Time was of the essence, but she was scrambling over what she could do. One look at the screen to her left showed her that Ahmad had indeed left his phone on the conference table. If she remembered well, the conference table’s view was partially blocked by two pillars, and if the sun was on her side, its reflection on the glass would prevent the man from seeing her. Lance was on the terrace with the two other bodyguards and Kai probably at the door. All she needed was an excuse. Frantically analyzing her surroundings, she started rummaging in the cases to find one of the extra microphones that Lance had shown her this morning. Not that Zoe knew how to install it, but at least she wouldn’t look like a complete fool. The other problem was the cameras. Then she remembered Lance’s words about being careful to not shut down the system. Three minutes... it would give her three minutes only to get in, decipher the dialect, and send the contacts.
She had to act. Now! One last glance at the screen told her that the conference room was empty, so she shut the system down then started the reboot. All the cameras and mics went down. Three minutes. Without rushing, she went out the door and saw Kai guarding the door, clearly not happy about her unexpected appearance.
“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be seen. If Ahmad catches you around...”
Instead of answering, she showed him the mic. “The one near the conference table is acting out. It’s an in and out. From where I’ll be standing, they won’t see me.”
Kai shook his head. “Give it to me, I’ll do it.”
“Great, gimme your gun and I’ll guard the door.”
As she expected, Kai cursed and opened the door, peeking inside before letting her in. “Be quick.”
She intended to, and waited for him to close the door again before moving in. Walking straight to the table, she grabbed the cell phone with trembling hands. In the distance, Zoe could hear the voices of the men on the terrace.
It was exactly as Finch had said. No passwords. Pressing the buttons, the screen lit up. The symbols were foreign to her. Well, some were Arabic, others... she wasn’t sure. Stress made her brain fuzzy and she often looked at the terrace, terrified that someone would come in. Forcing her attention back on the screen, Zoe fumbled through the applications. The setup didn’t look familiar, so she couldn’t do anything else but decrypt the symbols and fast.
Disconnecting herself from her surroundings, she let her brain take over. The symbols moved in her head, trying to find a familiar pattern in them. Adrenaline spiked inside her as it took forever before she noticed something familiar. In an instant, her heart rate picked up, and her brain started solving the puzzle at exponential speed. As if by magic, the symbols started making sense. And she saw the contact application on the second screen.
It was becoming difficult to breathe as if she had run a sprint. It took more time to understand how the system worked and three painstaking attempts to enter Finch’s phone number before sending the text with the file. Dizzy from stress and lack of air, eyes glued on the sending message and blinking dots, Zoe prayed for it to hurry up. Movement caught her eyes and she saw Lance and one of the bodyguards moving toward the sliding doors. She couldn’t leave until the message was sent!
Lance and the man stopped and turned their backs on her. Someone was probably talking to them. Zoe almost screamed when the phone vibrated in her hand, telling her that the transfer was complete. Shutting down the screen and replacing it on the table, she dashed to the door. Kai almost yelped at the way she scrambled out.
“What happened?”
“Nothing. I was just about to come back when I saw Lance and another guy coming back inside. I didn’t want them to see me.”
“Did they?”
Zoe shook her head. “No! Thank goodness.”
“Yeah, you can say that. Lance would have my head knowing you were in there. Go back to the room.”
It took tremendous effort to walk to the door and appear normal. Her nerves were on the fritz and she was feeling shaky.
Dropping in her chair, ready to throw up, Zoe checked the cameras that were still rebooting. There were about thirty seconds to go.
As her breathing was slowly getting under control, her own phone vibrated. She jolted, and almost sobbed, her entire being ready to crack into a thousand pieces.
Well done, my dear. Your brother can live another day. Unharmed. I’ll contact you tomorrow with your next assignment.
Zoe erased the message, put her headset back on her head as the cameras went live. Making sure her mic was still muted, she put her forehead on her arms and cried.
