This would be the greatest sting that any of them had ever seen, not that they had much experience in sting operations. Ian formally introduced Dave to the rest, and thankfully, they accepted him.
Dave got himself ready, borrowing what he could to act as camouflage. He took the camera, Bill showed him how to hook up the contraption with the radio, and he was ready for bear. The others were ready too. Ian felt himself unready, but he could not think of anything that he could do to make himself feel truly ready.
Ian tried one last time to get Kate to come with them to the park for the showdown. She never answered. Was she too scared of the situation? Was she annoyed with him? Unfortunately, he did not have time to figure it out. He would have to wait until they were all done before he tried to resolve the difficulty.
He really wanted her here. After all, she had lived under the yoke of oppression by both the Benefactor and Gillies for a long time before Ian and the others became involved. She just wanted out, and so did Ian. Unfortunately, she is not going to be there when they finally get free. Afterwards, she and he could get together and start looking forward to a life where they were the masters of their own destiny.
He pulled out the plain white envelope and read it once again. "Ian, Gillies has severed ties with Collins and Dumont. He is heading to Prairie Crocus State Park alone. I believe he wants to bribe you into silence. He owns an old rifle, but I don't believe he even knows how to use it. I hope you accept his offer for silence. I miss you. Call me when it is done. Love, Kate."
This information was great. Ian now knew with some confidence that they would not have too many complications. The fact that Gillies only had one rifle matched what Bill had discovered earlier. Severing ties with crooked cops made sense. This might go off cleanly. However, something kept Ian's suspicions aroused.
They climbed into two separate cars for the drive to Prairie Crocus State Park. Ian jumped into the back of the car driven by Lauren. Dave jumped in beside him. Bill was riding shotgun.
"You ready for this?"
"I think I am. You've been doing this for a year?"
"Yeah, we have. This is the fifth time we've done something akin to a showdown since we started."
"Five times. Wow."
"You comfortable with what to do?"
"Yeah. I am to follow you guys. But be far enough back, and to the side, so that anyone observing your group does not see me. If you are being followed, I am to try to get identifying video of whoever is following you. When you get to your rendez-vous, I am to turn on the video recorder and keep it running, even if I have no visual. This will record the dialogue captured by the microphone you are wearing. If I can, I am to get a visual record showing the guy you are meeting. After the meeting is done. If things go well, you will walk away from the meeting site with both hands on your head. If I see that, I can cease recording and make my way back to the cars as quickly as possible. You don't want to wait for me because that might raise suspcions with whomever you are meeting. Once at the car, I hide nearby until you guys get back, at which point I'll jump into the car with you. If things don't go well at the meeting, you will walk away with no hands on your head. I am to capture as much information as possible on video and once the guy you are meeting makes to leave, I then make it to the car. You will be waiting for me. Did I miss anything, wut?"
Ian was suitably impressed. A quick plan that was loosely pieced together was absorbed by Dave in a single telling. And it was coherently repeated back. Ian's feelings about getting Dave involved in this situation were slightly relieved. "That note that was left with me said that Gillies is going to be alone, so no dirty cops. He is bringing some money to try to bribe us into silence. It also said that he owns a weapon, but he won't have it. This looks like it is going to be a straight, down and dirty, negotiation."
The seven of them arriveed up at Prairie Crocus State Park. Ian climbed out allowing Dave to sneak out of the back seat. While no one seemed hostile to Dave, no one even commented to him to wish him luck or anything. Ian was mildly offended at the perceived lack of respect given to his friend. He did, however, understand their reticence towards fully accepting him. He was, after all, a newcomer to the situation. And Ian could not let little things bother him.
Lauren was taking charge of the group. They had received little direction on what to do in the park. They were to meet at a specific landmark near the Devil's Dustbowl and Lauren was the most familiar with the way there. The sun had set about 15 minutes earlier, so the sky was darkening quite quickly. Moonrise was to take place in the middle of the night, so until then it would only be the light of the stars guiding them. The six of them started walking in a loose group towards the east. Ian turned his head a couple of times to see if he could see Dave following, but he saw nothing. He knew Dave was less than a football field away from them at that time, but knew that he'd not be visible in this darkness.
About ten minutes into the walk it was very dark. They came to a relatively flat spot. Ian was quite sure they were approaching the designated area for the meeting. There was something, a sense, a vibration, something that told him that they had arrived. The little meadow was calm at night, with only the sounds of insects heard. He knew that during the day, the area would be lush and active, and probably a beautiful spot to picnic. Maybe, just maybe, he'd bring Kate here.
A flicker of light in the short distance ahead of them brought Ian's flash fantasy about Kate to an abrupt end. It looked like someone had lit a cigarette. As the six of them looked at what caused the light, they could just barely make out the outline of a car, parked here in the meadow. Stephen Gillies' voice called from somewhere behind the car.
"I see you came. I was wondering if you would."
No one responded.
"Cat got your tongue? You are usually full of words when stopping me in the street or setting out to embarrass me online."
"We stopped that. You did not suffer." Lauren's voice was shaking. She seemed to be right on the edge. Ian knew she would not last. In his years of taking on stressful bets, he knew which people could bet and which ones could not. Lauren, for all her inner strength, could not be a stressful better.
"That's an outright lie!" bellowed Gillies, startling the six of them. "I've been removed as CEO from my own company, relegated to figurehead, and denied the ability to exercise any control over the operations of my businesses. I've suffered."
Ian jumped in to prevent Lauren from breaking. "Sir, we did not mean that. We too have suffered. We have ceased our campaign to harm you. We just ask that you cease your campaign to end us."
There was no immediate response from Gillies, which Ian hoped was a sign that he was taking the offer under consideration. During the silence Ian took a couple of paces further forward. He wanted to see Gillies to ensure that he was truly alone.
Finally, there was just enough light and the distance was short enough to pick him out and see that he was there, and alone. The only thing that was suspicious was that there was a large satchel sitting on the hood of his car. Did this hold the bribe money?
"That is far enough. You are Ian. I don't want you to come any closer." With that Stephen Gillies moved to the hood of the car.
Ian decided to try to take the initiative. "We know about your role in the break in at the bank. And the documents you stole from Danny Corcoran. Those were stolen back from you. Then you spent your time manipulating us."
"So, you are the ones that stole them from me. I figured so. I will be honest, I did not think that this group was going to be able to bring me to this. You are just university kids, but you've definitely proven harder to defeat than I had thought. Given the pressures you raised, I suspected someone more involved in politics than this ragamuffin lot."
"It's not hard to put pressure on you when you do not hold any moral advantage."
"I don't care about a moral advantage. And don't you start lecturing me. I only want to maintain control over my own businesses. If I can solve things tonight, I might yet be able to consolidate my power and increase my influence in the area. Your little antics have caused me enough grief, but nothing permanent, as long as I end it. Besides, you don't know what is best in this situation. Environment over jobs. Jobs vs the environment. This takes strength, and I'm the one who can do it. I can maximise the profit on flailing products without compromising their quality. What do you know about dealing with employees, unions and regulatory bodies? In this community, my business is responsible for thousands of jobs. And not just jobs in my plant. But the tranport companies that haul product and materials, the teachers who teach the kids of my employees, the staff in the stores in the malls and shops. Without me, they would have no job. And you would ruin it. In reality, I am always the good guy. The enemy are those who want to take me down for political, ethical, environmental or cultural reasons."
Ian felt the conversation getting desperate. While his dislike for the man was growing rapidly, he knew he needed to get in there to prevent it from spinning out of control. "Actually, we don't care about your battles or your business. In fact, we hope it flourishes. All we want is to be left alone. We leave you alone, and you leave us alone."
He held his breath after the last sentence. He willed that it sink into Gillies' brain. The easy way out is to pay us off and we leave him alone. Hoping to give the conversation a little push in his direction, Ian continued, "We are not in any way, shape or form interested in your corporation. Or your role in trying to take down Danny Corcoran."
Gillies let out a primordial roar.
"Is that your business? Are you doing this for Corcoran? He's been a political problem and a business roadblock for a long time. He needed to be removed. He had no understanding of what I was doing, but was purely using his celebrity and made up environmental catastrophes to sell his brand and give him power. Of course I wanted Corcoran taken down. That was why I allowed information to be fed to you so that you'd do it."
This shocked Ian. He glanced around at the others and noticed that they were equally surprised at the outburst and the confession. Ian closed his eyes for a second and gave a quick prayer to the Hindu god Ganesh hoping that Dave had his camera on.
If Dave had it recorded, then they could shut Gillies down forever. But, until they got back to the car, there was no way they could know if Dave got it.
"We are willing to remain silent on everything if you promise to leave us alone." Ian tried one more time to try to get Gillies to reason.
Gillies laughed a sneering laugh. "No, I don't think you can stay silent."
"Then we are at a détente. We will take the lead. We won't compromise you, but the second you try to enact some revenge on us, we go full confessional." Ian looked at the shadowy figure in the night. He could not tell whether his words were making an impact. After a fifteen second pause, he continued "Our negotiations have broken down. We will be leaving."
Gillies yelled, "You will not be leaving here," and moved quickly to the car.
Ian then heard Dave off to his right holler at him "Ian, he's got a gun!"
With that, Ian saw the shadowy figure turn towards Dave's voice, raise up a rifle, and fire a shot in that direction. He then saw it cock the weapon and turn towards the group.
The six of them scattered into the darkness as a single shot rang out. Ian could hear the bullet fly overhead. At least he knew it was not going to hit anyone up there.
He stopped at the edge of the meadow, beside a low bush and tried to collect his thoughts. Should he run around to the right and try to marry up with Dave? Or should he try to rally the others and make a move to take down Gillies? Or better yet, should they head to the cars and leave the area and take their chances with a mad man after them?
Another shot rang out, but the angle was wrong. Gillies was no longer standing by the car, but was walking through the meadow. He was probably firing at shadows, but some of the shadows here held the members of the gang. It was too risky to stay, but movement might draw his fire.
He pressed his brain to try to figure out how to get Gillies' attention without getting himself shot. He knew he needed help. And the only one he could trust to help him right now was Dave. So, he got onto his belly and started crawling south to get away from where he suspected Gillies was heading.
BAM. Another shot, far too close, had flown overhead. Ian could not tell if Gillies was aiming at him, or whether he was shooting in a general direction. He dared lift his head. There he was, barely ten paces away, putting more rounds into his rifle. Ian deduced that it was an old hunting rifle, much like his Dad owned. Something like a five round fixed magazine that was reloaded from the top of the weapon. So, if Ian outlasted the next five rounds, he would have a window for either rapid movement or to strike back. Good to know.
Ian started to crawl as quickly as he thought would still leave him undetected by the nearby Gillies. Ten paces was far enough to blend into the dark, but if Gillies aimed his rifle at a moving shadow, ten paces was far too close to miss anything.
Ian kept crawling and found what appeared to be an old set of tire tracks heading into the meadow. Wishing he was far skinnier, he used one to help cover himself from view and began a rapid slither and baby crawl to get further away. He heard the rifle click as another round was chambered and feared hearing the almost guaranteed report of a round being fired. There was nothing for a few seconds, so Ian kept crawling, not daring a look back.
After a heartwrenchingly tough crawl, he came to a dip in the meadow. This was the type of dip that someone walking would not notice at all, but on your belly while being shot at, it stands out. He crawled in and then moved to the end of the dip. It was as he was laying there that he heard a sound behind him.
With a start, he turned over, jumped up and grabbed the person walking by the dip. Once he had them on the ground, he tried to see who it was, but the camouflage in the clothes and hat made it difficult. Then it struck him.
"Dave?"
"Wut."
"Thank goodness it is you. What were you doing walking here?"
"I was trying to get footage of him shooting his weapon at you guys."
"Are you nuts. How can you see anything, it is so dark? How did you know he had a weapon?"
"The camera Bill gave me has a night mode that has an infra red sensor. It sees in the dark. I saw him yell at you and then grab the gun from the car. No one reacted so I risked calling out a warning."
"Good thing you did. It saved our lives."
"But this night vision is only so good. If we had a little bit of light, it would help out. Like the moon or a lantern."
Then it hit Ian. Gillies' car. It has headlights. "Dave, get back to your spot overlooking this meadow. I'm going to get you some light."
And Ian took off leaving Dave slowly moving off to the little highland on the south of the meadow.
BAM! Another round. Ian was glad to see that it was nowhere near him, but he knew that five others were there, and they may be dangerously close to that mad man.
Ian decided to risk a run. He got up and started a crouched run towards where he remembered the car to be. Sure enough, out of the dark came the shape of the car, and that satchel was still on the hood. Ian grabbed that satchel. It was zippered tight, but he did not want to have Gillies have access to the satchel, especially if it held more ammunition. But, in reality, this might be the key to negotiating their way out of this. It was not a small bag, so there must be some value in it.
He ripped open the driver's side door and jumped into the car. Instinctively, he reached for the keys but found none in the ignition. He did not expect to find anything, but there was always a chance. He fumbled in the dark along the dash to see if he could find a headlights button, but to no avail. He then felt along the steering column, nothing. He then felt the turn indicator arm, giving the end of that a twist and voila, headlight illuminated the whole area in front of them.
Ian exited the car, throwing the satchel over his shoulder by a strap and quickly made his way over to a group of bushes to the north of the car. Hopefully, Gillies would move towards his car, and in doing so, would ruin his night vision, making it far easier for the rest of them to escape. If he did not move towards his car, that was fine too. He and Dave were safe, and the others then had a fighting chance at seeing Gillies.
In the distance, just moving into the soft glow of where the headlights fell, a figure started appearing. Ian smiled. It was Gillies. Walking purposefully back to his car. If the others were unharmed, this would give them plenty of opportunity to get away.
Then Gillies turned around and shot into the dark behind him.
Did he hear something? Or was he just firing blindly to instil the fear of death into them?
BAM! Another round fired into the dark away from Ian. He quickly thought about it. That was four shots since Gillies last loaded. One more and Ian could take him on physically. He just needed to take that shot.
"Gillies!" Ian's volume startled even him.
Gillies turned, raised his rifle and fired.
Ian got ready to jump up and run at Gillies.
The scream from behind him stopped him short. It was Lauren. She was screaming hard. Without at thought, Ian turned and followed the noise of Lauren's cries. In seconds he found her.
"Are you hurt? Where'd you get hit?"
She had a hard time calming herself. "I'm not hit. It came close. It scared me. I could not control myself."
Ian turned and looked and saw that Gillies was putting bullets into the gun. "We gotta move. Get up and run, keep running."
Lauren started to stand up, and she turned startled as some tromping came at them from the north. Ian moved to put himself between the noise and Lauren when Bill's face came out of the darkness. "I heard Lauren scream. What's going on?"
"We don't have time to explain! But get her out of here now. Go in that direction!"
BAM! A shot ricocheted off the turf a few paces to the right. Bill needed no further encouragement. He grabbed Lauren by the hand and the two of them took off to the east. Ian watched them for three paces, then turned and headed as quick as he could to the north.
A quick glance towards the car showed that Gillies was no longer in the cone of light, but he was silhouetted. That meant he was walking towards Ian. Krap. There were four bullets in that rifle and the distance was far too close for comfort.
He turned to run away from Gillies. BAM! Another round. But this one hit the dirt at his feet. That was close. Three rounds left.
Two steps later BAM another round, right by his ear.
This shocked him. He fell. He looked and the silhouette was closer. Ian realised immediately that he would not be able to evade the next round. He was not going to make it easy for Gillies, but he was not going to get away unscathed.
"DROP THE WEAPON!"
The voice came from a completely different direction. Ian risked a quick look around but he did not see anything. Was it Rab, or Moussa trying to distract Gillies.
"THIS IS THE POLICE! DROP THE WEAPON AND PLACE YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!"
Right out of a movie several voices could be heard. All of them were screaming for Gillies to drop his weapon. Two grey clad figures came out of the dark with rifles raised and headed directly towards Gillies. As soon as they passed, Ian got up and hauled himself further into the dark. As soon as he felt safe, he glanced back and saw a small group of grey clad police handcuffing Gillies.
Ian started breathing easy. He stood up, tried calming himself down, but no luck.
Once he saw Gillies fully bound, he started walking towards the cops arresting Gillies. As soon as he started though, he realised that police were everywhere. He decided to head to Gillies car, then to their own car.
He got to Gillies car and looked to the hill to see if Dave was coming down. But he never really knew where Dave was, so he scanned the whole area. As he scanned, he recognised two figures. It was Smooshface and the Bulldog, or Collins and Dumont.
"Ian?" It was Moussa. "What is going on?"
"I don't know. I want to get to our car and get us out of here."
"You!" Smooshface, called to them.
"Yeah?"
"How are you involved?"
"He called us to have a meeting and then he pulled a gun."
Smooshface looked hard at them. "Is Dean with you?"
Ian smiled inwardly. Smooshface played his hand too early. "I don't know what you mean. The guy pulled a gun."
"Don't mess with me, Ian. I know you have been up to your eyeballs in this. I don't want to make this worse than it is."
"You mean by having your work for Corcoran and your work for Gillies exposed for your bosses? Including a bogus arrest after a wrongful arrest?"
Smooshface looked at him hard. "Who turned on the lights to the car?"
This question took Ian by surprise. "Why?"
"We got a tip that there was going to be an issues here in the park, but no details. We could hear the shooting, but no sense of location. Whoever turned on the lights pinpointed the location for us. That allowed us to get here faster."
The first thing that flashed through Ian's mind was who tipped them off? But not wanting to dwell on that too long, he testily replied "Let's just say that we did not turn on the lights to aid you and leave it at that."
Smooshface took a long breath. "Let me level with you. I know you know we are compromised. We saw an opportunity tonight to salvage our reputations and careers. We were intending to do this by bringing down the six of you. We have been tailing you for several days, including all your meetings at a diner in west Great Plains and the several people interacting with each other in bizarre locations. However, tonight, things went badly. With the arrest of Gillies, and with no contribution of contradictory evidence from you, it may be enough for us to salvage our reputations and careers. We can ignore your presence here. We can form a pact of non-interference..."
Before he could finish, someone called his name. He turned. The Bulldog arrived to their little meeting. She grabbed Smooshface and whispered something in his ear.
Anticipating that this could not be good news, Ian decided to try to cut off any conversation before it turned against him. "Collins, Dumont. We are going the leave now. If you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. You won't hear a peep from us."
Smooshface was obviously satisfied with this, but the Bulldog was having none of it.
"Unacceptable. You've created chaos in this city. I'm going to bring you down."
Ian was unfazed. "I have already told Collins here we know about your work with Corcoran, and Gillies. We know you are dirty, and we have proof."
She replied immediately. "We do what we do for the good of the police. Working with Gillies is not illegal. Neither is working with Corcoran. You are so clueless. I should arrest you right now."
"Go ahead," Ian responded. "See what your peers in grey will think about that. I'll have a lot to tell them when we get to the station."
That seemed to faze her. Ian and Moussa turned and began walking toward the hill.
Ian heard a noise behind him, and expecting to be tackled he quickly turned his head, only to see Smooshface holding the Bulldog back. Someone finally had a lick of sense.
They got out of earshot of those two and Moussa started describing his activities once Gillies produced the gun. Ian was less concerned about listening to Mousa and more concerned about finding Dave, getting out of there and wondering who tipped the cops off, because it seemed like the tip was set to take them all down. As the two of them walked up to the top of the little rise, which actually provided a significant view of the meadow, they quickly came across Dave. In an almost totally familiar scene, he was grinning from ear to ear.
"Why are you smiling like that, Dave?"
"Because I kept the camera running and I recorded your entire conversation with the dirty cops, with great video. I think you need to give that guy cop a call to explain his predicament. He seemed reasonable. You, sir, have the upper hand, wut."