"What does it mean to be too cooperative?" Jack and Hannah were both taken aback.
"She voluntarily provided a complete list of properties and, according to her, is currently contacting the property owners to get their authorization so that the police can conduct searches elsewhere," explained Danny Reagan.
"Sounds like a decent person?" Hannah shrugged.
"Well, she's definitely not a competent property manager," Danny Reagan shrugged back. "All these properties belong to the same person, Jacob Losha."
"A Ukrainian billionaire who made his fortune in the oil business. He lives in London and, apart from those villas, he also owns some office buildings and other investment properties. According to Inelisa Holyman, Mr. Losha claims to be completely unaware of any illicit activity occurring in his properties. The two villas you found being used to detain the girls have reportedly been vacant for almost a year."
Jack pondered, "So, either this billionaire is rich enough to not care about his investments going to waste, or he's directly involved."
"That's something for your FBI to worry about. I have other things to handle, so keep me updated. My father is keeping an eye on this case too," Danny said, grabbing some coffee and pastries to go before hurrying out.
"Ding!" Jack's phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. "Jubal has already received the sketches of Snake and his two associates. They're trying to track down their identities. They've also found three Ukrainian underground doctors matching the description; here are their photos and addresses."
"Let's start with the oldest one." Hannah pointed to a photo of a thin elderly man. Hayley had mentioned that the doctor seemed quite old.
Half an hour later, they arrived at a high-rise apartment building in Flushing.
"Looks like those animals paid him quite well."
Hannah scanned the area. This seemed to be a newly developed property, and while the cars parked outside weren't luxury, most were worth at least fifty or sixty thousand. They even spotted an armed guard standing outside the building.
"What do you think are the odds this doctor has disappeared?" Jack glanced at the search warrant freshly signed by a federal judge.
"Pretty high." Hannah yawned, covering her mouth, and sped up to keep pace with him. Last night's operation had ended close to dawn, and they'd only rested in the car for a couple of hours before heading to the hospital.
"Bang!" Just as Jack pressed the elevator button, a loud crash sounded from outside, startling them both.
They rushed out of the building to find a Lexus parked outside that had just been smashed by a falling body.
"Jack, it looks like our doctor was a little too eager to meet us," Hannah remarked dryly as she inspected the dead man's face with a grim expression. It was a dark joke, but the irony was clear.
Whether or not he'd been alive before, he was certainly dead now.
They both looked up at the building. The 12-story apartment had balconies densely packed together, making it impossible to tell from which floor he had fallen.
"FBI! Shut down the elevator, call 911, now!" Jack barked at the stunned, armed security guard nearby, flashing his badge.
The guard jumped in fright, quickly grabbing his radio to relay the order before taking out his phone to call for emergency services.
Jack pulled his FK 7.5 from his underarm holster and handed it to Hannah. "Stay here, and if anyone tries to escape, stop them."
The FBI-issued Glock 22 was quick for unloading on someone, but its stopping power was questionable. Hannah was an excellent shot, but her backup weapon was a Smith & Wesson M36 revolver her dad had given her when she was young—also lacking in firepower.
Jack's go-to backups were the FK 7.5 and the MK24, one in an underarm holster and the other on his lower back in a quick-draw holster, which he would switch to a tactical thigh holster during operations.
Hannah nodded in understanding. Jack cautioned her, "Don't kill him; we need to find those girls as soon as possible."
With that, he went up the stairs, floor by floor, searching. He hadn't seen any suspect, but it was insulting to assume that this doctor would just conveniently decide to jump right as they arrived.
Unfortunately, there was no easy solution to their problem. In a large building like this, there were bound to be multiple stairwells, and Jack didn't have the luxury of being in more than one place at once. He had to hope for a bit of luck.
As it turned out, his luck wasn't great. Just as he reached the eighth floor, where the doctor's apartment was, he heard the FK 7.5 go off downstairs, followed by screeching tires and the sound of a car crash.
Jack rushed to the balcony to look down and saw a Honda Accord smashed into a street tree, smoke rising from the hood.
He immediately dashed back downstairs, covering the distance in a third of the time it had taken to climb up. When he arrived, he let out a sigh of relief at the scene before him—Hannah was pinning down a hulking man, pounding him with punch after punch.
"Stop, stop! Hannah, you're about to kill him!"
Jack quickly approached, lifting his petite girlfriend up and examining her hands. Sure enough, her knuckles were scraped raw.
Then he glanced at the bruised and battered man on the ground. Despite his swollen, bloodied face, Jack could recognize him as the "Boar" from Hayley's description of Snake, Spider, and Boar.
This guy was built like a tank, but unfortunately for him, Hannah's strength against men seemed to multiply, and she had taken him down with just a few moves. He was unlucky—Hannah had let out her pent-up frustration on him, leaving him with a mouthful of broken teeth.
"Where's Snake? Tell me his identity, and where are the girls you trafficked?"
Jack lifted him from the ground, noticing his right arm was twisted at a bizarre angle, likely dislocated by Hannah in the fight.
The man muttered curses in Ukrainian, but Jack wasted no time. He grabbed the man's broken arm and twisted it the other way.
"Ahhh!" A scream tore from his mouth, finally silencing him.
Though he could only speak halting English, Jack's decent Russian skills allowed them to communicate enough.
By the time the NYPD and the paramedics arrived, Jack had gathered crucial information about the gang.
Snake's real name was Stepan Teshak, an American with a Ukrainian immigrant mother. He had a cousin in Ukraine named Oleg Teshak, who ran an employment agency in Donbas. Jacob Losha, the billionaire, was Stepan's real boss, and they trafficked girls to New York through the Donbas agency. Stepan and his men would meet the girls and brutally force them into prostitution.
Inelisa Holyman was also their accomplice. Besides securing suitable properties for holding the kidnapped girls, she handled the bookkeeping for the gang.
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