Chapter 1 – The Siege
It'd been a hard day on the streets for Tactical Response. TR1 were completely bombarded with petty cases, and TR2 had been dealing with a siege for at least a day and a half. Sergeant Brendan Joshua and his team were really under the pump, and the only possible hope that they had of ending the siege that had drawn on for the greater part of their days was negotiations.
Finding his way out of the CCTV van, Josh trailed off to where TR1 had been pulling up after being called in by Leon the technical support at base. Exiting from the front passenger seat, Senior Sergeant Lawson Blake found his way to his close friend and fellow colleague.
"Still going is it?" Shannon, a senior constable in TR1 questioned in Josh's direction as she disbanded the vehicle, along with Sergeant Dominic Wales.
"Yeah. We've had Kerry on our asses the whole time. We really need to wrap this up, Lawson." Josh trailed off to his superior, eyeing him up for a moment.
"Alright. Josh, I need you to get Michael, Stella and Christian ready to breach the center. If I can't talk this guy down, we're going to have to use force." Lawson explained, adjusting his earpiece as he made his way to the communications tents. In his stride, the Senior Sergeant called in to Leon, "What's the story Leon?"
"Yeah Lawson, the offender now confirmed to be a Cameron Larose is ex-marine's. From what we can tell he's taken the entire center under his mercy to try and get back some money he lost in the construction of the facility. He's refusing to let up before he's fully endorsed of his twenty-five thousand dollars."
Rubbing a hand over his head, Lawson clicked his microphone in again and spoke in gratitude, "Alright, thanks for that Leon."
Finally finding himself in the communications tent, Lawson summoned all of the current occupants out of the tent, welcoming his own team in.
"Shannon, Dom, set yourselves up and get comfortable. I'm not expecting this to be a quick negotiation."
"Lawson, can I go primary on this?" Shannon piped up. It was no secret that Senior Constable was looking for an opportunity to prove herself. She was the second newest addition to the team, and her skills had been questioned by her peers and her leaders, time and time again. Turning his head to his fellow officer, Lawson contemplated the outcome and nodded his head, "Done."
Squeezing through the tight space that was left in the communication's tent with the team within, Lawson fixed a chair right next to where Shannon would be taking up Primary negotiator; he'd have to talk her through it – even if Shannon had at times proven that she was capable of running things on her own.
Leaning back in his seat, Senior Sergeant Blake signalled Dom to make contact with Josh and his team, to further confirm that they had taken their positions if an infiltration was required.
Only seconds past before the confirmation came, "They're all set, Lawson." Dom nodded.
Taking a piece of paper from a nearby note book, Lawson began scribbling away with a pen he'd found on the desk before him. Some small notes and a guide to dealing with the situation that was about to emerge; it couldn't hurt if Shannon had that little extra aid.
"If you get stuck, go by what I've wrote there. Make sure you keep on top; don't agree to any terms without first consulting myself and Kerry. Is that clear?" Lawson's eyes fixed themselves on Shannon, the utmost seriousness filling them.
"Got it." Shannon spoke after a brief pause, her eyes scanning over the notes that were before her; she was nervous. Even the most experienced of negotiators were nervous, but when you had the lives of thirty to forty people in your hands, the pressure was even greater. There was an extended period of silence, both on communication devices and amongst the teams, but it was broken by Leon's voice – "Connecting you now Lawson." And in that second, the connection between Tactical response and Cameron Larose was initiated.
"Mr Larose this is Senior Constable Shannon Henry of Tactical response."
"G'day Shazza."
"Mr Larose, I'm here to try and understand why you're doing this; can you help me understand that?"
"From what I hear you folks know the story. I just want my god damn money back; is that too much to ask for?"
"Cameron…. Can I call you Cameron? I understand that you want your money back but this isn't the best way to go about it. There are children in there with you and I'm sure they would be quite frightened with what you're doing, don't you agree? How about you let the people go and we can discuss exactly what we can do with the relevance to your money?" Shannon's eyes were locked on Lawson, watching him to see if he had been pleased with how Shannon was doing so far; he was.
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Cameron didn't speak for a long several moments.
"Nah, I've got the upper hand this way, Shazz – I think I'll be keeping my leverage. It's been a pleasure speaking with your darling, but I've got to go." And just like that, the phone call ended.
Biting his lip in frustration, Lawson gazed on as he listened to the beeping of the hang up tone. His eyes blinked with every tone and his lips looked dry from the sheer irritation of how close Shannon had got to talking him out of what he was doing; the man was actually considering it!
"Alright Shannon, we're going to give him a call back in a minute – give him some time to really linger on what you said."
With a simple nod, Shannon stood up from her seat and left the tent. She needed some fresh air. Her ears were burning and the back of her neck was on fire. Her head felt like it was going to explode and she could hear the sound of her heart pumping vigorously in her ears; there was just so much pressure that came with the job. Brushing her hands over her face, Shannon found that she was eventually pulling her hair into a tighter pony tail than it already was, heaving a sigh of relief that she had done so well in the primarily first attempt at negotiating with Cameron Larose.
Josh and his team remained positioned at the entrance doors to the facility, their ear pieces receiving everything that Shannon was saying when she was conducting the negotiations.
"Lawson, I don't think it's a good idea to have Shannon on Primary for this." Josh spoke simply into his microphone, whole heartedly hoping for Shannon to hear. It wasn't that the group lacked faith in her; it was more that Josh was worried that if all of this was to go down hill, Shannon would have to deal with the heart wrenching reality that she had gotten several young children and many older people killed.
"She's got this, Josh. If she's starting to lose her feel for it half way through I'll pull her out, otherwise it's my call and I'm having her take Primary."
"Whatever you say Master and Commander." Josh growled deeply into his receiver, both Michael and Christian chuckling away at Josh's reference.
Leaning back on the wall for support (as well as cover), Michael took a glance through the transparent sliding doors that were before them.
"What if we have to go in Josh? The place is huge, there's no way were going to locate Cameron before he makes for an escape."
"Michael, we've got teams on all exits – use your head Muppet." A grin escaped Josh's lips and Christian was still chuckling along from what Josh had called Lawson, but Michael face was rock solid. A glimpse of shame flashed across his face at his question and the response he'd been given. "Good point." He lipped over to his superior, taking back to the cover, his head clunking back against the wall.
Shannon couldn't find it within herself to return into the communications area until she was summoned by Lawson. The smallest of moments inside the tents confounds felt as if it were hours – hours with pressure and responsibility sitting firmly atop of your shoulders.
Dom was sitting casually in the background with his head rested comfortably on his hand which was supported by the table holding up the Sergeants elbow. Lawson was positioned at high alert right next to where Shannon was sitting; just as before. Shooting a gaze in Shannon's direction, Lawson invited her to take the phone call again, "Ready?"
"Ready."
"Alright Leon, connect us." Lawson once again leaned back in his seat, folding his arms over as he watched Shannon waiting for the voice on the other end to return; it didn't. Shannon's eyes flashed from the paper in front of her to Lawson and back again, before finally, her eyes settled on her superior; she was confused.
"No answer." She spoke simply, and Lawson sprung up off of his seat and vanished out of the communications tent, following through to the CCTV van.
"What've we got? Any movement?" he queried, gazing from screen to screen.
"None. Camera's have been showing the same thing for hours now." One of the observers informed.
Standing in silence for a moment as he contemplated the possibilities, Lawson cussed under his breath and finally transmitted his voice to all units, "Josh, get in there. CCTV footage has been tampered with. It looks like he's had tapes replaying. God knows if he's even still in there."
Before Lawson could even finish his explanation, Josh, Michael and Christian entered the facility clearing the first several rooms, while Stella held her position away from the group and in a vantage spot as a sniper.
Through the searches of the entire facility, Josh and his team found nothing, but the hostages were pinpointed and were safe.
"Lawson, we've got the hostages secured but there's no sign of Larose." Josh informed the negotiator.
"Copy that." Lawson responded simply.
It took several hours for all the equipment to be cleaned up and packed away. Both TR1 and TR2 were fatigued and both were extremely frustrated with the result of the siege.
Lawson was pleased to have secured the hostages in a safe manner, but to have successfully captured Cameron would have put the icing on the cake.
"How do you think he got away, Lawson?" Josh queried as the teams began to return to their primary vehicles.
"Honestly Josh, I don't have the slightest idea. My moneys on the underground car back. Team seven wasn't positioned until the second call took place and that was more than enough time for Cameron to have escaped on his own. Have we questioned the hostages to see what they know?"
Dom disbanded from the group of younger officers and formed in with the leading officers in TR, giving his own contribution to the conversation.
"Uniforms just finished with them, Lawson. They don't know anything."
"Shit. Well, we've got to tell Kerry how things panned out. Go home, get some rest, we'll debrief in the morning."
Morning came and Tactical Response found themselves back and headquarters. Each and every one of them was just as tired as they were the night before; after all, sleep wasn't easy to come by when the mind was lingering on exactly what had happened to Cameron Larose after his escape. Lawson had been the first on base, prepping for debrief and explaining everything to Kerry, whilst Josh followed in just after to start a work out in the gym, followed by a shower. Michael, Christian, Shannon and Stella seemed to come in at the same time – right before debriefing began.
"Yesterday wasn't the best outcome, but, with the negatives set aside, saving those hostages was a great act. As a team we worked well, as a unit we worked well and in our specialist roles we worked well. Cameron Larose is currently being tracked by uniforms; any information found on him is immediately sent to us. We've still got that case." Lawson put blandly, watching as his team filled out the paper work that was necessary. Kerry had found herself sitting in the corner of the room with her regular brown curls, black leather jackets and black jeans accompanied by heeled boots and a white undershirt. It was a casual and yet professional look; one that only she seemed to be able to pull off. Everyone else was already suited up. Their vests were on, their hair neatly out of their eyes and their combat boots done tightly to ensure comfort and support.
"Unless Inspector Vincent has something to add, I think we can get back out on the roads?" Lawson glanced back at Kerry almost in an inviting fashion. With the invite, Kerry gave an arrogant and sarcastic smirk, before standing from her seat, her hands pocketed and her eyes centered on the team before her.
"Media's going to make this all seem like a shit storm. I'm not going to sugar-coat it because they're not. If you have an issue with keeping your emotions in check, I suggest you take the next few weeks off; because you guys are going to be copping a lot of shit." Kerry put simply, directing the majority of her speech at Josh. It was inevitable that Brendan Joshua would lose his temper at one point or another – it had happened at least three to four times in the past, and he had only narrowly kept his job as a result.
"That's all I've got to say. Go, work." Kerry shooed her peers off with her hand as she marched irritably out of the room.
Josh's attention was barely on the conversation at hand; in fact it was more on his report in which he was filling in before him. Signing it off, each of the Tactical Response team members placed their sheets on a pile and vanished out to the garage. The vehicles were set and ready to be taken out. All that tactical response needed now was a job or two to get their day on an eventful roll.
