August – Logistics, The 5th Annual Cruise and A Death
© Copyright by John B. Gargett 2008/2009 All Rights Reserved
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When Global Transnational recruited Adam he was briefed on operational details. Susan (from Santa Barbara) was his only contact. He never learned who the others were that ran Global Transnational were. Susan, who was 79, spent a week briefing him on both the goals and accomplishments of Global Transnational while they stayed at El Capitan Canyon on 300 plus acres on the Pacific coast. They each had a “tent” but it did have all the comforts of home. It seemed funny to him that his introduction to Global Transnational was not at some secret facility with cameras, fences, and high security, but rather at an environmentally friendly hippy run resort. Along with the briefing, Adam learned that Susan had a colorful life, was raised on a sailboat, served in the Marines, and was the first woman allowed into a famous “Gentleman’s Club” so she could explain to male law enforcement officers a few things about how to run their business – Susan was known for not letting anyone hide from her when she needed something.
Global Transnational based its entire business model on the Incident Command System. The Incident Command System (ICS) is a simple approach to managing any type of incident or event. The name itself came from the early 70’s when California fire fighters created it for fighting big fires. While it was a fancy sounding name, ICS boiled down to someone had to be in charge (Command), someone needed to plan what was going to happen (Planning), someone had to make sure things were in place (Logistics), someone had to pay for it (Administration/Finance) and someone had to do the work (Operations). Adam only needed to know that he was Operations and she was Command. She made the decisions; he carried them out. Everything else, Logistics, Finance and Planning were taken care of through her, by someone else, when ever he made a request.
Adams operation on the Northern Border was using ICS. His job was to carry out Operations, not to deal with the Logistics, Planning or Finance. Anything he needed, he just let Susan know. They communicated on any one of the hundred or so free services such as Skype, Live Messenger, or Twitter. For his operation (code-named Grey Dogfish) he needed a fishing boat to transport explosives to Blaine Harbor. The boat was purchased from the dwindling fleet in Blaine. Adam was making ammonium nitrate fuel oil bombs (like was used in Oklahoma City). He made them inside large blue fish boxes, assembling them in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, in a web locker in Bellingham and in Port Townsand. The old seiner, the Patricia Louise, was well known throughout the Northwest. The boat was known to DHS in Blaine since they kept an inventory of local boats, but they really did not pay much attention since the Air and Marine Unit in Bellingham, along with the Coast Guard, had responsibility for the water anyway.
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Adam found out that Amtrak and DHS had both been increasing surveillance, intelligence gathering, and operations in the run up for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Amtrak Police had teams photographing all the train stations on the West Coast that fed into the Cascades train that left Seattle for Vancouver. The Amtrak teams had also filmed and assessed the Skagit and Whatcom County stations, as well as the crossings. DHS had also opened up their new 2010 Olympics Coordination Center in retrofitted building at the Bellingham International Airport. With 54 people staffing the ultra modern command center, representing some 40 agencies from local, state and federal agencies, and the capability for real-time air-to-ground video, Adam felt a different approach would be needed in order to carry out the bombing of the train than the planned truck bomb at the rail crossing.
He found what he needed in the form of an old abandoned building in Blaine. The City of Blaine had been actively looking for new businesses to build its economic base. The buyers for the old tavern were an investment group out of Santa Barbara. They said they were putting in a fish market in time for the Olympics. Construction was in process with scaffolding and fencing erected. Like the fishing boat, the Blaine Fish Market was part of Adams plan. It was located directly across from the old and empty Blaine Train Station. His plan was straightforward. The contractor was putting in new foundation of significant size – 18” walls, ceilings and floor for the basement. When he asked why, he was told they built to California earthquake standards. He really did not care anyway; he was making double his pre-recession fees to ensure that work was completed by the first of September.
Adam’s real reason for specifying the wall thickness was because he was converting the basement into one giant shape charge. The explosives would be moved from the fishing boat into the building between the 1st and the 12th of September in blue fish boxes. With amount of explosives he was moving in (nearly 2000 pounds), along with the steel rebar for fragmentation, the train would not have a chance. There would be little remaining of the train cars. The modeling also showed there would be considerable collateral damage from the blast. Adam would, of course, be nowhere near the City of Blaine when he trigged the blast. He would be watching the train via the Internet video camera on top of the construction site and when the train started to leave, he would trigger the blast with a single via the internet to the detonator.
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Adam had specific reasons for getting all the explosives in place by the 12th. First, he did not want any activity around the site for the week before the arrival of the train. Second, he was going to dry run the timers on the explosives and wanted to be sure the radio link would work. If for some reason the HF receiver was not functioning properly, or the circuits were giving an error, he would have time to fix it. However, the biggest reason he wanted it done by the 12th was that he was getting married on the 13th to Ruth, and they were being married at the Tide Catcher, the resort he had just purchased. He was truly and deeply in love with Ruth and they were going to Poets Cove Resort and Spa from the 14th through the 20th for their honeymoon.
Ruth, along with Bunny, Louise, and Jill were going to Santa Barbara for 10 days starting the 1st of September. The four of them had been planning it since April when Bunny volunteered her house in Santa Barbara. The wedding was the perfect reason to take off. After all, the bride should not see the groom for a couple weeks before the wedding, or so the old wives tale went. And, the wedding was all set. Her daughters were going to be the flower girls. Mary was flying in from New Jersey where she was meeting Celeste coming in from Merida in the Yucatan. They were going to spend the night in Seattle, then take the train up and meet Mom at the Bellingham Station. Jill was going to be the Brides Maid, and Bunny and Louise were going to both read poetry. Father Kevin of St. Brendan’s Anglican Church (and Chaplin of the Bellingham Yacht Club) was performing the service.
Adam had asked Dave to be his Best Man, and both Hugh and David Henry were going to be Groomsman. Adam had asked Hugh and David to read passages of love from the sea in a couple books he had read while on his Round The World Race. However, Adam was a conflicted man. On Sunday he was marrying Ruth, and the following Saturday he was going to blow up a trainload of dignitaries, officials and politicians while on their honeymoon at Poets Cove. The bombing would force the US and Canada to re-engage with a vengeance in the forgotten “War on Terror”. Susan had told him that both the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament “elected representatives” would introduce emergency legislation to authorize the militaries of both Countries to jointly attack and crush the Taliban and Drug Lords in Afghanistan and South America immediately and without mercy. Susan said that disinformation and false leads were planted pointing to the Drug Cartels using Taliban money to carry out the attack. Potentially Adam’s actions would result in thousands of deaths around the world, but would also stamp out the Drug Cartels and Taliban. Adam wondered if what he was doing was necessary, legal or right.
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Adam and Ruth’s marriage was quite the talk in the Bellingham Yacht Club. Hugh and Louise had suggested Poets Cove Resort and Spa as a honeymoon spot and were thrilled when it coincided with the annual September BYC cruise to the Cove. This year the cruise started on Friday the 18th with a Predicted Log Race from Bellingham to Poets Cove. The winner was going to get a free weekend of moorage, and of course, the bragging rights of being the winner. Second and Third Place would get at least Plaques, along with a bottle or two of wine. But the last place boat was also a winner; they would get a free night of moorage for a date in the future. Hugh created the Last Place award because he believed someone who tries and does not win might be the biggest winner. Also this year the Bellingham Power Squadron had been challenged, and accepted, to participate in the Predicted Log Race and Cruise to Poets Cove.
The Predicted Log Race was just the first event of the weekend. The Poets Cove cruise was always held on the 3rd weekend of September to coincide the Saturna Island Winery Harvest Celebration. Hugh was going to run everyone over Saturday morning on his 26’ Wooldridge to Saturna from South Pender. The Harvest Celebration includes pie and jello-eating contests, sack races, three-legged races, the famous tug of war, and the even more famous grape stomp relay race. Of course there is also the ongoing wine tasting, great food, and this year Jim Foster & the Rockin’ Hoo Doo’s were performing with Beverly Elliott, the host for the event. Sometime in mid to late afternoon, everyone would return to South Pender for a Dinner Theater about Pirates that reportedly operated in these waters. Hugh asked the sponsors to put Adam and Ruth into the dinner theater, starting with Ruth being “kidnapped” by pirates.
Also attending the Poets Cove was the entire wedding party. Ironically, while no one knew it at the time, most all of the other people coming by boat were coming on boats maintained by the Pender Pirates. Bill Hansen was coming on board the M/V Slocum. The Lewis’s were bringing their 28’ Albin. Andy and Zeta Barker were running their 32’ Halvorsen in the Predicted Log Race against their friends Erick and Kathleen Canard and their Wellcraft 290. Jon and Lisa Blackwell were entering the M/V Raven Crow (their Zeta PowerCat), and of course Hugh and Louise were going in their 26’ Wooldridge Pilothouse. When Hugh had run the Pender Pirates back from the Bellingham Yacht Club in July he told them he and Louise were running the BYC Cruise and invited the three of them to attend. Ryan and Jason said they were going to be out of town, but Derek said he might be around. Hugh was not sure why they all snickered at each other when he asked.
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Bahdoon met Cheryl when he first moved to Pender Island. Cheryl, who was in her mid 50’s when they met seven years ago, had been living on and off South Pender for the last 20 years. When he first relocated to North Pender from Somalia, Cheryl came up to him on the first day he arrived on the island. She lived on Gowland Point Road in a great house overlooking Boundary Pass. Bahdoon never really gave Cheryl any thought, but he did notice that she seemed to always be looking at him when he saw her. One thing that really seemed odd was the seductive look she cast his way in front of others. At the same time, Cheryl acted like a mother. As the years went by and Bahdoon settled in, she would ask him how his school was going, how his friends were and would he like to come over for dinner, something he never did since he considered it improper for a married woman to ask a man to dinner, but they did have a friendship.
It was a hot summer night and he was walking down Gowland Point Road to Poets Cove when Cheryl drove up and asked if he wanted to go over to Port Browning. Bahdoon really was going to meet Derek, Ryan and Jason at Sirens. However, he was hot, her car was air-conditioned and he could meet the Pirates back at the Cove later. On the short drive to Port Browning, Cheryl told him was that it was over with her 2nd husband. Bahdoon did eat with her at the Marina at Port Browning. Over dinner it was clear that Cheryl was trying to seduce him. He had not had any girlfriends while living on the Pender’s, and although Cheryl was nearly 40 years older than him, she still was attractive in an odd way to him. Her body got better with each beer, and he did not object when she took his hand and led them out to her car. He was also way more drunk than the beer should have made him, but then as a Muslim, he almost never drank.
Just after dawn the next morning, a jogger on Canal Road, near St. Peter Anglican Church, saw the crumpled and twisted remains of a Toyota Camry off the road. It had gone over the bank, and had struck several trees. At first it looked like the car was abandoned, but when he looked inside he saw the body of the thin young black man. Christopher checked for a pulse, but there was none. Not familiar with the island, and not sure what to do since it was only 5:10 in the morning, he headed up Canal Road to the RCMP Office. As he reached the office, an officer drove up and Christopher took him to the scene. The Officer immediately recognized the car – he had just spoken with Cheryl Larson who reported it stolen at 4:30 when she awoke after hearing a noise. The Officer also recognized Bahdoon Adey’s dead body and the smell of alcohol – it would be another case of a drunken kid stealing a car and wrecking it. After filing the report and clearing the scene, the Officer went to tell Cheryl, but only found a note saying her car had been stolen, her husband left her so she had taken a boat to Victoria and did not know when she would be back.
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Adam is ready both get married and blow up the train while on his honeymoon. Who is the mysterious Susan in Santa Barbara? How did Bahdoon really die – was he murdered or was it as the RCMP wrote it – a drunk kid stealing a car. But will there be a wedding? What has become of Adam and his plans for the bombing of the train? Where is Suegali and what are his plans? Be sure and read September’s edition of the Pirates of Poets Cove.
Photography and Image Credits
Image 09-01 Photos by John Gargett, Blaine and Samish Bay, November 2006
Image 09-02 Photos by John Gargett, Black Orca Exercise, 2008
Image 09-03 Photos by Heather Gargett, Wedding, 2006
Image 09-04 Photos by John Gargett, Poets Cove Cruise, 2007 & 2006
Image 09-05 Photos of Window and Bridge by John Gargett. Accident http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2009/05
Image 09-06 Photos by John Gargett, Bellingham Bay, August 2009
