Chapter 2 - The Warehouse
The snow then started to lighten up, making it easier to drive on the icy roads at this time of the night. It didn't take long for Christopher to arrive in Camberwell. He made a right turn on a crossroad path and saw large two-story neutral grey warehouse far ahead. The building had a couple of broken historic steel windows, the paint color was scraping off, revealing the darken first coat underneath, and there was smoke coming out from the rooftop. In front of the building were two teal garage doors.
Christopher looked at his notepad, '2179 Poly Rose St', then back up to see three large vehicles parked in front of the building.
"About time you showed up, Blackburn. You're nine minutes late." Said a male voice coming Christopher's walkie talkie.
"Isn't best to catch criminals while they're in the act sometimes, making it easier while they're on trial, Crawford?" He held the device to his mouth as he drove closer to the vehicles.
He could hear Crawford groan on the other end of the line. "Forrest just called stating her, Duke, Chamberlain, and Bloodworth managed to arrest Evans, and his associations back in Westminster and Bexley. They retrieved over 500,000 Class A, B, and C drugs in Bexley. The only area that's left, is here."
Christopher stepped out of his car, and looked up to see four people coming out of one of the vehicles. Three of them were male, and one of was female. All wearing the same outfit Christopher is wearing.
In the large black vehicle parked next to them, the back doors opened revealing twenty men wearing full body suits, shielded helmets, bullet proof shields, and large weapons. As expected from the SWAT team.
"Fashionably late again? I think Fowler coming to work late is rubbing off on you." Said the tall, pale skinned, blue eyed, slender, light brown-haired man.
The short blonde-haired green-eyed woman standing next to him slapped the back of his head.
"Ow!" The man held the back of his head. "What was that for, Fowler! It's the truth!"
"We're not here to talk about me, Crawford."
"Guys." Christopher held his hands up, coming in between them. "Okay look, I know it's late, and it's freezing out here, and we all want to go someplace warm; and we can do that, but once this case all over."
"Blackburn's right." Fowler nodded.
"Okay." Crawford took out his pistol from his waist. "Infrared scanner shows there are eight males inside with the remaining Class A drugs that were supposed to be transfer to Bexley. At the moment, the scanner shows that they're still loading it in the van."
"And what are they armed with, Atwood?" The teen detective turned to face the dark haired brunette man.
"SA80a2s, Glock 17 pistols, L128A1 combat shotgun, Minimi light machine gun, L82A1 – anti-material rifle, and ILAW anti-tank rocket." He replied.
"I see they're not taking any chances with us then." Christopher looked at the building.
"So, what's the plan?" Atwood asked.
"Each of us will be accompanied with a group of five, the SWAT team will go in first. Atwood, you take east entrance. Fowler, the west. Crawford, cover the back. I'll take the care of the front entrance. No doubt they'll be trying to escape using the trucks, so Crawford will make the first move inside from the back." He motioned with his hands. "Once inside, approach with caution, these criminals are armed with weapons that our military forces use. Do not take them lightly."
"Understood." Crawford nodded.
"Alright, let's move out!" Christopher ordered taking out his gun.
Each detective headed towards their designated area with the SWAT team. Christopher carefully approached to the front of the building, he carefully hid himself with his back to the cemented wall by the nearest window. He leaned against the left side of his head against the wall as he took a glimpse inside. There was some light inside the building, all being powered by large pendant lights across the ceiling. A few of them were flickering.
"Wait for it…" Christopher said softly raising his right hand up.
Three minutes later, they heard a loud metal sound coming from inside.
"London PD! Freeze!" Crawford's voice echoed across the building. Then there were what seemed to be loud rapid footsteps against the concrete flooring were coming closer to their direction.
"Now!" Christopher shouted as the SWAT team used a black long medium length battering ram to knock down the metal door. Each of them quickly entered the building.
"Freeze!" "Stop right there! The SWAT team shouted.
Christopher pointed his gun in front of him as he eyes quickly scan the area. Various members of the SWAT team pointing their weapons and chasing few of the criminals. His fellow detectives followed suit.
Three loud gun shots noise was fired, aiming at few of the members of the SWAT team.
Christopher stopped where he was and gasped, constantly turning his head around to where the source was. He looked up to see a dirty blonde-haired man wearing a black leather jacket, a navy-blue shirt underneath, black jeans, and black boots. He had a SA80a2 strapped around him.
Christopher saw at the corner of his right eye, Crawford was nearby and was pointing his gun at one of the dealers while SWAT was handcuffing him to the ground.
"Crawford, the second floor!" He motioned with his head in the direction.
Crawford whipped his head to the right and saw the shooter.
"Got it!" He took off running up the stairs.
The shooter took notice of the detective and aimed his weapon at him. Crawford fired his gun before the shooter could. The bullet struck his left shoulder. The shooter groaned in pain as he held onto the wound.
"Damn it!" He cursed. He looked back up to see Crawford was about 9 meters away from him.
The shooter struggled trying to hold the rifle properly, the pain in his left shoulder had an effect when he fired the weapon. Crawford dodged the bullet.
"Son of a bitch!" The shooter moaned placing his hand back on his wound. He turned around, trying to make a run for it, but was stopped in his tracks when someone jumped right in front of him.
It was Christopher.
The young detective, held his gun in front, aiming at the shooter.
The shooter stared in shock and took a step back. He narrowed his eyebrows as he turned to the right to see the railings. The height from the second floor to the bottom was about 45 meters tall. There was nothing below for him to step on either.
"How the hell did he even do that?" He looked back at the detective.
Christopher had a serious look on his face. "Drop your weapon, and get on your knees now!" He took a step closer.
The shooter took a good look of his face, it was first confusion, then it became discernment.
"Wait, you're…"
"He said get on your knees now!" Crawford stood right behind him, with his gun pointed at the shooter's head.
The shooter slowly lowered his body down as Crawford took the rifle from him and started to cuff him.
"You're under arrest for smuggling illegal class drugs into the country." Crawford started to read his rights.
"I'll leave this to you. Good work." Christopher nodded as he placed his left hand on the railing and jumped off it, he did a 360-degree flip in the air, and landed on his feet in a kneeling position on the ground.
He stood up and saw the rest of his team had handled the rest of the dealers and were now in their custody.
"Blackburn." Christopher turned his head to see Atwood approaching him.
"What happened with the shooter?" He asked.
"Crawford has him in custody, you guys?" He placed his gun back into its holster.
"SWAT arrested the rest of the dealers, and we recovered the remaining Class A drugs in the van." They started to walk.
"Are all of it in there?" He placed his hands behind his back.
"No, they were about half way when we arrived on the scene. Fowler is with the rest over there." Atwood pointed with his thumb in the left direction. "CSU are on their way right now."
"Alright then, good work." Christopher make a turn and approached Fowler. He picked the bag that contain the drugs. He studied the material inside it and he patted the bag against his left hand. "Let's wrap things up here and take them back to the precinct and get a confession out of them."