80

Chase Nygaard's POV

Arrowhead Pack

I stood outside, watching the cars depart and hoping I was doing the right thing.

Spider Monkey's home would be empty before anyone figured out what she had done. Frank had taken the shadow task force away, and they took their server and all their computers along. Teri had set the team's computer network up independently of the Pack server and the "dirty" hacking server in Spider Monkey's home office. Nothing would trace back to her.

Nor could the Feds confiscate any of the computers Spider Monkey used in her hacking. The computer hard drives got erased, demagnetized, crushed, and sent to the landfill from outside Pack grounds.

Now, I had to protect the people who had done our Pack and our country a great service. Spider Monkey and Vic would not return; they stayed in the DC area, hiding out until we could get them to a safe hideout. I'd sent a warrior to Maine to meet with Alpha Conor Shaw of the Katahdin Pack, asking him to retrieve and shelter the pair until the fall. I was confident the Alpha would do so, and their Pack was so remote that hiding my Betas would be simple.

Teri was Spider Monkey's partner in crime, so she had to go too. It would take longer for her name to come out if it ever did. Rori came up with the solution with people we trust who were here recently. We could send Rick and Teri as security for Lance and Maria, who could disappear onto country highways for a week of riding. Howler agreed to come out and join their ride, letting my Betas drive their truck back home without attracting notice. The pair would stay at their home until I asked them to return.

As for Maria and Maritza, they had nothing to do with the hacking. Rori and I didn't want them to be here through the lockdowns, searches, and suspicions that were coming. In effect, we were giving the newly mated pair a honeymoon while keeping their family safe. I knew they'd have a blast touring northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. Hell, I wish I could go!

Rori and the twins didn't need the hassle either, so I sent them all to Oxbow Lake.

When they were all out of link range, I brought the remaining Pack members in on my mental send. "

Arrowhead Pack, we are going to Condition Yellow for the next few weeks.

All those with security responsibilities are to have their weapons staged and ready; those without are to make sure their safe room supplies are ready to go.

No one leaves the Pack House vicinity unless in a group of four or more, and all will carry sidearms or rifles.

My permission is required to leave Pack grounds."

I could feel the wave of disappointment rolling over the Pack; summer was coming fast, and there was so much to do. "

I know this sucks, but the safety of the Pack is more important.

There are two threats to our Pack.

The first is the Federal Government; some Pack members will come under suspicion soon, and there could be arrest and search warrants associated with them.

I've sent those members to safer locations until the Council Chairman can deal with the issue.

The FBI and whoever else they send are not our enemies.

They are doing their jobs, and I expect you all to be polite and professional in any dealings with them.

Keep your weapons down and hidden and disarm if requested.

Do not answer questions or provide statements without a lawyer present, and link me with any questions.

They won't find anything here, and they can't stay."

The Pack took this part well. "

The second part is the reason for the extra security.

The Sinaloa Cartel and rogue elements of the CIA and other agents are having a bad day.

Chairman Colletta is providing information to help the President stop the threat, but this will take time.

We need to be prepared for retaliation once they learn of what we did.

It could take the form of an attack, a bombing, or a kidnapping to force us to give up the ones they want.

I sent my family to Oxbow Lake in secret because of this threat."

The mention of a threat to the children sent a wave of anger through the bonds. "

We faced a similar situation with the Sons of Tezcatlipoca, but the Sinaloa Cartel has resources rivaling a small country.

An attack by trained ex-military forces is not out of the question, so we must be alert at all times, prepared to defend ourselves at a moment's notice, and fierce in defense.

Keep your senses alert and report anything out of the ordinary to the Security Center.

Thank you."

I didn't have to wait more than fifteen minutes before it started with a call from the security center. "

Alpha, Beta Tina reports eight FBI vehicles are inbound, driving out of Two Harbors without lights or sirens.

Estimated arrival time is ten minutes."

"Thank you."

I opened the link to the entire Pack. "

The FBI will be arriving in a few minutes.

Take your stations and observe, but do not display any weapons.

Front gate, verify their identification, then escort the agents to the road between the Pack House and my home."

I called our Pack Lawyer, Ralph Emerson, and asked him to come out as soon as possible. "And bring a criminal lawyer along." That got his attention; he told me he'd be there within the hour.

It was faster than I expected to get a Federal response. The column of vehicles ignored me standing there with my hands raised. They passed by my warrior on his ATV and headed right for Spider Monkey's driveway. Armed agents spread out around the big lake home with pistols and rifles drawn. The team leader was Senior Special Agent-in-Charge Lucas Smallwood, who I'd dealt with during the Sons attacks and our outing. I recognized Special Agents Lana Black and Allison Cook as they got out of the second SUV. Everyone else was new.

I saw a breaching team coming up with their battering ram and arrived at the driveway just in time. "It's OPEN," I yelled. "The patio doors are open as well."

The leader of the entry team tried the door handle, and it swung open. Agents did a dynamic entry, and I could hear the shouts of 'CLEAR' as they went through the house and garage. Finally, the entry team came back outside to report. "The home is empty, sir."

"Set up security at the entry points. No one who isn't wearing a badge gets in or out."

A dozen people in FBI windbreakers headed in, carrying cardboard evidence boxes. "What's going on here, Agent Smallwood?"

"Search warrant and an arrest warrant for Fukuyo Ashol."

Lucas wasn't pronouncing it right, which is why she'd gone by her road name since college. "As the lease-holder of that property, I'll need a copy of the search warrant." He handed one over; it covered her home and "any interconnected computer servers or mainframes." Good luck with that; when Spider Monkey ordered the teardown, they took everything more sophisticated than the microwave. "She's not here. What is the arrest warrant for?"

"Computer hacking, grand theft, bank fraud, money laundering, and anything else the US Attorney can find. Enough to put her away forever." He squinted his eyes as he looked at me. "She's a wanted felon, Alpha. If you know where she is, you should tell us now."

"I don't know where Spider Monkey is now," I told him. "She and Vic left yesterday morning."

"Uh-huh. If I find out you're hiding Fukuyo or helping in any way, I'll see you charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive. The best thing for everyone is if your people to cooperate fully."

"My people and I will speak to our lawyer, who should be here shortly. I'll be in my office. Ask any of my people for help finding it if you need it."

"Agent Black will accompany you to make sure you don't attempt to contact Fukuyo and warn her."

I rolled my eyes and walked off as Lana hurried to catch up to me. "Sorry about that," she told me as I held the Pack House door open for her.

"He does realize that we saw you guys coming, and we can communicate without talking, right?"

She let out a breath. "Agent Smallwood read the reports, but I don't think he knows what to do with the knowledge. It's something you have to immerse yourself in to understand." She was right in that werewolf society was different in fundamental ways. "I think he's still a little pissed off about your last get-out-of-jail-free card. He's out not just to nail Spider Monkey but everyone associated with your Pack."

I opened the door to my office and invited her in. "What about you?"

"I'm a sworn agent, Alpha. If I see a law broken, I'll make the arrest. I figure you're too smart for that to happen today, though."

I snickered at that as I went to the cabinet with the built-in fridge. I offered Lana a bottle of Diet Coke and poured a glass of Cooper's Mark Bourbon Cream for myself. "Are you going to be staying around?"

She nodded. "We're the local office, and the Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis office wants a presence here. Special Agent Cook will be here too, and others."

I thought about this. Both agents had fit in well and reported out fairly when they were assigned to monitor my Pack. "How long is Lucas here for?"

"Not long enough to hit the pool and settle the question once and for all," she said, hiding her laugh behind her Coke.

The front gate guard interrupted. "

Alpha, Mr. Emerson is here with Mrs. Knight, and the first news truck has shown up."

"Tell Ralph I'm in my office and let him in.

Inform the press we will not make any statement, nor will they be allowed on Pack lands."

I looked over at Agent Black. "Our lawyer is here, and I'll need my room."

She nodded. "I'll get a cup of coffee and wait outside."

I welcomed both lawyers into my office and sat down at the desk. I had one of my security people come up and scan the office for bugs. I had a good relationship with Agent Black, but that didn't mean I trusted the FBI right now. Erica Knight had assisted us during our time coming out as a Pack, and I trusted her implicitly.

When the sweep finished, I laid it out for them; Spider Monkey's hack of the bank, the information we gave to the President, and the pardon agreement we had in our pockets. "Why not produce the pardon agreement now and cut this whole investigation off?"

"Because it may take weeks to find all the people involved in this conspiracy," I replied. "We have to play along until then."

"Are they going to find anything in the search?"

"No. Spider Monkey knew that what she was doing in her office was illegal, so she set up her computer network accordingly. She had a dedicated hacking server plus a personal server for other work. She wasn't connected directly to the Pack's mainframe; she did have wifi access, but the computer she accessed with is gone. If they try to take our Pack server, we need you to fight it."

"We need to make them prove it is within the scope of the warrant," Erica said.

"And that time would be now," I told them. "Our Pack's server is adjacent to our security control center, which is in an underground 'bunker' below the Pack House. Our security guard is about to be handcuffed for refusing to allow access."

"We'd better go before they blow the door," she said. She would earn her money today.

Ch. 72

Chairman Colletta Nygaard's POV

Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

The one thing we couldn't do with our prisoner, former CIA Station Chief Henry Consuellar, was to bring him into the United States and turn him over to the FBI. Luna only knew how deep this thing went and how soon it might cause trouble for the Pack.

General Curtis and the Attorney General put together a small group of people they had absolute trust in and put them to work. The Attorney General put four US Attorneys and trusted staff members in the group. Knowing the FBI, DEA, CIA, and Customs were all potentially compromised, the investigators came from Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General, Secret Service, US Marshal Service, Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Service.

Frank and I were waiting at Gitmo when the plane arrived from Mexico City. "Peter Graves" and his team, all werewolves from the Donner Pack, were all smiles as they marched the prisoner over to us. Henry Consuellar couldn't figure out what was going on, but he knew enough to know that Gitmo wasn't a good place to end up.

The Homeland Security agents that flew down with us arrested Henry. When he realized that no one had Mirandized him until now, his face turned white as a sheet. "What is going on here?"

Frank had a big smile on his face. "Some private citizens just handed you over to actual Federal Agents, Henry. You should be more careful who you talk to."

"You can't do this! I have a deal!"

Peter held up the piece of paper. "I printed this off the Internet this morning. I'm sure the Feds will appreciate your confession, plus the people you implicated." He handed over a voice recorder to the agents to Frank, who put it in his pocket.

Frank let that settle for a few seconds. "We did place your family in protective custody because you are now the Sinaloa Cartel's number one target. Take him away." He was struggling against the agents as they walked him towards the prison. General Graves wanted to keep him there for a few days until they completed the sweep of the conspirators.

Frank and I headed for our plane, which was already warming up. One of the agents would transcribe the confession as we flew to Washington to hand it over to the team. Meanwhile, the Donner Pack warriors would continue to Denver, where a Pack driver would bring them home. It was one more layer of deception to keep suspicion away from the Packs.

I could feel Frank's anger rising through the bond as we listened to the confession on the way home. The sad part was that Henry had zero remorse. In his mind, they were all patriots, doing anything necessary to protect America from threats. Politicians and beancounters controlled the classified budgets. The CIA didn't have time to go begging "idiots and politicians, which is redundant" for required money that never came without strings. Daniel French, the late Deputy Director-Covert Operations, set up the Cartel money laundering in exchange for a cut of the profits. It gave them a slush fund with no oversight.

The account allowed the conspirators another means to supplement their inadequate government pay. When cooperation was needed, they would find like-minded people and bring them in. Offshore accounts grew fat as the drug money rolled in.

I shook my head, knowing Henry didn't realize how bad the data breach was. Every payment coming out of that account would prove the conspiracy he just described. Even if everyone else lawyered up, they would all go down.

You see, there's a loophole in the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. If the IRS wanted the Banco Mexico account records, they would need a warrant and the cooperation of a foreign bank. Spider Monkey just hacked into their computers and took it. Since she was not employed or acting as an agent of the government, even though hacking is illegal, it is still admissible. That is why Frank built a barrier between the legal and unlawful portions of the investigation. When Spider Monkey comes forward, she can truthfully say that she hacked the accounts to find out who tried to kill her friends.

The fact that she was allowed to keep the money and got a pardon later on? It doesn't change the admissibility of the data because she provided the data to Frank before she got her pardon. The hacks into the accounts and the stolen money are all crimes, but the pardons covered them as well. Since she stole the money from a Washington, DC branch, and the bank is in Mexico, no state can touch her. She'll never visit a Mexican beach, though.

We finished the transcription, encrypted it, then sent it to the Attorney General.

I was exhausted after that, and I sat back with a juice to rest. I turned on the news; the networks didn't know everything going on, but Frank filled in the gaps.

As we flew, IRS investigators were chasing down every trail in the account records Spider Monkey had provided to them. The veteran investigators knew all the tricks used to hide income, and they were on the conspirators like a duck on a June bug. They froze dozens of accounts the first day, with more coming as they unraveled the web.

Meanwhile, the Federal Prosecutors were cranking out arrest warrants by the stack. Teams of agents swarmed over CIA Headquarters in Langley, the FBI building, and other agencies. Arrests and rumors were all over the news, and at least four people reportedly committed suicide before agents arrived to get them.

The White House was under intense pressure to make a statement, given the number of arrests and the people involved. It was reminiscent of the scandal following the takedown of the Sons of Tezcatlipoca. In that case, agents in Customs and Border Patrol, the DEA, and local law enforcement helped secure smuggling routes on the West Coast. This wave of arrests was at the highest levels in the agencies.

We'd landed at Joint Base Andrews and were in the limo to the White House when President Kettering entered the White House Press Room. "Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Americans, today is a sad day in the history of our country. A wide-ranging investigation into the attack on Air Force One exposed a conspiracy inside the highest levels of government. These men and women sought to operate outside the law and without the oversight of Congress. After the destruction of the CIA black site prison on a Gulf oil rig and the subsequent removal of senior CIA members, their attention turned to me. They sought to stop the investigation into the CIA by removing me from office."

She let that sink in. "The conspirators planned to lay the blame for my death on a dangerous criminal. The assassination attempt failed only because of the courage of a fighter pilot and the skill of the Air Force One crew. The missiles they used came from the Sinaloa drug cartel. The conspirators planned another attempt by Julio Salazar, using anti-tank missiles the CIA falsely reported as destroyed. An alert citizen spotted them, and law enforcement recovered the missiles and ended the threat."

The reporters started asking questions, but the President held up her hand. "Our investigators tracked down the offshore banking account used to fund the conspiracy and pay its members. The CIA conspirators used shell corporations to launder billions in Cartel money. They took a cut of the drug profits in exchange for protection against law enforcement. Our investigators are freezing accounts and seizing the balances since the funds are from drug trafficking. A lot has happened today, but we are nowhere near the end. The Attorney General will prosecute the conspirators to the full extent of the law, including the death penalty where warranted."

She then stared into the camera. "An assassination attempt against a sitting United States President is an act of war. The Sinaloa Cartel is not a country, but today, we are in a state of war with it. I have signed a Presidential Decision Directive, pledging all United States assets towards the destruction of the Sinaloa Cartel. International warrants have been issued and will be honored for any Cartel leader who surrenders to United States law enforcement. Sinaloa Cartel leadership is now the priority target of law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and the United States military. We intend to work closely with Mexican and Central American countries to rid the region of their existence when allowed, but we will take them out wherever we find them. We will not stop until their leadership is dead or in prison, their organization in ruins, and their money is gone."