by Matt Lincoln
Already, the scene in the warehouse was in total chaos as the police and the two men engaged in a shootout. I noticed immediately that Milton and his goons were absent from the fight, and I spotted them at the back of the warehouse, apparently attempting to make a quiet escape.
“Stop!” I yelled as I ran toward them. Milton flinched at the sound of my voice before spinning around to face me, his eyes wide with a mixture of fear and anger. “Don’t move!”
The two goons stood by warily, clearly unsure of what they should do. I could see their hands hovering above their guns, but they probably knew that attempting anything right now in a warehouse full of cops was bound to end badly.
I had just taken a step forward when I heard Holm yell from behind me.
“Stop!” he called out. “Don’t shoot! I’m a federal agent!”
I spun around instinctively at the words “don’t shoot” and discovered Holm standing a few feet away from one of the officers. The cop had his gun trained on him and looked confused.
“His badge is in his pocket!” I yelled just before catching a blur of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned around just in time to avoid being hit by one of the goons as he threw a punch at me. I punched him back, square in the nose. The guy was tough, though, and barely flinched before swinging at me again.
I grunted as his fist struck me in the shoulder, then punched him again before kicking him hard in the stomach. The man fell over with a huff, clutching at his middle with both hands.
“Everybody, stop!” Birn roared as he ran into the warehouse, his own gun drawn. Muñoz was right behind him.
“Federal Agents!” she yelled. “With MBLIS!”
She looked furious as she walked inside, and I couldn’t blame her. The cops had just inadvertently ruined our mission.
Holm ran up to me a moment later and immediately bent down to yank the suspect’s arms behind his back.
“You okay?” he asked as he pulled a set of handcuffs from his belt.
“I’ll have a nasty bruise tomorrow,” I replied as I rubbed at my shoulder where he’d punched me. “But I’ll be alright.”
“Where’s Milton?” he asked as he stood back up straight.
I looked back at the rear corner of the warehouse where I’d last spotted Milton and his goons before the one on the ground attacked me. A small window at the back of the warehouse was smashed open, with no sign of Milton or the other goon anywhere around.
I ran up to the window and peered out, but they were long gone. To one side was nothing but an open field, and to the other was a dense forest. Wherever they’d gone, I had little chance of spotting them under the darkness of night.
I frowned as I stepped away from the window and back to where Holm was standing by the goon.
“Gone,” I spat bitterly before looking down at the man on the ground. “This one must have come at me as a distraction so his boss could get away.”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?!” Muñoz yelled from the other side of the warehouse. She was standing in front of the officers, her arms folded across her chest as she reamed them out. “We’ve been working this case for weeks! All we needed was to catch him in the act. You had to go and storm now of all times?”
“Hey, lady, there’s no need to shout,” one of the officers protested.
“That’s Agent Muñoz,” she corrected him harshly. “Not ‘lady.’ And I know for a fact that law enforcement was aware we were conducting an operation tonight. Or they should have been, anyway, unless someone royally screwed up and dropped the ball here.”
“She’s right,” I muttered to Holm. “Milton didn’t actually say or do anything incriminating. Not enough, anyway. Everything he said could be argued to have meant something else. He’s got the money to get the best lawyers, too. He’s going to end up weaseling his way out of this.”
“Muñoz is tearing them a new one,” Holm replied as he nodded toward where she was still snarling at the officers.
“I don’t blame her,” I snorted as I pulled my phone out of my pocket to call Diane and give her the bad news. We’d have to find some other way to get Milton now. It was going to be a struggle since now he knew that we were after him.
“Hello?” She answered right away. “How did everything go?”
“Terribly,” I deadpanned. “A bunch of cops decided to storm in right when Milton was about to strike the deal.”
“You’re kidding,” she groaned.
“I wish I was,” I scoffed as I glanced over to the officers who were now dragging the two other men out of the warehouse. “It’s a disaster. Milton got away.”
“Okay,” she sighed, her voice heavy with disappointment. “We’ll figure something out tomorrow. For now, go home. It’s late. No point in trying to reconvene now.”
“Got it. See you tomorrow, then,” I replied before ending the call.
“What did she say?” Holm asked as he yanked the goon off the ground.
“To go home,” I replied as I slid my phone back into my pocket. “It’s almost midnight already. She doesn’t see any point in trying to continue tonight.”
“Sucks we waited all this time for nothing,” Holm grumbled before looking at the goon. “I’ll take this one back to the office. We can question him about Milton later.”
“Thanks,” I replied as he led the man out of the warehouse.
I followed behind him slowly. It was a disappointing end to the night, especially after having spent so long lying in wait. I guessed we’d just have to pick back up tomorrow.
3
Ethan
My shoulder was sore as I walked into the office the next morning. I’d been right when I’d told Holm that I would likely end up with a nasty bruise from the punch Milton’s goon had given me. I’d woken up that morning with a large, mottled, red-and-purple mark on my shoulder. It didn’t hurt that much, though it did throb any time I moved my arm too suddenly.
I was, therefore, looking forward to getting my chance to interrogate the guy and making him and his boss pay. To my surprise and disappointment, Diane had other plans. She called me into her office as soon as I got in. As I stepped inside, I saw that Holm was already in there, sitting in a chair and looking as confused as I felt.
“I have a new case for you,” she announced as soon as I shut the door behind me.
“A new case?” Holm asked, his brows furrowed together. “But we haven’t solved this case yet.”
“I’m aware of that,” she replied as I sat down in a chair next to Holm. “Birn and Muñoz will be handling it for the time being. For now, I need you to focus on this.”
I frowned in disappointment at the idea that I wouldn’t be able to confront the goon myself. Still, I was curious about what might be so pressing that Diane would put our current case on the back burner for it.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“A large cargo ship just went down off the coast of Florida,” she explained. “Yesterday, at around noon.”
“Went down…?” I mumbled. “As in it completely sank?”
“That’s right,” she replied with a curt nod. “I trust, being that you’re both former SEALS, that you understand just how alarming that is.”
We most certainly did. The thing about big ships, especially modern ones, was that they took quite a long time to sink. Some ships, after sustaining damage, could stay afloat for days or even weeks before finally going under. The only time ships sunk that quickly was when they were the target of a deliberate attack, like during a war.
“Someone attacked it?” I asked gravely.
“Yes,” Diane replied as she looked something up on her tablet. “The ship was carrying a full load of cargo from China. Current damages are estimated to be in the billions. This is likely going to result in a huge amount of economic damage.”
“What a mess,” Holm muttered as he shook his head. “Do we have any idea who did it?”
“Oh, we know exactly who did it,” Diane scof
fed as she turned the tablet around to face us. “One of the crewmen on board managed to capture this video before it went down. The perps weren’t exactly shy about hiding their identities.”
I pressed play on the video and was immediately shocked by the carnage. Several men were standing on the deck of what looked like an old warship, screaming and laughing as they assaulted the ship.
“Are those rocket launchers!?” Holm gaped as he watched the video.
“They are,” Diane confirmed. “They didn’t hold back in their attack. It’s extremely evident that their goal was to bring the ship down.”
“What is that?” I wondered out loud as I paused the video. “Look at the flag.”
It was the Colombian flag, but something had been spray-painted over it. It looked like some kind of graffiti, though it was difficult to tell from the grainy footage.
“That’s their ‘emblem,’” Diane replied. “They’re pirates. We presume, based on the flag, that they’re based out of Colombia. This isn’t the first time they’ve struck, always flying that flag. Though this is the first time they’ve attacked such a big target.”
“Pirates?” I repeated, shocked at what she’d said. “That’s insane. I’ve never seen pirates on a warship.”
Usually, pirates tended to stick with smaller vessels. It was easier to sneak around undetected and to make a quick getaway. No one was sneaking anywhere with a massive warship.
“Neither have I.” Diane pursed her lips as she took the tablet back. “It’s definitely something we haven’t reckoned with before.”
“Wait,” I muttered. “You said they’re pirates? Did they take anything from the ship? Because in that video, it looks like they’re just going nuts on that ship.”
“That’s a very astute observation,” Diane replied as she looked down at the tablet, the screen still frozen on the image of the flag. “You’re correct about that. According to first-hand reports from the surviving crew, the pirates didn’t actually take anything. They just started firing without making any demands at all.”
“That… doesn’t make sense.” I frowned.
“No, it doesn’t,” Diane agreed. “Which means we’re not getting the full story here. Either someone is lying about what happened, or there’s something else we’re missing. As it stands, this doesn’t fit with the pirates’ previous behavior. Up until now, they’ve always raided the ships they’ve targeted before sinking them.”
“So, how do we know so much about them already?” Holm asked. “If this isn’t the first time they’ve struck, why are we only hearing about them now?”
“You’re only hearing about it now,” she corrected him. “MBLIS has been on their trail for a few months now, just not this branch. The Las Vegas branch has been covering the case for a while now.”
“We have a Las Vegas branch?” Holm asked her, his voice laced with genuine surprise.
“It’s a relatively new branch,” Diane replied. “It’s been operating for just under two years now. They’re heading up here this afternoon to collaborate with you on the case.”
“Collaborate?” I asked, the debacle from last night suddenly coming to the forefront of my mind. Honestly, the idea of working with anyone unfamiliar right now didn’t sound appealing. The last thing I needed was for some idiot to swoop in and mess things up like the cops had the previous evening.
“Yes,” Diane replied flatly. “They have months’ worth of information to work off of. Technically, this is their case. It just so happens that it’s crossed into our jurisdiction, and we can’t exactly ignore it now that it’s reached our own backyard.”
“Alright,” I conceded, albeit a bit reluctantly.
“Great,” she replied as she turned to her computer and typed something onto the keyboard. “In the meantime, I want you to go speak to the crewmen from the cargo ship. Unfortunately, most of the crew onboard the cargo ship died when it went down, including the captain. There were a few survivors, however, including the man who shot the video. The Coast Guard had set up a makeshift camp by the docks to conduct search and rescue and treat survivors. The majority don’t speak much English, so they’re being cared for there while the government tries to figure out the best way to get everyone back home safely. Go down there, see what you can find out about what happened. The agents from the Vegas branch should be here by the time you get back.”
“Okay,” I replied as we got up. “We’ll go see what we can learn.”
“Good luck,” she called as Holm and I stepped out of her office.
“Pirates, huh?” Holm remarked as we stepped through the bullpen and toward the entrance of the office.
“Not just pirates,” I muttered back. “These guys are in an entirely different league. Who just sinks a boat like that? Isn’t the point of pirating to take things?”
“Guess that’s what we’re trying to find out,” he replied before falling into a pensive silence. “What do you think about working with those other guys?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly as we stepped through the main office doors and out toward the elevator. “Guess I won’t know until we meet them.”
4
Charlie
Agent Junior Chapman concentrated as he stepped onto the elevator, a tray of coffee held precariously in one hand while the other clutched a box full of doughnuts.
Why do they make these things so flimsy? he thought to himself as the drink tray wobbled under his arm. The elevator gave a little lurch as he made it to the top floor of the building where the MBLIS office was located, and he tensed when one of the coffee cups teetered, bracing himself to be suddenly scalded by painfully hot liquid.
It settled back a second later, though, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the elevator. That was until he made it to the office door and remembered the electronic keypad mounted to the side.
It had been there ever since their office had been bombed by a suspect some time ago as an added security measure. He was grateful for it, especially since his girlfriend Fiona had been the main target of the attack, though, at this particular moment, he was cursing its existence.
Just as he was about to set everything on the ground to punch the code in, an arm reached out from behind him to do it instead.
“Ah!” Junior flinched, nearly dropping the coffee again in the process.
“Sorry,” Agent Miranda Castillo snickered as she whipped her long, wavy hair over her shoulder. She’d dyed it a deep, vampire red just a few days earlier, which, coupled with the dark, smoky makeup she favored, gave her an intimidating look. The muscles, honed from years spent in the Marines before she joined MBLIS, only made her look that much scarier. “It was fun watching you stand there trying to figure it out, but Naomi’s going to be mad if I spend all morning standing out here.”
“You didn’t have to scare me like that,” Junior grumbled as Miranda suddenly swiped the box of doughnuts out of his hand.
“You need to be more aware of your surroundings,” she scoffed as she opened the lid to peek inside. “You’re a federal agent, aren’t you? It shouldn’t be that easy to sneak up on you.”
Junior frowned as he pushed the door open. She wasn’t wrong, and normally he probably would have noticed her sneaking up behind him. His mind was a bit preoccupied right now, was all.
“Where’d you even come from?” he asked as they stepped into the office together. “You weren’t on the elevator with me.”
“I took the stairs.” She shrugged. “You should too. It’s good cardio.”
“It’s four flights,” Junior protested. He wasn’t against working out, but he wasn’t interested in needlessly torturing himself either.
“Don’t get mad at me when you start packing on the pounds then,” she replied as she held the box of doughnuts up in front of her. “Especially eating stuff like this. What’s the occasion, anyway?”
“Charlie’s in a bad mood,” Junior replied with a sigh.
Miranda let out a bark o
f laughter at his response.
“So, what else is new?” she chuckled as she peeked back into the box before grabbing one of the doughnuts. “How is him being in his natural state a cause for doughnuts?”
Junior couldn’t help smiling at her comment. She had a point. His partner, Agent Charlie Hills, only really had two moods: apathetic and pissed off. At least, on the surface, that was what it seemed like. He was a good guy and a good partner, but he didn’t exactly wear his heart on his sleeve, except when he was annoyed about something like he was now.
Luckily for Junior, he’d learned over their time working together that there were a few ways to pull him out of a funk. Food was usually the quickest, hence the doughnuts and coffee. To be honest, Junior doubted it would be enough to get him to stop sulking, but it was something.
“Well, good luck,” she hummed before taking a bite of the chocolate doughnut. “Man, I can’t believe you get to go to Miami.”
“We go places all the time,” Junior retorted. “Literally all over the globe. Didn’t you just come back from Belize?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “But still, this case sounds interesting. Pirates! And you get to work with another branch. It sounds fun.”
“Yeah, it does sound pretty fun,” Junior replied smugly.
“No need to brag.” Miranda pouted before sticking her tongue out at him.
Junior just ignored her before swiping the box of doughnuts back and heading toward his desk in the bullpen.
“Good morning,” Junior greeted his partner as he set the doughnuts down on their adjacent desks. Charlie was sitting at his computer already, the small line between his brows the only indication that he was still in a bad mood.
“Morning,” Charlie replied gruffly. He was wearing his signature blank expression, the leather jacket he always wore slung over the back of his chair now that fall was arriving and the weather was starting to cool.
It was a shame that he had such a disagreeable personality. He was tall, muscular, and had a rugged attractiveness that Junior had always envied, being thin and gangly himself. Junior had always thought that Charlie’d be popular with women if he wasn’t such a grouch.
