Page 16 of Fire and Smoke (Nothing Special #9)

Lawson (Law) Sheppard

Law glared at the task force training lot like it owed him money.

The simulated battlefield stretched for half a block, outlined with demolished walls, concrete slabs, stripped car frames, and blackened apartment windows. It was designed with a lot of places to hide and even more places to be killed.

Syn’s gravelly voice cut across the field. “You’re not here to look good. Today we wanna see your instinctive survival skills.”

Law shrugged. “I’ve been surviving all my life…so no problem.”

Wes rolled his eyes at him.

The enforcers were stretching, cracking knuckles, and grinning at them like rabid animals.

Ruxs and Green were already talking shit, and taking bets on how many taser shots they’d get in.

Steele was wrapping his hands with athletic tape as if he was prepping for a sparring match. Tech adjusted his bow tie a second before he attached two suppressors to his twin Glocks.

“What the hell? Are you guys using live ammunition?” Wes yelled.

“Hollow points.” Tech chuckled. “Same impact but not lethal. I still suggest you try to avoid getting hit.”

“Fuckin’ seriously, Law,” Wes bitched.

Behind the enforcers were three of Captain Hart’s SWAT members, wearing tactical gear and cunning smiles.

The female in the front had smooth brown skin and long black dreadlocks that she’d wrapped into a thick ponytail. She swept her gaze over the field as if she’d already calculated an effective game plan.

“This is my sergeant, Dinah.” Hart thumbed over his right shoulder. “Don’t be offended if she takes you down.”

“ When she takes you down.” she corrected.

Syn gathered everyone in a tight huddle. “I need to see their reaction time, and just how much training these pseudo rookies are going to need before we can use ’em on the streets.”

He turned his attention back to them. “You’ve got a ten minute head start.”

“Let’s do this.” Green bounced on his toes.

“Try not to break any bones or cause any permanent damage, fellas,” Day instructed from up in the observation booth.

God and Hart stood silently beside him, arms crossed, glare fixed. Judging.

If he wanted to see what they could do, Law was about to show them.

Syn blew a whistle. “Begin!”

They ran a while, putting as much distance between them and the team. Wes grabbed Law’s arm and yanked him behind an overturned vehicle.

“You okay, Wes?”

He nodded, already sounding winded, his gaze wild. Law cupped his cheeks in both hands.

“We can do this,” he stressed. “Think of all the times we’ve worked with the stunt teams on set or fooled around with the fight choreographers, studying the moves. You remember?”

Wes exhaled. “I remember.”

“Okay then. Let’s do this. We may be Hollywood, but we’re from the same streets they’ve simulated here.”

After a few seconds, Wes grinned and fist-bumped him. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

“We need elevation,” Law muttered.

“And a distraction,” Wes added.

Law reached into his side cargo pocket and pulled out a vapor sphere. It was the size of a golf ball, matte white and smooth. Just one of the many he carried.

He cracked the core on the asphalt, smiling as it hissed, then burst open.

White vapor swirled around them, light at first, then billowing into a thick ball of smoke. The color darkened from pearl gray to solid black, like good turning evil.

Wes coughed. “You sneaky motherfucker.”

Heavy footsteps began closing in.

“I see ’em,” Ruxs shouted. “Green, take the left side.”

Law heard the thunk of boots at the front of the car. He reached back blindly and grabbed Wes’s wrist. “Move, move, move.”

They ducked low, weaving through the wreckage as the smoke swallowed the space around them.

But the enforcers weren’t just detectives…they were efficient hunters.

A strong hand latched onto Law’s bicep.

“Gotcha, pretty boy.”

It was Ruxs. Law could already recognize his confident drawl.

Within a second, Wes yanked a small square of metallic silver paper from his vest pocket, snapped it with a flick of his wrist to his Zippo, and tossed it in Ruxs’s face.

It ignited midair and flared bright orange as sparks hissed like firecrackers.

Ruxs yelled, swatting at his face as if it were on fire.

“What the fuck?”

Law cursed as they took off in the opposite direction with Green now closing in on them and Steele a few yards away.

Dinah’s voice came in sharp and too close behind them. “I’ve got visual, east end!”

“Dammit,” Wes growled. “You take her. I’ll take Steele.”

They moved together, dodging and ducking, sliding through narrow gaps, throwing flash papers and vapor projectiles left and right and using any cover they could. Fond memories from all those years on film sets flooded back.

By the time Syn blew the whistle again, half the team was coughing, the other half wiping soot from their faces.

He and Wes stood there, untouched and very smug.

Ruxs grabbed Wes by his vest straps. “You threw fuckin’ fire in my face, asshole.”

Wes scoffed. “Stop whining. It’s just harmless flash papers.”

Green laughed manically. “I want some of those.”

Dinah nodded at Law. “That smoke was crazy. I couldn’t see shit.”

“I call ’em cloaking pods,” Law returned her fist bump. “I got a ton of ’em.”

“Good.”

Before he could tell her more about them, a slow clap came from behind him.

God descended the steps and came at them, no smile, no warmth, just sternness.

“You caused temporary blindness to four of my enforcers and probably gave Hart’s SWAT team smoke inhalation damage.”

Law cut his eyes to Wes.

Day leaned over the railing with that ever-present steel thermos in his hand and yelled down from the observation booth.

“If you didn’t know, that’s God’s way of saying he was right when he told us to bring you guys on. And it’s as close to a compliment as you’re gonna get.” Day nodded. “Well done, fellas. You shocked the fuck outta me, and that doesn’t happen often.”

Wes shifted closer to him, and Law could feel the adrenaline still pumping through him.

Law wanted to take advantage of it, and he would the moment they were alone.