Ring of Fire (16 page)

Nate grunted again. “Copy that, Eric. When you get back to L.A., tell that asswipe of a detective that runs your shop that you did real police work tonight.”

“I’ll do that Nate. Detective Schroeder gave me a message for you that’s eerily similar. Except it was more to the effect that we should get our asses up here and show the small time coppers how to execute high level shit. He told me the only guy cockier than he is was you. And that the best and worst times of his life were the months he spent with you in Iraq.”

“Yeah, your boss is a class act. But don’t tell him I said that. All he needs is a bigger head. But you can tell him that I’m impressed as hell with the team he sent. And Hollywood here is one righteous guy.”

Eric’s snort barked through the com.

“Damn, Sam. ‘Hollywood,’ huh? Bro, they’ve got you pegged. You’re never gonna live that one down, man. That is if you ever come back to the big city. What happened to all those ambitions you had? Not to mention the babes you left behind. Make that plural. No doubt your new team mates have seen you in action. But in case they haven’t, know that Sam’s reputation with the starlets has more than earned him a star of his own on Hollywood and Vine.”

“Sorry, man. But all this fresh air and cloudless skies have improved my vision. Narrowed it, you might say.”

“You shitting me, Sam? Don’t tell me Nate shared some of his conquests and you’ve discovered the lure of the North woods?”

“First, Nate is engaged to be married. At least he was until his gorgeous fiancé objected to his caveman routine and stormed out of the station today. But knowing the Big Dog’s prodigious talents I imagine her absence from his bed will be a short one. But in answer to your question about me, Eric, I’ll admit it. I’m hopelessly in love. With a beautiful statuesque Swedish blonde who also happens to be a kickass cop.”

“Phew. Never thought I’d hear it. There’s gonna be some tears shed on Rodeo Drive when that news get back. But as I always say, take out the alpha dog and there’s more for the rest of the pack to feast on.”

Nate glanced at his watch.

“Okay, hotshots. It’s coming up on zero two hundred hours. Mark, confirm that your charges have all gone to beddy bye and that their sole guard is high on meth.”

Mark laughed. “That’s a roger, Big Dog.”

“Then, man, it’s three minutes to party time. We’ve got you covered but from the looks of it you won’t need us. Ready to rock and roll?”

“That’s an affirmative, Big Dog.”

Nate was still surprised that Jeb had such a skeleton crew watching the lab. He mused, Christ, there must be $15,000 of equipment in those tattered tents. Guess Jeb knows his followers well enough to know that without him on site, he had precious few men he could trust. That was the disadvantage of ruling by fear. Of course, it didn’t help that most of Jeb’s men were bag chasers in addition to Alliance members. Their craziness was stoked by crystal. Unfortunately for them, smack had never been known to enhance the user’s thinking skills.

In contrast, the trucks were loaded for bear. In addition to the driver, each truck had a minimum of four men. That meant fifteen
La Familia Muerte w
ould never make it back to report their losses to their
jeffes
. Nate smiled at the thought. If nothing else, that ensured that he wouldn’t be the only one aiming for Jeb’s head. No, it might take a few days, but by week’s end, Jeb would be begging to be put in protective custody. Nate snorted. He preferred general population at St. Cloud for his boyhood buddy. Awaiting trial, Jeb was likely to get the lessons of a lifetime about just how bad bad guys could be.

An hour later, Nate, Sam and Dan walked the site with Mark Peterson and Eric Michaels. The three teams of men had documented the equipment in the lab and taken samples from the trucks. A three-deep row of bodies were all that was left of the would-be drug dealers.

Mark shook his head.

“You can say one thing about the Mexicans. Well, actually two. First they are the most vicious sons of bitches you’re likely to meet and two, this is top-grade shit if I’ve ever seen it. Your buddy Jeb Jones is going to be in a lifetime of trouble, Nate, when this stuff is discovered missing. Just one more time, bro, are you sure it’s a good idea to destroy all of this?”

“Mark, you know as well if not better than I do. This is far too much temptation for good guys and bad guys. We’d never get it over the border without attack. We haven’t lost a single man tonight and have taken out twenty-plus. I recommend that you and your team along with the SWAT boys, hop on your ATV’s and mosey on out of here. Oh and I also recommend you put on some serious earplugs. The next item on this dance card ain’t for the faint of heart or for ‘by the books’ ass-kissers. Take your men and skedaddle, Mark. Call me in the morning.”

Nate flipped his friend a cocky salute. “Thanks, buddy. You’re as righteous as ever. For the record, Mark, be sure you act surprised when you hear what happened after you left.”

Nate waited until the sound of the squads had faded into the distance, then motioned to Dan and his team. Running his hands over the steel tube of the AT4, he grinned.

“Okay men, gather round. Let’s show these big city yahoos how Northern Minnesota badasses blow shit up.”

Chapter 18

“What I wouldn’t give to be in Jeb’s multi-million dollar mansion this morning.”

A big grin creased the Chief’s rugged face.

“Congratulations, both of you. From what you say, it couldn’t have gone better. Did you leave Dan in charge of the Staties?”

“Yeah. Someone had to handle the bodies. The M.E. and the beginnings of an evidence team were arriving as we left. Given jurisdictional niceties, I thought it was efficacious for me to be long gone. As it is my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. I’m about to call a press conference. Rather than impose on the Ely folks, it seemed better for me to manage it from here. The press vultures will be on site soon enough. I wanted to be sure the bodies were at the morgue and the perimeter was intact before I had Margie send out the release.”

Sam marveled.

“That’s going to be some release, Nate. I know you’ll pull it off, but how the hell do you say that truckloads of raw materials to make an estimated 20-plus million dollars of street methamphetamine was destroyed last night? And from all appearances in addition to the evidence of ‘local’ participants, a number of Mexican citizens presumed to be Cartel members were also killed?”

Nate laughed. “Well, Sam, you know how modest I am. I’ll just indicate that we are pleased to have taken the scurrilous materials off the streets and are confident that the masterminds behind the operation will soon be arrested. Given that Mark’s team and your L.A. boys weren’t officially there I guess we’ll have to take full responsibility for the raid.”

The Chief laughed out loud. “Just when I’m wondering if I did the right thing letting you take charge of the world, you and Sam pull off what may be the biggest takedown in meth production to date. It sure as hell is in this part of the country, but it’s got to rival any large operation nationwide.”

Nate nodded. “The only problem as far as bragging rights is that no one but us and the Mexicans know just how much shit was in those trucks. We have a damn good idea, but we’re going to have the Feds on our backs as it is because the evidence unfortunately was blown up.”

Nate pursed his lips together and shook his head.

“I don’t want to seem small-minded, but I agree with you, Chief. I would give my left nut—at least for today—to hear what’s going on in Jeb’s little parlor this morning.”

“Will he know it was us, Nate?”

“Hell yes, Sam. Sure as shit he’ll go after Cougar but he’ll know in his gut that it wasn’t Cougar. Hell, the last thing Cougar would do is blow the stuff up.”

Nate frowned. “But Jeb also knows that unless he has a leak in his team, it has to be Cougar who tipped us off. What do you want to bet that Cougar and company will be meeting with Mr. Jeb Stuart Jones sometime today? I can just hear their protestations now. Both will be in serious denial. Cougar obviously knew about Ely and according to my source knew exactly when the trucks would arrive. My CI said Cougar intended to take down Jeb’s men today—and along with the men, take over the shipment. I guess he wanted to prove to Jeb that Jeb wasn’t the only one who could cut a deal with the Cartel.”

“What’s next, Nate?”

Nate shared a long look with his mentor then turned to Sam.

“You don’t have to be from here, Sam, to have a damn good idea what’s coming down the pipe. Without the support of the Cartels, Jeb and Cougar are about evenly matched. They both have the same number of fanatical followers and my guess this will be a showdown to the finish.”

He looked to the Chief, who looked as serious as Nate felt.

“Our job may be the most dangerous,” Nate continued. “It’d be terrific if we could get out from the middle and let them kill each other off. But life in the fast lane ain’t like that. No, we’re likely to be drawn in by one or the other of them. As for timing, my gut tells me that both of them know this is too important to rush. For one thing, Jeb has to be more concerned about the Cartel than getting revenge.”

He breathed a heavy sigh. “But, Sam, my man, it is only a matter of time before they train their sights on us.”

~~~

After a raucous press conference and multiple calls between the St. Louis county sheriff’s office, the M.E.s from both St. Louis county and Beltrami county, Nate suffered through several earsplitting conversations with the higher ups at the DEA. To say that the officials were unhappy about the lack of tangible evidence was an understatement, no matter how many times Nate reminded them that there was no such mission anywhere on the DEA register. Beginning to feel the strain of the long intense hours, Nate joined the Chief and Sam in the Chief’s office. The Chief had a bottle of his Wild Turkey Tradition bourbon on the table.

“I have a feeling you two have other things on your mind, but humor me and don’t make me drink this liquid treasure alone.”

He raised his glass and saluted them.

“I’m just so fucking proud of you both.”

Sam laughed. “Now that’s a toast if I ever heard one.”

Nate stood and stretched his arms high over his head to release some of the stress in his neck and shoulders. He ought to be bone-tired, but the adrenalin rush from the early hour raid was still coursing at full speed through his revved up body.

He couldn’t keep a sly grin off his face. He pointed his glass to the Chief, while addressing Sam.

“Now, Sam, given that we’ve been blessed by the high and mighty himself, I think we’ve earned a little R&R. What do you say, Chief? How about it? Do you think Sam and I can sneak off for the next twelve hours of so? At least until tomorrow morning? I don’t know about you, Sam, but I’ve got some serious fence mending to do. I gotta tell you, I know Erin well enough to know that this is going to require a little more than my usual finesse. Why I may even have to strong arm her…”

Sam and the Chief both laughed when Nate winked at them.

“How about we make a deal? Unless it truly is a matter of life and death, I need the rest of the day off. I’ve got me a feisty woman to court. And while we all know the final outcome it doesn’t mean that these next few hours are going to be easy.”

~~~

Jeb stared out the wall of windows at the lake below. There could have been a hundred Playboy bunnies cavorting naked in the yard and he wouldn’t have seen them. Breathing was a challenge. Behind him he heard Chuck and Nelson shuffling their feet. No one had spoken for at least five minutes when he turned to the hapless men.

“One more time. Say it again. There is nothing there? Nothing, Goddammit? You’re telling me that in addition to the lab being destroyed that the trucks and all the cargo is gone? Not to mention twenty fucking bodies?”

When the two sweating men just nodded, Jeb shrieked, “Damn you to hell. That is fucking impossible. Even if Cougar was smart enough to pull this off, he would never destroy the raw material. So help me God, you and the rest of the brain dead assholes I work with better have concrete evidence where the fucker stashed the shit within the hour or you can kiss those pea-sized nuts between your legs goodbye. You won’t need them!”

At the discreet knock on his office door, Jeb whirled to scream at the idiot who dared interrupt, but choked back the words seeing the expression on Tank’s face.

“Boss, you better turn on the television. Stryker is giving a press conference discussing the methamphetamine bust he and his team made in the Boundary Waters last night. You aren’t fucking going to believe this.”

Jeb sunk down in his chair listening to Marvin Hacker, Editor of the Chicadia Falls Sentinel, ask the question he’d just yelled at his grunts.

“Nate, be clear. Are you telling me that you and your men singlehandedly took out a makeshift meth lab nestled in the pine trees outside of Ely?”

Jeb watched in disbelief as Nate perched his sunglasses on the top of his head and grinned his thousand watt smile at the horde of newsmen hovering eight deep outside the station.

“To be precise, Marvin, in addition to the meth lab, we removed the remnants of three trucks that look to have been carrying a significant amount of raw materials used to create the street drug we call crystal meth.”

The intrepid newsman persisted. “So you said, Nate. But what happened to the trucks and the stuff they were carrying?”

“Best we can tell is they must have been triggered to blow. Something caused one hell of an explosion. We were lucky none of our men were killed. I can’t say the same for the perpetrators. The blast took out the trucks and their cargo, plus twenty men.”

Shelly Simpson from the Minneapolis Tribune pushed forward.

“This is unbelievable, Nate. You’re telling us that twenty men were killed and there’s nothing left but an empty hole.”

Nate chuckled. “You’re putting words in my mouth, Shelly. We have videotapes of the meth lab that was there. It was a sophisticated operation disguised as an abandoned campsite. We’ve had the site staked out for over a week now and planned to take it out. We were lucky enough to stage our raid just when a shipment was being delivered. Most important, we were lucky enough to get out of the way when the whole damn thing went up in smoke.”