Chapter 3: The breach
"There is not a righteous man on Earth who does what is right and never sins" – Ecclesiastes 7:20
"Recruits, line up!" Bloodrazor yelled. All the recruits instantly lined up, all but one.
"You, recruit 792, why do you disobey a direct order?!" Bloodrazor yelled as he walked towards the recruit.
"I told you, I'm no recruit, and my name most certainly isn't recruit 792!" the husky yelled back at his superior.
"Well then, I guess you're going into the pit." Bloodrazor said. Upon saying that last word, it seemed like a switch was flipped in the husky's mind. His face turned pale, his knees started to tremble, it was as if the husky was a completely different person.
"P-please s-sir, n-not the pit, a-again!" the husky begged as he trembled in fear.
"You know the rules, you disobeyed me and you will now pay the price." Bloodrazor said as he called for the guards. "Take him to the pit, now!"
"Yes, sir!" the guards said as they picked the husky up and dragged him towards the door.
"P-please, sir, g-give me another chance." the husky said as he tried to escape, but the guards' grip on him was too powerful. Bloodrazor had already turned his head back towards the other recruits and ignored the husky completely. "Nooooooooooooo…"
It was complete chaos at the apartment complex. The CSI teams were working on the body and the rest of the apartment, while officers were securing the scene and searching the other apartments. Silvex and Chase, however, were nowhere near the apartment building. They had returned to the now empty precinct to go over the evidence once more, to see if maybe they missed something.
"Nothing from the lab yet?" Chase asked Silvex as they were both looking through the case file.
"Nothing new since the last sixteen times you asked me, and I've been sitting here next to you the whole time" Silvex replied without even looking at Chase. "We need to find a lead, it's our only chance to get the girl back"
"I think I might have something…" Chase said as he dropped the file and booted up his computer.
"What is it?" Silvex said as he too dropped the file and walked over to Chase's desk.
"The credit card we found at the scene, it doesn't match the credit card registered to our vic" Chase said. "Could it belong to the killer?"
"Beep-beep-beep" Silvex's phone went off. Silvex answered it and put it on speaker, so both he and Chase could hear it.
"Silvex? This is Rachel from forensics" the voice, apparently, Rachel's said
"This is Silvex, what do you have?" Silvex asked
"Well, the found credit card was clean of prints and DNA, so nothing forensics can do there. The pack of cigarettes had plenty of fingerprints and DNA on it, but it had been there for at least a week, so that's not useful either" Rachel said
"So, bottom line, you've got nothing?" Silvex interrupted Rachel
"On the contrary, Silvex. You should be more patient. The key you guys found might have been the jackpot, we lifted a clean print and matched it within seconds. It belongs to a certain Marcus Black" Rachel said as she hung up.
"Marcus Black… How do I know that name?" Chase wondered out loud
"He is one of the most influential players in the Blackstreet Mafia. The police have been after him for years, and now we finally have a way to get to him!" Silvex was clearly excited about this news.
"So what do we do now? Request an arrest warrant? Then we'll need a judge that is both willing to sit down with us and in possession of the guts required to stand up to the mafia" Chase said "And finding that will be hard"
"Yes, that would be hard. But luckily, all we need is a judge who owes me a favour" Silvex said as he got out his phone and dialled a number.
"Judge Groves here, who is this?" the judge said as he answered his phone.
"Hello Mark, this is Silvex, I need a warrant." Silvex said.
"A warrant? For whom?" Mark Groves asked.
"Marcus Black, the mobster." Silvex said.
"Marcus Black, seriously?!" the judge was clearly surprised. "You have a case against him?!"
"We do, and it's solid. So, will you sign the warrant?" Silvex asked hopefully
"But of course, anything to strike a blow at the Blackstreet Mafia!" the judge said "You'll have the warrant within the hour"
"Thanks, Mark" Silvex said as he hung up.
"What do we do now? Are we just going to sit here and wait for an hour?" Chase asked his partner
"Oh no, don't worry. We're going to assemble a SWAT team" Silvex said. He couldn't hide the grin breaking on his face.
Silvex nor Chase paid any attention to a certain canine officer watching them from a distance, too far to be noticed but close enough to hear everything they were saying. As Silvex and Chase walked off to assemble the SWAT team, Officer Stillburg left the room through another door to make a phone call.
"Yes?" Bloodrazor asked
"Silvex and Chase completely fell for it. They have no doubts Jeremy Griffin was murdered by Marcus Black, so the plan is working perfectly" Stillburg spoke into his phone.
"Good" Bloodrazor replied
"Sir, if I may ask, what is the status of recruit 792?" Stillburg asked his boss
"No, you may not ask. Bloodrazor out" Bloodrazor said as he ended the phone call.
"Ugh, what a jerk." Stillburg thought, mumbling out loud to himself "Why do I even bother asking? He never tells me anything"
Chase and Silvex were standing right outside the warehouse where Marcus Black was supposedly hiding out. Marcus was smart, he had security cameras set up that covered the whole area, which could be a problem. But luckily, the CCPD has a few IT specialists, who only needed to do a bit of simple hacking. They put loops on all the cameras, and as a little bonus, they also disabled the electronic locks on the doors. The building had three entrances, each one covered by a SWAT team led by one of the three "guides". These guides were Silvex, Chase and Sergeant Brooks, who had helped to assemble the SWAT teams. There were six squads of SWAT agents, who together formed three teams. Each of these teams was led by a team leader. The teams were named Alpha, Beta and Delta. Silvex would lead team Alpha, while Chase would lead team Beta. Team Delta was led by Sergeant Brooks. The main entrance, the garage door, was the target of Silvex and team Alpha. The side entrance was for Chase and team Beta, and the backdoor would be breached by Brooks and team Delta. Silvex was in charge of the operation, so he would give the order to move in.
"Team Alpha, standing by" Silvex spoke over the radio
"Beta, standing by" Chase checked in as well
"Delta, standing by" Brooks' voice sounded right after Chase's
"Alright, all units breach in 3… 2… 1… GO GO GO!" Silvex said, giving the sign to move in. All three SWAT teams charged in, catching the mobsters inside by total surprise. These mobsters were armed, of course, but their handguns were no match for the automatic weapons wielded by the SWAT agents. The SWAT teams charged towards the centre of the warehouse, while Silvex, Chase and Brooks stayed behind and covered the entrances. But none of them had to do anything, for no mobster got past the SWAT. They could hear the gunshots, but none of them had a direct line of sight, so they didn't know the status of the mission. The firefight lasted for about a minute, after which it suddenly grew quiet. Silvex, Chase and Brooks simultaneously left their posts to see the status of the operation, and even though they had seen quite some brutal murders, this even shocked them. All of the mobsters were dead, each one with at least two bullet wounds in their chest, head or neck. But the real shock came when they realized their target wasn't among them.
"Shit, Black isn't here." Silvex said "Search the building, maybe he found a hiding spot"
"Or maybe he was never-" Chase started as he heard something above him. As Chase looked up, the first thing he saw was a metal walkway hanging from the ceiling. The second thing was Marcus Black standing above him with a gun aimed at his head.
It was like time itself stopped, and Chase half expected his entire life to flash before his eyes. But it didn't. Sure, there was a string of memories flashing before him, but it wasn't his entire life. They were memories of memorable days in his life, some sad, others wonderful. They were the memories of the moment the PAW Patrol was formed, his first birthday since, several rescues, Ryder's funeral, when he ran into Marshall a while back when he was promoted to detective when he and Marshall celebrated his promotion, and even this morning when he woke up next to his mate.
"Click"
A simple metal sound snapped Chase out of his thoughts. He recognized the sound, for it was the sound of a gun that was out of bullets. He saw Marcus release the magazine from the gun, and reach for a new one to put in it. It wouldn't take a genius to figure that Black was about to fire again, but this time, Chase was faster. Before Marcus could finish reloading, Chase had pulled his gun and instinctively pulled the trigger as it was aimed at Marcus. At first, nothing happened. But then Marcus slowly moved his left hand to his chest, feeling blood. He stumbled back, with a look of total surprise in his eyes. He tried to say something, but no words left his mouth. He then fell backwards, over the railing, off the walkway. After making the four-meter drop to the ground, and landing with the sickening sound of breaking bones, he exhaled for the last time.
The next few minutes were a complete blur to Chase. All he could remember was SWAT agents coming from all sides, weapons drawn, asking what the hell happened. Then Chase felt Silvex next to him. He felt his partner's fur touch his own, and it slowly brought him back to reality.
"Lower your gun, Chase" Silvex whispered in his partner's ear. Chase, who only then realized he was still holding his gun, dropped it immediately, and it was only luck that it didn't fire as it hit the ground.
"Brooks, you're in charge." Silvex said as he started leading Chase away from the body.
"But Silvex-" Brooks started, but after seeing the condition Chase was in, he stopped his protest.
Silvex led Chase all the way to their car, and when they arrived, Silvex had to put Chase in the passenger seat. Silvex took his seat behind the wheel and took his tablet from under his chair. He unlocked it and opened a file named 'Chase Trigger Personnel File'. It was Chase's personnel file, listing everything from blood type to past incidents. Confirming Silvex's suspicions, this had been Chase's first shooting.
"Are you alright?" Silvex asked his partner as he put the tablet away.
"Yeah, I'm not hurt." Chase said.
"That's not what I meant. You know you did what you had to, right?" Silvex asked as he looked at his partner with a worried look in his eyes.
"But I KILLED HIM! I killed someone! I took a life, how can I possibly justify that?!" Chase yelled as the build-up emotions seemed to burst out at once. "I should have aimed lower, or maybe I shouldn't have shot him at all! Maybe I should have died instead of him…"
"SHUT UP" Silvex yelled at Chase, who immediately did so, and looked at Silvex with a frightened expression on his face. "Do you think you're the only one to feel this way after their first shooting? Well, guess what, you're not. Everyone is a complete wreck afterwards. So that doesn't matter. What does, is how you handle it"
"But-" Chase tried to say, though Silvex didn't give him the chance.
"It would have been better if your first shooting would happen either during your days as an officer, or after your first few months as a detective, but the truth is that it's always shocking." Silvex said. "The best you can hope for is that it is ruled as a good shooting and that in time, it will feel like one."
"What was your first?" Chase asked, calmer now.
"It was during training when some other recruits and I went out for drinks." Silvex replied "Two people at the bar got into an argument when one pulled a gun on the other. I jumped in-between" Silvex said, his eyes turning sad. "We struggled for the gun until it accidentally went off. At first, I didn't even realize what had happened, the adrenaline rushing through my veins pretty much blocked out all sounds. It was only after my friends took the gun from me and faced me away from the now dead man that I put it all together"
"How did you get over it?" Chase asked
"Honestly, you never really do" Silvex replied "But you learn to live with it and learn from it. If you can't, then you're not fit to be a cop"
"Okay." Chase said "I'll remember that"
"Good." Silvex said as he started the car. "Now, I'm going to take you home, where you'll take your time to rest up. But don't worry, when something comes up, I'll let you know."
Captain Xavier was sitting in his office, drinking from an empty cup of coffee as he read the report Sergeant Brooks had just filed. He smiled as he realized their plan had worked out perfectly. Now that Marcus Black was dead, a world of opportunities had just opened up. It was a shame about the state Chase was in, but the gain weighed far heavier than the loss.
"Beep-beep-beep" Xavier's cell phone rang. He instinctively reached for the phone that was lying on his desk, only to realize the sound was coming from inside his desk. He unlocked his desk's drawer and opened it. Inside was another phone, a phone he only used for certain… associates.
"Yes?" Xavier said as he answered the phone
"Sir, officer Stillburg here, the operation was a complete success." Stillburg said.
"I know." Xavier said. Only then he realized Stillburg didn't know who he was.
"Oh, well then, what are my orders, sir?" Stillburg asked, seemingly completely unaware of his boss' mistake.
"Be as you were, Officer Stillburg" Xavier replied.
"Yes, sir! Bloodrazor, sir!" Stillburg said as the call was ended.
I almost let him know who I was, thank god Stillburg isn't the sharpest tool in the shed