Robert Waggoner - John - The Senior Killer

At about the same time as they were looking at the new pups, in Vancouver BC John, aka Alex sat at the airport waiting for his flight to Toronto. He was followed he knew that and didn’t much care. In Toronto, where he had spent a lot of time in his job as a makeup artist while filming more movies than he cared to remember, he would lose his tail and cross in Chicago and back to his old haunt in Wenatchee to regroup and make a plan for the future. He would, he decided take some time off and enjoy the summer in and around the Wenatchee area. For now, at least, he had to figure out a plan to ditch these guys and that would not be easy as they were on to him about his many disguises. The call to his plane broke his thinking and he picked up his only bag, carried it on the plane and left for Toronto.

Back on the Oregon coast, Brad and Sujin made ready for their trip to Asia. Nancy reluctantly packed her bag for the flight to Seattle. Steve would drive her to the airport and he would fly back to Washington DC. Billy, Wendy, and agent Jones would follow Brad while he made arrangements for staying in Seoul. No more than a week would pass before they left for Seoul. Meanwhile they would do the research on the Koreas, China and Russia. Wendy would do profiles on Kim, Jung in and the Chinese leaders. A lot of information was needed to make the project successful, such as economics, political, and military and profiles done on all the power behind the scenes. South Korea was still sending aid to the North and seemed, by the current president, to ignore the signs of military buildup by the North. The recent test firing of missiles rocked the free world and if North Korea went nuclear, an arms race was imminent. Japan would reconsider its constitution with a stockpile of plutonium from all of their nuclear power plants to make a bomb. The same could be said for South Korea. Back in the nineteen seventies America leaned on South Korea to stop their plan to go nuclear assuring the country America could protect the peninsula with its strong presence in the region. However, that was more than thirty years ago and now with North Korea knocking on the door, South Korea would have to seriously think about protecting itself.

Then there was Taiwan and its big brother China with the economic climb of exponential dimensions of risk from a potential conflict in the region. None of this was classified information as Brad thought about Asia. Anyone could find this information on the WWW. Brad listened to his headphones to music as they rode first class to Seoul. He was formulating a plan and he was struggling with the notion of Sujin so close to the volatile conflict that like a volcano building up pressure and once the pressure could not be contained, an eruption occurs.

Also he thought how political this operation was. He would gather the intelligence and the politicians would play football with the results. Threats, sanctions, frozen assets, and if China cut off the flow of oil and gas to North Korea, North Korea would have few options but to ally itself to the Middle East offering nuclear support for oil. Countries like Iran would gladly exchange oil for nuclear knowledge of making a bomb. God, Brad thought, what a mess the world is getting into. The Cold War all over again and the arms race would be on like the Kentucky Derby. Billions of dollars would be spent and where would the money come from? Space would be a busy place like a rush hour freeway hurry to be the first home to have a space station or a permanent place on the moon. He shut his mind off and along with the music he fell asleep.

John Mitchell was in his room at the Toronto Hilton. He had a plan. He laughed when he thought about it: so simple, yet effective. He would trade places with the guy who brought him room service. The only problem was finding a waiter that was his size. Age made no difference to him as he could use his make up to look twenty if necessary.

The first night after checking in he ordered dinner. He quizzed the guy with weather talk and his job. It was not hard to learn his schedule for the week and in particular for the next day or two. After checking this one out, later he ordered some dessert. The dinner guy had possibilities, but the young kid for dessert was a no going. In the morning he ordered breakfast and this guy was forty something; and had the seniority to work the day shift. Perfect, he thought. Some knock out pills and he was home free. As John was of average build, the day shift guy had a beer belly and that would work well for John as he could fit his makeup kit and a change of disguise once he left the men’s room in the lobby.

The hotel management was aware of the watch on the guest named Alex Windslow. The joint watch of the room was done by the FBI and the equivalent in Canada. John knew from the room service people that the authorities always looked under the cart as if he was going to escape hiding under the stupid cart. What dummies, he thought.

The next morning he invited the room service guy for a cup of coffee and at first he refused, but then, he thought and said later, this guy was so nice and a big tipper he took the drug laden cup and a short few minutes later he landed on the floor in a heap. John caught the cup of coffee before it hit the rug and quickly made the appropriate make up to fit the room service man. Dressed in his disguise he pushed the cart out the door leaving the guy in the room to wake up in his shorts and undershirt. John even took his socks he said later to the laughing hotel staff down in the basement kitchen.

It was a breeze as the FBI man checked under the cart and John made for the elevator. He pushed the cart into a storage linen closet and locked the door on his way out. Next he found the restroom and quickly changed into his other clothes but left the original waiter look as he walked out of the hotel into a bright sunny day in Toronto.

Now, he thought, getting across the border with his passport as Alex Windslow would be hard if they ran a check on the computer. This was not good and he needed to give this some serious thought. He made for the ferry terminal to see what was available in America across Lake Michigan. No doubt the authorities were alerted to his passport name and number. He was sure it would pop up with a red flag as soon as they entered it into the computer. God, he hated to do it, but maybe he would have to find an American and steal his passport. Well, he thought, the Canadians probably will blame the murder on the States serial killer the loss of one more would not affect the balance of the population age bracket, he decided to overdose a likely prospect and take his passport and apply the appropriate disguise and fly to wherever the guy’s home was.

John found a medium priced hotel just off the business district. At noon, after he checked in under an assumed name with cash, he went to the bar to see if any heavy drinkers were there and American. His luck held at a convention of salesmen from St. Louis marketing dental supplies were drinking lunch. John perused the gathering and when he spotted a table with only three and a fourth chair vacant, he sidled on over and introduced himself. The three men were already half in the bag and it wasn’t long before two left and the lush with a strawberry nose kept drinking with John. John wasn’t much of a drinker so when he ordered a gin and tonic he told the waitress to make it a light one as he lots of work to do before his six o’clock meeting with his boss.

The conversation took on the good ole boy talk and when John at about two thirty said he needed to make a phone call, invited the guy to his room for a drink from his bar in his suite. The guy jumped at the call for free drinks and off they went to John’s room. Once situated in the room, John poured the guy a stiff scotch and dropped enough knock out pills to lay down an elephant. The pills mixed with alcohol knocked the guy out for good. John propped him up so he could make up the face in front of the room’s mirror. Satisfied he took the guys passport and left him propped up leaning against the bed. Fingerprints would be taken and the only things he had touched were the small scotch bottles and one glass. He wiped both clean and wiped the doorknob clean on both sides. Then he wiped the swipe card and threw it away once he found an outside trash can.