M: It's all coming to a close now, I hope you enjoy
Chapter 22: Vengeance
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." – Confucius
"There's almost nothing as satisfying as revenge, wanting someone to hurt because you hurt. An eye for an eye. Feels like god's work, until you realize there is no god and you've committed sins for which there is no absolution" – Raymond Reddington
- Monday, 9 am -
It had been two days since Marcus' failed assault on the precinct. After Chase had shot Marcus Black, they retrieved the signal jammer from his person and destroyed it. Silvex then called for backup. Within minutes, a literal army of police officers had arrived. They easily secured the ground floor, the one out of four floors that Chase and Silvex hadn't secured. Both the detectives, as well as their Sergeant and Captain had been taken to the hospital for check-ups, which went swimmingly. They were all released within the hour to enjoy a long, relaxing weekend.
After taking down Marcus Black, Chase quickly took a picture which he then sent to the Ace of Spades. Axel confirmed Marcus' identity, which meant that due to the combined efforts of SSA Hunter and the detectives, the Blackstreet mafia had now lost its entire leadership. Their time was up.
Today, Axel was once again tailing Xavier. Usually, the Police Captain would simply head to work around this time. However, today was different. During the surveillance on Thursday, Xavier had promised the Madam that he would be in contact this Monday, but Axel hadn't expected it to be in the morning already. Not that it really mattered, Axel was still fully capable of stalking Xavier.
This time, Xavier didn't walk into the park. This time he went into the train station, where Axel almost lost him in the crowd. Fortunately, Axel's training didn't disappoint him. The shepherd lost his target for about two seconds, before finding him again. Captain Xavier had retrieved a burner phone from one of the bus lockers, which he closed afterwards. The Captain then used the phone to make a call, presumably to the Madam. Unfortunately, it was far too noisy in the train station for Axel to be able to hear what the Captain was saying. Because the Captain was walking towards the station's exit, Axel couldn't attempt to read his lips either, so the shepherd was stuck to simply following him. Until they reached the outside, where it was a lot quieter. However, by that time, the phone call was as good as finished.
"…Don't worry ma'am." Xavier replied to something that the Madam must've said. "I will personally take out the target, without leaving a trace."
"Good, then I'm placing my faith in you. Don't disappoint me, Xavier." The Madam said her voice was still scrambled. "This will be the start of this city's next era, one in which we'll be on top."
"Yes, ma'am." Xavier replied, before ending the call. He then proceeded to destroy the phone in roughly the same way as a few days earlier, with the exception being that he threw the remnants into a trashcan, rather than a stream.
Xavier then proceeded to head to work, still not knowing that the shepherd was following him. The shepherd in question was still following Xavier, but his mind was otherwise occupied. He had just heard about a plot to kill someone, an assassination that would apparently change the odds into Xavier and the Madam's favour. But he didn't know who the target was, which was a problem. Being at a loss, Axel decided to give Callum a call.
"Hey Callum, it's me." The Ace of Spades said when the Labrador answered the phone.
"Oh, hey boss!" Callum reacted with his trademarked enthusiasm. "What can I do for you?"
"I want you to hack into the train station's surveillance system and try to track Captain Xavier from this morning." Axel explained, cutting straight to the point. "He spoke over the phone about some target, but I couldn't hear who they were talking about. Can you try lipreading him on the footage?"
"I'll try my best, sir!" Callum said just before he hung up. Callum truly was extremely talented, for the lab also possessed some serious cyber skills. Axel witnessed the Captain heading into the precinct, before he ended his pursuit and headed for an apartment not too far away, where they had made a temporary safe house.
After receiving the call from his boss, Callum immediately unlocked Rocky's computer and proceeded to reach out to the train station's network. It was well protected, but Callum managed to hack his way inside. The lab then proceeded to run a facial recognition algorithm on the camera footage, which easily picked Captain Xavier's face out of the crowd. However, there were only a few camera's that had good enough quality for lipreading and only two of them were in the right position. Despite Callum's skill and talent, all the lab could manage was reading only a few words. However, the lab wasted no time, he immediately called the Ace of Spades.
"Sir, I didn't get all of it, but I got enough!" The lab said after he had hastily greeted Axel. "I managed to read three words of note: 'poison', 'today' and 'the mayor'."
"Oh, fuck!" Axel proclaimed. The shepherd hardly ever swore, but an attempt at the mayor's life was cuss-worthy. "Let the detectives know and get ready for action. Everything is coming to a close, now."
"Yes, sir!" Callum replied, before ending the call. The Labrador waited for a little before he called Silvex.
"This is Detective Silvex." Callum could hear the husky say upon answering the phone.
"Hey, Silvex. It's Callum." The lab greeted him quickly. "I need to talk to you and Chase somewhere where you can't be overheard."
"Give me a minute." Silvex replied after a brief silence. Callum could then hear the husky say something to Chase, before hearing their footsteps echoing. Finally, there was the sound of a door closing. "Alright, we're in private. What's wrong?"
"Our surveillance paid off, we know Xavier's next target." Callum quickly explained. "From what we could tell, Xavier is going to poison the mayor. It's going down today."
"WHAT?!" Silvex and Chase both exclaimed, before Chase spoke their doubts. "Why would Xavier do that?"
"Maybe he wants to make a run for mayor?" Silvex guessed, before adding: "But that doesn't matter right now. We can't let him go through with it."
"So, I guess it's time to arrest him, then?" Chase asked Silvex, who agreed. "Then let's go arrest our Captain. This'll be fun."
"Hold on, guys." Callum interrupted them just before Silvex would've hung up. "I know that I'm not an expert in the judicial system, but do the two of you have the jurisdiction to arrest a Police Captain?"
"No, that jurisdiction lies entirely with the Internal Affairs department." Silvex stated. "But we do have the jurisdiction to arrest a murderer. We have a recorded confession of Xavier admitting to the murder of nurse King, which makes arresting him a part of our jurisdiction."
"Very clever, Silvex." Callum remarked. "I wish you guys the best of luck."
After hanging up, Silvex and Chase felt their nerves rising. They may have secretly despised Xavier since the moment that they learned the truth, but he was still their Captain. Not only that, they also fought together during Marcus Black's attack on the precinct. Despite the circumstances, they still formed something of a bond with their Captain, a bond that they were about to completely rip apart.
"You ready?" Silvex asked Chase, who was fiddling with his gun.
"Not in the slightest." The shepherd replied. "But let's go get this over with."
The two detectives carefully exited the supply closet in which they had been hiding and moved back to the bullpen. The only signs of Marcus Black's assault the other day were the black stripes on the badges of every cop present, for the entire floor had been fixed. There was no trace of the firefight, or the explosion. The maintenance department really had done an outstanding job. While the detectives crossed the bullpen, they ran into Sergeant Brooks. The Sergeant was walking back from the kitchen towards his desk, when Chase quickly pulled him aside for a quick word.
"Hey Serge, you have a minute?" Chase asked, to which the Sergeant nodded and walked over to Chase. "Silvex and I are about to do something drastic, could you keep an eye out?"
"Sure, but what-" The Sergeant tried to reply, but Chase wouldn't let him finish. The shepherd quickly caught up with his partner, who had continued walking towards the Captain's office. The husky waited for Chase to arrive, before both of them entered the office without knocking.
Captain Xavier looked up from his paperwork and was about to greet Chase and Silvex with his fake smile, when he noticed the look on their faces. At that moment, Xavier realized the truth, and he knew what was about to happen.
"Captain Andreas Xavier." Silvex addressed the Police Captain. Unbeknownst to the detectives in front of him, the Captain had started to reach for his gun that was lying in his desk's drawer. "You are under arrest for the murder of Martha King."
"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you-" Chase had picked up where Silvex left off but the shepherd didn't get to finish, for Xavier pulled out the gun and opened fire at Silvex. Admittedly, Xavier was very fast with his gun. He had already fired off several bullets before either detective could draw their weapons. By the time Chase had his weapon drawn, he had seen Silvex collapse next to him and was now staring down the barrel of Xavier's gun.
As much as Chase's frantic mind tried to, he couldn't understand what Xavier's plan was. The man was surrounded by cops, all of whom would try to stop him from escaping. Maybe Xavier just realized that his time was up and that he wanted revenge before he died. Or maybe it was as simple as the instinctive fight or flight response. Regardless, Chase was pretty sure he was about to die. There was no time to aim his gun at Xavier or to jump behind cover. Xavier had him dead to rights.
Knowing this, it made Chase almost jump in surprise when he heard two loud bangs and shattering glass behind him. The shepherd saw how Xavier's eyes grew wide, while the man's free hand reached for his chest. Xavier got off one glance at his blood-covered hand, before he collapsed backwards. Once again, Chase saw the lights in someone's eyes die out.
When the shepherd looked behind him, he saw a shocked Sergeant Brooks with a literal smoking gun in his paws. The Sergeant still had it aimed at where Xavier had been standing, the gun trembling in his paws. Chase looked around the office, noticing that every single officer had their guns drawn. But none of them were aimed at Chase. They were either held at the ready, or aimed at where Xavier had fallen down. Chase then laid eyes on his partner, who was lying deathly still on the floor.
"SILVEX!" Chase cried out as he ran over to the husky, who didn't react in any way. The first thing Chase did was feel the husky pulse, but he couldn't find it. The shepherd carefully turned the husky over, revealing several holes in the husky's unguarded chest. Each of Xavier's bullets had found their mark on Silvex. Chase instantly started to try and resuscitate his partner, to no avail. Eventually, Chase felt two paws grab his shoulders and pull him off the husky. Looking back, Chase recognized the other to be Zuma.
"I'm sorry, Chase." The lab said through the tears in his eyes. "He's gone."
Chase wanted to struggle against Zuma's grip, he wanted to save Silvex, to bring him back to life. But he couldn't. Zuma was right, Silvex was already gone. Chase felt like all the strength had left his body, surrendering him to the caring arms of his friend. But the shepherd didn't stay in that state for long. One moment, he was weeping. The next, he was getting up. His face was still wet from the tears, but they no longer kept falling. Chase was suddenly as calm as could be.
Without saying a word, Chase walked over to Xavier's desk. From it, the shepherd retrieved a phone. Bloodrazor's phone. The shepherd unlocked it using Xavier's fingerprint and took a look through it. He then exited the office, silently gesturing Zuma to follow him. When he passed the unsettled Sergeant Brooks, Chase put the phone down on his desk.
"In there is all the proof you could possibly need." Chase's voice sounded steady, but hoarse. "Xavier was Bloodrazor."
Then, the shepherd walked off with Zuma hesitantly following his lead. The two of them walked into the elevator, with Chase still maintained his eery silence. Chase close the doors and pushed the button for the basement, instead of the ground floor.
"Where are we going?" Zuma asked carefully. He was still unsure about what was going on in the shepherd's mind. He had just watched his partner die, but now he acted like nothing was wrong.
"Rachel." Chase replied, just before the elevator doors opened.
When she heard the gunshots, the Madam instantly looked up. She had been standing right outside the precinct when Xavier killed Silvex, but she didn't know what was happening. Until she heard Sergeant Brooks' gunshots, which caused blood to be splashed all over the window behind the Captain. Once the Madam saw the blood, she knew her lackey was dead. At that moment, she realized that if someone had uncovered Bloodrazor's true identity, then hers might be compromised as well. The second that the realization hit her, she turned away from the precinct and started walking. She forced herself not to run, for running would only attract attention. She made her way down the street until she came across an older car, which she easily broke into. She messed a little with the wires underneath the steering wheel until the car sparked to life, at which point she used it to drive off.
After their visit to the lab, Chase and Zuma had exited the building. They walked over towards the parking lot where Chase's car was parked. Once they took their seats, Chase sitting behind the wheel, the shepherd pulled out his phone. He quickly dialled Callum's number.
"Hello, Chase?" Callum asked nervously as he answered the phone. "It took you a while to call and gunshots were just reported near the precinct. What happened?"
"Xavier resisted arrest." Chase replied, his voice as hoarse as before. "He killed Silvex and almost killed me."
"What? No!" Callum exclaimed, the Labrador was clearly distressed.
"Xavier is dead, but this isn't over." Chase said before the Labrador could say anything else. "I believe that the madam is heading north, to Portland. Have Hunter set up a roadblock. Then, come and meet us at the north edge of town. And bring Shadex."
Chase hung up the phone without even saying goodbye. He started the car and drove it due north. After they had exited the precinct's parking lot, Zuma couldn't resist anymore.
"Chase, are you okay?" The lab asked. Truth be told, Zuma was getting more worried by the second. Chase wasn't acting like himself at all. If the shepherd's hunch was right and they would encounter the Madam, then Zuma didn't know what the shepherd would be capable of.
"Of course, I'm not." Chase replied, shocking Zuma with his honesty. "My partner just died, because of a choice that we made. Silvex died, because we decided to play by the rules."
"So, when we find the Madam…" Zuma started to ask, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer. "What will you do?"
Chase remained silent for a long time, making Zuma wonder if the shepherd had even heard his question. Just as the lab was about to open his mouth to ask it again, Chase finally gave the lab his answer.
"We'll arrest her." Chase said, solemnly. "It's true that Silvex died because we followed the law and it would be easy to give up on it. But at the end of the day, both Silvex and I swore oaths to protect the law and he just paid the ultimate price to defend it. I'm not going to dishonour his sacrifice by breaking that oath now."
Zuma was stunned by the shepherd's answer. When he had asked the question, the lab had been afraid of the other answer that Chase could've given. That the Madam would never get to see the inside of a cell. Instead, the uptight, overbearing shepherd that he used to know had shown him just how much he had matured over the past two years.
To be honest, Zuma wasn't sure if he could've given the same answer truthfully. The lab never had a partner, so he couldn't completely comprehend the bond that Chase had with Silvex. But if it was anything like the way he felt towards his teammates from the PAW-Patrol, other than Rocky, of course, Zuma probably would've wanted nothing but revenge. That's why, in that moment, Zuma's admiration for Chase was higher than it had ever been.
After hearing about Silvex' demise, the first thing Callum did was call Axel. It was hard to break the news to the Ace of Spades, but he seemed to take it rather well. What Callum didn't know was that Axel completely broke down the second that the phone call ended.
After informing his boss, Callum did just what Chase had asked him to. He called Hunter. Callum quickly explained the situation to the SSA, who reacted the way Callum predicted. Hunter was clearly upset by the news, but he didn't let it interfere with his ability to do his job. Hunter promised Callum that the roadblock would be up before he knew it.
After ending the call with Hunter, Callum made his way to the CEO's office, where Rocky and Shadex were sitting. When they noticed the look on the lab's face, they both realized that something bad must've happened. Callum quickly, but carefully explained what had happened. He tried to soften the blow as best he could, but the news still hit Shadex really hard. He had finally found his long-lost brother, only to lose him almost immediately. Rocky held the husky as he tried desperately to find words that would make everything seem better. But as hard as he tried, he couldn't find any.
For a long while, all three canines just stood there. The only sounds in the room were Shadex' sobs and a clock, desperately ticking from his place on the wall. Shadex was still crying on the mix's shoulder. Rocky had given up on finding the words, so he settled for simply patting the husky's back. This moment lasted until Callum ended it abruptly.
"Chase asked me to bring you with me." Callum said. "We're going to take down the Madam."
Shadex immediately turned towards the Labrador, quickly wiping the tears from his eyes. His eyes were still filled with sadness, but now the husky had a purpose, albeit only for a little while. But at the very least, he could make sure his brother's spirit would be at peace.
"Let's go, then!" Shadex replied, before realizing why he had been there in the first place. The husky looked back at Rocky, who simply nodded his head before Shadex could even ask a question. There was no way in hell Rocky would deny Shadex the chance to get closure.
The Madam was driving north as fast as she could without attracting undue attention, just like Chase had expected. She had left Coastal City quite a while ago and so far she didn't have any problems. In truth, the Madam started to believe that she had gotten away with it, despite her plan falling apart. The Madam had hoped the road to be full of traffic, but she was driving one of the very few cars around. Had there been cars all around her, it would have seriously improved her invisibility. She would've been able to hide in plain sight, whereas she now stood out like a sore thumb. But still, the Madam believed that everything was working out. She hadn't seen any cop cars around and there was nothing being reported on her police scanner.
This positive outlook of hers changed the second she saw blue lights in the distance. The Madam lowered her speed when she saw them and immediately made a U-turn when she realized that the blue lights were part of a roadblock. Whether the roadblock was set up to catch her, or someone else, she still couldn't risk going through it.
A little while before spotting the blue lights from the police cars at the roadblock, the Madam had driven by a rest stop. Since her fuel tank was starting to run empty, she needed to refuel. She also needed some time to think of her next move.
After the Madam had filled up her tank, she parked her car in the rest stop's parking lot. She had bought a map at the gas station, a map that she was now carefully studying. The Madam was desperately searching for a backroad that she could use to avoid the roadblock. She was sure that there had to be some that she could've used, but she never got the chance. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a car driving up to the rest stop. That in itself wasn't all that shocking, but the fact that she recognized the car and that it was driving into the wrong entrance was shocking enough. The car belonged to Chase, who parked it at the very end of the entry lane, fully blocking off the exit. The Madam looked back to the other exit, which was being blocked by another car. She didn't recognize it, but it was clear that they were after her.
The Madam quickly put on a hoodie, while putting the hood over her face to hide her identity. She then snuck out of the car and sprinted over to the gas station. Behind her, she could hear the sound of several canines chasing her, all of whom were running at full speed. The Madam wasn't physically gifted, but she miraculously made it around the gas station's corner before they caught up to her. What the Madam hadn't counted on was that Shadex and Callum had been approaching her from the other car. The Madam now found herself cornered between the wall and four angry canines.
"It's over." The Madam could hear Chase voice behind her. Without having to look, she knew that the shepherd had a gun trained on her. The same went for all the others. "Just give it up, Rachel!"
Chase, Zuma, Shadex and Callum had quickly sealed off the rest stop, before chasing the hooded figure over to the gas station. They had carefully surrounded her and they were now all aiming their guns at her, Shadex having borrowed one from Callum. Chase had just revealed the Madam's true identity.
"So you know, then?" Rachel said as she lowered her hood and revealed her face. Chase had been correct, it was indeed the golden retriever underneath the hood. "How did you finally figure it out? Because I disappeared right after Xavier was killed?"
"Not exactly, we've known for a while." Chase replied, which clearly shocked Rachel. "Remember that date you had with Silvex? Well, me and Callum were running surveillance on the two of you. We wanted to see if the date would be a success."
"We learned quite a lot as we were watching you." Callum continued Chase's explanation. "Not only did we realize that Silvex still loved his ex, but we also learned something else."
"You see…" Chase took over from Callum. "Callum here brought a surveillance van with all of these awesome toys, one of which was a device that would detect phones in the area of interest. In our case, this area was limited to your table."
"We then discovered that despite there being only two of you, there were three phones at the table." Callum stated. "Of course, that in itself wasn't enough to base anything upon."
"Which is why it was so helpful when one of our friends sent over the full record of his surveillance of Bloodrazor on the day that he made contact with you. In his report, he included the phone numbers that were used and called." Chase explained further. "You see where I'm going with this? The number Xavier called was the third phone number present at your table."
"From then on, we've been observing you." Zuma added. Ever since their discovery, Zuma had been spending a lot of time in the lab where Rachel worked. "After all hell broke loose this morning, Chase and I were just about to arrest you when we discovered your disappearance. So we chased you."
"And now, we've got you." Shadex chimed in. Out of all four of them, Shadex was the only one that was ready to shoot and kill Rachel, for her involvement in the death of his brother. Chase had shaped his own interpretation of Silvex' death. However, he had no idea how Silvex' brother Shadex would react. But he would see that now.
"Shadex, will you let me take her in?" The shepherd asked, as bluntly as possible.
Shadex remained silent for a while, his gun aimed at a nervous Rachel. The husky was fiddling a little with the trigger, as if to see how it would feel to fire it and exact revenge for his brother. But in the end, as much as he wanted to avenge Silvex, this wasn't what Silvex would've wanted. So the husky eventually let down his weapon and nodded to Chase. The shepherd carefully approached Rachel, while saying the Miranda rights. Chase searched her person for weapons, before cuffing her. They escorted her back to Chase's car, where they put her in the backseat.
They transported her back to the precinct in Coastal City. During the drive, Zuma calls Sergeant Brooks and the Labrador explained everything. Except for the part about the Ace of Spades, the BlueWater group or the truth behind the Blackstreet's mafia takedown. So in reality, all Zuma could really say is that Xavier was indeed Bloodrazor and that he worked for Rachel, who was, in fact, the Madam. The Sergeant was understandably shocked to hear it, for Rachel was a beloved part of the precinct. But he didn't doubt it, he had grown to learn what an excellent detective Chase truly was, not to mention the fact that the legendary detective Silvex Knyght was involved with the secret investigation.
By the time Zuma and Chase arrived at the precinct with Rachel, they were cheered on by many. To the entire precinct, Chase was now a hero. As was Silvex, God rest his soul. The shepherd processed Rachel just like he would do any suspect that they'd arrest, except for the fact that Silvex wasn't standing next to him. But in his heart, Chase knew that the husky would be proud of how he handled it.
After the processing at the precinct, Rachel was put into a police van and was escorted to Riker's Island. Due to the special circumstances of her arrest, extra measures were taken to assure that Rachel wasn't going anywhere. Usually, the only police presence in the transport would be the driver and the passenger, but now it was increased by another two cops, who were sitting in the back and keeping an eye on Rachel. However, there was one issue with the transport…
"Don't worry, ma'am." One of the cops in the back said to Rachel. "We'll get you to safety. All four of us were loyal to Bloodrazor, which means that we're now loyal to you."
Rachel couldn't believe her luck. Most of the cops that had been working for Bloodrazor had done so out of fear, but there were some that followed Bloodrazor as loyalists. Officers Stillburg and Redwood were amongst them, which is why they were in direct contact with him. But somehow, Rachel was lucky enough to have four of those loyalists serve as her escort. This meant that no matter what, her escape was inevitable. At least, that's the last thing Rachel remembered thinking before everything turned black.
- Monday, 6 pm -
At first, Rachel didn't know what had happened. To her, it seemed that she had been sitting in the police van only a few seconds earlier. She looked around, straining to keep her eyes open while she was trying to clear her mind. She was tied up to a chair, all she could move was her head. She tried to look around, but she couldn't see anything beyond the cone of light around her. She saw that its source was a small lantern standing in-between her and a German shepherd. The German shepherd had his back faced towards her, but Rachel instinctively knew that it wasn't Chase.
"W-Where am I?" Rachel asked. Her throat was just as uncomfortable as the rest of her body. It was almost as if she got hit by a truck.
"The end of the line." The shepherd replied. Rachel recognized the voice and it wasn't Chase's.
"Officer Spade…?" She asked with disbelief, before realization set in. "So you were alive after all."
"Yes, I am." He stated. The Ace of Spades then turned around and looked her dead in the eye. These two canines weren't strangers. In fact, while Officer Spade had been in charge of the BlueWater group's research project, Rachel had been one of the promising scientists that worked on it. "I had such high hopes for you, it's such a shame that you chose this path."
"So you finally know the truth about me. About where my loyalties lie." Rachel concluded. Despite all that she had achieved, she still felt bad when she heard the disappointment in Axel's voice.
"I'll admit, it was a stroke of genius from Bastion. Not only did my supervisor work for them, but they also had someone inside the research group itself." Axel commented. Despite his apparent defeat, the shepherd still seemed genuinely impressed.
"Just like you were being a genius in how you ended the project." Rachel replied. "Until now, we had simply believed that the scientists' morals got in the way of the research. But now I see that you orchestrated that. Clever."
"I'd say that the time for small talk is just about over, don't you think?" Axel asked rhetorically as he pulled out a gun.
"For what it's worth, you were a great mentor." Rachel said as she swallowed her nerves away. "Had things been different, then we could've made one kickass team."
"Agreed." Axel replied as he aimed the gun at Rachel. The warehouse was briefly lit up by two flashes, which were combined with two loud bangs, before the warehouse returned to its usual dark and quiet state. The Madam had fallen.