"You're finally going to get your white whale."
"Andy, I told you that book was just to help me sleep."
Dov and Frankie gave the couple a pair of quizzical looks and Sam said, "It's in inside story from when I was undercover to get Anton Hill, you had to be there."
"Apparently," Frankie said. "Let's open the folder and see what's in there."
Sam exited out of the word document and clicked on the other item on the drive. It opened up to contain a mass of photos of targets together, recordings of meetings, and a lot of spread sheets detailing a number of elicit dealings.
"Blackstone must have been compiling all of this for years," Dov said.
"He probably figured his usefulness would run out at some point and wanted to have some protection," Andy said.
"This is a lot more than just simple protection. There's enough here to take down not only Hill's operation but maybe several others across the Province. Hell, maybe even the Country. Here's some stuff on a group out of Montreal."
"The Landrys?", Dov asked.
Sam shook his head, "No, they pretty much collapsed after we took the boss down. This is some guy named Chiarelli."
"We have to get this to Staff," Frankie said.
"Yeah right away. This has to all be done right," Sam said. "Something this big, we can't take chances." He ejected the drive and looked at it for a moment. "Second time I've held a flash drive with enough to take down Hill. Not going to let this one slip away."
"No, we're not," Dov said assuredly.
Sam handed Frankie back the drive and they all got up and left the room. Walking back towards the door, Frankie said, "Sorry to cut out after you got us food, but this can't wait."
"Ah, don't worry about it. Believe me, I won't hold it against you," Sam said.
"Actually," came Sarah's voice from the kitchen, "I took the liberty of preparing some of the food into containers for you, I figured whatever it was must be important and that you may have to leave.
"Hey, thanks, that was thoughtful of you," Frankie said.
"Oh, don't mention it. You gotta eat eventually, right? And there was plenty of it here."
"Yes, well, we better get going," Frankie said and Dov grabbed the 2 containers of food for the road. They said their goodbyes and left. Sam was lost in thought and it didn't escape His wife or sister.
"Go on," Andy said.
Sam snapped back to attention, "What?"
Andy smiled, "Go on, Sam. I'll be fine. You want to be there and I don't blame you. I would too."
"No, it's okay."
"Sam…"
"Plus, we still need to eat. We got all that food and-"
"I also packed you a lunch, Sam."
He turned to see his sister smiling, holding up another container of food. In his heart, he did want to be there. Hill was his "white whale", Andy wasn't wrong about that.
"We'll be here when you get back," Andy said. "Go. If you hurry, you may catch up with them and not miss anything."
Sam nodded, cupped Andy's face and kissed her deeply, passionately. "I love you, sweetheart. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"I love you too, Sam."
They both smiled and Sam crossed the kitchen, pecked Sarah on the cheek and accepted the lunch. "Thanks Sis. You outdid yourself."
"Please, it's not a big deal. You go be the hot shot detective and Andy and I'll have some girl time."
"I'm sure." With a final goodbye, Sam was out the door and racing to catch up to his fellow detectives.
As he burst through the front door, Anderson was just pulling away from the curb up the street. Sa was hesitant to take his truck. He didn't want to leave Andy ad Sarah without a vehicle. Luckily he didn't have to weigh that long because the car came to a sudden stop and reversed back to him.
"You're never gonna hail a cab just standing there looking dumbfounded," Dov joked. "Need a lift?"
Sam popped the back door and clambered in. "Well, if you're offering…"
"You owe me twenty bucks", Dov said to Frankie.
"Betting on if I'd want to go with you?"
Dov laughed. "No. We both knew you'd want to. We were betting on if you'd realize it before or after we left. Good timing by the way. Another couple of seconds and I'd have lost."
"Well, then. In that case, your welcome."
"I'm not convinced you didn't cheat," Frankie said as she handed over the most wrinkled twenty-dollar bill she had.
"What can I say?", Dov said as he pocketed the bill. "I know my partner.
The three detectives were seated around in Oliver's office. They were picking way at their lunches with plastic forks. Oliver, for his part, had a pickle-less sandwich next to his keyboard. He was holding the flash drive, analyzing it. "This little thing has all of that on it? Wow."
"Actually, sir," Dov said. "it's quite large. In terms of memory capacity, at least."
"That's beyond me," Oliver said. Nevertheless, can we look at it?"
"Yeah," Dov stood up. "You just plug that nd in and-"
"Epstein, I know how to use my computer, at least enough for this."
"Right, just trying to help." Dov sat back down.
"I'm sure," Oliver said with a smile. I was mainly concerned with the integrity of the information if we open it."
"Oh, it's completely safe. The files are all protected, those of which that can be edited. Meaning we can't make changes to them. They automatically revert back to the original if we did. We can't alter, delete, or copy any of this."
"Okay, so I'll click on it." Oliver spent a few minutes listening to and looking over the files. "You guys weren't kidding. This is huge. We'll need to get this to the OPP and the RCMP at least. Did anybody else see this?"
"Just Andy," Sam said.
"She probably trustworthy," Oliver said sarcastically. So, walk me through it again. Anderson, you got this from Blackstone's mother?"
"Yes, I was there with the chaplain to give the notification. She gave this to me as we were leaving. She told me that her son had given it to her a few days prior and to get it to Swarek if anything happened to him."
"So that's what you did."
"Yeah, I called his desk and he didn't answer so I called Detective Epstein who told me he was off this afternoon."
"Okay."
"Then I tried calling Andy," Dov said. "I knew that Sam was taking her t the doctor's so I figured they'd be together. She and I arranged for us to meet at their place."
"I took them to our office," Sam said. We opened the drive there and after reading the letter and seeing what all was in there we decided we needed to get it to you as soon as possible."
"So that's what we did."
"Good, just make sure your reports all stay so clear and coinciding. No mix-ups here.
"Of course, sir" Dov said for the group.
"Alrighty. I'll get this to the proper people, get working on warrants and such. I'll let you guys know when we're ready to roll. Okay? It shouldn't be long. Hopefully we can get moving on it tomorrow sometime."
"Sounds good," Sam said.
Oliver nodded. "Dismissed. And don't bring good smelling food in here again unless you have some for me," Oliver joked, but was also semi-serious. "It makes me feel bad about my lowly sandwich."
The next day, Oliver delivered as promised. Sam showed up to the station early and found Oliver was already waiting at his desk, a folder in his hands.
"That them?"
"No, they're take out menus, I thought you could use some suggestions for some new food spots."
Sam smiled and took the folder. Inside were the warrants, placed on top was the one he wanted. Anton Hill.
"Oliver, I want Hill."
"I knew you would Brother. That's why he's on top, you get him. The rest are going to Nash and she'll divide them up with her squad."
"Thanks, when do we move?"
"Right after parade. Take Epstein with you. Also, Collins, Price, and Zettle. I'm giving Anderson, Peck, and Diaz to Nash and Ward. You'll also have ETF support."
"Bailey?"
"No, you have Sanchez's team. Bailey's with Nash."
"Works for me."
Sam and his team rendezvoused around the corner from Anton Hill's Bar. Last time he went in, Sam reflected, he had a gun held to him. Probably would have died if Andy didn't show up. This time was different. This time was no bluff, this time Sam had him.
"Okay team, listen up. Collins, Price and I are going in the front. Zettle and Epstein go in the back. We all will follow in Sergeant Sanchez and his team. Radios on Tac 3. Andy questions?"
Nobody had any and Sam wrapped up the planning session. They piled into their vehicles and approached the bar from different sides as well as behind. They tactically approached the doors and Sanchez, who was leading the front entry team, radioed," Alpha ready."
His number two, who was leading the rear entry team, radioed back, "Bravo in position."
"Three-count on my mark," Sanchez said. "Mark." He held up three fingers and counted them down. At zero he pounded on the door and yelled 'police' before stepping aside for one of his guys with a ram. Two swings and the door was down. The unit flowed in and the sounds of commotion inside were very audible. As were the yells of 'police, don't move', and 'hands up'.
Sam expected Hill to be in his office and led Collins and Price through the winding halls and down the stairs following his crosshairs. He found the door open and signaled for Collins and Price to enter ahead of him. They flanked either side of the door and Sam followed them in. Sure enough, Anton Hill was seated behind his desk, hands raised to ear-height.
"Officers, I assure you, the guns are unnecessary. You'll find I'm unarmed."
"If it's all the same," Sam said. "Collins, cuff him."
"Sir stand up slowly and face away from me," Nick said. When Hill complied, Nick holstered his Glock and placed Hill in cuffs.
With that complete, Sam and Chloe holstered their guns and Sam snatched his handheld from his belt. "Hill is in custody, basement office."
Dov's voice came back, "Everyone accounted for up here."
"Copy, we're bringing Mr. Hill up," Sam replied and returned the radio.
Nick spun Anton around and Sam stepped up to him. Hill looked at Sam's name plate. "Officer Swarek. I recognize you."
"Actually, it's Detective Swarek now."
"Oh, the big leagues. Tell me, how is Ms. Starling?"
Sam grinned, slightly uneasily. "She's well, Anton. Thanks for asking. I'm sure she'd appreciate it."
Anton shrugged. "Well, you know I always liked the girl. It's a shame what you dragged her into, that was a nasty bit."
"Well, the past is behind us, and has nothing to do with why you're in cuffs." Sam turned to walk away but stopped and looked back. "Speaking of that though. I believe we had a mutual friend. Jacob Blackstone? Does that ring a bell? Yeah, I can see it on your face. Yeah, you see, we have him thank for all of this."
"Lawyer."
"Right, you're done talking to us. Probably smart. Collins get him out of here."
On the street outside ETF was loading all of Hill's men into a transport van. Sam instructed Nick to put him in the back of a squad, isolated from his men. With that completed there were handshakes and back claps all around for a job well done.
The other warrant teams were also scheduled to hit their targets at the same time so they all should be pretty wrapped up. Sam called in to Oliver to report his teams' progress.
"Shaw," Oliver answered.
"We got hill and his guys, we're wrapped up here, beginning the search."
"Excellent, Other teams are reporting in similarly. All targets apprehended, so far.
"It's a great day, brother."
"Yes, it is, Sammy. Yes, it is."
