Sci pulled into a small parking lot behind the restaurant and they all took a moment to study the building.
“Do you know which apartment?” he asked.
Mo-bot shook her head. “But I do have a way of finding out.”
She opened a small flight case she had brought with her and produced a tablet computer that looked little larger than a normal phone.
“This device will home in on the target phone’s Bluetooth signature when we get within range. We walk the building and we’ll find him.”
“Shall I wait out here?” Rafael asked. “Keep a look out for anyone entering after you?”
“That makes sense,” Sci agreed. It was fair enough if Rafael didn’t have the stomach for walking into the unknown, he wasn’t even meant to be in the field. “Call me if you see anything suspicious.”
Rafael nodded and Sci and Mo-bot got out. Mo-bot switched on the Bluetooth tracker as they hurried across the street. The sweet — savory smells from the restaurant were strong now, and Sci’s stomach started growling at him. Some people say heat kills the appetite, but he had always found it stimulated his and this summer evening was sending it into overdrive.
They found the entrance to the apartment block next to the Golden Lotus’s staff door, and Sci used his lock-picking tools to get them inside. A small lobby lined with mailboxes led to a set of stairs. A tiny box elevator stood to one side, but neither of them moved toward it.
“Stairs?” Sci asked. He had no desire to be trapped inside a metal coffin in enemy territory.
Mo-bot nodded and they started up the steep staircase.
The interior was a mix of redbrick and white plaster turned dirty gray by time. The smell from the restaurant filled every nook. In his current frame of mind, Sci would have found living in this block complete torture.
They reached the second floor and walked along a corridor that ran through the center of the building. Mo-bot checked her device every step of the way and shook her head when they reached the end. They retraced their steps and climbed to the next floor.
They had made it to the second apartment on the third floor when Mo-bot raised her hand.
“I think it’s this one,” she whispered.
Sci’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, expecting to see Rafael’s name, but was surprised to see Justine’s.
“I can’t talk right now,” he whispered, turning away from the door so he wouldn’t alert whoever was inside.
“You don’t need to talk,” she replied urgently. “Just listen. I think Rafael might be involved in this. If he is—”
“We’re walking into a trap.”
Sci heard a door open and turned toward it. His stomach dropped as his eyes drew level with the broad chest of a heavyset Chinese man with a crew cut and pitiless eyes. He was holding a matt-black machine pistol.
Chapter 38
“Inside,” the gunman said. He was barefoot, wearing a gray muscle vest and loose black trousers. It didn’t look like he’d prepared himself for a fight and he had the air of someone who hadn’t had time to set a proper trap. Had Rafael warned him? Phoned him from the parking lot? The thought fueled Sci’s mounting sense of indignation and anger.
He knew death waited for them in that apartment and there was no way either of them could afford to cross the threshold.
“It’s for you,” he said, offering the gunman his phone.
The man frowned, and the ease with which the lines of his face manifested the expression suggested he spent too much of his life feeling displeased. Sci thrust the phone at the guy with both hands, aware that a mistake now would get both him and Mo-bot shot. Someone willing to plant bombs and assassinate people wouldn’t be shy of pulling the trigger in an otherwise deserted corridor.
As he thrust his phone across the space between them, Sci simultaneously reached into the long inside pocket of the phone case for his Hail Mary fall-back. This was a Life Card. About the size of a credit card, it was a single-shot collapsible pistol he kept next to his phone in case he was ever robbed. He’d been working crime scenes long enough to know that a single shot could make all the difference.
The gunman shook his head, rejecting the phone and waving his gun at Sci. “Inside.”
In one movement Sci slid the Life Card out of the case, popped the button that activated the tiny trigger and shot the suspect in the thigh. The gun’s report sounded like a firecracker, but the bullet was potent enough and tore into the gunman’s leg, causing him to cry out.
“Run!” Sci shouted, grabbing Mo-bot by the arm and heading for the stairs.
Most people would have dropped what they were holding and clutched at their leg, but not this guy. He was too well trained. He cursed in Mandarin and opened fire. The pain and shock caused by his wound must have thrown off his aim because the bullet missed them and bit into the wall beside the stairs.
As they started down them Sci glanced back over his shoulder. The gunman had lurched along the corridor after them, dragging his wounded leg behind him, firing at them. They disappeared from view as they ran past the turn in the stairs, but still bullets chewed the brickwork beside them, throwing clouds of dust everywhere. The gunman was leaning over the safety rail of the stairs and firing at random into the stairwell. His gun wasn’t a firecracker, it was a cannon, and the sound of it drew residents to their doors.
Sci and Mo-bot could see faces peering out at them as they reached the second-floor landing.
“Get back inside! Lock your doors! There’s a gunman!” Sci yelled. “Call the cops!”
More bullets came from above, cracking the hard tile floor but wildly off target. The guy was firing blind, unable to see them. The sight and sounds sent the residents back inside. Numerous doors slammed shut at once.
Sci and Mo-bot ran down the stairs and through the first-floor lobby, bursting out into the alleyway. Sci was disgusted to see a look of surprise on Rafael’s face when he looked over at them. The normally suave lawyer tried to compose himself as Sci and Mo-bot raced across the parking lot. Sci had expected him to run, but the guy was clearly going to try and brazen it out. He stayed in the back of the Nissan Rogue as Sci and Mo-bot jumped in the front. Sci hit the ignition button, gunned the engine and drove out of the lot.
A new barrage of pistol shots started as they reached the alleyway access, coming from a third-floor window above them. A few bullets thudded into the hood, but they didn’t slow down the Nissan. Sci floored it and swung onto Eighth Avenue, putting as much distance between him and their would-be murderer as possible.
The murderer’s accomplice was a different matter. Sci wanted to keep Rafael as close as possible.
“Take this,” he said handing Mo-bot the Life Card gun. Rafael wouldn’t know the single shot had been used. “If he so much as moves, shoot him.”
“What the hell is happening?” Rafael asked.
“Yeah,” Mo-bot said. “What the hell is happening?”
“He betrayed us. He betrayed all of us,” Sci revealed, glaring at Rafael in the rear-view mirror. “He sold us out to the shooter back there. The man who killed Lewis, who put Jessie in the hospital. The man who tried to kill us all.”
Sci glanced at Mo-bot and saw her eyes widen as the implications sunk in.
“You’re crazy,” Rafael tried, but Sci could sense his lack of conviction.
“Shut up. If he tells one more lie, I want you to shoot him.”
Mo-bot nodded and turned in her seat to face Rafael. She pointed the tiny muzzle at him.
“I know what you did. Soon everyone’s going to know. I can hardly bring myself to look at you right now.” Sci was seething. Calm and analytical as he normally was, it was hard not to take an attempt on his life personally. “How could you do this? How could you betray your friends?”