Page 109 (1/2)

Sloane logged on to one of the conference rooan her search

Sloane lost track of tiing deeper, and the slight niggle she’d been feeling going into this escalated into a full-fledged suspicion The infor wouldn’t interest only Derek It would also interest Rich It s all the tentacles of this complicated and diverse case

She’d just printed out so open and Derek strode in

“There you are,” he said, the frustration in his tone telling Sloane he’d been searching for a while “I was getting a little antsy You vanished hours ago”

Sloane glanced at her watch, startled when she saw the time She’d been in the conference room for over three hours “Sorry I had no idea I’d been in here so long I checked in with ot involved in sos by you and Rich…” She broke off when she saw the intense expression on Derek’s face “You struck pay dirt What did you find out?”

“More than I expected” He sat down beside her, crackling with as ot those phone calls I aiting for The first was fro in the US Eet us our answer as to why Liu’s hell-bent on executing all his plans urgently and siot a month or two to live”

All the pieces fell into place in Sloane’s mind “Of course Now it all makes sense Liu wants to settle all his personal scores and fill the triad’s coffers with a ton of cash before he dies” A pause “And I suspect he’s getting a lot more cash than even we’re aware of”

“Meaning?”

“I’ll get into that in a minute” Sloane wanted to hear the rest of Derek’s news first “Who was your other phone call from?”

“One of my contacts at the Guardia di Finanza”

“The Italian special police force?”

“Yup My kind of outfit—military corps and law enforcement all in one”

“I’ve dealt with them They serve the Ministry of the Econoate financial cri”

“And anti-Mafia operations,” Derek added

Sloane’s brows arched “Go on”