Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2023 13:49:23 +0200 (CEST)
From: Boris Chen <borischenaz@mailfence.com>
Subject: Response Team Prequel Chapter 27 replacement

Chapter 27.

Just a friendly reminder, this story is 100% fiction, none of it happened,
all the people and places are made-up.

Our alert box on the living room table hadn't screeched at us at night in a
while. But Sunday night it screamed at 11:57pm, and we were already in bed
asleep. The display on the box said: FARGO-ND TERROR +DEAD ELP ASAP F-GEAR.

We didn't have a lot to go on but it sounded serious, since they had a body
count already. Usually, when the words 'Terror' and '+DEAD" were used it
meant a military grade attack to induce fear and panic in civilians. If you
injured innocents (including animals) then (IMO) you were too fucked-up to
be walking around free anywhere, that was totally anti-human and it pissed
both of us off. I felt a sense of anger in my chest.

We quickly got dressed and within eight minutes David was in the truck in
the driveway eager to leave. I activated the house alarm and grabbed the
pelican case; he had already grabbed the Batsuit case, and it had more of
our street clothes that I grabbed from the hamper.

The drive to ELP went fast. We had to watch our speed in the
neighborhood. At the end of the block we turned right onto Hollings Street
and left on Hondo Pass which took us to Railroad Drive. Once we got on
Railroad Drive it was high speed the rest of the way to the airport. There
are two lights on Railroad Drive which we easily run, and three on Airport
Road, including the worst one of the bunch which was at Airport Rd at
Airway Blvd where we turned onto airport property. The bad part was that is
a left turn which is harder to run if there was a car ahead of us.

Since there were several long stretches with no traffic lights we made most
of the run rather quickly. Most of the long stretches with no lights were
on Liberty Expressway between Fort Bliss, Biggs Field, and the airport. He
never just zoomed through them, we always stopped and watched closely then
slowly moved across the intersection. We've only been stopped a few times
but it's easy to sort out. Most of the city cops that covered the areas
around the airport recognized our vehicles and license plate stickers.

We parked in the first empty employee parking spot and ran into the
terminal. We didn't call the OD enroute because both of us were busy doing
stuff in the truck. I checked the news headlines on the way and found one
new headline about an explosion in Fargo North Dakota.

An internet news bulletin said there was an explosion outside a college
town bar that killed over twenty people. Someone called police to claim
responsibility and said it would happen again unless... Their rationale
sounded like delusional religious stuff, we've all heard it before (convert
to my religion or die). David said, "Sounds like it was a significant blast
to kill that many, unless the bar had tables on the sidewalk."

I added, "And dancing on the sidewalk too," as I continued doing my
research.

I read that Fargo borders Minnesota, the state line being the Red River,
which winds north into Canada like a wide brown snake. Fargo was a
prosperous, clean, working class community with suburbs and a large state
university near the airport and along the river. The idea of living that
far north kind of turned me off but it's actually a very nice town with
lots of stuff to do, except mountain climbing or whale watching.

----

The jet was soon on the way, and we were flying to an airport north of
downtown Fargo, called Hector International Airport; like Omaha, it's near
the river. After we got loaded the pilot only spoke once and said about
twenty one minutes to wheels down on runway 36. The flight was decent, with
minimal turbulence.

After a very nice landing our jet taxied to the North Dakota Air National
Guard hangar and we were met by a gray haired man, an older detective who
was semi-retired; they'd called him to help with the incident near the
university. He said the police chief summoned him with the special phrase,
'all hands on deck,' and said he was told to provide us with all the
information the police obtained.

We've learned that when a smaller city called the FBI for help and FBI
called us the feds always warned local police...

"Just so you know, when we bring these two in to prevent further loss of
life the Rapid Response Team usually locates and kills perpetrators
quickly, but you can still investigate the matter for others that may be
involved, but the primary suspects are usually dead within 24 hours. And
they have total immunity from prosecution too."

Word was out we often killed the perp long before police knew who was
involved. David told the old detective that was especially true when
lunatics killed innocent civilians, but police could continue the
investigation in case there were accomplices. In this case there were
likely accomplices, but our mission was killing the perp as soon as
possible.

----

The bombing site and the university were near the airport. We drove south
on Albrecht Boulevard to 12th Avenue. There was a row of small shops that
catered to the university crowd with good food, alcohol, live bands, and
very wide sidewalks. Students could stagger back to the dorms together
after an evening at the bars and were never bothered by the cops as long as
they stayed under control.

The building on the corner of 12th at Albrecht was the target. A van
stopped at the light and witnesses said a man got out and ran southwest
into a large parking area behind the three story building. Moments later a
huge blast went off that partially collapsed the building. It was a newer
structure with a red brick exterior, designed to look like the oldest
buildings on campus. It was three stories tall, the ground floor was all
retail with five store fronts. Four stores sold food and alcohol but the
one on the corner was a very popular bar with seating on the sidewalk and a
live band most weekends. Above the stores the 2nd and 3rd floors were small
studio size apartments, twenty units per floor.

The old cop that drove us said the area was roped off now but it was well
trampled by fire and EMS/Rescue. After the fires were out the police tape
went up and that was when the scene was finally secured. He hoped we could
still identify the culprit. David looked at me; it was only the oldest cops
that used the term culprit these days. We preferred perp; its only one
syllable.

He parked one block away; of course it was still dark outside. There were
two ladder trucks at the scene but the hoses were off. There was a large
crowd of civilians watching the police search for evidence, especially
around the remnants of the stolen van. The corner of the building closest
to the intersection had collapsed, it appeared to have a brick skin over a
wood frame, but the entire corner collapsed and destroyed six apartments
too.

We saw young couples still evacuating the upstairs apartments carrying
bedding and clothes; the store fronts on the ground level were all damaged
but the corner bar was a totally blackened hole. The injured and bodies had
been removed to the hospital; we saw lots of police forensics taking photos
inside the stores closest to the blast, in case it was actually a murder
attempt on a specific person. He said the bomb went off while the band was
on break. The bomber would not have been able to effectively flee on foot
after 11pm because many young people would have chased after him. This
location attracted large crowds during the school year. The blast happened
early in the evening, which lowered the possible body count.

The detective told us it appeared the bomber was unfamiliar with college
town bar culture, and was likely a more recent immigrant.

As we walked toward a gathering of uniformed officers at the corner, the
sounds of crying and screams could be heard as relatives and friends found
names on the list of victims posted across the street and updated hourly. I
nearly cried watching the dreadful display of inhumanity; I could tell
David was pissed-off and wanted to terminate the perp. There was a strong
odor of burnt wood and death in the air.

We saw some of the evidence; police already identified the bomb location
and the origin of the vehicle. It was probably a fertilizer bomb inside a
commercial delivery van reported stolen nearby, earlier that day.

While David received a verbal report from the Fargo Police I used our
tablet computer to download all cell records for the towers in Fargo and
along the interstate highways for the entire day. He also asked about
security camera tapes and was told both bars used them but the machines and
tapes were destroyed. We confirmed the precise time of the explosion too,
because that was needed to locate the perp's cell in a very long list of
calls.

While the three story retail/apartment building seemed to be the main
target, on the other three corners of the intersection were a credit union
and two university buildings. The police had called the bank manager to
request video from the ATM but the university buildings had no cameras. The
bank building was badly damaged but didn't catch on fire. Luckily, their
street-facing wall was brick, not glass.

The police captain walked us to the spot where the van stopped, it had made
a one foot deep crater in the street. Dozens of solemn people were milling
around in the cold night air beyond the police tape, watching us and taking
cell photos; I considered putting on a disguise. We had Hollywood facial
disguises in our Batsuit case, but it was at night and their photos would
probably not identify us.

The traffic lights at the intersection didn't use cameras; they switched on
timers. So the only known possible recording they knew of was the ATM, but
those had notoriously bad distance video. Behind the building was a large
parking area and beyond that were apartments for students but they didn't
have cameras. Fargo Police did not have a helicopter and according to our
records there were no satellites photographing from the sky that day.

They had already found the license plate from the van and police had gone
door to door in the apartments and the entire area in search of
witnesses. So far there wasn't much to go on and it sounded like cell tower
records might offer the best information. David was busy questioning the
campus police manager while I searched cell records three minutes before
the blast to two minutes after. Civilian agencies had no access to cell
phone records without a search warrant. Our DOD account got us instant
access to data on citizens including medical records, tax and income,
banking, legal actions, military, and police/FBI/CIA records.

When we downloaded cell site records it printed the data on spreadsheet
like reports by site and by time. Each record showed each phone's serial
numbers, phone numbers, and basic phone information. It showed the newest
record of speed, location, direction of travel, time, signal strength into
the cell tower, and if any data was being exchanged. Once I located the
nearest two towers (each one had multiple cell carriers) and the pages
starting three minutes before the blast and which locations were on the two
streets involved. Yes, using these reports required some experience and
training, and there were no street maps only coordinates north and south as
a nine digit number. The hardest part was determining the coordinates of
the exact location then searching the records for the closest cell units.

The exact location of the blast was 46.89044 and -96.80206, beside the
Buffalo Apartments. It took a while to cement those numbers and start my
numerical search in the cell tower logs. Within three minutes, using a
search function, I located my targets and identified the owners and made a
separate list and sent it immediately to the OD to help confirm my
work. All it takes is one digit off and I'm chasing phantoms, so it's
always wise to have someone else doing the same searches.

I identified several cell numbers that were in moving vehicles that drove
north on Albrecht within minutes of the blast and believed I identified one
number for the perp so I selected it and downloaded the account
records. Then I made a list of cell numbers that stopped at the light
within three minutes and started researching each one. The blast occurred
during a brief low point in traffic at that intersection moving in any
direction. It was easy to tell from the cell tower logs when the blast
occurred because it halted most local traffic. Suddenly thirty five cell
units dropped off the networks.

One of those three was an 88 year old woman, we'd contact her tomorrow to
see if she saw anything.

We stayed at the scene until 11am the next day examining evidence while I
sat in the detective's car focused on computer records and suspect
histories. Eventually David said we could leave and get a hotel room.

David walked me to the intersection, across the street to point out what
happened. He showed me how the streets were covered with debris from the
building collapse, which extended from the ground up to the roof of the
building. He said the blast was so powerful anyone outside on the patio was
blown to pieces and those body parts flew out onto the street. People
inside the building were killed by pieces of flying debris and large slices
of plate glass. Some were crushed under the debris, some received severe
impact trauma, and some were burnt alive in the fire.

He said one lady was in the bathroom when the bomb went off, she survived
but was in a coma in the ICU and was not expected to survive. Customers in
the sandwich shop next door to the bar survived but received burns and deep
lacerations from flying chunks of plate glass. I saw in his eyes as he told
me how the bomb blast killed people that he was really angry inside, he
hated fanatics and religious martyrs. After his brief lecture that included
showing me plastic number markers on the street used to identify chunks of
human body, we called for a taxi ride to a car rental agency near the
airport.

We stopped at a gas station and bought a large paper map with all the city
streets, which I hung on the wall in the hotel room. I built the list of
suspects, which was down to four names by noon. Our #1 suspect was probably
in the stolen van, who then took off on foot and appeared on cell phone
records later in a mobile home park beside an industrial area, near the
intersection of I-94 at I-29, just southeast of that intersection, along
25th Street at 6th Avenue; about two to three miles south of the
incident. From a quick look at my list, one cell activated seconds before
the blast and drove away from the location heading south. I think that
meant he ran away but stopped to shoot video of the blast then got in
another vehicle and left.

Our second suspect was a young man driving his own car toward the
university moments before the blast, he was possibly involved or a
witness. He was a NDSU student originally from Bismarck, a farmer's son and
Agri-Science major. The student's name was Austin Black. The alleged driver
of the van that lived in the mobile home park was named Lewis Garanos, an
immigrant from Turkey; his mother was born in New Jersey, his father was
born in Turkey. And the elderly lady we discovered was a passenger in her
car and she was visually impaired so we took her off the list but not the
driver, her neighbor.

We decided to take a nap and set an alarm for three hours, wake up time
around 4pm. That afternoon we went to Waffle House and while we waited for
our food I searched the cell phone live map for the current location of
their cell numbers; all of them were on Verizon. We both still felt
exhausted with only a three hour nap after so many hours on the run. It
sort of reminded me of Seal school where we were sleep deprived for weeks
and slowly got used to functioning in zombie mode all the time. Our entire
Seal company looked like the walking dead brigade in the swamps near Lake
Michigan.

I showed the tablet display to David, Austin was on campus and Lewis was
near his home at a sandwich shop in the industrial park. Cheryl was at home
near the campus. We ate and drove to a parking lot near Lewis's home and
watched it from a hardware store parking lot across the street, about 150'
away. It was a mobile home park that was wide open so anyone could walk
through the complex or leave in any direction; beyond it were more
residential neighborhoods.

We saw no signs of life inside his trailer home and decided not to question
the manager because he could be a friend of Lewis; our best bet would be to
deploy a spider. David jumped out of the rental car and flagged down a boy
on a bicycle and offered him twenty bucks to borrow his bicycle for four
minutes, so the kid sat in our car with me and watched David ride off on
his bike with a spider in his shirt pocket with an extra battery and one
sleep gas capsule in its back. He rode around the mobile home park and
dropped the spider in the grass near the parking spot and left. He returned
the bicycle to the kid and gave him an extra five bucks and the kid left
totally happy. I told David the boy asked me if we were CIA but I laughed
and said we were with the Tag Police investigating people for removing tags
from pillows and cushions, under penalty of law. Saying that usually
stopped further conversation, but the boy didn't seem concerned since his
bike was returned undamaged and now he had cash in his pocket; a lot of
money for a nine year old boy in Fargo.

Within nine minutes we started to get floor plan details for the
trailer. David had it take photos looking outside the windows to confirm it
was in the correct trailer. We saw nobody inside and no signs of any
involvement in the attack on the campus bar. It had happened to us before,
where the spider ended up in the residence next door, and it wasted a lot
of our time so we often try to photograph us by looking out a window at
something we could identify, like a parked vehicle. After the mobile home
was completely mapped I drove it to the kitchen and parked on top of a wall
cabinet with the camera watching the front door, and put the spider in low
power mode until there was movement inside the home.

Next, we left the parking lot and drove a few blocks away where the cell
network said his cell was currently located; it appeared to be an ethnic
sandwich shop in the industrial park. We only had a driver's license image
to identify our suspect and it was four years old; the OD was searching
online for social media selfies of Lewis. Parked in a factory lot across
the street it seemed most of the people working in this area looked Middle
Eastern or maybe southeastern Europe (former Yugoslavia or Greece). It was
going to be hard to identify our suspect by his face. We saw several people
outside eating at picnic tables but none were talking; it was just
individual people eating falafel in pita on wax paper sheets. Most of the
signs outside the place were in a language we couldn't read.

David mumbled to me that falafel sounded wonderful, he was getting
hungry. I smiled and patted his thigh. I thought to myself, 'That's my
husband, always thinking with his stomach.'

David used the tablet computer's phone app, and called the cell number that
had left the parking lot seconds after the blast while we watched closely
everyone outside eating. As soon as Lewis answered David hung-up, I saw one
guy raise his cell and set it down and go back to eating his falafel; so we
found our guy. He was wearing a striped shirt and blue jeans and white
shoes with a red Nike baseball cap backwards, probably the same cap he wore
during the bombing.

We discussed what to do with him and decided if he was a zealot he might be
very willing to boast about his big accomplishment. But likely he had
accomplices, as somebody had to supply him with the explosives. We
discussed it for a while and decided to let the Fargo Police deal with that
investigation after we left; they could search his records and his home and
identify his accomplices. All we wanted to know was if he drove the van,
lit the fuse, and took off on foot about forty seconds before the blast.

We drove back to the hardware store parking lot and activated the spider
and sat there waiting for Lewis to arrive. At 5:39 he arrived and put his
leftovers from his meal in the refrigerator, and then he went back to the
bedrooms and took a shower.

At 6:15pm we called the old police detective to discuss what they had found
during the day; they were about to review the ATM video and talk to
hundreds of people from the area as well as those who survived the blast.

The best news was the delivery van was captured on tape but not when the
bomb exploded, that view was blocked by part of the bank building. It also
caught an image of someone running south down the center of Barrett Street
towards the parking lot about twenty seconds before the explosion but the
image was poor. They identified the clothing and colors: a white long
sleeve hooded jacket over blue jeans, white gym shoes, and a red baseball
cap but that was all. Ten people remembered seeing the van but not the
driver; they all said the area was very busy and they were eating or
drinking with friends and not paying attention to vehicles on the
streets. About three people that saw him said he wore a red baseball cap
backwards.

There was one lady in the hospital, she was walking down the sidewalk
across the street towards the intersection. The lady said she was across
the street because the sidewalk in front of the bar was too crowded. She
saw the van pull up to the light, the driver got out and ran away. She also
said he had a red cap on backwards and some kind of white jacket with long
sleeves.

While our suspect Lewis was opening his mail and sitting at a small kitchen
table David moved the spider across the ceiling into his bedroom and looked
for a white long sleeve hoodie and found one on a hangar in the closet, but
all he owned were blue jeans and white athletic shoes. So far all we had
was circumstantial evidence so we decided to confront him and tighten the
screws. Before we got out of the car I called the old detective to say we
had a suspect and he got really angry when I refused to identify him. David
even said he gave a likelihood of Lewis being the van driver of around 90%
but he had accomplices locally that the police needed to investigate after
we were finished with our work.

When David told the old cop that if we confirmed that our perp lit the fuse
we would kill him immediately. The detective got really mad because they
wanted him behind bars to stand trial. David told him it was too risky due
to a lack of quality evidence; he was too likely to go free or flee the
state. So we were going to confront him right now and see if he admitted
anything.

At 7:05pm someone knocked on Lewis's door and was let in; we watched and
listened from on top of a kitchen cabinet. We recorded what the spider
captured but with the TV on it was hard to hear. The other problem was they
spoke in a strange language, but every once in a while we heard English
words, like 'bomb' and 'infidels' and several more that added to the
growing list of evidence.

We saw him use his arms to demonstrate the huge blast and the fire and
collapse of the corner of the brick building. He used his fingers to count
the dead, which matched the report from the newspaper. David moved the
spider and found he had several newspapers with front page coverage of the
attack. He drove the spider all around the kitchen ceiling and didn't see
anything out of the ordinary so back in the bedrooms he looked on tables
and dressers and saw what looked exactly like a 100' spool of explosive
fuse. He snapped photos and searched every room while the guys visited in
the living room. When the spider was back in the kitchen we saw Lewis show
the visitor video on his cell, which made the other guy applaud and hug
Lewis. We assumed it was video of the blast and not of Lewis masturbating
on Chaturbate. Soon after viewing the explosion video his friend left with
a big smile and the perp was alone again.

We had a short conversation to re-cap the evidence. We could place him in
the van and someone dressed like him in the area seconds before the blast,
and similar clothes in his closet, bomb fuse, but we had no definite
motive. So we decided to walk across the street and break into his mobile
home and have a conversation. We never detected any weapons except maybe
kitchen knives.

We left the rental car in the parking lot across the street (with our cases
in the trunk) and walked over to the mobile home and stood outside nearby
for a few minutes pretending to be talking on the sidewalk, but the parking
lot was quiet. It was dinner time and people were doing family stuff, so we
probably had decent cover. I held my machine gun against my stomach loaded
and ready, we had our gas filters in our pockets. We were in our Batsuits
with jackets over the top. I had my folding knife in my jacket pocket and
stayed close behind David as we crossed the busy street.

We silently tiptoed up the metal steps at the front door of the trailer
home and saw Lewis's shadow on the kitchen floor. David tried the knob but
the door was locked so I handed him our basic lock picking set. David got
on his knees and inserted the flat tool for rotating the cylinder and
started lifting each pin until all six were aligned and the cylinder
rotated to the unlocked position. He slid the tools in his pocket and got
back on his feet and glanced at me with a nervous smile. He gripped the
knob and slowly turned it and opened the door, I was directly behind with
one finger on the trigger guard. When I stepped inside I saw my laser dot
on the wall inside the living room. The door squeaked as it slowly opened
but we were already inside and I was almost touching David's back side.

Lewis appeared by the kitchen table looking across the room; he thought he
locked the door after his friend left and now there were two strange young
men moving towards him. After quietly shutting the door I stepped to the
side and ordered him to raise his hands while I pointed the automatic at
him, the red laser dot on his chest. He immediately recognized the danger
and slowly raised both arms. After checking him for weapons David told him
to sit on a chair at the table but keep his hands flat on the table and not
to move. Lewis silently did as instructed and looked totally freaked out
scared. I started to snoop around the living room while David moved closer
to interrogate Lewis in his usual good-cop style.

"Why'd you do it?" David got right to the point, but you could see the
confusion on Lewis's face; we clearly weren't cops. To most people we sort
of resembled two young cowboys in Goth clothes. Under indoor lighting our
Batsuits were slightly shiny, but we were both mostly dressed in black
clothes with a black machine gun.

"Do what?" Lewis laughed and looked unafraid but his arm pits got soaking
wet immediately.

"Kill all those Christian people. We saw you run from the van on video. It
was on a tape shot by the bank." I stated softly, but it was a total lie.

We all stood there staring at each other briefly, then David spoke,
"Brother, were they all infidels? They deserved it for not observing the
law?"

Lewis smiled and asked if we were on his side, and David said yes, we were
from Istanbul. He seemed to relax but when his hands started to move I
reactivated the laser dot on his chest and made sure he followed our rule:
do not move. I moved the laser light across his eyes to help convince him
we were serious.

We asked where he got the explosives from but he laughed and said, 'On
Ebay.' So David stepped closer which made his eyes open wider. I reached
over and shut off the TV and looked around the living room again but saw
nothing of interest. I caught a glimpse of our spider on the kitchen
ceiling. While David kept pressing him for where the explosives came from I
used my wrist panel to drive the spider directly above Lewis's curly black
hair.

I got out my filters and inserted them and whispered to David to put his
in, there was no way Lewis would understand what was about to happen, but
he was very scared, it was obvious in his voice and body language. A few
times it looked like he was about to cry.

Finally, Lewis said the bomb was a gift from The Brotherhood; David asked
where that was and he looked out the window and said about 'four blocks
that way,' but he couldn't raise his hands to point, but it was near where
he had lunch today.

"How was your lunch?" David asked. Lewis said he went there every other day
at lunch time. "You work over there?"

And Lewis laughed and said he went to prayers over there twice a day
too. So we had more research to pass along to the cops. We would leave it
for the Fargo Police to investigate where the 97 gallon fertilizer bomb
came from. I heard Lewis boast to David that he organized the bombing, he
stole the van, and drove it to the bar, lit the fuse and ran to his car,
which he had stashed in the parking lot. He did it because he hated
Christians. David asked him why he lived in the US if he hated Christians
and Lewis said he liked it here because he'd never run out of lazy
Americans to kill. It was hard not to break out of character in front of
him but I felt David's anger building from several feet away. I heard what
sounded like faint growling over Whispernet.

I wanted to ask Lewis, 'Let me get this right. You think killing innocent
civilians will attract new people to your religion? Is that why you did it?
You really believe that'll work? Buddy let me tell you in case you didn't
already figure it out but you are seriously sick in the head and a danger
to not only your religion but the entire world, and that's why we're here.'
But I decided Lewis was probably too sick in the head to discuss anything
but falafel in pita.

We ran out of stuff to ask and Lewis seemed to believe he was a hero and
that the more we talked the less likely we were to shoot him. So we inched
slowly back toward the front door. Over Whispernet I asked if he was done;
David told me to gas him. It took less than one second to send the command,
then I put the folded knife in his hand, which he hid behind his back. He
knew I always put it in his palm the same way every time. It had to face
exactly the correct way so he could quickly flick open the blade. We
actually practiced that hand-off like a nurse handing surgical instruments
to the surgeon.

Lewis sat there watching us briefly with a pleased look on his face like he
believed he was about to be declared Hero of the Week. To me it didn't
matter what he believed because Lewis was about to face the final
judgment. I would have suggested he not stand in the '12 Sins or Less
Express Line' at the Pearly Gates.

The spider was about four feet above Lewis, we had our air filters inserted
and after about five seconds Lewis got a weird expression on his face, then
his head wobbled and dropped to the kitchen table with a thud and his body
became limp. His face was visible to me, his eyes were still open and
saliva dribbled from his mouth onto the kitchen table as his hands hung in
the air under the table. I was ready to look away because I never liked
seeing blood spray from someone's neck. I stood at the door with my hand on
the knob ready to leave.

David stepped beside the table and stood on another chair and picked the
spider off the ceiling, switched it off and dropped it in his pocket. Then
he opened the knife and lifted Lewis's head by his curly black hair and
quickly jabbed his neck. Blood gushed across the table and onto the wall
and down to the floor. I stepped outside and kept the 9mm firmly against my
body while I looked around and waited for David. We've been told our
machine guns were hard to see if we held them against our Batsuits, so
that's what I did while I waited for my husband.

Moments later he opened the door, turned off the lights, and shut it behind
him. We walked between the trailers toward the street, across to the
hardware store parking lot and got in our rental car. David called the cops
and said we found the van driver, but he was dead. We gave them the address
and drove to our hotel room by the airport. I called the OD and told her
what had happened so far and we'd be leaving Fargo tomorrow.

An hour later the old detective guy called David back so we told him what
the suspect admitted to, and where he got the bomb. That made a lot of
investigation work for them to do but that was their job, not ours. The
main suspect was dead which was what we came to do, justice for the people
he murdered. The number of dead was expected to grow as a few badly injured
people circled the drain in the Fargo hospital. While he had that chat I
researched flights.

It looked like our best bet (for getting far away from Fargo) was to take a
Greyhound bus from the University Transit Station to Denver tomorrow
morning at 5am; we had to buy our tickets online tonight. Once we got to
Denver it would be easy to get home. Since we got totally reimbursed we
could legally take an Uber (or a limo) home from Denver, but that bill
would be hundreds. We considered renting a car but there was a hefty
surcharge for taking a car one-way to El Paso, so we never did that. The
charge had something to do with car theft in a border town.

Before we returned to our hotel room we drove to the apartment of Austin
Black and had a conversation with him. When David pounded on his door
Austin had been at his kitchen table studying for a biology exam. He said
he saw the news on TV and realized he was at the very spot where the blast
happened two minutes later but never heard or saw anything. So we shook
hands and parted ways and drove to our next suspect: Cheryl. She drove her
neighbor to a store and were at the intersection about 90 seconds before
the blast and never heard or saw anything. That concluded our mission; we
marked it a success but Fargo PD had a lot more investigating to do. They
probably had at least four accomplices to arrest. The source for the liquid
fertilizer was an agri-chemical company in that industrial park.

We returned to our hotel room but sat outside for a short time to see if we
were being followed. Then we dropped our cases in the room and walked to a
nearby taco stand for dinner and ate back in our room. This hotel did not
have a pool; which did not surprise me for a hotel only miles away from
Santa's Workshop. I was half expecting to see a candy cane factory in
Fargo, or at least a snowshoe factory.

Actually, we were impressed by how clean Fargo looked. If you didn't mind
living far from the mountains in a place with a very long winter it was
probably a very nice place to live. Small town attitude in a growing metro
area with all the mod-cons. Fargo made a positive impression on us.

----

That morning we returned the car by the airport and took a taxi to the
university bus terminal, and had the entire waiting room to ourselves. Only
four other people boarded with us, but it had another stop in North Dakota
before hitting the highway. We wanted to get away from Fargo out of fear of
being arrested for killing the suspect or being stalked by his buddies. It
was likely he was not the only insane person in Fargo.

We arrived at the Denver airport at 10:15pm that evening and spent the
night at the same hotel and flew home the next day, first flight and got
home at 10:35am. It felt weird to land at ELP but not go to our
office. Instead, we drove home to write our report and soak in the pool
with stem-less glasses of wine. Both of us felt some sorrow any time we
killed someone, regardless of what they had done. Their crimes only made it
easier to end their lives but it didn't mean a life wasn't wasted. We'd
never know how that young man became a religious nut case, but that was
God's job to get sorted out.

David told me that evening after the sun went down that Lewis was a weird
'stick.' He said his artery was very far forward, he barely broke flesh
before hot blood gushed out. Then, still holding his hair he turned his
head so it didn't spray on him, then he dropped his face and heard it thud
on the table. Heads are heavy. He went to the kitchen sink and washed his
hands and the knife then joined me outside while the body twitched at the
table, but Lewis never fell to the floor. As a joke he said Lewis probably
lost his security deposit to cover the landlord's expense cleaning up all
that blood.

----

A story on the news about the bombing said the suspect was found dead in
his home and was under investigation for accomplices who provided the
explosives and selected the target. There were other suspects arrested and
a restaurant nearby was raided as well as an agri-supply distributor in the
industrial park.

An article we saw in their newspaper showed photos of the dead, which was
very sad to see with so many young faces. The oldest victim so far was 34
years old, she was a bartender in the corner tavern. The incident became
known in Fargo as the Corner Tavern Murders. The newspaper said the
building owner planned to repair and re-open the entire building within the
year. Half the renters in the upper floors returned two days later and
decided to stay there since it was so close to campus.

David's only regret in that mission was that we couldn't offer Lewis a
traditional Tibetan sky burial. I told him we could have put an incendiary
pellet in the spider instead of a second battery. Then we could drop that
spider down his shirt. When the cops found him he would have been reduced
to ash above the hips.



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