much of a problem.'
Lombardi shrugged.
'No need,' he said. 'Policy's policy.'
The two men unholstered their firearms — both were carrying standard Glock nines — and turned them over to the guard, then deposited their coins and key chains in the tray and passed through the archway.
'Thanks for your cooperation,' the guard said. He looked at his LCD display, gave the items in the tray a cursory glance, then held it out for the detectives to retrieve their property. 'Follow the entry hall straight back, turn right, then cut another right at the end of that corridor. Supervisor's office will be the fourth door down. I'll have your weapons right here when you leave.'
Lombardi stuffed his key chain into his pocket.
'Just hope we don't have to chase any armed robbers while we're here,' he said, smiling a little.
The guard laughed. 'Have no fear,' he said. 'This place is as safe as they come.'
Nori slipped into the rear of the white company Land Rover parked in a shopping mall off Holland Road, three blocks up from Kirsten Chu's residence.
'Found what we wanted,' she said. 'And more.'
'Any problems getting in and out?' Nimec asked from the front passenger seat.
'Nope. The doorman has a crush on me. He talked the super into giving me a key,' she said. 'Anyway, I've got a personal phone book with a number and address for a Lin and Anna Lung in Petaling Jay a.'
'Where the hell's that?'
'Back over the causeway, lah. Outside KL.' This from the driver, a Malay named Osmar Ali who was with the Sword detail at the ground station.
Nimec nodded.
'You sure you have the right party?' he asked Noriko.
'Pretty much,' she said. 'I also dug up an open mailing envelope with a return address that matches the one in the book. There were some photos of a couple and two kids inside it. And a letter starts with a 'Dear Sis.' '
'Okay.' Nimec turned to look at Osmar. 'Petaling Jaya… is it within driving distance?'
Osmar shrugged. 'Can go, yes, but it a few hundred kilometers,' he said in rough English. 'Be faster we drive back to ground station, take helicopter.'
Nimec thought in silence a moment. Then he reached for the cell phone resting in the molded-plastic cup- holder beside him.
'Better let me have that number, Nori,' he said. 'I want to see if anybody's home before we come knocking on their door.'
The pair of men strode through the corridor after leaving their guns at the checkpoint, their eyes noting the button-sized lenses of surveillance cameras near the ceiling. Unlike commercially produced cameras, these miniature units were recessed behind the walls rather than mounted on visible brackets, and would have gone unnoticed by the average person.
They reached the T-juncture at the end of the hall, but instead of immediately turning right as instructed, paused to scan the doorways in both directions.
Midway down the corridor branching to their left was an office door marked SECURITY. The one who called himself Lombardi gave the other an almost imperceptible glance and they went over to it, walking side-by-side at an easy pace, nodding amiably to a woman who passed them going the opposite way.
Two plainclothes security men were sitting at a bank of closed-circuit monitors when the office door opened inward from the corridor. They were not surprised, having seen the approaching detectives on their screens, and assumed they wanted information.
'Can we help you gentlemen?' one of them said, swiveling to face the door.
The man called Lombardi entered, followed by his partner. They let the door close behind them.
'We're looking for the supervisor's office.' He smiled, his hand casually tucked in his pants pocket. ' Thought it was supposed to be right around here somewhere.'
'Took a wrong turn,' the security man said. 'When you leave this office, hang a right and—'
Lombardi's hand came out of his pocket holding his key ring. Before the security guards could register what was happening, he brought up its rectangular fob and quickly tugged back the attached chain with his free hand. This cocked the firing mechanism of the weapon, which was only three inches long and contained two.32-caliber bullets. He pointed it at the man facing him and pushed a button on its side.
The slug that coughed from the tiny gun's bore would have been lethal at twenty yards, and the shooter was a mere fraction of that distance from his target. It struck the guard in the middle of the forehead and killed him instantly, slamming him back into the panel of monitors.
The shooter pivoted toward the other guard. His face white with shock, he was reaching for the holstered weapon under his jacket. The shooter pushed the button and fired his second shot, striking the guard in the center of his face. And then the face was gone. The body sprawled backward, blood, bone fragments, and tissue spraying the screens and walls behind him.
The shooter looked at his partner, gesturing toward the dead men.
'Close,' he said. 'I only expected there to be one of them.'
The man near the door nodded.
'Let's take their guns and get on with it,' the shooter said.
When she heard the phone ring at nine-thirty, she wondered if perhaps Anna had forgotten something in her rush to leave the house. The kids had acted up and been late getting ready for school, and Anna, who dropped them off every morning on her way to work, had made her exit amid quite a hustle and bustle.
'Hello?' she said, picking up.
A strange male voice. 'Kirsten Chu, please.'
She hesitated, her heart suddenly banging in her chest. She'd been expecting a call from the police, which was the reason she hadn't volunteered to help out her sister and deliver Miri and Brian to their classrooms herself. The police, this had to be the police. Anna and Lin… and Max, of course.. were the only other people who'd know to find her here. And the person at the other end wasn't any of the latter.
'Who's calling?' she asked in a cautious tone. Purposely offering no acknowledgment of her identity.
'My name is Pete Nimec, and I'm—'
She didn't even hear him finish the sentence, so completely overwhelming was the recognition that swept over her. Her heart beat harder, faster. She inhaled, feeling as if the breath had been knocked out of her.
'Dear God, that's the name,' she said, the words springing from her mouth on their own. 'You're Max's friend, aren't you? The one he wanted me to call?'
A beat of silence. 'Yes, I am. I—'
'How is he?' she interrupted. Worry had swept chillingly through Kirsten's initial excitement. If Max were all right, why wouldn't he be calling?
'Kirsten, we need to meet. I have to speak with you in person, find out what's happened to him. To both of you.'
'You mean you don't know….'
'No, Kirsten. I don't. No one's heard from him.'
She clutched the phone, her hand shaking around it. Her entire arm shaking.
'Then how.. how did you get this number?'
'I'll explain all that later. I promise. Right now it's just urgent that we get together. I'll come to you there. It's probably best if you stay put.'
Kirsten breathed.
What reason was there to trust this man? This name Max had mentioned once in a moment of urgency? This voice? The truth was that she hardly even knew whether Max was the person he'd seemed to be…
Except that wasn't true. She did know. Maybe not everything about him. Maybe not as much as she should have known. But as she'd told Anna just days ago, she loved him….
Had loved him long before he'd put his own life at risk to save her…
And what was love, always, always, but a leap of faith?
'All right,' she said. 'I'll be waiting.'
