Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(51)
“Break it. See what they might have learned. I’ll find out who Qiang was speaking to.” Ping stalked to the conference room and opened the door. “Qiang? A word?”
Wei wasn’t certain hacking the laptop was a good idea. If it had security on it, they could lose whatever intel they might have acquired. But they needed results fast. Waiting was not an option.
Qiang edged through the door, shoulders hunched. The young man looked like he was going to wet himself.
“The woman you spoke with earlier. Who was she?” Ping asked.
“Sarah Collins, from the American Wishing Well company, sir. She was part of the water project last year.”
“Sarah Collins? You’re sure it’s Sarah Collins?” Ping’s face flushed.
“Who is she? What is she doing here?” Wei’s fingers stilled on the keys.
“She—she lives here between assignments. She and her…boyfriend? Husband? I’m not sure, I’m sorry. They are staying here for the weekend. She was immensely valuable negotiating…” Qiang’s voice trailed off and he glanced between them. “Is something wrong?”
“A woman who works with you, halfway around the world, is conveniently staying at the same hotel when you visit her country?” Wei stared at Qiang. “And that’s not suspicious to you?”
“She…lives here. It’s not the first time we’ve run into her when we’ve been here, sir. She—”
“Find out where she’s staying,” Ping said. “Go.”
Qiang scurried back into the conference room.
“He knew,” Ping snarled.
“Qiang?”
“No. My source. My contact.” Ping began to pace, his face twisted into a mask of rage. “She was just a name. I thought figuring out who she was would take too long. There wasn’t time to work on both.”
“Why is this woman important?” Wei straightened. He wasn’t going to like this answer.
“Because Sarah Collins is the person who can open the case. She was under our damn noses the whole time. He said—he said we would have to choose, the case or her.”
“Who is he?” Wei stared at Ping. Who was this source? Why wasn’t Wei involved with managing them? It was his job to get information that was otherwise difficult to obtain.
“I can’t tell you that.”
“What about this Sarah Collins?”
“The laptop. Now,” Ping snapped.
Wei bit back any further questions. He’d been kept in the dark about the mole until Ping sent him to South Korea to get the case. Only being privy to part of the information was limiting Wei’s contribution to the operation. He could do so much more, but the decisions were in Ping’s hands, as always.
Wei retrieved his bag and did his best to put the matter of the mole informant and Sarah Collins out of his mind. The laptop would take his full focus. At least this he could do. Breaking into a laptop wasn’t that difficult, but this one might have additional security, fail safes, unexpected tripwires. He needed to be as careful as he could.
Despite trying to keep his mind on the laptop, Wei’s thoughts strayed to the woman. Logic reasoned that if Sarah Collins was more than just a social advocate, she was also part of the team watching them. If he found out where the laptop was transmitting to, then he would find her unaware. And then he’d learn all her secrets.
Wei plugged a USB cord into his laptop, then the one he’d recovered from the room next door. This wasn’t his area of expertise, but he could likely break something fairly sophisticated—
The screen went dark.
He jabbed the power button. The battery light hadn’t been on. He jammed his power cord into the outlet and plugged it in.
“What happened?” Ping came over to lean on his chair.
Wei didn’t respond. He punched the power button again.
“What’s that smell?” Pint asked.
Wei cursed, jumping up and flipped the laptop over.
Liquid oozed out from the battery. He jerked the USB cord out and backed up.
Oh, he was going to find whoever this person was…
Chapter Twelve
Rand stroked Sarah’s shoulder and stared at the ceiling.
They weren’t talking, and for the first time…that was fine. Because if he opened his mouth, he was going to poke the problem. That wasn’t solving things. He wanted something he couldn’t have, and instead of getting upset about it, he needed to accept that in this, Sarah was right.
They were what they were, and pinning a name to it wasn’t important.
His phone beeped in the silence. A single, solitary tone, but it was enough to stop him breathing for the span of a second.
“What was that?” Sarah muttered, half asleep.
He rolled out of the bed and snagged his boxers from the pile of clothes as he dug for the phone.
“Get dressed.” He didn’t have time to explain why, and he didn’t know the reasons yet, but that sound couldn’t be good.
To Sarah’s credit she, too, rolled out of bed and went straight to the bag of clothing, no more questions asked.
“Someone just tried to hack the laptop. Our cover’s likely blown.” He tossed the phone on the bed. “We need to be out of here in less than five.”