Chapter 13 #2
Both Jake and Stone were silent for several moments before Stone whistled as he looked down at the notes he had taken, then looked up at her.
“Wow, that is a lot of questions. I can see why you would ask them. I don’t think we, nor Carter, dug deeper when we found the connection between Biggins, Royal, and Miller.
I’m not going to ask what you think, if you don’t mind. Let us do some investigation.”
“Thanks,” Pru said as she rose from her seat, she started toward the door, and whipped back around. “I don’t know if this is important or not, but Jason says that he may be able to make arrests shortly after the new year.”
“We’ll make this our priority,” Jake said, and walked her back up the stairs and to the back door of the bed and breakfast. When he returned to the basement he went to the coffee pot and refilled his mug. With one look at Stone, he shook his head.
“Holy shit, this could be huge.”
“I know, right?” Stone also shook his head as he turned to his computer, while Jake went to his desk and put in a call to Carter Manning over at the Yellowstone office.
In the office at Erin’s Way, Duane walked in, and saw the three people hard at work. He stood there for several seconds before he cleared his throat. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes,” Jason said as he tossed his pen on the stack of papers to lean back heavily in his chair. “Silly question for you.” He shook his head and held up his hand. “It may or may not be correct, just an avenue we’re looking into.”
“Okay, what’s up?”
“Do you remember when a man by the name of Jason Royal came to California to purchase guns and ammo, you were undercover and ended up traveling back to Colorado with them?”
“Yes. That’s when Manny and Scott were looking for me. I was undercover, but it was a weird undercover assignment. Not one like I had done before or since with my time in the Bureau.”
“Can you explain that?” Ilsa asked.
“Yes,” Duane helped himself to a cup of coffee and settled in a chair that was across from them.
“Normally, when I went undercover, I went under. I mean when the assignment started, I left the office dressed as my undercover persona, which was usually a homeless person, and I wouldn’t return until I had the bad guy.
Or if I hadn’t arrested them, then my handler, that I made contact with every single day would make the arrest. I would say that seven times out of ten, I was gathered and arrested along with the bad guys, but once we made it back to the local police station, I was the last one processed, and my handler was there with a clean set of clothes for me.
The locals even allowed me to shower in their locker room.
By the time people I had been arrested with looked for me, they didn’t recognize me.
I would then go back to my office and write up my reports.
I would go into the office every day like normal, until the next assignment came up. ”
“Okay, but what about this assignment was different?”
“This time, I was only undercover during the day. From like six in the morning until eight at night. I could return to my apartment every night. That’s where Scott and Manny found me, in my apartment.”
“Why were they looking for you?”
“They had just gotten out of the hospital after what they had endured, and were looking into the possibility of maybe joined the FBI once they received a clean bill of health.” He then went on to tell them what had happened.
“Crap,” Ilsa said sadly, then whipped her head around to look at Kevin in shock. “Is that what happened to Ryan?”
“Yes, the three of them were on the same team and captured together. Another team mate was disemboweled in front of Ryan. We concluded that they were looking on the placement of where the kidneys were in the body, because both Manny and Scott had the same blood type as the boss of the group that kidnapped them. They were going to take a kidney from each of them to put into their boss.”
“Wow,” Jason said in shock. He shook his head, and looked at Duane again. “Anything other than being able to go home every night different with that particular op?”
“Yes, I wasn’t homeless. I was portrayed as a rich executive. I had to be at the Bureau at four in the morning so they could do my makeup with facial prosthetics.”
“Huh?”
“Cheek implants, strong chin, prominent forehead. Expensive business suit, Rolex, diamond cufflinks, you know, uber rich.”
“Ah, okay. Now, do you know how Royal was able to obtain the guns?”
“Yes, SSA Greg Olsen was my boss on this op. He’s the one that requested me to go undercover, he’s the one that made the plans, he only told me that everything was set up, and all I had to do was go along with it.
He was the one that sent me and the other agent back with Royal with the guns and ammo.
Oh, in case you didn’t know, they were assault rifles.
At least three dozen of them, and enough ammo that each one had at least a thousand rounds per gun. ”
“Holy shit,” Kevin said in shock. “This was to take Erin out?”
“Yes. Luckily, Clark and the men he had with him at the time camped out in the small scrub of woods about a mile from the property line. Royal had taken over Ducky’s home, but not until Ducky was safely moved over to Broken.
See, Ryan was undercover working for Royal, that’s how Clark was able to get the information and plan for it.
” He shook his head as he sipped his coffee and smirked. “It was done as a SEAL operation.”
“I understand,” Jason chuckled as he shook his head. “What can you tell us about Olsen?”