They had to admit one thing about Ace. This guy was a master of improvisation.
Saturday's morning turned into a war council. Although Ace spoke quickly, he also spoke logically and sensibly, and the mission that initially seemed like a fool's errand was starting to take shape. Everything was falling into place, almost as if the Bureau had foreseen it.
Yes, Ace wouldn't want to attract attention, so the whole mission was to be handled quietly.
Yes, the simplest solution would be to disguise themselves as police officers.
And so, he had devised it all within eight hours and knew exactly who, where, and what role each person would play.
In this way, with her cap pulled down low over her eyes, Kelly walked towards the young police officer who hadn't realized that the abandoned station had no fuel.
"Good evening" he called out to her from a distance. She didn't respond and didn't break her stride. "I have a feeling something's stuck because of the fuel—"
His voice trailed off as he turned towards the dispenser, his back to the girl. He didn't have a chance to see her face. When he looked back in her direction, all he saw was a clenched fist heading straight for his throat.
The strike wasn't strong; its purpose was simply to knock him out. As the young man bent over, gasping for breath, Kelly swiftly positioned herself behind him, wrapped her arm around his neck, and pulled him close. She retrieved a syringe from her pocket and injected it into the nearest vein. 15 ml of blue vodka quickly spread through the unfortunate Tom's body. Within a minute, the young man stopped struggling, and when Kelly released her grip, he collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Only then Kelly exhaled, realizing she had been holding her breath the entire time.
The mission had officially begun.
Cole appeared from the building, dressed as a police officer with a limited budget. She waved at him to signal that everything had gone according to plan. The young man approached her, circling the car.
"Not bad; things are going smoothly so far" he sighed and glanced at Kelly. "Everything good?" he asked, and she nodded.
"Yeah, let's get this over with" she muttered, tucking her trembling hands into her pants pockets. "Let's take the suspect."
She wanted to help transport the unconscious man into the building, but Bucket slung him over his shoulder as if he weighed as much as nothing.
They returned to the abandoned station where the remaining companions of the young police officer were seated on the ground against the wall, also peacefully asleep after the dose of blue vodka. Tom joined to the slumbering group. They weren't bound or tied; fifteen milliliters of magic vodka would ensure they had a sweet sleep, waking up when everything was over.
In the middle of an empty store, facing the counter, Group 1 gathered: Kelly, Cole, Ace, and Toxi, all dressed in police uniforms. Their task was to tidy up the abandoned station to make it appear less abandoned and set up an ambush for the police officers from Yalapeno. Meanwhile, Group 2, consisting of Jay and Mantis, was stationed undercover in Yalapeno. They had discreetly drained the fuel from the car that was supposed to pick up the weapon. Lastly, the final team, comprising Kai, Grom, and Zane, was waiting for Group 1 at the outpost in Frox Tof.
"Phase one successfully completed" Busterrix announced, pressing his earpiece against his right ear. "Grom, how's the situation on your side?" he asked while his team equipped themselves with weapons and gear taken from the sleeping officers. They would return them later; right now, they only needed the equipment.
"We're almost there" Grom replied in a subdued voice.
"Almost?" Ace muttered, displeased, as he fastened his belt with a pistol and baton.
"You try pushing a cart with two guys inside and not drawing attention" Grom grumbled.
Urs' loud laugh almost deafened them.
"Damn, Gromi, I regret not taking a picture of you in a janitor's uniform!" he chuckled, almost getting hiccups. Daymour was the only one left at the base, overseeing the entire mission and all the teams, surrounded by monitors and popcorn.
"In thirty minutes, we'll be at the location, and you need to be ready by then" Ace declared, cutting off the budding argument.
He glanced at Commissioner Mark Font's ID badge. Just as they easily obtained the uniforms, it didn't guarantee a smooth entry into the police station. That's where Group 3 came in, with Zane primarily responsible for swapping the photos in the police system and later hacking the surveillance. The first team had to impersonate the Yalapeno police officers, so they needed to replace the real officers' photos with their own and then delete them from the system without leaving a trace.
Ace tapped his finger on the earpiece and scanned his mini-team with his gaze. They all wore their police uniforms neatly and awaited further instructions. He smiled to himself, proud of his accomplishment. He had never before come up with such a perfect plan in such a short time. It had only been twelve hours since he heard about the transport while riding the train, returning home, and having a sleepless but productive night.
"Bucket, fill up the tanks and let's get going; no need to delay the best part of the fun. Thifer, connect with Walker and loop the feed from the internal cameras."
Cole grabbed the gasoline canister they had prepared in advance, and Kelly took out a small device from her backpack. Both of them headed towards the cars. Busterrix didn't even need to remind each team member of their specific mission tasks because the Troubles had memorized them like a rosary.
While Cole refueled the vehicles, Kelly slipped into one of the cars, pulling her cap down over her eyes tightly, even though the engines of both cars were off, rendering the camera recorder inactive. However, habit took over. But when they started the engines, the cameras would activate, including the ones mounted on the central panel, covering the driver and the passenger (there were no rear cameras as they were driving a delivery van).
Kelly connected her small device to the camera socket.
"Jay, make it work." She tapped her earpiece, signaling the nerd.
After a moment, a sequence of green digits and a loading panel appeared on the screen, replacing the previous recording from the cameras when the police officers pulled up to the station and got out of the car. Walker's task was simply to loop the footage so that when they started the engine, the cameras wouldn't capture new footage but instead replay the old one. If they suddenly turned off the cameras, it would raise suspicions during potential review of the recordings - there would be a sudden time gap and a black screen. Minimizing risk above all.
She did the same with the second car, in which the policewomen were traveling, and in less than six minutes, everything was ready. They split up - Cole went with Ace, and Kelly went with Toxi. They drove in silence, hoping that the rest of the team was also facing smooth sailing.
It struck 9:00 PM.
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