D-Day The Ultimate Warrior

It was Sunday morning and Sergeant Rollins was still comfortably stretched out under his blankets when the flash of light being switched on next to him told him that Mary, his wife, was awake. He slowly zoomed in to the real world and as he rolled over, he found his wife staring at him. Twenty years of marriage and she was still able to make him feel the same sense of wonder as he had experienced that very first night he had seen her as a rookie on the Los Angeles SWAT unit.

“Morning, sleepy head,” she said, smiling at him.

“Good morning.”

“Happy birthday.”

“Mmmm. Do not remind me, please.”

“Happy birthday, Daddy,” said a small voice.

“We made you breakfast,” said another small voice. “Mommy said that we could.” And with that the two small bodies and their sweet voices left the bedroom.

Twenty minutes after his shower, Rollins went down the stairs to find that his family was waiting for him, with the kitchen table set with a most inviting breakfast. Immediately when they saw him, they broke out into a song, ‘Happy birthday to you’, and he waited until they finished before he wiped his tears away. “You guys are the best,” he said.

Just then the doorbell rang. Justin, his second youngest son, ran and answered the door. He was greeted by Thomas, Stan, Victor, Michael and Marcus, Rollins’ special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team.

“Where is the birthday boy?” Stan asked as they all entered the house, bearing gifts. Just then, all their phones beeped, a bad sign.

“Sergeant Rollins. Yes sir, I understand, I’m on my way.” He turned to his family with the apologetic look they had all gotten to know so well. “I’m sorry guys.”

His wife just smiled. “Go save the world, superman. We will still be here when you come back.”

He went upstairs, changed into his uniform and got into the special bulletproof Discovery 4 Full House he had received last year as part of SWAT’s recognition of his 25 years with the team. It was this part of the job that Sergeant Rollins hated the most, the unexpected calls that always took him away from his family. Twenty minutes later he entered the underground parking of the Los Angeles Police Department.

When he got upstairs, everyone was already in the debriefing room. Captain Rodgers was standing in front with three other men who Sergeant Rollins had worked with before – Special Agent Sanchez and Special Agent Montez of the DEA, and Agent Williams from the FBI. This told Rollins that his day was about to take a turn for the worse.

Just then, Captain Rodgers said, “Thank you, Sergeant Rollins and team for finally gracing us with your presence.” The whole room burst out in laughter. This was one of the things that Sergeant Rollins liked about Captain Rodgers, the man always knew how to make everyone laugh.

“Now that Sergeant Rollins and his team are present, I will hand over to Special Agent Sanchez. I’m sorry for those of you who were called in on your day off,” said the sorrowful voice of the DEA agent. “The DEA and the FBI have been running a joint investigation into the drug cartel and human trafficking ring that has recently plagued this city. We now have a fair understanding of who is who in this ring. Unfortunately, as we all feared, this is not the work of one deranged human or a gang. In fact, this is a competition between the gangs.”

Just then, a large screen turned on and an organogram filled the screen. “At the top, we have the El Diablos. They are estimated to be in charge of about 65% of the drugs that hit the streets every week. We were able to put a man on the inside and he tells us that at the top, there is a man who goes by the name Angelica. He is the top dog of the El Diablos, and he rules with an iron fist. Do not let this man's name fool you. He is the most ruthless drug lord in the area. As far as we have established thus far, he is personally responsible for 30 deaths in the past few months and over 100 disappearances. Next after him, we have Nicky, he is Angelica's most trusted lieutenant. Up until three years ago, Nicky was a nobody in the El Diablos. Then he took out some big shot in a rival gang, and has since become the second most dangerous person in the El Diablos gang. Over the past year, the El Diablos have expanded their business from having concentrated on drugs to now also include human trafficking. Over 3000 teenage girls have disappeared in the past six months alone, and we have reason to believe that Angelica and his gang are behind it all. I will now hand over to Agent Williams of the FBI.”

Suddenly, the screen changed again and some stats replaced the organogram.

“As you all know, the past two weeks have been filled with many mysterious disappearances. Fifty to be exact. Now we have reason to believe that the El Diablos have recently gotten into business with this man,” Agent Williams pointed to the screen and a large picture of a Mexican man, covered in tattoos, came on the screen.

“His name is San Tiago. He is among the world’s most wanted human traffickers. He is personally responsible for the disappearance of over 2000 people in the past six months alone. Up until recently, he had been mainly operating out of Mexico. In fact, it is fair to say that up until recently, he owned Mexico. He came to our attention about six weeks ago when the DEA spotted him meeting with Angelica. If this turns out to be what we expect has been happening already, ladies and gentleman, then I can tell you now, and this is not an exaggeration, that our jobs will become 1000 times more difficult and our safety is not guaranteed, if we do not take action now, then the city will soon erupt in flames.” “This guy is no joke. He is an extremely dangerous plague that must not be allowed to infect this city or any other city in the world. A mountainous task lays ahead of us, ladies and gentlemen.” Agent Williams stepped back and Captain Rodgers came up to the podium.

“Our job from now on is to make sure that this city does not fall into the wrong hands. SWAT is taking over the investigation. Ladies and gentlemen, although these are already tough times, we must always ensure that the city remains calm. Therefore, under no circumstances are we to divulge any of the information we just heard to anyone. Stay safe when you are out there and doing your job. Oh, and before we all leave, I would like to point out that today, one of our own turns 45, so let’s show Sergeant Rollins some love.”

Everyone in the room turned and they all clapped their hands and cheered. Rollins could see some blood lust from his fellow SWAT officers. Since the beginning of time, it had been one of the SWAT’s traditions that on their birthdays, each and every officer would have to run the gauntlet at the SWAT headquarters.

This year, Sergeant Rollins was to run the obstacle course, while other officers tried to either tackle him, Taser him or throw slime balls at him. Last but not least, the toughest thing would be to run through the legs of every SWAT officer while being beaten. More than 100 officers parading down your back. This was the day that every rookie officer looked forward to, because it was the one day of the year they got to act out their revenge on their senior officers for all the tough drills they were put under.

As Sergeant Rollins eventually finished his 100-men gauntlet and had been lifted on the shoulders of his fellow officers, he reflected on his time at SWAT. SWAT had always been a home away from home. When he first enrolled, at the age of 20, he had already been through a lot in his life. His father had been killed while serving in Iraq, and his mother had died a slow and painful death caused by cancer. From his very first day on the job, he had felt like being part of a family, and to some extent he had been part of a family, especially in his first SWAT team, which had been led by the current commander of SWAT, Commander Higgerson.

As he stood there in front of his second family, Rollins remembered his first-ever SWAT call-out. He had been extremely nervous. The call came while they were on patrol. “Bravo team, we have a reported call of a bank robbery, units in need of immediate backup.”

Immediately they had sped off to the bank. Upon arrival, the first thing Rollins caught sight of was the officer who had been hit. Without thinking, he immediately dashed to the officer's side, shooting six shots blindly to where he thought shots were coming from, without stopping to look who he had hit, and pulled the officer back to the SWAT van. Then he had followed the rest of his team inside the bank and just started shooting again.

It was only after the whole ordeal had finished that he realised that he had been shot twice, once in the leg and once in his side. When he saw his wounds, his whole body just went numb and the next thing he knew, he woke up in a hospital bed with all his fellow SWAT officers looking down on him. Commander Higgerson, who had then still been Sergeant Higgerson, looked at him, and with a smile on his face, said, “Welcome to SWAT.” It turned out that during his heroics, Sergeant Rollins had not only saved the life of a fellow officer, he had also taken down four of the robbers and potentially saved Higgerson as well. From that day onwards, Higgerson had become very fond of Rollins and he became more than just a mentor to Rollins, he became a brother.

As he looked down at his fellow officers who were demanding a speech, Rollins caught the eye of Commander Higgerson, and he knew that he too was thinking of that very first day when Rollins had saved Higgerson's life. “Speech, speech, speech,” the crowd demanded. Rollins looked at everyone.

“Twenty-five years ago, I joined SWAT, just a clueless kid with nowhere to go. I had no family, and I had no one who cared for me. I had no idea what I was joining. I had no idea the amount of danger I was about to face as a SWAT officer. We often see the worst side of humans imaginable. We go through things that can never be expressed in words. We put our lives on the line every day. What we do, we do it alone. There are only five other people out there with you, and you have to trust that those people will have your back when the worst comes to the worst. We often take these people for granted who come out on calls with us. Often, we are asked by the media why we chose to work in such a difficult job, whether it is easy to trust your work mates with your life. The truth is that these people are more than just my work mates. To me, these people are family. Each and every one of you today here is family. I just want to say that I appreciate being part of this family and that no matter what, I will never want to be part of another career. What we do, the things we see, the people we save, all that cannot be done without each and every one of you.”

Rollins looked at everyone in the room and just for a second, everyone looked as though they were about to break into tears. Instead, someone turned the sound system on and the party continued for hours.

When Rollins parked the car in his garage later than night, he could not help but feel a sudden sense of doom in the quiet of the night. Somewhere out there, the El Diablos were planning their next steps, their next attack or deal, and he, Rollins, was going to do everything in his power to make sure that those plans came to nothing.

It was now 11:30 pm, which meant that everyone in the house was now fast asleep. He slowly tiptoed around the kitchen and up the stairs, not wanting to make any noise or wake his sleeping family. He checked in on his kids first, they were all fast asleep, unaware of the dread looming in the outside world. Then he walked slowly into his bedroom, and saw his wife sleeping. He cautiously removed his uniform, and after a quick trip to the bathroom, he got into bed.

“Everything fine at work?” Mary asked.

“Mmmmm. Sorry I woke you,” he said quietly.

“It’s okay.” And with that, they both drifted off to sleep.