“No idea,” Emily replied, her head bowed.
“Lee, what aren’t you telling me? I need to know what’s going on.”
“Let’s just get to the bomb before it goes off.”
“And those guys?”
“They’ve been following us since the boatshed. They’re not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. Those clowns are after me.”
“And your unc – I mean Fu. He won’t stop at anything until he gets what he wants?”
“That’s roughly it. Apparently, with my father and sister dead, my father’s portion of the company gets handed to me.”
“That’s big. We could use that to bring him in.” He rubbed his chin as he thought.
“Don’t go there. I don’t want anything to do with that scam of a company.”
Sitting back in her seat, Emily adjusted her side mirror until the black SUV appeared in it. Less than two cars’ length separated them now.
“Want to see if we can shake them?” Emily asked, keeping her eyes on their companions.
“I’d be delighted to.” Schultz slowly pushed the car faster.
He turned at the next corner, into a narrower suburban street. Cars were parked on either side, making it almost a one-way street.
Halfway down the block, on cue, the black SUV turned into their street.
“Punch in the address for the bank headquarters.” Schultz pointed to the GPS system. “We’ll try to shake them but we need to make sure we’re still heading in the right general direction.”
He made another turn, into a just as narrow street.
“I don’t have a good feeling about these narrow streets. We need to get back on the main roads.”
Emily pulled the system off the suction cup and typed in the bank's address.
“No, that’s not going to work. It’s almost rush hour. The traffic will be building up.”
The GPS accepted the address and started calculating their new route. Emily was placing it back on the suction cup when her phone vibrated.
It read: 1 new message.
She tapped it and a photo appeared.
The red illuminated numbers glared at her.
“What is it?” Schultz tried to look over her shoulder.
“Obviously Fu is not playing nice.” She held her phone up.
“Are you sure that’s legit? He did leave a device like that back at the boatshed.”
Chapter 45
Looking between her phone and the expected time of arrival per the GPS calculation, Emily began to feel a glimmer of desperation.
“I don’t care about those clowns behind us. Right now, we need to get out of here and back towards the city. If we don’t, we’ll be sifting for bodies in the rubble.”
“I’ll shake them first.”
“You’ve been trying that and they’re still sticking to us. We need to forget about them and get out of here. Now.”
“Just a moment.”
Emily looked in her side mirror. Schultz had turned into a parking space positioned between two shops, not far from the bustling South Melbourne markets.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“Getting them off our tail.”
Reversing their car into the second to last car parking space, nestled in between a car and a van, he turned the ignition off and sat back in his seat, his eyes on the road.
Emily’s heart raced. “This had better work.”
“Have some faith in me, will you? They shouldn’t be able to see past that van. See? There they go.”
The black SUV drove past slowly.
“You sure?”
Schultz pulled out his phone and dialed Xander’s number. His phone beeped at him and displayed a message: no signal.
“Seriously, no reception? Lee, you got signal on your phone?”
Emily unlocked her phone and checked her home screen. “Full reception.”
“Fu must still have my phone blocked. Can you call Xander and put him on speaker?”
Emily dialed his number and he answered on the first ring.
“You’ve called to book me in for my Kung Fu class?”
“Muay Thai, thank you, and no, we’ve kind of got a little bit more important things on our hands right now.”
“Yes, I can see that. Why are you guys still over on the South side of the river? You should’ve nearly been at the headquarters by now.”
“We’ve just removed our heavy load.”
“Good. You need to hightail it.”
“Xander,” Schultz yelled over from the driver’s seat. “Lee, put it on speaker.”
She nodded to Schultz as she did it.
“Xander, can you ping Fu from Lee’s phone? He’s been making calls to her phone.”
“I’m not liking my chances. He’s a cunning man, that uncle of yours, Lee.”
“Don’t go there,” she replied.
“Just see what you can do for us.”
“I’ll see what I can find, but my most likely chances of pinging his phone will be when he calls again.”
“If he does,” Emily answered.
“Also, looks like our time has been shaven by ten minutes,” Schultz advised.
“O-kay. And we know this, how?”
“We’re not sure if there’s a second detonator. Lee received a photo not too long ago, with the countdown timer on it.”
“Same one?”
“Looks very similar.”
“You can’t take any chances. You need to hope you’ve lost your heavy load for long enough to get yourselves to the building.”
“We should be about ten minutes out.” Schultz looked at the GPS to confirm.
“That’s cutting it fine,” Xander replied.
“Tell me about it. We’ll need to have one or two of you guys keep an eye out on the waves for any chatter from Fu or any of his men. One of them will have to be talking about today sooner or later.”
“Will do. I’ve got you guys up on the monitor now. I’ll give you a clear run into the city.”
“Only as we’re approaching. Quiet streets will draw our heavy load, and they’ll find us in a matter of minutes,” Emily spoke up.
“Did you manage to find a copy of any blueprints for the building?” Schultz asked as Emily was about to hung up.
“Yes. It was well hidden but I’ve got a copy from five years ago.”
“Let’s hope it’s still current. I need all the available analysts on this. You guys need to locate all the dark places in the tower.”
“All the dark places?”
“Yes. We believe that’s where the bombs are located.”
“Do you know how many floors there are?”
“You’d better get going, then. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Also, see what cameras point at the building. We might score it lucky and catch them red-handed.”
“Yes! I should then be able to see where and when they’ve entered the building and then again when they leave. From there I’ll have the length of time they’re absent from the camera and I’ll be able to determine roughly where the bomb could’ve been planted.”
“Get to it. I’ll be back in touch as we arrive. Oh, and Xander?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got about six city blocks, and these streets had better be cleared.” Schultz signaled to Emily to disconnect the call and applied pressure to the accelerator pedal.
They drifted around the corner and entered the outskirts of the city square boundary. Schultz pushed his foot down on the accelerator. Emily was pressed into the back of her seat as the car hurtled alongside the city square.
“Watch out,” Lee screamed.
Schultz looked out her window. An SUV was hurtling towards them from the wrong side of a side road, clearly intent on T-boning them. Schultz moved his car over the tramline and onto the opposite side of the road. The SUV narrowly missed them.
“That was too close.” Schultz looked out his rear-view mirror.
The car behind them reg
ained control and disappeared down a side street.
“What was all that about?” Schultz asked.
“It’s got to be another one of Fu’s men.”
“How much time have we got?”
Lee checked the timer on her phone. “Less than ten minutes.”
Schultz’s cell phone rang.
“That’s strange,” he said, looking at the screen. “Fu must’ve gotten bored of playing his games.”
“Or he’s up to something.”
“Hmm.” He accepted the call. “Xander, you’d better have something.”
Schultz drifted around the next corner, now on the final stretch of road to the bank.
“We have a number of locations. We’re about halfway up, still working on the upper levels.”
“Good. I doubt they’d have bombs in the top half. I believe he’d have them concentrated around the base and up to Andrew’s office. Are there officers on the scene?”
“We have some, with more coming in.”
“Bomb squad?”
“They’re fifteen minutes away.”
“Shit.” Schultz slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “We’ve got ten minutes if we’re going by Fu’s last message.”
“Can you eliminate any of the locations? Security cameras?” Emily asked.
“We’ll see what we can do.”
“We’re only about four blocks away.”
In the background, Schultz could hear Xander giving directions. He kept the phone line open.
Schultz glanced at Lee as her phone beeped. She showed him a photo.
“Holy crap. Make that eight minutes,” he told Xander.
“Why? What’s just happened?”
“Lee just got another photo with the timer.”
“I’ll see if I can run a trace on that number. It’s got to be on, still.”
Schultz glanced at the photo before continuing. “It definitely looks like it.”
“And your number was barred before, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. He’s up to something, and he’s got Brian with him.”
“Seriously?” Xander swore lightly in the background.
“You need to put your history with him behind you and concentrate on beating them to make the building safe.”
“If he has a third timer he can detonate it at any time,” Emily said.
Chapter 46
Emily held the grab handle above her as Schultz yanked the handbrake and swung the car around to a complete stop, narrowly missing the police tape and a uniformed officer.
“Yep. Thanks for reminder, Lee. Greatly appreciated. Xander, hit us up with the most probable location.”
“Okay.” Xander paused for a second. “Coming through to your phones now.”
Schultz’s and Emily’s phones pinged.
Clicking on the notification as she stepped out of the car, Emily said, “Okay, got it.”
“One more thing, guys,” Xander said. “Two cars circled the block twice before entering the carpark. Half an hour later four people in military clothing emerged from the carpark entrance and jumped in a black SUV.”
“That’s Fu’s men. Do you have video surveillance down there?”
“No. The cameras were all sprayed with black spray paint.”
“Damn. All right. Do you have the makes and models we need to look out for?”
“Just keep an eye out for black SUVs.”
“Okay. Thanks, Xander.”
“This way,” Emily said after checking her phone. She ran towards the police tape.
“ID.” An uniformed officer stepped in front of her.
“I don’t have any. We’re—”
“You can’t enter. This is a secure area.”
“You’re kidding me. I’m the reason all this is happening.”
“You are, are you?” The officer reached behind his back.
Emily looked around. Schultz was just catching up.
“Schultz, talk to this officer.”
As he approached, Schultz pulled out his badge and held it up to the officer.
“This is Lee, Emily Lee. She’s working with me on this case.”
“My apologies, miss. I didn’t recognize you. You’re all right to go through.” The officer lifted the tape up without looking at their credentials.
They stepped through and Emily began to run again.
“Down here, come on,” she yelled as she ran along the side of the building and stopped a few steps into the undercover carpark.
“Shit, we’re screwed,” Schultz commented a few steps behind her.
“It makes sense. It’s easily accessible, and you can be in and out before anyone realizes. Now, you take that side. I’ll take this side.” Emily began checking her side of the carpark. “Look everywhere. We’ve got less than six minutes.”
Chapter 47
A half-empty car park was all that stood between Emily and a possible detonation beneath a modest-sized inner city multilevel building. She counted about ten vehicles parked along each side of its length, probably left behind by mid-ranking managers in the rush of evacuating the building. They consisted of a range of sedans and SUVs. Looking around, Emily noticed there weren’t any cars representative of the top-end managers.
“Typical,” she muttered.
“Was that black SUVs Xander saw enter here this morning?”
“Yeah, but there’s four of them parked in here.”
“Check everything, even if you think there couldn’t be anything hiding in there. Check, and double check.”
“Yep, no worries.” Emily was already approaching the first cement pillar. She scanned the area around the pillar, then up to the roof and along the wall. No sign of wires running along its length.
She walked a little quicker to the next pillar, looking all around it then along the wall. Still no signs of any explosives, wires or detonators.
The first of the cars was parked alongside the second pillar. Lying down on her stomach, she looked under the car’s chassis. Nothing at the rear. She moved around to the driver’s side and looked underneath, moving her phone’s light up and down the length of the car.
Standing up, she quickly walked along the empty carpark spaces, keeping her eye on the roof above and the wall beside her and looking for anything abnormal, like a line of wires or a lumpy package of explosive material, or even a timer.
“Any luck?” Lee yelled out to Schultz as she approached the next car.
“No. Nothing yet,” his reply came from behind her.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw he was only a quarter of his way into the carpark, moving on from the first of the parked black SUVs. He’d always been too cautious, always scrutinizing everything before he was happy enough to move on. Nothing had changed in all the years she’d known him.
Turning around, she walked around the next car, looking it over. It was a common six-cylinder sedan with an enlarged exhaust and standard sports body kit. The make and model weren’t one she’d expected to see parked amongst the other cars there.
She looked along the wall in front of the parked car and above. Nothing except for a few pipes running along the wall. Carefully lying down on her stomach, she moved her phone’s light up and down.
Oh! She paused the light on the rear of the car.
“Schultz.”
“Found something?”
“Yeah, possibly.” Emily moved around to the rear of the car.
Behind her, she heard Schultz’s heavy footsteps approaching.
“What’ve you got?”
Emily looked over her shoulder and saw Schultz crouching down, trying to peer under the car.
“You’ll need to get down a bit lower than that.”
Watching Schultz gingerly lowering his body to the cement floor, she chuckled.
“Yes, very funny.”
“Right there.” Emily moved her phone to highlight a flashing light.
Schultz rolled onto his back and wiggled underneath the rear of the car.
/> “Keep the light steady.”
The seconds ticked by slowly as Emily held the light in position.
“What is it?” she asked, trying to peer underneath.
Schultz began wiggling out and Emily moved back.
“Decoy.” He held up a small rectangular box with a flashing light.
“You sure?”
“Certain. There’s no wires leading anywhere.”
“Bastard.” Emily placed one hand on her hip and rubbed her forehead with her other hand.
“Let’s keep moving. It’s got to be in here somewhere.”
Looking deep into the carpark her sight fell on two reverse-parked SUVs, one on each side of the carpark. Her stomach began to churn.
“Schultz, those have to be the cars.” She pointed towards them.
“Maybe they are. But continue checking everything up to them.”
Emily took a few steps towards the vehicles.
“Lee,” Schultz yelled.
Pulling her eyes away from the parked SUVs, she continued looking along the wall and roof, picking up her pace, jogging along the empty spaces where she was confident there was nothing suspicious. Just empty walls and piping run along the roof.
The two parked SUVs were now only five car park spaces away and their time was nearly gone. Inching closer to the cars, Emily felt the violent twists and churning in her stomach increasing.
Her phone vibrated in her back pocket.
“Schultz, less than four minutes.”
There was no reply.
“Schultz.” She turned around. His legs were poking out from beneath the second black SUV on his side of the car park, his bare ankles exposed.
Shaking her head, Emily quickly ran towards the black SUV, the last car parked on her side. Looking between the two cars she noticed they had sequential number plates.
“Schultz, sequential number plates,” she yelled over her shoulder.
“What are the odds of that? I’ll be there in a minute.”
“We don’t have a minute.”
There were two empty spaces between the SUVs and the end of the carpark, right before an emergency exit with the door partially open.
The roof was clear. Emily moved towards the wall and stopped. A set of wires were leading from a hole in the roof line, right in the corner, down the wall. She followed the wires along the wall; they turned and continued along the cement floor until they got to the car.
The Analyst (Emily Lee Series Book 1) Page 16