Flight Path: A Wright & Tran Novel by Ian Andrew Page B

vacancies sometimes more than in the summer,” Bernard said reaching into a small rack of letter pigeonholes and drawing out a set of two keys. He held each up in turn, “This is for the door to the apartment on the third floor and this is for the street door. You are staying three nights, yes?”
    “Yes, although we might extend if we need to. Is that okay?” Kara asked, taking the offered keys.
    “Oh yes. It is fine. As long as you are letting me know. We have no booking for another two weeks, so if you want you can stay all that time,” he said and then added, “Do you have any questions?”
    Kara shook her head, “No Bernard, I think that’s it. Thank you.”
    He raised the wrench slightly, “Well if you will be allowing me, I must continue. I am changing a piece of the heating. So you will be warm in the cold nights. It is nice to meet you. Goodbye.” He made for the door at the end of the tiny hall and was almost through it before Tien called out.
    “Ma- I mean Bernard, is there Wi-Fi?”
    The rosy-cheeked caretaker spun lightly on his feet. Tien almost applauded. “Oh yes. We have the fast Wi-Fi. All the details are in the welcome pack on the table in the apartment.” He gave a cheery wave with the wrench and went out through the door.
    Kara led them to the stairwell in the corner of the hall.
    “Flipping heck,” Tien said as she began to climb up, “I’m glad we only have small backpacks. Imagine trying to get suitcases up this.” She looked vertically down to where Jacob was following behind and giggled at the sight that greeted her. “You doing okay?”
    Jacob, each shoulder brushing the side of the narrow stairwell stopped, not trusting his ability to look upwards whilst finding the next sliver of stair that climbed and twisted at an acute angle. “Yeah, I’m good. Lucky you’re not wearing a skirt,” he said with a cheeky smile.
    “You wish,” Tien laughed, and even in the semi-dark of the stairs she saw Jacob go crimson.
    Despite them being fit and athletic, they were all out of breath by the time Kara opened the door to the apartment.
    “Wow! It’s like the Tardis,” Tien said as she stepped into an open-plan kitchen and sitting room. Three large windows marked the fact that the apartment held the corner most position of the building. “Those stairs really twist around,” she said, moving to look out and reorient herself. The flower stall, the canal and the Hotel Armada on the opposite bank were visible through the kitchen and adjacent sitting room windows. The other sitting room window looked out west along the length of the canal. The sun was already slipping down into a grey, washed out version of a sunset.
    Two further stairwells, equally narrow and steep, came off the sitting room. One led back down to half of the building’s second floor where the apartment claimed three bedrooms and a bathroom. The other stairs led up to two more bedrooms and a second bathroom. In total the apartment’s lease claimed it could accommodate ten, although that supposed a level of intimacy with regard to some of the sleeping arrangements. Modestly, with one of the five bedrooms having three single beds, it could accommodate seven.
    Within half an hour Tien had sorted out Wi-Fi access, set up her laptops and was preparing a set of smartphones for use. Seven of them were laid out on the table. One by one she registered the corresponding speed dial numbers into each. Then, using skills acquired while working for a few weeks in the Covent Garden Apple Store, she opened the casing of each phone. A small micro-battery and GPS tracking module, no bigger than her little fingernail, was slipped into a tiny gap under the main CPU. The space looked like it had been left for exactly that purpose, but Tien knew the inventors of the tiny tracker had exploited a quirk of the iPhone’s manufacture. It was an ingenious design and one they’d been keen to promote at the device’s unveiling a few months