The hope was that Whitaker could be charming enough to distract the man long enough so he wouldn’t notice how nervous the manager was. Luckily for them, her charms worked, and a handful of minutes later, the trio were seated around a single computer, with the manager in the middle, in front of the keyboard.
“We need you to log into the system where the security videos are stored. We want a copy of the video for that entire day.”
“Which day.”
Taylor just looked at the man, whose brain finally kicked in.
“Ohh, that day.”
The manager logged into a website and started to navigate around. There was a hundred or so videos stored. From the dates, it seemed like they held only videos for thirty days, which meant a few more weeks, and the evidence would have been destroyed. Of course, Graf could say he preserved the video, since he had just the section of the video that Whitaker was on. Still, Taylor was confident something had been at least trimmed if not edited outright from the video.
“How do you want to get it?”
Taylor opened his mouth and then closed it. He couldn’t just email it to himself. One, the file was relatively large, and two, they needed a better way to transport the file.
“Luddite,” Whitaker said to Taylor over the manager’s head before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small flash drive.
Taylor kicked himself for not considering this ahead of time. That was the way things went, for everything you planned ahead of time, there were always a few things you’d miss. This, however, was a fairly critical part of the plan that existed in nearly every scenario, and Taylor hadn’t considered the need to actually have something to save the files to.
He also took a moment to wonder why Whitaker just happened to have that on her, but let it pass as the manager took it and inserted it into the computer. It took a few minutes to download and save the file to the drive. Even with high-speed internet, the file was large and took time to download.
It took every ounce of willpower in Taylor’s body to keep from looking around to see if anyone had recognized them, since that was a sure fire way to get people to start paying attention to him if they hadn’t already. Instead, he just focused on the small loading bar indicating if the file had been fully downloaded to the flash drive.
Finally, it finished, and Whitaker pulled it out, capping the flash drive and sliding it into her pocket.
“Just sit here and keep facing the computer. Don’t look around or do anything to indicate there’s a problem. Once we’re gone, you can go back to your life like none of this happened. Just check your email or something and be calm,” Taylor said as he stood up and leaned over the manager’s shoulder.
Although he didn’t turn his head, Taylor could see the man’s eyes darting around as he nodded.
Whitaker and Taylor backed away from the workstation and headed for the front door. Taylor was just starting to reach for the door handle when it pulled open. On the other side of the door stood a police officer. His face went from mild surprise, the kind most people feel when they open a door and there’s a person just on the other side blocking their path, to recognition.
Behind them, Taylor heard the manager shout in German. Taylor didn’t have to guess what he was saying. The officer’s hand started to go for his belt when Taylor began moving. He’d been holding the motorcycle helmet in his left hand when he’d gone for the door, and he’d also started to move it up as soon as he’d seen the officer.
Placing his right hand on the opposite side of the bottom rim of the helmet, to ensure he had a secure grip, he smashed it into the officer’s chest, lunging forward as he did. The officer was wearing a vest which blunted some of the impact, but the force and the fact that the officer wasn't prepared - were enough to send the man sprawling onto the cement, hard.
Taylor and Whitaker vaulted over the stunned man’s body and dashed for the bike. As soon as he felt Whitaker's arms snake around his middle, Taylor twisted the throttle, causing the bike to jump away from the curb.
Even though his helmet, he heard the crack of a gunshot. The rear window of a parked car they were weaving around exploded. Taylor and Whitaker tore down the street, away from the cyber cafe. In the distance, he could hear a police siren come to life.
Taylor could only hope the sound was just a coincidence.
Chapter 10
Taylor forced the bike he and Whitaker were on around a tight turn, leaning the bike almost too much as he tried to keep from bleeding too much speed as they ran from the cyber cafe. His hopes that the siren he’d heard was just a different officer pulling some motorist over were soon dashed as they flashed past a cross street. Taylor caught sight of a different police car whose lights flashed on as soon as they’d crossed its view.
Glancing at the side mirror, Taylor saw the police car run through a traffic light and turn to follow them. He was making enough turns that the car he passed was the only one he could see at the moment, but Taylor was nearly certain it wasn’t the only one chasing them. That patrol car had jumped off the mark way too quickly. The officer he knocked down must have called it out on the radio, and the cars in the area had been converging on them. Even if this was the only one behind them, it wouldn’t stay that way
