“How was this one booby-trapped?” Ash inquired.
“Hmmm. This one was the toughest. There was a sensor on the door. We had a brand new Basic Tech in the unit who actually noticed it.”
“Wow, what did you do?”
“We removed the sensor from the door and taped it to its mate. We still remote opened the door a few inches at a time in case there was a tripwire device like on some of the others. There was.”
Ironhorse clicked on the light. The magazine was filled front to back with cylindrical objects sitting on racks about waist high. When Jazz realized what he was looking at he actually stepped back.
“HOLY SHIT!” said Ashland.
There were bombs, torpedoes, missiles, and rockets. All fuzed.
Ironhorse and T-Ball were laughing now.
“What?” said Jazz taking a step closer to the door. He was confused. There was a ringing in his ears. “What the fuck!”
“Calm down, LT,” said T-Ball. “Look again.”
It took him a moment.
“They’re all training aids,” said Ash.
“Damn. I thought they were real,” said Jazz. “I thought we were looking at live ordnance waiting to go.”
The other men were all giggling at the 1140.
“I’m serious. I thought, ‘Who are the dumb motherfuckers that stored this shit ready to go?’”
“They have not yet been fired, LT,” said T-Ball. “They’d be safe.”
Ash walked to the first bomb closest to the door. It was Russian in design. He pulled on a niche on the side and opened a door that revealed the connection between the nose fuze and the high explosives in the body.
“Do they all have cut-aways?”
“Yeah,” said Ironhorse. “Mostly Russian and Chinese, variants thereof. There are a few Egyptian, Italian, and even a few U.S. bombs in the back.”
“I’m surprised,” said Ash. “Since when did the Albanians have a legit EOD force? And if they did, why couldn’t they render safe the booby traps and get back into these mags after the government got a handle on things?”
“Because they were not here for the Albanians,” said Jazz. “This ‘school’ was not for the Albanians, was it Ironhorse?”
“I told you he was smart,” said T-Ball.
“I knew it,” said Ironhorse. “I predict it will take another five seconds…”
“Until I realize that there is more to this magazine than cutaways.”
“Damn, LT. Are you psychic? Cruz is right. You oughta be a G-man,” said T-Ball. “How did you guess?”
“Simple. The last magazine had training aids and was not booby-trapped. This one had the most sophisticated trap among them all. True it had some high speed training devices… but it doesn’t add up. Something far more important had to be in here.”
“Lieutentant. I’ve got something to show you,” said Ironhorse with his now trademark grin.
They all followed Ironhorse as he threaded his way through racks of training ordnance to the back of the magazine. As they moved further from the door the sound of the storm outside grew quieter and the light around them grew dimmer.
“We were in here four days before we found it. We kept feeling a little breeze back here and hearing a strange sound as the door up front was closed. Then one time when we were goofing around, we turned the light out and closed the door on one of the other Airman in the unit. He felt the breeze, heard the sound, then he saw the light.”
“Huh?” said Ashland.
Ironhorse reached up and pushed on the back wall. A section of it opened. It was a false door with a room beyond.
Now Jazz and Ashland were too shocked to speak. Suddenly Jazz knew what T-Ball was excited about.
T-Ball’s voice became very serious. “Sir, I wanted you to see this the same way I did. It has been hard for me to contain myself.”
“What? What is it?”
“Follow the rabbit down the hole.”
Jazz looked at the door. A concrete slab was affixed to a steel door behind. He stepped through. It was a lab. A lab for making IEDs, laid out exactly like the one in San Patricio County.
Jazz felt faint. The implications hit him immediately. He needed a moment to consume what he was seeing.
“Holy shit,” Ash said again. “So the sound you heard…”
“Some small pressure difference between the two rooms. As you closed the front door this one moved a little on its hinges making the sound. Just a small amount of light was coming through the bottom of the false door. It was not enough to be noticed when the light up front was on.”
“None of this is full up or fuzed is it?” asked Ash.
“No,” Ironhorse replied. “Funny isn’t it? What are we going to do? Recover it and store it in a magazine?”
“Benny, tell me that you have gone to the FBI with this,” said Jazz.
“Well, yes and no. We told the OSI guy.”
“Henderson?”
“That’s the one. He and a couple of other guys came in and looked at this stuff. They took photos, asked us not to move anything, and said they’d be back. We took more photos and sent them to TECHDIV.”
“Were the other guys Air Force?”
“I think they were from the company.”
“Benny, T-Ball and I saw this same lab in Texas.”
“He told me, sir. I think these wackos got their info from the same website.”
“Maybe. Or maybe these wackos are working together.”
THIRTY-SIX
Ayman answered the phone on the first ring.
“Yes?”
“It’s me. We need to meet now.”
“Okay. I’ll come to the road behind your camp. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Good.”
The rain had let up somewhat. Guido ducked as he felt the downdraft of one of the big U.S. Navy helicopters as it flew overhead. He looked up as it passed and noted that two of them were headed for the coast.
Ayman was on a moped, smoking casually as if he stopped here all the time.
“Buongiorno.”
“Greetings. What do you have for me?”
“Photos. There was activity in the magazine today. I think something is about to happen there.”
“As long as it is not soon we will be okay. It is time for you and the girl to leave. Nasih is going to take action soon. If you are here you may be implicated.”
“Such a shame, I wanted to help.”
“You have. Your role here is not of action. That will be carried out by someone who has direct interest and greater flexibility than you here.”
“I understand.”
“This may be our last meeting. I wish you success in your cause.”
“And you.”
Ayman slipped the film into his pocket. Started his moped and drove off. Guido wondered if Renata was still randy.
Melanie almost dropped Abigail running for the phone. She waited for Jazz to call for two days since the Executive Officer of EOD Mobile Unit Six reported to the Det Four wives that their husbands were okay. She even watched the news constantly, hoping to see Jazz in the coverage.
“Hello.”
“Hey, hon, its me.”
“Oh, thank God,” Melanie exclaimed.
“How are you doing?”
Jazz heard Melanie crying.
“Mel, are you alright?”
“I’m just glad to hear your voice,” she said. “I’m glad that you’re safe.”
“Hon, it was no big deal, really.”
Jazz looked down at his feet. He wondered how many times he was going to have to lie to his wife for the sake of operational security.
“Malarky. You almost died on me again.”
“Mel, you are being overly dramatic… how are the kids?”
Melanie allowed him to change the subject. She filled him in on how the family was doing and made sure he got to talk to both of the boys. Neither one of them wanted to hang up.
“Mel, I gotta go. I don’t want to, but I have to go.”
“Be careful you big lug. I want you back in one piece.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you too, Jazz.”
After hanging up, Melanie realized that she did not really tell him how angry she was. She wondered how long she could handle this new life.