AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I still don’t understand where we come in,” I remarked.
The door opened and Ma Yuhang stepped in and said something to Zhang Daiyu.
“We have to go now,” she translated. “Or else we will become permanent residents.”
She got to her feet and I did likewise.
“I can’t help you. I don’t know why Liu Bao chose to targetyou. Private never came up during my investigation,” David Zhou said hurriedly.
“Thank you, Mr. Zhou,” I said. “I hope you receive justice.”
He nodded and smiled as Zhang Daiyu and I followed Ma Yuhang from the interview room.
Zhang Daiyu’s uncle was on edge and kept chivvying us along as we made our way through the building. There were two more prison officers by the entrance and one of them approached us and asked a question. I couldn’t understand Ma Yuhang’s reply but I recognized its tone. He bawled the man out, overcompensating with a show of authority to hide the fact he himself was doing something illegal. The tirade worked and the officer backed off, chastened.
Moments later we were outside and Zhang Daiyu and her uncle exchanged hurried words.
“He says never to ask him to do this again,” she translated.
I bowed and thanked him formally. He didn’t acknowledge this, instead hurrying inside and slamming the heavy steel door.
“Did you get what you needed?” Zhang Daiyu asked.
“Well, we now know we’re caught up in some kind of power struggle within Chinese Intelligence, but I don’t feel any closer to understanding why Private has been sucked into it.”
“Liu Bao knows,” she remarked.
“Right,” I agreed, as we walked away from the prison. “So our challenge is to figure out a way to get him to share his secrets.”
CHAPTER 64
JUSTINE WOKE TO the sound of her phone ringing. She’d taken a sobbing Alison Lucas home to her midtown apartment after the visit to see Rafael in custody. She didn’t know what Alison and he had said to each other, but the poor woman was deeply traumatized. She had refused Justine’s offer to stay and support her. Alison said her sister would be arriving on the red-eye from Chicago, so Justine had returned to her hotel room at the New York Edition and collapsed into bed.
She thought about calling Jack, but they weren’t like a normal couple who could exchange news of their day on unsecured telephone lines or by text. They faced danger at every turn and there was no telling how a tiny nugget of intercepted information might be used against them, so she lay on her fresh sheets, naked to maximize the chill of the air conditioning, trying to counter the baked-in heat of the scorching summer. She’d gradually beenlulled to sleep by the humming of the fan and the muted sounds of the city.
She didn’t recognize the number on her ringing phone when she squinted at it, slowly waking. She rubbed her eyes before she answered.
“Hello?”
“Miss Smith, it’s TJ, we met the day before yesterday.”
Justine recognized the voice of Tate Johnson, the man who had taken custody of Angel.
“I have good news and bad, but I’d like to share it with you in person. There is transport waiting downstairs. It will bring you to me.”
“Give me five,” she replied before hanging up.
She tried Mo-bot and Sci, but their phones were off and there was no answer from their rooms, so she rolled out of bed, took a hurried shower, and got dressed in light linen slacks and a white cotton blouse she’d purchased after taking Alison home. She grabbed her bag and hurried from the room.
When she reached the lobby, she was greeted by two men in dark suits.
“Miss Smith,” one of them said. “My name is Cotton and this is Mr. Richardson. Mr. Johnson sent us.”
Justine felt a sudden pang of uncertainty. What if these weren’t Johnson’s men? What if they’d been sent to abduct her? How did they know where she was staying? She hadn’t told anyone other than Sci and Mo-bot that she’d switched hotels.
“How did Mr. Johnson and I meet?” she asked.
“Outside the house on Sixtieth Street. We touched down ina chopper. Mr. Richardson and I were inside the aircraft ready to provide operational support. You were with your colleagues and Alison Lucas,” the man replied. “We’re the good guys, Miss Smith. We found you by tracing your phone.”
