Chapter 21 — The Package

Sam and Judy had their alarm set for 4:00 AM. At 3:30 AM Sam began thrashing about and screaming about lying bastards. Judy made the mistake of trying to wake her up and got stabbed in the chest with a dream knife. While a dream knife can’t do any real damage, Sam struck Judy so hard that she knocked the air out of her lungs. A red welt formed, which would soon turn into a nasty bruise.

Once things had calmed down, they went ahead and got out of bed. They needed to steal the rental truck before the filling station where it was located opened for business.

This was a rural filling station, so security was very poor. Sam was going to hotwire the truck until Judy reminded her that they needed to leave a key for the driver. Judy had her lock-pick set with her and easily broke in. She had legitimately rented a truck there previously and knew right where to go to get the truck key.

Sam drove the truck to Walmart so it wouldn’t be parked in front of Judy’s house while they were waiting for the package. She walked into the store, wandered around a few minutes, then returned to Judy’s car. They headed back to the house to drink coffee and wait for ‘the package’ to arrive.

Judy was worried about how withdrawn Sam had been since she woke up screaming. She turned down the car radio and asked, “What’s the matter, Sam, you’re awfully quiet today. Are you thinking about stuff?”

“I was just remembering how I used to consider myself to be like a samurai sword. I was sharp and deadly and without conscience. I was to be unsheathed only when it was time to kill.”

Judy grimaced. “That’s pretty scary sounding. When was that?”

“I’m not sure. It was a while ago. But my life has changed. I need a new self-image now. I want to do at least some positive things with my life. I don’t want to be just a tool of destruction anymore.”

“This sounds very personal," Judy said, as they pulled into the driveway. “I’ll keep my mouth shut and let you think.”

At 10:00 in the morning, the doorbell rang. When Judy opened the door, she found a box on her porch waiting for her. She looked around and couldn’t see who dropped it off. She considered stepping outside to get a better look but decided that was a bad idea. Not only would it call attention to her and the box, but it violated the “ask no questions” part of her job.

When Judy got back to the kitchen Sam was just setting her cell phone on the table. “That was Dan Slater," she said.

“I still don’t like you being buddy-buddy with a policeman," Judy said.

“Well, he’s okay. We have an understanding.”

Judy returned to her seat at the table and picked up her coffee. “Do you mean he’s dirty?”

“No! Not at all. It is more of a mutual admiration society. We are both tired of the bad guys winning all the time. Anyway, he had some interesting news I can share with you now. It seems the FBI is sending a couple of agents to Milford to investigate a possible terrorist attack that’s supposed to happen in the next couple of days. I know these agents and they would love to see me dead, so I have to try to keep a low profile for a while.”

“Well, that totally sucks," Judy said. Then, as she thought about the implications, she stared hard at Sam. “A terrorist attack is one of those ‘protect the innocent’ things you warned me about, isn’t it, Sam?”

“I’m afraid so, sweetie. I need to see what’s in the box you just got.”

Judy began to object but decided against it. If she was part of a terrorist attack, then she was truly putting herself in jeopardy. It was better to play it safe and let Sam lead for now Sam drummed her fingers on the table, then picked up her phone, took out the battery, and broke it in half. “Maybe I’m being overly cautious, but I don’t remember if I gave those asshole agents my number. If they are in the area, I don’t want them to track me by my phone," she said.

Judy got a half-empty box of latex examination gloves from a cabinet and handed a pair to Sam. Once the gloves were on Sam pulled a folding knife from her pocket and opened the box. The first thing she pulled out was a .38 caliber revolver. She popped open the cylinder and ejected the ammunition, then brought the gun to her nose and smelled it. “This gun has been fired recently without being cleaned.”

Three of the six cartridges had already been fired. Judy scratched her head. “Why would you give someone a gun with half of the ammo already fired?”

“Beats the shit out of me. And this is pretty weird too," said Sam. “See the little red plastic dots on the end of each bullet. These are probably either explosive or incendiary rounds.” After looking carefully at the brass she added, “These are Cyrillic letters. I’m not sure, but I think this is probably Russian ammo. I don’t think there’s a legal source for this shit in the US.”

“Explosive bullets sound pretty bad-ass. I guess they are more deadly, right?” asked Judy.

“Theoretically, yes, if they work right. They used to be marketed in the ’80s, but the technology wasn’t very good back then and they were mostly duds. Military armor-piercing shells use the same sort of technology, and with all of the improvements that the Army has made on those, I bet these work like they’re supposed to. Too bad we can’t try them out.”

After a second essentially identical revolver came out of the box, Sam pulled out a baggie containing several pairs of nitrile gloves. “These are what doctors are using now instead of the latex gloves you have. Too many people had latex allergies. They’re also the kind of gloves I use when I’m on assignment. I get mine from a hardware store.”

“I’ll have to get some," said Judy. “I stole my gloves from my gynecologist a half-dozen years ago. I think they may be starting to deteriorate.”

The next thing to come out of the box was a simple typed list of instructions. Judy was to put the baggie of gloves on the driver’s side of the seat, put the guns on top of the baggie, then set the laptop on top of the guns. She was warned to destroy the box that came to her house, and not to leave her fingerprints or DNA anywhere in the truck or on the items from the package.

The last thing in the box was a small laptop computer. It was in sleep mode, and when Sam started it up, she saw a document called ‘Directions.txt’ displayed on the screen. “The first leg of the trip leads to someplace in Milford," she said, “but I’m not sure where the second leg ends. I think it is somewhere in Cincinnati. Judy, can you bring your laptop in here so we can check on a map?”

While Judy got her computer, Sam browsed the other documents on the laptop. “I can only find one other file on here that’s not a part of the operating system," she called out. “It is a manifesto explaining why they are attacking the Great Satan, and how Allah is great, and how we’ll be roasting in hell while they are romping with virgins in paradise. Real boilerplate stuff. In fact, it’s so boilerplate that it’s almost comical.”

Judy sat down with her laptop and pulled the other computer over to her. She spoke while working on the map. “So, I take it you aren’t sympathetic to Islam.”

“Actually, I am," Sam replied. “We totally fucked up the mid-east. But this isn’t Islam. This is just radical terrorist bullshit.”

Judy looked up from her laptop in horror. “God damn, Sam. I wish now we hadn’t peeked in the package.

“Why?” asked Sam.

“The directions will take them to a chemical warehouse in Milford and then downtown to the Cincinnati Water Works. This looks like it really could be a full-blown terror attack.”

Sam’s eyes grew wide. “Shit.”

Judy stared at Sam. “We have to be very careful. We’re dealing with some very powerful people here and I don’t want them to even consider the possibility that I ratted them out.”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t care if someone fucks up the water supply for a major city?”

Judy took a moment to think about it, then shook her head. “No. I’m just saying we have to be very careful about how we handle this. If the police act on information that only I know about then I’m dead. On the other hand, if the terrorists succeed, Homeland Security will track me down and I’ll probably spend the rest of my life in federal prison. We’re in sort of a Catch-22.”

Sam thought for a minute. “We know there is someone else leaking to the police, but we should assume that you’ll get blamed anyway.” After another moment she continued, “No, I think you’re probably dead no matter what. Even if everyone does exactly what they are told and the mission is a complete success, they aren’t going to want to leave anyone behind that can compromise their network or lead Homeland back to their location.”

Tears began to fill Judy’s eyes. “But Fuck!! Daddy, I don’t know anything. You saw. The damn package just showed up at my door.”

“Judy, there is probably a chain of four or five people who don’t know any more than you. They’ll most likely lop off the bottom two links of the chain just to be safe. I know that I would.”

“So, what are we going to do?”

Sam drummed her fingers on the kitchen table, then poured herself another cup of coffee. “Well, I think we need to do two things. First, we have to interrupt this attack in a way that looks like random chance. Maybe the truck breaks down or the driver gets sick or some other fucking act of God. Second, we need to get some information about the person a couple of links on the chain higher than you. I think you’ll be okay if I take them out.”

Judy wiped her eyes. Sam seemed to have a plan and based on all reports she was good at what she did. “Okay, Daddy. Sounds good. Tell me what to do.”

“First, we have to stop the attack. Let’s go and deliver the truck now. We’ll hang out down at the motel and see who picks it up. I hope you’re good at improvising because we’re flying by the seat of our pants here, sweetie.”

Judy decided to sound brave for Sam. “You can fly my panties to a motel any time you like, Daddy.”