+18 - eps 6-11 - A unique city. A unique police team led by a unique woman. And an uptight fed set on a collision course.
On the second installment of the Blackbird Series, new cases push Brock and Gillian to work closer together, even in order t...
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All over the Heights, they pulled over to listen to Aldana's upset report. Gillian's phone buzzed.
"Hold on, lads. What is it, T?"
"It's Brandon, and it's bad news," the tech said from Gillian's house. "I just got an alert from a tech friend with the CAC."
Brock added in a whisper, "The Crimes Against Children Unit."
"They've found a new online auction at a pedophile ring in the deep web, and the description of the auctioned boy matches Jimmy's. It's due in three hours. They're sending me everything as we speak, so I'm gonna try to check if it's really him and see if I can track them."
Gillian disconnected and geared in, cursing under her breath. "That's what the thug at the motel meant! They're giving Jimmy away to the highest bidder. If we don't find him soon, he's gonna be in the wind by sunrise."
Not a minute later, Fred whispered on his radio, "Guys, I got something."
Gillian stepped on the gas as she spoke on the radio. "Fred, give us your twenty. Ron, get us a SWAT team and at least one ambulance. Bob, you and Taylor take care of the people in the neighboring houses."
Fred tiptoed back to his car. He'd stopped to check on one of the addresses for vacant houses Tanya had sent them, and noticed there was too much activity next door for that neighborhood at two a.m. of a working day.
He'd walked down the driveway and risked a look over the privet fence separating the houses, just in time to spot a man looking out a side window. It was Collins, one of the kidnappers, and he held a shotgun in his hands.
Now Fred waited on the sidewalk as the other cars converged there, lights off, pulling over fifty yards away from the house.
Banks and Taylor went all the way around, to get to the neighboring house from the other side without being seen. Tanya pulled the owner's number, and Banks called to inform him of the situation and instruct him to get his family out without a fuss. When the man and his sleepy and scared family got out the backdoor, they found Banks and Taylor waiting to lead them to their cars.
Soon cruisers blocked both corners, and the SWAT team joined Gillian's. Hank went to talk to Thompson, the team leader, while Fred gave Gillian, Brock and Ron the quick tour.
The vacant house and the one where they thought Jimmy was being held shared a mirrored design, so both driveways ran together, a five-feet-tall hedge in between. They went up to twin garages—square sheds built ten yards away from the houses, near the end of the backyards.
Gillian went around the empty garage and checked that the fence went on a few more yards, up to the property limit. Back with the others, she saw that on the other side, the stolen car was parked right outside the garage, just five steps away from the kitchen backdoor, facing the street. Ready to hit the road at the first sign of danger, she thought.
They were heading back to the street when a movement at one of the upper windows caught Gillian's attention. She looked up, just in time to spot the small figure looking out. Jimmy! She quickly opened her jacket to show the boy her Kevlar reading "POLICE", then took a finger across her lips. The little boy in the window nodded and vanished in the shadows of the room.
They hurried to get out of sight from the other windows of the house and Gillian turned to Brock. "They want the money, or they would've killed Jimmy after what happened at the motel," she said. "We gotta use that."
"You wanna lure them out," Brock muttered, and looked past her at the garage. "Out back, to the car."
"Can you instruct the SWAT team?" Brock didn't hide his surprise at her request. She just said, in that plain way of hers, "If they don't take your orders..."
