Page 124 of King’s Ransom

She clicked on the answer button and put the call on speaker.

‘Audrey, where the hell are you?’ Special Agent Hooper’s voice said.

‘Somewhere safe, Trey,’ Audrey said.

‘You’re hurt. Let us come get you. Bring you in to FBI headquarters down at Federal Plaza. That’s the safest place for you.’

‘The last time the FBI guarded me, it didn’t turn out to be very safe, Trey.’

‘You’re with him, aren’t you? That four-eyed geek, Speedman?’ (127.)

‘Right now, I feel safer with Sam than I do with the whole Bureau.’

(I smiled a little at that.)

‘What about the chip? The QuantumSpeed-7?’

‘What about it?’

‘It’s important, Audrey. A top-secret piece of national security tech. Do you have it?’

‘I know where it is,’ Audrey said evenly. ‘Now, you tell me something: who attacked our motorcade on the parkway?’

A pause at the other end.

‘We recovered the bodies of two of the attackers on the parkway. They’ve been positively identified as MSS agents working out of the Chinese consulate here in New York.’

The MSS was the Ministry for State Security, China’s foreign spy service; the Chinese version of the CIA.

Audrey frowned. ‘Chinese spies?’

‘They wanted the QuantumSpeed-7 chip, which is why they went after you. Audrey, please, come in. Before they send more assassins.’

‘No,’ Audrey said firmly. ‘Hey, Trey, why don’t you use all those friends in high places whose asses you’re always kissing to call the fucking Chinese Consul-General and tell him to stand his killers down?’

‘This is sensitive, Audrey—’

‘They tried to kidnap me, Trey, even though I was being escorted by you, the NYPD and Hostage fucking Rescue. If it weren’t for Sam, they’d have got me, too. Given all that, right now I feel safer staying with Sam while he figures out what actually happened at that tower on December 21st.’

‘Is he with you now?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is he listening on speaker?’

I said, ‘Yes, I am.’

‘Fuck, Audrey, really? All right, Speedman, you little twerp, listen up. I know you’ve been poking around on behalf of Yasmina Ivanova. I know you met with the Russian mafia down at Brighton Beach and I know you turned up at the Sleepy Hollow morgue.

‘What happened in that tower on the 21st is an FBI matter. We solved it. Everything pointed to Yasmina Ivanova. I don’t give a flying fuck if you saved Audrey on that parkway. You killed two Chinese nationals, so we’ve issued a warrant for your arre—’

‘For killing two men who were wearing ski masks and trying to abduct a federal agent . . .’ Audrey cut in.

‘—and if you continue to poke your nose into this, I will come after you myself and haul you in.’

‘What are you worried about, Special Agent Hooper? That I’ll make the Bureau look bad?’ I said.

That was exactly what he was concerned about.