Betrayal
Chapter 7
Stephanie´s PoV
October 14, 2011 1600 hours
Quantico, VA
This is creepy. Since they arrived they stood with their backs to the wall facing the door on the other side. No one moved. No one talked. 160 men secured in different rooms and different locations, behaving absolutely in sync.
We were in the observation room sitting in front of the bank of monitors were every single room in Quantico, Boston, Miami and Atlanta was shown.
After Ranger and his men where brought here we separated certain objectives while others stayed together. We brought them sandwiches, water and coffee; and told them to make themselves known if they need to use the restrooms. Of cause they refused everything.
This procedure was the same at the compounds in Boston, Miami and Atlanta; the reception, too.
As we planned this mission we decided against to bring them all to Quantico, mostly because it is a huge logistic effort to transport 218 men and women, most of them highly dangerous, safely. But the main reason was that most of them were innocent as the main culprits sat in Trenton.
I have just received the last reports. Everything I discovered over the last three years was confirmed, additional evidence was collected, the first henchmen have confessed and mercifully we haven´t found any nasty surprises.
The lab rats did a fantastic job, collecting and confirming the outstanding pieces of evidence and it´s now on the way to our lab for further analyzing.
The officers of the PDs and DAs of Trenton, Newark, Miami, Atlanta and Boston got confessions or were working on deals with the secondary targets.
The accomplices in Boston and Miami were under lock and key and now on the way to a secret location for interrogation. The rest of RangeMan Atlanta, Boston and Miami are released at this very minute.
The injured SWAT members were treated and are already back home.
All that's left to do is delivering the final blow to RangeMan Trenton.
And that´s my job.
Lucky me.
I turned back from the monitors and let my eyes wander over the assembled men and women in the room. We really are a motley crew. Some were on board from almost the beginning, some jumped on the train at one point or another.
Representatives of the Army, Navy and Air Force; Various Police Departments; ATF and DEA; CIA; NSA; Homeland Security and form the office of the United States Attorney.
That´s what I´ll call a Joint Tasked Force.
Everyone wants some of the laurels.
And they are going to feed me to the wolves; by my own request.
Words were unnecessary. Cooper from the Homeland Security and I left the room.
We strode down the corridor. Taking a deep breath I stepped in the room alone and faced the one who was responsible for this mess and asked:
"Why?"
~~~~~oooo~~~~~
Two hours later I was beat. I stepped out of the room and bracing my arms on the door I rested my forehead on the cold metal.
Joe reached around me and offered me a mug of steaming hot coffee which I accepted gladly. Taking a small sip I almost moaned in bliss. Not only did he add the right amount of cream and sugar but also a generous amount of hazelnut syrup.
"You should be nominated for sainthood, Joe."
"That I should, Cupcake that I should." We went back to the observations room. As soon as I entered applause broke out. I was clapped on the back and congratulated for getting a full confession. I smiled and accepted the congratulations gracefully, and yes I was proud of what I accomplished; but the dread of what was still to come dimmed the happy feelings. It´s a bittersweet victory. Our impromptu victory celebration soon died down; we weren´t finished, I wasn´t finished, there was one thing left to do: releasing the innocents.
A/N: So now I would like to know what do you think!