Chopper Capers

By Dan Kelly

Two brothers, Randy and Rick Somerall, whose avarice pushes them to commit the most off-the-wall and audacious crimes, including murder, also has them crossing paths with a Native American, Jesse “Tocho” Tanner, whose ancestry includes Paiute and Shoshone warriors and he is definitely a chip off the ancestral block. Tocho is Paiute for mountain lion and Jesse has a history of living up to that name in the military and he adds to it when the Someralls piss him off. He is very proud of his ethnicity and is quick to retaliate if he becomes aware of anybody disrespecting that heritage. All three men are ex-military pilots and hold civilian pilot licenses which leads to some tense and deadly encounters in the wild blue yonder.

In addition to the brothers’ exploits being the catalyst for their confrontation with this modern day Native American warrior, it also helps forge a working relationship between Jesse and the FBI. The brothers are pursued all over the southwest and even European law enforcement gets involved. The brothers will do anything, go anywhere, to avoid capture and they enjoy an uncanny streak of luck which drives their pursuers up the wall.

The good guys and bad guys are continuously matching wits and who the final winner will be is the adhesive that will keep the reader glued to the tale.

Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Kelly
• Release date: Aug 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005905583

Dan Kelly

A Little Bit About Dan Kelly the Author"May you always find a good book to read and the time to enjoy it!"After spending forty years in the real world of domestic and international banking, my writing activities being largely restricted to business plans, internal memos, advertising copy, news releases and speeches, I decided I had had enough of the real world and made up my mind to pursue something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while, immerse myself in the world of make believe just for the sheer joy of letting my imagination and creative juices run wild.Except for the occasional humorous ode for the enjoyment of family, friends and colleagues, I never had the time to indulge the more fanciful side of my nature, but since July 2007 I’ve made great progress in atoning for that neglect. My Irish sense of humor coupled with my experience in dealing with a broad spectrum of people from all walks of life and social status are proving to be a wonderful reservoir of inspiration for me in character and story development.Celestial Capers, Casino Capers, Computer Capers, Caribbean Capers, Carat Capers, Calling Card Capers, Cabernet Capers, Calumny Capers, Canyon Capers, Capital Capers, Counterfeiting Capers, Cryptography Capers and Chopper Capers are the products of my first thirteen mental voyages into the realm of make believe and I hope you will be as delighted as I was to make these trips. I am currently embarked on my fourteenth safari into the relatively unexplored dimensions of my imagination, Campaign Capers, and I am finding the expedition as thoroughly enjoyable as my first thirteen tours. I’m hoping you will too.If you'd like to contact me, feel free to send me an e-mail at [e-mail].

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Chapter 1

Prologue

English language nicknames for a helicopter include chopper, copter, helo, heli, Huey and whirlybird along with the names of the manufacturer such as Sikorsky.

However, U. S. Army helicopters also have a number of other names, names most Americans would recognize immediately, such as Apache, Black Hawk, Chinook, Kiowa, Lakota and Comanche, because they are also known as the names of Native American tribes. This is not a coincidence.

Apparently, this came about due to an old Army Regulation 70-28, which has since been rescinded. However, the tradition remains and there is a procedure to pick a new name. The Bureau of Indian Affairs keeps a list of names for the Army to use. When the Army gets a new helicopter, the commanding officer of the Army Material Command, the people who buy the helicopters, comes up with a list of five names.

These names must reflect confidence in the abilities of the helicopter, dignify the people they come from and they must promote an aggressive spirit. The names then have to be run by the United States Patent Office, after which a series of other procedural hurdles must be cleared. Eventually a name is selected.

The next step is something that the news media, for some reason, has chosen to largely neglect. The helicopter becomes part of a ceremony attended by Native American leaders who bestow tribal blessings.

All of this came about because of some very thoughtful people who thought it was high time that Native Americans be recognized for their courage, heroism and military service to Uncle Sam.

Twenty-five Native Americans have received the Medal of Honor for heroism and one Native American, Eli Parker, attained the rank of general.

To summarize, Army helicopters bear Native American names because they symbolize the very essence of the fierce and courageous warriors who distinguished themselves in the service of our country. This knowledge behooved this bastion of government employees to publicly remember and honor the legacy of these amazing people.

These aircraft aren’t within the budget of most civilians as their cost ranges from the hundreds of thousands into the millions of dollars. Those who could afford them probably wouldn’t have access to them anyway.

However, other countries can afford them and frequently purchase them for their militaries. Their capabilities make them worth the cost and the envy of those who can’t afford them. The security surrounding the military hangers where they are kept is of the highest quality, but not always impenetrable as the Canadians recently found out.

The Canadian Forces Base (CFB) in Kingston, Ontario, primarily a training base, accommodates units of the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Forces Joint Operations Group, the Canadian Forces Joint Support Group, the Canadian Defense Academy and the Canadian Forces National Counter-Intelligence Unit.

It is a very sophisticated and impressive operation and when two CH-147F Chinook helicoptersare hijacked, it rattles the command structure to its core.

The CH-47F Chinook is a Boeing multi-mission, medium to heavy-lift helicopter. It has an enhanced self-protection capability, including:

• advanced anti-missile protection systems

• radar and laser warning systems

• ballistic protection

• self-defense machine guns

• advanced electro-optical and infra-red sensors

And to top all of this off, the CH-47F Chinook is currently the fastest military helicopter in the world, having a maximum speed of 315k or circa 196 mph. The price tag for one of them is $38.5 million U. S. green backs.

It’s no wonder the command structure is shaking in its boots. What makes matters worse, no one has any idea about who the hijackers might be or where the choppers were taken. Shortly after 0300 hours they were spotted rising into the sky by the base’s control tower and then heading southwest at full speed. Before planes could be scrambled to intercept them, they had dropped off the base’s radar and that was the last time they were seen. How the security guards were caught unawares, tasered and restrained and the patrols as well as electronic security measures were circumvented is a mystery. Another mystery is what are the hijackers planning to do with them.

Chapter 2

In a rural unpopulated area in Upstate New York not far from the U. S./Canadian border there’s a short runway to accommodate small private civilian aircraft like Pipers and Cessnas and perhaps a hundred yards away sits a large hangar like structure used to park private civilian aircraft for maintenance and to keep them out of inclement weather. About seventy-five yards away from a side of the hangar is a helipad.

The property is owned by two brothers, Randy and Rick Somerall, under their corporate name R & R Freight Inc. which is a trucking company, based in Tonawanda, NY that hauls cargo all over the United States. It’s a profitable business, but the brothers’ avarice rivals that of the likes of Sheldon Adelson whose net worth is circa $20.5 billion and comes mostly from the revenue generated by the Las Vegas Sands casino of which he is the CEO and top shareholder.

Everything he does has a price tag and he has no qualms about taking from the have-nots even though he has way more than he’ll ever need. The brothers are nowhere near as rich as Adelson, but are striving to achieve new heights for themselves in the wealth arena. They possess an unusual capacity to innovate and are audacious enough to resort to almost anything that will enhance their wealth. They are already rich enough to own a Cessna 172S Skyhawk which costs $398,000 and a Robinson R-44 Raven II helicopter which costs $415,000.

The brothers are ex-military. They both flew helicopters, Randy, the oldest by two years at 34, in the Army and Rick in the Navy.

The Somerall brothers are now sitting in an office in the hangar discussing their most recent exploit and the next phase of their game plan.

Randy’s saying, So far so good. I had my doubts about tasing those security guards because taser guns have caused heart failure in perfectly healthy people, but fortunately they were coming around soon after we had them gagged and restrained with the cuffs and rope.

Rick says, Our inside guy came through big time with temporarily blinding the security equipment and giving us the timing of the vehicle patrols in the area. He was worth every penny we paid him. We probably overpaid him, but it certainly motivated him to do a good job, so I can live with it.

It was nice of the Canucks to have the choppers fully fueled, weaponry loaded, and ready to go. When Eddie and Gerry get in tomorrow morning, have them break down the choppers to the point they’ll fit in the semi-trailers. If they get nosy, tell them we got a deal with the Canadian military to transport them to a secret location which we won’t know until we hit the road. If they start asking a lot of questions, your answer will be ‘None of your business. Just do what you’re told and you’ll find a little extra in your paycheck.’

"Will do. Now, I do know our destination is in Nevada and it’s somewhere in the Mojave Desert, but you haven’t given me diddly squat on its location or how to get there. All you’ve told me is that you bought eight acres of land on which you had constructed a prefab camouflaged hangar and helipad to blend in with the desert landscape. Since the Mojave occupies more than 25,000 square miles covering portions of Southern California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada and joins up with the Sonoran, Great Basin, and Chihuahuan deserts to form the North American Desert, that’s a lot of desert to get lost in without some specific co-ordinates and road directions.

I was busy doing the reconnaissance at the CFB and setting things up there and until now never thought about how I was going to get to the hangar. You’ve been there. I haven’t. Since I won’t be following you but leaving an hour after you do so we don’t attract any attention, I’ll need specific directions. What have you got for me?

Relax, Rick. I bought us a couple of Android phones, Google Pixel 3s, which is supposed to be one of the best. All we have to do is put the co-ordinates into the Android and then let our GPSs and the Androids do the rest. When we’re ready to hit the road, I’ll give you the co-ordinates. Finding the desert hangar will be as easy as finding a train in Penn Station.

Okay, are we going to paint the choppers here or in Nevada and do we have enough gray paint?

We’ll do it in Nevada and we have enough paint. Believe it or not I got it at an Army Surplus store."

Who are we going to hit first and when?

I’ve drawn up a tentative list, but before we can make the final selections, we’re going to have to do some scouting to find out what kind of security is in place and what the best ingress and egress routes might be, using both semis and the choppers.

How’s the underground bunker coming?

It should be completed in about ten days. It will accommodate a lot of bullion and gem stone ore with room left over for anything else that might spark our interest.

Shaking his head Rick says, I’m surprised all that activity hasn’t attracted any attention from the state police or curiosity seekers.

I took a lot of precautions to prevent that. I rented the required equipment from a company that doesn’t ask a lot of questions. I didn’t hire local talent to do the excavation. The labor consists of Latin American illegals who I’m paying more money than they’ve seen in their lifetimes and the cover story I’m using is that it is going to be a place for some very rich people to reside in case of a nuclear war. Also, all the work is being done after the sun sets and before it rises so looky-loos haven’t been a problem. A couple of state troopers did come nosing around, but they were given the cover story and told the work was being done in the evening and early morning hours because it was cooler for the workers. They apparently bought it as there’s been no other signs of inquisitiveness on the part of any other law enforcement types.

Another thing that surprises me is that the theft of the Chinooks hasn’t been on the news. Let’s face it, that’s a hell of a story.

It doesn’t surprise me. The Canadian military are keeping a lid on things to prevent giving anyone else ideas and, of course, to also save face.

Rick nods his head in agreement but then qualifies his agreement with, I’m sure they’ve brought the U. S. security agencies into the picture. They’ll be thinking that they’re going to need the help of the Americans as they can’t conduct any missions on our soil without our government’s permission.

Chuckling, Randy says, For all the good that will do them. We’ve covered our tracks quite well and will continue to do so going forward. We’re going to be like the proverbial needle in a haystack, but our haystack is over three point one million square miles.

This gets a laugh out of Rick and then he says, Give me a gander at your list of possible targets. Maybe I’ll have some to add.

The rest of their day is spent on tweaking Randy’s list.

Chapter 3

Unbeknownst to the Somerall brothers, there’s a man in Nevada that if their paths should cross could spell big trouble for their intentions.

His name is Jesse Tocho Tanner and he resides in Elko Nevada. Tocho is Paiute for mountain lion. Jesse’s ancestry includes Paiute and Shoshone warriors and some of his distant relatives are still around, living on the McDermit and Duck Valley Indian Reservations in Nevada.

Elko is a small city in Elko County, Northern Nevada. It has a land mass of 17.6 square miles, sits 5,066 feet above sea level and has a population of circa 20,000. The city is considered the capital of Nevada's gold belt and is best known for the Goldstrike mine, a large gold mine near Elko. Elko's economy is based heavily on gold mining, with ranching and tourism providing additional jobs.

Jesse is a geologist/mineralogist who has his own business providing input on rocks, gems and other minerals, including their chemical and crystalline structures to mining companies all over the globe. He frequently performs chemical, heat, and other tests on samples to identify them or determine their properties and often works on enhancing the processing of minerals from ores.

When he first started out in the field of geology/mineralogy, he worked for one of the mining companies in Utah. When he left to start his own company, he was earning about $105,000 per annum. Now he makes a great deal more and has an international reputation above reproach.

Jesse is ex-military. He did two hitches in the Air Force and returned to civilian life as a major. He was a fighter pilot who flew F-35 Raptors out of Eglin AFB in Florida and Nellis AFB in Nevada before putting many hours in the air in combat in the Middle East for which he received the Grand Master's Award for outstanding courage and devotion to duty in the air.

He holds civilian pilot licenses and has just purchased a Cirrus Vision Jet for a couple of million green backs. It has room for up to five adults and the bird can fly as high as 31,000 feet, has a maximum cruising speed of 311 knots or 358 mph and has a range of 1,150 miles.

This joins his used Piper J-3 Cub which cost him $45,000 and his used Airbus H155 helicopter which he got for what he considers a steal at $5.1 million. The Piper’s a two-seater, has a top speed of 87 mph and can fly as high as 12,000 feet. The chopper can carry six passengers, has a top speed of 201 mph and can fly as high as 15,000 feet. All of his aircraft are parked at the Elko Regional Airport. He’s really addicted to aviation and fortunately he can afford it.

Jesse got his Bachelor’s degree in Geological Sciences & Engineering from the University of Nevada before he enlisted in the Air Force. He always wanted to become a pilot so joining up was a no brainer because Uncle Sam could foot the bill.

After he got out of the service, he got the job with the mining company in Utah and earned his Master’s degree from the University of Utah. When that goal was reached, he became an entrepreneur.

Jesse is very proud of his Native American heritage and tolerates no disrespect shown to any tribe. He has very few emotional hot buttons, but this is at the top of the list of those he does have. At 38, he’s a large-framed man who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs in at 210 pounds and there’s not an ounce of fat anywhere. He doesn’t pick fights, but he doesn’t run away from them either.

The last fight he lost was when he was in the third grade and a fifth grader gave him a black eye and a bloody nose because in those days, he was a brawler not a boxer. He later joined a boys’ club and it had a boxing program which he joined. He became quite proficient and was hoping that the fifth grader would mess with him again. He had to wait two years before that happened. This time around, the now seventh grader wound up with two black eyes, a split lip and a broken nose. Jesse suffered sore arms from blocking punches.

Jesse is prone to holding grudges and has the patience of Job to set things right in his mind. He’s not someone to piss off, especially when his heritage is involved.

Chapter 4

Three days later at six in the morning, Randy Somerall heads out on the long trek to northern Nevada with his brother an hour behind him. Barring traffic snarls and allowing for restroom stops, meal breaks and naps, it will take them at least 43 hours to travel the approximate 2,150 miles via I-80 W to reach their destination.

The theft of the Chinooks still hasn’t hit the airwaves so the brothers are feeling pretty sure of themselves. Adding to that feeling is the weather forecast calls for clear skies for the next couple of days and their GPSs are showing clear sailing on the I-80.

The trip is uneventful until they reach Utah and Rick’s engine starts to act up. He calls Randy to notify him of his trouble and Randy tells him he’ll head back to him to see if it’s something he can fix.

Randy is quickly able to determine the problem. The fuel line is partially plugged up and the carburetor has some kind of gunk in it. He can’t fix it, so they’ll have to have the cab towed to a mechanic who can. They decide to separate the trailer from the cab and hook it up with Randy’s. Rick will stay with his cab when it is hauled away and Randy will follow. In many states, especially along the Atlantic coast, it’s illegal to tow more than one trailer. Luckily, Utah isn’t one of them and even allows three trailers to be towed.

Fortunately, R & R Freight Inc. is signed up with Roadside Masters who provides roadside assistance for trucks. It’s late morning so there should be someone nearby that can fix the problem. Randy climbs back into his cab to get the contact information and as he’s rummaging around for it a Utah State Trooper shows up to check things out.

Randy and Rick are immediately on red alert. They both carry Glocks in their cabs in case of attempted hijacking and have the required permits to do so. If this trooper gets too nosy, they won’t hesitate to kill him.

After pulling up behind Randy, the trooper stays in his vehicle to request a run on the semis’ commercial plates. Nothing negative is found, so the trooper gets out of his car to talk with Randy and Rick

Approaching them the trooper asks, What seems to be the trouble?

Randy answers with, It looks like a clogged fuel line and the carburetor has some kind of sludge in it. We probably filled up the tank with some contaminated fuel somewhere along our way from New York. I was looking for the contact info for Roadside Masters who are truck drivers Triple A when you showed up.

What are you hauling? Anything perishable?

No, thank our lucky stars, mostly assembly line machine parts and some aviation gear.

Randy and Rick are anticipating that the next words out of the trooper’s mouth are going to be, Open the trailers up. This has their minds racing to figure out a way they can get to their weapons before the trooper draws his. Even though the Chinook thefts haven’t been on the news, there’s a better than even chance that U. S. law enforcement has been brought into the picture.

Surprisingly, however, all the trooper says is, About eight miles up the road there’s a large truck stop called Bert’s. Next door there’s a truck repair shop that’s run by Bert’s son, Junior. He does a lot of business with the truckers who stop for chow. Have Roadside Masters tow you there. From what I’ve heard, he knows what he is doing and doesn’t rip people off. He may even be linked up with your roadside service. Take care now.

The trooper climbs back into his car and takes off down the highway, having no idea how close he came to being shot.

Randy retrieves the Roadside Masters contact info and calls them. The brothers luck out in that Bert’s son is affiliated with Roadside Masters and he’ll be sending out a tow truck in about twenty minutes as soon as it gets back from another pickup.

Rick says, From here on out I’m carrying my Glock on my person. The first chance I get I’m latching on to an ankle holster. For now, I’ll carry it in a jacket pocket or in my waist band against my back.

I’m with you. Man, that was close.

Too close.

Well, we’re almost there. We’ve got about another hundred miles to go.

While the truck’s being fixed, we can grab a bite to eat and I’m thinking we should probably catch some zees before we head out on the final leg of the trip.

That’ll mean we’ll be hauling ass at night which is probably safer. It works for me. I don’t think we’ll have to stagger our leaving times. We’re now in the law enforcement system traveling together, so why bother?

Nodding his head in agreement Rick says, And once we get to the camouflaged desert hangar, we’ll be home free.

For a moment Randy lapses into some quiet thought and then he says, I don’t know why my engine didn’t act up. It might be because we used different pumps to refuel at every station we pulled into. To be on the safe side though, I’m going to have my fuel system checked out too.

That’s probably a smart move. In the meantime, we should check out our cargo to make sure it hasn’t shifted and been damaged in some way.

Let’s do it.

Chapter 5

Although Jesse is a very rich man, except for his flying machines, he doesn’t lead an opulent life style. He owns a 2100 square foot ranch style house on a half-acre of land that was built in 2005 and drives a three-year old gray Jeep Wrangler that has a couple of small dings in the driver’s side rear quarter panel from someone hitting it with a shopping cart which he never bothered to have fixed. He treats them as signs of valor for having the guts to park near the front of Albertsons supermarket parking lot.

His experience and expertise have put him in high demand and he spends most of his waking hours working. His social life is pretty much non-existent, but he’s a happy camper and somehow manages to work in a date from time to time to lighten the load.

He’s currently analyzing some ore found in the Virgin Valley in the far Northwest part of the state which contains some opals of various sizes, shapes and colors. Opals come in all kinds of colors including white, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green, gray, brown and black. Some are multi-colored. Black opals are the most valuable form of opal and sell for up to $15,000 per carat.

The Virgin Valley is one of the few places in the U. S. where opals have been found. The Roebling opal which is the largest black opal ever found anywhere is on display at the Smithsonian Institution and was discovered in the Virgin Valley. In 1987, this gemstone was named Nevada’s official state precious gemstone.

When Jesse finishes with this analysis, he’s going to take some time off to enjoy his new Cirrus Vision Jet via a flight to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix Arizona to attend a geologists’ convention there. He should be up in the air in about four days.

While Jesse is occupied with the ore and chomping at the bit to get air borne, the Somerall brothers are fit to be tied as Rick’s truck needs a new fuel pump and fuel line and the parts have to be ordered and won’t arrive for a couple of days. They’ll be sleeping in Randy’s cab because they don’t want to leave the trailers unattended. At least the truck stop has free showers for those who refuel there or in their case are having their truck repaired by Junior.

The time drags by, but eventually the parts arrive. They’re immediately installed and Randy and

Rick are soon back on the road. Fortunately, the mechanic found nothing wrong with Randy’s truck. They travel the remaining 100 miles and arrive at the desert hangar without any more unwelcome incidents.

Randy opens the hanger doors with a remote he has. When the doors slide open lights come on in the hangar. Everything is solar powered which makes a lot of sense in the middle of a desert. They pull into the hangar and close the doors.

The underground bunker is almost completed. The only thing remaining is for the camouflaged cover to be installed.

Rick says, Where are the tools we’ll need to put these choppers back together?

I had Eddie and Gerry put them in the front of our trailers.

I hope we remember what they taught us.

If we don’t, we can just call them. I told them to stick by their phones.

Okay. Since we’re in the middle of a desert, where are we going to eat and sleep?

Uh oh. I knew there was something I forgot.

"YOU FORGOT???

Randy bursts out laughing and says, Cool your jets. Follow me.

Randy takes him to a back corner of the hangar where there’s a solid insulated door. Opening it, he waives his brother through into a small but comfortable living quarters with a half bath, a bedroom with twin beds and a fully equipped kitchen, including a small breakfast nook.

The fridge and pantry are fully stocked so we’re good to go.

Okay, I’ll bite. Where’s the water coming from?

Drinking water will come out of a bottle. Water to wash with comes from a 5,000 gallon below ground water tank. We’ll wash at the sink in the bathroom. We’ll have to heat water on the stove which is electric. Toilet waste feeds into a septic tank outside the hangar. We won’t be here that long to have to worry about it being emptied.

The water tank is full as I had a water truck deliver a full load. A water truck has a 6,000-gallon capacity. The average person living in a normal home uses between 80-100 gallons per day which includes showers and baths. We won’t be taking showers but I figure using 100 gallons per day per each of us, we’ll have enough water to last us 25 days.

How about heat? It gets cold at night in the desert.

There are a couple of portable electric heaters in the hangar.

Shaking his head Rick says, Wow, you’ve put a lot of thought into this not to mention our money. If we decide to stick around longer, it won’t take much to adjust.

What I really like about all of this is most of it can be broken down and hauled away in less than 48 hours. The only things left will be some holes in the ground and the water and septic tanks.

Don’t forget the loot.

That’ll go before anything else.

Okay, let’s get a good night’s rest so we’re hitting on all cylinders when we begin scouting out the potential targets tomorrow.

That works for me.

Chapter 6

A week goes by and Jesse is in Phoenix at the geologists get together and the Someralls ae finished with their reconnaissance and have selected their targets. The criteria they used were the type of ore, the weight of the ore, the value of the ore, the security in place, and the time it would take to access the ore and haul it back to the desert bunker. This last involved assessing the flight paths they could take and picking the shortest yet safest one to and from each target. Fuel won’t be a problem as the Chinook has a range of 300 nautical miles on a full tank of fuel. Randy has arranged for additional fuel to be delivered to the desert hangar so they’ll have enough fuel to ditch the choppers somewhere when they’re done with them. That can be tapped if his figuring on the fuel required to pull off the robberies is off the mark. The Chinooks have been painted gray and they are ready to go.

Some of the targets are mines and some are smelters. They have decided on six targets, three for each of them. They have decided to pull the heists in the early morning hours, two to three o’clock in the a.m., two per morning, three days in a row.

Since what they’ll be taking is a small percentage of the totals mined, they’re thinking that the thefts won’t be noticed immediately which will be a big plus for them time wise.

At early morning hours, the sound of the helicopters will have the best chance of not arousing undue curiosity. In case the security guards take more than casual notice, the brothers will be carrying their Glocks which will be suppressed with Illusion 9 suppressors to keep the flash and noise down. If the security guards become a problem, the brothers have no qualms about using the Glocks to solve the problem. The curtain will go up on this latest escapade of theirs at two o’clock tomorrow morning.

Their scouting activity enabled them to determine where the ore that is ready to be transported by road from the mines to the processing locations is situated, or in the case of the smelters, where it was placed while awaiting processing. So, all they have to do is load it into containers that will be lowered to the ground from beneath the fuselages. How to do this baffled the brothers at first, but finally they came up with a way to do it. The Chinooks are equipped with hoists so all they had to do was figure out a way to use them to load the containers along with a way to lower and raise the containers suspended from the belly of the fuselage.

They jury rigged an apparatus to attach the hoists to miniature backhoes which can be operated remotely and installed it on both choppers. They installed mufflers on the backhoes to reduce the noise which sacrificed some power, but not enough to hamper the required power. They then installed some powerful motors on the choppers capable of lifting the estimated weight of the ore in the loaded containers.

These guys are not your typical crooks. They are very smart and capable crooks. They’ve practiced with the equipment and are confident that they won’t have a problem operating it when the time comes. The faster they can get in and out and the quieter, the better their chances are of making a clean get away. They are convinced that they’ve got all the (i)s dotted and the (t)s crossed, but as the well-known Scottish eighteenth century poet Robert Burns liked to say, ‘The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.’

While Randy and Rick are going through the final review of their game plan over pre-cooked meals that just had to be reheated to eat, Jesse is saying his goodbyes to his fellow geologists at around seven -thirty in the evening after consuming a so-so meal in the hotel restaurant. He’s planning to check out and head back to Elko later in the evening instead of staying one more night at the hotel. Jesse is not a fan of hotels in general, much preferring his own digs and bed, but he’s prolonging doing that because he’s