156 Den Subdued

The bidding continued inside the hall. Only a girl's face was shown on the overhead projector and men raised their numbers when they bid. The one in charge on stage would call the numbers and when a bidder raised a price no one would outbid, he struck the wooden hammer on the table and declared the winning number. Then the winner would be escorted to the girl's room and would likely spend a day with her. The price goes up after every girl. The girl considered the best was shown last.

John waited and readied to bid in case Diane's face would show up.

When they heard Leonard 's voice informing them of their location, the three of them walked cautiously outside the door. Richard straightened his bracelet again, hid behind Paul, and blew three clear speedy shots from one guard to another who were standing at the unseen entrance where Leonard and team were expected to come out. All three fell after receiving the pins on their skins.

The other guards in the lobby saw their comrades fell but they were too late to react because seconds after they followed the three on the floor. Richard's blow darts was one hundred percent lethal for an ambush.

Paul sauntered smilingly and placed a finger on his lips as he leaned on the concierge's table, warning the guy behind it.

Suddenly, Leonard and his men came out from the hidden door. The concierge silently watched armed men wearing black clothes strolled in. They brought in automatic pistols and submachine guns.

At this moment, the Interpol team were now heading to where the girls were housed before they were brought to the den to become prostitutes. They found their way to another underground hideout, which was smaller and full of rock formations. The team sensed as if they entered a cave intentionally connected to the den's headquarters but left it untouched.

As they strode in the cave, guards stationed on the walls saw them and began firing. The Interpol team ducked and hid behind rock formations for safety. The leader aimed, hit a man in one shot and the body fell on the ground. The rest of the team found their targets as well and fired nonstop. More of Panther's men fell at the same time.

A guard rapid fired a machine gun to the leader's direction, hitting him on the arm. The leader yelped in pain and fell on his back. Seeing his leader fell, a detective retaliated and placed a hole on the guard's forehead, ending the guard's life in an instant. Both sides crossed fires, filling the cave with deafening sounds. Then limestones and rocks were blown out from every strike it got, resulting in specks of dust filling the air, blurring their vision and slowing the fires from both sides.

Panther's men were plenty but it was not enough to kill the Interpol guys. These trained men were good with one shot or three the most, shaking the enemy's self-confidence and making them clumsy, missing their targets.

While the Interpol had their fight, the SWAT team entered another secret door, not the one John and team used in that same house. It directly led them to encounter the fleeing men from the Interpol's assault. They crossed fires but subdued the enemy less than five minutes. The SWAT team overwhelmed their enemies without breaking a sweat and let the captured guards kneel with their hands behind their heads. Then a few of them stayed to watch the prisoners while most moved in fast to support Leonard's men in the lobby.

Back in the lobby, Leonard gave a head nod to John and Paul. The concierge hid under the table, as Paul instructed. Then John and Richard headed directly to where Diane's signals came from.

Leonard and Paul moved slowly with weapons ready-aimed to fire. As they entered the hall, Leonard shouted.

"Don't move, this is a raid."

Yet, the whole hall became chaotic. People started running or finding a place to hide. These were the rich and influential men in society. It would be shameful if they were caught bidding for a girl in this place. They had to escape. Paul held his pistol up and fired a warning shot. This froze everyone and each one ducked. Paul's wise move ceased the chaos.

Leonard went up to the stage and looked around for Panther. Unfortunately, Leonard had no idea Panther was a woman. Their intelligence wrongly showed them a man and no one match the description. Unknown to them, Panther had slid behind a curtain during the chaos. Then went in a hidden door leading to the heavily guarded rooms. This was the entry they used before to bring out girls for the bidding but was abandoned. She hurriedly undressed in Gabriel's room and changed to a torn dress.

Leonard's team gathered the people at the center of the hall.

During the chaos, Gallante ran behind the stage and found his way to the lift on the way up to the garage. However, Leonard was smart enough to leave a few of his men there. Thus, Gallante was caught and tied with no difficulty.

Lino followed Gallante but missed the lift. Leonard's men caught up and led him to stand with the rest in the middle of the hall.

Paul went back to the concierge asking him to unlock the security system to where the rooms were. The man complied and Paul and his men barged into the rooms and caught the men sleeping with the girls. They gathered the girls outside the lobby ready to be sent above and Panther was among them. She was wearing a half torn dress and a face smudge with make-up depicting the tale as a new girl forced to sleep with men.

That was 9:00 pm when the den was totally subdued.

Somehow, John and Richard needed more time to reach Diane's location. At this time, they were facing three cavern entrances but Diane's signal didn't falter whichever door they faced the detector. Their only solution was to go in and find which one was the exact one.