by Krister Persson
[NRPG:] This started as a follow-up to Alton's "Wrapped Up"-post, but has since snowballed. I started this weeks ago, but I've been quite busy, as you all know.
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Part I - Getting away with murder.
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>"Garrison said the DOJ denied my request for and investigation of >Crosstech," Jordan said.
>"It makes you wonder who they've bought with all the money they are >making," Martin replied.
>"Even if we're not investigating them, I still intend to find out what's >going on at Crosstech. It'll be more difficult without the Bureau >behind us, but not impossible."
"I'm heading up to my old workplace this evening, perhaps I can make some digging there. I have I friend who allows me access to the IRS mainframe. Crosstech must be mentioned a time or two, don't you think?"
"Most likely, but we'd better be careful. UD Garrison will have my head on a plate, if he finds out we didn't drop the case when he ordered us to."
"What he doesn't know, doesn't hurt him. By the way, lunch is on me."
"Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."
Martin left Hoover's Hollow and headed towards the parking garage. His mind was so pre-occupied with The Crosses, he almost ran Jenny down.
"Agent Reed, are you on your way home?" She asked.
"Not really, I'm going to visit an old friend at the IRS."
"Oh, I see," she said with a coldness that surprised Martin. Every time he had seen Jenny, she had been all smiles, but today she was different. As if she had read his mind, she suddenly broke out in a big smile.
"Drive safely," she told him before leaving.
Martin noticed a Post-It note on the floor. On it was a local phone number. Martin thought to himself. He picked up his cellphone and dialed the number.
A very gentle voice answered him: "Crosstech Industries, how may I help you?"
"Sorry, wrong number," Martin replied and hung up. It was too much of a
coincidence for Martin to be comfortable. He made a mental note to bring it
up with Jordan when he got back.
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(I.R.S., Maryland Branch Office, Early evening)
When Martin pulled up to the office building, he noticed a patrol car parked nearby. Two police officers were watching his every move. Martin was feeling uncomfortable, but shrugged and went inside. He told the security guard to buzz his friend, Thomas Maltzer. There was no answer, but Martin learned why soon enough, when the elevator door opened and Thomas stepped out. They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, while riding the elevator down to sublevel 4. They had to go through a series of security checks before they reached the terminal room connected to the IRS mainframe. Thomas punched in his password, so that Martin could get started. Then he went to fetch a huge pot of coffee. He didn't care that coffee was banned from all computer rooms. Martin and he was in for a long night.
Martin did a general search of Crosstech Industries and found 9.234 entries.
A search of Rebecca Cross, Ted Cross and Thaddeus Cross revealed another
4.000+ entries.
(I.R.S., Maryland Branch Office, 6:40am, the next day)
Thomas had fallen asleep somewhere around three o'clock, but Martin kept
pushing himself. Finally he had gathered a very thick dossier on the
Crosses. With it he was certain he could nail both Ted and Rebecca Cross on
income tax evasion and possibly also on tax treaty shopping. Ted Cross Sr.
was a bit more difficult, because he had hidden his income better. Martin
hoped that with the right judge, he would have a 50-50 chance. It was good
enough for now.
After waking Thomas up, Martin took his dossier and left the building. The
patrol car was still parked under a group of trees. Martin could only see
one of the officers, but he expected the other one to be asleep in the back
of the car. The TransAm gave him a satisfactory roar as he turned the key
and he pulled out of the parking lot. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror
revealed that the police officers were also on the move.
After two miles, the police car picked up speed and started flashing it's
red-and-blues. Martin had to pull over and stop. The driver, a tall man with
a grayish beard stepped up to Martin.
"Could you please step out of the car?"
Martin complied with the request.
"Spread your legs and place your hands on the hood, " the policeman
demanded. The other policeman had opened the passenger door of Martin's
TransAm and started to search the car.
"I'm a federal agent," Martin told them, "and you need a warrant to search
my car. I'm going to reach for my badge in my right inside pocket." Martin
barely had time to finish the sentence, when something hit him in the back
of his head and he passed out.
When he came to twenty minutes later, the cops were gone, along with the
dossier. Nothing else was missing.
"You must be quite pleased," Jeff told him.
"Not really. Sure, we can get them on income tax evasion, but they're
literally getting away with murder," Martin answered with a frown.
"True, but they are going down the same way Al Capone did in the 30's and
that has to count for something. Besides, I'm going to see to it that they
get nailed real good."
Martin felt satisfied with the answer and headed home for a well-deserved
shower.
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(Thaddeus Cross' office, approximately the same time.)
Thaddeus Cross looked over the dossier his associates had just brought him.
His left eyebrow began twitching nervously as turned page after page of
supposedly hidden transfers. Five minutes later, he turned to his attorney.
"This looks really bad. I think we might have underestimated Agent Reed. Any
chance you can make this disappear?"
"It depends on who's handling the investigation."
"Jeff Colton, with the D.A.s office."
"Then we got a real situation on our hands. Colton is married to Margret
Deveraux, daughter of general Miles Deveraux. If we try anything on Colton,
we run a great risk of losing all our military contract. It only takes a
word from the general."
"Damnit! Contact Colton and try to work out a deal. Perhaps you can arrange
some kind of plea bargaining."
"Perhaps, but it would have been much easier if your goons had managed to
get all copies of the dossier from Agent Reed. We could have cleaned up most
of the transactions before he could do a new investigation."
"I know, my 'goons', as you call them, have been severely reprimanded."
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(Martin's apartment, 8:20am)
Martin yawned as he opened the door. No one seemed to be home. He opened the
control box to deactivate the alarm. When punching in the override code, he
noticed that someone had turned off the motion detectors. He checked the log
and found that they had been turned off since 7:25am.
Emily had left him a note on the kitchen counter, telling him that she'd
gone to the airport to meet with her team, for their first mission. She had
left at 6:15 the same morning.
Suddenly, Martin's peripheral vision detected movement to his right. He drew
his gun and turned around in one fluid motion. At first, he didn't see
anything, but then a gray cat moved out from the shadows. It walked up to
him and started stroking itself against his legs. Martin started to laugh,
an
uncontrolled laughter that came from too many hours without sleep. He bent
over and picked up the cat. It's tag said "Ghost" so Martin assumed that
that was his name. On the back of the tag he found a name and his own
address. The prevoius owner was named M. Hammond. Emily would never buy a
cat without telling him, so he assumed that it had ran away from his owner
and returned to his old home address.
Martin opened a can of tuna and gave the cat. It ate half of the food. Then
it jumped up into Martin and Emily's bed, curled up to a small ball and went
to sleep. Martin was so fascinated with the cat, that he jumped a good five
inches up in the air, when the phone rang. It was Jenny, telling him to go
to the office a.s.a.p.
After hanging up, Martin threw a couple of pop-tarts in the toaster oven and
took a quick shower. He washed the pop-tarts down with a glass of OJ, placed
a bowl of water next to the half-eaten tuna and left the apartment. The
whole process took less than five minutes. He made sure the motion detectors
remained off, to avoid having Ghost set off the alarm.
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(JEH Building)
>Jim was the first to arrive, followed by Vanessa, then Martin. Zenya and
>Leo drifted in a few minutes later and they had all sat down at their desks
to
>catch up on their morning emails. Before Jordan had a chance to grab the
>team's attention, something on CNN captured it first.
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[NRPG:] I think Thaddeus Cross is in Montana for one of three reasons:
1: A hostile takeover of a major corporation. (This has nothing to do with
ZULU), or 2: He wants to strike a deal with Team Zulu in general and with
Martin in particular, to avoid doing time. He might even be willing to
sacrifice Ted Jr. and Rebecca, or 3: He's conducting experiments in Castle
Rock (Sau Woon's idea). The choice is yours. My first choice would be number
one, though. I think it's no fun using the same enemies too often. Perhaps
we could put the Crosses on the back burner for a while?
For the last few days, Emma has slept for at least 7 straight hours at
night, plus she sleeps more by herself during the day. This gives me much
more time for PBeM, even if work steals away 7-8 hours a day. BTW, have you
had time to check out Emma's Homepage yet (I know Peter has)? You can find
it on http://www.algonet.se/~kris_mia/emma/emma.html
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Part II - Ghost
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