Uniform
L ambchop got Ops on the line as the team, minus Wilson, neared the location of the beige Volvo that the Digital Team had tracked to a neighborhood in an older section of Des Moines. Then he said his short pre-mission prayer. The two cars circled through the dark, residential streets and easily found the target car. It was parked in front of a small one-bedroom ranch home. It was zero two-thirty, and it had just begun to snow. All the other homes on the street were dark. The target house had lights on in the front room that flooded out into the night through the gaps in the curtains.
The team separated into two groups. Lambchop and Mother approached the front with a gooseneck surveillance camera. They’d use it to look through the gaps to see who if anyone was in the front room. Jackson circled around the house to the left, Sloan and Sherman to the right. They had two more of the small camera-head surveillance cameras. They’d try to get a look into any windows and locate the people in the house.
“If we can get eyes on the child sleeping alone in a bedroom, we get her out before we take down Adams and Henning,” Lambchop said as he laid his hand on the hood of the Volvo. It was cold.
“Roger that,” Jackson replied. “Preferably, we can move her without her waking.” As he was the father of two, he was quite adept at doing this.
“Yeah, she’s been kept locked in a room alone for a few days. She’s going to be traumatized enough. We don’t need to add to it,” Sherman agreed.
At the front window, the tip of the camera was lifted to just over the window frame at the gap in the middle of the curtains. Lambchop slowly rotated it, sweeping the view from right to left. Nearby, Mother manned the small monitor that showed him the interior of the house.
“Back a hair,” Mother whispered to Lambchop. “Yes there. Stop.” He scrutinized the display. Standing in an archway that led to what looked to be a hallway was Stella Adams. He was sure it was her. “Got target Adams in the room. Now continue to the right.”
There were no windows along the left side of the house but the window on the back at the left corner of the house had blinds that were closed, all but one on the bottom right corner that was broken and hanging just enough that the camera showed the interior of the room. Jackson switched it to night vision and then raised the camera head in front of the opening created from the broken blind. He swiveled it slowly, his eyes focused on the screen of the small monitor.
He made out the unmistakable outline of a small dark-haired body in a bed. His or her face was covered with a blanket. There was no way to be sure it was Lilly. He swung the camera to take a good look at the room. Rae had said Lilly had a purple jacket. There was a child sized jacket, and a small backpack tossed across the foot of the bed. With the night vision mode on, he couldn’t make out colors. He’d have to make the determination if it was her coat when he was in the room.
“I’ve got a dark-haired child sleeping in the back left bedroom. Door is closed. I’m going to enter and try to confirm its Lilly before I extract her,” he whispered into his comms.
“Just extract, repeat, just take the child. We have target Adams in the front room. Notify when you’re clear,” Lambchop broadcast.
“Roger,” Jackson acknowledged. He examined the window and pushed up on the bottom section of it. It was locked. But it was an old-style lock, one swivel mechanism in the center of the window. He attached a suction cup circular cutting tool near the lock. It was a quick and quiet device to cut a hole in the window so he could slip his hand in and unlock the window. From there, he could lift the bottom pane.
On the right side of the house, Sloan and Sherman checked each of the two rooms, another bedroom that was empty, and a bathroom. A small rectangular window ran across the top of the shower. Their gooseneck camera caught Blake Henning across the room taking a piss in the toilet. They reported his location and activity through comms to the others.
Lambchop wished Jackson already had Lilly out. “Undertaker, cover the back door. No one gets past you. Birdman, report back to me and mother in the front. You’ll go in with us when we breach.”
“Roger that, Lambchop,” Sloan acknowledged. Sherman headed back around the side of the house towards the front.
“Going into the bedroom now,” Jackson transmitted after he’d cut the hole, unlocked the window, and slid the bottom pane of glass up.
He crawled through the window, pushing the blinds gently and quietly into the room as he rounded the window sill. He dropped soundlessly onto the carpeted floor feet first. Then he crept over to the bed. First, with a dim penlight flashlight in his hand, he examined the small purple jacket and fully packed and zipped backpack with the Disney Princesses on it. This had to be Lilly.
He put the coat and jacket on a table beside the window. He noticed a Disney Princess throw blanket covered the little girl in the bed. He wrapped it around her as he scooped her up. A small stuffed animal fell to the floor as he stepped from the bed. He retrieved it. At the window, he pulled the blinds aside. The movement startled the little girl awake.
“Shh, Lilly, I’m a friend of Miss Reina. We’re here to get you and your mommy away from that bad man. Please stay quiet.”
In the moonlight coming through the window, he saw her eyes go wide, but she nodded and dropped her face back against his shoulder. He grabbed her backpack and coat and climbed back out the window. Only when both feet were back on the ground did he transmit that he had her out and was proceeding to the car with her.
There was a second woman in the living room with Stella Adams. No one else was seen by any of the men but they couldn’t get a look inside the kitchen, where lights were also on but there were no gaps in the window coverings to see in.
The camera they had to view in the room showed Blake Henning re-enter the room and take a seat on the couch. He was repacking a duffel bag. “Okay, we go in fast, standard formation,” Lambchop transmitted once Jackson had transmitted that he was back at the car. “I’ll kick in the door. We announce ourselves as federal law enforcement and each take one.”
“You wearing your body armor?” Tommy ‘Louisa’ Flores, Bravo Team’s lead who was on in Ops, asked.
“Affirm, Louisa,” Lambchop replied. “And carrying sidearms only. Okay, on me,” Lambchop said. He set the camera onto the ground and then crept up to the front door. Mother was right behind him, his hand on Lambchop’s shoulder. Sherman was behind him.
As a matter of habit, Lambchop tried the door, surprised to find it unlocked. He immediately opened it and threw it wide, rushing in, his weapon leading the way. “Federal Law Enforcement! Hands up and don’t move!”
“Get ‘em up!” Mother echoed entering the room and going straight for Henning who had just hopped up from the couch.
“Freeze! Get your hands up!” Sherman yelled at Stella Adams who bolted into the hallway. She didn’t stop. He took off after her.
Henning ran towards Mother, banking on the fact that he was law enforcement so he wouldn’t shoot. He dove at Mother, intending to tackle him but Mother, a highly trained Marine Raider, deflected his tackle and helped him faceplant into the hard wood floor faster. Then he was on him, his knee pressing down hard on the center of his back.
The second woman was the only one of the three who froze and raised her hands as instructed. Lambchop holstered his weapon and was just beginning to secure her hands in zip ties when the door on the far wall flew open. A man wielding a shotgun stepped into the room.
“Gun! Get down,” Lambchop yelled. He pushed the woman to the floor and covered her with his own body as he drew his weapon and the shotgun was fired.
Sherman caught up with Stella Adams at the door to the bedroom Lilly had been in. He body checked her into the wall. “She’s not there. We got her out,” he told Stella.
Then the loud bang from the shotgun got everyone’s attention. The wall behind where Lambchop stood before dropping to the ground was now peppered with buckshot. When Mother had dropped to his belly, his grip on Henning was loosened. Henning sprung up and grabbed the man with the shotgun, who’d come up from the basement, and used his body as a shield. He pressed the barrel of a pistol into his neck.
“Drop the guns or I shoot,” he threatened.
Both Mother and Lambchop stood, their weapons trained on Henning. “Not happening, Henning. It’s over. Drop it!” Lambchop instructed. The other woman ran from the room and into the hallway.
Sherman and Stella could hear all that transpired in the living room. “Keep Lilly safe,” Stella said.
Then the other woman hit Sherman on the head with a pistol she produced from an ankle holster. Sherman collapsed to the floor. She handed the weapon to Stella. Stella grabbed her backpack from the hallway, slipped it on, and then pressed the gun under the other woman’s chin. They stepped back into the living room together.
“We’re walking out of here,” Henning said.
“Not happening,” Lambchop again said. His gaze darted to the hallway. He knew that something had happened to Sherman. “Undertaker, make entry. The Birdman is down.”
Just then, Henning and Adams, shifted position, threw the two others right at Mother and Lambchop, who gladly propelled themselves to crash right into the two law men. Henning and Adams darted into the stairwell, closing, locking and bolting the door shut.
The two men pushed the willing human shields off of themselves and ran to the door, finding it securely locked. The two human shields bolted out of the front door.
“Lambchop!” Mother alerted seeing them escape.
“Fuck!” Lambchop exclaimed. “This door is massively reinforced.” He knew they couldn’t go after those two, cover the outside escape windows, and cover the door. “Undertaker, did you find the Birdman?”
“Affirm, he was struck on the head. Is out cold.”
“Drag him here into the front room to treat him so you can cover this basement door,” Lambchop ordered.
“I have alerted the local LEOs,” Flores transmitted. “They’re coming without lights and sirens, are aware of activity by ATF.”
“Thank you, Louisa,” Lambchop replied. Even with the backup he was sure at least two of the four would get away. He’d do all he could to be sure it wasn’t four out of four.
As soon as Sloan appeared in the archway, Lambchop and Mother ran out the front door. They split and circled in opposite directions around the house. Neither window well had been disturbed. The basement was locked up tight. They held their vigils by each window well until the local LEOs arrived, six of them. By this time, Sherman was conscious. He had a hell of a bump on his head but swore he felt fine. Lambchop ordered him to wait in the car with Jackson and the little girl.
As soon as the backup arrived, Lambchop, Mother, and Sloan broke through the door in the front room. It had stairs that led down to the basement. Lambchop led the way down the well-lit stairs to the equally well-lit basement. “The house is surrounded! It’s over. We’re coming down and we will fire if we are fired upon,” Lambchop warned.
At the bottom of the stairs, the three men thrust themselves out into the open basement, each training their weapon in a different direction. No one was there. There were several work tables and computers set up with various other pieces of equipment. They ignored the tables for now.
On the north wall was a closed door. They advanced on it. Lambchop yelled his warning at it. A split second later, he kicked it. The door jamb splintered, and the door banged open. The men rushed inside the room to find a hole made in the foundation and a tunnel being eaten up by the darkness.
“Holy shit,” Mother remarked.
“Who the fuck has a tunnel in their basement?” Sloan asked.
“Someone guilty of something they may need to escape from,” Lambchop replied. “Sloan, yell up to the officers and tell them what we found and then follow Mother and me down this tunnel. I’m sure those two are long gone but we need to see where this comes out.”
They followed the tunnel. It ended about eighty yards in, with a ladder leading up. Climbing the ladder, they emerged from the storage shed at the back of the property, the door to the back open. The sides of the shed were shrouded with bushes so the getaway was hidden from the view from the house. They looked around but as expected, saw no one. All they did find was the unmistakable outline of a vehicle that had no snow in it that had been parked behind the shed. Its tire tracks led away down the street that ran behind the target house in the direction they’d driven when fleeing.
They ran back to the house and descended the stairs to the basement. The local LEOs were already inspecting the equipment on the work tables. “Looks like a facility to process stolen IDs and credit cards and to create false identities,” one of the officers said. “We’ve already called it in. A detective is en route.”
The Shepherd Security Team looked over the equipment as well. “Fucking hell. Now we don’t even know what names they’re going by or what they’re driving,” Sloan said.
Lambchop had Sherman return to the house to give his statement. Then he returned to the vehicle that Jackson waited in with Lilly. They didn’t mention Jackson or Lilly to the local police. They drove back to the hotel. The three other members of the team waited for the detective and did a quick turnover of the scene when he arrived.