Page 3 of Operation: Sharp Angel

Powder broke away from the Tango he was treating just long enough to provide Tessman with the requested supplies as well as a syrette of morphine for pain relief. “You nicked the femoral artery on this guy,” Powder said to him as he handed off the supplies. “I’ve got him stabilized.”

“He flinched,” Tessman said. “Otherwise, that artery wouldn’t have been hit.”

Powder barked out a laugh. He then went back to the downed Tango with the two bullet wounds.

Lambchop already had the wallets out of the pockets of the two men who’d driven the pick-up truck with the rifles to the party. “Big Bear, I’ve got confirmation. We’ve got two enlisted active-duty soldiers here,” he reported.

“I’ll notify the base,” Shepherd replied. “Sit tight. I have the DEA and the military, MPs and medical services heading your way. Complete a turnover to both before you leave the area.”

“Roger that, Big Bear,” Lambchop acknowledged.

It was nearly nine-thirty before a Black Hawk helicopter with military markings approached from the east. The team on the ground had just heard the approaching chopper when Yvette’s voice came through comms, “Medical personnel and MPs from JBSA are nearly to your location. DEA is about thirty minutes out.”

“Roger that, Control. We’ve got a visual on them,” Lambchop advised.

As the temperature had already risen to a seasonable eighty degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky, the team had moved the Tangos into the shade just within the hangar. Tessman and Lambchop stood by the Cessna. They’d conducted a thorough search of it. Likewise, inside the hangar, Mother and Louisa had thoroughly searched the pick-up truck.

The backseat area of the Cessna was stacked with twenty-four, one-pound bricks of the white drug. The DEA’s testing whenthey arrived on site would confirm it was cocaine. The back of the pick-up truck held, as they thought, brand new M4 rifles in original military shipping containers, eight rifles to a crate.

The team performed turnover to both the military and the four-man DEA team that arrived. The two injured Tangos were flown out in the Black Hawk. They’d receive treatment at the base while in DEA custody. The two soldiers were in the custody of the MPs and in shackles on the flight to the base. Both the vehicles were seized by the DEA.

The team only had to wait an hour for the Shepherd Security Lear to land on the dirt landing strip to fly them out. It had flown them in that morning and waited at a nearby regional airport. Once in the air, the men settled back in their seats and most closed their eyes. Tessman sat by a window. He gazed out and his thoughts drifted to the two soldiers who were trading new military hardware for drugs. Why the hell would anyone get messed up with the cartels? What a waste! And it never ended well. They’d worked enough cases that involved drugs to know that.

After landing at Chicago Executive Airport, the local regional airfield where the Shepherd Security hangar was, the team returned to their headquarters for a short mission debrief with Shepherd.

“Gentlemen, I just wanted to meet to pass along the DEA’s thanks,” Shepherd began. “The estimated street value of the drugs we intercepted is four hundred thousand dollars. The twenty-four pounds once cut equals approximately seventy thousand doses that would have been sold on American streets. And if laced with fentanyl, it could have killed a lot of people. No matter what other cases this agency takes on, the mission of helping to keep dangerous drugs off the streets will remain something we’re involved in.”

“It would have been nice to know, going in, that this was drug related,” Flores complained.

“I’m not sure the CIA had a complete understanding of what was going to go down at that tiny airstrip in Texas. And if they did, I’m sure we got the case because we could move fast enough to get assets on the ground. I don’t think the DEA, ATF, or the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division could have moved that fast, especially if there was to be any coordination between the agencies,” Shepherd said. “And to your original point of knowing what we were walking into, Mason has a long history of not sharing what will make our job easier. That’s the one constant.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lambchop said.

Several of the men chuckled. The corner of Shepherd’s lips pulled into a small grin.

“The other constant is the drugs,” Mother added.

“True. As long as there is a demand for drugs, there will be a supply,” Lambchop said. “We kept this shipment off the street. There’ll be more that do make it through.”

“It’s a losing proposition,” Flores said gruffly.

Tessman viewed Flores with a sideways glance. He knew Flores and the rest of Bravo Team had voiced their opposition to working the DEA Partner Missions, which one could argue this case technically turned out to be with the added twist of the military rifles and two soldiers included in the bust. He respected his colleague, but had to wonder how his private conversations with Shepherd went regarding Bravo Team’s stance on mission selection. And while Shepherd was old-school Army, accomplish the mission even if it’s impossible by any means necessary, he had also made adjustments in staffing due to nearly half the team members having families, and their desire to cut their travel for jobs by half. He’d made adjustments to keep his assets. Period. But with Bravo Team making it known that they all saw retirement on the horizon, Tessman couldn’thelp but wonder how long Shepherd’s patience would hold out before he advised them to retire.

“Unfortunately, it’s part of the mission. We can take that discussion off line if you’d like to discuss it further, Flores,” Shepherd said. “Thank you for your flexibility, gentlemen. You are all off the rest of the day. Watch your emails for your next assignments that may begin tomorrow.”

All six men came to their feet. They knew they’d just been dismissed. Tessman held back and watched, interested to see if Tommy Flores would remain in Shepherd’s office for further discussion. He was surprised to see Flores and Kegger, both assigned to Bravo Team, exit the conference room in front of him.

Bravo

Becca Elliot sat on the hood of her car; her gaze fixed on the gray vinyl sided two story home. She’d sat here staring at the pale gray house for hours each day for over a week. Her conscious mind could not comprehend the horror that had taken place inside. She tried to block from her thinking what her sister’s last thoughts had been. Thankfully, the police believed her nieces had been asleep when they were fatally shot. A single .9mm round to each of their little heads in what should have been the safety of their bedrooms. Dealing with this thought was more than Becca could bear, so she pushed that reality far from her thoughts and focused on her sister.

Her sister wasn’t as lucky. Her body was found on the kitchen floor, a bullet in her back a second in the back of her head. Becca conjured an image of Nicole running for her life, but not from Nick, as the police believed. Nicole’s husband had not killed the family before taking his own life.

There was no way he had. Becca hoped the forensics would prove that out. They had to.

***

Before Tessman left the office, he sent his friend and teammate Jimmy ‘Taco’ Wilson a text message asking if he could swing by Wilson’s place. In the past, he would have just dropped by. But things were different now because Wilson had acquired a live-in girlfriend and a four-year-old daughter six weeks before. It happened very quickly, so he wasn’t used to it yet. But it did mean that his days of just dropping in were over.

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