The lawyer’s facade crumpled. Tears welled in his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Rafael said “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I... He lied to me. Blackmailed me. You don’t understand. I didn’t know what he had planned. I’m sorry. Please believe me, I didn’t want to be part of this.”
“I’m not interested in your excuses,” Sci replied. “I’m interested in what you know. We’re going to go somewhere nice and quiet and you’re going to tell us everything.”
Chapter 39
No one had followed them when they’d left Brooklyn. Thirty minutes later they were driving through open countryside, near Plainfield, New Jersey. Fields and woodland surrounded them and there were very few vehicles on the quiet country road as they headed west. Sci felt as though he was on the very edge of the world, that anything might happen here.
Mo-bot had called Justine to let her know they were okay, and tell her of their plan to interrogate Rafael, the traitor.
He exuded nervous tension as they turned off a farm track onto a rough gravel road that cut through a wooded area. After a quarter of a mile, Sci pulled to a halt on the verge.
Mo-bot turned to face Rafael and Sci did likewise. Mo-bot handed him the Life Card pistol, which he held aimed at Rafael’s gut. There were tears in Rafael’s eyes and his hands were trembling. This was not a man who would have to be forced to confess.
“So, here’s what’s going to happen,” Sci said. “You’re going to talk and we’re going to listen.”
There was a moment’s hesitation.
“Well, get talking,” he added, brandishing the gun.
Rafael gulped and nodded.
“Alison was taken two weeks ago,” he said, referring to his wife. “She was snatched from the street.”
Sci saw Mo-bot register the significance of Rafael’s words and guessed where this was going.
“I got a call from the Chinese man...”
Rafael broke down sobbing and took more than a moment to pull himself together.
“I’m so sorry. I’m... There’s nothing I can say to excuse my actions, I know, but I got a phone call from the man you just saw in that building. He calls himself Angel. He told me to meet him if I ever wanted to see Alison alive again. He knew everything about us, about our families. He said I was being watched at all times. I wanted to come to you, to Jack. I wanted to go to the police, but he told me she’d be killed if I spoke to a single person. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know...” He trailed off, broken, and took some deep breaths before resuming. “He wanted information, but when I met him—”
“Where?” Sci asked. “Where did you meet?”
“A mall in Pelham, at the food court,” Rafael replied.
Busy and anonymous, Sci reflected.
“When I met him, he told me he wanted someone on the inside, providing information, steering things a certain way. I didn’t know what he was going to do to Jessie and Lewis, I swear it!”
“But you knew what he wanted to do today,” Mo-bot cut in, and Rafael looked ashamed.
“He said he’d kill Alison if his mission didn’t succeed. He said he’d kill her.” Rafael wiped his eyes. “I didn’t know what to do. What was I supposed to do?”
Sci ignored the question. “What mission?” he asked.
“I don’t know. He told me to make sure you came to New York. All of you: Maureen, Seymour, and Justine.”
“He named us?” Mo-bot asked.
Rafael nodded. “I’m so sorry. I never thought it would be like this.”
“What about the protocols we have in place for coercion and duress?” Mo-bot said. “God, Rafael, we’re your friends!”
“I wasn’t thinking about protocol, I was thinking about my wife! I’m sorry. I thought I had no choice. I know you can never forgive me, but I’m sorry. I truly am.”
“Did you give up Lewis and Jessie?” Mo-bot asked. “Did you give this Angel their location?”
Fresh tears sprang to Rafael’s eyes as he nodded.
Mo-bot shook her head wistfully. “You’re going to have to answer for that.” She turned to Sci. “What do you think?”
“We need to find Alison.” He paused. “We find her, Angel won’t be far away.”
“Agreed,” Mo-bot said. “He’ll have flown the apartment by now, but he has to stay close to his hostage. She must be somewhere near to where we were.”
“He give you any proof of life?” Sci asked Rafael.
“I get to speak to her once a day.”
“Then she’s definitely alive. Let’s find her, save her, and catch this guy,” Sci said. He glared at Rafael. “Then you’re going to answer for what you’ve done.”
Chapter 40
“This isn’t the kind of place I’d expect to find street criminals,” I said as Zhang Daiyu and I crossed a broad plaza.
It was mid-morning and we were in the financial district of Beijing, near its economic heart, heading for the Liu Investments building, which could only be described as an architectural marvel. Constructed from glass, steel, and composite materials, the silver structure stood twenty storys high, shaped like an eye with curved steel edges that glittered in the hazy morning sunshine. It wasn’t the largest building in the district, but it was the one that most easily caught the imagination. It was situated in a landscaped plaza with gently contoured walkways, clearly designed to be the focal point.
Zhang Daiyu and I had returned to the workers’ hostel and slept for a few hours, me on the floor, her in the bed, before resuming our investigation. On the drive over, she had briefed me on what she knew about Liu Bao, the man who’d once been the underworld boss of Wang Yichen, the guy I’d shot at Molly Tan’s apartment. Liu had started out as a street criminal, which was where she’d first encountered him. He’d been implicated in the drugs trade, but was clever and slippery. Zhang Daiyu and her colleagues had never been able to build a case against him. He quickly climbed the ladder to become a gang boss — a combination of ruthlessness, intelligence, and a reputation for honoring his word led to his stratospheric rise. Liu Bao had transformed himself from street thug to moneyed villain. He now owned an investment firm that made risky, highly speculative bets around the world, but Zhang Daiyu suspected the business was just a front to launder money from Liu’s criminal activities, which she believed had now expanded to include international arms dealing. Zhang Daiyu suspected Liu Bao was protected. She didn’t see how someone so obviously crooked could rise so high without some powerful guardian angels.
“This is exactly where you will find gangsters,” she told me, gesturing to the skyscrapers that surrounded us. “And monsters. Criminals have always been attracted to money and there is much more of it here than there is on the street.”
She was right, of course, and I nodded as we entered the Liu Investments building. Security was very obviously tight, with manned gates, metal detectors, and an X-ray machine blocking the path to the elevators. We went to a long wooden reception desk that lay to our right and Zhang Daiyu spoke to the receptionist, who smiled, nodded, and gestured toward a seating area beside an indoor lily pond filled with koi. Half a dozen security guards in beige suits were posted around the place, eyeing staff and visitors.
We sat in silence, watching a soundless video on a huge wall display. It showed inspirational scenes of people at work, dramatic Chinese landscapes and images from industrial manufacturing processes. Glossy and well produced, it was all style over substance. The Liu Investments logo appeared at the end.