Twenty-Nine (Part One)

"In regards to the upcoming raid, there's been a change of venue," Paul announced to his unit on a Monday morning. Not the most ideal piece of information to disseminate in the month of August; the same month when things were expected to ramp up. "The coven meeting will no longer be taking place on the night of August 15th at the former Union Stock Yards."

No one was thrilled by the news.

Once the groans and the complaints died down, Paul continued, "According to sources, the meet up will now take place the following Sunday. August 19th. A lovely abandoned Chicago relic known as the underground freight tunnels." He paused to take in all of the surprised reactions. "I don't know how the hell they got access there, but they did."

Leah exchanged concerned looks with Jacob and Embry.

The Chicago Freight Tunnels, completed during the first half of the twentieth century, were a vast network of tunnels located right underneath downtown Chicago. They were designed to haul cargo underneath the city to various buildings, including City Hall and Merchandise Mart, and house telephone and telegram cables. Due to lack of use, the network had been out of use since the fifties and, due to a massive flood, had been completely sealed off since 1992.

Like Paul had alluded to, no one should be able to secure a meeting place until they went through City Hall, and reservations were generally only open to inspectors.

But, as Leah thought about it, the change of venue does make sense. Thanks to the Slaughterhouse Murders, the Stockyards were still an active crime scene. Plus, the area was predominately open land, welcoming the opportunity for unwelcomed guests and eavesdroppers. At least, inside the tunnels, the meeting would be conducted entirely underground.

"Well, there goes our extremely well-thought-out, comprehensive strategy," Jacob grumbled, tossing aside the printed out, now obsolete plans. He tossed his head back and let out a loud, drawn-out groan.

Leah sighed as she pulled out a folded 18"x24" blueprint of the elaborate underground tunnel system from the pile of papers lying on the seat next to her. She was just as frustrated as the man sitting at the desk across from her. Leah, Jacob, and Embry were tasked with surveillance during the raid and as back up if needed, and the change of venue complicated everything.

She placed the plan flat on the space in front of her so that Jacob and Embry could get a look. Embry soon looked up at the detectives with thinly veiled apprehension. "We're going to need more light," he remarked.

"No," Leah said. "Too much light attracts too much attention. We would've been able to get away with it at the Stockyards, but the tunnels are supposed to be dark. Because no one is supposed to be down there."

"There has to be some sort of lighting. The city still inspects those tunnels."

Leah nodded; Jacob had a good point. "When's the next inspection?" she asked.

"The last one, I believe, was conducted last week," Jacob said, and then added, "Earlier, Paul had reached out to the Mayor's Office about the change of plans. Hopefully, everything went well."

Leah looked across the squad space to where the captain's office stood. Paul was inside, chatting with another cop, laughing away. Good, so the call with the mayor couldn't have been that terrible. "I think we'll be fine," she said.

She then glanced at the discarded plans. All those weeks of work, down the drain. It was a disappointment, felt like a complete waste of time, but circumstances changed, and it was the police's responsibility to adapt to it.

When Leah reminded her partner of such the following evening, Jacob grimaced at the new set of blueprints and replied, "I know it's not a big deal, but the thought of working in such confined spaces?" He shook his head. "That's never fun."

Leah picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite. "Not many do," she remarked, taking another bite. She then set the slice aside and pulled out another blueprint. "We're going to start in the basement of the Martin Building."

Formerly a speakeasy and a short-lived brothel, the Martin Building was an old, unremarkable commercial building. Currently, its space was rented out by a coffee shop, a yoga studio, and a freelance news company. With nonexistent security and overnight business, the building was a perfect place to hold operations down in the basement without attracting too much attention.

"The sub-basement," Jacob corrected, pointing to the bottom of the page. "Built after the original basement during tunnel construction. The original basement wasn't deep enough."

Leah nodded. "Ah, right."

Jacob took his second place of pizza and downed half of it in two bites. "That's some good pizza—You've ever thought about moving, once everything's settled?"

Leah glanced up the blueprints, a bit taken aback by the comment. "What makes you ask that?"

Jacob shrugged. "It feels like you haven't been here in a while," he said. He then took one deep whiff and exhaled. "I dunno. It feels, smells… stale."

Leah scanned the living room. Now, she was thinking about it; the place did feel impersonal. Like a hotel room. Or an Airbnb. For the past month, she had been spending more nights at her mother's than here.

"Some days, it drives me up the wall, especially after coming home from a long shift," Leah quietly admitted. "And then, ever since working on the Dahlia case and the Slaughterhouse…" she trailed off, swallowed. "I don't know; it's like I've been hearing voices in my head—I'm not crazy."

Jacob chuckled. "We all have a little crazy," he told his partner, and then, being more serious, "I know what you mean, though. Maybe we're overthinking everything? We're detectives after all. All I know is that I've been itching to phase and go on more late-night runs, especially after last time…"

Last time. Leah bit her lip as she turned to the next page. The Jane-incident might have been weeks-old, but she still felt terrible about compelling Jacob to shift in the middle of his apartment because of her brush with danger.

"Sorry about that," she said.

Jacob let out a frustrated sound and, shaking his head, said under his breath, "I should've kept my mouth shut…" he looked up from the plans. "Stop apologizing."

"I have been informed by a reliable source that you will be participating in some… action for work. Leah, since when do homicide detectives participate in a large-scale raid?"

Leah turned to face her mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table, chopping up lettuce for a salad. "I told you I had been transferred to another unit," she said, and then added, "Temporarily."

"Whose purpose, you still haven't told me."

Leah rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, mom, you know I can't tell you everything," she reminded her mother, turning around to check on the chicken cooking on the stove. It was almost done, hopefully, like this conversation. "How do you know about this anyway? It's not supposed to be world news."

"I still keep in touch with some of your father's colleagues. And don't worry, they didn't tell me anything worthwhile, but I know you cops talk. I read between the lines," Sue explained, setting aside her knife. "All I want to know that you'll be fine. Lord knows this family doesn't need another work-related death."

Leah froze, and then took a deep breath. She turned back around, not wanting to meet her mother's worrisome eyes. "Pessimistic-much?" she replied, adding a chuckle to lighten the conversation; it didn't work. "Don't worry, mom. I'll be fine. It's not like I'm going in there, guns blazing."

Sue resumed her task. "You better."

"I'd like to remind everyone that tonight is not the night to become an action hero," Paul informed the Voldemort Unit in a booming voice. Like everyone else, he had his game-face on. "Listen to the commands. Follow the damn rules, and the love of everything holy, let's not fuck this up."

"He has so much faith in us," Leah whispered to Jacob when the captain finished his announcements.

Jacob chuckled. "He's just being a captain," he said. "We'll be fine since, you know, we're going to be below the ground. At least if we fuck up, there won't be any bystanders?"

Leah nodded—Paul's advice was sound. She looked around the squad space; everyone was adequately dressed and had their equipment (and weapons) ready. It sure felt like she was in an action movie.

"Oh, this is much worse," Martinez said sometime later, fulfilling Leah's request for a piece of gum. He was one of the few people dressed in plain clothes. He wasn't attending the raid; a sprained caused by a tumble down a flight of stairs put a stop to that idea.

"I appreciate your optimism," Jacob said, deadpanned.

Martinez let out a short laugh. "Just being realistic. Like the captain said, no playing hero. This isn't an action hero."

"You sure you're going to be alright staying here?" Leah asked.

"Not my first rodeo," Martinez said. "And anyway, someone has to hold the fort while you guys take on the bad guys. Don't worry, Aisha will keep me on my toes."

Leah looked past Martinez to where Aisha stood, reviewing plans with another cop. She would be staying behind as well. "A blessing in disguise," she had told Leah earlier.

Embry approached the detectives, adjusting the straps to his bulletproof vest. "I have a bad feeling about this," he admitted, nervous. "I mean, we're going underground. Underground. Like forty-feet below the streets." He gulped. "Fuck, we're gonna be deeper than the train tracks."

Leah slowly stopped chewing and exchanged a look with her partner. A nervous Embry was unusual; he was usually the one itching to jump into the action. "We'll be fine," she told the younger cop. "After all, we're only doing surveillance. We're not on the front lines."

"No, we're not," Jacob stressed. "We're not SWAT."

Embry gulped again and dropped his eyes.

The words didn't help.

"All I know is that you guys need to do this city the following favor," Martinez said, attempting to lighten the mood. He slapped the detective's back. "Try not to get killed, alright?"

Try not to get killed—Leah wanted to return with a snarky remark, but all she could do was deliver a slight, reserved smile.

Roughly a half an hour before the task force was scheduled to depart, Jacob pulled Leah aside, away from the rest of the team. "Here," he said, pulling out a small metal box from his pocket. "Just in case."

Leah took the box and opened it. Inside the insulated container was six ultra-violet bullets. She thanked Jacob, pulling out her gun from the holster. "You think we're going to use them?" she asked, carefully replacing the standard bullets with the ultra-violets.

Or any bullets, for that matter. Earlier, Paul had warned the unit about the usage of gunfire inside such a confined area. Gunfire created loud bangs, which would most definitely echo off the concrete tunnel walls. Which would attract unwanted attention, and toss the whole notion of a surprise attack out of the window.

"I don't know, but there's nothing wrong for preparing for the worst," Jacob said. He patted his partner's shoulder a couple of times and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about a thing. We'll be fine. You'll be fine."

Leah would always appreciate Jacob's optimism. "Embry suggests otherwise," she said, glancing to her left where the younger cop stood in the distance, still playing with his bulletproof vest.

Jacob also looked in Embry's way. "He's never done anything like this before," he said with a sigh. "Remember, he hasn't received much action until becoming Sam's unofficial partner."

The basement of the Martin Building hadn't been in use for years, and it certainly smelled and looked like it. Debris was everywhere. The lighting was spotty. The ceiling was littered with mold and spider webs. And the flooring, Leah was worried that every step she took increased the chances of her falling through.

The sub-basement wasn't much better; it was only an open space full of rusting machines and puddles of still, brown water with an abandoned freight cart on the eroding tracks. Looking down the nearest tunnels, Leah could see the tracks loaded with brown water and mud.

Per Paul's orders, the trio set up their post near the entrance. While Jacob and Embry continued to inspect the radio, Leah took out the camera from her backpack and set it up between the flat surface of an old machine. The device was connected to various cameras distributed throughout the tunnel network.

"Looks like almost everyone is here," Jacob announced sometime later as he leaned against an old metal appliance. He received the news via radio.

Leah nodded and checked the camera. The targets were now congregating at the intersection of a few tunnels, all seemingly at ease as they engaged in small conversation. The only ones who were on guard were a group of soldiers, each guarding a tunnel opening.

For the next twenty minutes, the vampires would only converse in a language that strongly resembled Latin. The move wasn't exactly helpful for the Voldemort Unit, but it didn't take a genius to realize that they were discussing business matters; the occasional gesture towards a series of covered carts give the assailants away—

"Hey, guys, I think we got something," Leah said, keeping her voice low. When Jacob and Embry reached her side, she explained, pointing at the screen. "Evidence."

A series of new cargo appeared, being dragged along the rusty tracks by several henchmen. After some words were exchanged, the bosses ordered the pallets open, revealing a stockpile of human blood and a dozen barrels containing ultraviolet and pure silver bullets. And according to Marcus of the Volturi, who was now speaking English, there were even more pallets, sitting along the tracks in the distance.

"Gotta be, at least, twenty-five to life," Jacob said, bringing a hand to his mouth. "That's a shit ton of contraband. That has to be worth five hundred large on the market. At least."

"I'm leaning more to seven," Embry said, joking. "What do you think, Leah?"

"Maybe six?"

Embry threw up his hands while Jacob chuckled. "Oh, come on, that's cheating," he whined, but then asked with a smirk, "Wanna bet?"

"Only you would ask to engage in a bet during a raid," Leah said, shaking her head in exaggerated disappointment. And then with one glance to the camera, she could see Victoria inspect the packets of blood with her second-in-command. The detective's eyes widened. "Well, fuck," she said.

"Benjamin was telling the truth, after all."

"Look, I can't—" Embry stopped and deeply breathed in the air. He swallowed, and then asked Jacob, alarmed, "You smell that?"

"Children of the Moon…" Jacob finished, eyes flashing. "Those fuckers brought them along?"

Leah looked down at the screen. Long behind, there they were. The Children of the Moon. Five of them, struggling against their thick chains. Seeing the beasts for the first time, Leah shuddered at the sight; she hoped she'd never have to encounter them.

"You know, there's a movie about this," Embry remarked. He was on high-alert, but he wasn't as alarmed as Jacob or Leah. "It's called Underworld."

Leah shook her head as Jacob growled, "Not the time, Embry."

"No, hear me out," Embry said, raising his voice. He stopped and covered his mouth, muttering an apology behind his hand. "Sorry, but watch the third one. So, in the movie, the vampires made the lycans slaves, protectors and shit, chains, and all. And then, one decided to fall in love with the vampire king's daughter, and all hell broke loose—"

"What goes on in that brain of yours," Leah asked, confused about the point Embry was supposed to make. She then leaned closer to the camera, where she could see Victoria inspecting the blood packets. "Seriously."

"Thank you, Leah. So, it's not just me."

Embry rolled his eyes. "I know what I'm walking about," he maintained and then froze. "Yo, did you hear that?"

Jacob pulled out his gun.

Leah gasped at the sights on the camera. They had gotten one in the neck. Santiago, one of the Volturi's prized hitmen, immediately went down and was deteriorating fast. An enhanced ultraviolet bullet must have done him in.

"Shit, someone brought along a sniper?" Embry asked. "Wait, is that a part of the plan?"

"No," Jacob gritted out, and then asked, "They got anyone?"

Leah's eyes remained on the camera while a flurry of urgent commands could be overheard on the radio. They weren't the only ones who heard the shots. "Got one right in the neck. Look, light. My guess, a UV," she said as he watched the group of vampires pull out of their weapons, aiming at the opposing sides. "This can't be from us. We wanted a raid, not a shootout."

Jacob nodded in agreement. Raids usually involved appearing out of nowhere and arresting stunned assailants. Not killing them from far away.

"Cullens?" Embry suggested.

"Shit, they may just be," Jacob said. "Retaliation."

The only ones speaking were Maria, Sulpicia and Victoria, and it wasn't in English. But what they said didn't matter in the end. From the way they were looking at each other and pointing at the others, the goods, and the weapons, it was evident that they weren't there to talk.

"Maybe they had nothing to do with that?" Leah offered.

The shouting then increased. Victoria reacted with the most hostility, followed by Felix, who looked like he wanted to attack but was holding back. Jasper wasn't standing far from Maria and Irina, but he didn't seem to have any intentions of getting involving the commotion.

More threats and insults were tossed around. One member of the Denali family, Irina, aimed her weapon at Sulpicia and then at Ale, who, as expected, was standing by his sister; both remain silent. No was alarmed by Irina's threats, and some were even calling her bluff, which she didn't appreciate. Irina continued to wave her gun around, ignoring Jasper's calls for caution. Fed up, Sulpicia motioned for Felix to take care of Irina, but before he could attack, the Denali member pulled the trigger.

The trio jumped at the sound of the gunshot, and then watched, stunned, as Alec slumped onto the ground with Jane rushing to his side. Then Felix charged at Irina. Jasper intercepted him. The rest of the Cullens attacked the Volturi and Victoria's army, and as expected, the interrupted meeting quickly turned into a massive shootout.

"Fuck!" Jacob then ripped his radio from his shoulder strap and immediately starting shouting over it, along with Embry.

Leah tightly held onto the camera, frozen in place, as she watched in horror as the bullets flew. Thankfully, the trio was nowhere near the action, but that fact didn't calm her nerves. She would eventually snap out of her trance, she pulled out her weapon and checked the magazine to ensure it was still fully loaded. It was. "Where the fuck is the ATF?" she asked.

Jacob the and Embry, with their sensitive hearing, winced at the increasing sound of gunfire.

Paul ordered everyone to stay put.

The Denalis were now here.

Leah lifted the screen for Jacob and Embry to watch as a horde of federal agents emerged from one of the tunnels. Too occupied with trying to kill each other, the assailants did not notice the newcomers until someone shouted over a megaphone, "ATF! Drop your guns! Hands up!"

No one dropped their weapons. By the time the feds arrived at the clearing with badges flashing and guns blazing, the crowd started to disperse with some slipping into the tunnels. Leah was worried that the rest of the vampires would attack, but then Jasper signaled his allies to lower their arms. Sulpicia did the same for the Volturi, followed by Victoria, who flung her rifle against the wall.

Twenty-three. That was how many people were subjected to arrest. The agents closed around the mobsters and read them their rights (You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney…) before arresting reach and every one of them.

The only person who resisted was Irina, who, in a fit of rage, head-butted the agent behind her. She was quickly slammed onto the ground by a couple of other agents and forcibly put in handcuffs. No one else put up a fight; they probably figured it wasn't worth the effort. Charges for attacking federal agents were harsh.

It was too easy, the trio thought as they watched the feds lead everyone out of the intersection and into the tunnels.

Far too easy.