Chapter Eighteen
When Terry and Krista heard about the explosions on the freeway east of Sea World they immediately knew Doug was involved in it. They knew he'd gone against what Sam and the FBI had planned for this operation. He killed all the would-be terrorists instead of turning them in like he was supposed to. While driving to the site of the explosions Terry was angry as he raised his voice, "I told Sam we couldn't trust him. I liked Doug, but I knew we couldn't trust him. His hatred for the terrorists was too deep to try and stop him from killing them." Krista replied, "I know, I liked him too. It's too bad he wouldn't listen and follow Sam's orders." She was just half-joking when she said, "Sam's going to kill him for this."
When they arrived at the scene on the freeway Krista said, "Oh my God! look at all the bodies and destruction! I've never seen anything like this in my life, not even in our training manuals. This is just unbelievable." Terry replied, "Can you imagine the destruction those bombs would've caused at Sea World. Hundreds of people would've been killed, maybe even thousands."
They stayed for a few hours trying to figure out how Doug pulled off his attack. That's when they got the call saying four Muslim men had been found shot to death in a house in town. The officer believed there was a connection to the explosions and these men so Terry and Krista quickly made their way to the house. When they arrived, they soon found out that Doug had killed Bashir, Samad and two other armed men. As they looked around they saw that there had been a fierce gun battle because of all the bullet holes in the walls and ceilings. Terry looked over at Krista, "Doug, really?" She replied, "Could be. It wouldn't surprise me. He's capable of just about anything."
They could tell the house had been used as a meeting place for a lot of people. They soon walked into the room where Doug had made all the bombs. Some of the bomb material was still lying scattered on the tables like it was left there on purpose. There was a note on the table that was addressed to Terry and Krista from Doug. It said, "I just couldn't help myself, I couldn't let all those terrorist just walk free and try to do it again someday. Sorry guys." Terry looked around and said to Krista, "He knew we would find this note and see this. He's letting us know what could've happened if another person had made the bombs instead of him. They probably would've been able to carry out their attack on Sea World before we could've stopped them. I knew Doug was working on the bombs but this was big, a lot bigger than I ever imagined." As Krista looked around she said, "The question now is, where exactly is Doug? Terry replied, "God only knows, but we have to find him before anyone else does."
They spent the rest of the day going back and forth from the explosion site to Bashir's house. They were trying to understand exactly what Doug had done to blow them up. It was late in the evening when one of the FBI forensic team members came over to them and said, "Whoever did this really planned it out well. If this would've happened during the rush hour in the morning or after 4:00 in the afternoon hundreds of innocent motorists may have been killed. He also only wired a couple of the vests and I.E.D.'s to explode and not all of them. He used a phone and called the number on the phone trigger device to trigger the bombs. Terry and Krista had seen and been to some of the sites where Doug had done the same type of explosive attack using phones. They both just shook their heads and Krista said, "Yeah, we're familiar with it, we've seen it before."
They were in contact with Sam the entire day letting him know what had happened. They also told him they knew it was Doug that had done it because he left them a note saying he did. Sam was so angry that all the terrorists had been killed and that Doug had betrayed him and the FBI. He asked Terry and Krista if they had heard from him since the explosions and they both told him no, they hadn't. They told him they didn't know where he was. Sam started swearing on the phone and yelled at them, "You have to find that S.O.B. before he kills anyone else." Terry said, "We'll start looking everywhere for him and see what we can turn up, boss. We don't believe he's gotten very far. He left the rented car at Bashir's house." Sam said, "Ok, then start checking to see who's car he took, you know he isn't on foot. He had to have taken one of the dead men's car. Get on it and let me know as soon as you find out anything. We have to make sure we capture him before the news media finds out about him working with us."
Terry and Krista started checking into the type of vehicles each of the dead men were driving. They found out by talking to some of Bashir's neighbors that someone had sped away in Bashir's car soon after a gun battle inside the house had ended. By the time they had gotten that information Doug had already switched the plates on the vehicle and was in his hometown of Visalia.
After spending several days trying to find Doug they told Sam they were going to head to Visalia and see if they could talk to Randy. They wanted to find out, if by chance, Doug had contacted him. It was a long shot because they knew he and Randy didn't see eye to eye on things and believed he wouldn't take the chance that Randy might not want to get involved with him. It was a last resort because they just didn't have any place else to look for him.
When they arrived in Visalia, they drove straight over to Randy's house and talked to him and his wife about Doug. Randy and his wife were shocked when they told them that he was still alive. Randy and his family always thought that he had died during the attack on the house in Florida, like the law enforcement agencies had told everyone. Terry told them the full story of how they had captured him in Georgia and that he was working with the FBI to hunt down and infiltrate the suspected terrorist cells for them. Randy couldn't believe what he was hearing. He always thought Doug had just turned into a cold blooded killer after Michael was killed in Afghanistan. He was flabbergasted the FBI was actually working with him. "Has Doug been able to help you find any of the suspected terrorist cells since he started working with you? Terry replied, "He has helped us hunt down and capture several real bad guys. Unfortunately, he couldn't live up to his agreement with us and decided to go out and start killing the suspected terrorists on his own again." They told them that he was the one that killed all the would-be terrorist in San Diego about week earlier, when he blew them up on the freeway. "He was supposed to tell us when he had the bombs made and the suspects were ready to carry out their attack on Sea World. We were going to go in and arrest everyone before they carried out the attack. He didn't want to just capture them. He wanted them dead." Randy said, "That doesn't surprise me. Once he has an idea in his head he becomes obsessed with it."
They told Randy and his wife that the FBI had changed his appearance so he didn't look the same. They were in shock as they listened to what Doug and the FBI had been doing together. In their minds their family had already buried him a few years earlier. Terry told them that they weren't allowed to tell anyone about Doug or they would be in big trouble. He said, "The FBI has to find him and put a stop to him before anyone finds out he is still alive. We can't have him going around and just killing people he thinks are terrorists. Do you understand? Randy and his wife both said that they did and that they would keep everything to themselves.
Convinced that they were telling the truth, Terry thanked them for their time and decided to focus their search elsewhere. They left their cards and said, "If anything unusual turns up or you hear from him, let us know. Terry and Krista weren't really sure what to do because they didn't have any leads or even the slightest clue where Doug might have gone. They were, once again, at a dead end trying to find him. They knew they would just have to wait until he did another attack before they could do anything.
It was almost six weeks after the San Diego explosions when Doug killed the three men in Bakersfield, California. Because they were killed with a rifle, it didn't resemble anything Doug would do so it didn't get the attention of the FBI.
After a few months had passed of not getting any new leads on Doug, Terry and Krista had gone back to their normal duty in Washington D.C. It wasn't until one early aftern
oon when Krista got a very surprising call from Randy Cotton. He began their conversation by saying, "I don't know if this is a "wild goose chase," but thought you might ought to know about it. You told us to call if something looked or seemed unusual. One of our neighbors up in the mountains where we have our mountain house called me and said they really liked the gentleman that had been staying at our house. That was a big surprise to us, because we haven't rented it or given anyone permission to stay there. I thought it was a little strange for someone to be using our house without our permission. At first, I thought about going up there and seeing who it was, but after thinking about it, I don't want to get in the middle of something and get myself killed. You told us to call you if something looked or seemed strange and this is very strange to us. We just thought you guys might want to go check it out for yourselves. For some reason, I have this nagging feeling it just might be Doug, but I don't know for sure. When our neighbor told me what the guy looked like, it sounded like it could be him, but I'll leave that up to you guys to find out for sure."
Krista was very excited to hear that news, "Thank you Randy, we'll get right on it. Terry and I will fly out to California first thing in the morning and be at your house by the middle of the afternoon. Is that okay with you?" Randy replied, "That sounds good, we'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon then." Krista said, "We'll get all the particulars from you when we see you." Randy said, "That sounds good. I'll be waiting for you."
When she hung up the phone she immediately got in touch with Terry and told him the news. When Terry first heard that someone had been staying at Randy's house in the mountains without permission, he felt it might just possibly be Doug. He was excited, "You know, it may be a wasted trip but, we have to go check it out for ourselves. I'll let Sam know about the lead, so pack your things and we'll catch a flight early tomorrow morning." Krista said, "I'll get our flights booked and call you later and let you know what time we leave. I'll also set up the rental car for us when we get to Visalia, California." Terry replied, "That works for me, I'll talk to you later."
***