Lang's eyes snapped to Kendrick. He looked at the deputy with open disgust. "And you must be Deputy Kendrick, the man responsible for this detention."
Lang signaled to the FBI agents. "Secure the commander's vehicle, and I want the server room isolated now."
"Now, wait a minute," Voss shouted, his face reddening. "You can't just waltz in here and take my servers. That's county property. We have sensitive cases on there."
One of the FBI agents, a man with a scar running through his eyebrow named Special Agent Pendergast, stepped forward. "Sheriff, under federal law, interfering with an investigation involving a high-level clearance officer gives us broad authority to secure relevant evidence. Commander Kane was transporting classified material in his personal vehicle. By impounding that car and handling his effects, your deputy may have compromised national security. That gives us jurisdiction over everything relevant to this detention, even the systems you would normally consider county property."
Kendrick paled. "I didn't steal anything. I just tossed his wallet on the hood."
"We'll see," Pendergast said. "Agent Kovac, start pulling the relevant hard drives. I want the dashcam footage from unit 7 immediately."
Kendrick lunged forward. "No, you can't take the dashcam." It was a reflex action born of panic. Kendrick tried to block the door leading to the back offices. In a split second, the two MPs had Kendrick pinned against the wall. One of them twisted Kendrick's arm behind his back, the exact same move Kendrick had used on Darius, and the cuffs clicked shut.
"Interfering with a federal investigation," Lang noted calmly. "Add it to the list."
Sheriff Voss watched his deputy get handcuffed. He realized the walls were closing in. He looked at Darius. "Commander, tell them. Tell them this is unnecessary. We were letting you go."
Darius walked over to Kendrick, who was now pressed cheek-first against the wall, panting. Darius leaned in close. "You asked me if I had weapons," Darius whispered. "I told you no, but I never said I didn't have an army."
Darius turned to Lang. "Secure the station, Marcus. Nobody leaves until we find out why this deputy was so terrified of a simple dashcam video."
Lang nodded. "Lock it down. Nobody in or out. Sheriff, you're in your office. Don't touch the phone."
The station, once the seat of Voss's power, was now occupied territory. The hunters had become the prey. The occupation lasted hours. The locals gathered outside, whispering and filming with their phones as federal agents carried boxes of files out to the SUVs. Inside, the air conditioning was humming, but the sweat was real.
Commander Kane had showered in the locker room and changed into a fresh set of fatigues brought by the team. He sat in the sheriff's briefing room, which had been converted into a command center. He wasn't acting as a detainee anymore. He was leading the operation.
Agent Pendergast walked in, looking grim. He was holding a tablet. "Commander, we cracked the encryption on the dashcam footage. Kendrick tried to delete it remotely about ten minutes before we arrived, but he's not tech savvy enough to scrub the cloud backup."
"Show me," Darius said.
Lang and Kane gathered around the tablet. The video played. It showed the interior of Kendrick's cruiser. Kendrick was on his cell phone, not the radio. The audio was crystal clear.
"Yeah, boss. I'm near Big Al's," Kendrick's voice said on the recording. "No, the shipment is late. The cartel boys said wait."
Kendrick paused in the video, squinting through the windshield as he drove past the gas station. He saw Darius standing by the pump in his dress blues.
"Boss, we got a problem," Kendrick said, his voice tightening. "There's a fed at the pumps. Navy looks high brass, dress uniform."
A voice on the other end of the phone crackled, garbled but audible. "Is he looking at the trucks? The tanker?"
"He's looking around," Kendrick lied. "He looks suspicious. He might be a scout. If he sees the plates on the tanker when it rolls in..."
"Get rid of him," the voice on the phone ordered. "I don't care how. Stall him. Arrest him. Just get him off the lot before the delivery gets there."
"Roger that," Kendrick said. "I'll cook something up. Stolen valor. Easy pickings."
The video ended. The room was silent. Darius looked up, his jaw set. "It wasn't just prejudice. It was protection."
Pendergast nodded. "Big Al's Gas and Go isn't just a gas station. We ran a thermal scan of the underground tanks. Tanks one and two contain fuel. Tank three is empty of liquid, but there are heat signatures consistent with crates inside."
"Gun running?" Lang asked.
"Gun running?" Lang asked.
"Or fentanyl," Pendergast replied. "Ironwood is a straight shot from the border on the back roads. Kendrick wasn't harassing you just because he's a bigot, Commander. He was clearing the zone for a drop. He saw a federal uniform and panicked, thinking the operation was blown."
Darius stood up, pacing the room. "Who was on the phone?"
"Boss." Pendergast swiped the screen. "We traced the call to a burner phone, but that phone pinged off the cell tower serving this building."
Darius's eyes widened. He looked through the glass partition of the briefing room toward the sheriff's office, where Sheriff Voss was sitting, head in his hands.
"Old Voss," Darius whispered.
"We need a witness to confirm the voice," Lang said. "The audio is a bit distorted. Any defense lawyer could argue it was just static."
"We have a witness," Darius said. "The rookie, Brooks. He was in the car."
Pendergast noted, "He's complicit."
"He hesitated," Darius corrected. "He picked up my Trident. He apologized. He's scared, not rotten. Bring him in."
Minutes later, Officer Brooks was sitting in the interrogation room. He wasn't handcuffed, but he looked like he wished he was dead. He was shaking so hard the water in his paper cup was rippling.
Darius walked in alone. He sat down opposite Brooks.
"Officer Brooks," Darius said softly.
"I didn't know, sir," Brooks stammered, tears welling up. "I swear I just started three months ago. They tell me to shut up and follow orders."
"I know," Darius said. "I've seen men like Kendrick before. They thrive on fear. But right now, you need to fear me more than you fear him."
Brooks looked up, meeting Darius's eyes.
"Kendrick is going to prison," Darius said. "That is a fact. The question is, are you going with him? You watched him assault a federal officer. You watched him falsify an arrest report."
"That's conspiracy. That can mean years in prison. Brooks, you're twenty-two. You still have a future if you tell the truth now."
Brooks sobbed.
"Tell me about the phone call," Darius said. "Tell me about the trucks at Big Al's. Tell me who Kendrick calls boss."
Brooks took a shuddering breath. He looked at the mirror, knowing the federal agents were behind it.