"Operation: Clean Sweep" (closed)

[Alice2015]

"Operation: Clean Sweep"

(closed to momadness)​

The bags came out onto the table positioned in the middle of the warehouse, opened by those carrying them. One contained a couple of dozen kilo-weight bags of heroine; the other was filled with recently counted and rewrapped bundles of hundred, fifty, and twenty dollar bills, fresh from the streets of a half dozen Midwest cities.

"Do I need to test it?" Martin Kern asked about the dope he was buying.

Vladimir Ivanov chuckled about his long time business associate's playful question. He nodded toward the money with which he himself would be departing and asked without seriousness, "Do I need to count it?"

They laughed together and indicated to their Number Twos to gather their new bag. As the dope, money, and half dozen armed men per side moved away toward the waiting vehicles, Vladimir commented, "Marty, my friend, I enjoy doing business with you, 'cause I know nothing undesirably exciting will ever happen to disturb our relationship."

A dozen yards away, Martin turned to look to Vladimir with a smile. But before he could add his own comment of pleasure at how professional their relationship had become, the warehouse around them very nearly became a warzone in an instant: a dozen flash bang grenades exploded all about the two vans and their escort vehicles, and the men in and around them were, for the most part, deemed incapacitated by the blasts. With their vision, hearing, and even mobility impaired, they stood no chance against the unlikely attacker who stepped out from between two stacks of palletized goods and began firing. Two rapidly emptied clips later, and she was the only person still standing in the building...



Within half an hour, the warehouse was surrounded by more than two dozen vehicles, from the local police and FBI to the ATF and DEA to the Fire Department and Medical Examiners. Scene Supervisor Lieutenant Carl Davis arrived from yet another recent crime of significance on the far side of town and was hurried inside by a uniformed officer who had no answers as to what had happened here.

Inside, Davis stopped short in shock at what he saw: a dozen thugs lay dead on the concrete floor, liberally covered in white powder that the Crime Lab would later determine was some of the purest heroine they'd ever tested.

"What the hell?" Davis asked with disbelief.

The Uniform escorting him responded, "Best we can tell, it was a drug buy. Gone bad, obviously, but … how we don't know. Twelve dead. No money, though. And so far, we only found two mostly-empty bags of dope. Seems like a lot of death and mayhem for two kilos, doncha think, LT?"

"Survivors?" Davis asked. When the Uniform shook his head, the Supervisor asked, "Witnesses?"

Again, the Uniform shook his head, adding, "And so far, there's no evidence of anyone getting away … but … well, Lieutenant, someone shot these guys. Unless they shot themselves. And again … where's the money? Unless they were having a dope party and things got out of--"

"Who's the Detective assigned?" Davis cut in, uninterested in the Uniform's illogical hypothesis. "Have they assigned someone--"

He saw the Uniform gesture toward the warehouse door and followed the pointed finger...