Page 98 of Unlocked

Archer turned. "Ryker. Good. I need to talk to you."

Ryker fell into step beside him. "How'd it go with Sakstra?"

"Better than I expected. And worse." Archer kept his voice low. "Jason's clean. He got pressured by his boss, Martin Hendricks. Lebowitz pulled Martin in with his unauthorized Ponzi scheme."

"So Jason's not part of the trafficking network."

"No. But he’s Davis’s unimpeachable source for finding a camera in Lisbon.”

“How do you know?” Ryker demanded

“Because he just asked to borrow the jet to take him there. I’m not a big believer in coincidences.”

Ryker's eyebrows rose. “That takes stones. What are we going to do about it?”

“Nothing.”

“What?” Ryker demanded. “Why not?”

A sudden pop echoed through the hallway.

Archer froze. Ryker stopped as well.

"Champagne cork?" Ryker asked.

Archer glanced at his watch. Eight a.m. He knew that sound, and it was not a champagne cork.

He walked over to a panel in the hallway and pressed on it. It sprang back when he hit a button. The big red button. Instantly, all over the building, every door locked. No one in. No one out.

Ryker grabbed his phone and started texting. “Gunshot.”

"Yes,” Archer agreed.

"How would they get a gun in with all of our security? There's just no⁠—"

Archer stared at him, then nodded slightly. “There’s always a way if you want it badly enough.”

Ryker stopped talking. "Wait. What's that button?"

"Everything is locked. No one in, no one out."

"I had no idea. I mean, I knew that button existed. I thought it was only in your office."

"Now you know. There's a button in every hallway. Start looking for the panels, and you'll see them."

"You should have told me this before."

"Now you know," Archer growled. "Let's move."

They headed down the hallway and took a right, following the sound of voices.

Archer was still trying to understand what he'd heard. Ryker was right, security was tight. How could somebody get a gun inside? Ceramic, maybe. 3D-printed. Something non-metallic that could slip through the scanners.

As they rounded the corner, Ryker said, "It's probably one of the Yakuza. They're in this week, meeting with the Triads. Somebody got rambunctious."

"That sounds logical," Archer agreed, but he knew, knew it wasn’t the Yakuza.

They came to a halt in the dining room. People were staring. Archer cleared his throat. The doorway into the dining room cleared, and he walked through.