Chapter 8

The tall blond who had been introduced as Kevin nodded his head. "We want everything you've got to help you take down these fuckers. I can't wait to get my hands on the traitor who thinks he'd be stepping in to head all this up."

Regan nodded. "I know just how you feel. Si, I think you should go first, laying down the background on this and letting us know what caused us to dig deeper. I'll get the rest of this ready."

Si nodded, took a swallow of coffee and set his cup down.

"It all started when the DEA got a tip from one of its informants about unusual activity around some of the largest ranches in Texas, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona."

"What kind of activity?" Max wanted to know.

"The owners were getting more unusual visits from the high-level drug dealers from Mexico. In particular, one dealer, Luis Rojas, the leader of the second-largest cartel. Their interest grew when he began visiting the ranch of Lorena and Elias Alvaro on a regular basis, often bringing his usual group of thugs. What, they wondered, did so-called respectable ranchers want with scum like that? And where did the little group go while he visited with his hosts? And then we learned there was similar activity on huge ranches in nearby states."

Si leaned forward. "We were able to get a couple of men in place as hands on two of the ranches. It took a few months for them to sufficiently snoop around but eventually they managed to find out that their bosses were providing delivery paths for drugs and getting a fat cut for their troubles. But that was the least of it. It also came to our attention that the owners of all these ranches were meeting on a regular basis. Social? Maybe, but it felt like something else, especially, with the cartel involved."

"Our question," Steve injected, "was what the hell were they discussing? More drugs? Sex trafficking? I mean, shit! These were uber wealthy ranchers who hobnobbed with the cream of society. Their ranches and mineral rights were making them more money than they could spend. What the hell was going on?"

"That's where Regan came in," Si said. "When she picked up on this and the information was passed along to my boss and then to me, I knew she'd be a critical part of our crew. Someone who could pick up chatter and make sense of it. DHS called Norfolk to see if we could borrow her." He grinned. "They don't know we're never giving her back. Okay, Regan, it's yours again."

Flipping through screen after screen, she showed how she'd gathered the bits and pieces and put them together into a whole document. And that, as Si pointed out, scared the crap out of them.

Regan took up the explanation. "I began by analyzing the snippets of chatter coming in about Rojas and about something besides drugs. Then we picked up pieces of conversations coming from overseas that mentioned not only Rojas but also these others. That was just too weird. I analyze words and phrase patterns, and there seemed to be conversations not related to drugs or any other of the usual kinds of traffic. Like this."

She clicked a tiny remote, and phrases appeared on the screen, their meaning chilling Max to the bone.

"I was picking up a tiny smattering here and there that made my skin prickle," she continued. "Pieces about high-value terrorists and how the Rojas cartel was helping to smuggle them. Certain phrases. Words I knew they used as codes. The ranches involved were being used as way stations for these terrorists. Rojas would deliver them to one of the ranches, and they'd be processed from there. At the same time, we noticed the ranch owners gathering for regular meetings once a month. The more I put it together, the more it frightened me."

"When we laid it all out," Si interjected., "we had a picture that scared the shit out of all of us at Homeland Security." He looked at Regan. "Bring up the diagram."

She clicked through to the next screen. "Take a look. What we have is a situation where the terrorist leaders are brought into Mexico and smuggled into this country by the cartel. Each of them in his own right is a highly trained, highly motivated terrorist leader responsible for some of the most horrendous actions in the Middle East."

She clicked again, and a map of the United States came up.

"DHS has developed a key-areas map, marking places that terrorist groups could attack where their actions would do the worst damage. It would also leave a leadership vacuum, and they would be able to take over. We were pretty damn sure they would only be able to control certain areas, although that was bad enough." She looked around the table, her eyes coming to rest on Max. "Then we put together the meetings these ranchers held on a regular basis with the influx of these barbarians and the increased chatter we picked up and realized they were plotting to use these thugs for their own purposes. There would be a network spread across the country, directed by a group of very rich, very powerful people who would use the terrorists to control the population. They'd be able to take over and be in complete control. An unholy cabal."

"We think their ultimate goal is global control," Si added. "That's the opinion of the experts, and I actually agree with them."

Max felt a chill race down his spine. "You're referring to the group I'm going to be meeting with?"

Regan was the one who answered. "They each have untold wealth and global influence and are avidly power hungry."

"Jesus Christ." The words were said softly but no less effectively.

Si nodded. "Exactly. You have five days to memorize everything we have on these people as well as everything about Max Ferron's life before jumping into this. As I told both of you, you guys resemble the real couple so strongly it's uncanny. That's what gave us the idea to do this. No one will be questioning you, especially once you get those background folders down pat."

"We can do it." Max knew all about playing a part to accomplish a mission.

Silas gave Max a penetrating stare. "Your job is to get the evidence to put these people away. That's why we wanted someone with SEAL experience. SEALs have had the most interaction with terrorists and know how they think and act. But it couldn't be someone on active duty."

Max sat there, gripped by the familiar feeling of preparing for a mission, except he knew in his sol this trumped any other mission he'd ever taken part in.

"Also," Si added, "you and Regan need to take this short time to really get to know each other as a married couple would. There can't be any reason to make these people suspicious."

Max glanced over at Regan, whose full lips were curved in a tiny smile. "Don't worry, Max. That'll be the fun part of this operation."

That's what he was afraid of.