Quantum Breach

by Powell, Mark

Very calmly, he strolled out of her offi ce and back to his desk. In his own mind, he knew he should have shown more control, but the opportunity to put Brown in her place was just too good a blessing from the gods to ignore.

  As McCabe settled back down into his chair, he could see out of the corner of his eye that Brown was still collapsed in her throne. He had quantum breach 290709.indd 135

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  waited a long time to put the fat cow in her place. In his view, she was an arrogant bitch who thought she knew it all and managed by fear. No wonder banks were in such a mess, having parasites like Helen Brown leading them. As he started to refocus on his screen, his phone vibrated.

  He picked it up and answered.

  ‘McCabe.’

  ‘It’s Stowe. My boys have arrived. Meet me at the safe house later.

  Say 8:00 p.m. Okay?’

  ‘Sure, but wait. Good that you called. Can you get your boss to have a gentle word with Fleming? I need cover and fast. They need to get Fleming to call Helen Brown here in Dubai. Just tell her to leave me the hell alone, matter of the uppermost bank importance, something like that, yeah?’

  ‘Sure. Helen Brown, is it? I will have a word with Trent and arrange cover fi re for you. She’ll be one of those queuing up to kiss your arse after this.’ With that, Stowe hung up. McCabe then sat back and smiled.

  It was going to be an interesting day, he thought.

  Ying completed entering the deals Aziz had instructed and then got up and walked casually over to the printer. It was situated across the room in a little side room off the main Dealing Room. As Ying collected the four pages of trade instructions from the printer tray, her wrist was suddenly grabbed. Startled, she spun around: it was Aziz. He gripped her wrist hard.

  ‘Listen to me, girl. You do as you are told and say nothing. You just entered my name against those deals. You think I don’t know?’ His eyes were cold and dark.

  ‘I have to. It’s policy. Now let go of me before I scream the place down and you have a ton of angry traders on you.’ Ying’s tone was fi rm and very serious.

  ‘You do that and you will regret it. Just book the deals and keep your nose out. Don’t forget that you are making good commission out of my deals, girl.’

  With that, he let go and walked off. Ying stood there in shock. She quantum breach 290709.indd 136

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  felt herself shiver. After a few seconds, she composed herself, took out her mobile and dialled McCabe.

  ‘Boss, it’s me.’

  ‘What’s up? You okay?’ McCabe could sense she was sounding a bit uneasy.

  ‘It’s Aziz. He grabbed me in the printer room, told me to do as he said, else I would be in for it.’

  ‘Did he now? That means he’s starting to have some suspicions of his own. That’s it. I need to pull you out.’ McCabe’s eyes were now themselves cold and showed an intense focus.

  ‘No! No, if you do that, all will be lost. I can handle it. He just thinks I’m a meddling brat because I made him enter his correct details against a trade. I’m sure he was just pushing his weight, that’s all.’

  ‘Remember, this man could be dangerous, Ying. Be extra careful.

  Okay, I’ll see you later. I have to do a few things. See you back at the safe house, okay? Stowe will send someone to collect you. Are you sure you’re okay? I can walk over now if you want?’

  ‘No, I’m okay, just being a wimp, I guess. See you later.’ Ying sounded more positive now. Hearing this, McCabe hung up.

  As McCabe hung up his mobile phone, so did Ying, a coincidence that Aziz had just carefully observed. He went back to his desk and picked up the phone. His fi ngers punched out a number frantically.

  When the woman answered, he said, ‘It’s Aziz. I think I may have compromised myself. I tried to place the frighteners on one of the traders to make sure she did my deals on time. I’m pretty sure she has just complained to her boss.’ He then waited for a response.

  ‘You idiot, are you trying to get yourself discovered before we can complete the operation? As it stands, they can’t prove anything yet. All you have done is book a number of deals that look normal, aside from the pricing which lost Al Safad money. You can claim poor decisions if anyone comes snooping around. That is, unless you scare up like just now. You wait and, next week, we execute the Trojan horse. You understand me? Hang on and do not fail me, Aziz.’

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  ‘Yes, I hear you,’ Aziz confi rmed.

  ‘Maybe I will arrange to scare this young lady of yours, to see what she is made of. Remember Aziz, I have men watching you at all times. In fact, I have a man right outside your building. You can’t sneeze without me knowing. I know what she looks like. I have seen her, so leave it with me. Do not lose sight of the fact that we are very powerful, Aziz.’ The phone then went dead.

  Aziz quickly started to back-up some fi les on his computer as a precaution, just in case he was discovered.

  As Ying walked back to her desk, she looked over towards Aziz. She could see him at his desk, typing away feverishly.

  ‘I will get you, Aziz.’ Ying had a determined look on her face as she walked back to her desk.

  An hour later, Ying stood up. ‘I think I will head out for a late lunch.

  See you boys later.’

  She picked up her Miu Miu bag and headed out towards the lifts.

  As she stood in front of the lift, she couldn’t help but feel proud of her efforts. She was helping to trap a worm. The lift doors opened and she stepped in. Time to go shopping, she thought Aziz, however, had seen her leave. He hurriedly dialled a number on his phone. ‘Okay, she is coming out.’ He then hung up. Given the issue he had almost caused by trying to strong-arm Ying, he decided he would also fi nish for the day. So he, too, gathered his things—in particular, his treasured CD on which he had saved all his work—and headed out.

  As he stared blankly at the lift doors, his mind momentarily relaxed.

  His thoughts ran to his family and what they would be doing. His sister would most likely be watching Oprah re-runs, her only entertainment since she became wheelchair-bound after her accident. He snapped out of his reverie as the lift jolted to a stop, and positioned himself to make a fast exit from the lift. The few seconds it took for the doors to open seemed like eternity. They fi nally slid open. Aziz walked out and turned right towards the main entrance of the offi ce building. As he emerged quantum breach 290709.indd 138

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  into the bright sunlight, his eyes were blinded by the glare. He stopped in his tracks and waited for his eyes to adjust.

  ‘Sir, over here!’ His driver was waving at him and hurrying over to take his briefcase. Aziz followed and climbed into the back of the car.

  As the door shut, his driver looked to see if his boss had been followed.

  Satisfi ed that he had not been, he got in and shut his door.

  ‘Home, sir?’

  ‘Yes, and hurry,’ Aziz stared at him in the rear view mirror, then sat back and closed his eyes.

  McCabe stopped in his tracks when he saw Ying’s desk was empty.

  Shit, he thought. With that, he boldly walked up to Colin, who sat next to Ying.

  ‘Excuse me, have you seen Ying? I need her urgently,’ McCabe asked.

  ‘No, mate. Oh, she said something about going off shopping, late lunch. You only just missed her, about fi ve minutes ago.’

  ‘You sure?’ McCabe asked, seeking confi rmation. His face was now looking fearsome.

  ‘Yes, I’m sure. Not that I’m her mother.’

  With that, McCabe spun around and headed out towards the lift lobby. Instinct was telling him something was wrong. On the way out, he reached insi
de his pocket and took out his phone, hitting the speed-dial for Stowe. After only two rings, he got a reply.

  ‘McCabe, what’s up?’

  ‘Listen. No time to explain, but Ying has gone for a walkabout. I need some help down here to fi nd her. It’s important. I think she may have been compromised.’

  ‘Okay, give us 40 minutes. I’ll be there later.’ With that, Stowe hung up.

  McCabe stepped in, the doors closed and the lift started to head down. He was trying to imagine where Ying would have gone. It was almost 3:30 in the afternoon, so his guess would be that she had headed for the Emirates Shopping Centre.

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  As Ying entered the Emirates shopping mall, a man dressed in a scruffy grey suit followed not too far behind her, his eyes focused on her back. Ying stopped to look in the window of Prada.

  Now that is a bag, she thought, her eyes taking in a small, black goatskin clutch bag with the ‘Prada’ logo embossed in leather on the side, a gold chain strap neatly draped over it.

  Ying was so focused on the bag, she failed to notice the man brush past her and continue walking up the mall. She made a mental note of the bag and turned, looking directly down the row of other high-end boutiques that awaited her attention. She glanced at her watch. Yes, I can afford an hour or so, she thought, and with that, she paced up the black-and-white tiled marble fl oor towards the next shop.

  Just then, she remembered what Stowe and McCabe had told her the evening before: ‘Look around, observe your surroundings, see who does not belong.’ She smiled to herself and took in the many people who were buzzing around the mall, walking like her into the odd shop for a look. Not that I can tell who is real or not, she thought.

  Then her eyes caught sight of what to her was a haven of pleasure, a shoe shop. Ying walked straight in and started to browse, her eyes catching a pair of high gold evening shoes. As she picked one up off the glass shelf for a close inspection, she did not pay much attention to the man next to her. Not until she turned and looked at him, as if instinct had told her to.

  He seemed very out of place. He was dressed in a light-grey suit, his shoes were very dusty and worn, and they were covered in scuff marks.

  Ying took particular notice of a man’s shoes. She believed it said a lot about how he cared for himself. As her eyes stared at his shoes, she felt uneasy. This was odd to her. She had never before seen a man in such a high-end women’s shoe shop when his own shoes were so scruffy.

  Thinking that she, too, would learn from the advice Stowe and McCabe had given her, she concluded that he seemed wrong and out of place. She placed the shoe back on the shelf, and with that, she turned and headed for the door. As she stepped outside, she turned right quantum breach 290709.indd 140

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  and started to walk fast towards the exit. She turned around: the man who had stood beside her was now following her. Her heart was now beginning to pound in her chest, her throat grew dry.

  Oh my God, I was right! Her head was now spinning.

  She could feel herself starting to break into a jog, her heels slipping on the marble. She reached inside her bag for her phone, fl ipped it open and hit the speed dial number for McCabe. Her heart sank as she could see that there was no signal … the main entrance was now only a few hundred yards away.

  She looked back over her shoulder and saw that the man was gaining on her fast, pushing aside shoppers who walked in front of him. Now out of breath, she tried to walk faster, not looking where she was going.

  She ran straight into a woman who emerged from a doorway and they both went crashing to the fl oor.

  ‘Look where you are going!’ the Emirati lady said, not at all happy that Ying had collided with her.

  ‘Sorry, very sorry. It’s just that that man is following me.’ With that, Ying pointed in the direction of the man. He was nowhere to be seen.

  Ying got up and brushed herself off. She picked up her purse and phone which had spilled out of her bag when she had fallen over. Her knee was now throbbing, as she must have hit it when she fell on the fl oor. She fl ipped open her phone and looked at the signal bar. Full signal. She then dialled ‘3’.

  ‘Ying, where the hell are you?’ McCabe sounded angry as he answered immediately.

  ‘Emirates Shopping Centre, I … ’ Ying paused, suddenly thinking that maybe she was wrong. She didn’t want McCabe to laugh at her, to think that she was paranoid. She decided to play it cool. ‘I … was shopping; sorry.’

  The phone was then snatched out of her hand and two burly men took her by each of her arms. ‘What the hell?’ Ying then stopped.

  ‘McCabe, it’s me, Stowe. I have just run into Ying. See you back at the safe house.’

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  Relieved to hear this, McCabe just replied, ‘Okay.’ With that, Stowe hung up.

  ‘You okay, Ying?’ Stowe was calm and a slight smile appeared on his face.

  ‘Yes, I’m fi ne. Sorry, just been rushing around. But you scared me.’

  ‘Sorry, no harm meant. I was just out with the guys here, also shopping,’ Stowe said, not wishing to alert Ying to the fact McCabe was worried about her. ‘Where are my manners? This is Ryan and Geoff.

  Both work for me. Out here for a spot of sun and sand,’ Stowe joked.

  They both looked at Ying.

  ‘Afternoon, madam,’ they both said, as if on cue.

  ‘Come on—let’s get you out of here and back to the safe house. You can take the rest of the day off,’ Stowe quipped.

  They all walked off towards the mall exit, Ying looking fragile with the two agents on either side of her.

  The lady looking out from a nearby shop window was expressionless, her dark brown eyes staring at Ying. She emerged from the shop and walked off in the opposite direction, her casual stride not hurried, no sense of urgency was evident. She looked elegant in her suit and neat grey hair and seemed like any other shopper to be found in such a high-end boutique mall. As she emerged into the daylight, the door of a green Rolls Royce was opened for her and she gracefully climbed in.

  A thin Lebanese man in a grey suit and dirty brown shoes, the man who was, in fact, supposed to scare Ying but had failed in her view, sat next to her on the rear seat.

  ‘You failed me,’ she uttered in a stern but calm voice.

  The man turned to her. ‘Sorry, madam, I will not fail you again.’

  Upon hearing this, she lifted her hand and slapped him hard across the face. ‘No, you will not, let me assure you of that.’

  The man winced as his face stung from the hard blow. He then turned and got out of the car and closed the door.

  ‘Drive on,’ she ordered the driver and settled back in the luxury of her Rolls.

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  The thin man observed her drive away, then he walked off towards the car park where he had parked his car on the third fl oor. As he stepped out of the lift and walked the few yards to where he had parked his car, he noticed that the light above his parking space was fl ickering.

  After a second or two, it blew out. Thinking nothing of it, he reached inside his jacket pocket, took out his car keys and pressed the button.

  His car beeped and the doors unlocked.

  He climbed in and sat for a few moments behind the wheel, thinking about how the lady who had hired him had slapped him.

  The sudden slap across his face from a woman was almost too much to stand; his pride dented. One thing he did know, he would not allow her to do it again.

  He hardly had time to fi nish his thought when the wire around his neck began to bite. He felt his eyes bulge and pop as he gasped for a
ir, his hands frantically pulling at the wire around his neck, his legs thrashing at the fl oor trying to push his body back to ease the tension, twisting and arching to fi nd any means of escape.

  The hands that started to pull the garrotte tighter around his neck were strong. As the wire started to saw, blood spurted out from his severed neck, his windpipe and jugular now cut like a piece of soft cheese. His limbs fell limp and he slumped forward as the wire was released, blood and air bubbling out from the deep gash. The assassin, who had so patiently waited for his mark to return, calmly climbed out, shut the car door and walked away.

  As the green Rolls Royce gracefully pulled up outside of the Burj Al Arab Hotel, the door was opened by a doorman who greeted the occupant with a polite ‘Good afternoon, madam.’ It could have been a scene from the Savoy in London. As the lady with neat grey hair stepped out, she had a knowing look upon her face, as if already aware that her last instruction had been carried out in full. She liked obedient men and did not tolerate failure. This was a lady who didn’t grant many second chances.

  She lifted the phone to her ear and asked curtly, ‘Is it done?’ Upon quantum breach 290709.indd 143

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  hearing it was carried out as per her instructions, she hung up and walked off into the hotel. For her, an evening of fi ne dining and wine lay ahead. The new CEO of Tai Investments, her long-time business partner Mr Surat, was eagerly waiting for her in the plush restaurant.

  Surat had been self-appointed as CEO given his now excellent track record in delivering large profi ts. He had bought his way onto the board. Tai Investments was now strategically important to him. It was already a shareholder of BCB. The outgoing CEO had mysteriously been found dead in his London home; suspected suicide. Surat knew bettter. His conglomerate of investment companies was now the owner of Tai Investments. His self-appointment to CEO was the fi nal act in his strategy of control.

  As she entered the restaurant, Surat stood up.

  ‘Good evening, nice to see you again,’ he greeted her, before sitting back down.

  ‘Good evening, Khun Surat. We appear to be doing well,’ she said with an air of confi dence.

  ‘Yes, but we must make sure that Tai Investments remains clean and is not seen to be too close to these shipping deals. I cannot afford for this to leak out, are we clear?’ Surat said fi rmly so that the intent could not be mistaken.