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Page 47.
 "Mailing a package. Is that about the size of what she stole from you?"
Wan almost fell out of his seat. "Oh god yes. I'm sure of it. Where is it going?"
"Luxembourg, from the looks of it."
Wan sat back, steepling his fingers in deep concentration. "So you were able to track Yolo's car until you lost it near Verdun. But right near there, you found some footage of these two buying hair color in a convenience store. If I am not mistaken, there are train lines running from Lorraine into Luxembourg."
"Yessir. They stole a car right in that same little town. We also have footage a little later of them checking into a motel in this little place."
The screenshot changed to a scene of a parking lot, a motel front overlooking a large row of middle-income store fronts, and then the lobby of the motel. "The lobby clerk called police to check the license plate. He saw them get out of the car, and went outside to look while I assume they were in a room cutting and dyeing their hair. By the time a patrol motorcycle arrived, they had left." The screen switched to showing a police motorcycle, and a uniformed cop in helmet, boots, and leather jacket getting off. He removed his heavy driving gloves as the motel clerk came out. Then the screen went blank.
Nirmala continued. "We have three other things. One, a police car ticketed the stolen car in Thionville near the main train station. Two, we hacked into surveillance footage from the Thionville train station. There they are."
"They look like hell," Wan said with grim humor. Just then, the door to the computer lab opened, and Yoichi entered, with the competent and grim-looking Savia right behind them. Wan said rather loudly, "You two. While you are asleep, we are tracking the two who murdered Yolo."
"Good, sir," they both said, looking nonplussed.
"They are in Luxembourg by now," Wan said.
"Confirming," said Nirmala. "We were able to track the delivery number on the package she mailed in Paris. It is in Luxembourg at the Poste de la Gare office."
She showed a dim image of the interior of a store front, presumably the post office in Luxembourg.
"We can fly into Luxembourg and be there within the hour," Yoichi said. The loss of Yolo was a personal blow to his pride. Savia's grimly handsome face reflected a new, unstoppable determination.
"Get me my plans back," Wan shouted, waving his fists in the air. He was normally a tightly controlled man, but this was outside the bounds.
"Yessir," Yoichi said.
Savia had a cell phone in hand. "I am calling for a chopper on deck as we speak. We'll be there as fast as the man can fly."
"There is a heliport near the train station, from what I remember," Yoichi said.
"Good," Wan grimly interjected. "Kill them if you have to."
"The girl?"
"I don't care," he said. "She is nothing to me now. I just want back my property. Not her—the plans."
"Very good, sir," Yoichi said.
"Here is this also," Nirmala said. The screen resolved to show a young Asian man in a coat, unobtrusively standing in the train station.
"Who is that?" Savia asked.
They watched as Nirmala zoomed in and out, losing and regaining focus as the hacked train station servers divulged their secrets.
First, they showed the Asian man standing at the top of a platform behind the train station. Then they resolved to a shot of the couple walking hand in hand through the train station.
"They've become cozy," Savia said venomously.
Yoichi scoffed. "That will be a weakness. And the guy?"
"His name is Shen," Nirmala said. "He works for different agencies, doing a little of this and a little of that."
"Does he work for us?" Yoichi demanded.
"Sometimes," Nirmala said. "Look, here they are again."
The screen showed Hannah Smith and Richard Buchan in the lobby of the Gare post office in Luxembourg City.
Looking through the surveillance camera over her shoulder, Wan could just make out that she was handling that package again.
She handed it back to the clerk.
She'd mail it to herself somewhere else. All they'd have to do is track the two, and they would lead Wan's people directly to the missing documents.
"Track every move," said the angry zillionaire. "You two get going!"
"We have people in Luxembourg," Yoichi assured him. "We'll get them on the case with a phone call."
"So what are you waiting for?" Wan shrilled in anger and frustration.
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Thank you for reading the first half (free, what I call the Bookstore Metaphor). If you love it, you can (easily and safely at Amazon) buy the whole e-book for the painless price of a cup of coffee—also known as Read-a-Latte (hours of reading enjoyment; the coffee is gone in minutes, but the book stays with you forever). You can also get those many hours of happy reading from the print edition for the price of a sandwich (no, I don't have a metaphor for that, like a 'sandwich metaphor?'). To help the author, please recommend this book your friends, and also post a favorable (five star!) review at Amazon, Good Reads, and similar online reader resources. Thank you (JTC).
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