Realizing something was amiss, Lafevers opened the glass door and strode purposefully to the restroom. He entered in a casual manner and stepped directly up to one of the urinals. When he finished relieving himself, he mashed the chrome handle almost violently, as though the additional strength might make the flush more loud. When the water gushed down in a load roar, he used the opportunity to stoop down and look under the stall partitions.
And what he saw was exactly what he expected: there was no sign of the long-haired man. There was no sign of anyone.
His heart thumping with excitement, the banker quickly returned to his office and closed the door behind him. He could see Katarina giving him a quizzical look through the glass as he picked up the phone and pressed a single green button near the bottom.
After two rings, the line was answered by a groggy voice. “Yes.”
“This is Lafevers.”
“This better be good.” The man yawned. “What do you want?”
“I think we have trouble.”
There was a creaking sound as the man rolled over in bed. “What do you mean we have trouble?”
“We have a visitor here at the bank. He looked suspicious, and when he came in he asked Katarina if he could use the restroom.”
“Let me get this straight. You called to tell me one of your clients is in the crapper?”
“There is more to it than that.” Lafevers was frustrated but knew better than to cross him.
“Well, spit it out. You’re wasting my precious sleep. What’s so suspicious about a man using the restroom?”
Lafevers bit his tongue. “As I waited for him to return I heard a ding.”
“He’s in the restroom and you heard a ding?” the man asked in a condescending tone.
“It was the ding of the elevator.” Lafevers paused to let that sink in. “And after I heard that, I went down to the restroom myself.”
“And was he there?” the man asked, suddenly more serious.
“No, he wasn’t.”
Lafevers could hear more creaking as the man sat up in bed. “Have you seen him before?”
“Never.”
There was a short pause, and then the man said, “We will be there in seven minutes.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
During the ride up, Zane pulled out his phone and typed out a simple text: In. After hitting Send, he received an error message that his phone currently had no signal, so he made a mental note to resend after stepping out onto the second floor.
Despite being of recent construction, the elevator crawled at a snail’s pace, something Zane figured might relate to security. There were undoubtedly cameras inside the car, and the slow ride up probably gave the security team time to scrutinize whoever was inside. But even though he planned on erasing all of the footage, the operative still kept his head down.
After an agonizingly long wait, the elevator finally bumped to a halt, and the door slowly slid open. Zane stepped out and prepared to resend his text, only to stop dead in his tracks. A loud beeping noise permeated the second floor. Was it an alarm? Had something about the card triggered it?
The elevator was at the corner of the floor, with one hallway running straight ahead and another running to the right. The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere straight ahead, but due to the echoing effect, it was hard to tell precisely.
Sliding the phone back into his pocket, Zane pulled out his pistol, chambered the first round, and then decided to take the hallway directly ahead. After a few steps, he noticed the sound had grown louder, an indication he had made the right choice. In fact, the noise seemed to be coming from a room just ahead on the right.
With his finger behind the trigger, Zane stepped inside the room and cleared it in both directions. It apparently served as the office kitchen, as there was a round table with chairs, a refrigerator, a microwave, and various bags of plastic plates and cups on top of a counter that ran the length of one wall.
It didn’t take the operative long to discover that the refrigerator was the source of the noise. Someone had left it open, and the appliance was beeping its displeasure. Using the back of his hand so as not to leave prints, Zane pushed the door shut and returned to the hallway.
What now? He knew he was going to search for the former office of Ian Higgs, but he wasn’t sure where to begin. Deciding to start with the rooms on the inner side of the hall, he walked down to the next door past the break room. After peering inside, he was gripped with a feeling of satisfaction. Directly in front of him was what appeared to be a small security station. There a number of monitors set up on a long table on the left. One large monitor the size of a flat-panel television screen displayed a number of live video feeds, both inside and outside the building. There was a view of the lobby, a view of the bank interior, and even a feed showing the inside of the elevator car that he had just rode up in.
The discovery of the CCTV system meant that Zane would be able to use the thumb drive to erase any evidence he had been in.
So far everything seemed to be going smooth as silk. Which meant that’s exactly when he could expect the problems to begin.
“Still nothing?” Amanda asked from the back seat.
“Still nothing,” Carmen looked down at the phone that was perched on her leg.
“It seems like it’s been a while. Shouldn’t you text him?”
“Not yet. We stick with the agreed-upon protocol until we believe something has been compromised. I’m not ready to go there yet.”
“What if someone was on the upper floor when he arrived?”
“Then Zane will go right back down. I doubt anyone is there, although I guess anything is possible. Everything I’ve read about Mironov, from intelligence sources and public sources, indicates he is a meticulously organized man. If he has a rule that they don’t work during the day, my guess is they don’t work during the day.”
“What about security?”
“That’s the one thing that concerns me a bit. Our best guess is that daytime security is electronic only. If there are actual security personnel, they would be downstairs in the bank. And if they’re present then Zane will—”
Carmen stopped in mid-sentence as the phone vibrated on her leg and rolled off onto the seat. She picked it up, looked at the screen, and then answered, “Petrosino.”
“It’s me,” Brett said. “I assume you don’t have anything yet?”
“We were just talking about that. No, nothing so far.”
“I’m a little concerned because we picked up a signal in the building’s security system. I can’t quite tell what it is, but I’m assuming it’s somehow related to the use of the access card. And that was a couple of minutes ago.”
“Well, that’s not good.” Carmen frowned. “Have you been able to breach the security cams?”
“Not yet. Those are locked up pretty well. Chris and I are working on it, though. The good news is that Zane has the thumb drive and should be able to erase everything on his way out, provided he can find the hard drive.”
“I was thinking more of us being able to see him to make sure everything is all clear.”
“If he hasn’t checked in a minute from now we need to reach—”
“Brett…” Carmen looked through the front windshield.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“We have a problem. Some arrivals. I need to go.”
“Copy that. Keep me posted—”
Carmen didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence. While continuing to stare through the windshield, she placed her phone back on her leg using one hand and simultaneously removed her Beretta from her pocket with the other.
“What's going on?” Amanda asked from the back seat.
“Shhhhh.” Carmen gestured up the street with her gun. A black Mercedes SUV had just pulled into a spot about a block away. Based on her count of silhouettes, Carmen figured that there were at least five people inside. “No talking from here on out. And don’t move unless I tell you to.”