"All he saw was the usual contractor stuff. They had a couple of toolboxes and a cylinder on a dolly."
"A cylinder? What kind of cylinder?"
"Kowalski says he's seen one like it before. The HVAC people use them to test the cooling system."
"But these weren't HVAC people. What would they be doing with a cylinder like that?"
"That's what I was wondering. Kowalski showed the terrorists where everything was and then went away. Federal agents searched the basement where Kowalski left them, but nothing has turned up. The dogs haven't sensed anything. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary in the area where the terrorists were supposed to be working. No odd packages, no out of place trash, nothing."
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Elizabeth said. "A cylinder could be a bomb."
"Kowalski says they took everything they had with them when they left, including the cylinder."
"Then there must have been something in the toolboxes. The cylinder could have been for show, to give them a look of legitimacy."
"I was wondering if you could send your team to the hotel and take a look," Hood said. "Nick and the others have been dealing with things like this for a long time. They're used to finding things that can kill you that look innocent. The Bureau is good, but the mindset is different. They don't have the same kind of experience."
"Nick's been chomping at the bit to do something since they came back from Israel. I'll send them up. If there's anything there, they'll find it."
"That's what I wanted to hear. That was quite a find they made over there."
"It's unfortunate that they didn't find it in Israel," Elizabeth said. "The Egyptians are determined to claim it for themselves. So far, it's a standoff."
"Too bad Solomon isn't around to pass judgment."
"I don't believe you said that," Elizabeth said.
"I have my moments."
"When this conference is over, let's head for the Caribbean."
"It's a date," Hood said.
CHAPTER 47
It was the day of the conference. Nick and the team had been in the hotel since first light. Everywhere they went they were stopped by Secret Service or FBI. The general attitude was that they weren't welcome and everything was under control, so why were they there in the first place?
They had been all through the building, including the basement. They'd found nothing out of the ordinary.
The Israeli prime minister and President Corrigan were already in the hotel. The prime minister had arrived at 12:30. President Corrigan had greeted him in the lobby. They'd been shepherded to a private conference room, trailing a gaggle of Mossad and Secret Service agents behind. The hotel was packed with delegates from all over the world.
Selena stood in the lobby with the others, watching people mill about.
"Alan should have been here to see this," she said. "This was his creation."
"From a security standpoint, this is a nightmare," Nick said. "There are too many people."
"Seems like half of them are Secret Service or something else," Ronnie said.
"It only takes one lunatic to make them all useless," Nick said.
"We still haven't talked to the maintenance guy, Kowalski."
"They had him over at the FBI office all morning. He has to be back by now. Let's find him."
They found Kowalski in the basement.
It didn't take Nick long to figure out that the assistant engineer wasn't the highest card in the deck.
"Like I told those other guys, I don't know nothin'."
"What other guys?" Nick asked.
"You know, the feds, guys like you."
"We're not FBI," Nick said. "We're something else. Tell me again why you left three men here without watching them."
"They had a work order. They looked okay."
"What does that mean?"
"What does what mean?"
"That they looked okay."
"You know. They looked like anybody else. Like working guys. Like guys that work on air-conditioning. Waddaya want from me?"
Selena said, "Mister Kowalski, no one is blaming you for anything. These men are terrorists. They were here for a reason. Our job is to try and find out what that was. Can you show me where they were when you last saw them?"
Relieved to know something they wanted, Kowalski led them into the control room where he'd last seen Dayoud and the others.
"I left them right here," he said. "Then I went upstairs."
"Just a few more questions, Mister Kowalski. Then you can get on with your work."
"Okay. That's good, I got a plumbing problem on the fourth floor. What with the president being here and all, everything's a mess. But the plumbing still has to work."
"What did they have with them?"
"Two toolboxes, like you carry tools in."
"What else?"
"They had a dolly with a cylinder on it. Like refrigeration guys use when they need to recharge something. I told the other guys that."
"Was there anything else?" Selena asked.
"Yeah, they had a ladder, one of those folding aluminum jobs."
Nick and Selena looked at each other. No one had mentioned a ladder before.
"Did you tell the other people who talked with you about that?"
"Come to think of it, it kind of slipped my mind, what with everybody being angry, confusing me."
"Angry?"
"Yeah, they acted like I'd done something wrong. All I did was follow orders. One guy was yelling at me."
"Well, he shouldn't have done that," Selena said.
"That's right," Kowalski said. "What right have those guys got to yell at me? I was just doing my job."
She looked at Nick. He nodded.
"Thank you for your time, Mister Kowalski. I don't think we have any more questions for you."
Kowalski looked like he wanted to get out of there. "Yeah, well, if you need to get hold of me, I'll be on the fourth floor."
They watched him leave.
"You did a good job with him," Nick said.
"The poor man was frightened," Selena said. "How would you feel if a bunch of federal agents came out of nowhere and started asking you a lot of questions?"
"Wouldn't bother me," Lamont said. "I'd tell them to take a hike back to the Hoover building."
"How would you get them to do that?" Ronnie asked.
"I'll show them my badge."
"They've got badges."
"Yeah, but mine's bigger than theirs."
In spite of herself, Selena laughed.
"The ladder is new info," Nick said.
Ronnie looked around the room. "I don't see anything they could have climbed up on. The feebs must have crawled all over the place. If there was anything up on top of that ductwork, they would have found it. Besides, most of it's right up against the ceiling. There isn't room for anything."
"What about inside the ducts?" Selena asked.
"Harker said the feds looked inside the ducts," Nick said. "They chalked a mark everywhere they looked, like that big access panel over there."
They walked over to the panel. A blue chalk mark showed that someone had checked it out.
"They went inside?" Ronnie asked.
"Yes." Nick looked at the panel. "Something bothers me about this, but I can't put my finger on it."
"It's got the chalk mark," Lamont said.
"Yeah, but something is bugging me about it."
Nick studied the panel.
"Why is one screw different from the others?" Selena asked.
"That's it," Nick said. "That's what was bugging me. It shouldn't be different. They should all be exactly the same. That one is the same size, but it's shiny. The others are all dull."
"Like someone replaced it," Lamont said.
"We need to open it up," Ronnie said.
"Get Kowalski back in here with his tools," Nick said. "Tell him to bring a ladder."
Fifteen minutes later, Kowalski showed up carrying a toolbox and a ladder.