A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, it's definitely made me feel welcome here. Let me know what you think. An unfortunately I don't own Flashpoint, boo.
"Spike, what can you tell me about what's outside that door?" Greg asked, moving over to stand next to Spike at the mobile command post he had set up in a corner of the garage.
"Not much, boss. Looking at the security feed, looks like that camera's been broken for quite a while, so that's not going to help us. All the other cameras are video only, so there's no telling if there's a riot right in front of the door or a homeless guy sleeping in a box."
"Any alarms on the door?" Ed questioned as he moved towards the door while Wordy secured the subjects near one of the concrete columns, setting up an impromptu holding area. "I don't need a crowd with grenades and who knows what else going ape-shit on my team."
"Well there was until about two minutes ago when I disabled it." Spike smirked. "You guys've got to give me a bit of credit sometimes.
"Your ego doesn't need to be inflated anymore than it already is," Wordy joked as he joined Ed at the non-descript steel door.
"Ed, Wordy, can you get me eyes outside? I don't want to send my team out there without knowing what we're getting ourselves into," Greg cautioned as Spike continued trying to get security feed from the outside of the building.
"Boss, the outside cameras have been going down one after the other, with the exception of the one by that door," Spike stated, his brows furrowed. "My guess is this was planned and somebody is covering their tracks now."
"Getting eyes on the other side of this door isn't going to be easy, boss," Ed responded. "We've got concrete block walls, most likely with bricks on the outside, and a heavy steel door that looks to be pretty much sealed around the sides to keep fires out."
Ed examined the door a bit further then continued. "Any hope of stealth is going to go out the window if we try to drill through any of this for a better look."
"Copy that, Eddie."
"Or," Spike piped up, "you could just open the door and stick your head out. Time stamps show the most recent cameras to stop transmitting are all on the opposite side of the building from you. You should be good."
Ed cracked open the door and Wordy stuck the mirror outside. "Clear... and clear," he determined, withdrawing the mirror and pushing the door open further.
"Boss, we're heading out," Ed informed him while gesturing to Wordy to follow the wall north toward the alley at the side of the building.
"Spike, see if you can find out what they know," Greg nodded towards the subjects who were sitting just out of earshot. "I'm going to find out what the situation is inside the igloo, as you called it."
Greg watched the lanky officer make his way over to the subjects, trying to look imposing with his hand resting on the handle of his holstered Glock. Taking the seat Spike had just vacated, he shook his head, thinking that Spike had never outgrown the kids' version of cops and robbers.
He watched for a few moments as the blips representing his team moved around the screen, Wordy and Ed moving quickly along the outside of the building, Spike shifting back and forth between the two subjects in front of him and Sam and Jules in the concrete igloo. One of them appeared to be pacing while the other remained mostly stationary. He hoped this didn't mean one of them was injured by a piece of loose debris falling after the explosions. He shook off the thought, jumping to conclusions could get people killed, he knew.
Sam paced the area not much bigger than an average two-car garage, rifle still in hand, while Jules sat against a mostly intact concrete column in the center of the space, keeping an eye on the cracks in the ceiling and looking for possible new hazards.
"If you're going to pace, you wanna put the rifle down? I doubt anybody's going to be calling 'Scorpio' on any these rocks," Jules commented as her eyes shifted to look for possible openings in the newly formed block walls around them. "What are you looking for, anyway?"
"Trying to figure out the blast pattern. Grenades are like bombs, they're unique, but grenades of the same type will all blow up pretty much the same way, just like a bunch of bombs made by the same guy will," Sam explained, pausing at an area where the concrete was darkened more than the rest.
"Ok, but that doesn't tell me why you're walking around with your rifle," Jules interrupted his lecture. "The situation's changed here, Sam. This isn't something that'll end by negotiation or somebody getting shot."
"Fine," he conceded, putting the weapon down next to the backpack he'd been carrying up until the blast occurred before moving back across the dusty floor to stare at the darkened patch of ceiling again.
"Sam! Jules!" Greg's voice crackles through their earpieces. "Can you hear me?"
"A bit broken up, Sarge, but you're clear enough", Jules responded, watching Sam continue to stare at the ceiling.
"Your comm. links went offline for a few moments; there must be some kind of interference in here. What's the situation in there guys?" Greg questioned cautiously, trying to keep any apprehension out of his voice.
"Everything looks to be stable for now. No telling what another explosion will do, though." Jules eyed Sam as he quickly typed something into his phone. "Sam's checking out the blast patterns on the ceiling."
"Boss," Sam started, walking over towards Jules, "based on what I'm seeing on the ceiling and the way the debris has piled up, my guess is that the grenades are military, probably old Russian ones. We saw them fairly often in Afghanistan, but they're pretty common on the black market here apparently."
As he spoke, he showed Jules what he'd typed on his phone: Is he checking up on us?
She nodded to him as Parker told them to sit tight for the time being. "Keep your comm. links open, we might need the extra heads later when we've got a better handle on what's really going on here."
Great, Sam mouthed sarcastically, reaching out for Jules' hand, finally feeling that his scene evaluation was done and it was safe to relax a bit where they were.
"Boss, looks like I've finally got some of the story for you," Spike began as he came back over to the command post. "Looks like our gunman's name is Steve Murray. He says he was approached a couple of days ago by somebody he met on an online message board. He said they offered him five grand to stage a distraction that had to involve SRU otherwise he wouldn't receive the money. The 'hostage' is Lisa Hanley, Steve's girlfriend. It seems like she knew what was going down from the start. The only thing they can't get straight is if they were supposed to stage the distraction here or anywhere but here. He says it was supposed to be here, she says otherwise."
"Good work, Spike," Greg said, getting up from the chair. "The mother must know something about what's going on here because she gave us a fake name for the boyfriend. Winnie, see if you can get the mother back on the line, I want to see what she knows. Spike, see what you can dig up about Murray and Hanley."
"Already on it, Boss," Spike answered, already seated and typing away.
"Eddie, proceed with caution! The firefight outside might be a further distraction from where we really need to be or it might be the real thing. We may have a situation in the building above and it has not being cleared by any uniforms."
"Boss, all I'm getting is a busy signal," Winnie informed him.
"Keep trying, Winnie. Just keep trying."
As Ed and Wordy rounded the corner to the front of the building they were met with the sight of a large crowd and the sound of approaching squad cars.
As the sirens got louder a woman hidden in the crowd suddenly screamed and several guns were heard firing, inciting more screams in the crowd and people starting to run in every direction.
"This is not what we need right now!" Ed spat, frustrated with a situation that was quickly getting out of hand. "Winnie, where's Team three?"
"Boss, Lisa Hanley's mother is dead!" Spike blurts out abruptly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Wordy saw something get thrown from the crowd toward the building.
Sam sat next to Jules with his hand resting on her left thigh, only half listening to the chatter in his right ear.
"Take cover!" He heard Wordy yell just as another explosion rocked the building. He rolled over onto Jules to shield her from the new debris that had started to fall around them.
Ok, so not too much of Sam and Jules yet, but I've got to deal with those comm. links first, but then, they've got concrete falling around them so are they really worried about being overheard right now? Stay tuned and find out.