Unexpected 4: Digital Purge

Chapter 7: Jess

"So...are we trapped here for the next two days or what? Can we at least know anything about our families?" Asked Tan worried as 20 squad were taken through empty corridors towards the second floor.

Before leaving their room, which only had four white walls and four bunk beds, each SWAT officer was given a small envelop. In it one laminated map of the premises, with areas that were undisclosed. These people were serious about privacy!The place was enormous, composed of three main wings. The middle section was mostly conference rooms, two small control rooms and reception area. The left wing hosted a serious of rooms, not identified. The right wing contained the most rooms, but only two were identified: a big armory room and control room. Down in the basement there were a small pool and gym area, plus a panic room, a bunker and two undisclosed spaces. 

The team looked exhausted, as none really had much rest or breakfast. Anxiety and stress was the order of the day! They were provided two hours to have breakfast, take a shower, rest and get ready. At quarter past 10am, three officers came to request their presence in the main conference room.

The entire operation was lead by FBI Lieutenant Alexander 'Alex' Kruger, a very imposing old man who liked things organized and neat. Alex, as he asked to be called, was to meet with the SWAT officers in the middle wing, conference room 6, second floor. The FBI was running the operation and SWAT had to cooperate. No ifs, buts, or maybes about it!

All six officers made it to the designated room, where they met once again with Hicks and Whitlock. They were assigned one of the office chairs, distributed into three lines, each with a bottle of water. The agents accompanied the lieutenant in the front, right behind a big rectangular table. All three were wearing a FBI shirt, black jeans and running shoes, all equipped with primary and secondary weapon. Both doors to the room were closed tight, as two Marshalls stepped outside. The tall bald headed leader took charge.

 "Good morning officers, we have heard very highly of you." he said as he laid down a handful of folders in the long rectangular table in the front. The audience just frowned and nodded, clearly annoyed and worried.

"As you know I'm Alex, I run the show here, and these are my partners Frank, Joe and Max." The man said as he gestured to his companions. The red haired one took a step forward when mentioning the first name, the only one wearing glasses stepped up during second call  and the youngest one out of the three responded to Max. Deacon was surprised they seem to not care about formalities at all.

"We have a lot of information to discuss today, so let's skip the chit chat and dive right in." Alex continued, "First, you are under strict surveillance and guidance for the next two days or until the end of this operation. Don't worry, we have a full team working around the clock to speed things up and get you back with your families...but until then, you will have no access to any electronic device. You will wear only the clothing authorized by us and eat the food that we prepare." He paused as he noticed the frowns and sad expressions. "Alright, straight up? This the closest to federal prison you'll get without actually being indicted of a crime. But-" the officers exchanged looks-"We'll do everything in our power to keep you safe. We have to. You guys -and girl!- have given us our first and only true lead! We've been in this fortress for months, with nothing except scraps -intel we've had to scavenge around! So, you're our gold mine and we're not letting a soul touch or come near any one of you!"

"SWAT finally broke the perfect game these guys were throwing!" added Frank. He clicked a button in the control panel to the far left side of the room, and two big panels separated, as four big screens were revealed underneath. Each reflected a different image: one had maps of LA, one had pictures of each of the 20 squad members plus their commander and the IT guy, one had screenshots of several of their conversations and one had surveillance pictures of daily routines of each officer sitting down.