Harten had waited for two hours before the phone finally rang.
"This is Harten, go ahead."
"OK, stop the surveillance and return to the apartment."
After hanging up the phone, the ring had already woken Grant. Harten looked at Grant and said, "Grant, go back to your room and rest. Baka's men didn't meet with Baka, instead, they went to the airport. The flight they took was to New Orleans, we'll continue to wait for further news."
Grant nodded, got up from the sofa, and went upstairs to rest.
"Randall, put away the weapon and you take over the surveillance."
Jimmy sat on the side, practicing loading bullets into a revolver, a rather monotonous and boring activity when sitting on watch, with nothing entertaining at hand except for practice.
As for watching series, Jacob had already gone to rest, and now it was Camp dealing with the equipment; Jacob's computer had been packed away.
Harten stood up to give Randall room, stretching and heading towards the kitchen, glancing at Jimmy's actions before suddenly stopping in his tracks.
Jimmy was practicing a quick loading method for loose bullets taught by Roland. With both hands working together, consecutively placing bullets into the cylinder, such a performance was actually more pleasing to watch compared to speed loaders, especially since after several months of practice, Jimmy now loaded very quickly.
Once he filled the cylinder with bullets, Jimmy would flick the revolver in his right hand, snapping it back into place, then open the cylinder again and tilt the gun to let the bullets fall out.
Harten was mesmerized, standing in place watching Jimmy practice repeatedly.
Feeling uncomfortable, Jimmy looked up and saw that Harten had been watching him intently. Understanding it was his own action that seemed somewhat startling, he smiled at Harten, then after loading the revolver, stowed it in his leg holster.
Shrugging his shoulders, Harten continued to the kitchen in search of something to eat.
The people in the house now had a completely irregular schedule, each finding food when hungry; Jimmy never saw more than two people in the kitchen at a time.
This dull moment continued until the afternoon when Harten had taken over monitoring from Randall, and Korbin had replaced Camp. The others had gone to rest, ensuring brief but sufficient sleep, to maintain peak operational readiness once action time arrived.
Instead of going back to his bedroom to rest, Jimmy lay down on the sofa for a nap.
"Jimmy, notify Randall to come here, but don't disturb Grant."
Harten suddenly called out to Jimmy, who ran upstairs to find Randall and came back down with him to stand behind Harten.
"Randall, take a look outside the house, there used to be something up there, right?"
Harten pointed at a trash can beside the house, situated at the corner of the side wall; because this was a standalone house in the woods, trash could not be dealt with as promptly as in residential areas, so several bins were placed outside temporarily.
"Yeah, as far as I recall, there was," Randall replied.
"Then we have a problem, there are blind spots in the surveillance, I suspect someone has already neared this house," Harten said while looking at the monitors, switching between various views, yet found no one showing up on screen.
"Randall, call Grant, you two should go investigate."
"Harten, let Grant rest, I'll go with Randall."
Jimmy volunteered, but Harten shook his head, "Jimmy, you haven't been trained; for surveillance and recon, they are better suited. Randall, off you go."
With no other choice, Jimmy realized that the FBI was definitely more proficient with surveillance and recon than he was; it seemed he still had much to learn.
Jimmy returned to the sofa to continue resting while Randall went upstairs to wake Grant. The two men came downstairs, armed themselves, and then left the house.
Not long after Randall and Grant had left, Jacob awoke and took over the surveillance from Harten.
"Harten, there's something going on." Harten hurried back to the surveillance monitors, with Jimmy crowding in close. On the screen, a figure appeared. Jimmy glanced at the photos on the wall—it was neither Baka nor his three subordinates.
Harten: "When did this person appear?"
Jacob: "Right when I called you, but he didn't appear on the street corner surveillance. He must have come straight from the woods."
Harten picked up the walkie-talkie, "Grant, Randall, someone's turned up outside Baka's house. Be careful, he came through the woods, not the road."
"Roger that."
The walkie-talkie signal could be slightly disrupted by the forest, but a repeater had been installed yesterday, so the signal was not too bad. Grant and Randall's voices came through the walkie-talkie clearly.
The person in the surveillance walked to the only door, took out a key, opened it, and went inside. This person had to be one of Baka's men.
Because there was no surveillance inside the house, the situation indoors remained unclear.
"The target has entered the house, no others have been detected on surveillance; you can pull back for now."
"Roger that, heading back now."
Since Baka had not yet appeared, this person might have simply come to tidy up the house or something similar. There was no need to send Grant and Randall over there and risk exposure.
Harten had Jacob move aside while he switched between different cameras, hoping to find more clues.
A while later, Grant and his team returned.
Grant: "Harten, any new updates?"
Harten: "Nothing. No one was spotted by the road cameras, and there's been no change at the front and back door surveillance; the person who entered hasn't come out."
Grant: "If someone has gotten in, Baka is bound to show up, as this place is his safe house after all. He wouldn't let strangers come in freely; that person must be one of his team."
Harten: "I think so too. Baka should be coming soon. Take a break."
Harten continued to monitor the screens. Seeing that their discussion had ended, Jimmy went upstairs, put on his police uniform, grabbed his duty belt in hand, and came back down.
Since Harten had speculated that Baka was likely to show up, Jimmy also made preparations in advance. Given that Chief James had put Jimmy in this position, it clearly indicated the expectation for Jimmy to contribute.
Jimmy disassembled his 92F to check it, reassembled it, placed it in the holster, and lay back down on the sofa to rest.
"Something's up," Harten shouted. Grant and Randall, who were resting in the chairs beside him, immediately came over to the monitors.
"Two cars are coming. They've just passed the surveillance at the outermost intersection. Grant, get ready to go. Jacob, take over for me."
Harten got up to give his place to Jacob, he put on a bullet-proof vest, took a handgun and several magazines from a box, and slotted them into the magazine pouches on his vest. Grant and Randall also adjusted their gear on their bodies. Jimmy simply fastened his duty belt; he was carrying just a 92F and a revolver.
"Move out, Grant will lead."
(An advance of 8000. I'll see if I can sneak away this afternoon to get another chapter out. If not, I'll add it tomorrow.)