[The Rookie S1E16]
Ben stood in Nolan's guest house with crossed arms and a deep frown.
Together with Captain Andersen from the Mid-Wilshire precinct, he was overseeing the installation of additional security features like a direct line to dispatch for any and all alerts.
"Are you sure you don't want to spend the night at my home? I have the extra room," Ben offered again as Nolan came over to the two after helping the technical team with his preferences for the position of the equipment.
"I can't have you put Anna at risk," Nolan denied with a shake of his head.
He pretended to be calm, but Ben could see his tense muscles, the twitchy eyes trying to look at everything all at once. It made sense - Nolan had already been shot at during work. But someone had just tried to gun him down with a machine gun in a parking lot hours after work.
"They don't know where I live. Or they can't get past the security," Ben pointed out. "Didn't get a single vandal yet at my parents' house after I moved. And Luca and Street said they stopped coming to my old home, too."
Nolan still shook his head.
"Suit yourself," Ben relented with a small shrug. And suddenly turned a little awkward. Thankfully Nolan didn't know about Jeffrey Baptiste entering his home, managing to plant explosives.
"So what now? Do I go to work tomorrow? Or would I just put everyone in danger?"
"Ultimately, the choice is yours," Captain Andersen replied evenly. "Nobody can force you to put yourself in harm's way. Personally, I think it shouldn't be the criminals who tell us how to do our jobs and live our lives."
Nolan stayed quiet for a while as the three watched the other two rookies, West and Chen, ask questions to the technical team.
The old rookie was thinking about his options, deciding on postponing making a decision and asked, "Where do we go from here?"
"We decimate their business until they lift the green light," Ben explained, his expression stony. "I have cultivated half a dozen CIs with ties to the front and their business partners. I already cashed in all the good will I generated with Vice. Until they do what we tell them, we will roll up their entire operation."
"Sex workers, porn, guns, money laundering, tomorrow morning we will hit it all," Andersen agreed with a solemn nod. "Every stash house. Every John. Every piece of smuggling that we know about will end tomorrow."
Nolan tried his best to wrap his head around the massive undertaking that would begin tomorrow, until he furrowed his brow and asked, "If we know about all of it - why are we waiting until now to put a stop to it?"
Andersen gave Ben a look and asked, "Do you want to take it?"
He grimly nodded and explained, "These businesses operate because they meet a demand. Cutting off one supply stream won't cut off the demand. We know about their business and stop the most egregious offenses, but the devil you know is better than an evil we have no control over. The evidence from my undercover op was used to map out entire criminal networks - but some still operate."
"So we allow crime to happen?" Nolan asked incredulously.
"Police work isn't all black and white, Officer Nolan," Andersen cut in. "In an ideal world, it would be. But like Detective Weiss said; it's better we know about it than constantly having to deal with new players that deal entirely in the dark."
Ben was glad the captain took it - because in his opinion the police and the FBI especially allowed way too much in the name of investigations. He didn't hold the tactic in very high regard.
"And if you do leave your house, you will see how LA can't just bankroll operations like this constantly. I heard from my commander that every single SWAT team was called in for tomorrow. I guess the same is true for every officer who works at Mid-Wilshire unless they are on night shift," Ben said with a look for the captain instead of showing his displeasure, she nodded. The detective continued, "And there's still the prison system and the justice system to consider. The holding cells will burst at their seams. AGs from outside counties will come in to assist with clerical work. Judges will hear twice as many cases and rush through trials - for lawyers it will be a hectic day but a lucrative one. As long as we get it all right, those cases will almost all see plea deals anyway, but the damage will be done."
"Plea deals? So they'll get off lightly?"
Ben shook his head again.
"Definitely not. We are doing this because they are trying to murder a police officer in cold blood. The judges and the AGs will not be lenient and the lawyers will know what's up. If the defense tries to stall, the judges will not allow for it to happen. It's a bad time to be a member of the Southern Front."
"That sounds way too simple," Nolan mumbled with a small frown.
Ben patted his shoulder and reassured, "Nothing about this is simple. Without solid police work and a faith in our justice system, they'll all walk free - figuratively. It's on us to make them see the errors in their ways."
-----
Ben and Sergeant Grey met up at the prison where the leader of the Southern Front was incarcerated. It was his son who arranged for the green light on John Nolan, because Nolan 'disrespected' the son's girlfriend by accidentally ripping her dress during what was supposed to be a routine call.
"Are you sure you want to talk to him alone?" Grey asked. "I came with you for a reason."
"If Midas is not receptive to my arguments, maybe I'll ask for you to step in and intimidate him," Ben argued with a wink. "But no. Midas knows me. Well, he knows my alter ego, but he knows me all the same. He and I had a run in when I was undercover."
"And you don't want me to go in because you don't want others to know how this run-in went?"
Ben regarded his former TO before shrugging and explaining, "I beat three of his men into the ICU when they tried to assault a girl right in front of me. When the rest of their crew tried to retaliate with their usual macho bravado, I broke another arm, an ankle, and a couple of fingers without getting much more than a few bruises."
"Damn," Grey muttered under his breath. "So there's bad blood between you?"
"Midas and Kraft weren't in the same league. They were essentially the same kind of person, but Kraft simply had more connections and more ambition. As such, Midas had to take the loss and let the matter go when the call came," Ben said before they reached the cell block where Midas was locked up in solitary.
"So there's definitely bad blood. After all, Kraft no longer shields you."
"It's what I'm counting on," Ben revealed with a wide smile.
Grey just sighed, but he knew his protegé was friends with Officer Nolan. Ben wouldn't just put the man in continued danger by making everything worse. And if he did, Grey trusted that there would be consequences. After all - the SWAT liaison detective was in full gear, including a turned on body cam.
The two finally stood in front of a cell, the guard guiding them looked up to a camera and gave a hand signal. The door buzzed open and the man opened it for Ben, who stepped inside with a determined look.
"You! The fuck are you doing here!?" Midas angrily demanded before the guard closed the door again as discussed.
Ben wore a body cam to reassure the warden that there were no potential legal responsibilities for the prison in case a fight broke out between the two. But nobody knew that Ben had purposefully disabled this device's microphone. That would only be revealed if anybody would ever check the footage and then it would likely no longer matter.
Ben wasn't here to beat up the man, after all.
"Midas. We should meet like this more often. Love the look," Ben greeted with a sneer. The detective studied the prisoner's face for a moment to gauge the man's ability to read a room. "You know why you are here because the guards told you when they moved you, so you must know what I am doing here. Your moron of a son is costing you millions."
Midas was considering whether or not to use the shiv he managed to bring with him, but ultimately decided against it. He knew that the detective in the cell with him was much better in a fight than him. His men had fought dirty and Ben had still put them all in the hospital.
Back in the day, Ben Muller was rumored to give martial arts lessons to some of the members of the White Front, but Midas at one point didn't think much of it. Only when half a dozen of his men were left in broken heaps over what he thought was a drunken dispute did he truly believe that Ben was something else.
If only his boss, Kraft, hadn't called him to surrender all the CCTV footage of the fight, he might have had something to blackmail Ben with. As it stood, however, Midas had nothing that could threaten the decorated officer.
That Kraft had called him to order his men to stop messing with the 'IT guy' - that Kraft had heard at all about it because he wasn't even on the continent - told Midas all he needed to know about Ben's standing in the White Front at the time. He only knew now that it had all been a false front. That he could have kept a copy of the video. That the 'IT guy' wasn't what he seemed to be.
Midas regretted most of his decisions in regards to Ben and the extinct White Front.
Thinking up to this point, Midas turned angry and disdainfully spat, "You dirty rat think I'd listen to anything you would say?"
Ben looked at the wad of saliva near his feet with a small frown that he slowly leveled at the prisoner still sitting on his bed.
"Don't listen to me. I beg you. Because if Cole doesn't rescind the kill order on the rookie, I know I will eventually be able to put him in the ground," Ben bluffed with a cocky smirk.
"You wouldn't dare," Midas threatened and stood up.
"Wouldn't I? What do you know about me that is true?"
Midas' nostrils flared, but in the end he didn't threaten the detective again.
"I can't take off the green light. Cole would lose all his standing. There's no honor in it," the leader of the Southern Front said with gritted teeth.
"That is a you-problem. Make him see reason or the Southern Front ends this week. Don't forget, Kraft bankrolled you at one point. I know all your dirty little secrets, even the ones Vice never heard of," Ben pointed out without gloating anymore. He didn't need to. It wasn't needed in this position. The truth was sufficiently alarming for the incarcerated neonazi.
"We found your house once, we can do it again," Midas uttered threateningly with narrowed eyes. "Kraft had many powerful friends, as long as you miss-"
The gunrunner suddenly stopped. Something about Ben's demeanor made him stop his rambling. The bluff he was about to play to intimidate the undercover cop who was responsible for the dismantling of his 'parent' organization seemed to have hit a brick wall instead of a cunning opponent in a poker game.
"You'd better start that plan with killing me, because the moment I see any of your men near my house again, I will drop off of the face of the earth and hunt down everything you love before I take you from this prison and hand you over to the mother of my child," Ben promised. Midas didn't understand the bit about the supposed mother, but something about the tone of voice told him all he needed to know. "And if you think that is a bluff, see what I will do to Cole if he doesn't stop with his shit-brained attempt at flattering his baby mama."
"Heh," Midas scoffed in disdain, thinking that the detective had much more to lose than him - he'd at best get out of prison in his twilight years. But from the chatter of his gang, he learned that Ben had a daughter and the man just confirmed it.
"I know about Brock and Leslie," Ben whispered - as if realising what the man in front of him thought about. "And I know where they live. The moment anybody touches a hair on my girl, I will end everyone involved."
Midas' eyes widened. Nobody knew about the twins he fathered just before getting sentenced. Nobody… except for Martin Kraft with whom Midas had arranged sufficient funds for their upbringing. Midas had traded his freedom for certain insurances with Kraft… insurances that meant nothing now that the leader of the White Front was dead.
"Fuck," Midas cursed. His eyes rested on Ben's bodycam, and they suddenly widened again when he thought that Ben dared to tell him all of this while it was on. Again, he whispered, "Fuck."
"Fine, I'll tell Cole to stop his shit," the gangleader relented. "But you only made enemies today. You played your hand like you're holding pocket aces in a game of Uno."
"You think you could arrange for your twins to disappear. For you to bring all you cherish to safety before exacting your revenge. For Cole to doublecross me at an opportune time and make it look like an accident, while telling the underground world that it was you. Your Southern Front will weather the storm and come out even more infamous and influential. For whoever inherited Kraft's position will deal with me and it won't be mutually assured destruction, only my destruction," Ben narrated and stepped on Midas' feet, his body cam perfectly angled to not catch the interaction.
As Midas tried not to squeal in pain, Ben leaned forward.
"Platzer is one of my people," he whispered and leaned back as a sneer finally made its way on his face.
Christian Platzer. A member of the Southern Front. An accountant who was recruited just as he finished his community college degree in finance because his late father was one of Midas' right-hand men.
The man who pretended to be the step-father to Midas' children on the outside to keep an eye on them and give regular reports.
Someone who was ready to take the children to CPS the moment Ben called and the situation needed it. Because Christian Platzer was not a nazi. He hated everything about the Southern Front and the White Front.
It helped that he was spineless, too.
Midas only allowed the man to pretend to be his girl's husband raising his children because Christian was gay. Not that being gay was his character flaw. Being disgusted with his own nature was. It was something Platzer's bastard father had beaten into him growing up.
Christian was no saint or martyr. He did his fair share of petty crimes. And Ben had a thorough file on it that he dangled over Christian's head to make sure he was compliant.
If Ben was correct, the man was a submissive masochist who relished his position. The detective held all the cards.
And for their protection, Midas had arranged for only Platzer and his girl to know the whereabouts of the twins, nobody else in the organization. Not even his eldest son Cole.
Platzer had already found all the burner phones in the mother's possession and changed the SIM cards and the saved contacts. Unless she wanted to get into contact with the Front and couldn't, she would never know about Platzer's duplicity. And if she ever drove to the prison or any other Southern Front strongholds, Platzer had strict orders to take the children and leave.
Ben looked at Midas with narrowed eyes for a while before he took a step back.
"You're clever enough. Do what you got to do," Ben instructed and knocked on the cell door.
Outside, he loudly told the guard so that Midas could hear it, "He has one phone call before it's back to solitary. Midas has agreed to have the recording of the call sent to me."
Handing the prison guard his card, Ben gave Grey a short look and the two men began walking outside.
"Got what you wanted?"
Ben nodded and affirmed, "He agreed to tell Cole to call it off. I'll still shadow Nolan for the day at the very least, but I'm hopeful that he wouldn't dare doublecross me."
Grey just lifted a brow but didn't comment on it.
-----
Ben was in his charger just a few streets away from the patrol car driven by Captain Andersen and Nolan as the passenger.
He faintly heard Grey comment about their achievement over the radio - that the detective got 'King Midas' to lift the green light.
But Ben was busy listening to the recording of the call.
"*–it ain't about weakness. It ain't about honor. Cole is costing us money. Millions of fucking dollars. His stupid bitch didn't even flash her tits in public. It was her bra at an exclusive restaurant. Her mother was a stripper for fuck's sake. We've all seen her naked ass, the bitch just continues family tradition! Make Cole see reason or you're all paying for the lost revenue out of your bonuses for the next few years.*"
"*But sir, he won't like it. He'll lose all respec–*"
"*Did I fucking stutter? The day ain't over and we lost a third of our businesses! If he doesn't stop this shit immediately, we'll lose half, maybe more by tomorrow, and then who will we do business with after all the s**** and n****** [I refuse to type out the slurs. Especially because a nazi gang leader like Midas would definitely use the hard R] take over while we recuperate the losses, huh?*"
"*Right, I'll get on it. By the way, the trout has left the net at two in the morning.*"
"*The call is recorded because of Cole, you stupid fucking reta–*"
Midas had hung up the phone at that point.
'Trout had left the net, huh?' Ben thought, deeply focused on what the code could mean. It was a different language compared to what he knew about from his time with the front.
As he thought about it, Ben briefly told Nolan over the phone to keep his guard up for today as training. The two had arranged for communication via one of the radio channels. On every call the captain and he would take from dispatch, Nolan was to press his radio in two short taps on one of the less-frequently used channels at least twice a minute. A signal he had also used with his friends at SWAT during the Bronson Estate Shootout.
Ben had taught Nolan the trick. A reassuring double-clicking sound on the channel meant all was good. Rapid, continuous clicking meant shit was about to go down. No clicks meant nothing good. Especially if there was no message to call off the heightened situation.
Just as Ben finished talking to the few friends he had at Mid-Wilshire like Lopez and Bradford over the radio, he called Hicks with the good news.
The commander was busy organizing the busts all over the greater Los Angeles area together with an agent from the Secret Service who led the task force. According to Ben, the Southern Front also laundered fake money. And once the Secret Service got wind of it, they big-timed everyone, including the FBI and the ATF who also both wanted to have their men to lead the operation.
Because of it, the LAPD was almost alone to do all the arrests in the field since the FBI and ATF only supplied manpower to catalog the evidence and the Secret Service had barely any agents in California. At least it meant that Hicks could use all of his vast experience to have a very fulfilling workday.
After hanging up, Ben got another call that caught him by surprise.
"Hey Sara, everything alright?"
"*Someone's following me, Ben,*" she whispered into the phone.
"Where are you and who are you with? Is it in public? How safe do you think you are?"
"*I just arrived at my hotel lobby, Sophia is with me. And I'm not sure,*" she answered, the taut nerves bleeding into her voice. "*I don't feel very safe.*"
"Your security detail?"
"*Called off. It's been over a week and we don't currently have any big items in the vaults that anybody could know about,*" Sara mumbled distractedly.
"Tell the person manning reception to keep a lookout for suspicious people trying to get to your floor. It's a nice enough hotel that they will take your security seriously. Go to your room, bring your assistant. Do that trick with the toothpicks I showed you to block the hinges, even if it won't hold for long. A few seconds can give you all the time you need. I can't come right away, but if you want I will stay on the line. Do you have a description?"
"*Male, white, about six feet, maybe a little shorter, ordinary build, around 40, maybe older. Oakley sunglasses, and short-cropped dark hair,*" Sara said on the other side of the call, though it was obvious she didn't speak into the phone. She was likely looking around without holding the phone to her ear, Ben judged.
Ben multitasked as he kept an ear open for the clicks on the channel he arranged with Nolan. The captain didn't drive to the station immediately after the greenlight was reported as rescinded. Instead, the two answered the call for a suspected B&E in a nicer area.
The detective followed the call, but he also didn't want to step on the captain's toes. As such, he stopped two streets away, parked his car in the nice neighborhood and started looking through the reports for the busts that started early in the morning.
After another text to Platzer - the guy holding Midas' children that Ben had flipped - the detective furrowed his brows.
It had been three minutes since Nolan had double clicked his radio. Ben pressed the PTT button in four short bursts - the pre-arranged signal to ask for a status update.
"Hey, Sara? How are you doing?" Ben asked as he put his car in drive and floored the gas.
"*Shaken, but okay. Sophia is bitching about not being able to order any food or room service,*" his 'maybe-girlfriend' answered with an annoyed voice. Ben heard indignant shouts from afar, likely her assistant continuing her complaints.
"If you've truly been followed, chances are they are just waiting for an opportunity to get you alone at the door. Have you told her that?"
"*I'm not a child,*" Sophia shouted petulantly. "But I'm peckish and all my boss lady has in this sterile, gilded cage is wine.*"
"Well, do you want to hear some good news or some bad news?" Ben asked after another daring turn before jumping out of the car and running to the trunk, with the phone velcroed to the front of his bullet-proof vest and put on speaker.
"*Is the good news that there is no bad news?*" Sara asked cautiously.
"Sadly, no."
"*Then we want to hear the good news,*" Sophia decided with an excited edge in her tone.
"You're about to get the distraction of a life-time if I am right to worry. All from the comfort of your cushy, gilded cage," Ben reassured as he slotted a magazine into his rifle.
Hanging it on his back, the detective ran toward a fence - way too high by city standards but the rich owner likely paid the fine instead of getting a shorter one - and leaped over it with relative ease.
"*What was that?*"
"Climbed a fence, jumped over a hedge, running toward an adjacent property," Ben mumbled between controlled breaths, his concentration on the layout of the land. He still had to cross one more property until he got to the secluded one of the call that Nolan and Andersen had answered before the radio silence.
"Sorry, got to mute you now," Ben whispered into the phone as he arrived near a stand-alone garage on the second property. He hoped to gain a vantage point into the neighboring plot where he suspected his rookie friend and his captain to be.
Climbing up the one-story high building, Ben effortlessly laid down against the roof, and began to use the scope.
The house was dark, no lights were on. No people were in the windows that he could see, Ben quickly judged.
Sadly, the driveway was on the other side of the mansion, the detective couldn't be sure if Nolan's patrol car was still parked there. But Ben also didn't want to ask over the radio. If someone had ambushed them, a call over the radio directed at Nolan could escalate a potential hostage situation if Cole was involved.
The man-child was erratic enough, especially if it turned out he had actually set up a trap for the rookie and his superior.
-----
"I mean, the ragged breathing is kind of hot," Sophia argued, her eyes glued to the phone in her boss' hand.
"Will you keep it in your pants?" Sara asked, gripping the phone a little tighter.
Ben meant well when he didn't hang up, but imagining him in a situation where he was in danger didn't ease her nerves at all.
"That's exactly where it's going," the assistant waved off before pouring another glass of wine for them both. "I'm just saying. You got yourself a hunk, good job."
"He's getting quieter," Sara mumbled with furrowed brows.
They hadn't heard any fighting sounds or shots, so for now that reassured the redhead.
"*One, two, shit. Three people,*" they heard Ben whisper-curse.
"Oooh, do you want to bet what he is doing? Sniper or tactical take-down like Solid Snake?" Sophia excitedly wagered.
"Who is Solid Snake?" Sara asked, barely paying attention to the blonde.
A blonde who gasped in deep offense - not that it broke Sara's focus away from the phone.
"You haven't heard or played Metal Gear Solid?"
"No," Sara plainly replied.
"I'm buying an old PlayStation and abducting you for the weekend, boss," Sophia planned out loud with a crafty look.
"I'd rather get my 'hunk' into bed and never let him leave," Sara mumbled in answer.
"First off, his daughter won't agree to you hogging her daddy all day. Secondly, I bet on him looking at the men through the scope of a sniper rifle. He has this weird intense look sometimes. I bet that's how someone who kills without remorse from a distance looks," Sophia discussed - aware that it likely barely registered in Sara's mind.
"You sound ridiculous," the boss replied, trying her best to not miss anything on the other end of the phone.
"*Control, this is Detective Ben Weiss, badge number 8337. Please be advised that Cole Midas lured Captain Andersen and Officer Nolan into a trap with a false surrender. They are held hostage at their last known location. I have arrived on scene and have three armed gunmen in my sights. Among them is Cole Midas himself.*"
"See, 'in my sights'! He's there with a sniper rifle," Sophia triumphantly gloated.
"We didn't even bet on anything!" Sara barked, completely annoyed now. Why? She didn't know.
It should be good that Ben wasn't close enough to risk getting shot at.
"I bet a threesome that he will shoot all three before backup arrives," Sophia wagered, mischief sparking in her eyes.
Sara finally broke her gaze from the phone and regarded her employee and friend with anger in her eyes. It slowly dissipated.
As inappropriate as it was, the redhead recognized what Sophia was doing. Trying to distract her from the high stakes that were grating her nerves.
First the supposed stalker, then the situation with Ben.
"*Control, both Andersen and Nolan have been tied to chairs at the edge of the pool by Cole's men. They are in immediate threat of being drowned.*"
Sara looked back to the phone for a short moment before regarding her assistant. She didn't quite know how to answer, but then she remembered a story drunk Ben told her in the pool on their first night after the hostage situation.
"I'll bet you that not only will he shoot before backup arrives, I bet that he will hit at least one of the criminals right in the penis," Sara countered, her lips forming a small smirk.
"Now that's some very creative thinking. I accept! But what are you putting on the line?"
"That you never ask for a threesome ever again. In fact, I'd even say my bet is so peculiar, so wildly specific, I want you to also honor never to even bring up such topics when Ben is in earshot," Sara offered and held up a hand.
"I like where this is going, though in the unlikely event that you do win, I will be sad to have missed my shot," Sophia agreed and shook on it with a playfully reluctant sigh.
"Yeah, but he won't miss," Sara whispered to herself and focused back on the phone in her hand.
"*Control, Cole is now threatening Nolan with an electric cattle prod. I don't think I can wait any longer. The other two have their guns holstered, if I'm fast enough I can disable them,*" they heard Ben say calmly. A little too calmly for the morbid topic being relayed.
The response from Ben's radio came immediate, and loud enough that they could barely make out parts of it over the phone.
"*Negat… are to stand down… tactical… twenty minutes out… patrol seven-adam-nine… fo… minutes.*"
"*Control. As the ranking officer on scene, I order silent approach. They cannot hear a siren. Any and all distraction will result in the immediate execution of Officer Nolan and Captain Andersen. They will want to cut their losses and flee the scene.*"
"Damn, that sounds pretty serious," Sophia mumbled, now somehow getting nervous from the anticipation.
It finally dawned on her that lives were on the line.
"*Cole got out his phone. He-fuck, he kicked Andersen into the pool. I'm engaging!"