"Alice, is everything done?" Jack passed by the doorway, carrying a sign.
"No problem. I've put up fake reviews on several travel websites, from ten years ago until now, and no one will notice." Alice put away her notebook and hurried out of the room.
Jack handed the old sign to Reacher, who was on a ladder. Jubal was on a higher vantage point, and the three of them worked together to install the "Harry's Place" motel sign on the exterior wall.
To avoid harming innocent people and preventing Lanston from noticing anything unusual, they simply converted the Wanted Criminals unit's small building into a motel.
With no buildings nearby, just a single, isolated building, there was no need to worry about accidental casualties from the hail of bullets, and no need to deploy police forces in advance to clear the area.
The advantage of the information age is that Alice can simply register a fake address on a few mapping apps and post a bunch of negative reviews, convincing Lanston of the truth while avoiding real tourists.
The Most Wanted team's base had always been low-key; no one knew it was a secret FBI office.
The large open space in front of the building, marked off as a parking lot, with makeshift colored lights and a half-worn neon sign, especially the backyard Jack had converted into a vegetable garden, somehow seemed quite convincing.
"Is everything done?" Aubrey, who had just returned from Colorado, called out from below.
"Okay, let's try it out," Jubal replied loudly.
Aubrey flipped a switch, and the colored lights adorning the doors and windows came on. The neon sign, which had just been installed, flickered a few times and lit up successfully, though a few letters were appropriately broken.
"Perfect," Danny nodded in satisfaction from a distance.
Hannah and Jiejie emerged from the building, their pretty faces still smeared with paint. It was just a simple disguise; the girls had set up a fake hotel reception, partitioned off the dining room from Jack's large kitchen, and finally painted a smattering of graffiti on the stairwell leading to the second floor.
Marlo Burns and her daughter followed. The little girl looked no more than twelve or thirteen, her face chubby and still a bit fat.
"Hey, honey, it's going to be okay. I'll be with you soon. Everything's going to be alright, I promise." Marlo Burns kissed her daughter's cheek and looked expectantly at Danny beside her.
Just then, a plainclothes police car pulled into the newly marked parking lot. Three people got out. Jack recognized two of them: Danny's brother, James Reagan, and Danny's female partner, Jenny.
There was also a bald, white, burly man with a sour look on his face that he didn't recognize, but he was clearly also an NYPD officer.
"This is Gaetano Russo." Danny stepped forward to introduce them to everyone, "These two are my brother and his partner Jenny. The three of them will escort your daughter to my father's residence, which is probably the safest place in New York."
Danny squatted in front of the little girl, smiled and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, "The internet speed there is not bad. My sister's daughter is two years older than you. They will take good care of you."
Looking at the mother and daughter reluctantly parting, Reacher stood beside Jack and whispered, "The home of the NYPD chief? Isn't that a bit exaggerated?"
"You can think of this as Chief Reagan trying his best to restore the image of the NYPD in front of you. After all, Lanston and his people were once members of the NYPD."
Jack watched the plainclothes police car leave, and nodded at Danny, "What is the origin of Gaetano Russo?"
Danny looked like he had a long story to tell, "His father was also a member of the NYPD, an extremely upright man who died in a gang fight more than 30 years ago.
You should already know what the NYPD was like at that time. Russo's father was isolated by his colleagues because he refused to accept bribes, and even his partner was not by his side when he died.
And just before he came here, Gaetano Russo personally arrested his superior, a police inspector who helped Lanston locate your position. The Ministry of Internal Affairs found a full $600,000 in cash in his home. "
"It sounds like you can make much more money working for Lanston than in your NYPD. No wonder he has so many men." O'Donnell walked over and teased with a smile.
"Yeah, this has never been an easy job." Danny shrugged indifferently, "Speaking of which, your army pension is not that high, and you still have to work as a private detective to support your family. "
After saying this, a former Marine who had nothing but a sense of honor, whistled and walked away under the "murderous" gazes of several former Army military police.
Compared with the idle U.S. Army, although the Marines used the worst equipment and suffered the most brutal beatings, their actual combat experience was indeed far superior to other branches of the military, and their sense of honor and spirit of sacrifice became the only things they could be proud of.
"No matter how unhappy you are, you are not allowed to destroy this small building, otherwise you will be prepared to work for me for the rest of your life." Jack threw down a threat and went to pack up his equipment.
-
"Are you so sure that Lanston's people will not wait until tomorrow, but will come directly to the motel to kill Marlo Burns? "Aubrey, who was lying next to Jack and acting as an observer, asked curiously.
Marlo Burns had previously made an appointment with Lanston on the phone to meet in Central Park at noon tomorrow, but she used a landline.
In the NYPD database, this number was registered under the name of a motel called "Harley's Place", which was the base of the wanted criminal team they had just disguised.
At this time, Jack was wearing a camouflage cloth and lying on the roof of a building three or four hundred meters away from the small building, observing the vehicles coming and going around through the night vision goggles and the rear scope on the Barrett M82A1 in his hand.
Reacher and his men were waiting in a room on the second floor. Only Jubal was dozing off at the front desk after disguising himself. The rest of the wanted criminal team members were fully armed and ambushing around.
Regardless of whether Lanston himself would show up or not, the task of taking action was given to Reacher and his team members. The FBI was only there to provide support just in case.
"Central Park is packed with tourists during the day, so they wouldn't choose to strike there unless absolutely necessary. The last piece of information that bald officer Gaetano Russo's boss gave to Langston before he was arrested was this address. He and his men will definitely show up."
Jack was confident. Marlo Burns's lines on the phone were all planned after he and Reacher had discussed them, specifically to lure Langston into the trap.
Shortly before 11 p.m., a black sedan silently pulled into the parking lot in front of Harley's Place. Four burly men, including the driver, got out, their arms bulging.
The four men exchanged glances, then, in tacit agreement, sent two men to wait outside while the other two pushed through the door.
Aubrey, watching from afar, curled his lips. "These guys look experienced! I bet they're ex-cops."
Meanwhile, in the fake hotel, Jubal, who had been sleeping soundly at the front desk, had just been woken. Seeing two black muzzles pointed at him, he seemed to snap to consciousness.
"Are these mother and daughter staying here?" A middle-aged white man in his forties showed him a photo. "
Upstairs, in the first room. Please don't kill me." Seeing that the other party's gun had no silencer, Jubal secretly breathed a sigh of relief, released the trigger of the shotgun hidden under the counter, raised his hands, and pleaded with a sad face.
(End of this chapter)