Ambush: The Iron Eagle Series: Book:Twenty-Nine

By Roy A. Teel, Jr.

“There was no one around to hear them scream.”

BACK COVER:
George Vail had a long criminal history, so it was no surprise when an anonymous caller reported his murder. After the on-scene investigation was complete, Detectives Butch McConnell and Ann Pratt remained behind and were overtaken by three masked men. Pratt was stripped and brutally raped, and her partner’s body camera caught everything on tape before they were both executed with their own service weapons. LA County Sheriff Jim O’Brian and Undersheriff Margo Heller arrive to find a murder scene that was clearly set up to ambush the two detectives. As events unfold over the next few days, it becomes obvious that all branches of law enforcement are under fire by an unknown group of killers with an equally unknown agenda.
INSIDE FLAP:
When two of Sheriff O’Brian’s homicide detectives are murdered in rural LA County, it initially appeared to be a random act of violence. But when an LAPD street officer is gunned down in broad daylight while writing a traffic ticket, and the killer is spotted by an off-duty officer, a police pursuit ensues, ending with the deaths of dozens of civilians. As the crimes garner the attention of multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies, Assistant FBI Director John Swenson and Special Agent Chris Mantel quickly realize the two events are related. As the search for the killers progresses, the attacks continue, and the death toll rises, but no one claims responsibility. The killers’ motives and identities remain unclear until a key piece of evidence is revealed. Their well-thought out plan will test the abilities of the Iron Eagle and bringing the killers to justice will put the lives of thousands at risk.

CONTENT WARNING: PLEASE READ BEFORE DOWNLOADING ANY IRON EAGLE SERIES NOVEL:

***Content Warning: While the Iron Eagle Series can be read out of order as a stand-alone novel, the reader should be advised that backgrounds and details of the characters may be confusing if the reader choose to do so, as this series has a natural maturation. The Iron Eagle Crime novel series contains mature subject matter, graphic violence, sexual content, language, torture and other scenes and subject matter that may be disturbing to sensitive readers. This series is not intended for anyone under the age of eighteen, reader discretion is advised.***

• Language: English
• Publisher: Narroway Press
• Release date: May 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781943107568

Book preview

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Ambush

A Novel

Roy A. Teel Jr.

Ambush

A Novel

Roy A. Teel Jr.

The Iron Eagle Series: Book Twenty-Nine

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An Imprint of Narroway Publishing LLC.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2021 by Roy A. Teel Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher. ®The Iron Eagle Logo is the copyright and registered trademark of Roy A. Teel Jr. and is used by permission.

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Narroway Publishing LLC.

Imprint: Narroway Press

P.O. Box 1431

Lake Arrowhead, California 92352

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

First Edition

ISBN: Ebook 978-1-943107-56-8

Teel, Roy A., 1965-

Ambush: A Novel, The Iron Eagle Series: Book Twenty-Nine /

Roy A. Teel Jr. – 1st ed. – Lake Arrowhead, Calif.: Narroway Press,

c2021. p.; cm. ISBN: 978-1-943107-56-8 (Ebook)

1. Hard-Boiled – Fiction. 2. Police, FBI – Fiction 3. Murder – Fiction 4. Serial Killers – Fiction

5. Mystery – Fiction 6. Suspense – Fiction. 7. Graphic Violence – Fiction. 8. Graphic-sex – Fiction

I. Title.

Book Editing: Finesse Writing and Editing LLC

Cover and Book Design: Priceless Digital Media

Author Photo: Z

DEDICATION

"For the men and women of law enforcement who put their lives on

the line each and every day to protect people they don’t even know."

ALSO BY ROY A. TEEL JR.

Nonfiction:

The Way, The Truth, and The Lies: How the Gospels Mislead Christians about Jesus’ True Message

Against the Grain: The American Mega-church and its Culture of Control

Fiction:

The Light of Darkness: Dialogues in Death: Collected Short Stories And God Laughed, A Novel

The Plane Trip: A Short Story

The Savior: A Short Story

The Iron Eagle Novel Series:

Rise of The Iron Eagle: Book One

Evil and the Details: Book Two

Rome Is Burning: Book Three

Operation Red Alert: Book Four

A Model for Murder: Book Five

Devil’s Chair: Book Six

Death’s Valley: Book Seven

Cleansing: Book Eight

Rampage: Book Nine

Dark Canyon: Book Ten

Deliverance: Book Eleven

Phoenix: Book Twelve

Pray: Book Thirteen

Equality of Mercy: Book Fourteen

Metro: Book Fifteen

Reaper: Book Sixteen

Encryption: Book Seventeen

Selfie: Book Eighteen

Suffering: Book Nineteen

Ransom: Book Twenty

Middlemen: Book Twenty-One

Suburban: Book Twenty-Two

Masquerade: Book Twenty-Three Anthem: Book Twenty-Four

Blood Eagle: Book Twenty-Five

Comforter: Book Twenty-Six

Savage: Book Twenty-Seven

Beyond Human: Book Twenty-Eight

THE IRON EAGLE

If you think people are inherently good, you get rid of the police for 24 hours - see what happens.

— Sylvester Stallone

The police must obey the law while enforcing the law.

— Earl Warren

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Seal of The Iron Eagle™

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hyde

About the Author

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CHAPTER ONE

There was no one around to hear them scream.

It was just after five a.m., and the sun was beginning to break the horizon, lighting up the foothills in the Woodland Hills area. There were several sheriff’s vans parked near a rocky brush-filled road. Margo Heller was sitting on the trunk of her car while her CSI team sat in their vans, and the coroner’s van was parked with Jade and Jessica sitting inside. No one moved near the unmarked sheriff’s car where two detectives laid dead on the ground. Jim O’Brian pulled up and stepped out of his car. He had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and was dressed in street clothes. Margo jumped off the back of her car and waved to him. Show me, he said. Margo walked him over to the bodies of homicide detectives Butch McConnell and Ann Pratt. Ann’s nude body was sprawled out next to Butch’s, and Jim looked around with a flashlight. There was an odor in the air, and he sniffed it deeply then walked back to Margo’s car. Let’s get Jade and Jessica in here before we get our people going.

Margo called out to Jade, and she and Jessica came over to the scene. Why have we been shining our van’s seat with our asses for nearly an hour, Jim? Jade asked.

I needed to see the scene first. Someone got the drop on Butch and Ann then raped her and executed them.

Well, whoever did this knew what they were doing. That wonderful smell in the morning air is bleach and ammonia. It was most likely used on Detective Pratt after the rape to contaminate any DNA that might have been left behind.

You two do your thing. I want to know everything you can tell me about their killing. They were out here on another high-profile murder last night, and I have a feeling that it is part of why they were killed.

Margo shook her head. I don’t think that George Vail was the reason that these two were murdered.

Really? So, you already have the fuckin’ case solved, Margo?

No, but someone was lying in wait for them.

The same person who killed Vail?

Maybe. From what I have learned, everyone had cleared the scene around two a.m. As best as I can guess, the killer laid in wait for hours while the scene was investigated. As soon as Butch and Ann were alone, and there was no one around to hear them scream, they were ambushed.

So, this cop killer also killed Vail?

It makes sense, doesn’t it? George Vail wasn’t exactly a pillar of the community. The guy was a drug and gun smuggler, a sexual predator, and was hated by a lot of people. I think whoever did this to Butch and Ann killed George first then waited for the police.

Do you think they were targeted?

No. I think that this killer was going to kill whoever showed up on scene.

Jim pulled a cigarette out of his top left pocket, lit it, and walked back to his car. Jade and Jessica were working the scene as Margo watched. The sun was now fully up, and Jim looked at his tablet. It was ten after six. He pulled up the rap sheet on George Vail and was reading it over when he called out to Jade. Do you have an estimated time of death?

Between three and five a.m.

It had to be closer to four or four thirty because 9-1-1 received a call of officers down just after four.

There is a lot of work that has to be done here, Jim. It will take me some time, but Jessica and I will sort it out. Do you think this is random, or is this a cop killer situation?

Jim took a long hit on his cigarette. I don’t fuckin’ know, Jade. I just don’t know.

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Officer Rod Fifer had just finished a traffic stop at the corner of Roscoe and Reseda Boulevard next to Northridge Hospital. He was writing up the ticket information and inputting the data into his computer as he cleared the call with Central. This is two bravo fourteen. Clear.

Roger that, bravo. Clear.

Rod finished his reporting just as a tan sedan pulled up next to his cruiser, and a masked gunman shot him at point-blank range in the head and sped off. The car had no plates, and onlookers stood in shock. Another LAPD cruiser had just pulled out of a chicken restaurant, and the officer saw several people waving and screaming. Officer Kevin Kline had just come off duty and was going back to the station but stopped and found Rod dead in the front seat of his cruiser as several people pointed to a tan car that had pulled into a parking lot and stopped, as if someone was watching. Kline radioed in, Officer down, officer down! I’m in pursuit of suspects. Get EMTs here NOW!

Kline turned on his sirens, and the tan vehicle took off down Roscoe, and the chase was on. Several other units rolled with two LAPD choppers as well as several news choppers. Kline was radioing his position and giving what little detail he could on the car. The windows were blacked out, and he couldn’t see the driver. The sedan was racing at nearly one hundred miles an hour down the crowded street through heavy traffic, and the driver had no regard for human life. When there was traffic, the driver drove on the sidewalk, plowing down pedestrians and striking other cars. The dispatcher had ordered Kline to call off the pursuit as the sedan raced down Roscoe toward Canoga Park. Kline pulled off, but police choppers kept the car in view and radioed its position as news choppers followed the pursuit and streamed it live to their viewers and radio listeners. The car continued down Roscoe where it entered an industrial park. It tore into the area, moving between buildings and striking pedestrians as the driver attempted to evade police. The car raced through a train yard then disappeared into a metro tunnel as it rode on the tracks. Dispatchers warned Metrolink to let them know there was a car on the tracks. Two helicopters hovered over the entrance and the exit of the tunnel as a Metrolink train entered it. The train blew its horn, then an explosion sent fire and debris out of the tunnel as the train came to a halt. The sedan was burning. Several cars on the train derailed, and dozens of people were injured as police surrounded the vehicle, and fire crews waited for the all clear to put out the flames. Officers shielded their faces from the intense heat all the while keeping their weapons trained on the sedan. It took several minutes, but the flames died down, and police cleared fire to put out the flames. When the blaze was out, police approached cautiously, only to find an empty vehicle. By the time the lockdown calls had gone out nearly a half hour had passed, and paramedics and crews were on scene all along the streets as well as inside the tunnel, helping the wounded and trying to cover those who had been killed.

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Sara was working in the ER when the first calls came in about the chase and the injured. Ambulances were dropping off patients and heading back out. She had called for every available doctor and nurse to assist in the ER. Two people went from patient to patient, checking the status of their injuries to prioritize treatment. Karen had made her way to the ER as had Cindy, and they worked with the rest of the staff and civilians who were in the waiting rooms to try and help the injured.

We need every available staff member scrubbed and ready, Sara yelled as doctors and nurses rushed around. None of the victims had even been treated. They had just been picked up and taken to the hospital, which was only minutes away from the epicenter of the scene. Several people were mortally wounded or already dead, and Sara had a large conference room converted into a makeshift morgue to get the dead out of the way to make room for the living. LAPD had also been bringing in people in their cruisers. Many of the victims were children who had been walking home from school. The ER was in crisis mode, and Sara was trying to get people moving as fast as she could.

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CHAPTER TWO

When a gunman opens fire on an officer then runs people down in the streets, that’s a terrorist attack.

The streets of Northridge and Reseda looked like a war zone. There were yellow tarps covering bodies for several blocks. Jade and Jessica arrived on scene with their crew and began the grim process of investigating and removing the dead. Officer Kline had returned to the crime scene and was shocked at the carnage. Jade saw him walking amongst the bodies and asked, Kevin, what are you doing here?

I was the first on scene, and I started the pursuit.

Jade didn’t say anything at first. She lifted several tarps and saw the mangled bodies of children who had been struck by the sedan. You started the pursuit, Kevin, but didn’t pull off when this wacko started hitting people on the sidewalk?

I pulled off almost immediately, but this person wasn’t going to be caught, and he didn’t care who was in his way. Even after we stopped the pursuit, the driver kept on hitting pedestrians, Jade. He was aiming for them. He had planned this. He gunned down one of my fellow officers then hid in an alley watching the scene unfold until I spotted him and started the pursuit. He wanted this. This was his intention all along.

Jessica was walking up the street as the CSI teams for LAPD and the coroner’s office worked to try and process the carnage. She made her way to Jade and said, I don’t even know where to begin. Do we have a count of the dead on the street?

Two dozen, mostly children and teens. Sara has several bodies at the hospital. Police and paramedics worked to try to save the injured, but they died either during transport or shortly after arrival at the hospital.

I have never seen anything like this. Is this a terrorist attack?

Kevin nodded. Yes. When a gunman opens fire on an officer then runs people down in the streets, that’s a terrorist attack.

Jade looked around the scene and said, We need to call John. The FBI is going to want to get involved in this. Jessica nodded as Kevin surveyed the carnage and tried to wrap his head around what had just happened.

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John and Chris were in his truck when they heard the calls for help coming over the radio. They raced to the scene where they were met by Jim and Margo, who had also heard the calls. Jim was standing in the middle of the street looking around at the damage.

Do we have any idea where the killer went?

No, John. The choppers lost him in an industrial park in Canoga Park. This was a well-planned attack. This fucker knew what he was doing.

John looked at Rod Fifer’s patrol car. There was a yellow tarp over the driver’s side window, and he walked over and looked under it. Shot at point-blank range in the head.

It was a fuckin’ ambush, John. The killer shot Rod then took off and hid. When he was spotted, he started mowing down everything that moved.

So, this isn’t just a cop killing; this is a mass murder. This was no accident. The driver knew what he was doing all along.

Jim nodded, and Margo asked, Do you think this is connected to the murders this morning in Woodland Hills, Jim?

If there hadn’t been pedestrians involved, I would try to connect the two, but killing all of these people on the street doesn’t fit.

You had a cop killing this morning? John asked.

Yeah. Two of my best detectives were shot execution style this morning in an unincorporated part of Woodland Hills. One of the detectives was savagely raped before she was shot in the head. The killers turned on her partner’s body camera, and the whole rape was caught on film.

How many?

Three men wearing ski masks. No identifying markings on their arms or legs. Each took turns raping and sodomizing her, then one of them shot her with her own service weapon then shot the other with his.

Anyone I know?

I’m not sure. Detectives McConnell and Pratt.

Butch McConnell and Ann Pratt?

Did you know them?

Pratt applied to the Bureau a couple of years ago but was not accepted into Quantico. She was introduced to me by one of my agents while she was in the process. She was a nice woman, and, as I recall, a decorated deputy.

She was, and she has two grown children that are now motherless, and the mother fuckers who murdered her taunted her while they raped her, and she never made a sound. Butch screamed for help, but there was no one there.

John looked over the street scene and then at Rod’s body in his car. This is connected to the killings this morning.

How the fuck do you know that, John?

I just know. The attacker’s voices. Are they clear on the bodycam video?

Really fuckin’ clear. Why?

This is an act of terrorism. We are getting involved. I will call in my own people. We are taking over the investigation. I want LAPD pulled out of this.

One of their own was murdered, John. You’re going to piss off the chief if you come bounding in calling this federal jurisdiction.

I don’t care who I piss off. This is a federal crime scene. If the chief doesn’t like it, he can take it up with me. What I need from you now is that video, so we can run it through our database and see if we can identify any of the voices. I also need to hear what they were saying during the attack.

I can tell you what they were saying, asshole. They were calling Ann a pig while they raped her and were kicking the shit out of Butch while they were both cuffed, calling him the same.

It sounds like we have cop killers, and we need to get into this as quickly as possible before the next officer is targeted.

If you’re right, John, the next officers were already targeted. I think Rod was the odd man out in this. The killers just happened upon him after he finished a traffic stop. As for the carnage, I don’t think it was planned. I think the killers didn’t think that there would be another unit so close and on scene so fast. I don’t think that running down pedestrians was planned.

John looked up and down the street at the tarps and the cars that had been struck and abandoned. It might not have started off as a planned mass killing, but it sure as hell turned into one. These killers are the most dangerous of all. They will gun down police and kill pedestrians. The only way to catch them is kill or be killed. They aren’t going to go down without one hell of a fight.

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What the fuck were you thinking? We are killing cops, not civilians. Do you have any idea how many people you mowed down this afternoon?

I don’t care. We were spotted, and if we hadn’t gotten out of there, we’d be dead, Todd Ryan said.

Brent Phillips was shaking his head. We could’ve gotten out of there without killing civilians, Todd.

No, Brent. Todd’s right. We had no choice. If we had been cornered, even more would have died in the gun battle that would have ensued. We knew when we decided to start this that civilians could be killed.

Brent shook his head, Grant, we never talked about killing civilians. We have been planning this for nearly a year. Random cop killings. All offices, state and federal, but civilians aren’t the targets. We could have gotten out of there without the bloodshed that Todd caused, and you know it.

The three men were seated at a table in Todd Ryan’s home. They were alone in the house until Todd’s wife Brenda came in from the grocery store. Are you guys having a meeting?

Yes, honey. Just a little time together to talk about our losses.

Brenda got teary-eyed. I wish I had a support group like you guys have. It’s been a long year since Brandon was murdered by the damn police.

Todd nodded with tears in his eyes. "I