Page 4 of Operation: Valiant Angel

Wilson sprang on him, securing him faced down by straddling him, much the same as he had been straddling the woman. Wilson pressed the barrel of his pistol to the man’s cheek. “Give me a reason,” Wilson growled, barely winded.

The man, on the other hand, was huffing and puffing. He immediately surrendered.

Wilson secured his hands behind his back in zip ties, which all members of Shepherd Security carried at all times with their federal law enforcement credentials. Both Wilson and Garcia carried DEA badges. Garcia had actually been a DEA Agent after he’d left the Army. Wilson aced the course content DEA Agents took, and he earned his badge and creds. It was conditional, though, only valid while he worked for Shepherd Security. Which was fine by him.

By the time he wrestled the assailant to his feet and led him back to where the young woman lay, now conscious and gently rubbing her neck over the bruising left from the attack, Garcia had called it in. Local police and an ambulance were en route.

She gazed at the man Wilson held. “I hope you burn in hell, Jerry,” she croaked. “This time there’re witnesses, and you will go to jail.” She tried to sit.

“You’re better off remaining down until the paramedics can check you over,” Garcia told her. “You were unconscious when I reached you. If we’d been a few minutes later, he probably would have killed you.”

After the local authorities arrived and Wilson and Garcia gave their statements, turning the scene over to them, they wished the woman, Josie Lewis, well, and they departed. Wilson called in to Ops and made the report when they were back on their route to Waterloo, merging onto the interstate.

“Another domestic violence case,” Wilson said, shaking his head. “These cases of Briana Woods that we’re bringing in-house are important. I wouldn’t mind being a part of some of those.” They’d learned that Josie Lewis had filed six police reports about the threatening and abusive behavior of her soon-to-be ex-husband, Jerry. He’d violated the restraining order multiple times.

“I’m sure we all will,” Garcia remarked. “As I said, it’s an awkward time of realignment at the agency. Those cases will most likely be ongoing and have at least two field agents assigned to them at any given time.”

Wilson found that a curious statement. They usually operated in teams of four. But perhaps Shepherd was planning to only allocate two field operatives to those cases, which made sense as the DEA cases and the newer CIA referral cases each had six Operators assigned. That was the equivalent of three teams. The PGP Installs took a fourth team, and that left 2 team members for these new domestic violence cases and two team members to be assigned to staff HQ and be home with their families. That was a good allocation of resources to rotate throughout the month. And that would fully allocate all five teams to cases.

The two men let the conversation rest until they pulled off the interstate and were within five minutes of Cam Woods’ townhouse. They were on the same page regarding their approach. Wilson again voiced his thoughts on Cam Woods not being Shepherd Security material. “But I may just be too slanted to prior military service being a prerequisite,” Wilson admitted.

“I’m right there with you,” Garcia said. “And I’ll go a step further and say I think SpecOps, or at least combat experience, should be necessary, but we could be wrong. Brielle worked out, and she had neither.”

“But she did have boots on the ground experience with her investigative reporter background and because of the action in Louisiana before we brought her on board that Cam Woods does not have,” Wilson said.

Bravo

The expression on Cameron Woods’ face was priceless when he opened the door to his townhouse. Wilson couldn’t help but smile.

“You?” For Woods, finding Wilson standing there with the other man, who he’d never seen before, was not only shocking, but it was his worst nightmare coming true. Then dread settled over him. “Wait, is Briana okay?” It had been a full day since he'd heard from his sister, and he knew that she was with Sebastian and another of his team members when he’d last heard from her.

“Relax, she’s fine,” Wilson replied. “Can we come in?”

“Look, we’ve been behaving ourselves. Briana wasn’t committing a crime in Maine. She legitimately needed help. That’s the only reason she called Sebastian.” His eyes darted nervously between the two men.

“No one said you’ve still been committing crimes. Are you gonna let us in?” asked Wilson again.

“Aw, fuck man!” Cam Woods stepped back from the door and threw it wide, inviting them inside. A disgusted look was now on his face. “Are you sure my sister’s okay?” That was the only reason he could think of that this man was back at his front door.

“She’s fine. This is Garcia, one of my colleagues,” Wilson introduced.

Garcia presented his hand. Cam Woods reluctantly shook it, as though he expected a handcuff to be slapped around his wrist as he did. “I was the one who you gave computer access to last November.”

That statement caused a knot to form in Cam Woods’ stomach and this man’s gravelly voice did sound familiar, which further put Woods on edge. He thought back, considering what he'd done on that computer in the past few months. Had he done anything that was even borderline illegal? He didn't think so. But who knows what they’d seen or what they’d found on the computer if spyware had been left during the time he’d allowed them free access to his computer? Not that he’d had much of a choice back then. When six armed men are standing in your living room and your hands are zip tied behind your back, you pretty much agree to anything.

“So, what’s this about?” Woods asked.

“Your sister has accepted a position with our agency,” Wilson said.

“She what?” Woods asked, surprised as hell. Of all the things that were going through his mind about why these guys were here, that hadn’t been one of them. “I mean, cool, if that’s what she wants.”

Wilson’s lips tipped into a grin. “She does. I promise you; she wasn’t coerced.”

“Okay, so, whatever. That doesn’t answer why you’re here,” Woods said, feigning disinterest.

“Two reasons,” Wilson said. “First, you know about us, and you worked with her. She won’t be working with you any longer andwithout you signing a nondisclosure agreement, she can’t tell you why. Not that you wouldn’t have figured that part out. But she can’t tell you who we are and why she wanted to work with us.”

Garcia produced the standard NDA and handed it to Woods.

---