The Alberta Connection Read online

Chapter 12

  Doug and Mark were waiting in Ryce’s office when he and Tanya returned from lunch. As Tanya walked to her office suite, Ryce thought she had a slightly smug look on her face.

  Doug was studying a laptop positioned in front of Mark.

  Ryce sat down at his desk and turned to them. “What can I do for you?”

  Doug looked up. “John just got a report from Homeland Security. The Pentagon has reported seven unauthorized entries within the past 36 hours. The entries are not being called break-ins until an audit is completed.”

  The laptop in front of Mark announced an email had been received. Mark slid the laptop over to Doug, who checked his email inbox. After reading the email, Doug looked over at Ryce.

  “Pentagon security just confirmed four laptops went missing from the building about twenty-eight hours ago. They do not have an exact timeline, but twenty-eight hours ago was the last time two of the laptops were actually seen. Only one of the laptops has tracking software installed on it. It is a version of LoJack. Unfortunately, the laptop has to be logged onto the Internet, but the program has been activated.

  “Two of the laptops could have been missing for as long as 48 hours.”

  Doug paused, typed for a minute on his laptop, and then turned to Ryce.

  “I guess you have your first enormous challenge. Welcome to the big leagues.”

  Mark laughed.

  “I wouldn’t change jobs with you right now, even if I could have Lynette back.”

  Ryce walked into Suite 424, Tanya’s new research center. Tanya was huddled over a laptop with three of her group. Ryce chuckled. Did it take four people to look at one laptop?

  As Ryce turned to walk back to his office, his cell phone began to vibrate. He had a text from Doug. When Ryce read the text, he burst out laughing. The Pentagon laptop with LoJack had accessed the Internet to order pizza in Richmond, VA. The laptop was located at the Double Tree Inn near the Richmond International Airport.

  Also, according to Doug, John had sent an email to someone he knew at the FBI asking that they contact the pizza restaurant. Perhaps the FBI could obtain the room number where the pizza was delivered and even the credit card that had been used. The LoJack program was a wonderful breakthrough in tracking a laptop, but it did not provide an answer to every possible question.

  Ryce was sitting at his desk composing an email to Doug when Tanya walked in. She leaned over his desk and asked, “What were you just cackling about?”

  Ryce was still laughing so hard, he could barely tell her about the pizza order. She walked around the desk and sat in his lap.

  “They had pizza in the cafeteria for lunch, but I didn’t see you eat any.”

  Tanya laughed, gave him a long kiss, stood, and walked from the office.

  Ryce completed the email to Doug and then loaded Google Maps on his laptop. They now had a location, although twenty-four hours old, that they could use to start tracking the laptops. How far could someone drive in twenty-four hours?

  Ryce started a quick mental calculation, but stopped. Higher mathematics was just far too difficult for someone who had seen what he had just seen when Tanya leaned over his desk. Ryce smiled. Something had changed when Tanya said “I do.” She was more open and certainly more forward. He definitely liked the changes.

  He stared at the road map surrounding Richmond, VA, and then began doodling on a legal pad. What did they know? Not much. Four laptops were missing from the Pentagon. How many were involved in the theft? No idea. Where could the laptops be heading? Again, no idea. There were simply too many freeways to make an educated guess. Ryce hoped the laptop thieves had a desire for pizza again soon. From Richmond, two main freeways led south, one freeway led to Virginia Beach, and a fourth freeway headed west.

  Ryce walked to Suite 424, found Tanya, took her hand, and walked to his office. After closing the door, he gave her a long kiss, pointed to one of the office chairs and then walked to his chair. He stared at her for several minutes, smiling from time to time.

  “The present situation is what the JBTF was created for. Are we ready? I don’t know. I think several members of the team have the skills to make our efforts a success. You are a fantastic manager.”

  He stopped to consider his next words. “And you have the best hooters on the team.”

  Tanya was so shocked with Ryce’s comment, she didn’t move for a full minute. Suddenly, she squealed, stood up, and then leaped into his lap.

  After an extraordinarily long and sensuous kiss, she looked at him. “When you were staring down my blouse, I was getting very aroused. The feelings that start to consume me when you look at me have never happened to me before. Something happened to me when we got married.”

  Ryce smiled. “Yeh, and I like it, too. Do you think Doug would mind if we moved a bed into your office? I can’t turn my office into a sex den.”

  Tanya laughed so hard she began to cry. “You, my love, have turned me into a wanton hussy.”

  The kissing was interrupted by a knock on the door. Tanya got up from Ryce’s lap and opened the door. As Doug walked into the office, Ryce quickly sized up Tanya. All of the buttons on her blouse were in their proper places.

  Doug looked over at Ryce.

  “I got your email, but we are still waiting for the FBI to fill in the blanks. As soon as I get the credit card number, we can track the group by the hits on the card. We will get more clues when we know where the pizza was delivered. A motel room would be nice.”

  Doug turned and exited Ryce’s office. Tanya walked over and sat back down on Ryce’s lap. After a kiss, Tanya walked from Ryce’s office. Ryce chuckled. The thieves had been caught by a need for pizza. He hoped that it was good pizza.

  The day ended without any additional reports from the laptop LoJack program and still no information on the three executioners at the cabin. Would the FBI need a subpoena to get the pizza information? And how long would that take? Ryce was getting antsy.

  As Ryce and Tanya walked into the family dining room, John looked over at Ryce.

  “The FBI sent two agents to the pizza joint. It is called Wally’s Pies and Wings, and it is a suspected gang hangout. The FBI has interrupted several attempted robberies, so they think Wally will cooperate. Hopefully, we will get something soon.”

  Ryce considered going back to the office to check on the status of the laptops when they finished supper. The office was a mile in the opposite direction of the apartment, but Tanya was showing signs of wanting to go home. Ryce wisely chose home as their destination.

  Ryce and Tanya stayed up late talking about having a baby. Tanya was concerned that Ryce didn’t share her enthusiasm for having four children. She also made it clear that she did not want to leave the JBTF after the baby arrived. When Ryce said he would think about it, Tanya coyly began to unbutton her blouse.

  Ryce shook his head. “You can’t use sex to bribe me this late at night. I will, however, be open to bribery at 6:00 tomorrow morning.”

  Chapter 13

  Ryce rolled over and tapped the snooze button. The baby conversation, although extremely important, had not ended until after 2:00 AM. Perhaps an additional ten minutes of sleep would make up for four hours of lost sleep. Ryce smiled and then slid out of bed. He would let Tanya catch up on her sleep while he was in the shower.

  When they arrived at the office, Ryce checked his email. Doug had forwarded a new report from the LoJack system with a new GPS location. Doug added that he was trying to get Ryce included on the Pentagon access list for LoJack. Ryce did not seem to be far enough up the food chain.

  Ryce plugged the GPS location into Google Maps. The laptop was at a motel in Lexington, KY, just off mile marker 108 on I-75. Ryce smiled. Kentucky had some interesting memories.

  During Ryce’s last year in the Army, his roommate, Scott, had suggested they go to the Kentucky Derby. Scott had a cousin who lived in Louisville and would be happy to provide somewhere to sleep for three or four days. However, family ties were
trumped by financial ties. A week after the Derby, Scott received a bill for $1000.00 for the three days he and Ryce had stayed with Scott’s cousin. The going rate for a room in a private home for the Derby was $175.00 per person per night.

  Scott had chuckled when he got the bill. “I’d rather owe it to him than cheat him out of it. He’s a lawyer. I wonder how long it will take him to actually file a claim?”

  Ryce wandered around the research centers for most of the morning, but did not feel he accomplished anything with his efforts. His primary focus was on the men at the cabin, but he was no closer to identifying any of them. What was John doing about the military databases? Ryce frowned. John was likely doing more than anyone knew. After sixteen years in the Army, Ryce knew how slowly things moved. At the end of his third twenty-minute nap, Ryce stood, walked from his office to Tanya’s desk, took her hand, and walked toward the elevators.

  Doug was exiting the elevator just as Tanya and Ryce were walking into the alcove. Doug turned and followed Ryce and Tanya back into the elevator.

  “I hope you two are going to the cafeteria. I am starving.”

  As soon as he completed filling his tray, Doug found the nearest table and pulled a flash drive from his pocket.

  “Here is the program that will get you into the military databases. John got permission from the SecDef. I don’t know which services he has gotten onboard. You’ll have to get the access codes directly from John, when he finally receives them.”

  Doug turned his attention to his lunch.

  Ryce strode directly to his office after lunch. As he waited for the laptop on his desk to boot-up, he pulled Doug’s flash drive out of his pocket. Perhaps now they could find out who the men at the cabin were.

  Ryce checked his emails first. John sent the log-in codes for the US Navy database and a reassurance that he was working to get the other passwords. John also forwarded an email from the local FBI special agent in Richmond, VA. The Internet order had been for three large pizzas, a double order of hot wings, and three salads.

  The FBI agent had obtained the room number of the motel the pizzas were delivered to and the credit card number used to purchase the pizzas. The agent said that the pizza parlor had cooperated nicely in providing the information. However, a court order would be required if they wanted any information from the motel. John replied that he was happy with the cooperation of the FBI. Doug could take it from here.

  Ryce plugged the flash drive into his laptop. When the service record search program finished loading, he selected a photo of one of the cabin occupants and pressed start.

  Ryce was anticipating a long search. Perhaps a hug would fill the time? Ryce had a personal relationship with the best hugger in Idaho. Maybe the whole USA. As he walked through the door to his office, his laptop began to gurgle at him. He smiled, spun, and returned to his desk. Tanya wanted to remind him that she planned to have a baby. She had discovered a gurgling baby audio file on some Internet site and replaced one of his system sounds. He hoped no one had heard the laptop gurgling.

  The search of the Navy database had found a hit in less than three minutes. One of the men at the cabin was named Andrew Lyste. Ryce accessed his service records. Andrew Lyste had died in March 1975 in Bien Hoa, South Vietnam. That was thirty days before the fall of Saigon.

  Ryce carefully studied the photos. Fifty parameters were used in the comparison. The search program had rated the two pictures to be a 97% match. If that was not an exact match, it was certainly close. Ryce could see no differences between the two photos. How did a dead man travel to a remote cabin in Montana and help kill four men?

  Over the next three hours, Ryce continued his search for the two additional unknowns at the cabin. The picture of killer #2 churned for more than two hours without success. Ryce was beginning to wonder if he would have any more luck. Forty-five minutes into the search for the third executioner, Ryce got a hit.

  Killer #3 was Gregory Lyste. He soon turned into another dead end. His service records indicated he had also died in March 1975 in the Republic of South Vietnam. Gregory was the twin brother of Andrew Lyste. They had enlisted in the US Navy in 1973 and had served together on a PBR (Patrol Boat, River) on the Mekong Delta.

  During the evacuation of Saigon, they were part of a four-boat patrol sent to escort some Americans from Bien Hoa. The service record did not indicate why four patrol boats were sent to Bien Hoa or who they were supposed to escort. The convoy had been ambushed and three of the four patrol boats had been sunk. The bodies of seven sailors had never been recovered.

  Ryce compared the Lyste brother’s pictures. There was certainly no doubt that they were brothers, although the service record photos were of obviously younger men than at the cabin. Ryce made a mental note to have the service record pictures aged. Or perhaps he could check with a good forensic tech to see how old the cabin occupants actually were.

  Ryce chuckled. Maybe not having answers was better than having them. He now had names for two of the men at the cabin, but he actually knew less than when he didn’t have names. He badly needed a kiss.

  When Ryce did not find Tanya in her office, he checked in Suite 424, Suite 423, and Suite 422. Tanya was missing. He did, however, have a back-up plan. He headed to the men’s room.

  As he walked down the corridor, he saw Tanya emerge from the lady’s room. He smiled. She obviously had the same idea as he. After a kiss and hug, he disappeared through the men’s room door.

  Ryce’s laptop was playing “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang when Ryce returned from the men’s room. He smiled and wondered when Tanya found the time to change the system alert sounds.

  Doug had forwarded an email from the FBI with an official report on the visit to Wally’s Pies and Wings. A Bank of America debit card issued to a Diane Renault was used to purchase the pizza. Doug had immediately checked the account. Diane had paid for three motel rooms in Lexington, KY, but not the motel rooms in Richmond, VA. However, Doug was confident that Diane would be easy to track.

  Ryce turned back to the Navy service records, pulled a legal pad from his desk, and began to doodle on it.

  How old were the Lyste brothers when they enlisted in the US Navy? He had not noticed birthdates during his initial scan of the Navy service records. After closely scanning the records, he found the birthdates and the enlistment dates. Andrew and Gregory were eighteen years old when they enlisted.

  Ryce re-examined the photos from the cabin. Both of the men were twenty when they died. They would be in their sixties when Ryce photographed them at the cabin. Where had the Lyste brothers been for over forty years?

  Ryce was interrupted by his cell phone. It was a text from Doug. Diane Renault had paid for fuel in St. Louis, MO. Thirty minutes later, she had paid for a motel. It appeared that Diane had stopped for the day. Ryce checked the distance from Lexington, KY, to St. Louis, MO. It was less than 350 miles.

  Ryce reread the text from Doug. The last purchase in the morning was at 8:47 AM and the first purchase in the afternoon was at 3:21 PM. If Ryce factored in entering and exiting the freeway, Diane was driving for only six hours a day. She appeared to be leaving late and stopping early.

  Ryce grinned. What would he do if he had just stolen four laptops? His first goal would be to get the laptops as far away as possible from where they were taken. Ryce chuckled. He usually drove five mph over the posted limit. And, he would likely drive a minimum of ten hours a day. The laptops would be moving away from the Pentagon at seven hundred miles per day if he had them.

  Ryce was filling the legal pad with doodles, but had abandoned doodling questions in favor of hearts with Tanya’s initials when Doug walked into the office.

  Doug walked over to the desk. “I think I have a something we can use to find out who we are dealing with.”

  He pulled a flash drive from his pocket and handed it to Ryce.

  “On this flash drive is a program that will give you access to a voluntary national security video database. The vi
deo is stored for a minimum of ninety days, but sometimes a lot longer.

  “There is a master index of all camera locations. Simply enter the address of the area you want to look at. The program will give you all the cameras that have provided coverage.”

  Tanya had walked into Ryce’s office almost at the same time as Doug, and had heard about the video database. Ryce chuckled, and then handed Tanya the flash drive.

  “Is there anything John doesn’t have his fingers in? Don’t answer that question.”

  Tanya stood in the middle of the office, looked at Ryce, and then held the flash drive up.

  “OK, what would you like me to do with this?”

  Ryce began to laugh. “Haven’t we been married long enough for you to read my mind?

  “I got a text with the name of the motel Diane stopped at for the evening. Grab a couple of your agents and see if where she stopped has video surveillance. I realize it is an extremely long shot, but we may get lucky. We may see someone walking around with four laptops under their arms.”

  Tanya turned and walked from the office. Ryce watched every ripple of her movement and grinned. She looked as good walking out of his office as she did when she walked in.

  Tanya was just finishing loading the security program when Ryce found her and suggested it was lunchtime. As they entered the cafeteria, they noticed Doug was sitting with three laptops opened in front of him. He waved them over when they completed filling their trays.

  “I have been doing some background checks on Diane Renault. The card she used for the motel and pizza was opened on the Internet four years ago. The opening deposit was for $50,000.00 from a debit card issued to a Marcel Renault.

  Doug frowned. “That’s a lot of money for an opening deposit. I would like to know where it came from.”

  He typed on his laptop for a few moments and then looked at Ryce.

  “Marcel deposited an additional $50,000.00 into Diane’s account seven days ago. I checked Marcel’s account. It was cleared out and cancelled six days ago. Normally, the history goes away when you cancel a card, but it takes at least one billing cycle to completely disappear.