Mike glanced at Nola, then over at Detective Davis. Looking back at Madam Rousseau he said, "We'll need complete access to his office, his home address... anything else you can tell us about Mr. Gerard will help."
Madam Rousseau stood up from her seat in the plush club chair. She lived in an elaborately decorated Manhattan Brownstone and very much disliked uninvited guests, especially officious civil servants. "I let him the penthouse apartment in the Gallery building, I'll get you the spare keys. His office was in the first floor of the Gallery, you went through it the day of the robbery. As for what else I can tell you about him, to be quite honest I don't know much more about him than you. His life was the Gallery. He's worked for me 10 years and apart from a background check when I first hired him, I paid very little attention to his goings on outside of his work, and at that he was superior!"
"Until he robbed you." Mike mumbled under his breath.
"Got a reply text Mike," Nola interjected, "Maurice Gerard was a passenger on the Red Eye flight to Rome. The airline confirmed it."
"No problem, we just have him extradited home. Italy loves to return our criminals to us." He stood up.
"Italy may have extradition Detectives, but the Vatican does not." Madam Rousseau said. "I'll get you those keys." She started to leave the room.
"Wait, what?" Mike started. "You think he'll just hang out in the Piazza San Pietro all day, chatting with the Pope?"
"As it turns out, Mr. Gerard has a cousin on staff at the Vatican Museum. If he took the Red Eye to Rome, that's most likely where he went." She turned and left the room to get the penthouse keys.
"Wow. Couldn't have seen that coming in a million years, huh?" Davis said looking from Mike to Nola and back. "What'cha gonna do now?"
"Contact INTERPOL, let them keep tabs on him. If he steps one foot out of Vatican City they'll grab him and send him back…." He accepted the keys from Madam and promised to return them as soon as possible.
On the way to the Rousseau Gallery Mike's, Nola's, and Davis' cell phones rang within seconds of one another. "Thats never good." Mike said answering his as Nola and Davis answered theirs. Mike pulled over and listened, exchanging looks with the other two detectives and then they all said, "Okay. On our way."
"Warehouse in the Bronx?" Mike said as he pulled back into traffic, and they nodded.
"At least its my jurisdiction." Davis said.
"I hope Serena and Yulenka are okay." Nola said.
"You believe me now about Smith and Lemon?" Mike asked Davis.
"They said two unknown subjects in the warehouse…could be anybody!" She contended.
Nola rolled her eyes and looked ahead. "Was it Hannah who called you, Mike?" At his nod she continued, "Well whoever they are, Zach said they threatened to start killing the girls if they weren't given safe passage out of there." There was nothing now for the three NYPD Detectives to do but wonder as they drove to the Bronx. They'd know more once they arrived.
"I am so glad you are safe!" Yuli said in Russian to Yulenka as they hugged outside of the Queens warehouse out of which Markov ran his Human trafficking ring and staged for his Gallery heist. The warehouse took up a whole city block and would pose a challenge to encompass by the S.W.A.T. team alone.
"Why'd you bring him along?" Serena said, intercepting Zach around the front of the command vehicle, while Hannah went over to meet with Lt. Maynard of the 51st Precinct.
"He knows the warehouse, been inside, speaks English. S.W.A.T. wants to talk to him and Yulenka.
They turned and looked as another police cruiser pulled up and Mike, Nola, and Davis got out.
"Damn, looks like a police auction!" Mike said, looking around at all the responders. "What's the situation?" He asked Zach and Serena.
"It's a standoff right now." Serena answered, "One of my uniforms was shot, wounded, they already took him away, the other, Officer Bradley, and I kept the perpetrators pinned down until help could arrive. Zach and Hannah just arrived. S.W.A.T. has the place surrounded, sort of. They have a hostage negotiator on the premises now, we were just waiting for Yuli to get here so they could get an idea of the situation inside."
The S.W.A.T. team leader brought a roll of blue prints and unrolled it over the hood of one of the cruisers. Everyone gathered around, Yuli next to him. "Okay, whereabouts are the girls being held?" He said glancing at Yuli.
Yuli spoke to Yulenka, then pointed to a room in the front corner of the building. "She say here. When I was inside, Markov used this office. His men were here and here, and two vans here that brought girls from port to warehouse."
"What about this area, back here?" The Team Leader said indicating and expansive area that encompassed the center and back areas of the warehouse.
"I think nothing." He spoke to Yulenka, then continued, "Yulenka not know, I not know. No men of Markov's went there. Maybe it's empty? Oh, but I see in floor uh 'kryška ljuka… uh how you say…" Yuli looked around at the street, then went over to and pointed down, many kryška ljuka!"
"Manhole covers?" Nola said.
"Da! Da! Sewers niet? Maybe back door too?"
"Excellent!" Team Leader said. Then spoke into his radio to have the sewer plans brought over.
Less than an hour later everyone was gathered around Team Leader again, "Captain, Lieutenant, we don't have the manpower to breach the sewers and cover every possible escape route, with your detectives and the uniforms here I think we could do it. So, what do you say, want in on the take down-rescue op?"
"Oh definitely." Mike said quietly to himself
"Absolutely, lets get those girls out of there. And, I would like the perpetrators alive. Are we all agreed on that?" Hannah spoke first.
"Look, I'm not sacrificing my men for those perps in there…." Lieutenant Maynard began.
A general grumbling followed as Mike said "No one is asking you to!" He disliked the Lieutenant for his treatment of Mike at the 5-1 and now Mike realized he was beginning to loath the man entirely.
"Quiet down." Hannah said to everyone in general. "As was said, we are not asking for sacrifice above the norm in any cop's life, but if we want to shut down this whole network of human traffickers we need to interrogate those men inside. We need them alive so lets make sure everyone is clear on that."
Lt. Maynard did not argue, so Team Leader spoke up, "Okay, my men will take the sewer route into the warehouse and cover the two side entrances. If your two teams can cover the front and back, I think we can make short work of this.
"Davis, "Lt. Maynard said, "will take six uniforms and set up a defense of squad cars at the front, a little tighter than what we have now."
"You guys take the back." Hannah said to his Major Case detectives. "Mike you have lead. With all four of you you shouldn't need any uniform support. That should leave enough coverage here on the street with myself and Lt. Maynard. You take that end of the street, I'll take this one." He directed at the Lieutenant.
"Okay, everybody go over to the SWAT van and get wired up. Once in position no one moves until I give the word, got it." The S.W.A.T. Team Leader ordered. And with that everyone dispersed.
Now at the back entrance to the ware house and decked out in Kevlar vests and earpieces, Major Case took up their positions. Mike and Nola took one side of the the doors, and Zach and Serena took the other. There wasn't much in the way of cover so the detectives hugged the cinderblock walls at either side, Nola and Serena at the corners of the building keeping an eye on the general area in case by some strange happenstance Smith and Lemon expected some of Markov's men to arrive as backup. Now all that was necessary was to wait.
Nola felt her cell phone vibrate in its case on her belt. Lowering her readied weapon she pulled the cell out and looked at the caller ID. "Alex." She said quietly to herself, and glanced toward Mike and the others. She rejected the call then selected her text app. "Busy. Will call you back." She texted to Alex. "I wonder if she or Bobby has heard something over the police band?" She thought. "If they did, I bet they're worried… probably envious too. I know they'd want to be here. Alex is still part of Major Case, I hope she doesn't report to the scene!" She sent another text, "Give Wheeler or Daniels a call, they can explain…."
"Team one, in position." Came through her earpiece then.
"All units acknowledge." Team Leader responded. Nola replaced her cell phone and readied her weapon again.
"Team two, copy."
"Team three, copy."
"Team four, copy."
"Team five, copy." She recognized Davis' voice.
"Team six, copy." Mike said in turn, glancing around to make sure everyone in his team was at the ready.
Everyone tensed up as the adrenaline of suspense ignited their senses and intensified chatter ignited their earpieces, "We've got a visual on two at our 12 0'Clock." The point man of Team one said.
"Eagle Eye One. I've got a shot." One of the snipers said seeing one of the subjects peek out a window.
"Negative Eagle Eye One, do not take the shot." Team Leader ordered. "Team one, sitrep."
"2 Marks rolling light with room-brooms at about a hundred feet. No canaries in sight. Recommend breach, bang, clear, with a wolf pack for extraction. Advise."
"Roger team one. Team Three send a wolf pack to the front and prepare to breach at my command. Once they're in position team one, you have a go. All units stand by."
The radio went eerily silent in their earpieces as everyone waited for team three's wolf pack to get in place. "Wolf pack in position." They heard suddenly, followed by a short silence.
"Team one breaching the mouse hole." They heard the sounds of the manhole cover in the center of the warehouse being lifted, quickly followed by a flash bang explosion and the sounds of team one's point man calling commands; "Go! Go! Go!"
At the same time the wolf pack two man team at the front entrance said "moving" as they breached the main entrance with small C4 charges and made their way through the smoke and chaos toward the room Yuli identified as being the one where the young women were being held. There was sporadic gun fire and S.W.A.T. members yelling, "down, now! Get down, get down!"
Silence again then, ""Team one, clear."
"Wolf pack clear. Hostages secured." Everyone relaxed and the teams left their positions to report to the command vehicles.
Major Case met up with Captain Hannah. "Well, that went smoothly. Glad we weren't needed." He said.
"So who gets Lemon and Smith?" Mike asked
"Probably the Feds." Nola said indicating the FBI hostage negotiator and his entourage.
"Well, you guys get in there and sweep the warehouse for the Gallery stash. I'll call in an evidence collection team before I take the Rotislavs to the safe house"
Lt. Maynard and Detective Davis approached. "We'll need Detectives Logan and Fallaci to give us a positive ID on 'Smith and Lemon.' " The Lieutenant said. "The Feds said if we want a shot at these mutts we have to do it at the Federal Building."
"How about we go do it now while they are still in the squad car." Mike said. "We still have to go through the warehouse. This way Zach and Serena can go to the federal building to take part in the interrogations." He glanced at Hannah who nodded and Mike and Nola went with Davis and Maynard to ID Smith and Lemon at last!