The evening TV news carried more detailed media coverage of the hillside shooting. The story also played as a secondary story on the front page of several newspapers. The coverage noted the unsolved mystery of the killing near the Fisherman’s Inn in Maryland had a number of disturbing aspects. The dead men still had not been identified. A preliminary DNA analysis indicated two of the men were members of the same family. Most likely they were father and son. Although both rifles had been fired, the bullet from one of the bodies at the crime scene did not come from either weapon. The police had not released any information on the type of weapons carried by the men or what they were doing on the hillside behind the restaurant.
A source close to the investigation told the Sun the police had found a place where a vehicle had been parked off a little-used Great Falls Park fire road. Some casts of footprints had been collected from the site. The report of a vehicle hidden nearby led to speculation a third party may have been involved. The police have no idea regarding a possible motive for the bizarre shooting. Nevertheless, a beefed up Task Force has been formed to investigate a number of recent shootings in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area to see if any ties exist between the killings, starting with the shooting of Representative Cohen.
That same evening with everybody gathered in front of the late night news, the anchor said, “According to an AP wire flash San Francisco Mayor Carol Richland has just been killed by an unseen shooter as she was leaving a homeless shelter. We have no other information, except she was shot multiple times and died on her way to the hospital. Richland was well liked and had been expected to win a second term. A police spokeswoman promised a news conference at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Coast Time.”
Everyone looked surprised. Kathy looked at Jack and said, “That mission was not on Yuri’s DVD, but it has to be someplace in Yuri’s records.”
She went to get her notebook and to go through Yuri’s DVDs and hard drives again to see if they contained any more surprises. Kathy worked all night searching through Yuri’s records. It was almost morning when she discovered a hidden file on the C-drive containing Yuri’s recent instructions to his network. She also found a way into his email account and a history of postings to an obscure web page. She printed her new findings, making copies for Jack and Anita. She thought more secrets could be in Yuri’s material, but what she found today meant they had to change their priorities and timetable.
After a two-hour sleep, Kathy rolled out of bed and, after showering and washing her hair, joined Jack and Anita in the breakfast nook. Jack thought, this lady looks great in her blue warm-up suit. She enjoys living on the edge. The morning sun glinted when it struck her blonde streaked hair.
She noticed Jack looking at her, smiled and said, “Hey, how about some decent coffee? It’s too damn early for a gin and tonic. A couple of scrambled would hit the spot. I worked all night on the Yuri records.”
Kathy thought Jack’s smile was intoxicating. She had a “drunken attack” when Jack smiled at her. She thought, God, I hope it doesn’t show.
“Okay, you got it. But your news better be good.”
“Urgent it is. Good it’s not.” Jack put a steaming cup of Oren’s Columbia Roast in front of her and said, “Talk.”
“Thanks. Here goes. Late last night I had a couple of insights and found a way into Yuri’s email and a hidden file on his hard drive. I was looking for anything that might add to what we know about his mission planning and scheduling.
“According to what I found, nothing changed in the mission for the ‘Primus’ cell in New York.”
Here Kathy took a long drink of her coffee and announced, “Here comes the scary news: it is not on the DVD but on the hidden file on the hard drive. The Yulee, Florida cell’s mission has changed from the version in the DVD. Apparently Yuri decided to move up the bombing mission time schedule for the bomber cell in Yulee, Florida, to match the bombing mission in New York City. He instructed “Crystal,” the leader of the cell, to carry out two large bombings in Florida between the first and fifteenth of May. Today is the 25th of April. Not a lot of time for us. I think he first recorded his operational information onto a hidden file on his C-drive and then transferred it to a DVD when he had the time. No matter how well you hide stuff on your hard drive, someone will find it with enough time. Yuri was too much of a pro to carry incriminating information around with him on his notebook.
“The killing of the San Francisco mayor was the work of his San Francisco cell. And here is the really bad part. He identified you and your father and sent the information, including your pictures, to what looks like an al-Qaeda web page asking for help in dealing with these dangerous people. He sent this information three weeks ago after raiding your father’s mailbox. I couldn’t get anything else out of the website.”
“Okay!” Jack said, looking across the table at Kathy. “We can’t stay here anymore. I believe we should immediately set up in our house on Amelia Island. If you and Anita agree, we can drive down with Shadow, and we can use the Florida house as our headquarters. I can handle any estate requirements by fax or messenger service.
“No way can Lee Jensen find us the proper place to live up here with enough security and space for us to run our activities in less than a couple of months. And we can’t stay in this apartment long term. It might be known to the terrorists and it’s too small. Also, I told Lee to find me a builder and an architect to build a house on the burned site of my dad’s old home. The noise and activity will drive us all crazy. You and Anita can move in with me. I don’t see any down side.”
Anita said, “Let’s do it. When do we move?”
Jack replied, “Very soon. We don’t need to take any weapons from here. Every house my dad owned has a cache of basic weapons. I’ve never seen them, but I do know how to find and open the hidden compartments. I think there’s enough in the Florida house for us. I’ll contact a moving company and put the safes and some of our stuff in storage. Florida, here we come.”
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Facts and Fictions 