Private Beijing

Chapter 33

“Zhang Daiyu, wake up,” I said, and she stirred immediately. “We’ve got a problem.”

I pointed to the screen showing the two masked men creeping through Molly Tan’s apartment. One was slight, the other tall and muscular. They were both dressed in black and moved with the grace of leopards.

She rolled off the cot and hurried over to join me as I pulled out my phone and dialed a number.

On a second screen, I saw Molly roll over in bed, fumble for her vibrating phone, and answer me.

“It’s Jack Morgan. Don’t hang up,” I said. “You need to move fast. There are two men in your apartment. They have guns and they’re coming for you.”

I saw her sit bolt upright.

Behind me, Zhang Daiyu was making another phone call and rattling off information in Mandarin. I guessed she was on the phone to the police.

“Do you have a panic room?” I asked.

“Yes,” Molly replied.

“Go there now,” I said. “Do not switch on any lights.”

“Okay,” she replied. She sounded terrified but had the presence of mind to act, whispering to Bryan.

On-screen, they got out of bed and hurried from their room. Molly went right and Bryan went left. They ran into their children’s bedrooms and grabbed their sons.

The masked men were almost through the living room, near the corridor leading to the bedrooms.

“Hurry,” I told Molly.

She and her husband plus the two boys emerged into the corridor at the same time. They all ran away from the door to the living room, heading for what looked like a dead end.

One of the masked men opened the door to the bedroom hallway and his companion crept inside with his pistol in the ready position.

I switched surveillance devices to pick up Molly and her family reaching the end of the corridor. She touched a section of marble wall, which illuminated around her palm, and a large panel in the wall retracted.

The light of the palm scanner drew the intruders’ attention. The leader shouted something and opened fire as Molly and her family ran into the panic room. Shots flared in the darkness and bullets struck the panel as it slid back into position. The gunmen sprinted toward it as it sealed itself shut, but before it locked flush, the first gunman shoved his pistol between panel and wall, jamming the mechanism.

“They’re not giving up,” I said to Molly. “Do you have access to the entryphone system?”

“Yes,” she said.

“The police are on their way,” Zhang Daiyu told me.

On-screen, the gunmen were packing the gap between the panel and wall with what looked like explosives. “We can’t wait for them to arrive. We don’t have time. They’re gonna blow the door.”

I opened the side of the van and jumped out. Zhang Daiyu followed me. We sprinted across the street and raced toward Molly’s building.

“Zhang Daiyu and I are coming in. Open the door,” I said as we neared the block’s main entrance.

A buzzer sounded and the door closest to us clicked open. I pulled it wide and Zhang Daiyu and I sprinted across the cavernous, deserted lobby.

“Which elevator?” I asked.

“Four,” Molly replied, and the doors opened.

We ran inside, and with a growing sense of frustration I watched the doors slowly close.

I hoped we’d make it in time.