Chapter 14 Dreams of Forever #3
"We have actionable intelligence indicating multiple trafficking victims are being held at three linked locations."
The room became still.
"Women."
"Children."
"Possibly entire families."
Tan leaned forward.
Hayes continued.
"These suspects are believed to be armed."
"Organized."
"Professionally coordinated."
"We're working with federal agencies and neighboring units."
"Primary assault is scheduled for forty-eight hours from now."
Saturday.
Tan looked at the operational timeline.
The same day he planned to propose.
Professional instinct immediately replaced personal disappointment.
People were trapped.
Everything else could wait.
He texted Terrence afterward.
Tan: Proposal may need to move. Operation Saturday.
Terrence replied almost immediately.
Dad: Understood. Amari will still be there when you're done. Come home safe.
Tan stared at the message.
Then sent another.
Tan: Don't tell anyone details.
Dad: I know how police work works, son.
Tan smiled.
Thirty seconds later—
Dad: Your mother is asking why I'm texting you.
Tan laughed.
Friday night, Tan went to Amari's house.
He hadn't decided whether to tell her plans had changed because she didn't know there were plans.
She noticed his mood immediately.
"Work?"
"Yeah."
"Bad?"
"Potentially."
She didn't ask for details.
That was one of the things he loved most about her.
She understood boundaries.
Tan sat beside her on the couch.
"I may have to cancel Saturday."
Amari looked disappointed for half a second.
Then nodded.
"Okay."
"You're not mad?"
"Why would I be mad?"
"We had plans."
"You have work."
"Still."
Amari took his hand.
"T, your job isn't some surprise I discovered after two years."
He smiled.
"I know."
"Is it dangerous?"
Tan hesitated.
"Potentially."
Her fingers tightened around his.
"Then I am mad."
Tan looked over.
"At me?"
"No."
"At the potential."
He smiled.
Amari rested her head against his shoulder.
"Just come back."
Tan kissed her hair.
"I will."
She looked up.
"You can't promise that."
He remembered Ella saying the same thing years earlier.
Tan nodded.
"Then I'll do everything I can."
"Better answer."
They sat quietly.
Tan wanted to tell her about the ring.
Wanted to ask right there.
No park.
No family.
No perfect timing.
Just her.
But something told him to wait.
Not because perfection mattered.
Because the moment he'd chosen mattered.
He kissed her slowly.
Amari curled into him.
When they parted, she smiled.
"What was that for?"
"Nothing."
"Liar."
Tan laughed.
"Go to sleep."
"This is my house."
"Then let me go to sleep."
She pinched his side.
Tan caught her hand.
They laughed.
Ordinary.
Easy.
Safe.
He didn't know how precious the ordinariness would soon become.
Saturday morning began before four.
Tan stood inside the tactical staging area dressed in full gear.
His engagement ring remained locked at home.
Captain Hayes reviewed final assignments.
Three locations.
Simultaneous entry.
Potential hostages.
Armed suspects.
Trafficking victims.
Tan's team was assigned to the largest warehouse.
Golden Meridian Imports.
Satellite images showed multiple interior compartments.
Shipping containers.
Office rooms.
Possible hidden basement access.
Federal intelligence suggested at least twenty victims.
Maybe more.
Tan listened carefully.
Then a photograph appeared on the briefing screen.
One of the suspects.
Asian male.
Mid-forties.
Known only by the alias Daniel Song.
Tan stared.
Something about the man's face felt vaguely familiar.
Not recognition.
Something else.
He couldn't place it.
Another image.
A warehouse manager.
Another.
Shipping executive.
Then a business logo.
A gold dragon encircling a green stone.
Tan's breath caught.
For one fraction of a second, the room disappeared.
The ring.
His childhood memory.
The gold dragon wrapped around the dark green stone.
His grandfather's associates.
Mr. Huang's fear.
Tan stared at the logo.
Captain Hayes noticed.
"David?"
Tan looked up.
"You good?"
"Yes."
He forced his focus back.
This wasn't the time.
Not now.
Victims first.
Answers later.
Tan tightened the straps on his vest.
Terrence's voice returned in memory.
Don't lose the part of you that sees people.
Tan looked toward his team.
"Let's bring them home."
At 5:43 a.m., the operation began.
Vehicles moved through the industrial district without lights.
The sky remained dark.
Tan's team approached the warehouse.
Signals.
Positions.
Breached entry.
The first seconds exploded into noise.
Commands.
Movement.
Shouting.
One suspect surrendered immediately.
Another ran.
A third fired from behind stacked crates.
Tan moved with the team.
Return fire.
Cover.
Advance.
They pushed deeper.
Then they heard it.
Crying.
Children.
"Left side!"
Tan signaled.
A locked interior door.
Breached.
Inside—
Families.
Terrified.
Crowded together.
Women clutching children.
Men with bruised faces.
Several people were bound.
Tan's chest tightened.
"Police!"
Some flinched.
Others cried.
One little boy stood frozen near the wall.
Asian.
Maybe five years old.
Barefoot.
Holding a dirty stuffed tiger against his chest.
Tan stopped.
For one heartbeat, he saw himself.
Five years old.
Panda.
Hungry.
Terrified.
Alone.
The child looked toward him.
Tan immediately lowered his weapon and crouched.
"Hey."
The boy didn't move.
"It's okay."
Behind Tan, officers continued clearing rooms.
The boy stared.
Tan held out one hand.
"My name is Tan."
Something in the child's expression shifted.
Tan swallowed past the unexpected emotion.
"I'm here to get you out."
Slowly, the little boy took his hand.
Tan closed his fingers around it.
And somewhere deep inside, the past folded into the present.
Terrence had once stopped for him.
Now Tan was stopping for someone else.
"Come on," he whispered.
"I got you."
He led the child toward safety.
Neither Tan nor anyone else in that warehouse knew cameras from an adjacent federal evidence team captured the entire rescue.
The images would later spread across local news.
Then the national media.
An Asian SWAT officer carrying children from a trafficking warehouse.
Families embracing him.
Victims praising his calm.
Officers describing his leadership.
The story would become bigger than Tan wanted.
His name would appear everywhere.
Officer Tan Lee David.
And when reporters eventually asked about the father who inspired him to become a police officer, Tan would stand proudly beside Terrence.
That interview would travel farther than any of them imagined.
Into a luxury penthouse across the city.
Onto a massive television screen.
Before a man who hadn't heard the name Tan Lee spoken aloud in more than twenty years.
Jin Lee would see the jade pendant beneath Tan's open collar.
See the face of the little brother he'd once hidden from federal agents.
See Terrence David standing beside him like a father.
And understand immediately what Tan's survival meant.
But first—
Tan had to get everyone out alive.
And the warehouse still held secrets.