Report #3270, Transcript Section #39
(Operation SANDMAN)
©1998-1999 Shane Ivey

LUNDQUIST: Well, I'd like to get in touch with MEREDITH a.s.a.p... I need her to dredge up a Federal judge who will do whatever we want... :-\

KEEPER: Okay. Last game, Rogers was across the street from the safe house with a couple of suspicious FBI agents, and Lundquist had just finished playing hardball with ASAC Devereaux.

KEEPER: Ludnquist, are you heading straight back to the house?

LUNDQUIST:
argh, I gotta log off for a minute here... BRB, really. Rogers, figure everything out real quick while I'm gone.

KEEPER: Okay

KEEPER: Rogers, we can assume that you got a briefing on the situation from Lundquist.

ROGERS: Ok

KEEPER: What are you doing while waiting for him?

ROGERS: Well Rogers is or was rather just going to let the people involved in the situation argue about it while just staying quiet

ROGERS: Rogers is going to be noncomittal on anything.

KEEPER: Things have been quiet and tense for quite a while; everyone has been waiting for the bosses to hash it out.

Lundquist has left the conversation.

KEEPER: Finally, the FBI agents get a call. When they hang up, Sandler opens his car door to get inside. "No news is good news," he says wryly. "We'll just stay put right here for a few minutes. I guess you boys can go about your business until we hear otherwise."

KEEPER: Your armored Range Rover is parked on the sidewalk near the FBI agents' Bu-car. Agents Sandler and Hervet are getting into their car. Kelley and Knight are with you.

ROGERS: Rogers get into the Rover and motions Kelly and Knight to follow him

ROGERS: And he then drives to the House.

KEEPER: It's a short drive. As you pull around the back, Kelley and Knight get out. Kelley shakes his head silently.

ROGERS: Rogers walks inside the house, and heads off to check e-mail and freshen up his bandages.

ROGERS: Ok Rogers will now have got the e-mail off MEREDITH so he's going to sort out the samples etc as instructed. And while he's doing scut work He'l get some blood from the guy we "don't" hvae in the house.

KEEPER: You have blood samples from the prisoner already, actually, that Kelley and Cabot took during his interrogation.

ROGERS: OK cool well Rogers will sort out the stuff from the e-mail and get ready.

KEEPER: Okay. That takes a short while. Everyone is basically waiting to hear more from Lundquist and MEREDITH and decide what to do with the prisoner.

Lundquist has joined the conversation.

KEEPER: Lundquist, you just left Devereaux at the Twin Towers.

LUNDQUIST: Okay, I need to get in touch with Meredith then... Becasue I sure can't back that line of BS I spun last session by myself... Unless we put Rogers in judge's robes...? Hmmm...

LUNDQUIST: I suppose I'd have to use email to reach her?

LUNDQUIST: I'll fire off an urgent message through the usual channels.

KEEPER: Yes. She has not given out a phone number.

KEEPER: Okay. Are you returning to the safe house?

LUNDQUIST: I'll explain the situation, and tell her what Deveraux has asked for. I'll leave it up to her as to how she wants to handle it (conjuring up a judge, or having Deveraux's superiors call him off, or just throwing poor old MARK to the wolves...)

LUNDQUIST: Yeah, I'd better go to the safehouse...

KEEPER: You leave a message with that information over a phone channel, Lundquist.

KEEPER: Not a direct line, but it would make sense for you to have some voice message system available.

LUNDQUIST: Right-o. I'll send an brief but urgent email as well.

KEEPER: Lundquist, you reach the safe house a short while later. You immediately spot the Bu-car parked across the street and down a few houses.

LUNDQUIST: I'll ignore it and head inside.

KEEPER: Things are very tense inside. Most of the group is waiting silently, nervously. Rogers is putting a package together from the various lab tests.

LUNDQUIST: I'll get them moving. We'll need to sanitize this place, so we'll have to draw up a plan of exactly how to do that.

KEEPER: "That's nothing easy, boss. We have two warm bodies to take care of."

KEEPER: ...says Kelley.

LUNDQUIST: "Don't worry about them for right now. Concentrate on the other stuff, like our bugs and taps, and operational materials."

LUNDQUIST: "Rogers, is that stuff for Meredith?"

ROGERS: "Yeah we have an e-mail off the boss"

LUNDQUIST: "Okay, right."

ROGERS: "I'm just bagging some stuff up for the witch."

KEEPER: Kelley nods to Danforth and Keen to start packing up the nonessential electronics. He and Cabot start packing the tactical hardware.

LUNDQUIST: "Danforth, can we reestablish a hookup to our bugs later from another location?"

KEEPER: "Sure, as long as we're within the same range."

ROGERS: "As for the problem of the bodies we couls always use the KGB trick for that."

LUNDQUIST: "Okay." I'll pitch in and lend a hand.

LUNDQUIST: "What's that? Bathtub full of acid or something?"

ROGERS: "Well something"

ROGERS: "Nah they trad KGB method of smuggeling someone out of a country burns victim in an ambulance"

ROGERS: "we just have a small fire and I call an ambulance and ride out with them."

LUNDQUIST: "I don't think the FBI will swallow that one right now... They'll want to keep a close eye on whoever comes out of here."

ROGERS: "Well that's as maybe but with the ambulance we can chrge along and they are going to be obvious as hell following us."

LUNDQUIST: "They can afford to be obvious as hell though. They've got the authority to investigate here."

ROGERS: "Well if we time it right could have something block their path."

LUNDQUIST: "That's going to piss them off, and look very suspicious..."

ROGERS: "Well that's TP."

LUNDQUIST: I scribble on a piece of paper... "CHECK FOR BUGS HERE" and show it to Danforth.

KEEPER: Danforth reads it and nods. He puts the bug-sniffing gear together as Keen continues to pack the electronics into small, heavy metallic boxes.

KEEPER: Lundquist, your phone buzzes as Danforth goes to work.

LUNDQUIST: "Kelley," I whisper, "Could our friends out front be listening in here? Laser mics or something? Can we check?"

LUNDQUIST: I answer the phone. "Hello?"

KEEPER: "This is MEREDITH." The voice is heavily masked, not even recognizably human. "Are you clear to talk?"

LUNDQUIST: "Yes." I'll turn up the TV, just in case.

KEEPER: Kelley says, "Not laser mics. The windows are double-paned, low-impact plastic. If they're listening, it's from bugs inside."

LUNDQUIST: "Okay, I'm just getting paranoid."

LUNDQUIST: "Sorry, MEREDITH, go ahead."

KEEPER: MEREDITH says, in the same warbling voice, "We have one federal judge who will be amenable to manipulation. The judge will be useless to us after this, but operational security is in direct danger. What do you need?"

LUNDQUIST: "We were careless, and got exposed. We now need to either call this whole thing off and make it disappear, or perform some serious damage control if we're going to continue."

LUNDQUIST: "If we have to burn up a contact with a judge to get out of this, then that's the price for continuing the op."

KEEPER: "It's too late to make it disappear. Investigation will continue, by civilian parties if not by our group. We cannot allow that. What do you need from the judge?"

LUNDQUIST: "We need to make it look like there's an ongoing highly secret DoJ investigation into not only DM narcotics trafficking but into criminal acts by well-placed governemnt officials relating to that traffic as well."

LUNDQUIST: "This investigation is making use of undercover agents and CI's whose identity must be completely protected, thus requiring extreme security measures."

KEEPER: "We won't be able to 'collect' convincing evidence very quickly. The bluff won't survive investigation past the judge's instructions."

LUNDQUIST: "Well, then we need to convince the FBI that they need to lay off of this one."

LUNDQUIST: "We can also begin putting the necessary evidence into place so that this becomes more robust to a future investigaiton."

KEEPER: There is silence for a moment, then: "The FBI investigation was directed from Justice, from the Attorney General's office. Assuming the bluff works, you might face professional repercussions. Do you understand that? There may be little we can do to shield you."

LUNDQUIST: "I'm a big boy. Don't worry about me."

KEEPER: "Very well. Is there anything else? Do you have specific requirements?"

LUNDQUIST: "We need to exploit the fact that our adversaries' activities have been extreme and highly conspicuous. They fly black helicopters around in broad daylight in front of hundreds of witnesses."

LUNDQUIST: "We should be constantly focusing attention back onto them. It shouldn't be too hard, as careless as they've been."

KEEPER: "They may also have greater political power than we do."

LUNDQUIST: "Well, we'll just have to circumvent that by playing up our advantages then. And the biggest one we've got is the overtly demonstrated criminal conspiracy responsible for the violence at Breckenridge."

LUNDQUIST: "Our only real leverage is to keep that in everybody's mind, and we should keep with that."

KEEPER: "We'll instruct our pet judge with the situation you described, then. That should allow you some time to maneuver, but not much."

LUNDQUIST: "Yeah, sure. Just get us whatever you can. If you have any further instructions for me, then you know how to get in touch."

LUNDQUIST: "And there's one more thing..."

KEEPER: "Yes. Be ready to move when the opportunity presents itself. What is it?"

LUNDQUIST: "We're going to need a new safehouse, right away."

LUNDQUIST: "I'm afraid we broke this one."

KEEPER: "Understood."

KEEPER: Unless you interject anything else, she hangs up...

LUNDQUIST: Okay.

KEEPER: Kelley says, "Well?"

LUNDQUIST: "Ww need to be ready to move. We're going to get a new place, and I should be able to call off the bureau surveilance. Damn, Kelley, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but can't you look in the rear view mirror once in a while?"

KEEPER: He frowns. "I told you, city ops aren't my specialty. It is theirs. You want an apology? Fine, I apologize. Next time get a cop to drive."

ROGERS: "so what next, what have you got out of our Arab friend there?"

KEEPER: "Everything he has that's useful, I think. He works for a mercenary named Amr, and they're holed up in a farm in Pennsylvania. They worked for Volker."

ROGERS: "Well that ties in with the document's I found at Volkers"

LUNDQUIST: "As soon as we get some manuvering room, we need to hit that farm."

ROGERS: "Deed to some sort of Farm."

ROGERS: "Yeah but I wan't to check out his deposit box tomorrow if possible."

LUNDQUIST: "Curiouser and curiouser. Kelley, can you clean up all evidence of questioning, imprisonment, etc of our guests here? Once they leave, I don't want any trace of their being here to remian."

LUNDQUIST: "The deposit box is a definite priority too, that's certain."

ROGERS: "Might be a good idea to get the fornsics team in to clean up."

KEEPER: "Getting our guests out is the hard part. Cleaning up after them will be no problem. Can we get Wang or one of her people in to double-check our trail?"

LUNDQUIST: "I think the surveiance car will be driving away in a couple of hours. When it goes, we'll need to move our guests quickly before they change their minds and come back. So let's get them ready to transport."

ROGERS: "Shall we store them in my place temporarily?"

LUNDQUIST: "What's the degree of danger posed by the contaminated agent?

ROGERS: "Well you saw what the stuff can do as well as I did."

ROGERS: "I'm assuming we can move him if we are very carefull, maybe put hime in a sealed suit?"

KEEPER: Kelley shakes his head. "I wouldn't take it to your home, Rogers. We can keep him in a sealed suit, but we just don't know enough to say it's safe."

LUNDQUIST: "Maybe we can keep him doped up, unconscious?"

ROGERS: "I was just thinking of somewhere to put them untill the new safehouse is arranged"

KEEPER: "Definitely. That's a necessity for both of them until we dispose of them, one way or another."

ROGERS: "Who knows what a depressant would do to the infected agent."

LUNDQUIST: "I still have some more questions for our other guy. Like how many people are at this farm, what sort of weapons they have, things like that."

ROGERS: "Yeah shall we have a chat now?"

KEEPER: Kelley says, "He's not doped up yet. Now's the time."

ROGERS: "OK who's been interrogating him? Best to stick with someone he's afraid of I think."

LUNDQUIST: "Kelley, Cabot, you seemed to work well with him before..."

KEEPER: "Right. What do you need to know? Tactical details at the farm?"

LUNDQUIST: "For starters. Also, see what Volker had employed these Hessians for."

ROGERS: "Find out about those silos as well."

KEEPER: "Silos?"

ROGERS: "Oh sorry yeah MEREDITH send an info pack on the farm some Satellite shots some silos showed up look like grain silos."

ROGERS: "But given what we're dealing with I'd like to be sure see what reaction you get when you mention them."

KEEPER: "All right. Where are those photos?"

ROGERS: "Just came through on the e-mail I'll go and print out some hardcopies for you."

KEEPER: "Okay, thanks. That will help me with the questioning."

KEEPER: He looks over the photos. "Typical farm layout. All right." He and Cabot go in to question the suspect.

KEEPER: Mahmoud is compliant. He's already given away too much for his people to forgive him, and he doesn't have high hopes for his fate here.

KEEPER: He tells them that the farm is usually occupied by about a dozen men. Half of them are mercenaries with Amr, and half are hard-edged ex-special operations types with Volker.

LUNDQUIST: Uh-oh.

LUNDQUIST: (If we go in there, we all carry OICW's).

KEEPER: He gives names for all of them, but the names lead nowhere. They are clearly false.

ROGERS: (or just nuke the site from orbit)

KEEPER: He still insists that he knows nothing of the Dreaming Man drug. Amr's people were there to coordinate black market purchases from the Mediterranean and Russia and to make contacts within the United States with criminal groups that might be manipulated.

Lundquist whispers to Keeper: I still don't trust Deveraux... I will continue to gather up any incriminating stuff, and I'll have Danforth keep a sharp eye on our perimeter in case the HRT shows up...

KEEPER: Finally, he gives details about the group's equipment. They maintain motion sensors close to the buildings, and IR sensors placed in a 100-yard perimeter. The IR sensors are spread pretty thin.

KEEPER: He says that they keep military-grade small-arms on hand, from assault rifles to shotguns and submachineguns, with two light SAW machine guns : one in top of the chicken silo on a platform, the other in the main house.

KEEPER: Kelley and Cabot finally emerge.

ROGERS: "Looks like a major problem there guys."

ROGERS: "Assuming its linked to the DM situation, anyone think its not?"

KEEPER: Kelley shrugs. "We were already going to go in guns-blazing. We just need to get some manpower."

KEEPER: Kelley says, "I don't know what to think. I don't like to assume anything. We've heard that some kind of government men were involved. This might be them."

ROGERS: "They sound really prepared though can you reccomend any men for this op Kelly?"

KEEPER: He glances at Lundquist. "Last year we had a twelve-man SEAL squad called in for something like this. The target turned out to be a pushover, lucky for us. The group might be able to pull something like that together again."

LUNDQUIST: "Yeah... And remember the ABC's?"

KEEPER: "Of course. But I'm assuming we want this to be clandestine. Can't just call in the Air Cav."

LUNDQUIST: "Sure. But the idea's the same. Just employing different assets."

KEEPER: "And... hell, who knows what we can get? With DARREN locked up, SEALs might be hard to get."

LUNDQUIST: I shake my head. "Never met the gentleman. Still, he says that all this farm is used for is a sort of HQ for smuggling operations?"

KEEPER: Kelley grins ruefully. "Yeah, you did meet him, Lundquist. But nevermind. Yeah. The farm is some kind of HQ for smuggling, contract hits, whatever else they have lined up."

ROGERS: "Anyway the silo's didn't get a reaction then, mind you can't be anything valuable in them otherwise they wouldn't have A SAW nest on one."

KEEPER: "I don't think the silo has anything important. It's a tactical vantage."

ROGERS: "Yeah so at least we don't have to worry about releasing a load of the stuff in the agent."

LUNDQUIST: "Well, this farm looks like a good thing to neutralize then. At the very least, it will inconvenience Volker's people. At best, we may net some useful intel."

ROGERS: "Yeah but the defense is in depth lets look into getting some plans of the place first before rushing in and check out the deposit bx Volker had." "It may have some more intell on the place and the personnel."

KEEPER: "Maybe. It wouldn't hurt. Unless it tipped them off somehow."

LUNDQUIST: "One can hope..."

ROGERS: "Can't see how unless they have someone working at the bank."

LUNDQUIST: "Or watching it.":

LUNDQUIST: "Or some sort of bug in the deposit box."

ROGERS: "Well we just go in together and keep an eye out and take a bug sniffer."

KEEPER: "Right. I think we ought to get in position and surveil the target first, then check the deposit box. If they react or start making preparations after we look at the deposit box, we can go ahead and hit them."

KEEPER: Kelley says, "But a bug sniffer in a bank will be real obvious. That's a lot of equipment."

ROGERS: "OK good plan, but how long will it take to get an assault tem in place?"

KEEPER: "That's up to MEREDITH."

KEEPER: "My guess would be twenty-four hours, minimum."

ROGERS: "so what do we do in the mean time?"

KEEPER: Kelley looks from Rogers to Ludnquist. "Third Court Warriors?"

LUNDQUIST: "Still high on my list of 'people to abduct and mercilessly question...' but I think we need to reestablish our operational security first."

ROGERS: "Yeah time for some serious damage control."

KEEPER: "Well, obviously. Anything we do is assuming we can get the FBI off our trail. Or give them something else to investigate."

LUNDQUIST: "I should think that wouldn't be a problem. There's more than enough investigation to go around here."

KEEPER: "Right. So, for now we just wait for MEREDITH?"

LUNDQUIST: "Yeah, I'll send her another message. I'll also give Wang a call, have her send over someone to double check our sanitization of this place."

KEEPER: Kelley nods. "I guess I'll break out the cards."

LUNDQUIST: "You've got all your stuff packed and ready to move, Kelley?"

KEEPER: "The gear's ready to roll. Our first guest is suited up."

LUNDQUIST: "Good enough."

ROGERS: "Glad I live in NY. I didn't have to bring a bag." Rogers smiles.