The Analyst (Emily Lee Series Book 1)

by K. A. Bragonje

  “You’re going to be sorry.”

  A belly laugh erupted from Fu. “I’m going to be sorry.” He breathed down her neck. “You’ll be the one pleading with me by the end of today.”

  “I doubt that. You’re just a weak man pretending to be strong. They’re the strong ones. You’re nothing without them.” She nodded towards one of the armed men.

  Fu’s open hand connected with the side of her face. She hadn’t seen it coming. Her head snapped to the other side, her cheek hitting the back rest.

  “You’re the one sporting a bastardized version of my family name.”

  She clenched her teeth until the pain subsided.

  “Emily, stop. It’s not worth it,” her father softly pleaded.

  “Only so there’d be no direct link to you.”

  She was a fighter and she wasn’t about to quit. From a young age, her father had taught her to be a fighter, not to weaken in front of any opponent. She wasn’t about to start now for her uncle’s sake. She owed her life to her parents, to their sacrifices, and was determined to continue the big fight. Today was not going to be the day she lowered her standards.

  “Your father has been too soft on you and your sister.” Fu stood behind her father now, looking down at him in disgust.

  Emily’s eyes were fixed on Fu, watching his every movement.

  “After Sydney, he should’ve been more... How shall I put it?” He reflected for a moment. “More forthright in his punishment.”

  Fu looked at her. She caught a flash of disappointment on his face when he realized she wasn’t biting.

  “By the end of the day you will be giving me that hard drive. Otherwise...” He waved a device at her before placing it in the center of the table.

  Emily’s eyes widened with fear.

  It was a simple timer with a countdown screen across the front and a green and red switch beneath. Emily also noticed a small button on the side facing her.

  “You’ll cooperate today. Otherwise your friend Harry will lose a lot more than just his farm.”

  The armed men’s chuckles subsided when Fu scowled at the nearest one.

  Emily fought hard to stop her built-up anger from exploding. Her fingernails dug deep into her palms as she fought for control.

  “We’ll see,” Emily replied, her voice calm once her anger had subsided.

  “No one is coming to save you. Well, they will, but you won’t be alive to see it.”

  “So why wait? Get it over and done with. Shoot me NOW.”

  “All in good time. I want to teach you a little lesson first. Every time you don’t cooperate, or lie, I’ll press this little button.” Fu pointed to the side of the device. “Harry will be fifteen minutes closer to his fate. At the end of the day, I’m still getting his property.”

  “How do you sleep at night, killing innocent people?”

  “They’re not as innocent as you may think. Your sister. She was going to walk out on her husband. It wasn’t because of another woman, like your sister thought. He’d been carrying out hits for us. While Harry... he’s been fighting a gambling problem since the drought hit ten years ago. He was up to his eyeballs in debt.”

  She searched her father’s eyes, looking for any indication of truth in Fu’s words. She could see a slit of brown through the gap in his eyelids. Her father’s head moved slightly, up then down.

  Emily looked back to Fu. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “Trust. First lesson of the day. Do not question. Have trust in what you’re told. Do not question everything you’re told.”

  “Only if the source can be trusted.”

  Fu clicked his fingers above his head. She heard movement behind her.

  “I trust you two have met before.” Fu had his arm extended. Emily followed the direction his arm pointed.

  Brian! Of course! Her eyes narrowed as he moved towards her.

  Emily gave him a look of disdain and cleared the lump in her throat. “You could say that,” she said to her uncle.

  “Hi,” Brian greeted her with a boyish smile. She ignored him.

  Another table and what looked to be a couple of very comfortable computer chairs were placed perpendicular to theirs, and Brian set up his workstation. Out of the corner of her eye, Emily spied a couple of laptops, a printer, and a cordless keyboard and mouse.

  The room fell silent as Brian set up his gear. Content with his setup, he nodded to Fu, who returned his attention to Emily.

  “Brian has been a valued member of my team for years. He’s been able to assist me with a lot of problems that we may not have been able to deal with so swiftly.”

  Brian’s fingers flew over the keyboard. He wasn’t paying any attention to them, his eyes fixed on the screens in front of him.

  Emily’s thoughts circled back to Fu’s lesson and the concept of trust. I trusted Brian, she thought bitterly. Trust was something she was finding harder to do as her career matured. On many levels, corruption was rearing its ugly head. That was the problem you were faced with when you knew how to read numbers.

  She no longer read the company financial write-ups in the media, unless required to do so for a case or a research project. They never told the full story. Only what investors needed to know — the top-level figures. What they didn’t see were the under-the-table deals being made with corporations that may normally be perceived as conflicts of interest in the eye of the public and authorities.

  “There was a lot of potential for you in our company,” Fu said.

  “I like being able to go to sleep at night with a clear conscience.”

  “Oh, I do, too. I love money. And lots of it. That is what makes me sleep easy at night.”

  “We’re live,” Brian reported, continuing to type.

  “Good. Now for some fun.”

  “They’ll be here,” Emily said to him, suddenly desperate to buy herself some time. “Don’t think for a moment you’re going to get away with any of this. You’ll rot in jail.”

  “Before anyone has a chance to find you, I’ll already be in international waters.”

  Brian stopped and looked at Fu with a surprised look.

  Emily studied the twitch in his eye; obviously this was news to him. The few men Emily was able to see didn’t flinch at this news.

  Sliding one of Brian’s office chairs over, Fu plonked himself into it and rested his feet on the table in front of her. Picking up the device from the center of the table, he toyed with it, thinking.

  “Question one. Why were you investigating the Bank of Victoria’s land transfers?”

  Emily opened her mouth to reply, but Fu interrupted her. “Think very carefully before you answer.” His finger hovered over the small button on the side of the device.

  The room was quiet, except for the keys being depressed on the keyboard. Brian stopped and watched Emily, too, waiting for her reply. She was becoming uncomfortable with everyone staring at her, feeling like they were waiting to pounce on whatever she said next.

  “It was a case handed to my boss.”

  Fu turned to Brian. With his palm facing towards the table, he moved his hand slightly from side to side.

  “And?”

  “And what? All cases come through my boss. He’s the one who directs what cases I take on.”

  “Very well.”

  He held the device up, the numbers clearly visible to her. Two hours and thirty minutes remaining. Emily did some quick computing. It’d been approximately thirty minutes since she was told the bank headquarters had been rigged. Emily sighed, realizing it was going to be a very long afternoon.

  Fu’s finger moved towards the side button. Emily stared at the screen, waiting. She wasn’t going to spill more than what was needed. Not at the cost of her client’s confidentiality. Fu could threaten her all he wanted.

  When he lifted his finger from the button, the number changed.

  Chapter 36

  Schultz paced the operations center floor, his hands on his h
ips, head bowed, thinking.

  “Where are we with a location on Lee?” He looked around the room. Screens covered all the walls, and four stations with computer analysts typing away stood in its four corners.

  “Working on it, boss,” someone yelled from behind a screen.

  Schultz had called in all the on-duty intelligence analysts and scoured Melbourne, looking for her. He had them tapping into everything — her phone, security cameras, traffic light cameras, anything that recorded any footage of her whereabouts.

  “How long?” Schultz snapped.

  “We’re down to within a suburb.”

  “A suburb. What on earth have you lot been doing?”

  “There’s a lot going down in the city today. We’re getting pulled in every direction. We’re doing our best.”

  “Sorry. It’s just Lee-”

  “We understand. We don’t want anything to happen to her either. We’re doing our best.”

  “You look like you need a coffee,” another analyst said as she looked up from her screen. “We’ll call you the second we have something.”

  “No, I’ll stay. Can’t stomach coffee. Not right now, anyway.”

  Schultz walked over to a large screen that covered most of one wall. The screen displayed an array of images, newspaper and online articles, letters and typed notes.

  “Xander, how are we going on the hard drive?” Schultz asked, his eyes not wavering from the screen.

  Xander pushed his glasses up his nose as he walked over to Schultz, his baggy shorts flapping below his knees and his Hawaiian shirt hanging out. He tapped away at his tablet as he got closer.

  “The information. It’s mind-blowing. It’s going to take us years for any of this to make its way through the court system.”

  “What do you mean?” Schultz looked at the screen, though he felt way out of his depth. He prayed the day would come when techies learned to translate their language so the layman could understand them.

  “This is bigger than what you and I think. It runs deeper than just Harry’s case.”

  “How deep?”

  “Very. You’ll be six feet under before everything on this device has been dealt with. Crikey, I’ll probably be long dead before this is all done. And all this has links that lead to the Dark Web. This is huge.”

  “Good work. Keep going. I’m sure Lee will be adding to the workload before the day is out.”

  “Yes. I must see if she can teach me some of her kickass martial arts moves,” Xander pondered loudly as he walked back to his station.

  Chapter 37

  Emily pushed back the pain. Every extra minute she kept it together was an additional minute Schultz had to find them alive.

  Watching her father cringe as Fu chuckled, she felt her eyes swell with tears. She fought them back with happy thoughts from the times when she and her sister were younger. When her father was home they’d spend many days listening to their father’s stories from his childhood in China. Safe in his strong arms, they sat still, listening, mesmerized by his tales.

  “Why didn’t you go into the family business? With your analytical skills and Brian’s,” Fu looked at him then returned his attention to Emily before continuing, “the family business could’ve reached new heights. New territories. You would’ve been set up for life.”

  Emily thought before replying. “I’m not one of you. Your words, remember?”

  She felt the thud as the butt of the gun thwacked into the back of her head. Dazed, everything spinning around her, she pressed her back against the backrest and bit her lip. Her eyes closed as she pushed back the throbbing pain.

  Her father let out a scream. She heard a thump and then he fell silent. She cracked open an eye to see his head slumped.

  “You son of a bitch.” Emily wriggled her arms and legs, forgetting the pain.

  “Let’s try this again, shall we? Have I not made the consequences clear to you?” He gestured towards the device.

  It now flashed two hours and twenty-five minutes.

  She couldn’t tell Fu the truth; her father had been through enough torture by now. Any more could kill him.

  “I’m developing my skill base,” she said. Her heart raced as she kept her eyes focused on Fu, being careful not to blink.

  “Skill base? I don’t understand. Everything you need is here. We have our systems and procedures. They’ve served us well.”

  “I... I thought, getting a fresh perspective on how everything runs outside the family might be a good idea. Bring back some new techniques and expand on our current systems and procedures.”

  “Mmm.” Fu thought for a minute. “You might be onto something there.”

  Emily smiled wearily. Her smile soon disappeared when she saw her father still out cold.

  “Tell me something. Sydney. Why did you betray your family and your fellow community members?”

  Caught off guard, Emily closed her eyes. She wasn’t expecting this to rear its ugly head again. Choosing her words carefully, she replied, “To learn how they investigate, their tactics. So we can train our men to outmaneuver them.”

  Fu removed his finger from the device. Emily relaxed a little. She was still surrounded by armed men and a tech savvy nerd who could disastrously change her future at the click of a mouse.

  Her phone vibrated against the chair. She lifted her hip up just enough for her back pocket to be off the chair so the noise wouldn’t alert anyone. By the looks of them, no one had noticed. The phone vibrated four more times then stopped. A missed call. She slowly lowered her hip.

  Emily looked skyward, silently thanking whoever was watching over her. She still had cell reception. Schultz and his team should be able to track her down. Emily felt a glimmer of hope. Soon this ordeal would be over.

  “Boss.” Brian looked up from his screens.

  “What is it?” Fu snapped, annoyed to be spoken to when not warranted.

  “Someone here, in this room, has a cell phone. I’ve just registered an incoming call.”

  “You sure? Everyone has been swept.”

  “Someone has been missed. The receiving end of that call was in here.”

  Fu spun around and stared at Emily. She raised her shoulders, dropping them as her eyes pleaded her innocence.

  He marched over to her and placed his gun against her temple. The cool metal sent a shiver down her back. Emily kept her eyes on her father, thankful he wasn’t seeing any of this.

  “Check her,” he ordered, the gun pushing deeper into her temple.

  Emily pushed back against the gun barrel.

  Three men marched over. One supervised while the other two patted her down. Beginning with her legs, they felt in her shoes, her jeans legs before moving up and patting her. They stopped just before her chest and looked up to Fu.

  “Keep going,” he insisted.

  Emily could see them hesitate but she gave them a small nod and they continued. She closed her eyes, wishing it would be over.

  “All clear,” one advised.

  Emily opened her eyes. Both men were now standing in front of her, with the supervisor a step or two behind them. Fu studied her for a moment, looking her up and down.

  “Check her pockets.”

  “We have, boss.”

  “Her back pockets.”

  The two guards held her arms while the one who’d been supervising unlocked her arm shackles. She was pulled up onto her shackled feet.

  Emily wiggled, but their grip tightened until she stopped resisting. The man to her right reached for her pocket and pulled her phone out.

  Fu slapped the side of her face. Too stunned to fight back, she dropped back into the chair and they quickly shackled her again.

  Fu clicked his fingers and waved his hand, waiting for the phone. The men took their positions.

  Phone in hand, Fu leaned over Emily. “Thought you could outsmart me?”

  “Wasn’t that hard.”

  “Let’s see who it was.” Fu turned her screen on. “Passco
de?”

  “Bite me.”

  “Here.” Brian held his hand out. “I’ll have this thing cracked open in a jiffy.”

  “Very well.” Fu handed the phone to Brian while keeping his attention fixed on Emily. “Work your magic.”

  While Fu circled around her, Emily kept her eyes straight ahead. He’d take two steps then pause, then take a couple more. Standing between her and her father, he stamped his feet on the spot and stared down at her.

  Still reeling in disgust with her uncle, she avoided his eye contact. Instead, she focused on a broken window in the distance. Anything to avoid seeing the evil in her uncle, the uncle she was once proud of.

  “You’re a real little tiger. This should make today... interesting.”

  Silence.

  “We have something,” Brian interrupted.

  “What've you got?” Fu remained in front of her, unmoving.

  “A number belonging to a,” he looked back at his screen. “A Detective Schultz.”

  “The cops!” Fu slapped her other cheek.

  Her face throbbed with pain, the heat from the repeated contact rising. Trying to drive the pain away from her face, she gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.

  Fu walked over to Brian and grabbed the cell phone, placing it on the table alongside the timer.

  “It won’t be long,” Emily said through a clenched jaw. “This place will be swarming with them.”

  Fu grabbed the timer and wiped thirty minutes off with one click.

  Emily looked up at him, her eyes wide with shock, her mouth open.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered. When this timer reaches zero this place will go boom as well.” Fu imitated an explosion with his hands. “With you in it. And as many of your friends as you’ve invited to the party. Whether you’re dead or alive when it goes off depends on you.”

  Chapter 38

  “Were we able to get anything, then?” Schultz turned to Xander.

  “Yes.” He typed away at his keyboard. “Yes, we did.”

  “And?”