She opened her hand, revealing a USB thumb drive. Then closed her hand, trapping it inside.
“I will turn it over to you along with the encryption code necessary to read the files, as soon as you explain the reason for your trip to Chongming Island.” This had not been part of Knox’s plan.
Marquardt’s composure flagged. “I beg your pardon?”
“Chongming Island.”
“I…know the place.”
“You went there with Preston Song. I need to know why. It has become critical to our saving the hostages.”
“I remind you that you are, indirectly, my employee. If you’d like me to call Brian, I’d be happy to. Extortion is not your best option.”
“I looked into the reasons for the two hundred thousand dollar payments at our lunch. I was stonewalled. You and Mr. Song visited Chongming Island after the first payment, a payment Mr. Lu never accounted for in the Xuan Tower incentives. Why not? A second such payment preceded Mr. Lu’s kidnapping by a matter of hours, according to your own records. That also needs explaining.”
Lois Marquardt arrived with the tea. She fixed two cups and turned to leave.
“My associate and I have been followed,” Grace said, appealing to the man’s wife, who turned to listen. “My apartment is under video surveillance. I cannot return there. I have been followed repeatedly from work. I can no longer risk going there. Anywhere, for that matter. One of my associates has been hospitalized in serious condition. Presumably, much of this relates to the files on this thumb drive and, I believe, your trip to Chongming Island with Preston Song.”
“Allan?”
Marquardt eyed his wife, clearly wanting her gone.
“I’ve got it, dear. Thank you for the tea.”
“If you need anything,” she said to Grace, “give a holler.” She left.
“I don’t see how our trip could possibly be connected to the kidnapping.”
“Then you admit it.”
“How did you find out?”
“It is not important.”
“It is to me. More important than you can possibly imagine.”
“You need not know the details. Part of my job is to protect you,” she said.
“I can’t tell you a thing about it. You’ve wasted a trip over here, I’m afraid.”
“That’s unacceptable.”
“Ms. Chu, we are on the same side. What you’re asking is impossible. If I could, I would. But I cannot.” He paused. “The thumb drive, please.”
“We have lost the ransom due to a complication-our associate being hospitalized. Your trip to Chongming Island-whatever took you there is relevant to the kidnapping, I assure you.”
“Not possible. And, yes, Brian updated me on the ransom. It’s a bum deal.”
“First, you will explain Chongming Island,” Grace said levelly. “Then you will raise as much U.S. cash as possible before tomorrow morning at nine A.M. The rest we will raise from other parties interested in the drive’s contents.”
Marquardt coughed. “The content of that drive is my property. You will most certainly not be auctioning it off. I will detain you here, if necessary. You’ve overstepped your bounds, young lady.”
Marquardt produced a BlackBerry from a waist clip and worked it one-handed.
“I would not do that, sir,” Grace said. “Your phone is being monitored by the Chinese. Count on it. You do not want them knowing we have located Lu’s accounts.” Grace paused. “They will descend upon us like locusts.”
“Then turn it over,” Marquardt said, his thumb hovering over the green key.
“I cannot do this.”
“You’re out of your depth, Ms. Chu. You don’t want to threaten me. I’ll have you detained.”
“Unlikely,” she said.
“I’ve spoken to Brian and we’re trying to raise as much cash as possible. The proof-of-life comes at the storefront on Nanjing Road. You will be there with the money, but it looks as if it’ll fall short of fifty thousand. Threatening me does not help your cause.”
“Less than fifty thousand? Unacceptable. They are expecting five times that.”
“Brian believes they might accept one hundred. We won’t know until you deliver it.”
“Too risky.”
“This is a game of risks, I’m told. The thumb drive, please.”
Grace caught a glimpse of the phone. The BlackBerry was already connected.
“More tea?” he asked.
She’d barely touched her cup. He wanted her to stay. The call had been to security. The compound’s team? His own? Did it matter?
Grace stood. “Highest bidder wins the drive and its contents.”
“Do not do this,” Marquardt said calmly. “You will be crushed.”
Security would post men at the front and back doors, providing there were at least two men, which she doubted. More like a single bodyguard with contact to the compound’s team.
If indeed a single bodyguard, he would pull back to a position with a view of both doors. That, or he’d enter the house.
“Save your career while you still can.” He opened his palm to her.
She hurried from the room and nearly plowed over Lois Marquardt, who’d been in the hall within eavesdropping range. Lois and Grace’s eyes met. Lois glanced at the front door and she shook her head. Grace scanned the stairs.
Lois nodded and said softly, “Fire ropes in the window seats.”
Grace bounded upstairs.
There was a child asleep in the first room she tried. She moved on to the end of the hallway-the master suite. Spotted the window seat and, pulling off its cushion, opened it. A chain ladder was bolted to the wall. The window faced the access lane and the drive. Men watching the front and back doors would not see her here. She fed the ladder through the window and followed it outside. It danced unpredictably; it took all her strength and balance to descend without whipping it against the house and revealing her position.
She dropped into the landscaping and ducked, keeping low. Plotting her escape. The support team would arrive momentarily; if she weren’t out of the compound by then, they would have her. The compound was essentially a twenty-acre cul-de-sac with a gated single entrance, surrounded by a twelve-foot rock wall topped with broken glass set in concrete. Designed to keep people out, it also kept them in.
She crept through shadow in the direction away from the gated entrance, reaching the end of Marquardt’s house. No security man in sight. It was a one-man show until support arrived, and the bodyguard had chosen the front door-and the compound’s entrance side-to guard.
Grace took off at a run, house-to-house, keeping in shadow whenever possible. She had taken the bus to come here. Now she was on foot.
There was no way she would make it past the gate without close-quarter combat. The gate guards were untrained in anything but raising their hands and checking documents. If there were just two, she could take them. But if they’d summoned their patrols-another two or three keeping watch within the compound-she’d be outnumbered.
She spotted a bicycle dumped in a driveway. Carried it to the access road and climbed on. She circled around the western side of the compound-the booth guards would be expecting her from the east. It might buy her an extra few seconds.
Porch lights from houses lighted the lane only in patches. She held the bike to the far curb beneath towering bamboo, and therefore mostly in shadow. Street noise intensified as she approached the gate and the only break in the high wall. Lights blazed around the small guardhouse where she now spotted two uniformed men.
They spotted her.
One stepped in front of the red-and-white striped pole arm blocking the vehicle entrance. He raised his hand for her to stop.
