The woman offered no physical resistance. As Junior approached, she turned smoothly and walked toward the patrol car herself, allowing him to guide her toward the rear door. Her complete lack of panic unsettled Malik far more than an outburst would have. People who were lying usually got louder when trapped; people who knew the truth simply waited for the inevitable impact.
As she reached the cruiser, her phone buzzed again inside her pocket. The second time in ten minutes.
Reyes noticed the vibration and smiled thinly, trying to regain his dominant posture. "Looks like someone’s trying real hard to reach you."
"Yes," the woman said, turning her head just before ducking into the back seat. "And every minute I don't pick up, someone higher up the chain is going to start asking why this intersection is dark."
She didn't try to pull the phone out. She sat down on the hard plastic seat, pulled her hands into her lap, and watched the intersection through the reinforced glass window.
Malik watched the rear door click shut, staring at the woman's reflection in the glass. She mentally calculated the timeline. "Four minutes," the woman had warned. It had been nearly eight minutes now.
Reyes was already moving away, waving his arm to redirect a commercial delivery van that had pulled up to the barricade, acting as though the situation in the back of Unit 12 was a settled matter.
Malik walked back toward her own patrol car, her mind racing. She remembered the training module vividly: Federal credentials feature an embedded micro-engraved seal on the reverse foil. Misuse or unlawful seizure of federal credentials by local authorities constitutes a direct violation of Section 1028.
She got into the driver’s seat of Unit 14, closed the heavy door, and bypassed the main dispatch frequency. Instead, she switched her secondary radio unit to a direct tactical band reserved for senior precinct commanders.
Pressing the mic button, she spoke quietly: "Dispatch, this is Unit 14. Requesting an immediate patch to Captain Ubaldo. Non-emergency, but high priority."
A short burst of static answered her. "Copy 14. Stand by for Patch 3."
While she waited, Malik kept her eyes glued to the corner of Ninth Street where the blue sedan had disappeared. The street remained empty, but the tension in the air was palpable, thick enough to choke on.
In the back of Unit 12, the woman sat completely still. Her hands were secured in front of her with temporary plastic zip ties—a precautionary measure Reyes had ordered "for officer safety." She hadn't fought the zip ties. She didn't need to.
Underneath her collarbone, tucked discreetly inside her shirt, a tiny wireless earpiece buzzed with static. A voice spoke softly into her ear: "Alpha-1, this is Main Track. We have lost visual on the primary target. Repeat, target vehicle went dark at Ninth and Elm. Do you copy?"
The woman couldn't answer without revealing the concealed comms unit. She simply leaned her head back against the vinyl headrest and closed her eyes, counting the seconds in her head.
Outside, Captain Ubaldo’s gruff voice suddenly blasted through Malik’s radio speaker, cutting through the silence of Unit 14.
"Unit 14, this is Ubaldo. What is it, Malik? I’m in the middle of a briefing."
"Captain," Malik said, keeping her voice steady and precise. "I’m at the Danforth Street checkpoint with Sergeant Reyes. We currently have a female individual detained in the back of Unit 12. She presented federal credentials identifying herself as an FBI agent coordinating an active operation. Sergeant Reyes has confiscated her credentials and refused to verify them through dispatch or the liaison line."
There was a long, suffocating pause on the line. The silence stretched for so long that Malik checked her radio screen to ensure the connection hadn't dropped.
"Malik," Ubaldo’s voice returned, but the irritation was completely gone, replaced by a dark, cold severity. "Repeat your exact location."
"Danforth and Ninth, Captain."
"Jesus Christ," Ubaldo breathed out, his voice turning raw. "I have had the FBI Regional Assistant Director on my personal cell phone for the last twelve minutes asking why the hell our checkpoint on Danforth isn't responding to tactical handoffs. Get eyes on that woman right now. Do not move her, do not speak to her, and do not let Reyes touch anything else!"