On his drive back, Jimmy thought about the reason Chuck had put the guitarist case on hold—it was because there had also been a kidnapping on his end. So, while driving, he made a call to ask about the situation.

Chuck gave Jimmy not a pleasant surprise but a scare. The kidnapping case at his end also involved a girl in her twenties. She had gone out to a bar at night and never came home. The next day, her family thought she was just staying with friends and didn't pay much attention to it. It wasn't until they received a call from the kidnapper that they realized something had gone wrong and then reported it to the police.

The NYPD had also been searching around the bar the girl visited, but still found nothing. Since it was at night and the surveillance area was too small, they could only confirm that the girl left the bar, but they had no knowledge of what happened afterwards. Investigating the environment and making inquiries yielded no results.

Now, Chuck and Nia were staying at the girl's house, and they had arranged for several patrol officers to patrol the nearby area, waiting for the kidnapper's call. Since the kidnapper demanded cash and gave them two days to gather it, there was no notification yet of the time and place to deliver the money. They would become busy after receiving further details.

It was concerning that two kidnappings had taken place on the same day, both in Manhattan. It was unclear whether they were committed by the same group of people. After hearing the details of Chuck's case, Jimmy also found himself scratching his head. With New York Fashion Week happening, such incidents had to be kept under wraps, or else they could trigger major trouble.

Back at ESS Agency, Jimmy called Lars aside to discuss the matter. After considering it for a while, Lars ultimately shook his head and decided against combining the cases, since they couldn't yet be sure they were carried out by the same people and they currently didn't have enough staff to investigate both cases simultaneously. Sighing, Jimmy had no choice but to give up and hope that Chuck and his team could make some progress.

As evening approached, Jimmy and his team finally received the call, and the agent Melton turned on the speakerphone.

Kidnapper: "Mr. Melton, have you prepared everything?"

Agent Melton glanced at Lars, then spoke to the kidnapper, "Mr. Kidnapper, may I speak with McCall for a moment first? I need to confirm her safety."

Kidnapper: "Is the money ready?"

Melton: "The money is ready, but I need to confirm McCall's safety first."

There was the sound of shoes on the floor from the kidnapper's end, "Say something."

McCall: "Mr. Melton, save me! Save me!"

Melton shouted urgently, "Shadi, don't worry, I've already contacted your family, and we'll save you."

The kidnapper brought the phone back from McCall and said to Melton, "Now that you've heard her voice, where is my money?"

Melton: "Please ensure her safety, as per your demand, we've prepared two briefcases, two two-million-dollar bearer bonds, and one million in cash. Everything is ready."

Kidnapper: "9 PM, Central Park, by the lake in the rest area, red scarf." And then the kidnapper hung up.

Lars immediately turned to the technician beside him, "Did you get the location?"

The technician nodded, "A burner phone, pinpointed to the Bronx, next to the zoo."

Lars turned his head to look at Agent Ryan, "Ryan, you lead your team to the scene immediately for inspection," "You all start pulling the nearby traffic surveillance footage, and the moment you spot them, notify us immediately," "Jimmy, you follow Ryan."

Lars quickly organized the tasks for the technical staff and Agent Ryan. The kidnappers were indeed careless; anonymous calls could indeed prevent identity leaks, but they didn't realize that it takes the FBI far less time to triangulate cell phone signals than they might think. That's normal, as most films suggest it takes dozens of seconds to a minute to pinpoint a location, and many people take that for granted, but it doesn't take that long in reality.

Now every second counted. As long as McCall wasn't taken away by them, there was bound to be some gain. What he feared most now was the kidnappers taking McCall away directly. Judging from their previous use of a swapped license plate, their preparations were comprehensive.

Besides arranging for Agent Ryan and his team to inspect the scene, Lars also made preparations for the trade. However, the box only contained prop paper money they had prepared in advance. Aside from the real US dollars on the top, all the rest were prop paper money, which is used in magic performances and movie and TV props. They looked real but were useless. The main purpose was to attract the kidnapper's attention at the scene, not to let them take it away directly.

The kidnappers were quite clever. The bearer bonds (actual physical government bonds) were really convenient. If they purely wanted cash, $5 million in cash would need a large travel bag to carry, which was inconvenient to move and posed too great a risk of exposure. $1 million in cash split between two boxes could be easily carried away, and one could just walk a few steps and leave the scene, whether diving into the woods or hopping into a car and fleeing.

The vehicle assigned to Agent Ryan was a disguised police car, and they could not worry about that now. They turned on the police lights and siren and headed directly to the Bronx District with Jimmy and the other agents following behind Agent Ryan.

The trade time was at 9 PM, and it was just past 6 PM now. They hoped they could reach the location before the kidnappers left for Central Park.

With sirens blaring, Ryan led Jimmy and the team all the way to the zoo, where they finally turned off the sirens and approached the kidnappers' location quietly. Cell phone tracking pointed to a residential building, but because of accuracy issues, there were two buildings within the current positioning range. This was troublesome.

Agent Ryan looked around to assess the environment. As there was no clarity on whether the kidnappers were still inside, they couldn't just go knocking from door to door. They had to arrange for people to stay outside while he and two agents entered the building on the left; Jimmy and another agent went to the right.

As Jimmy examined the inside of the building, most homes appeared normal. They opted for the most conservative approach, starting from the ground floor, they held McCall's photo for simple inquiries while also checking the interiors. Cell phone tracking couldn't pinpoint a location as accurately as in the movies, directly to which building, floor, and room number—that was far-fetched. Actually, for a landline, the difficulty would be lower.

Jimmy and his team had not finished their inquiries in this building when gunshots sounded from the neighboring building. Jimmy and the other agent immediately hurried down the stairs. Something must have happened on Ryan's side; otherwise, it would be impossible for shooting to occur in a residential building.

They arrived at Ryan's building, where he was on the staircase between the first and second floors, aiming upstairs, slowly moving upward.

Jimmy: "Agent Ryan, what happened?"

Ryan stopped moving, "We ran into the kidnappers, they were preparing to leave. We were discovered by them while checking the next-door room and then a gunfight broke out. We retreated down here."

Jimmy: "Which floor?" Jimmy looked up and saw someone on the third floor staying beside the stairs, peering down at the staircase.

Ryan: "Third floor, room 303. Three men, two women." Jimmy looked back at the neighboring room; one person was lying on the ground writhing, someone stood by the door watching the person at the stairwell, and two others had returned to the room, with one sitting on the sofa and the other standing. The count matched what Ryan said, so they must be the ones.

Jimmy: "I'll go, you guys be careful." He held his Glock and started to move upstairs, sticking to the wall. These staircases made two turns, with the person watching the stairs on the third floor—currently, the stairs below were safe. Jimmy stayed close to the wall and made it to the second floor, then started aiming up at the person above without hugging the wall any longer, as it would allow the person upstairs to spot him earlier.

Jimmy moved up a few steps, sticking close to the handrail, then he crouched down. After shifting up two more steps, he immediately stood up and fired two shots at the person who was halfway out of the stairwell. To ensure the hostages' safety, Jimmy didn't shoot to kill. Both shots hit the person's chest, who yelled "Ah~" as he fell down and soon the shout turned into groans. One shot had hit a lung, and if nothing unexpected happened, he was likely done for.

As the person at the stairwell went down, the person at the doorway to the room also raised his gun, aiming at the stairs, but Jimmy didn't act rashly. He switched the Glock to his left hand and just peeked around the corner and fired, less accurate than with his right hand but the Glock's suppressive effect was strong. After three shots, the person at the doorway retreated back into the room.

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