Hondo and Deacon stood in the mobile command center with their arms crossed. One of the tech guys managed to get into the camera feed of the three known entry points into the building and was trying to find other angles.
Behind the two, Captain Cortez and another tech guy were listening in to the phone call that Ben smartly arranged. Hondo's phone was hooked up to have the call recorded and continuously tracked.
"No matter the outcome, I think I will have to fight my urge to beat him down to patrol when this is all over," Cortez whispered to herself when she heard Ben offer himself as a target, suggesting that the hostage pretends to twist her ankle so that he would carry her and act as a human shield for the woman. It took a lot of her will power to not scream in annoyance.
"Anything new?" Hicks asked as he entered the oversized van. He had just slapped a weatherman and felt good about it - but his small smile vanished instantly when he saw the deep frown everyone had inside the van.
"Ben confirmed eight hostages and seven criminals after he was moved to a backroom we think is this big showroom. We think they are making a play for the safe in the basement. RHD got back to me after we looked into the hostage near Ben, Sara Ellis. She works for Sterling Bosch, one of the biggest art and luxury goods insurance companies on the planet. Insurance investigator turned branch manager, Ellis recently left the new branch in London to take over the much bigger, established branch here in LA. She was in Diamond Emporium today to deliver the 'Baron's Blood Diamond' for an exhibit in two days. The thirty-five carat stone is insured at $135 million," Cortez summarized with furrowed brows. "Nothing suggests that she is on it, she purposefully worked to increase security for the move and storage of the diamond tremendously."
"If she did increase security, why is Ben alone in there against seven criminals?" Hicks asked with a deep frown.
Hondo pointed at a screen and spoke up, "Four security guards are at the garage entrance to the building. Knocked out. We were able to rewind the recording from here. They used an unknown gas to do it. My team is on its way to get those guards out of there and into medical care."
"Why aren't you and Deacon with them?" Hicks asked.
"The hostage takers said no cops in a one-block radius. We used the radio to tell them that we're getting the guards out, but we reasoned we couldn't go in full force with a huge team. Tan, Alonso, Street, Luca, and Weiss' rookie for the day, Officer Cole, are on their way with Betty. Luca is driving, one officer for every guard. We didn't want to give them a reason to shoot a hostage," Hondo explained without looking away from the monitors.
Hicks nodded, the reasoning seemed solid. He still asked, "Why Cole?"
"She volunteered, sir," Hondo answered curtly. "Her motives were clear, her request was sound. I agreed since Ben must obviously see something in her if he's taking her under his wing. She promised she would be fine dragging a guard toward the car."
Hicks didn't comment, but it was still fine even if he knew the truth. Ben had told his commander that he thought she was a good cop worth saving from her past mistakes. Her volunteering for something that put herself in harm's way seemed to be in line with Ben's initial assessment.
And if these criminals turned out to be from the Derian crime family and Erin worked with them, who better to stop her than Hondo's team?
"So we have an idea what they're after. Anybody know how they are planning to get it out?"
Deacon pointed at a map on the large screen at the far end of the narrow command vehicle and explained, "All entry and exit points are monitored. Since it doesn't make sense and we heard no demands about helicopters, cars or planes, we got Mumford's team to look into the old building plans with City Management for anything we're missing. Maybe there's a service tunnel that isn't shown here because they closed it for renovations or something. Wouldn't be the first."
"Normally we would have Weiss do it. Research like this is exactly what he excels at, but that insufferable fool got himself taken hostage," Cortez argued in a quiet voice, deeply upset about the danger her officer put himself in.
"We'll tear him a new one after we get him out. But first we'll have to make sure to bring him back to his family in one piece," Hicks added, equal parts proud of Ben's selfless act and exasperated at his recklessness.
He was a father to a young girl now. Hicks would have to make him see how much damage his early passing could do to her.
"*So, no security?*" They suddenly heard Ben ask over Hondo's phone.
"*I saw a gas grenade behind me before they dragged me here and made me smell a wet rag. My fuzzy mind immediately cleared,*" Sara answered. She confirmed what the team inside the mobile command unit already knew.
"*Damn. One gas grenade and they conveniently got all of them? Maybe you should look into hiring different contractors, no offense.*"
A few of the officers in the van smiled when they heard Ben joke about what they all at least subconsciously thought.
"*Yeah, five people going down without a fight is actually kind of weak. I still wonder why they waited until after the expensive pieces were put into the safe, though,*" Sara agreed with a small laugh.
Her comment immediately stopped all smiles inside the van.
One of the guards was missing.
Was he in on it? Was he taken somewhere?
-----
As the SWAT team in the mobile command center was running down the list of employees sent to guard Sara Ellis on this day, Luca parked the tank car in the lowest floor of the parking garage a few levels below Diamond Emporium.
"Keep your side-pieces but don't take your rifles. Hondo doesn't want to escalate. This is a simple extraction. We don't want to fight, just rescue," Luca reminded.
Everybody in the back nodded, Tan next to the driver opened his door and walked around the car. After the tall asian SWAT member opened the door at the back, he looked at the only officer in a patrol uniform.
She looked pale.
"You okay there?" Tan asked as he extended a hand for her to grab as she exited the car.
She didn't take it but got down without a stumble anyway.
Still pale, still looking more nervous than anybody should, she firmly answered, "I'm fine. I can do this. My T.O. walked into a hostage situation unarmed. I can't disappoint by not even being able to drag a wounded civilian back to safety."
"You could and I know Ben wouldn't think any less of you. We wouldn't either. Not every cop is made for situations like this and that's okay. We don't know what will happen or what kind of weapons we will have to face," Chris reassured as she got out her gas mask and took off her helmet.
Everybody else was doing the same, except for rookie officer Erin Cole. She didn't have a helmet she needed to take off and merely put on the gas mask she was given. Ben had reminded her to take a helmet from his trunk, but she forgot.
Wordlessly, Tan stepped forward and tested if Erin had adjusted the mask correctly for a sealed fit. She did, so he merely nodded and turned to the others. They gave their signals that they were ready, so they began marching to the guards with another signal from Tan.
-----
"Mumford mailed us a scan of a subway project from the late 80s. There was talk that the D line would be extended towards 7th Street at the time, but LA got the A Line light rail instead going above ground," Deacon read out after they got confirmation that the guards were out of the garage and in medical care.
It had been an hour since they heard Ben and Sara just do small talk. Nobody had come for the two. Nobody on the side of the criminals gave any reaction to the guards they rescued, either.
"How much of it was constructed?" Hicks asked. The mayor was on scene and thankfully could be told to wait outside instead of giving his opinion where it wasn't needed.
"Below 751 7th Street? The full station," Deacon explained with a deep frown.
"Full station? Why haven't I heard of it?" Hicks inquired in disbelief.
"Even the rails were laid all the way to Wilshire Blvd," Deacon clarified, equally surprised.
"What? How is that even possible!?" Cortez wondered, but quickly shook her head.
Waste of taxpayer money was not the concern right now. She needed to suss out the most likely form of escape from these criminals.
"*Alright, get moving. We're taking the two of you with us for a short while. No worries, we won't keep you until the end. Just long enough to know we're gone in the wind,*" a deep but slightly erratic voice ordered. "*And you won't need your radio for that. So we'll just leave that here.*"
All eyes turned to Ben's phone.
"*No need to touch me, I can get up,*" Ben chided.
They heard the sound of someone getting hit in the stomach.
"*If I wanted to hear you being a smart ass, I would ask and not order,*" the man with the erratic voice angrily spat.
"*You got it boss,*" Ben said between labored breaths.
"*Man, you're just asking to get slapped,*" another unknown voice jeered and they heard rustling. It seemed that man had taken the police radio from Ben's uniform.
"*Shut up,*" the one who hit Ben cursed. "*Are the entrances all rigged?*"
"*Yes.*"
"*Then we'll do the disappearing act. We got what we came for.*"
"Everybody, you heard the man. Entrances rigged, we can't breach. Who knows what kind of explosives they got. Tell Reggie from bomb squad to get the dogs and robots ready," Hicks ordered sternly inside the command center. "Hondo, check on your team to see if they are ready to go after the hostage extraction. Cortez, contact Mumford to learn where they'd likely surface after running along this subway tunnel."
Everybody quickly got to working as Deacon and Hondo ran outside to find their team.
Just as they left, they heard a woman cry out in pain through the phone and Ben offering to carry her.
-----
"This is very embarrassing," Sara whispered into Ben's ear.
His plan had worked, the cute insurance company manager had successfully pretended to hurt her foot - it was convincing with her high heels on. Ben was allowed to carry her so that nobody from the heist team would have to do it.
But Ben's hands were still tied behind his back.
"I did not think this through," the detective admitted with a wry smile.
"The least you can do when we get out is buy me a drink," Sara quipped with a helpless smile. "The last guy I was this intimate with had to take me on a couple of dates first."
With his hand tied at the small of his back and Sara having to wrap her legs around Ben from behind so that she wouldn't strangle him with her own hands tied around his front, her intimate area was pressed right into his hands.
It wasn't comfortable or arousing for either of them, the angle and placement of their anatomy simply too awkward and forced, but it was embarrassing regardless.
"At least you're not flashing anybody. I can tell," Ben coaxed mischievously in the hopes of highlighting a positive aspect. The fingertips of one of his cuffed hands were slightly brushing the fabric of her dress instead of her bare ass with every step.
"That's good," Sara agreed with another helpless smile.
None of the robbers seemed to be in the mood to celebrate their apparent success or even just threaten them to stop talking. Now, two more people had joined them that Ben hadn't seen before. The safe crackers. Ben had managed to casually add them to the count for the people on the other end of his hidden phone.
The group was wordlessly led to the basement, past the vault entrance that Ben noted was open, and told to climb down a hole.
Ben gave the lockpick, who seemed to be the leader, and the one who punched him in the stomach a bland look, but he jumped down anyway. It was a very uncomfortable landing with Sara still on his back. But the fall wasn't unreasonable, mere five feet.
Crouching down, one of the robbers behind them was teasing Sara about her state of undress now that Ben had to lean forward to fit.
The tunnel was just around four, maybe four and a half feet from floor to ceiling. It took a while and a lot of burning in his leg muscles as he crouched forward with the extra weight on his back to get out of it.
"What the fuck is this?" Ben whispered after stretching upright.
He was the first to exit the short and small tunnel.
What he saw was a subway train station he had never seen before. And there was a train parked there.
Ben stepped aside to allow the gunmen to exit and to make sure his body was shielding Sara properly.
"Welcome, to my legacy," the lockpick introduced with a theatrical flourish.
"Holy shit, looks like bigfoot giving birth," one of the criminals suddenly cut in with a snicker. Everybody turned to see the largest of the heist members peeling out of the small service tunnel. His frame was so large compared to it, he almost looked like part of a cartoon animation as he stepped out into the open.
"That was unpleasant," the giant stated with a deadpan.
"Come now. We only got power for another ten, fifteen minutes," the lockpick ordered when everybody was done laughing at the tall fella.
To Ben's surprise, the group made their way inside the short, parked one-cabin-train. The leader went to the front, got out a key from his pockets and started the old and dusty subway train. The start was anything but smooth, the motor impossibly loud.
After two tries, the motor ran without any concerning sounds. The shaking stopped. The train slowly began to move forward.
"When was the last time this train moved?" Ben asked, mostly to tell the people on the other side of the phone what was happening.
But his efforts were in vain. The moment the old electric motor was started, the call had dropped unknown to him.
Looking at the only man standing because nobody bothered helping Sara down from Ben's back, the tall man answered, "Leader did a test drive some time ago."
Technically, that was the truth because the last time this train was driving was over twenty years ago. So it didn't truly answer Ben's question.
'So the leader was definitely involved in the construction of his train station, the tunnel or the installation of the rails,' Ben confirmed when he heard the nothing-answer from the tall criminal.
After a loud ten minute drive where nobody talked over the screeching of the iron wheels over the decades-unused rails, the train came to an abrupt stop in a dark stretch of tunnel. The rusty breaks almost made Ben fall over but he managed to catch him and the woman on his back.
"Everybody get off, this is our endstation," the leader jokingly ordered over the crackling intercom. The man had been telling bad jokes through it the entire ride. He seemed to be in a great mood with his getaway seemingly assured.
The heist members pried open one of the doors and jumped down one by one. A few of them started up some flashlights. A small distance away was a tall iron gate that led down a tunnel barely wide and tall enough for two people to walk side by side - a far cry from the comparably huge subway tunnel but at least twice the size of the service tunnel they crawled out of before getting on the train.
"Eh, eh, eh," the leader suddenly mouthed after jumping off and turning back to Ben to wag his finger at the detective. "This is where we leave you two love birds. No worries, the tunnel won't collapse on you. Just wait here for a while, I'm sure your friends will eventually figure out where you are. If not, I suggest you walk back and try your luck back at the Jewelry District."
With derisive laughs, the group walked to the gated tunnel. The leader opened it, closed it when the group was through with their haul, and audibly locked it from the other side.
"What now, Ben?" Sara asked.
"We're not waiting, we're running back now," Ben decided.
Moments later, an embarrassed Sara was hanging from Ben's back as she held up his phone in front of his face to light the way and try to call his friends.
She had insisted that she could walk after Ben jumped down from the train, but Sara twisted her ankle for real this time. High heels and the fist-sized rocks lining train tracks didn't mix well in near total darkness. Even Ben had to mind his steps and he had his tactical SWAT boots on.
"No signal," Ben sighed in frustration when another call didn't make it through.
"Listen, I'm really sorry," Sara once more whispered.
"It's all good, no need to worry. I'm hardly at a disadvantage here with a lovely woman like you having to hug me so close," Ben waved away figuratively.
They didn't have anything to cut Ben's zip ties, so his hands were still tied behind his back.
"Still, you must be getting tired," Sara mumbled.
"You barely weigh more than my daughter," Ben complimented with a laugh. "I could do this all day."
"A daughter? Tell me about her!" Sara excitedly argued, happy to hear something to distract her and them from this morbid situation they found themselves in.
"She hasn't been in my life for long, but her name's Anna and she's the sweetest, most excitable little ray of sunshine," Ben began and started talking about his little girl.
When he was done, Sara remained quiet for a while but suddenly brought her hands hanging in front of Ben to his chest and pinched him hard.
"Hey," Ben shouted as he flinched and almost stumbled on the rocks he was walking on. "What was that for!?"
"You exchange your life for hostages when you have such a lovely young daughter waiting for you at home? Are you mad!?" Sara indignantly cursed. She was so mad, she pinched him again.
"Hey!"
"You are mad! I should be the one shielding you! You are such a buffoon!"
This time, Ben's rebuttal was less convincing compared to when he was getting pinched as he just dejectedly muttered, "Okay, I get it…"
Seeing that she drove home her point, Sara pinched him again just because she was still mad after thinking about being in the girl's position.
"Okay, you need to stop," Ben defended with a pout. "Distract yourself. Open the gallery app and take a look or something."
As the detective kept walking on the rough, rocky path along the tracks, Sara did as she was told. Since it was his work phone, Ben had plenty of pictures of crime scenes on it and just one picture of his daughter.
It was deliberate in case a criminal ever got his hands on the phone, so the detective directed the woman hanging on his back to open his encrypted cloud storage. It had hundreds of pictures of his little girl.
The two of them playing in his pool. Her messily eating sweets with a huge grin. Her as Phil's cute assistant for a magic show. Her in the park. Her on her mom's phone playing 'business'.
And then it hit Ben. If they could access the cloud, that meant they were in a part where they had a signal.
"Quick, try calling Captain Cortez," Ben ordered as he stood still.
It took one ring and his boss answered.
"*Ben! Where are you? Your call to Hondo dropped when you entered that train down in the 7th Street subway station!*"
"Captain, Sara Ellis and I are somewhere along the track, walking back to the 7th Street station. We drove for 7 minutes at roughly 20 to 25mph before stopping at what looked like a flood gate, barring entry to a four by eight foot tunnel. The crew left us there," Ben hurriedly explained.
"*That's a negative about walking back to 7th Street!*" Cortez countered. "*Reggie found plastic explosives rigged to motion sensors and timers at every entrance. We can't risk you going back only to be blown up.*"
Sara stiffened when she heard the chilling revelation.
"Damn. Is Reggie working on getting the other hostages out?"
"*Yes. We are in the process of cutting the glass pane on the fourth floor. Bomb squad will work their way down from there.*"
"That's good news," Ben answered, breathing out a sigh in relief.
"*Hondo found their exit point with your description. They are engaging,*" Cortez suddenly explained.
In no time at all, Ben and Sara heard faint but increasingly echoing gunshots.
"Quick, turn off the light," Ben instructed after looking for a hiding place for the two in case the burglars would manage to flee in their direction.
He hurried toward a service door, but with Sara's help they found it locked. The doorway still allowed them to be hidden from view for those just running past this point.
"Captain. Until we hear a Code 4, Sara and I will remain hidden at a service door marked D8/05 in case the suspects flee in our direction," Ben explained in a quiet voice. "The door is locked, possibly bricked up from the other side."
"*Understood. I'll mute this line until we know they are all in custody or there's another emergency,*" Cortez acknowledged.
"Lock the screen, we don't want them to see us," Ben whispered as the two were standing inside the frame. Sara's back was pressed against the steel door, she started shivering.
"I'm cold," Sara whispered in a quiet complaint. "Can you put me down? Maybe I can find a way to get rid of your cuffs?"
"Bear with it for a short moment," Ben answered quietly. "Either we'll hear a 'Code 4' soon or we will have to dodge a few of them. I'm not abandoning you after coming so far. You still can't run here."
Sara accepted that, but still pressed her head against his and tightened her hug to seek some warmth.
Cortez didn't give an update even two minutes later. There were still some shots echoing through the long subway tunnel.
Ben strained his hearing and eventually tensed. Sara noticed, but when she opened her mouth, the detective turned to the side and shushed her as quietly as he could.
"We're getting out at service door D8/04," they heard someone shout. It was the lockpicking leader. "I got a backup escape kit waiting there."
Ben identified three footsteps as the flickering flashlights of at least two sources came closer.
He closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath.
The criminals drew closer and closer and eventually Sara's shivering stopped. She had closed her eyes, too.
Two people had passed them, but the third shone his flashlight at Ben at the very last moment.
"Boss! The cop and that hottie!" The man shouted excitedly.
Ben didn't hesitate, he stepped forward and kicked the man right in the knee. The hand that was about to bring up the man's pistol dropped down to clutch his broken leg. Ben followed up and heavily headbutted the man right in the nose before the criminal managed to fall into a heap on the ground.
The detective managed to spot the metallic flicker of the dropped pistol and kicked it away as hard as he could, followed by a kick to the criminal's head.
Sara felt herself being used as a counterweight to bring more oomph into the kicks of the cuffed police officer. And she exclaimed in surprise when she suddenly felt herself swing around.
Ben turned so that he would be the one to get shot by those other two criminals.
But Sara was even more surprised because there weren't two gunmen aiming their weapons at them.
Instead, the tall criminal had the leader in a headlock, disarmed.
A sickening crack suddenly rang through the tunnel, the tall guy broke the leader's neck.
Ben's breath stilled, his concentration fully on the mountain of a man a few meters away from him.
"Neagley said you could take care of yourself," the tallest heist member praised as he tore off his mask. "You handled yourself well."
"Neagley?" Ben inquired cautiously.
"Master Sergeant Frances Neagley. You met her on her first case as a corporate PI while you were undercover with the White Front."
"And who are you?"
"Hang up that call and I'll answer."
"Throw over a knife so that Sara here can cut us free first," Ben countered.
The tall man didn't hesitate to comply and placed a knife on a wire running horizontal at the wall and stepping back.
Ben walked over, Sara managed to cut her zip tie, dropped behind Ben and cut his makeshift cuffs, too.
The detective took the phone, told Cortez to wait a second after reassuring her, muted the call, and turned back to the tall man.
"Reacher. I used to be Neagley's boss in the 110th Special Investigations Unit not too long ago," the retired army vet explained.
"Thank you, Mister Reacher," Sara said, her gaze lingering on the dead man at the buff man's feet.
"Just… Reacher," the investigator corrected with an uncomfortable frown.
"So, Reacher. What was your role in all this?"
The vet pointed at the dead lockpick and said, "Carter Ortiz. He was one of our first closed cases when I got to lead the 110. Stole ammunition and resold it to enemies. I was dismissed half a year ago and looked him up as my last action on the job. Ortiz was released prematurely due to a clerical error, killed two prison guards on the way out for good measure, and dropped off of the face of the earth."
"And you just found him and joined a heist?"
"I was told that I am a very good tracker," Reacher replied, not explaining further why he was part of the heist.
Ben closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and walked over to the gun dropped by the criminal he kicked to the ground.
Reacher didn't even flinch.
"To right a wrong," Ben mumbled after holstering the weapon and turning back to Reacher. "You made me mute the call. Got another message for me?"
"No."
"Alright, so you don't want to be part of the investigation?"
"I'd like to keep a low profile. I joined this team just to eventually dismantle them. I made them invite you in with the hopes that you would be smart enough to relay more information from the inside. You didn't disappoint with that phone hidden in your vest," Reacher explained. He continued, "It shouldn't surprise me after learning your full name, Ben Weiss. Neagley told me you were a protector."
The vet gave Sara a look, reminding all people present that Ben protected her as best as he could with his limited options.
"Alright," Ben said with a nod and looked at Sara. "Clear your pockets to show the lovely insurance employee here you didn't steal anything, punch me in the face and get going."
"Punch you?" Reacher asked.
"I can't just let you go based on your story. I'm a good judge of character, but that doesn't hold up in a disciplinary hearing. I exchanged myself for hostages. I'm going to sit in a disciplinary hearing."
The retired officer of the Military Police showed he didn't have any loot on him, patted down the corpse of Ortiz, the now-dead leader of the heist, and got out a keychain.
He opened the service door that Ben and Sara had hidden behind, but it wouldn't budge despite the key fitting.
"Bricked from behind, I suppose," Reacher mumbled after a body check with his impressive frame didn't make a dent in the steel door.
"Well, this is D8/05, not D8/04," Ben commented and helped Sara walk along toward service door four.
"Why did Ortiz trust you to join the heist?" Sara asked with furrowed brows from the stinging pain in her ankle and from not fully understanding this Reacher guy.
Seeing her almost tumble to the ground again despite hanging one of her arms over his shoulder, Ben picked her up in a princess carry after giving her his phone to hold again.
"He had no other option. I took out three of his other guys and he was low on manpower," Reacher answered.
"You take them out but not Ortiz?"
Reacher looked back, was amused for a small moment that the woman was back in Ben's arms, and pointed out, "They heavily outgunned me and I was out of time. Ortiz was constantly surrounded by his coolies."
"*Ben, Hondo and Deacon are on their way to you. If you took down the missing heist members, give me a sign,*" Cortez suddenly demanded over the phone.
Ben nodded at Sara and she navigated the phone to unmute the call with one hand.
"We're Code 4 down here. The leader is dead. His name is Carter Ortiz, military prison escapee and I can only assume wanted fugitive. One more gunman is down and disarmed at service door D8/05. The other heist member escaped after helping us with Ortiz. He had covertly helped us back in the store and he cooperated. I think he was either part of this heist against his will or to take down Ortiz from the start. He showed Sara and I that he didn't take any of the loot and bolted after incapacitating me."
Reacher gave Ben a deep look, nodded, and gestured for the officer to put down Sara. When he did, Reacher punched Ben in the stomach and walked away alone. It was clear that Ben and Sara were now safe down here.
The detective immediately dropped to the floor in pain. He stayed there for a while until he took a deep breath and cursed - thinking that he could have just said the earlier gut punch came from Reacher.
As clever as he thought himself to be, sometimes the detective was really dumb.
Sara had the phone muted after Captain Cortez thanked Ben and already promised him a thorough dressing down. Ben called out to Reacher who was slowly walking off, "How did Ortiz trust you if you lead the investigation against him?"
"Neagley and Dixon did the arrest and presented the case to the court, Ortiz never saw me before yesterday," Reacher answered, already almost invisible in the shadows of the dark tunnel. "When you get to his home, look for the hidden basement in his shed."
And then he was gone, his frame barely fitting through the rusted service door four.
"Let's meet my friends from SWAT, I guess."