Ratio: A Leopold Blake Thriller (A Private Investigator Series of Crime and Suspense Thrillers) (27 page)

IRRITATED AFTER THE abrupt exodus of Jack and the early end to their weekend date, June went back to the bed and straightened the sheets. She was locked into the hotel with nowhere to go and not even a hint of what the threat might be. As far as she knew, she was alone on the floor. 

There goes my talk
, June thought, flopping onto the bed. She cuddled a pillow to her chest. It was the one Jack had used during the night, and still had his scent on it. Somehow, it made her miss him even more. Jack was gone, and she wasn’t sure of where or when she would see him again. 

This weekend officially sucks.

June thought she heard something from out in the hallway and pushed up onto one elbow in the dark room.
Is that the housekeeper?
The ventilation system kicked on, a soft whoosh of air flowing through the vents. But there was something else, something in the hallway. 

A credible threat?
she thought, slipping on a bathrobe.
What the hell is a credible threat? A housekeeper making her rounds too early in the afternoon?

She considered the housekeeper for a moment, how she had seen the young woman only once since checking in, but she had clearly been around to clean the rooms and make beds since then. Even the pillows had been changed. But what did she, or even Leopold or Jerome, really know about her?

She blew out a breath, staring at the ceiling. “Shit, June, you’re starting to sound as paranoid as the rest of them,” she said, muttering to herself. 

June heard the noise again. It wasn’t coming from inside the room. There was definitely something going on out in the hallway. Maybe a door being opened and closed.

Her mind raced.
If the hotel is in lockdown right now, why would the housekeeper be cleaning rooms? Wouldn’t she know about it?

June went to the suite door and peeked out the peephole. No one there. She went back to the bedroom and grabbed some clothes to put on. She looked at the tight dress she had planned on wearing for dinner later that evening. She picked it off the hangar, held it up to the light. Shook her head. 

Yeah, that would be smart. Terrorists might attack the building, a bomb might go off, who knows what might happen, and I want to play dress-up. That’s levelheaded thinking.

Hanging the dress back up, June grabbed the closest pieces of clothes and put them on, a pair of sweatpants and a blue halter-neck top, before heading back to the door, her curiosity getting the best of her. She tossed back the security hasp, flipped the dead bolt, and slowly opened the door. Peeking her head out the door, she looked down the hallway in one direction. Empty. She looked in the other direction.

June froze.

A man dressed in a tight black outfit was huddled at the far end of the corridor, inspecting one of the doors. He used a key card to let himself in, taking care to shut the door silently behind him. June pulled her head back into the room and slid the deadbolt back into place. 

On her tiptoes, she ran back to the bedroom. She searched through what Jack had left behind, finding the emergency panic phone Leopold had given them the day before. She dialed the number. 

A male voice answered. She recognized it right away.

“Leopold, there’s…”

“No names!”

June gritted her teeth. “Shit. This is Chicken Little. Or whoever. But there’s someone on the floor with me.”

Leopold paused. “The housekeeper?” 

June struggled to hear him. There was a clattering, rumbling noise in the background.

“No,” she said. “A man dressed up in a black outfit. I just saw him go into one of the rooms.”

“What’d he look like?”

“Middle aged. Male. Wearing a tight black outfit, something like scuba divers wear. I only got a peek.”

“Was he armed?”

“Maybe. Like I said, I only got a peek.”

More noise on the line. “Stay put,” Leopold said. “Lock yourself in the room. Find a place to hide.”

“Where are you?”

“Checking out a lead. We’re down in the basements. Just stay where you are. A Secret Service agent should be with you any second.” 

“There’s no way I can get out of here?”

“Not as long as you’re in lockdown.” Leopold hung up. 

June swore and tossed the phone down. Composing herself, she checked and double-checked the door locks before retreating to the bathroom. She could feel adrenaline flowing through her system, making her muscles ache for something to do. She took the edge off with a few push-ups. Then a few more. 

Years of Krav Maga training had conditioned her body to withstand punishment, but dealing with the physical stuff was the easy part. Mentally, June knew she would drive herself crazy if she stayed put for much longer. There was someone outside, someone who probably meant her harm, and she was supposed to wait in her room to be rescued like some damsel in distress? 

She glanced toward the door, feeling her pulse quicken.
Not gonna happen.

Chapter 48

LEOPOLD SLIPPED THE cell phone back into his pocket and turned his attention back to the ventilation system. The main unit housing had been removed, exposing the internal circuits. Harper stood behind him with three other agents nearby. The bulky diesel generators were running at load, forcing everybody to shout.

“We have another situation,” Leopold said, turning to Harper. “It looks like Doctor Kato might have company upstairs.”   

“Smith hasn’t checked in,” Harper said. “He should be with her by now.” 

Leopold swore. “Is Melendez secure?”

She nodded. 

“Then get Jerome up there. My radio won’t work through all this concrete. You’ll need to send someone to find him.”

Harper waved one of the agents over. “Lock down the elevators. I don’t want anyone without official clearance getting upstairs. Then go track down Mr. Blake’s associate and go check this out. Find Smith.” 

The agent nodded and left the basement. 

“I need light over here,” Leopold said. 

Another agent approached with a flashlight. 

“Anything?” Harper asked. 

“This compartment isn’t sealed. I need you to get it open.”

The agent nodded. “Here.” He handed over a screwdriver, fitted with a special head. 

Leopold set to work. “You have any idea how sarin gas works?”

The agent shook his head. 

“Sarin gas, when it comes into contact with the body, prevents certain neurotransmitters from working. The end result is, a person’s lungs stop working. In high concentrations it’s lethal within a couple of minutes. There’s no way to stop it once it gets into the atmosphere.” 

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience, Blake,” Harper said. “Should I be worried?”

“You should be very worried,” Leopold said. “But not about me.” He removed the steel panel. He froze. “You should be worried about this.” 

Harper leaned in. “What the hell?”

“You need to evacuate this hotel now,” said Leopold, getting to his feet. “It looks like your Korean friend was telling the truth.”

Chapter 49

JUNE OPENED THE door carefully, just a crack. She peered through the gap. The hallway was empty. Whoever she had seen prowling the corridor must be still inside one of the rooms. Taking a deep breath, she sprinted for the elevator. Rounding the corner, she nearly tripped over a pile of sand in the middle of the carpet. With no time to process what the hell might be spilled all over the floor, she shoved her key card into the security slot and hit the call button. 

Nothing happened. The elevator was locked down.

She ran to the stairwell door and tried to figure out how to get the security bars off. It was a simple enough mechanism, just some pins that needed to be removed before the cross-shaped arrangement collapsed. She set it aside, and gave the door a push.

It didn’t budge. She rammed her hip into it to little effect. She looked up and down the door, swearing under her breath. 

I really am locked in this damn place.

June heard the sound of a lock disengaging. The intruder must have finished searching one of the empty rooms, making his way to the next. June ran back to her room as fast as she could and ducked through the door just as a dark figure emerged from one of the neighboring suites. 

She leaned up against the wall, gasping for air. Heart rate through the roof, she tried to calm herself down. She took several slow, deep breaths, and looked around for a weapon to use. She heard a key card shoved into the lock at her door. The handle moved. 

He’s here. 

It was too late to hide, and the room had been swept for weapons already. There wasn’t so much as a kitchen knife in the whole place. She took refuge in the living room, ducking behind the wall just as her door swung open. 

She heard footsteps. The intruder was inside the room, moving slowly. Without gauging his abilities, it would be a mistake to engage him in physical combat this early.  And she had no way of knowing what weapons, if any, he was carrying. Any sudden movement, he might panic. If he had a gun, he might fire off a shot. He might get lucky. 

She would need to try another tactic.

Ignoring the screaming urge to crawl underneath the sofa, June decided to press the only advantage she had. If she could catch him off guard, maybe he would reveal a weakness. So long as he didn’t shoot her first. Still, better than waiting to get executed. 

June composed herself and stepped out into the open. 

“Hey,” she said, flatly.

The intruder flinched, spun round to look at her. “Who the hell are you?” He aimed a large pistol at her chest, complete with silencer. He was at least three steps away.

“You first,” June said back. He looked vaguely familiar. 

“Nobody you care about.” He glanced around. “Where’s Melendez?”

“Not here.”

“Bullshit.”

“Secret Service discovered a perceived threat, so they moved him to another location.” June tried to smile, but there was a tremble to her lips. “Go look for him somewhere else.”

The intruder shook his head. “Secret Service isn’t providing him a detail yet.”

“His private security team handed him over,” June said, taking a step toward him. “They’ll be back any moment to get me.”

“Nobody’s coming, I’m afraid. Agent Smith had an unfortunate accident. You and I are the only ones up here.”

“Who are you?” she asked, taking another easy half step closer.

“You don’t want to be involved in this. Just tell me where Melendez is.”

 “Like I said, not here.” She took in a deep breath, instantly regretting it. 

“Then you won’t mind if we check the place together, will you?” He waved the gun toward the living room. “Get your hands up.”

Hands near her ears, she led him through, wondering what the distance was between them. If she got him close enough, and with enough luck, she might be able to do something about the situation.

Jerome had straightened up the living room the evening before, and everything was still in pristine condition. The coffeemaker had finished brewing, but it was too far away to grab the pot. There was nothing else she could imagine using as a weapon unless this guy had a particular sensitivity to sofa cushions. Through a decade of martial arts training, June had learned several methods of disarming a man carrying a gun. But all of them relied on her getting close.

The intruder stopped. “Okay, now show me the bedroom.”

She led him into the bedroom she and Jack had shared. Some of his clothes still hung over a chair, her silk hose and undergarments on the bathroom floor where she left them. June looked at the little red dress on the bed, and, in an odd way, it looked lonely to her.

“Those are men’s clothes,” the man said. “He’s here somewhere.”

“No. Like I said, there was a security breach or alert or whatever it’s called, and they had to leave in a hurry.”

She felt the gun muzzle tap her in the back and she raised her hands again. 

“When?” the man asked. 

“About an hour ago.”