was a huge unmanageable mass of confusion. Reporters and cameramen were milling around the taped off area on foot trying to get that picture that would make him or her famous.

Major Stan Collins of the State Police arrived by helicopter to take charge and be the spokesman to the media. “All we know at this point is that there are 31 dead people scattered around the area. We assume it’s some kind of gang activity based on the tattoos on the bodies. It appears that there are a nearly equal number of Hispanic and Black bodies. That’s all we know at this point. I’ll conduct a follow up news report in 30 minutes. I’ll take some questions then.”
The State Police helicopter took off and swung to the east on its way back to Salt Lake City. It suddenly veered to the south and hovered. By radio, the State Police helicopter pilot called in, “I just spotted 2 more cars about 4 miles south of the crime scene as I was taking off. You had better send somebody down here. I count another 12 bodies around these cars down here! Bryon James came up to Major Collins and told him, “Your helicopter pilot just spotted 2 cars and another 12 bodies about 4 miles south. You can see him hovering there now. Do you want him to land there or send someone from here down there?”

“Tell the helicopter to come back here and land. Would you go down there and take a look for me. I would rather not spread this bunch of news hounds out any more than they are already. Since we have the entrance to the salt flats blocked, the clowns should not be able to drive down there anyway. But I know reporters, if they find out there are more bodies down there, some of them will find a way to go down there. I’m surprised that we haven’t had one of their helicopters down there already.”
Officer James couldn’t get his cruiser out of the blockade, so he borrowed a car from a late arriving Highway Patrol officer and drove through the gate and the 4 miles down to the 2nd crime scene. One of the news helicopters followed him. ‘Well, you uncorked the bottle again. That’s twice in one day. Let’s hope there isn’t a third.’ He turned on the radio to listen to the “LIVE ON THE SCENE COVERAGE” from the station that was identified on the door of the helicopter following him. The excited talking head was telling about new developments.

“Two more cars have been spotted by our helicopter and there are more bodies there. A Utah State cruiser is driving up to the scene now. Our reporter in the sky counts 12 more bodies! That makes a total of 43 bodies between the two locations!” James turned off the radio. He looked back toward the highway and could see all of the other helicopters heading his way. He got out of the car and walked around the scene. It was similar to the one back at the highway. Not as many cars and bodies, but there were guns and spent cartridges scattered everywhere. He did see a difference. Back at the highway, there were a few automatic rifles. Down here there were only pistols. This must have been a high level meeting place between the two gangs. He checked the bodies again. There were 6 Black and 6 Hispanic bodies. The interesting thing was that from the placement of the bodies, it appeared that the last 2 men standing were both black. It was obvious to him that one was shot in the head and fell over one of the Hispanics, and then the other was shot in the head and fell across both of them.
“What scenario would account for 2 members of the same gang being shot last after everyone else was already dead?” He walked around and around the scene. He found what looked like a raked or brushed line in the salt going out about 100 yards ending in a roughly 15 foot circle that also appeared raked or brushed. In the middle of the circle was a smaller circle that looked like it could be about the size of a fox hole. It was softer here. That indicated that a hole had been dug and then filled back in.

“My guess is that there was someone out here waiting for the meeting. That someone had dug a hole in the salt, and probably covered himself in the hole with a white sheet or blanket. When the meeting was in progress, this person probably plugged one of the chiefs. That would trigger everyone else to start shooting. Then the shooter would pick off anybody left standing. Sounds good to me, but the chief will never buy it. I don’t think that I’ll even tell the boss my theory. He would just tell me that I have an overactive imagination. If the detectives suggest something like my theory, I’ll be surprised.”

James drove back to the freeway and reported to Major Collins the facts as he saw them. “2 more vehicles, 12 more bodies. 6 Hispanic and 6 black. From the damage to the bodies, I estimated that all had been shot with either large caliber pistols or high powered rifles. From what I could see, there were 3 of them shot in the head and died of a single massive injury. All others were shot in the chest area and had multiple gunshot wounds. I can’t be sure but it looked to me that the first one shot and the last 2 shot were the head wounds.”

“It sounds like you have an idea about how this all came down.”

“Yes I do, but I’m not a detective. If I give them my opinion, it would only confuse the process and they would resent it and do everything they can to come up with another theory. I would rather keep my opinion to myself and when they’re done with the investigation and report, I’ll see if I think they missed anything.”

“That’s probably a good idea. We all must follow established procedures,” said Collins.

Officer James thought to himself, ‘The investigating detectives are not likely to come up with anything. For one thing, I walked all over the second crime scene. The brushed and raked salt track now has my footprints all over it. I wonder if they would have noticed it if I had not walked all over the area.’

Collins announced his scheduled news briefing, “Ladies and Gentlemen, as you probably are aware, we have located another 12 bodies and 2 more vehicles 4 miles south of here. Cause of death for those bodies is consistent with these up here. It appears that another gang gun battle was going on down there at about the same time it was going up here. Do you have any questions?”

“Why do you think it happened out here?”

“This location is perfect for a neutral place to meet. Look around, if you were being careful can anybody sneak up on you without your knowledge?”

“Is it possible that someone did sneak up on these people and killed them?”

“Anything is possible. The crime scene teams are going over both crime scenes with a fine tooth comb. Plus we are checking the bodies and the guns and will be trying to match up which gun shot which bullet that killed with body. With the number of bodies, that’ll take days. My opinion is that these gangs came here for a secret meeting, probably to split up their territories. One of the people was trigger happy and got nervous and started shooting. When the shooting stopped, everyone had been hit and everyone died.”

“Is that the official cover story?”

“No, like I said, it’s my opinion.”

“Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

“I’m not sure anybody anywhere has seen anything like this. That’s all for now; if anything new develops, I’ll make a public announcement.”

The headlines across the whole country and in some foreign countries centered about the 43 bodies discovered in Western Utah near the Nevada state line. Police are investigating the crime scene and preliminary reports are that 2 West Valley gangs, one Hispanic and one Black, met in a remote location on the salt flats and had an old fashioned shoot out. It appears that none of either gang survived. Requests for additional follow up information were received by all news outlets. This was the biggest news for days. None of the gang members carried identification of any kind.

“Anyone who thinks that they can provide a positive identification should contact the Utah State Police.”

Detective Rizzo went to the morgue. He found the dead body of a young Hispanic male that resembled Mickel Hernandez. He personally provided a positive identification. He then called Mickel’s family and told them if they wanted a funeral for Mickel, it should be a closed casket because of the condition of the body. He then ordered the coroner to seal the casket and make sure that it stayed sealed. He wanted to tell Mickels’ parents that he was alive, but didn’t dare. Their grief must be sincere and verifiable because there would be drug people watching. Since Mickel would be in hiding for years, Rizzo planned on coming back sometime after the funeral and tell his mother and father that Mickel had provided a valuable service for the police and would be in hiding for many years to come. Mickel would be coming to see them, but not for a few years. At that same time he was going to give them Mickel’s bank book.

Monday morning at the warehouse in Salt Lake City, the two bag men drove up to the fence, expecting the gate to open for them. They were greeted by 2 Dobermans who appeared to be viscous and hungry. In truth, they were well fed and were looking for Mickel. One of the bag men was reaching for his cell phone when 3 police cars with sirens and blinking lights pulled up behind and beside them. Per Cole’s prediction, the police shot both dogs with tranquilizer darts and cut the lock on the gate and on the warehouse. The bag men refused to say anything as they were locked in the back of 2 police cruisers.

Inside the warehouse the tables with the piles of drugs had not been disturbed. There was one suitcase full of smaller bills leaning up against one of the table. The police confiscated the drugs and the money. A little research revealed that this warehouse was leased to Jose Garcia. Jose Garcia was the head of the Mexicano gang and he had been killed in that salt flat shootout earlier in the day. The police reported that this was the largest single drug bust in the history of Utah. The police were asked how they found out about the warehouse, “It was the result of long term, painstaking, excellent police work by dedicated public servants.”

A 2nd police investigation unit covered all of the known associates, family and friends of the Soul Power gang. After 8 hours of painstaking police work and follow-up they located the distribution point. Inside was almost as much drugs waiting to be process and delivered. There was more cash here. The officers estimated that almost $1 million dollars were packed in the 4 suitcases. The street value of the confiscated drugs was estimated at $1 million.

MICKEL

Cole and Aaron didn’t want to take Mickel to their meetings so they rented a motel near the office in Cole’s name with cash. “Any problem call us”, they told him.

“I’m exhausted; you can wake me up in the morning.”

“You will be here in the morning?”

“Are you crazy, you have all the money and gold, I have nothing, I am also dead, and you’re asking me if I’ll be here in the morning,” laughed Mickel. “A better question is, will you guys show up in the morning?”

On the way to the trail-head, Aaron called Jamie, how about we pick you up in front of the hospital at 11 PM. We probably shouldn’t go back to the 24 Hr. Diner.”
As the parked at the trail-head, “you guys had such a busy night last night and today, I didn’t know if you would show up or not,” began Rizzo.

“You were going to be here so we figured we couldn’t let you enjoy this view and the air by yourself.” returned Cole.

“I thought that you might bring Mickel.”
“We considered bringing him, but since we don’t know who you are, and he has a police contact we also don’t know, we thought we should rent him a motel room and avoid any confusion. We’ll see him in the morning. Have you set anything up for him yet, I mean, do you know if something has been set up for him to go away to college yet,” asked Cole?

“I need a few days to get it done. I can get him into just about any college or university in the country. There is no use getting him into an engineering school if he wants to be an architect, so when you see him tomorrow, ask him to give me a call and tell me what he wants to study. About the exercise last night, well done! Your plan worked to perfection from where I sat. Was there any complications from the actual operational side?”

“The trickiest part was getting Mickel out. Any number of things could have happened that would have got him killed.”

“Tell me about it! It’s a lot harder on the nerves and stomach to sit not knowing what’s going on, than actually going out and doing it.”

“All in all, it went down just about perfect. We had to finish off a few guys to make it a clean sweep. From the news reports, they’re of course sensationalizing the whole thing and talking about how amazing it’s that there was no one who lived through it,” said Aaron. “What final conclusion do the police have?”

“It’s too early to tell. It will take most of a week just to process all of the bodies and get the lab tests back. I should have a pretty good idea by next Monday night what the final report will look like. As usual, you guys came up with a brilliant idea of going the extra step and finding and stripping the cash from one of the drug warehouses.”

“It was my idea to ask Mickel if there was any gang money stored somewhere, but without him, we would not have known where to look and if we could have found the warehouse, the dogs would have kept us away,” said Cole.

“You’re going to need to find a better place to store the pile of money and gold that’s now in your possession. I may have some ideas later on, but for now, I think you should find a secure storage area where you can drive in the motor home. Any place that has cameras is great for prevention of crime, but it can also be dead giveaway if that camera is being watched by the wrong people. For instance, if you were to go to your storage unit tomorrow, you would drive up beside the door, and start unloading suitcases and some kind of gold colored bars. That would be pretty suspicious to someone on the other end of the camera.”

“We must have forgotten to tell you about our storage unit. It’s something else. It has electronic alarms, an electric fencer hooked up to wires all around the unit as well as the padlock on the front door and some safes. When we find out who you are, maybe we can show you around sometime,” said Cole. We need to go meet Jamie, so we’ll see you next week, said Aaron.”

Cole and Aaron drove to the hospital employee’s parking lot. Jamie drove in right behind them. She parked and jumped in the little seat in back of Cole’s truck. The advertising talks about how these trucks have a nice seat in the extended cab models. It’s nice for anyone less than 120 pounds. A 200 pound man doesn’t have room to move if he can even get in it. Jamie said it was nice and curled up with a blanket that Cole kept on the seat.

“I thought that you guys were on a business trip,” said Jamie. As usual when you guys leave home for a day or two, all kinds of strange things happen. Were you two mixed up somehow with those 43 guys that were killed out in the salt flats?”

Cole and Aaron hesitated, not knowing exactly how to answer the question. Jamie cut them off, “I knew it. How did you guys orchestrate those 2 gangs killing themselves off?”

“You might say that we gave them a little encouragement and then made sure that the whole gang was killed off,” said Cole.

“I’m so proud of you guys that I can’t stand it!” Can you tell me about it? I mean how did you know they were going to be there, and how could you actually do it, and what did you do to get them fighting and what would have happened if one of them had spotted you and….?”

“Whoa here Jamie, slow down, one question at a time.”

Aaron and Cole then went through the whole story starting with hearing about a big secret meeting with the 2 biggest gangs in West Valley City. They didn’t want to talk about that part so they just skipped to other details. Jamie didn’t come back and specifically ask about how they heard about the meeting, but they knew, that she knew, they had avoided that question.

When they finished, Jamie didn’t say anything for awhile. “I just can’t believe that it worked out just like that old Charles Bronson movie. I think that Rachel knows that you’re involved with this thing but isn’t saying anything to let you know.

“Are you sure?”

“No, but from what she says and the looks she gets when you’re gone, I think that she suspects that you’re involved. When she brings it up, I change the subject. What’s next?

“We thought that we would at least go over your list and maybe check some of them out. Are they listed in any order,” asked Aaron?

“Yeah, I listed them in the order of worst first. And if I see any new ones that are worse than any on the list I’ll get them to you as soon as I can.”

Aaron continued, “I’m wondering if we should pay a first visit to these vermin as they leave the hospital. Or maybe follow them from the hospital and the jump them at the first opportunity.”


“What are you going to do to them?”

“We will play it by ear. If we sit down with one of these guys
and explain our concern, and the guy is sorry for beating his wife/girlfriend, maybe we would just explain what would happen if we hear it has happened again. But if goes berserk and threatens to kill her and us and anybody that gets in his way. Then we would probably just end it right there,” said Cole.

“We might try castration on a few, but I really don’t like the idea of cutting some guy’s nuts off,” said Aaron.

“I could do it. In fact I would enjoy doing it to those bastards,” said Jamie.

SAMBOLI

Samboli was sitting in his office with the latest report on his desk. He said to himself, ‘Utah is falling apart! First 2 distributors were killed. Then the whole Utah leadership was wiped out at Lake Powell. Now 2 gangs who represented 75% of our drug distribution in Utah seemed to have killed themselves off down to the last man. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve never even heard of anything like this.’
‘My losses of cash and product now exceed $6 million dollars. The publicity about the 2 gangs shooting it out was all over the TV and has been for days. Now I had to travel to Miami, Florida in just a few days to attend a special FAMILY meeting. The summons didn’t mention the subject, they never did, but it had to be about UTAH.’
He had sent Ricky Sanchez to Utah to consolidate the losses and get it back on a solid footing. Ricky’s reports were not encouraging. “A large number of distributors were gone. Other suppliers were moving in to fill the demand. It would take a long time to cover the $6 million dollar loss and to rebuild business to its former volume in Utah.”

The other western states in his personal domain were doing fine, but everyone was watching Utah. ‘Those damn gangs made sure of that. This is going to be a very unpleasant meeting in Miami, I wonder if I’ll live through it?’

==================================

A PEEK INTO BOOK TWO, “THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE”

ROBIN HOOD IN A SEMI-Copycat #108

Richard (Rich) Washington drove the coast to coast routes for a trucking company out of Phoenix. He had a house in Sacramento, California, but he didn’t spend much time there. He spent even less time there since his wife, Thelma, joined him on the road. His days were made up of sitting behind the wheel while Thelma sat beside him when she wasn’t back in the sleeper. When it was Thelma’s turn to drive, he had to go to the sleeper. He couldn’t’ stand to sit there while she was driving. It wasn’t the fact that she was a bad driver, because she was an excellent truck driver. She did little things that was different from what he did while driving and those little things drove him crazy. So to keep them both from going crazy, the rule was that when Thelma drove, Rich stayed in the sleeper. He would stick his head out and tell her, “I’m ready to drive whenever you’re ready”, then go back and relax until she pulled over. Like most truckers, they listened to a variety of radio stations as they rumbled back and forth across the USA. The reports about Robin Hood warmed their hearts.

“Finally something good on the news”, he said to Thelma.

“Isn’t that something? How could someone get away with killing those scum suckers? The police must be going crazy trying to find Robin Hood. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could help get rid of those scum suckers if we ever saw one?”

“We see them all the time, or have you forgotten?”

“Forgotten what?”

“Your memory is getting worse and worse. Just yesterday in Birmingham, we saw a guy dragging a girl to his pickup. She was screaming bloody murder and he was beating on her as he picked her up and threw her inside. We saw it and decided that they were having a lovers quarrel and we drove away. We both knew that it was more than that.”
“Next time we see something like that, lets do something. We could call the cops or something.”

“Now what good does calling the cops do? That’s why Robin Hood steps out and stops these criminals. Because even if the cops stop a beating or even a killing, the scum sucker will be back and finish the job in a day or two.”

“Ok, then lets go a step further, like Robin Hood. You have that old pistol under the seat that you take out and shoot every day or two. Next time we see somebody who needs killin’, let’s do it. This driving is getting boring. That would sure add some spice,” laughed Thelma.

It was good to make plans, because several hours later as they pulled into a truck stop west of Oklahoma City for fuel. A young man was dragging a girl by the hair toward an old pickup truck with a camper shell on the back. The girl appeared to be unconscious with a bloody mouth. The man pushed the girl into the back of his old pickup truck, and shut the tailgate. Richard pulled his truck up against the pickup truck so that it couldn’t move. The young man stepped away from the front of the big truck. Rich pulled the pistol out and stepped down from the truck.
“Hey, what are you doing,” asked Rich?

“It’s none of your business old man, now move your truck or I’ll take that plastic pistol out of your hand and beat your head in with it!”

Rich pulled the hammer back, it’s a lot more accurate to fire with the hammer already pulled back, and aimed at the man’s chest about 6 inches below his chin.

“Look you black bastard, I won’t tell you again, nobody points a gun at me or tells me what to do and nobody tries to leave me like that girl in the back. Now move it before I get mad.”

Rich said, “Thelma, what do you think?”

Thelma looked around, didn’t see anyone, “Shoot him!”

Rich squeezed the trigger just like he did when he wanted to show Thelma how good of a shot he was. The man fell over backward into the bushes beside his truck. Rich climbed back into the truck, backed up a few feet and pulled around to the pump.

“Will you clean the pistol just like I showed you while I get some fuel?” He went inside to make payment arrangements with the woman at the cash register.

“Did you hear a gun shot,” she asked.

“I heard a backfire as some young stud took off a minute ago.”

“That must have been what it was. How are you paying for the fuel?”

“Company fuel card”, he said as he handed her the plastic.

While Rich was filling the tanks, Thelma walked over to the back of the old truck to see if the girl was awake. No sign of movement. Thelma spelled ROBIN HOOD with her finger on the dusty back window.

A few hours later and 100 miles down the road, “well, I feel pretty good, how did that make you feel,’ asked Thelma.

“I feel great. I just shot a guy, but I feel like I just won a million dollars. I wish I could see that young girls face when she wakes up and realizes that she’s free.”
“Maybe we’ll run into another scum sucker in Albuquerque.”