Private Beijing

Chapter 22

Justine, Mo-bot, and Sci conferred in Madison Square Park across the street from the Private building. Sci and Mo-bot were talking about the investigation and what they would do next, but Justine wasn’t really following their conversation, too distracted by what had happened. They’d evacuated the office and notified the other businesses in the three floors immediately below their top-floor premises, who’d also taken the decision to ask their staff to vacate the building. So far over two hundred people had congregated in small groups around them, all trying to avoid the punishing July sunshine by crowding together under the shade of some overhanging trees.

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 the building, 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.