Mano's Brief.

Chapter 2.

Wednesday started off pretty much the same way as any other day. Overnight though, the lines of communication between Jakarta and Honolulu had been busy and Mano was greeted to a mountain of paperwork as soon as he arrived into work. The two undercover men from last night had been replaced by two women and like their male counterparts from the night before they were also dressed in ponchos. The ponchos were not marked with any identifying tags that would have indicated they were police officers.
Today was cloudier in Honolulu and rain threatened. Dark, grey clouds scuttled across the sky, dampening the mood of everyone. Mano knew he could wait no longer and he rang O'Malley and ordered him to find an office secretary forthwith. Forthwith was a police term which meant immediately or yesterday or without any undue delay.
O'Malley said he would get on it but before he hung up, Mano had another request for him. A replacement for Kamakani. The 'Seeker'. They'd called him that because he had a knack for seeking things out and never taking things at face value.
O'Malley assured him he'd get with it, hanging up and reaching immediately for some tablets to curb a mounting headache.
In his own office, Mano looked over the reams of paperwork, faxes and so on. Nui must have initiated all this, he concluded and just as that thought formed his cell rang. It was Nui, the man who had once trialed with the Rainbow Warriors. Mano explained about the mess he had walked into.
"Looks like we got a fast kickback from Jakarta about our request on terrorist operators. Jemaah Islamayah or IJ is the crowd we need to be looking at."
"Indonesian terrorists?" Mano queried.
"Dangerous lot," Nui confirmed. "There's another outfit too but they've had heavy arrests and the word is they're effectively broken. A crew called JAD."
"What time are you in today, Nui?"
"Same as yesterday, Chief. Four PM."
"Well, that suits," Mano said. "This crowd, what are they, nineteen hours ahead?"
"Seventeen, boss."
"I was thinking of Japan last year. How's Kai holding up?"
"Great, Chief. He's a quick thinker. Quite efficient, effective."
"That's good," Mano said. " By the way, I've asked O'Malley to fill the vacancies. A new detective and a secretary."
"A secretary?" There was an inflexion in his deep voice that Mano caught.
"Yes, why? Do you know someone?"
"My sister-in-law," Nui replied. "Her kid was looking for work like that. I know she's had training."
"Okay," Mano asserted. "Give her details to O'Malley. If her backgrounds work out she might be in with a good shout."
"Ten-Four, Chief. Did any names pop up yet?"
"A few," Mano said. "I'm going to run a make on them now. You'd better get back to sleep. We'll catch up later."
"Ten-Four," Nui repeated over the cell phone.

*

Mano spent most of the morning going over names supplied by Kopassus and for each name he cross checked with the shipping records, with various government departments to including Homeland Security and with the FBI. Interpol in Europe were also contacted. By lunchtime he had five names;
Bima Tabuni. Born Jakarta in Indonesia in 1970. Missing from usual haunts. Aged 40 plus.
Anwar Tabuni. Indonesian. Aged 35. Born Sumatra.
Agung Zees. Indonesian. Aged 25. Born in Java.
Aji Ngurawan. Indonesian. Aged 19. Born in Java. Radical.
Dewi Tabuni - pronounced Dee-Wee. Female. Aged twenty-eight.
All were missing from their usual haunts.
Mano went back to the shipping records. This was April, and the first absconders had been Bima and Dewi on March 17th. Paddy's Day, he thought instantly remembering he had been working but many including O'Malley had taken the day.
Two days later on the 19th, the other three had arrived together. It appeared that they each had separate cabins whilst aboard. That would have to be checked into further.
Mano did a shipping search and discovered that one of the ships was in dry dock in San Francisco for repairs and the second was south traversing the coastline of Chile. He'd probably have to get someone down there."
Mano's cell rang.
It was Pacifico aka Fico. Fico's career within the FBI had been varied from the beginning. He had started off with property crime, then environmental crime, then corporate fraud investigations, then the Civil Rights Squad, then the Human Trafficking Task Force, and now Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism. He received input on a daily basis from the National Threat Operations Centre.
"How's Pono?" he asked immediately.
"Oh, you know," he answered evasively,"she seems happier in herself that she no longer has to strap on a gun going into work but time will tell whether it was a good move for her. As you probably know she's moved to Washington so she can be closer to me. It's nice  but again time will tell. Her new job has no stress and she loves it."
"What's that?" Mano asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
"She's a lollipop lady."
Mano had to laugh, and Fico chuckled down the line. "Yes, you know the ones. They're employed outside schools to make sure the kids get across the road safe."
"Important job," Mano said. "Somebody has to do it."
"Agreed," Fico replied. "Reason I'm calling..."
"Indonesian terrorist threat," Mano finished for him, not surprised that Fico was ringing him about it. Fico always had his pulse on whatever was going down when it came to terrorism. It was why the FBI were paying him the big bucks.
"Indonesia," Fico said reflectively. "It's never really been on our radar. We've never really seen terrorism coming from that part of the world before. They're usually in the news for other reasons."
"Other reasons?"
"Drugs."
"What about Jemaah Islamayah? Or JAD?"
Fico whistled. "Hey, who's been doing their homework?"
"One tries," Mano said. "One tries."
"To the best of my knowledge JAD is a spent force. Many of their top people have been arrested so they're not as dangerous as they once were. Jemaah Islamayah were responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings and the Christmas Eve ones, two years ago.
"Bombs," Mano queried, "so they're serious contenders."
"Bad hats," Fico confirmed. His love of westerns was suddenly apparent. "Do you want to keep in touch. Anything we get we'll pass along and vice versa."
Mano agreed and hung up. He dialled Kai Lino and told him to pack a bag.
"A bag?" Lino asked.
"Yeah, kid. You're booked on an afternoon flight to San Francisco. Tell me, have you ever been to Chile?"

*

As soon as Nui breezed in that afternoon at 4 PM, Mano brought him up to speed on the case. Men and women were beginning to fill up the squadroom and Nui realised Mano must have called for a briefing. Others who couldn't make it were joining via Zoom.
Nui recognised most of the faces as HPD.
Mano started the ball rolling. "Okay, as most of you know our brief here is to stop terrorism in Hawaii and many of you will remember how we stopped those AUM terrorists from Japan last year and two Saudi Arabian terrorist groups prior to that. Now we might have another new threat, this time originating out of Indonesia.
Nui handed out flyers of the five suspects.
"I want you people to hit the streets, contact your informants and CI's, and let's try and run these people down before they do any real damage."
"Do we know how they arrived here, sir," Frank Cipponeri asked. "And when?" Corporal Cipponeri had ten years on the job and was a very smart cookie. A cop's cop.
"They arrived last month," Manor revealed. "Two arrived together on Paddy's Day, posing as husband and wife, we think. I have a man checking that as we speak. He flew out to San Francisco this afternoon and he'll be heading to Chile when he's finished there." Nui now knew where Lino was.
"Chile?" Cipponeri queried.
"There were two ships involved. One is in dry dock in San Francisco and the other is currently operating in Chile."
There were a few more questions mostly from officers on Zoom and then Mano wound things up. He motioned for Nui to join him.
"Is Kai gone to Chile?"
Mano nodded. "Did you have a word with O'Malley about that secretary thing?"
"I did, Chief," he confirmed. "I gave him all the details."
They watched as the room cleared. The thin, lithe figure of Cipponeri slid by, nodding to both men as he passed.
Once out of earshot Mano put a question to Nui. "What do you make of him?"
"Who, Cippo? He a tough cop."
"Cippo?"
"That's what the men call him," Nui explained. He runs marathons. That's how he is so fit and mean looking."
Mano smiled.
"How did your dinner go last night?"
"Oh, swell," Mano confided. "Thanks for asking."
Nui pressed an envelope into his Chief''s hand. "It's just a card and a token for Suzi from the wife and I."
"Mahalo, my friend," Mano said, spiriting the card away. "I'll see she gets it."
Mano retreated to his private office and dialled O'Malley.
"I was just on the verge of ringing you," O'Malley declared.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, looks like I have a secretary for you. Guess who she is related to?"
"Oh, I don't know," Mano replied. "Nui, perhaps?"
"You guys," O'Malley said in mock-exasperation. "You knew. I suppose that's why they give you the big bucks?"
"Anything on Kamakani's replacement?"
"I'm still looking at that."
"I've spotted someone."
"Shoot."
Before Mano could say anything, O'Malley ordered him to hold up. "Let me guess," he insisted. "Corporal Frank Cipponeri."
"In one," Mano laughed. "In one. How did you guess?"
"Nui texted me just prior to your phone call. Asked me to check him out as a possibility."
It was Mano's turn. "You guys?" he said, simply.
O'Malley laughed and hung up.

*

Mano spent another hour or so fielding calls from various agencies including Homeland Security. He also received a text from the airport that Kai was on his way. The flight was scheduled to leave on time.
They had checked ahead to make sure the proper personnel would be there, shipping personnel who had dealings and interactions with these people. Some crew members were on shore leave but most were in various states and were easily reachable by phone. Two had returned to British Columbia in Canada, and one to Alaska but again they were all within reach.

Nui, in fact, had reached a few of them from the Hawaiian offices on Beretania Street. He'd spoken to a bar person from Alaska who remembered serving both Bima and Dewi.

"They were on the quiet side " the man confirmed. " Kept pretty much to themselves."
Nui thanked the man and left his details in case something struck the man later.