Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 01 - Flapjack (36 page)

“
Some joker spilled water on me in there.  Damn idiot,” he announced to them.

“
That’s too bad,” Jane lied.  “You look great.  Shall we go in?” She continued, stroking his ego.  Eastman nodded and went to the door, straightened his suit, and walked in.  He would be even more surprised and angry at what was to happen inside.

When I saw that they had left the vicinity of the bathroom, I dug the blue binder out of the trash and walked back to the room where the FBI agents were stationed. 

“I found something in the bathroom, Agent Avery,” I said handing him the binder.  “I don’t know whose it is.”  I smiled as I said this.  Avery smiled back.

“
What a good, friendly maintenance worker you are!  Thanks, I’ll see if I can locate the rightful owner to this.”  He walked back in the room and placed it in front of the other agents who immediately opened it and began to pour over the contents.  From the looks on their faces, I must have done well.

I excused myself and raced to the convention hall.  I
was supposed to stay out of sight, but I had to see this.

-Chapter 71-

Galveston, Alex, and Dr. Sloan had all been waiting in the convention hall, putting the finishing touches on the upcoming presentation while trying to keep the media from getting restless.  The turnout was better than we could have imagined.  Every major news source was present, for the most part.  They had been intrigued by the message Alex had sent and wanted to see what the hubbub was about.

Dr. Sloan had already started a slide show on the benefits of his battery and was just nearing the last slide. 
Galveston saw the Senator come in the door with Elizabeth and Jane and motioned to Alex who whispered to Dr. Sloan on the podium.  Now the fun began.

“
I’ll now show you this battery’s unlimited capabilities,” he stated as he moved to the vast array of objects sitting on the tables.  The three cars were first in line and he walked to the first one.  A wire exuded from its open hood and the engine was exposed.

“
There are no batteries in these cars, or in any other object you see before you,” the professor announced.

From the car, the wire was connected to a rectangular box sitting in the middle of all the other objects.  All the other devices on the tables connected to it as well
, and from there, on top of a small table, stood the
Flapjack
.  It was about the size of a deck of playing cards and a single wire connected the rectangular box to it.

“
This is the
Flapjack
,” he said pointing to the device, “and it will be the only power source.”

He walked back to the first car, got in
, and started it.  It immediately roared to life.  He went to the second and third car and did the same.  The members in the audience sat glued at what they were watching.  Alex followed and cut off the engines behind him.  Carbon monoxide in a closed room was usually not a good thing.

“
Now how many of you think the
Flapjack
can’t do anymore?” Dr. Sloan announced and asked the audience.  The small crowd murmured while most raised their hands.  There was a reason that car batteries were so huge, and to see this small device start them was amazing. 

Dr. Sloan walked to the lamps sitting on the table and began to switch them on.  As the electrical current flowed
, the lamps came on, one by one.  He then began to switch on some cell phones.  Each one came to life as he pushed the power button.  Alex followed Dr. Sloan again and held up each phone to show they were indeed on and that there was no battery in them.  It all had an air of a good magic trick.  Dr. Sloan next flipped a switch on top of the table, and the Christmas lights illuminated the tables across the front of the room.  Senator Eastman continued to stand at the back, confused at what he was witnessing.  Next, Dr. Sloan clicked on each of the computers.  Each one whirled to life in succession, and their monitors flickered with the new onset of power.  Lastly, Dr. Sloan moved to the end table, the one with the coffee post, and switched it on.  It began to percolate, sending fresh coffee into the pot, a whimsical end to an impressive display.

“
No other sources of electrical energy are present.  All this is being done by the
Flapjack
.  If you stay for over an hour, you’ll see that everything will still be on.”  He walked back to the coffeepot.  “Now who would like a fresh cup of coffee?”

The crowd
roared and clapped at the sight with many “oohs” and “ahhs” thrown in.  Flashes went off one by one and Dr. Sloan basked in the flashing lights, smiling widely.  Alex managed to scoot his way into the background to get his mug into the pictures.

“
I invite all of you up to examine the
Flapjack
,” Dr. Sloan told the crowd.  “And I’ll answer any questions.”

It began to sink in
to the Senator what he was really watching.  He saw the hand painted sign Alex had made with the Doctor’s name on it.

“
What the hell is going on here?”  He demanded angrily to Placer and the ladies.

Galveston
noticed the Senator’s dismay at the back of the room and grabbed the microphone at the front of the hall.

“
Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Edward Eastman has graciously arrived to witness the release of this amazing device,” Galveston said pointing to the back of the room.

The press corp
s immediately turned to the Senator whose anger turned to smiles as he had been trained when members of the press were present.  The flashes grew intense toward the Senator who managed to wave at the cameras.

“
I wouldn’t try to go anywhere Senator,” Elizabeth said, stepping out of view from the cameras, and blocked any escape back out through the door.

I had heard the
ruckus and peeked in a side door.  Galveston was just making his next play.

“
Senator, why don’t you come up and get a few pictures with the
Flapjack
.”

Eastman looked very uncomfortable and managed a weak smile while he made his way through the press, even shaking hands as he went.  The press followed him to the front
, leaving the back of the room empty.  I noticed the FBI agents in the room as they covered all the exit areas.  Eastman mugged for the cameras with none other than Dr. Sloan.  Eastman’s weak smile turned flat as he realized he was caught and his career was over.  He looked like a scared rabbit, and for a moment, looked like he would try to escape when he noticed the various men standing by the exits.  It was then that he knew he would be arrested by the FBI.

“
I wouldn’t think about leaving, Senator.  I think you’re done,” Galveston yelled to him over the clamor of the crowd.  The Senator stumbled down the step to the nearest exit.  The agent waiting at the door spoke to him and led him into the hall followed by other agents.  They whisked him out of the hotel through the service entrance and into an awaiting SUV.  The Senator had been arrested.

Back in the ballroom, the scene had subsided.  The press didn’t have any id
ea of what had just taken place and stuck around to check out the
Flapjack
as it continued to keep everything working.  The press Dr. Sloan fielded questions for over an hour as the
Flapjack
kept sending out an amazing torrent of power and many of cups of coffee.

The FBI agents now had the Senator, but even with the mounting evidence against him for his improprieties, Eastman still wouldn’t implicate Chase under intense FBI interrogation.  Eastman knew that if he fingered Chase, his crimes would become that much worse.  He would then be an accessory to an act of terrorism on foreign soil, as well as murder.  May was shocked at the news.  He still didn’t have the necessary evidence to get Chase, yet.

-Chapter 72-

Agent Avery joined us in the large convention hall a few hours later after he finished examining the binder from Eastman’s bag and after the furor from the presentation had subsided.  “Excuse me fellas, it’s May.”  He said handing us his cell phone.

“
Tell David I want more pay,” Galveston yelled at him and laughed.

Agent Avery
handed the phone to Galveston and his face was serious. 

“
Hello David,” Galveston said with noticeable fatigue in his voice.

“
Galveston, Chase is on the run and we need your help in finding him.  He must have seen the online streaming of the presentation,” he announced, “and I’ve just received something that is going to blow this thing apart.”

Galveston
noticed the tone in his voice and stood up.

“
What’ve we got?”  He asked hopefully.

“
You guys need to get here now,” May told him simply.

“
To Chicago?”  Galveston exclaimed.  “Are you crazy David?  What have you been drinking?”

“
I’m serious.  Get to the airport.  We have a government jet standing by.  I’ll tell you all about it when you get here.  Actually, I’ll show you.  This is huge.”

“
I don’t see why,” Galveston tried to get out of it.

“
Just get here, we’re running out of time.  I insist.  You two need to be here to help us find him,” May told him.

“
Okay David,” Galveston relented, “we’ll do it.”  May gave him the instructions about where to meet Avery at the airport.  Galveston then had the unscrupulous job of getting me to go along, an idea I was not fond of.  Secretly I wanted to be there, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.  Finally, I agreed to go.

“
I’ve got to tell Jane I’m leaving, I recommend you do the same with Elizabeth,” I told him.

“
Five minutes, no more,” he chided me, and I agreed to his request.

I
found Jane outside the hall sitting in a comfortable chair, relaxing.  She looked lovely and I explained the situation to her.  Somehow she understood.

“
I promise when I get back we’ll do all the things we planned,” I told her.

“
You better,” she joked back.

“
Jane, I just want you to know that I,” and I stopped midsentence, chickening out again and became fearful of her reaction.  “Have a good night and I will see you tomorrow, I hope.”  I gave her a hug and a kiss on her soft lips and turned around, ready to meet Galveston.  I just didn’t think she felt the same way about me.

As I turned to walk down the hall, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.  I turned around and Jane kissed me passionately, pulling me close to her.

“I, I love you Roger, I do,” she said welling up with emotion and squeezing me hard.  I pulled together my courage after hearing the words I longed to hear.

“
I love you too, Jane, so much, and I, I, just love you,” the words flowed easily and I felt a weight lift from my shoulders.  In this short period of time I couldn’t deny it further.  I did love her and I was no longer falling in love with her, I had truly fallen.  I kissed her again and I could sense the emotion between us.  I could do anything now.

Jane looked in my eyes, the tears beginning to show slowly at the corners.

“You better get going, you know how Galveston gets if you’re late for anything.”

“
Yeah, I know.  I’ll see you soon,” I said hugging her one more time.  I turned and literally bounded down the hallway.  Before I turned the corner, I gave her another wave and watched as she disappeared back into the hall.

-Chapter 73-

“What happened?  Did you take some happy pills or something?”  Galveston asked me as we met.

“
I took the happiest of pills,” was all I said.

We
flew out the hotel into Galveston’s car and raced for the airport.  A Gulfstream jet was awaiting us at the airport and we raced to Chicago. 

May
welcomed us to Chicago O’Hare, alone.  He hurried us into a car and we raced toward the north outskirts of the city.  Agents had already begun fanning out to Chase’s mansion in the North Shore.  May had managed to get an arrest warrant to search and arrest Chase at his home.  It was based on the new information May had obtained.

“
So you still haven’t told us what this new evidence is,” Galveston inquired.

“
You see that bag there,” he said pointing to a black bag on the floorboard.  “There’s a packing envelope in it.  Pull out the recorder and press play,” he ordered.

Galveston
did what he was told and pressed the play button.  The sounds that came out shocked us and I saw why May had waited.  It had to be heard in person.  On the recording were two voices and what they talked about meshed perfectly with our complete theory.  The voices were of Murray and Chase.  On the recording they spelled out every portion of their plan.  One conversation poured into the next, like a movie, and incriminated Chase at every turn.

“
How did you get this?” I exclaimed.

“
I received a call from the Chicago office that a package had been dropped off.  It was under the care of a law firm that had explicit orders to deliver the package if Wallace Murray hadn’t contacted them within a day of his safe journey out of the country.  If he didn’t, they were to deliver the package to the Chicago FBI office.  There was even a timeline enclosed.  After the proposed initial contact, Murray would contact them every six months.  If at any time he didn’t contact them, the firm was to deliver the package to the FBI.”

We were shocked at this turn of events and the evidence that had been neatly placed in our laps.  This was the
evidence we had been hoping for.

“
I’ve listened to most of it and the most chilling part is when Chase gave the order for Murray to kill Dr. Blout.  That one made my blood boil,” May told us as he raced to Chase’s house.

We still couldn’t believe it. 
Murray was an evil, unscrupulous man but had made one last attempt at redemption.  He was still a criminal and had done one good deed, but only to make sure that if he went down, everyone would.  It was obvious that Chase must have had Murray eliminated, because he was the last link in the chain.

When we finally arrived to Chase’s house, May gave the order to go in, but the agents returned quickly, the house was empty.  Chase had managed to escape
since seeing the presentation, and was probably trying to get out of the country. 

We sat in May’s car and tried to think through it rat
ionally of where Chase could go, O’Hare or Midway?  No, these were too obvious, and too easily tracked.  I began to search back through our miles and miles of information and suddenly I remembered one of the messages Alex had acquired over a week ago.  I pulled out my trusty notepad, now bulging from the wealth of information.  It wasn’t until a minute later that I found what I was looking for.  Aircraft number
27982
, the jet Espinosa had transferred to in Mexico before going to Brazil and the one Placer said Chase owned under a foreign registration.  We hadn’t realized that this was Chase’s plane number in the text messages Alex had hacked almost a full week ago.  I relayed the information to Galveston and May, and they looked at each other as I spilled my theory.

“
27982
,” I exclaimed.  “It’s Chase’s personal plane.  He used it in Mexico to transport Espinosa.”

“
I think you’re on to something,” Galveston told me proudly.  “We need to contact the FAA.  They will have to file a flight plan with that number to get out of the country.  We just need to find out where they are starting the flight from.”

May was already dialing the FBI office to get the information from the FAA.  We bantered where we thought it would be, until
May finally received a call back.

“
Gary International, the last of the three in the Chicago airport system.  Do you think we have time?”  He asked us.

“
We should,” Galveston said.  “He’ll have a tough time getting a crew together on such short notice.  That should buy us some time.”

Gary
Airport sat south of the city and we had a long way to drive.  Luckily, the time of day allowed us quick access from the north part of Chicago to the south via interstate ninety.  It took us about an hour to drive to the airport that sat across the border of Illinois in Indiana.  The agents from the house followed us as May called the airport office and found out the plane was on the ground, but had not asked for a clearance yet.

May picked up his speed until we were on the outskirts of the airport.  He used his radio to direct the othe
r agents to get into position and they fanned out with their cars in front of the security gate to block any possible escape.  We could see the plane sitting on the tarmac in the distance; illuminated by beams of white light.

Men were moving around the plane
, quickly loading boxes and bags into the cargo hold.  We were too far away to notice any of the features of the men or if they were armed.  May parked the car behind a group of hangars and got out.  We had the element of surprise and wanted to use it to the fullest.  The agents rapidly put on their flak jackets with their FBI letters emblazoned on the back and readied their weapons, preparing for the assault. 

May
used his binoculars to pick out three armed men.  He could tell they were carrying weapons from the way they held their coats as they walked.  One man stood at the entrance to the plane, scanning every direction, while the other two stood on either side of the plane’s entrance.  Everyone waited for May’s go ahead. 

When he was satisfied with the agents
’ positions and safety, he gave the order to go in which sent us scurrying back into the car. 

Agent
May slammed the car into drive and screeched from behind the hangar followed by the other cars.  The sudden acceleration threw me back in the back seat, and I struggled to hold myself upright as we followed the curves of the airport road.  The men didn’t see us until we were about 100 yards away and closing quickly.  They reacted slowly, but I saw the men draw their guns from beneath their coats, raise them, and begin to fire, a visual that shocked me.  I figured they would just give up, but as I heard the loud popping inside the car, I knew they meant business.  I bent down low in the seat, as did Galveston, praying we wouldn’t be hit by the random gunfire. 

When
May was about thirty yards away, he jammed the brakes and slammed the wheel to the left, causing us to be thrown hard to the right of the car.  The car’s tires squealed as he placed the vehicle pointing at the airplane.  May jumped out, and the other agents in the following cars did the same.  The gunmen continued to fire at the cars with no regard to the credentials of the men inside.  They crouched low and tried to find some cover beneath the plane, but it offered little in the way of protection.  May strategically placed himself behind the door in a crouching position, and then stood up to let off a few rounds. 

Galveston
and I got out of the car and went to the back bumper out of view.  The man that stood at the door began to fire again and motioned for someone inside to come out.  The gunman shielded the man from the gunfire as he flew down the steps of the airplane and disappeared behind it.  The guard tried to follow him but was peppered with the accurate gunfire of the highly trained agents.  He doubled over as a round pierced his thigh and back, and he fell to the ground in excruciating pain.  May continued to survey the situation and motioned for the other agents to flank the aircraft from the back. 

“
This isn’t what I came to do,” I yelled at Galveston over the rapid gunfire.

“
Me neither,” Galveston replied, crouching as low as he could to the ground.

The agents now
had the upper hand, but the other men continued to fire.  We noticed a shape, crouched low, running to the nearby hangar.  He turned his head slightly toward our direction and we saw it was Chase. 

“
Come on,” Galveston yelled at me, already getting up and moving backwards away from the car.

“
What?  Are you crazy?” I tried to yell at him, but he was already out of earshot. 

I watched as
Galveston stayed low to the ground and shielded himself behind the other cars until he arrived at the side of the large hangar.  Stupidly, I followed him.  I had no training for this sort of thing and did my best not to get shot.  I lurched awkwardly across the ground, hearing the bullets ricochet off the metal of the cars.  I heard a yell as I closed in on Galveston at the side of the building.  The agents had just wounded another one of the gunmen.  The last man, realizing he was outnumbered, out-trained, and out gunned, threw down his weapon and then threw up his hands.  The agents swarmed on him quickly, pushing him into the ground as they cuffed him.  The gunfire ceased and the air grew quiet as I got to Galveston, who was intently peering around the corner of the building. 

I arrived
at Galveston’s location, breathless and unharmed, but before I could ask him what he was doing, he lunged forward and disappeared.  I attempted to follow again, and as I rounded the corner I watched as Galveston rammed an unsuspecting Chase with his body from behind as he stepped out from the front hangar door.  Chase’s legs flew up into the air and he slammed into the ground rolling onto his back, groaning at the sudden, unexpected impact.  Galveston immediately flipped him on his stomach and jammed his knee into his back, causing Chase to groan again while his hands were secured. 

I tried to speak, but couldn’t
and stopped midway between the pair.  I doubled over with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

“
We got him Roger,” he turned and said to me seriously while holding Chase steady, who was now semi-unconscious from the take down.

“
You sure did,” I told him breathing heavily while attempting to get my heart back in my chest.

S
everal agents finally caught up and gathered as Galveston extricated himself from Chase.  The agents took his hands and cuffed him.  He never knew what hit him.  Galveston got up and walked slowly toward me.

“
I’m not sure I want to do that again, but it sure reminded me of old times,” he told me, out of breath and dusting himself off.

“
Yeah that’s great, but I think I’ve had my fill,” I responded with quick sarcasm.

T
he agents dragged Chase back to the runway side of the hangar.  May and the other agents were leaning over two wounded men who were lucky to be alive, with the third lying face down, his hands cuffed behind his back.  The agents could have just as easily mortally wounded them, but they wanted them for questioning.  I marveled at the agent’s professionalism and precision.  Campbell, Chase’s personal bodyguard, lay bleeding on the ground from his leg and back.  The agents would discover later that he was the one who had shot and killed Murray. 

Galveston
and I returned to the car and sat down on the seats with the doors open.  We heard sirens in the distance of an approaching ambulance and local police support racing to the scene.

May walked toward us
as the wounded men were loaded into the ambulance.

“
You guys okay?” He inquired.

“
Fine David, a little more excitement than we wanted, but we’re okay none the less,” Galveston responded.

“
I’m sure glad I convinced you two to come.  We couldn’t have done it without you,” he said, the adrenaline still pumping through his body.  “Great work.”

“
I’ll expect a promotion and some vacation time,” I joked.

“
You got it Roger, you deserve it,” he replied.

May left us to gather our senses as he coordinated the transportation of the criminals.
  We watched as May escorted Chase to one of the awaiting vehicles.  He held his head low and was scratched up from Galveston’s tackle.  He would never know that the two men that brought him down were sitting in a car about forty feet away.  He put his head in his hands, but I could still tell he had an air of pompousness about him as he raised his head to scold an agent.  He probably thought he was going to buy his way out of this scot free, but having your bodyguards shoot at Federal agents was not a way to go about it.  We pictured his reaction when he heard the tapes Murray had recorded without his knowledge, and soon his demeanor would change.  No political or monetary force could help him now.

“
You’ve come a long way Roger.  If it wasn’t for you, I never would have been able to do this, not that I would do it again,” Galveston said seriously, slapping me on the knee.