I took that in and said, “We’re executing. Probably just someone going up to the offices here.”
Brett said, “Yeah, but he’s being followed for a reason. And the guy tracking him is also being tracked.”
Crouched on the ledge, Jennifer looked at me. I nodded to her and took a position on the descender. She shook her head, pointing at her earpiece, wanting to listen. Off the net, I whispered, “No time for that. Get over the side.”
On the radio, I said, “Who’s tracking who here?”
“I don’t know, but the men tracking the guy who is following the man who went up are definitely thugs. Bad dudes.”
I said, “Okay. Keep eyes-on. Jennifer is going over.”
She scowled, then stood up on the edge, the sight alone scaring the hell out of me. Thank God it wasn’t me doing the work.
She turned around, facing me, her eyes boring into mine, and then stepped off the ledge, the cable racing out of the spool. It hit a predetermined length and then slowed, the descender doing its work.
Chapter 74
I looked over the side, seeing her two hundred feet below me, her feet on the wall. I said, “Koko, Koko, you okay?”
“Yes. Slack.”
She was curt, which told me she was feeling the fear of the drop, and I completely understood. I worked the descender, giving her some cable and she said, “Stop. Stop. Stop.”
I did so, and then she said, “I’m outside the window of Ju-Long Limited. I see Chen inside.”
Jesus Christ. He came home early. That’s not going to work for a break-in.
“Can he see you?”
“No. I’m on the outside edge of the window. He’s inside with a guy I don’t recognize. But if Chen Ju-Long is here, so is Jake Shu.”
I took that in, then said, “The date on the card was for tomorrow. What’s he doing there?”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized they were no help. Before she could respond, I said, “Okay, we can’t conduct a B&E with them inside. I’m going to release you to the seventieth outcropping. Get inside the door and then get down. We’ll have to reassess. On the bright side, at least we don’t have to wonder if Chen’s showing up.”
She said, “Hang on. Hold me in place. They’re getting up. It looks like the meeting is over.”
I stopped my work on the descender, saying, “Get a photo. Can you get a photo?”
“Stand by.”
I felt my phone buzz and looked at the picture, then said, “Blood, is that the guy you saw go in the elevator?”
He said, “Yep. That’s the guy.”
And we had our link. We didn’t need to get inside the office now. We only needed to take that guy down.
On the net I said, “Jennifer, I’m dropping you to the seventieth floor. Don’t worry about breaking into the office.”
She said, “This is Koko. Roger all. What am I doing?”
“Get in the building through the access door, then find a way down to the bottom floor. We can’t get in with Chen still there, and there’s no telling how long he is going to stay.”
She said, “Unsub is leaving. I say again, Unsub is leaving. Chen is there with the woman from the pub in Kuranda. And she’s getting a little freaky.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I don’t know. She’s got a weird long fingernail and she’s stroking Unsub’s cheek like she wants to kill him. Unsub is freaking out. He’s running to the door. He’s out.”
I didn’t really know what to make of that assessment, but I knew one thing: Unsub was leaving.
I said, “Okay, get ready to drop. You good?”
“Yeah, I’m good. If I can’t get the maintenance door open, am I still coming back up to you?”
“No. We’ll have to figure that out. I’m headed down.”
I heard, “What’s that mean? Pike?”
And I cut the descender, dropping her another five floors. I looked over the edge, saw her on the outcropping next to the maintenance door, and said, “Koko, Koko, are you good?”
Breathing hard through the radio, she said, “I’m on the ledge, you asshole.”
I grinned. “Okay. Good to go. Everyone on Unsub. I’m headed down.”
Jennifer said, “Pike, don’t you leave me here.”
I said, “I’m not. I mean, I’m not for long. You can get through that door. Find a public elevator and meet me.”
Before she could answer, I said, “Break, break, Blood, Veep, get a lock-on for Unsub when he exits.”
Jennifer came on the net, cold as ice, saying, “You are literally dead to me.”
I cut the cable from the descender, watching it snake over the edge, knowing it was Jennifer’s only way back up. I packed up the descender and said, “Hide the cable. Work that door. It can’t be hard. If you can’t penetrate, I’ll come back up to get you.”
Knuckles came on. “What about the Unsub that’s tracking our guy? He’s still waiting on him out here.”
Then Veep said, “And he’s got company. He doesn’t know it, but he’s being tracked by four thugs. They keep circling around in this mall, and they definitely don’t fit in. They’re tracking him.”
I went through the lobby of the observation deck restaurant, nodding at the access control guy and hoping he didn’t ask where my date had gone, my backpack on my shoulder.
I cleared past him and said, “So we have someone else tracking our guy, and that guy is being tracked by others?”
“Yes. That’s what I think is happening.”
What the hell? What is going on here?
I reached the elevators and said, “Are you guys burned? Do either one of them know you’re interested in the same thing?”
“No. We’re clean. But that other guy is not, I promise.”
I pushed the button for the lobby on the fourth floor and said, “Just track them all. Let’s see what happens.”
Jennifer came on. “I’m in the maintenance level. At the elevator.”
I smiled. “Very good, Koko.”
I went down twenty floors and the elevator stopped. It opened, and I was looking at one pissed-off commando.
Jennifer entered and said, “I ought to kick you in the balls for that.”
Veep came on and said, “Unsub one is out. Unsub two is tracking him. Wolf pack is now tracking the entire show.”
I punched the “door close” button and, off the net, said to Jennifer, “Yeah, you can kick my ass later. What do we do with this mess?”
She saw the conflict on my face and realized that any beatdown was going to have to wait. She went right back into problem-solving mode, which is something she was good at.
I saw her wheels turning, and waited. She said, “We know the guy in the room is attached to Chen, but we don’t know who he is. He’s the target. Whatever else is going on, we need to take him down. It’ll just be a little harder.”
“Or we could stake out the same elevator and wait on Chen Ju-Long. Jake’s probably with him.”
She thought a moment, then said, “Yeah, maybe, but we don’t even know if Jake’s with him, or whether Chen has an apartment here, or a host of other things. He might not leave for twenty-four hours. We know that guy was talking to Chen. It’s the old ‘bird in the hand’ thing here. I say we focus on him. We can always come back and stake this place out.”