My mojo came back....FINALLY.
If you haven't noticed, my postings have been lagging, 'cause my muse ran away to lay with the pixies over in Sierra's world...but they're back now! I'm so happy...
It looked like some strange convoy to anyone that was lucky, or unlucky, enough to be in the area that housed the warehouse. Thirty-one members of various motorcycle gangs, three government issue SUV's, and lots of weapons, converging on an out of the way, defunct storage facility. It was an interesting sight to say the least.
Unfortunately, what Doug's messages to Smokey hadn't conveyed was the extensive security lining the outskirts of the warehouse's property. From her protected vantage point of the second SUV Garcia could already tell that the security cameras had been rigged. There was no way there'd be any data to prove that T.J. was here, or Emily and Hotch for that matter. The fences and barbed wire were high, too high to jump. The only entrance was also the only exit. It was barb-wired, chunky and triple-padlocked. Whoever ran this place had definite security neuroses. But considering it was probably T.J. running this place, Garcia figured he was right to be worried. She knew Morgan would be attempting to gauge his success at scaling the fence. The third SUV, the one that had been impolitely tailgating her and Rossi down the road, had parked next to her. She wasn't sure but she thought it seemed familiar. That was about the moment that the window closest to their car slid down. JJ waved from the inside.
"Make sure she stays there." Rossi said as he hopped out of the car. Garcia nodded, close to forty-odd men and two women…this could end badly.
Smokey had known there were three cars following them out to the warehouse. He had hoped it would be Shadow's family. She needed their support. As much as he had accepted Shadow, she didn't know that yet, and he had no idea what condition she would be in when they finally got to her. He just hoped her family would find him first. If they tried to assert their authority here, without his okaying it…bad things would happen. This was his turf at the moment, and they were merely trespassing. He would make them his visitors, his vassals, but they needed to come to him directly. They had to show their allegiance was to him and Shadow otherwise there was absolutely nothing he could about it. The men he had gathered did not take kindly to Police, and even less if they appeared to affront Smokey. Especially since this was his exploit.
Rossi and Morgan traversed through the crowd to Smokey. They understood this pack dynamic. They needed the okay from the alpha dog. Rossi motioned for Morgan to get behind him. Morgan's temper might get the best of him, especially considering what had just happened with Kevin Lynch and Ambassador Prentiss. Dave was actually quite impressed Morgan hadn't punched a fist through a wall yet. They had left Reid and Bordeaux stationed by the cars. No one was going to take Reid seriously yet, not when Morgan and Rossi had dibs on the intimidation walks. Reid couldn't walk with intimidation if you paid him, and sometimes that's exactly what the FBI expected. Thank goodness the team had learned by now to keep Reid out of the picture if that's what was needed. They finally, after much 'polite' pushing and manoeuvring found Smokey Tom.
"Smokey." Rossi stated by way of greeting.
"Grumpy, Shaft." He nodded at them both, a mysterious twinkle in his eye. He knew full well his nicknames for them were not appreciated. No matter how 1970's cool it might have been.
"She's family man." Derek said. It was all it took. The surrounding men recognized immediately that these weren't just cops. These were her 'gang'. Her tight knit group of people that had her back no matter what. They couldn't deny them this right. Not now.
Smokey Tom smiled at the ease Shaft had made the men nearest him understand their situation.
"I've got about twenty men who are prepared to cover the sides and back of the building. Doug reckons it's this one." He pointed at the main warehouse. "He's been watching Creeper since first sighting."
Shaft and Grumpy nodded. They didn't seem to see anything wrong with following his plan…for the time being. He knew when they eventually got closer to getting Shadow and Severe out of there, all the rules would change. Smokey just hoped they understood that it couldn't look like they were in charge until that happened.
"We'd like to be round the front…" Grumpy began, "we've got some women with us."
Smokey moved so he could see back to their cars, he only saw Boy Wonder and a new man. Women?
"They're still in the cars." Grumpy answered the unspoken question.
Smokey nodded again, "As long as they don't expect to be a part of the take-down. It should be fine. My boys will steer clear."
"No…Mama and well…Momma aren't getting involved in this." Shaft answered.
There was no way his Baby Girl was getting anywhere near this building, neither was JJ. It was bad enough she had left Henry once again, Emily might never forgive him if she came out of that warehouse and saw that JJ had been inside.
Morgan looked around to see how ready these bikers were. He could see steel-tipped boots, chains, knuckle-dusters, meaty fists. Damn. These guys wouldn't even need the gut-load of guns and bats he'd seen piled up in the middle of the crowd on his and Dave's walk-through. These guys would beat you to a pulp with their broken and holey socks if necessary.
Smokey motioned for Doug and Lucas to follow them out to the cop-cars. They dutifully obeyed.
As soon as they were a five feet radius from the cars Garcia and JJ hopped out and joined Bordeaux and Reid. There was no way they were being left out of this information session.
"We all know who's in charge here." Smokey said. Lucas nodded wisely, until Smokey surprised him by turning to Rossi.
"First things first. We need to get past those padlocks. We'll do no good until we have free range inside."
"I can get through if we don't have bolt cutters." Boy Wonder said. He looked toward Smokey. Shaking his head, Tom sighed, that was practically the only thing they hadn't thought to bring. Strange.
Reid immediately began using his Las Vegas street tricks to open the padlocks. They were relatively simple. Relatively because for Reid, a lot of things that had been deemed complex for other people were when compared to him - effortless, and simple because for Reid, he could open these padlocks in his sleep. But he decided it would be more productive to open these particular padlocks whilst being awake. He also noted that he had practiced on this particular make of padlock last month. He had a lot of time on his hands to practice. One of the many perks of only needing to sleep for a maximum of six hours a day. He could survive on four indefinitely.
Ok, so in actuality it was a small start...but still. I'm getting there!
And everyone's together now....finally.
Arc
