Randomly
Chapter 1: One of those early mornings
This morning was like any other. She woke up at 5:30, took a shower and drank her coffee. Black. No sugar. She needed some boost to start the day well. She looked throughout the window of the apartment. The neighborhood was calm at this time of the day. She enjoyed the silence, sometimes troubled by a random car passing. She took one last trip to the bathroom to check on her hair and grabbed the jacket on the sofa, the car keys on the piece of furniture next to the entrance door. She was early but it didn't matter, she didn't like to be late.
Atmosphere was more chaotic at Luca and Street's house. The two men were running out of time and Luca was still mixing fruit juice in the blender while Street was looking for his pair of black socks everywhere.
"Damn, almost 6:30, we should go! And where the hell are these socks?"
"The black ones?"
Street took his "come on, please" look and stared at Luca for some long seconds. "What else, bro?"
Luca burst into laughing, seeing Street's annoyed look. "I send you up! They're on the pinball machine, on the top of it. Didn't have a lot of place on the airer yesterday when I did the laundry. Had to innovate!"
He was proud of his innovative way to make laundry dry, parading like a peacock in the kitchen.
"Next time, try with your stuff."
"If you're not happy, next time you do the laundry."
Street finally laughed. "Well played! But I stick with cooking and running errands!"
He grabbed the socks from the pinball machine and sat on the sofa to put them. Looking at Luca drinking his fruit juice peacefully. He stood up and grabbed the remaining glass on the table, drinking it in a row.
"Hurry, Luca, we're gonna be late!"
Luca ran to his bedroom to finish getting prepared and got out a few minutes later. "Who's gonna be late?" He teased Street who was still lacing his boots.
"Not funny, man. I was the one checking after you all this time! When all you have to do was taking care of yourself!"
"And making smoothies and telling you where your socks were." He laughed loudly, tapping Street in the back and got out of the house.
Street soon imitated him, after taking his helmet and leather jacket. They had to leave quickly if they wanted to be right on time.
[…]
When they parked the car and the bike in the yard, Chris's car was already here. Street checked around but she was not outside. Must have come very early once again. It was becoming more common those days.
"Not even saying hello?"
Street almost jumped with surprise but recognized Tan's voice. "Trying to ghost you, apparently I failed."
"Ah ah ah ah very funny, Street! You ate a clown this morning at breakfast?"
"Don't be jealous of my acute sense of humor!"
"Don't be so presumptuous, man." Tan broke him, causing Street a big laugh.
"What's so fun here?"
"Surely not, Street!" Tan continued. "Hey Deac, what's up?"
"Thought I was late. Had to drop kids at school this morning. Annie's back at law school. Still organizing."
"No nanny?"
"Not yet… Annie's mom is helping but she's not totally operational with the kids's crazy schedule. We see some people next weekends. Hope to find the rare gem!"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Hondo popped from nowhere and joined the convo. "How is everyone going?"
"Hey boss! How was your day off? Nichelle is good?" Luca asked. He remembered Hondo had to leave in a hurry after the last shift because Nichelle called him from ER.
"Yeah Luca, Nichelle is fine. Just a couple of stitches. Next time, she'll be careful tidying her book shelves!"
"Who could have believed books were an actual lethal weapon?" Tan joked.
"Never underestimated books!" Street announced proudly. "What? Why does anyone believe I'm a book worm?!"
The others burst into laughing at Street's remark.
"Really guys, I'm disappointed! I thought you believed in me!" He answered, falsely offended.
"We're waiting for a solid proof, that's all!" Deac concluded, very seriously before giving them a large grin.
The guys walked together, keeping teasing Street all way long up to the locker room and discovered Chris, already in tactical gear, when they opened the door.
"Already there, Chris?" Hondo told her, both surprised and impressed.
"Woke up early. Came here to enjoy the punching bag and the weights room by my own. Great way to start the day, by the way!"
"At this point, she's gonna crush everyone of us next year at evaluation."
"Don't be so sure, Luca. Still have a long way to go. But one day I will of course!" She laughed loudly.
"In that case, let me do some push-ups and sprints before starting work!" Street teased his best friend.
"Ah ah ah, Street, don't dream, I'll always beat you. Just scientific fact!"
"Ohhhhhh" Tan, Hondo, Luca and Deac waited for Street's counterattack. The man's eyes were bubbling with ideas. They could tell this.
"A challenge?"
"You wish!"
"I do! You, me, tonight, running along the beach. The winner pays beer."
"Deal!"
"Damn, I can't come tonight, promise Bonnie to help her with her work file, she needs someone to re-read the whole thing!"
"Can't either! Annie has a late lecture, taking care of the kids after work."
"And I won't let Nichelle fulling these shelves by herself! What about you Luca?"
"Damn guys, I have to go to Kelly's theater representation! She has the leading role, can't cancel!"
"Guess, it's only you and me then, Long Beach!" Chris gave Street a mischievous look.
"I'll make you a video of my glorious victory, guys. No offence, Chris!"
"Ah ah ha,be prepared to lose and to buy me a lot of beer instead!"
The buzz brought them all to reality. "We've got a case!" Hondo announced, seriously all of a sudden.
The team forgot about the teasing and focused on the assignment instead, hurrying to get ready quickly. Hicks was already waiting for them in the control room, focusing on the big screen in the middle of the room.
"What do we get, Commander?"
"Hondo! The man I was waiting for!" He nodded to the rest of the team, walking after Hondo in the room.
"Meet Alfonso Rodriguez, narco drug lord and more recently human trafficker."
"What a lovely man!" Deac whispered from the corner of the room.
"Yeah, a real gentleman." Hicks answered with irony. "He's been arrested three years ago but Austin had to release him, for lack of evidence. The man has connection in local political world and they were forced to let him go. Talked with the officer in charge of the case at the time earlier. Still pissed about this. He sent us the files by email. Started to read but there's like a lot of them."
"A little help, Commander?" Deac offered.
"I wouldn't say no!"
The team spent the next few hours to read the files and looked for the least clues, able to put them in the right direction. Tan and Street couldn't prevent from teasing each other, Chris tried to remain serious but couldn't help but smile from to time to their stupid jokes. Hondo and Deac were serious, totally focused on the mission, something exchanging their documents to be sure they read well.
"Wait, I could have something!" Luca yelled after hours of research.
"Thanks God!" Street answered, relieved. "No offence, Deac!"
Deac let out a laugh. "Tell us more Luca!"
Luca explained to them that the man had stocks in a company at Long Beach harbor. A company called "Sunshine". Founded two years ago. No address. Just a postal box somewhere in the LA San Pedro county. And several locations at Long Beach Harbor. Containers. Easy to send and gather stuff. Any kind of stuff: money, drugs, smuggling materials.
"Think it's time to roll!" Hicks nodded at Hondo, even before he ended his sentence.
"Already sent the coordinates on your monitor in Black Betty." Hondo nodded at Hicks and turned to his team. No need of words, the team ran up to Black Betty and got into it, at their usual spots.
Luca drove them to Long Beach harbor. A place Street knew too well. Hondo asked him some advice about the place during the ride. He explained to the team where the most tactical spots were over there. And on the contrary the places to avoid, because too exposed. Hondo nodded at all the tips he gave him and organized the mission in his head. Everything was clear in his mind when Luca parked the car at the entrance of the harbor.
Around them, there were thousands of containers, from different colors, some with something written on them, some with absolutely nothing on them. Letting everyone's imagination wander, wondering what could be inside.
"Street, Chris, climb on the containers there." He showed them a mountain of five red and blue boxes. Street, you guide us from above and Chris, you have our backs."
"Copy that." They answered at the same time before running to the place they were assigned.
"Tan, Luca, you cover the north side. Deac and I take the south side. According to Hicks's information, Rodriguez is hiding in one of those containers. Probably not alone and heavily armed. Everyone, be careful and watch each other's six!"
The four men split and ran to their spots. They all waited for Hondo's nodding to get into action.
"24 and 26-David in position!"
"Time to catch bad guys!"
At those Hondo's words, Tan, Luca, Deac and Luca kept moving through the containers labyrinth, with Street's indications as only point of reference. But he was good at these. He spent days, years there chasing criminals and he knew the place by heart.
"24-David to 20-David, rabbits just behind you, three men."
"20-David, copy. 25 and 22-David, take the right side, 30-David and I took the left. Let's surround those bastards!"
Deac, Hondo, Tan and Luca stuck the men between two boxes. One took in a hurry his gun but before he could do anything, his hand was hit by Chris's shot. He fell on the floor, writhing in pain.
"Don't tempt her, she never misses a shot!" Hondo advised the man in front of him, trying to get the gun in his back pocket.
Tan eventually caught the man hiding between two boxes. "Boss, got another one!"
"And I've got the last one!" Luca announced proudly, coming from behind another container. "Kudos to 26-David for this one!"
"Ah ah ah you're welcome, 22-David!" Street laughed at the other side of the radio.
"Be careful, your smile is so large, it could break your face into two." Chris replied with irony while tidying the rifle.
"Ah ah ah, don't be jealous, Chris. Just a good memory and a little bit of luck!"
She finally gave him one of her largest grins he loved so much. But the moment was suddenly broken and they both stopped laughing. They had heard the same sound. A loud noise coming from below them. It was coming from one of the boxes.
