The Storm (2)

Morning had come and with it came the honking of a car horn that arose Bazel from his sleep with a startle. Having been awoken in such an abrupt matter caused his heart to race and blood to pump, allowing him to be fully awake in an instant. Looking towards the origin of the accursed thing that scared him awake, he saw a familiar car waiting at the side of the road by the riverbank that he had slept next to.

"You are a hard man to find, amigo. Good thing I have my experience as a detective, now come on in or we will be late to the show" said a voice from within the car, the moment that the window fully rolled down.

Looking upon the familiar face of his friend Neto, Bazel's anger and annoyance dissipated at once and was replaced with nervousness and anticipation for the storm that lay ahead.

He quickly made his way to the passenger side door, opening it and getting in quickly.

"Today is the day and the time is now. That scum and everyone involved will be taken down today, I promise you that!" said a confident Neto.

A feeling of warmth rose from within Bazel as he heard these words, "A close friend indeed, to go so far so quickly with just a few word from me," was the thought that came to mind while he buckled himself and was subjected to the lurching of the car as Neto put the pedal to the metal.

Adjusting to the speed, Bazel looked out the window and observed the surroundings passing by in a blur thanks to the sheer speed he was now travelling.

The police car made several wild turns, throwing the occupants side to side, and eventually it entered at the back of a small line of other police cars.

Looking through the rearview mirror, Bazel saw several more police cars join the column behind them with two large black vans with tinted mirrors taking up the absolute rear.

"It appears that Neto took my advice seriously, but I hope that my 'intuition' is wrong in this case."

All that was left to do was wait. Wait for justice to reign supreme.

----

The column traveled all the way from the outskirts of southern Central over to the middle of West, a residential district that's properties grew in price and luxury the deeper west you went.

Their destination was in the middle of the district, an area where the wealthy middle class houses ended and the rich elite began.

The specific house that the column stopped in front of was one of these houses owned by said rich elite. Instead of a house it would perhaps be more apt to call it a small mansion, with its own large and lush courtyard and a gated off entrance that led to a long road towards the main building.

"This property is amazing, oh how nice would it be to one day have land like this for myself. Our current home is too cramped and the location is piss poor, it's only advantage being that it is a place where me and Lily can proudly say is our own" thought Bazel, his eyes green with envy.

Noticing the look on his friends face, Neto laughed and said, "Crime pays well, but do not be mistaken. Everyone pays their dues in the end, especially in an area under my jurisdiction."

This was something that Bazel knew well, especially given his place of work.

"One day I will own something just like this but it will not be built on the corpses of hundreds, but instead off of my own success and hard work in the service of the law."

"As hardworking as you have been for these past few years,"agreed Neto, "now enough talk,we have an operation to begin."

Neto then reached over and pulled out his communicator from its holder in the center of the dash, bringing it to his mouth and gave out his orders.

"Commence the operation, catch the criminales."

Placing the communicator back into his holster, Neto nodded towards Bazel and watched closely as his men began to exit their vehicles and walk up to the gates of the mansion.

At their head was a man who looked more like a gang member than a police officer, with his bald head and scars running all along his face and neck.

With only a slight movement from his hand he gave orders to the entire team that he led, causing them to break into pairs and slowly diffuse onto the property.

"That is my right hand man, Sergeant Loera. He is one of my niños that you saved from being wrongly accused of crimes he did not commit, eventually leading to his full story being heard and getting off with a reduced sentence. Look at him now, climbing the ranks of the very institution he used to go against on a weekly basis," explained Neto with emotion clear as day in his voice.

Pointing at the officers behind Loera, Neto continued, "Look at how they respect him and listen to his orders without fail, many of them even knowing his background. All of this was because of you and the same is true for the rest that you saved, although you will not meet them today if everything goes to plan."

The officers reached the gate which was of course locked tight. They were prepared for this though. One of the officers was holding a bag and out of it he pulled several handheld electronic saws that he passed to Loera respectfully. Turning it on and grinding it against the electronic locks of the gate, sparks flew every which way and the sound of metal being slowly cut through rang out.

Bazel could see the locks fall to the ground after several dozen seconds of cutting each one, allowing the officers to just push open the gate and enter the compound.

They continued down the road towards the mansion, eventually disappearing from sight when they kicked the front doors open and rushed inside.

Not being able to see what went on caused the tension of Bazel to slowly raise with each passing second, his nerves tingling and his stomach doing flips all the while.

Speaking finally, deciding to pick up the previous conversation, Bazel spoke as a distraction for his rapidly rising nervousness and anticipation, "I have said this before but I will say it again, I did what I did as a matter of course. While I will not be overly humble and say that it was easy to topple a well respected but secretly corrupt senior prosecutor, it was not as if I dashed into a hail of bullets or anything," he then paused and looked at Neto and smirked slightly, "but I will accept the weight of your friendship that came as a result. Good friends are hard to come by, especially ones who are willing to take a risk and assist me like you are doing now."

Neto just laughed in the face of the accusation and responded with the clicking of his tongue, "What risk amigo? It is just one of the many perks of my position in the department, I get to expedite a case or two every now and then."

The warm conversation ended there and then. A transmission from Neto's communicator sounded out, drawing the attention and focus of the two men. Picking up his communicator once more, he answered and listened to the series of codes that the police used to relay information fast and efficiently.

"They got McGrath and a few other people that appear to just be staff. No shots were fired and even the famed McGrath went peacefully, how strange" commented Neto as he placed the communicator back.

Seeing the serious face of his friend, Bazel was confused as to him the fact that they successfully arrested her should be good news.

Voicing his confusion he asked, "What is the problem? It is good news that things went so smoothly, right?"

"Ah, if this were a normal case. But we know what they are and people like them tend to dislike being arrested simply because their membership in the mafioso is a crime in of itself. They did not run, they did not hide, and they do not even seem worried. How odd..."

Silence took hold, all the way up until the officers could be seen with the naked eye once more as they exited the mansion and made their way back down to their cars.

In front of each officer was a handcuffed individual. Most of them were obviously servants of some kind which was easily spotted by their working attire. None of these people caught the attention of Bazel, however. His line of sight immediately snapped to one person in particular, a girl who looked to be only slightly younger than his own younger sister...and the cause for all the suffering of the one he cherished the most.