Unexpected 3: Alonso, Gone

Chapter 14: New boss

"Tell me this isn't as bad as it looks!" pleaded Street, as the judge asked them to step out of his chambers for a minute.

"It is!" Alex wiped his forehead as if he had a gallon of sweat dropping down, when in fact his skin was dryer than the desert. "It's a disaster to be exact!"

HQ, 8:00am

After their previous mission went nowhere, SWAT found their investigation at an impasse, and to make matters worse, the office of Superintendent Henderson requested Hicks be excused straight away. They called him earlier in the morning to meet, but the details were kept private. Hicks was only allowed to say that FBI and Homeland Security were requesting his presence immediately. Meanwhile, Luca was left in charge of the station. Luca asked for how long, but Hicks had no answer.

"For as long as they need me there. Chief said it was a very delicate matter and that they weren't sure when I could get back. I'm leaving you in charge. Please get those sons of b*tches off the streets!" he finished with an angry frown.

"Roger that, sir!" Luca said, as he knew he was in trouble. With Chris out, and Street in court, SWAT was very short staffed. It will take double the amount of effort from everyone!

Two men dressed in black suits came to retrieve the commanding officer. They informed him that he was to be placed under heavy protection. Hicks stood just a couple of feet from 20 Squad who had received each their own assignments focused on getting the Neo Emancipators in custody. The SWAT officers paid close attention, and were surprised at the orders Hicks was receiving. When he asked why the protection, the men just said they weren't allowed to elaborate. It seemed very strange to every officer there, but Hicks wasn't going to make a fuss about it. Instead he nodded and exited with the suited men.

"Luca, we got something!" called Whitlock. Everyone moved towards him.

Whitlock began, "I've been on this since yesterday trying to get more information about the interceptor that the assailants were using to infiltrate the network without leaving a trace. It seemed like an immense amount of work for just wanting to clear out a beach or a lake. Something was going on behind the scenes, but I couldn't put my finger on it....until I started looking at the broader picture! These guys are being protected by a wider range of signals. It's not the work of a single guy, it's more of a network within a network. The Neo Emancipators are piggy back riding on a bigger monster that could potentially create a disaster, and it would be considered an attack by invisible source, impossible to trace."

"What are you saying, Whit?" Luca asked confused

"This thing could be much, much bigger than just these tree huggers."

The guys just looked at each other, lost and concerned. Luca was about to say something when his phone rang in his pocket. Street.

"Alright. Hondo, Deacon go through any records you can find on all five suspects, see if you can dig up any more names of this so called network. Tan go through their social media." He paused, " Get Rocker to go through inventory... we're about to go to war! I'm gonna take this!" he gave the orders as he excused himself to answer the call in the empty hallway.

"What's up, bro? We could really use you here!"

"Luca, I don't know man. I'm just-dang!-So pissed." Street was so angry some of the words came out almost yelling. He began ranting about all sorts of things, all at once. Incomprehensible!

"Hey! Woah! Woah" Luca tried to call him down, "What happened?"

"We're about to strike out!" Street snapped, defeated

"Aww, man. Sorry, Street. The judge didn't go for it?"

"Probably not. The state attorney practically threw me under the bus! Then judge was like: how could SWAT have an officer like you? As if I was a total disgrace!" he was so frustrated, even through the phone it was pretty easy to sense, "I'm freaking out. That kid will be forever lost in the system. I feel so alone right now, bro, like... no joke."