Chapter 21: Takedown
By six o'clock, Peter had his team assembled inside the warehouse. Members of the Violent Crimes unit, called in to perform backup support, were stationed outside where they could monitor the streets. Travis and Badillo were coordinating communications from a van parked a block away.
Peter had five agents hidden behind carefully constructed crates in the warehouse with additional forces concealed near the front entrance. Once Ydrus arrived, the suspects would need to be apprehended in the act of threatening the pirates. As soon as the FBI agents emerged from hiding, it would be obvious that Neal, Henry, and Mozzie were part of the scheme. Everyone was wearing bulletproof vests, but even so, the Ydrus operatives would need to be taken down immediately to avoid bloodshed.
A bulletproof crate had been constructed for the three pirates to dive into once the Bureau agents appeared. As an additional precaution, they also had remote switches to kill the lights. The team had built in every safety measure they could think of, but Peter still stewed.
Everyone was confident that Kramer was informing Ydrus via burner phones, but there was no confirmation. At least with Adler, they had the evidence provided by Ruiz's intercepted phone call.
The only known agents for Ydrus, aside from Kramer, were the Mansfeld brothers, Huber, and the husband and wife tech specialists Marta and Jacek Kolar. Joanna Abbott's role was unidentified. She could be Python, the leader of Ydrus, or simply a friend of Klaus's. All they had to go on were a tattoo of a snake and an acquaintanceship with Bianka Kaldy.
The FAA hadn't purchased Win-Win's facial recognition software, but in any case, its value was limited. Disguises could trick the program. Nor was there any effective means to monitor all the bus terminals, railroad stations, and hundreds of thousands of private cars on the metropolitan streets. Peter's team was flying on a wing and a prayer.
And if no one showed? At the bare minimum, they'd still arrest Kramer. Hughes would supervise that personally once he got the signal from Peter. The op Kramer expected to take part in would never happen. He'd be arrested before he had a chance to leave the Federal Building.
Henry arrived on the scene in a rental car at 6:45. Fifteen minutes later Mozzie and Neal appeared in a dilapidated Ford Pinto.
The three pirates kept themselves loose by playing charades. Mozzie had suggested the subject be movie titles. Their antics served to entertain the rest of the team. From their hiding positions, Diana and Jones were calling out apparently random guesses. Peter's entertainment was to check his watch every two minutes.
It was now 7:15. If by 8:30 no one showed, he'd have to phone in the bad news to Hughes.
"We could string the con out a little while longer," Jones's voice murmured in his earpiece. "With Kramer no longer supplying intel, we might be able to smoke out other Ydrus operatives."
"Whether or not anyone comes to the warehouse, the sting continues as we'd planned." Peter aimed to project confidence in a scheme that was looking wackier by the moment. Once Kramer was arrested, he'd be unable to send any messages to Ydrus. What would they assume? That he'd been caught? That he'd double-crossed them? Rolf might suspect Peter had tipped Neal off at the last moment.
Henry had just performed a hilarious mime of One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest when the wait ended.
"Targets arriving!" Travis trumpeted in Peter's earpiece. He reported three cargo vans turned off Flushing Avenue onto the small side street where the warehouse was located.
The pirates moved into position. The concealed agents confirmed their readiness. It was showtime.
#
Would Klaus walk through the entrance? Neal doubted it, but this was the time to dream. Henry and Mozzie were helping him nail a lid onto a crate when Peter gave the signal. Once the confrontation started, they'd dart inside a large crate standing next to them. It was designed to look like it held a Renaissance altarpiece.
Peter had been sneaky. By ordering them to hide in the same crate, he ensured no one would call an audible. They were all monitoring each other.
They were talking in low voices about the paintings needed to be crated when Ydrus barged in.
Six men. No hoods or apparent disguises. They must have been confident they didn't need them. Amateurs.
They were all carrying firearms, including their ringleader—Karl Huber.
Neal had only seen photos of the shipping magnate and he hadn't altered his appearance. He looked like a ship's commander in a thick navy pullover sweater with his silver hair brushed back. At the sight of the Nazi insignias on the crates, his ruddy complexion turned even redder.
"Lay down those tools," he ordered with a jerk of his head. "My men will take it from here. You've got a new boss."
When Neal started to protest, Huber cut him off. "We're doing you a favor. The FBI's on its way. By the time they arrive, all they'll find is an empty warehouse."
When Peter shouted for them to lay down their weapons, Neal, along with Henry and Mozzie, dashed inside the crate as directed. From then on, Neal was forced to imagine what was happening. The agents had been supplied gas masks and tear gas, but they weren't necessary. With agents swarming in from the sides and the rear, Huber and his men had no choice but surrender. There was no bloodbath.
After all the buildup, it seemed a bit underwhelming. Still, as a beginning, it wasn't bad. Not a single bullet fired. They'd arrested one of their primary targets. Kramer would be in custody within an hour, and they'd get to stage an encore performance the following night.
#
When Neal arrived at work the next day, there was no hint of a celebration in the bullpen. No one wanted Ruiz to catch wind of the sting. Hughes called off the raid as soon as Kramer was arrested. The art crimes team in D.C. had no idea their boss was now in custody.
Both Hughes and Peter participated in the interrogation along with Tricia. The team briefing was delayed until midday so that the preliminary results could be included. Hughes delivered the details in person. "Kramer is cooperating," he reported to a hushed group. "At this point, he realizes a plea bargain is his only sane choice. He insists his only crime was to pass along information, but we're wielding a much more serious stick—accessory to murder. We maintain Kramer was the one who leaked information to Ydrus about our capture of Longthorpe."
Duncan Longthorpe, the former head of Ydrus's U.S. operations, had been gunned down by an unknown assassin after being arrested in May. As Neal heard the revelations unfold, incidents from the past several months sharpened into focus.
"According to Kramer, Caffrey's arrival at the Bureau was the trigger which caused his descent," Hughes said. "Bunch of hogwash, if you ask me. His resentment must have been building for a long time. It's clear that career dissatisfaction also played a key role. Kramer has complained for years that his unit wasn't budgeted adequately. Then in June of 2004, he was approached by Bryan McKenzie."
Hughes paused, a slight smile flitting across his face, at the startled reaction of the team members, Neal among them. But Bryan was ideally situated to be the middleman. Sterling-Bosch was the lead provider of insurance for fine art in the country. Kramer must have worked closely with them over the years, making frequent use of their appraisers for art evaluations. Before Bryan was transferred to London in the fall of 2005, he was Sterling-Bosch's top investigator for art crimes. He would have consulted with Kramer often.
The timing was particularly cruel. This was about the same time that Bryan and Sara had started dating.
"McKenzie approached Kramer in June of 2004 with concerns over Caffrey's involvement with art cases because of his record with Interpol," Hughes continued. "He began insinuating that it was Kramer's duty to get him to quit, and Kramer agreed. McKenzie included him in occasional email correspondence to Python. Kramer was led to believe that Python was an Interpol agent working undercover with the Leopard. He was told that if he'd hide evidence of the Leopard stealing the Raphael painting in D.C. last summer, he'd be given the means to incriminate Caffrey for the crime."
"Why did he agree?" Jones asked.
Hughes scowled. "Because the man's a fool."
"Remember, Kramer believed Python was an Interpol agent," Peter added. "He was told that for the sake of the mission, it was vital the Leopard not be identified. Kramer was led to believe that Python would be able to recover the painting once the op was concluded."
Travis's mouth dropped open. "And he was gullible enough to believe it?"
"McKenzie sold Sara a pack of lies," Neal pointed out. "I can see him doing the same with Kramer."
"He was damned clever about it," Hughes agreed. "After Kramer concealed the incriminating evidence, a substantial sum of money—fifty thousand dollars—was placed in a Swiss bank account in his name. Shortly afterward, McKenzie pulled the rug out from under Kramer's feet and said that Interpol had changed its mind. Caffrey wasn't to be framed, after all. That's when Kramer drafted that email, protesting the decision to Python. That's the email Travis found on his personal computer."
"Kramer hasn't just funneled information about Neal and me to Ydrus," Peter said. "All of you were included—Hughes, Jones, Diana, and Travis. The Mansfelds used those files to paint realistic portraits for that virtual reality nightmare they planted in Neal's mind last month."
"That means we should be prepared for them employing the same technique again," Jones said. "We assume that the neuropsychologist who worked with them has fled to their stronghold."
Jones didn't need to remind Neal about Rolf's mad scientist. The fact that Rolf believed their virtual reality brainwashing worked would likely encourage him to try it again. Probably not Neal since there was no reason to. But Peter? Elizabeth? Any of the team members could be targeted, as well as those close to Neal.
Kramer's confession made the need to discover Ydrus headquarters even more urgent, and they were still without leads. Despite intensive interrogation, Huber hadn't coughed up anything. Kramer maintained that he only discovered last spring that he'd been duped into helping Ydrus. He claimed to be ignorant of Python's identity and location. Was that the truth or was he simply worried he'd suffer the same fate as Duncan Longthorpe? That was likely why Huber wasn't talking.
Huber refused to disclose what he'd intended to do with the crates or what his plans were for Neal and his fellow pirates. The thugs working for him claimed not to know either. The location of Huber's wife and children was still unknown. Perhaps they were being held as collateral to ensure he remained mute.
After the briefing, Hughes left for another meeting. Peter ordered box lunches for the team from the coffee shop on the ground floor. They still had the details of the Adler sting, which was scheduled for tonight, to finalize but Kramer's actions continued to weigh heavily on everyone's mind. Peter was wise to allow everyone to vent.
Neal and Peter had known for a while that their files were in the hands of Ydrus, and on an intellectual level the other members must have known they were also targets, but it was a blow to have it confirmed.
Travis was particularly affected. One of Penfold's virtual reality programs had apparently been designed to use on his partner Richard in an especially callous attempt to test the procedure.
"Diana could have a high target value because of the Arkham Files stories," Jones warned and turned to face her. "Have you alerted Christie?"
She nodded, ripping open a bag of multigrain chips. "We're going about our lives like the rest of you are—letting each other know where we'll be, keeping on the lookout for anything suspicious. But what we really need to do is catch those bastards."
"It won't be long before we'll hear from them," Neal predicted, confident of his assertion. "Thanks to Kramer, Ydrus knows about the U-boat and how I fenced a missing Degas masterpiece. Now they probably believe Henry and I pulled a fast one."
"And this is where I go from being dupe to puppetmaster," Peter added. "It's about time. With their communications link severed, Ydrus is flying blind. We want them to think Neal or I caught wind of the sting and moved the art before it could be seized. We staged the warehouse scene to trap Kramer and Huber and now know where a fortune in lost masterpieces is stashed."
Jones nodded at Peter. "After pulling off this con, your value will skyrocket."
Travis frowned as he swallowed a bite of his sandwich. "But won't that give them even more reason to initiate their blackmail scheme? They probably don't believe Hughes was part of the con. That makes Neal's position at the Bureau more tenuous than ever."
"My money's on them holding off on using the Vermeer," Diana countered. "They probably want Neal to stay in place at the Bureau. They may have designs on Peter being their next mole. Slapping on my evil Azathoth thinking cap, I'd make use of Bianka."
"Take advantage of my supposed weakness? Let them try," Neal said, eager to lay that myth to rest once and for all.
"Any updates on Bianka?" Peter asked.
"I spoke with her this morning. I won't need to fabricate any excuses for a few days. She was mugged yesterday evening. A couple of thugs attacked her on her way home and stole her purse. One of them had a switchblade. She suffered a concussion and a gash on her arm. She called me from the hospital this morning."
"You think there's any connection to our op?" Travis asked.
"I can't see what it would be," Neal said.
"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when Europe's calling," Peter advised.
"We have our tickets to Albania on Saturday morning," Jones said. "Diana and I aren't flying in the same plane as Radha and Sofia. They'll arrive in Athens today to meet with Graham's friend Yannis. On Sunday, they'll connect with us in Tirana."
"I've never been to the Albanian Riviera," Diana said. "I'm looking forward to it. I bought a new bikini for the occasion. Sofia and I have already claimed rights to surveillance duty on the beach below the estate. She told me Yannis had sent an agent to perform advance reconnaissance."
"Much as I'd like to think we can snag Adler and Fowler tonight," Jones said, "the odds are against it. In any case, we'll need evidence from his hideout. We'll be on standby till we get your instructions."
At the end of lunch, Travis raised an eyebrow at Neal, and he nodded in response. Peter was relishing his new role. Did he realize that every puppetmaster needed to know how to shapeshift? They'd soon find out.