A/N: I am so, so sorry it took me ages to update! There were a lot of reasons for that but you probably don't care about them so… anyway. I hope you are still with me…

And yes, the sergeant described here was meant to be the unnamed Martin Freeman character in Hot Fuzz…

I still don't own anything.

Chapter 8

"So what do we do now?" Brandt asked as the three Americans walked out of the police station. "We can't just call up that guy and ask him where the cop who's supposed to be on a secret mission is, can we?"

"No, we can't," Ethan agreed with a sigh. "But I think I know what we can do".

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Are you sure about this?" Jane whispered as she, Ethan and Brandt walked down a crowded London street.

"When were we sure about anything?" Brandt commented humourlessly, causing the team leader to roll his eyes.

The plan seemed too simple, too straightforward. Maybe that was the reason it was going to work though?...

The office door opened quite soon. Just as they had expected, the receptionist had let them go right through as soon as they had pulled the needed cards. They were sure the officer Sergeant Butterman had told them about would at least be curious about the fact that they knew who Nicholas Angel was.

They did feel a bit nervous about walking around this many policemen but they had no other way. And what they were going to do next was even riskier. But that was the thing about these mad ideas. Once you get into it, there is no way out. You can only go ahead with it with as much confidence as you can muster. Ethan was secretly happy Benji wasn't with them at the moment. Not that he didn't trust him, God knows he trusted him with his life, but this amount of pressure would probably be too much for the technician.

"So, gentlemen… lady," the officer was only a sergeant in rank and yet had quite a level of smugness about him. It was clear he worked really close to the bosses and was quite happy with his position. The fact that he was aware about the secret operations with stakes this high also spoke volumes. He motioned for his visitors to sit down. "I've been told you are from the FBI and came this far for a visit… What did you want to talk about?"

"Sergeant," Ethan began, and Brandt and Jane felt grateful about it. "We know you are after Bill Riley and his gang," he raised his arms when he saw the officer was about to speak up and went on, "and we know that you were going to send one of your best people after them".

The sergeant's features changed, and he glared at the three Americans in shock.

"Whoever told you that…" he mumbled, "I don't…"

"We know you can't talk about it," Brandt took over, "so just listen and then you can make your decision. We've been following Riley for a while, and he's not the biggest wolf in the pack. Do you know anything about Phillip Black?"

The sergeant shook his head in silence, too shocked to say anything.

"Just as we thought," Brandt nodded. He noticed a glare from Ethan and got the impression he was getting too theatrical.

"If you haven't started your operation yet, then you need to make a few changes," Ethan said, looking directly at the policeman. "You have no idea what you are up against. He was involved with dealers supplying weapons to terrorist. We have already dealt with some of his friends but he managed to get out".

"I'm afraid it's impossible," the sergeant replied hesitantly.

"You mean you have already started your operation?" Brandt knew he was being theatrical, but he felt like this was the right thing at the moment.

"I can say no more," the sergeant became rigid.

"We understand," Jane spoke up after sitting in silence during the entire conversation. "But maybe we can combine our forces? Maybe we can help?"

"I…" the officer clearly knew he really shouldn't be talking to these people. But the truth was, he was worried. They had lost Nicholas after he had been grabbed in the middle of a street, and that moment by itself looked suspicious. They couldn't near his exact whereabouts or directly attack the place, as they still didn't know how many people were working for the gang from the outside. The American visitors seemed like they knew something but he couldn't just ask for their help. He wasn't authorised to make such decisions. He sighed.

"Can I… contact you… later?" he asked, uncertainty audible in his voice.

"Sure," Ethan nodded with a small smile as Brandt handed the officer a paper with a phone number written on it. "But please don't take too long. Not only the life of your colleague, but the success of the entire operation depends on it".

The sergeant nodded, clenching his jaws together.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Did you do it?' Ethan asked Jane as they walked out of the building and smiled when he received a nod.

"Brandt was just… attention grabbing enough," she replied, returning the team leader's smile. She was glad that she managed to plant a bug during the conversation. Now all they could do was hope that the sergeant would call somebody, or just try to change something about the operation. And then Benji would trace the signal. They had not a single doubt he would try his hardest to do that.

"Sorry, and what are you doing here?" Brandt's voice brought her from her trance. She blinked, startled, and saw a familiar face of the man she had met only the other day. In front of the, with some weirdly misplaced stern determination on his face, was police sergeant Daniel Butterman.