The Garden of Betrayal - Lee Vance [100]
“Can I help you?”
I jumped involuntarily. A guy I assumed had to be Mohler was standing in the hall outside his office door, blocking my exit. He was a few inches shorter than me, skinny, and had a pointed nose that made him look like a rodent. My first thought was that I could probably take him in a scuffle. My second was that it was just me and him in the office, and that it might be a heck of a lot easier to just bang his head against the wall until he told me what I wanted to know. The original original plan—before breaking and entering—had been exactly that. Reggie had nixed it, and Claire made me promise to play it cool.
“You surprised me. People downstairs had a leak, and their phone system shorted. We’re just checking your equipment to make sure you don’t have a problem when we bring them back online.”
He glanced over his shoulder toward the empty reception area.
“Who let you in?”
“I bumped into your assistant in the hall. Ellen? She said it would be okay.”
He nodded expressionlessly. I couldn’t tell if he was curious or suspicious or just bored. The worst case was that he’d recognize me. My image hadn’t been in the media for ages that I knew about, but some people were good with faces. If he did, I was going back to plan number one. One of the tools on my belt was a twelve-inch crescent wrench. I tried to remember the Scottish word Narimanov had taught me—“laldie.” A beating with a pipe wrench. I reckoned the tool on my belt would serve in a pinch.
“The Internet went down in my office. You know anything about that?”
“I pulled the cable for a second to test it. Everything in the chase got wet. Should be back up now. Sorry I didn’t give you a heads-up—your assistant said you were on the phone.”
He took a couple of steps forward and peered into the closet. The wireless access point I’d installed was in plain view. I wondered if he knew what he was looking at.
“Seems dry to me.”
“Leak was downstairs,” I said, letting myself sound a little peevish. It was probably a mistake to be too polite. I unclipped the line tester from my belt and turned my back to him. “Be done here in a minute.”
I attached the leads to one of the phone blocks and peered at the display on the tester, willing Mohler to walk away. Fifteen seconds passed with agonizing slowness. If he asked me to explain what I was doing, I wouldn’t have any choice but to hit him, because I didn’t have a clue. I heard the door to his office close just as the phone on my belt began vibrating. Kate had responded with the same message I’d sent her—“done.”
It took only a few seconds to unhook my gear and pack up. Kate and Reggie were waiting for me by the elevator.
“Any problems?” Reggie asked.
“I saw Mohler.”
“You get any kind of read on him?”
“Little man in a little office. There has to be someone bigger behind him.”
Kate touched the bag that held her computer.
“We’ll know soon,” she said.
35
We stopped by Ellen Cho’s house to drop her license plate in the mailbox and then drove back down to the city. We were working out of the warehouse instead of the hotel, because it was more spacious and the Internet connection was faster. Claire fussed at the Nespresso machine, fixing coffee for everyone, while Kate booted up her computer and confirmed that she still had remote access to Mohler’s network.
“Huh,” she said, after a few minutes of tapping on her keyboard. “That’s strange.”
“What?” I asked, exchanging a concerned glance with Reggie. “You can’t get in?”
“Getting in was no problem. I’m looking at the activity log on his