Chapter 28: Helping Hands
[A/N: Thanks to another alert guest reviewer, I came to the realization that I've put a lot less "Aiden/Watch Dogs" content in this than I had initially thought. Hopefully what I've put here will rectify that oversight. I want to just take a moment to thank all of you reviewers who have taken the time to give me some honest criticism without being abrasive, disrespectful, or mean. I very much appreciate it and have taken your thoughts under advisement.]
CPD District 34
30 Minutes Later
As everyone filed out of the conference between the Chicago PD and the FBI, Captain Broussard took Harrison aside to a corner of the hallway to talk with him privately.
"What possessed you to bring in the goddamn FBI without telling your superior officer?" Broussard discreetly scolded, "I'm your squad Captain for Christ's sake!"
Harrison sighed. "I'm sorry, Captain", Harrison said, "All I did was call Dean McCain knowing that the FBI would want in on a possible shell company investigation. I had every intention of telling you, your wife, her squad, and Commander Brooks, but I had no idea McCain would show up with a whole damn platoon of field agents practically an hour after I hung up with him."
The captain took a moment to compose himself. "Fine then", he finally said, "I'll do you a favor and try to smooth things over with Kathy, Asher, and Machado. But, in return, do me the courtesy of calling me before you bring in anyone else next time."
Harrison nodded. "Understood, sir", he said.
As Captain Broussard walked back toward the squad room, Harrison's cell phone suddenly rang. "Harrison", he promptly answered.
"Detective", Aiden Pearce said from his end of the line, "It's Aiden Pearce. I found a possible location for my sister, Nicky. Thought you might want a heads up."
"Aiden!" Harrison replied in a soft yet scolding tone, "Do you know that there's a warrant out for your arrest? The news is saying you're 'The Vigilante', not to mention every cop in the city is keeping an eye out for you!"
"I can't worry about that now", Pearce said very candidly, "I need your help to deal with these guys who have my sister."
Harrison sighed and groaned out of frustration. "Fine", he finally said, "Where?"
"A treatment plant warehouse in Brandon Docks", Pearce said, "Just do me a favor and don't ask me how I got the info. Trust me, you don't want to know. I just texted you the GPS coordinates."
"Okay", Harrison said after receiving the coordinates as promised, "I'm on my way. I'll be bringing some backup, but we'll make sure to keep our distance until you need us."
"Understood", Pearce replied, "Thanks. I won't have time to wait up for you, so call me when you arrive." He quickly hung up.
Harrison clipped his phone back to the belt loop of his jeans before seeing Voight, Olinsky and McCain in the hallway. "Hey fellas!" he called out as he waved them over.
The two detectives and the FBI agent came over to Harrison in the corner of the hallway. "What's up?" Voight asked.
Harrison shushed him. "We should keep our voices low", Harrison said, still keeping his tone slightly muted. "I need some backup for a rescue mission", he continued, "but let's just say things may not be on the up-and-up."
The three men took a moment to consider what Harrison had said. "Let us be the judge of that", McCain said, "Does it have something to do with that Pearce guy again?"
Harrison nodded. "Yeah", Harrison said before explaining what Pearce had said on the phone call. "I just forwarded the coordinates to your phone", he said to McCain, "Can you bring a few of your agents along with us? Knowing the people that Aiden's been going up against, I expect whoever's holding Nicky Pearce hostage may be packing a shit-ton of firepower."
"Sure", McCain replied, "I'll call Doc Bartholomew and the task force and have them chip in too."
Treatment Plant Warehouse
Brandon Docks
A nondescript green 1999 Isuzu box truck slowly inched down a cramped road beside the raggedy chain-link fencing that surrounded an abandoned water treatment plant warehouse in the city's waterfront Brandon Docks district. Inside the truck were Detectives Harrison, Voight, and Olinsky as well as CtOS Task Force members Dr. Neal Bartholomew, FBI agent Dean McCain and three of his agents who had been at the meeting, and ATF agent Lavinia "Vin" Taylor. A plainly-clothed undercover male FBI agent was behind the wheel of the truck, and he soon caught sight of Aiden Pearce crouched behind a pale of old, rotting wooden pallets just near the threshold of the fenced perimeter.
"Detective Harrison!" the driver called out.
Harrison's face soon appeared in the small window separating the front of the truck from its rear compartment. "Yes?" he answered.
The driver agent pointed out the windshield. "I see somebody over there by those pallets", he replied, "A white male. He fits the description of your informant. Is that your guy?"
Confirming that it was indeed Aiden Pearce, Harrison nodded. "Yeah", he said, "That's him. Pull over here for a minute, please."
As the truck's speed began to gradually decrease, Harrison then turned to McCain, who had been sitting in the back of the truck with him. "Dean", he said, "Take off your FBI windbreaker for a minute and come meet Aiden with me. If any prying eyes are around and they see the letters 'FBI' or 'CPD', this whole thing could get blown to hell."
"Good idea", McCain replied as he and Harrison both removed their respective agency windbreakers, throwing them in the corner of the truck's rear cab for the moment.
The truck quickly came to a stop, at which point its rear door was rolled up and Harrison and McCain exited. The pair discreetly made their way over to the enigmatic hacker, being sure to stay low and avoid being spotted.
"Thanks for coming, Detective", Pearce whispered.
"Not a problem", Harrison replied in an equally low tone as he motioned to McCain, "This is Special Agent Dean McCain with the FBI. He's a member of our CtOS Task Force." He then gestured to Pearce. "Dean", he continued, "This is Aiden Pearce."
Pearce gave the agent the once over. "Is it just the two of you here?" he asked.
McCain shook his head. "No", McCain replied as he momentarily pointed back toward the box truck with an outstretched thumb, "We've got two other detectives, two members of our task force, and three other agents in the back of that truck there. What've you figured out so far?"
"I hacked the CtOS cameras", Pearce began to explain, "This place looks pretty fortified. It looks to me like my sister Nicky's being watched over by just one guy, but it also appears that every guard on the premises is armed."
McCain took a second to weigh their options before nodding affirmatively in response. "Okay", he finally said, "Are you armed?"
"I am", Pearce replied.
"Why don't you go in and try to extract your sister yourself?" McCain suggested, "If we were all to go in there at once full-force, all that ensuing gunplay could risk her life."
"That's a solid idea, Agent", Pearce replied, "But I think if they were to detect my presence, the gunplay would ensue anyway, which would be just as much of a risk to Nicky."
"Good point", Harrison chimed in, "So, what are you thinking then, Aiden?"
"I see that the guy watching over Nicky has his own cell phone", Pearce said, "I think I can take him out remotely by hacking and overloading a junction box in the room. Once he's neutralized, I'll call the guy's phone and try to guide her out of the building, hopefully without being seen or even detected by any of those guards."
"That's a little unorthodox", Harrison said to both Pearce and McCain, "And I don't know how you feel about it, Dean, but that sounds like the best idea to me. We let Aiden do his thing, guide his sister out as inconspicuously and safely as possible, and then we go in and deal with the bad guys once she's off the premises."
McCain nodded. "Agreed", he replied, "I'm in." The agent then reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and removed a small box, which he then handed to Pearce. "In this box is an earwig radio transmitter", he explained, "It will enable us to talk to you and tell you when to get clear so we can make entry when the time is right."
"Got it", Pearce replied as he removed the earwig device from the box and inserted it into his right ear, "My only request is that up until that point, we keep the chatter to a minimum so I can focus."
"Absolutely", Harrison said, "There's just one more thing, Aiden. I'm guessing, based on your extensive experience as a hacker, that you have some sort of scrambling algorithm on your phone so it can't be traced, right?"
Pearce then let out a very hesitant sigh and nodded. "Correct", he replied candidly.
"I'm going to insist that you temporarily deactivate that so we can hone in on your phone with our CtOS software", Harrison instructed, "This is so we can overhear your conversation with your sister and make sure everything is copasetic. It's purely meant as a safety measure for both you and her, I promise."
"Fine", Pearce said in an agreeable yet still somewhat reluctant tone, "Let's just do this."
A few minutes later, Harrison and McCain were back in the truck instructing the team on their agreed-upon plan. The always methodical Agent Taylor soon had Aiden Pearce's phone and GPS position highlighted on one screen of her laptop, while the feed from the warehouse's several CtOS cameras was simultaneously displayed on another screen.
"All right", Taylor said, "We're ready to rock and roll here, Troy. Connections and feeds to all the cameras and Pearce's cell phone are all good."
"Well done, Vin", Harrison said as he watched from over her shoulder, "Do you see any sign of Aiden's sister on the cameras?"
Taylor quickly used the CtOS facial recognition software to identify Nicole Pearce's position. The kidnapped 34-year-old single mother could be seen crouched down in a cluttered room, and as her brother had indicated, was being guarded by one solitary male subject. "Got her", Taylor replied, "She's roughly one to two hundred yards from your boy Aiden's current position."
Harrison gave Taylor an appreciative pat on the shoulder before picking up a portable radio and looking to Pearce's position on the opposite screen. "Hey Aiden", Harrison said into the radio, "I can see you on the camera feed. If you can hear me, touch the brim of your hat."
The detective soon saw Pearce do as he had instructed. "Okay", Harrison continued, "You've got a green light to do your thing. We'll be with you guys the whole way, so good luck."
Over the next few moments, the team watched as Aiden Pearce skillfully took out the man who had been guarding his sister by remotely overloading a junction box, cleverly taking him out with the subsequent explosion. He then dialed the man's discarded cell phone, at which point the ringtone got Nicole's attention.
"Nicky", Pearce's filtered voice was overheard, "It's me."
"Aiden!" Nicole's filtered voice replied, "Where are you? There are men everywhere. The guard here, he just…I don't know what happened."
"Listen", Pearce replied, "I know. I'm getting you out. We're gonna stay on the phone and I'm gonna walk you out."
"No!" Nicole's reluctantly-toned filtered voice said, "they'll find me."
"Nicky", Pearce said, "There's a gun there. I want you to pick it up. Just in case."
The team continued watching the feed as Nicole hesitantly picked the handgun up off the table. "Oh God", Nicole's filtered voice said in protest, "This is crazy. Aiden, I don't know guns."
The team was just as startled as Nicole was as another male subject came into the room. With a shocked scream, Nicole impulsively squeezed the gun's trigger. The fired bullet struck the man in the upper chest and he slumped to the floor beside a small pile of wooden pallets, dead.
"Oh shit", an uncharacteristically astonished Hank Voight said, "she shot the guy! We've gotta get in there now!"
"No", Harrison said with substantial conviction in his voice, "Aiden knows what he's doing."
Voight groaned out of annoyance and looked to McCain for guidance. "What do you think?" he asked.
"I think if Troy has that much confidence in the guy", McCain replied, "Then we go with his gut feeling. As soon as the girl's out safely, we go in, and not a minute sooner."
Everyone's attention immediately returned to what was happening on the camera feeds. "He's…" Nicole's filtered voice stammered in shock, "…I shot him."
"We've got to move", Pearce's filtered voice replied without skipping a beat, "Listen to my voice."
"I think I killed him", Nicole's filtered voice said, obviously still emotionally paralyzed by what she had just done.
"Nicky", Pearce sternly said, bringing her back down to Earth. "Listen to me. We're gonna move now. I'm gonna guide you every step."
The team all but collectively held their breath over the next few minutes as Aiden Pearce very expertly guided his sister out of the warehouse without being seen. The siblings engaged in brief bits of conversation amongst themselves, all the while with the team overhearing them from the van.
They finally saw Nicole make her way to a parked metallic red 2011 Volvo S60 sedan and jumped in at Aiden's insistence. She promptly started the car and floored it out of the garage door that her brother had remotely opened.
Back inside the van, in response to seeing this on the camera feed, Harrison grabbed a portable radio and keyed the mic. "Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward to any available units in the vicinity of Brandon Docks", he said into the radio, "Be advised, we have a red four-door late-model Volvo sedan exiting the area. Advise that you do not approach the vehicle at this time. I repeat, do not approach. The driver is a friendly. Also, be advised that plain-clothes CPD detectives and federal agents are also in the area conducting an operation, over."
"This is Thirty-One-Hundred", a male officer's voice responded from the radio, "Sergeant Frank Daily with the Thirty-First District. I copy your request and will advise all my area units. Be advised, OEMC just received an anonymous tip regarding 'The Vigilante' possibly being at or near your location. Do you require assistance? Over."
"That's a negative at this time", Harrison said, "Please have your units stand down for the moment. There are several of us on scene right now, but we'll radio if we need help. Thank you, Sergeant. Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward out."
The team put on tactical vests and readied their assault rifles for what most likely came next. "All right boys and girls", McCain instructed, "The Pearce lady looks to have gotten out safely, so it's time to go in there. We keep our weapons hot and neutralize any hostiles if necessary."
With that, eight team members quickly exited the truck, with Dr. Bartholomew and Agent Taylor staying inside the van to monitor things. As McCain and his agents stealthily took up positions around the exterior of the warehouse, Harrison switched the frequency on his portable radio to Aiden's earwig transmitter. He keyed the mic once again.
"Aiden?" he said into the radio, "Aiden, can you hear me?"
"Yeah", Pearce said, "I copy you, Detective."
"It looks like Nicky was able to get out of here safely", Harrison replied, "Do you have a car?"
"Shouldn't be a problem", Pearce said confidently.
"All right", Harrison replied, "I want you to ditch that earwig transmitter, get in your car, and try to catch up to her. Keep your phone on, we'll track you on the GPS, and I'll catch up with both of you guys later, okay?"
"Got it", Pearce replied, "Thanks a lot for your help."
Harrison sighed. "No problem, buddy", he said, "Now get the hell out of here and go to your family. We've got this covered."
The detective switched the radio's frequency once again, this time tuning it to the team's private tactical channel. "Doc?" Harrison said into the radio, "Doc? It's Harrison. Do you copy?"
"Loud and clear, Detective", Dr. Bartholomew said from his position inside the van, "Go ahead."
Harrison momentarily looked to Voight before replying. "We've got to catch up with Aiden", he said to him, "Would you be okay with leaving Alvin here with the Feds to handle things?"
Voight nodded. "If anyone can handle himself, it's Al", he said.
Harrison himself then nodded in agreement. As Voight walked away to radio Olinsky to notify him of their plan, Harrison keyed the mic on his own radio. "Doc", he said into the radio, "Be advised, Hank and I are going to try and intercept the Pearces. Have you guys got things covered here, over?"
"And then some", Dr. Bartholomew replied from the radio, "Go do what you have to do, that's an order. Bartholomew out."
Just then, a mysterious black sedan rolled up to the warehouse. Harrison came to the conclusion that the bad guys had called for their own backup.
By the time a hooded male subject slid out of the driver's seat, he was abruptly surprised with a disarming blow to the side of his head, having just been whipped by Harrison's handgun. He groaned in pain after hitting the ground face down.
"Who the hell are you, man?" he hoarsely asked as he looked up at Harrison.
Harrison held his gun on the man from above. "Your worst nightmare, dickweed", he said with a very self-assured tone as he held out his free hand, "Give me the keys."