【R76】Pull Out the Pin

Lena ran over from the office in a hurry, and stopped in front of Morrison's desk, "Aha, Jack, I knew you were here. Here you are - fresh coffee this morning." He said quickly in an English tone, then put two cups of Starbucks on the table, and spilled a few drops on the report spread out in front of Morrison due to excessive force, "Oh! Sorry, Jack! Do you need me to help? Do you make a copy?"

"No, thank you, this is yesterday's waste paper." Morrison quickly reached out to stabilize the paper cup, "Why are there two cups?"

"It's for Gabby," Lena said cheerfully. "You always know where he is, don't you? Because you're partners, best friends."

"Well," Morrison replied carefully, trying not to give away any telltale signs, "thank you for him."

Fortunately, Lena didn't care about his embarrassed expression: "You're welcome! See you later, Jack!"

Morrison looked down at the two steaming cups of coffee.He wasn't sure if Reyes and he were really together, after all, neither of them made it clear, no symbolic declarations, or nasty love words-obviously, Reyes is not very good at these things , but Morrison wasn't good at it either, which was a relief, he never wanted to make a relationship a tense affair.It all happened naturally, and Reyes started driving him to and from get off work, and sometimes Morrison would drive his own car, and then they would tell their co-workers that there was a shortage of parking spaces downstairs, so they would just drive one.Everyone believed it, after all, it wasn't a lie.

"Starbucks? Who else would drink this kind of thing now?" Reyes rubbed his nose in disgust as the familiar footsteps approached from far to near.He didn't go back to his seat directly, but made a deliberate circle and got behind Morris.He bent down arrogantly to ask for a kiss, and stretched out his hand to grab Morrison's neck back and forth and kneaded; Morrison sighed, and held up the coffee and placed it between the two:

"Take it."

"I don't want this nasty stuff," Reyes frowned, "I want—"

"—kiss me, I know." Morrison interrupted. "No, this is the office."

"I didn't know you were starting to resist office romances now."

"I have no objection, we haven't spoken to anyone about it, it would look... weird to them. Offices are for work."

He pushes Reyes away, stuffing the coffee under his nose. "Lena bought it. Drink it."

Reyes tilted his head and stared at him: "Then let's announce it directly?"

"No!" Morrison rolled his eyes, "The Talon investigation team has just been established, and I don't want to distract these children and make a fuss."

"It makes sense." Reyes was finally willing to take the cup, and put it to his lips in a symbolic gesture, "And we haven't slept yet."

Morrison gasped and took about five seconds to restrain himself from shouting to hide the heat in his cheeks. "I wish you would spend more time at work."

"Five minutes to work."

"I don't want to argue with you here—or flirt," Morrison warned him, but then, seeing Reyes's uninteresting look, added, "Maybe in private."

"Okay." Reyes shrugged, his beard ridiculously covered in coffee foam, which he didn't bother to wipe.He returned to his seat, pulled out a file from the bookshelf, and threw it over the partition, "Look at this."

Morrison held out his hand and took it. "What's this?"

"Our first mission together."

"Is this information you got yourself?" Morrison flipped through the folder, which contained several handwritten notes that contained a comprehensive background and an overview of the location of the operation.He picked out two paragraphs and read them carefully, both of which were Talon secrets that he had never seen before.

"Yes, and there's no electronic version," Reyes said. "I never record Talon stuff on my computer. It's so insecure now that hackers are rampant."

"I second," Morrison agreed.

Reyes gave him a few minutes to read through the notes: Lacroix had decided to do a stockpile for Talon in New York, and they were going to unload a crate of weapons and military equipment from the Mexican Dead from the port.It contains detailed records of chats between Lacroix and other Talons, but their structure is a little loose and fragmented like excerpts.Reyes also hand-drawn a map of the port, complete with his scribbled notes.

"Are we going to capture them?"

"To tell the truth, it is impossible for the police to completely intercept them. From what I have heard, they have prepared no less than three retreat plans, each of which is comprehensively considered, and I cannot disclose everything to you. Too suspicious," Reyes played with an orange on the table with his palm, "and these," he waved his hand, "you can use them as much as you want, they won't think of me."

"Thanks, buddy." Morrison raised his eyebrows curiously. "So, as a double agent, what will you offer them?"

"Some information." Reyes opened one corner of his mouth, "Your information. I told them that the Talon investigation team has been established. To be honest, Lacroix did not expect us to act so quickly."

"Our message?"

"The list of members in the group, and basic information - your files. Names, photos, ages, educational backgrounds... just like we also have a Talon file. Look at the last page."

Morrison flipped through the files, and there was indeed a page with Talon's list, titles, and criminal records.

"But I had a face-to-face meeting with Lacroix, when I was pretending to be an employee of a freight forwarding company."

"Well, I've actually confessed to her. I made it clear that I'm acting as a double agent now, but with allegiance to Talon because they pay me more. As for you, I told her you were my Partner in the police station, I have no choice but to cover your escape, otherwise I will be exposed directly, and losing me will not do Talon any good."

Morrison opened his mouth wide: "Did she believe it?"

"Who knows?" Reyes tossed the orange from one hand into the air before catching it with the other. "She said you really don't look like a freight forwarder. Your eyes are too determined. But Lacroix is ​​busy with Talon business and has no time for paranoia."

"I'm still a little worried," Morrison put away the information, "There are loopholes in this plan."

"The whole plan is full of holes, Jack." Reyes corrected him. "It's part of the nature of undercover operations. There is no plan at all. You just need to appease your target in this second and live through this second. Another second, another second."

"You will retreat if necessary, right?" Morrison asked worriedly. "This mission is too dangerous."

"I have my own definition of danger," Reyes replied.Morrison didn't like that answer, very, very much.He naturally changed the subject. "You should start preparing for the port roundup now, and let's see how capable those children are."

Morrison didn't say a word, and Reyes said to himself again: "I used to be the captain, leading a group of kids in their early twenties from birth to death. They are like a flock of sparrows, and the most troublesome thing is that they always Confusing crisis with excitement. So you need to follow their ass, pull their ears back from the threshold of hell, and give them a lesson-you will feel like an old mother, and you will lose yourself You take your life seriously, you will plug the holes and wipe their asses for your little boys. So," he took another sip of coffee, "after all these years, it would be more fun to carry a gun to your own death."

Morrison froze slightly, this was the first time he heard Reyes speak about his past.Reyes noticed his slightly surprised expression, and curled his lips indifferently:

"Did I scare you?"

"No!" Morrison flipped things on the table in a panic as if he had just woken up from a dream, "I'm glad to hear you talk about this..."

"You won't like it." Reyes snorted. "I don't like reminiscing about the past either."

He said something else and deliberately moved away from the topic.Morrison smiled, he knew Reyes' temper, and knew that there was always some naughtiness under his stern and serious appearance; he wanted to confide in Morrison, but it was always out of face, but Morrison felt that he It's half done.Probably because he smiled too brightly, Reyes' eyes began to evade.He doesn't do that often.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked angrily.

"Laughing at you, of course." Morrison winked at him, and Reyes threw the orange over his chest.

■

Reyes should be with Lacroix by now.

The autumn sun is starting to get cold and harsh.Hana complained about the sun while putting on sunglasses, and Morrison also opened the visor.They headed east toward the pier, flanked by McCree and Lena, followed by Zenyatta and Genji's black van.The early morning sky was a melancholy grayish white, like old sheets faded after a night of cold water soaking.They shuttled through several streets, taking advantage of rush hour traffic through the city.

Hana's hand holding the steering wheel was trembling slightly. She didn't know which one was more excited or nervous, but her face still kept the cheerfulness of eagerness to try. "Don't be afraid," Morrison comforted softly, "Just do as you did in training."

"I'm not afraid," Hana said loudly, following the navigation, "I'm just a little sleepy."

Morrison didn't want to expose the girl's little lies anymore.He picked up the communicator and said, "According to our plan, after three blocks, the three vehicles will spread out to the east, south and north respectively."

"receive."

After a while, they saw the sign that the pier was set up at the lower intersection.Morrison saw in the rearview mirror that the two cars behind him were turning in other directions at the fork in the road. "Go straight, very good." He encouraged Hana.The girl drove the car into the pier and stayed at the checkpoint for a while—showing the IDs to the guards, she quickly explained the situation to the staff with her eloquent tongue, and warned them to keep quiet and cooperate with the police.

"Jack." Zenyatta's calm voice came from the communicator, "Two black cars to the north are heading in your direction."

"Black Claw?"

"Not yet sure if it's Talon or the Dead Gang."

"Okay, keep your distance."

Morrison directed Hana to drive the car into the cargo ship unloading area and leave the passenger terminal where the flow of people began to increase.The speed of the car has been kept at about [-] yards, and Morrison quickly confirms whether all the routes around which the two sides can retreat are consistent with the plan.Reyes didn't offer a course of action for Talon, and if Morrison could do better than the conservatively planned goal this time, it would be considered a success.

Everything is going according to plan.I've arrived at the pier with Lacroix.Morrison's encrypted channel receives a message from Reyes.

The team has parked the car at the designated location as planned.They drew down the curtain of the side glass and waited in it.Morrison and Hana's stalking point is the gap between the two containers, which can just see the dock, but it is difficult to see from the dock. This is the perfect location provided by Reyes.Morrison stared at his phone, giving orders for various actions based on intermittent messages from his undercover partner.

Heading to Pier [-].

The Dead Gang sent two people to negotiate with us first.

The one on the far left was left unarmed.They are responsible for the handover.

"Jesse, pay attention to the gang of dead people on the far left. They are unarmed and break through there in an emergency."

"Look, they're coming!" Suddenly, Hana whispered, pointing to a cargo ship that was docking in the gap.The Dead Gang is easy to identify, they all like colorful hair or fluorescent tattoos, and their faces are typical South Americans.

"All teams, keep quiet," Morrison grabbed the communicator, "I will wait for the opportunity to issue an action order."

The Dead Gang, who was in charge of the negotiation, was talking to a Black Claw that they had seen in the information. Presumably they did not have too many pleasantries, and began to check the samples in the hands of the Dead Gang: several pistols and a special C4.After Talon nodded, they boarded a minivan and drove elsewhere to make a deal.

"They're gone," Morrison said. "White nine-seater van with no license plate. If you find anything, let us know immediately."

They waited for a while until Genji announced the van's presence at the southern lookout point. "Jack, they went up to a platform with an elevator, and I reckon you can see them from your vantage point."

"Okay." Morrison turned to Hana, "It's time to join Jesse."

According to their arrangement, if all goes well, Hana needs to go to McCree and Lena's car to provide fire cover for Morrison's next move.Hana took off her uniform jacket to reveal a pink tracksuit.Combine that with the prop box she hauls out of the back seat, and she looks like a lost college student who strayed into the loading bay.Morrison watched Hana leave the vicinity before looking away.

Morrison's nerves suddenly tightened—he saw Reyes and Lacroix standing on a high platform not far from him talking, like a fierce quarrel, and could only hear a few words in Lacroix's high-pitched voice.Reyes left after a few minutes, swaying a few times before disappearing from his sight, and Morrison could now only see Lacroix and another Talon looking out to sea from the platform.He fished his pistol from the butt—a rare chance, and if he could hit Lacroix, they might have saved them a difficult round-up.

But Morrison only got one shot.

He decided to do it anyway, even if Lacroix was safe, he could still buy time for the team to evacuate.Just as he was about to get out of the car to look for a shooting spot, his cell phone vibrated in his jacket pocket.His teammates would use the communicator to communicate with him, and now the only one who still calls him is Reyes.

Morrison ducked and retreated into the car. "Gabby?"

"It's me, Jack." Reyes' voice was lowered, and against the background noise, Morrison guessed it was the Dead Gang behind them because they were babbling Spanish.

"Are you safe?"

"Listen to me, Jack, Lacroix failed to get all the supplies in the third container. Thanks to you, Lacroix didn't dare to act rashly, and there was an accident. Only one-third of the cargo successfully landed, and the rest The other was detained in Florida. Talon was communicating with the Dead Gang, and the gang insisted that Talon pay half of the money." He paused, "If Talon compromises, the Dead Gang will come from the North within half an hour. Evacuate, and..."

Annoying background noise drowned out Reyes's voice, and Morrison could hear someone screaming, someone yelling angrily at the son of a bitch.

"Gabby," Morrison repeated, "are you safe?"

"No, damn it," Reyes said in a string of expletives, "Some guy from the dead gang came across my text message to you, and the dead gang didn't know I was a double agent, and he happened to know English... I This has to be dealt with.”

"I have the opportunity to raid Lacroix now, you must retreat..."

"I can not."

"Gabby, if he told Lacroix—"

"——So I'm going to solve this matter." Reyes roared out of breath.Now he sounded like he was running in a certain corridor, farther and farther away from the noise, "And you, now go and inform McCree to guard the south, and some Talon will retreat from there. I don't know Lacroix's actions for the time being." plan."

"If you dare to do something stupid—"

"I have to," Reyes said firmly.The call ended, leaving Morrison staring blankly at the mobile phone that gave the mechanical busy tone.Damn, damn, damn, he cursed in a low voice, Reyes, bastard, if you see him next time, you must peel his skin yourself——

But what he needs to be sure now is that he can still see Reyes alive.He put the pistol in the storage rack behind the steering wheel, making sure he could raise it within a second of any emergency.Morrison slammed the accelerator, and the car lurched out, which caused a commotion on the platform. Someone gave orders in Spanish, and suddenly there was a hail of bullets, and several bullets hit the rear windshield. , and then one directly shattered it, accompanied by a muffled sound piercing into the leather, and embedded in the back of the co-pilot's seat.

"What the fuck is this, Jack?" McCree screamed into the comm. "Why did they suddenly open fire?"

"I'm trying to attract their attention," Morrison made a sharp turn with one hand, scurrying through the narrow roads in the container area - he didn't know his driving skills were so good - and pulled the communicator to his mouth with the other hand Side, "Take someone to the south to intercept the Black Claw that is about to evacuate, it is best to catch a car or two of punks; Zenyatta, I need you to cover me, shoot a few shots from the tower..."

"What are you going to do, Jack?"

"Go to Reyes."

"He's still on mission—"

"I know, but I can't let him die here!"

Morrison made a circle, and the pursuit behind him eased up a lot. Zenyatta and Genji used light sniper rifles to attract a lot of firepower from a distance, but Morrison was still a little worried because Reyes once said that Lacroix She is a professional sniper. If she is forced to use a sniper scope, his team may suffer casualties.

Morrison looked around the cargo area, aiming at the only office building, which was the only place he could guess where Reyes might go: the sound of Reyes running on the phone was like It was in an empty corridor, and he also revealed that Talon had bribed the quarantine office at the port in advance.He parked his car a little further away and chose to run over.The surroundings were quiet, and the commotion he caused just now had caused most of the Black Claw and the Dead Gang to evacuate in a panic.The door of the office building was open, and the hall was in a mess, with posters and letters on the door plate scattered all over the place.

"Gabby? Reyes?" Morrison called down the dark corridor.Only Echo answered him.

He began to push the doors along the corridor to see one by one. Most of the rooms were empty, and occasionally a few thugs were lying unconscious on the floor.Then he stopped at the door of the bathroom, because there was a dark red pool of fresh blood, which was particularly glaring when rubbed against the white tiles.

"Reyes?"

Morrison pushed open the door, and the smell of blood almost made him bend over and spit it out.A corpse lay under the sink, and Morrison concluded that it was a corpse, because no living person would have a gash the size of a black hole in his chest.Shocking red everywhere, the deceased must have struggled violently during his lifetime, smashing the marble sink, and the public toilet paper was torn and white debris was everywhere.Reyes sat slumped aside, eyes closed, looking pained, pistol thrown at his feet.Morrison shuddered at the sight of his shirt, which was more deeply stained with blood.

He called Reyes' name and rushed to his side, frantically groping him all over to make sure that there were no bullet holes or scary knife wounds on his body, and Morrison also held his neck to check him The back of the head, luckily there's just a little chafing and redness there.Morrison let out a breath, and his nerves relaxed a little.He cupped Reyes' cheek and called him in a low voice:

"Gabby?"

He yelled for about 5 minutes, and then slapped him directly, which woke up Reyes who passed out.The deep-skinned undercover hummed and opened his eyelids, and the first sentence he saw clearly was: "Why the hell are you here?"

Now, nothing seemed to quench Morrison's vain anger.He slapped him again, which was much heavier than the last time, and Reyes cried out in pain:

"Are you crazy?"

Morrison grabbed Reyes by the collar: "You are so eager to die!"

"Are you blind? I'm alive and well—"

"So you killed him?"

"For God's sake, he put the pistol on me first!" Reyes said, rubbing his head, "And then we wrestled, and then his gun went off, bang! There was a hole in his chest."

"If it weren't for your shit luck, you would be the one with the big hole! Even if it wasn't for this guy from the Dead Gang, Lacroix, or Black Claw, anyone would kill you for being a traitor." Mo Leeson scolded him, "How could you confront him so recklessly?"

"I'm the one acting as a double agent, and I decide how to act." Reyes retorted, "If I don't come to him alone, as long as he calls out, I will be directly involved in Talon's undercover operation." was shot. Do you want that?"

"I hope you live longer."

"Survival comes next. I thought you'd figured that out since you were a cop."

Reyes stood up with the sink, then turned on the faucet to wash all the blood off his arm.Morrison refrains from rolling his eyes behind him, but the way Reyes looks so relaxed, as if the man who'd been fighting an enemy a few minutes ago and hanging by a thread, was just another idiot is irritating.

"What are you going to do now?" Morrison asked.

"I've told Lacroix that I'm going to evacuate myself," Reyes stared at him in the mirror, "so I'm going to go back to the office, get dressed, get something to eat, do a briefing. Then go home and get a good night's sleep .”

Morrison took out his mobile phone and looked at it. There was a text message from McRae: A car was captured from the Black Claw and the Dead Gang, and they were about to be escorted back to the police station.Black Claw only took one-third of the goods, and the other materials have been paid in full.

"We made it."

"But you wish we could do better, don't you? You always aim higher." Reyes snarled at him, and Morrison wasn't sure if he was really praising him, or just doing what he always did. Confused, "Are you satisfied with today, Captain?"

In the end, Reyes' voice dropped, and he lowered his eyes, and when he raised them again, there was a bit of tenderness.Morrison called him an "asshole" while stretching out his arms and hugging him tightly.Reyes used more strength than he did, panting heavily and spitting in his ear, so real, even though his skin was still slightly cold, and there was still red blood left by the cruel reality.Reyes kissed his forehead, whispering bits and pieces of words that Morrison couldn't understand.Morrison closed his eyes and imagined that they were in the vast Indiana wilderness (not some bloody sink and a dead body!).Whenever he wants to relax from tension, he does it.

"We have to get the logistics team to clean up here. I'm going to throw up." After a long and short two-minute hug, Reyes spoke first.

Morrison certainly agrees.

TBC