Corps Justice Boxed Set: Books 1-3: Back to War, Council of Patriots, Prime Asset (66 page)

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Isn’t he
in the middle of the special election for his father’s Senate
seat?”

“Marge, you know he owes us big time.
Besides, I just want him to see if he can pull some strings and
find out why we’re being investigated. I don’t believe this
bullshit about a routine audit.”

They agreed to meet again at lunch to
discuss any developments. Travis walked to his office and placed
the call.

Chapter 22

Falls Church, VA

8:41am EST, September 28th

Brandon Zimmer was enjoying a much-needed
morning off from campaigning. The last week had been a whirlwind of
hand-shaking, speeches and phone calls. Washington insiders
believed that the young Congressman would likely win an
overwhelming victory against his opponent. It hadn’t hurt that
former President Hank Waller made the unexpected move of publicly
endorsing Zimmer for the vacated seat. Preliminary polls were
showing Brandon with almost seventy-five percent of the likely
vote.

He’d learned from experience not to take a
lead for granted and pushed his campaign staff hard. Zimmer was in
the middle of perusing the college football matchups for the coming
weekend when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and
smiled.

“Hey, Trav!”

“Good morning, Congressman…or should I be
calling you Senator now?”

“Not yet, and you know you can always call
me Brandon.”

“I know.” Travis paused.

Brandon caught the hesitation. “What’s going
on?”

“Are you on the cell phone we gave you?”

“Yeah. Why?” Zimmer perked up at the
question. Travis typically got right to the point.

Travis quickly outlined the details of
Neil’s kidnapping and Cal’s operation to get him back.

“God, I’m sorry. Do you think he’s still
alive?”

“To be honest with you, I’m not sure. Then
again, I don’t know why this guy would go through all the trouble
to take Neil just to kill him.”

“Do you have a motive?”

“Not yet, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon
enough.”

“How can I help?” Zimmer asked.

“Actually, I called to ask for your help
with something else,” Travis answered cryptically.

Now Brandon was really confused. “Something
else?”

“Yeah. It just so happens that as soon as we
got Cal to Wyoming, the FBI says it’s time for an audit. They just
got here.”

Travis didn’t have to tell Zimmer that the
timing was more than a little coincidental. “So you think it has
something to do with what’s going on with Neil?”

“I do. If my hands weren’t tied with our
guests, I’d make some phone calls. I was wondering if you wouldn’t
mind making some discrete inquiries within your little club.”

Brandon knew he was talking about the
Council of Patriots. The combined Rolodex of the two former
Presidents and the seven former senators and congressmen in the
group made for a powerful information-gathering asset. It was,
however, important not to drink from the well too often. The
Council’s secrecy was paramount.

“Let me call our friends and see how they
can help.”

“I really appreciate it, Brandon. Please
call me if you find out anything.”

“I will. And, Trav…?”

“Yeah?”

“Call me for help any time.”

“Roger.”

Zimmer ended the call and sat for a moment.
He had a lot of pressing matters to attend to this afternoon, but
this would take priority. He owed Cal and Neil a huge debt. If it
weren’t for them, he’d probably be in jail and the President would
be dead. Brandon would do anything to help his new friends.

He picked up his cell phone again and
scrolled through his contact list. After pressing the right record,
he held the phone to his ear. The call connected and Zimmer spoke.
“Mr. President, I need a moment of your time.”

Chapter 23

Grand Teton Mountain Range

7:05am, September 28th

“Rise and shine!” Ponder’s bellow was
followed by a kick to Neil’s wobbly cot. Neil just barely caught
himself before he fell off and onto the floor.

He looked up at his captor through bleary
eyes. He’d just managed to fall asleep and suspected Ponder had
waited for his slumber just to torment him.

“What time is it?” Neil dared to ask.

“I said it’s time to rise and shine! Now get
cleaned up. We’re taking you back to the server room.” Ponder
stormed out of the cell.

It was the same journey they’d repeatedly
forced him to make. He’d resisted their requests but knew his time
was running short. Neil had to deliver something or else they’d
kill him.

He sat up painfully. Shivering
uncontrollably, Neil wrapped the thin blanket around his shrinking
body. Although his time in captivity hadn’t been long, Neil knew
he’d already lost weight. The constant stress led to a complete
lack of appetite in the normally fit Indian-American. Somehow he
managed to force down several bites of food every time the jailer
brought it. He knew it wasn’t enough.

Just as he’d fallen asleep, the tech genius
was trying to think of a way to alert his friends at SSI. If he had
more time with a computer it would’ve been easy, but every time
they set him as the workstation there was someone watching.

The guard arrived and unceremoniously picked
Neil up like a baby and carried him out of the cell. A minute later
they arrived at the now familiar server room. It wasn’t much
compared to what Neil was used to, but still impressive for a
mountain top retreat.

Ponder stood over his shoulder just as he
had done before. “Let’s try this again. Are you going to do it or
not?”

Neil didn’t have the will to say no. What
reserves he’d had now lay scattered on the frozen ground outside
the complex. “I’ll do it.”

Ponder was secretly relieved. “Now remember
what I told you,” Ponder growled as he extracted a large knife from
its leg holster, “you try anything funny and I’ll take off your
other foot personally.”

Neil didn’t doubt the man’s threat. In the
short time he’d been a guest at Chateau Winter Wonderland, as Neil
now thought of the compound, he’d come to realize that the man in
charge was not only ruthless, but probably had a few screws loose
upstairs. His ability to pivot from anger to mirth spoke volumes of
the grizzled man’s mental faculties.

Shifting uncomfortably, Neil moved closer to
the computer’s keypad. He tried to place his hand on the mouse but
his hands kept shaking.

Ponder turned to his sentry and barked, “Get
a couple space heaters over here and bring some more blankets too.
Have the cook bring down some hot soup and cider.”

He looked down at Neil. “Well what are you
waiting for? Get back to work!”

Neil whipped his head back around and did
his best to grip the mouse and click through the screens.

+++

Trapper was making good time on the mule
he’d saddled. Something told him that the SSI operators would take
the Death Canyon entrance. It was well traveled and easy to access
from Teton Village. Trapper had already confirmed with the few
helicopter companies in the area that no one had booked a flight.
That left his enemy with only one option: trek in on foot.

He pushed his mule hard hoping he’d make his
destination before the storm hit. If he did, the slaughter would be
easy. He’d have a perfect view. The former soldier grinned as he
imagined the coming battle.

+++

The men were silent as they moved swiftly
down the trail. They’d made good time so far and hadn’t encountered
many hikers. The few people they had seen were going the opposite
way, eager to avoid the blizzard. Everyone could feel the weather
shift as the storm crept closer. Cal was hiking in the middle of
pack, allowing his mind to drift back to his days in the Marine
Corps, hiking countless miles with fellow Marines.

Brian Ramirez pulled up beside him.

“What’s going on, Doc? Not enough action in
the rear?”

Brian had elected to stay in the back of the
group just as he’d done during his time with Marines. It was
customary for the Corpsman to tend to the stragglers and injured
with the company gunny.

“Was wondering if you’d heard anything else
from Camp Spartan.”

Cal shook his head. “They’re busy handling
the FBI guys that someone shoved down their throats. I can’t
believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather be here than dealing with
that right now.”

Brian agreed. “So we’re really going in as
is? No more support from home?”

“It’s just us, Doc.”

Brian wasn’t the only one that couldn’t
shake the feeling that they were walking into a shitstorm.

“I know what you’re thinking, Doc, but our
options are limited. We know where they’re keeping Neil so we’ve
gotta go get him.”

“But how do we know for sure that he’s up
there?”

Cal was getting tired of the conversation.
Brian was one of his best friends, but the last thing he needed
right now was to have his judgment questioned.

“It’s all we’ve got to go on. Look, I gave
everyone the chance to stay back. If you think it’s such a bad idea
feel free to turn around now,” Cal noticed a couple of the men
around them glance back in concern.

“You know I wouldn’t do that, Cal. I just
want to make sure you’ve thought this whole thing through. I’m not
trying to make waves. I just want to help.”

Cal calmed in response to Brian’s
conciliatory tone. The stress was getting to him. He knew he had to
be careful and keep his temper in check. Nothing good came of
barking at his team.

“Sorry, Doc. Just forget what I said. I
couldn’t do this without you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Is there anything I
can do to help?”

“Just make sure you catch Top when he falls
out back there,” Cal said loudly enough for the huge Marine Master
Sergeant to hear.

“I heard that!” Trent boomed as loudly as he
dared.

The men around them chuckled quietly.

“Seriously though, Doc, we just need to get
up there as soon as we can. I’m afraid of what they’re planning for
Neil.”

“Yeah,” Brian said absently.

It was good that they had the winding path
to worry about because it was impossible to imagine the fate of
their friend. By now they’d all heard the stories about Nick
Ponder’s exploits. There wasn’t a man in the group that didn’t want
to see the man in jail or dead.

Brian dropped back to the rear of the
formation and left Cal to his thoughts.

Chapter 24

Grand Teton Mountain Range

8:17am, September 28th

“Okay, I’m in,” announced Neil.

Ponder strained to make sense of the code on
the monitor. A second later the screen changed and displayed the
control panel of the Shiloh Wind Power Plant in Bird’s Landing,
California.

“Shut it down,” Ponder ordered.

He’d told Neil on their first attempt that
the test was to shut down the plant’s power for a full minute. Neil
knew it would be an easy feat with his computer prowess. Hell, with
his own equipment he’d have done it in less than five minutes. In
Ponder’s lair he’d had to build a hacking system from scratch.
Although labor intensive, it had allowed Patel to imbed some extra
code into the program. He hoped it would be enough to alert his
friends of his location.

“I said shut it down!”

Neil did as he was told.

+++

Miles away at the Shiloh Wind Power Plant,
Bernice Ormand was monitoring the plant’s computer systems. She’d
been in the control room since 6:00am and casually swept her gaze
across the assorted meters. Bernice still marveled at the newly
computerized system. She’d been at the power plant since it opened
in 2006. Back then they’d installed a very rudimentary monitoring
system just to get the plant built under budget. It wasn’t until
the new President was elected in 2008, and his green energy funding
went into effect, that the Shiloh Wind Power Plant installed a
completely computer driven monitoring system.

Bernice sipped her second green tea of the
morning as she jotted down some notes in the plant’s logbook. As
she went to complete her entry, all the screens on the panel went
dark.

“What in the world?” Bernice said.

She grabbed the phone and dialed the station
manager.

“Stan, it’s Bernice. The monitoring system
just went down.”

“I’m checking one of the turbines right now.
I’ll be up in five minutes.”

Stan seemed unconcerned and his attitude
served to calm Bernice’s nerves. She’d never seen this happen
before. They’d had intermittent issues with malfunctioning turbines
in the past, but the monitoring systems had always performed
flawlessly. By the time she’d collected her thoughts enough to grab
the logbook the computer screens flickered back to life.

Huh. I better call Stan
back,
she thought. Bernice picked up the
phone and dialed the manager’s number again.

“The computers are back online, Stan.”

“Good. Let me know if it happens again.
Thanks, Bernice.”

She hung up the phone, entered the incident
into the logbook, then grabbed her Soduku puzzle book and dove into
her unfinished brainteaser.

+++

“The system is back online,” Neil declared
somberly.

“Well I’ll be damned!” Ponder exulted. “Get
him back to his cell so I can make a phone call,” he told his
employee.

As the jailer took Patel back to his room,
Ponder pulled out his cell phone and dialed his contact’s
number.

“Yeah, it’s me. Are you happy now?” Ponder
asked.

“We have received confirmation of the test
results. One half of the purchase price will be deposited into
escrow. I will email you the deposit receipt momentarily.” The line
went dead.