Private Beijing

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.

“Not necessarily,” Mo-bot replied. “Could be someone who has access to their tech.”

“Raid-Boxes are supposed to be impossible to trace unless you have the machine number, aren’t they?” Sci remarked.

“Guess what Carver’s people gave me?” Jack said.

“You’re kidding?” Mo-bot responded, suddenly coming alive. “Jack Morgan, you’re a genius.”

“I just made a phone call,” he countered.

“How did they get the machine code?” she asked.

“Who knows what the Pentagon is really capable of?”

“I thought I did,” she remarked. “With the machine code, I can run a crawler to watch local ISPs and see if he uses the Raid-Box anywhere within two hundred miles of the city.”

“Good,” Jack said. “You let me know when you find him. And call the cops. We need to bring them in on this.”

“Police?” Rafael asked.

“Yes,” Jack replied. “You made a bad choice. The chips are going to fall where they fall.”

Rafael nodded slowly and Justine saw a look of defeat sweep across his face. He had accepted there would be a full legal reckoning. Jack had made their decision for them.

“I’ll get started,” Mo-bot said. “We’ll call you as soon as we’ve got anything.”

“Good luck,” he responded before hanging up.