"What's the situation?"
We all turned to look at the door when Captain barged in, somehow looking threatening even in his star pajama pants and a striped tank top.
"We're still following them," Nico told him when he stopped behind his chair. "They're heading to the city limits."
"How many?"
"Five trucks and Mercer's car. Each of them has at least one passenger," Nico said. "We're looking at least twelve people."
"They're running red lights," Captain muttered as he watched the screen.
Nico did his best to jump from camera to camera to keep our eyes on them. Not every corner has one, but thankfully, it was easy to find the convoy every time they vanished behind a corner.
"What's the hurry, Michael...?" Captain muttered.
"I'm going to assume he found our guys," Nico said. "He does not move with that kind of force if he's not prepared for trouble."
Captain let out a deep breath. "You are correct. Do we have any info about where they could be heading? Have the other teams found anything? Is there something on the news?"
"Negative, though there's not enough of us to check," Nico said.
"Anyone watching the news?" Captain asked.
"We are," Ryan said behind his computer. "Nothing yet."
Captain nodded. "It is possible someone has contacted Michael. The underworld would never contact us."
"So? Your orders?" Nico asked, and we all turned to Captain.
He still stared at the screen without moving a muscle.
"We wait," he said. "Tell me what else you have found."
"Sir?" I asked with a frown.
"Yes?"
"Why aren't we doing anything? We should go after them. They've clearly located Lonnie HiIl, so what are we waiting for?" I asked.
I noticed the others peering at each other as they returned to their computers in no hurry. Captain straightened his posture and turned to me, but he said nothing.
"You're just letting Mercer do our job?" I asked in disbelief.
He lifted his hand, his thumb up.
"One. My top priority is the health and safety of my men. I'm not risking your lives if I don't have to," he said calmly. "Two. I'm not revealing my connection to the mafia. That can have disastrous consequences. If we leave now, someone may figure out we were watching the mafia. And three. Michael knows what he's doing. I have no problem with trusting him with this."
I stared at the three fingers he was now holding up.
"There could be civilians involved," I eventually said.
"Yes, and those same civilians would be even in greater danger if we barge in," Captain said, watching me closely. "You don't seem to agree with my methods or reasoning."
"With all due respect, I'm failing to understand why we're not doing our job," I told him truthfully. "Why are we trusting this mission in the hands of notorious criminals?"
"Because we have a balance to maintain," Captain said. "I don't have time to go into detail, but I hope you trust me when I say that things will be better in the long run if we now let Michael deal with this problem. This is his chance to come out of hiding and show our enemy that he still hates them, and let our people know he's still protecting them."
I still wasn't convinced that we were doing the right thing, but I had no time to answer him.
"They stopped," Nico said, and we turned back to the monitors. "It's a nightclub."
"A nightclub...?" Captain muttered as Michael Mercer and his men exited the cars and headed to the door.
"Why would Lonnie Hill be in a nightclub...?" Ash muttered.
"He's not in it, right?" Ryan asked. "It makes no sense."
Captain stared at the screen with a deep frown on his face while the rest of us tried to guess if Lonnie Hill was actually there, or if Mercer had other businesses in the establishment.
"There's no way, right?" Ryan finally said. "Not after all the hard work they did to hide from us."
"Even a rookie group wouldn't make that massive of a mistake," Ash agreed.
I turned to Captain.
"I get the part about letting Mercer strengthen his reputation, but what if innocent people get injured or killed because we're just sitting on our asses? That's a nightclub," I said to him.
"Wake up the others," he said without looking at me.
"So we're finally doing something?" I asked.
"Yes," Captain told me, and turned around. "Wake up the entire base. Threat level is now immediate. We need full mobilization. We need all units in the city in fifteen or less."
Everyone else was up on their feet and running before he'd even finished giving his orders. I just stood there, not knowing what I was supposed to do.
Full mobilization...?
"Captain?" I asked while he grabbed his phone and called someone.
"The nightclub is a decoy," he told me. "The real group is making their move somewhere else while we're focusing on Lonnie Hill and the rest of the puppets."
I turned to stare at my monitor. Just a decoy...?
"Get the governor on the phone, we have an immediate threat," Captain spoke on the phone. "I need permission for full mobilization."
How could he be so sure...?
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you," Captain said, and put his phone away. "I'm sorry, but you're staying here."
I so wanted to tell him to let me come with them, but when I looked him in the eyes, I knew to keep my mouth shut. He was dead serious now.
"Yes, sir," I said.
"Good boy. Try to get some sleep," he told me, and hurried to the door.
"With an immediate threat upon us?" I asked, but he was long gone already.
I let out a sigh and glanced around in the empty room. There was no way in hell I was going to get any sleep. If Captain was right, something was going to blow up in the city in less than half an hour. At any second now.
I sat behind my computer. The surveillance program was still open... Captain said I had to stay here, but he didn't tell me I couldn't keep working.
I hurried to sit down and tried to figure out how to open the connection to the cameras around the City Hall. It was the first possible target that crossed my mind, but then I realized that if the Governor was their target, they would hit the Morgan Manor instead. But if they wanted to kill people and cause terror... at this hour... Their target would have to be the city center, the hospital area, or...
Our base.
I connected to all the cameras I could think of, and once they all were showing on my screens, I stopped to consider my next step. I really didn't have the training for this, and there was so much movement in the cameras that there was no way I'd spot anything possibly suspicious all on my own, but I had to do something.
I got distracted when I heard loud sounds and saw bright lights outside the windows. I hurried to see what was going on and stopped to watch as several helicopters took flight and headed to the city. I knew the drill. We didn't know where to find the terrorists, so our only hope was to scare them back into hiding by invading the city with full force. It was the only way we could try to prevent the attack.
I turned my back to the windows and stared at the dozen computers surrounding me. All of them were open and running different programs. I glanced at my own screen to make sure nothing was going on, then made a slow round around the tech room to check the rest of the computers. I was getting a headache as I tried to piece together all the information I had.
Was there actually two groups? A puppet group led by Lonnie, and a real group working in the background while we'd wasted all our time chasing shadows?
I stopped behind my computer and stared at the mafia cars. I saw lights coming out of the establishment, and a bouncer on the door, acting nervous. He kept turning people around... Something was definitely going on in that place. I wished I could go check it out...
There was movement in other cameras I was watching. Our army was already swarming the streets. I wished they'd actually find something, but I knew the terrorists were abandoning their plans and retreating into the shadows at that very moment. They wouldn't dare to attack now...
If there really was a second group.
I stared at the nightclub, almost holding my breath. It was so quiet... Nothing was happening... The mafia was inside, but why? Was Lonnie Hill actually there...?
I perked up when I realized I could check that. I quickly sat down, pulled out the data from that specific camera, and jumped back about an hour. I let the video play and kept a close eye on the bouncer. His whole demeanor was completely different, and there was a line of people waiting to get in. I sped up the video and watched as the bouncer let small groups in one at a time. And then...
A large group of men approached the door, clearly having fun. The bouncer figured out they weren't heading to the back of the line, so he raised his hands to stop them. They did not. One of the guys pulled a gun under his jacket and pointed it at the bouncer. The people in line ran, leaving him alone to face the group.
I paused the video. None of the men even tried to hide their identities. It was easy to recognize Lonnie Hill among them.
"What the fuck...?" I whispered, zooming in.
The nameless kid was also there, his expression as dead as ever.
I didn't have time to do anything else. There was suddenly a lot of movement on the camera showing live footage of the club, and I stopped to stare at it. People were pouring out of the place, running as fast as they could. I turned the sound on just to hear the scared screams and warning shouts.
"Fuck...!" I hissed and grabbed my phone.
I had to call Captain. I didn't know what else to do. Thankfully, he was able to answer my call.
"Rook? What is it?"
"The nightclub. It's in chaos," I said quickly. "People are running to safety. I can't hear what's going on inside, but they're running for their lives."
"Understood. Keep your eyes on it," he said and ended the call.
I zoomed in as far as I could to see the doorway. More people kept rushing out, peering over their shoulders in fear. I listened carefully, but couldn't make much sense of the loud noises.
I did hear a few things.
"They killed them!"
"They're all dead!"
"There's blood everywhere!"
"He shot the guy's head off!"
Fuck... We should've gone straight to the nightclub. I could only hope there were no dead civilians.
Soon, the place went quiet. No more people were running out. I still kept watching the doorway. And I was glad I did... Several older men in black jackets came out carrying suspicious bags and headed to the trucks parked by the door. The mafia...
"I suppose you guys won..." I muttered, my stomach dropping.
The nameless kid was with the terrorists...
And out came Michael Mercer, straightening his jacket like nothing odd was going on. He stopped to wait for the rest of his men, one of which went to open the door of the car for him. Mercer still stayed by the door.
"Thank you, sir," the bouncer spoke as he returned to his post.
"You will get company soon," the leader of the mafia spoke, his voice calm and low. "Don't touch anything. They'll clean up the mess."
"The army?"
"Yes."
I wrinkled my nose at his words, though I couldn't be mad at him. I just wished the kid was all right... But I knew... He was dead now... Not a single terrorist was coming out, so I assumed they all had lost their lives.
"Fuck..." I muttered, feeling hopeless.
No... Wait!
Francis Andrews stepped out, leading the kid to the car! He was alive! Thank fuck he was alive and away from those dirtbags...! Although I wasn't sure if he was doing any better in the hands of the mafia. I wanted to believe he was... I'd heard so many stories of these old criminals helping people, so... The kid was safe now, right?
I turned around to face the empty tech room. I wished they hadn't left me behind... I mean, yeah, I didn't have the right training, but still... It didn't feel great to be all alone in the base. I didn't know what to do now. If only even one of them had stayed behind to tell me what was going to happen next.
Thinking about being all alone made me uncomfortable. It was so quiet... It made my omega nervous... It made me nervous. Was I really safe here on my own? The doors were locked, right? And the windows? What if...? No, no, no, no, no... I'd freak myself out if I started thinking about that.
...But I had to go make sure all the windows and doors were locked.
I was checking the main entrance when I suddenly heard my phone ringing all the way back in the tech room. I hastily yanked on the door, confirming it was indeed locked then ran back to the tech room. I answered the phone, sounding maybe a little too breathless since I could almost hear the deep, concerned frown on the other end.
"You all right?"
I stopped for a brief second.
"Re– Gambit?" I asked in surprise. I thought it was Captain who called me, not Reid.
"Yes, it's me. You all right?" he asked again.
"Yeah, sorry, I had to run to answer the phone," I said. "What's the situation?"
"We're approaching the nightclub, I figured you want to see what's going on," he said.
"Yes, please!" I hurried to say.
"Okay. You behind your PC? Good, type the following code to the search bar..." he spoke, and gave me the code. I typed it in, and a new program opened. "Open the feed. Good, I'm operating number four. Click that open..."
I had no idea what he was talking about, but there were almost twenty icons, all numbered, so I clicked the one numbered four. It turned out to be a link to yet another camera, but this one was moving, showing a dusty floor.
"I got it," I said, and the camera was suddenly flipped around, and I saw Reid waving at me.
"You should hear me through my microphone now," Reid spoke, and I indeed heard his voice coming from the PC and my phone now. "I have to end the call, so we can't talk once we get to the club, but this way, you can at least see what I see."
"Thank you so much," I said sincerely. "I'm dying to know what's going on."
"You should be here with us. This was your task. You found them, after all. But this way, you can come with us," he said.
"Reid? Who are you talking to?" I heard Captain's voice coming from somewhere nearby.
"With Rook, sir."
The camera was taken from Reid, and Captain's furious frown filled the screen.
"You should be in bed, Rook," he grunted at me, taking the phone from Reid as well.
"Well I'm not, and you can't do anything about it," I said.
He squinted his eyes at me, but before he got his mouth open, I hurried to tell him what I saw happening at the nightclub.
"...and the mafia has the nameless kid now. I watched them drive away with him," I said, ending my short briefing.
"He should be fine now," Captain told me. "You can go to sleep. Now."
"I'm not going to, sir," I said. "This is my mission, too."
Captain let out a deep, slow sigh, shaking his head, but he gave the phone and the camera back to Reid.
"Tell him to be less stubborn," Captain grunted at him.
"Me? No, no, no, no. He's your problem!"
"You're his partner!"
"You're his captain!"
"Guys, we're almost there," Daz spoke, and Reid faced the camera at him.
"I'll end the call now. Wish us good luck," he told me.
"Good luck," I said, smirking, and put my phone down.
I suddenly felt so much better. Even though I couldn't be physically there with them, I could settle with this. And it was Reid's idea... That was very kind of him...
They exited the vehicle, and I watched as they approached the door, moving hastily with their guns ready. The bouncer dropped to his knees and put his hands in the air when my teammates burst through the door.
"Hands up! Get down on your knees! Show yourself! Now!" Captain shouted as they encountered more people.
Reid fell behind and made his way deeper into the club at a slower pace, checking corners and curtains. It took only a short moment before he found two pairs of legs hidden under a table. Two bodies, dressed in black hoodies. Both of them had big emblems of burning flags printed on them.
"Eagle, Pyro," Reid called, and Ash and Rio appeared next to him. "Check them."
Reid himself continued following our captain and entered the main area. The lights were on, revealing the mess that was left behind. Captain was hovering over two more dead men behind the bar counter. Chandler and Keita were guarding a group of people sitting at the tables by the walls. Staff, by the looks of it. Many of them had nametags and aprons.
"Captain! Over here!"
Everyone turned to look up at Daz, who stood on an elevated platform with Nico, Ryan, and Ethan. Captain made his way to them with Reid in tow and stopped to stare at a pile of bodies in a large seating area.
"We have Lonnie Hill," Daz said.
Reid stepped closer to the five or six dead people. Lonnie Hill was in the middle of them, lying on the floor with a hole in his head. They all were riddled with bullets. Everyone stared at the carnage in silence for a brief moment.
Well damn...
"So a fight broke loose?" Captain finally said.
"What fight? These guys never got the safeties off their guns," Daz said. "This was a public execution."
"They haven't fired their weapons," Ryan spoke as he studied the corpses.
"There's no bullet holes anywhere else," Ethan concurred. "I don't think these guys saw it coming."
"Fast and clean," Captain muttered, turning his attention to a table next to a single armchair opposite of the large couch the terrorist had died on. "Hmm..."
"Sir?" Reid asked when he stepped closer to the table. Captain leaned in to pick a glass from the table. It was still half full. "What is it?"
"Looks like a glass of good, old whiskey," he muttered, and turned to Reid. "Hey, let me see your backpack."
Reid turned around, and I heard something spilling on the floor right before I heard the sound of a zipper.
"There you go. Your pocket was open. I closed it," Captain said.
"Thanks, sir," Reid said, and turned back around.
The glass had miraculously vanished.
I saw movement in another camera, and I turned my attention to it. It was the one watching Mercer's home street. Two cars approached his house, and while the other drove into the yard, the other one stayed at the gates, the engine running. I hurried to zoom in and watched while Michael Mercer stepped out of the car with the nameless kid.
I held my breath. The kid looked just as dead and scared as ever, but... Mercer was treating him gently. The cars left, and the gate was closed again. Mercer walked up to his door, clearly talking to the kid with a friendly smile, but the kid never reacted to him. He was following him, though. Mercer never had to touch him.
Soon, they vanished into his house, and I leaned back in my seat to take a deep breath.
I hoped the kid was all right with him.