“Hey, Jenny, I’m going back, you stay here just in case something comes up,” he told her.
She looked at him, puzzled, and said: “Don’t you want me to come too?”
She seemed genuinely keen, but Tony knew that deep down she was too inexperienced for this kind of operation. “No, I need you to stay here. If we need feet on the ground somewhere else you need to get the other teams that are on standby and get there. So you could do that quicker from here.” She faked a disappointed smile and nodded. He returned the smile, but deep down he knew he never wanted a repeat of this case ever.
SIXTY-EIGHT
As they waited for the helicopter on the roof of one of the high-rises, Captain Brant had a bad feeling. He knew that Steel could handle himself, he had read the man’s service file and it scared the hell out of him, knowing what this man had been through and what he was capable of. However, the rest of the team was not so indestructible, and he could see that the more crazy things Steel managed to get away with made the rest of the team a little more reckless.
Brant reached down to his vibrating cell phone. On the screen he saw the ID was from Tony’s cell.
“What’s up, Detective?” Brant looked up and saw the flashing lights from the CH-47 Chinook.
“Captain,” came Tony’s voice on the phone. “We found that the convoy has gone to a shipyard in Brooklyn, they are off-loading some sort of cargo in special containers. Sir, I think they are weapons.”
Steel noticed the expression on Brant’s face and he knew that something was wrong. “What’s the matter, Captain?” Steel asked as several men were strapping him into the harness.
“We got a location for the convoy, they are off-loading cargo onto a ship at the Brooklyn shipyard,” Brant told him.
The swat commander smiled grimly. “What we waiting for? Let’s go.”
Brant and Steel looked at the commander, completely perplexed by his words.
“Really, let’s go!” he repeated.
Steel was still standing there, arms outstretched like some weird mannequin.
“Sergeant, aren’t you forgetting something?” Brant asked.
Steel shook his head. “Look, he’s right, you all go, all I need is E.O.D and CSU.”
Brant slapped him on the shoulder. “You really are a crazy son-of-a-bitch, you know that?”
Steel just nodded and got ready for his ride.
“One question,” asked McCall. “Where they going to land?”
Detective Steel just laughed and ran over to a man kneeling down in the middle of the roof.
The Captain watched Steel run over to the winch cable that hung down and strap himself in, then with a roar from the engines the bird flew off with crazy-assed Steel hanging from underneath. Brant watched with his heart in his mouth as the craft neared the car park building. The bad feeling he had had was not bad enough, he thought to himself.
Detective Steel span round to watch the fleet of police vehicles leave the location. Good, he thought, at least they would be safe from any blast. But then he remembered the dockyard and the possibilities there.
He turned to face the oncoming building, aware that he had more pressing things to worry about. The helicopter turned and was flown neatly towards the opening where the van stood. Unhitching himself, John Steel put the hook onto the middle of a long lashing strap. Putting down a rucksack he produced two large magnets which he placed onto the sides of the van. With great care he then attached the lashing strap. All was in place. He knocked softly on the side of the van, saying: “Hi, we are going to get you out. Now listen carefully, you need to hold onto something at the front of the van if that’s possible. You may feel a bit of a tug but don’t worry about it, it will be fine.”
Steel looked up and made a prayer sign.
“Who are you?” yelled a voice from inside the van.
“Oh no one special,” answered Steel. “Just hold on. Okay?” And with that Steel ran like he had never run before.
“Echo One this is Phoenix, proceed in figures ten over. Copy that.”
John Steel had realized that he had not really measured how long it would take to make the run from the second floor to the exit, but it was too late for that now, and so he just ran and hoped for the best. He heard the noise of the chopper pull away but he still had some way to go, in fact he was only on the first floor. There was nothing for it, so he headed for the nearest opening on the opposite side.
A massive explosion shook the building, the concrete came down in slabs. the size of Sudan’s As the pilots looked the building crumbled from the centre, leaving a cloud of grey mist. Below them hung the white van. They had made it, but they saw no sign of Steel.
“Hello, Charlie One this is Echo One, we have the package,” were the words that came over the radio. The Captain held his breath. “Echo One any sign of Phoenix?”
There was a moment of silence. “Negative, we do not have eyes on Phoenix, sorry.”
McCall and the rest sat open-mouthed shocked as the Captain concluded with: “Roger, take package to CSU and return home. Good job, boys.”
Brant put the handset back onto the dash. “He will be okay, the son-of-a-bitch has more lives than a room full of cats, he will be at the meeting place, you’ll see.” Everyone could see he needed Steel to be there, just to show that there was still hope for them to get out of this mess alive.
Around a mile from the port the police convoy stopped and made plans. Tony had gone back with Thompson to meet up with the others. Before arriving, Tony had obtained the plans of the ship and the ground plans for the shipyard.
Laying the plans for the vessel onto the hood of his car, Tony explained that Blackheart Industries from England owned the Eisen Wolff, and the Captain was a man called Moses who was originally from Egypt.
Sergeant North looked at the plans for the moment. “Okay, this is the plan,” North said. “Alpha will clear these buildings to the left here, and here, then move to this location.” Underneath the ship’s plans lay the ground plans, showing several large buildings with a view of the ship.
“Bravo, you will take the right, clearing here and here, then stand—fast here.” Sergeant North pointed out a small workshop to the rear of the ship. “Charlie, once Alpha and Bravo have cleared these buildings you then become top cover for when they board.”
The team leader nodded.
“Delta, you will move up as soon as they both reach this position.” North pointed to the two entrances to the lower decks under the bridge house. “Your objective, to secure the bridge.” Their team leader looked at the plans quickly and gave the thumbs up.
Since everyone knew what they had to do, all teams gave a “Roger that,” reply.
McCall looked around. “So what do we do?”
North looked at her. “Stay here. You and your people aren’t swat so you’re out.”
McCall felt the onset of a burning rage. Captain Brant felt her frustration but knew that North was right.
“Sorry, Sam, this is his ball game,” Brant told her.
She felt the swell of the sergeant’s ego as the Captain said those words.
“What about Steel?” Sam McCall asked.
North looked puzzled. “What about him? We don’t even know if the man is alive but even if he is, he isn’t swat so he is out as well.”
McCall felt herself wanting to punch the smile off his arrogant face.
“Now if you people don’t mind, we have work to do.” North made a shooing gesture, as Brant turned to join them.
“Thank you, Captain,” North said to the Captain, unable to suppress a grin.
“What are you thanking me for? Don’t thank me, North. You wanted it you got it. Thing is if you fuck this up it’s all on you. We are only Homicide, remember, it’s not our ballgame.”
So saying, Brant turned and left a gob smacked Sergeant North.
The swat teams had made it to the fence line just beyond which lay their first objectives. Knowing there would be someo
ne watching the main gates, their only option was to go through the fence. Alpha team sat ready waiting for Bravo to give the thumbs up, and on the signal a member using a can of dry ice spray made a large circle on to the fence. There was a hissing noise followed by a crunching as if eggshells were been walked upon, as the solution ate through the metal. The fence was then easily kicked in at that point, opening up a breach. As both teams crept towards their first targets, North watched and listened with anticipation.
“Alpha Phase One complete, Bravo Phase One complete.” North smiled as he heard the news, and looked at his second-in-command. It was time to move. He was now oozing with over-confidence as the two men rushed for the large building that overlooked the container ship.
On entering the building, North and his comrade found the stairwell to the operations room. Moving in slowly, the senior man looked round. All the power was off inside so they would not be illuminated. He pointed to a large table near to the right-hand wall. The other man nodded and unpacked his backpack. As he laid out laptops and microphones, he began to set up the mini command centre. There was a flicker of light as the screens came on line.
“We are on, Sir,” the second-in-command said.
North smiled as he looked through his tactical binoculars. “All teams sound off.” He gave the order.
There was a crackle of static on the line, followed by: “Alpha ready, Bravo ready, Charlie ready, Delta ready.”
North took a deep breath, then said: “All teams go.”
As he watched, Alpha and Bravo teams took the ship from both ends and converged on to the bridge house, moving fast and professionally, until finally all three teams were at their target point.
“All teams breach when ready,” he ordered, and with that the teams disappeared from view.
A loud sound of metal-against-metal echoed through the Operations Room and North recognized it as the top slide of a pistol being released. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the inevitable shot. But instead of a gunshot, pain and death, there were merely two loud thuds as bodies hit the ground.
The two swat members looked round to see two men on the ground, each of them with a knife buried in the back of his head. North looked at the empty door way and screamed: “Steel!”
McCall and the others were sitting there feeling restless. Tooms was cleaning his pistol, while Sam McCall just paced up and down the room. Captain Brant looked up as she came up to him.
“Captain,” she asked, “couldn’t we just?”
He looked at her. “Just what, Detective? We are Homicide not Special Weapons. Besides we don’t have the firepower, we have just a couple of hand guns and whatever we have in the trunk.”
Tooms smiled. “He doesn’t know?” His voice was full of excitement, as the Captain glared at them.
“I don’t know what?” He followed McCall to her car’s trunk, and as she opened it his eyes lit up. “Holy Mother of... You’ve got to be kidding me. I take it this was what you had to stop off for?”
In the car’s trunk, their armoury lay before him. “Okay,” he conceded. “We got the tools, but it’s still swat’s show. Until North fucks it up.”
The Captain put down the AR-14 rifle he had been examining to answer his cell phone. “Brant,” he snapped, his mouth dry from excitement. He listened to the brief statement and then put the phone away.
“Detective, be careful what you wish for,” he said to McCall.
She looked puzzled.
“That was Steel just now. The son-of-a-bitch made it out, and we have to go in.”
They got into their cars and made for the entrance.
High above the dockyard a lone sniper sat in a crow’s nest observing the entrance to the area, ensuring that no unwanted guests could come to back up the swat teams. For him the boredom had set in long ago, and all he had to do was look through his scope from time to time.
Then from one of the buildings there was a flash of light and movement. Using his scope he homed in to find a TV set had been left on playing a porno film, and the sniper pointlessly looked around as if someone may be watching, then looked back to the window.
As he zoomed in to watch, he was suddenly surprised to see another sniper aiming his weapon straight at him. Before he could react, the .338 round had penetrated the glass of his scope.
After Steel had been looking at the puff of red where the man’s head used to be, he packed away the powerful MSR sniper rifle and moved off.
One down, lots more to go, he thought to himself.
Pulling their car up by the swat vehicles, McCall and the others crept out of the vehicles and moved around to gather the weapons from the trunk. Taking out the canvas bags they prepared themselves for what was ahead. The Captain had ditched his Remington pump-action, and swapped it for an automatic shotgun, thinking to himself, don’t mind if I do.
Finding the left-hand entrance that the teams had created, the group of police moved quickly from building to building. With Tooms taking ‘point’ (leading) position, he took them through shadows and as close to cover as he could, until they reached the building where the swat leader had set up. This time moving slowly and quietly, they continued on up the stairwell. McCall could not help but notice how everything appeared to become larger, as the light diminished. Beads of nervous sweat collected on her brow.
Tooms crept up the stairs checking the corners, and all his military training came flooding back to him.
“God, I miss this, bro.” he muttered.
Tony smiled, noticing that his friend and partner was in his element. Finally, they reached the floor. Just beyond the door in front of them lay the corridor to the Operations Room. Tooms’s heart was beating hard in his chest, and the rush of adrenaline was intoxicating. Opening the door slowly he saw flashes of light from monitors lighting the hallway. Edging forwards they reached the room. Tooms stopped and raised his fist to signal stop, and everyone crouched down as he moved forwards. McCall saw him stand up and wave them in
There on the ground lay two men in black, both with knives embedded in the backs of their heads.
“Is it them?” Brant asked, using his boot to roll one of the blood-soaked men over onto his back. “Unfortunately no. Looks like someone bagged the bad guys.”
Tony squinted outside, saying: “Yeh, I wonder who?” Then he pointed to the corpse that was hanging from the crow’s nest.
“Ouch.” McCall said, and stopped looking through her scope at the headless man and concentrated on the looking at the main deck of the massive ship below them. “I found Steel, he’s on the main deck,” she said excitedly, and re-slung the rifle. “Okay, people, let’s go and help the man. Tooms, you happy with taking point?”
The big man grinned and took off.
Deep inside the ship Alpha Team entered a large room, and the only light they had was from their weapon lamps. “Oh my God,” Said the team leader, who stood motionless as he realised they were in a room full of missiles. “All teams converge on my location, we have a problem.”
Bravo and Delta confirmed the request. Moments later the teams entered the room.
“Jack, what the hell is going on here?” someone asked.
The team leader shook his head. “I don’t know, man, but what I do know is” His speech was cut short as the door was slammed shut. The three team leaders rushed forwards. “What the hell, who the hell was on guard?”
Then they looked down outside the door to see a man lying unconscious. Two men dressed in black picked him up and threw him into another room. The trapped team’s only hope was that the Captain and his crew had made it down to the shipyard.
Brant and the others had made it to a stack of crates next to the gantry, and two armed men stood between them and the hostages. McCall and Tooms moved forwards, their silenced Beretta ARX160 rifles held ready for contact.
“Police, put down your weapons,” McCall shouted while Tooms covered her. The two guards turned and lifted their weapons. There was a dull popping sound, as
Tooms shot one and McCall took the other, then the two guards dropped to the ground. Moving over to the two bodies McCall checked but found no pulses.
“Hey you!”
The voice came from behind them. Two armed guards knelt ready, weapons trailed on their targets. McCall and Tooms were fully in their sights, so they put down their weapons and raised their hands. McCall heard no sound, she just saw each man lunge forwards as a round took away their faces and pushed their lifeless bodies into the water below. The two detectives both exhaled the litre of air they had held in anticipation of being shot.
Gathering up their weapons, Tooms waved to the others, who followed them up the gantry to the main deck. Once there, the containers stacked one upon another meant that there was plenty of cover from the mass of mercenaries who were no doubt waiting for them.
Tooms took point and McCall followed, and the group moved tight and stealthily. As Tooms crossed one corner, a large man grabbed him, and was about to plant a large blade into his head. But there was the sound of a dull thud and the man fell, blood oozed from the wound in the back of his head. The Captain spun round as four mercenaries rushed towards them. Dropping to one knee he opened up on the men, each of whom spun off their feet as hot metal pellets made contact, ripping through flesh and cloth.
The police unit moved as one through the maze of containers. Suddenly McCall looked up and saw three mercenaries on top of a container, their weapons at the ready. With a burst of fire she ripped into them, sending sprays of red body fluids into the night air, as the men’s bodies went reeling over the other side. The others swung round, weapons trained on the targets, but it was too late. McCall smiled, saying, “Too slow, boys.”
Crouching behind some metal containers, they spied their target. The entrance to the bridge and the lower decks was not far from their position. McCall’s cell phone vibrated in her pocket. After taking it out the text on the screen simply read: Have found hostages, come to lower decks. Steel.
Rise of a Phoenix: Rise of a Phoenix Page 27
