Magic Lantern. Alex Archer

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      7

      A few tense minutes later, Annja got out of the cab in front of Edmund’s apartment building in Chelsea. She paid the driver and walked up to the security door. Frustrated, she rang Edmund again, but he still didn’t answer.

       She knew it was possible the professor was asleep and had turned his phone off. However, she couldn’t get the Triad members—if that’s who they were—out of her mind. She didn’t doubt they’d go after Edmund.

       She retreated to the back of the building. Studying the old metal fire escape, she leaped up, caught hold of the bottom rung on the ladder leading up to it and was pleasantly surprised when the ladder rolled down more quietly than she would have figured.

       For a moment, she lingered in the shadows, watching the windows of the back apartments to see if any lights came on or if anyone looked out to check on the sound. Then, when nothing happened, she went up the ladder. There was still the chance that someone could have called the police, but she was willing to take the risk.

       On the third-floor landing, she stayed low, duckwalking under two windows to reach Edmund’s flat. The window was locked. The room was dark. When she peered inside, she couldn’t see anything.

       She liked Edmund. She wanted to know he was all right. But if she got caught breaking into his flat—either by Edmund or by the police—the situation was going to be really embarrassing.

       She could finesse Edmund. He’d wanted to show her the magic lantern, and her news that someone was searching for it, even to the point of shooting at her, would gloss over the forced entry.

       The police would be a different matter.

       Taking out the Leatherman multitool she’d purchased after arriving in London, because she hated to travel without some sort of tools, she opened the longest blade. Working carefully, she ran the blade around the glass and removed the plastic liner that held the window together.

       When she finished, she set the liner aside, then used the knife blade to leverage the glass free. The pane popped out easily and she set it aside, as well. She folded the knife and put it away. Then she stepped into the flat.

       Inside the room, after negotiating a small sofa, Annja moved to one side and waited for her vision to acclimate to the darkness. She also listened intently. Someone in another flat was watching television, a program with an obnoxious laugh track. In another flat, farther down, people were in the midst of an argument. And there was a crying baby somewhere in there.

       Annja wished she had her backpack, where she kept her Mini Maglite. Abruptly, she realized her possessions might not be safe in the hotel. Her mysterious abductors had mentioned that they’d missed her there, but she didn’t know if that meant they’d broken in or merely seen her leave.

       Eyes adjusted, Annja looked around the small studio flat. It was basically a tiny office under a miniloft that held a modest bed. Two separate areas for Edmund to work and sleep.

       Clutter covered the floor. Most of the mess was books and papers, but Annja knew Edmund wouldn’t have left them like that. He was responsible for the corkboards on the walls and the books piled on the small dining table, but not for the haphazard way everything had been thrown.

       The door was ajar and light from the outside hallway leaked in. Someone had broken in.

       Remaining calm, Annja closed the drapes over the windows and crossed the room by memory to find the lamp mounted on the wall. She switched it on with a curled knuckle and soft yellow light filled the studio.

       She closed the door, then picked up three of the biggest books she could find. She used her sleeves to cover her hands so she wouldn’t leave fingerprints behind in case any crime scene techs got overly industrious.

       Moving quickly, she stacked the books against the bottom of the broken door. They wouldn’t keep anyone out, but they would serve as an early warning system if anyone tried to enter.

       The small desk had once held a notebook computer. A network cable lay abandoned on the desk. She checked through the drawers, but it was obvious they had been searched. Judging from the clutter in front of the desk, the searchers had simply emptied the drawers onto the floor.

       There were no thumb drives, no CDs or DVDs, nothing that could have been used to store files. A business card file folder lay abandoned upside down. Evidently the searchers had been instructed to find anything high-tech.

       Again using her sleeves, Annja picked up the folder and flipped through it. Most of it was contact information for various agencies, libraries, library staff, other Oxford professors, plumbers and electricians. She guessed that Edmund didn’t entirely trust his computer to remember everything for him. She didn’t blame him. She didn’t, either. That was one of the reasons she maintained her journals as well as her private blog.

       One of the cards caught her attention.

      Gaetano СКАЧАТЬ