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Twenty minutes after they’d evacuated the office, building security had located three suspicious packages during their sweep and called the New York Police Department Bomb Squad, who’d instructed them to evacuate the rest of thebuilding, adding to the crowds in the park and surrounding streets.
If those packages proved to be bombs, Private’s sanctuary would have been violated, and Justine could hardly bring herself to think about what might have happened if Jack hadn’t warned them.
Sci abruptly stopped talking and his eyes shifted across the busy street.
“Well, I’ll be … Susan Evermont. She’s an old buddy of mine. NYPD forensics.”
He pointed to a smartly suited woman in her early forties who was talking to some detectives just inside the police cordon that had been established around the building.
“Come on,” Sci suggested. “Let’s go see what we can find out.”
He didn’t wait for a reply but headed out of the park. Mo-bot and Justine followed. They crossed the intersection, but as they approached the cordon a uniformed police officer moved to intercept them.
“Hey, Susan,” Sci yelled over the young officer’s shoulder.
She glanced up and smiled the moment she caught saw sight of Sci. He had that effect on people, charming and disarming.
“It’s okay,” she said, walking over. “Let them through.”
The uniformed cop stood aside, and Sci ducked beneath the police tape. Mo-bot and Justine followed.
“How the heck have you been, Sci?” Susan asked him.
“Still breathing,” he replied. “This is Justine Smith and Maureen Roth.”
“Pleased to meet you.” They shook hands. “You work with this reprobate?”
“For our sins,” Mo-bot replied.
“This your building?” Susan asked.
Sci nodded. “You find anything?”
“It’s not official, but the chatter suggests we’ve got three C-4 blocks on timers that were set to detonate in forty-five minutes.”
Justine felt sick. Jack’s warning had saved them, and if it hadn’t been for his intervention, they might all have been killed. Private had made enemies over the years, but this was a new level of horror. Mo-bot looked as though she shared Justine’s shock, but for some reason Sci was beaming like a child who’d come downstairs on Christmas morning to find a bumper haul of gifts under the tree.
“Bomb Squad are disarming now. You know what that means?” Susan Evermont asked him.
“Treasure trove,” Sci replied.
“You’re not even fazed someone tried to kill us, are you?” Mo-bot remarked.
“No point getting upset about it. They failed. This is good news. People don’t tend to be careful with fingerprints around bombs because they expect any evidence to be destroyed. Devices like these are usually full of forensic clues so we should be happy we found them before they went off.”
“For the forensics?” Justine asked.
Sci nodded.
“Rather than because we avoided being killed?”
“Well, that too,” he responded, and Justine smiled.
He was obsessed, but it was part of his charm. She really hoped he was right and the devices contained evidence that would lead to whoever was trying to kill them.
CHAPTER 23
I GOT CLEAR of the area around the Private Beijing building before the police had a chance to establish a cordon and managed to hail a taxi that dropped me off five blocks from the hostel. It was almost 3 a.m. and everywhere was still and silent, making me feel even more isolated and alone. I was hiding in a strange city, hunted by people who wanted to destroy my organization and kill my colleagues. I didn’t know who to trust or where to turn and everything around me felt unfamiliar and unwelcoming. I heard distant noises—an animal rooting through trash perhaps—and others that were unidentifiable and closer echoed along the deserted street.
