“I know this person!” Katherine frowned, looking at the photo Bruce had taken.
“That is Jimmy Shi, a sergeant in the Anti-Gang Unit.”
Bruce was stunned; he turned back to look at his partner beside him and asked in a low voice, “A cop?”
“He used to be, but now…
I’m not sure.” Katherine quickly recalled the information about Jimmy in her mind.
“Jimmy Shi was originally a sergeant in the Chicago Police Department’s Anti-Gang Unit, specializing in Asian gangs.
But a few years ago, there were rumors that he had overstepped, using ‘unconventional methods.’ I heard he was suspended pending investigation, but apparently, he’s back.”
Across the street, Jimmy Shi and his men seemed to have obtained the information they wanted.
They released the casino manager, patted his face while saying something, and then swaggered back to an unmarked Ford Explorer.
“Follow them.” Katherine quickly directed Bruce to drive the vehicle and follow them, while she uploaded the photo she had just taken to the Intelligence Unit’s information-sharing platform.
Bruce drove the Chevrolet Malibu, maintaining an appropriate distance, and trailed behind the Ford.
Suddenly, Hank’s raspy voice came over the car radio, “Katherine, what is the meaning of the picture you took?”
Hearing this, Katherine reported everything she had just witnessed to Hank.
“Hank, if I’m not mistaken, that man is Jimmy Shi, the sergeant from the Anti-Gang Unit…”
“…” The other end of the radio fell silent; nothing was more demoralizing than seeing a colleague commit a crime.
After a brief silence, Hank finally spoke, “Katherine, you two keep tracking them, don’t blow your cover.
I want to see what they are doing, and I will check with the department to see if their operation has been filed.”
“Copy that.” Bruce and Katherine replied briefly after hearing Hank’s order.
There were no other leads for now, were there?
The two of them just like that, followed closely behind the Ford.
The Ford Explorer didn’t seem to notice it was being followed at all; after driving out of Chinatown, it headed towards the West Side.
Forty minutes later, the car stopped outside an abandoned warehouse.
Jimmy and four other men got out, all five wearing tactical vests and holding rifles.
“What are they preparing for?” Bruce hid the car out of sight and took out the radio.
“Hank, we’ve found Jimmy and his team.
There are five of them in total, and they are all fully armed.
It looks like they are getting ready to move.”
Hank’s voice replied quickly, “Bruce, did you say five people?
And fully armed?”
“Yes, that’s right, fully armed!” Bruce described, “Tactical gear, rifles, pistols, bulletproof vests—it looks like they’re about to raid somewhere.
Should we intervene?”
“Hank, they highly overlap with the five-person gang we are looking for,” Katherine offered her opinion from the side.
“The perpetrators might be them…”
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by Hank, “Katherine, I need you and Bruce to keep tracking them.
I’ll arrange for backup to arrive immediately.
Don’t alert them; I want the most direct evidence.”
…
At 1:00 PM, 236 West 21st Street in Chinatown—this was an underground casino for the Triads.
Jimmy’s team’s car pulled up and assembled outside this casino.
Bruce and Katherine were observing from the second floor of the building across the street, monitoring through binoculars.
Hank and the others had also arrived, dispersing into various corners to monitor the vehicle in front of them.
“What are they waiting for…” Katherine asked in a low voice.
But before her words faded, suddenly, the doors of the Ford Explorer opened.
Five fully armed men got out of the car.
Jimmy signaled, and his team moved quickly in a tactical formation, entering rapidly through the casino’s front door.
The scene instantly descended into chaos.
People trying to escape from the casino were stopped, but Jimmy’s team controlled the scene with well-trained efficiency.
In less than two minutes, the entire casino was under their control.
“They’re raiding an underground casino, very professionally,” Bruce said, watching everything unfold before his eyes.
“But why not go through official channels?
Hank’s voice came over the radio, “Bruce, Katherine, prepare to breach.
I’ve contacted the Anti-Gang Unit, and they don’t know about this operation.
Either Jimmy is acting on his own, or he is the person we are looking for.”
Hearing this, Bruce and Katherine quickly drew their guns and crossed the street to the outside of the casino door.
Hank arrived with the rest of the Intelligence Unit, and uniformed patrol officers appeared at the same time.
Bruce used his [Life Radar] to sense everything inside the casino.
Most of the people were in a crouching position with their hands on their heads.
Only Jimmy’s five-man team was standing guard with guns.
Jimmy seemed to be interrogating one of them about something, but it was too far away to sense anymore.
Hank directed the Intelligence Unit to breach from different directions.
Bruce and Katherine remained the point men, choosing to engage directly from the front.
“CPD!
Drop your weapons, NOW!!!”
Hank and the others breached quickly, issuing warnings with their guns drawn.
The expected shootout did not occur.
After realizing they were surrounded by colleagues, the five men under Jimmy cooperated fully and dropped their weapons.
This bizarre scene left Bruce and Katherine looking at each other, completely confused.
But that was fine; even for Bruce, shooting at fellow police officers might have been unsettling.
Hank did not remove the masks from Jimmy and his team; he simply shoved them into police cars and took them back to the Intelligence Unit.
…
Inside the Intelligence Unit’s office.
The masks were removed from Jimmy and the others, and they faced the Intelligence Unit team openly.
Seeing Hank before him, Jimmy’s expression turned terrifyingly dark.
He walked over to Hank, “Voight, this is my fucking case.”
“No filing, no authorization, no backup.” Hank was not to be outdone, saying coldly, “Is this your case?
Or is it your vigilante justice?”
“These bastards run illegal casinos, practice loan sharking, and drove three people to their deaths.” Jimmy retorted tit-for-tat, “Official procedures are too slow, so I use my own methods.”
“Your methods will make the evidence inadmissible in court.” Hank said, “And, Jimmy, look at your team.
Fully armed, no badges, no markings…
You look a lot like the people who have been robbing the casinos.”
Jimmy’s expression instantly stiffened, “What are you implying?”
“I’m stating facts.” Hank’s tone softened slightly.
He and Jimmy used to be teammates, and he didn’t want to suspect his friend until the very last moment.
“Jimmy, you need to tell me the truth.”
Old Ai, who was standing to the side, took over the conversation; he was also a former teammate of Jimmy’s.
“In the past five days, three casinos have been robbed by armed men, resulting in seventeen deaths.
Now, we find an Anti-Gang Unit sergeant leading an armed team to raid a casino without any official record.
What do you think this looks like?”
“Hank, what do you mean?
I have never suspected you!” Jimmy, eyes wide with rage, appeared extremely angry.
“Even after everything you’ve done, I have never suspected you!”
Hearing this, the Intelligence Unit team looked at each other.
Especially Antonio and Jay, they exchanged glances, as if they were very interested in what Jimmy had just said.
Just as Hank and Jimmy were confronting each other, the radio suddenly rang.
It was Sheldon.
“Hank, I just received a report.
Twenty minutes ago, not long after you withdrew from the Triad’s casino, it was attacked.
A five-person team, fully automatic weapons, nine people dead.”
Bruce’s heart sank.
Bruce crossed his arms and began to reason tentatively, “Hank, do you think it’s possible that their operational targets are consistent with Sergeant Jimmy’s, or even completely overlapping, in a one-after-the-other sequence?”
Everyone heard Bruce’s words and began to consider the possibility of this hypothesis.
Jimmy’s brow furrowed tightly.
He looked at his team members, then looked at Hank, no longer as confrontational as before, “Someone is imitating us?”
“Or using you as cover.” Bruce walked closer, coming to Jimmy’s side.
“Sergeant Jimmy, how are your operational targets selected?
And what about your communication methods?”
“Three to four times a week, we issue warnings to casinos in Chinatown to prevent them from expanding too much.” Jimmy also knew the severity of the problem; now was not the time to argue over case ownership, so he answered candidly, “We use encrypted radios, and the channels are changed weekly…”
“You might have been wiretapped.” Katherine also walked over and started organizing the timeline on the whiteboard.
“If someone monitored your communications and knew your operational plans, they could launch a real attack after you acted.
The casino’s attention would be diverted by your raid, or they would have just been raided by you, leaving their defenses lax…”
“Perfect timing.” Hank summarized, his expression serious.
“Jimmy, I need your team’s complete operational records, communication logs, everything.”
Jimmy hesitated, but seeing Hank’s serious gaze, he finally nodded in agreement, “Fine.
But I want to participate in catching these copycats.
They killed seventeen people, and now it’s twenty-six…
and they used my team as cover…
I want to catch these bastards myself.”
Hank considered for a moment and decided to trust his old partner, giving him a chance to prove himself.
“Fine, but you and your team will be under the command of the Intelligence Unit from now on.
No independent actions, understand?”
“Understood.”
…
5:00 PM, still at the Intelligence Unit office.
Everyone gathered in the conference room, including Jimmy and his four team members.
There were now two sets of information on the whiteboard: on the left, the records of Jimmy’s team’s legal raids, and on the right, the timeline of the robberies.
Everyone was discussing how to find this group of copycats, this group of shadows.
“Found it.” Sheldon suddenly said, his eyes fixed on the computer screen.
“Jimmy’s team’s radio signal has been abnormal over the past week.
Someone added a repeater to the channel without their knowledge.”
“How did they do it?” Hank asked, frowning.
“The equipment itself must have been modified, with a hardware backdoor added…” Sheldon kept his eyes on the screen, “Someone got hold of Sergeant Jimmy’s equipment and tampered with it in advance.”
The conference room suddenly fell silent.
“We can use this.” Katherine suddenly said.
Everyone looked at her.
“If their monitoring is still ongoing, we can transmit false information over the radio.” Katherine walked towards the whiteboard.
“Release a fake raid plan, with clear time, location, and target.
Then we set an ambush there and wait for the copycats to appear.”
“The risk is very high.” Old Ai expressed his concerns openly.
“If we judge wrong, or if they see through it…”
“Let’s do it,” Jimmy was the first to support Katherine.
“We need to be proactive, not reactive.
Besides, my team will cooperate with the act to make the monitoring look real.”
Hank looked around the room, “Vote.
Who is in favor, who is against?”
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”