Burying the Past (John Taylor #4) - Chapter 14

Highland County, Virginia

The helicopter trip to western Virginia reminded Taylor strongly of his days in the service. Looking at the slightly older, early generation Blackhawk, Taylor imagined the FBI must have bought them off of either the military or from a defense contractor with unsold inventory. What it did have, was just as much noise as he remembered. Even with mic’d headphones it was still hard to hear what anyone was saying.

These were probably only used by tactical teams and not by normal agents since Whitaker seemed unfamiliar with its foibles. After a few attempts at conversation she gave up and looked out the window as they flew across the countryside.

The leader of the tactical team that had been assigned to back them up was more prepared, and had gotten the very short briefing out of the way before they boarded the choppers. Since they didn’t know if they were walking into a hostile environment, Whitaker was in overall command; although from the way the team leader had briefed them, he didn’t seem to know that.

Taylor had met his type before. Guys whose roles in the service were primarily ops oriented like Rangers or Force Recon who saw every problem as a nail in search of a hammer. While most of the Green Berets that Taylor had served with did go on to similar careers, often with private contractors, in security or some type of law enforcement, their mentality was different. Army Special Forces were trained as soldiers first, of course, but they spend a lot of training and even more of their careers, tasked with activities such as interfacing with local leaders in their regions or training irregulars in places where the U.S. government didn’t want a lot of American boots on the ground but still wanted to have influence.

There was a small, private airfield a few miles outside of the wildlife preserve that they’d been cleared to use. The tactical team would hold there and get the choppers refueled, while Taylor and Whitaker went with one of the park service rangers to look around the area and see if they could find where Bennett had been.

While Taylor appreciated how fast they were able to get to the area, cutting a five to six-hour drive down to just over an hour, he wasn’t sure all of this was necessary. It seemed unlikely that, even if Qasim had met Bennett in the remote area, he would have stuck around once she was loose. Taylor had heard him berate his lackeys about lax operational security when he was being held by Qasim’s guard, and it was clear that Qasim knew once Bennett was back in society, there was a chance she’d get picked up and lead authorities right back to the area.

He agreed it was a good lead and they needed to check it out, he just didn’t think he needed ten heavily armed men and a military grade helicopter sitting around while they looked into it. Not that he had tried to argue the point. It wasn’t his money being spent, or at least not directly, and he did appreciate having actual backup handy. They’d been caught totally flat-footed by the attack in Amberville, and had there been more than just a couple of guys there, things could have gone very differently for them.

The airfield turned out to be a dirt strip with a small hanger, currently housing a single prop plane, and a couple of concrete buildings. He did notice a tanker truck sitting next to the hanger that looked a lot newer than its surroundings and wondered if the FBI had arranged for them to be there or if it belonged to the people who owned the airstrip. He didn’t actually know much about the operations of aircraft, either civilian or military, beyond his experiences as a passenger, so he didn’t know if the Blackhawk needed a different higher quality gas than the smaller planes at this airfield regularly would use.

Next to the tanker was a rugged looking SUV with park service emblems on the door along with several layers of dirt and mud. When they landed, the helicopter crew chief slid open one of the large side doors letting Whitaker and Taylor out. As they headed towards the park ranger the tactical team unloaded behind them and began whatever preparations they were going to do while they waited to see if they were needed.

Taylor and Whitaker both had military-grade handheld field radios with which he was very familiar. He was pretty sure he’d even carried this exact model, at some point in his career. They didn’t have as much range as an actual backpack mounted field unit but they’d cover about six miles, which was enough for the area they were searching. If they did end up getting out of range, they could always borrow the radio in the rangers SUV. Taylor had checked already and there was no cell service, which wasn’t surprising since this was quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

While the wilderness preserve was stand-alone, bracketed by private lands on all sides, those were in turn surrounded in every direction by national and state parks. Besides a few farms nearby he’d seen on the flight in, there weren’t any towns he’d seen and the roads were all small county roads without even gas stations or other places to stop, which limited the needs for cell phone providers to put up towers.

“Officer Shelby?” Whitaker said as they walked up to the ranger.

“Yep. I’m guessing you’re Agent Whitaker.”

“Yes, Sir. Did they tell you what we’re looking for?”

“Yes Ma’am they did, and I think I might know of something. Since Highlands is a wildlife preserve and not a national park, our focus is on maintaining the local wildlife’s natural environment. What that means for you folks is there are no permanent buildings outside of the onsite park office and parking just off the county road. There are however these two old warehouses that used to be used by one of the coal companies back in the fifties that were bought by some giant corporation years ago. Since it’s the only permanent structure right next to the parklands, it would already be your best bet. A couple of the local farmers have mentioned seeing traffic around there recently. I thought you folks might want to check that out.”

“Is that kind of traffic unusual? You said it was bought by a corporation. Could it be the owners preparing to use or sell the buildings?”

“Not unless they wanted to tear them down and build new ones. I’ve helped the sheriff chase kids out of there before, and the place is a death trap. The ceilings are partially caved in and nature’s starting to take back the whole area. No, I don't think it was the owners that were hanging around. I didn’t see them myself, mind you, but from the descriptions I was given, I wouldn’t think they were on the up and up.”

“How so?”

“They’re always parked so you can’t see them from the road unless you’re really looking for them or happen to see them coming or going, all the cars are older ones, or rentals, and everyone was dressed weirdly. That kind of thing. ”

“How were they dressed weirdly?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t know. Like I said, I didn’t see them myself. I just know that’s what people have said. I guess they mean in such a way like they don’t look like they belong there. Honestly, I’d talked to the sheriff and he thought they might be meth cookers. He’s checked it out a few times, but the people always hightail it before he shows up. He went through the buildings but didn’t find anything obviously out of place anyways. After a few weeks of that he just gave up since he wasn’t having any luck. I only really thought of them when I got the call you folks were headed out here.”

“It seems like our best bet. Can you go ahead and drive us out there?”

“Sure thing. Hop in.”

The drive didn’t take long, as the buildings were on the same side of the wilderness preserve as the airstrip, making it only a few miles down the road. That actually worried Taylor. Helicopters, even military ones, don’t fly at tree level unless there is an operational reason to do so. From a safety standpoint not only was it more dangerous to fly that close to the earth, as pilot or mechanical errors can have an outsized effect when flying that close to the ground, but pilots also had to watch for increased chances of bird strikes and people using things like drones, both of which could cause a crash if the helicopter rotor blades were somehow damaged.

The higher altitude they came in on would have also made it fairly visible when descending to land, and a Blackhawks’ silhouette couldn’t be mistaken for a private aircraft. Anyone seeing it would know that either the military or some law enforcement agency using military aircraft had landed just down the road. If Qasim was using these warehouses he would have kept someone on watch, maybe only for passing cars and not aircraft specifically, but it wouldn’t have been difficult to spot the landing chopper.

That all meant that if this location was what they were using, they’d either be prepared for visitors or already leaving, assuming they hadn’t left as soon as Bennett finished her visit.

The ranger pulled over in what seemed to Taylor was the middle of nowhere. On one side of the single-lane road was a not very dense wooded area and on the other was a field growing some type of short green plant Taylor couldn’t recognize in unevenly spaced rows. The truck was as far off the road as the ranger could make it considering there was an irrigation ditch on one side and trees on the other just shy of a bend that disappeared to the right, turning towards the wooded area.

“Around that corner and about a hundred yards down are the warehouses.”

“I’m assuming if we just continued on down the road we’d be in plain sight?” Whitaker asked.

“Yep. they’re in a small clearing in the woods opposite from the Jessup’s farms. For whatever reason, the administration that designated the protected woodlands went around the property rather than roll it up with the rest of the preserve. With the open farmland across from the buildings, it’s impossible to drive up to the buildings unseen, which is why people noticed the cars pulling in a few times. They park behind the warehouses between the buildings and the tree line so the cars themselves are out of sight once they’re parked. As soon as we go around that bend they’d be able to see us if they’re looking. This road doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic so they’d probably also hear us.”

“Couldn’t they hear us when we pulled over here?”

“Nah, the trees work to deaden some of the noise, and direct it out to the fields. They might hear something, but it would be hard to tell where it came from and would sound like machinery in the fields. It’s not till we get around the trees that the sound is clear enough to tell it’s a car.”

“I’m guessing you were thinking of stopping here and going around through the trees to come up on the buildings from behind?” Taylor asked

“That was my plan.”

“That works for us. I don’t want to actually approach the buildings directly, just see if they’re occupied and then call in the cavalry.”

“Good. Seein’ the men you brought with you, I’m guessing these are more than squatters and I don’t feel much like gettin’ shot at.”

“Well, let’s get going I guess,” Taylor said, opening up his door and getting out, followed by Whitaker and the ranger.

The three of them headed into the woods with the ranger leading them on a wide loop to stay well clear of the buildings. As they’d headed into the woods the forest had grown denser, and the undergrowth more rugged, making it harder to walk in a straight line. Taylor had always considered himself to have a good sense of direction, but not being able to see the sun coupled with the zigzagging nature of their path had turned him around. He wasn’t particularly sure which direction they’d come from or which direction the warehouses were in.

“We’re not far from them now. Just like how it was when we came into the forest, it thins out as you get closer to the tree line. That means we won’t be able to just walk up to the cleared area and get as good of a view as you’d probably want. We’ll also need to stay down and move slowly. I’ll stop us while we’re far enough in that it’d be hard to see us unless you were really looking hard. That should let us get close enough to see what’s going on, without being spotted.”

“Do you think they have anyone patrolling the forest? It’s what I’d do if I wanted to make sure no one snuck up on me. Especially after seeing a military helicopter land nearby.”

“Maybe, but from what I’ve been told these folks didn’t seem the type that spends a lot of time in the woods. This stuff is hard to navigate through, if you don’t know how to find a path through it. If we move slowly, we should hear them before they see us, so I’m not worried.”

“Ok, lead on.”

The ranger crouched down and headed off in a new direction Taylor assumed was towards their destination. While they moved a lot slower crouched down Ranger Shelby proved correct as they hadn’t gone far before they could start seeing past the edge of the woods to two buildings about seven or eight feet beyond the tree line. Despite the warning, Taylor had still assumed they’d have gotten closer than they did when the ranger stopped them. He could see the buildings, but not clearly and there was still a lot of obstacles in the way.

“I don’t know if this is going to work. It’s hard to get a clear view from here.”

He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a fairly small pair of binoculars, handing them to Taylor.

“See if these help. We can edge a few feet further, but much more than that, and someone looking into the forest might spot you. I wouldn’t risk it.”

They moved a few feet closer and then stopped near a large up-growth of underbrush that helped to further hide them. Taylor put the binoculars to his eyes and began to slowly pan across the direction of the buildings. Much of the view was blocked by trees, but the binoculars helped bring the slivers where there was still a clear view into focus. It took him a few minutes of going across the entire scene several times before he got a clear picture of what might be happening.

The first thing that stood out to Taylor was the building was definitely occupied, as he could see two older model cars behind the building. They weren’t overgrown and the windows were clean, which meant they probably weren’t just abandoned by the previous owners.

The buildings themselves were just as dilapidated as promised, although he thought the description of them as warehouses was a bit too generous. They looked more like old barns than anything else. They were perhaps a little longer than what he’d pictured when he thought of a barn initially, but they were much too small to be called warehouses. There were very dirty windows in a row along the top of the buildings right below the roof, most of which were broken. He could also see several sections of the roof along with the corners of the buildings with notable holes. Given their smaller size and obviously bad condition, he could see why none of the locals ever used the buildings themselves, and why it would seem odd for strangers to be using them now, at least not without a major overhaul.

“I think there’s still people in there and I don’t think they’re locals,” Taylor said, turning to Whitaker.

“We need to bring the tac team up before we move in. The guys at the water treatment had assault rifles. If there are more people here I don’t want to try and take them on by myself.”

“We don’t want to just have the helicopter drop them on the building or land out in those fields across the road from them. It would leave our guys sitting ducks and any chance at surprise would go right out the window.”

“I can call around and get a few guys I know to meet me at the airstrip with some cars. We should be able to get them all back here before long.”

“Let’s do that,” Taylor said. “I’ll let them know what’s going on and have them standing by and ready. Bring them up through the woods like you brought us, and we can take the place from behind. If we move out of the trees fast enough we should be on them before they have much of a chance.”

“We’ll stay here and keep an eye on the buildings,” Whitaker said.

The ranger turned and headed back the way they’d come, standing up, he began almost jogging once he was a little further into the woods but no longer visible from the buildings themselves. Whitaker pulled out her radio, and called in instructions to the team to expect the ranger with local transportation for them and giving a brief rundown of the situation. Given their bad position, they couldn’t actually see enough to form a tactical plan or find out what kind of setup the people in the barn had, which frustrated the team leader who clearly was used to more planning.

Coming from the Special Forces where they planned for months for an operation he couldn’t fault the man, but he’d also been through chaos enough times to know this is how things sometimes went.

“You know he and the sheriff could have been right, and these are just some guys cooking up meth. We’d end up with a bunch of paperwork and nothing to show for it.”

“Do you really think that’s what we’re going to find?”

“I don’t know. Except for running across the Bennett girl yesterday, our luck hasn’t been great on this case so far. Although I’m not sure if it would be lucky to find someone tied to Qasim, probably armed to the teeth or lucky if it turned out to be locals making drugs and not packing assault rifles.”

“It could be terrorists who aren’t heavily armed,” Taylor offered.

“Like that’s how it ever goes.”

“I’m just trying to be an optimist.”

Whitaker lifted an eyebrow and gave him a doubtful look, “Since when have you been an optimist?”

“We can’t both be negative. I figured since you went all doomsday I should pick up the slack.”

She gave him a smile and said, “I guess if you’re going to go all 'team player' on me, I’ll let it pass.”

Taylor was about to reply when movement caught his attention. Lifting the binoculars back up to his eyes he saw three men walking from the now open door at the back of one of the buildings with containers, headed towards the waiting cars. Pulling out the radio again, Taylor turned its volume down and contacted the tactical team leader.

“What’s your ETA?”

After a brief pause, probably to check with Officer Shelby, the man responded “Just under ten minutes. We’ve loaded everyone out, and we're headed your way.”

“Shit,” Taylor said looking at Whitaker. “If these guys were able to get out every time the sheriff came to check on them, there’s no way we have ten minutes.”

“Probably not. Have the tac team just come straight in and skip the sneaking behind through the woods. We’ll go now and try and hold them until backup gets here.”

“They’re in buildings or behind cars and we’re in a not very dense wooded area. This is a shit tactical situation.”

“It’s also the situation we have to deal with.”

Taylor grimaced but couldn’t disagree with her. Keying on the radio he relayed her instructions to the team leader, who vehemently disagreed with the plan. Like most people on swat teams and the like that Taylor had dealt with, they thought anyone not on the tactical team should let the ‘professionals’ deal with it. Whitaker had to finally take the radio and order him to follow her instructions. Since she’d been explicitly put in command the team leader had little choice in the matter although he promised to submit his exception in a written report.

Taylor wasn’t sure how much stock the Bureau put in things like that but it didn’t give Whitaker any pause so he guessed she wasn’t overly concerned. Handing the radio back to Taylor she pulled her service weapon and moved from the kneeling positioned they’d been waiting into a crouch.

Taylor followed suit and said, “We should separate a little. Give me a minute to move down and get in position. If they move away from the car, we’ll wait until they go inside. Otherwise, we need to move in quickly, drop them fast and get to the closest car. We’re going to want it before they are able to get those rifles up. We’re exposed out here. Without adequate cover the rifles will take us apart.”

“Sounds good. We’ll go on your signal.”

Taylor reached out and gripped her shoulder, letting her know how much he loved her, before he turned. He moved at a slow crouch to put him roughly twenty feet away from her, giving one of them a better chance of making it through, if the men by the car did manage to get their rifles up.

He waited for a beat watching the men but it became readily clear none of the three of them were going back inside. They were also not getting into the car and were all looking back towards the building they’d come from, suggesting there was at least one, if not several, more suspects unaccounted for.

While he’d prefer to not charge targets that outnumbered him who were also better armed this seemed like the best chance they’d get. If these three weren’t going back inside and there were more inside, then the odds could only get worse. They also had the best chance of surprise right now, that they were going to get. None of the men were looking their direction, and all of them had their rifles slung, which meant once the action started he and Whitaker would get a few free shots in before they could return fire.

Taylor signaled Whitaker and then pushed himself forwards, taking off at a fast walk. With the thick underbrush, that was as fast as he was able to move until he got closer and it started to thin out. Since each step cleared his field of fire a little more he ran with his weapon up and in shooting position but held fire as long as he could to ensure he hit what he aimed at.

He didn’t get as long of a reprieve as he would have liked. Seconds after he started moving one of the men, turned to look towards the woods, Taylor couldn’t see his face to gauge a response but that became clear as he started to slide the rifle off his shoulder.

Taylor fired, clipping a tree. A second later he heard Whitaker’s weapon discharge and the man dropped as a mist of blood sprayed over one of his two friends. The man covered in blood froze, either from the suddenness of the violence or shock at the sight of the back of another man’s head exploding.

Taylor increased his pace as the underbrush thinned and fired twice more as the third man who hadn’t paused began pulling up his rifle. The first bullet smashed into the door frame of the car but the third was finally on target, smashing into the man’s right shoulder. It didn’t knock him down but it did cause him to stagger back and release the rifle. While he didn’t drop the weapon entirely, he had released the grip and was now just holding the weapon by its stock.

The third man, who now that Taylor was closer he could see was a teenager much younger than he’d at first thought, decided he didn’t want any part of what was happening. Dropping his weapon on the ground the young man threw his hands in the air.

Taylor kept his weapon still trained on the injured shooter who, after seeing his partner drop his weapon leaving the pair of them effectively unarmed, followed suit. Taylor was just clearing the edge of the forest when the door to the dilapidated warehouse banged open and a new shooter appeared, his weapon already up and pointed in Taylor’s direction.

Even though the teenager and the injured man stood between the hostile in the doorway and himself, Taylor could see the wild look on his face and knew the man wasn’t going to hesitate. Taylor threw himself on the ground in the direction of the car and shouted a warning to Whitaker just as the man opened fire. Taylor watched as bullets ripped through the two unarmed men, their lifeless bodies dropping to the ground, both clearly dead before they finished falling.

Taylor's crawled towards the car to get more cover, and looked over his shoulder to where he thought Whitaker would be. He couldn’t see her and hoped she’d dropped to the ground behind a tree before the man opened fire. Taylor just reached the car as the man’s weapon clicked empty. He lifted himself into a couch, his weapon finding the shooter even as the man slapped in a new clip and worked the bolt.

Taylor had the thought that this man must have spent time in one of the training camps the terrorists used, since an American would have almost instinctively ducked back into cover before reloading. He’d always thought that if these guys ever took the time to learn to think tactically even a little bit, he’d be screwed. It’s what made Qasim and those he directly trained so dangerous since they did think that way most the time. They were just lucky he hadn’t been able to bring over more of his own people and had to rely on more poorly trained members of other terrorist cells.

That flashed through Taylor’s mind in an instant as he beat the shooter to the punch and fired twice, hitting the man center of mass. Taylor watched as he collapsed into a heap on the floor.

Keeping his eyes on the doorway and pausing to make sure no one else would come through the warehouse door firing Taylor called out, “Whitaker?”

“Yeah,” she said from somewhere behind him still in the trees. “I’m fine.”

She came dashing out of the trees in a half-crouch until she was safely behind the car. She looked over at him and said, “That sucked.”

“I think we should wait for the tactical team, and not try and clear the buildings. We can’t clear both buildings safely and keep an eye on their cars. Besides, while we're here on the vehicles, no one else will get far if there are more shooters inside.”

“Works for me.”

Taylor radioed the team leader, and updated him on the situation including where they were currently positioned to hopefully prevent a friendly fire situation. They only had a minute to wait before the Rangers SUV came tearing around the side of the buildings and skidded to a halt throwing a shower of rocks in Taylor and Whitaker’s direction. The team leader and two other team members, along with the ranger came piling out of the SUV and around behind it to work as cover.

Taylor assumed the rest of the team was around the front of the buildings as he could hear a commotion in that direction.

“You three wait here, while my people clear the building.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Taylor said, which earned him a serious glare since technically this was the second time the man had asked Taylor and Whitaker to stand down and let the tactical team handle the situation.

The man chose not to comment however, and proceeded to ignore Taylor as he talked through his throat mike to the rest of his team. A few minutes later they heard a loud bang from the other end of the building. The tactical team leader took that as his cue and he and his two friends took off through the open doorway to the building, stepping over the terrorist Taylor had shot.

After a few more minutes and a lot more shouting, the team finished clearing both buildings.

As the rest of the men spread out to surround the buildings, Taylor assumed to act as security while they cleared the scene, the team leader headed over to Whitaker.

“You’re going to want to see what’s in there.”