A Splinter in the Pilaster

[Unit 202, 420 Al Retro Road | 0900 Central Time, Day 2]

The door to Becks' apartment slowly creaked open.

Sui pointed his G18 pistol at the small door gap as he pushed the door open.

There seemed to be no one from the angle he is entering the door from.

Swinging the door open, Sui shifted his aim to his left--

"--whatchu paranoid ass doing, ain't no way those BP fools are going to hide in my closet!" exclaimed Becks from behind Sui.

Sui let down his aim as Becks entered the apartment from behind him. "You can never be too sure."

"How 'bout getting a towel for Morgan here?"

"Not sure you even have a clean towel, to begin with."

In response to Sui's remark, Becks marched towards the oaken wardrobe, opened it, and shuffled his hanger-bound clothes to the side, revealing a pile of neatly folded clean (and dry) towels at the base of the wardrobe. He then performed an open-handed gesture directed at the towels while facing Sui as if to say, "do you see the towels now?"

Sui's response was a brief one. "Huh."

Soon enough Morgan was wrapped in two of Becks' towels, after which Becks asked "Yo Morgan, you hungry?"

Morgan nodded, but she wasn't the only one responding to the question. "Yes Becky, I'm hungry after all the stealing and wheeling I had to do this morning, thanks so much for asking," chimed in Sui.

Becks turned towards Sui, perplexed. "Man, if anything you should be asking me if I'm hungry. I did the stealing, the wheeling, the crashing, the sinking, the swimming, the running, the other stealing, and guess what, the other wheeling! Hell, even Morgan did more work than you getting soaked up like that, and we're doing this for her!"

"Okay," retaliated Sui, raising a finger. "First and foremost, you agreed to the plan. And secondly, we're not doing this for her, we're doing this for Mendez."

"Shit man, my point is--"

"Boys!" interrupted Morgan. "How does pizza sound?"

And just like that, the tense air in the room dissipated. "Yeah." "Sounds good."

There were knocks on the door. Becks opened it to reveal Foy.

"'Sup, we're ordering pizza. You in?"

"Sure, why not."

"Hmm, I thought a seasoned MMA veteran such as yourself would avoid eating pizza," remarked Sui, who is now sitting on Becks' bed scrolling through his phone.

Foy shrugged. "It's been five years since I took a slice, and looking at what I've been through lately, I think I deserve a cheat day."

"Amen to that," mumbled Becks behind him.

Morgan popped another question again. "Toppings?"

"Green peppers," said Sui without looking away from his phone.

"Mushroom," answered Becks.

"Olives," replied Foy.

"Chives," closed Morgan. "Alright, we're set--where's Mendez?"

"He's at the police station answering some questions."

"The police station?" barged Sui.

"Yeah, is there something wrong?"

"You know which one?"

"Not sure... why?"

Sui flipped his phone towards everyone to reveal a live news coverage about the assault on the Richardson Police Precinct. It displayed the state of a devastated--but structurally intact--police station with footage of police officers receiving medical attention from first responders alongside body bags of those that got killed in the shootout. The gang also noticed one of the surviving police officers interviewed--the one with a short spiky brown hair--is identified as Detective Callum McConley.

"I mean Mendez could be at a different station but seeing that he's a bit of a magnet for these types of things..." Sui's voice trailed off.

That's when Foy's phone rang.

It was Mendez.

"Hello, are you alright?"

"Heh, news travel fast?"

"It's literally on the news right now. Where are you?"

"On the bus, five minutes out I think."

"Well, I hope it actually takes five minutes..." Foy noticed Morgan gesturing him to ask Mendez about his choice of pizza topping. "...also we're ordering pizza, which topping do you want?"

There was a moment of contemplation on Mendez' side. "Pepperoni."

"Cool," said Foy as he leaned out of the phone to inform Morgan.

"Right, meet you guys back at the crib."

[Unit 202, 420 Al Retro Road | 0915 Central Time, Day 2]

Becks opened the door to Mendez.

"Pizza here yet?" asked the guest.

"Nah, twenty minutes out," answered the host. "What the hell happened, man?"

"BP sniffed me all the way to the precinct. It's kind of impressive to be honest," admitted Mendez. "Thanks a lot for handling the Morgan situation by the way. You and Sui."

"Anytime. Just buy me some new clothes, this one's soaked up," replied Becks nonchalantly. "They capped all the cops in there?"

"They would've if I didn't stick around, which I did, and I got some new friends and a brand-new intel."

"Which is?"

"Hold on," reeled Mendez, turning towards Morgan. "Morgan, you alright?"

"Just a bit cold," said Morgan warmly, still huddled in Becks' towels. "The plan turned out splendidly, more than I thought it would actually."

"I'll call the PD, get you into witness protection--while keeping you 'dead' of course," Mendez then turned to Foy. "Foy, you got that phone?"

Foy's pulled out Oakley's phone from his pocket.

"Cops gave me this address: 127 Kincaid Street," recalled Mendez. "Cross-reference it with Oakley's phone and see if they've been using it for something."

While Sui silently typed away on his laptop, Becks asked Mendez, "Cop that gave it to you, he got a name?"

"A detective. Goes by McConley."

"Shi~t, man appeared on the news just now. Didn't namedrop you though."

"Smart guy. Prevents BP from knowing we're working together."

"They probably already know anyway, but not mentioning your name prevents him--and you--from getting unwanted attention," deduced Foy.

"True that," remarked Mendez, who noticed Sui's gesture at him. "Got something?"

"Regular shipments to and from this address labeled as 'DR', which means..."

"...arms and munitions. It's an armory."

Becks cracked his knuckles in excitement. "We're gonna hit the gun shop, Mendez?"

"Yep, listen up," Mendez turned to his crew. "We've already started doing this anyway with the cargo ship hit, but we're gonna go for BP's contraband first. Supplies and all that. Thanks to their unfortunate shift in business model, BP's been relying a lot on their skin trade product. We hit that alongside anything that supports it--infrastructure, munitions, supply lines--rest of the pillars will tumble."

Sui nodded in understanding. "No supply means no income, and no income means no connections and no influence."

"So Cezaro Caesarino goes out first?" asked Becks.

"Yeah, he's first on our list, but soon as we close in on him, I feel like Kenburn and Serizawa's going to scramble and try to cover his ass, so we have to move quick and watch out for counterattacks."

Sui leered at Becks. "In case you forget, Kenburn and Serizawa's the other top lieutenants of BP, Becky."

"No shit."

"Do you think they already figured out your next move?" pondered Foy.

"Pretty sure they do, I feel the armory is going to be a hard one."

"Well it's never been easy anyway, so why start now?" quipped Becks.

"Which is why I made some friends in the PD, but keep in mind they got a mole for BP in there."

"So you're saying there's a chance this 'armory' can turn out to be a trap?" asked Sui, a concerned look washing over his face.

Mendez nodded. "They've been investigating BP for months and they haven't made progress. Someone's feeding BP information, keeping them one step ahead of the PD."

"So what do we do if the cops ask around? Aren't they gonna be suspicious if we play Charlie Chaplin with them?" asked Becks again.

"We gotta keep our mouths tight when dealing with the PD. Not shut, just tight. Tell them the truth, but NOT the whole truth."

Becks leaned back on his seat. "Never been a big fan of the cops anyway," he said. "When do we start?"

Mendez took a seat on Becks' bed and lied on his back. "After the pizza comes, of course. I'm starving."