Chapter 19: Hunter and mobsters don't mix

"Well, you may throw your rock and hide your hand, Workin' in the dark against your fellow man, but as sure as God made black and white, what's done in the dark will be brought to the light." – Johnny Cash

- Thursday, 9 am -

Like almost every day, Chase and Silvex carpooled to work again. However, this time something was a little different. This time, they were dressed in full uniform, for today they would receive one of the CCPD's greatest honours: the Medal of Valour. Despite the fact that it came from the corrupt Captain Xavier, it still made Chase very proud. That said, the shepherd expected the medal to be taken away once they outed Xavier, but he didn't care about that now. For now, he would just enjoy receiving such an honour.

Due to construction at City Hall, they decided to hold the ceremony at the precinct. It meant that there were limited invitations, but Chase managed to find room for his friends. Marshall, Zuma and Rocky were sitting in the front row, with Callum not too far away from the mix. Chase could see that Rachel was also in attendance, as were Sergeant Brooks and Captain Xavier, of course. The shepherd did feel bad for Silvex though, since he couldn't invite anyone. The two that Silvex would've wanted to invite were Axel and Shadex, both of whom couldn't risk going anywhere near the precinct. The former was supposed to be dead and wanted by the CIA, while the latter was a wanted fugitive who would instantly be recognized by the corrupt Police Captain who had tortured him for months. All this meant that Silvex didn't have any company other than Chase and his friends, so the shepherd decided to be the best partner he could be.

Both detectives were currently standing up on the stage while Captain Xavier was giving a speech about their heroic efforts in stopping the PtP-killer. In all honesty, neither detective was paying any attention to their liar of a Captain, but not just because of his corruption. Captain Xavier's speeches were actually very well known among the CCPD, for being incredibly boring. So, Silvex and Chase simply stood there while trying to stifle their yawns as their boring Captain was raving on. Chase was this close to falling asleep when the Captain was suddenly standing in front of him. Looking up, Chase saw that his Captain was holding one of the medals in his hands.

"Detective Chase Trigger, for outstanding service to the CCPD both in and out of the line of duty, I hereby bestow upon you the CCPD's highest honour: the Medal of Valour." Captain Xavier spoke as he bent down and put the medal around Chase's neck. "You are a very promising detective and I look forward to witnessing you reach that potential."

"Thank you, Captain." Chase replied respectfully. But that respect wasn't for the man in front of him, that respect was solely for the ceremony and everything it represents.

Xavier then stepped to Chase's right, where Silvex was standing. Xavier took another medal from the tray and put it around Silvex' neck. "Detective Silvex Knyght, for repeated excellence of service to the CCPD, it is my honour to finally bestow upon you the Medal of Valour."

Xavier then exited the stage, leaving the reporters to take as many photos of the two detectives as they pleased, before they were ushered out of the precinct. Chase and Silvex were then free to mingle. Chase was immediately drawn to his friends, who all congratulated him. Especially Marshall, but that had little to do with the medal.

Silvex, on the other hand, ran into Rachel.

"Hey, Silvex!" Rachel screamed as she got close. "How awesome is this?"

"Rachel, I didn't expect to see you here." Silvex replied.

"Yeah, me neither." Rachel replied, still as cheerful and filled with boundless energy as ever. "But my dad asked me to attend."

"And who would that be? Is he a cop or something?" Silvex wondered. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he had no idea who Rachel's family was.

"My dad is Governor Candela, actually." Rachel said, which brought a very confused look onto Silvex' face, for the Governor was human, while Rachel was very clearly of the canine species. She cleared up that confusion with her next few words. "He adopted me at a very young age."

"Ah, so you've got big shoes to fill, then?" Silvex asked. He could only imagine the pressure it would be for your adoptive father to be the Governor.

"Not really, daddy lets me follow my own dreams." Rachel replied. "Though he does occasionally want me to attend events such as these."

Just then, Chase pulled himself away from a very clingy Marshall to walk over the Silvex and Rachel. He noticed the slight blush on Silvex' face again, but he also noticed a similar blush on Rachel's face this time. It ended up giving him an idea.

"Hey Rachel, long time no see!" Chase said upon reaching them, trying to be as cheerful as Rachel always was.

"Oh, hi Chase!" Rachel replied, the golden retriever was just as cheerful as Chase had expected. "How does it feel to have earned that medal in your first week as a detective? I'm pretty sure that only Silvex here came anywhere close to a record like that."

"Pretty good, to be honest." Chase said smiling. Despite the political and moral complications around the nomination, Chase was way too proud to let any of that bother him. But he hadn't come here to be praised by Rachel. He had something different in mind.

"Hey, Silvex?" The shepherd said as he turned to his partner, who was still slightly blushing. This small blush quickly covered his entire face when Chase continued. "Isn't it about time that you ask Rachel out for a date?"

He had said it loud enough for Rachel to hear and while the both of them were still processing the sentence, Chase had turned around and walked off before either of them could respond.

What followed was one of the most awkward silences Silvex had ever endured, but he realized that there was only one way out of it with his dignity somewhat intact.

"Would you like to go out with me on a date sometime?" The husky asked, after summoning all the courage he had.

"Sure! I'd love that!" Rachel replied happily.

While Rocky and Callum were at the ceremony, Shadex was left alone at the Inferno Industries main offices. Neither the mix nor the husky had planned it, but when the opportunity arose, Shadex knew he had to take it. He had done some light, innocent research beforehand, so he knew right where to start. In the main offices' basement, there was a massive physical archive. Shadex expected the files about the BlueWater group and their project were hidden down there, but getting in was a whole other matter. Shadex may have had access to the entire building, courtesy of his ID-badge, but if he used his own ID-badge, Callum could find out about his investigation. The same went for any of the other employees, if they were to find out about his investigation, word could spread to Callum. In other words, Shadex needed to be stealthy. He needed to sneak into the basement, get the files and sneak out, before anyone noticed him. During their guard duties, Shadex had repeatedly left Callum alone in the office, so that the husky could study the building's plans. It would seem like the only way to get into the archives was through the air duct, but that would take a very long time if he wanted to do it quietly. Shadex wasn't sure if he even had the time to do it that way, but he didn't feel like he had a choice. So, the second Rocky and Callum had left for the precinct, Shadex climbed into an air duct on the ground floor and closed it behind him. He had studied the air duct map for hours, but the husky still wound up getting lost. At some point, he was almost sure that he was going the right way when the air duct suddenly started to lead upwards.

At that point, Shadex was becoming desperate. The husky wasn't overly fond of darkness and closed spaces, but he still had a mission to complete. He shuffled backwards, still going as quietly as he could. He took a turn that he had previously skipped, and to his enjoyment, the air duct led downwards. Shadex happily crawled down through the air ducts until he finally reached an exit. When he looked through it, he happily realized that he had reached his goal.

The husky kicked the vent open and climbed out of it, before tightly sealing it again. The husky then looked around and suddenly felt like there was lead in his shoos. The file room was massive, with overflowing cabinets everywhere. Rocky had given the husky all the data he had, which was only a file number. Still, Shadex didn't know how he was going to find that one needle in the gigantic haystack in front of him. Sighing loudly, the husky got to work.

- Thursday, 1 pm -

Once again, Hunter was sitting at a table filled with high ranked mobsters. He was the only one without the last name Black in the room, which made it a great honour that he was even granted a seat at the table. David Black had made good on his word and had invited both Charlotte and Hunter to the meeting, the former waiting just outside the room with the rest of the security personnel.

This time, the meeting took place in a high-end restaurant in the northern district of Portland. The restaurant was located deep in the middle of the Blackstreet mafia's territory, which meant that no cops or rivals would show up to ruin the meeting. The Black family had thought of everything to guarantee their safety and the sanctity of their meeting, including bringing a security force of about 20 armed thugs. However, they didn't count on the Black Rose or Agent Highland's true allegiances.

The meeting had started about an hour earlier, with lunch being served mid-way. Hunter had ordered a chicken sandwich, which he had managed to stealthily swap with his neighbour David Black's, just in case.

So far, everything was going as planned. The room was soundproof, which meant that Charlotte would be able to take out the security without alerting the mobsters that Hunter was dining with. In a similar fashion, Hunter could interrogate the mobsters without the security or anyone else being alerted. That said, there was one unfortunate detail that didn't work out the way Hunter had hoped. Marcus Black, the real Marcus Black, was not in attendance. Not physically, at least. At his seat, there was a tv through which he partook in the meeting by way of videoconference. Hunter recognized him with ease, never having forgotten the mobster's face after the meeting at Adventure Bay. But, despite Marcus Black's disappointing absence, Hunter was still very pleasantly surprised at how lucky they had been with this situation. All participants of the meeting had been asked to hand over their phones and weapons, both of which Hunter managed to sneak into the room. But, while he and Charlotte were armed and capable of communicating, the mobsters were all unarmed and out of communication. The only line of communications other than Hunter's phone was the conference call from Marcus Black.

Despite their combined skills, Hunter couldn't afford to get caught up in a massive shooting inside Blackstreet territory, so he was forced to wait until the meeting was concluded and the call with Marcus Black had been ended to make his move. This meant that Hunter had to survive not only the interrogation about the casino massacre, but also prove that he could contribute to the Blackstreet mafia in the future. This led Hunter to make quite a few promises that he didn't intend to keep.

"…And I suppose that concludes our meeting." Marcus Black stated after they had just wrapped up the last item on the docket. "Victor, Louis, I'll be seeing you guys next week for brunch. As for the rest of you, make me proud."

The screen then turned off, officially ending the meeting. In spite of the sudden cloud of nerves piling up in his stomach, Hunter remained calm and chatted a little with the mobsters, while secretly sending the Black Rose a text message, giving her the signal to strike.

A few moments after he had sent her the text message, the doors to the room were suddenly thrown open. Through the door opening, the mobster's head of security was thrown, his legs and right arm in unnatural positions. Charlotte then followed him at a calm, intimidating pace as she dragged one of the guards with her. Before any members of the Black family could say anything, Hunter pulled out a gun and held it to David Black's head.

"Listen up everyone, this can go one of two ways." Hunter said loudly. Charlotte had already closed the doors behind them, which meant that anything short of a gunshot would go unnoticed by the outside world. "Either you tell us what we want to know, or the Blackstreet mafia dies today."

Charlotte walked over to Victor Black, one of the highest-ranked mobster of the ten in front of them. She pulled him down to his knees, before dragging him over to Hunter, who still held a gun to the head of a trembling David Back. Charlotte pulled a knife out of her sleeve and held it to Victor's throat.

"Victor, you're one of Marcus' most trusted allies, so if anyone here knows the answers we seek, it would be you." Hunter said, before removing his gun from David's head. The young mobster instantly collapsed, still trembling. Hunter completely ignored him, focusing his attention on Victor. "Who does Bloodrazor work for? Who is it?"

"I-I don't know…" Victor said trembling. He may have been the most experienced mobster there, but Hunter and Charlotte were both highly trained operatives that Victor would only see in his darkest nightmares.

Hunter sighed. When he looked at Charlotte, she returned his disappointed look. They both knew that Victor was telling the truth and they also knew that if Victor didn't know, then none of them did. Hunter gestured both Victor and David to move to the corner in which the rest of the mobsters were standing.

"So, what now?" Charlotte whispered to Hunter once the mobsters were all out of earshot. "Are we now just supposed to start executing them? You know how much I hate doing that."

"Don't worry, I've got a plan." Hunter replied. Whilst he was saying it, he was quickly typing something on his phone. He then put it away and handed Charlotte a brown envelope from his pocket.

When Charlotte opened it, all she found to be inside was a wallet. She was about to open it when the doors were kicked open and an entire tactical assault team stormed in.

"FREEZE!" They yelled as they aimed their guns at Hunter, Charlotte and all the mobsters behind them. For a second there, Charlotte started to panic, but then she noticed the slight grin on Hunter's face. She then looked back at the assault team and noticed their vests all said the same thing: FBI.

Hunter put his hands up, with his FBI badge in his right hand.

"I'm Supervisory Special Agent Hunter Highland, this is my partner Interpol Special Investigator Sophia Gascoigne." Hunter stated, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "I'm the one that called you in."

The tactical team's leader nodded slowly, before ordering his team to surround the mobsters behind them. The team leader then addressed Hunter directly. "What are your orders, sir?"

"I want all of them arrested and make sure that they're secured." Hunter replied, quickly handing out orders like it was any ordinary day at the office. "They form most of the leadership of the Blackstreet mafia, so you might want to call for some backup. But don't trust the local police."

"Yes, sir!" The team leader replied, before passing the orders onto his men and requesting federal assistance over his radio. "We've got it from here."

Hunter and Charlotte quickly made their way outside, before Charlotte could finally speak her mind.

"That was your plan all along, wasn't it?" Charlotte asked. If she had been a bird, then her feathers would be quite ruffled. "Maybe tell me next time, before the tactical team gives me a heart attack!"

"Yeah, sorry about that." Hunter replied. "It was only the plan B, for if we didn't get the intel we were looking for."

"Yeah, it is a real shame that we didn't get what we came for." Charlotte replied. Despite Hunter's apparent refusal to apologize, Charlotte had already forgiven him. "But, on the bright side, we did just take down a crime syndicate."

"Not yet." Hunter replied. "As long as Marcus Black is out there, the Blackstreet mafia will survive. That said, after this takedown, there will be a lot of turmoil in their ranks."

Back in Coastal City, Shadex had finally found what he was looking for. He had discovered that the files were sorted by the six numbers in the exact middle of the file number, though the husky had no clue why. Furthermore, he really wanted to get his paws on the guy that had created that filing system, for it had taken Shadex literal hours to figure it out. But, now that he had, he managed to find the file relatively quickly. The only problem was, the file was empty. The husky had found the file's brown folder right where it should be, but the paper that was supposed to be inside of it had disappeared. Shadex couldn't believe how bad his luck was. All that work for nothing. He slammed the drawer shut, when he heard the crinkling of a piece of paper. Curiously, Shadex opened the drawer again. As he did, he heard the crumble again. He felt underneath the drawer. There, stuck between the different layers of the filing cabinet was a single sheet of paper. Shadex gently jerked it out from under it, desperately trying not to tear it. When he finally got it, he took a good look at it.

The paper was single-sided, with a list of names on it. What caught the husky's eye immediately was that the top three names had been redacted, leaving only nine readable names.

This has to be part of the BlueWater files, right? The husky thought to himself.

He shoved the piece of paper into his pocket and walked over to the door. After the husky had climbed out of the air ducts, he had taken a quick look at the door and realized that he could open it from the inside, without having to use his ID badge. He left the room and headed up to the ground floor, where he ran into Rocky and Callum. It would seem that they had only just returned from the ceremony.

"Hey guys, how was it?" Shadex asked them, trying not to let them hear the surprise in his voice.

"It was incredible, I'm so proud of Chase!" Rocky replied, before hastily adding: "And Silvex, of course."

"Don't worry, Silvex has apparently declined several nominations in the past." Shadex said. "For Chase, it's a much bigger deal, especially because he earned it in his first week."

Callum excused himself to go to the bathroom, which was extremely fortunate for Shadex. This way, he could give Rocky what he found. The mix and the husky headed up to the CEO's office, where they would have complete privacy.

"So, did you find anything?" Rocky asked. It would seem the mix was just as eager to learn as Shadex was to share.

"I found the folder, it was empty." Shadex said. He saw the look of disappointment rise on the CEO's face, but the husky managed to clear it away with his next words: "But I did find this, I think it's part of the BlueWater files, but I can't be sure."

Shadex handed Rocky the piece of paper, and Rocky instantly confirmed Shadex' suspicions. "This is a list of all personnel involved with a classified research project. I'm betting Axel's name is one of the redacted ones. As for the rest, I think we…" Rocky's voice suddenly died down.

"What is it?" Shadex asked worriedly. "Do you recognize someone?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Rocky said, and Shadex could tell that the mix was upset. "The chief researcher, Lewis Night. He was my predecessor as CEO."