30
KYLE
The FBI. The fucking FBI. They’d sent a team of two men to the site without bothering to inform us, and those fucking cowboys had gone rogue and ruined our perfectly planned rescue and arrest operation.
I’d glimpsed their FBI vests the minute I’d covered Ally and turned my gaze upward to locate the shooters. By that time. Hayes and Wheeler already had them pinned down with their laser sights, ready to tranq their asses into hours of unconsciousness. The two had dropped their rifle barrels, flashed their badges, and threatened to take us all into custody as if they were in charge.
Kat, as the incident commander and ranking agent on the scene, put a hard stop to that. Unfortunately, she also made Hayes and Wheeler stand down.
When the EMTs and police we’d had waiting nearby arrived with lights and sirens flashing, she transferred scene processing oversight to Lang, which pissed off our new FBI friends to no end. That was probably why Kat was grinning as she led Ally to the ambulance, where the young woman would be checked and where Kat could take her statementwhile the details of her hellish day were still fresh in her mind.
Hayes, Wheeler, and I, along with the remaining tactical ops from other teams, collected everything we needed and secured the warehouse and surrounding grounds for the crime scene analysts. The FBI guys talked into their comms, made sad puppy faces, and occasionally gave us the finger. That might have been because Wheeler took every opportunity to shoot the signal to them first, but our team had earned that right after their first-class clusterfuck.
When the other HEAT agents returned empty-handed, my heart sank. Riker was in the wind.
After ten minutes with Ally, then a quick chat with the tactical agents who had given chase and the local police chief, Kat joined us. “Ally’s a little bruised and pretty shaken up, but she’ll be fine. The state police are calling her mom now, and they’ll drive her home shortly. She positively identified Riker, which means an arrest warrant and BOLO are being issued for him.”
“We wouldn’t need a BOLO if those assholes hadn’t shown up,” I said, stating the obvious.
Kat sighed. “They and their commanders are X’s problem now.”
“What about the dogs?” Wheeler asked.
“The local police have been in touch with the nearby animal hospital,” Kat said. “Officer Downey will transport them as soon as the crime scene techs give her the go-ahead.” She glanced at me. “At least they look to be in better shape than Bella was when you and Cami rescued her.”
“That’s not saying a lot,” I said. “And we don’t know about the fourth dog that Riker took with him.”
“About that,” Kat rolled her neck. She looked as exhausted as I felt. “Ally’s pretty worried about that one.Apparently, Riker wanted her to help him remove something from the dog’s abdomen.”
“Fuck me,” I muttered. “More drugs.” No surprise there, but I guess I’d been hoping for a miracle for those dogs.
“Isn’t Ally an intern?” Wheeler asked. “She wouldn’t know how to perform surgery. Why did Riker target her?”
“Opportunity,” Lang and I said in unison.
When you spend a lot of time thinking about how to move people and things in and out of places, including, sometimes, uncooperative individuals, you learn to appreciate the beauty of the occasional sheer-luck opportunity dropping into your lap.
“The rest of the clinic staff live in town or close to it,” I continued. “Ally’s the only one who was out alone on barely traveled back roads.” Damn it, I should have considered that possibility and put her under protective custody as well.
“Knock it off.” Lang elbowed me in the ribs. “We’ll worry about our blind spots when we do the hot wash.” That referred to the after-action reports we would file as soon as the operation ended. “Right now, you need to keep your head in the game.”
“Lang is right,” Kat said. “All of us do. Get the crime scene techs up to speed, then we’ll head back to HQ for our debrief. And sorry to ruin everyone’s entire weekend, but we’ll meet tomorrow at 0900 to plan our next steps. I want to put Riker away for a long time, so we’re going to need to dig up evidence of more of his crimes.”
Pasco joined us. “Especially since there’s nothing here to help us.” He looked at me as he spoke. “No computers, no burner phones, nothing.”
Which meant no trace of the offline kompromat.
“I have no problem working tomorrow,” I said. I wouldn’t have taken the day off, anyway, with Cami still in danger.
Kat and Lang circled back to the police chief while Pasco headed to our van, and Wheeler stepped away to help the other tactical guys set out yellow markers by the bullet and tranq dart casings.
“Rogers, hold up,” Hayes said. “Pasco told Wheeler and me about the recordings of Cami. We’re all in on helping you. Pasco would still like to keep it between the four of us, though.”
“Fine by me,” I said. “As long as you understand what this means. Since we didn’t find any unaccounted-for electronics here, that pretty much guarantees that whatever he has is in his house.”
Hayes nodded his understanding. “You should call Cami to give her the good news. Then we’ll wrap up here, get through the debrief back at HQ, and meet at your place after that to hear Pasco’s plan.”
“He said it will require boots on the ground.”
