Cascade City/County Detention Center

Hallway outside Cellblock #4

10:58 hours

Lieutenant James nodded as his second team notified him by radio that they were in place and ready to go. Tapping his ear bug radio with two sharp taps, he acknowledged. Looking over his chosen team, four good men, he smiled. "Ready to rock and roll?" The men nodded as he and his second man pulled the flash-bangs from their trousers. Keying his radio over to another frequency, he said, "We're in position, Stace. Open the locks."

//Locks open.//

Joey frowned at the toneless quality of the woman's voice, then gave the door in front of him a small pull and found it open. "Thanks, Stace." He keyed back to his tactical frequency. "On my command…"

Cascade City/County Detention Center

Control Room

10:59 hours

Stacie Harrington had flown into the Control Room, forcing Blair Sandburg to keep up with her. She was now seated before the massive control panels, operating the lock systems and watching the monitors with the intensity of a cat eyeing its prey. Moving on nearly silent feet, she felt Blair move into place right behind her chair, and couldn't help but notice that Commander Johansen and Captain Banks had come into the room behind him and were now looking over Blair's shoulders at the monitors.

// We're in position, Stace. Open the locks.// The sound of the tactical team's commander came over the radio link.

Reaching to hit the toggle, Stacie muttered under her breath. "This isn't going to work…" Swallowing against the dread rising in her chest, she hit the toggle switch and keyed the radio. "Locks open."

She barely noticed when Blair clasped her on the shoulder. Her entire attention was focused on the monitors and speakers before her, intent on doing her part of the job, even though she felt the mission was going to fail.

// Thanks, Stace.//

Taking a second to glance over her shoulder at the young detective behind her, she gave him a weak smile then returned her attention to the monitors. Just as Lt. James pulled open the door to Cellblock 4, she switched the main view screen, the one that had the best recorder on it, from the view that had shown the tactical team in the hallway to the one that showed the inside of the besieged cellblock.

Flash bangs went off in the day area of the cellblock, momentarily overcoming the camera with feedback, but the image cleared quickly. However, what the view now showed was not encouraging. Instead of a simultaneous entry from the main door and the service hatch, the teams entered in haphazard fashion, not as a cohesive unit.

The next few seconds were intense as the five-man team, which had entered from the main door into the cellblock, pulled up their stun shields and charged up their batons. The inmates and the hostages were obviously still trying to recover from the effects of the flash bangs, except for one of the hostages; Detective Ellison was on the floor, his arms pressed tightly to his head.

"Dial it back, dial it back, man." Blair whispered as if trying to reach his partner. Stacie couldn't help but overhear the plea, but had to keep her mind on the task at hand. The plan was rapidly falling apart at the seams.

Cascade City/County Detention Center

Cellblock 4

11:01 hours

He hadn't had enough time to readjust his hearing, and having his eyes assaulted at the same time nearly drove Jim Ellison nuts. The pain in his ears from the explosions and the total lack of sight, as the flash bang devices overwhelmed both senses, was nearly intolerable. Dropping instinctively to the floor, bringing his arms up over his ears in a vain attempt to push past the pain, he missed most of what took place around him. Instead, he concentrated on hearing the calm, reassuring voice of his Guide in his head, encouraging him to dial back the pain, to push past the sound ringing in his ears and reconnect his overloaded sight.

His sight cleared first and he rolled over onto his side to see five black clad men engaging the five inmates with what appeared to be clear plastic shields and riot batons that had energy discharging along the 'working' ends. As his hearing cleared up, he heard the sound of badly oiled hinges creaking somewhere behind him. The sound of the discharging batons crackled through the air, punctured with screams of pain, which reminded him too much of the last sounds of the men who'd made the infamous "List" in Starksville, just before Vince killed them in the ring.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

Jim snapped his head back to see the men who had entered the cellblock through the main door slowly backing away from the enraged inmates. Two of the men were clutching bloody wounds on their arms; another was dragging an unconscious inmate by his feet while the last two provided as much cover as they could. The hatch that had just opened behind him slammed shut, and the sound of a sliding latch grated across the room.

Rikky Martinez and Enrique Carbajal tried to push past the men who had stormed into the cellblock and were now dragging Sauel Guerruro, unconscious, from the room. Both of them had taken multiple hits from the stun batons and shields, but had been able to shake off most of the effects. Sauel hadn't been so lucky. He'd taken more than a half dozen hits from the stun shields and had fallen at the feet of the officers who were now dragging him out.

Manuel Perez and Pedro "Papa" Caledones had turned their attention away from the group that had rushed in the main door when the loud sound of the service hatch opening had reached them.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

The shouted command rang through the air, and before Manuel or Papa could reach the hatch, which had opened, it slammed shut and was secured. Pounding his fist against the hardened steel, Manuel showed his frustration.

Across the room, Rikky kicked at the solid door that had slammed shut in his face. "Mother fuckers!" Turning on his heels, he pushed past Enrique and stalked up to the five men he and his crew held hostage. Reaching out, he pulled Eric Blevins to his feet. "I should kill you right now, Blevins! Just to teach those assholes a lesson!" Putting his words to action, the enraged inmate backhanded the hapless guard across the jaw.

Jim flinched at the sound of the solid fist hitting the young man's chin, knocking the man out. "Martinez!" He shouted as he rolled back onto his feet.

Dropping the unconscious guard, Rikky turned to face Ellison. "What?! You want some of this, Ellison? 'Cause I'd love to have a new punching bag."

Shaking his head, Jim said, "No. What just happened wasn't Blevins' fault. Your anger is going to get you and your crew killed." He held his ground as the inmate walked up to him, invading his personal space.

"You think so, Detective?"

"I know so." Eyes locked together in another battle of wills, and an unnatural silence filled the cellblock. Knowing that it wouldn't serve anyone, Jim broke the eye contact first. "You need a negotiator. Someone who knows how the guards around here are likely to respond."

"Ellison!" Jim ignored Brodie Harris' protest, forced himself not to react as one of Martinez's men, Enrique perhaps, approached the guard who was trying to rise to his feet. The sound of Harris being subdued bothered him, but he had to get inside the mind of the inmate standing before him. Later, he'd try to explain to Harris and the others what he was doing.

Rikky Martinez smiled at the sound of the scuffle taking place behind him, which Jim couldn't see, and then looked up past him to someone else. Someone, who, according to the sounds that Jim could hear, hair brushing against cloth, was nodding. The sickly smile turned greasy, "You offering to help, Ellison?"

"Yes." And Lord help me if I fuck this whole thing up.

Cascade City/County Detention Center

Main Hall outside of Cellblock #4

11:11 hours

The scene that greeted Commander Richard Johansen as he barreled down the hall wasn't encouraging. "One, and two, and three, and four." Lt. James applied the compressions; while Valdez gave the breath of life to the inmate they had hauled out of the cellblock. Behind them, tending the cut on his upper arm, Williams called in the paramedics that had been on stand by.

Within moments, two paramedics were there, taking over the CPR as they tried to revive the inmate. A second set of paramedics had also arrived and was helping the first team set up a radio connection to Cascade General, hooking up leads to the EKG and warming up the defibrillator.

"Lieutenant! What the hell went wrong?" Rick Johansen asked of his tactical team leader as he watched the paramedics work.

"I'm not sure, sir. Either the timing was off, or the inmates were expecting us, but I don't see how." Lt. James looked up the hall, and Rick followed his probing gaze. The team that had been sent to open the service hatch was approaching. "Excuse me, sir. I need to get the briefing from my men so I can give you a full report."

Rick stepped aside as the Lieutenant brushed by him, then turned to watch as the paramedics loaded the downed inmate on to a gurney and wheeled him away. Sighing, he turned to follow them down the hall, motioning for the injured members of the tactical team to precede him. "What a damn mess."

Cascade City/County Detention Center

Control Room

11:09 hours

Captain Simon Banks had watched the whole attempted rescue of the hostages in Cellblock 4 go down the tubes from the safe confines of the Control Room. Seeing his detective writhe in pain on the floor after the flash bangs had gone off had torn at him. His attention had been split between watching the action going down on the main screen of the monitors, and watching the youngest member of his team and the partner of the man who was in the middle of this mess. Over the speakers, the people in the control room could hear Lieutenant James give the order to fall back, and Simon had seen the tension increase across Sandburg's shoulders. The man had a death grip on the chair in front of him, his eyes locked on the screen. Stepping in closer to offer him support, Simon heard him mutter.

"Dial it back, dial it back, man."

Shaking his head, Simon placed his hand on the shoulder in front of him and watched as Stacie Harrington stopped the tape recorder, ejected the record, and inserted a new tape. "Sandburg?"

Blair shook as if he was trying to release the tension that had built up in him, then he turned to face his Captain. "So much for that plan, huh?"

"Sandburg. Blair. Jim's okay, you can see that for yourself." Simon nodded at the monitors where they could see their friend regaining his feet.

"For now."

Harrington slowly twisted her chair, dislodging Blair's hands from the back, and stood up, the tape held in a white knuckled grip. Simon noticed that she was just as tense as he and Sandburg were, her voice nearly shaking with frustration. "Tony? Take over. I need to view this in Briefing." The other tech nodded and the woman turned her attention towards him, a rueful smile on her face. "I could use some help, if you're interested, Captain? Blair?"

Curtly nodding, Simon took the technician up on her offer and with a kind arm thrown over the shoulders of his detective, followed her out of the room to the briefing room that they'd visited earlier.

"Harrington? Any idea what went wrong?" He asked as he and Blair walked behind her in the hall.

Stacie entered the briefing room, holding the door open for the two men accompanying her as she answered the Captain's question. "A few. One of which is that the service hatch in there probably hasn't been used since the facility was built. I was surprised that Yost was able to get it to open at all, let alone secured again after the 'el-tee' gave the order to fall back." Closing the door behind them, she walked over to the TV/VCR and loaded in the tape. "Captain, before I start this, can I get you and Blair some coffee?"

Sandburg answered before he could. "I'm okay, Stacie." Simon waved off her offer as well, and watched as Blair pulled his glasses from his shirt pocket and gestured towards the VCR. "Let's get this over with." He had to agree with Sandburg. They needed to resolve this situation, soon. He pulled up a chair, and together the three of them started to review the tape.