Director Michael Porter: FBI in a Box

“It’s Tuesday, October 15, 2022, at 6:05 PM. This is Special Agent Mike Shaw taking a report from Director Michael Porter. “Ok Director, tell me what happened for the record.”

“It was 8:15 AM on September 19th, 2022 I was sitting at my desk when I heard a buzzing outside, it came toward the house and a few seconds later faded away.”

“I walk to the door, open it, and looked outside, all I saw was a box. It looked about 7 inches long, 6 inches wide, and about 4 inches in depth.”

"I wasn’t expecting a package and since the attempt on my life, I was asked to call in anything suspicious, I picked it up, inspect it, and put it on the kitchen table."

"I called the office and spoke to Agent Glenn Covich who told me he'd send a tech out ASAP. As procedure, I walked out of the house and waited."

About 10 minutes passed and I saw the van driving down the road and stopped near me. 4 men in heavy vests jumped out.

“Set up the perimeter over here, get that wall up. Sir, follow these men please.”

I walk with them, they carried a thick bomb-proof Plexiglas wall, put it in front of me then went back for two more and put them on either side of me.

Two of the agents pulled out a ramp and a robot rolled down it rolling toward the house. When it got to the door it opened it with pinchers connected to an arm.

“Sir, you can look through the monitor here and watch.”

“Thank you, Agent Rollins.” Then I watched the monitor.

The robot rolled toward the box and scanned it, “the sniffer doesn’t detect any bomb residue, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything inside the box that the robot can’t detect.” The agent manipulated the controls and the robot slowly opened the wrapping paper, then a drill came out of the arm and made a hole in the box. The robot then used a telescopic camera to look inside. “I don’t see any boobie traps, but tissue paper is covering whatever’s in it. I’m opening up the box.” The arm pulled out the camera and its pinchers opened the box and then slowly lifted the paper, and we looked inside.

“It’s a doll laying face down. Going to have a closer look. It looks like you Sir.” The doll did look like me, but with a bullet hole in its head and blood coming out.

The lead agent then said, “I think you should stay at a safe house until we figure out if this is a real threat or now.”

“Ok, I’m supposed to have dinner with my daughter tonight, can someone pick her up from her apartment and bring her to the safe house, I'll order something to eat for us."

“Yes Sir! And I'll pick the food up.

” One of the agents answered.

“I don’t want to alarm her so don’t tell her what’s going on right now, say I have a gas leak or something. I’ll tell her everything when she gets here safely.”

“Will do Director! We’re going to be spending some time together so you might as well call me Michael.”

“Ok Sir...I mean Michael.”

“I need to go inside to get my gun and briefcase.”

“Ok but make it quick, we don’t know if your house is being watched.”

"I walked into the house, as the robot rolled out with the doll. “Stop!” I yelled. “I want to see it up close.”

“The robot stopped so the director could look at it. It was eerie how much it looked like me and it wore a suit that looked like the one I wore the other day. It was someone that at least saw me, I couldn’t rule out an inside job, but I vetted my team myself.”

Just in case they were being followed they stopped at FBI headquarters and stayed in the parking lot for a bit.

“Here’s the plan. First, I’m going to send a team to the safehouse on Melburn to set up because if all goes well, we’ll lure anyone following the decoy car there and we can arrest and question them. I’m going to go in Covoch’s car and we’re going to head out first going the opposite way from the safehouse I’m staying at in case we’re being followed. If we’re not we’ll head toward the safe house. About 10-15 minutes later (that should give enough time for the team to make it to the house) the decoy car will leave. Here take my hat and jacket in case they noticed what I was wearing.

He handed them to Special Agent Stevens who put them on.

You’ll head to the other safehouse, park in the garage, and stay in there to back up the team. Let's try and take them alive.”

Everyone talked amongst themselves for a bit while I called for a team to go to the decoy safehouse.

A few moments later. “Ok, let's do this.” Director Porter ordered. Then he got into the back of the gray Monty Carlo, got low, then they took off.

As we were driving, I kept in touch with the squad, the leader said they were about 5 minutes out. I told the decoy team to leave in 10 minutes to give the squad at the house time to set up.

“Ok sir I don’t notice anyone following us,” Covoch said

I told him to head toward the safehouse so he made two rights and headed in the right direction.

10 minutes later the decoy team left, making a right out of the building. Agents Longhorn and Davies looked out the mirrors for tails and Davies thought he saw a green sedan following, He told Longhorn “We’ll keep with the plan and just keep heading to the safe house.

“I asked for a sitrep and the SWAT team was at the decoy house and in place. The decoy car told me they saw at least one tail, they’re going to turn soon, they’ll see for sure.”

They made the turn onto the next street and the green sedan turned as well. Davies also saw a black truck turn; he wasn’t sure if it was coincidence or if there was a second tail.

“Turn down the next street,” Davies said

Agent Longhorn made a left at the next street and both vehicles turned as well.

“Sir, we may have a second tail, a black box truck.”

“I’ll call in a second team, they should be about 10 minutes out by the time you get to the safe house.”

“We were about 30 seconds away from the safe house, I contacted the agents there and they were all set.”

“We got to the safehouse and parked in the garage. After entering the safehouse we watched the monitors which had all the cameras from both houses on it.”

“Well, now we wait,” Covoch said.

“A few minutes later we saw the decoy car drive into the garage and the door closed. Davies and Longhorn got out of the car and got into position by the door. Looking at the outdoor cameras we saw the sedan and truck park about a half block away, 12 people in all got out.

“Ok well, they’re just standing there talking right now.”

“It looked like two men took cover behind a car while four men went toward the back. The rest got ready to breach the front door.”

I gave the team orders to cover the front and back doors.

“Ok get ready, it looks like the leader has a stun grenade.”

The team lowered the visors on their helmets and got ready.

“How long till you get there? I asked the second team.”

“Less than 30 seconds, we see the feed you're seeing. Brock, Moore when we get out you go for the guys behind the car. Rogers, Jones, and Nickleson flank from the back, and we’ll try and get them from the front. Be careful everyone and good luck.”

The leader of the hit squad tried to kick in the door but it was reinforced. One of the other men took out a charge and put it on the door, they stepped back and blew it open then threw in the flashbang. The men in the back blew their door and the fighting started. Bullets flew from the front, and back, the people outside the front door couldn’t get in without getting shot so they fired from outside. The guys in back of the car fired at the windows which were bulletproof. Moore and Brock snuck behind them and put their guns to their head.

“You don’t want to do that, just drop the guns slowly beside you and put your hands behind your heads.”

The two men did as they were told and were cuffed. Special Agent Scott yelled “freeze” which stunned the people outside, they turned around and started firing. Everyone in the front fired back, they were sitting ducks. Two people were hit, the other two dropped their guns. In the back Brock and Moore yelled “Freeze” and the two men turned around and shot, Brock got one in the vest and it pushed him back and he fell, Moore took out one of the guys and Covoch took out the other from the front room.

“Good job team. Ok, call a few ambulances and the ones that aren’t hurt take them to FBI headquarters and find out what their plan is.”

“Yes sir.” someone said, I couldn’t see who.

A couple of hours later the 8 suspects that weren't hurt were processed and cuffed in interrogation rooms, agents grilling them for information.

“I brought up the feeds to the interrogation rooms and watched and listened. The only word any of them said is “lawyer”. That’s a word you don’t want to hear while interrogating someone because you have to step back and not talk to them until the lawyer comes.”

“Go through their stuff it’s in plain sight so we’re good, check IDs, get addresses where they live, also check the GPS in the car. Covoch, go to the DAs to get warrants for the addresses we find, we have to see what secrets they have hidden.”

Covoch got in his car and left.

“We got 6 addresses; I want to hit them all at once, we’ll take them by surprise. I’ll call in 6 teams and coordinate from here. Everyone wear your bodycams, so I can see what’s going on.” I said

Each squad rolled up to a suspect's house, they got no-knock warrants so they could just break down the doors. When all teams were in place they did so at the same time.

“FBI stay where you are!” an agent yelled

Some of the houses had suspect's families who just gave up, a couple were empty one of the house's occupants started firing as soon as the agents knocked down the door. An agent threw in a flash grenade which stunned the shooters long enough for the team to take them down.

“Let’s get forensics to scour these houses and see what they can find,” I ordered.

When walking the purps to the cars, one of them said “I want to talk. This is going way to far, I didn’t sign up for this.”

“Ok talk.” the agent looking at the man's ID “John Lister.” one of the agents said.

“No, I can’t here, take me in, I’ll look like I’m resisting, be a little rough with me. I don’t want anyone to know I’m working with the feds.”

The guy was in his early 20s with scraggly brown hair and brown eyes, he was about 5’9” and had acne on his face. He pretended to try and get away. The agent holding him pushed him toward the car, then hit him against the car before pushing him in the back seat.

At FBI headquarters they were put in separate rooms. “I listened closely to what Mister Lister had to say.”

“Rothmore, the leader had us believing we were doing this for a good payday not to hurt people.”

“Why did they send the doll to the director of the FBI? What do they have planned for him?”

“He told me he just wanted to scare the director, but I heard he wanted to kill him. Something about Rothmores brother, I know he died but that’s before I met Rothmore and the rest of the gang. I’m not a murderer and don’t want anything to do with it.”

The agent listened to something from his earpiece and then flipped a switch.

“This is director Michael Porter. Mister Lister, you don’t know anything else about Rothmores brother? First name anything? I don’t recall a Rothmore. The more you help the better deal you get.”

“I don’t know his first name. If I did, I’d tell you.”

“Rothmore doesn’t know who we picked up, if we wired you, would you be willing to talk to him?”

“The man is crazy, I don’t want to get killed if he finds out.”

“If you do this, I might be able to get you immunity. Also, we’ll have our people close by, you'll have a safe word and when you say it we’ll come in.”

“Ok...I’ll do it.”

About 20 minutes later they get John Lister wired and ready to go.

“This is the mic, button, and camera in this one; we’ll see and hear everything you say and do.” Agent brock pointed as he talked.

“What if they test for bugs?”

“That’s the good thing about these bugs. We’ll have them off and if they scan just touch here (pointing at the top button) everything is synced, mic, camera, earbud.

Lister touched the mic and he heard an audible beep in his left ear.

“Testing 1,2,3. Do you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, and the camera looks good. How do I sound?” Brock asked

“Good. I’m nervous though.”

“You’ll be fine, also in this jacket is a squib like they use in the movies. I’ll come in and shoot blanks at you, then I’ll press this button (holding the remote) which will set off the squib, fall, and stay down until in the ambulance.”

John Lister got out of the van and got into his car. He drove a half mile to the office of Dan Rothmore.

“Ok, here goes nothing. Turning everything off.” He touched the button then walked toward the building and entered.

“I hope he doesn’t screw us.” Agent, one said

“If he does, he goes to jail for a long time.” The Second agent answered

About two minutes later they hear John Lister's voice and three other voices.

“So, they didn’t pick you up?” Rothmore said

“No, I was lucky enough to be driving home and saw the feds getting out of the van. I jet.”

“Good man. Unfortunately, some of my other men weren’t so lucky and got picked up. They’re pretty smart for feds, they tricked us.”

“Do you know where the target is now?”

“No, we have pictures of some of the agents that were with him. We’ll find him.”

“What did he do to make you want to put a hit on him?”

“He gave the order that got my brother killed and he’s going to pay, they’re all going to pay.”

“What can I do?” Lister asked

“Just hang tight and I’ll tell you what’s going to happen and where.”

At the van, the feds listened in. “That’s enough, we got the proof he put the hit on Director Porter.”

“Ok people, let's do this,” I said

The van drove up to the gate and stopped. The team got out and headed toward the office. The door was locked so Thompson picked it and they quietly entered. They saw Rothmore and the others, Lister standing by a desk.

“Freeze, FBI!” An agent yelled

Everyone started shooting

Lister started to turn and was shot by Agent Brock who then pushed the button to pop the squib. Lister fell back and lay still.

Rothmore tried to run but an agent took aim and hit him in the leg. He fell forward. Another man took out a grenade and pulled the pin, Moore shot him in the head, the man dropped the grenade which exploded taking out 4 people around him. The rest gave up right away.

Cuff Rothmore, call an ambulance for him, you’re not dying today.”