The guard, whose name tag said GAUDENCIO, looked at him as if to say, What would Dr. Monnet want with you?

“I’m gonna be doing a little work in his office for him. You know, custom electronics. That’s my thing.”

The guard nodded. He’d bought it. “You doing work for the other partners too?”

“Who?”

“Edwards and Garrison. They’re up there waiting for him. Sent everybody else home.”

Jack did not have to fake it as he rubbed his palms together with relish. “No kidding? That’s great! He’s already bringing some other guy with him. Hey, this could turn out to be a very good day! Want me to sign in?”

The guard pushed a pen toward Jack. “Go ahead, but I can’t let you up without clearance from upstairs.” He reached for the phone.

“That’s OK. I’ll just wait and go up with the man himself.”

After signing in as “J. Washington,” Jack turned and saw the Bentley pull up to the curb out front.

“Here he comes now.” He winked at the guard. “Don’t say anything about how I just got here, OK?”

Monnet and Dragovic pushed through the revolving door as the Bentley pulled away.

“Evening, Dr. Monnet,” the guard said.

Monnet nodded absently. His right cheek looked swollen, and he seemed to be a little out of it.

“How we doin’ tonight, gentlemen?” Jack said with a big, vacant grin.

When neither acknowledged his existence, he fell in a couple of steps behind them and gave the guard a Who-can-figure-these-rich-guys? shrug.

The guard’s answering shrug said he knew the type too well.

Jack followed them into an open elevator car. Saw Dragovic press 16, reached past him and pressed 18.

Again the urge to pull out the P-98 and finish it right here. So simple. But that wasn’t going to do it, especially with the other two GEM partners waiting upstairs. One of them had to know what had happened to Nadia.

So Jack lowered his head and leaned in a far corner of the cab, watching.

Not a word out of either on the way up. Dragovic looked stiff with anger, Monnet almost limp with fear; the tension between the two of them flooded the cab. When they stopped on 16 and Jack saw Dragovic push Monnet out, he knew something heavy was going down.

He sidled over to the control panel and thumbed the door open button to watch a little longer. They stood before a glass wall etched with the GEM Pharma logo. He saw Monnet run a card down a magnetic swipe reader on the right, heard a buzz; then Monnet pushed open the glass door. The receptionist desk beyond the wall was empty.

Jack let the elevator doors close and rode up to eighteen. Once there he pressed the 16 button, and a minute later he was standing before GEM’s glass wall.

No way to bypass the swipe reader with the crude tools he’d brought along. Same for the electronic lock in the brass-trimmed door: it was set solid, and even if he did manage to jimmy it, the door was alarmed—open it without swiping a card and all hell was sure to break loose.