“Use the drones to surround the warehouse. Make sure he doesn’t leave.”
“That’s kinda rule one-oh-one, chief, you know?”
Yuri nearly smiled at the man’s hurt tone.
“My team will be there in two minutes,” Poi Li said. “They’ve cleared Kintore C and GST.”
Yuri’s heart rate was calming. By unspoken agreement, he and Kohei walked a little farther around the central hub.
“Well, look at that,” Kohei said wryly as the drones showed them two big four-by-four vehicles pulling up outside the Warbi Crude Metal Corp warehouse, one at each end. “Like police responder cars, but bigger.”
Yuri watched impassively as seven or eight men deployed from each four-by-four, all wearing dark head-to-toe armor. “Packing them in,” he murmured.
Boris gave him a private channel to Poi Li. “I want to interrogate Akkar myself.”
“He will be questioned by professionals,” she replied.
“At least let me sit in.”
“Yuri, we have this. You run an excellent department. Believe me, I am aware of that. Just trust our procedures. They exist for a reason, understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said resentfully.
Five minutes later the bomb squad chief announced: “Clear and safe.”
Yuri and Kohei walked back to the StepSmart satchel, which was now being held aloft by one of the safetez’s arms. The squad chief had his helmet visor hinged up. He was holding the flask and several sheets of paper.
“Two kilos of plastique,” the chief said cheerfully, shaking the flask. “And plans.”
“Plans of what?” Yuri asked.
The squad chief thrust the sheets toward Yuri. “Connexion’s Sydney headquarters. Looks like he was coming to pay you blokes a visit.”
“Holy shit,” Kohei grunted.
Yuri watched the chief seal up the plans and flask in evidence bags and record their barcode.
“We have Dimon,” Poi Li announced. “Well done, everyone. Yuri, looks like you can close down the Akkar file now.”
—
The screens on Yuri’s desk were showing three pictures: Savi, Akkar, and Dimon. He sat there motionless in his black leather executive office chair, staring at them.
Kohei walked in, carrying two empty shot glasses and smiling brightly. “Chief! If you fancy sharing some of that godawful vodka of yours, I thought we might toast our success. And the team’s heading out to a club. Everyone invited.”
Yuri looked up. Kohei’s smile faded.
“Too easy,” Yuri declared.
“Which part, the bit where we nearly got blown up? Come on, chief. We won.”
“Savi didn’t.”
“Chief, Poi Li will fire your arse.”
“Why would Akkar walk into one of our hubs? He knew our facial recognition systems would send up red rockets.”
“He was disguised.”
“Yes. Superficially. And this is a man who is so paranoid about our digital security systems he doesn’t allow any internet-connected technology within a hundred meters of himself. So what does he do? Sends his lieutenant—in his customary suit—to scout the hub out. It was a shout. He wanted us to know he was coming.”
“That’s ridiculous. If he knew there was a chance we’d grab him, he wouldn’t be carrying a satchel full of explosives.”
“Right, and not forgetting a map with a big red cross on it, because what does that make him?”
“I don’t get it.”
Yuri grinned without humor. “Guilty. Without question, without the slightest ambiguity. He was going to blow up Connexion’s headquarters. Us! He was coming for us. Guilty.”
“I’m not arguing.”
“And what do we do with guilty psycho eco-terrorists?”
“Rendition, by the looks of it.”
“Yeah. He’s gone to join his friends. That’s what this was all about. He was never going to blow anything up.”
“Okay, so he’s joined them. Or he’s dead, if it turns out we really are on the side of the fascist psychos.”
“But how did he know they’re all missing?”
“There’s been nothing about his people raiding the Kintore maintenance depot in the news streams, no Connexion managers bragging about arrests, no prosecutors grandstanding that charges are pending. He had to know we’ve disappeared them.”
“True. But you’d have to know, really fucking
“How? Nobody knows.”
“We know—because of her.” Yuri stared at the picture of Savi. And in his mind the puzzle silently resolved itself, every factor slipping neatly together.
Boris obediently changed the picture of Savi at his command.
“And so does he,” Yuri said, pointing at Callum Hepburn. “He knows his fiancée is missing. What happens when you put those two facts together? A member of Connexion’s undercover security team and the company’s fanatical opponents both vanishing in the same incident. You’d know there is a huge dark operation in play.”
“But how would Akkar ever know Savi is one of ours?”
“Boris,” Yuri said calmly. “Access Callum Hepburn’s Connexion travel account.”
“Online,” Boris replied.
“How many times has Hepburn visited Kintore?”
“Five times in the last three days.”
“Oh, shit,” Kohei whispered.
“And when was the last time he arrived in Kintore?” Yuri asked.
“Seven hours ago.”