“Three represents the average reading, so let’s try that first.”
They passed the group of oblivious twenty-something revelers and took the stairs one flight up. Walking down an identical-looking hallway, Danielle stared at the tracker until it indicated she was next to the transmitter. A sliver of light shone from underneath the door.
Again, Tanner touched his ear to the door and listened.
“Don’t hear anyone,” he said, slipping a hand into his pocket.
“Lights on in the room.” Danielle pointed under the door. Tanner shrugged. They both knew many people left their room lights on.
“Let’s try it.”
It was an electronic key card lock by the largest manufacturer. Tanner removed a palm-sized electronic device from his pocket.
“What is it?”
“Arduino microcontroller. Hooks up to the DC power socket, here…” Tanner plugged a wire from his device into the barrel socket. “This should read the 32-bit key from the lock’s memory and bounce the key back to the lock.” He pressed a button on his microcontroller. “Got it. Now I just…” They heard a BEEP and exchanged quick grins. He turned the handle and the door opened.
Then they heard the elevator chime.
Tanner pushed his way inside the room, hyper-alert as his eyes scanned the new surroundings. He checked the bed. Empty and neatly made. Bathroom: clear. He waved Danielle in and she softly closed the door and latched it.
Tanner pulled his PM9 and did a more thorough search of the room, checking the closets, the balcony, and under the bed.
The room was clear.
“No used towels in the bathroom,” Danielle noted.
“Place looks barely used,” Tanner agreed. “Let’s find the transmitter.”
Danielle looked at the tracker and set it down on the bed. “It’s in here. It’s not accurate enough to tell us exactly where.” She went to the furniture and started opening drawers. Meanwhile, Tanner moved to the closet. A single garment hung from one of the hangers — a suit jacket.
“I think this is what Amir was wearing.” He searched the jacket and felt smooth plastic in the breast pocket. He withdrew his hand and held up the business card he’d given the Hofstad operator.
“Jackpot,” he said without the enthusiasm that usually accompanies the word.
“On the plus side,” Danielle said, moving to the nightstand drawers, “it does appear as though he just forgot it, not that he was onto it.”
“Right. And he hasn’t checked out of the room yet which means, at least at the time he last left, that he was planning on meeting us later tonight.”
Danielle moved to the second nightstand and removed a bible from the drawer. She rifled through its pages and put it back. Tanner moved to the bathroom and checked the drawers there while Danielle parted the balcony curtain to look outside.
“Nothing in here,” Tanner called.
“Balcony’s clean. He must be taking the samples to his contacts somewhere in the vicinity. We should probably just head back to our hotel and wait for—”
That’s when they heard a BEEP as a key card activated the room door lock.
SEVENTEEN
“Under a bed, quick!” Tanner hissed as he jogged out of the bathroom to the nearest of two twin beds. Danielle put the balcony curtain back in place and slid beneath the other twin. From his tight hiding place, Tanner worked his pistol out of his pants pocket so that he was holding it. He knew Danielle would be doing the same. Hopefully it would just be the hotel cleaning service, but they were prepared for anything.
But as the hotel door closed and brown leather shoed feet trod inches away from Tanner’s face, it soon became apparent that this was no room service.
Amir was speaking to someone, on a phone apparently, since Tanner observed only one pair of legs walk past the bed. The conversation was in Dutch, however, and gave neither Tanner nor Danielle many clues as to its content. Amir’s tone sounded matter-of-fact at first, but then seemed to grow sharper, more questioning. Then they heard him slam his fist into the dresser and utter a single syllable.
Tanner wondered if his lab tech had just informed him that the samples were no good. Probably. He shifted the gun in his hand. He hoped he wouldn’t have to neutralize Amir, which would be akin to cutting off the tip of a tentacle of the beast. They needed Amir to lead them back to the head.
Tanner also wondered why Liam had not alerted him to Amir’s returning to the hotel. Surely he must have seen him, or did he take a side entrance? Whatever the case, the last thing he needed was for his radio to make any noise now, so he carefully switched it off.
Tanner saw Amir’s’ legs pacing back and forth while he muttered under his breath. Then the legs stopped moving and Amir stood silently in place.
Had he noticed something amiss in the room? Was he looking underneath the beds?
Suddenly Tanner felt a vibration in his pants. His phone was ringing on vibrate. He quickly reached a hand into his pocket and silenced it, but even that motion was more than he was comfortable with.
Had Amir heard anything?
But then the terrorist’s voice was speaking, in English. Tanner realized he was leaving a voice message for him.
“Mr. Kohler, this is Amir. I am sorry to report that after analyzing the samples you provided us, they have failed to meet our strict quality control standards, and we will not be able to move ahead with the purchase. Thank you for meeting with me, but further contact will not be necessary. Good luck to you, Sir, and goodbye.”
Tanner heard Amir snap his phone shut. The response was professional, Tanner noted. But from the way he was breathing heavy and cursing under his breath, it was clear that he knew they had tried something.
He thought fast. Now that he knew Amir’s intentions were to cease all contact with himself and Danielle, alternate courses of action sprung to mind. A spider crawled over his left wrist, causing it to jump, but he remained silent while he smeared the arachnid into the dusty carpet, his mind staying on track like a freight train. Could Amir be deceiving them — telling them the meeting for tonight was cancelled so that they would let their guard down, only to accost them in the wee hours when they least expected it?
Even if that was not the case, Tanner deliberated from the cramped confines of his place of concealment, perhaps it was best to take action now. If Amir escaped back into whatever network of hiding places he normally frequented, then this little mission had been for nothing. Worse than nothing, Tanner corrected himself — it even had a slightly negative outcome, since Amir and his colleagues would suspect someone had tried to trick them.
He could wait until Amir left the room and then call Liam and have him tail him, perhaps from a cab this time. But that might not work. Amir was here, now, they should do something now. Tanner flashed on the gasping victims in Miami, the confused looks on their doomed faces, the panic spreading through the stadium crowd like wildfire…knowing a scene just like it was set to be repeated tomorrow…and suddenly his mind was made up.
Tanner gripped his PM9 and raised himself onto his two elbows for a low crawl. He watched from under the bed as Amir’s legs walked out of his field of vision to the left, toward the closet. Then he heard the swipe of a coat hanger off the rack.
The card!
He’d almost forgotten about it. He could just let him leave with the tracker in his jacket. But the battery in the transmitter had a life of “hours, not days,” he recalled his techie saying.
Tanner made up his mind.