Tyger, Tyger-Chapter 6
Title: Tyger, Tyger
Author: mm_thibault
Rating: NC-17 Let's just assume language and sexxoring, as well as adult situations and violence.
Spoilers: Season 3 with drabbles of other seasons, too
Summary: Marshall meets an interesting woman who changes up his whole life, and who will lead him to find the love of his life, or at least, act on it.
Pairing: Mary/Marshall
Shoutout: To Bujyo for her endless help and putting up with Keith Richards
Ch1 Ch2 Ch3
Ch4 Ch5
Chapter 6-Long Cool Woman
“Saturday night I was downtown
Working for the FBI
Sitting in a nest of bad men
Whiskey bottles piling high
Bootlegging boozer on the west side
Full of people who are doing wrong
Just about to call up the DA man
When I heard this woman singing a song
A pair of moneybags made me open my eyes
My temperature started to rise
She was a long cool woman in a black dress
Just a 5'9" beautiful 'n' tall
Just one look I was a bad mess
'Cause that long cool woman had it all…”-The Hollies
Marshall got to the briefing at the precinct before either Mary or Lily, intent on grilling Bobby. There was no way that they were going in there with anything less than 100% accurate intelligence. Nothing left to chance, not after the year Mary’d had. He couldn’t cope with that again, and feared she, herself would be irretrievably damaged both physically and mentally.
Lily was the wildcard for him. She was capable, more than capable, smart, and fast on her feet, but was she ready for an op this big so soon after coming back from an Officer Involved Shooting? Hell, in her case, it was an Officer Involved Massacre, though he’d never say that to her face. That wasn’t something that you just bounced back from, unless you had some serious sociopathic tendencies, which he knew was not the case for Lily. He could see the shadows in her eyes as she recounted what had happened to bring her to ABQ, and he wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but he also saw no good in adding to it.
He walked into the bullpen where Bobby D was finishing up some last minute details. He still looked as pressed and perfect as he had earlier that day. It was a sickness, really. “Bobby, you got a minute?”
Bobby looked up briefly to acknowledge him and then went right back on writing on his form. “Only just.”
Marshall grabbed a chair from a nearby desk and pulled it over. “Is this really a good idea?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“This plan to introduce two of the most bellicose women the Marshal’s Service has to offer into an already volatile situation.” He couldn’t have made it any plainer if he tried.
Bobby’s pen stilled and he looked up from his paperwork. “You know what? Let’s take this outside.” He stood, prompting Marshall to his feet as well and walked out to the parking lot.
Marshall started off in the direction of his truck, since he’d left his gear in there in his haste to converse with Bobby. “Do you have an answer for me? Do you honestly think this is a good idea?”
Bobby rocked back on his heels and stared out into the setting sun. “I’m not sure this is a good idea, honestly, but it’s the best one we have right now. Are you really going to be the one to tell Mary ‘no’? Can you do that? I know for damn sure that none of the rest of us will if you don’t. So it’s up to you, if you really want to pull the plug, then you tell her.”
Marshall hung his ballistic vest over his arm and pulled out his work boots with the steel toes. Other than an overarching feeling of trepidation and foreboding, he had no concrete reason to pull them out of this. He reached into the truck and pulled out his shotgun and shut the door. “I suppose not.”
“Good, because here they come.” Bobby nodded to the roar coming down the street.
Marshall knew what Mary’s Mustang sounded like, like the purr of a big cat, but the other sound was unfamiliar and just as imposing. The ‘Stang was followed into the lot by a low-slung bright yellow, brand spanking new Camaro with black racing stripes. The women parked next to each other and eyed each other’s cars enviously as they emerged.
Mary took off her sunglasses and looked the car over closely. “Nice ride on Uncle Sam’s dime.”
TL shrugged. “It’s a rental, on my own dime. Loving the ‘Stang. ’65 or 66?”
Mary looked impressed. “’65 actually. Good eye.”
“Thank you.” TL shut the door and hit the keyfob to lock it before starting towards the building.
“Sweet Jesus.” Bobby breathed the supplication as the women walked up to them, Marshall could only concur, because blinking had gone right out the window.
Mary’s hair was down, flowing gold down an extremely tight black tank top and equally form-fitting black leather pants that laced down the sides and dusty biker boots. Every curve was perfect and Marshall found himself completely mesmerized by the sight. Lily had opted for something a bit more showy, her hair up in a bun held together by chopsticks with some artfully escaping tendrils, a black leather vest that was shrink-wrapped to her frame so tightly, she had to open up the top two buttons of the vest just to let her breasts breathe and the bottom two to show off her belly ring. Her jeans were practically painted on and looked to be old enough to vote at the very least. She too, had opted for boots, platform and high-heeled with chains. A long silver chain around her neck dangled low and drew a man’s eye straight to her bosom. The image of the two women together was like Marshall’s own private porn film.
“Jesus, Pervis, close your mouth,” Mary snarled as she walked by towards the station house.
TL laughed and followed her. “Y’all act like you’ve never seen a lady before.”
Bobby was the picture of innocence. “Marshall here hasn’t blinked since you two got out of your cars.”
“Thanks, man. Appreciate the assist,” Marshall muttered as Mary turned around at the comment with fire in her eyes.
She stalked back over to him and got right in his face, close enough so that only he could hear. “Were you going to get your eyeballs back yourself or should I have TL fish them out of her tits? I mean, it’s 98 degrees out here, who wears a leather vest and nothing else, really?”
“A woman who looks almost as fine as you do.” Bobby snickered and kept walking towards the building, leaving Marshall trapped with a Mary on the verge of being irate.
Marshall gave Bobby the evil eye over her head, but he didn’t see as he caught up to TL who was busy parting the sea of gathering officers like Moses and almost incited a riot as they fought over getting the door for her.
“At least someone appreciates the things I have to put up with.” Mary turned on her heel and stomped off towards the building, parting the sea of officers by meanness alone.
Marshall cast a quick glance at the darkening heavens for strength. If they lived through the night, they were probably going to kill him.
***
TL listened as Mary snarked and growled at the tech wiring her up for about five minutes before she intervened. She figured if the poor, dumb creature couldn’t figure out that Mary was not going to find his occasional indiscreet gropes amusing or arousing, the least she could do is save the department the paperwork of an on-premises evisceration.
He reached up to feel on Mary’s ass, in the name of ‘threading the transmitter’ and TL wandered over and pulled up a chair next to the tech. “Hey, sweetpea?” She knew her accent was extra heavy, but it made for a very pliable Yankee male when necessary.
His hand halted right above Mary’s ass as she looked over her shoulder at them. “Y-y-yes ma’am?”
“The next time you decide to, ahem, handle the ‘merchandise’,” her tone became all steel, “you’d best be prepared to buy.”
The young man in the knockoff Hollister shirt and jeans looked both taken aback and suddenly in fear for his safety. “Ma’am?”
TL stood up and walked back to where she’d been waiting her turn across the room. “I could let her kill you, but that’s a lot of damn paperwork. For both of us.” She sat down and crossed her long legs, fingering her silver chain. “Now hurry on up there, sugar, before I change my mind, and do your level best to keep your hands to yourself.”
She could feel Mary giving her the hairy eyeball but ignored it in favor of checking her email on her phone. TL looked up just in time to see Mary put the boy in a wrist lock and yank him up from his chair. “Mary-”
“I’m gonna put my hands on him and break everything I touch.” She twisted his wrist even harder.
TL watched for a moment, and then went back to her email. When Mary twisted hard enough to elicit something that sounded like a squeaked out plea, TL raised an eyebrow. “My daddy had a saying, Mary.” She looked up at her with a vicious smile. “Y’wanna hear it?”
Mary looked skeptical, but said, “Sure. I could always use a dose of some southern-fried wisdom.”
TL got up slowly, pocketed her cell phone, and sauntered over to them, ignoring the writhing audio technician on the floor in front of Mary. “My daddy said that some folks simply can’t be told. Do you s’pose that’s true, Mary?”
She could see the light of understanding dawn in Mary’s eyes. “I don’t know. It’s possible.”
“I mean, I heard you speak when you told him the first five times to keep it professional and keep his hands off your ass.” She reached over and took the offending wrist from Mary, maintaining the lock. “And I know I heard myself speak. Did you hear me, Mary?”
Mary took the chair he’d been sitting in and spun it around to straddle it in front of him. “I did. So if I heard it, and she heard it, what’s your excuse, numbnuts?”
TL held the lock for a moment longer, then twisted it one more time before releasing him to fall into a simpering heap on the floor. “G’on, now. Git! Bring back somebody competent, in fact bring two.” They both laughed a lot as he scampered out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
Mary looked her up and down. “You’re not so bad.”
“Back atcha.” TL grinned and sat back down at the table with her phone, putting her boots up and crossing them at the ankle. She felt a weight in her pocket and sat back up. “Here, I brought this for you.”
Mary walked over carefully and took the tiny knife from TL. It was designed to hide behind a belt and be used like a bayonet in a fistfight, the handle hooked between the middle and ring fingers. The case wasn’t new and TL had made sure the knife was damn sharp. “Thank you?”
TL sighed and shook her head. “C’mere.” She then proceeded to hook it behind Mary’s belt buckle against her belly. “It’s my ‘just in case I have to cut a bitch’ insurance. Not my first line of defense and not my last. I figured since we’re effectively unarmed tonight-”
“Which is unbelievably stupid!” Mary opinion had been quite vociferous in the briefing but to no avail.
“And not our call,” TL reminded her in a tone that completely agreed with her. “I figure what they don’t know won’t hurt them. Besides, a bar is full of surprises and weapons of opportunity.”
Mary laughed outright. “What the hell would a princess like you know about bar fights?”
It was hard, but TL didn’t rise to the bait of the ‘princess’ remark. Instead she opted for distraction and a little intelligence-gathering of her own. “So your partner…” she let the sentence hang as she really gave thought to what she was about to do. Part of her wanted to be selfish and keep him, but she knew this was the best thing for everyone.
“What about him?” Mary sounded wary as hell, not that she blamed her. In her position, being territorial was her right.
“He seeing anybody?”
Mary’s eyes widened at the question but the door burst open and the man of the moment walked in looking very disapproving. “Really? Both of you?”
TL was affronted. “What? He put his hands all over her as like he was sculpting the Venus di Milo. Was I not supposed to say anything? She told him to stop, I told him to stop. We didn’t permanently damage anything, and I didn’t let her kill him. It sounds kinda win-win.”
“He’s being treated for tendon damage and needs X-rays.”
TL crossed her arms and looked away from him across the room. “Mmm. He could have needed a priest.”
Mary stomped over to Marshall and put her finger in his chest. “Just because they’ve never seen real tits up close and personal that weren’t on some rental DVD is no goddamn reason to be molested. He should feel grateful I didn’t shoot him.”
Marshall’s face was a mask of controlled rage, at them or the technician, TL had no idea. It took him a moment to speak, and he only did so after rolling his head around his neck. “I will find two techs and threaten to hang, draw and quarter them, and they will be here shortly. Do you two think, in your infinite graces, that you could see fit to not drive them off in a fit of screaming panic?”
TL and Mary looked at each other for a moment and both shrugged. “I suppose so, provided they don’t get too fresh,” TL answered. “Unless, you’d like to circumvent all that and just wire us up yourself?”
Marshall did an admirable job of hiding the brief flash of unadulterated terror as he looked between the two women, but TL knew if she saw it, Mary did, too. His voice was soft and deceptively calm as he walked out the door, “They’ll be right in.”
TL and Mary both laughed again and TL marveled at their similarities. Whatever Mary had gone through in life had left her hard and jaded, but not wantonly unkind. Her own life had left her distrustful of most people because of her money, but not unwilling to take a chance. It wasn’t the worst basis for a friendship, ever.
“So why’d you want to know about Doofus?” Mary had laser-like focus when she wanted it, evidently.
The two techs crept in warily and both women stood in front of them as they worked their magic. TL had her back to Mary with her arms in the air when she answered. “I just wondered. He’s hot and very smart.”
Mary snorted. “He’s a geek and gangly as all hell.”
TL smiled because she knew it wouldn’t be seen. “He’s very funny and thoughtful.”
“He steals my French fries and his jokes are lame.”
This was fun, this call and response. TL turned and faced her companion. “He’s obviously well read and loves movies.”
Mary pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “He goes off on endless tangents about random things that have nothing to do with the situation at hand and has a distinct Star Wars fetish that I think is kinda creepy.”
TL decided right then and there to go for broke. “So, you think I should ask him out?” Mary’s mouth dropped open and it was all TL could do to keep it together.
Bobby stuck his head in the room as TL put her arms down. “Let’s roll, ladies.”
TL and Mary both took a deep breath and went through their permission rituals, shaking out the kinks and trepidations like a boxer before a match. TL got to the door first and held it as Mary walked through. “Allons-y, chère, adventure, she awaits.”
***
Marshall watched through the binoculars as Mary and Lily strutted their way into the bar, past men who most likely closer to their next tattoo than they were their next bath. They’d been fine in their last soundcheck and he climbed in the van to put some ears on them, because otherwise he’d be out there watching for them the whole night. It was nerve-racking to not have Mary’s back right now, to trust that she and TL would look out for each other, and not kill each other, or find a reason between them to kill him.
“Ye Gods,” he sighed aloud as he flounced into the chair next to Bobby and pulled on a headset. He was put in charge of Mary’s audio and Bobby was listening to Lily.
Bobby laughed quietly as he adjusted the volume and checked the recording equipment. “They’ll be fine. I don’t know anyone who can handle a bar fight like Mary.”
“It’s not just Mary in there.” The sound of ambient bar noise was hard to get used to, but he found he could hear both women above and beyond all that. Lily ordered a shot of Wild Turkey for her and Mary and they were discussing the bar. Marshall wrote as Mary spoke, about fifty people, thereabouts, bartender with a hand-cannon sticking out of the back of his jeans. Pool tables in the far northwest corner, jukebox in the far northeast. So far nothing terribly interesting.
Bobby sat back in his chair and looked him over speculatively, tugging at the knot in his tie to loosen it. “Oh yes, that golden-skinned goddess, Inspector Thibodaux. So, so fine. I really don’t know how you can work with women like those two around.”
Marshall was starting to wonder the same thing, and it was only the first day. “You don’t see it after awhile.” Yeah, it was a lie, but what was he supposed to say? He’d slept with one and was madly in love with the other? He was, apparently, crazy, but not entirely lacking in self-preservation.
“Tell me anything.” Bobby hummed his disbelief. “So if you had to choose one, which would it be?”
It was 68 degrees in the van courtesy of the air conditioner, and yet Marshall felt a bead of sweat roll down his spine. “Ch-choose one? Choose one for what?”
Bobby looked distinctly disappointed in him. “How long has it been since you’ve been laid?”
Marshall quickly did the math in his head, eh, about 16 hours, give or take, but that was an answer designed to end in catastrophe. “It hasn’t been that long. You want to know which one I would choose to…”
“Have the hottest, wildest, and dirtiest night of your life. Up against the door, so loud the cops have to be called sex. Yes, that is what I’m asking.”
Marshall was thankful for the headphones, because his ears were on fire. If the van had had any more light, Bobby would have seen the fire of blush that had broken out all over him and left him light headed. He opted for diversion, “Are we bonding?”
Bobby pursed his lips, and looked not dissuaded in the slightest. “Answer the question.”
***
“How good’s your pool game?” TL nodded towards the table directly behind her. So far, other than the bouncer informing them that he went on break in an hour if they both wanted a good time, not a whole lot had happened in the way of investigating.
Mary took a swig of her beer. She switched to that after their initial shot of whiskey for luck. “I’m surprised you don’t call it billiards, or something equally snooty.”
TL studied the woman’s profile, the lines around her eyes, the set of her mouth. It spoke of a hard life before now, maybe even including now. The question was a poke at the life she’d had, that her parents had provided her, and she wasn’t ashamed. As much as the hothead in her wanted to respond, she walked away from it mentally in favor of the case. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Mary set her bottle on the bar and turned around to face the room. “I’d lay odds a damn sight better than yours.”
Oh, how she did love a challenge. TL grabbed her bourbon and branch from the bar and stood up straight. “Alright then, chère. Let’s do this.”
Mary got a look on her face that was all business, and the business was ass-whoopin’. “After you, princess.”
TL nodded and started over towards the pool table, nodding as she passed Mary. “Thankya kindly,” her southern accent dripping sweet venom. Mary had been a little geeked up since TL had stated her intent to have Marshall for her own. Goodness only knows the kind of evil she would be if she knew that TL had already been there and done that. In the meantime, a game of pool would have to suffice.
***
“Oh, this is bad.” Marshall took off his headset and looked at Bobby.
Bobby looked confused as Marshall checked his weapon and slid it into his holster. “What is?”
“Are you hearing the same thing I am? A pool challenge? The last time Mary got beaten at pool she almost broke the guy’s leg while breaking the cue over it.”
Bobby’s eyes rounded at the image and the implications. “This is bad.”
“Bad like the Persians at Thermopylae, bad.” Marshall put his headset back on and rubbed the back of his neck trying to think. He could hope that Lily was bad at pool, but somehow, he suspected that was not the case, given her track record. “We can’t go in. They made it through the door with no problems and this op has a decent chance of working.”
Bobby twirled the pen that he’d been taking notes with between his fingers. “Guess we just have to hope that they don’t kill each other.”
“Or that someone has the good sense to film it if they do.”
Bobby nodded, enthusiastically. “A lot to be said for a good chick fight.”
“Heh.” Marshall laughed in spite of himself. “That would be a good chick fight.”
***
TL reached into the wallet in her back pocket, she’d bought a new one that chained to her belt-loops, and laid a twenty on the table. A small crowd had gathered around as they’d trash talked each other and Mary racked the balls. At a dollar a pop, it was a rip-off, but the payoff was perfect. Now they were interacting with the group instead of watching from the sidelines. The target was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t unexpected, considering his recent elusiveness.
With the balls lined up and ready to go, Mary selected a cue and rolled it on the table to test it for warping. Then she, too, took a wallet out of her back pocket. Old dark brown leather, almost white in places, TL was willing to bet it was at least as old as she was, if not older. Mary grinned. “Only twenty? You broke this week or something?”
“Mais non, chère. You wound me.” She slapped another twenty down on the table and Mary did the same. “Who breaks?”
They flipped a coin for it and someone put on some music on the juke box. God, if she wasn’t in the middle of an op, TL would have felt normal. This was the life her mother despised and she reveled in. She came from privilege and posh circumstances, but deep down, she was a whiskey-drinking pool hall kind of girl, something her family would never understand. Mary was not bad as an opponent, and they kept up pretty close, shot for shot down to the eight ball, on which TL scratched, sinking the cue in the far corner. “Good game. Double or nothing?”
Mary was busy collecting the pot when she stilled. “You want to give me more of your money? How could I possibly refuse?”
***
“God, I wish I could see this,” Bobby said as he drank his second coffee of the night.
Marshall could only grunt, lost in a fantasy of Mary in her perfect leather pants bent over the table, looking over her shoulder at him with that come hither smile… only to have her morph into Lily and her tall boots, with the chain running from her back pocket to her belt loop and the back of her vest creeping up, revealing the bottom of the tattoo he knew ran up her spine. Good God, doomed to his own personal Gulag, left to toil in eternal sexual frustration with one, or incurring her wrath while sleeping with the other.
***
TL watched Mary circle the table and caught movement on the far stairwell across the room. It wasn’t well lit, and she wouldn’t have noticed through the haze of smoke except for the reflection off his glasses as he walked in. He looked exactly the way he had in his work up, maybe a little cleaner, maybe. Bald, glasses as a concession to age and myopia, with the requisite earrings, tattoos, and leather vest, Ian Lowell was a very large player in the meth and human trafficking game in Albuquerque. He was the whole reason for the trip and there he was in front them, for all intents and purposes.
“You gonna take the shot or what, princess?” Mary demanded. By now the crowd around them was three rows thick and side bets were flying hot and heavy.
TL shook off the shock and got back into her zone. This was an op and that kind of stutter in attention would get people hurt, or worse. “Yeah, I’m good. Just thought I saw my ex walk in, I didn’t feel like seeing him tonight.”
***
Bobby and Marshall looked at their respective radios and then at each other. “Get a team here, now.” All of Marshall’s initial misgivings were coming to fruition and he was outside and not in there backing Mary up. If he’d had the time, he would have been nauseated, as it was; his mouth was too dry to consider anything else.
Bobby nodded because he was already on the phone. “I need available SWAT and task force units to my location now. I’ll brief them when they get here.”
***
She had to hand it to Mary, she was a consummate professional, and super sharp on the uptake. After she mentioned her ex, they played on, but TL could see her scanning the crowd, keeping an eye on him in relation to them. There wasn’t a whole lot that they could discuss with the crowd looming over them. Her first inclination was to tank the game and see what was upstairs, but that was kind of obvious.
When Mary scratched on an easy shot on the eight ball, the whole room lamented. TL let her keep her cash, since it wasn’t really a good idea to gamble on the government’s time. “Better luck next time, chère.”
Mary laughed darkly. “May be sooner than you think.” Then she disappeared into the crowd.
TL looked around for a moment before reaching into her pocket for her cell. No dice, not a bar to be found. “Dammit. Boys, suit up, I don’t see this going well.”
***
Marshall listened to Mary’s phone go straight to voicemail for the eleventh time, right before he had to stand in front of a small army of heavily armored and armed men. It brought to his mind Themistocles of Athens or Henry V on St Crispin’s day, but he could think of no great words. No stirring speeches, just the words of the job, a job, a life, that would have no meaning in this world for him if Mary didn’t come out in one piece. “There are two floors, four rooms on the bottom and at least two known rooms upstairs. About 50 subjects downstairs, unknown number upstairs. We have to assume that everyone in there is armed, and there are two unarmed female UCs, in there tonight, in addition to the rest of the officers already in place. We need to get them out of there before this goes sideways.
“We have radio contact with them, but only one way for some reason, meaning they can’t hear us but we can still hear them. We’ve been also unable to contact them by phone.”
“Sounds like you have very limited intel, are we sure this is a good idea?” A lone voice from the back of the room echoed Marshall’s earlier, and distinctly prophetic question.
“It’s the only idea we have, we have to get them out of there, by any means necessary.”
***
TL caught up with Mary at the bar, conversing with the bartender, looking for all the world like the biggest party girl ever. “There you are sugar, I’ve been looking all over for you. Would you excuse us for a minute please?”
TL bolted the door to the ladies room as soon as they were inside, and turned around to find Mary looking supremely pissed. “We can walk away. Out the door and they can do this without any collateral damage. We do not have to be here.”
Mary laughed. “Oh no, not even close. We have been hunting this guy for weeks. Months even. We are here, we are in place, and we’re going to do it.”
TL could only blink at her fervor. “Whoa. Do you have a mouse in your pocket? Parce que I have not been hunting for anything but a decent Thai joint since I came here three days ago.”
Mary was practically vibrating with irritation. “This guy, he takes young girls in bad situations and sells them to worse situations. He funds his friends’ good times on the backs of addicts and kids whose lives would be better off if their parents opted to hit a drug store prior to their sexual encounters. He needs to go, and we are in a unique position to get that done. You can walk, but I’m here and I’m not leaving.”
TL took a deep breath, and exhaled all her reservations. She could not, in good conscience, leave Mary to do this alone. “Alors, chère ‘tite, what’s the plan?”
“Plan? What makes you think I have a plan?” Mary started to pace away, only to be stymied by the sink in the tiny, two stall room with the hideous wallpaper.
TL looked at the ceiling for strength, guidance, and patience, none of which she had on hand. “Because I’m fresh out and I could use some good news.” TL leaned back against the door and checked her phone again in vain hope. “I’m getting no reception in this place, no bars at all. I can’t call out or I would have had the cavalry in here already. This place is too damn hot, especially now that they know he’s here. We’re gonna be Swiss cheese in fabulous leather attire if we don’t figure something out soon.” It took a brave woman to wear leather pants and look that good in them, TL felt it should be acknowledged, especially in light of what was amounting to a suicide mission.
Mary’s restless stilled all at once and she looked TL in the eye, really, for the first time. “Ok then.”
TL’s bad feelings erupted exponentially at the look of resolute calm on Mary’s face. “’Ok then,’ what? Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire? What are you gonna do?”
Mary politely moved her out of the way and unlocked the door. “I’m gonna go meet him.”
TL pushed the door back closed, and Mary turned on her quickly. “And just how do you intend to do that?” TL asked quietly. She wasn’t trying to incite Mary to action, but she had to know what the lead was in order to follow it, because, ‘til the death, she was here for the duration.
“Easy, spill a drink on him.”
Elle a du cran, certainement.
***
“She’s going to what?!” Marshall could actually feel the vein in his forehead bulging out as he returned to his post in the listening truck and the tech brought him up to speed.
The tech from earlier, now bandaged and splinted, flinched when Marshall yelled. “That’s just what Inspector Shepherd said. I don’t know. The other one, Inspector Theriault, she said she was ‘down for whatever’ and would take up flank.”
Marshall grabbed his vest off the back of the chair behind the tech and stormed off the truck. He suited up as he walked up to where Bobby was corralling the SWAT officers and handing out assignments. “I’m going in with them.” It wasn’t a request.
Bobby shrugged. “Sure, soon as comm comes back up.”
The cool desert night was a distinct contrast to the heat radiating off his skin. It was a combination of insane worry and the knowledge that tonight he was going to have to kill someone, quite possibly his partner for putting him in this position. He smiled tightly as he took Bobby to the side. “What do you mean ‘as soon as the comm comes back up’?”
“It means that the main tower with the repeater on it, was hit by a plane. They are trying to reroute, but in the meantime, we’re sitting tight until they can get the radio system online at the backup site. No longer than five minutes. Our radio contact with Mary and TL are on a different band so we can still hear them, but otherwise, we’re screwed until they get it fixed downtown.”
“Great. That’s just great.”
***
As plans go, this wasn’t the worst thing ever, TL concluded. So far, it was working like a charm. Mary had successfully played the drunken boozehound, effectively stumbling to the bar and getting another drink, which she subsequently dumped all down the back of the target. Effusively apologetic as only the truly inebriated can be, she followed him as he went upstairs to change, most likely trying to curry his favor in exchange for his forgiveness.
Now all she had to do was wait and then follow her in after about five minutes. She hoped that in lieu of cell service, Marshall and Bobby were clear that the cavalry was going to be needed directly, because otherwise, this was going to get messy, quickly. The five minutes passed interminably, and then he returned to the bar with Mary nowhere to be found. “Merde.”
She made her way across the room, beyond the kitchen and to the back stairwell by the restrooms, wishing like hell she had some way to notify the rest of the team more directly, so all she could do is hope they heard Mary, heard her, and were reacting accordingly. The hallway was yellow from the nicotine stains on the plaster walls and light bulbs. The metal handrail had chipping lead paint that had her using the wall to steady her as she made her way up. It was amazing to her that no one noticed her, because it was so narrow that anyone coming down the stairs was going to get tossed over the side if they had a confrontation. So much for her resolution to not kill anyone.
Just off the landing at the top of the stairs was a door. She took her small knife from behind her belt buckle and put it between her middle and ring fingers of her left hand. If it went south, she was not going to be the only one having a really bad day. She grabbed the doorknob, took a deep breath and threw it open, only to find a darkened and empty hallway with a single door on each side. “Lovely.”
At least with screaming or shooting, there was a chance that Mary was involved and ok, but this silence, was bone-chilling. She tried the door on the left and found it locked, so she went to the door on the right, right as it gave way, she heard Mary yell, “It’s a trap!” but she was falling to the floor, hit from behind and her knife had skittered away from her across the room and under a shelf.
***
Marshall was wearing a groove in the dust outside the command post as he paced. Every five minutes, he would walk over to where Bobby was conferring with the SWAT commander and demand an update, only to be told, five more minutes. It was intolerable. He wasn’t so foolhardy as to try and make entry on his own, but god, he wanted to.
A commotion on the truck had all three of them turning around. A tech leaned out, “We lost contact with the UCs.”
“Both of them?” Bobby demanded. The tech nodded fearfully. He looked Marshall in the face and nodded. “We’re going in.”
***
“You had better wake up, TL. What the hell kind of name is that anyway? When you wake up I’m gonna make you tell me. Stan is gonna kill me if I get you killed on your first day. And-“
TL shrugged away from Mary’s hands on her arms, shaking her. “I swear I will tell you whatever you want if you just stop talking. Please, for the love of all that is holy.”
“Ok, then get your ass up, because we have to be gone before he gets back.”
TL took a deep breath and opened her eyes. The pain that she expected was mitigated by the pitch black of the room. She sat up slowly, feeling strange and definitely nauseated, but in one piece. “What the hell hit me?”
“Lowell did. He’d made us as soon as he walked in the room. There was one in here waiting for me and he hit me and they knew you’d come looking if I disappeared.”
“Merde.” TL tried to stand, but then thought better of it. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
“That’s the first French thing I’ve understood all day.”
TL’s phone lit up and then she found the program to make it into a flashlight. At Mary’s shocked expression, she smiled. “There’s an app for that.”
“Is there an app to get this door unlocked or get me a gun? Because I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to shoot him on principle.”
TL stood up and surveyed the room. Metal shelves along the walls, various unmarked boxes, a small desk near the door, it was half storage room and half office. Best thing of all, she found the lamp on the desk. “Let there be light!”
“Great. Now we can see them when they come to shoot us in the head.” Mary walked over to the door and started working on the doorknob. She turned to TL, “Get in that desk and see if there is something I can use to take apart this knob.”
TL began rifling through drawers, knowing that there was probably a shit ton of evidence, but that wasn’t her concern. She handed over a letter opener she found and then began feeling on the hinges. They worked in silence for a moment until they both had to concede that their respective plans were not going well. “Ok, we need a new plan.”
Mary looked at her seriously. “I’m all ears.”
***
Marshall watched the team set up around the bar. Nothing was moving fast enough. Even though his watch told him that only about five minutes had passed, he was envisioning the most godawful things happening to his women. He got in behind the entry team and waited for them to count it off. He had only one objective: find them, and kill whomever had them.
***
“You sure this is gonna work?” Mary took a swig of the half quart of vodka in her hand, and pondered the burning cigarette in the other. They’d found the bottle and several more like it in one of the unmarked boxes, and the smokes and lighter were in the desk.
TL nodded, removed the cigarette dangling from her lips, and tipped her own bottle back once. “Mais oui, on sera parfait.” Since they hadn’t been able to secure their release in the conventional way, they’d had to improvise. They’d bring the fight to him.
***
Getting through the initial throng was damn near impossible. The entry team had gone with standard flashbang grenades and smoke bombs, inciting the closest thing to a stampede that Marshall had seen since he was little. All the while he searched every face he came to, and came up short. He could taste the panic rising up the back of his throat, the longer it took to locate them.
***
“Whatever the hell’s going on down there cannot be good.” Mary and TL both had their ears pressed to the door since the explosions started going off below them. Then they heard footfalls running up the stairs. TL smiled at Mary and nodded as she went over to the desk and killed the lamp.
TL took up her position to the left of the door. As soon as it swung open wide, Lowell ran in and TL doused him with the bottle of vodka. He stopped running and sputtered, spinning around in confusion.
“Adios, motherfucker,” Mary said and then filled her mouth with the vodka and blew a stream of it across the open flame of the lighter, setting him completely ablaze. He flailed out of the room backwards, arms windmilling as he screamed and tried to snuff the flames. TL and Mary walked out to find Marshall leading the charge up the stairs ahead of the SWAT team.
“Took you long enough, Doofus.” Mary smiled as he held out an arm and pulled her to his side. She wrapped her arms around him like she was never going to let him go.
A little part of TL was sad, but the largest part of her was grateful. She met Marshall’s assessing gaze and nodded at his unspoken question of her status. “I’m cool. I do have to admit though, this was so not how I envisioned my first day back on the job going.”