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.How did he sense these things? It was uncanny.The urge to glance at the table where she’d left the laptop almost got the better of her.She looked calmly back at him.‘Anything else?’‘You are not telling me something.’‘No.’ The shake of her head felt too rapid.Like she was trying to remove water from her hair.‘There’s nothing else.’He broke eye contact to crack open another nut.He popped it in his mouth.‘OK.’She knew that he knew something was amiss.It had been noted.And, eventually, he would raise it again.He never let anyone else’s secrets survive.Like cockroaches, he sought them out and stamped them open.She heard a voice off camera and his attention switched.He listened to the person speaking then looked back at her.‘Tomorrow.’The screen went blank and she breathed out slowly, fighting the shiver that was trying to take hold of her shoulders.The video-link connection might be off, but she didn’t trust the computer.He had access to it remotely.He might be there, watching her.Listening to her.The same went for the tiny camera hidden on the shelf unit behind her.When Nina found a suitable girl, she’d bring them to this office for an initial assessment.While the girl thought she was being interviewed for a role answering the phone in the next room, he was observing them from thousands of miles away.If they were judged to be suitable, Nina would mention the possibility of earning much better money – out in a very expensive club abroad.Nina got up and left by a side door.Once safely outside, she took a cigarette from her packet and lit it with trembling fingers.Chloe.Why had he started using girls for that kind of thing? Carrying bombs.The only explanation was money; someone was obviously paying him huge amounts.FIFTEENIona shifted the phone to her other ear.The person she was speaking to at the university was humming to himself.‘OK,’ he finally said.‘That’s been logged as a high priority with the central IT department.’‘Great, thanks.What will happen next?’‘They’ll forward the message on to the IT department within each faculty.’‘Each faculty has their own IT department?’‘Yes.Faculty IT departments will then send your email to each student on their list.’Iona didn’t like the multiple stages to the process; it increased the chance of error occurring somewhere down the line.‘Can the central IT department not just email every student directly?’‘It doesn’t work like that, unfortunately.’‘Why?’‘Why? Well, historically, when the two universities merged back in 2004, certain schools within what was the Institute of Science and –’‘OK.’ She didn’t have time for a lesson in the evolution of the University of Manchester.‘How long before each student receives the email?’‘I’d say within two hours.Whether they actually read the email, that’s another matter.Don’t bet on it, not with it being a Saturday.’Iona looked at the message that would soon appear in around thirty-nine thousand students’ inboxes.Can you help? It is vital that a female student at the University of Manchester contact Greater Manchester Police immediately.This person was seen purchasing a Dell laptop from an unauthorized vendor in the student union building on Oxford Road last Tuesday at about five p.m.She is approximately 5’10” tall, has black hair and was wearing a distinctive purple duffel coat and green or orange Converse trainers.Could this be you? Do you know her?Please phone the number below with any information.All calls will be treated in the strictest confidence.‘Can I ring you in another hour to check on progress?’ she asked, with more cheer than she felt.‘Yes.You have my direct line, don’t you?’‘I do.Thanks again, Lucas.’ She hung up and looked at the table by the photocopier.Euan was placing the posters she’d had printed into a plastic crate for transporting over to the campus.Six uniformed officers would be waiting for them.They were going to need a lot of drawing pins.Iona jiggled one knee up and down.She didn’t believe Philip Young had been killed by the fiancé of the woman in the ground-floor flat.She wanted to see the crime scene for herself, but there was no chance of that.Forensics had sealed the place off so they could go about their business.It was a painstaking process and Iona had a horrible feeling the investigation was lagging far behind what was really going on.The laptops.It was all about the laptops, she felt certain.Someone wanted them back.Khaldoon Khan was in Pakistan, so it wasn’t him.Most people in the CTU were sure it had to be Nirpal Haziq
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