He turned to walk away, and Brie screamed behind the gag, begging him to let her go. He stopped and stood there, facing the door for a moment. “They declared war when they tried to kill your police captain. Now… well, the business will suffer from their delusions of grandeur. I need a few hours to arrange things, then I’ll be back for you. Hopefully, during my absence, Peña doesn’t die and Rubio doesn’t kill you.”
Ryker leaned back and looked down the table at his team. In anticipation of the warrants coming through, Deputy Commissioner Duckworth had formed an interdepartmental strike force led by Ryker’s JDET team. There were three buildings they’d descend upon simultaneously. Right now, only his sergeant, lieutenant, and Tiernan Conner, the captain in charge of the SWAT teams they'd use, were present. The Deputy Commissioner was to his right.
“Do you have everything you need?” Deputy Commissioner Duckworth picked up the stack of paperwork she’d been working through.
“Yes ma’am, I believe we do.” He glanced at Tiernan. “You good?”
“We are,” Tiernan nodded. “As soon as we get these blueprints uploaded to the computer systems, my men and I will develop a plan of attack. We’ll be ready.”
“I’ll brief Commissioner King. I believe someone in this room is still on medical leave.” She turned her dark brown eyes on him and pegged him with a stare.
“I am. I promise I won’t lift anything bigger than my cell phone.”
Fuck. Speaking of cell phones, he hadn’t called Brie. From the moment he’d placed the first call until this moment, he’d focused on nothing but the case. He glanced at the clock. Damn, it was almost eleven. He’d call her when the meeting broke up. She’d probably still be working at the restaurant, especially after a week away.
“See that you don’t. I won’t keep you away from this, but you are in the command vehicle. I find out you violate that order and I’ll bust your ass to beat cop and put you in the Desert. Copy?” Deputy Commissioner Duckworth was a ball buster and a damn good cop.
He tried not to smile, but he’d started his career in the Desert as a beat cop. Going back there wouldn’t be a hardship, although at almost forty-seven, working patrol again would be a grind. “Yes ma’am. I copy.”
She nodded and glanced at the rest of the men in the room. “Gentlemen, get your people organized. You’ve got seven hours until we pop those doors and hopefully take down Peña and Rubio once and for all.”
He waited until she left and asked for the blueprints. Once they had them unrolled and weighted down with coffee cups and soda cans so they wouldn’t curl in on themselves he spoke to his team leads. “Three locations at one time. It’s not the biggest sweep we’ve ever done, but the locations bridge a wide area. Team commanders will have comms on a common frequency so the command vehicle can keep you apprised. That’s you, you, and you––” he pointed at Tiernan, Brody, and Terrence, “and I want Patel, Driggers, and Montoya in the command vehicle. Those three have the most experience with command and control in these types of scenarios.”
“You got it.” Brody scribbled a note to himself.
Ryker stared at the maps. “According to Sarah, Peña and Rubio go nowhere without each other.” She’d given them three locations where they would be hiding. “According to her, Location One is where they’ve drywalled bales of money in the walls. Terrence, I want you there. Seizures of assets of this magnitude will require us to be anal with the paperwork and chain of custody. Make sure you take Mozinga, Turner, and Hayes. They can set up a count station while you and the rest of the team close all avenues of ingress or egress. Document everything with video. Once SWAT has cleared the building and you take control, nobody, and I mean nobody, goes in without my express authorization. The money haul will bring the entire alphabet soup to the table, but they don’t get to look for serial numbers until we have all the evidence cataloged.”
“We’ll be thorough.” Terrence tapped the blueprints. “I’ll pull tripods and cameras from the equipment room and we’ll float the video to the cloud and maintain a digital file.”
“Excellent. Brody, I want you on Location Number Three. According to Mouse, that’s where Peña’s death squads crash. We want to surprise them.” He glanced up at Tiernan. “I need massive confusion inside that house. I don’t want any casualties on either side. If we can flip even one of those fuckers, we’ll have closure on a litany of cases.”
Tiernan nodded. “We’ve got spotlights, speakers, flashbangs, and speed on our side. My guys will wear ear and eye protection, and we’ve practiced with these weapons of mass confusion. They are the best bet to get in and take charge of a volatile situation like this.”
“Good.” Ryker leveled his stare on his sergeant. “You let SWAT clear the house, then separate, process, and transport those men here. If we have too many for our holding cells, I want one of ours wherever we put these guys on ice. I don’t want them talking to anyone but us or their lawyers. Copy?”
Brody nodded. “We’ll have a patrol sit on them if they need ambulance transport to a hospital.”
“Good call. We have the Deputy Commissioner’s permission to use precinct-specific assets if needed. I’ll make sure the command vehicle officers have that information. Call it in if needed and we’ll get dispatch to send in what backup you need.” Ryker turned to Tiernan. “Location Two is where we believe Peña and Rubio
