Bayou Brigade (19 page)

“How did you ever discover it was Duca?”

“The computer was giving me the name repeatedly; I kept asking for names of Green Berets listed missing in action in Vietnam,
and each time the computer turned up James Duca.”

“James?”

“They’re brothers. It took a minute to make a connection between Duca, who hasn’t been seen since 1966, and the Steve Duca
who worked in the Secret Service. It didn’t dawn on me to check Steve Duca’s personal records until the last moment. His file
showed several international phone calls on his bill, made to Morgan City, Louisiana, New Orleans, Chicago, and China.”

“China!” Winship exclaimed.

“That was the clincher.”

“What did he have on him? What kind of bomb?”

“Thermite cap with a percussion backup,” said Slayton. “The actual explosive was about the size of a credit card—same sort
of compact thing they used on the Memorial, most likely disguised as a belt buckle or something. We’ll know when the bomb
boys reassemble him. A regular kamikaze pilot.”

“It was a suicide mission, then, and not accidental?”

“I doubt it was accidental. He knew he was going to snuff it. That kind of bomb-pak has to be activated only seconds before
the time you intend for detonation; it generates tremendous heat awfully fast. Duca probably planned to do it after the speech,
while the President was being escorted away. He was one of the seven men supposed to cordon the President as he left. It would
have been easy to just step forward and embrace him. But he saw me. Being in regular contact with The Brigade, he thought
I was already dead, so he moved too soon. Jumped the gun, as it were.”

“But what’s the connection between Duca and The Brigade?”

“Duca’s record also mentioned some week-long mountaineering excursions he had taken in Nepal and India. But he fractured his
legs in 1975. Why would an enthusiast who was physically incapable of climbing nevertheless visit Nepal again six times?”

“It’s a damn good thing your hunches pay off, Ben, or you and I would be laying bricks somewhere.”

As they left the building in separate directions, Winship turned back to Slayton, saying, “Want some lunch or coffee? My treat.”

“Thanks, Ham, but no thanks,” Slayton replied. “I just remembered that I have to motivate my tail to Georgetown. There’s a
cool lady reporter just dying to feed me.”

“My God, Ben, by all means. Send Wilma Christian my best. And don’t leak any classified information.”

“Only of a personal nature,” Slayton grinned. Did Winship have a dossier on everybody?

Before meeting Wilma, Slayton dropped by Cater Dad’s Florists and picked up two dozen red roses.

Exlusive to
The Washington Post
, April 15th:

“DEATH SQUAD” BEHIND PRESIDENTIAL

ASSASSINATION PLOT

by Wilma Christian

staff reporter

(
NEW ORLEANS, LA
) Until yesterday, the swampy bayou regions of Louisiana provided a secret headquarters for a militant terrorist
group calling themselves The Brigade, the organization responsible for the aborted assassination attempt on the President.
A vast arsenal and “boot camp” for terrorists covered a three-acre parcel of swampland.

Highly coordinated raids by government agents flushed out most of the occupants of the camp long before the assassination
bid, which was to take place during the President’s television address yesterday afternoon. Ironically, one of the principal
topics of the address was the growing trend toward urban terrorist movements (like the IRA) inside the United States, and
the proposal of keynote legislation to stem such trends before innocent lives are lost.

Supposedly composed of renegade Viet Nam veterans and military malcontents, The Brigade is chiefly known for the spectacular
vandalism of several Washington, D.C. landmarks a few weeks ago. Captain John R. Dekker of Division 5 Search and Rescue reported
that the Brigade’s swampland encampment “looked as if it had been in the eye of a severe brush fire.” The suspected arsenal
and weapons dump “had gone up the night before, and the destruction was pretty spectacular,” said Dekker.

Over twenty-five bodies were recovered from the debris resulting from the explosion. Those Brigade operatives not in Federal
custody await discovery beneath a grave of bayou mud. Among the dead is Brigade leader David Grantus Bathurst, 33, an ex-Green
Beret decorated for service throughout Asia. Of necessity, positive identification has yet to be made on many of the bodies,
which were badly burned or otherwise mutilated in explosions (see ROLL CALL - accompanying article on page 6).

On the possibility of survivors, Dekker commented: “They had napalm in there in addition to dynamite, weapons ammo, surface-to-air
rocketry and explosive devices. No one could have survived an inferno like the one that much ordinance would cook up…

MYSTERIOUS DEATH MERCHANTS

led by a terrormaster named Baal

are murdering foreign ambassadors,

wasting U.S. Senators,

blowing up Washington’s most treasured

public monuments!

Warning: the President is marked for execution.

AMERICA’S AVENGER

joined by a beautiful reporter

strikes deep into the swampy hell

of Louisiana for a shattering showdown.

If anyone can stop the Bayou Brigade,

Ben Slayton can!