The Gentleman’s Club on Chicago’s South Side opened at noon.
Hank Voight pushed through the front door without slowing down while Jack Stacy and Catherine Hayek followed close behind.
The club was dim even in the middle of the day.
A few early customers sat at the bar with drinks in front of them while a dancer moved lazily onstage under the colored lights.
The bouncer behind the counter noticed the three police officers and immediately stood up.
“Cops aren’t welcome here.
Turn around and leave.”
“Gavin here?” Hank asked.
The bouncer ignored the question and reached for his radio.
Hank had already rounded the bar by the time the man finished calling for help.
The bouncer threw a punch.
Jack moved first.
He caught the man’s wrist and pulled him forward.
As the bouncer lost his balance Jack hooked one foot behind his ankle and drove him against the counter.
Tactical Grappling Lv.2 made the movement smooth and controlled.
Catherine stepped in and secured the man’s hands behind his back.
Hank never stopped walking.
He headed straight toward the office behind the bar as if nothing had happened.
Jack understood why Hank had brought them.
He and Catherine could handle themselves and neither of them froze when situations turned ugly.
Hank kicked open the office door.
Gavin Collins looked up from behind a large desk.
He was a thin man in his sixties with white hair and an expensive silk shirt.
A young woman sitting near him immediately moved away when the door slammed open.
Gavin’s expression darkened when he recognized Hank.
“Voight.
You got a warrant?”
“I’m looking for your nephews.”
Hank walked up to the desk and leaned forward.
“Sean and Brandon kidnapped four college girls and used them to move cocaine.
One of those girls is barely alive in the hospital.
Three more are missing.”
For half a second Gavin’s eyes changed.
Jack noticed it.
Gavin knew more than he wanted to admit.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gavin said.
“Sean runs his own business.
I stay out of it.”
“Really?”
Hank picked up a framed photograph from the desk.
Gavin stood between two younger men in the picture.
Sean and Brandon.
“If they’re moving drugs through one of your clubs are you still staying out of it?”
Gavin said nothing.
Hank slammed the heavy ashtray down near Gavin’s hand and forced the older man back from the desk.
Gavin cursed and grabbed his hand.
The woman near him backed away in fear.
Catherine gave Hank a brief look but Jack’s attention had already shifted toward the hallway.
Hearing Positioning Lv.1 picked up several sets of footsteps coming fast.
At least six people.
Jack rested one hand near his holster and gave Catherine a subtle signal.
She understood immediately.
The office door burst open.
A tall white man rushed inside holding a Colt 1911.
Jack stepped forward before the weapon could come up.
He kicked the gun from the man’s hand and followed with a hard knee that dropped him to the floor.
The pistol slid across the carpet and stopped near Hank.
Catherine intercepted the second armed man coming through the doorway.
She struck him hard across the side of the neck and sent him stumbling into the wall before taking his weapon.
The remaining four men stopped outside.
All of them carried knives.
None of them seemed interested in coming any closer.
Hank barely looked toward the doorway.
He picked up the fallen Colt and walked toward Gavin.
“You’re threatening me now?” Gavin growled.
“I can have a lawyer here in twenty minutes.”
“You can call whoever you want.”
Hank crouched in front of him.
“But your nephews have three missing girls somewhere in this city.
So I’m not leaving until you tell me where they are.”
Gavin stared back at him.
Hank’s voice dropped lower.
“I can also have every one of your businesses put under a microscope.
Narcotics.
Liquor licenses.
Financial records.
Everything.”
Sweat had started forming across Gavin’s forehead.
He finally broke.
“West Side Industrial Park.
Warehouse D-7.”
Hank didn’t move.
“They use it to store product,” Gavin continued quickly.
“That’s all I know.
I swear I don’t know anything about the girls.”
Hank stood.
“Thanks for cooperating.”
He glanced toward the four men still waiting outside the office.
“You should probably tell your people to back off.
My officers are starting to look nervous.”
Gavin immediately waved them away.
The men disappeared.
As Jack and Catherine followed Hank out of the club Catherine leaned closer to Jack.
“I kind of like his style.”
Jack smiled.
“Simple.”
“And effective.”
West Side Industrial Park was already surrounded by Intelligence vehicles by the time Hank finished setting the plan.
“Jay and Antonio take the left.
Jack and Catherine hit the front.
Erin stays with me on the right.”
Hank looked toward everyone.
“The girls come first.
Take the suspects alive if you can.”
The main rolling door of Warehouse D-7 was closed but a smaller side entrance had been left slightly open.
Jack and Catherine moved to opposite sides.
Jack raised three fingers.
Three.
Two.
One.
They entered together.
Their weapon lights cut through the dark warehouse.
Then both stopped.
A young blonde woman lay motionless on a plastic sheet near the center of the room.
Medical supplies and damaged drug packets were scattered around her while crude evidence of an attempted procedure made it immediately clear what had happened.
Catherine stared for a moment.
“Megan Benson.”
She was dead.
Jack forced himself to stay focused.
This was the first time even his previous police experience had failed to prepare him for what he was seeing.
A sound came from the shelving to the right.
Jack turned instantly.
“Come out!”
A man burst from the shadows holding a utility knife.
Brandon Collins.
Jack recognized him from the file photograph.
Brandon ignored Jack and rushed straight toward Catherine.
She stepped aside as the blade came down.
Her hand caught his wrist while her other arm drove into him and knocked him off balance.
Brandon staggered.
Jack moved in and kicked the knife away before driving him to the floor.
“Don’t move.”
Brandon struggled once.
Jack pinned his arm behind his back and handcuffed him.
Gunfire erupted from the opposite end of the warehouse before Jack could report the arrest.
Then Hank’s voice came over the radio.
“Sean went out the back!
Red pickup!
He has the other two girls!”
Jack dragged Brandon up and handed him to Jay as he arrived.
Then he and Catherine ran for the rear exit.
They reached it just in time to see a red pickup speeding away from the industrial park.
Jack watched it disappear.
“He’s going to Underground Ink.”
Catherine looked at him.
“The tattoo shop has equipment,” Jack said.
“If the girls still have packets inside them he needs someone to get them out.
Or somebody to treat them if something already went wrong.”
“Al and Ruzek are there.”
“Only two of them.”
Jack was already running toward the car.
He keyed his radio.
“Hank.
Sean may be heading for Underground Ink.
Warn Al and Ruzek.”
Across town Al Olinsky and Adam Ruzek were sitting inside an unmarked surveillance van near Underground Ink.
Both men had already been warned that Sean escaped.
They were watching every vehicle that approached the tattoo shop.
A white Toyota stopped outside.
A man carrying a medical bag stepped out and looked around before entering.
Al raised his radio.
“We’ve got a possible doctor entering the shop.”
Hank answered immediately.
“Probably brought in to remove the packets.
Stay on him.
We’re two minutes out.”
Ruzek suddenly straightened.
“Red pickup.”
The truck stopped hard in front of Underground Ink.
Sean Collins jumped out.
He dragged Sarah Haynes and Alisha Davis from the passenger side.
Both young women looked pale and could barely stand.
“Sean confirmed,” Ruzek reported.
“Both girls are with him.
They look bad.”
A scream came from inside the tattoo shop.
Then a gunshot.
Al was already opening the van door.
“Shots fired.”
He looked at Ruzek.
“We’re going.”
They crossed the street with their weapons drawn and pushed nearby pedestrians away from the storefront.
Before either officer reached the entrance the door flew open.
Sean stepped outside with Alisha trapped against him.
His handgun was pressed to her head.
“Back off!”
Al froze.
Through the open doorway he could see Sarah lying on the floor inside.
Blood covered part of her clothing.
Ruzek aimed but had no clean shot.
Sean looked wild and unfocused.
“Get back or I kill her!”
Tires screamed around the corner.
Jack and Catherine’s car appeared at speed and stopped hard in the street.
Jack opened the door before the vehicle had fully settled.
He stepped out.
His Glock cleared the holster.
Quick Draw Lv.2.
Gun Duel Lv.3.
One shot.
Sean’s body dropped.
Al moved immediately.
He kicked Sean’s handgun away and caught Alisha as her legs gave out beneath her.
“Clear!”
Alisha barely reacted.
Her breathing was uneven and signs of severe drug toxicity were already appearing.
Inside the shop the doctor suddenly ran toward the exit.
Catherine intercepted him.
She caught his arm and twisted it behind his back before he could get past her.
A scalpel fell from his hand as she forced him down.
“Stay on the ground.”
Hank’s convoy arrived moments later.
The building was secured within seconds.
Paramedics rushed inside and began treating Sarah and Alisha before loading both women into ambulances.
The doctor continued shouting while officers put him into a patrol car.
“They agreed to it!
They wanted the trip!
Nobody forced them!”
Jack stood outside Underground Ink and watched the ambulances pull away.
Amber Morris.
Megan Benson.
Sarah Haynes.
Alisha Davis.
All four were only nineteen.
They had gone to Mexico expecting a vacation and ended up inside a drug-smuggling operation that had already killed one of them.
Hank walked over and gave Jack and Catherine each a firm pat on the shoulder.
“Good work.”
Later that night Jack sat behind his desk at the 21st District.
The reports from the case were spread across the desk in front of him and exhaustion had finally started catching up.
Then the familiar blue system notification appeared.
[Human drug-smuggling case solved.]
[Sean Collins neutralized.]
[Brandon Collins arrested.]
[Sarah Haynes and Alisha Davis rescued.]
[Reward obtained: Bronze Treasure Chest ×1.]