Bluff
Chapter 3. Countdown
Upon returning to the JOC, a demoralized Ian informed Jubal that, despite his best efforts, the source of the video was a dead end. It had been sent through a VPN.
Jubal sighed and caught everyone's attention. He gave them a brief summary of the video. Everyone's faces filled with deep concern when he mentioned Vargas. Elise even shrank in on herself; Stu grabbed her hand slyly.
Making an effort, Jubal mustered all the spirits he could, drawing it from where there was none.
"Attention!" He said, clapping his hands three quick times. "The important most thing is that Isobel is still alive. That in itself is very good news. We must concentrate on that. Besides, we now know that she will be safe for almost four hours, because they want an exchange. Let's make the most of these extra four hours as much as we can. Go, go, go!"
The morale of the entire room seemed to improve noticeably.
He then asked Ian to change the count indicating how long Isobel had been missing, +1h 54min, to a downward count of 4 hours since they had received the video:
22:21, -3h 47min
Jubal sent Maggie and OA to the Metropolitan Detention Center to interrogate Vargas. In the meantime, and seeing that the content of the video was not ultimately sensitive enough to require a special level of clearance, he had every available agent and analyst examine it, squeezing every last drop of information that could be gleaned from the image or sound.
He too replayed it on a loop, trying not to look at the bruises or the anguish on Isobel's face, so as not to break down. He watched it over and over until his eyes began to hurt.
·~·~·
22:42, -3h 26min
After analysis, the audio of the video did not reveal anything relevant, since it only incorporated the artificial voice band.
It was Elise who noticed the mirror and dressing table in the background of the image. She speculated that it looked like a dressing room, albeit a disused one.
Scola noticed the brightly colored picture on one of the side walls. However, the angle of the shot did not allow a good view.
"I've seen this before," he insisted, snapping his fingers, trying to recall.
With Elise's help, they managed to find an image on Instagram. It wasn't a picture, but a promotional poster for a special event at the exclusive Club 'The Castle'; some kind of macro party with entertainment that took place before the pandemic. Scola recalled accepting the invitation from one of his former Wall Street colleagues.
"A very cool place. Too bad it's been closed since last year's forced confinement," he commented.
"And anyway, that poster could be anywhere," Kelly interjected. Elise and Scola had to agree with him.
Jubal was only half listening to them. He was studying a repetitive movement that Isobel was doing on her left wrist in the video. She seemed to be pulling on the bridle that held her wrists together. Or... The bridle digs into her, it hurts, he got distracted, distressed. No, Jubal. Focus. No, she was not pulling on the bridle: she was twirling the black metallic beaded bracelet she wore. She was tugging with two fingers in an obsessive motion, spinning it around her left wrist over and over. Jubal pulled on his rubber band following the same rhythm. He almost hypnotized himself.
Maggie called him on the phone, snapping him out of his trance. He put her on speakerphone. "This arrogant bastard is insufferable, Jubal."
"I couldn't agree more. Do you have anything?" he asked impatiently, although he didn't hold out much hope.
"Nothing. Vargas says he knows nothing about a kidnapping."
Jubal's blood boiled. You liar bastard.
"Curiously enough," said OA, "Maggie and I agree that he seems to be telling the truth."
"Yes... Why would he lie? Scola agreed. Other times he has exposed his plans without much trouble..."
Despite his anger, Jubal had to acknowledge internally that they were right.
"And he says he wishes Isobel no harm," Maggie added.
"I believe that even less," replied Jubal, somberly.
Isobel had caught him twice and outwitted him last one. It would not be surprising if Vargas had it in for her.
"So this is someone acting on their own?" Tiffany wondered.
Jubal looked at the countdown. 23:06, -3h 02min. Holy God. Time was slipping away like sand through his fingers.
"An overzealous subordinate?" said Maggie over the speaker.
"It would make sense," Jubal mused. He rubbed his face and eyes wearily. He needed a coffee. "This plan is not Vargas' style. It doesn't seem so meticulous or planned so far in advance."
"Yes, it has an improvised feel to it," OA interjected. "And the way it has been carried out has been somewhat sloppy."
"Boss," Ian suddenly said, "it took a while for the fire department to let the forensic team access the vehicle because it needed to be cooled down first, but they finally sent over the VIN number. According to Traffic, it's in the name of… a certain Martín Muñoz," he added.
"A clue at last!" Jubal exclaimed, his head clearing suddenly itself.
"Martin Muñoz is a piece of work. He was in jail for armed robbery, aggravated assault…" reported Kelly, consulting Muñoz's criminal record.
Jubal turned to the DEA liaison. "Andy, any relation to Durango or Vargas?"
Andrea was already diligently consulting her database. "Yeah, thug of the lowest level but..." she clicked her tongue in frustration, "he was deported three months ago."
Jubal chewed a curse under his breath.
"I've got something!" Elise jumped up in excitement, "Looking for the license plate number on the vehicle's VIN, I found several repair invoices for the vehicle. All in the name of... Richard Jones."
The image of the aforementioned was transferred to the main screen; a man in his forties, black hair and eyes, tanned skin. He looked like someone you would better not get into a fight with.
"Andy?" Jubal pointed in her direction.
"Hmm... He's on our radar because he handles some suspicious amounts of money, but there are no known ties to Durango. It's possible he's using a fake name."
"Okay, let's find out more about Richard Jones. Who is he? Where do we find him?"
"I can't find a known address," Hobbs lamented.
"Boss," Kelly then said, "Jones has several properties in New York: apartments, warehouses, buildings..."
Jubal got to his feet and motioned for him to pass the list to the main screens, feeling the thrilling sensation he got when his team was on a roll. But when he watched at it, his soul fell to his feet: there were two dozen addresses, too many to raid them all in such a short time. He stretched the rubber several times.
"Hey..." exclaimed Scola, pointing to the screen with his finger. "That's the address of The Castle club!"
It all clicked in Jubal's mind in a split second. Jones didn't own the club, but he owned the building. The club had been closed for a long time; it would be empty. And it had a stage, which meant... dressing rooms for the performers.
Certainty burst inside his chest. "Call the S.W.A.T."
23:17, -2h 51min
·~·~·
Regaining consciousness had been for Isobel an arduous and painful task in itself. At first, her head felt like it was going to explode and her consciousness was reluctant to fully return, preventing her from thinking coherent thoughts.
Fortunately, she was left alone for a while and the pain eased, although it did not go away completely. She began to be aware of where she was. A windowless room, dirty and poorly lit. She was barefoot and lying on the cold floor; her body was sore, especially her bruised shoulder. She was still bound, and had been gagged. Isobel reached up to remove the gag, but discovered she was not alone, when she was threatened with a bullet to keep her still.
She sat up and gestured, trying to get the gag removed. If she could get them to talk, maybe she could find out something. But to no avail; they ignored any noise she made to get their attention, until Isobel decided to give up so as not to piss them off.
After a short time, she was lifted up, grabbed roughly and shoved her into a chair placed in front of a camera set up to record.
Isobel knew that Jubal and the others would be looking for her. If there was a team of people who could find her, it would be them. She had to try something to help. Isobel frantically tried to think of something she could communicate, some gesture, blinking, anything. She was already desperate, when she had a spark of inspiration.
She was kept under constant surveillance and it seemed that this idea was the only thing Isobel was going to be able to put into practice. And she had to do something because she was terrified. If she allowed herself to think only of what they might do to her, Isobel feared she would lose her nerve.
Her two kidnappers were rough, threatening and, above all, they had not blindfolded her and were not hiding their faces. That made it eerily obvious that if she wasn't rescued, her ultimate fate was not going to be an exchange, as they had said in the video, but a bullet. Moreover, she'd be lucky if she didn't have to endure little games with the knife before that. Or worse.
During the recording, Isobel had twirled her hematite bead bracelet. She pretended the movement was something due to nerves, but prayed that someone -Jubal or whoever- at the JOC would realize it meant something.
Curiously, that repetitive motion and having a purpose kept her from collapsing when that bastard used the edge of his knife to terrorize her.
She especially despaired that her torment would be recorded and that people she cared about would end up having to watch it. People like Maggie, OA or Elise. Or Jubal... Please, if they do anything to me, don't let them record it, she silently implored, as the camera focused on her and the coldness of the blade slid across her skin.
Contrary to what it seemed at first, luckily it was all just a twisted game. At least for the moment...
After recording the video, her two captors were talking to each other about moving her to another place.
Isobel waited until they were distracted and decided to act. She twisted her hands to break the bracelet. Their circulation was cut off and they almost turned purple; the bridles dug into her, tearing her skin, hurting her wrists. She had to persist, ignoring the pain, and for a while, she thought she would not succeed... but, finally, the thread of the bracelet snapped. With awkward movements due to the lack of circulation, fearing every moment that they would all fall off, Isobel pulled out three beads and let them slip off as slyly as she could. The beads fell and rolled, but didn't get too far away.
The rest she stored with great effort and care in the fist of her left hand.
·~·~·
23:40, -2h 28min
The assault team, along with Maggie and OA, were outside the building in record time. As much as he wanted to, Jubal didn't go with them; he had to coordinate from there. Staying in the JOC was one of the most difficult internal battles of his entire life. And the shortest. He didn't even have two seconds to make up his mind.
Jubal ruled out a frontal assault so as not to endanger Isobel, and first of all, they deployed drones with thermal cameras.
Therefore, out of prudence, they discovered that the building was empty. Jubal felt himself losing momentum. Beside him, Rina huffed, overwhelmed.
Could it be that they had made a mistake, that they followed the wrong lead? If he thought about it more deeply, maybe they just followed a hunch.
Even so, he ordered a search of the building.
With nothing to hold them back, the assault team broke down the door and rushed in. It didn't take long for the entire building to be declared clear.
Everyone felt vindicated when they found the dressing room where the video had been recorded. The same chair, the same poster on the wall... Jubal's heart shrank when he saw on Dan's SWAT vest camera that he was bending down and examining a pair of shoes discarded on the floor against a wall. Maggie could recognized them. They were Isobel's.
There was a deep silence.
They had succeeded, they had found her... but it was too late. Jubal felt himself sinking into the quagmire of despair. Meanwhile, everyone around him seemed as lost as he was. No. He was not going to give up. He violently shook off that leaden demoralization.
"Search everything thoroughly," he ordered. "There had to be other lea-" He stopped mid-word when he suddenly saw something glint in Dan's camera, next to OA's foot. If the SWAT had not been hunched over in despondency, he would never have seen it. "OA, Dan, don't move!"
Dan stopped short. OA, who was already taking a step, stood very still.
"There, OA. Next to your right foot" Jubal pointed out. Bending down again, Dan picked up the small rounded object from the floor. He held it up to the camera. "That's Isobel's," said Jubal.
Maggie went over to examine it.
"How do you know?" she asked puzzled.
"How do I know? Ha!" Exaltation took hold of Jubal. "Isobel, you are a genius," he declared with open admiration. The others looked at him blankly. Rina looked irritated. "It's one of the beads on her bracelet. She told me- she told us in the video. She was drawing attention to the bracelet the whole time! Come on, search! I bet it's not the only bead we'll find."
The other two that Isobel had dropped in the room they spotted right away. They went out into the hallway and located one more. And another one beyond. They were very easy to see using the flashlights because they glowed in the direct light. OA and Maggie broke into a run following the "breadcrumb trail". Every time there was a detour, Isobel had left a bead.
It led them through a subway passage, which ended in a nearby parking lot.
Jubal was clinging to the table he was leaning on, trying to hide that he was panting as if he were running too.
There they found three more beads, all close together. But nothing else.
"I have image!" Ian exclaimed.
Jubal blessed him internally for his extraordinary skill, as Ian put the image of an urban surveillance camera on the main screen.
Two men were dragging Isobel along. They met up with two others in a black SUV. One of them was Richard Jones. They stuffed her into the trunk roughly, got in too and drove off. Jubal had to make a great effort not to let it show how enraged he was by what he was seeing.
"How long ago was that?" he asked, looking anxiously at the countdown. 23:57, -2h 01min
"Exactly 42 minutes," Hobbs reported.
That was a lot...
"Boss," Kelly declared solemnly, "message has arrived with the first rendezvous point instruction. They're heading us north to Sullivan County."
Jubal made a quick mental math. That was over an hour and a half away. They were running out of time.
"Kelly, BOLO on the car. Ian, follow it with the cameras while you can. Maggie, OA, follow Ian's directions, take the same route," Jubal ordered before turning to Rina, deadly serious. "Can I talk to you?"
·~·~·
The two of them went to Rina's office.
"Let me take Vargas to the exchange," said Jubal before she even closed the door.
Rina slammed the door. "No way."
"If we don't show up they will kill her; if we show up without him, they will kill her too. I'll take him just as bait; not intend to hand him over. I take full responsibility. If he escapes, it will be my fault."
"Of course, it will be your fault. But you can't take him out of detention, Jubal. You don't have a high enough clearance level. I have to sign that, and I'm not about to throw my career away by letting escape Vargas again."
Jubal blinked. "Are you really telling me that you would protect your career at the cost of Isobel's life?" he asked, incredulously. It was the exact opposite of what Isobel did for Elise.
Rina's face reddened. "Zidan and Bell can still find her," she stated.
There he had the answer. Jubal felt as if he had been hit in the solar plexus. He knew Rina was ambitious and self-centered, but he wouldn't have believed her capable of something like that. He couldn't help but look at her deeply disappointed.
"What if they don't make it in time? They're 40 minutes ahead of us; they could already be far too away. Even if we don't lose track of them, we have no margin to catch them." He looked briefly at his watch, overwhelmed. "By taking Vargas I'll be able to negotiate, play suspicious, play the fool. I'll gain time!"
Rina's expression was simply stubborn. "You have feelings for Isobel, don't you?" she challenged him.
"Of course," Jubal answered without hesitation. "She's my friend."
What was that all about?
She gave him a wry look. "Right. Sure," she said dismissively.
It made Jubal's true emotions, though subdued, fill him with shame. He ignored all that as best he could, while barely controlling a fit of anger. They didn't have time for that, dammit!
He refused to fall for that and kept pressing her.
"Would you really take a risk like that? Rina, please... It's the Durango cartel. It wouldn't even be a quick death," he added in horror. "Are you willing to carry that on your conscience?"
That finally made her hesitate.
"All right," Rina murmured, then added firmly, "but with that indispensable condition: Vargas is not going to escape again. I could give you an order, but I want your word, Jubal. Whatever happens. He won't escape," said Rina, looking him in the eyes. "Whatever happens."
Jubal froze. He swallowed hard. Is she asking me what I think she is asking me? "Rina..." he began, apprehensive.
"Either you bring him with you alive, Jubal, or you bring him..." Rina's implacable expression gave no room for misinterpretation, but she finished the sentence anyway.
Something in Jubal's heart was torn beyond repair. He gritted his teeth, squared his shoulders and looked through her. "Yes, ma'am," he replied, his throat tight with tension. "You have my word."
Rina's eyes flashed. "If you feel you are too involved," she suggested with ill-contained rage, "I can take you off the case if you want."
Jubal's gaze riddled her. "Try to," he growled.
Rina unconsciously took a step back, and Jubal stormed out of there with furious strides.
0:02, -1h 56min
~.~.~.~