Page 22 of Under Cover
“I do,” Crosby said behind him, and Garcia grimaced. Oh no, white boy, donotget into this.
“You sticking up for your buddies?” Morrison sneered.
“My team knows I’ve got their backs,” Crosby said composedly. “But if you’d let Swan talk, he had an answer for you. You wanted to wave your dick around, and you didn’t give him a chance.”
Morrison’s arm shot out in what Garcia would later recognize as an attempt to take Crosby down the way the class advocated—without excessive force.
But Crosby dodged the hand coming in, grabbed the arm attached, and pulled Morrison’s shoulder forward while sticking out his own leg. The result was he took Morrison down from behind. Morrison ended up on his ass, lookingverysurprised, and before he could launch himself at Crosby—and Garcia read the intent in his eyes—Crosby held his hand out. “Nice charge,” he said smoothly. “Want a hand up?”
Morrison took three deep breaths and glared, and Crosby kept his hand out, saying, “Swan, do you want to tell us what was on your mind?”
“Thank you, sir,” Manny Swan said, and Garcia could tell it took all his courage to do it too. He was the new guy, and this situation had gotten ugly fast. “I was laughing because Morrison was telling us that the easiest way to take a guy down was from behind, at the knees, and we’d just finished a psychology seminar on de-escalation. I was going to say the easiest way to take a guy down was to talk to him and get him to see reason if you can, and if you can’t, to make sure your partners are behind him to initiate the takedown. You can have force without excess, sir.”
Crosby grinned. “God, the kid’s smart. Anybody see a hole in that plan?”
“Well, it helps if you wait for your backup,” Natalia drawled, and Crosby grimaced good-naturedly.
Morrison made his move then, grabbing Crosby’s hand and trying to yank him down to the mats in what Garcia thought was an instigation to an out-and-out brawl.
Crosby leaned back, though, falling back onto the mat and pulling Morrison forward so he sprawled on his stomach in front of Crosby’s outstretched legs. While he was there, Gail took one arm and Natalia took the other, while Joey Carlyle sat on his ass and hollered, “Ride ’em, cowboy!”
Gail hauled Morrison’s arm behind his back, and Natalia took hold of both wrists and pushed Morrison’s face against the mat.
“Now I’m sure,” she said, barely breathing hard, “that what you just did was part of a teachable moment, Agent Morrison, but you need to be very,verycareful how you present your lessons to this team. We aren’t held back by protocol, and very often we are pursuing perpetrators who have killed, and we expect them to kill again. So we aren’t all starry-eyed about our jobs, and wewillrespond with force, do you understand me?”
“Yes, Special Agent Denison,” Morrison said meekly.
“If I let you up, are you going to try that shit again against my team?”
“No, ma’am,” Morrison said, his words muffled by the mat.
“Then we’re going to let you up. But I warn you, one more attempt to take one of us outnotin the parameters of the course will lead you to a world of hurt.”
“Understood, ma’am.”
Gail got up first and Carlyle next, but they stayed close enough to help Natalia up while the rest of the team closed ranks against Morrison.
“Do you have any exercises you’d like us to try?” Natalia asked sweetly.
“Sure,” Morrison said through gritted teeth as he pushed up to his feet. “The takedown I was attempting against your man puts your opponent flat on his back.” He glared at the unfriendly faces around him. “I’m sure you’d love to tell me why that’s a bad idea.”
“Agent Swan?” Natalia prompted.
Manny answered, “If your opponent has a weapon anywhere on their person, you’re toast.” Morrison grunted in response.
“Garcia?” Denison said, nodding at Calix.
“Even if they don’t have a weapon, pulling them to their feet requires an officer to let their guard down. It should only be done if you have backup. Otherwise you’re putting yourself at risk from an accessory, if there is one around, or the opponent, if they’re in the mood for an out-and-out brawl.”
Morrison grunted again. “You’ve been trained,” he said. He gave Natalia a sour look. “What in the hell amIdoing here?”
“We believe that all the agencies have something to teach us,” Natalia said pleasantly. And then without changing her expression by so much as a whisker, she lowered the air temperature in the gym by at least ten degrees. “We usually hope it’s not by negative example.”
Morrison inclined his head. “Of course.” And with that, he turned toward the rest of them and had them practice the takedown—and effective countermeasures—in pairs, which was fine with Garcia.
He’d been wanting to wrestle with Crosby since he’d shown up that first day. Seeing him take on an opponent twice his size hadn’t eased that itch one bit.
They circled each other Greco-Roman style for a few, sizing each other up, looking for an in. Garcia was watching carefully to see if Crosby’s ribs still hurt, but if they did, he was masking it well.