by Melody Anne
Chad made it to his vehicle, thanks to a little magic from Brackish to turn off all security alarms the manager had set. He hated sitting and doing nothing, but he knew it was needed and he was more efficient where he was than in the middle of the action.
Smoke and Green had to be a bit more creative in the way they got into position, but they did it without being seen. Even after numerous dry runs the two of them still went through the steps of verifying length, angle, and wind speed from their respective spots to the parking lot they’d be sending shots to. Smoke was shooting his little EMP rounds from four hundred sixty-three feet. Green’s shots were almost two hundred yards longer than that. The two of them tested those rounds at a range over the last week, Green had fine-tuned the ballistics and taught Smoke what the drop rate was. The team knew if Green was comfortable with the shots then there were no issues with the high-tech bullets.
At 12:30 AM the first car arrived. Over the next fifteen minutes all of the players were in the parking lot. The two leaders and three additional men from each gang, who all were carrying oversized bags, went into the garage and left the other members in the parking lot to stare each other down. None of them would dare draw on the other gang, but the words, looks, and signs thrown at each other were contentious.
Brackish watched the gang members on the hidden cameras and waited until drugs were presented, passed between each other, and money exchanged before he pushed the four buttons that released the completely odorless gas. Before the eight men could make a signal that they were in any kind of trouble, all of them were unconscious. Of course, the entire mission was being recorded, including voices via microphones placed in little places all over the garage.
“Phase one, complete,” Brackish said to the team.
Eyes and Sleep timed their cart pushing perfectly. One of the unbalanced wheels on the shopping cart squeaked with each step Sleep took. The sound broke through the gang members berating of each other and they didn’t like the interruption, even from a couple of trash-picking homeless people.
“Spare some change or maybe a drink?” Eyes called out to the group of men.
Multiple phrases that meant the same thing as get the fuck out of here echoed back to him. He smiled under his beard and couldn’t wait to put these men down. He was about to disappear from their view as he approached the van holding the massive X-ray vision, when a police car pulled up to the intersection.
At the exact same time a brilliant flash coursed across the sky. They knew a chance of some heavy rain was possible, but the lightning wasn’t expected.
The police officer looked over at the overflow of vehicles in the parking lot of the garage, and all of the bodies attached to it, and knew something was wrong. Everyone could see him reach for his radio and talk into it. That’s when every plan that had been previously made was flushed down the drain.
A rumble from the sky barreled around them. The clouds released heavy drops of rain, slow and methodical at first, but the cadence quickened, and within seconds there were sheets of water falling on them.
The officer turned his spotlight toward the men in the parking lot and that was all it took for the first shot to fly. The round made impact with the windshield of the police cruiser, which then set off a volley from everyone with bullets flying in all directions. Three men ran directly toward the police car and they were going to take down the cop, but Sleep was on them, and put two rounds of chemicals into each one.
Seeing their members go down and suspecting the police of shooting the men lying in the street, more gang members joined in. The flashing lights on the police car and the heavy rain made it next to impossible to see far.
Another massive arc of light cut through the sky, lighting up the entire parking lot. It allowed Green time to ascertain his target. One round sent, one car incapacitated. He put another round into the chamber of his gun, but it was impossible to see any other cars with the water cascading down on top of him.
The police officer tried reversing the vehicle, but it wouldn’t move. More and more rounds impacted the car. Eyes and Sleep knew he was in a bad situation, so they took the fight to the men. They dropped man after man. Each time it happened the other side thought it was their rival gang. For a moment they’d forget about the cop and again turn on each other, not once looking at the homeless guys.
“Guys, abort. There’s a line of cars coming up MLK from the south, and a line of police cruisers coming from the east. It’s going to turn into a mad house real quick,” Brackish calmly said into the comms while watching live feeds from his monitors. Two of their drones had gone down due to the rain, and three of them went black with their video feeds, but they were already on their way back to base.
“We aren’t leaving that cop,” Eyes commanded.
Another massive rumble pounded around them, hard enough to vibrate in their chests. More shots rang out, more yelling.
“Chug, get the hell out here, get to the police officer on your side, and have him jump in. Sleep and I will take leave when we see you safely gone,” Eyes yelled into the microphone.
Doing just that, Chad floored the gas pedal, ran through the garage door, crashing onto the street. He slid to a stop on the driver’s side door of the cop car within seconds. The officer had been hit and looked to be in shock. Chad jumped out, pulled the officer from his car, and helped him into the back seat of the armored vehicle. A machine gun started putting rounds into the passenger’s side window, all of the energy of each bullet being sucked up by the thick bullet proof glass.
Chad jumped back into the SUV, put the vehicle in gear, ran over a curb, and made a smooth exit. More rounds sank into his vehicle, but they didn’t come close to penetrating it. He let the cop know he was one of the good guys and was getting him out of the war zone he’d been in the middle of. The cop was still in shock, but he radioed his fellow officers, telling them he was being taken to safety.
An entire armada of lights could be seen racing toward them. Eyes knew he and Sleep had to put down as many of the men as possible before that line of cars arrived. Just then his worries about the cars stopped in a flash.
Smoke had seen the vehicles coming as well, and since they had their lights on, they made for easy targets. He wasn’t as adept at figuring out all the measurements when shooting at a distance like Green was, but he knew if he got the first car down it would stall the entire train. The distance, the monsoon, and the speed of the vehicle all created challenges. His first two shots missed by far, his third shot was close, but his fourth shot was a direct hit to the engine of the lead vehicle compartment, stalling it in its tracks. The sudden stop caused the next three vehicles to crash into each other. From there Smoke hit each of those stopped cars.
“Great shooting, Smoke!” Green said.
Sleep and Eyes continued putting down gang members, and they got almost all of them by the time the police arrived. The first officers on scene only had to deal with two gang members. Those two had decided they’d rather live than deal with the entire squad of vehicles full of police that could be heard coming real fast.
“Pull out. Sleep and Eyes, play your part, give your report to the officers, and then get out of there. The rest of the team leave now,” Brackish said.
Each member of the team acknowledged the order, and they quickly packed up and were gone. Another mission, another success, even with the twists and turns. They were doing good work, and making the city a safer place.
***
One Week Later
The special ops team were all smiles as they sat around their table in the command center. Even Chad was grinning as he held reports.
“Don’t make us wait, Chug,” Smoke said impatiently.
“Don’t tell him that, Smoke, or he’s going to draw this out forever. And we have a party in Vegas to get to,” Green said.
Chad rose his brows. “Party?” he asked.
“Don’t play dumb. You know you’re coming,” Sleep s
aid. “It’s bachelor party time.”
Chad laughed. “I’m bowing out of this one, boys. I like my marriage, and my wife doesn’t approve of a bachelor party unless she gets to have a bachelorette party, and I’d rather have her alone than ogling naked men in Vegas.”
The table of men laughed. “Yep, I’m not super thrilled about our weekend either. I’m going to worry so much about Avery, I’m not going to have any fun,” Sleep grumbled.
“Worried a Vegas stripper will take her away?” Eyes taunted.
“Not in the least. As I said before I’m worried some idiotic drunk will dare lay hands on her and then I’m going to beat him to a bloody pulp.”
“If he’s foolish enough to touch your wife he deserves it,” Brackish said as if smashing a man’s face in was no big deal. Of course, none of them thought it was a big deal. There should be honor among men, and if a woman was wearing a ring, that meant hands off.
“Okay, tell us,” Eyes insisted.
Chad began. “After the police sealed off the area and talked to Sleep and Eyes, buying their story that they were homeless, they were left scratching their heads. They couldn’t figure out why all but two of the gang members were lying on the ground, moaning and throwing up, and talking about magical bullets falling from the sky.”
Smoke laughed. “Anything I touch has magic in it,” he told the group.
“Hey, the criminals in the lots were all Eyes and me,” Sleep piped in. “You got the vehicle parade that was coming in as backup.”
“That was magical,” Smoke insisted.
Chad interrupted, knowing the back and forth could go for hours. “The police were also confused when they found the gang leaders passed out in the garage with no visible evidence of what had happened to them.”
“That’s because nothing I create is traceable,” Brackish said with a satisfied smile.
“It wasn’t until the next day when the rain stopped and the sun shone that they found the casings from where Sleep and Eyes had been stationed, right where the officers had spoken to their homeless eyewitnesses.”
“I bet that blew their minds,” Eyes said with a smirk. They knew they’d left nothing behind that could possibly be traced back to them, and their disguises had been top-of-the line. The best face recognition software in the world wouldn’t be able to figure out their true identities.
Their forensic team concluded the homeless men had been the ones to put down thirty-nine of forty-one gang members without lethal force. The men were paralyzed for twelve hours.”
“That’s it? What a bummer,” Green said.
“That’s a long time to be paralyzed, especially with the cops taking you into custody,” Brackish said with a smirk. He was working on something stronger though, something that could incapacitate someone for twenty-four hours.
“That afternoon they received all of the video transmission from the night before, and after reviewing it, they saw the video evidence corroborated the forensic evidence. They’ve concluded a special ops team was on a mission. They’ve also concluded the team was certainly ghosts and it was a waste of their time and budget to pursue them.”
“I thought they’d at least try,” Brackish said with a pout. “It’s always fun to be hunted.”
“That’s like a grizzly bear being hunted with a BB gun,” Eyes said. “How can that be even a little challenge for you?”
“I didn’t say it was a challenge. I just like it when people try,” Brackish said. “Maybe we should piss off the CIA. I love going head-to-head with them.” A gleam entered his eyes.
“With the way the world’s going right now, that might actually happen,” Chad said, no humor in his eyes. Brackish came to attention. All he needed was the official go and it was on. He’d love to dive into the CIA databases.
“Let’s stick locally for now,” Chad said with a laugh. “The bottom line is there are about five hundred years of jail sentences added up so far, taking these men off the streets permanently. That means business can come back to the area, and people living nearby can feel safe again. This is all because of you guys. You’re truly cleaning up this city. I know you don’t get a pat on the back, but you get the reward of walking down the street, knowing people are alive because of you.”
For once the men were quiet as they looked at Chad, his words sinking in. They were so focused on their mission they didn’t often stop to think about the long-term impact they made on people’s lives. It was a pretty humbling experience.
“Great job, men. Now take the entire week off. You’ve earned it. Just make sure I can get hold of you if anything arises. We’re getting closer and closer to the end of this mission, and you should be damn proud of yourselves,” Chad finished.
Fists lifted in the air as the men called out shouts of victory. Their path wasn’t finished yet, but the end was in sight. Taking down those two gangs was like conquering one wave in a massive ocean, but it was still a win, and a good win at that. What would come next?
“Aren’t you boys forgetting something?” Chad asked as the men stood to leave the conference room.
All of them stopped in their tracks, each searching their brain for what was missing, what they had forgotten.
Chad pulled out stacks of cash and said, “The bets you all had on the bust.”
The men slapped each other’s backs, jokes instantly being made about who was about to get paid.
“I reviewed the tapes multiple times specifically for this purpose. First bet was on total number. Eyes won by two. Second bet was on best put down. This was difficult and I’ll show you why when you return from Vegas but I had to give it to Eyes. Third and fourth bets were the weird ones and split between Smoke and Green,” Chad informed them.
As he pushed the pile of cash across the table he started to smile at himself, not able to contain the thought in his head.
“Sleep, it’s almost as if you weren’t even there. I feel bad you lost so bad to these guys,” Chad said.
The laughter exploded through the room before Chad stood, raised a hand, and finished the conversation, “Sleep, Brackish, because this is a dual bachelor party, and I know you guys are barely able to make ends meet with not making any money, I want you to have this, from me and the guys.”
He pulled the stack of money back, reached down and put another pile on the table, equal in the amount and handed one pile to Sleep and one pile to Brackish. The last words he said before all the men started razzing each other was, “Don’t spend it all in one place.”
Chapter Sixteen
Green went from one of the best moods he’d been in in a long time, to one of the worst.
Women!
Yep, that one word described it all. Women could bring intense joy and pleasure, and they could also drop a man to his knees begging for mercy. Right now Green had women problems — yep, women were making his life hell at the moment. He had his mission woman, and she was an absolute pain in his ass, and then he had the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about who was ticked at him.
He was sitting on a luxury jet about to land in Las Vegas with four men he respected, truly liked, and enjoyed being with. He was about to have three days of freedom — no work, no stress, no worries. But instead of being excited about the trip, all he could think about was Mallory.
“Green, if you don’t get that sour expression off your face, I’m going to have to punch you,” Smoke said as he leaned back in his seat and glowered at Green.
“I hate that I couldn’t get Mallory to call me back after that damn photo op the senator staged. And I’m on shaky ground with the senator anyway. When I told her I was going on this trip, she got all pissed off, saying she didn’t think a man who was supposed to be devoted to her should be partying in Las Vegas.”
“So . . .” Eyes said, looking confused. “Which woman are you with?”
“I want to be with Mallory, but I’ve charmed the damn senator so much she believes we’re a couple now. I was
supposed to get her to like me but not want this exclusive thing. I can’t sleep with the woman. There’s no way I’m going to blow Mallory’s cover, and I’m starting to show my disdain for the senator. If she kisses me one more time I might puke on her two-thousand-dollar heels.”
“Wait? When did you and Mallory become a thing? And what photo op are you talking about?” Sleep asked. “I don’t remember seeing anything.”
“The photo came out this morning. Mallory and I got in a fight over it. I told her I can’t blow my cover, but I’m not going anywhere alone with the senator. I told her the senator is just a mission to me, that I’m not sleeping with Anna. She says she believes me but the damn photo this morning puts me on shaky ground. To make matters worse, she knows I’m working on a special ops team, but I can’t give her any information on the team, which to an FBI agent doesn’t look good. And, of course, she can’t find any information on us, even working in the FBI, so she’s losing trust in me. I’m all sorts of screwed right now.”
“Back to the photo!” Smoke said, jumping back in. “What in the hell has Mallory so riled?”
Brackish laughed as he pulled out his iPad that connected to the internet even while flying at thirty-two thousand feet above land.
There was a photo of Green and the senator locked in what appeared to be a pretty hot kiss next to a pool at a hotel. The caption read; Pool side kiss. The future president and mystery man swimming in the deep end at the crack of dawn!
“Yep, if I was Mallory, I wouldn’t be happy with that image either,” Eyes said with a whistle.
“What are you doing with the senator at five thirty in the morning?” Sleep asked.
“I didn’t stay the night with her. I got a call at 0500 telling me there was an emergency and I needed to get there fast. So, I slipped on my jeans and a sweatshirt, didn’t bother to brush my hair, looking as if I just got out of bed, which I had, and rushed to the hotel. She told me to meet her by the back door. She walked with me to the pool wearing only her nightgown and robe and grabbed me and kissed me. She had the entire thing planned. She wanted it to look as if I’d stayed the night and was just leaving after a wild night. I don’t know what her game is with this one though.”
