The Deceived

CHAPTER

QUINN ROSE BEFORE DAWN. HE DRESSED QUIETLY,

then slipped out of the house and through the backyard. For the next two hours, he checked the streets within a four-block radius of Aunt Jay’s house, making sure that no one was lying in wait. He kept a low profile, staying in the shadows and pausing for long periods just to watch. By seven-thirty, he was as sure as he ever was going to be that the house wasn’t being watched.

He stopped at the same market he and Orlando had gone to the day before and picked up some coffees and several muffins. When he returned, he found Orlando in the kitchen.

“Read my mind,” she said as he handed her a cup of coffee. “Aunt Jay only kept instant. I forgot to go out and get anything else.”

Quinn set the bag of muffins on the counter. When he turned back, he noticed Orlando’s eyes growing moist.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have never dragged you into this. You’ve got your own things to deal with. Nate and I will get out of here. Let you do what you have to do.”

She scowled at him. “Like I really want to sit here and sulk with all my aunt’s in-laws. You will not do that to me.”

“I’m sure you have a lot to take care of.”

“What do you think I’ve been doing? Just sitting around watching her die?”

Quinn was silent for a moment. “But we’re in your way here.”

“Are you not hearing me?” she asked. “Just drop it. All right?”

“Okay,” Quinn said. He held up his hands and smiled. “I get the message.”

“Good,” she said. She walked over and grabbed a blueberry muffin out of the bag. “Now stay out of my way while I get things ready.”

Nate strolled in as she was finishing up. Quinn glanced at his watch. It was 8:55.

“Thanks for joining us,” he said.

“Is that coffee?” Nate asked.

“It’s probably a little cold,” Orlando said.

“No problem. I’m good with cold coffee.” He walked over to the counter. “Oh. Muffins, too. Nice.” He took his coffee and a muffin over to the kitchen table. “It’s all right if I sit here, right?”

On the table were Quinn’s cell phone, Orlando’s laptop, and a set of Bose speakers.

Orlando pointed at the chair on the opposite side of the table from the computer. “You can sit there,” she said. “Just don’t spill anything.”

He gave her a do-I-look-like-an-idiot look, then sat down.

Jenny’s number was already entered on Quinn’s phone. He only needed to push Send. Once a connection was made, both sides of the conversation would be played through the speakers while it was being recorded on the computer.

The computer also had another, even more important task. Using a secure, satellite Internet connection, Orlando had accessed a program that could pinpoint the location of any cell phone in the world once the phone was activated.

The software was a copy of something created by a joint venture between Japan’s Public Security Intelligence Agency and the NSA in America. There were others she could have used, but Quinn knew she considered this one the best. She had hidden it on a server owned by NHK TV in Tokyo.

Orlando took her place in front of the computer, while Quinn chose to stand.

“Okay,” he said. “It’s time.”

He picked up the phone and punched the Send button.

Through both the phone at his ear and the speakers attached to the computer, he could hear the call begin to ring.

Orlando and Nate watched him, waiting.

Ten seconds passed. Then twenty. Then a half a minute.

“That’s a long ring,” Nate said. “Shouldn’t there be voice mail?”

“Doesn’t sound like it,” Orlando said.

“Maybe she’s not there,” Nate said.

Quinn continued to let it ring, giving Jenny as much time to answer as possible.

Twenty seconds later, he heard a click as someone answered. “Yes?” the voice said.

“Jenny, it’s Quinn,” he said.

Silence.

“Jenny?”

Still nothing. He looked at the phone to make sure the call hadn’t been disconnected.

“Are you there? Please. It’s Quinn.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said, her voice a near whisper.

“You got my message. You know it’s me.”

“You’re just trying to trick me. You’re not Quinn. Quinn has no reason to get ahold of me.”

Quinn closed his eyes, wishing she were right. “San Diego,” he said. “A year ago. Markoff rented a sailboat. We spent a lot of time at the Del Coronado. I took a picture of you and Markoff on the beach, only it was more of you than of him.”

He could hear her suck in a breath. “No. Someone told you all that,” she said, not sounding convinced.

“I helped him pick out a necklace for you,” Quinn said. “It was in La Jolla. A gold disk with the heart cut out of the center. You said you loved it. He said he knew you probably would rather have a diamond, but you told him no, it was perfect.”

Dead silence, then, “Quinn?”

“Yes.”

“Wha... why are...”

“Tell me you’re all right,” Quinn said. “I don’t understand. Why are you trying to find me?” “I know you’re in danger. I want to help.” A pause. “How? How do you know?” “Jenny, I think—” “Steven? Where’s Steven?” He realized he couldn’t hide the truth from her. “He’s...dead.” Her breathing became shallow, ragged. “Forget about me,” she said. Then the phone went dead. Quinn hit Redial, but was greeted with a prerecorded message in

Thai telling him the subscriber was currently out of range. There was no option to leave a voice message. He tried two more times with the same result, then set the phone back down on the table.

“Did you get anything?” he asked Orlando. “Give me a minute,” Orlando said. Quinn leaned over and looked at the laptop’s screen. Orlando was scrolling through a list of data. It was all numbers

and letters, no coherent words. Without warning, she stopped the scroll, and used the cursor to highlight a row of alphanumeric text. She copied it, then minimized the window, making it disappear. Underneath was a second window, all black with the exception of two empty white boxes stacked in the center.

Orlando clicked on the upper box, activating it. Inside, she pasted the information she’d copied, deleting the last five characters. Those she put in the bottom box, then hit Enter.

For a moment, the entire screen went full black. “Maybe it didn’t work,” Nate said. He’d come around the table and was leaning in over Quinn’s shoulder.

After several more seconds, the black screen was replaced by a dark gray background. Superimposed over the background was a series of bright yellow lines depicting Asia from a point south of Indonesia to a point north of Mongolia. East and west, it took in Japan, all of China, and most of India. The only other color on the screen was a tiny blue pinprick in the upper right quadrant.

Quinn smiled. “You got it.” “Maybe,” Orlando said, not looking happy.

She worked the keys for a moment, blowing up the area around the blue dot. As the image zoomed in, more lines appeared, denoting country borders, then major roads and cities.

The dot was in northeast China. “Beijing?” Nate asked. Quinn shook his head. “Farther north.” “It’s in Shenyang,” Orlando told them. “You don’t sound convinced,” Quinn said. She frowned but said nothing. The image on the screen continued

to zoom in, getting closer and closer to street level. Suddenly the blue

dot started flashing yellow. “Son of a bitch,” Orlando said. Quinn tensed. “What?” Nate asked. Orlando opened a smaller window on the screen and began rap

idly scrolling through a list of data. “What is it?” Nate asked again. “False signal,” Quinn said. Jenny’s phone call had been rerouted to

look like she’d been calling from northern China. “You think you can pin it down?” Quinn asked Orlando. “I’ll get it. Just give me a minute.” Though she sounded annoyed,

Quinn could tell she actually was enjoying the challenge. “How did she fake her location?” Nate asked. “She’s not a pro.” “Markoff,” Quinn said. “He must have given her one of his

phones and instructions on how to remain hidden. It’s something he

would have done.” After two more bogus locations, Orlando said, “Got it.” “Where?” Quinn asked. On the screen was the outline of a peninsula caught between the

South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca. On the left side of the peninsula, not quite on the coast, was the shape of a city. The blue dot was within the city limits.

“Kuala Lumpur,” Quinn said. “You’re sure this time?” Orlando nodded. “I’m sure.” She continued the zoom, moving in as far as she could. “Somewhere near the towers.” She was referring to the Petronas Towers, at one time the tallest

buildings in the world, but moving further down the list every few

years.

“Is that as close as you can get?” Nate asked.

Orlando looked up at him, annoyed. “No, not at all. I could go in a lot closer. It’s just a lot more fun if we have to guess exactly where she is.”

“Right,” Nate said. “That’s as close as you can get. I was just checking.”

“I’ll put a tracer on the number,” Orlando said to Quinn. “Since we know basically the part of the world she’s in, it’ll be easier. Next time she turns on her phone, we’ll have a record of it.”

“Real time?” Quinn asked.

“Close. But not as if we were tracking her on the ground.”

As Orlando began typing on her keyboard, Quinn’s eyes remained on the screen. They weren’t focused on the current image; instead, they were remembering an earlier screen, the one Orlando had entered the data on. There was something there that felt familiar.

He stretched his arms back, then rolled his head trying to clear his mind. It wasn’t until he was walking toward the bathroom that it came to him.

The numbers on the entry screen. He remembered now why they seemed familiar.

He rushed back to the kitchen. Orlando was the only one there.

“Where’s Nate?” Quinn asked.

Orlando looked up. “He went outside.”

Quinn ran over to the rear door and pulled it open. Nate was sitting on the back steps, holding his cup of cold coffee. He looked up as Quinn stuck his head out.

“What?” Nate asked.

Two minutes later, they were gathered in the kitchen again. Nate had retrieved a piece of paper from his bag upstairs and had given it to Quinn. Quinn compared it to the copy he had in his wallet, just to be sure he hadn’t gotten anything wrong.

Written on each piece was the same line of numbers and letters. It was the sequence that had been on the wall of the shipping container Markoff had died in.

45KL0908NTY63779V lP

To Quinn, they looked very much like the line of data Orlando had used to locate Jenny’s cell phone.

“Punch this in,” Quinn said.

He handed the original to Orlando. She looked at it, then looked back up at him.

“Is this...?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be damned,” she said. “It’s a phone identity module.”

“SIM card?” Nate asked.

“Something like that.”

She turned back to her computer and brought up the black screen with the two empty data boxes. She filled the first box, then typed the remaining characters into the second one. But this time, instead of having only five digits for the second box, there were nine.

“These last two,” she said. “That’s where you got the ‘LP’ from, isn’t it?”

“Yes. I showed the paper to Blackmoore, and that’s the only thing that meant anything to him.”

“Well, I can officially tell you they have nothing to do with the other numbers,” she said. “They’re extraneous.”

“You’re sure?” Quinn asked.

“Absolutely.”

So whatever the “LP” meant, the two letters were a message unto themselves.

“You know,” Orlando said, holding up the piece of paper, “if you’d shown me this earlier, I could have told you what it was.”

Nate snorted. “I believe I made that very suggestion.”

“Just show me where it points,” Quinn said.

Orlando hit Enter. Again the screen went all black for a moment. When the map appeared, it was a familiar one. Asia again.

“The good news is the chip is still active,” Orlando said.

She started zooming in before Quinn saw where the blue dot was. Once more, the image closed in on the Malay Peninsula jutting south from Thailand. Only this time, it bypassed Kuala Lumpur, going further south down the peninsula before stopping above an island off the tip.

“How about that?” Quinn said. “Singapore.”

Orlando continued letting the map zoom in. Yellow lines started to outline the bay, then the Singapore River. Quinn began identifying the different quays: Boat, Clarke, Robertson. The map continued to zoom in, going further in than it had when tracking the cell phone. Streets began appearing, then the outlines of buildings.

When the program could get no closer, the zoom stopped. There in the center of the screen was a single building on the edge of the river. And in the center of the building, the blue dot—now as big as a bottle cap—pulsed on and off.