Chapter 14

FBI office - Portland

Despite the time being 7:15 am there was a group which was working quite diligently trying to get clues related to the case. This was Garry Barnes and his team members. They had been working round the clock while taking turns to rest their body and mind. 

From the FBI perspective this was a huge case as an entire squad consisting 7 agents were Killed in Action during yesterday's mission and if FBI doesn't send a message soon to the gang related to this shooting then they would lose face in front of other agencies. In other words this was no longer a case but a matter of pride. 

However one would have to give props to the FBI as it didn't take long for them to find the safe houses and clubs where Juarez cartel members frequented and what would follow next was a brutal counter attack from one of the powerful law enforcement agencies in the world. 

Meanwhile in Nick's home there was a man tied up to a chair unconscious with a needle sticking out from his arm. This was a tranquilizer which Nick had in his arsenal, just in case it was a rainy day and from his perspective to day it was pouring. After shooting up enough to put a crocodile to sleep Nick called Hank to tell that he would be a bit late today as his car broke down and started removing the blood traces from the floor while thinking of replacing it with new floor boards in the near future. 

Then came the most pesky thing to do and that was to hack into CCTV footage of the city traffic system which was ridiculously tough for the current Nick and to replace videos just in case someone decides to investigate the person who was currently unconscious in his Hall. 

"If I do something at this level I should not leave any traces otherwise it would in either case end up pointing towards me as the suspect".

"Hmm.. Should I just leave it at that and decide to depend on luck hoping that no one would file a missing persons report. Generally if it is a criminal or if a person is related to gang activities or is a personnel of crime organisation no one would care enough that such persons go missing. Maybe I should leave it to luck or I can hack into the camera within this street which is mostly residential CCTV installed by home owners. This is relatively less dangerous than hacking into the government traffic monitoring system".

"Any case it would take a while for anybody to launch an investigation and I have time to slowly erase the footages. In the meantime I cannot have a Balam sitting around my living room, I should transport him to one of my safe houses".

Nick quickly handcuffed the Balam and stuffed him in a huge travel case before bringing the case out and stuffing it inside his car. He had previously checked to see if the Balam had come to this place via car only to find that there were no car keys. The amount of blood loss from the fight wasn't big enough to be life threatening to the Balam so all Nick had to do was wrap up the wounds and voila he was as good as new. 

Starting his car Nick drove quickly towards the woods. 

Meanwhile inside Garry Barnes office his trusted aide was now giving him the report filled with personal datas of all the FBI personnel in this office including Garry Barnes own team members and quietly left the office in order to let his boss read the info. After sifting the pages for almost an hour Garry found that none of the personnel from the FBI were suspicious of leaking intel to the Juarez cartel though he did find some juicy info in it. 

'Then the source of leak must be from Portland PD' thought Barnes as he quickly called Sean Renard to check on the progress. 

Inside the precinct Nick and Hank after getting briefed by Sean about possibility of presence of a mole got access to call logs and were currently sifting through them to find any suspicious activities. After Nick had dumped the unconscious Balam inside one of his safe house and not before shooting another tranquilizer Nick tied the man to a pole and hurried back to his office. 

'So my guess was right, there had been a mole in our office's thought Nick as he went through each number's call logs. At present the most suspicious were the personnel who worked at the Human relations inside the Police department as they were the ones who had access to private info. This was a conclusion which Nick had come to after what had happened today morning. 

Looking into the Human relationship department which was basically a behind the desk job there were a total of 6 employees composed of 3 men and 3 women. It was one of those jobs in the police department which had more female employees. 

With 6 suspects the job for Nick turned out to be pretty easy than searching into 100's of police officers who were more skilled in anti tracking abilities than the amateurs. 

Having a list of suspects helped Nick as he instead of using the regular method of going through call logs quickly hacked into these six suspects' mobile phones and went through their mails, messages, contacts and finally messenger apps and bingo Nick zoned in on the name Jean. He has been working in Human relations for almost 12 years and his history with the marked phone numbers seems to be going for ages, making Nick think that he has been an agent of the Juarez cartel who had joined the police to be a spy.

Marking the calls which Jean had frequently received and the messages he had sent including Nick's own details to an unknown number Nick triangulated the call and found the place from where the unknown number had called. 

"Paramount clinic". 

Checking out the address Nick made his way to the captain's office while also bringing Hank with him after saying the most used phrase by police detectives " I have a lead".

"What do we have?" asked Sean. He had just gotten a call from the FBI and the news he got wasn't anything good. As per the FBI it was now 100% that there was a mole in his precinct. 

"Name is Jean and he has had frequent contact and sent mails and messages to many of the members of the Juarez cartel and in particular to the numbers which we had received from the FBI. This has been going on for the past 1 year but I think he has been in touch with them much longer".

Sean's face turned ugly from the info he had received and gave an order to bring Jean to the interrogation room while also contacting the feds to give them the update. 

Walking out of the office Nick and Hank made a trip to the HR department and while Hank was livid in knowing that there was someone from their precinct leaking information to cartel members Nick had other plans brewing in his mind but they all have to wait until he arrests this mole. 

Walking inside the HR office, Nick and Hank zoned in on the Bald head with sparse black hair on the sides, a nearly 40 year old obese man Jean from the files and walked towards him. 

Jean, who had the instinct of a cat kept watching his colleagues every now and then and would also glance towards the entrance to the office and subconsciously looked towards Nick and Hank who had just entered the office and froze. He had been a mole for quite a long time and such persons who were always behind enemy lines were prone to be paranoid and if they felt that they were about to be caught would be prone to violence and like a true lackey Jean quickly sprang from his chair and with an agility completely opposite of an obese man moved towards one of his female colleagues and grabbed her by her arm and held her at knife point while shouting at Nick and Hank who had drawn their guns to retreat towards the side of the wall. 

This was a complete turn of events which turned the normally peaceful HR division to be broken. All the employees panicked as they screamed and ran towards the door leaving behind Nick, Hank, Jean and the female employee whom Nick recalled as Pamela.