Chapter 10

The mood back in the War Room at the 12th precinct could hardly be called relaxed either; satisfied might better describe it, though no one was counting chickens just yet. Agent Valdes was running 'Prognosys', an experimental software that could be fed information such as current position, route and direction with the program returning probable directions and destinations depending on traffic conditions, road works and logical progression.

"How accurate is it?" asked Captain Gates as they looked at the green and blue lines extending from the SUV's current position in the car park, both lines curving left along West 31st, the green one, showing a higher probability, continuing across the intersection of 31st and 8th before coming to a point at the intersection with 9th, whilst the blue line curved right at the intersection with 8th and continued as far as the intersection with West 40th.

Valdes shrugged, "Probably not very, especially somewhere as built up as Manhattan. But assuming they don't break any traffic rules and head the wrong way up one-way-streets and things like that, it will allow us to position vehicles ahead of them and cut down the chance of them picking up a tail. If they head out of the city towards residential areas then it'll be more accurate; less opportunities for them to turn off or backtrack".

"What if they turn off somewhere before reaching the vehicle ahead?" asked Castle.

"As I said, the system's experimental, so we're not relying on it exclusively, as long as we can keep track of them with the chopper and traffic cams, we won't need to have the tailing vehicle too close to them. What the system will allow us to do is let one of the waiting cars pull out slightly ahead of them and then allow itself to get passed whilst the other tailing vehicles turns off and leapfrogs them. With the four cars it should allow us to track them without being too obvious".

A few moments later voice number two, whom Kate and Castle had identified as the team leader, could be heard on the speaker, "Foxtrot"

Latimer reached the radio with a single stride "Go ahead Foxtrot"

"Vehicle plates are New Jersey, Victor Mike Hotel Three Three One …. Repeat …. Victor Mike Hotel Three Three One"

"You were discreet?"

"Yes sir, made it look like I was going to my car before getting a phone call which called me back. I can't be one hundred per cent certain, but I think there was someone off to the right of the car … probably body guard, but difficult to make out … made sneaking round there a bit awkward".

"Ok, good work, just make sure they don't see you again. Oh and Hendricks …"

"Sir?"

"Don't lose them!"

"We won't sir"

Turning to O'Hara, Latimer raised an enquiring eyebrow.

"Vehicle is registered to Bayshore Enterprises ... Newark" she returns after a few minutes.

"Ok, I want everything you can find on Bayshore Enterprises; activity, management, personnel, finances, history, anything and everything ... let's get to it!"

Captain Gates slipped out of the War Room and returned to her office, however much this case might be intriguing, she still had a precinct to run and murders, robberies, fights, traffic accidents and politicians would not simply fade away.

It was about ten minutes later before the voice Kate and Rick now knew to be Hendricks' was back on the radio, "Target one now leaving vehicle, do you want us to continue surveillance?"

"Negative, let him go, we'll have a team bring him in later, keep eyes on Tango two" was Latimer's response.

"We have a new Tango, looks like a bodyguard …. he's climbed into the driver's seat …. vehicle is now heading for the ramp"

"Ok, get your team out of sight until they've cleared the building then head for your units, we'll give you instructions when you report in". Latimer turned to the screen with the satellite imaging and tapped the area near the Madison Square Garden complex. The map zoomed in. Another tap and it zoomed in even further, showing the details of streets and buildings. It wasn't live feed, their case didn't rank high enough yet to get that, but it did show the area as it had been earlier in the day.

"Victor one, VOI will be exiting any time now, make sure you get shots of both driver and passenger, probably rear seat!"

"Copy"

Several minutes passed before the voice was heard again, "VOI now in sight …." even over the radio the high speed shuttering of the cameras could be heard "… now heading down thirty-first … pics have been transmitted sir"

"This is Skycam Hotel Bravo India, we have your VOI in sight, Blue Chevrolet TrailBlazer, Victor Mike Hotel Three Three One, please confirm"

Latimer again picked up the radio "This is Control, VOI confirmed!"

"Roger Control, VOI is now heading north west across intersection of thirty-first and eigth …"

One of the techs at the back of the room called over and Latimer Beckett and Castle went over to look at his computer screen. The man pointed to the images "I'll need about ten minutes to blend the images sir, and then I should be able to run them through the facial recognition software, see what we come up with".

"Why the two images?"

"One's infra-red, the other normal, with the tinted windows, movement and reflections, the standard image loses too much definition, the infra-red ones give us better feature definition but not much in the way of details, by blending both together we should be able to obtain relatively well defined features and details".

"Ok, let me know as soon as you have something" and with a tap on his back Latimer straightened up and headed back to the front of the room.

For the next fifteen minutes they listened in to the police chopper as it radioed in the position of the Chevy and both logic and 'Prognosys' pointed towards the Lincoln Tunnel.

Then Hendricks' voice came over the speakers, "Units one and two in position at five-twenty-first and West-Fortieth … tunnel access in view."

"Unit one, take point, VOI should be there within a few minutes, unit two, wait for them to go past then follow!" from Latimer.

"Copy, Control" from both units.

As both units headed into the tunnel, the first about a dozen vehicles in front of the TrailBlazer, the second only about four cars behind but in the other lane, Agent Valdes swapped the image from satellite to traffic cams. The poor lighting made identifying any but the vehicles closest to the cameras difficult, but eventually he was able to ID each of the three and tag them. As the screen jumped from one cam's view to the next, the circled vehicles were easier to follow.

O'Hara handed a printout to Latimer who studied it for moment before turning to Valdes "Ok, Bayshore Enterprises, Imports and Export, dealing principally with the Middle East, Asia, and South America … offices are at 5 Edison Place, Newark".

Agent Valdes quickly typed in the address and the Prognosys screen showed the probable route marked in green as being the New Jersey Turnpike before turning left onto Interstate-95 South as far as Exit 15W onto the Newark/Kearny toll.

Latimer quickly informed the units and told Hendricks to move ahead onto the Turnpike before slowing down and allowing the Chevy to overtake them shortly before Exit 15W.

Beckett asked "And if they turn off for Hoboken or Union City?"

"The second unit should be able to keep them covered until Hendricks can reach the next exit and double back … Jersey will be lending us air support …." He looked at his watch "… hopefully before they reach Interstate-ninety-five, so we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed".

As the tailing units called in the route, those in the War Room began to breathe a bit easier, whether by luck or not, it seemed that the VOI was following the indicated route, and about five minutes later a further easing of nerves came after the New Jersey Police chopper locked onto the Chevy and began shadowing it from afar. Though the lack of tall buildings made it both easier and riskier as they would be easily spotted if either occupant happened to look in their direction, the sight of a police chopper near the interstate would not be unusual.

It was as they were approaching a junction 17B on Interstate 280 that the air of general satisfaction in the room took a small hit.

"VOI is taking exit 17B onto Newark Turnpike" came from the chopper

Cursing could be heard from Hendricks as he found himself about a mile ahead and would now need to find the next turning and double back. The second unit was able to follow the Chevy onto the exit, keeping a delivery truck and two cars between them.

"VOI now heading onto Harrison Avenue …" again the chopper pilot keeping them informed. "… now turning left onto Supor Boulevard"

"Vehicle has now entered industrial complex …. has pulled up outside building at western edge of complex … two story warehouse by the looks of it … one … no two, repeat two, people exiting vehicle …. You want me to continue up here? I'm going to look a bit obvious circling up here …."

"Control, we have eyes on the complex …. Supor Industrial Park, looks like just the one entrance" from the second unit.

"Ok, thank you sky bird, we'll take it from here"

"Roger, have fun"

"Anything on facials yet?" Latimer called out to the tech

"Nothing yet sir"

"Valdes, where's unit one?"

"They're at exit sixteen, just south of the complex, should be there in about ten, Sir"

Latimer ran his fingers through his hair, "Ok, let me know as soon as they're in place .." before turning to O'Hara "… what connection between Bayshore Enterprises and Supor Industrial Park?"

O'Hara looked up at her boss, "None so far, but if there's any paperwork it should show up soon, most of the info on Bayshore Enterprises is in, it's just going to be a question of going through it and correlating it all" her puffed out cheeks giving everyone present an idea of the work involved.

"Right, we'll be briefing everyone in half an hour, try and get me as much as possible by then. Detective …", with a look at Beckett and a jerk of his head indicating that he wished to have a word outside.