it was hard to imagine she had flown all across the world to Taiwan.
It felt good to stretch her legs after the long flight. She had flown non-stop from Los Angeles for fourteen hours, and despite flying Delta Business Elite and having her own personal private space where she could lie down horizontally or work on her laptop comfortably, she hadn’t slept or gotten much work done. She kept going over the details of her planned visit and spent generous amounts of time thinking, speculating, and analyzing the very limited data she had to work with. She knew the hardware and software specifications by heart. How the devices should look, how many, how they should work, when they were scheduled to be ready and delivered, how quality control would happen, and so on. But that was all she knew.
All resemblance with an airport from back home stopped abruptly when she exited the terminal. A wave of impossibly humid and hot air hit her as soon as the sliding doors of the terminal opened. She felt sweat beads form instantly on her face, at the roots of her hair and on her back. She struggled to breathe for a minute or so until she adjusted. Damn, this place is hot, she thought.
She walked out of the terminal with her wheelie, laptop bag on it and suitcase now in tow. A cab pulled right up, and she climbed in, holding onto her heavy laptop bag and letting the driver deal with the rest of her luggage. She gave him the hotel address, and they started driving on a highway at first, then on narrow streets filled with motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Everything was in Chinese. Every store front in the low-rise buildings, every sign, every street name. This is gonna be tough, she thought. When the cab turned a corner she saw a Starbucks coffee shop and sighed with relief. There was at least one familiar place she could go to.
The Okura Prestige Taipei Hotel was impressive. Situated at the heart of Taipei, on the busy Nanjing Road East, the hotel was another one of the surprising places that could easily be taken for a five-star hotel on American soil. She entered, relieved to be breathing conditioned air again, and got checked in fast by a beautiful young receptionist. The hotel was a pleasure to explore. Marble floors featuring intricate designs, vaulted ceilings illuminated by exquisite crystal chandeliers shining thousands of miniature bulbs, thick carpeting in the dining areas, and a croissant smell to die for in the breakfast restaurant.
Finally in her room, Alex started her stay by running the bug sweeper across every corner, discreetly, just like Sam had taught her. The room was clean. Relieved, she kicked off her shoes and went for the shower, promising herself a croissant breakfast immediately afterwards. She had a day to explore the city a little and get over the jet lag. The next morning she would head into the manufacturing plant and start her investigation. She could hardly wait, feeling the intense time pressure. They had less than four months left until Election Day and less than six weeks until everything had to be ready for deployment, both hardware and software. But no matter how she tried to rationalize it, she couldn’t head straight into the plant today. No other regular business traveler in her place did that, jumping straight to work after a fourteen-hour flight, so she couldn’t do that either. If she would, she’d raise the suspicions of anyone who paid any attention. She was forced to sacrifice yet another precious day to keep her cover intact. She just hoped she’d finally be able to find some answers. Soon.
...58
...Friday, July 22, 10:26AM Local Time (UTC+1:00 hours)
...Letiste Praha-Kbely Airport Tarmac, Prague East
...Prague, The Czech Republic
Karmal Shah loved flying his new plane, but too much of anything can become a bit of a pain before you know it. He opted to stretch his legs on the tarmac and maybe get a coffee from somewhere, while waiting for the Piaggio to be refueled and loaded. His pilot would stay with the plane, making sure everything was in order for their scheduled departure to the United States.
He stood up from the pilot seat with a groan. His back was killing him. A little overweight and carrying a potbelly that he blamed not only on his age but also on the constant temptations offered by Overnight Delight’s product stock, his back hurt quite often. He looked