Lateral Transfer

By Steven Kampen

When John ‘Smitty’ Smith is called into the office and given his official notice of dismissal from government employment, he is offered another position. In an effort to keep working long enough to vest his pension with the government, John accepts a transfer. He is not told what his new assignment will entail, but he is told it is a ‘lateral transfer’. He then finds himself sent to a secret facility in the Southwest, very close to the border of Mexico. John, the paper-pushing office worker, is put in a situation where he is shooting it out with Mexican drug lords. He is put in charge of a team that includes a dope smoking Marine vet who has an anti-authority attitude. When John and his small team are not chaperoning military contractors testing weapons to sell to the government, they are expected to do their best to keep the bad guys off the government property and away from the secret facility.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312004948

Book preview

Lateral Transfer

Lateral Transfer

by Steven Kampen

Copyright © 2013 by Steven Kampen

Second Edition 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper or magazine.

All characters in this book are fictitious. This story is a product of the writer’s imagination. Any resemblance to any person or place in this book is merely coincidental. There is no Weapons Testing Facility near the Mexican-United States border where drug dealers battle government security agents.

Dedication

I would like to thank my wife, Barbara, for her assistance and support in getting this eBook published. To my sister, Margaret Gohr, my appreciation for the many hours she spent proof reading.

The Twin Lakes Writers, a group of which I am a member, was helpful with advice whenever I had a question.

Other books by Steven Kampen:

Maple and Second

Helping Anna

Dead Meat

Chapter One

Everything in the vehicle had seemed normal, and seconds later there were holes ripped into it from the front to the back. Night driving on dirt roads through a southwestern American desert area is difficult enough without unexpectedly meeting trucks driven by the bad guys heading your way. That is what happened to the dark blue government van. After pulling around a blind curve in a hilly area, the van surprised a convoy of illegal drug traffickers. After several seconds of indecision, one of the bad guys opened up with a heavy machine gun mounted on an armored dump truck. When the noise stopped, the machine gunner looked at what he had done and then fired some more rounds. This time the bursts concentrated on specific areas. The shooting stopped when the gunner was absolutely sure that the two passengers in the van were dead. The bodies had been turned into a bloody mess, one nearly cut in half. The driver of the van had the lower part of one arm severed; the wrist and hand now lying on the dark dirt road. What was life a minute ago was now something for a recovery team to cleanup.

Esmerelda Sanchez, The Empress, was satisfied. Sitting in the passenger seat of one of the vehicles, she signaled for the drug convoy to continue. She was in charge. Her husband was the big boss, but she was the one in control. Right now, he was safely at home, probably sleeping in bed. This woman was what some might refer to as a micromanager. She wanted to run things and she did not tolerate any mistakes.

Tonight was one of the few times this woman was not wearing her fashion designer sunglasses. She was still dressed in clothes that cost more than most of her men earned in a month. The leather boots she wore were the same brand and style she had seen Madonna wear at a Hollywood regalia. If a person was to look very closely, they could see the famous designer’s name on the boots. If the person found the same boots for sale on the internet, he would have been shocked by the price. Being able to read the labels on her clothes was unlikely to happen because very few ever got that familiar with ‘The Empress’.

‘The Empress’, was a sarcastic title given to her by the people who knew her and her husband. When Esmerelda first learned of the nickname, she was angry, but she soon came to enjoy it. She paid people to do a job, not to have her affection. If this woman could be found in a dictionary, you would be looking under the letter ‘B’. When you got to that letter, go to ‘Bi, then after you found the final three letters, you might see her picture. She was very attractive, dark, with a medium length hairstyle. She was not very tall, barely over five feet in height, but well proportioned. This woman would not have weighed much over a hundred pounds if she took a walk in the rain while fully dressed.

The thing that Esmerelda Sanchez had that was head and shoulders above others was attitude. She could be very focused on a goal. She knew what she wanted and she would not let anything stand in her way once she was committed. Even though she was well past the age of forty, most men still found her dangerously attractive. She definitely got a lot of attention when entering a room. A male observer did not know if he was looking upon some expensive snotty fashion diva walking down a runway with her unique strutting style or if he was ogling a woman that was just tough enough to be the queen of a biker bar. Tonight the little diva was wearing a black leather outfit that made more than one man wonder if she was a whip woman queen of bondage. Tonight her appearance could scare and mesmerize at the same time. The few pieces of high quality jewelry she wore seemed to increase the attention she drew. One of her most prized possessions was a large expensive ring that she was wearing tonight. A large red ‘E’ made of rubies was surrounded by a cluster of diamonds. The ring was gaudy, flashy and very expensive. She loved to wear it.

Esmerelda needed a vehicle such as this armored dump truck to lead her convoy over the border through this barren, rough land. This property was officially owned and protected by the American government. Entry to the public was strictly forbidden, but the rules meant nothing to this bunch. There were numerous warning signs and a heavy gauge chain-link steel fence to keep out the unwanted. The fence and gate at the entrance were doubled in an effort to deter the ones who considered taking a chance. The locks, fences and signs had only slowed Esmerelda’s group down a matter of seconds.

The Empress got the idea for this truck from another drug gang. To put the plan into effect she acquired a heavy duty four-wheel drive dump truck. It was stolen from somewhere. Then armor plating was added. For that, Esmerelda had a man go to the local junk yard and bring back some ¾ inch scrap steel bridge plate. This heavy steel plate could stop almost any bullet except some of the armor piercing ammo. She did not think the guards at this facility had any of that. They usually carried only pistols or rifles.

Another thing added to the truck was a fifty caliber machine gun. Getting a gun this powerful was not as difficult as one would think. For a drug dealer with a fat wallet, not much is out of range. Esmerelda acquired the machine gun on the black market and then had it securely mounted on the steel floor of the truck dump body. Strong, heavy bolts were used to keep the machine gun in place. When it was fired, a strong vibration would rumble through the vehicle from cab to tailgate.

The other trucks in the convoy had also been stolen. Most of them were small pick-ups. Each of these considered expendable. If one of them broke down or ran into trouble, the load would be transferred and the stolen truck would be abandoned.

The armor-plated dump truck started moving and the drug convoy resumed the trip. At the sharp turn where the two sides had surprised each other, the narrow dirt road did not have enough room for both the shot up government van and the large dump truck, but that was not a problem. The big truck simply pushed the van aside as it passed. This caused the blue van to go onto the very narrow shoulder and then tumble about ten feet down a steep embankment, where it landed on its side.

One of the trucks in the convoy stopped unexpectedly where the van had been pushed over the side. The driver quickly jumped out, and ran to where the severed arm had been left in the dirt road. He reached down, picked it up and gave it a look. He then removed the wristwatch from the severed wrist-hand, afterwards tossing the body part into the dark in the van’s direction. He wiped some blood off the watch onto his pant leg. He then pocketed the newly acquired watch, hopped back in his truck and sped off to catch up.

The convoy continued on the trip to the north. Stopping to deal with the government van and killing two security guards had not delayed them a bit. They were on schedule.

Time: Several days later. Location: A government office building in Washington D.C.

Ms. Helen Baker looked at the man sitting across from her desk and had an immediate opinion: she did not like him. She did not like him one bit. With her many years of experience and knowledge, she felt she could make a good assessment of this man just by his appearance.

John Smith did not make a good first impression. He had a receding hairline and wore his hair cut short. He tried to save money by having his hair cut at the least expensive barber he could find. John’s friends sarcastically told him he got his money’s worth. The lousy, short haircuts made him appear even more overweight than he was. John’s ex-wife told him he looked like Sergeant Schultz of ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ when he got his hair cut that short. John was overweight. He also wore cheap suits that were out of style and well-worn. He did not have charisma. He did not make friends easily. More than one person had opined that the more you got to know John, the less you liked him. Apparently that was how Mrs. Smith felt because she had recently gotten a divorce from John after eighteen years of marriage.

When things go bad, they really go bad. That was what was now going through the mind of this man. He recently had been told that the government was making cut-backs in his department. The government wasted billions of dollars every year, but in his department they would try to save some money. One person had to be let go. The final candidates for the sack were Leon Washington, Rima Gonzalez, Shalika Brown, Bob Harrington and him. When John found out who was his competition to keep a job, he gave a thought that the government was ‘an equal opportunity employer’. John knew they would not let a black guy, a Latina, or a lesbian black woman go. He knew he only had to beat out sad sack Bob Harrington for the final slot. John had better productivity, more seniority, and more experience. He did not see how he could lose.

When John was informed he did lose, Bob Harrington was the first to seek him out and offer his sympathies. He shook John’s hand and wished him luck. John could still remember exactly what Bob said at the time. I thought I would be given the axe. A few days ago, when I told them I was gay, I thought I was done. Their decision really surprised me. Good Luck, John.

Now, John Smith was being given the ‘official’ announcement in the big boss’s office. Spoken with an on-again, off-again nasal sound that was distracting, listening to the voice of Ms. Baker was like hearing fingernails scratching a chalk board. Regrettably, the decision has been made and your services are, as you have been told, no longer needed. I want you to know how bad we all feel about this.

When he heard this, John was tempted to tell the woman she was full of crap, but he was wondering what else she had to say. This information could have been sent to him in a registered letter, and that would have finished his connections as an employee of the federal government. Why had he been summoned to this office in this big, fancy building for a sit-down?

Helen Baker had risen to a position of authority where she had influence regarding who was hired, fired, transferred or black-listed. Sitting across from this man at this moment she had the power to either somehow retain him or to give him the boot out the door. If she said something to the right person, she could even have this man audited by the IRS if she chose. Even though this woman was usually a hard-case, she could also be sympathetic. Years ago she had gone through a bad marriage and subsequent divorce. She had then raised her children as a single parent.

As she spoke, she kept looking back and forth, from the man sitting across from her to his personnel file lying open on her desk. Mr. Smith, I do sympathize with your situation. I am aware that you only need a short time to have your retirement benefits vested. If you leave employment with the government now, you lose credit for the many years you put in towards your pension. You also lose your medical and dental coverage, your life insurance and the many other benefits. She took a deep breath, made a disgusting sound as she cleared her throat, adjusted her glasses with one hand while she moved the file in front of her closer with the other and then asked a question. Mr. Smith, I see in your personnel file that you have recently gone through a divorce. If it is not too personal a question to ask, can I ask what the settlement arrangements were? I would imagine you will be paying alimony to your ex. The woman was then told that John would be paying a large percentage of his wages as alimony. He would also be giving a large percentage of his pension when and if he received it, to his ex-wife. Those were just a few details of the settlement agreement. After hearing this, the boss lady then had another question. If you lose your job, I would imagine your ex-wife loses a great deal of income. If you do not reach your pension benefits, I imagine she also suffers regarding that. Is that true?

John did not understand why the boss lady should be sympathetic to his ex-wife, but he nodded his head.

There was a long, painful silence as the woman stared at John and then at John’s personnel file that was in front of her. Finally, she spoke. We do have it in our power to help. It is possible that we might be able to transfer you to another government department, where you will still be a federal employee and be able to continue employment until you retirement benefits are locked-in. After a short pause she continued. Would you be interested if we could find you another position working for the government? This would be ‘a lateral transfer’, so to speak.

The question was a no-brainer. John sat up straight and tried to act grateful as he gave an answer. Yes, I would be very interested.

As he sat there, hoping to salvage his career, he could not help but notice an irritating habit that Helen Baker had. While contemplating problems, the woman would make strange expressions with her mouth. She would pull her lips in, and then let them out. If that was not enough to draw a person’s attention, she would at times scrunch the lips from side to side and push them in and out, comparable to a fish in a tank that had stopped in one place and seemed to be doing nothing more than breathing. Ms. Baker was making these expressions while she looked at his file, considering what to do with John’s career. John’s grandmother used to make expressions such as these when her false teeth slipped out of place. John was not the first visitor to this office to notice Ms. Baker’s facial mannerisms. When observing Ms. Baker, more than one person found himself staring at the woman and wondering what her problem was.

Mr. Smith, what would you consider to be your special skills? Do you have any special talents that are not listed in your personnel file? Can you speak any foreign languages that are not listed? Do you have any special skills that can be used to your advantage?

She was not pleased when John told her he had nothing of value to add to his personnel file. He had no special talent, no language ability, and seemingly no reason to be retained. After some thought, she resumed her search through a stack of papers. The room was quiet except for the shuffling of the stack on her desk.

Aha! Ms. Baker found what she considered to be the perfect position for John Smith. We have an opening in an embassy staff. If I use my influence, we might be able to get you placed there. You have the perfect name for someone working in a foreign position. We would not have to even consider changing it. How does that sound?

John Smith immediately had a bad feeling about her idea and he did not even know very much about it. Where would this be?

She was smiling and looking at a sheet of paper as she gave an answer. We right now have an opening in the Mideast area.

The feeling John had was getting worse. Exactly where would that be, Ms. Baker?

Libya, this is a position with the same grade you have currently, but you would be getting a boost in salary since it is a foreign posting.

That is in north Africa, isn’t it?

She lost her smile when she heard the negative, questioning tone of the man. He did not seem very appreciative of what she was doing for him. She was starting to get irritated with this guy. Her low opinion of John Smith was dropping even lower. She had a noticeable unpleasant tone the next time she spoke.

What would be wrong with a position in Libya?

He answered her question with a question of his own. What else do you have? He did not like the way this interview was heading. Do you have anything in North Korea?

The two now did a short staring contest. After giving him the nasty look for several seconds, she went back to her stack and started to shuffle papers again. After a bit of time, she had another offer for John.

You have one final option. Take it or leave federal employment. We have a research center in the southwest and they have a recent opening. This sounds perfect for you. You would be at the same pay grade as you are now. The security rating is higher. Exactly what your duties would be would be determined by the person in charge at the facility. You would be used as needed. You could not haggle and dictate what you want to do. The man in charge there would give you a list of duties or an assignment and that would be that. She leaned back in her chair and stared at the sheet she was holding. If there was more information, she was not sharing it. She made a few of those lip movements, put down the paper and gave John a direct look. This is something you can do. Well, do you want it or not?

Giving a sarcastic, cheesy smile, he had a quick answer. I would be glad to take it. It sounds like a great opportunity.

She chose to ignore the tone of his response. She wanted to finish this and get him out of her office. Go wait in the outer office. You will be given a travel packet as to where to report. That is all.

She quickly put the papers together and moved them into a file, closed it and set it aside. She then turned her attention to something else on her desk. This was apparently John’s dismissal, so without another word he got up and headed to the outer office, where he sat and waited until his travel packet was brought to him.

When the paperwork was ready, the business-like secretary got right to the point. Everything is here that you will need. You have a schedule, an airline ticket and an information sheet. It is easy to understand. That is all. As John was starting to exit out the door, the secretary had one parting remark as she sat at her desk. Don’t worry, Mr. Smith. You only need a short time there to be eligible for your retirement benefits. She then gave him an encouraging smile and what she possibly thought were comforting words.

Just remember: this move is a ‘lateral transfer’. There are some things in life you never forget. He would never forget the term. ‘lateral transfer’.

Chapter Two

In the western states, the United States government owns large sections of land. Many of these places are open to the public. There are also secret pieces of land owned by the government that the public knows little or nothing about. The most famous of these might be Area 51. Some of the property owned by the government is highly restricted. Some of the places are so secret and protected that trespassers are warned they can be shot if they cross boundary lines and enter forbidden areas. One of these areas is the location to which John Smith had been just ‘laterally transferred.’

When John landed at the closest local airport, he was met by Slim Weichman. Slim did not exactly greet John. Slim sat on a bench and watched the new arrivals as they came through the gate. When everyone in the arrival area had left except for John, Slim got to his feet, went over and identified himself.

Are you Smith? If you are, get your stuff and come with me. I’m supposed to drive you in.

Slim was the stereotypical Texan. The man had a way of saying things that made him sound just like he would have been perfect if put into some Hollywood western. The guy looked like he might have just got off a horse. He wore a cowboy hat and a pair of worn, faded blue jeans. As they got to know each other, John would learn the cowboy hat Slim wore covered a head of thinning white hair. The hair was plentiful on the sides, front and back, but either mighty thin on the top or nonexistent. In one small spot there was shiny pink skin. Slim did not have long sideburns, but he did have a well-groomed mustache. John thought the guy could be a double for ‘The Marlboro Man’.

This man had to be somewhere in his sixties, but he appeared to be physically fit. He did not seem to be carrying any extra weight. In fact this guy could probably stand to gain a few pounds. There were signs of wear and tear on him if you looked closely. He had scarred and weathered hands. He also had prominent crow’s feet around the eyes. The man did have something about his gray eyes, maybe a friendly twinkly of some kind. Later, John had the idea that the friendly twinkle might be from the man’s habit of indulging in a ‘certain something’, which he frequently did.

John got his bags and followed the other man out to the parking lot. As he struggled to carry the luggage, he wondered why the other man did not offer a hand. Besides having a large suitcase that he was able to pull on wheels, John also had two large, dark blue Navy sea bags. He had been given the bags some time ago from his younger brother as a gift. They were great for carrying a lot of gear. A problem other than paying the extra airfare charges was that the bags were heavy and difficult to move. To keep up with Slim, John paid a red-cap porter for assistance. Slim later offered an answer for his lack of courtesy. He spoke just after the two were sitting in the front seat of an old pick-up truck and had started on their way.

I probably could have helped you to carry those bags. Maybe I should have. Technically, I guess you will be my boss. But I want you to understand something: I do not kiss ass. He turned from looking ahead at this point and looked John directly in the eyes. I am not a suck-up. So if that is what you expect or want from me, let’s forget it right now. It is not going to happen. The man did not smile as he said that.

The rest of the trip was not much friendlier. Slim did not have very much pleasant to say in the way of conversation. Maybe because it was so quiet or maybe it was because he had time to think, John discovered the other man had a few habits that got on his nerves. John was a non-smoker, and Slim seemed to be a chain smoker. Another unpleasant thing the man did was cuss. He did that a lot for little or no reason. Sometimes, he smoked and cussed at the same time. The guy took a deep drag off his cigarette, held it in, and after exhaling he started cussing about anything and everything.

Later, John would learn that Slim was trying to quit smoking. The Marlboro Man used the toothpick method. When he was fighting the urge to smoke, he would grab a wooden toothpick and stick it in the corner of his mouth. The man would suck the toothpick until it was soggy and mushy, and then flip it on the ground. Slim did not consider this to be littering, since he deemed wooden toothpicks to be ‘bio-degradable’. Slim would only suck on wooden toothpicks, never the plastic ones. That was his way of ‘being green’.

John also was later to learn that Slim smoked marijuana. The man never said where he got it, but John assumed he acquired it in the course of doing the job of stopping illegal traffic on the government land. As bad as this habit could be, John was to find that his companion was much easier to live with when he was under the influence of the illegal weed. It did not take a Sherlock Holmes to tell when Slim was using the stuff. When he had a friendly disposition and smiled a lot, he had probably been smoking the ‘weed’. Another sign was the man’s eyes had a special glow, a ‘certain something’, and it was not just the usual twinkle. The eyes were open, but the lids seemed to be fighting a battle at times to stay open after the man had been indulging. At those times, the man was awake and in a good mood, but somehow a bit sleepy. Sometimes the difference was hard to detect, but after awhile, John was able to pick it up pretty quickly.

The biggest sign that Slim had been smoking that crap was he called people ‘Hoss’. When he called you ‘Hoss’, you knew he was in a better mood than he normally was, and you knew he had probably been smoking the ‘wacky tobaccy’.

Slim wanted to quit smoking tobacco, but he did not feel the same way about marijuana. As bad as the cigarette smoking and the cussing was, when Slim smoked his ‘funny cigarettes’, it was to be almost something of a welcome change to his new companion. When Slim smoked dope, he still was able to do his job. He did it a bit slower, maybe a bit more methodical, but he did do his job. John was later to accept this and just when Slim smoked dope it did not get one of them killed.

Eventually, John got to know more about his new partner-subordinate. Slim was another government employee who