a copy of their will. She’s got documentation on her recruitment angles, names, locations. She pins Po and a Michael J. Harstead at the halfway house as feeders. And there’s a Denise Wexford at the Good Samaritan Shelter as another of her feeders.”
“We’ll pick them up, all of them. A few hours yet, but we’ll get them all.”
“On the family front? She’s got files on her brothers. Evidence the older one dips into the membership fund, and the next one has a taste for LCs. She calls the youngest one Mommy’s Fake Boy, so she knows he’s her half brother, and she’s stockpiling evidence he’s gay.”
“She’s planning. Laying groundwork for a coup.”
“She’s got a supply of sleep meds. Heavy meds, liquid form, big supply. All prescribed by Oliver Huffman.”
“Recruitment tool.”
“Fuckers.”
“Yeah, we’ve got the fuckers, Baxter.”
He glanced at her screen and the display of the compound with its hot spots. “We’re going tonight?”
“We’re going tonight. I’m going to take our end of the op for a spin in a holoroom, just tighten it up where I can. Be ready.”
“Oh, born that way, Loo.”
21
She took her spin, programmed in the other teams, the backups, the takedown, the timing. By scaling Roarke’s four-minute lag to four seconds, she could run it through quickly—then have the computer calculate reality time.
She ordered and reordered priorities on each run-through.
Satisfied she’d closed any apparent holes, she briefed Whitney, and with his go, pulled in Lowenbaum and his SWAT team to handle Tribeca.
The first phase.
With Lowenbaum, she worked on the timing and movements of that area of the operation.
“A lot of kids, Lowenbaum.”
He nodded as they stood in the mock-up holo of the block. She’d programmed the names of the residents and number of minors on each house.
“Understood. We’ll have the Child Services reps you selected behind the line, and we’ll get the kids to safety. You’re sure about those reps?”
“I got them from the head of An Didean. Rochelle’s solid, and she’s worked with these three people. Some of the women on the block will be like the two we have at Dochas, and some will be like Barbara Poole. Even the ones who don’t want to be there may resist or run. Some may not be able to run if they have the shockers on, or their kids do.”
With Eve, Lowenbaum walked up and down the holo block.
“We’ve got the neutralizing device Roarke built us for that, Dallas. You’ve done all the work till now, even listing the target houses by probability of resistance. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Any adult males, if there, must be separated and contained. Some may have weapons, most will likely have comms. My data indicates most if not all of the male residents should be in the compound tonight. But—”
He looked at her. “Trust me and mine.”
“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I’ve got to get you on this because of the possibility of communication. That block needs to be shut down before we move on the rest.”
As they’d worked together before, he knew her mindset. “And you’re wishing like hell you could be two places at once so you could be on this takedown while you’re here coordinating the next.”
“Make that about ten places at once.” Then she hissed out a breath. “We’ve got the best people, top cops on every one of the ops. So … letting go, Lowenbaum. Good hunting.”
“Same to you. I’ll keep you in the loop all the way.”
She checked the time when he left. Shutting down the holo, she started back to the conference room.
She found Peabody and Roarke already setting up.
“You beat me to it.”
“You’ve been doing about six dozen things at once,” Peabody said. “I figured I could get this going—with a little help.”
“Appreciate it.” She frowned at the device Roarke attached to the comp. “What’s that?”
“A portable holo.”
“We have one of those?”
“I had it brought in.”
Hell, she thought, it was only Peabody in there. So she walked to Roarke, wrapped her arms around him for one precious moment. And stepped back when Peabody said, “Aw.”
“Keep your aws to yourself. Lowenbaum and his team are heading out now. We’ve got FBI sitting just beyond the compound. Anyone comes out, they pick them up.”
She started to rub her eyes, but since they felt like sandpaper, dropped her hands again. “We’ve got teams ready to pick up the Huff-mans, Po, Harstead, Wexford, and others. We pulled from Special Victims, and I brought in Detective Strong and her partner from Illegals for those busts.”
She paused when