While Mick was showing Damien the layout of the house, The SWAT commander was doing the same two and a half miles away in the conference room of APD's Zone 6 station. He had spread out a set of drawings on the table. "The house was remodeled in the fifties and again in 2004. Access points are here, here, and here." He continued to brief the team while Angie looked on.

Thermal images from a police drone were displayed on a wall tv. Heat signatures of 5 people were clearly visible. At least three of them appeared to be imprisoned in a basement room. This was a relief to Angie. It confirmed she had the right house. She had set all of this in motion based on a draft email that she originally thought legitimate. Now she didn't know what to think.

A third team also discussed the layout of the house at 114 Ponce de Leon. Two men in dark clothing sat in a dark van behind the Druid Hills Panera Bread just off Decatur Road. The restaurant was closed. They were not there for the food. Their discussion was very different from the others. The terms accelerant and flashpoint were being used in a way that was totally inconsistent with the future wellbeing of the occupants of the house.

Angie was pleased that she had been given command of the operation but chafed that she would not be leading the team in. Instead, she would be in the command van a few blocks away. She would have access to the drone feed and the comms, but unlike tv police shows, the body-cams her team members wore would not be sending back a live feed.

When she was satisfied every team member knew their role. She dispersed them to their staging areas. 

There would be no blue lights or sirens. The two streets in and out of the area would be blocked by patrol cars fifteen minutes before the operation. Additional uniformed officers would be on foot in the neighborhood in the unlikely event a resident chose that time for a nocturnal stroll.

Sandy, Lucy Holloway and an SVU agent would follow SWAT into the house, head to the basement to rescue the captives. Joey would accompany the SWAT team to the living area. His job was to identify and secure Shockley, their suspected killer. An FBI trafficking task force team member would follow, collecting evidence of the trafficking ring. Erin would be with him.

It was a good plan and it should have worked, except for the wild cards.

'There's always a wild card,' Angie thought, echoing something her father always used to say. She tried to think of what else might go wrong; could not come up with anything and muttered, "the penalty for caution is time."  Something else her father used to say.

With two minutes before the "go" a uni radioed, "Control, a black sedan just passed me. Two male occupants. Heading southwest on Ponce."

Angie assigned a radio car to escort them out of the area. "Stop them at the checkpoint, make sure they are legit."

One last check of the screen and Angie issued the order. It was 3:05 AM.