Rise of a Phoenix: Rise of a Phoenix (34 page)

“Got ya,” he said, thinking out loud. Now that he knew he had to plot a route of where the vehicles might be heading, he could get some coffee. As he turned he saw Detective Jenny Thompson standing behind him, and he jumped in surprise, startled to see her. “God, you scared me,” he said, laughing. She smiled and came closer.

“What you doing?” she asked, seeming interested. Jenny leant forwards to check the screen.

“We—that is I—found the vehicles they used to take the stuff from the garage.”

She turned her head slowly, her face just inches away from his. He closed his eyes, enjoying her perfume,, all manner of exciting thoughts running through his head. He opened them and gazed directly into her face, lost in the moment. Hours of sleepless nights and all the extra work combined to make him want to forget conventions, grab her and make love to her right now, and her expression told him that she felt the same way, as she licked her lips provocatively. She wore red lipstick that glistened as the lights from the monitor’s screen flickered. He was feeling hot.

“Isn’t it warm in here?” she said, smiling, then undid a couple of buttons of her top. His eyes felt looked deeper into hers, then something inside of him crashed him back to reality.

“Sorry, Jenny, I have work, and so do you.”

Her mood soured as Jenny refastened her buttons.

“Sorry, Detective,” he tried to apologies. “But we have to find where these trucks are going.”

Steel had found himself a nice comfortable car’s hood to lie upon as the bickering commenced about how to get the man from the truck.

“We just go in, open the door, he steps out, simple,” yelled McCall.

Tooms shook his head. “We can’t. The mines are probably set in place so any change in weight would trigger them. Why don’t we just hook up the van to another van and drag it?”

Detective Steel smiled as he lay there with his arms crossed.

“No, we can’t do that either, we don’t know how secure the structure is,” added North. “We have to do something, we are losing time, people, we may have a clue or evidence in there, and we just have to do something.”

The Captain was out of patience.

“We do like Tooms suggested,” Steel said good humouredly. Tooms gave him the thumbs up for backing him. “However, we use a helicopter not a car. We attach it and then rip it out through the opening.”

Everyone looked at him as though he was nuts.

“Really?” North had his arms crossed in defiance of the idea. “And who will go and rig it up?”

“Well, I appear to be the only one dumb enough so I guess it’s me.” Steel replied.

North smiled at the idea.

SIXTY-SEVEN

At the precinct Tony had found the destination of the convoy. He had ascertained that it was to a cargo docks to the north. Several minutes of computer checks had revealed that the vehicles were rented to the Captain of a container ship out of Europe, the
Eisen Wolff
. After getting in touch with the port authorities, he was waiting to find out the destination and place of origin.

Tony pondered on why Jenny Thompson had come on to him, concluding that it might just be the effects of stress. After all, everyone had been working around the clock since this whole business started and Jenny’s new post, as detective, had to have some sort of confidence-boosting effect. He smiled to himself, flattered at the thought she might be interested in him. Suddenly the phone on his desk gave off its loud ring, shocking him back to reality.

“Detective Marinelli.” He listened to the voice on the other end and scribbled down some names and an address, then thanked the caller for the information and put down the receiver. He stood up and grabbed his coat.

“Hey, Jenny, I’m going back, you stay here just in case something comes up,” he told her.

She looked at him, puzzled, and said: “Don’t you want me to come too?”

She seemed genuinely keen, but Tony knew that deep down she was too inexperienced for this kind of operation. “No, I need you to stay here. If we need feet on the ground somewhere else you need to get the other teams that are on standby and get there. So you could do that quicker from here.” She faked a disappointed smile and nodded. He returned the smile, but deep down he knew he never wanted a repeat of this case ever.

SIXTY-EIGHT

As they waited for the helicopter on the roof of one of the high-rises, Captain Brant had a bad feeling. He knew that Steel could handle himself, he had read the man’s service file and it scared the hell out of him, knowing what this man had been through and what he was capable of. However, the rest of the team was not so indestructible, and he could see that the more crazy things Steel managed to get away with made the rest of the team a little more reckless.

Brant reached down to his vibrating cell phone. On the screen he saw the ID was from Tony’s cell.

“What’s up, Detective?” Brant looked up and saw the flashing lights from the CH-47 Chinook.

“Captain,” came Tony’s voice on the phone. “We found that the convoy has gone to a shipyard in Brooklyn, they are off-loading some sort of cargo in special containers. Sir, I think they are weapons.”

Steel noticed the expression on Brant’s face and he knew that something was wrong. “What’s the matter, Captain?” Steel asked as several men were strapping him into the harness.

“We got a location for the convoy, they are off-loading cargo onto a ship at the Brooklyn shipyard,” Brant told him.

The swat commander smiled grimly. “What we waiting for? Let’s go.”

Brant and Steel looked at the commander, completely perplexed by his words.

“Really, let’s go!” he repeated.

Steel was still standing there, arms outstretched like some weird mannequin.

“Sergeant, aren’t you forgetting something?” Brant asked.

Steel shook his head. “Look, he’s right, you all go, all I need is E.O.D and CSU.”

Brant slapped him on the shoulder. “You really are a crazy son-of-a-bitch, you know that?”

Steel just nodded and got ready for his ride.

“One question,” asked McCall. “Where they going to land?”

Detective Steel just laughed and ran over to a man kneeling down in the middle of the roof.

The Captain watched Steel run over to the winch cable that hung down and strap himself in, then with a roar from the engines the bird flew off with crazy-assed Steel hanging from underneath. Brant watched with his heart in his mouth as the craft neared the car park building. The bad feeling he had had was not bad enough, he thought to himself.

Detective Steel span round to watch the fleet of police vehicles leave the location.
Good,
he thought, at least they would be safe from any blast. But then he remembered the dockyard and the possibilities there.

He turned to face the oncoming building, aware that he had more pressing things to worry about. The helicopter turned and was flown neatly towards the opening where the van stood. Unhitching himself, John Steel put the hook onto the middle of a long lashing strap. Putting down a rucksack he produced two large magnets which he placed onto the sides of the van. With great care he then attached the lashing strap. All was in place. He knocked softly on the side of the van, saying: “Hi, we are going to get you out. Now listen carefully, you need to hold onto something at the front of the van if that’s possible. You may feel a bit of a tug but don’t worry about it, it will be fine.”

Steel looked up and made a prayer sign.

“Who are you?” yelled a voice from inside the van.

“Oh no one special,” answered Steel. “Just hold on. Okay?” And with that Steel ran like he had never run before.

“Echo One this is Phoenix, proceed in figures ten over. Copy that.”

John Steel had realized that he had not really measured how long it would take to make the run from the second floor to the exit, but it was too late for that now, and so he just ran and hoped for the best. He heard the noise of the chopper pull away but he still had some way to go, in fact he was only on the first floor. There was nothing for it, so he headed for the nearest opening on the opposite side.

A massive explosion shook the building, the concrete came down in slabs. the size of Sudan’s As the pilots looked the building crumbled from the centre, leaving a cloud of grey mist. Below them hung the white van. They had made it, but they saw no sign of Steel.

“Hello, Charlie One this is Echo One, we have the package,” were the words that came over the radio. The Captain held his breath. “Echo One any sign of Phoenix?”

There was a moment of silence. “Negative, we do not have eyes on Phoenix, sorry.”

McCall and the rest sat open-mouthed shocked as the Captain concluded with: “Roger, take package to CSU and return home. Good job, boys.”

Brant put the handset back onto the dash. “He will be okay, the son-of-a-bitch has more lives than a room full of cats, he will be at the meeting place, you’ll see.” Everyone could see he needed Steel to be there, just to show that there was still hope for them to get out of this mess alive.

Around a mile from the port the police convoy stopped and made plans. Tony had gone back with Thompson to meet up with the others. Before arriving, Tony had obtained the plans of the ship and the ground plans for the shipyard.

Laying the plans for the vessel onto the hood of his car, Tony explained that Blackheart Industries from England owned the
Eisen Wolff
, and the Captain was a man called Moses who was originally from Egypt.

Sergeant North looked at the plans for the moment. “Okay, this is the plan,” North said. “Alpha will clear these buildings to the left here, and here, then move to this location.” Underneath the ship’s plans lay the ground plans, showing several large buildings with a view of the ship.

“Bravo, you will take the right, clearing here and here, then stand—fast here.” Sergeant North pointed out a small workshop to the rear of the ship. “Charlie, once Alpha and Bravo have cleared these buildings you then become top cover for when they board.”

The team leader nodded.

“Delta, you will move up as soon as they both reach this position.” North pointed to the two entrances to the lower decks under the bridge house. “Your objective, to secure the bridge.” Their team leader looked at the plans quickly and gave the thumbs up.

Since everyone knew what they had to do, all teams gave a “Roger that,” reply.

McCall looked around. “So what do we do?”

North looked at her. “Stay here. You and your people aren’t swat so you’re out.”

McCall felt the onset of a burning rage. Captain Brant felt her frustration but knew that North was right.

“Sorry, Sam, this is his ball game,” Brant told her.

She felt the swell of the sergeant’s ego as the Captain said those words.

“What about Steel?” Sam McCall asked.

North looked puzzled. “What about him? We don’t even know if the man is alive but even if he is, he isn’t swat so he is out as well.”

McCall felt herself wanting to punch the smile off his arrogant face.

“Now if you people don’t mind, we have work to do.” North made a shooing gesture, as Brant turned to join them.

“Thank you, Captain,” North said to the Captain, unable to suppress a grin.

“What are you thanking me for? Don’t thank me, North. You wanted it you got it. Thing is if you fuck this up it’s all on you. We are only Homicide, remember, it’s not our ballgame.”

So saying, Brant turned and left a gob smacked Sergeant North.

The swat teams had made it to the fence line just beyond which lay their first objectives. Knowing there would be someone watching the main gates, their only option was to go through the fence. Alpha team sat ready waiting for Bravo to give the thumbs up, and on the signal a member using a can of dry ice spray made a large circle on to the fence. There was a hissing noise followed by a crunching as if eggshells were been walked upon, as the solution ate through the metal. The fence was then easily kicked in at that point, opening up a breach. As both teams crept towards their first targets, North watched and listened with anticipation.

“Alpha Phase One complete, Bravo Phase One complete.” North smiled as he heard the news, and looked at his second-in-command. It was time to move. He was now oozing with over-confidence as the two men rushed for the large building that overlooked the container ship.

On entering the building, North and his comrade found the stairwell to the operations room. Moving in slowly, the senior man looked round. All the power was off inside so they would not be illuminated. He pointed to a large table near to the right-hand wall. The other man nodded and unpacked his backpack. As he laid out laptops and microphones, he began to set up the mini command centre. There was a flicker of light as the screens came on line.

“We are on, Sir,” the second-in-command said.

North smiled as he looked through his tactical binoculars. “All teams sound off.” He gave the order.

There was a crackle of static on the line, followed by: “Alpha ready, Bravo ready, Charlie ready, Delta ready.”

North took a deep breath, then said: “All teams go.”

As he watched, Alpha and Bravo teams took the ship from both ends and converged on to the bridge house, moving fast and professionally, until finally all three teams were at their target point.

“All teams breach when ready,” he ordered, and with that the teams disappeared from view.

A loud sound of metal-against-metal echoed through the Operations Room and North recognized it as the top slide of a pistol being released. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the inevitable shot. But instead of a gunshot, pain and death, there were merely two loud thuds as bodies hit the ground.

The two swat members looked round to see two men on the ground, each of them with a knife buried in the back of his head. North looked at the empty door way and screamed: “Steel!”

McCall and the others were sitting there feeling restless. Tooms was cleaning his pistol, while Sam McCall just paced up and down the room. Captain Brant looked up as she came up to him.