Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

witty on a Monday morning.
    “We‟ve been through all the evidence we could get our hands on,
    and there‟s all kinds of paperwork to be done. I had Clancy leave some
    on your desk. Exciting stuff to come back to, I know,” McCoy said, his
    Divide & Conquer | 229

    voice apologetic. “We‟re having another meeting with Financial
    Crimes this afternoon to touch base on leads for the combined crimes,
    and then I have a consult with a team from Counterterrorism.”
    “Great,” Ty said without enthusiasm. He was finding it hard to
    concentrate or care about work. His partner was still out of
    commission, and the more time that passed, the more Ty began to fear
    Zane‟s blindness might be permanent. On top of that, Ty didn‟t like to
    be on the periphery of an investigation that directly involved him. It
    was stressful to have his fate in someone else‟s hands, no matter how
    good they were at their jobs. And then Nick had traipsed in and fucking
    kissed him, dredging up things he only thought of in his nightmares.
    Ty ran his hand through his hair and turned to head for his desk.
    Maybe paperwork would actually be good for him today.
    “Hi, Ty. Mac had me put some… files…. Are you okay?”
    Michelle Clancy asked once he got to the team‟s pod of desks where
    she sat with Perrimore, Alston, and Lassiter.
    “Yeah,” he answered with a curt nod. He sat with a thump and
    gave the chair a moment to protest being used, then leaned back and
    rubbed hard at his face.
    Clancy paused in his peripheral vision, but thankfully she sat at
    her desk and got to work instead of keeping after him. “Mac set me up
    as the liaison with Financial Crimes instead of having them call all over
    the office, horning in,” she said.
    “My condolences,” Ty grunted.
    “He‟s still trying to keep you and Garrett out of the spotlight.
    Have you heard from Zane? How is he?” Clancy asked in clear
    concern.
    “He‟s blind,” Ty answered in an almost cruel voice. He looked up
    at her, not wanting to be nasty to her but knowing he would be if she
    kept talking. He didn‟t need the reminder.
    Clancy met his eyes, her lips thinned with displeasure, but either
    she felt the impending meltdown emanating from ten feet away or
    decided she just didn‟t want to know. She went back to her paperwork
    without another word.
    230 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    The pod worked in heavy silence, unspoken questions hanging
    heavy in the air and one teammate conspicuously absent. It was a good
    two hours later, with Ty well into the reams of paperwork, when the
    call came in.
    “We‟ve had another detonation at the Inner Harbor!” McCoy‟s
    voice snapped through the quiet room. “Activate bank response
    protocol!”
    The two teams of agents and other support personnel, about
    thirteen of twenty in the office accounted for, erupted into movement
    with a purpose. Ty grabbed his windbreaker and shrugged into it as he
    headed for the stairs with everyone else. The office wasn‟t really set up
    for emergency responses like this, but they managed. Vans in the
    basement were stocked with weapons, tactical gear, and all that fun
    stuff that usually got people killed. They piled into three vans, heading
    for three separate banks that had been pinpointed as the most likely
    targets. All far away from the Inner Harbor.
    The bank robbers were trying to divide and conquer like the
    Allies had in World War II, forcing Germany to fight on two fronts.
    Any military mind knew that a two-front war was almost impossible to
    win, and that was what the Baltimore authorities had been fighting.
    McCoy had devised a plan of his own in response. He had
    volunteered members of his own Criminal division team, members not
    involved in either the emergency response to a bomb threat or to the
    scene of a bank robbery, and he had formed five special task forces in
    cooperation with the Maryland Joint Terrorism Task Force, supported
    by the Baltimore Division‟s Field Intelligence Group.
    The proper response to the next bomb scare would still be seen,
    but those special teams, made up of a mishmash of agents and cops
    from different agencies, would respond to pre-selected targets based on
    where the bomb was.
    They got updates about the bombing on the way. Two more stores
    blown to pieces, several with collateral damage. No warning, no
    evacuation. Uncounted injuries, and they all held their breath with each
    announcement, waiting to hear about