Katsoulis reached up to his vest and depressed a button that opened his communication channel to the team leaders.
"Back Door, this is Lead. Two-minute warning for the approach. Advise when in position, over."
A clear voice replied in his headset, acknowledging the warning order. Katsoulis peeked around the corner and saw what the team leader had described. The entire street corner formed by the intersection of George and Hobart was bathed in an artificial orange glow from several lights set along the gate and two-story structure. He could imagine that the residents loved having twenty-four hour daylight compliments of Hamm Brands.
He pulled his head back and swung his M4 Carbine around to a ready position along his chest. He started to check all of his equipment, while the three SUVs double parked along East 4th Street emptied ten additional SWAT agents into the quiet neighborhood. The agents started assembling near the corner, checking their own weapons and communications gear, while making sure they had unhindered access to flashbang grenades and spare ammunition magazines. A similar scene would unfold somewhere down George Street, putting over two dozen heavily armed tactical agents at his command for the takedown.
Finishing his personal check, there was only one more thing to do. Katsoulis checked his weapon's safety, ensuring that it was engaged, and chambered a round with the charging handle. The sound of his rifle's bolt slamming home echoed against the concrete, signaling for the rest of the team to do the same in rapid succession. "Front Door" was ready for action.
He saw several investigative agents exit their cars and start to wander toward the corner, keeping their distance. They would stand guard over the cars and wait for him to give the "all clear" signal over the communications net. At that point, the tactical team would be charged with transporting the prisoners back to the field office, where legendary FBI interrogator Gregory Carlisle would start the long process of extracting useful information. Katsoulis imagined that Carlisle would start with the fact that people from their own community had turned against them.
The Newark field office had received an extremely detailed, late-night tip regarding three young men who just recently moved into an apartment that had remained conspicuously unoccupied for thirteen months. Three dark-skinned men, "definitely Arab and new to the community," had arrived yesterday morning, wearing only backpacks. The caller requested to remain anonymous, in fear of possible retribution by more conservative members of "their community." Caller ID at the field office and FBI phone tracing efforts placed the call to the apartment directly above the suspects.
Investigative agents quickly pieced together what the caller meant by "their community." Bayonne, New Jersey, was home to a small but robust Muslim community that had successfully integrated with the rest of the immigrant groups in the area years before 9/11. The last thing any of them wanted was a group of suspected terrorists to tarnish the community's reputation, though the caller pointed out that not everyone in the community shared the same view. The field office also suspected that the call was motivated by the late-night coverage of the "possible terrorist attack" in Mount Arlington. Media coverage of the safe house attacks had so far been successfully avoided, but word of what happened in Mount Arlington was quickly spreading. It was a little hard to conceal the fact that authorities were trying to keep nearly one hundred thousand citizens from drinking water provided by the Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority.
He glanced at his watch and saw that nearly two minutes had elapsed.
"Back Door, Lead. Proceed to breach position," he said, receiving an immediate response.
"Let's go," he whispered to the team leader standing next to him, slapping the man on the back.
He watched the twelve men file past, carrying a variety of weapons and breaching gear. They all wore full Level IIIA body armor, fitted with hardened ceramic plates capable of stopping armor-piercing rounds. Despite the impression of invulnerability, the body armor couldn't protect the men from every type of round at every angle. There were plenty of gaps and seams for mindless bullets to penetrate, leaving the wearer severely wounded or dead. The plates were designed to intercept the most probable center mass hits in the back or chest and would do little to stop an impact outside of these zones. Still, the ceramic plates remained a statistically good bet, since data supported the fact that most shooters under stress will aim for center mass and hope for the best.
When the last agent turned the corner, he joined the line, which snaked down the cracked sidewalk under the harsh orange glow cast by the overpowering sodium vapor lights. The tactical team traversed the distance between the two street corners, arriving at the front door in less than twenty seconds. The agents stacked up against the front wall of the apartment, crouched below the barred first-floor windows, and waited for the breach team to analyze the front door. He monitored their hushed conversations over the tactical net. Both the front and side doors were locked. Katsoulis walked up the line of agents pressed against the vinyl siding and kneeled behind the team leader. He didn't say a word.
A tense minute passed while the agents tried unsuccessfully to pick the lock. The team leader discussed options with the agent manipulating the tools for a few seconds. He whispered orders into his headset, bringing one of the agents out of the stack with their portable battering ram. The agent trying to open the lock felt confident that the door would give in with a low intensity hit from the battering ram. Katsoulis wondered if they might be better off with a full strike, leaving nothing to chance.
The target apartment was on the second floor directly above them, so any level of impact might alert the suspects, which would leave them with little time to reach the apartment and gain entry. Unfortunately, the last minute nature of the "anonymous" tip had prevented them from setting up the best possible surveillance of the target building. They had agents with powerful night vision equipped optics watching the windows from cars on the street, but beyond that, they had no way to tell what was going on inside the apartment.
The team leader turned to him and whispered, "Upon hitting this door, it'll take us less than ten seconds to get flashbangs into the target apartment. This team will reach the apartment first, based on the location of the stairs. We won't have any time to assess the apartment door. We'll use shotgun breach loads and the ram at the same time. I don't see a way around this. It's a gamble on which door to use. My assumption is that the windows right above us are for a common area. They're bigger than the side windows above my other team. Based on that assumption, hitting this door will put the impact sound furthest away from the bedrooms."
"It's your call. Sounds like a solid plan based on what we were given. As long as they hit the door upstairs fast and furious, we'll surprise the shit out of them," Katsoulis said.
The team leader wasted no time continuing the conversation. He had over twenty agents exposed on the street.
"Back Door, this is Lead. Front Door will breach using the ram. Your breach will be delayed to keep the element of surprise. We suspect that the bedrooms are right above your door. Send four men around to secure the front entrance and have the remaining eight ready to immediately breach the side door to back up the primary assault team."
"Lead, this is Back Door. We just got the door open."
"Roger. Forget that plan. Proceed with entire team to target door and wait for me to arrive. I'm sending a backup team around the side to cover the entrance and street," he said and turned to face Katsoulis.
"We caught a break. We'll have the element of surprise on the target door. Agent Pruitt, I'm taking the last three from your stack to cover the side door. I'll open your door from the inside prior to the main breach. Keep half of your team here to secure the door and send the rest up as backup. Got it?" the team leader said.