"Sir...Sir!"

Jake continued scribbling down some notes, not once paying attention to the security guard of his newest firm. He had since left Vegas' 99th Precinct, no longer finding policing that fit for him, he had a lot of change in his line of work. This was just him starting out, he had not taken on some higher profile cases but for now, he worked in petty thievery. 

Right now, it seemed that Seattle was being plagued with a substantial amount of robberies. The lead detective with the Seattle police department did not even know what to do, considering that a robbery of milkshakes did not seem to be on their radar. Yes, you heard that correctly, a robbery of milkshakes had swept through Seattle. 

"Sir Peralta! I have the details on the shake-bake bandit!"

Jake raised an eyebrow. He wondered how someone would come up with that kind of nickname, he sighed before taking some of the details, looking over files.

"You know these remind me of the Pontiac Bandit, just milkshakes replaced the Pontiacs. Hm, have Terry or Rosa look into and have them come back to me with the results."

The guard nodded, walking out of Jake's office wondering what his eccentric boss was thinking.

Back in the office with Jake, he smiled slyly. His eyes held a certain curiosity to them, clearly wondering what was happening with these milkshake robberies. He knew that Terry or Rosa would find out in a matter of days or weeks, he went back to focusing on his paperwork.

"Jake, we got some news, apparently Captian Flint doesn't want us on this job. He said Major Crimes would be taking it up."

Peralta blinked for a couple seconds before allowing a chuckle to escape him. He believed that Gina would have said something sarcastic, possibly give a grin in return but he found that she wasn't. He blinked again, his laughing ceased.

"Oh, you can't be serious, who the heck is trying to take up a job that they have no control over whether we do it or not?"

Gina tilted her head to the side, giving Jake a dazzling smile that made him realize who it was. The very person that Rosa wanted to bone, the vulture. 

"Really? Well, where is Holt on this matter? Shouldn't he be cleaning this up? It is his job as liason."

Gina gave jake another dazzling smile that made him stiff to his very core, he remembered that Holt was on vacation. He and Kevin went on their annual trip to England, he still hadn't gotten that postcard yet.

"Alright, get me Amy and bring Flint, along with Detective Douche. They have no right to restrict us, it is a petty crime, not even a felony!"

Gina nodded, heading out and making the calls while Jake sighed, leaning back into his chair as he rubbed his temple. 

"Now I know why Holt was always so stressed and going grey-haired, still he solved one of those things with the recent vacation and change of scenery."

"Field Leader Santiago, please have a seat, I need your office on an important matter that pertains to a job we've taken up on behalf of the Sugar Shack Bakery."

Amy smiled, taking the seat that Peralta offered with slight hesitation. She had yet to get used to this new style of work, they were no longer police detectives with the LVPD, no they were Mercenaries in a better sense and this job was the few of many. Amy remembered one job where they had to protect the Ambassador of Russia. It was a rather bad job, one that went a bit differently than she and her commander would have liked. 

Another thing that she had yet to get used to, Peralta. He was different now, taking his job seriously, dressed like a leader, only in cargo pants and usually a beige T-shirt that tightly hugged his body. Almost like he had a transformation, wanting to perform this job perfectly, there were still shades of the old Peralta but the times that one would get to see them, got fewer. 

"Peralta, what is it?"

Jake's eyebrow rose, catching Amy off guard, almost as if he was quite annoyed at her common use of his first name. He soon chuckled as he knew that Amy tread on some eggshells around him, she wanted to impress her boss and this was just the beginning. 

"I have something I want to run by you, I want you to investigate Doug Judy, see if anyone can place him in Seattle at the time. He might have moved around, he's been spotted everywhere where I am, maybe he misses his best friend, hm?"

Just as Amy was about to accept the job, Rosa and Terry walked in. 

"Jake, we got something on the Bandit, he seems to be hitting each place along Ballard. I say we catch him and see what he's trying to do, why would he rob Milkshakes only? These stores bring in about, a grand, maybe two, why only steal milkshakes?"

Jake nodded, turning his chair as he looked out at Seattle, his window being a bit blurred by some rain.

"Santiago, change of plans, I want you to assemble a Squad. Head down to Gerry's, that'll be next if Rosa and Terry's theory work out."

Amy hummed in response, heading out as Rosa and Terry stayed behind, wondering what Jake had for them. 

"I want you Rosa to head out to Waterfront, keep an eye on things, assemble a squad also. Terry, you have the same assignment as Rosa, just here in Pioneer Square. You're both going to be on the lookout for Doug Judy, something tells me that he has something to do with this, dismissed."

Two days later...

"Judy."

"Peralta."

The criminal and now Commander of the security firm known as Wardens watched one another. They soon embraced like lifelong friends before pulling back, with a lack of professionality as Jake sat opposite Judy, hoping to get some answers. 

"You know Judy, I pulled some strings back in Vegas, I got you out. Got your brother caught, even get you back some records. This is how you treat me, your best friend?"

Judy tilted his head as his pattened smile came in full force. 

"You admitting we best friends Peralta?"

"No, I'm trying to use emotional manipulation in order to get you to admit what you know about the Shakey-Bake Bandit."

Judy flinched back, his eyes narrowing on Peralta a little while before he nodded his head in understanding. He had done the same with Jake, it was only fair that he did the same. 

"I'm still wondering how you guys found me, I mean, I was held up in a warehouse with no telephone."

"All we had to say was that Rosa was looking for you, wanting a date, one of your guys ran back to you and we set it all up. We caught you, just like that."

Snapping his fingers, Jake leaned forward, finally having enough of the back and forth games they were playing. 

"So, enough of this, what do you about this bandit? Cause I know that this ties into something bigger, probably a distraction but for what? You tell me, best friend."

"Fine Peralta but you should know, not everyone in the Seattle PD is happy with you guys setting up shop. This thing, it's bigger than the Mobsters. Its a society, one that wants to take over, everything."

Jake laughed, he couldn't help it, a secret society? That sounded like some government type operation, how was a small band of official special operations/former detectives going to take on a society?

"By society, I mean like a Narco-Empire. Lead by Hector Gonzalez, head of the Sinaloa underworld. He wants to rule the world and everything in it, he wanted me to steal him some cars and then head over to one of his fronts. He was willing to pay five-hundred grand for one steal, he wanted fast transport and even wanted to hire you guys."

Jake looked a bit put-out at that, he did not wish to be hired by a narco druglord, the game like that was already starting to infiltrate American society. It wouldn't be long before they sold more than just Marijuana and Meth. 

"So you mean to tell me that another cartel is looking to gain a foothold in America or have they already gained one? This stuff seems a bit cliche. Then again, what the heck does this have to do with the shakey-bake bandit!?"

His eyebrows, clearly wanting some details on the guy that had been terrorizing the districts of Seattle. He knew that the guy was of average build, he already had a team dedicated to finding him. 

"His name is Lenny Pembrook, he's the brother of Detective Pembrook. If you see where I'm going with this, there is a reason why your bosses wanted you off the case. They're compromised, I had some informants on the inside. They're a few good ones but for now, you guys are on your own."

Peralta turned back to face his own squad of men and women. He could already see them looking at him for what they were going to do next. For the first time ever, Peralta felt like cursing the very name Holt, the man had shouldered so much. Everyone looked at to him like he had all the answers, now he had to make sure that they all came out of this alive...

"Peralta, we need to operate smoothly with this, if Pembrook and his brother are in on this. It spells danger for everyone, not just us. So, what's your call? How do we work around this?"

Jake thought about it for a moment, all he could think about was the other side of this. How was he going to manage a security firm with little to no people who supported him? He knew this was going to be an uphill battle, he needed to play the political game for now and it was going to be one heck of a fight. 

"We don't. I want men stationed at key warehouses as well as reports from City Hall, we are not going to play this aggressive Diaz. This business is not meant for us but we found ourselves here."

Rosa growled, nodding all the same as she walked out, she could see that Jake was not in the right frame of mind for a talk or debate, nor was he ready for such things to be discussed. He wanted to get through other things. 

"When did being the good guy suck so much, eh? That was something you never taught me, dad, I had to learn on my own."

Jake looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing on the board before him. It had all the details of what Doug Judy and their intel had stated/gathered. It was going to be a long haul but one that he hoped was worth it, in the end.

"Detective Douche! Nice to see you here, Captain Flint. To what do I owe the pleasure? I don't remember scheduling our meeting this early."

Jake leaned back into his leather chair, truth be told, he had expected this somewhat. He knew that they would want to cut him off with this Milkshake business, he found it amusing that he still hadn't figured out the true motive besides it was a distraction for a narco operation.

"Joke Peralta, look at ya! I didn't expect to see you here. I was expecting Diaz, lord knows that she knows how to treat me right."

Jake gave a tight smile in response, neither offering the men beverages or any of the other kindness that true men of the law deserved. He wanted it to be known that they were not welcome...for now. 

"Diaz is on an assignment I gave her. Apologies Pembrook, you'll learn how to deal with me, I'm sure."

He smiled at the double meaning of his words as he turned his full attention to the captain. He wondered if the man had a decent or good bone in his body but Jake was learning, not everyone was a  white light. They were darkened with shades of grey.

"Commander Peralta, we're here to talk about the recent Milkshake Ban-"

Jake held up a hand, stopping the Captain from going any further. In truth, they did not need to go further with this. Jake was willing to let them have it, all he needed was some things from city hall and he would get an explanation of why robberies of milkshakes were happening.

"I'm willing to let you have the case, trust me. I've learnt that things about the case seem off, a little silly I must say, we here at the Wardens take serious cases only. Anything else, Captain Flint?"

The two officers of the law stood there shocked for a moment before they stood up, exiting quite quickly, not before taking a small glance back at Peralta. They soon took all the case files that the Wardens had, leaving them with nothing on Lenny Pembrook. 

"They buy it?

"Every bit of it, we got them. How did Diaz do with City hall?"

Terry smiled, actually believing that Jake was leading them down a good path for a moment there. 

"She got what you needed, what's it for Peralta?"

"It's the key to discovering the drug cartel in Seattle. You'll understand soon enough."