Chapter 12
Yeah, I know it has been a while since I updated, but I wanted to make sure I had at least a part of the next chapter written before I posted this one so you wouldn't have to wait too long. I have some very important tests coming up in two weeks so I'm not sure how much time I have to write, but at least I have now made a good start.
Thank you to all of you who reviewed the previous chapter. Your responses really keep me going, so thank you for them. I'd appreciate it if you again took a moment to let me know what you thought of this chapter!
'Vehicle coming in from the south,' a voice cracked over the radio. It was ten thirty and everyone in the room was quiet, sitting at any available surface with headphones on. They were all listening in on what was happening and yelling commands. A large screen showed the harbour area where the takedown would take place with dots on places where surveillance trucks were placed and several coloured lines signalled possible escape routes the suspects could take.
She had the map memorised. She knew exactly where Sam could be at what point during this whole action. Though she had no way of knowing where he would be exactly, she would feel his presence on the map, she was sure of it.
'Copy that,' someone answered the surveillance car. All eyes seemed to turn towards the camera image shown on another screen. They had been lucky to find the camera but it was the question if it would be of any help during the takedown. It was at a horrible angle and it was possible the gang would just shut the camera off. They were sure to have at least one technical guy in their midst.
She could see the van drive up to the warehouse after a moment the doors opened and the van drove inside. It was impossible to see into the dark room to discover what was there, who was there. She was pretty sure that was part of the reason she was here, though no one seemed to have said it out loud. She had met these guys, spoken to some of them. She knew their names and could id them if necessary, even though most walls of the room had been hung with pictures of the criminals they were chasing.
It was quiet for a long while as nothing happened. The doors to the warehouse didn't open again, no boats came up to the harbour. Just a whole lot of nothing.
Andy was starting to get restless. There was no way to know how Sam was doing or where he was. She was pretty sure that where ever he was, Jay would be close and she did not like that at all. The way the guy had acted the night before, it still gave her the creeps.
It had been as if he had been trying to make her work for him rather than Sam. Like he would have preferred her for some strange reason. It made no sense. Why would anybody want to hire her to work in a drugs operation? Why would Boyd, under normal circumstances, ever want her to work on one of his cases? If it wasn't for Sam she wouldn't be here right now. She would probably be sitting at home, wondering where the hell he was and if whatever he was doing was dangerous. She was sure he would have found a way to keep her out of it. It was what he was doing now too. He made sure she was here out of the real action and still had a way of knowing what was going on.
'We've got another vehicle entering harbour grounds from the east side.' The radio cracked to life again, making nearly everyone in the room jump up. The car became visible on the screen again and she watched as it stopped just short of the warehouse doors. Some people got out of the car and made their way in to the building through the small door on the side. They left the car out in plain sight.
Over an hour had passed since the first car came in when suddenly a whole group of cars came in from seemingly all directions. When they came to the warehouse Andy could see how many SUV's there were. There was no question this was the important group. Some more cars came, not nearly as impressive as the SUV's but none the less nice cars. There seemed to be some sort of fuss between a small group of people and Andy got up to move closer to the screen. The angle wasn't perfect to see everything but she was sure that was…
Oh yeah, it was definitely Sam. He seemed to point around at something, she couldn't make out what it was, but Jay seemed to get what he meant. She jumped back slightly when he looked straight into the camera. He stared at it for a moment as if he could see them all sitting in this room looking at him and his operation. Then he turned around and started yelling something. Suddenly the voice became clear on the radio as more people came outside. They were faint at first but quickly became clearer.
'You should have warned me about this! You said you secured the place! There is a camera there, how do you call this securing the place?' He'd certainly picked up his temper the last couple of hours. It made sense of course. If this went down… But since it would go down, it didn't really make a difference in the long run.
The man he had been yelling at called another guy close to him and they made their way over to the building where the camera hang from and disappeared from the sight of the camera.
'Thanks for spotting that, Sammy,' Jay said it sounded faint so the other undercover guy was further removed from Jay. There were shocks through the room as he said that, but I understood why he did it. By spotting the camera and pointing it out to Jay he made sure he wouldn't doubt him.
There were some sparks flying from the bottom of the screen but the camera image didn't filter for a moment.
'Alright, that should do it,' I heard a new voice say. The two men came into view again and I noticed a sign one of them made. So that must be their other guy, Brian, the one who was obviously wearing the mic.
More people came in, they had stopped announcing every vehicle as to not cloud up the radio. There really were more people there then Andy had ever expected. She really had been in the top group, even if she couldn't really take part in it.
'Andy, who's that girl?' Oliver asked at out of the blue as a woman appeared from a SUV that had just arrived. She took a closer look.
'That's Drew,' she said. If it hadn't been clear by the way she walked, it was clear now as she moved to Jay and kissed him.
'What are you doing here?' Jay hissed. The mic guy must still be close to him. Andy located him on the camera. He was a smart kid, standing there without really being noticed. It was a good move.
'Thought you might need back up, babe,' Drew cooed as she stood to his side.
'Look around, I've got all the back up I need and probably more too,' Jay replied.
Andy zoned out of the conversation. There were too many voices going on through each other and she didn't want to put in the energy it would take her to shift them out. Instead she focused on the screen where Sam still stood as if he was part of the group. She was glad these guys would be going away for a long time. If they would find out it was Sam who betrayed them, he might never be safe again.
There was some noise and suddenly it became quiet as everybody gathered around to listen to Jay.
'Ok, guys, load should be here any minute, I arranged that our dear colleague's shipment should arrive about ten minutes later. We'll wait till both are here before we start packing up. Keep your eyes open and stand guard at all times.' There was a faint honking sound in the background as he finished speaking. There was a buzz of voices again and they all spread out over the surrounding harbour grounds.
'All units, stay alert but stay put,' the radio cracked. The buzzing sound coming from the scene wasn't the only buzz going on. Everyone in the room seemed to have started to move too. Andy realised she was in a whirlwind of commotion all of a sudden. It was so odd to see all of this going on knowing there was nothing she could or had to do.
She followed Sam with her eyes. Would he know that she was watching him now? Would he mind either way? He was focused on the job at hand, she could tell that.
All of a sudden he moved to far to his right and she couldn't see him anymore. She wasn't sure if he had intentionally moved away from the camera angle of which she was sure he knew was still on but she could no longer see him.
'Ever been here before?' she heard Brian ask. With no one to follow on the screen she focused in on the voices again.
'Not here exactly.' That was Sam's voice! 'Been at other places before, though.'
Brian didn't push. Andy could only think of the look Sam would be giving him now. He must see the guy as a rookie in UC form, at least that's what she got from the tone of his voice.
'I love boats, always wanted one of my own someday, you know?' It was silent for a moment. 'Yeah, ok.' The glare, it must have been the glare that had made her and her fellow rookies shut up many a time too. There really was no other way why he would be this silent all of a sudden.
It was silent, really silent for the next couple of minutes. Somewhere in the distance I could make out some voices but I didn't hear a word they were saying. Then all of a sudden a loud voice came to the mic.
'The second shipment's coming in!' someone screamed loudly. There were some muffled sounds that best stayed muffled coming from Oliver who was sitting close to the speaker and was obviously trying to make out what the voices were talking about. He hadn't been expecting that exclamation either by the sounds of it.
There was some fuzz and Jay's voice came closer again.
'Paul just checked our own shipment and after he's checked this one, we'll start loading. I want you on the first shipment, take these guys with you.'
'Will do, Jay.'
'Alright, all units please respond be ready to move at the sign.'
There were several responses coming in from the different units scattered in the area. Andy knew that for the safety of the people involved all units were driving in unmarked cars and vans. After a quick glance at the map she realised that some of the cars would have to start moving in now if they were to make it in time. They would have a couple of minutes tops.
'All units in position?' someone in our room asked. Andy had no idea who it was as she was paying more attention to the guys she saw sneaking in on to the harbour grounds. They were definitely not cops and by the way they moved and kept ducking behind the now abandoned vehicles she was pretty sure they weren't any of Jay's man either.
'Hey, guys,' she called out. Chris came to her.
'What's up, Andy?' he asked. She just pointed at the screen.
'Oh,' he muttered before quickly moving to the radio.
'All units be aware there's company on scene.' There was some radio silence for a moment while she moved closer to the radio. Nearly everyone had his attention focused on the screen.
'Damn it, who are they?' somebody asked.
Andy turned her attention to the screen again for a moment when it hit her.
'They're all from the other crew!' Andy said.
'What other crew?' Chris asked.
'There was a guy who was shot a few days back. The second shipment they're taking in today comes from his gang. Those men we saw walking must be from his crew, they're the only ones who know the shipment's coming in today.'
Oliver had come to stand beside tem and swiftly took the radio from Chris as he gave the information to everyone else on scene.
'They don't know.' Andy said suddenly causing everyone to look up at her. 'Sam, the others, they don't know that these guys are coming. We have to warn them!'
'Andy, no, we can't. We can't contact them and it's not that big of a deal. So our cells will be a little more crowded than we had thought, but we'll manage.'
She still didn't feel really good about the whole thing, even after the slight reassurance from Oliver. It wasn't something that a reassurance would simply take care of.
'All units in position ready to move in.'
There was some fuzz coming in from the wire Brian was wearing.
'All seems to be good boss, seems he takes the good stuff easily good for, well I don't really know how much, but a lot, that's for sure,' Paul barged in.
'Ok, thanks Paul,' Jay said. 'It's time to move everybody.'
It seemed like the scene seemed to come to life from all angles all of a sudden. Someone called for the units to go in as Jay's men all started moving with a lot of noise as well. The other crew seemed to find this the best moment to make their own move as well. They emerged from their hiding places behind the cars just as the first cars entered the scene. There was a lot of shouting through the wire as well as over the radio.
'What the…?' Jay screamed as he realised all the people that weren't supposed to be there. It was a mess. People were walking through each other and nobody seemed to realise what exactly was going on. She couldn't see much and there were too many voices shouting over the radio to make out what was happening. Everybody in the room seemed to be on edge waiting for something to come through.
Suddenly the camera image went black as a loud sound of a gun being fired came through the radio.
'Shots fired,' someone called over the radio. Andy caught Gail's eye as she looked at the radio with an annoyed look. It was indeed a bit pointless to state the obvious like that, but she couldn't think of that right now.
Sam was still there and there had been shots fired. She had no way of knowing if he was alright or not. She didn't know if he was anywhere near the guns. It was scaring her to sit her this hopeless without any way of getting more info that second. She started to understand why she maybe shouldn't have decided to stay here.
There were more shots being fired before it suddenly seemed to be all over.
'Suspects in custody, working the scene to find anyone that tried to get away.'
There was a buzz again and Andy took a deep breath. He was alright. Or at least he wasn't not alright, which was pretty much the same thing. It was alright.
'Andy, you ready to go?' Oliver asked, car keys in hand. Right, he had promised her he would take her to the scene the moment it was cleared. She nodded and got up from the chair she had fallen into moments earlier.
She was in a daze as they walked down the stairs and got out into the cold night air. They had to walk a few blocks to where a squad car was parked. It wouldn't matter now if they gave away who they were. There would already be cars and vans at the scene, to take away the arrested men.
The drive was in silence. There wasn't really any need to speak for the moment.
Andy was lost in thoughts. She would see Sam very soon and he would be alright. Probably a little smug that he'd finished the case the way he did. They would be able to go home tonight and try to build on something they had both been dying to work on for the past two years, even though they hadn't given in to it until now.
Yeah, she really should have done that sooner. She couldn't even remember a valid reason why she had stayed with Luke that long. All the reasons she had had at the time were either proven to be wrong reasons or were invalid now.
Oliver scraped his throat and pulled her from her thoughts.
'So, how did things go these past few days, you know, with the case?' Oliver asked. Had she been more alert she would have realised that he was trying to find out what had happened between her and Sam, but she was too distracted to realise anything like that.
'It was good, I guess. I mean, we caught the guys, right?' she said. She didn't really notice how much she was rambling. It didn't really matter any way.
The radio was still giving them some info from the scene. Apparently there were a handful of guys who had gotten away. She heard Dov's voice coming through the radio, letting everyone know he was in pursuit of one of the guys. A smile crept on her face as she heard him. Seemed like he hadn't changed one bit since she last saw him. He was still the same old Dov, going after the action where he could. It probably wasn't a good idea to go after anyone all by himself though, but he would undoubtedly be fine.
'Got the big fish in custody, taking him in to the station now,' Boyd's voice came in. Well, at least it meant he had managed to work a case the way he wanted it and he wouldn't be able to blame her for something that had gone wrong and was out of her hands.
'I trusted you! You betrayed me!' she heard Jay's voice coming over the radio. Apparently Boyd left it on.
'Buddy, you're a drug dealer, murder and god knows what more dirt you've got on your hands. You really think I was ever really on your side?' Sam asked. She smiled at that. How could Jay really think that Sam wasn't in there from the start just to take him down?
'Hey, where are you going?' Boyd voice suddenly came to them.
Andy looked over at Oliver, who had a slightly concerned look on his face. What had just happened? Had Jay escaped
'Hey! Stop right there!' she heard other voices say. Then there were gun shots fired. Andy sat frozen in her seat. It seemed to take forever before the radio came back to life to inform them on what had happened.
'We need an ambulance at the scene right now. Officer down. I repeat officer down.'