The Other Detective - Book 3 (Riverdale Season 3)

The Raid - Part 1

It was dark as the Serpents made their way through the halls of Riverdale High.

"Perimeter's clear," Jughead's voice came over the radio. "Moving in." They crept quietly through the halls, Jughead and Sweet Pea bringing up the front with the other teenage Serpents following. Jughead pointed to the classroom doors and in teams of two, the Serpents swept the individual rooms. Sweet Pea, Fangs, Jughead, and Aminity walked into the student lounge as the others made their way through the halls. Sweet Pea reached the exit to the lounge first and walked out, Jughead coming up behind him. He looked both ways before noticing the red laser on the back of Sweet Pea's head. "Sweet Pea, duck!" Jughead yelled.

"Bang, bang!" Mr. Keller said, the lights turning back on. "You're both dead." Jughead ran his hand through his hair as Sweet Pea sighed. "Always check your six, Deputies."

"It's a deadly mistake," FP said, coming down the hall.

"This is just a simulation, but you don't get any do-overs on the street," Keller continued.

"Which makes it all the more obvious that you boys, and girl, aren't ready for them," FP said. "You wanna stop the rogue Gargoyles? Work as a team. Till you've proven you can do that, I'm not letting you out there. Do it again," FP ordered as Jughead sighed as the Serpents walked back to their starting places with Keller and FP moving to hide. "Let's go, Jug." Sweet Pea gave Jughead a quick pat on the back as they returned to their starting place. The lights went off again as a signal to start.

"Dad said that we had to work as a team," Aminity said as Jughead started to move forward, grabbing his arm.

"We are. We're moving together," he said.

"Well, we've already run this six times with that strategy. I don't think it's working."

"You have a better idea?" Sweet Pea asked.

"Yeah. Split up into teams of two or three. We can cover more ground," Aminity proposed.

"One problem there," Fangs spoke up. "Your dad said we had to work as a team."

"We still are. Each team will have a radio. If we all go in different directions, it'll be easier to catch them. We can communicate with each other and we'll never be alone because we'll always have a partner with us. Dad said when we started that time was also important. Splitting up saves us time and it's more efficient."

"You don't know that," Jughead stated.

"No, but we know what we're doing isn't working. We need to try something new."

"I'm with Aminity," Fangs said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"What do we have to lose?" Sweet Pea agreed.

Jughead sighed. "Fine. We'll do it your way this time. Fangs, you're with me. Sweet Pea, go with Aminity. The rest of you," Jughead said, turning around to the other Serpents, "pair up and take a radio." The Serpents nodded as Jughead handed out the radios to each team, giving each of them a direction. "Be careful," Jughead said, holding a radio out to Sweet Pea.

"Relax, Jones, it's just practice," Sweet Pea dismissed him as he took the radio. Jughead nodded to Fangs, heading off in their own direction. Sweet Pea nodded to Aminity who nodded back as they started moving quietly through the school. They walked through the halls, batons in their hands, looking through the doors of the classrooms before moving on. Sweet Pea was about to turn a corner, but Aminity caught him by pulling on the shoulder of his jacket. He turned to her with an annoyed look. His gaze softened as he saw what she was pointing at. There was a shadow of a person in the glass. They could tell by the outline of the gun that it was either Keller or FP.