Chapter Seven: Stealing the Interceptor

Commander Norm Holleran found his target working in his office. Storming in, he didn't even wait for the man to look up from his computer before slamming his hands on the desk, leaning over and into the other's space. "Tell me, Detective, is it customary for Internal Affairs to punish an officer who hasn't even been proven guilty of any crime?"

Terence Niebaum instinctively recoiled from the nose only centimeters from his own. Pale gray widened for an instant before he regained control. "Don't know what you're talkin' about, Commander."

Holleran resisted the urge to snarl just like his subordinate's gryphon form would. "Lieutenant Parker," he grated out. "You had him placed in General Population and I want to know why."

"General?" Niebaum blurted, horror darting across his face. "Crimey, he's in the T-South riot?"

"Yes," Holleran snapped. "Now start talking."

"Now wait just a minute," Niebaum retorted. "You think I did that?"

Commander Holleran straightened to his full height, crossing his arms as he glared. "Your antagonism for Lieutenant Parker has been obvious from the start, Detective Niebaum. If you have another suspect for my consideration," one hand swept out, "by all means, do tell."

"Sure I don't like the guy," Niebaum blustered. "He's a criminal."

"Innocent until proven guilty," Holleran countered, icy calm.

"Yeah, whatever. He's dead-bang guilty – you know it, I know it."

"Don't presume to tell me what I know," the commander hissed. "Get to the point, Niebaum."

"Fine," the big man grumbled. "I ain't got the authority, Commander. Even if I wanted to put your guy in General Pop, that's against procedure. I can't override that, nobody here can."

The black man frowned. "No one here…that implies someone can, Inspector. Who?"

From behind his desk, Niebaum merely shrugged, but there was a gleam in his eyes. "That's the million dollar question, Commander."

"Yes, I suppose it is," Holleran mused, watching his target go rigid. "And you're going to help me answer it."

To say that the SRU was unhappy when their commander returned to the barn with one Detective Terence Niebaum in tow was to vastly understate the case. The officers stared at the IA detective, mingled disgust and loathing on every face – he squirmed under the universal hostility, but remained defiant.

"Briefing room," Holleran rumbled, overriding any protests from his Sergeants by hauling Niebaum past and into the room. The three teams involved in the riot streamed in, all of them managing to find places to stand, though the fit was rather tight.

Holleran waited for all movement to halt before turning towards Sergeant Vio. "Status?"

"We fully contained the riot, sir, and the prison is back under our control. Nine inmates and one guard killed during the riot – they're still sorting out all the injuries; warden promised to get us a full report by tomorrow morning."

"And Lieutenant Parker?"

Vio's expression darkened. "Missing. Team One tracked him through the whole prison – he rescued most of the guards trapped inside when the lockdown happened, but the rioters lured him into a secluded location."

"There was one heck of a fight," Sergeant Lane reported. "Blood everywhere, plus an inmate we're pretty sure Lieutenant Parker took down."

"That's also where we found the one guard fatality," Constable Callaghan said, tone subdued. "They took his clothing."

"Figure they lured Parker in with one of theirs disguised as the guard, then hit him from behind," Constable Vlachos added. "No cameras in that location, so we don't have the full picture, sir, but the rioters managed to cut a hole in the fence and escape."

"How many got away?"

"Thirteen," Sergeant Vio replied. "Fourteen if we include Lieutenant Parker." His shoulders slumped a hair. "One of our escapees used to be a lieutenant in Castor Troy's gang, sir. He was arrested by Team Two based on intel we got from Intelligence Services."

Holleran grimaced. "Then he has a double grudge against Lieutenant Parker."

"For arresting his boss and getting him arrested," Sergeant Lane agreed.

"Maybe even for taking his boss down for good," Constable Braddock mused.

"Do we know who took Parker?" the commander asked.

Constable Vlachos shook his head sorrowfully. "We know it was probably an outside group who took advantage of the hole in the fence, sir, but they spray-painted every single camera between their entrance and Parker's last known location."

Commander Holleran considered the information, nodding slowly. "BOLOs out for all the escapees?"

"Yes, sir," Sergeant Vio confirmed. "Parker, too."

Niebaum sneered. "Parker, too," he mocked. "Parker's the worst of the lot!"

"Does he need to be here?" Sergeant Lane demanded, a deadly glare boring into the IA detective.

"For now," Holleran said, though he cast a warning look at Niebaum. "He has information on how Lieutenant Parker ended up in General Population."

"I ain't never said I knew how that happened!"

"That's a double negative," Constable Macken cut in, glee ringing loud. "So you do know."

"I didn't know anything till your commander showed up and got in my face!"

Holleran turned his captive loose, shifting to face him head on. "You informed me that no one in Internal Affairs would have the authority to override standard procedure when it comes to prison protocol for an individual on trial." Brown eyes narrowed. "That implies someone has that authority and I want to know who."

"Whoever it is, they red-flagged Lieutenant Parker's file," Constable Vlachos put in. "Guards couldn't protect him even when they knew he was in danger."

Niebaum squirmed under the focused fury of the room. "Look, you people don't know who you're messing with here. Parker made a lotta guys nervous with how he tore through all those dirty cops when he was under."

"When he was under," Sergeant Lane snarled, advancing on the IA detective. "You knew he was an undercover and you arrested him anyway? You charged him with organized crime anyway?"

"He ain't no saint," Niebaum shot back. One finger pointed at Constable Macken. "And you shaddup about double negatives. Parker's as dirty as they come!"

"I believe that is for a jury to decide," Commander Holleran put in, gesturing for his officers to stand down. "But unless you'd like me to contact Lieutenant Parker's defense attorneys about your uncoerced confession regarding your knowledge of my officer's undercover role, I suggest you start talking."

The IA detective paled, swallowing hard at the threat. After a long moment of consideration, he nodded. "Okay, okay. Not just anyone has the kinda pull you'd need for something like this. Warden would know – he'll be the one who tagged Parker's file – but he sure ain't gonna talk."

"Bribery?" Team One's Constable Young asked, tilting his head.

"Nah, too obvious," Niebaum countered, waving a dismissive hand. "Too easy to track." Large shoulders shrugged. "Favor for a favor is more like it. Could even be lots of favors for one big one."

"Politics in the underworld," Sergeant Lane concluded, disgust heavy.

"Would this be a big favor?" Constable Hopper wondered.

"Sure would. Veteran officer, member of the SRU – you betcha that's a big favor to red-tag him," Niebaum confirmed. "Lots of fallout if it gets out, too."

"Who are we looking at?" Sergeant Cooper barked, tired of the run around.

"I don't know, Sergeant. Had to guess, it'd be the mayor or the police commissioner. They're the only ones high enough to have the pull for some of what gets traded for stuff like this."

Holleran shook his head. "Not the mayor. He's too new to city politics."

"Didn't he run on an anti-corruption platform?" Constable Coulby asked, a frown twisting his broad, dark-skinned face.

"Sure did," Niebaum agreed in a sour tone. "And he's no insider – you don't get these favors outta thin air."

"You build them up over time," Constable Sabine interjected, her expression solemn. "That's the way we did it working undercover in Drug Squad."

"That leaves Commissioner Loeb," her Sergeant rumbled, fists clenching.

"Maybe not," Sergeant Lane cut in, staring at the IA detective. "How come you're suddenly handing us this intel, Niebaum? We don't have Lieutenant Parker, so why admit you knew he was undercover?" A step forward. "Why go after a good cop when you know he was just trying to survive?" Another step, looming over the reddening Niebaum. "You'd only go after a good cop if you aren't, if you're just trying to save your own skin." Lane stared at his opponent, hawk blue boring into him. "Greg's not the dirty cop; you are!"

"I ain't stupid, Lane," the detective blustered. "You lot can't prove anything, but that won' matter if your commander decides to take a lil stroll."

"SRU, stand down," Commander Holleran ordered, gesturing for his furious subordinates to back away from the IA detective. He waited for Lane and Cooper to comply, then fixed Niebaum with a disapproving stare. "You've been dirty so long you don't even remember what it is to be a good cop. My people are angry, rightfully so, but they won't lay a finger on you so long as you aren't foolish enough to pull your weapon inside this station." He shook his head slowly. "I have only one more question, Detective Niebaum. Why should we believe your claim that Commissioner Loeb is dirty?"

" 'Cause there isn't anyone else in this city who's got the pull to do that to Parker," Niebaum hissed. "Nobody else has got enough dirt on everyone in power to override standard procedure."

"And what would be Commissioner Loeb's motive?"

Niebaum snorted. "Parker took down every single cop on Castor Troy's payroll and you're asking why a dirty cop wants him gone?"

"He didn't take down all of them," Sergeant Lane growled, insinuation thick as he stared at Niebaum.

"They couldn't prove nothin'," Niebaum snapped. "An' neither can you."

"Enough," Commander Holleran announced, stepping between the antagonists. "I can't say I'm convinced, but I can tell when we've reached an impasse." He leaned forward, looming over the slightly shorter man. "Get out of my station."

"Gladly," Niebaum spat, pushing through the officers to reach the door.

The commander raised his hands, quelling every single objection from his men, and waited for the sound of the angry IA detective's footsteps to die away. Without lowering his hands, he said, "Settle down, men. Commander Locksley has already dispatched Constable DeValle to shadow our friendly IA detective until we can locate Lieutenant Parker. Any move he makes, we'll know about it."

There were several grumbles, as Holleran had known there would be, but around the briefing room, the SRU officers subsided, accepting that their commander knew what he was doing.

Turning, Holleran pinned his three Sergeants with a Look. "Officially," he began, "the manhunt is out of our hands since Lieutenant Parker is considered at large and dangerous. However…" He examined each of his Sergeants in turn, layering the silence with expectation. "…as of now, Team One is being removed from the duty roster, pending Lieutenant Parker's capture. Given Mayor Russo's anti-corruption initiative, our unit must handle this situation entirely by the letter." The commander let that hang in the air, then nodded. "Gentlemen. I leave this in your capable hands."

With that, he departed, reaching out to hit the controls to close the briefing room door behind him. Officially, his hands were tied; he could do nothing to protect his officer from the wolves prowling the city. Unofficially – he knew his people would stop at nothing to bring their leader home safely.

For several long minutes, silence reigned in the briefing room after Commander Holleran's departure. His expectations and unspoken orders were clear, but if they were caught, their commander wouldn't be able to protect them.

At last, Gwaine looked over at Mordred. "Did he just invoke ghost protocol?"

"Shut up, Gwaine; the SRU hasn't been shut down," Troy replied wearily. "And nobody's been shot that we know of, either."

Jason Cooper grunted, crossing his arms as he turned to regard Ed and the rest of Team One. "This might be a one-way trip for you guys. Won't be easy to prove the commissioner's involved."

"Not with his reputation," Ed agreed. "How many mayors has he served under, anyway?"

"If you have to ask…" Donna opined, shrugging. "Even with Russo's anti-corruption gig, he probably won't get rid of Loeb."

"Too much a part of the Old Guard," Wordy put in. "Sarge taking down Frost shook the whole force – we lose Loeb, too, and a lotta guys are gonna wonder if they're next."

The rest of the officers had to agree. Although the old commander of Toronto's Police Academy had been arrested on corruption charges, many still refused to believe he'd been crooked. The SRU was one of the few units who'd solidly backed that arrest, especially after they'd discovered who had uncovered Frost's shady dealings.

With Toronto's police force already uneasy and wary, the new mayor's many speeches regarding rampant corruption within the city's political structure had been seen as a direct attack. If Commissioner Loeb lost his position – regardless of the reason – the tenuous ties between City Hall and the Police Department might well snap, leaving the city wide open to external threats.

"We'll need solid evidence," Troy observed in the brief silence.

"How're we gonna get that?" Jason demanded. "If Loeb's dirty, then he's had a lifetime to cover his tracks."

"And he'd be even more careful to cover his tracks with Lieutenant Parker," Donna observed. "Like that jerk said, Parker took out just about every single cop on Castor Troy's payroll – even if Loeb wasn't in on that, he has to know he's playing with fire by going after Parker."

"Except…" All heads turned towards Mordred; he flushed under the attention, but forged ahead. "Except he didn't cover his tracks with Lieutenant Parker. Soon as we got to the prison, I found the red-tag on Parker's file."

"And we didn't find his body," Elyan hissed, slamming a fist into his palm. "If he was dead, they wouldn't have taken him. That means he's still alive somewhere out there."

Percival frowned. "Why does that make a difference to Loeb? We would've found out about Parker being in General whether he survived the riot or not."

"It makes a difference because a live victim is much more convincing to a jury than a dead hero," Leon replied. "Whoever we're dealing with, whether it's Commissioner Loeb or someone else, they were banking on Parker's death. So long as he's unaccounted for, he's a loose end they have to tie up."

"He can link them to the riot, even if he doesn't know who they are," Donna agreed. "They can't let him survive, not now that they've made their move."

"If it is Loeb, he'll have buried all the evidence in our files," Sam mused. "He's got the trust, he's got the access – nobody would even blink if he wants to look in on a couple cases here and there."

"Either him or his guys," Gwaine muttered. At the looks, he shrugged. "What? Parker's good, but you can't tell me he found all our bad apples. No way."

"If he had, IA would be outta a job," Lou remarked, eyes sparkling for the first time in days.

"So…if we don't have the evidence, who does?" Lancelot inquired, frowning hard.

Silence fell once more, all of the officers pondering that excellent question. After a minute or two, Leon chuckled, drawing instant attention. "Somethin' funny, mate?" Gwaine asked.

Blue glittered beneath the former knight's curly brown hair and above his neatly groomed beard and mustache. "If memory serves, at this point, Arthur would declare his intention to personally investigate, after which Gaius would somehow discover the precise location we needed to journey to…"

"…and telling us all about the magic beasties and traps we gotta watch out for. And if the princess got it in his head to leave Merlin behind, we'd get the Eyebrow or Merlin'd just turn up in the morning our first day out, grinning at the princess yelling at him," Gwaine interjected, his own grin wider than a Cheshire Cat's.

Ed shook his head even as Team Three gawked – Team Four's Big Secret was common knowledge around the SRU now, but the knight-constables were still finding new ways to startle their modern-day colleagues. Greg and Holleran had drawn the line at them bringing in axes and maces, though.

"You think we need to go right to the source?" Sam ventured. "But what would that even be?"

About to open his mouth, Ed went still. The day Greg had gotten arrested, he'd gone into his lieutenant's office, searching for answers. After wincing at the mountain of paperwork towering in Greg's inbox, he'd found a small stack of finished paperwork, the bottommost of which had been a report on his friend's latest brush with Anthony Marconi – still Elias's second even though Greg had no intention of ever going undercover again.

And that… That was their in – as Elias, Greg had naturally been focused on building up his organization into a position of strength in order to successfully combat Castor Troy's gang, but he'd also put a great deal of work into gathering intelligence on all the players in the city, including law enforcement. That was how he'd been able to hunt down all of Castor's moles within the department, but Ed was sure there was more than just intel about Castor Troy in Elias's stash. Maybe even intel on their illustrious Commissioner Loeb.

"You know," the Sergeant mused, rubbing his chin and waiting until his fellow officers had turned. "It's really too bad for Loeb that Parker's former team is just as dirty as he is."

For an instant, the room froze, then Gwaine barked a laugh. "Good luck, mates; you're gonna need it."

Author Note: I hope everyone had a good Halloween, with many more treats than tricks.

For anyone who may have missed it, I did post a Halloween story yesterday - The Knights of the Comic-Con. Please do go and enjoy it!

I had my out-meeting for the Developmental Edit with my story coach yesterday and I'm really discouraged. My story coach is insisting that if I deviate off of her recommended edits, I am going to end up in hot water down the line with publisher editors, but at the same time, I feel like so many of her recommended edits are ripping apart the fabric of the story I'm trying to tell.

I think the biggest thing I am discouraged about is that my story coach sees Greg's relationship with the kids as the most important part of my story. While I do admit that the story revolves around Greg meeting/adopting the kids, I see his relationship with Team One as an equally important part of the story. However, when I expressed that to my story coach, she told me flat out that publishers would not accept that. They would want a story that only revolves around Greg and the kids - Team One can be present in the story, but they are lesser, secondary characters (at best).

She also said that if I want to keep full control over my story and not be subject to publisher edits which I don't like (and won't be able to refuse), I have to go the self-publishing route. The thing is, self-publishing is hugely competitive and self-published books hardly ever land in real, physical bookstores. If I go that route, I'm afraid that I'll choke my story off before it even has a chance. I know nothing about marketing, I have zero social media presence, and I can't devote the time/resources it would take to build up my line of stories and the income stream I'd need to support that kind of approach.

Prayer for the Lord's Guidance would be much appreciated, but also prayer that the Lord would give me the wisdom to accept His Leading. I know I can be more stubborn than a mule sometimes, especially when something is so close to my heart.

A third prayer request would be for the Lord to help me find a critique partner. Likely another writer, so that we can sharpen each other and grow as we help each other with our stories. A good critique partner is someone I would love to know, but I'm not sure how to find that good critique partner.

Have a great weekend all! And may the Lord Bless each and every one of you - and your families - on the other side of the screen.