It was all quiet tonight and I was in the lab running some evidence checks on blood samples to keep my skills up to date on the most recent advancements on blood borne bacterial transmosis, I had run this experiment twice so far and had conflicting results that annoyed me. I hit the mass spec with the new batch test and set the calibration and timer to send me a message once the results were in before I headed to my office and storage unit to do the weekly stock rotation for the medical kits. It was a solid couple of hour's work that could only be broken by a call or medical emergency so I made sure there were bags ready for the team in case there was a call and rotated the stocks one at a time. The good thing about this brain numbing work was it gave me time to process yesterday's events and deal with any lingering issues I was having, apart from a slightly restless sleep I was alright and had no other issues – I fulfilled my duties and we did everything we could.
"Officer Fraser, you have a call on line two!" a voice called over comms.
I frowned and picked up the phone and greeted whoever was on the other end, it was a friend from Kandahar and they had some news that I would want to know before it was made public knowledge, I sat down on the chair as he started to explain and I closed my eyes as the news sunk in.
An hour later I was waiting at the main gates for an official envoy from the Embassy, it was a beautiful clear night and I saw the car come around the corner and I stood at attention as a senior office stepped out the car and saluted me slowly; he went to the rear of the car and after getting me to sign an official document he lifted out a metal locker and placed it gently at my feet before saluting again. I returned the salute and thanked him, watching him drive off into the night, I looked down at the box and sighed as I lifted it up and walked back towards the barn and into the privacy of my office.
Two men were watching from the garage and one of them had made a move to come to me as the man slowly saluted, the other stopped him and shook his head slowly as they watched what was brought out of the boot and what I signed, they watched me as I carried it inside carefully and the older man turned to the younger.
"Why did you stop me going over?" Ed asked.
"That was a personal moment," Sam replied.
"What do you mean 'personal moment' – she received a metal box from the military?"
Sam turned around to Ed and nodded.
"Yeah and I have received over four of them in my career, all from dead friends."
He walked off leaving Ed to realise that it was the personal effects from a friend or colleague who I had been assigned to receive the locker, he made a move to go back into the barn and find out if I needed anything.
I closed my office door and went back to the table where I had laid the container, I took out the key from the chain and lifted the lid which was heavier than expected and I realised why; I took out the flag and official military documents in the sealed pouch and picked up the photo album, flag and the letters, hundreds of letters all secured into bunches and put into a separate box. There was a clearly new letter written to me in the last few weeks, I couldn't read it now so I put it to one side beside the official paperwork. I secured the other key from the military documents and opened the lid unit – I closed my eyes and breathed.
I was standing on the roof of the barn later on in the morning gathering my thoughts after I had stored and secured the locker into my medical cupboard where no-one would find it, I was thankful for that secure locker where most of the controlled medication was kept and it gave me some privacy if I needed to store things there; the stars were still out in force and it was really cold now, the weather had turned chilly again just after midnight and I was suited and booted in case we got a call and I needed to make my way quickly down into the garage – a few moments later I heard the alarm go off and I took off at a run down the stairs and cleared the weapons locker of my equipment and firearms. The truck was already gone with Spike heading to the location for advanced Intel and Ed pulled me to the side so I could ride with him, he even passed me the keys so I could drive – that was a sign he wanted to talk but keep me busy so I would have to answer him. Winnie was giving us information and passing it to Spike who had just arrived at the location, the boss came on over our radios and he was sounding slightly stressed due to the info gathering.
"Listen up team as this is going to be a busy one tonight if it goes pear shaped. Shots have been fired at a restaurant about an hour ago, three injured and two gun men in play with a possible third which were trying to find out; Ed and Jules you're on sierra, Wordy, Sam and Mac – tactical entry and medical as required. Spike will be uploading details to your PDA's ASAP – the Mayor is inside guys and we need to pull this off without a hitch."
"Copied" we all replied over the radios.
Ed leaned over and muted my headset; I looked at him and frowned as I had no idea why he wanted to talk to me privately?
"What's up Ed?" I inquired gently.
"I'm going to ask you the same question, you getting deliveries at work now?"
I stilled in my seat and glanced at him, how the hell he found out about the car? I checked the area to make sure no-one was there and the car park was empty, even the main floor was empty as I carried the locker in and down to my office.
"A friend delivered some items from home, no big issue Ed, been waiting on them for a while." I replied.
"Didn't know you had a house in Kandahar or that the embassy was a delivery service – do you want to try that answer again?" he replied annoyed.
I snapped my head to him again and glared, I sure as hell was not getting into this conversation moment before going into a high stress situation and dealing with his insistent questions in my head was going to give me a headache.
"Mac what's going on with you tonight?"
"Drop it Ed, not happening!" I replied sharply.
"Sam and I both saw the delivery, we're both just concerned!"
"Ed – take the hint and drop it!" I demanded switching my comms back on.
I continued to drive along the convoy route and I checked through the comms on ETA and status of the injured, so far so good but we all knew that could change at any moment, we finally arrived and we all took up our allocated positions and waited on Jules and Ed to get into a clear position to give us advanced eyes in; I skimmed down the front of the building and planted a couple of micro cameras and listening bugs to give us a heads up on a separate location for secondary containment. Spike confirmed what was going on inside the building and then came to join Parker outside so we could deploy to start a double entry technique to confuse the hostage takers and give us direct access to the hostages. I checked my kit and strapped on my immediate equipment to my vest and legs and cleared with the EMTs to be ready on my order. Three minutes later we entered the building and took the surprised armed men down in spectacular fashion with me and one of them men going through a double glass door and ended up with an arrest for the books. I strapped on his handcuffs and handed him off to the uniform on standby as I headed to the wounded and called for the EMTs to come to the main door to gain entrance.
Five minutes later the last injured was removed to hospital and I was cleaning myself up after pulling out some glass from my arms and upper leg from going through that door and crashing to the floor; I headed back over to where the team was and noticed the Mayor was there talking to everyone. I was introduced and he congratulated me on a nice arrest and was putting me in for an accommodation for the swift aid given to the wounded – I deflected the thanks from myself and passed it on to the team who had trained me and the EMTs who worked with us and never really got any praise. Since no shots had been fired we got to go straight back home after the evidence had been recorded and left in the hands of the SIU guys, all we had to do was go back and write our reports for the official call out details.
After my report had been written and checked in fast order, I got back to doing my stock rotation and was smiling as I heard Wordy and Spike talk about the new delivery due into the family after Wordy had let slip he was due to become a father again; it was great to hear everyone congratulate him as I slipped out to finish my work.