Yep, definitely man-made.
Jazz dug with his fingertips lightly, rubbing sand away from the object. Finally the sand he moved away revealed a dark brown land mine. From the size he guessed it was an anti-tank mine. He had to balance safety with speed.
Move quickly, but don’t kill yourself.
His procedure had to be correct, but he also could not dawdle on the problem and take all day. His fingers dug down and found the bottom of the land mine. Seven minutes after finding it he fully uncovered an eighth pie-section of the mine.
Jazz paused and drank again water from his Camelbak as he looked at it a moment to determine what type it was. He was unsure of the exact nomenclature, but knew it was an Italian mine. Next, he would remove the fuze.
As he leaned over to remove more sand from the top of the mine there was a loud, “Pop!”
Smoke rose from under the mine.
“What the fuck?”
He looked up at the sound of laughter. Sinclair was forty feet in front of him behind a dune with a detonator in his hand.
“BOOM! You’re dead, LT!” the petty officer said gleefully.
It was then that Jazz saw it. Emerging from the ground ten feet in front of him was a small black cable. It ran toward the dune where Sinclair was hiding.
Ashland came up behind him.
“Command detonated, LT.”
Jazz registered somberness in Ashland’s voice.
Maybe he is still upset too.
“What?”
“See the wire?” Ash said. “A lot of ordnance in B-H is command detonated. They suck a team of engineers or EOD guys into a minefield and wait for them to focus on what they are doing. After you tunnel vision into your mine, boom… big pink mist. Always, always, always take the time to recon the whole area.”
“Fuck,” Jazz muttered to himself.
“No sweat, LT,” said Ash. “Next time you’ll get it. That’s why we’re here, that’s why we did this problem.”
Jazz shook his head and Ashland chuckled.
“I’m sorry, LT, but that is my favorite training point. If I was a ‘bad guy,’ this is how I’d do it.”
Maybe they haven’t given up on me yet.
At the end of the day, Denke had won the contest. Ashland had set up a complicated minefield and booby trap trail that Denke easily defeated. Everyone agreed that he was clearly the victor.
A HUMMVEE was driving toward the men of Det Four as they cleaned up the land mine training area. Jazz watched it as he handed tools to Sinclair in the back of a MU EIGHT pickup truck. He had a feeling the HUMMER was bringing them news.
As it got closer he thought he saw Lou driving. His fellow officer got out and walked up to him.
“Just got an ‘Immediate’ off the wire for you.”
Jazz read the entire message quickly. He had never heard of Kosovo.
“Why are Albanians living in Kosovo?”
“I dunno man, but you guys got twelve hours to get to Aviano, then back to your ship.”
“Okay.”
“What’s up, LT?” inquired Denke.
“Noble Anvil.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Elena stared at the bulletin boards around the room. There was something important about this case that eluded her. She wondered if it was on one of these boards staring at her, yelling at her, taunting her.
An executive assistant knocked on her office door with a folder in his hand.
“Here you are, Elena. I was asked to give you a copy of the report from Rome. It just came in.”
“Thanks, Mark.”
Elena sat down and shuffled through the file. Maybe something could be found from recent incident in Rome.
Elena first flipped through the report casually to refresh her memory of the event. Then she sat down to read it in earnest, studying it for clues or patterns that could help her with the SANPAT case. When she saw the clue that she was looking for, she knew it immediately.
“You bastard,” she murmured to herself.
Forty eight hours later Special Agent Cruz stood silently in front of the desk of Special Agent in Charge Cameron Thompson, her boss. She waited patiently while Thompson sipped his burning hot coffee. Elena noticed him squinting as the Colombian roast passed through his lips. It was a sign that he was thinking.
While he focused, Elena surveyed her boss’s office. Books and papers were strewn everywhere. Half filled cups of coffee and several ashtrays made an aroma that permeated Thompson’s clothes.
Elena smiled to herself.
This place is a mess.
Thompson appeared tired and unkempt. He wore a different suit every day, but it was always rumpled. He would leave the office for only a few hours at a time in the late evening, returning before the sun was up. Most agents in the office believed that Cameron lived on coffee and tobacco. He was a mad scientist of criminology, more like a mystery novel detective than anyone else in the bureau.
It’s no wonder the guy’s not married, Elena thought.
Thompson’s cluttered personality was accompanied by an air of wisdom. The man was not arrogant; he just often solved the case before the lead agent did.
Elena enjoyed working for the guy despite his quirks. She realized that he was teaching her to analyze in new ways. As a result, her investigation skills were improving. Thompson, known as Cam even by his subordinates, did not seem to think much of Elena however. In fact, he was the only man that Elena Cruz never caught looking at her. The fact that she could not impress him in any way was a sore point with her, one she was working hard to fix.
Special Agent Cameron Thompson looked at Cruz quizzically.
“Elena, you’ve been working hard on this, I appreciate that. But I think you haven’t had enough sleep. Go home.”
“No, Cam, listen to me…”
“I think it’s just a coincidence.”
“Sit down and listen to me again.”
The agent in charge threw his hands in the air in mock surrender and sat down at his desk again.
“Okay, here are the elements missing from my investigation. One, how did this group gather the information or intelligence to research, plan, and execute the take-down of the explosive vehicle? Two, who provided or where did they obtain demolition training so sophisticated that no explosive residue was at the site? Three, why were the explosives so important to them that they carried out this operation, including murdering two armed soldiers?”
“Okay, I’m with you.”
“Obviously the supposed owner of the house is involved.”
“Obviously.”
“Okay, so he’s on the run. But there has to be more people involved in order to pull this thing off.”
“I’m still with you. Have you had any mention of the caliber of the weapon?”
“No, but I knew it was fishing anyway. I am surprised at that. I really thought that I would get some reaction from either the police or the EOD det when I told them it was a nine-millimeter round. I figured somebody would come up with a supposition that either police or military were involved since they both use nine-millimeter weapons. Nobody even asked about checking forensics on weapons held by officers on the scene.”
“Yeah, good try though.”
“Okay, so who else? We’ll start with the associates of the guy who owned the house. Maybe that will lead to something. But, I’ll bet we don’t find any.
“Then there is the takedown of the explosive vehicle. Intercepting radio traffic regarding the arrival of Martin and West is impressive, but I’m not sure that can lead us anywhere. So here’s what is really interesting, one of my suspects had to know about the nuances of the movement of the explosives. Specifically, the security and re-fueling procedures that Martin and West would follow. That actually removes a lot of people. Of those living that I can connect to this incident, it leaves Jascinski and Ball. Right now they are the only guys I know of who answer all of these questions. My instinct tells me Jascinski.”