Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(43)

“We’ve been hung out to dry, saddled with all the responsibility and none of the tools. We’ve got—what? Duct tape and chewing gum?” She snorted. “We’re, who, MacGyver now?”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

“How are you okay with this?” She twisted to face Rand, searching his face.

“Everything we do makes a difference.”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You can.” He wrapped his hand around hers. “Look at what you’ve already done. You’ve been an undercover operative for years. You’ve outsmarted MSS agents, some of the most ruthless men on the earth. You’re part of a covert surveillance operation. And you have all the power in this one little hand.” Rand lifted her right hand to his lips, kissing each knuckle.

“You’re doing everything. I’m just…here.” She flopped her hand toward the rumpled bed where they’d been listening to the other suite.

“Not true. You’re half of this operation. Sure, I’ve done this more than you have, but I can’t speak Mandarin. I can’t make nice with the people we’re watching the way you can. You’re far more dangerous than I am. You’re the danger in plain sight. The one they’ll overlook until we get the case back. We know they have it because of you.”

“Does this ever get easier?”

“Sometimes.”

Sarah blew out a breath, the knot of nerves still firmly lodged in her chest, making it hard to fill her lungs up with oxygen.

“What do we do now?” She hated to agree with Rand, but he was right about a few things. She was the only person who could open the case, and he didn’t have a hope or a prayer of understanding the Mandarin without her.

“We figure out how to get inside the embassy and get the case back.”

“How do we do that?”

“Let’s check it out online.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Sure? Come on.” He patted her leg, then turned and crawled up the bed.

What the hell?

Sarah settled in beside him, finding comfort leaning against his shoulder and soaking up his confidence. This whole thing was a mess. A nightmare. And she wanted it to be over, but that wasn’t likely to happen any time soon.

“Okay, here’s the official calendar of the Chinese embassy and…huh.” He clicked a blocked out date two days from now. “They’re throwing a party in honor of the new Secretary of State.”

“Is that important?”

“Only if we want to get inside and have a look around.”

“That’s…like…a bad spy movie plot point.”

“You’d be surprised how much truth is in those things. Think your friend would invite us?”

“Li?”

“That one, yeah.”

“I don’t see why he would.”

“Hmm. Then maybe I can figure something out.”

“Is that really a good idea? I mean, they know who I am.”

“You’re the danger in plain sight.”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Worst case scenario, we try to get in, we don’t, and we have to wait for some other opportunity. The Chinese will either try to figure out the identity of the person who can open the case, or they’ll sell it. If they try to sell it, there’s a very short shelf life for information like this unless you’re dealing in mass amounts of intel.”

“This just seems like so much for us to do on our own.”

“We won’t be on our own.”

“What? But you said—”

“I said that the company will keep their distance, but there’s a sort of unity in us contractors. If we need help, I know some guys we can call in for back-up that won’t ask questions.”

“And you’re just now mentioning this?”

“I haven’t reached out.”

“So why not call in whatever cavalry we can?”

“Because doing that takes them away from their own very important cases to watch. Besides, unless another opportunity comes up, we’ve got two days to kill while we wait for this party.”

“We can’t wait that long!”

“Sarah, almost ninety percent of covert work is sitting around, waiting for something to happen. Think about it, in all the years you’ve done this, has anything remotely weird happened?”

“No…”

“See?”

“But…shouldn’t we do something?”

“We are. We’re here. We’re listening. We’re watching. We’re doing our job. Look—they have dinner reservations tonight in the restaurant upstairs. We should to be there in case they start talking.”

“Won’t that be suspicious?”

“I’d find it more suspicious if two low-income people staying in a hotel this fancy didn’t make use of some of the amenities. Come on, let’s go see what we have that might work for dinner.”

…

Zhang Wei kept his head down. The camera at one o’clock was positioned at a steep angle, so it wouldn’t catch his face this way.

The long line of people at the concierge desk made him want to grind his teeth, but there was no way around waiting. He opted for the longer line on the left, just out of sight from the camera at nine o’clock.