Faithless in Death (In Death, #52)(102)

With Eve, Lowenbaum walked up and down the holo block.

“We’ve got the neutralizing device Roarke built us for that, Dallas. You’ve done all the work till now, even listing the target houses by probability of resistance. We’ll handle the rest.”

“Any adult males, if there, must be separated and contained. Some may have weapons, most will likely have comms. My data indicates most if not all of the male residents should be in the compound tonight. But—”

He looked at her. “Trust me and mine.”

“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I’ve got to get you on this because of the possibility of communication. That block needs to be shut down before we move on the rest.”

As they’d worked together before, he knew her mindset. “And you’re wishing like hell you could be two places at once so you could be on this takedown while you’re here coordinating the next.”

“Make that about ten places at once.” Then she hissed out a breath. “We’ve got the best people, top cops on every one of the ops. So … letting go, Lowenbaum. Good hunting.”

“Same to you. I’ll keep you in the loop all the way.”

She checked the time when he left. Shutting down the holo, she started back to the conference room.

She found Peabody and Roarke already setting up.

“You beat me to it.”

“You’ve been doing about six dozen things at once,” Peabody said. “I figured I could get this going—with a little help.”

“Appreciate it.” She frowned at the device Roarke attached to the comp. “What’s that?”

“A portable holo.”

“We have one of those?”

“I had it brought in.”

Hell, she thought, it was only Peabody in there. So she walked to Roarke, wrapped her arms around him for one precious moment. And stepped back when Peabody said, “Aw.”

“Keep your aws to yourself. Lowenbaum and his team are heading out now. We’ve got FBI sitting just beyond the compound. Anyone comes out, they pick them up.”

She started to rub her eyes, but since they felt like sandpaper, dropped her hands again. “We’ve got teams ready to pick up the Huff-mans, Po, Harstead, Wexford, and others. We pulled from Special Victims, and I brought in Detective Strong and her partner from Illegals for those busts.”

She paused when Roarke handed her a glass. “What’s this?”

“It’s a protein drink—and it’s chocolate. Don’t bitch about it.”

“Fine. Rochelle gave me names of CPS reps she knows and vouches for. They’re with Lowenbaum. I’ve got more supporting the hit on HQ.”

“Dochas is prepared to take any women and children who need sheltering.”

She glanced back at Roarke. “Do they have room? There could be a lot.”

“They’ll make room. And when and if necessary, arrangements with other safe houses. Leave that one to them. Moira knows the system, and they’ll work it.”

“Okay, fine.” She drank without thinking about it, then had to admit: Not half-bad. “Abernathy swears their teams are solid. They’ll have air and sea support, and they’ve agreed to hold until I give them the green. Same with the FBI on the farm team.”

Now she paced and drank. “That’s more problematic. It involves multiple states and locations, and it’s so spread out. Lots of open land. Air support there, too, but … We won’t get all of them. Odds are low we’ll get them all.”

“And they’ll be running with, basically, the shirts on their backs,” Roarke reminded her. “ ‘Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.’ That’s Yeats, and applies to this. There’ll be no center, Eve. And the order falls apart.”

But he went to her. “It’s hard to have other people take control of what you can’t do.”

“Solid cops.”

“Remember that. And here come some of your own.”

Those solid cops filed in, and Jenkinson and his tie came directly to her. He held out a hand.

Baffled, she shook it. “Okay, what for?”

“Whitney stopped by the bullpen to tell us you’d put in commendations—for every one of us who worked on Cobbe. It matters, Lieutenant.”

“You earned it, Detective.”

“It matters,” he repeated, and went to take a seat.

“It really does,” Peabody added. “Thanks.”

“Just take that happy energy into this briefing and beyond. Can you work the holo thing?”

“Well …”

“I’ve got it.” Roarke gave Peabody a pat on the shoulder. “It won’t, obviously, be full-size,” he told Eve. “But it will be to scale. And since he’s here, we’ll have McNab run the screen.”

“That’ll work. I’m going to—”

She snapped to attention. “Chief.”

Chief of Police Tibble came in with Whitney. Tall and lean in his dark suit, he crossed to her. “I’m here to observe, Lieutenant, and offer any and all assistance as needed. I’ll be joining this operation.”

His lips curved, just a little, as her face went instantly blank. “Outside the compound, with the commander, APA Reo, and other support.”