At five-thirty in the afternoon, the air in the office area of the Special Investigation Team was very quiet.
Luo An, Winslow, Reesi, and Chenier, the four of them were all gathered around Mona and Michelle, their eyes glued to the computer screen in front of the two.
After the recent interrogation, Luo An and the others obtained a photo of the man who was tracking Ashiya from a car that belonged to one of Eric’s friends.
Due to the low quality of the equipnt, the photo was a bit blurry, but this was not a problem for Mona. She quickly adjusted the image of the person in the photo with Michelle, and then uploaded it into the FBI’s internal database to start the identity comparison.
The comparison took a little longer this ti, and all agents of the investigation team were closely watching the continually flashing computer page.
As ti ticked away, the flashing suddenly stopped, and a picture of a white male in his thirties, expressionless, appeared before everyone’s eyes.
Mona’s spirits lifted, and she imdiately sat up straight to pull up the man’s identity information, and loudly introduced:
"Thonaka Hyde, 31 years old, 183cm tall, unmarried, unemployed, living in Eastern New Jersey!"
Winslow and Chenier were exhilarated, Reesi turned around to look at Luo An, excitedly saying:
"Let’s set out to apprehend him!"
"No rush."
Compared to the other quite excited agents, Luo An’s expression remained calm, and he asked in a leisurely manner:
"Mona, what was Thonaka’s background when he was young? Did he serve in the military?"
"His young background..."
Mona continued to type on the keyboard, and after a mont her brow furrowed with a sowhat solemn tone, she replied:
"The records show that Thonaka lost his parents at the age of four and grew up in an orphanage.
After he left the orphanage, there was a long period with no tax records or employnt history, and he never served in the military.
However, he does have a bank account, opened when he was 21 years old and has been showing inco and expenditure records ever since, although the amounts are small, usually around five to six hundred US dollars."
Most of the federal lower-class citizens don’t have much savings, or to say, federal social norms don’t allow them to have savings.
Having a bank account with five to six hundred US dollars indicates that the orphan Thonaka is doing relatively okay.
However, the bank was not what Luo An was concerned with; Winslow, Reesi, and the others, after hearing Mona’s introduction, also ca to the realization, and Chenier frowned deeply:
"Thonaka never served in the military?"
"No."
Mona shook her head, moved aside to show the computer screen to everyone, and said:
"He also never worked as a police officer, firefighter, or even a community security guard."
Thinking about the combat traces left in the woods near the Cadillac cri scene, Chenier and Winslow fell silent. Reesi turned to look at Luo An and asked in a low voice:
"Could we have the wrong person?"
"I don’t know."
Looking at the picture of the expressionless white male in the computer, Luo An’s eyes slightly narrowed, and he said:
"However, we can start by having a talk with him, rember to bring weapons."
"No problem!"
Winslow, Chenier, and Reesi responded in unison, went to get their weapons, and Luo An imdiately ordered Mona and Michelle to stay at the headquarters and continue to track Thonaka’s movents, while also handling remote surveillance of that area.
————
At eight o’clock in the evening, in Eastern New Jersey.
Out of caution, Luo An still had Reesi contact the local SWAT team to prepare for a joint operation.
Under the sowhat dim street lights, a black military transport vehicle hid half of itself in the darkness, with an SUV parked not far from it, and Luo An and his team were currently sitting inside the vehicle making calls.
"There’s a grey sedan at the entrance of that apartnt, the license plate number is xxx."
Watching the apartnt that was flickering with lights in the distance, Luo An pressed the communicator and said:
"Check that car, see if it belongs to Thonaka."
A series of rapid keystrokes sounded through the communicator, and Mona’s voice soon followed:
"It’s not, the owner of that car is an old man, not Thonaka."
Luo An nodded, just about to speak, when Michelle suddenly spoke up urgently:
"Wait a second, Luo An!
The Cadillac owner was murdered that night, and a surveillance video from a gas station west of the cri scene caught footage of the car!
Chenier frowned deeply and asked urgently:
"Was the driver Thonaka?"
Michelle replied:
"From the surveillance video, the driver was wearing a hat and had a big beard, looking quite old, not like Thonaka."
"There’s a possibility of disguise."
Luo An said gravely, then adjusted the frequency on the communicator and asked:
"What’s the status of the target now?"
Atop the roof of a deserted apartnt building, a SWAT mber lay on the ground, peering through the scope of a sniper rifle at the situation inside the target apartnt, and replied:
"The target has not made any movents, everything is normal."
"Good."
Upon hearing this, Luo An didn’t say more, pressed down on the communicator and ordered:
"Winslow, Reesi, move from the back of the apartnt with the SWAT team!
Chenier, the rest of the SWAT team, follow for the raid from the front!
During the operation, be extrely careful and rember, we need to catch them alive!"
"Understood!"
The orders were t with unified responses; the fully-ard group quickly got out of their vehicles, splitting into two teams and stealthily and swiftly surrounded the apartnt building.
As Luo An and Chenier’s team were only a few ters away from the apartnt, a shout from the sniper suddenly ca through the communicator:
"The target suddenly started moving quickly, seems like sothing’s been detected!"
Everyone looked tense, Luo An’s brow slightly furrowed as he gave out orders:
"Notify the stealth team, begin the operation imdiately!"
"Understood!"
The SWAT mbers who received the command replied in unison, and the one in front with the riot shield suddenly sped up to the apartnt’s main entrance.
The second in line among the SWAT team picked up a battering ram and without hesitation slamd it into the door!
Bang—
Bang—
Two loud bangs and the apartnt’s front and back doors were instantly knocked down by the ram, and the SWAT mbers behind, along with Winslow and Reesi, imdiately rushed into the building with guns drawn:
"FBI!"
"Don’t move, put your hands up!"
"Drop your weapons! Get down on the ground!"
"Head upstairs! Upstairs!"
The apartnt wasn’t very large; the living room and kitchen on the first floor were completely visible, and as no target was found, everyone imdiately rushed towards the staircase to head up.
At that mont, Luo An felt a sudden tremor in his heart, following his intuition he looked towards the top of the staircase and urgently yelled:
"Ambush, be careful!"
"!!!"
A SWAT mber who was about to reach the top of the staircase instinctively stopped in his tracks and looked down but found nothing.
Only upon raising his head did he discover a nearly invisible fishing line at the doorway of the first room on the second floor, and should he have proceeded, he would have definitely triggered the booby trap!
"Fu-k!"
The SWAT mber broke into a cold sweat, cursing under his breath, and deep down felt imnsely grateful to Luo An. Not waiting to move forward to disarm the booby trap, a slight electronic beep suddenly reached his ears.
Ding—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The next second, three blasts of flas erupted violently, instantly blowing the second-floor door and windows to pieces, and the walls collapsed from the explosion.
The group on the staircase had not expected an explosion; the mont the sound was heard, they reflexively bent down and covered their heads to dodge. Luckily, Luo An’s shout had prevented them from rushing upstairs, and they were only hit by so wood and stones, overall not sustaining much damage.
anwhile, taking advantage of the explosion startling everyone and making them dodge, a shadow swiftly darted from beneath the staircase and ran out of the apartnt!
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