Costa Crew: One More Shot

Chapter 12 - The Fight of Our Lives

Paul felt like Tony Stark as he stepped out of the helicopter and strode towards Police Headquarters. Charlotte and Ted waited outside.

"Insanely cool, right?" asked Charlotte as they entered the building.

Paul nodded. "Like I said to Becky, I wish it could have come at a better time, but damn those things are amazing."

"Agreed," said Ted. "Now let's get this show on the road."

Paul strode confidently across the ground floor to the lift, Charlotte and Ted either side of him. What was once daunting was now a trivial matter, he thought as he pressed the button. None of them said a word all the way up, but simply stared straight ahead, each lost in their own thought.

Everybody sat ready and waiting in the briefing room. "Welcome back sir," said Greg as the three of them walked in together.

Paul nodded. "Charlotte, the floor's yours."

The projector had already been rolled out. All that remained was for Charlotte to plug in a memory stick, bringing up the blueprints of Anthony's house.

"You should all have details of the situation by now," said Charlotte, pinning up the photographs of Becky, Hannah and Anthony. "But I'll go over them quickly just in case. At any minute The Godfather is going to attempt to capture their next target, which is this woman, Rebecca Hidgens. Miss Hidgens is currently at home under police protection."

"We now know that the Godfather is female, however we have only heard her voice and we believe we know her identity however we have only a phone call to go on so cannot be sure of either a name or a face. She will be assisted by these two, Courtney Beckett and this man who we only know as Anthony. The plan is for Courtney and Anthony to kidnap Hidgens and bring her to the Godfather, however Beckett is actually an undercover agent and DI Drake is at Hidgens' house ready to arrest Anthony. However we must be prepared for a situation where this is unsuccessful. We also have listening devices planted in several places to monitor the situation closely."

"When we receive word that Drake has arrested Anthony, we will then storm his house and apprehend the Godfather herself. We will enter in pairs. You PCs will be with your usual partner. Greg will be with Will, Samantha with Jane, and I will be with Paul and Ted. This isn't a typical raid where we run in shouting 'Armed Police!'. We have to enter quietly so that we have the element of surprise on our side. Try and find the Godfather before she finds you, and call for backup before you go in there. I want the PCs covering all possible entries and exits. Paul, Ted and I will enter through the back, Greg, Will, Samantha and Jane the front. First aid will be on site. If your partner gets hurt badly, you radio. Any questions?"

Tyler raised a hand. "What if Hidgens gets captured?"

Charlotte sighed. "Then this becomes a hostage situation."

When nobody else spoke, Paul stood up. "Alright, what are you waiting for? Gear up, we need to be on high alert!"

As the squad filed out, he took out his special MI5 phone. Goodman had texted him saying ALL GOOD TO GO. U SET?

Paul raised an eyebrow at the idea of John Goodman, the professional head of MI5 using text speak like this. YEP, he replied.

Goodman replied within seconds. OK. KEEP CHECKING UP ON HIDGENS WITH YOUR DI. GOOD LUCK.

Paul shoved the phone back into his pocket and went to gear up. As the leading detective on the case it was not customary for him to be first through the door with an assault rifle, so he signed out two revolvers instead. They had no idea when the raid would be but there was a high chance that it would be at night, so they were all equipped with night vision goggles.

Once he had checked everybody's equipment, he pulled out his phone, but instead of calling Drake, he decided to text Becky. HOW R YOU, he wrote.

The answer was obviously bored out of my mind, because once again the reply came in seconds. MIXED BAG REALLY. I'VE BEEN WATCHING SHERLOCK SO I'VE BEEN LOOKING AT BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, BUT YOUR DI IS REALLY ANNOYING.

Paul chuckled. IKR? IF HE GETS PROMOTED TO DCI I WISH HIS NEW SQUAD LUCK BECAUSE THEY'LL NEED IT.

The reply took him by surprise. THAT IS IF HE DOESN'T TAKE OVER YOUR SQUAD WHEN YOU MAKE SUPERINTENDENT.

Superintendent Houston. It was scary to think that that was his next step in his career. He liked being a DCI. His office was nice, and having a team to lead was surprisingly enjoyable. There was plenty of field work, which was without a doubt his favourite part about being a detective. If he was promoted to Superintendent then there wouldn't be a lot of call for that. Most of his time would be spent behind a desk.

On the other hand, rising to Superintendent at the age of 30 would make him one of the youngest to reach that rank. It would also give him more sway in the department and allow him to make more changes, especially if he could continue rising through the ranks to Chief Superintendent, Assistant Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable and eventually Chief Constable.

But none of that mattered now. His rank wouldn't determine whether Becky lived or died. What mattered was that he focused and kept his mind clear of all distraction.

Finally he texted Becky back. LOOK, I NEED TO GO RIGHT NOW. I'LL KEEP CHECKING ON YOU FROM TIME TO TIME. STAY SAFE. DON'T LET DRAKE DRIVE YOU INSANE.

"All good?" asked Drake. Becky nodded as she put her phone away.

"Just Paul checking in. Fancy some dinner?"

Drake nodded. "If it's not too much trouble."

"It keeps me busy. Are you vegetarian or anything?"

Drake shook his head. "I couldn't, I love Spaghetti Bolognese too much."

Becky laughed. "I know what you mean, but there are vegetarian equivalents of mince. Unfortunately I don't have anything fresh though, so it's going to have to be beans on toast."

"Healthy," said Drake, a note of approval in his voice. Becky shrugged.

"It helps me justify the bar of Dairy Milk I have afterwards."

Drake laughed as Becky went into the kitchen. When Paul had told him that this was an old friend of his, he had known that they would have similar personalities, but he hadn't been ready for this. It was like… like…

His thought trailed off as his vision blurred and the world around him went dark. The last thing he could see was a masked figure with a gun rushing towards him.