CHAPTER 01.– HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE
-BASH -
My earpiece was too quiet. I looked to my right, and then to my left to look at my fellow agents and try and guess what they were thinking. They looked just as annoyed as I was. We needed an update. Something. "Jewels, what's going on in there?"
My partner, Juliet, was in under with an arms dealer. We were about to bust his ass during a major deal that was supposed to be happening any minute now. Jewels had been under for three months now and we'd begun to lose hope that we would ever nail this bastard. But a miracle happened about four hours ago when she called us and gave us a location and told me to bring backup.
So now, here we were. Sitting in a small, hot goddamn van on the waterfront of Quantico near a storage yard. The meeting was taking place inside a building right on the water.
"Nothing yet, Bash," I heard her quiet voice say in my ear. "He's not looking too happy though."
Our person of interest was Henry Valois, an arms dealer that could actually be labeled a dealer for anything since he seemed to have his hands dipped in every aspect of the business. He basically owned the black market and control every cartel from here to California. The man had a reputation. He had been number one on the FBI's Most Wanted list for the last six months.
My fellow agent, Leith, nudged me. "Bash, Westbrook wants an update."
I sighed. Simon Westbrook was our Section Chief. He was a micromanager. He wanted an update every five minutes. I'd been in Organized Crime for the last five years. Westbrook had been my section chief for two. It's why I hated being in this division now opposed to when I entered it. "Tell him the buyer has yet to arrive."
"We told him that five minutes ago," Leith said.
"And we'll tell him in another five fucking minutes when he calls back again!" I said, angry, and keeping my voice down.
In my ear, Jewels said, "Jesus, Bash, calm down."
"How the hell are you talking to me right now?" I asked.
"I snuck off to use the little girls room."
"They actually have one of those in that dump?"
"Technically I had to squat on the sidewalk out back if you wanna get technical—"
"Argh, okay stop!" I said. Leith laughed. He could hear everything too. All of the other agents in the van could. Leith, Penelope, Julien, and Alec. My team on this operation. Leith was nearly the third wheel in all of mine and Jewels' operations. We were practically a squad at this point.
It was silent for a few moments before Alec said, "Incoming car, south west corner."
We all looked at the monitors. The car pulled up slowly and came to a stop. A driver got out and went to the back to open the door. Out stepped Tomas Ramirez. My eyes widened. "Oh my God," I said. "Jewels, the buyer is Tomas Ramirez!"
"The leader of the Mexican drug cartel?!" she asked, her voice ringing in my ear.
"Yup," I said, popping on the 'p.'
Penelope, turning to me, asked, "Do you know how high profile this is?! If we catch both of them, we could retire early!"
Julien piped up. "Don't jump the gun, Penny. We don't have them in jail yet."
But we would. I knew we would.
We watched the monitors as Tomas walked inside, unguarded, but there was no guarantee he was unarmed. He might have had a gun hidden in his black jacket, or somewhere else on his person. "SWAT commander, this is Poitiers," I said, using my walkie-talkie to call the guys from SWAT. "Are we ready to go on the signal? Over." I released my finger from the button.
A second later, the SWAT commander's voice came on the speaker. "SWAT team is ready and standing by. Over."
We were ready now. Just waiting for Jewels. I could hear voices in my ear, so she was returning to join Valois' group. The 'go signal' was for one of them to say 'Please doing business with you' or something to that effect. So classic, yeah, but we needed a deal to be struck before we could bust them. And to have two high profile criminals arrested in one swoop? Well… Penelope was right. We'd be able to retire by morning.
"It's all here?" Ramirex asked.
"Every bit of it," Valois replied. "Do you have my money?"
"Being wired to your Swiss account… now." He must've had a phone in his hands or something to wirelessly transfer the money at that exact moment. That meant the transaction was nearly complete.
It was silent for several moments. Then Valois said, "Wonderful. Gentlemen, please give Mr. Ramirez what he came here for. It was a pleasure doing business with you. I look forward to any future transactions we may have."
"GO!" I shouted and Alec called SWAT on his walkie to let them know we were on the move. I drew my gun from my belt and left the van, following Leith, and leading Penelope and Julien. SWAT was already out of the van and had gotten to Ramirez's driver before we did. Two guys arrested him while the others went in before us into the warehouse. "FBI!" I shouted. "NOBODY MOVE! HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"
Jewels drew her gun at that moment and pointed it at Valois. "Sorry, Henry. Looks like you're not gonna be able to use that money for your next vacation."
We had the place surrounded. It was nearly impossible for Valois, Ramirez, or any of Valois' men to escape. I had my gun pointed right at Valois' head. I could take him down easy if I had to. But Jewels was closer. She had a better chance.
Valois didn't look too pleased with Jewels, but he also looked a little impressed that she'd managed to infiltrate his organization without being caught as a fed. "Well I see Little Miss Juliet is a federal agent… if that is your real name."
"Oh it is," she replied. "But no one calls me Juliet. I go by Jewels. Now put your hands on your head and get on your knees." Valois just stood there for a moment. Jewels finally yelled, "GET ON YOUR KNEES!"
Slowly, Valois raised his hands and put them on the back of his head. Then he went to crouch down, and suddenly he moved so quickly that, before I could blink, he had a gun in his hands and shot Jewels in the stomach.
"NO!" I shouted.
Another shot fired, this time it came from Penelope's gun. Ramirez stepped in front of Valois and took the bullet right in the chest for him. Thus, the shootout began.
I wanted to run to Jewels and see if she was still alive, but we had to take these guys down. I fired two shots in Valois' direction but missed, he was moving so fast. "Leith, go around!" I ordered and we split up while SWAT covered us. There was a back door we couldn't let Valois get to.
There were at least two times, as I was running, that I was nearly hit by bullets flying around in all different directions. Fortunately I had the SWAT guys to cover me and I was faster than Valois' men. I got to the back door just as Valois was and I didn't hesitate to tackle him. We struggled and he nearly had me pinned down at one point, but a surge of energy let me overpower him and nail him down on the ground, my knees pinning his arms and I drew my gun again, pointing it at his face.
"It's over, Valois. You lose." By this time, Leith was there and we had four SWAT guys surrounding us.
Valois laughed. "It's never over."
"We'll see about that," I said and gestured with my head for the SWAT guys to move in closer. They took Valois' gun away from him and I got up, putting my own gun back in my belt and arrested the bastard. I had Leith take him away while I ran to check on Jewels.
She was bleeding out bad. Penelope had already called an ambulance. Within five minutes they'd arrived, and I rode with them as they escorted her to the nearby hospital where she was taken into emergency surgery. My team met me there as I paced in the waiting room, praying that my partner would be alright. Jewels and I had been working together for years now. She was the closest thing I had to a sister.
Our Section Chief, Westbrook, arrived shortly after. "I came as soon as I heard," he said. I stopped pacing the floor. "How is she?" I shook my head and shrugged, looking down at the ground. We hadn't heard anything yet.
An hour later, the doctor came out, looking grim. No, I thought. Please, God, no. Then… he delivered the news.
.
Two weeks had come and gone since Jewels had died. I took a break from work and stayed holed up in my apartment in downtown Quantico. Leith and Penelope came to check on me but I never answered the door. They left things outside for me that I eventually got up to bring inside. Baskets with food and such. My partner was dead. I was going to miss the hell out of her.
It was a Monday morning when my phone rang and I saw Westbrook's number pop up. I didn't want to answer it, but if my Section Chief was calling, I had to answer it. "Poitiers," I answered.
"Bash, we need you," I heard him say, but just barely. It wasn't him, it was me and the fact that I didn't want to hear anything.
"No you don't," I said, "we have plenty of agents perfectly capable of doing whatever I can do."
"Listen, Bash, this isn't just any case. It's Valois."
Well… that got my attention. "Did—he escape?"
"Not quite. He's resurfaced in other ways. Look, come down to the office now and I'll explain everything to you."
.
I walked in to the office, feeling like the first time all over again. People stared at me, surprised that I was back. But I paid no attention to them as I went to the conference room above the bullpen where Westbrook was waiting for me. "Welcome back, Bash," he said. I nodded and sat down. Westbrook was standing and remained that way. "As I told you on the phone, Valois has resurfaced. He remains behind bars, but his influence has spread wide. Most notably…" he stopped and used a small remote in his hands and bring something up on the monitor that hung on the wall, "his son, Francis."
My eyes widened. "Valois has a son?"
"Three of them actually, and a daughter, with his ex-wife, Catherine. Francis is the oldest. He's twenty-five and very skilled in his father's field. Henry had been preparing for him to take over the business if something like this ever happened."
I groaned. "Fantastic," I muttered.
"Francis is running things from their beach house in Miami, Florida. I've already contacted the North Miami Beach Field Office to let them know we're not trying to invade their territory but Valois has been in our jurisdiction from the start." I nodded. That was pretty standard procedure. "Bash… I need you to go under cover. I know it's soon and Juliet just died, but no one knows this case like you do."
I sighed. I couldn't disagree with my Section Chief. Even though I knew I wasn't ready to go back into the field, I had a job to do. "Fine," I said.
"One more thing. We're giving you and new—"
"Nope," I said, stopping him. "Do not say 'partner.'"
"Bash, suck it up. As your superior, I'm assigning you a new partner, end of discussion." He looked up. "Ah there she is right now." He walked around the round table to the door. I turned around as he met her. "Agent Stuart, thank you for coming."
The young woman smiled and shook his hand. "Please, call me Mary."
...
A/N: Chapter 02 coming soon! Review to let me know what you think! -heart-
