Red Phoenix: A Thomas Caine Thriller (The Thomas Caine Series Book 2)

by Andrew Warren

  “Did your contact come through?” she asked.

  “Yeah. It took some convincing, but he talked. Said he heard a rumor Ganda was holed up in a farmhouse in Roanoke Valley. One of Tiny's guys spotted him in town, making food runs, buying beer. That kind of stuff.”

  Josh emerged from the forest and paced over to a green rental Jeep parked on the side of a winding dirt road.

  “And?” The concern in Rebecca’s voice was replaced with a hint of impatience.

  “And I have good news and bad news. Good news first, our man is definitely up here. I followed Ganda back to the farmhouse. It’s pretty remote. Not too far from the mountains. Middle of nowhere.”

  “Well, that makes sense, I guess. So what’s the bad news?”

  Josh started up the engine and drove the jeep down the winding trail. The tall, dark trees receded in his rearview mirror.

  “The bad news is he’s not alone. He’s got a small army camped out with him.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Sean took a long sip from a can of Tsingdao beer. He drained the can, crumpled it in his hands, and tossed it into the trashcan in the corner of the room.

  The house was quiet. Alton and Guan-yin were tending to his niece. The little girl was resting, and her spasm of coughing had finally subsided. Earlier, Caine had watched from the doorway as her mother lay a thin, moist towel over her mouth. The damp rag helped filter the air the child breathed as she slept.

  He and Sean were alone in the kitchen. Jia had retired for the evening, and Tiao had not left his self-imposed exile in the bedroom.

  “We can’t stay here," Caine said in a low voice. "It’s not safe for you, and it’s not safe for them.”

  Sean nodded. “You’re right. Besides, I have to get to Shanghai.”

  “Why? What’s so important in Shanghai?”

  Sean leaned closer, an uneasy look on his face. “Before I say anything, I want to know exactly who the hell you are. How did you know my father? What are you even doing here?”

  Caine stared at the young man for a moment, then sighed. He stood up, went to the fridge, and got himself a beer. Then he sat back down, popped it open, and took a long sip.

  “Like I told you, my name is Tom. I worked with your father."

  "Yeah? What kind of work?" Sean asked.

  Caine thought for a moment. "Government work."

  Sean slapped the table. “I knew it. You guys were spies, right? Or some kind of commandoes, something military.”

  Caine nodded. “Something like that, yes.”

  Sean ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. “I always knew it. He would never tell me what he did for a living. Always changed the subject, or made a joke out of it. When I asked my mom, she said he was in the Army. But I knew other kids with Army dads. He was different.”

  “I know it must have been hard," Caine said, taking a sip of his beer.

  “Whenever I saw him, it was like a day here, a day there … he was always traveling. Every now and then I’d get post cards with no signature, no return address. Something random, like ‘happy birthday’ … three months past my birthday. Never a phone call, or an email. Nothing like that.”

  Caine leaned back in his chair. “Sean, you have to understand, what your father did, what I did … it made it hard to have people in our lives. It was dangerous. For us, but also for them. Whatever precautions he took, they may have seemed extreme. But he did it to keep you safe.”

  “I know. But that doesn’t help me now. So what happened to him?”

  Caine fumbled for words. He struggled not to sound like he was delivering a debriefing … struggled to sound human.

  “You father and I were on a mission together. We were betrayed. He didn’t make it out. I almost didn’t make it myself.”

  Sean narrowed his eyes. His voice took on an edge of anger. “Betrayed? Betrayed by whom?”

  “That doesn’t matter,” Caine snapped. “Trust me, they’ll get what’s coming to them. I can promise you that.”

  “Oh, you promise?” Sean laughed. “You know how many promises my dad made to me? He promised to see me again soon, or to be home for Christmas. He promised to drive me to my first day of school. He never kept any of those promises. Not a one. Why should I think you’re any different?”

  “Maybe you’re right,” Caine said. “I promised Jack I would look out for you. And I failed.”

  Sean took another swig of beer. “Yeah, well, don’t sweat it. I’m used to failure.”

  “I’m here now. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you before; things got complicated. But you’re in danger here, and not just from Fang.”

  “What are you talking about?

  “There’s more at stake than you think. The National Security Agency has a Chinese hacker in custody. China wants him back, and they were planning to exchange you for him. It’s all tied to the President’s new environmental trade deal. A ‘gesture of good will’ they call it.”

  Sean's eyes narrowed in thought. “This guy from the ministry came to see me. He said they had to keep me safe, that’s why they moved me to the black jail, in Beijing. He said I’d be home soon and this would all be over.”

  Caine nodded. “Yeah, well unfortunately, the NSA has different plans. This hacker accessed some sensitive information. They don’t want to give him up until they find it. They’re willing to kill you to stop the exchange from happening”

  “Wait, this trade agreement … do you mean the Global Environmental Accords? China actually signed the protocols, they’re onboard?”

  “You seem to know more about it than I do.”

  “But if they kill me, and the exchange doesn’t happen, couldn’t that ruin the whole deal?”

  “I think the NSA is more concerned with covering up their dirty work than clean air and water for China.”

  “So that albino guy, he was some kind of government assassin?”

  Caine shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. But either way, it’s too dangerous to stay here. You have too many enemies, on both sides of this. You have to get out of China as soon as possible.”

  Sean stood up. “Look around you, man. Sure I can leave, but what about Alton? What about Jia, and Guan-yin? Or that little girl coughing up blood in the back room? Fang, and others like him, are poisoning these people. You could just leave them behind, like nothing is happening?”

  “You getting killed won’t help these people.”

  “Neither will running away. You want to be there for me, help me? Then help me for real. I have friends in Shanghai, a hacker group called the Jade Enclave. They work with Human Rights Now.”

  Caine nodded. “Jia told me about them. They got us the plans to the black jail where you were being held.”

  “We found something. Something that could stop Fang.”

  “What exactly did you find? Is that why Fang is after you?”

  Sean looked down at the table. “I don’t know. We broke into Fang’s offices. HRN got a tip that Fang kept secret records. Documents that would prove he was breaking what little regulations there were on his factory in Huagu. He kept them in an isolated computer, something off the network. We could only access it from his new building in Shanghai, the one he’s building downtown. Fang Plaza.”

  “Well, did you find them?”

  Sean shook his head. “No, but my friend said he found something bigger. Something that could destroy Fang, put him away for good. But before he could explain what he meant, we triggered an alarm. He did something, messed with the file somehow. We ran out of the building and split up. I laid low for a while, then I went back to his apartment to try and find him. The cops had the place staked out; they arrested me outside.”

  “And your friend? What happened to him?”

  “I don’t know … I tried calling him before I was arrested. I couldn’t reach him. If Fang was after him too … it might be too late.”

  “All the more reason why you should leave.”

  “Is tha
t what my dad would do? You knew him better than I did. Tell me.”

  Caine stared at Sean in silence.

  Sean scanned Caine’s face, then looked down at the floor. “He would, huh? Well, not me. Look, I get it. You made a promise to my dad. You feel bad. But Jack … he’s gone. And I’m here now. Maybe that sounds cold to you, but you’re talking about a man I saw, what? Maybe forty-eight hours my whole life? I’ve spent as much time with you as I did with him. So if you want to help me, then help me. But if you’ve just got a guilty conscience or something … sorry, man, I got no time for that.”

  He turned and began to leave the room.

  “Sean, wait.”

  Sean stood in the doorway a second, then turned around. He rested his hand on the door frame. “Yeah, what?”

  “The last time I saw your father, we were in Afghanistan. That mission I told you about, the one where we were betrayed? Jack was my lookout. He was watching me from a sniper hide, feeding me intel. He had high ground, he saw the threat before I did. He could have bailed and ran out on me. He could have saved himself. That would have been the smart play.”

  “But he didn’t?” Sean asked in a hesitant voice.

  “No. He fought his way down to my position. He saved my life. Got himself killed in the process. I was there with him, when he passed. I heard his dying words. He talked about you.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said the things he did, the work we did together … he wanted you to know he did it to make the world a better place for you.”

  Sean’s eyes squinted, and his lips turned up in a cross between a smile and a frown. “Wow. Well, thank you. That means a lot to me, actually. It’s good to know my father and I had something in common after all. We don’t run out on friends.”

  Caine finished his beer and stood up. “That’s not all you have in common. You’re also two of the most stubborn men I’ve ever met.”

  Sean’s smile grew wider. “So … Shanghai?”

  Caine was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. “Fine. Shanghai. But just you and me, we leave the others here. We check on your partner, see what we can find, and that’s it. After that, we leave the country.”

  “And what if he does have something big? Something that can take down Fang?”

  “Then we get the info to the proper hands. Alton, maybe. Someone who can use it. We can’t get involved in a personal crusade against Fang, no matter how much of a monster he is.”

  Sean nodded. “Okay, I can live with that. Deal.”

  Caine slipped his cell phone from his pocket and began cycling through numbers. “We leave before sunrise. Get some sleep, it’s going to be a long day.”

  He wondered if he was making a mistake. He had broken his promise once to Jack. If something went wrong now, if Sean was hurt, or worse …

  “Who are you calling?” Sean asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Someone who can help. An old friend.”

  As the phone rang, Caine watched the young man slip back into the shadows of the dark house.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Have you lost your mind?” Rebecca snapped into the phone. “I told you to give me some time!”

  As she talked, she watched the small bank of screens arranged in the back of the dark, unmarked van. The van was parked about a mile from the farmhouse Josh had reconnoitered earlier in the morning. Something was keeping Ganda at this location. There was either something of value inside, or they were awaiting further orders. Either way, she intended to find out.

  “And I told you I couldn’t wait," Caine said, his voice crackling in her ear. "Someone was already there, in the prison. In the middle of a riot, they were trying to break down the door to his solitary confinement. They were targeting him, just like I told you.”

  “A riot? You mean the disturbance you created? Christ, Tom, you do realize you attacked a government facility on foreign soil?”

  “It’s not an official government facility. It’s a black jail, it’s off-books. Chinese authorities won’t even admit the place exists.”

  “That makes me feel so much better,” she said. “And what am I supposed to do when my Chinese counterpart calls me? He may have a few questions about an agent of mine who broke into a black facility and released a prisoner of the People’s Republic.”

  “You tell him the truth. You didn’t authorize any such operation. You have no operatives working for you in China. You haven’t debriefed me yet, remember? I’m still on the outside.”

  Rebecca was only half-listening. Her attention was focused towards the view on one of the screens. It was an aerial shot of the red farmhouse. Two men were switching off for guard duty on the perimeter of the property. From the high vantage point of the camera, the men looked like tiny black dots pacing across the field

  She sighed and turned away from the monitors. “Tom, you can’t keep working like this. And I can’t keep covering for you. I know I was upset before, about Bernatto, about letting him go. But this … this isn’t the life I want for you.”

  “You didn’t choose this life for me. I made my own choices. My own mistakes. Now, what about Lapinski? Do you have any intel on his assassin?”

  “I thought you said you stopped them, in the prison?”

  Caine paused for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. Things are a little more complicated than I thought.”

  “They usually are,” Rebecca said.

  “The human rights group Sean was working with … they were investigating an industrialist named David Fang. Can you check if you have anything on him? According to a source here, he may be Triad connected.”

  “Triads? You think they're after Sean as well?”

  “I don’t know. The guy in the prison was … well, he was a little distinctive for a government assassin. Albino. White skin, pink eyes. Oh, and six fingers on each hand.”

  Rebecca arched an eyebrow. "You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I’m not finished. Apparently there’s a twin brother.”

  Rebecca chuckled, unable to contain her amusement. “You do meet the most interesting people in the field, huh?”

  “Tell me about it. Anyway, these guys felt more like gangsters to me. My bet is they were working for Fang.”

  “Were?" she asked. "As in, past tense?”

  Caine was silent.

  “Forget it,” she said, “I don’t want to know. Anyway, I came at Lapinski hard, and he took the bait. Sent a contractor to jump me in the middle of a date.”

  “What?" The note of anger in Caine’s voice cut through the static and distortion of the phone line. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t know how to reach you. You said you’d call me, remember?

  “Are you all right?”

  She took a deep breath. “Little shaken up, but no permanent damage. You were right, I wasn’t taking Ted seriously enough. Somehow he was able to track me, he knew where I would be. Anyway, I’m fine. One of my bodyguards was monitoring me.”

  “On a date?”

  “Long story. The point is, I pushed Ted, and he pushed back. You were right, he must be involved. We were able to identify the contractor he used, an ex-military piece of shit named Ganda. He’s holed up in a farmhouse in Virginia. My men are getting ready to move on him now.”

  “Copy that. Look, I was planning to get Sean out of the country through Hong Kong. I have some old contacts there, but things …”

  “Got complicated?” Rebecca said, finishing his sentence for him.

  “Yeah. We’ll be in Shanghai tomorrow. I could use an extraction team.”

  “I might be able to set something up. But there’s one condition.”

  “Condition?”

  “After this, you come in. It’s getting too dangerous on the outside.”

  “But Bernatto is still—”

  “Killing Bernatto isn’t … look, we both know it’s not going to undo what was done. What he did, to both of us … it’s going to t
ake time to fix. Let someone else chase after him. You deserve some peace. At least for a while.”

  The static crackled and popped on the line. She wished she could see his face … look into his eyes.

  “I’ll think about it,” he replied.

  “Tom, you have to—”

  “Director,” a voice called from the front of the van. It was one of Josh’s handpicked men, a thirty-two-year-old former Marine named Clayton DuBose. “We have another vehicle,” he said. “Monitor three.”

  Rebecca turned her attention back to the monitors. She watched as a BMW SUV pulled up in front of the farmhouse. A tiny black figure stepped out of the car and made their way towards the front door.

  “Magnify,” she said. “Give me a face!”

  The aerial camera zoomed in and froze on the blurry image of a man’s face. “Running enhancement,” Clayton said. A scan line ran down the image. The surveillance system’s software processed the digital signal, reducing noise, enhancing light, pulling detail from the shadows.

  Rebecca stared at the image in shock. “Oh my God, he’s here. It’s Lapinski. That stupid son of a bitch is on site! What the hell is he doing here?”

  “Bernatto said Lapinski had leverage on Red Phoenix,” Caine said. “Something he used to turn them, force them to do his dirty work.”

  “That must be what’s in the house," she said in an excited voice. "That’s why they didn’t leave town. Tom, I have to go. I’ll text you a secure web address. I’ll leave extraction details for you there.”

  “Thank you. Be careful, all right?”

  “You too,” she said.

  “And Rebecca … good hunting.”

  There was a click, and he was gone.

  Rebecca leaned over a mic mounted next to the monitors. “Magpie One, this is Mobile. Do you read me?”

  “Go for Magpie One,” the reply came back in her earpiece. It was Josh’s voice.

  “Lapinksi is on site. Repeat, Lapinski is on site. Move in, now!”

  Ted paced back and forth across the uneven wood floor of the old farmhouse. The location was remote, isolated, and far from prying eyes. But it was also dark, cold, and stank of mildew. The boarded windows and secondhand furniture made the place feel like a claustrophobic prison.