TWO HOURS LATER, Kelly and I were in the lobby checking out. I called headquarters and had them run a check on Coco Nimburu. As I had predicted, we didn’t have anything on her. I charged the hotel bill to my FBI expense account and was about to leave when I stopped in my tracks. I had had an epiphany.
“She’s here, Kelly,” I said, and walked back to the desk. “Do you have a Susan Lucci registered here?”
“I’ll check,” the clerk said. “Yes, she’s in room 1196.”
“Call the police and ask for Inspector Franklin. Tell her the Assassin is here. I need a key to that room.”
“It’s going to take a second. I have to program a card for that room.”
The desk clerk inserted an electronic card into a slot on the computer, hit a few keys on the keyboard, and handed me the programmed card. We took the elevator up to the eleventh floor with our weapons out. The doors opened, and we hustled over to Room 1196. My heart pounded in my chest, threatening to explode. I looked at Kelly. She nodded.
I put the key in the slot, and we burst into the room. No one was in the living room area, but we could see a naked man tied to the bed. I put my weapon back in its holster. I knew Coco Nimburu was in the wind again. We walked into the bedroom. She had left me a note in Cantonese on the dead man’s chest that read:
I was going to let him live, Phoenix, but he forgot the condoms. As you can see by the color of his balls, he went blissfully. I couldn’t let him go through life with the virus. See how merciful I can be? HA, HA, HA. Life sure is funny, isn’t it? You never know what’s going to happen next. Remember what I told you. If you don’t kill me, I will kill you. I will encourage you again along the way.
Yours truly,