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22 Mart 2023, 03:09
The chronological order of my stories is as follows:
Todd as our four unknown helpers suddenly rushed passed me and saved the day, my aching heart wondered if Cindy had just made the supreme sacrifice...
Part 2 - Chaos and Darkness
At about 12:30am, I arrived at University Hospital and went to the waiting room on the floor where the Trauma Center was. Cindy had been rushed into surgery. I found Chief Griswold already there; he'd rushed to the hospital as soon as the words 'Officer Down' had hit the airwaves.
Captain Leslie Charles was also there: it was his son that had been hit in the leg.
"Charles is going to be okay." Griswold told me. "Bullet went clean through the leg, but no major blood vessels hit, nor was the bone. It's going to hurt a lot for a while, though."
"And Cindy?" I asked, barely able to speak the words.
"Don't know yet. They rushed her in fast, and I didn't like the looks on their faces." the Chief replied.
I took out my cell phone and called Molly in Midtown, telling her what had happened, and asking her to pick up Teresa and get up here as fast as they could. Other people began trickling in, first Martin Nash, then Laura, then almost all of the rest of the MCD team as well as Julie Newton and Timothy Geiger of Vice.
I talked with the Chief about the raid, telling his what had happened, what had gone wrong. I mentioned the four black-clad gunmen that had come in and saved us, and said that nobody knew who they were. Laura said she had no knowledge of any Federal agents ready to help us, and I believed her. As we talked, Senior Patrolmen Rudistan and Morton came up to us, long looks on their faces.
"Sir," said Rudistan, being the bravest and not letting bad news get worse with age, "the bastard got away." He then reported that Ned and his henchmen had come out of the gym with guns blazing, and while none of our guys had been hit, the covering fire had enabled Ned to get in one of the cars and get away. Two henchmen had died when police returned fire, but the other cars also got away, covering for Ned. Some police cars gave chase, but Ned's car was gone and one of the Sergeants had called off the chase as the bad guys were firing at the cop cars while driving through Town, creating considerable risk to the populace. I could understand that.
"Ned has to be somewhere," I said, "he could not have gotten far." I knew APBs were out on the car and police were crawling kızılay escort (http://acilankara.com/ad-category/kizilay-escort/) all over Town and the County like fire ants from a disturbed mound. Moments later, a call came in to Rudistan's police radio that Ned's car had been found, abandoned, just south of the Courthouse Square. But despite an intense
and motivated manhunt, my bastard nephew was not to be found this night.
"What do you think, Crowbar?" the Chief asked, prodding me to start talking and let things flow so that I could put the puzzle pieces together. But I was too worried about Cindy.
"I can't think right now, Chief." I said, looking towards the doors of the Trauma Center. "It's going to take some time to process all of this one."
"I understand." the Chief said, patting me on the knee. "Just relax. All we can do is wait, now."
We waited. Every time the intercom came on, calling a doctor or for something to come to Trauma Center, we all jumped out of our skins, and we prayed that no doctor would come walking slowly out of there towards us...
--
At 1:30, I got a call from Hugh Hewitt, asking me to come down to the Armory at Headquarters. I headed over.
I found Hugh and four SWAT team members in the armory, looking at the disassembled pieces of the ambusher's rifle they'd recovered from the scene. After telling them that their buddy Charles was out of danger, I listened to the report as Hewitt talked.
"Sir, this recoil spring here is much stronger than an ordinary M-4." Hewitt said. And if you look at the chamber and barrel, you can see it's built stronger than the ordinary military rifle. Also, look at these bullets... these pointed tips. These bullets are packed with powder that would damage an ordinary rifle."
"So what does this mean?" I asked.
Hugh said "Sir, when I was in Special Ops, this shit was classified. Only a few people even had these kind of rifles and bullets. They're meant to penetrate body armor. The bullets are 'cop-killer' bullets, and illegal for ordinary citizens or even police officers to have. Of course we'll bag these as evidence so we don't get busted. But the bottom line, Lieutenant, is that whoever ambushed us had access to some extremely powerful and limited special hardware."
"Sir, let me show you this." said the SWAT team member who was the brother of the young man known as 'The Leader'. It was Cindy's armored vest. "She took eight hits kolej escort (http://acilankara.com/ad-category/kolej-escort/) to the vest. Five of them didn't penetrate but three did. She also had on a thigh plate, and at the sharp angle two bullets bounced off like bouncing off water, and also didn't pierce her vest. But seeing what kind of bullets these were, she was lucky that only three got through. She should be dead, and so should several of us that took hits. They meant to kill us, Lieutenant. That much is for sure."
I just nodded. The first puzzle pieces were falling into place in my mind. As I drove back to the hospital I finally allowed my mind to roam... and I began to see clearly the 'what' and the 'how' and the 'why' of everything that had happened in that gymnasium...
--
When I got back to the Hospital, the Chief met me in the hallway. "Not the best time and place to discuss this, but I suspect it fits in with what's going on." Griswold said, his own considerable abilities to put puzzle pieces together being exposed. "Internal Affairs reported yesterday afternoon on the Crime Lab break-in. Technician Cho did use her exit code to set the alarm, as she should have. However, someone came in and defeated the system. They did not punch in a code but defeated it electronically. So that's why there were no alarms."
"Yes sir, that bespeaks high level stuff, just like when that guy was caught in our Evidence rooms." I said, "And yes, it does fit into this. I think I've got a handle on what's going on- oh, hello Molly."
Molly and Teresa had arrived. As they hugged me and then lots of other people, I shook hands with the third person that walked in: Detective Sergeant Wes "Coldiron" Masters of the Midtown Police Force.
"What brings you here, Sergeant?" I asked.
"I drove Detectives Evans and Croyle up here." Masters replied. "No way I was going to let either of them drive." I thanked Masters for that; this was a man that took care of his people, something to take note of.
People were chatting, Molly with me and Chief Griswold, the MCD detectives already starting to make notes for their reports. To my surprise, Captain Charles and Sgt. Masters were engaged in conversation and seemed to really be hitting it off.
Teresa sat by herself, her eyes downcast, but that did not last long. Laura sat down next to her and talked with her. Teresa did not demand to be left alone, but allowed herself to be talked to, and maltepe escort (http://acilankara.com/ad-category/maltepe-escort/) soon Laura was giving her a well-needed hug and comforting her like no one else in the room could.
At 3:00am, Tanya Perlman arrived, having led the processing of the crime scene. She had managed to recover one of the perps' unfired cartridges, and she showed it to all of us, saying that it was a cop-killer bullet. "They meant to kill people, Lieutenant." she said. "People wearing armor. I don't think this was a drug set-up. They meant to kill us, and probably you were the primary target, Lieutenant."
"I agree about the ambush, but I'm not sure that I nor anyone else was a specific target. I think they just wanted to shoot at police officers." I said. Even as I sat there and tried not to think, more puzzle pieces were edging into my consciousness from the edges, demanding to be put in their proper place.
I looked over at Laura. My wife was beginning to understand as she looked at the cop-killer bullet. "Excuse me for a moment." she said, getting up to leave. When she did not return for some minutes, I went looking for her.
The waiting room was in the corner of the hospital, where the left-side "L" shape was (the overall hospital was like a letter "I"). The Trauma Center was straight ahead, and I went to the side, down the leg of the building towards the front, the Town. The first hospital room down that hall was empty and the door was cracked open. I looked inside to see my wife standing in the darkness, looking out the window. As I came in and approached, I could see tears streaming down her face.
"This is not my Agency." she whispered as I came up behind her and put my arms around her. "This is not the Company that I've loved and worked for for all of these years." she said, almost sobbing.
"I know, sweetheart, I know." I said. "It's not your fault. I know who's behind it."
"And it was you they were after tonight, wasn't it?" Laura said, her voice barely above a whisper. "And Cindy jumped ahead of you. Martin told me that they had to tackle you to keep you from going out there..."
"Yes, you're right, they held me back." I said, letting myself acknowledge that my team did everything to keep me safe, all of them knowing that I would have gone out there first and taken those bullets that Cindy did if they had not restrained me... and if I could, I'd trade places with Cindy right now.
"I am going to kill those bastards." Laura said. "I don't care anymore; they've crossed the line."
"How about you let me take care of this one, honey." I said, knowing what I was going to do.
"You can't." Laura said. "It's over your head. If you kill any of them, we both will be killed in retaliation. This isn't about the law, this is an internecine CIA war."
Todd as our four unknown helpers suddenly rushed passed me and saved the day, my aching heart wondered if Cindy had just made the supreme sacrifice...
Part 2 - Chaos and Darkness
At about 12:30am, I arrived at University Hospital and went to the waiting room on the floor where the Trauma Center was. Cindy had been rushed into surgery. I found Chief Griswold already there; he'd rushed to the hospital as soon as the words 'Officer Down' had hit the airwaves.
Captain Leslie Charles was also there: it was his son that had been hit in the leg.
"Charles is going to be okay." Griswold told me. "Bullet went clean through the leg, but no major blood vessels hit, nor was the bone. It's going to hurt a lot for a while, though."
"And Cindy?" I asked, barely able to speak the words.
"Don't know yet. They rushed her in fast, and I didn't like the looks on their faces." the Chief replied.
I took out my cell phone and called Molly in Midtown, telling her what had happened, and asking her to pick up Teresa and get up here as fast as they could. Other people began trickling in, first Martin Nash, then Laura, then almost all of the rest of the MCD team as well as Julie Newton and Timothy Geiger of Vice.
I talked with the Chief about the raid, telling his what had happened, what had gone wrong. I mentioned the four black-clad gunmen that had come in and saved us, and said that nobody knew who they were. Laura said she had no knowledge of any Federal agents ready to help us, and I believed her. As we talked, Senior Patrolmen Rudistan and Morton came up to us, long looks on their faces.
"Sir," said Rudistan, being the bravest and not letting bad news get worse with age, "the bastard got away." He then reported that Ned and his henchmen had come out of the gym with guns blazing, and while none of our guys had been hit, the covering fire had enabled Ned to get in one of the cars and get away. Two henchmen had died when police returned fire, but the other cars also got away, covering for Ned. Some police cars gave chase, but Ned's car was gone and one of the Sergeants had called off the chase as the bad guys were firing at the cop cars while driving through Town, creating considerable risk to the populace. I could understand that.
"Ned has to be somewhere," I said, "he could not have gotten far." I knew APBs were out on the car and police were crawling kızılay escort (http://acilankara.com/ad-category/kizilay-escort/) all over Town and the County like fire ants from a disturbed mound. Moments later, a call came in to Rudistan's police radio that Ned's car had been found, abandoned, just south of the Courthouse Square. But despite an intense
and motivated manhunt, my bastard nephew was not to be found this night.
"What do you think, Crowbar?" the Chief asked, prodding me to start talking and let things flow so that I could put the puzzle pieces together. But I was too worried about Cindy.
"I can't think right now, Chief." I said, looking towards the doors of the Trauma Center. "It's going to take some time to process all of this one."
"I understand." the Chief said, patting me on the knee. "Just relax. All we can do is wait, now."
We waited. Every time the intercom came on, calling a doctor or for something to come to Trauma Center, we all jumped out of our skins, and we prayed that no doctor would come walking slowly out of there towards us...
--
At 1:30, I got a call from Hugh Hewitt, asking me to come down to the Armory at Headquarters. I headed over.
I found Hugh and four SWAT team members in the armory, looking at the disassembled pieces of the ambusher's rifle they'd recovered from the scene. After telling them that their buddy Charles was out of danger, I listened to the report as Hewitt talked.
"Sir, this recoil spring here is much stronger than an ordinary M-4." Hewitt said. And if you look at the chamber and barrel, you can see it's built stronger than the ordinary military rifle. Also, look at these bullets... these pointed tips. These bullets are packed with powder that would damage an ordinary rifle."
"So what does this mean?" I asked.
Hugh said "Sir, when I was in Special Ops, this shit was classified. Only a few people even had these kind of rifles and bullets. They're meant to penetrate body armor. The bullets are 'cop-killer' bullets, and illegal for ordinary citizens or even police officers to have. Of course we'll bag these as evidence so we don't get busted. But the bottom line, Lieutenant, is that whoever ambushed us had access to some extremely powerful and limited special hardware."
"Sir, let me show you this." said the SWAT team member who was the brother of the young man known as 'The Leader'. It was Cindy's armored vest. "She took eight hits kolej escort (http://acilankara.com/ad-category/kolej-escort/) to the vest. Five of them didn't penetrate but three did. She also had on a thigh plate, and at the sharp angle two bullets bounced off like bouncing off water, and also didn't pierce her vest. But seeing what kind of bullets these were, she was lucky that only three got through. She should be dead, and so should several of us that took hits. They meant to kill us, Lieutenant. That much is for sure."
I just nodded. The first puzzle pieces were falling into place in my mind. As I drove back to the hospital I finally allowed my mind to roam... and I began to see clearly the 'what' and the 'how' and the 'why' of everything that had happened in that gymnasium...
--
When I got back to the Hospital, the Chief met me in the hallway. "Not the best time and place to discuss this, but I suspect it fits in with what's going on." Griswold said, his own considerable abilities to put puzzle pieces together being exposed. "Internal Affairs reported yesterday afternoon on the Crime Lab break-in. Technician Cho did use her exit code to set the alarm, as she should have. However, someone came in and defeated the system. They did not punch in a code but defeated it electronically. So that's why there were no alarms."
"Yes sir, that bespeaks high level stuff, just like when that guy was caught in our Evidence rooms." I said, "And yes, it does fit into this. I think I've got a handle on what's going on- oh, hello Molly."
Molly and Teresa had arrived. As they hugged me and then lots of other people, I shook hands with the third person that walked in: Detective Sergeant Wes "Coldiron" Masters of the Midtown Police Force.
"What brings you here, Sergeant?" I asked.
"I drove Detectives Evans and Croyle up here." Masters replied. "No way I was going to let either of them drive." I thanked Masters for that; this was a man that took care of his people, something to take note of.
People were chatting, Molly with me and Chief Griswold, the MCD detectives already starting to make notes for their reports. To my surprise, Captain Charles and Sgt. Masters were engaged in conversation and seemed to really be hitting it off.
Teresa sat by herself, her eyes downcast, but that did not last long. Laura sat down next to her and talked with her. Teresa did not demand to be left alone, but allowed herself to be talked to, and maltepe escort (http://acilankara.com/ad-category/maltepe-escort/) soon Laura was giving her a well-needed hug and comforting her like no one else in the room could.
At 3:00am, Tanya Perlman arrived, having led the processing of the crime scene. She had managed to recover one of the perps' unfired cartridges, and she showed it to all of us, saying that it was a cop-killer bullet. "They meant to kill people, Lieutenant." she said. "People wearing armor. I don't think this was a drug set-up. They meant to kill us, and probably you were the primary target, Lieutenant."
"I agree about the ambush, but I'm not sure that I nor anyone else was a specific target. I think they just wanted to shoot at police officers." I said. Even as I sat there and tried not to think, more puzzle pieces were edging into my consciousness from the edges, demanding to be put in their proper place.
I looked over at Laura. My wife was beginning to understand as she looked at the cop-killer bullet. "Excuse me for a moment." she said, getting up to leave. When she did not return for some minutes, I went looking for her.
The waiting room was in the corner of the hospital, where the left-side "L" shape was (the overall hospital was like a letter "I"). The Trauma Center was straight ahead, and I went to the side, down the leg of the building towards the front, the Town. The first hospital room down that hall was empty and the door was cracked open. I looked inside to see my wife standing in the darkness, looking out the window. As I came in and approached, I could see tears streaming down her face.
"This is not my Agency." she whispered as I came up behind her and put my arms around her. "This is not the Company that I've loved and worked for for all of these years." she said, almost sobbing.
"I know, sweetheart, I know." I said. "It's not your fault. I know who's behind it."
"And it was you they were after tonight, wasn't it?" Laura said, her voice barely above a whisper. "And Cindy jumped ahead of you. Martin told me that they had to tackle you to keep you from going out there..."
"Yes, you're right, they held me back." I said, letting myself acknowledge that my team did everything to keep me safe, all of them knowing that I would have gone out there first and taken those bullets that Cindy did if they had not restrained me... and if I could, I'd trade places with Cindy right now.
"I am going to kill those bastards." Laura said. "I don't care anymore; they've crossed the line."
"How about you let me take care of this one, honey." I said, knowing what I was going to do.
"You can't." Laura said. "It's over your head. If you kill any of them, we both will be killed in retaliation. This isn't about the law, this is an internecine CIA war."