novelraw Chapter 1500 806: Tailing
Chapter 1500 806: Tailing
Jimmy's tracking skills were honed through numerous real-world exercises, and his driving surveillance rarely failed completely. However, this time it caught him off guard. Just after turning two corners, Gus and another bodyguard's car suddenly parted ways.
This was a bit beyond his expectations. He could only speed up and close a few car lengths to continue following Gus, while also paying attention to the cars behind him to see if the bodyguard's car appeared.
However, after following for more than ten minutes, Jimmy suddenly realized Gus was going in circles, making three consecutive left turns and returning to a road they had previously passed.
Jimmy was astonished. Such driving indicated that Gus had definitely discovered he was being followed. But how did he find out?
At the next intersection, Jimmy turned and parked at the roadside, watching the cars coming from behind in the rearview mirror. One car after another passed by Jimmy, who had his hazard lights blinking. He stared at each license plate and car model, comparing them to those he had occasionally noted in his rearview mirror, but still found no repeating cars.
If it's not surveillance from behind, then is it a tracking device? Every time he parked, he would wedge a hair in the car door, and had pulled out several of them. He could now confirm that the other party hadn't opened the driver's door. But could a tracker be installed elsewhere?
Jimmy started the car, turned off the hazards, and stopped tracking, heading directly back to the DEA.
The car was parked in an empty area of the parking lot, with no other cars around. After moving away from the car, Jimmy made a call: "Miguel, bring the technical team down here to the parking lot. I suspect my car has been bugged with a tracker. Bring the detectors down. Keep it confidential."
When Miguel received Jimmy's call, his mind was blown. Who would be so bold as to put a tracker on an FBI agent's car?
The DEA's technical personnel and equipment were numerous, and soon two people in protective suits arrived with Miguel at the parking lot, carrying a case. Jimmy signaled to the car, and the technicians opened the case, taking out devices to inspect every corner of the vehicle.
Jimmy looked grimly at the two trackers lying on the ground—one stuck inside the rear fender, the other incredibly hidden inside the fuel cap. The technicians removed their protective suits—the weather was too hot, and the suits were stifling. Without wiping their sweat, they donned gloves and began examining the trackers on site.
"These two trackers seem to be installed by different people. The one in the fuel cap has an effective range of about 500 meters and a battery life of only three days. Based on the current battery charge, the tracker was likely installed within the last 48 hours. There's no storage device inside, suggesting it's used with a monitor for real-time tracking.
The tracker on the rear wheel has internal storage. We can attempt to retrieve the data, possibly finding out where and when it was installed."
Jimmy grunted, glaring at the trackers in the technicians' hands. "The tracker's battery in the fuel cap is running low, right?"
The technician nodded. "If there are no surprises, it won't last for more than a day."
Jimmy said, "Put it back. Since they used this type of tracker, they must know the battery life and will certainly return to change the battery or replace the tracker. Also, put the other one back after extracting the data. If it has its own storage, it means the other party will likely retrieve it. Once you find the records, give them to me; the rest is not your concern."
The two technicians exchanged glances and nodded at Jimmy. "Then don't leave the parking lot, handle it here to avoid alerting them due to any coordinate changes."
Jimmy nodded and looked at Miguel, pulling out his wallet as he said, "Miguel, please go buy some afternoon tea. My treat."
Data retrieval was easy. Although the installation location of the tracker in the fuel cap was unknown, the one with stored data could be confirmed to have been installed in the hotel parking lot where Jimmy stayed, and the timing was close to the tracker in the fuel cap, no more than 12 hours apart. They were likely installed together.
This was intriguing. Technicians speculated it could have been two separate groups who installed them, whereas Jimmy leaned towards it being the same group installing both trackers. One was used to provide real-time location updates for Jimmy—once they had the monitor, they could be alerted before Jimmy reached them, allowing them to either evade or destroy evidence conveniently, serving as an early warning. The other was for confirming Jimmy's movements, checking if he visited any sensitive locations.
Though only a hypothesis at this point, Jimmy was fairly confident that his guess was more accurate.
Having received several surveillance cameras and DEA tracking devices from the technicians, Jimmy and Miguel left the DEA in a car, returning to the hotel. Jimmy parked his car in a corner of the hotel parking lot, using a nearby pillar to attach a wireless camera. Opening his laptop, he deemed the image quality acceptable.
Miguel parked some distance away. To mislead anyone who might appear, he reclined his seat to lie down and monitor the laptop's surveillance feed, while Jimmy casually walked into the hotel, purposefully asking the front desk if there was any message or package for him, signaling to anyone possibly watching that he was indeed back.