Black-Haired Internal Revenue Service SWAT Agent - Chapter 253



Only Krnovel

The Third Organization

“Something else?”

I asked with a playful expression, but Claire answered with a serious, almost stern tone.

“Anything! Anything but IRS SWAT!”

I chuckled, then opened the gun carrier and inspected the M4 rifle with its full combat optics setup.

It hasn’t been that long since I’ve calmed down my already wavering heart, but I can’t just listen to Claire’s words with one ear and let them go out the other.

The quick-witted Florida Queen knows what I’m thinking, and speaks a little more carefully this time.

“Think about it, Kim. If you don’t want to leave the IRS or Chicago, you can ask to be transferred to any position that doesn’t involve Task Force Blue…”

I nodded and Claire just stared at me blankly.

I don’t think I can just ignore it since it’s my girlfriend, of all people, who’s bringing up this issue again.

However, that does not mean that you will necessarily come to a conclusion that you have never thought of before.

I guess I slept a lot tonight, dammit.

With that thought in mind, I pushed the carrier all the way under the bed.

Please, I hope I never have to take this out and use it.

I’ve had enough of moving around like I’m being chased.

* * *

The next day, while I was having morning coffee with the guys from our Gold Team and Cobalt Team, I got a sudden call and went straight up to the FBI.

The FBI’s organized crime unit joined forces in yesterday’s incident, and it is said that a Chicago police informant who had been too scared to speak up and a Durex agent who had been guarding the money have finally opened up.

It looks like both of them only opened their mouths after making ‘deals’ with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but either way, I felt like I was getting a dopamine rush the whole time I was going up there.

“Kim!”

As I arrived at the interrogation room, Torres called me from inside the observation room attached to the interrogation room.

I went in with three team leaders: Team Leader Hancock, Team Leader Decker, and Team Leader Magros.

Torres and our teammates nod their heads in greeting as the smell of banana muffins wafts through the air.

In the next room, Sergeant Stevens and Torres’ team were still interrogating one of the members of the organization.

With their presence in front of them, Torres first shows the recorded footage on his laptop.

“They say a total of $2.1 million in cash was stolen yesterday morning.”

As soon as I heard that, I whistled involuntarily, and Decker and McGraw came up to my side and watched the interrogation scene on the laptop screen.

Torres continues his explanation.

“Five masked men showed up, neutralized the men guarding the warehouse with shotguns and tasers loaded with rubber bullets, and then used forklifts to load crates of cash into a large Durex van before disappearing.”

As we focused on Torres’ explanation, we watched the crew member on the laptop screen explaining the situation at that time.

The person in the recorded video was saying the same thing Torres had just said, but to see his facial expressions.

Perhaps Decker and Mr. McGraw were the same, but the organization member who explained the situation at the time still looked dumbfounded.

Soon, Team Leader Decker asks the Banana Muffin Ghost:

“Nick! Was there anything unusual regarding the surprise operation?”

Then Torres picks up his coffee mug and explains again.

“Oh, yeah, Chef. What was that?”

As Torres turns to his immediate superior, Team Leader Johansson, he continues to keep his gaze fixed on the interrogation room as he explains to us:

“It took less than five minutes for him to show up in the warehouse, neutralize the gang members, and leave the warehouse with the boxes of cash. Every move was perfect, as if he had rehearsed it countless times, and he seemed to be restraining himself from killing as much as possible, even though he could have killed all of the gang members.”

“Could it be a cash or cargo hijacker?”

McGraw asks Team Leader Johansson.

Well, it sounds plausible when you say the same thing in English.

They fell for calling them hijackers when they could have just been called armed robbers.

Then, Torres takes a sip of his coffee and answers.

“In addition, our agents are currently investigating two or more hijackers operating in teams on the North Side of Chicago.”

After hearing that, I turned my gaze towards the interrogation room, which had a large glass window between it and the observation room.

“Whatever you do, you’ve got to hurry. Before the former mafia mid-bosses of the Durex Corporation come out. Even if they’re former mafia, they’re still mafia. How can you just sit back and watch them steal $2 million, not just a penny or two, but money that was asked to be laundered by Chicago street gangs?”

The people inside the observation room nodded at my words.

Torres takes another sip of his coffee and speaks indifferently.

“It’s not $2 million, it’s $2.1 million. $2.1 million!”

When I turned my head to Torres and gave him a peck on the cheek with my expression, Torres responded with the same expression.

But, Team Leader Johansson holds up his tablet PC towards me, Team Leader Decker, and Team Leader McGraw and says.

“Oh, I forgot this, look at these.”

The tablet PC he was holding had captured images of people wearing large, bizarre masks.

“Is this the mask I was talking about earlier? The guys who stole the money were wearing it.”

Team Leader Decker asks as he receives the tablet PC.

As Team Leader McGraw and I stare at the captured photos on the screen, Torres points to the masks with his finger and explains.

“That photo is not from a website that sells masks, it’s a capture from a movie.”

“A movie?”

If this incident was a copycat crime committed by some idiots from the neighborhood who watched a Hollywood action movie, it would be incredibly absurd, not to mention the scale of the crime, that they risked their lives.

Torres answers my question by putting his coffee cup down on the table.

“Haven’t you ever seen that movie called ‘Into the Storm’? It’s that action classic from the 90s. It’s the movie with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, and in the movie, whenever Patrick and his surfer friends rob banks, they wear tuxedos and these damn masks.”

At that moment, Team Leader Hancock snaps his fingers as if he was reminded of a movie and says:

“When they robbed the bank, the masks the villains wore were all the faces of former presidents. President Reagan, President Nixon.”

Torres immediately agrees with those words.

“The guys who robbed the warehouse yesterday were all wearing masks of former presidents, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Clinton.”

Agent Johansson clicks his tongue at those words.

“It’s not the first or second time that these damn Hollywood movies have incited the idiots of this country to cause such a mess, it really sucks!”

As we stare at the tablet PC, a moment later, inside the interrogation room, Sergeant Stevens holds up a sketchbook toward the mirrored glass window of our observation room.

“Hey! Check out what our montage expert drew!”

Everyone turned to the sketchbook he was holding, which contained drawings of masks molded into the likenesses of three former presidents.

What kind of idiots would do such a dangerous thing?

They’re taking all the cash from people connected to the Chicago Mafia.

Russell Campbell was once a mid-level boss at the Chicago Outfit who broke away to own the Durex Corporation.

Although he was eliminated from the ranks of the Outfit’s top brass, he was nonetheless recognized for his long service to the Chicago Mafia.

So one of the direct subcontractors of the Outfit he took over was his cash laundering organization.

From a young age, his job within the Chicago Mafia was to legally process the profits collected in cash and turn them into actual money in financial accounts.

Now, he was running a huge business that laundered 60 percent of the criminal money on the streets of Chicago.

By giving 30 percent of the profits generated within it to the Outfit and keeping the rest for himself, he was amassing millions of dollars in wealth each year that he never had to report to the IRS.

However, his grand enterprise was shaken by yesterday’s incident, when he received complaints and demands from three criminal organizations that had entrusted him with $2.1 million for money laundering.

“Fuck, I got robbed of $2.1 million, not $2,000, not $20,000, and I can’t even report it to the cops.”

After finishing his call with the leader of a South Chicago gang, Campbell threw his smartphone on the desk and muttered.

Then, one of the subordinates who had been watching him reported to him, putting his laptop computer down on his desk.

“Boss! Our men have arrived at the parking lot where the large van that was stolen yesterday was parked.”

Abandoned industrial areas around Lake Michigan were seen in real-time action cam footage used by police and the military.

Six members of the organization, armed with MP5 submachine guns, mini-Uzis (shortened versions of the Uzi submachine guns), and shotguns, got out of their vehicles and were seen staring at a warehouse building about 30 meters ahead.

It was a location identified through the GPS originally installed on the large van that disappeared carrying the cash.

“Shall we proceed, boss?”

When Campbell’s subordinate asked, he answered while taking a new cigar out of his cigar box.

“Damn it, don’t ask me that kind of stuff and just tell me to go get our cash. Kill everyone you see at the scene and bring me one alive! We need to find out who the hell ordered this.”

After a while, as instructed by him, the members of the organization formed a formation and headed towards the warehouse building.

His gang, which included former military and police officers, entered two warehouse buildings and located a large van.

Communicating with each other using hand signals, the six members of the organization quickly searched the area where the van was parked.

Then, the ambush began when one of them threw a flash grenade into the van.

Phew!

Smoke poured out of the van’s passenger window along with the sound of an explosion, and the operatives pried open both the van’s rear and side doors.

However, no one responded to them and the van was secured right away.

The scene of searching the inside of the van was also conveyed to Campbell through the action cam.

Then, I heard the owner of the action cam reporting.

“There’s nothing in the van’s cargo area except for a box.”

Campbell said, grabbing the smartphone his subordinate was holding.

“Shouldn’t you be searching around the van thoroughly before saying something like that? How much do you guys pay per hour, and you’re taking all that money and making a big fuss about finding it?”

The owner of the action cam immediately responded to those words.

“Okay, but what about that box, boss?”

Campbell stared at the wooden box he was pointing his gun at through his laptop screen.

It was a wooden box containing cash, with the logo of an interior decoration company printed on the outside.

Dozens of those wooden crates had been stolen from the warehouse the day before, but coincidentally, only one was left there, and the on-site organization seemed reluctant to touch it.

Still, Campbell had no time to think about such things.

“Check what’s inside the box right now!”

“Razor that!”

Campbell took out his anger on those words for no reason.

“Shut up and open that damn box, you idiots!”

The owner of the action cam, startled by those words, immediately approached the box.

Then, as he took out his folding knife, unfolded the blade, and tried to look under the box lid with it, Campbell shouted again.

“Let’s open the head of the head right now!

“Boss, but I wonder if there are any booby traps installed…”

“Do you want to die? Open it right now!”

At Campbell’s shout, his hand stopped moving, visible on the screen.

As Campbell was on the verge of going wild, the five aides inside the CEO’s office watched on anxiously.

A little later, the owner of the action cam carefully opened the lid of the wooden box.

At that moment, a ‘beep!’ sound was heard from a device inside the wooden box, and the voice of the action cam owner was heard.

“Ow, shit!”

The owner of the action cam sighed as he removed the piece of tarpaulin that was on top of the device inside the box.

The numbers on the large LCD screen were changing backwards.

As soon as he saw the numbers counting backwards from 1 minute, the owner of the action cam shouted at everyone.

“It’s an IED! It’s an IED! Everybody get out! Go, go, go!”

From then on, the members of the organization who had been inspecting the inside and outside of the van began to run out of the warehouse frantically.

The action cam owner’s heavy breathing was transmitted in real time to Campbell and his entourage.

And a moment later, a thunderous explosion was heard, and thanks to the owner of the action cam who immediately turned around, a scene from the warehouse was transmitted.

Huge columns of smoke were billowing high into the air, and a large three-story warehouse building was collapsing.

The building, which had been slowly collapsing from one side, soon came crashing down completely.

And the enormous amount of smoke and dust that had been generated there was like a tsunami rushing towards the place where the members of the organization had taken refuge.

“F*ck!”

Campbell also watched the scene with his mouth wide open, holding a cigar in one hand.