Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Foster was hyped up by the time they made it back to base but knew he needed to get a few hours’ sleep before they ramped things up the next day. Since he and Safe had seen the guys at the bar, they weren’t given watch duties. Instead, he and Safe would be tracking down information about the men.
He stretched out on the bed in their bunk room and cleared his mind so he could drop off to sleep. It was a trick all the guys used, and it worked most of the time. Thankfully, tonight was one of those times.
When his alarm rang at five, he was rested enough. Safe was up and met him by the coffee machine.
“You ready to start the day?” Safe asked.
“Let’s get cracking.”
“Let me finish at least half this cup and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Sounds good.” Foster moved to the computers and began searching deeper with the information that had been gathered so far by Jump and Bang who’d taken the first shift on computers, tracking down as much information as they could on the terrorist group.
Safe came over, looking like he’d washed his face and changed shirts. He settled in the seat next to Foster and sat back, drinking more coffee.
“What did Jump and Bang uncover?”
“The names of two other guys who were at the bar.” Foster pulled up the images for the two other guys. “Plus they have the guy we followed. Now all we need to do is figure out who the other three guys were.”
“I can’t believe they were out talking about that in the open.”
“Stupid, but good for us.”
“You don’t think it was too good, do you?”
“No. I don’t. I think they are planning on doing exactly what they said they would do.”
“So these three guys who we know, do we have any idea why they want to hit a US Navy ship?”
“Probably for notoriety. Maybe retribution. The typical terrorists plot, you know they could be angry, and they want to make problems. Or they are just idiots who were radicalized and have no thought other than what someone else tells them to do.”
Safe sat up straighter and set his cup down. He started typing, and Foster turned back to his computer screen, looking for more information on the gang.
He worked for maybe two hours when Cy and T came in. They looked rested.
“Hey, where did you sleep?” Foster asked.
“We bunked down in another room, so we didn’t disturb anyone. Got about three hours sleep.”
“That’s good.”
“What have you got so far?” Cy asked.
Four more guys from Kevlar’s team came in and they decided to move to a conference room and break down what they knew.
Foster used the marker on the whiteboard and wrote out the names while Safe put up their photos. Kevlar added locations and the names of two more people they tracked down. Now there was only one person that they knew of out there floating in the wind. They would track him down in the next few days.
The door opened, and a colonel came in, telling them not to bother with the whole saluting thing. “I’ve got good news. Our contact with the Italian government is taking the threat seriously. The Carabiniere will be working with you. They think the approach is best.”
Foster wondered how easy it would be to work with the Italian police. They were more militaristic than any national police force in the USA. He hoped they all spoke English, because most of their team wasn’t fluent in Italian.
“Thank you, sir,” Kevlar said.
“I’ll get you the information, and you can coordinate with them.”
The colonel left and Kevlar followed after him. Foster wasn’t sure how he felt about working with the Italians. He hoped they understood their need to take down this group even if it meant some of the terrorists died.
They kept moving forward on getting information, so when Kevlar came back, they had everything they needed.
Two hours later, they were at the Carabiniere offices, stuffed into a conference room, listening to the final speech given by someone higher up in the leadership of their organization.
The man stepped away from the head of the table, and they were finally able to get down to work. Kevlar nodded his way and motioned for him to move to the board where they would put up the information they collected.
“Foster will give you the details.”
He nodded at the men, hoping they really did understand his English.
“Last night we were at Kazz Bar, here,” Foster pointed to the large map of the city on the wall.
Thank goodness he knew exactly where they were.
“The group of six came in, got drinks and sat close to us. We listened, and they spoke in mostly English, with a few Italian words thrown in.”
“Were they Italian or Americans?” one of the Italians asked.
“Based on the accents, I’d say Italian. They described their plans, detailing who was supposed to hit where.
I was turned away from them, pretending not to listen, so I don’t know what each of their tasks were, but we now have identified all six men.
We’ve gathered information on all of them, including where they live. ”
Kevlar interrupted. “We have men and women tailing all six of the group, so we know where they are.”
“You have the information we gathered,” Foster said.
“How sure are you that these are the people?”
“Very.” Foster was glad they hadn’t needed any translators to sit in on this meeting. A translator would have slowed them down. It seemed like the Italian police officers were willing to move quickly.
“We’ll add in surveillance teams to help cover,” the Italian guy said.
Foster really needed to learn their names. He was going to have to work on that. Of course the guy who’d been speaking at first introduced the men with their formal surnames, no nicknames.
“Sorry, do you all have nicknames, names you call each other?” Foster asked.
“Sì, but they are Italian words.”
“Your names are long. It might help us remember if the nicknames were shorter.”
“I’m Gnome. We have Tarzan, Bestia, Pazzo, Pollo, and Orso.”
Foster felt better knowing their names. He introduced everyone on their teams again.
After getting to know each other’s names a little better, the flow between the groups moved faster.
In less than two hours they had a workable plan to take down the terrorists.
He just hoped it ran as smoothly as their planning session had.