Mid-West Campaign
Session Thirty-One

Tuesday, 12 December 2000 (continued)

At around 9:00pm agents Munroe, McKraken and Ecks arrive in Wichita. They travel to HQ where they meet Burchill. Following the events of earlier in the day, the three new agents are required to travel to New York to undergo psychiatric assessment by Doctor Royston Devries of the East Coast Team. Jane stays up late opening cases DL1034, 0017-GCF, 0018-GCF and 0019-GCF.

Wednesday, 13 December 2000

Jane Munroe arrives in the office early and meets Harlow who was released from hospital in Fairbanks on Monday. She tells him what happened to Josh in Dallas while quietly polishing Josh's. Jane says that she is in charge, and intends to look into case ES174 as soon as they have worked out a few things regarding Apache Joe.

Jane receives a fax from Artemis Black, detailing a comprehensive conspiracy theory that connects almost every case they have worked on (including Apache Joe) with the Brain Bugs and the Ukrainians. At first sceptical the more the pair look at Black's hastily scrawled work, the more it seems to make an alarming degree of sense.

However, the discussion is cut short when Jane switches on the computer, and discovers three new case-files have been sent to the attention of the team. The pair read over cases BRB012, LA10749 and JOP312. Immediately, the pair realise they must down tools and take on the case in Los Angeles, and Jane telephones Eisenstein for more information.

Eisenstein is extremely tired, as he is still dealing with the fall-out from the case in Casper. Eisenstein says he was contacted by the LAPD this morning at 7:30am Eastern Time (4:30am in Los Angeles). The police received an anonymous tip to look in the warehouse where they found the bodies of the west coast team. Eisenstein got jurisdiction on this case, because he was in charge of the team that was killed. As a result the mid-west team have complete authority over the local FBI; they have to do what we say. Eisenstein fears that the west coast team's deaths were due to some supernatural case they were working on, and he wants this covered up. We are to tell no-one anything they do not need to know. The director of the FBI himself is taking an interest, and Eisenstein doesn't like that. The group is to contact Captain David Henries of the LAPD's 29th Precinct in the first instance. Eisenstein doesn't know what case 0015-GCF was all about, so he suggests we look through the west coast team's HQ in Beverley Hills.

Harlow books tickets while Jane hurries through some S73 related work. The plan is to get the Dale twins from Eagle Pass out of Texas by sending them and their family on holiday. But what sort of holiday would two sixteen year old girls want to go on? Jane is completely out of touch and hasn't a clue so she phones her sister, Danni (a little nervously as she has still done nothing to locate Greg Keller.

Danni is excited to learn about Jane's 'date' with Michael Levin and the $150,000 necklace she was given. She tells Jane that all girls want to go to Hollywood, and Jane makes a note to send the Dales there. Danni also tells her that she ran into their brother, Edward, in New York at the UN building where she also met his wife and child (thus discovering Edward's secret life). His wife, Linda, is a translator and is now working in New York at the UN. Danni is going to see a lot of her and Tse Mei. Edward is now, apparently, an executive officer on submarine that is being captained by a one-star admiral. Jane is little worried by this news.

However, the most worrying news Danni imparts is closer to home. Richard Faber Jnr (son of Dick and Tina) phoned home from Oman yesterday. He is worried about his father going off "half cocked" about something. Realising that now Apache Joe has been captured, Dick might try to exact revenge Jane immediately called Tina in Pecos. Her worse fears are realised. A distraught Tina tells her that Dick has been missing since 9:00pm yesterday, and that he has taken the gun.

Jane phones Todd, and finally manages to get through to him only matters are more serious than she first thought. Todd has been drugged by Vitrano's team and given sodium pentathol to find out what he knows. He is incredibly incoherent, and tells Jane that he loves her. Harlow traces Todd's cell phone to somewhere in the east of Sherman County in Texas. In a brief coherent moment, Todd tells Jane that "Apache Joe" is being moved to the sheriff's office in Van Zandt.

Van Zandt sheriff's office isn't built to hold a serial killer, but it makes perfect sense. Vitrano and Lavin want out of Texas. They don't have the real Apache Joe so they have arrested a random Mexican. They are arranging for that random Mexican to be killed before he stands trial so no-one can prove it wasn't Apache Joe. They are setting up Dick Faber to kill the random Mexican, they have to act fast.

Harlow telephones the sheriff's office in Van Zandt and tries to warn them. However, the name of everyone on the evidence response team (including his) has been given to the sheriff by Vitrano's team. He won't trust us. Plus, he is a tiny-minded bigot. Harlow records the conversation for future use.

As current agent in charge of the team, Jane makes a judgement calls: they have to go to Texas. Harlow points out the gravity of the situation in LA, to which Jane replies that the west coast team "aren't getting any deader". The pair leave the Wichita office and take the next plane to Dallas. After hiring an incredibly fast sports car they are parked outside the Van Zandt sheriff's office by 12:15pm.

The pair know from looking through Dick's bank records that he bought ammo in Wichita Falls (50 miles away) at 8:00am this morning. The pair split up and search the town. Jane finds Dick's car and then she finds Dick. The situation is even worse than she feared. Dick is under the influence of some sort of psychotropic drug and is determined to kill "Apache Joe". It takes a long time, but eventually Jane talks Dick out of murder. She drives him and his truck out of town, followed by Harlow in the sports car.

But where to now? They can't take Dick home because Pecos is so far away. Harlow is sure that someone is going to kill "Apache Joe" today, and if they don't find some way to give Dick a cast iron alibi then he is going to be blamed regardless of whether he pulled the trigger. Fortunately, Jane realises that the team have a few friends in Texas. Special Agent Mike Colefield of the Indian Country Unit worked with them on case BV004. Jane telephones him, and he is willing to help.

The team arrive at the FBI office in Dallas where they are met by Colefield. Jane explains the situation and discovers that Colefield wholly dislikes Vitrano and Lavin for the same reasons Jane does - the fact they haven't caught Apache Joe for five years. Colefield tells them that Dick is the fifth father of Apache Joe's victims to be brought into the cells today. Jane realises that these psychotropic drugs could have been administered to all or most of the family members of Apache Joe's victims. Dick is sent to the cells for his own safety, after a blood test is performed to see what drugs are in his system.

Colefield explains that he has a personal stake in the S73 case. He is friends with Raoul Martinez - father of Apache Joe's twenty-sixth victim. Raoul is currently locked up with Dick Faber. Jane explains the situation and what she believes Vitrano and Lavin are planning (the murder of this fake Apache Joe). Colefield finds it difficult to swallow until she tells him about Todd. He fears that Vitrano and Lavin will kill Todd, and make it look like the fake Apache Joe did it while trying to escape (he remembers this from a film he once saw). They have to get to Todd!

Apache Joe is being transported to Van Zandt as they speak. Assuming they started in Sherwood County (where Todd's cell phone was detected) there are three possible routes. The agents gamble that Vitrano's team will take the northern-most route close to the Oklahoma border because that will automatically make any killings a federal matter. Colefield volunteers to accompany the agents.

Very soon Munroe, Harlow and Colefield catch up with an FBI modified sedan and an SUV (that is probably carrying Todd and the fake Joe). They turn on their sirens but the cars don't stop. Harlow tries to overtake both vehicles and cut them off, but he fails and swerves between them. He causes a massive car crash as the SUV flips onto its roof and crashes down on Harlow's sportscar - miraculously missing Harlow himself. Jane and Colefield bring their car to a stop as the sedan turns around and drives back to the scene of the crash.

Jane rushes into the back of the up-turned SUV (the back door had luckily sprung open during the crash). Ugo Luick was driving, and is unconscious. Inside the back are Special Agents Gregory Ruca and Randy Schmid. They weren't strapped in were killed in the crash. These two are later determined to be the MiBs who attacked Harlow. Todd is also here, hanging from the ceiling by his restraints. He is alive, as is the fake Apache Joe.

The sedan stops and agents Lavin and Szymanski get out. Szymanski seems to be in charge and they are not happy. The group engage in good, old-fashioned Mexican stand-off. Szymanski knows a great deal about the team, and even knows that Michael Hunt is really Nathan Harlow. She says that she is willing to let Jane take Todd and leave, as long as they let them keep 'Apache Joe' and continue with their mission. Jane does not want to do this. She knows that if they leave, this innocent man who is blatantly not Apache Joe is going to be killed. She is in charge, so she must make the decision.

This is a no-win situation for evidence response. If they fight Lavin and Szymanski and lose then they'll be dead. If they fight Lavin and Szymanski and win then there will be four dead FBI agents here, evidence that Harlow and Jane were at the scene, and they'll be left holding someone who has been legitimately arrested for nearly 40 murders. Plus, if they fight and win it is likely that either Jane, Harlow or Colefield isn't coming out alive. Jane knows that Eisenstein would want to cover up their presence if at all possible.

Jane agrees to the deal. She takes Todd and she, Harlow and Colefield depart the scene. In the car, Jane awakes Todd with a cocktail of drugs. He can't tell the agents much more than they have already guessed. He can tell them the identity of the fake Apache Joe: Constantine Perez.

The agents return to the FBI HQ in Dallas where they hear the expected news on the radio. 'Apache Joe' escaped from an horrendous car crash but was later shot and killed by Giles Case, father of Thelma Case (Joe's thirty-first victim). Jane's decision killed one innocent man and condemned another to prison.

They run the fingerprints of Constantine Perez (Jane took them off him in the back of the SUV). He was a petty criminal with a string of minor misdemeanours. He leaves a wife and two baby girls in El Paso. Apache Joe was a non-secreter, he couldn't have fathered two children. Proof enough that Perez was not Apache Joe should the need arise to use that proof.

Jane phones Tina and explains the situation. She then talks to Dick who has little memory about what happened. She chooses to let Dick believe that Apache Joe is dead. They thank Mike Colefield for his help and depart for Los Angeles at 4:00pm with Todd in tow.

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