Page 138 of The Right to Remain

“There,” said Crawford, pointing at another monitor. “When the mission goes green, Team One will blast and breach the garage door. Team Two will advance from the north end of the alley, Team Three from the south. Aronberg is behind the dumpster midway down the alley. Knight is with him.”

Andie feared the worst. “Was Theo Knight the shooter?”

Crawford seemed surprised by the question. “No. It was a gunrunner named Baptiste. Knight’s return fire drove him back inside the warehouse.”

“Wait,” said Andie. “Theo wasprotectingAronberg?”

“Well, yeah,” said Crawford, still sounding confused. Then he looked at Tidwell. “You haven’t told her?”

Andie no longer needed to be told. “Theo’s an informant,” she said, the picture becoming clear to her. There was both relief and pride for Theo in her voice, both of which were outweighed by her fear for his safety.

“An informant in deep shit right now, I’m afraid,” said Crawford.

“Deeper than he needs to be,” said Tidwell. He was standing infront of monitor number five, an aerial view from a drone hovering directly over the warehouse.

“That’s a new feed,” said Crawford. “The drone just launched.”

Andie checked the same monitor and immediately put her ASAC’s concern into words.

“If Team One breaches the garage door, and Teams Two and Three shut off the alley, there’s only one thing Baptiste can do.” Andie placed her finger on the monitor, directly over the two men in the alley behind the dumpster.

“Take hostages,” said Tidwell, totally with her.

“We need SWAT to stand down on the blast and breach of the garage door,” she told her ASAC. “They should push Baptiste and his team in the opposite direction, away from the alley and out the garage door.”

“Agree,” said Tidwell.

“Do we have a real-time feed from the team yet?” she asked.

Crawford checked monitors nine and ten. “Coming up now. Sanchez is team leader.”

In Andie’s experience, the live-feed video came from a night-vision field camera mounted on the team leader’s helmet. Two other team members—“breachers,” the first to enter—also had mounted cameras. The technology allowed the command center to watch the operation unfold in real time, through SWAT’s eyes. A bone microphone and headset provided audio communication.

Andie picked up the microphone. “Sanchez, this is Agent Henning. I have ASAC Tidwell with me. We need you to stay yellow.”

“We’re green on my count of five,” he said, but it sounded more like a statement to his team than a response to Andie.

“Sanchez, stay yellow,” said Andie.

“Five, four—”

“Audio problem,” said Crawford. “He can’t hear you.”

“Three, two.”

“Sanchez!” Andie shouted.

“One.”

The real-time video feed from the mounted cameras became a blur, as SWAT burst into action.