Twenty Years Later

THE NO-KNOCK WARRANT AUTHORIZED FEDERAL AGENTS TO STORM THE cabin without warning. The motorcade consisted of two Humvees and three black Suburbans with tinted windows. The caravan looked so out of place in the quiet mountains that even without sirens blaring or lights flashing, other cars pulled to the shoulder to allow them to pass. Eight agents clad in riot gear occupied the Humvees. Ten more agents, including Jim Oliver, road in the Suburbans and were dressed in SWAT gear with FBI windbreakers over their Kevlar vests. Firearms were strapped under their arms. And each of them, per the terms Claire Montgomery had negotiated that made this raid possible, had been fitted with body cameras and microphones that would capture every move and every word.

The small brigade pulled down the shaded street until the two surveillance officers who had been watching the cabin came into view. They pointed at the canopied drive and the caravan screeched forward. Before the Humvees came to a full stop, the doors opened and agents poured out. They were armed with submachine guns across their chests and Glocks strapped to their sides. They hid beneath Kevlar helmets and shatterproof face shields. The two lead agents hurled themselves up the front steps and used a battering ram to splinter the front door. They slid to the side to allow the stream of heavily clad federal agents to storm the cabin.