“Are you hurt!”
He shook his head, “No. Don’t think so.”
He chuckled mirthlessly, “Honestly didn’t think to check.”
“What” She moved to look him over.
Everything looked in place. Four major limbs, all his fingers, and no sign of blood soaking through his clothes. He was sitting on her floor by now, leaning back against the wall, and starting to shake.
Anselm held up his hand, looking at it as it shook, and let out a long breath. “Took longer this time.”
“What are you talking about” Gwen hissed, sinking to her knees as she grabbed his coat and patted his shoulders, arms, and torso down with enough pressure to locate any injuries he might be hiding, if only via the pain the motions would cause him.
“I’ll be fine,” He said, pushing her hands away. “I just need a minute now.Coming down.”
“From what!”
“Fire fight.” He told her, his eyes coming up and locking with her, “I found out what they’re doing here.”
Her eyes widened and she didn’t need to ask who `they’ were. The instant question that came to her lips was to ask what he’d learned, but something drive that away as she started to think about what might happen as a result of what he’d learned.
“Are they following you”
He shook his head, “No. Don’t think so.”
“Are you sure” She pressed.
“Yeah. I think I got out clean.”
“You think!” She hissed, “That’s twice you said `think’. Do you know”
He glared at her, “I’m pretty god damned sure, alright! No one saw me, I know that.If my Portable was able to spoof their security then I got away clean. If not, then they might know about me by now. But no one’s following me. Yet.”
“Yet”
“Yet.” He nodded, grimly, his hand starting to steady a bit. “If they find out I was there, they’ll be looking for me as soon as they clean up the fire that probably started in the explosion.”
Gwen choked.
“Fire Explosion” She yelped, face falling, “Christ, Gunnar! What are you, crazy”
He chuckled dryly, “Wasn’t me, but that doesn’t matter now. We’ve got bigger problems.”
“Bigger than an explosion”
“Much bigger.” He said grimly, reaching up and grabbing her shoulder to help hoist himself to his feet. “I’ve got to contact the Director.then we need to go over some files I’ve got.”
“Files What kind of files”
“I scanned the Tower personnel database into my portable,” He told her, “I have to start running a database search to get an idea of how badly screwed we are.”
“Oh that’s just plain lovely.” Gwen muttered sarcastically. “I don’t know about you, Gunnar, but I prefer a dinner and maybe a little wine before I get to that part of the evening.”
“We’ll be lucky if we get a shot of vodka laced with rohypnol this time, Gwen,” Anselm smirked sarcastically in return, “something tells me that these boys aren’t the wine and cheese type.”
“Figures.”
Abdallah Amir didn’t look up when the large figure entered his rooms, instead he remained with his head down in a sheaf of papers that covered his desk, leaving almost no empty space to be seen.
“Yes, Jacob” He said quietly, making a notation in a leather bound book, “Have you determined the identity of the intruder”
“No, Amir,” Jacob shook his head, “There was no identification on him. Nothing at all, in fact.”
That brought Amir’s head up, and he frowned. “Nothing No weapon”
“He was using one of our guard’s pistols when the shootout occurred,” Jacob explained.
Amir sighed, setting his pen down, and stood up from the desk, pushing his chair back in the process. “I assume that you have compared the body to the pictures of the Interpol agent in Tower City The Swede”
“Of course,” Jacob replied instantly, “It was not him. The body is too heavy, and this man is considerably older.”
“Intelligence then,” Amir frowned. “CIA most probably, though perhaps MI6 or ASIS had the local advantage.”
Jacob’s glower deepened, “How do you know that”
“Because no cop would come in without carrying a weapon, not if he suspected what was down here,” Amir replied, “Hell, no cop would come in alone unless he was.exceptionally strange. They aren’t trained that way. No, Jacob, this was an Intelligence agent. If not the Americans, then certainly the British or the Australians. Did you find his computer”
Jacob froze, then slowly shook his head. “There was no computer, Amir.”
Abdallah snarled now, turning on the larger man, “Don’t be a fool! Of course there was a computer. Find it. We need to know what he learned and sent back to his superiors before he was located.We may still have time.”
“Amir.We searched everything. The only computer in the lab was yours.I swear it!”
The terrorist fell silent, staring at the wall for a moment. “That’s not possible, Jacob. No gun, yes, that is how a good agent would come in. He’d play slow, fat, and dumb.try to bluff his way out if he were caught. But he would need a computer, would need one for this sort of job.”
Jacob shook his head, “It may have been destroyed in the explosion, if it was close to the source of the blast.”
“Yes.Yes, that’s possible,” Amir admitted, but his voice was doubtful and he was shaking his head. Finally he looked up, “Audit our security system.”
“Amir”
“Look for any evidence that someone left the lab last night, Jacob.”
Gwen Dougal came back into her living room, straightening the fit of her blouse as she finished the last button, to find Anselm frowning and tapping at his portable like it had done something wrong.
“Damn it!” He exclaimed, tossing it down in annoyance.
“What’s wrong”
Anselm jumped, startled. “Jeez, Gwen! I didn’t hear you come in!”
She half smirked at him, “Yelling at electronics tends to make a man deaf.”
He chuffed in amusement, nodding. “Yeah, I guess.”
“What’s wrong with it” She nodded to the offending electronics.
“Nothing.” He sighed, pulling out another portable and flipping it open.
Gwen’s features became perplexed, “You have two”
“What No.” Anselm shook his head, hefting the one in his hands, “This one’s mine. That piece of junk belonged to the CIA agent.”
Gwen blinked.
“CIA! What CIA Agent!”
“The one who set off the explosion.” Anselm replied, picking up the offending portable again and trying to access it.
“Set off.! Bloody Americans!”
“Not like he had a lot of choice,” Anselm sighed, again tapping at the resisting portable. “I think this has advanced biometric security.”
Gwen rubbed her temple, trying to follow both tangents of the conversation. “What do you mean, he didn’t have a lot of choice And, so Most portables come equipped with biometrics.”
Anselm had to concede that point, biometric scanners, including fingerprint and retinal systems were standard on most off the shelf portable computers and had been for years. The problem was he didn’t see any of those scanners on the device, and he wasn’t even certain that the device was even powered up.
“Gunnar Gunnar!”
“Huh What” he looked up, surprised.
“What did you mean, he didn’t have a lot of choice about setting off that explosion” Gwen ground out.
Anselm winced, shrugging, “Well, it was either that or the virus might have escaped.”
The Australian police inspector closed her eyes, covering one eye with her hand, and actually whimpered slightly. “I know I’m going to regret asking this.but, what virus”