Mixing business with pleasure was something that Adam Cole enjoyed, if the opportunity presented itself. Tonight was one such occasion. He was about to attend an auction party at one of Stamford City's finest hotels, the Four Seasons. Expensive wine and food would be on offer, while high quality jewellery was auctioned off to the rich and famous guests. On Cole's arm for the night would be Lucy Thorne, his boss at Stamford City Police Department's Intelligence Division, and, unbeknownst to the rest of the team, his girlfriend of several months.
"Nights like this are exactly my kind of thing," Lucy said in a prim and proper English accent as they got out of opposite sides of the chauffer driven black saloon car that had brought them to the Four Seasons.
"It definitely is," Cole said, almost drooling as he waited for her to join him for the walk into the lobby. She sure looked the part, with her hair styled in loose curls that reminded him of an actress from the 1940s or 50s. The vintage theme continued with a sleeveless light grey dress that tastefully accentuated her athletic figure. The look was completed with glamourous black leather opera gloves and matching black high heels. She looked more Hollywood starlet than a former MI6 operative, and it turned Cole on big time.
For his part, Cole didn't look much like a detective either, with his long hair down and wearing an all white business suit, dark grey shirt and black bowtie. By his own admittance he was quite a vain, cocky man, and he looked forward to himself and Lucy putting the other guests to shame.
"Let's go knock them dead," he said as Lucy linked arms with him.
"Poor choice of wording," she said quietly.
Ideally, there would be no knocking anyone dead on this particular evening, although they were attending the event on undercover Intelligence Division business. One of detective Charlotte Flair's confidential informants had provided a tip off that the auction was going to be the target of an armed robbery. If so, it would be the third such auction robbery in Stamford in as many months. Commander Thorne intended it to be the last, too, if it happened. If not, then it would be an enjoyable night out, paid for on expenses.
"Good evening, sir, ma'am," a member of the hotel staff said when they made their way through the revolving door into the lobby. He was fairly young, with short black hair. Befitting the hotel, he was wearing an expensive back suit. "Are you here for the auction?"
"Yes, we are," Cole said.
"Take an elevator to the fifteenth floor. It is marked 'Conference Hall'. Have a good night."
"Thank you," Lucy said. They proceeded across the lobby, arms still linked.
"I have commander Thorne and detective Cole inside the hotel. Are you receiving me?" The voice belonged to officer Bayley Martinez, Intelligence Division's newest recruit. It came through a small earpiece that would be all but invisible to a casual observer. Lucy was also wearing one, along with a tiny microphone hidden in her left glove. Cole had one in his left cufflink.
Thorne made like she was scratching an itch on the side of her nose with a finger of her left hand. "Receiving you, Martinez," she said quietly, but loudly enough for the microphone to pick it up.
Martinez was outside the hotel, parked just up the street in an apparently ordinary and insignificant dark blue van. With her was Clementine Everett, Intelligence Division's tech expert, and Lucy's adopted daughter. The two of them were out there for surveillance, in case there was any sign of a crew of armed robbers arriving at the Four Seasons. Uniformed officers were staking out the rear entrance, able to make radio contact with Martinez if anything happened there.
"Do you think those microphones will pick it up if I tell you how sexy you look tonight?" Cole said once they were in one of the elevators.
"I don't know, but if they can, they probably picked up when you said it in the car, too."
"I did?" Cole asked, pretending not to recall it.
"You said you love vintage dresses, and find these gloves incredibly sexy for some reason. Trust me, I remember," Lucy said, gently stroking his cheek.
"Robbery or not, I want some sexy time with you in that outfit tonight."
"And there I was thinking I was the commander," Lucy said, putting some sultriness into her voice. Most people who knew her wouldn't have imagined she had that side to her, which only made it sexier for Cole, since he was on the receiving end of it.
The elevator door slid open on the floor where the auction party was being held, bringing the brief flirting session to an abrupt end. It was time to get their minds in the game, while pretending to look like they were just rich people on a night out. Classical music filled the air, along with conversation and laughter.
"Good evening," a smartly dressed waiter said as they walked through the open double doors into the conference room that was the venue for the festivities. The waiter had happened to be walking by the entrance with a tray half full of glasses of champagne. "May I offer you a drink?"
"You may. Thank you very much," Lucy said. When she spoke formally like that, her English accent became even prominent, making her sound very upper class. It was perfect for a setting like this.
Cole waited for Thorne to take a glass first, then helped himself to one. Tasting the champagne, he found it to be top quality stuff. It was hardly a surprise, given the venue.
"Lovely," Lucy said, savouring her first drink.
"It is," Cole said. "Shall we, what do they call it? Mingle?"
"Yes, that's the word," Lucy smiled. There was genuine happiness in it, even while they focussed on the job at hand.
Walking into the conference room, Cole saw a stage at the far end. Models would be up there later to show off the jewellery that the guests would be bidding on. There was a lectern at the front of the stage, where the auctioneer would do his thing.
Looking around the room, Cole made eye contact with Seth Rollins. Detective Rollins was also a member of Intelligence Division, as was detective Charlotte Flair, his supposed date for the evening. If any armed robbers did show up, they were going to have a big problem with four highly trained, armed detectives waiting for them. For now, Cole was carrying Thorne's gun under his suit jacket, since she had nowhere to conceal it with the dress she was wearing.
"Rollins and Flair are to our right," Cole muttered under his breath.
"I see them," Lucy replied quietly. "Don't you think they make a good looking couple?"
"They're probably thinking the same thing about us."
Lucy looked at him with the kind of expression that said she hadn't thought about other people picturing them as a couple before, and wasn't entirely happy about the idea. Cole was fine with that. They had already made the decision to keep the relationship private from the other members of Intelligence Division.
It wasn't long before the auction got underway. The first item was a silver necklace with three beautiful blue diamonds forming a pendant. It was modelled by a truly stunning blonde. Cole made sure not to let his gaze linger on her for too long.
"If only this job paid me enough to bid on that," Lucy said.
"You're the commander of this unit. I'm sure you make a fortune," Cole shot back. Banter was certainly not something they were averse to.
"I certainly don't make as much as I should for supervising you lot."
"Looks like Rollins makes more than you do," Cole said. He had spotted his colleague raising his hand to bid.
"He's just keeping up his cover," Thorne said. "Put it this way: if he can afford that necklace, he's on the take."
Cole laughed at that thought.
Sure enough, Rollins pulled out of the bidding before it came to a conclusion, to the feigned disappointment of Charlotte Flair.
"Uniform have got two men dressed all in black entering via the staff entrance at the rear," Martinez's voice said through the earpieces.
"Sounds like we could be in for some action," Thorne said quietly to Cole as she made eye contact with Rollins and Flair, giving them a small nod. They would have heard the same message from Martinez, and were now prepared to act.
Alerting everyone in the room was a possibility, but Thorne had decided ahead of time that if armed robbers stormed in, the Intelligence Division team would initially do nothing, allowing the situation to start unfolding before striking swiftly and effectively against the perpetrators.
A couple of minutes later, three men wearing black suits and ski masks emerged from the elevator. Rushing into the conference room, they started screaming at everyone to get down on the floor, and one of them fired a warning shot into the ceiling.
As screaming and panic filled the room, Cole handed Thorne her gun, also drawing his own. Their actions were covered by the mass of bodies around them.
"Get down, I said!" one of the men screamed, pointing his gun towards the group of people where Thorne and Cole were standing.
People started complying with the instruction. As well trained and used to working with each other as Intelligence Division were, they could often tell what each other were thinking without needing to verbalise it. Cole knew that this would be one such occasion.
The element of surprise was against the team of robbers. The last thing they expected was four armed operatives in the crowd. For that reason, the first two never stood a chance. As the crowd dropped to the floor, the Intelligence Division team remained standing. Thorne dropped one of them with a shot to the head. At the same time, Rollins dropped another, who had been standing a few feet from the first.
In the blink of an eye, among more terrified screaming, only one of the thieves remained. He was over by the lectern. Turning around and seeing that his buddies had both been expertly shot in the head rapidly changed his outlook on life. Standing and fighting was an option he ruled out instantly. Instead, he ran for a nearby fire exit.
"After him, Cole!" Thorne yelled.
Cole was already on the move before he got the instruction, as was Rollins. Not having to deal with wearing high heels, it was now up to the men to chase the fleeing suspect, leaving the two women to calm down the panicking members of the public in the conference room.
Charging through the door to the fire escape staircase, Cole had his gun at the ready. He could hear that he wouldn't be using it any time soon, as the sound of fleeing footsteps came loud and clear from a couple of floors below him.
"Suspect fleeing on foot down the rear fire escape!" Cole yelled into his hidden microphone.
"Let's catch the son of a bitch!" Rollins said, charging past Cole and down the stairs.
Cole took off after his colleague, both running down the stairs as fast as they could. The suspect had a good lead over them, and was a fast runner. Cole realised they were not making any ground on him. There was a possibility that he might lose them when he reached the ground floor and got out onto the street.
"He's getting away!" Rollins shouted when they heard the fire exit doors on the bottom floor clatter open.
When they reached the bottom floor themselves and emerged into the night, they saw that their prediction had been incorrect.
"On your knees! Hands behind your head!" Bayley Martinez was shouting at the suspect, who was still wearing his ski mask. His gun had been dropped to the floor. Martinez had her weapon pointed right between his eyes from a few feet away. She had apparently run over from the van that she had been stationed in to stop the pursuit in its tracks.
Rollins moved in to kick the gun away as the suspect obeyed the instruction that he had been given, kneeling down on the concrete.
Martinez kept her gun on the suspect, but used her other hand to toss a pair of handcuffs to Cole, who moved in for the arrest.
"You're under arrest for attempted armed robbery, and armed robbery," Cole said as he cuffed the man's hands behind his back. With that done, he ripped the ski mask off the suspect's head.
"You!" Cole exclaimed. It was the man who had greeted him and Lucy in the hotel's lobby when they had arrived.
A/N: Welcome to the fourth story in this series.
So, Adam Cole and Ms Thorne are in a relationship, and the team have successfully dealt with another group of criminals. But that isn't the main case of this story. We'll be getting to that next time!