“Stand by.” Hart turned to Pepper for better navigation. The officer was staring intently at his small tablet-like device as he tried to find them a route that would get them there the fastest. But Atlanta traffic was no joke. “Come on. We gotta do better than this.”
They were stopped again. Traffic creeping by. Motorists tried to wiggle and inch out of their way but there was hardly anywhere for them to go. “There’s a bad accident nine blocks up.” One of his snipers, Stewart, chimed in as he listened on the coms. “Officers are rerouting.”
“Get out the damn way, people!” Dinah yelled, only going a few feet, then having to stop again.
Hart lifted the mic to relay their delayed timing, just as his phone vibrated. He frowned, quickly scanning the screen. The number was weird, all zeros. He almost shoved it back into his pocket until he read the text.
Unknown: Follow the green arrows.
The light they approached was red. They all were. Hart glanced around. The radio buzzed with activity and updates on their barricaded suspect. The negotiator wasn’t getting through and the men were still firing off warning shots for the officers on scene to stay back.
His team was calling out possible routes, even considering riding on the outside of the APC to direct cars out of their path. All dangerous and time-costly options. The stoplight in front of them immediately switched to a green arrow pointing right. It wasn’t the direction they needed to go, but it got them away from bumper-to-bumper traffic. All of the lights ahead turned green, one after the other, and the traffic began to budge enough for Dinah to move. He concealed his smile when he figured out who was helping them.
Len. There was no one else that could manipulate traffic signals as easily as him.
“Turn right, Dinah,” Hart told her. She gave him a curious frown but followed his order. His phone buzzed again.
Unknown: Keep following the lights.
His team grew quiet behind him, no doubt wondering what had made him tell Dinah to go in the opposite direction and mysteriously all the traffic lights worked in their favor. Free discreetly navigated them down Seventh Street using the traffic signals crossing them over Juniper. The area was riddled with construction workers repaving one side of the street, the other lane blocked off to through traffic. They had a clear path. Hart pointed for Dinah to ignore the detour signs and floor it down Piedmont. Not one red light was visible. All green. Traffic flowed easily when they got onto the two hundred block of Fourteenth Street as motorists moved to the far lane to let them fly by.
“Alpha Ten to command. ETA four minutes,” Hart responded. They’d made up their time and were back on schedule.
“Ten four, Alpha Ten. Be advised the threat level is red. Copy?”
“Copy that.” Hart tucked his phone away. He was going to thank Free so hard later. He knew it was him, without a doubt. He was somewhere virtually watching him. And the thought excited Hart.
“We got images, Captain,” His technology officer said.
“Find us an entry point, now. We have no time. Threat level is red,” Hart responded calmly. He let his team brainstorm about their best level of defense to protect the other officers, and the easiest non-violent entry possible to get the suspects out safely and unharmed.
As they entered the run-down neighborhood—currently blocked off by three police cruisers—and rounded the corner of Spring Street, the circus came into view. Dinah stopped and let two of their snipers out to get to their perch. About ten to twelve marked and unmarked units were posted out front, the officers shielded behind their vehicles as one of the suspects bellowed obscenities and orders from a second-floor window. The house was abandoned like most of the properties on this street. Hart didn’t see any nosy bystanders lingering around the yellow caution tape. He was thankful that the beat officers had properly contained the scene. There was nothing worse than them arriving to news cameras and innocents in the way. Dinah forced the large APC onto the lawn of the ramshackle home.
Two bullets ricocheted off the APC like pebbles. “All right these guys are done talking. Let’s get them out of that house and out of this neighborhood, fast.” Hart and his team immediately burst into action. The entry team quickly filed out of the back of the vehicle and lined up along the side of the armored car, keeping themselves protected from the threat of more fire. His bravo team stayed inside on the comms, relaying new information to them as it was received. His lead sniper took up position on top of the vehicle behind the roof shield.
“Sienna two is in position, copy,” his second sniper called out. She was responsible for finding her own best vantage point. And she was always faster than her partner.