Travis Starnes
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Danger Close (John Taylor #7) - Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2021-05-27 18:56:17 +0000 UTCSilver Plains, Texas
“If you look closely, Mr. Dillon, you’ll see all this flooring is hardwood, not that wood paneling you find in new construction,” Britney Stewart said, her hands clasped in front of her, a well-trained smile plastered on her face.
The small two-bedroom house had a musty smell, despite the cookie dough she’d put in the oven to give the house that lived-in, comforting feeling to it. It was an old realtor’s trick and worked like a charm in new houses, but didn’t seem to do much to these tract houses from the fifties. Too much-aged lumber and drywall that had seen decades of residents had an odor of its own stronger than anything Toll House offered.
“I’m noticing some cracks along the ceiling,” the client said. “How’s the foundation?”
“We’ve had it checked recently and it was certified to be in good condition. You can of course feel free to bring in your own inspector, but from what my guy tells me, you can expect some shifting in these older houses. You’d be hard-pressed to find a house in this development without some cracks and wear. It’s purely cosmetic, however. They built these things strong back in the fifties, made them to last. Not like the stuff cranked out today, full of plywood and cut corners.”
“I don’t know. I’m bringing my family out here once I get settled and my wife wanted us to have a nice place off the base. She’s always saying how interchangeable everything is there, including the neighbors. It’s hard for little kids to get a feeling of stability they need on base.”
“You know most of the people around here are tied into Fort Chilton one way or another, mostly families that would prefer to live off base if they can for the very same reason. They’re looking for that sense of a community with roots.”
Britney couldn’t imagine anyone living here if they didn’t have to. It was February and already hot as hell, still many months from the five weeks of cold weather they got every year. Except for the army base and the small town that supported it, there was nothing but desert in three directions, and the hills that marked the outer edge of the Rockies in the other.
The town itself wasn’t much to speak of either. Other than the forever necessary businesses like the grocery store and the doctor’s office, there were several of a less reputable nature, such as strip clubs and bars. Hell, they didn’t even have a real church, just the Baptists who’d set up in one of the vacant storefronts on main street. She couldn’t imagine anyone trying to raise a family in a place like this.
“Are there a lot of military families on this street?” Mr. Dillon asked.
“Five. The rest are folks who live in town. Doctor Brodie actually lives one street over, which should tell you that this is one of the better neighborhoods in town.”
“Is it loud, though? I know military families can sometimes get rowdy. My last posting was … something of a problem, that way. It’s why I asked to see houses at the end of the street or in a cul-de-sac, since it cuts down on the noise.”
“One a few houses down, but they’re very quiet. They’re older, as you folks go. Her husband’s a sergeant who I think is close to retirement, so they stay pretty quiet. The rest are on the other side of the development.”
“What about the other neighbors? At any base I’ve been stationed at, some people work nights, and could be a little loud on their off evenings.”
What he meant was strippers, but these military guys sometimes liked to pretend they were gentlemen, she thought. In a base town like this, the strippers actually make nearly as much as the town doctor, although they didn’t manage their money well enough to actually buy a house. Britney thought one of the girls who worked at the Dancing Pony did live in this neighborhood, but she wasn’t about to point that out, especially since he seemed to think having that element nearby would be a deal-breaker.
“Nope, it’s really quiet. I’m pretty sure everyone on this street works during the day, so your wife should find it relatively peaceful. Besides, one of the benefits of these old homes is their sturdy construction, great for keeping the noise level to a minimum. Heck, you could probably scream in here and the people next door wouldn’t ever hear it.”
“Well, that sounds about perfect.”
“You should consider putting an offer on it if you’re really interested. I’ve got several parties who’ve shown interest and I’d hate to see a gem like this get swept out from under you.”
That was, of course, a lie. The market here was dead. The only people who ever moved in were in the military, and very few of those had families who wanted to live off base. If her husband didn’t run the hardware store, she wouldn’t have made enough money to eat every day of the week. The only reason she’d gotten her realtor’s license was out of sheer boredom.
“Do you have the paperwork?”
“I certainly do,” she said, surprisingly giving a smile.
She might be contemptuous of the job and entire town, but Britney was also fiercely competitive. There were only two other agents in town, a stripper trying to go legit and the wife of one of the county deputies. She’d rather be dead than getting beaten by either of those two idiots.
“After you,” Mr. Dillon said.
Giving him a smile, a genuine one for once, she turned and headed towards the kitchen, already looking forward to telling Jessica Prosser she’d had another sale this month. That cow didn’t even have a showing this month.
The smile vanished as she felt his hand gripping the hair on the top of her scalp, pulling her head back hard. She was so surprised, she didn’t make a sound for a moment, her brain trying to catch up with what was happening. By the time she started to shake herself free of her shock and start to draw in a lung full of air, she felt the cold edge pulling against her now exposed neck. Her scream came out as a gurgle as she began to choke on her own blood.
The hand that had never let go of her hair now pulled backward hard as a foot smashed into the back of her knees, causing her to collapse to the floor. She barely felt her head bounce off the floor, her hands gripped tight to her throat, trying in vain to hold onto that moment of life.
She could feel the back of her head warming up as blood began pooling around her, the world starting to grow gray. Mr. Dillon’s face looked down on her as he watched her die. She wanted to look away, but nothing seemed to work anymore. Staring at her murderer’s face, she wished his cruel smile wasn’t the last thing she’d ever see.
***
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
“You call this good time?” Kara said, slapping at another bug. “This sucks.”
She’d been making great progress on her English, but sometimes when she was stressed or annoyed, she’d start dropping parts of grammar not common in her native Russian.
“Come on, this is fun.” John Taylor said, smiling at his adoptive daughter. “Hell, this is great. We have an ice chest full of food, we’ve got lanterns, padded bedrolls. It’s the life. When I was in the army, sometimes we’d just have our rucksacks for pillows, lying on the ground, and don’t even get me started on MREs.”
“You’re forgetting we didn’t sign up for the army,” Loretta Whitaker said. “I didn’t realize getting engaged to you came with sleeping in the cold surrounded by bugs. I’m with Kara, this sucks.”
“Look up at the sky. You can’t see a sky like that in DC. Listen, you hear that?”
“I don’t hear anything,” Kara said.
“Exactly. No one outside yelling. No car horns. No sirens. Blissful silence.”
“Also no TV, no restaurants, and most importantly, no shower,” Whitaker added.
“Bah, you two just like to complain.”
“I want to make it clear on our honeymoon, no camping! I want room service and maybe a pool boy fanning me with a big palm leaf.”
“'Yes' to the room service, 'no' to the pool boy.”
“You know my sister is about to blow a gasket, us disappearing. We’re supposed to get married in two weeks, and we have a ton of stuff left to plan.”
“I know you told her she could plan the wedding, but what’s there left to do? Caldwell set everything up for us, down to paying for the reception.”
“I think that’s why she wanted to plan it. She made this big thing about it being part of the maid of honor duties, but we all know that’s bullshit. She heard our budget and who was involved and I think she just wanted the glamor.”
“Fine by me, but my point is, why do we need to be there? That was the whole point in agreeing to Caldwell’s demand anyways. You know I’m not crazy owing anyone anything, but it’s worth it if it gets us out of planning the wedding.”
“You know she won’t count this as you owing her anything,” Whitaker said. “You’ve saved her life, her daughter’s life, and helped her get elected. She practically counts you as one of her children at this point and she definitely counts Kara as one.”
“Which reminds me, I could have spent the weekend with Mary Jane,” Kara added. “She’s staying with her mother this weekend and invited me, and I had to say no, because I was camping. She thought I went insane.”
“We needed the family time. Things have been insane since November and we don’t get to see you nearly enough as it is. You’ll be off to college in another year and a half, and I want to make up for all the time we’ve missed.”
“Whatever,” Kara said, throwing a pebble at him.
He knew she wouldn’t have missed this for anything. For all she liked to complain, he knew Kara was all talk. Ever since she’d moved in with Mary Jane Caldwell to be closer to the fancy school Mary Jane’s mother had gotten her into, they didn’t see her as often as any of them would have liked. She had spent the majority of her life living with her abusers, sold to whoever paid the most, until she escaped that life and came back to the States with Taylor. He knew she wouldn’t have given up a single moment of the family time she now got.
“They finished with your dress, yes?” Kara asked.
“They did. It’s twice as beautiful as when we picked it out. I loved it, but they really knew their stuff when they altered it. I swear they did it in a way that makes me look ten pounds lighter.”
Taylor snorted. Of the three of them, Whitaker was probably in the best shape. Unlike Taylor, who did the very least amount of exercise possible, she was at the gym every day, working to stay toned or in the training ring, making sure she could still kick everyone else’s ass.
“Besides, we convinced Joe to let both of us clear up all of our casework leading up to the wedding. When was the last time you didn’t have an active case load? Let’s enjoy it while it lasts, because you’re still his wonder girl. I guarantee you when we get back from the honeymoon, he’s going to slam you with work.”
“Fine by me, I’d prefer having active cases rather than get assigned old case files or administrative work.”
“Did you finish …” Taylor started to say, and then stopped.
There were some sounds any soldier became attuned to over the years, and in today’s military, a helicopter was one of those. He’d first started hearing the distinctive ‘whop/whop’ sound a chopper’s blades made several moments ago, but had ignored it until now. Shenandoah might be peaceful, but it wasn’t cut off from the rest of the world entirely. Planes and other aircraft traveled overhead and they were only a slow, winding, bumpy thirty-minute drive from a fairly well-used thoroughfare.
Two things finally made him stop and take notice. One was the sound that it made. Military helicopters have a different sound than their civilian counterparts. This wasn’t a Blackhawk, which he’d flown in many times, the sound wasn’t deep enough. If he had to guess, it was a smaller bird, maybe an old Huey or a Seahawk.
The second thing that made Taylor take notice was that the sound was getting closer. It wasn’t just closer distance-wise that drew his attention; it was that the helicopter was dropping closer to the ground as well.
Considering they were in the less built-up camping grounds the park had to offer, without even public latrines, whatever made someone send a helicopter out here was worth paying attention to.
“Chopper?” Whitaker asked, now hearing it, too.
“Yeah, and I think it’s coming here. There’s a clearing on the other side of those trees. If it lands anywhere, it’ll land there.”
Taylor reached back and confirmed his weapon was still at the small of his back. While he and Whitaker hadn’t been expecting trouble on a family camping trip, neither of them liked to go unarmed if they could help it. They’d both had too many surprises over the last few years to feel comfortable otherwise. Thankfully, their badges usually took care of signs and policies that would otherwise force them to leave their weapons behind.
As the three of them crossed through to the tree line, several of Taylor’s guesses were confirmed. The helicopter was an older, surplus army UH-1 Huey with U.S. Wildlife markings on the sides and it was indeed landing in the clearing he’d identified.
As soon as it landed, two park rangers jumped out of the Huey’s sliding door and rushed over to them in a half-crouch.
“You Taylor and Whitaker?” one of the men asked in a yell.
“Yeah,” Taylor said.
“They’ve been trying to reach you. “
“No cell service out here and we didn’t bring a sat phone.”
“Someone wants you back in Washington ASAP. They sent a plane for you up at the dirt strip by fire station four.”
Taylor couldn’t imagine what emergency would have prompted someone to send a plane for them. It would have taken at most five or six hours to drive back on their own. Besides, a little dirt strip like this, they would have had to charter a single prop plane to fly out, since anything larger wouldn’t have been able to land.
“We have a camp just on the other side of those trees with our stuff and our car.”
“John’s going to pack it up and take your car to the main ranger station. They said they’d have someone come and drive it back to DC for you.”
Now Taylor was really concerned. While his profile was fairly public these days, there wasn’t anything he could think of to justify this level of effort on Joe Solomon’s part. Maybe he’d go out of his way to get Whitaker back, but they’d asked for both of them, and Joe still wasn’t Taylor’s biggest fan.
“What about our daughter?”
“She’s supposed to come with you. They said it’d all make sense when you got back.”
They didn’t get much of a chance to ask any questions. They ran back to their camp with the ranger who hadn’t that much to say and packed up their personal bags, leaving the keys to their SUV with the Ranger. Five minutes later they were in the helicopter. The overall trip took less than an hour, although they didn’t get a chance to ask any questions. The plane was, indeed waiting. It was a single-engine turboprop charter, whose pilot only knew he was being paid to fly them back to a small strip on the outskirts of DC, where a vehicle would be waiting to drive them into the city.
***
Washington, DC
Taylor remained completely perplexed until he saw the Secret Service agents waiting by an SUV at the airport. A lot of people could have been sent to retrieve them, but those men would have only been sent by one person, and explained how everything else had come together.
Since Senator Caldwell had been sworn in as President, Taylor had been to the White House just once, although Kara had gone with Mary Jane several times already. Taylor prided himself on his unflappable demeanor, but he had to admit to feeling a thrill as they pulled through the iron fence that surrounded the historic building and drove up the semi-circle driveway to the iconic portico.
He was surprised to see Agent Cole standing outside the front door waiting on them. He and Cole had almost come to blows trying to protect Caldwell from a maniac just before the election, and they hadn’t spoken since, despite Cole’s promotion to the head of the Presidential detail.
“Agent Cole,” Taylor said, stepping out of the black SUV, with Kara and Whitaker following in his wake. “I’m surprised to see you waiting for us.”
“The President’s waiting on you, but I wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings about what happened. I’m getting the impression this won’t be your last trip up here, and she certainly has a soft spot for you. I’d rather my boss didn’t think we were going to be a problem.”
Taylor shook the offered hand, almost speechless. After butting heads with nearly every level of law enforcement over the last several years, he’d come to expect a lot of things, but reasonability wasn’t one of them.
“I’m good, no hard feelings here. We got the job done, and that’s all that counts, right?”
“Right. Let’s get you to the Oval.”
“We’re a little, umm …” Whitaker said, gesturing at their dusty, dirty clothes.
While they weren’t filthy, they were definitely not up to the normal standards visitors to the White House usually held.
“It’s fine. She said she wanted you here as fast as possible.”
They were handed passes and their weapons were collected by an agent, which Taylor expected. Even with his previous service for the President, they weren’t about to let someone other than a secret service agent step inside the building with a weapon. Taylor almost asked about Kara before they walked into the small front office outside the Oval, where he saw Mary Jane.
“Mom said you’d need a ride home,” she said to Kara when she saw her. “Although she wanted to know if you’d stay for dinner first?”
“Sure. I’ll see you guys later, okay?” Kara said, looking back at Taylor.
“Sure kiddo. You girls have fun.”
“Thanks,” Mary Jane said. “Bye, Uncle John, Aunt Lola.”
Whitaker rolled her eyes. Taylor had used the nickname around them a few months ago, and Mary Jane had latched on to it. Whitaker hated it. It was the nickname she’d picked up during her early years at the FBI, which is the reason Taylor liked to use it on occasion to tweak her. Whitaker had taken it good-naturedly. Her goodwill towards Mary Jane was just enough to keep her from wringing the girl’s neck every time she used it, although she still promised retribution to Taylor every time one of the girls said it.
“They’re waiting for you inside,” Cole prompted.
Taylor wasn’t surprised there were other people inside the Oval Office besides Caldwell, but he was a bit surprised by the number of people waiting on them. There were about fifteen people waiting inside, some he knew and some he didn’t. He’d expected Joe Solomon, their boss and current director at the FBI, along with the President’s chief of staff and several of her other senior staff. What he hadn’t expected was the freshly Senate-confirmed Attorney General, The acting secretary of defense, or General Leland, who currently headed JSOC and who had been his bosses, boss back when Taylor had been on active duty.
It was all Taylor could do to not come to attention as they walked up to the resolute desk where Caldwell and the assembled dignitaries were currently assembled.
“John, I’m sorry you got dragged up here like this. I told them I wanted you here as soon as possible and I think some of my people are still trying to show me how eager they are to please.”
“No problem, Ma’am.”
“I’m guessing you’re wondering what this is all about, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“We have a problem, and I think you’re just the pair to help us out on it. Lawrence here disagrees with me, but luckily, I’m the boss.”
“Madam President, I want to once again say …”
“I know what you want to say, Lawrence. I’ve been listening to you say it for two days now and we’re getting nowhere. Your predecessor failed to take care of the problem, and we don’t have time to try and repeat what’s already not working. We need some out-of-the-box thinking.”
“Ma’am, I appreciate that, and I appreciate the Sergeant’s record, especially where you’re concerned. My concern is the disruption this will cause. Fort Chilton is key to getting units field ready before final deployment. Any issues could cause a delay in rotating new units into the region. Considering the plans we’ve discussed on possible force draw downs. This is not the time to allow the current situation to destabilize.”
“Ma’am, I’m a little lost on what we’re talking about.”
“I imagine so. How much do you know about how the funding of the military happens?”
“Some. I know congress passes a budget every year, which includes allotments for the different branches and specific projects, along with everything else, I guess.”
“That’s pretty much it. Our first budget is coming up soon, and we’re getting a lot of pressure from the other side of the aisle to cut the spending on the military, pretty significant cuts in fact. One of my major platform promises had been to find better wages for our troops and an increase in support for their dependents. I can’t do that and cut the budget at the same time.”
“Okay,” Taylor said, still not sure where he came into this.
“Our problem is, the last administration didn’t do us any favors when it came to reining in the budget. Besides massive increases in debt, the economy’s still struggling to get back going, which has left tax revenues down quite a bit. The Democrats have been using this to beat us over the head with the need to cut military spending. Had we managed to take back congress, this might have been easier, but we’ve got to find a way to pull two Senators to our side to get this passed, which nowadays is a pretty tall order.”
“Ma’am?” Taylor asked, still unsure of why she’d sent for him.
“I’m getting there, I promise. Now, it’s possible to get those two votes. Being seen voting against the military is always bad, but especially for three southern seats currently occupied by Democrats. These Senators can track public opinion as well as we can, and as long as their constituents oppose military cuts, we think we can get them to vote for us. Our problem is, the more the Democrats talk about wasteful spending, the weaker that public support gets, and it’d already gotten a lot weaker than we’re comfortable with, which brings us to you.”
“I’m not sure I know how to help with public opinion, ma’am.”
“No, but you do know the Army,” General Leland said. “You’ve got a track record for finding stuff others miss, and we’ve got an Army base where military supplies are disappearing out the back door, as they say.”
“Don’t tell anyone, but General Leland is about to be named as the new Army Chief of Staff. We’ve spoken about this issue and I brought up your name as a possible solution. He’s agreed that you might be the out-of-the-box thinking we need to deal with this.”
“Black marketeers?” Taylor asked, looking to General Leland.
“Black marketeers. The MPs, SID, and a special investigator assigned by the DOD all looked into it, and couldn’t find a trace of them. The few times they’ve gotten close, the investigation suddenly fell apart. That alone would be a problem, but there have been some deaths we’re pretty sure are linked to the thefts. The only thing helping us right now is how isolated the base is. There’s just the town that’s built up around it to support the fort, and that’s it for fifty miles in any direction. Word is still leaking out though, and some reporters have started calling and asking questions. It won’t be long till this ends up on the evening news.”
“So you want us to go in, find the black marketeers and whoever committed these murders, and shut it all down?”
“Exactly, and we need you to do it quietly,” Caldwell said.
“Some of my staff have been discussing this, and are concerned you might ruffle some feathers. I’ll let you know now that I don’t care about that. This is a ‘danger close’ fire mission, Son.”
“I understand, General. I’ll do my best to keep things as contained as possible.”
“We’re sending you out there now. I know you two had planned on a quiet camping trip, but this situation is about to blow up in our faces. You’ve always come through for me, John, and I’m counting on you to do it again.”
“I’ll do my best, Madam President. Uhh, you know that the wedding …”
“I know it’s coming up soon, and my people tell me it’s well in hand. Think of this as an incentive to clear everything up quickly, and be back in time for the big day.”
“We’ll do our best, Ma’am.”
“Could you two wait for me outside?” Joe Solomon asked as the meeting wrapped up. “I want to have a word with you first.”
“No problem,” Whitaker said.
Leaving the oval, Whitaker asked, “Danger close?”
“It’s a term for when a unit calls an artillery or airstrike almost right on top of their position, usually because they’re about to be overrun.”
“So in this scenario, you’re the explosive? Not a bad description, actually.”
Taylor just shrugged. She might not be wrong. Things did tend to go sideways, but that wasn’t his fault. Taylor played the hand he was dealt. If things went sideways this time, he’d deal with it too.
