Hawkins was out of the car before it even stopped moving. She slammed the door behind her, leaving Stone to park the vehicle, and strode over to the tactical command post that had been set up outside the warehouse. The large building was shabby and run down; the fence was rusted, and its face was speckled with broken windows; some had been boarded up, but it appeared that those responsible had long ago stopped caring enough to do even that. Graffiti covered the walls, located at the standard impossible heights and angles. Hawkins walked rapidly over to join the small group of agents clustered behind a large black van.

“Where is he?” Hawkins asked, wasting no time on pleasantries.

“Nice of you to join us, Agent Hawkins,” Collins drawled, stepping out to greet her. “We were just discussing the tactical entry strategy.”

“I take it Martin is still holed up in there somewhere?” she replied.

“Like the rat he is.”

Hawkins turned to face the speaker. She recognized him as one of the lead tactical response agents at NIA, Travis Fielding. They’d met a few times, at agency seminars. He was a decent guy, and from all reports, was an accomplished, no-nonsense agent who was an expert in his field. He extended a hand to her,

“Agent Hawkins,” he greeted her. “I’ll be handling the entry. You can leave this to us.”

“I am sure you are very good at what you do, Agent,” she shook his hand. “But I am going in there with you.”

Collins cleared his throat,

“Can I have a word, Agent Hawkins?” Collins pulled her aside.

“What the hell do you want, Collins?” Hawkins hissed once they were clear of earshot. “This is my case; I am going in there.”

“No, you aren’t,” Collins replied flatly. “This is a job for the tac team, and you know it. You already lost Martin once. We are not letting him slip away again.”

“This could be dangerous. They don’t know this suspect,” Hawkins retorted.

“I considered that,” Collins offered her a headset. “I’ll concede that you have experience with him, and they didn’t have much time to prep. So here is my compromise: take this, you can talk to them and tell them anything that you think that they need to know, as they go. You see what they see, you hear what they hear. But you are not going anywhere near that building. That’s an order.”

“This is a mistake,” Hawkins tightened her fists until her knuckles turned white.

“You can’t do everything yourself, Agent. It’s time you learned that,” Collins replied. “We train people for these situations, and you aren’t one of them. Either take what I’m offering you or go back to the Agency and wait for word.”

Hawkins grabbed the headset from him grudgingly. Collins turned and headed back to the group. Hawkins followed behind him, noting that her partner had now joined them and was talking to Fielding.

“Ok, let’s go over this one more time,” Collins addressed the group. “The entrance team will be split into 2 groups of 3. Alpha team will make a forcible entry in from the front and cover the west half of the warehouse, Bravo team will go in through the windows on the side and cover the east half. We have had no contact with the subject since he first opened fire on our agents an hour ago. It appears that he moved to a boarded-up section of the warehouse, and we have had no visual contact. Infrared imaging identified only one heat signature, top floor to the north-western corner, but we still need to cover our bases. Agents Hawkins and Stone are the leads on this case; they will be co-ordinating the search from here. Our top priority is the apprehension of this suspect, and we want to take him alive. We already know that he is armed and dangerous, so everyone watch your backs. Do not take any unnecessary risks. Any questions?”

Silence.

“Alright, everyone get in position. Agents Stone, Hawkins, you are with me.”

Collins flung open the door of the van, revealing the monitoring equipment in the back. He handed Stone a second headset.

“This monitor has the IR image on the building,” he pointed to a glowing figure. “We believe that that is our man up there. The headset will let you communicate with all of the team members. These two monitors will display the live video feed from the cameras each of the team leaders have equipped. You’ve seen this all before, I’m sure.”

The two agents nodded. Both of them had observed tactical entries before, though in Hawkins’ case, only at the academy.

“This is a pretty straightforward entry, you shouldn’t need to do anything, but if you think of something they should know about Martin, you can fill them in. So, as you can see, there is no reason that you need to be inside. Problem solved,” Collins concluded casually.

Hawkins glared at him. She was not pleased at losing control of this situation. This wasn’t how she liked to operate.

“I need to go brief the mayor on the new developments. He and Grayson Pauling are friends, and he’s asked me to personally keep him up to speed on our progress. I trust you can handle this,” with that, Collins spun on his heel and left.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“God, what a prick,” Hawkins muttered.

“He isn’t completely wrong here, Hawkins,” Stone said hesitantly. “This really is what these guys train for. We would only be in the way.”

“I don’t like it,” she scowled. “I should be in there.”

“Well, it looks like they are going in. You ready for this?” Stone asked, putting on his headset.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Hawkins turned to the monitors.

“Relax. The entry team knows what they’re doing. It’ll be over in no time.”

Both teams were about to enter, the time for chatting had come to an end.

“Alpha team in place,” Fielding’s voice echoed in her head.

“Beta team ready,” the announcement came an instant later.

Hawkins flipped on her com,

“Be aware that the suspect is armed and has a military background. He made use of rudimentary traps in his last hideout, so watch out for tripwires and anything that seems out of the ordinary,” she paused to take a breath. “OK, Alpha and Beta teams, enter when ready. We’re going in under the radar; so let’s not tip off our man, ok?”

“On my count,” Fielding’s voice crackled over the mic, “3, 2, 1.”

There was a sharp snap as the Alpha team broke the lock and slid open the door. At the same instant, the beta team slipped silently in through a broken window on the eastern wall. Both teams moved rapidly into the warehouse.

“Keep an eye on the Beta feed, will you?” Hawkins said, without looking up from the Alpha monitor.

“I’ve got it,” Stone settled a chair, focusing on the screen next to hers.

It was a good system, actually. They streamed the video through a highly encrypted wireless signal to any agency computer with the proper code and it was used to give agents on the outside eyes on the targets, no matter where they were, physically. Good for training. Better for accountability. From her seat in the back of van, Hawkins could see as clearly as if she was right there. The inside of the warehouse was dark; the gloom pierced only by the beams of the agent’s flashlights. Hawkins flicked her eyes to the screen that displayed the IR scan. The blob of heat had shifted its position. Based on the overlaid blueprint of the building, he had drawn back into the corner of a room, though it was impossible to determine what he was doing in there. The Alpha team made their way deeper into the warehouse; they cleared each room carefully before moving into the next. Finally, they reached the stairs that would lead them to the upper rooms, where Martin was likely hiding.

“Subject still on the second floor?” Fielding whispered.

“Yeah,” Hawkins replied. “If the blueprints are correct, he’ll be in the 3rd room on your right, up the stairs.”

“Room clear,” one of the agents hissed, finishing their sweep.

“Ok, we’re going up the stairs,” Fielding said, directing the beam of the flashlight at the steep, metal risers.

“Wait,” Hawkins halted the team with only an instant to spare. “I think there’s a tripwire, across the steps.”

She had seen a momentary glitter as the flashlight beam swept across. Fielding knelt down and inspected the device. It looked like the type of spooled wire used in electrical work, fortunately it was thicker and more visible than fishing line, or she never would have seen it from here.

“Where’s it run to, Kramer?” Fielding asked the short, brunette agent next to him.

The woman slid the beam of her light along the wire, following it to where it was tied off on the railing of the second floor.

“It seems to be connected to those old paint cans up there,” she replied. “They are balanced on the rail, this probably would have just pulled them down.”

“Poor man’s motion detector, eh?” Fielding chuckled softly. “You do the honours, Connor.”

The third agent knelt next to the slender wire, pulling a pair of clippers from his belt, he snipped the line without incident.

“Good catch, Agent Hawkins. Let’s be more alert ladies and gentlemen,” Fielding instructed his team.

They proceeded cautiously up the stairs.

“Think our target’s on to us?” the agent he’d called Connor asked.

“There’s been no movement, looks like he is still cowering up there in his little hidey-hole, but remember we have no visual contact, so limited detail. Hopefully, you managed to sneak in unnoticed,” Hawkins replied.

“Let’s try and keep it that way,” Kramer muttered.

Clearing the stairs, their flashlights swept the corridor, carefully looking for wires and other traps this time. The first two doors in the hall had clearly not been used in some time. The hinges were heavily rusted, and the doors were both boarded up. They tried the doors anyways, but neither budged an inch.

“No one’s been in here for a long time, that’s for sure,” Connor noted.

“Well, I guess it’s time for the main event then,” Fielding said, moving towards the final door in the narrow corridor.

“We going to announce ourselves?” Kramer asked.

“I say we maintain the element of surprise. Anyone have any objections?” Fielding asked.

“It’s your show,” Hawkins replied.

Stone turned briefly away from the Beta team, which had yet to find anything, to watch them burst in on Martin. He figured the Beta team could handle themselves. Taking their positions around the edges of the door, to stay out of the possible line of fire, Fielding reached for the knob and shoved the door open, gun levelled.

“On your knees, Martin! Hands on your head!” he shouted.

Through the lens, Hawkins saw Martin, he had been kneeling in the corner, right where she expected him. He spun around, gun in hand, a look of total shock on his face. They had taken him by surprise.

“Drop the gun, Martin,” Fielding commanded from the doorway.

The gun clattered instantly to the floor and Martin dropped to his knees, knitting his hands behind his head.

“Alright, alright, don’t shoot,” he cried. “I surrender.”

He knew when he was beat. Smart man. Hawkins breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, she thought that the apprehension had ended without incident. And that was when she saw it, a rusty metal cabinet by the door. The cabinet was slightly ajar, and inside a red light had suddenly begun to flash. A cold sweat broke out all over her body. Kramer and Fielding began to move in to apprehend Martin, as Fielding changed positions, the beam of his flashlight fell across the cabinet. In the light, she could see that the red light was attached to a box, surrounded by a tangle of wires. There was no doubt about it now.

“Get out of there,” Hawkins shouted.

“What?” Fielding was puzzled by her outburst.

“There’s a bomb! Get out, now!”

The Kramer had already reached Martin; she grabbed him by the wrist and the 3 agents all lunged for the exit. But it was too late. The deafening blast forced Hawkins to tear the headset from her ears; the video screen went dark.

“Shit!” Hawkins shouted.

She vaulted from her chair and ran from the van. The explosion had blown out all of the windows and boards from the room Martin had been occupying and shaken the entire area. Obviously, no one had missed what had just happened. By the time she reached the fence-line, the wail of sirens was already filling the air.