“Did you receive the photographs I sent you?” he asked in Mandarin.
“I’m looking at them now,” Xu Wei replied, also in Mandarin.
“We found nothing to directly tie Gallagher to Pennington’s activities regarding the Nano technology, but, as you can see, Gallagher has a very lucrative side job.”
“Indeed.” Xu Wei studied the photos more closely. A strongbox that contained numerous stacks of cash, all neatly rubber-banded together, along with dozens of plastic bags containing everything from pills to powder. “So Gallagher is a drug dealer,” he said. “And a man of so little character and conscience would have no trouble committing industrial espionage for the right price. He could be our proverbial fly in the ointment, and we cannot risk him interfering. I’ll call Cheng immediately and alert him to what we’ve found. The conversation he’s currently having will be moving in a less ambiguous direction.”
Jake’s Bar & Cocktail Lounge
28 February
Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. local time
Aidan parked his car in an alley just two blocks away from Jake’s. He flipped off the ignition and turned to Emma, who was wearing the dark-washed jeans and green silk blouse that one of Aidan’s female contacts had picked up for her.
“Let’s review this again,” he instructed her now. “I’ve shown you photos, so you know what our target looks like and you know he’s inside that bar, probably talking to a bunch of his tech friends.”
Emma nodded impatiently. “And for whatever reason you won’t tell me, this guy carries both a regular cell and a burner phone. Fine. I get it. I’m supposed to get close to him, and one of your team is going to dial his regular number. How do you know he’ll answer?”
“Once he sees the Caller ID, he’ll answer,” Aidan replied tersely. He had no intention of telling Emma that Terri had done her magic to ensure that the Caller ID would register as NanoUSA. But Aidan knew that once David saw that and assumed it was Zoe, he’d grab the call in a New York minute. “Watch carefully to see where he pulls his cell phone from. After that…”
With the confidence of a pro, Emma waved away the rest of Aidan’s sentence. “I don’t need to watch carefully. No one wears jackets out here. Which means he’ll either go for his shirt pocket or one of his front pants pockets. If he goes for the pants, I’m gold and can just target the pocket he doesn’t go for. If he goes for the shirt, I’ll have to check out which hand he holds his phone in, so I’ll know whether he’s right-or left-handed, at which point I can figure out which of the front pockets is where he keeps his burner. I’ll then borrow it.”
Aidan opened his mouth and then shut it again, giving a bemused shake of his head.
Emma shot him an impish grin. “You seem to have forgotten just how good at this I am. So I figured I’d remind you.” With that, she plucked something off the seat beside her and tossed it at Aidan. “I think that’s yours.”
Aidan caught the wallet and turned it over in his hands. “Shit,” he muttered. “You’re scary.”
“Scary good.” She turned to look in the direction of the bar. “So now that your worries are over, let’s deal with mine. We’ve established that I can steal anything from anybody. But what’s a Bluejack and how do I work it?”
Aidan handed over his cell phone and pointed at the icon for the Bluejack app. “Once you get the burner in your possession, open this app and make sure to keep my phone near his. Press the app’s red start button and the icon will start spinning. That tells you that it’s working. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. When it’s finished, you’ll see a big green check mark across the screen. Wipe your prints off his phone and slip it back in his pocket. Then you’re outta there.”
“I’ll be meeting you back here?” Emma confirmed, sticking Aidan’s phone into the pocket of her jeans.
“I won’t budge.”
With a nod, Emma reached for the door handle. “Now?”
“Now.”
* * *
Inside Jake’s, David was following orders.
Perched at a table, he was talking business with Ethan Gallagher. Despite Gallagher’s loyalty to Vance Pennington, it had been easy for David to set up this meeting. Gallagher was an upwardly mobile guy whose affinity for the finer things in life was consistent with his willingness to keep all his options open. All David had to do was give him a call, say he had a few high-paying clients who were looking for people with Gallagher’s experience for newly created executive positions, and poof! Gallagher appeared at the bar.
David had already run through a few fictitious opportunities, elaborating on the salaries and growth potential. He balanced out the career talk by engaging Ethan in personal conversation, feigning the desire to get to know his interests outside of work. His job was to pace himself to buy as much time as possible for Xu Wei’s people to complete their task.
Ethan was just describing his last ski trip to Aspen when David’s burner phone rang.
“Just give me one minute,” he said to Ethan. “I’ve got an urgent client call I’ve been waiting for.”
He stepped away, turned his back, and took the call, speaking very quietly in Mandarin, his voice swallowed up by the talking, laughter, and music of the bar.
“Yes.” He absorbed the information that was given to him. “Now that I wasn’t expecting. It’s not a direct link, but it’s an indicator. Let me see if I can learn anything more.”
He disconnected the call, slipped the burner back into the right front pocket of his jeans, and turned back to Ethan.