Chapter X-Ray #2
“My guess is storeroom and stairs up,” Mac said, pointing to the two remaining doors. There was a creaking sound from above. “Looks like Billy Lane woke up.” All four men’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
“We need him alive,” Cooper reminded everyone.
Kegger stood by the last door. “My guess is this one is the stairs.”
Cooper nodded.
Kegger dropped to one knee and slowly turned the knob, opening the door even more deliberately, silently.
The other three men stood ready in a semicircle behind him, several out of the direct sightline if anyone was within.
They all stared at the narrow staircase that rose up to the ceiling and a very dark, quiet space when the door was wide open.
Mac’s heart beat in his chest like it always did in situations like this. The adrenaline pumped through his veins, putting all his senses on high alert. Ducky took the lead up the stairs, followed closely behind by Cooper.
Mac tapped Kegger on the shoulder and pointed to the other door.
Kegger dropped to a knee in front of the door and reached his hand to the knob.
He turned it slowly. It was as he’d guessed, a storeroom.
Rows of shelves ran across the room. Though there was a window in the middle of the room, its light was blocked by the many shelves and items stored on them, mostly bottles, creating a shadowy space.
Covering each other, the two men entered the room just as they heard Coop and Ducky engage someone upstairs with thuds on the ceiling. “Hands, let me see your hands!” Coop’s voice yelled.
“Where is he?” Ducky voices asked. They heard him through comms.
There were several more loud thuds from above, a body slamming onto the floor. The ceiling creaked, the telltale sound of someone running across it from one side of the room to the other.
“Got the target and a woman,” Coop transmitted.
Mac and Kegger finished their sweep of the storeroom.
They stepped back out into the bar, and Kegger was the first to go into the stairwell.
Mac followed. As he mounted the stairs, he was suddenly pushed from behind with a great deal of force.
He crashed into the stairs, instantly feeling his back spasm and losing his weapon.
Then a fist barreled into his back, knocking the wind out of him.
Mac had felt someone step between his legs as he was punched, so he purposefully made himself slide down so he impacted the leg.
Even though his back ached, he pushed up from the steps and plowed himself into the man who was there, who was preparing to punch him again.
They both crashed to the floor. Mac turned just enough to get his hands on the man’s white, bearded throat.
“Police asshole,” he forced out.
Kegger, hearing the commotion, realized what was happening and was on them, his own weapon now trained on the old man. “Give me a reason,” he growled.
The man raised his arms in surrender.
“Can you secure him, Mac?”
“I’m not sure I can even move,” Mac answered. “Fucker punched me in my lower back, and every muscle is spasming.”
Kegger surveyed the situation. The two men lay crumpled in a heap at the base of the stairs. Mac's hands still gripped the older man’s throat. He reached a hand down to Mac. “Need a hand up?”
Mac groaned as he maneuvered so that, with Kegger’s help, he pulled himself up to his knees and off the man.
“Roll onto your stomach, old-timer,” Kegger ordered.
The man complied, crawling partially out of the stairwell as he did.
After Kegger had the man secured face down, his hands zip tied, he offered Mac his hand to help him the rest of the way up.
“Third Tango secured,” Kegger transmitted. “Control, notify Needles; we need him onsite,” he added when Mac still looked pained.
“Negative, that’s not necessary,” Mac said.
“Are you okay, Mac?” Yvette asked.
“Roger, Control. I’m a bit sore, but I’m fine.”
Cooper and Kenny ‘Ducky’ Gallup led the mullet-wearing bartender down the stairs.
He wore nothing but boxer shorts. They sat him in a chair.
Then Gallup went back up and brought down a woman in her forties with long black hair.
She wore a pair of men’s boxer shorts and an oversized white tank top.
Ducky also had her purse in his hand. They sat her in a chair beside Billy Lane Smith.
“Meet Peggy Sue Draper,” Gallup said, reading her driver’s license.
“And who are you?” Mac asked the old man, kicking his foot, which he instantly regretted as it caused another spasm in his back.
“That’s my dad, leave him alone,” Billy Lane Smith yelled.
Gallup and Robinson got the old-timer up and sat him in a chair as well.
“Billy Ray Smith, I presume,” Robinson said, pulling his wallet from his pants to confirm his identity.
“The one and only,” the old man said.
“And before we go any further,” Cooper said, nodding at Gallup and Robinson. They both pulled their FBI creds. “We’re law enforcement, just wanting to ask you a few questions.” He held up a revolver. “I’ll hold on to this, Billy Lane. As an ex-con, you shouldn’t have a gun.”
“I didn’t pull it on you, man. Running a bar, I have to be armed.”
“Maybe you should keep your back door locked if you’re worried about being robbed,” Robinson said.
“I unlocked it when I got in this morning, assholes,” Smith Senior said. “I was down at the dock on my boat when you two boys went in the back.”
“You were seen on a recording visiting the cabin of the four men who disappeared the night before they went missing,” Cooper said to Billy Lane.
“Can you prove it?” Smith Junior asked.
“I just told you we have a camera recording of you at the cabin door. Rick Fees stepped out to talk to you. Why were you there, and what was discussed?” Cooper asked.
“I plead the Fifth. I have that right,” Billy Lane said.
“Oh, good lord!” Mac exclaimed. His back was still spasming, and he definitely was not in the mood to dance around with this asshole.
“If you didn’t kill them or have anything to do with their disappearance, we don’t care if you were there to sell them drugs, rob them, or any other crime you can think of.
We are just trying to get any info whatsoever about them.
Now why the hell were you at the cabin?”
“You promise you’re not going to jam me up if I tell you?”
“Yes,” Mac moaned.
“And no one can know I talked to you,” Smith Junior said.
“Jesus Christ! We’re not going to tell anyone, now spill it!” Mac said.
“Yeah, I was there. Ricky Fees is one of them preppers, you know, end of civilization as we know it guys. He needed some supplies he bought from me, was planning on dropping them at this bunker he’s got out in the middle of the woods somewhere.”
“Where is it?” Mac pressed.
“Hell if I know, somewhere out in the woods.”
“So you brought him the supplies that night?” Cooper asked.
“Yeah, helped him load it into the back of the truck,” Smith said. “He paid me in cash, and I was on my way.”
“What supplies/” Mac asked.
“Jugs of water, some beer, and a couple of bottles of Jack. They had like six big boxes of those emergency dehydrated meals, tried to pay me with one, but I wanted cash. I’m telling you, they were all fine when I drove away.”
“Cut them loose,” Cooper said. “Did you get all that, Control?”
“Roger, Coop,” Yvette said.
“And I heard it too,” Garcia said. “We’ll run down any other property any of the four men may own and will even touch bases with their wives to get the location if we need to.”
“Roger that,” Cooper replied as the three other men cut the zip ties from the three people sitting in front of them.
“If you lied, I’m going to come back here and make you real sorry you did,” Mac threatened before he left.
The six members of the Shepherd Security Team waited anxiously at the cabin for the location of that property and bunker where Billy Lane said Fees and the other men were heading.
At HQ, the Digital Team searched property records.
Nothing showed as being owned by any of the four men.
Garcia placed a call to Moody’s wife. She didn’t know anything about a bunker or about Rick Fees being a prepper. His next call was to Mrs. Fees.
Cooper’s phone rang. It was Garcia. He put it on speaker. “What do you have for us?”
“Lauren Fees admitted that her husband had been talking about gathering supplies and getting a place for when civilization collapses, but she didn’t think he’d done anything yet.
Going on a hunch, I found property in Conecuh County purchased earlier in the year under her maiden name.
She swears she doesn’t know anything about it.
I’m sending the coordinates through to you. ”
The six men were out of the cabin and in the two pickup trucks within two minutes after receiving the text.
The coordinates led them off the paved road onto a gravel path, which became a dirt trail that twisted deeper into the woods.
They came to the exact longitude and latitude Garcia had sent and found a path cut in the underbrush just wide enough to drive through.
The two pickup trucks drove in slowly, not sure what they’d find.
A hundred yards in, they discovered a pickup truck with a fishing boat hitched to it, parked under a towering tree.
Behind the truck was what could only be described as a metal box.
It was painted green, with no windows. It looked to be about seven feet tall by four feet wide and about four feet deep.
There were no windows, but there was a door, and it was closed.
“Oh, damn,” Mac said.
“I was expecting something bigger,” Cooper said.
“I’m getting that Deliverance vibe again,” Robinson said.
“I have a feeling we’re going to find four bodies in there,” Winston said.
“It’s a survival shelter that preppers install,” Gallup said. “I’ll bet the majority of it’s underground. That’s just the entrance and stairs down. Didn’t you read that article Shepherd pushed through last week about today’s preppers?”
“I haven’t gotten to it yet,” Cooper said.
That sentiment was echoed by the others. Shepherd sent on average three articles a week for the team to read on various topics.
“It was quite interesting,” Gallup said. “Well, should we crack it open and see what we find?”
Flores approached the door. “This door mechanism is weird, almost like it’s on backwards,” he said. He manipulated the mechanism. It clicked, and the door opened an inch. He drew his weapon.
“Mac, your back is still hurting, isn’t it?” Flores said.
Mac nodded. Yes, his back hurt when he moved.
“Stay out here and hold this door open. Whatever you do, don’t let it close,” Flores said. “Gallup, stay with him.”
Mac watched the four other men descend the stairs.
At the bottom of the staircase, there was a door with a window.
Light from the inside flooded out into the darker area.
Flores was the first to look in the window.
Four men sat playing cards at a table just within the space.
He immediately recognized Ricky Fees as one of them.
Flores tried the door. It wasn’t locked. He swung it open.
“Oh God! Are you real?” Fees exclaimed. He jumped up from his seat. “Please tell me you have the exterior door propped open.” He rushed past each of the men and ran up the steps. Outside, he passed Mac and dropped to the ground. “We’re free. Thank you, God!”