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“The manager and I have reached an arrangement. Our stay will be handled with complete discretion. I’m paying him double the room rate and have promised a bonus if we make it out of here in one piece.”
I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of more nights on the floor, but she was right to suggest we stay. Anywhere that could be trusted to keep our presence secret was worth an uncomfortable sleep.
I sat on the bed and put on my shoes. She leant against a rustic dresser. The shower had revived me, but I was still starving.
“What makes you do this?” she asked. “I know your background. You don’t have to work like this, exposing yourself to danger.”
“My father gave me this agency. It was nothing but a name. He wasn’t like me. He was a gambler. Destructive. He was in it to make money, but never did. Not really. I prefer to try and help people. Private is a force for good. I do this because I can.”
It was hard to tell whether she thought me brave or foolish, and I’ve often wondered about the distinction myself.
“What about you?” I asked. She’d proved herself to be brave and loyal, so I wasn’t suspicious of her anymore. I genuinely wanted to know more about her. “Why did you leave the police?”
“Politics,” she replied, and I thought for a moment she wasn’t going to go any further, but she kept talking. “I came from a small village near Dazhou in Sichuan. My father was a chicken farmer. One day some money went missing from the local market and he was accused of taking it. His life was ruined and he faced jail, but the local police inspector proved it was another man, saving my father and bringing the true criminal to justice. I wanted to be like that, but when I got to the city, I discovered it is all about politics and ambition and sometimes even corruption. I thought about returning home, but I saw Private was recruiting and your ethos and mission appealed to me.”
“I’m glad you joined,” I said.
“So am I.”
“Shall we get something to eat while we wait?” I asked, but before she could answer, my phone rang. There was no caller ID. The screen was blank.
“Hello.”
“The information you want is at one-six-seven-three-four dot com,” a man said. “It will be there for three minutes. One-six-seven-three-four.”
The line went dead and Zhang Daiyu looked at me in puzzlement.
I said, “I think Carver just gave us our suspect.”
CHAPTER 46
JUSTINE WAS EXHAUSTED. It was after 3 a.m. and she was on her way back to the office from a coffee run when Jack called. She stepped out of the elevator, put the tray of cups on the reception desk, and answered the phone.
“Jack. How are you?”
“We’re okay,” he replied.
There had been a time when she’d been jealous of her female colleagues, but she and Jack trusted each other implicitly now. Their relationship had been strengthened by his time away in Afghanistan.
“Carver came through. I need to speak to Mo,” he said.
Justine left the tray of coffee and hurried through the security doors, along the corridor to the executive meeting room. Mo-bot was working on her laptop at the boardroom table, and Sci and Rafael were asleep on couches against the walls.
“It’s Jack,” Justine said, handing Mo-bot the phone.
“I’m putting you on speaker,” Mo-bot said.
“Carver identified the device that was being used to send Rafael messages. It was a Raid-Box,” Jack revealed.
Mo-bot leant back in her chair and exhaled loudly. “Sheesh. A Raid-Box. Guoanbu-issue ghost device designed to be untraceable.”
“Guoanbu?” Rafael asked. He looked groggy as he stirred.
“Chinese State Security,” Mo-bot explained.
“Alison has been abducted by Chinese State Security?” he asked, his concern palpable.
Sci was lying on the couch behind the door and stretched as he woke.
