Chapter 18 - Proves to team
/Stephanie's Point of View/
One evening about 1900, a silent alarm was triggered at a local pawn shop sending an alert to Rangeman. Following protocol, the closest unit responded and a secondary team was dispatched as well.
As soon as they hit site, we got a call of shots fired.
With a nod to Crater, Zulu was immediately strapping on a flak vest and securing secondary weapons. Within ten seconds, they hit the door running towards the shots fired site.
Not two minutes later, a hotel client reported a disturbance in their lobby requesting backup. Control dispatched a team to break up the disturbance at the hotel.
I'd abandoned my searches and was now watching over the shoulders of Marcus and Heels keeping an eye on monitors. Heels was on the phone with local PD.
Over the next five minutes we got two more silent alarms. Cameras showed nothing but alarms had sounded so response was necessary. I could tell the staff was starting to panic. Field teams were dispatched to the locations, and we sent the final pair in the office to hit the streets on patrol in our area of densest clients.
I scrambled to the nearest phone and reported on the PA for the front desk to lock down the lobby. I issued an order for all staff (including those off duty in their apartments) to don flak vests and weapons and be ready to report. This whole situation had me on edge.
I slid into the open chair at the monitors. I picked up the phone and dialed Hector in Trenton. I asked him if he could switch all monitors to Trenton. I wanted them to watch our monitors so we could focus on the specific clients reporting incidents.
I could hear Hector racing up the stairs to the Trenton Control Room. Hector stated he needed at least five minutes and put me on speaker phone as he worked.
Apparently Lester was core team member on deck because he started querying me on the situation. He directed that the steel gates should be deployed in the lobby and a locked and loaded two man team be posted at the garage entry. I turned to the room and started relaying orders.
Tundra went running to secure the garage, meeting Banner who'd been on the front desk.
I directed Marcus to verify that the entry was secure and maintain focus on the situation on monitors feeding periodic feedback situations without shots while I took over the communication with the local PD and field on the situation with gun fire.
Lester informed me he was patching into the comms directly and once confirmed I was able to hang up with Trenton.
I turned about two minutes later to find Marcus glaring at me. He wasn't moving, and he definitely wasn't focused on the monitors.
"You ain't in charge here," he demanded.
I used the voice I'd been practicing at martial arts and issued a "do it or get out of my way." Heels' head jerked up and she glared at Marcus as well. Her stare didn't produce results either, but she pushed him out of his seat and took over on secondary comms.
Thirty seconds later, Marcus' cellphone rang. He took it, cursed about unequipped females, and stormed off. I didn't care. I didn't have time for that.
The next fifteen minutes was a whirlwind. I was coordinating with the local PD on the various calls, I was making sure Zulu was fully updated, I'd called ahead to the private ER to ensure our two injured staff were expected. Heels followed my lead and kept us informed about the secondary sites. It soon became evident they were a distraction. Rangeman held our own and was able to secure the pawn shop scene and successfully transfer it to the local PD.
Heels and I remained on monitors as scenes were cleared and Zulu made sure that our injured staff were taken care of. It took about two hours before we lifted the lockdown and our staff started to return.
In that time, I'd called in a couple contact workers to cover monitors and Hector transferred full control back to our office.
By the time Zulu returned, I was beat. But as I stood in the shower much later that evening, I realized I was truly proud of myself.
