School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,111
at him, their eyes weary as only old cops’ eyes could be.
“There’s civilians inside,” he said, looking at the sprawl of the apartment complex. He’d had Ellery text him the address—and some specs on where, exactly, the Dobrevks lived in the multiunit area—and studying it now gave him stomach cramps. More pops.
And hey, there was a scream. Aces.
“We know that,” Fetzer snapped. “That’s what we’re for!”
Jackson shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. These civilians have children who were trafficked because one of the players in this little shindig wants to keep the family quiet. Their son was the kid we bailed out of jail—and both sides want him dead. They refused police protection because they hoped the gang wouldn’t turn on their extended family. If they’re seen taken into custody, it’ll be a death sentence. They need to just disa-fucking-pear and not surface until we get them into WITSEC with their son.”
Fetzer’s and Hardison’s eyes had gone wide. “So you’re going to… what? Walk in there and say, ‘Come with me’?”
Jackson shrugged. “As good a plan as any?”
“It’s a shitty plan!” Fetzer burst out. “It’s a hellaciously shitty plan.” She and Hardison met eyes. “What can we do to help?”
Jackson met both their eyes and then flickered a glance to where the young, fit SWAT commander was going over protocol and planning.
“Show me where they’re not going to be,” he said. “Get me in, get me to the Dobrevks’ apartment, help me slip in and out. The rest of this—” He indicated the massive police presence, everybody focused on the SWAT commander. “—it’s going to go down, and it’s going to be bloody. I just need to get these guys out.”
“Here,” Fetzer said, pulling out her phone. “We’ve got a readout of where the cops are going to go. We used to patrol this place all the time. I can tell you where they’re not gonna be!”
Jackson grinned at them. “I’m point—”
Fetzer shook her head. “I’m point, civilian. You’re in the middle, and Jimmy’s riding cleanup. Our job is to get you there and get you out, and you need to look like you’re with us or one of these assholes in uniform will shoot you, and we’ll have to pretend we have no idea who you are.” She nodded and flicked his tactical helmet. “Give us a sec to get ours from the shop and we’re going. All that gear you’re wearing is the only fucking reason I’m doing this. Most sense you’ve shown since you wandered into the precinct yesterday afternoon.”
Jackson grinned wolfishly. “Like it? It was my boyfriend’s idea.”
Hardison chuckled. “Yeah, well, let’s hope you see him again to thank him. This is truly the dumbest thing we’ve done in thirty years.”
“Twenty,” Fetzer said. “We spent our first ten years lucky to be alive.”
“Yeah.” Hardison looked nostalgic. “This is like a second honeymoon for Adele and me. Let’s not get dead!”
TWO MINUTES later they were following Fetzer’s floorplan and ghosting through the shadows of the complex while Fetzer broadcast their location quietly over the radio at her collar.
Jackson could hear the squawk of Lieutenant Chambers as Fetzer finished. “What? Fetzer, you get your ass back to the insertion point—”
“Will do,” Fetzer said, and she released the Talk button and chuckled to herself. “Me and Jimmy will get back there just as soon as we’re done with this.”
“Aren’t you going to get in trouble?” Jackson asked.
“Sure,” Hardison said behind him. “Lieutenant’ll yell at us when the op is over, maybe. If she remembers. Right now they’ve got ten more minutes to set up, and shit’s going down there. We can hear it.”
Fetzer took them to the deepest shadow under a stairwell, and they all crouched for a moment, getting the lay of the land. “You got infrared goggles on that helmet?” she asked.
“Nope,” Jackson said, although he knew she did.
“Too bad.” With three well-placed shots, Fetzer took out the three lamps in their corner of the quad, and they all stayed still and held their breath at the flurry of shots afterward. None of the shots were aimed at their location, and they eased up after a few painful heartbeats.
“Dobrevks are upstairs,” Fetzer whispered. “Up this staircase and directly overhead. Jimmy, you want to stay here and cover us while we go up there?”
“You asking or suggesting or telling?” Hardison asked, pulling deeper into the shadows and aiming his service piece through one of the gaps between concrete steps.