The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) (24 page)

Another call came into the dispatch center. The whole room went silent as a nurse from Scripps Mercy Hospital had just reported four masked men with automatic guns had driven a van right through the emergency room door and were shooting people. The two Deputies at the scene assigned to keep eyes on Special Agent Romero screamed on their radios for emergency backup just after the call came in. Chaos ensued in the command center. People tried to transmit over the radio waves at the same time while the commanders tried to find units to cover the assault at the hospital
and
the robbery at the bank. The tactical dispatchers made the call-‘a Code 30,’ a request for emergency cover units from every available law enforcement agency in San Diego County.

As Dix and the others scrambled to figure out what to do, Kovach felt his pocket vibrate alerting him he had a text message. He reached into his pocket and saw it was from his undercover agent. The message read, “Rolling to S/O W/H. 30 bodies, target @ benefit. ETA 10 mins.”

Kovach got the attention of Dix and Petersen and motioned for them to follow him to the small office adjacent to the command center. Sullivan saw this and went too.

“Sullivan, this will work better if you don’t ask questions. I’ll explain later. I just got a text message from a UC we were able to get into Calderon’s group.”

Sullivan blurted out, “What UC? What the hell…”

Dix and Kovach held up their hands, and Sullivan figured she needed to keep quiet. However, the look on her face made the men cringe. She made eye contact with Petersen as though she expected him to jump in and say something, but he didn’t. That really pissed her off, but she kept her cool.

Kovach continued, “The UC says thirty men are heading to the SO warehouse right now. Their ETA is ten minutes. We have to let the commanders know, but with the other two events and the looming bomb threat we’re going to be short bodies.”

Dix digested this. Every scenario he played out in his head was bad. He looked over the group and could see they

were waiting for him to come up with a plan. He was sure he did not have all the answers, but he had to try.

Then Dix pounced. “Okay, we will advise the commanders that the bad guys are headed to the warehouse and we need to pull people from the command center to help us. Kovach, you advise them to completely disregard the bomb call. Tell them it was a training call your bomb guys were going to deal with, but you forgot to call it off. In light of all the stuff happening they might buy that. We’ll get geared up on the way and head to the S.O. warehouse. Meet downstairs in five.”

The group moved quickly. A skeleton crew was left to man the command center. Everyone jumped into two full size vans and drove as fast as they could to the S.O. warehouse. Dix, Sullivan, and Petersen looked at each other in a state of dismay, while Kovach said nothing. Dix noticed Kovach wore a slight grin on face and was scared as to what it meant, but he had no time to inquire.

*****

The four Enforcers looking for Special Agent Romero had made it to the second floor without encountering any real resistance. The security guard on the first floor was shocked when he saw their van barrel through the emergency room entrance. As he processed what he saw, the Enforcers were already out of the van and firing in his direction. He never had a chance. He reached down to draw his weapon, but was struck several times by rifle rounds shredding through his soft body armor killing him instantly.

The Enforcers cleared the stairwell and emerged into a hallway on the second floor. The first Collector through the door was hit in the head with a bullet and fell over dead. Two Sheriff’s Deputies were in opposite rooms in the hallway shooting in the direction of the remaining three Enforcers. One of the Enforcers threw a flash bang down the hallway. It rolled and rolled until finally exploding. The percussion caused confusion and enough of a distraction to allow the three Enforcers to advance down the hallway and take up defensive positions.

Nurses and patients were screaming and running wildly away from the hallway. The two deputies stopped firing to save rounds and they didn’t want to hit a civilian. They looked at each other and prayed cover units would arrive soon to help them.

Without warning, two more flash bangs were lobbed down the hallway. As they exploded, the three Enforcers ran down the hallway firing in the direction of the two deputies. One of the deputies got hit in the arm causing him to fall over. He wasn’t dead, but he would surely die without immediate medical attention.

With the first deputy down, the remaining Enforcers continued firing and moving toward the second deputy. The second deputy returned fire, but it seemed he was hitting the suspects and they weren’t going down. He ducked down to grab cover and reload his handgun. The Enforcers continued to fire in his direction. Wood and metal exploded all around him, but he bravely slammed another magazine in his weapon and engaged the suspects.

He poked his head out and saw a man in plain clothes pop out behind them and he was holding a gun. He fired on all three men, hitting two of them in their legs causing them to go down. The remaining Collector pivoted and fired on the man while diving into a room.

The second deputy squared up to his target, the last remaining Collector, and shot him several times in the back. The Collector looked back at the deputy and smiled before collapsing on the hallway floor coughing up blood. He grabbed his partner’s radio and updated dispatch.

While scanning for threats, the second deputy moved down the hallway to get the weapons away from the suspects. He heard the man yell out, “I’m a police officer. I’m

still armed in case there are more suspects, I’m stepping out now. Please don’t shoot.”

The man in plain clothes stepped out into the hallway with his hands up. This time the deputy noticed a police shield around his neck. The deputy also noticed the man’s gun was holstered. Based on his heroic actions and the fact his gun was holstered, the deputy determined he was most likely a cop.

The deputy said, “Copy that. Check the two suspects down by you and grab their weapons. There may be more. Head down here when you’re done. There’s going to be a bunch of cops showing up any second and you’re better off with me.”

The off-duty officer grabbed both rifles from the suspects and walked down the hallway. The two men grinned at each other and the deputy put out more radio traffic, “All units, we’re on the second floor. I’ve got an officer down. Four suspects down, all believed dead, but proceed with caution. I have a plain clothes officer with me.”

The deputy made eye contact with a nurse hiding near the nurse’s station.

“It’s okay. My partner needs help. Please help us.”

The nurse was mortified and trembling. She didn’t want to leave her hiding place, but for some reason, she slowly got up and cautiously came over to start working on the shot deputy. Another nurse saw her friend working on the deputy and decided to get involved. She got on the hospital PA system and paged doctors to their location. A man in a doctor’s gown came out of a closet and ran over to assess the deputy. The wounded deputy grimaced in pain as the doctor examined the bullet wound.

The doctor looked up at the off duty officer and the deputy and said, “We have to operate on him quickly. I think I can save him, but we don’t have much time.”

The off-duty officer, the deputy, and the other medical staff lifted the deputy onto a gurney and rolled him around the dead suspects and bullet casings to the operating room.

The injured deputy was in and out of consciousness, but as he was rolled into the operating room he grabbed his partner’s hand and whispered, “Romero.”

Chapter 46

A full size van containing ten of Calderon’s men stopped one city block short of the Sheriff’s Office warehouse. They exited wearing full tactical gear and deployed spike strips in the roadways leading to the warehouse. Once the outer perimeter was set, the secondary team leader with the perimeter units advised Smith that they were set. Smith acknowledged the update over their radio while he backed his van right up to the side access doors to the warehouse.

*****

The people in the command center watched the mercenary cartel members on street pole cameras. Some people silently prayed for the best, while others hoped the plan would work and Jose Calderon would be apprehended. The tension in the command center was thick. Commanders continually bickered with each other and fought over when they should move and who would make the final decision. One of the dispatchers advised the arguing commanders that the bank robbery was handled and it appeared the hospital attack was under control. This didn’t calm things a bit.

*****

The men in Smith’s van jumped out and broke up into two groups. Six of the men headed for the front door and stopped short before making entry. They looked back at Smith and waited for his thumbs up to proceed with their breaching of the front of the warehouse. He and the other men were unloading the equipment necessary to make the hole in the ground to slip the money into. Two men stood guard and trained their shotguns on the hinges of the door. Smith looked at his watch. He took a deep breath. Three, two, one, go!

Smith motioned to the men at the front door and radioed to the perimeter team that the assault on the warehouse was a go. Simultaneously, he and his small team breached the side door and made their way to where the money was stored, while six men made entry into the front of the warehouse.

The perimeter units disabled the power to the warehouse. The team in the front of the warehouse deployed several flash bangs and smoke canisters and donned their night vision goggles. Smith could hear gun fire and assumed the other entry team had met some resistance.

He was hopeful the mercenaries would stick to non-lethal tactics, but he was pretty sure anything would go at this point. An image of the sweet lady named Sherry ran though his mind and for a split second, he felt sorry for her.

*****

The power getting cut was Jose Calderon’s signal to leave the benefit. He quickly slipped away from the party goers and worked his way to an office containing a change of clothes and a weapon. He had some of his men associated with his fundraising campaign stay behind to calm and direct the guests as they dealt with the power outage.

*****

Losing power was a surprise to the command center staff, but the backup diesel generators kicked in almost immediately and power was restored. However, the video feeds in the warehouse and on the streets around the warehouse went dead forcing the commanders to send all available units to the warehouse to get an update. Dix, Kovach, and Petersen got in one vehicle while Sullivan and two other deputies got into another. They crept closer to the warehouse anticipating a fire fight at any moment.

*****

Smith and his small team placed a charge of C4 explosive on the door to the internal secure storage unit inside the warehouse. Calderon’s intelligence put the money inside. They detonated the charge and the door buckled enough to get a pry bar jam inside to finish opening the door. Once inside, Smith and his team secured the door so they could work on the floor to the tunnels without being bothered.

They could see large duffle bags just ten to fifteen feet from them and assumed they were stuffed with thirty-million dollars. Smith saw the eyes of the three men with him get real big at the sight of the bags. He wondered if they would continue as planned or make a move for the money themselves. He tried to get updates from the perimeter units and the units in the front of the warehouse, but he could not send or receive radio transmissions. The steel and concrete of the interior unit of the storage facility was gobbling up the radio waves.

Quickly Smith and the men placed the pre-made device rigged with explosives in a precise location picked out by Smith. They took defensive locations and he hit the switch to detonate the explosives. The room shook and was instantly filled with dust and debris. He saw one of the men with him appear to double over and he could hear him groaning in pain. He ran over to check on him and he saw a piece of rebar stuck in the mercenary’s side. He made eye contact with the downed mercenary. He’d seen and heard death before and knew this man would die soon.

“Listen, sit tight, and we will get you out of here,” Smith lied. The injured man shook as he continued to lose a lot of blood. He tried to say something to Smith, but life left his body.

Smith got a thumb up from the other two mercenaries signaling they were okay. He ran over to check on the hole in the floor. The device had done its job. Smith could see what looked like several men waiting below. He motioned to the other two men to help him drag the money over to the hole and push it below.

As they turned to run toward Smith to help with the duffle bags, the door to the unit exploded open causing them to fall over and Smith to go down to a knee.
Oh shit
, thought Smith.

*****

Jose Calderon felt pretty good about himself. Once again he had outwitted law enforcement and most importantly Doug Kovach. Near as he could tell the operation to steal the money was moving along flawlessly. The diversion caused by the Enforcers had pulled a lot of the law enforcement resources away from the Sheriff’s Office warehouse. He’d not heard from the Enforcers, but he assumed Romero was dead. He checked his watch just prior to entering the tunnels.
In about an hour, I’ll be handing El Hefe thirty million dollars…then walking away with the money and control of the cartel as he lies dead on the floor
.