big man himself, Clive Haynes.
Haynes was a sadistic killer who had joined the Aryan Brotherhood in San Quentin prison before deciding to go it alone and create his own, far more political movement. He believed that the Brotherhood was nothing more than a criminal gang, and wanted to pursue his own, more ideological purpose.
He’d established the AU several years ago, and it had already grown in size and strength at an unprecedented rate – Haynes’ willingness to indulge in the same criminal activities of narcotics, extortion and homicide as his old gang brought him in the money-minded side of the membership, while his neo-Nazi puritanism also engaged the more strictly white supremacist vote.
The result was a criminal gang which used its proceeds to attack the American government whenever it could – from the slayings of black politicians to the bombings of federal courts, the AU was a dangerous homegrown terrorist group that was now threatening Washington itself.
Despite his ideological ravings, drug money had made Haynes a rich man – this thousand acre ranch outside Tucson, Arizona, was proof enough of that. It was ideally placed between the Aryan criminal heartlands around San Quentin, and the lucrative narcotics routes from Mexico.
Up until four days ago, Cole had been incarcerated in San Quentin himself – leads from the intelligence agencies had linked a man called Jim Groves to the highly secretive AU, and he was serving a twenty-to-life sentence for a range of charges including robbery, rape, assault and homicide.
Cole had therefore entered the prison – complete with shaven head and a maze of bodily tattoos – in order to make friends with the man, distasteful though such an idea was, in the hopes that he could learn more about the AU’s organization and future plans.
It had been easy enough – such men respected strength and violence, and so Cole had wasted no time in establishing himself as someone to be wary of. His first night there, Cole had stabbed a man through the neck with a sharpened toothbrush, bringing him quickly to Groves’ attention. Cole hadn’t felt too bad about it; the man he’d almost killed had been serving life imprisonment for serial rape.
More acts of violence brought Cole closer and closer to the AU lieutenant, and soon they were on first name terms, Groves wanting to use Cole as his personal enforcer. Groves still hadn’t trusted Cole enough to tell him who the leader of the AU was, nor what they had planned in terms of future operations, but that had changed when Cole broke out of the prison, taking Groves with him.
Deeply indebted to Cole, Groves had taken him straight to the ranch in Tucson, where he’d introduced him to Clive Haynes, a fanatic in the Hitler mold. Haynes hadn’t been sure about Cole, but Groves was his second in command, and he eventually let himself be worn down by the man’s praise.
What Cole had then found out was frightening in the extreme; the AU was far better funded, organized and motivated than anyone in US intelligence or law enforcement could possibly have imagined. And their next order of business was to detonate enough explosives underneath the US Capitol to bring it crashing down around the gathered members of congress.
It would have seemed farfetched, except for the fact that the AU had infiltrated several government organizations, and already had the explosives within the city limits.
Cole sighed internally. What was he doing? There was no point wasting time thinking about the past; what was needed now was action, not mental distractions.
Without moving his head, careful that he appeared only semi-conscious and a lot more injured than he actually was, Cole took in his surroundings.
The barn was large, made of cedar wood with a long central track running past wood and steel-gated pens to large double doors at one end. Cole could see daylight beyond, and knew that outside was the main farm compound which consisted of several