Chapter 3
by 
ScentOfaWoman
...
Kayla Johnson, 24, SWAT's special Asset – First Deployment
Kayla
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The Ride
The van shook like a rattled tin can as it tore through the city's eastern industrial district. Every pothole and cracked pavement sent jolts through the thin metal bench where Kayla Johnson sat, her spine pressed against the cold wall, her gloved hands resting stiffly on her thighs.
No windows. Just a narrow slit of a viewport near the driver's cabin, through which she could see the grainy smear of streetlights and dark warehouses sliding past.
Around her the tactical team moved with the practiced, almost bored efficiency of men who had done this a hundred times before.
She had done it zero times before.
Fresh meat, she thought, and immediately hated herself for the phrase.
She looked at each member of the SWAT team in turn, trying to memorize faces, trying to ground herself in their presence. Eight operators plus her. Nine bodies in the back of a van built for six. The air was thick with sweat, gun oil, and the low hum of nervous energy that nobody would admit to.