Chapter 425 - Danger and Trouble (19)

11 May, JL International Mall, City F

Gearing up, under the watchful eye of Head Honcho, Matthew pondered the situation. What would he tell Dominic in a worst-case scenario? How would he handle Richard's parents? How could he cope being a single parent, with a career like his? In that moment, he knew in a worst-case scenario he would abandon everything for Dominic. Not only had he been through so much because of Lexi's parents, to lose Lexi with the fight that he had ahead of him.

Taking a breath, Matthew said to himself that he had to stop those thoughts. He had to be positive that while Lexi might be injured, she would be alright.

As he was about to leave, Matthew turned and said "Let me…"

"Know if I hear about your wife. That is a given." Seeing Matthew shake his head, Head Honcho knew what he was thinking about. Intelligence from Officer N. "That will be a few days away."

After nodding his head, Matthew moved closely to Head Honcho and quietly said "You know, even my three musketeers believe that Officer N is a fiction."

"Even you accepted the fiction hiding the reality. Now go before I take my generous option away."

Matthew quickly moved away, knowing that if he delayed much more than Head Honcho would prevent him from going inside. Without pausing he moved and headed inside the building watching soldiers carefully and slowly assisting people out of danger towards the field hospital. He carefully watched each face go past him, but none of them was Lexi.

On reaching the open area, he could see Joseph and Ben off in the distance, looking carefully at a knocked over planter the immediate thought that went across his mind was that there was a person trapped under it. In that moment, his heart went into his mouth, fearing that the person underneath was Lexi.

He went to take a few paces towards them, but was interrupted by David, who said "Boss, you are needed to deal with the idiots over here."

Matthew turned, acknowledged David, and responded, "What is the problem."

"Those idiot police investigators. I get the need for the investigation and gathering each and any piece of material that may enable us to determine exactly what happened. But they are ignoring the people there that need assistance. Two of the soldiers, as I arrived in here were about to step in to help two girls just past the police investigators who were sitting up. The investigators told them they had to stay exactly where they were until they gathered all material around them. That resulted in pushing, and both about to take each other's head off. This is about to blow up boss."

"Any quick assessment?"

"Boss, unlike the police, we are using cameras to record the scene. The current focus needs to be on the human recovery, but I suspect the police have their backs up as you threw your weight around when you arrived. That means that they are opposing us for the sake of it to assert control."

Nodding Matthew said "That cannot happen. Saving as many of the civilians as possible must be the focus because like the police we all serve them. If we cannot protect them then our jobs are irrelevant."

Following David, as Matthew reached the start of the cordoned off area where police were slowly moving, looking at every piece of material on the ground. Matthew knew that given the currently tense situation, rushing in would make the situation worse, so he grabbed David's arms, drawing him back slightly while the two of them observed the police for a couple of minutes. Every m.o.a.n and groan of pain had him wanting to rush in, but he needed to argue strongly with the police. In that couple of minutes, he saw the police, until they were satisfied that they had doc.u.mented every little piece of material in a small area ignored the victims.

Clearly, they were using correct investigation protocol, doc.u.menting each items location, and gathering the evidence to enable additional investigations afterwards, but this had to be balanced. He just hoped that the failure to get the civilians the assistance they urgently required was driven by being over cautious because they were not confident that there were more traps waiting to harm those in the recovery rather than being a means to frustrate the military, who until terrorism was ruled out had joint investigation and control powers at the scene.

Moving forward, Matthew said firmly "Who is the senior officer?"

This resulted in heads turning around before a voice said, "I am, now stay back until we say it is safe to move into an area."

"Not going to happen. My subordinates, will start on the edges, being careful to disturb the scene as little as possible, but we will be getting the victims out of here."

"This is my investigation scene, and I am in control."

David turned and looked to Matthew; in that moment he saw the frustration on his face. The boss knew this was about the police asserting total control in the situation. Before Matthew could react, he turned and said "We have been through this ladies and gentlemen. The senior officials on site have both agreed that this is, until terrorism is ruled out a joint investigation scene."

"Well, I do not see an investigator from the military present, so until someone gets here, I am in control."

Matthew moved forward and said, "Your Inspector Long had to accept the joint control with me previously, but you want to argue you will find my direct superior worse than me."

"Who are you…?"

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