Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Big catch
Today the whole SWAT headquarter was buzzing. It was not an ordinary day. It was the day they were finally about to catch Peter Karlsson, one of the biggest arms dealer of the West Coast. David Squads had been chasing him for more than two years now. From time to time, the man appeared. Then he disappeared mysteriously for weeks, months. Chris had even infiltrated his organization as a local arms seller for a while to get more information. Unfortunately, they had had to get her out of the job at the last minute when Karlsson had too strong suspicions about her.
Her two-month job inside the criminal organization had brought many new elements: she managed to copy account registers and take pictures of the list of the clients. She was about to find the address of the warehouse where the major part of the arms was stocked when she had been recognized by a guy she had arrested when she was in the K-9 squad. Hicks had immediately ordered her to abandon the mission and join the safe place to be debriefed.
Since she had been replaced by Rhokker and Alicia, a young rookie, who played a couple, ready to buy a large amount of guns to commit a giant burglary. It worked so well they managed to remain infiltrated and brought more information to HQ. Today was the final point to this crazy hunt and Chris was excited to close this chapter because despite everything she said to her colleagues and friends she was sometimes scared this Karlsson found her or even worse found her family. She would not able to forget herself if something happened to them because of her.
This morning, she was more determined than ever. Karlsson had been a pain in the ass of SWAT teams for more than two years and it was time this stopped. Rhokker and Alicia had warned them that the big delivery was for today.
“Stay liquid!”
Hondo was setting the tone for the day. They all nodded, already focused on the mission. They joined the briefing room where Hicks was waiting for all of them.
“Today is our big day! This is the day we arrest Peter Karlsson. This is the day we end his illegal gun trafficking and throw him in jail for the rest of his life. But before we all go there, here what we know about his hideout.”
He revealed a giant map on the screen. “He’s hiding in the Hollywood Hills. He’s got a house there rented under the name of Julia Melendez. We’re gonna get there and surround the house so the man can’t get out. But before doing anything, we stay in position and watch every of his moves. I don’t want this ass to terrorize our streets anymore than he used to do. His reign of terror ends today.”
All the people in the room yelled “yeah” as a way to agree with what Hicks had just said. And also to give them the strength they needed because they knew that the task was not gonna be easy. Despite all the clues and the information they had, Karlsson was a clever man who was looking forward to the next step. Always thinking two or three moves ahead.
20-David Squad walked into the armory to get their bulletproof vests and helmets and then got in Black Betty. The others teams got in their own truck. They decided to meet at Hollywood Hills in twenty minutes. They all knew the way, they all knew their positions to hold once there. They will be better in a few hours when Karlsson will be behind bars.
[…]
The team placed all around the house rented by Karlsson. They looked every of his come and go. The man seemed stressed.
“Way too much for not knowing something is going on” Chris whispered to herself. Something was wrong she could feel it in her bones.
“What happened Chris? You have your head from bad days? No sleep enough?” Tan joked.
“No, it’s just… I don’t know… Karlsson is too nervous…”
“He leads a gun trafficking across California with connections with Russia and China. The man has any reason to be nervous.” Luca tempered.
“Yeah, must be my suspicious side, I think…” She remained silent for the rest of the surveillance.
The team got out of Black Betty hours later when Hicks gave the signal for all the teams to move.
“David Squads, time to move. 20-David, take care of the entrance. 50-David, you take the back. 60- David, split into two and cover their asses. Go, go, go!”
Outside, tension was everywhere in the air. The investigation they were working on for the last two years was about to end. There was no place for a mistake. All the David Squads surrounded the house, walking one after another as they had learned at the academy. Then they held their places. The place which had been assigned to them by Hicks when they had prepared with millimetre accuracy.
“Street, Chris, go first, Tan you stay behind with me. Deac and Luca, cover our asses.”
The team deployed in the yard in front of the entrance door. Street put a detonator on the door before taking cover. The door exploded. Chris and Street nodded at each other and came in the house. Back to back, to look after the other. Eyes everywhere.
“Clear.”
“Clear.”
“Let’s move east.” Chris told.
“Copy!” They moved to the kitchen, the room was empty. They walked through the living room. Still no one. They looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They had to climb the stairs. As they did this, Hondo and Tan were in the yard while Deac and Luca were inspecting the west side of the house.
Once upstairs, they visited each room, one after the other. Still no one. Chris could feel her intuition telling her she was right from the beginning. The man was too nervous earlier to be caught today. Someone should have warned him that the police was almost on him and he had planned a back-up plan. When she came out of the room she just checked, she heard Jim yelling at the end of the corridor as he opened the door.
“What the fuck is this?” Chris ran to join him and remained right behind him. As soon as she looked inside the room, she understood the reaction of his friend. She swallowed hard. She couldn’t believe what she was watching at. Pictures of her. Stolen pictures of her were all over the walls of the room. When she was running, when she came back from the supermarket. When she drank a coffee at her favorite coffee shop. When she left SWAT after her shift. Her whole life stuck upon the walls of the room.
She had been spied on by this bastard of Karlsson for at least the last 6 months and she had never suspected anything.
“Chris…” Street seemed as dismayed as she was. She was filled with anger and fear and anxiety. How could she have missed this? Only one thing reassured her. There was no picture of her family. At least, they were safe and at his precise messy moment, it was the only thing that mattered.
“This son of a bitch… I swear Chris… If I catch him first…”
Chris pressed Jim’s arm to calm him down. “Don’t worry I’ll crush him in interrogation room. Just stay focus on the mission. But it’s nice to worry…” She gave him a faint smile and quickly focused again on the mission. Hondo was just behind them.
“No trace of Karlsson there.” Hondo told them as they were still speechless, looking at these walls full of Chris’s pictures. Hondo looked at them puzzled.
“What’s up, guys? You seem white as sheet.“ Street made a sign and invited him to come into the room, with a hand move.
Hondo froze for a few seconds before being able to speak up. “What the fuck is this?!? 30-David, 25-David, 22-David, come here now.” Luca, Tan and Deac came as quickly as they could and looked at the pictures of Chris everywhere in the room with disgust and fear.
“What the hell is this?” Tan let out after a few minutes, all being quiet.
“Seems like this bastard of Karlsson spied on Chris for almost six months…” Jim told, still angry by his discover.
“Let me call the forensic for them to collect all this mess and analyze it after. Chris, I’ll understand if you wanted to take some distance from the case…”
“There’s no way this bastard makes me go away from this case! I’m staying Hondo.”
“Copy, now…” Before he could end his sentence, the house was shaken by an explosion coming from the basement. They exchanged a puzzling look before coming to their minds.
“Everyone’s ok?” Hondo asked as they recovered from this surprising event.
All nodded and told “yeah”. Still in shock but ready to get after Karlsson as soon as possible.
“It’s Karlsson! I see him in the front yard.“ Tan screamed as he was looking by the window.
“Tan, Deac. You run to his car. Chris and Street, try to catch him in the street. Luca and I are looking for Black Betty to block him! Go, go, go.”
They all left in a hurry, following the orders and keeping in minds Karlsson was ready to anything. He had nothing left to lose so what was the matter to be careful and take precautions. From now on, the man was out of control. Ready to the craziest things to save his ass from being arrested.
Tan and Deac passed in front of Chris and Street and surrounded Karlsson’s car at the end of the street. Hondo and Luca ran to Black Betty in the next road. Jim and Chris took place on each side of the street, looking everywhere around them. It was too quiet. Way too quiet. Chris didn’t like this. Once again, something was wrong.
There was glass all over the street. Karlsson knew they were coming. How could he have known about their tactical intervention? Except if there was a snitch in the police station…
“You were right earlier when you said you found Karlsson was nervous… We should have listened to your instinct rather making fun of you…”
She snorted shortly. “Except we work with facts and not guts.”
“Sometimes, we should…”
She shrugged. Maybe next time they will listen to her sixth sense, even if it sounded crazy when she thought of it. They shared a conniving look, they had come to the same conclusion. Karlsson had a snitch in LAPD, or a very good informant. They will talk about this with Hondo once in HQ. They needed to identify this person and to interrogate her or him because he or she will certainly learn them a lot about Karlsson.
“What about one of the local county sheriff?”
Chris looked surprised by his idea at first. But after some seconds to process, she told herself it might be the missing link that had led to Karlsson’s escape.
“Yeah could make sense or someone close to a sheriff who has access to the data?”
As they were in the middle of the road trying to understand what was going on here and looking for any trace of Karlsson, they heard a big noise coming from a nearby street. It was a car. A big one. A red one. It came so quickly they didn’t have the time to think or to act rationally. Chris felt a hand in her back and felt on the floor. It was Jim pushing her on the backside. He remained standing still in the middle of the road, not having the time to run away from the furious speedster coming right in front of him.
The car hit him, strongly, quickly. He felt his body taking off the ground, flying like a bird. For a second, he turned his head and saw Chris lying on the floor. She was unconscious but he was sure she was breathing. Then, things got blurrier. He reminded of falling on the ground, hardly. It hurt like hell and then nothing. All became black. He closed his eyes knowing Chris was safe and it was enough.