On the Prowl

by Matt Lincoln

“Right, we’ll get right on it, sir,” I said, turning on my heel and walking swiftly back through the door of his office and into the bullpen to find Naomi.

  “We have a lead!” I shouted as I got to her desk. “Wallace needs us to go right now. I’ll fill you in on the car ride over.”

  “Of course,” she said, quickly gathering up her things. “Hopefully, this won’t lead to another fruitless stakeout.”

  18

  Miranda

  By the time we got to the industrial park, it was the middle of the afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky. It took us a few minutes to find the correct warehouse, as they all looked identical, and from our vantage point in the car, there appeared to be endless rows of them. Just when I was starting to think that the kid had tricked us, I found what I was looking for.

  “That’s it, isn’t it?” I asked Naomi, who was manning the navigation app while I drove. “Andy said the warehouse was in the top corner of the lot, right next to one that has a big red lock on it. That one right there matches the description.”

  “It’s a little closer to the center than Andy said, but he might have been remembering wrong. That does look like what he described,” she said as I parked the car a few rows away.

  From where we were, we could see the entrance to the warehouse, but we were still far enough away that our car probably wouldn’t be noticed. We settled in for another stakeout, each of us hoping that this one wouldn’t be nearly as long or as boring as the previous one. We were lucky, as just a few minutes later, a man exited the warehouse talking on the phone. He had curly, shoulder-length hair, and his arm was in a sling.

  “That’s him!” I whispered to Naomi, getting ready to exit the car and take him down.

  “Wait!” she whispered back, latching her hand around my arm to stop me. “We haven’t seen him do anything illegal or even suspicious yet. If we move now, we will not have enough for a warrant to search the warehouse.”

  “He shot a federal agent,” I said, worried the man would go back inside, and we’d lose our chance.

  “That’s a completely unrelated crime. Even if we arrest him for that, we won’t have sufficient evidence to search the warehouse!” She was insistent, even though I could tell the thought of losing him was stressing her out as well.

  “Well, we’ll just have to bluff our way in,” I said, throwing the door open before Naomi could stop me again.

  “Miranda! You little-” I could hear Naomi grumbling behind me, but she got out of the car and fell into step with me, anyway.

  “Hey!” I shouted from a few feet away, catching the man off guard. His eyes widened as he saw us approaching. “Where are the animals?” I decided pretending like I already knew what was inside would be the best way to trick him into admitting it himself.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said nervously, darting his eyes around frantically in search of an escape route.

  “Yes, you do,” I said as I got within a few feet of him. Miranda moved around to block the other side, so he was backed against the entrance of the warehouse, ensuring he wouldn’t be able to escape. “We know the animals are in there. We know where you got them from, and we know what you’ve been doing with them.” I hoped my performance was convincing him. Judging by the way his face was rapidly turning red, I’d bet it was. “Just make it easier for yourself and show us everything because it’ll be a lot worse for you if you don’t.”

  “Go to hell!” he yelled, pulling a gun from behind his back and firing it at me in one fluid movement.

  Fortunately for me, my years as a Marine had trained my body to react on instinct, and before my brain had even fully processed what he was doing, I was already jumping to the side, drawing my own gun as I did.

  “Put the gun down!” I yelled, stepping further to the side and backing away, hoping to direct all of his attention toward me to give Naomi the opportunity to take him down from behind.

  “You’re only making this worse for yourself, so just put the gun down, and we can talk calmly,” I said, mostly as an attempt to distract him, though I was also hoping he would actually listen and lower his weapon. I wasn’t that lucky, though, as the man merely screamed in rage and fired two more shots. I dropped into a low crouch and quickly jumped back up again, making sure to keep moving so he wouldn’t be able to get a good shot on me. Since his arm was in a sling, I already had the advantage. So long as I kept moving, he probably wouldn’t be able to land a hit.

  I moved sharply to the right, and he twisted his body around to point his gun at me. In doing so, he left his entire shooting arm exposed to Naomi. Seeing her opening, Naomi lifted her own gun and expertly shot the suspect square in the wrist, forcing him to drop the gun. I rushed forward and quickly kicked it away as Naomi closed in on him from behind, pushing him to the ground and shoving both arms behind his back, ripping the one arm out of the sling. I felt a little bad about moving his injured arm so forcefully, but I had to restrain him somehow. I knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to attack us again if given a chance.

  “Stop! This is police brutality! Can’t you see I’m hurt?” The suspect yelled, the pain evident in his voice as he strained to speak.

  “Oh hush,” Naomi said as she tore a sleeve off her own top and used it to cushion the suspect’s wrist before clicking the handcuffs on. “You were actively firing at a federal agent. You’re lucky you didn’t get worse.” After she had finished securing the suspect’s hands behind his back, she hauled him up by the shoulder and sat him against the exterior wall of the warehouse.

  “Now you listen to me,” Naomi said, adopting that disapproving tone that had everyone at MBLIS referring to her as the office mother. “Your little partner in crime has already told us all about what you’ve been doing and what’s inside this warehouse. Now, either you can tell us the truth yourself, or we can figure it out on our own. One way or another, we will get into this warehouse, and we will expose everything that is inside. It’s up to you to decide which story you’d like the judge to hear. The one where you atone for your crimes by assisting us, or the one where you fight us every step of the way, digging yourself deeper and deeper as you go. So which is it going to be?”

  I shivered. Naomi was well-bred, well educated, and generally carried herself like a queen. Honestly, she wouldn’t have seemed out of place at some fancy diplomatic function at the White House or Buckingham Palace. That being said, she could also be extremely intimidating and had a way about speaking that made you feel like you were a child again, being scolded for getting your hand caught in the cookie jar. I could see from the man’s face that he was feeling that way now, despite the snarl he was attempting to maintain. His eyes were wide, and his face had gone pale, and I knew at that moment that we had won.

  “Fine!” The suspect spat. “Yes, the animals are inside. Is that what you wanted to hear, ilíthia skýla!?”

  “Ooh, that didn’t sound very nice,” I said, grinning at Naomi, who was looking down at the suspect with disgust. “Oh, let’s not forget this!” I reached down and inspected the suspect’s pockets, not really caring as I jostled him and caused his injuries to hurt just a little.

  “Just as I thought, ‘Alexander Michaels,’” I announced as I walked over to Naomi to hand her the man’s driver’s license. “This is definitely our guy. It was pretty nice of you to tear up your own clothes just to keep his wrist from getting irritated by the handcuffs, by the way. Way nicer than I would have been.”

  “Well, I don’t actually want to be accused of brutality,” Naomi responded in a low murmur. “We do have some duty to keep the people in our custody safe.” I just snorted. It was still way more than I would have done for someone who was actively trying to kill my partner, but I guessed Naomi was just a better person than I was.

  “Anyway, why don’t you clear the warehouse while I wait here with Mr. Michaels?” Naomi said, nodding toward the entrance of the warehouse. “Back up should be here in a moment, but we should make sure that n
o one else is in there in the meantime. I should be fine out here since I seriously doubt he’s even capable of giving me any trouble right now. I’ll join you as soon as the local PD gets here.”

  “On it,” I said, making my way slowly into the warehouse. Andy hadn’t mentioned anyone else helping him and Xander, so it was unlikely that anyone else was in here, but that didn’t mean it was impossible. The warehouse was fairly large and extremely dark, so it was difficult to see more than a few feet in front of me. There was a distinct animal smell inside that reminded me of a petting zoo my parents had taken me to once when I was little.

  I pulled out my phone and used it as a flashlight, flooding the area immediately around me with white light. All along the edges of the warehouse, I could see wooden crates and metal cages, most open and empty, but some still closed. At the far end of the room, I could see what looked like a desk, and I moved quickly toward it after another sweep of the room confirmed that there weren’t any other humans inside.

  On top of the desk was a small notebook, as well as several folders. I picked up the notebook first and began leafing through it, gasping when I realized what I was looking at. Inside the notebook were pages upon pages of information regarding the buying and selling of exotic animals. There were entire manifests filled with various types of large cats, exotic birds, and even a few kinds of reptiles. In another section of the book, I found dates and locations of various meet-up and drop -off points, as well as the docking and port information for several cruises and ferries.

  “That must be how they’re getting the animals over here,” I said aloud to myself. Instead of drawing attention to their shipments by using more traditional shipping methods, they were smuggling the animals aboard passenger ferries and cruise lines that normally wouldn’t be used primarily to transport cargo.

  Finally, I went to look through the folders. Each one was a profile of a different driver who each operated in a specific section of the United States. Like Xander, who had disguised his truck to resemble a soda delivery truck, each of their trucks was similarly made to look like it belonged to a specific brand or company.

  My heart was beating hard, and my mind was moving a mile a minute at the discovery I’d just made. This was enough information for us to take down basically the entire organization. I tapped my foot impatiently, wishing the police backup would get here sooner so that Naomi could come and see this. I was considering whether I should just take the folders and notebook outside with me when I heard a low hiss to my left like air being let out of a tire. I looked up, but because my phone was pointed down at the desk, all I saw was complete darkness. I lifted the phone up slowly as the sound grew into a rumble, and I was torn between curiosity and the primitive part of my brain that was screaming at me to run as the sound grew louder. A wet, pink and black nose was the first thing I saw as I panned my phone up, followed by shiny, yellow eyes which were level with mine. Just inches from me, and so close that I could feel its hot breath blowing across my face, standing on its hind legs and leaning against the bars of its cage with massive spotted paws, was a leopard.

  For a long, surreal moment, all I could think about was how mesmerizing the spotted pattern on its furry exposed belly looked. Then the moment was broken when, with a roar that sounded like a revving motorcycle, the leopard bared its long fangs and swiped at me through the bars of the cage.

  I jumped, adrenaline coursing through me as I realized that the only thing keeping this enormous, muscular beast from tearing me to shreds were a few thin bars of metal. I let out a short bark of laughter, although I couldn’t concretely say if it was from amazement or fear.

  Naomi had to see this.

  19

  Junior

  I was buzzing with nervous energy by the time we got on the plane. I’d been so excited about our first bit of real international work that I’d been unable to sleep the night before, and I’d ended up getting to the airport a few hours early. I figured spending the morning going through the details of what Agent Castillo and Agent Patel had found yesterday during their investigation would be a better use of my time than just lying in bed awake for several more hours. It had surprised me to receive a call late yesterday afternoon from Wallace since he’d made it extremely clear he wanted Hills and I to rest up the day before our flight. He’d said the information just couldn’t wait, as it was vital to the case and could potentially help us on our mission the next day. After a brief phone call, he’d emailed the documents over to me, and I’d spent the evening pouring through them.

  I went over the documents again as I buckled in and looked out the window to watch the take-off. This group we were after was definitely well organized, as they had an entire team of people working throughout different parts of the continental United States. Each member drove a disguised truck that would allow them to hide in plain sight. The animals were all brought into the United States through Florida, which was where the only cruise line that offered trips from the United States to Greece ported. The cruise itself was several weeks long, and I cringed again as I thought of how much suffering those poor animals must go through to be trapped in tiny boxes for weeks at a time.

  In any case, each driver would make their way down to Florida, pick up their cargo, and then from there would go their separate ways and transport the animals all over the country. It was a complex system, but in the end, it was incredibly lucrative. Agent Gardner had told me that a search she’d done posing as a buyer looking for exotic cats revealed that a single tiger cub could sell for up to seven thousand dollars, and some cats went for even more. According to the notebook that Agent Castillo had found, in the past few months, the smugglers had started trading exotic birds and endangered reptiles as well.

  I sighed as I shut my laptop and slouched back into my seat. It would never cease to amaze me the lengths people would go to obtain money illegally. They had such an elaborate and well thought out system. Surely, if they were intelligent and organized enough to come up with that, they could come up with some way to make money legally as well? Regardless, we had their information now, and although everyone only identified themselves with a pseudonym like the one Xander used, I had no doubt that Fiona would be able to uncover their true identities the way she had done to Xander. It was only a matter of time.

  I looked over at Charlie, who was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

  “What do you think about everything that Patel and Castillo found yesterday?” I asked. I could tell by the stiffness in his posture and the expression on his face that he wasn’t actually sleeping.

  “I think that, like usual, the truth turns out to be stranger than fiction,” he said, cracking his eyes open and sitting up to stretch. “I think that it’s one of the dumbest, most convoluted plans I’ve ever heard. And yet, it worked. There was so much that could go wrong, so many ways they could get caught, but they still managed to get away with it for months. Hell, if it hadn’t been for Carmen going crazy and killing her boyfriend, we still wouldn’t have known about it.”

  He was right. The only reason anyone found out about the animals is that one of them managed to kill its owner in spectacular fashion, and the only reason they called us in is that the cops erroneously thought someone had brought the cougar here from South America. They’d turned out to be right about this being an international crime, but only by accident. When it came down to it, if it hadn’t been for a very specific series of events, Xander and the rest of the smugglers would still be out there with no one doing anything to stop them. It unsettled me to think about how many other similar organized crime groups were out there operating right under our noses undetected.

  I pushed the thought away and decided to try to get some sleep. Now that the anticipation was beginning to wear off, I was starting to feel more sleepy. The flight from Las Vegas to Athens was about fifteen hours long and sleeping seemed like an ideal way to pass the time. I settled into my seat as comfortably as I could and closed my eyes, hoping I’d feel
more well-rested by the time we arrived.

  I woke with a jolt some time later, although I was unsure exactly how much time had passed by then. I’d spent the past several hours drifting in and out of consciousness, awakening each time to some new ache or pain in a different part of my body but unable to find a suitably comfortable position. I glanced at my phone, which indicated it had been about ten hours, which meant that although we were definitely closer, we still had about a third of the way to go. Giving up on the idea of sleep, I sat up straight and stretched, every muscle in my body screaming at me in protest as I did. I glanced over at Hills enviously. He sat spread out across two seats, his legs dangling over the side. He seemed to be deep asleep, although I wasn’t sure how he was doing it. It seemed that no matter what I did, something seemed to cramp up or start hurting, and I couldn’t sleep for more than an hour at a time.

  I stood up and took a walk around the cabin of the plane. It was a small, private jet owned by MBLIS, and I could walk from one end of the cabin to the other in just a few steps. I headed into the tiny bathroom at the back of the plane and used the sink to splash some water on my face, hoping that would help to ease the headache and disorientation I was feeling from having such an unrestful sleep. Afterward, I went back to my seat and decided to read for the rest of the flight.

  We were just beginning the descent into Athens when Hills woke up, sitting up and looking around blearily as if he wasn’t sure where he was. I had managed to finish my book by then, disappointed by the ending where everyone died. I dealt with enough death and sadness daily, just doing my job. I didn’t exactly want to experience that in books, as well. I shoved my book into the bottom of my bag, deeply offended by its ending, and turned to look out the window instead. I’d always liked flying. Watching as the ground came closer and closer was always my favorite part.