"Two motorcycles just pulled in between us, two passengers on each one."
Lars looked in the rearview mirror, hoping to see at least one of the motorcycles behind them, but the delivery truck's blind spot was a bit too large.
JCI was expecting a shipment of guns and ammunitions to be delivered from Asia, and Vash Zwingli suspected that the mobs would try to intercept the delivery truck between the shipyard and JCI facilities. Lars and Kiku had been placed undercover as the JCI employees who would pick up the shipment, while Gilbert and Bella followed in ghost cars in case anything happened.
Based on Gilbert's page about the motorcycles, there might indeed be something going on.
The light at the intersection ahead was just turning red, so Lars slowed the truck down. Once the full stop was reached, he glanced in the rearview mirror again and spotted one of the motorcycles continuing forward around the side of the truck. The driver appeared to be a woman with wavy brown hair spilling out of her helmet, while her companion had a much larger build.
"The motorcycles are pulling forward, one on each side of you," Gilbert paged, and Lars slipped the truck out of its gear and into park just as a motorcycle reached his side.
"Remember not to break cover," Kiku whispered.
Sure enough, the passenger climbed off the bike, reached for the driver door, pulled it open and pointed a gun at Lars.
"Come on out nicely, or I'll shoot you," the man threatened with a thick Russian accent.
Lars immediately put his hands in the air, and the man used his empty hand to grab the disguised cop by the shirt and pull him out of the vehicle. Lars balanced himself on the ground and spun to see the man climbing into the truck in his place, before hearing the click of another gun from the woman driving the motorcycle.
"Don't move until the truck does," she warned, holding the gun at his head.
Lars chose to continue playing along, raising his hands in surrender so she wouldn't shoot him. He managed a glance at the rearview mirror before the truck moved forward, noting that the bulky Russian had removed his helmet to reveal platinum blond hair and purple eyes. Once the truck had started turning right onto the next street, the woman shifted gears on the motorcycle and followed the truck, along with the other motorcycle that now also had only one passenger. Lars looked to the side and saw Kiku there.
"The passenger hopped off on my side as well," Kiku said, before looking back at the two approaching cars, "You go with Gilbert, I'll go with Bella."
Lars turned and rushed to the right side of the lane, and grabbed the car door handle once Gilbert was close enough. He had hardly enough time to get both feet into the car before Gilbert hit the gas and sped off after the truck.
"Couldn't you wait for me to shut the door?" Lars nagged as he put on the seat belt before reaching the radio.
"Why waste time?" Gilbert defended, more focused on the chase.
"Commissioner, this is Sergeant Van Ryn, we are in pursuit of the delivery truck and the hijackers on Broadway Street," Lars reported, "They are joined by two accomplices on motorcycles, and have guns. I am in Sergeant Bielschmidt's car now, and Sergeant Honda is just behind us with Sergeant Maes."
"Lieutenant Adnan and I are both on our way with backup units," Roderich replied, "Continue the pursuit and update us on any changes to your path, we will join you as soon as we can."
As Gilbert continued driving, Lars transmitted any changes to their route while removing the shirt for his borrowed JCI disguise, revealing his police uniform underneath, and put on the spare police duty belt that was ready for him.
After a few minutes of driving, the truck and motorcycles turned into a parking lot between a pair of apartment buildings on Douglas Street, and Gilbert followed them in. There were already two other vans parked near the middle of the lot, with five people standing by. The truck and motorcycles had parked right beside them, and they were all climbing out to join the others. All nine were watching closely as Gilbert parked close to them, with Bella pulling up her car to their right.
"Parking lot between 18th and 19th, Commercial and Douglas," Lars paged on the radio, "Our hijackers have met up with some others, we are outnumbered nine to four."
"You may engage, but proceed with caution," Roderich answered, "We will reach your location within five minutes."
"I thought he was supposed to be closer than that," Gilbert muttered, as the criminals pulled out guns and aimed in their direction. One tall man with spiky blond hair came forward in front of the others, and Lars recognized the group leader from his mugshot.
"Why don't you come on out and talk to us?" Mikkel shouted, "I can tell that you are coppers, and there's more than enough of us to handle you."
"Should we?" Gilbert checked.
"Climb out carefully, keep the door as your cover," Lars advised Gilbert, looking over to give Bella a nod for her to follow his lead, "Have your gun ready to shoot, if the need arises. I'll do the talking, so you can keep your loud mouth shut."
The boys slowly pushed their doors all the way open and slid out, Lars motioning for Bella to come out slow and steady as well. Once he saw all four officers were in place with their guns aimed, Lars turned back to the mob boss.
"This is all of us, Mikkel," Lars called out, "Is that your entire crew, or should we be expecting more?"
Before Mikkel could reply, a couple of vans came screeching into the parking lot from the far side on Commercial Street. Lars noted Mikkel frowning in confusion before turning to watch a couple of his men go around the other side of the JCI delivery truck. Although vision was limited, the sounds were very clear, and the screeching of brakes from the new vans were followed by doors sliding open and gunshots being fired. The two men came back around the JCI truck in order to dodge fire, and it was the one to the left that gave Mikkel the alert.
"It's the Vargas clan!"
Mikkel and his men immediately got into formation, whether using the front or back of the JCI trucks as cover for fighting back, or finding a moment to get to the mob's vehicles to use them as cover.
"Commissioner, we've got open gunfire here between multiple parties," Lars reported when he had the moment to use his radio again, "The Kohler gang hijacked the JCI truck, but the Vargas clan just showed up and starting shooting."
"Copy that, Sergeant," Roderich replied, "We'll be there in 3 minutes."
As the transmission ended, Lars noticed a shift in strategy from both groups, as one of the men still by the JCI truck's front doors suddenly went into the van and reached all the way across to the passenger side. As he was doing this, the bulky Russian from earlier went around outside the truck, disappeared for a moment, then came back out. He was dragging someone along that looked a lot like Lovino Vargas, and the Italian was trying to punch him and break free.
"A Vargas member just tried to climb into the truck," Gilbert pointed out, "Looks like they're locking the doors."
Lars nodded in agreement, noting that the Kohler man with straight shoulder-length brown hair hit the lock on the way out before shutting the truck door. He pocketed the key and joined the fistfight, where another brawler with short curly brown hair was jumping in to help Vargas.
He suddenly heard the trunk door close on their own vehicle, and turned to see that Gilbert had pulled out a megaphone and a flare.
"What are you doing?"
"I have a plan that you're going to hate," Gilbert suggested, sliding the megaphone and flare across the roof to Lars, "Take these, and get to the side of the truck. I'll get a running start, you use your hands to boost me up then pass me these once I'm on top of the truck."
"Are you fucking mad?" Lars reprimanded, "We'll get shot!"
"The last of Kohler's men who can see this side clearly are too focused on the other side," Gilbert refuted, "Get Bella and Kiku to help cover us."
Lars shook his head, before turning to Bella.
"Gilbert wants to be an idiot," he told her, "You two cover us."
After seeing Bella nod at the instruction and turn to pass it on to Kiku, Lars grabbed the megaphone and flare before looking at where Kohler's men were shooting from. As Gilbert pointed out, the two men that had stayed near the front of the truck were engaged in the fistfighting, while everyone else was on the right side. He noted that they were all in the truck's blindspot, and he would be more or less in the clear if he reached the side. One of the men turned to reload the ammunition on his gun, before returning to shooting.
Spotting the chance, Lars bolted around his car door and ran for the truck. In those split seconds, he could have sworn that he heard gunshots flying by him, but he crashed into the side of the truck just fine. He turned to see that one of Kohler's men had seen him and was preparing to shoot, but quickly backed up when shots were fired at his feet by either Bella or Kiku.
Lars dropped the megaphone and flare to his feet, braced his knees, and brought his hands together. The moment he looked up, Gilbert had already started running in his direction. Within moments, Gilbert's right foot had landed in his hands, and Lars used his strength to help push Gilbert's momentum upwards. Their effort proved to be enough, as Gilbert was easily able to pull himself the rest of the way up onto the roof. Lars reached back down for the megaphone and flare, and passed them up to Gilbert.
"I'll keep them busy, Lars," Gilbert guided, "You three surround the truck."
"Don't be an idiot," Lars warned, before turning back to Bella and Kiku and motioning for them to come over and take control on the ground. Seeing them loop around to face the Kohler gang, Lars slipped around the front of the truck, placing the fistfight and the other Vargas members all in his line of sight. A couple of them noticed him right away and prepared to shoot him, only to be distracted by a bright red light above his head.
Within moments of Gilbert lighting the flare, all the members of both gangs were watching him, and Lars saw Bella come around the back corner and help him cover the sides of the truck. The light from the flare helped Lars see their faces, so he took a good look at whoever he could so that he could try to identify them later.
"All right, everybody, listen up!" Gilbert hollered into the microphone, "This truck is staying in the hands of the police, so unless you want to be in our custody as well, I suggest you all beat it!"
"What's the point, officer?" The curly-haired brawler objected with a distinct Spanish accent, "There's more than enough of us to shoot down all four of you!"
"Shooting an officer is more than enough for a long-term sentence," Gilbert appealed, "There'll be even more witnesses when the Commissioner arrives with our backup in less than a minute."
As the criminals paused to mutter to each other, Lars could hear the approaching sirens that indicated Roderich's approach.
"Signor, I don't think he's lying," a gunman with longer curly brown hair standing by one of the Vargas vans pointed out.
"Vamonos!" Romulus shouted, and his men quickly moved back into their vans.
"Let's get out of here!" Mikkel ordered his group, and they piled into their vehicles as well.
Lars went back in front of the truck, and watched in each direction as the two groups started up their vehicles and drove off into the night. Within moments of Kohler's group driving out onto Douglas Street, some police cars followed them, while others pulled into their parking lot, with two parking at close as possible.
The doors opened on the two cars, revealing that Vash Zwingli had been riding with Roderich, while Sadiq and Heracles were partnered together.
"What happened?" Roderich demanded, "Where are they all?"
"Gilbert scared them away," Lars explained, "He hopped up top with a megaphone and a flare, told them all to leave before our backup arrived."
"They didn't get to take anything then?" Vash inquired.
"That's right, we got the truck back into our hands," Lars confirmed.
"Why did you let Gilbert do that?" Roderich pressed, "He could have gotten himself killed that way, and he allowed them to run off."
"He was the one to come up with a plan on the spot, and it worked," Lars endorsed, "I warned him not to be an idiot, and we had Bella and Kiku help cover us."
"Where is he, anyways?" Roderich asked, "I still need to tell him never to do that ever again."
Lars turned to see where the fool had gone, only to chuckle when seeing that they had already been beaten to the chase.
"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" Bella was screeching at Gilbert while pulling on his ear, "They could've shot you dead, did you want that? You are fucking lucky that didn't go wrong, I was that close to telling Ludwig about how his dumbass of a big brother got himself killed by his own idiocy!"
"Never mind, he's good," Roderich backed down, "I'll just question him when he gives his report later."
Lars watched as another JCI delivery truck arrived, and Vash unlocked the back of the original truck with a spare set of keys. The security manager stood close by as some employees came out of the second truck and prepared to move the crates of ammunition from one truck to the other. Vash gave them a hand bringing out the first crate, but quickly instructed them to put it down and get a crowbar, before turning to Lars and waving him over.
"Is there a problem?" he asked.
"Were they this light when you picked them up?" Vash questioned, "They should need a third person to lift."
"Gilbert and I had no trouble with them, just the size was awkward," Lars explained, "Should they have been heavier?"
Vash took the crowbar from the employee that brought it over, tucked it under the lid, and pried the crate open. There were foam molds on the inside shaped to hold guns, but they were completely empty.
"Bring out the other crates and check them all!" Vash ordered.
Lars noticed a piece of paper tucked by the lid, so he picked it up. The one side showed a very familiar emblem, a golden dragon against a red background.
"What's going on?" Roderich asked, having appeared at his side, and Lars handed him the paper.
"The Dragon Triad got to the shipment first," Lars realized, "We were fighting with Kohler and Vargas over empty crates."