Private Beijing

Chapter 51

“We’re moving out,” Salazar yelled, walking back to his colleagues.

There was a lot of radio chatter and activity, and the cops started getting into their vehicles and leaving. Justine watched the speedy withdrawal with a sense of despondency. What now?

Mo-bot hurried after Salazar, who opened the door of his Dodge Charger.

“You mind if we look around?” she asked. She wasn’t giving up.

“Knock yourself out,” he replied. “I don’t think the landlord is going to press charges for trespass.”

He slid behind the wheel, and moments later became part of the convoy of vehicles churning up dust as they left the scene.

“You think they missed something?” Sci asked.

Mo-bot nodded. “I missed something, maybe they did too.”

Justine followed her and Sci toward one of the loading bays. The roller shutter had been left open by the cops and Sci jumped onto the loading platform and turned to give Mo-bot a hand up.

Justine pushed herself onto the ledge and ducked beneath the shutter to follow them inside. She saw Mo-bot produce her phone and activate an app.

“The signal from the Raid-Box definitely came from here,” she said. “My guess is he used some kind of relay, maybe another Raid-Box, as a cut-out to protect his true location.”

Justine sensed a change in Mo-bot’s voice, as though something had brought her back to life. She studied the app on her phone intently.

“He could cloak the cut-out and without the machine number I’d never find it,” she said, gesturing around the gloomy warehouse. “We could spend weeks searching this place and still come away empty-handed.”

Justine didn’t relish such a prospect. The building was dark and reeked of rodent infestation.

“It could be hidden in the walls,” Mo-bot went on. “But the cut-out isn’t the only piece of equipment he’d have hidden here.”

She walked purposefully, heading for what might once have been administrative offices at the back of the building.

“He’d want to know if the location had been compromised,” she said, pushing open an interior door. “So he’d probably install a motion detector or camera somewhere. And they’d give off a signal. A signal this app I built is designed to detect!”

She brandished her phone as she led them into an old office, full of relics of whatever firm had once been here.

“Over there,” she said, gesturing at a green glass bottle in the corner of the room. “Trash to the casual observer or the cop in a hurry. But if you look closely you’ll see a motion detector inside.”

Justine picked up the grimy bottle and saw Mo-bot was right. There was a device inside.

“And here,” she forced open the bottom drawer of an ancient rusting filing cabinet, “is the relay device broadcasting the motion detector’s signal that is showing up on my app.” She gestured at her phone.

Justine peered over a rotting wooden desk to see a tiny device that looked like a WiFi signal booster box hidden in a filing-cabinet drawer.

“Can you trace the destination?” Sci asked.

Mo-bot nodded. “Call Salazar and tell him we can give him a real location.”

Sci stepped away to make the phone call, while Mo-bot adjusted the settings on her app.

“He’s close,” she said.

She was now alive with the thrill of the chase and her energy was contagious. Justine had almost forgotten the disappointment of earlier.

“He’s four streets away,” Mo-bot said. “Looks like a house in a residential neighborhood.”

Sci returned and was less than enthusiastic.

“Salazar says he’s not going on another snipe hunt.”

“What?” Mo-bot asked. “I’ve got the guy this time.”

“I think he’s caught heat from the higher-ups for ordering a mass deployment without verifying the intel,” Sci replied. “He says we should get proof it’s Angel.”

“So we’re on our own?” Justine asked.

“Yeah,” Sci said. “We’re on our own.”