Page 182 of King’s Ransom

‘Jane Street in the West Village, please. And I’m in a bit of a hurry.’

Jane Street, West Village

31 December, 2225 hours

When I arrived at Leaf’s place in the West Village about an hour later, Heidi and Audrey hugged me in surprise, joy and relief. (I got Heidi to pay for the cab.)

‘Where have you been?’ Audrey said, eyeing the grey dust all over me.

‘We thought you were dead,’ Heidi said. ‘God, look at you. What happened?’

‘The bad guys caught me at Winnie Tan’s place yesterday, drugged me with Duramorph and then buried me alive in concrete. But I got out.’

‘They did what? Then you did what?’

‘They also took my backpack with my laptop in it and my phone, and now I need a computer. Heidi, have you got your laptop here?’

‘Sure.’ She grabbed it from a nearby table and handed it to me.

‘We have to keep moving.’ My mind was in overdrive and I was speaking fast as I began typing. ‘Heidi, grab your gun. Audrey, can I borrow yours?’

‘On it.’ Heidi hurried into another room.

‘Of course,’ Audrey said. ‘Sam, what are you doing?’ she added as she handed me her FBI-issued pistol. I jammed it into the back of my waistband.

‘Can you walk?’ I said. ‘I need you to come with us.’

‘I’ll help in any way I can. Where are we going?’ She was still wearing Leaf’s pyjamas.

‘Aristo King is hosting a memorial party and foundation fundraiser tonight in honour of his son, Ajax, at Winnie Tan’s apartment in the Steinway Tower. I’m guessing some FBI folks were invited, like your boss, Longmuir.’

Audrey nodded bitterly. ‘Yeah, King wanted to give them special thank-you awards. My bosses couldn’t RSVP fast enough.’

‘Good. That’s actually helpful,’ I said as I typed.

‘What? Why? Sam, slow down. I don’t understand a word you’re saying.’

‘Because we’re going to that party now, to finish this. Winnie Tan’s going to be out in the open tonight and I don’t know if we’ll get another chance at this. But there’ll be major security, which is why I need you and your FBI badge to get us in.’

‘Sam—’

‘Trust me, Audrey. Get dressed and I’ll tell you on the way.’

As Audrey got changed, I ate two bananas and chugged down a bottle of water, all while I punched in my log-in details on an app on Heidi’s laptop: Apple’s ‘Find My’ app.

And I saw it.

A small location icon.

Pulsing.

I noted the address.

Interesting that they went there, I thought. Maybe they don’t trust Winnie anymore. Hmmm.

I checked the time.

11:05 p.m.