The man stepped out of the car and entered one of the lower-level buildings, leaving the bag behind.
"I got the address, local units will be out there shortly," Noah said. "I've explained who you are, what you are doing."
"Thanks. Will keep you posted if he moves," Six said and hung up the phone. "I want to know what's in that bag." Six unfastened his seat belt and silently opened the door, slipping out into the darkness. Cabe followed.
Six breathed a sigh of relief when he tried the rear door of the car and found it unlocked. Quickly, he unzipped the bag and found a passport and a phone on top of clothing that had hastily been shoved in.
He looked over to where Cabe was taking a photograph of whatever documentation he'd found in the glove box.
Thankfully the phone was charged, and Six quickly found the number. He took a photograph of it and made a mental note to get a trace on it as quickly as possible.
A bright light illuminated the concrete, disappearing quickly as though someone had opened and closed a door. Six held his breath, listening acutely for sounds of footsteps heading in their direction. They sounded as if they were coming from around the side of the building. He tapped Cabe's shoulder, giving him the signal to withdraw.
Silently, both he and Cabe quickly stepped away from the vehicle, closing the doors with the gentlest click, before jogging back to the truck, settling back inside as two unknown men walked to the vehicle and retrieved the black bag.
Six pulled out his phone and called Lite, another of their new hires.
"S'up?" Lite mumbled, clearly half-asleep.
"I need full access to a phone. Now."
"Text me the number."
Six hung up and messaged Lite the number. With any luck, they could flip the phone into a recording device and capture whatever was going on inside that apartment.
Neither Cabe nor Six spoke again until blue flashing lights, several of them, appeared in their rearview mirror. Six wanted in on the takedown. Cops were good, but SEALs were better.
He stepped down out of the truck.
One of the cops glared at him. "Stay out of the way," he said gruffly. "You don't have any authority here."
"What the-"
"He's right," Cabe said, placing his hand on Six's shoulder.
They were going to screw it up, he knew it. There were going to be exits left uncovered, evidence left behind. And damn, he knew he was being unfair to the hardworking cops, but it was Louisa who was at risk if any stone was left unturned.
Six began to pace as he heard the loud hammering on the door, the shouting, the yells for everybody to get down. In the recess of his mind were images of all the times he'd burst into a room and yelled the very same things.
Goddamn.
The sound of feet hitting the pavement drew his attention to the left, and he saw the man who had broken into Kovalenko's house running away from the building. Six began to run, powering his legs as his heart pumped furiously, to catch up with the man fleeing the scene. There was no way in hell he was getting away.
As Six pulled closer, the man began to look over his shoulder, then sprinted faster. The loose gray track pants began to slip, and the man grabbed hold of the waistband, which slowed him down just enough for Six to leap across the distance between them and take the guy to the floor.
"Fuck you," the guy said, attempting to buck Six off him.
"Stay down," Six yelled as the man squirmed beneath him. A rogue fist caught Six on the side of the head, not with enough power to hurt. In an attempt to get the man onto his front, Six's knuckles hit the hard concrete, sending pain shooting up his arm.
Cabe's boots appeared in Six's peripheral vision.
"I got about two minutes," Six growled as he finally subdued the man, "before those cops come out and take you away. And I got a handful of bullets in this gun, that I am more than happy to use to get you to tell me who the hell you all work for."
With his knee on the guy's back, Six pulled a cable tie from his pocket and secured his arms behind his back. He had no intention of killing the guy, but he sure as shit was cool with using the threat to get what he wanted.
Six pulled his gun and placed it next to the guy's head. "Anytime you're ready."
"Don't, please. Don't shoot. It's Lemtov. Victor Lemtov," the guy cried out.
It wasn't a name that had come up in conversation with Lou, but Six fully intended to figure out who the hell he was. Quickly, Six reholstered his gun and stood. Cabe dragged the guy to his feet.
It took another painful twenty minutes of waiting to learn that Kovalenko was not in the building, and a further twenty to give their statements and hand over all the information they'd collected.