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Outside the parking garage the sun was beginning to go down. Knox continued surveilling its interior via Milky Way’s camera, but he had seen no sign of Kornev. He witnessed the usual comings and goings of police officers and office staff. Mainly motorcycles entered and exited the garage. Some individual riders entered or exited, while other officers rode in pairs. At one point he observed a large group of motorcycles leave the complex at once.
Several hours had passed since the Russian entered the police building. There’d been no indication he had left.
Renner, Nolan, and Hail sat in the car outside, watching the video of Milky Way’s flight within the garage complex. The elevator panel showed an illuminated fifth-floor button. This had been their only clue as to where Kornev had disappeared.
Too much time had passed when Hail noticed something they had previously overlooked. “Look here,” he said. He placed his finger on the tablet near the bottom of the screen. “There are two buttons labeled G1 and G2.”
Renner understood where Hail was going and said, “There are two garage levels. That means there may be two exits as well.”
“Damn,” Hail said, realizing that Kornev might have already left the facility. If he had, the chance of finding Kara was almost nil. Hail wondered if Kornev had planned this trip to the police office building to throw someone off his trail. Still, Hail had seen no indication that Kornev knew he was being followed.
They continued to watch the police station for signs of Kornev as the sun disappeared over the horizon.
“Sorry, Kara,” Hail muttered to himself.
*-*-*
While Hail was kicking himself, Kornev had changed into SWAT-type clothing, donned a motorcycle helmet, and was gunning the engine of a newer Husqvarna TE300i. Four other police officers were either starting or revving their motorcycles. Once the men appeared ready to ride, Kornev drove toward the south exit of Garage Level Two. The officers wore identical black tactical clothing, black full-face motorcycle helmets, and rode jet-black Husqvarna motorcycles in a tight formation. They were indistinguishable from one another. Kornev estimated his ensemble would arrive at his safe house complex in about twenty minutes.
Kornev had arranged for the men accompanying him to consider this just another potentially dangerous but necessary job. In terms of mortality, serving on the police force in any Pakistani city was second only to crab fishing. His hired men probably figured this would be a quick attack allowing them to be home for dinner with their wives and kids. The Russian held none of these misconceptions. He assumed that several of the families would never see them again.