New York's crime rate is well-known, and the NYPD sirens are the accompanying soundtrack to the city's daily life; New Yorkers are long accustomed to it.
Jacques didn't care much about it either, as long as they weren't after him. However loud the sirens wailed, it was none of his concern.
But this time was different. The distant wail of the police sirens wasn't fading away, instead, they were growing increasingly louder, seemingly heading straight for this building.
"Could they be coming for me?"
The thought struck Jacques as he recalled the image of Mona running up the stairs while shouting his name into her phone, and the trigger-ready Jacques's face suddenly turned pale.
He had captured Mona as a threat to Javari, intending to kill Javari eventually. Before his revenge was complete and Javari was dead, he absolutely could not afford to be arrested by NYPD or the FBI.
This was also one of the reasons why Jacques had ordered Demonti to kill Ivande and John King, instead of doing it himself.
During those seconds of Jacques's hesitation, Mona, clutching her laptop, had already successfully reached the staircase on the first floor of the apartment building and then her figure instantly vanished.
Seeing the empty view through the scope, Jacques stiffened and cursed under his breath, slapping his forehead hard.
Packing up his rifle, the grim-faced Jacques quickly returned to Mona's apartment and cast his eyes downward.
Seeing several patrol cars in the front was a Chevrolet speeding toward the building, Jacques's face grew even darker.
Jacques recognized this Chevrolet; while scouting Mona's personal connections, he discovered it belonged to one of Mona's male colleagues.
"The FBI has found me."
The thought flashed through Jacques's mind, and without hesitation, he immediately packed up his rifle and swiftly left Mona's apartment.
Javari-Evans was not yet dead; he could not afford to be arrested. He had to hurry and leave this place.
As for whether he could make a smooth getaway, Jacques was not the least bit anxious.
He had already scouted this building and the nearby area beforehand and had an escape route well planned out.
Before leaving, Jacques glanced down at the Chevrolet one last time and snorted coldly:
"Mona's male teammate, I'll remember you."
With that said, Jacques immediately turned and left.
Downstairs, the Chevrolet successfully arrived at the apartment building.
"Leave these patrol officers to you, Reesi, have them lock down the area!"
With a beautiful tail swing, Luo An quickly spoke these words.
Without waiting for Reesi to respond, Luo An immediately unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door, and took out a Glock 18 with three extended magazines from beneath the Chevrolet's seat, then dashed into the first-floor entrance of the building where Mona lived.
The reason these patrol officers were drawn here was naturally that SWAT could not arrive in time, but the area still needed to be blocked off.
And the reason Luo An handed this task to Reesi was because Reesi was acquainted with many in the NYPD...
Not only did this include policewomen, but also the wives, daughters, and so on, of higher-ups within the NYPD.
In this respect, Reesi was a big shot.
"Let me see your hands!"
"Place your hands at the front of the car!"
Seeing Luo An's disappearing figure in an instant and hearing the urgent screeching of brakes, followed by the shouting of these NYPD patrol officers behind her...
Reesi's face stiffened, and she was filled with suppressed irritation.
This area was quite bustling, and there were many NYPD patrol officers. Combined with the fact that Luo An had been driving too fast and the two officers at the intersection couldn't catch up, they decisively called nearby patrol officers for assistance.
The end result was five police cars now parked behind the Chevrolet, with 11 nervous patrol officers staring intently at the scene.
"We are with the FBI! We're on an assignment!"
Stepping out of the car with her hands raised, an annoyed Reesi shouted:
"My badge is in my pocket, now, get me NYPD Chief Charlize King!"
Hearing Reesi's words, the 11 patrol officers were momentarily stunned.
Inside the apartment building.
As Luo An burst into the building, it was exactly when Mona was running out from the first-floor stairwell.
Seeing Mona running while tightly clutching the laptop, Luo An's lips twitched, but he still quickly went to meet her and shielded her behind himself.
Standing around the corner, Luo An held the Glock 18 in a tactical position, intently watching the stairwell, and whispered:
Hearing something off in Mona's voice, Luo An hurriedly turned to look at Mona, then noticed a fresh red scratch on her left cheek.
"It happened while I was running down the stairs with the laptop."
Seeing the concern in Luo An's eyes, Mona touched the uncomfortable spot on her face, shrugged, and smiled:
"It's just a scratch, at least I wasn't shot."
Luo An frowned upon seeing this and was about to say something when Mona gave him a firm hug, then whispered in his ear:
"I'm really thankful to you, Luo An.
If it weren't for you informing me in time, I might have..."
Mona shuddered at the thought of the everywhere dire state of John King.
"There's no need to be so formal, Mona."
After Mona's hug ended, Luo An was about to wipe his hands in a habitual gesture, but suddenly remembered something, his eyebrows raising, then asked with a serious face:
"When you came down the stairs just now, Jacques hadn't left yet, right?"
Mona nodded, then tilted her head and inquired:
"What are you planning to do?"
Luo An carefully checked the Glock 18 in his hand and then touched the scratch on Mona's face, grinning:
"Of course, to catch someone!"
As mentioned before, when Luo An had previously freeloaded meals at Mona's place, due to his occupational habits, he subconsciously planned an escape route in case the building was surrounded, figuring out how he would leave the building quickly without attracting attention.
There were two possible routes.
This building didn't have protruding balconies, and Mona's apartment was still on the fourth floor.
One route was to climb directly out of the window of Mona's apartment, tightly grasping the protruding edge below the window, moving to the other end of the building, and finally jumping onto the rooftop of the apartment across on the second floor at a diagonal.
The second route was to go directly to the rooftop of this building and then jump to the rooftop of the apartment building across at a diagonal, eventually leaving through that apartment building.
There was also a fire escape on the outside of the building, but that staircase was right in front of Reesi and the others, Jacques would not be foolish enough to take that path.
Luo An also ruled out the first route because when he had just arrived, there was no one outside the window of Mona's apartment.
Therefore, it was most likely that Jacques chose the second route to leave.
Realizing this, Luo An no longer hesitated and immediately took the Glock 18, staying vigilant while quickly rushing toward the rooftop.
Luo An dared not take the elevator, in case he just opened the door and came face to face with Jacques—that would be quite a situation.
"Where are you going, Luo An?!"
Mona didn't know that Luo An had analyzed all these things and saw him rushing upstairs without a word, her face suddenly changed, but she didn't hesitate and quickly followed him.
From these past days' experience, Mona had subconsciously developed the habit of following Luo An in handling cases.
In Mona's eyes, Luo An's speed of running from the first floor to the sixth floor remained fast, never slowing down.
"Damn it! Doesn't he get tired of climbing stairs?"
Mona had just reached the third floor and looked up to see Luo An already running to the sixth floor, shocked, she also cursed softly:
"He's really a monster!"
Mona's shock was unknown to Luo An, but he did see Jacques' shock.
Because as Luo An ran to the rooftop in one breath, Jacques was just shouldering a messenger bag, running a few steps to gain momentum, and with force, leaped toward the rooftop of the building across.
Seeing Jacques flying through the air, Luo An grinned, took aim with the Glock 18 at the figure.