THE MILLER ORDER
Tag to the series finale

SYNOPSIS

It's been two years since Melbourne was threatened with a nuclear bomb. Scratch that. Two nuclear bombs. Two years since those left in the Rainey family were taken down by the Cicero task force for their drug business, including Liam Rainey who initially had immunity. Two years since Yuri Gringko was taken down and the rest of the Russian mafia fled Melbourne. And two years since Senior Constable Michael Sandrelli was mercilessly gunned down at point-blank range.

The Cicero task force was disbanded and Senior Sergeant Charlie Lewis moved on from Tactical Response, re-establishing Senior Sergeant Lawson Blake as team leader.

Kerry Vincent was demoted to her former position as Inspector and assigned back to Tactical Response full time.

After disabling the first nuclear bomb, Sergeant Brendan "Josh" Joshua disappeared for a few days. He'd left his tactical gear at the bomb site after telling Lawson, who'd slept with his girlfriend, "We're done." It was Senior Constable Stella D'Agastino who convinced Josh to come back to the city and to the team.

Stella got better as time went on. The wounds caused from losing Michael still throbbed and ached whenever she bumped them, but she was getting better.

Leon managed to hold onto his job as Tactical Response's head intelligence officer, but Kerry hired him an apprentice to keep him in a constant state of professionalism.

The bad guys did their thing and the good guys did their thing. It took a few months but eventually TR were back on the streets responding to high priority calls and drinking bad coffee.

All was right in the world again.

Almost.

PROLOGUE

October 5th, 2011

The sun was almost completely set on another warm spring day in Melbourne. Victorian Police Commissioner Anna Vargas had decided to take a personal call outside the exhibition centre in an attempt to catch the last few drops of heat from the sun. As the sun burned its last rays for the day, Vargas glanced to her right and saw Senior Sergeant Charlie Lewis approach her. He'd changed out of his uniform but still wore the façade of authority. Vargas quickly ended her call and watched as Charlie got closer. He grinned at her as he closed the last few feet.

"You've come to threaten me for something else?" Vargas asked, sourly.

Charlie shook his head and came to a stop. "No," he told her, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I've just come to talk."

Vargas suddenly remembered how wrong things had gone the previous morning. "How's Sandrelli?"

"He's in surgery," Charlie informed, and gestured lazily to his head. "They're getting the bullet from his head."

Vargas nodded and tapped her phone in her palm. "That's good news, then," she said and started to walk the few meters back to the door she'd escaped the building from.

"Good news is often short lived," Charlie protested and followed alongside. "Even if Sandrelli survives, he'll still have a target on his back. You know what these guys are capable of. We've seen it before."

Charlie spoke seriously; drawing Vargas' mind back to an assault on an officer a few months earlier that had left the young officer fighting for his life. He'd survived the attack, only to be fatally gunned down outside the hospital the day of his discharge.

Vargas exhaled. "So what do you want to do? Organize around-the-clock protection?"

"Maybe," Charlie said, but that wasn't what he wanted. "Or you could let me debrief Lawson and the rest of his team on what they're really up against."

Vargas shook her head and glanced over her should at Charlie. "They're a smart team, they'll figure it out themselves. Probably sooner than you think."

"Anna…"

Vargas stopped and turned around. "If you told them you'd known about a partnership between the Rainey's and the Russian Mafia for months, you'd lose their trust."

"I don't have their trust to lose!" Charlie threw back without missing a beat.

Vargas continued walking. "I can't allow it," she said. "We employed Lawson and his team for their foot work. There's a bigger picture here, Charlie, you know that. Your job going in was to keep Tactical Response focused on the smaller one until it was time. It's not time yet."

Charlie shook his head. "The situations changed." He reached for Vargas' arm and turned her around to him. "Take the task force out of it for the moment. This is a kid we're talking about," he said firmly. "A kid whose team would do anything to protect him. A kid whose life you're gambling."

Vargas looked away and considered a solution. "Alright," she said, after a moment, and looked back to Charlie. "Go back to the hospital, talk to Sandrelli's doctor. If there's a chance he'll pull through, I'm giving you permission to conduct a Miller Order."

Charlie let go of Vargas' arm and chuckled in disbelief. He took a step back and put his hands on his hips. "That's your solution?" He asked. "Pseudocide?"

"It's two birds with one stone," Vargas explained; waving her hand beside her. "It's protection for Sandrelli without extensive man power, and it's a way to keep Tactical Response on the job."

"Motivate them by grief," Charlie stated and shook his head. "I mean, I'm assuming they can't know?"

Vargas walked to the glass door in front of her where an officer in uniform stood; keeping watch over Vargas. "It's the best I can offer," she called back.

When she was gone, Charlie turned on his heels and pressed his lips. He'd been keeping a list of secrets from the rest of the team, but keeping this one would be the hardest.

ONE

Stella walked into the locker room carrying her uniform in hand and her towel rested over her shoulder. Shannon and Christian were talking against their lockers, and Josh sat on the island bench in the middle of the room, looking at his phone. Stella tossed her towel on top of her locker then retrieved her red backpack and dumped it next to Josh.

She began folding her uniform and shoving it into her backpack. "Who's got your attention?" She asked and smiled at Josh when he glanced at her.

Josh shook his head. "No one. Just reading emails."

"You finally work out how to use that thing?" Stella teased; gesturing to Josh's iPhone.

Josh chuckled and stood up; locking his phone and slipping it into his pocket. "You have been a little shit all day," he said and lightly punched Stella's arm.

Stella laughed and swung her bag onto her back. "Hey, who's up for a drink?" She asked the room.

Before anyone could answer, Lawson bounced into the room from the office entrance.

"Wait on, wait on," he said hurriedly. He stood at the top of the room and made sure he had everyone's attention before continuing. "Sorry about this but we've been called into head office."

"What for?" Shannon asked, suspiciously.

Lawson shrugged a little and shook his head. "I don't know," he confessed. "Vargas just called Kerry and said she needed to speak to all of us now, so…"

"What, all of us?" Stella asked, equally as suspicious.

"Yeah," Lawson nodded. He waved his hand, "Look, quicker we get there, quicker we get it over with."

The team nodded unenthusiastically and piled out to the two TR cars parked in the garage.

When they reached head office, a junior constable was waiting for them inside the main lobby. He escorted the team up to Vargas' office.

"Nice," Kerry admired as the team scattered themselves around the newly renovated office.

It had a dark, polished pine wood desk at the head of the room sitting in front of a wall of book shelves. There were two leather chairs in front of the desk and a tall black desk chair behind it. A round conference table at the other end of the room could hold 8 people at full capacity, and the couch along the far wall provided extra seating space. Some framed photos of police working patrol hung on the walls as well as framed certificates of Vargas' accomplishments in the force.

The team took interest in the framed ornaments the most, then Josh made his way to the windows overlooking the city. Kerry stood by the conference table and Lawson stood somewhere in the middle of the room.

The constable who had escorted the team to Vargas' office stayed by the door until she arrived.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Vargas said as she entered the room and dismissed the constable. She walked straight to her desk and put down a black zip folder she'd been carrying. She gestured to the conference table at the opposite end of the room. "Let's have a seat, shall we?"

Lawson and Kerry sat closest to Vargas, as if subconsciously creating a wave of highest rank to lowest. Shannon and Christian sat behind them and Josh and Stella sat at the bottom of the table. Once everyone was settled, Vargas folded her arms over the table and got straight to business.

"I won't keep you for very long," she started, "there's just something you, as a team, have a right to know about." She took a moment; knowing very well her news was going to be hard for them to hear. "I'm sure you're all still very familiar with your involvement with the take down of the Rainey family drug business two years ago?"

The team stiffened at the memory.

"We lost one of our own in that take down," Lawson said coldly. "Kind of hard to forget."

Vargas nodded once at him and faced her palms up. "That's why you're here," she told him and looked back to the rest of the team. "What I am about to tell you may be hard for you hear, to understand, to comprehend. You'll have questions and I'll do my best to answer them…" She paused; questioning the best way to break the news "…Michael Sandrelli is alive. He survived."

"What?" Stella was the first to say anything, with her heart suddenly in her throat.

"Hang on, what do you…" Lawson trailed off. "How?"

Vargas nodded again and took a deep breath. "It's called a Miller Order," she explained. "It's when the police force commits pseudocide on the behalf of an individual to protect them. Sandrelli had a target on his back and had his survival been made public, he would never have been safe."

"Why didn't we know about this?" Josh asked; echoing the question on all their minds.

"It was my decision not to involve you," Vargas answered confidentially. "The less people who knew what was going on the more chance the Order had a likely hood of being successful, and it was. It was successful, Sandrelli Is ok."

The room fell silent. Everyone taking the moment to comprehend the information. A clock perched on a nearby wall ticked away at the seconds. Vargas watched them all carefully; trying to establish their reactions.

"Can we see him?" Shannon asked; echoing another question on everyone's mind.

Vargas looked at her wrist watch. "He's on a plane right now, flying in from Sydney. He was transferred to a Sydney hospital a week after the shooting. He's been recovering there since."

Another moment of silent fell among the table. The team now exchanged glances with each other, exchanging looks of confusion and suspicion.

Stella straightened up in her seat. "Do you know if he did… recover?"

Josh instinctively rubbed Stella's back when he heard the tremor in her voice. He leaned his free elbow on the table and rubbed his forehead. The experience of losing Michael flooded back to his mind. He blamed himself for Michael's death, and while Stella had eventually come around and told Josh it wasn't his fault, he'd never stop blaming himself. But Stella had suffered the worst. Michael had been her best friend, if not something more. Stella's response to losing Michael had seen her suffer each wave of grief in its most intensity.

"I'm told he's made an exceptional recovery," Vargas reassured. "Beyond what the doctors could have hoped for."

Stella nodded and the room fell silent again. Josh leaned back in his chair and shook his head. Christian clasped his hands together on the table in front of him and exhaled. Shannon folded her arms and fell back in her chair as well. Whereas Lawson and Kerry engaged in a silent conversation across the table.

With a nod from Lawson, Kerry placed her hands on the arms of her chair and looked to Vargas. "You said Michael's on a plane?"

Vargas nodded. "I've arranged a car to pick him up."

"No, that won't be necessary," Lawson chimed in and nodded to the team.

The team stood in unison and grouped together as they followed Lawson out to the hallway. Kerry had been on the tail of the group but stayed behind to catch a private word with Vargas; who had begun making her way to her desk. Kerry caught her attention and nodded towards the hallway.

"Those guys are never going to trust you again," Kerry stated. "You realize that, don't you?"

Vargas glanced to her office door where the team had disappeared through. "I did what was necessary to protect Sandrelli."

"So lying to everyone in Michael's life was necessary to protect him, was it?"

"If I thought you could have made a difference, I would have brought you in." Vargas said sincerely.

There was a brief moment of silence between them, until Kerry chuckled and shook her head.

The drive to the airport had been silent among both cars. Christian stared out his window in the backseat, while Josh kept glancing to Stella on the passenger side. The positions were mimicked in the TR 1, with Shannon starring out her window in the back seat, Lawson driving, and Kerry as the passenger. No one said a word. Their minds were revisiting the scene of the shooting, reviving Michael on the pier, praying over his hospital bed, saying goodbye, the funeral, the wake, and the painful weeks that followed.

They parked in the emergency vehicle rank outside the domestic terminal at Tullamarine airport. They grouped outside the cars and exchanged anxious looks with each other.

Inside, the team positioned themselves in a loose group at baggage collection. A set of sliding doors in front of them would be Michael's way out of the airport and each time the doors slid open, the team held their breath.

Christian had run up a flight directory hanging from the ceiling a few feet away from them. "Hey, there's a flight from Sydney that landed two minutes ago," he reported as he re-joined the group.

They anxiously waited for another few minutes until, finally, the wait was over. The team felt their stomachs drop then rise as the doors slid open once again and out walked a familiar tall man with dark hair and bright green eyes.

Michael.

He wore a white shirt under a black jacket, black worn jeans, and a dark blue beanie that pushed his dark hair against his forehead, and carried a black leather duffle bag by his side. Michael saw his team standing a few meters in front of him and smiled. They all starred at him wide-eyed, with mixed expressions of confusion and relief. He smiled sympathetically, one Lawson returned.

Stella stood a few feet ahead of everyone else, and as Michael walked closer towards them, she cautiously walked closer to him.

The closer he got to Stella, the more Michael he could feel his chest and throat tighten. "Hey," he said when there was only a couple feet between them. He tried to smile at her but couldn't help suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

Stella's heart pounded anxiously in her chest. She could feel her hands shaking and her with each breath, she felt her mind reprocess reality. "Hey," Stella replied, softly, fearing anything louder would see her voice break.

They stared at each other for what felt like hours. Each silently questioning if the experience was real.

Michael took a sluggish step forward and shook his head slightly. "I'm so sorry," he exhaled; feeling the overwhelming emotions burn under his skin.

Stella closed the last few inches of space between them and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Michael immediately returned the action by wrapping his free arm around her; holding Stella tight against him. Deciding it wasn't enough, Michael dropped his bag on the ground beside him and wrapped his other arm around her, too. They both closed their eyes and buried their faces against the other's shoulder.