Chapter 4

"Oh, shit," said Ballard suddenly, "Echo's stats are spiking. She's in trouble."
I hopped back into the driver's seat, starting the engine and peeling out of the parking lot. Take it easy, Seely, I told myself as I drove, weaving through the minimal late night traffic. If we we're going to help Ellis, we have to get there in one piece. A minute later, I pulled up in front of the club, cutting the engine.
Ballard opened the back doors, pouring out of the van while drawing his gun. I followed through the driver's door, drawing my weapon as I circled around the back of the van to follow him. I kept my gun pointed safely at the ground as I followed Ballard, my heart beating like crazy. Please, I prayed. Please let us make it in time. We heard a shot from inside the building, muffled by the doors and windows still separating us from Agent Ellis. "Oh, god," I heard Ballard breathe, his voice cracking with worry.
As we approached the building, I briefly wondered if Ballard could keep it together if we found Ellis dead. He seemed furious, but calm and focused. That was a good sign, anyway. I'd like to think I'm good in a crisis, levelheaded in the face of danger. But if that was Bones in there? I'd be running towards her full tilt, and who gives a damn about a careful approach?
There were a few more muffled shots and the doors were flung open, the next few gunshots ringing through the air. A man came running out of the building before I heard a 'pop' and he fell, planting his face in the pavement. Six of the beefy security thugs left the building after him, one checking to make sure he was dead and the others looking around for someone.

"Where's Ellis?" I hissed at Ballard. These guys all looked armed, and it really wouldn't do much good to get into a firefight with them. But if we needed to pull Ellis out and rescue her, they would have to go.

Ballard looked back at me and started shrugging when a volley of shots followed the thugs from the building, felling two of them. They scattered and a man ran out of the building, crouching down as the shooter followed him. The shooter was Agent Ellis, her lip bloody and her dress ripped, but she was holding a really big gun and aiming it at the group of thugs.

"Oh, fuck," I breathed, as one of the thugs raised his gun to shoot back at her. Ballard and I shot him in unison, both head shots. As the other thugs were looking around for us, Ellis had enough time to get behind some cover before they returned fire.

"FBI!" I yelled from behind a heavy van in the parking lot. "You are firing on a federal agent. Surrender your weapons!"

Several shots hit the truck I was hiding behind, followed by a rude, "Fuck you, Fed."

I looked at Ballard, who was crouched behind another car across an aisle from me. I signaled for him to go around the back side of his car, away from me, as I circled the other way. As we approached, one of the thugs managed to get the jump on Ellis, throwing her gun away as his buddies searched for me and Ballard. I couldn't get a clear shot at Ellis' attacker, and I worried for her safety, my heart painfully up in my throat.

Apparently I didn't have to worry. Ellis pulled some sort of ninja move, twirling and kicking her attacker, punching him in the kidneys and throat. Ballard took out another of the armed thugs as I approached them from behind, keeping as much cover as I could. "Lay down your weapons!" I shouted, surprising the four who were left.

Only years of muscle memory and quickly honed reflexes saved me as the thug on the far right raised his weapon to shoot me. Before he could pull it off, I put two bullets center mass. "I said, drop your weapons!"

The rest of the thugs complied, placing their weapons on the ground. "Kick them toward me," I ordered, nodding when all three complied. A glance back to Ellis showed her bringing her attacker down, hitting him once more in the face for good measure.

Ballard approached the guys, holstering his gun and taking out a pair of cuffs. While I kept guard, he twisted the first man's arms behind his back, holding them together with one hand as he snapped the cuffs on the man's wrist. As he was going for the second guy and Agent Ellis approached us, I holstered my gun to cuff the third guy.

Suddenly, five more men ran from the building toward us, though only one was armed. Ellis clothes-lined the guy with the gun, taking his weapon, but everyone else started brawling with us, including the guy that was already handcuffed. I ducked a punch before giving and taking a few more from the two thugs in front of me. Ellis and Ballard were both taking on more than one attacker, and were both winning. Man, I felt old.

I managed to get one guy knocked down before I saw someone running around the brawl out of the corner of my eye. "There goes Washington!" Ellis screamed, unable to escape the fight and go after him. Just before the figure passed me, I shoved the thug in front of me toward Ballard and whipped around just in time to catch a Washington brother around the chest. I kept turning him far enough to slam him against one of the cars in the parking lot. As I grabbed for his wrist to disable him, he pulled a knife on me, swiping it at my face.

"Hey, now!" I yelled, stepping back. "Why'd you have to go for the face?"

"Maybe I'm jealous," the guy quipped, trying to find a way to get past me by feinting first one way or the other. I saw his feint for what it was, moving to block his escape and he jabbed at me again, aiming for my belly this time. I managed to let the blade slip past me, grabbing his wrist and turning it outward far enough that he dropped the knife. I twisted his arm behind his back and pushed him so he was pressed face first against the car. While he moaned in pain, I got his other arm immobilized and slapped the cuffs around his wrists.

"Alright, Washington," I said, glancing back to check on my fellow agents, who were doing surprisingly well, "you're under arrest." I read him his rights and walked him back to where Ellis and Ballard were immobilizing the rest of Washington's crew. Flipping open my phone, I called for backup, now required only to get all these detainees into holding.

"Say," I said to the Washington brother, "you wouldn't be willing to tell me your first name, would you?"

"Sure, Fed, sure," he drawled, his voice covered in sleaze. "Full name's Horatio von Up-your-ass."

"Ha, ha. Very funny. I'll take that as a no." I pushed him down onto the concrete. "Sit right there, bucko. If you move, I'll shoot ya."

"You're one of the good guys," he said, sounding really very unconcerned. "You're not supposed to shoot an unarmed man."

"Yeah," I replied, "that's what my shrink keeps telling me."

When help arrived and most of Washington's crew had been loaded up in the paddy wagons, I finally got a chance to ask Ballard and Ellis about what had just gone down.

"I don't know," Ellis sighed. "Everything was going great. People were havin' a good time, drinks were flowing and we had just started to talk business. All of a sudden Washington gets this call that sends him over the edge. Started yelling about how this was a set-up and how I was a cop."

"Any idea who tipped him off?" Ballard asked, rubbing the fingers of one hand with the other.

"No idea. Paul, are you okay?" she asked, grabbing his hand gently.

"Yeah, Echo. I'm fine. Just jammed a few fingers during the fight."

"You should put some ice on that," I suggested. "Once Parker, my son, went down the slide head first and jammed his finger on the way down. It swelled up to three times its normal size by the next day."

Ballard chuckled. "Yeah, okay. I'll get an ice pack from the bus over there," he pointed to the ambulance and jogged away.

"I'm sorry this didn't go as planned, Ellis," I said as we watched Ballard go. "I just wish we knew where the tip came from. If we've got a dirty cop…"

"If you've got a dirty cop in your department, you've got a dirty cop. It happens. Don't go beating yourself up about it. We brought in one Washington tonight, so it's not a total loss."

"But how are we going to get enough evidence to charge him? Caroline does not like messy arrests."

"If his fingerprints come back Nathan Washington, we have enough evidence to charge him for fraud and money laundering, which could give us more time to find better proof for the human trafficking bit."

Ballard came back to the conversation, hand swaddled in an ice pack. "I just heard your guys saying they couldn't fingerprint Washington because he's burned them all off."

"Seriously?" I asked. "What the hell?"

Ellis punched one hand with the other fist. "These bastards just love being slippery little fuckers. There's got to be some way we can determine his identity."

I held up a finger, getting a thought. "Let me talk to my people in the morning. I'll see what I can do."

Ballard nodded. "C'mon. I'll drop you off at your car so we can all get some sleep before morning catches up with us."

"Yeah, thanks," I said, handing him the keys as I followed him back to the van.

I took shotgun, while Ellis sat in the back, letting Ballard take the driver's seat. When we got to the freeway, I turned in my seat so I could look back at Ellis and over at Ballard.

"Okay you guys. What was up with the ninja assassin moves tonight?"

"Specialized hand-to-hand combat training," Ellis told me. "Standard issue for undercover agents out in LA."

"What? Do you have a surplus of martial arts gangsters out west? Like in kung fu movies?"

Ballard laughed. "Not exactly. Mostly they just like to shoot at us."

"Damn," I sighed. "Here I thought you guys were cool…"

"Hey!" laughed Ellis. "I'm cool! You're right about Paul, though."

"Yeah, thanks, Ellis," he said sarcastically, engaging the indicator light as he merged into the exit lane.

"No problem, B! I got your back."

I looked back at Ellis, smiling at the way she leaned back in her chair, arms stretched over her head like she hadn't a care in the world. Too bad Ballard already had dibs, and I had this overwhelming love for my partner. I sighed. Bones.