Page 76 of There Once was a Dancer
He was right. They were all like brothers to me. They walked to the door, saluting smartly before heading out. I closed it behind them, locking up, and turning the chair around. The house was completely silent and only then did I realize how weird it felt to be completely alone. Then again, if I hadn’t been such a stubborn asshole, I wouldn’t be alone at all.
Alain arrived an hour later, just as Candy had promised, with a smile on his face and a duffel slung over one shoulder. I grinned, glad of the company and showed him back to my spare bedroom. Just before six that night, my doorbell rang. Candy stood on the stoop with Judy and Raven.
“Nice to see they finally gave you an electric wheelchair, Rex,” Judy said.
“Yeah, it’s great.” I rolled forward. “I thank God I have hardwood floors. Otherwise, gettin’ around would’ve been a damned challenge.”
She chuckled, walking by my side as she rested one hand on my shoulder. “We brought you a toy, so you’ll get to watch the raid right here from the safety of your own home tomorrow.” She hefted the large FBI secure laptop.
“All the guys will be wearing helmet cams, so you’ll get a firsthand view in real time,” Candy said.
“Oh, yeah?” I smiled. “Can’t wait to hear what’s happenin’.” I led the way to my dining table. “This is probably the best place to set up.” I glanced at Candy. “I can assume someone’ll be here in case I lose connection.”
He nodded. “Judy will be here with you tomorrow night, but Mathis and Joy will be participating in the raid with us.”
“I’ll come back after we’re done, old chap,” Alain said, patting me on the back.
It felt shitty to know I was in no condition to provide sniper cover for my teammates. I had no doubt Mars would be in a sniper nest somewhere, but I couldn’t help but feel left out. It really was nice that Candy wanted to include me in some small way. Judy sat down beside me and opened the laptop while the others took seats across the table. As I looked at the screen, she began punching keys. The screen suddenly divided into four separate blank screens.
“This software allows me to pull up feeds from as many helmet cams as I want,” she said. “Right now, the helmets are in storage but once the raid begins, these screens will be filled.” She looked over at Candy. “I’m guessing you’ll want one from the guys rappelling from the roof, one from the front door of the office when it’s raided and how many others?”
The boss looked thoughtful. “Let’s do two cams from the office door ingress since individual teammates will be looking in different directions. I’ll need one since I’ll be on point, andMickey will be bringing up the rear as we breach; do one on his helmet cam also. Maybe one more on Patsy’s helmet cam since he’s going to be rappelling down from the roof with Napoleon and perhaps only one other from Mars since he’ll be in the sniper perch across the street. You’ll only need to switch to his helmet cam if one of our targets somehow manages to get out of the office since he’s going to be watching for that. I like to think we learned our lesson from the last time we raided a high rise.”
“That sounds good.” She shut the laptop and smiled at me. “All set. I’ll get here tomorrow about…” She glanced at Candy. “What time?”
“The raid here is scheduled to begin at nine when we know all the players will be here. It’ll be eleven p.m. in Lima and since we’re timing our raid to coincide with theirs, that’s what time everyone wants to begin. You should be here by eight, just in case there are issues with the Internet connection here at the house.” He looked at me. “Don’t worry about us getting a secure line. Judy and Raven already have that all set up.”
I glanced at Raven. It sounded like they’d thought of everything but since I really had no idea of all the raid’s particulars, it was hard to say. “Is someone gonna fill me in on exactly what’s supposed to be happenin’? You said somethin’ about all the players bein’ here.”
Raven nodded, and Candy slid over the file folder he’d brought with him. Flipping it open, he pointed to a photo of a tall building’s roof.
“I’ll get to the players in a second. I wanted to show you this first.” He tapped the picture. “This is an overhead satellite view of the sixteen-story commercial building in Studio City where Tawantinsuyu Imports is located. They’re on the third floor like I explained before.”
There were several buildings lined up in a row on the north side of the street where it was located. There were also a number of buildings on the opposite side of the street but one in particular, appeared to be shorter with a bigger footprint. He glanced at me to make sure I was following. I nodded as he went on.
“Directly across the street beside a Gelson’s market, located here—” Candy pointed to the short building, “is another office building of almost the same number of stories.”
“Lucky for us, the third through fifth floors of that building have been temporarily vacated since the entire building is undergoing earthquake retrofits which are significantly overdue according to the manager. They’re apparently going floor by floor so they don’t have to evacuate a bunch of tenants at once,” Raven added.
I smirked. “Since there was a major earthquake in the San Fernando Valley in the early 90s, I should say they’ve been takin’ their sweet time, but what do I know?”
“Yeah, that’s a whole other conversation,” Raven said, smiling.
I nodded and glanced over at Candy. “I’d guess Raven’s callin’ it lucky because it’ll make the perfect sniper perch for Mars.”
Candy nodded. “That’s exactly right, Monroe. The plan is to wait until nine and hit the door to the office once Napoleon and Patsy have rappelled down to the third floor where they’ll make entry.”
I nodded. “By bustin’ through the window just like the last time we had one of these skyscrapers?”
Candy nodded. “Right, but we honestly hesitated when adding it to the plan because the office building is in a much busier area than the apartment building was. When I presented my plans with the LAPD captain who had to approve it, he suggested the LAPD should cordon off the entire street and divert both pedestrian and street traffic until we conclude the Op. They’ll say we’re part of a crew of actors shooting a movie. I had to get the FBI to approve us hiring a whole movie crew to make it look real because you just know beyond the barricades, a crowd will form to watch the shooting of a movie.”
“That’s a good idea if you have to have guys come in from the roof. Still, it will cause a hell of a mess with glass crashin’ to the street below.”
“It will, much like the one where Nash and Mickey came in through the window from up above, only this time, it’s just us…there’s no DEA on scene to fuck up their entry.”
“Well, that Op turned out okay once we figured out Turley was the snake who’d turned double agent,” I said.
Candy grinned. “And I think if you were to ask Nash how he feels about meeting the man he’s in love with on that job, he might just agree it was all worth it. We’re not going to have that problem this time, though, Rex.”
