Downtown Los Angeles, California
Approaching Prestige National Bank
1140 hours
...
"Dispatch. Dispatch. This is Alpha-One-One-Niner... What's the twenty on those EMTs?"
"One-One-Niner, be advised: ambulances southbound from Pasadena and Burbank are closing in on your position. Special response unit is one minute out."
"Dispatch, please send everyone down here! Eleven-Nine-Nine emergency! We have sixteen officers down... First assault ineffective! Say again: first assault attempt was not effective! Two-Eleven still in progress at Prestige National!
"Ten-Four. Elevated Tac-Alert has been raised; re-routing all available units to the Downtown-area..."
...
The police radio told Ethan what he was about to head into. There was no time to cope with the jetlag.
Everyone in the armored van felt it as well. There was a deafening silence inside, save for the chatter in the airwaves and the creaking of ammo boxes stowed overhead. Sirens continued to blare as the van raced to the scene; the team had only landed at Los Angeles International about twenty minutes ago. Meghan, their resident intelligence and comms expert, wasted no time coordinating with the responders from beside the driver's seat. In the passenger compartment, Seamus was reviewing operational notes on his little clipboard. Miles and Jordan were beside him, inspecting their sidearms. To Ethan's right, Emma was testing the wheels of her little robot using her wrist-mounted datapad. The rest of the team, the so-called 'special response unit' as far as the cops were concerned, was composed of Marius Streicher, Alex Senaviev, Yumiko Imagawa, and Masaru Enatsu.
The job was straightforward: capture Leonard Fausse, America's Most Wanted and a member of the White Masks, who was just discovered to be hiding out in Los Angeles. Rainbow Six was gracious enough to charter a G-650 business jet and an LAPD van for the team, which was a bit odd. That kind of pull with the White House only meant that today's mission was a critical one. A couple of hours into the flight, however, the situation abruptly changed: an armed bank robbery had broken out in Downtown LA, with about a dozen heavily-armed, masked gunmen. Complete pandemonium, hostages were taken, no word on casualties. Everything felt too convenient to be a coincidence; the team had a lingering suspicion that Fausse was involved in the heist.
*tires screeching*
With luck, the next few minutes would confirm it. Not long after their journey started in LAX, the van had finally ground to a halt. Instinct told Ethan to peer into the viewing ports of the vehicle, to which he saw a collection of cops and police cars scattered about. The entire site was blocked off from crowds of onlookers, as helicopters buzzed from above. There were a few news crews as well.
"We're here.", Meghan announced, knocking on the van's metal shell to rouse any sleepers.
Seamus turned to his team. "Oi, masks down, eyes up."
It was time for everyone to put on their game faces. All of them donned an assortment of balaclavas, black fatigues, tactical vests, and helmets, in contrast to the colorful costumes they 'wore' in the VR simulation earlier today. Anyone who did not know the team by heart would find it difficult to discern who's who. Marius, the furthest to Ethan's right, opened the door on the compartment with a resounding clank of the lever. The enclosed space was immediately bathed in a bright, midday light, as the Operators gathered their things and stepped outside of the van, one by one.
Oh boy...
Ethan held his breath as he looked around, standing in the middle of the street, and the tinted goggles shielding his eyes from the sun. It was a surreal scene, straight out of a cinema. Dozens of cops have completely surrounded the Bank, whose walls were riddled with bullet holes. Curiously, most of the building's security shutters were deployed, denying entry and clear lines of sight through the windows. It was probably an automated defense mechanism, or an attempt by the robbers to buy time for themselves. Officers of all stripes crouched behind their vehicles, guns raised and pointed at the building's doors and windows. Empty brass casings and pieces of shattered glass littered the asphalt, as the unmistakable tang of fresh cordite filled the air. Sirens were everywhere.
YOU ARE READING
Freedom Day
Action(Originally published in FF.net) After recovering from a botched mission in the Middle East, a new recruit joins Team Rainbow eager for a chance at redemption. But the attack on Bartlett proved that his failure had more consequences than he thought...
