She didn’t’ have to ask which role she would play “Like the gingerbread and the whip,” she offered, to assure him she understood the concept.
The two of them reviewed their parts, as well as what they wanted to accomplish. Charlie was sure Mei Lyn had given up Durand, but he wanted her to confirm it. It was the only way he knew of finding out why she had done it, and who else might be involved.
“I am going to have to scare her Nadia, but I don’t intend to physically harm her. You remember Henry telling us about Sammie bonking one of the serving girls just after we got to Tekeli?”
Nadia giggled. “Bonking—bonking. What a funny word. I had never heard that term for it before.
“Neither had I,” Charlie admitted. “It must be British, but it seems descriptive enough that anyone can visualize the act without getting overly graphic. I am sure it will come up during our conversation with her. I don’t imagine she will be too pleased to hear about the sexual escapades of her husband while she was toiling away in Almaty. It makes her look like a fool, and no woman wants that.”
Nadia had watched as Charlie questioned Riana. She had to admit he had got results,. She also remembered Andre and Henry. They were both good men. She recalled her own fear as well. None of them knew who was going to be next. She shuddered at the thought.
Pearlman got the message from housekeeping that everything was ready. They had grabbed Mei Lyn when she was leaving the office for the night, and put her in the secure communications room.
“Let her stew for awhile,” Pearlman told them. “She was efficient, but I never got the impression she was very brave.”
Charlie wanted to get the questioning underway, and one way or another, finish and get on his way home. He looked at his watch once more. “Let’s get this show on the road,” he finally announced, rising from his chair. “We have waited long enough.”
Pearlman led the two of them down to the communications room. After entering the code, he squeezed them through the door before it closed automatically. He planned to watch from a small slit in the door that had been put there for safety purposes.
Once inside, they both had to pause to get their bearings. It was midnight dark, with a single bright light spotlighting Mei Lyn in the center of the room. She was the star, alone on center stage, but she was a pitiful sight. The housekeepers had stripped off her clothes, leaving only her underwear.
They had also secured her arms to the chair, and her legs were splayed with her ankles manacled to the chair’s legs.
The light shining on Mei Lyn’s face caused her to squint, as she tried to locate the person or persons she heard coming through the heavy door.
“Who is it? I want to see the ambassador,” she demanded.
Nadia stepped forward from the shadows, while Charlie remained cloaked in the dark. “I am sure you do dear,” Nadia told her in her sweetest voice. “But you can’t do that right now. Maybe later if you answer our questions—but not until then.”
”Our questions, who else is there?”
Charlie affected his deepest most authoritative voice. “I am here. I am embassy security. We have found out that you have been passing classified information to other people and we want you to tell us what, and to whom.”
“You have the wrong person. I signed an agreement when I went to work for the ambassador and I have never broken that agreement.”
“You are Sammie Wang’s wife. Is that right? “Charlie asked.
“Yes, but there is no crime in that.”
“We know he was working for the Uighurs to get the mine at Tekeli shut down so the Chinese couldn’t get it.”
“No, not my Sammie. He is a good man.”
This was Nadia’s cue. “I am surprised to hear you speak so highly of him dear. Did you know that one night he was seen having sex with one of the server girls at the hotel?
“Doing what?”Mei Lyn shouted. “No not Sammie. He wouldn’t do that.”
“I saw him dear,” Nadia lied. “Right there on the kitchen table. Everyone at Tekeli knew it. Even his Aunt Riana knew it. She was terribly ashamed of him.”
“You know Riana is his aunt? Who are you?”
Tears began to flow from Mei Lyn’s eyes, and Charlie knew that she believed them. He let her think about it for a while. Finally, he told her “We want to know why you gave up Barry Durand’s name.”
She hesitated, and began to squirm. “I did not. I would not. You can’t make me. Wait until the ambassador hears about this.”
“Oh yes my dear, we can make you talk all right,” Charlie told her, standing in the darkened part of the room, attempting to make his voice sound threatening. “You can choose to help us or not. That’s up to you, but I would strongly advise you to cooperate. Have you heard of water-boarding? We refer to it euphemistically as enhanced interrogation. You will be placed on one those things, and you will end up pleading with us to let you talk.
“And then, of course, there is rendition. You know what rendition is don’t you? We can always have you flown out to Saudi Arabia, and let them question you. You know what they do to Asian women don’t you? Those A-rabs really like Asian women.”
Charlie paused to let her think about what he had told her. “Why did you give up Barry Durand’s name?” he asked again.
Mei Lyn motioned with her head for Nadia to come closer.
“Yes my dear, what is it that you want?” Nadia asked, drawing nearer to her.
Mei Lyn whispered something that Charlie couldn’t hear.
“She has to go to the toilet,” Nadia told him blushing
“As soon as you tell us what we want to know,” Charlie assured her. “Then we will take you out of here.”
“Sammie---Sammie,” Mei Lyn sobbed. “Help me.”
“Look, let me make it easier for you,” Charlie told her in a softer tone. “We don’t want to have you sent to the Arabs. It would take too much time. We know that you and Sammie are Uighurs and that Sammie doesn’t’ want the Chinese interests to control the mine. We already know that. He was the one that told us you were helping him by stealing information here at the Embassy.”
“He told you that?”
“Yes right before he ran away with the serving girl,” Charlie lied. “I guess she was a Uighur too. He kind of left you holding the bag didn’t he?”
Nadia added, “I think it is terrible how he treated you dear. You did all the work here in Almaty while he was bonking (she was beginning to like using the term) all the women at Tekeli. Even the dombra player we think.”
“The dombra player? She is my sister!”Mei Lyn wailed.
That did it Charlie thought. “Now tell us who you told about Barry Durand.”
“It was someone at the Russian Embassy. I don’t know exactly who. Sammie told me that whenever I found out something interesting about the Americans I should just call a certain number.”
“What was the number dear?” Nadia asked kindly.
“I did nothing really. I only passed on gossip,” she said ignoring the question. “One day I heard the ambassador tell his wife that one of their people—Barry Durand was going to the oil fields to try and find out what the Russians and Chinese were doing over there.”
“What did you say the number was?” Charlie asked. She told him. He knew that Pearlman was listening to everything that was being said and would immediately begin checking it out.
“So you called this number and then….?”
“Well, a nice old woman would answer, and we would chat for awhile. Then I would tell what I really called about. That was all. It was nothing really.”
“That was all? You always called that number?” Charlie asked.
“Almost always. Sometimes, if it was too detailed she told me to use a …a...what they called a dead drop,”
“And that was where?”
“The newsstand in front of the Russian Embassy. I would stick it under the counter before it opened, or after it closed.”
“Then what
would happen?” Charlie asked her.
“Then I would usually get an envelope at my apartment with money in it.”
“What did you do with the money after you got it?” Nadia asked.
“I would give it to Sammie.”
“You poor thing,” Nadia sympathized. “You were made a fool.”
“Why did the Russians want to know what Durand was doing?” Charlie asked, almost finished.
“Sammie said they didn’t want the Americans to get any more control over the drilling than they already had. If we helped them, they would help the Uighur’s against the Chinese.”
“Can I go to the toilet now?” Mei Lyn implored. “I got to go bad. Now you know I didn’t really do anything. Nothing at all. It was all Sammie’s fault.”
Outside of the interrogation room, Pearlman was waiting for them. “Good job people,” he said, clapping them on the back. “Let me make arrangements to take you back to the hotel Nadia. We owe you one, and we will see that you are well compensated for your trouble.”
After Nadia left, Charlie asked the station chief what he was going to do with Mei Lyn. He felt badly about how he treated her.
Pearlman assured him that he had done the right thing. “If you had seen the photos that I did of Durand lying in bed with his throat cut, it would resolve any remorse you might be feeling.
“I plan to turn her over to the Kazakhs. They can decide. I am sure they won’t be too happy to learn what the Uighur’s want to do at the mine. Or for that matter the Russians over in the Basin. I also want to find out what else she may have passed on—and to whom. But, I want her out of here before the ambassador knows she is gone. This place is turning into a bag of snakes.”
“What are you going to tell him, when he finally learns she is gone?” Charlie asked.
“Oh I guess something to the effect that she had to return to Urumqi to visit her ailing mother.”
“Not bad. I guess that would work, for awhile at least.”
“We specialize in dissembling and disinformation. This is merely child’s play,” Pearlman replied, grinning broadly.
Charlie headed for the door.
The station chief stepped in his way. “Just one more thing, I need to call Emmett to fill him in on what we found out today. He will be pleased to learn that we have the answer to who burned Durand. I want you there to fill in any of the things you know that I don’t.”
“You can do that without me. I have had a belly full of this foreign intrigue crap, and I want to get it behind me,” Charlie told him. “You understand. I’m not one of you guys. I just help out now and then, and right now it’s then, and now I’m out of here.”
“I understand,” Pearlman assured him, standing his ground. “I don’t blame you for feeling that way. You have to understand, however, that it is embarrassing for this old pro to be shown up by a damn NOC. Hell you’re not even really in the game. I should have vetted Mai Lyn. Instead, I assumed the Ambassador had done that. That kind of assumption can get you killed in this business. And, maybe it did for Durand.”
Charlie felt sorry for him. “Look,” he explained, “I know I am classified by the agency as a person with non-official cover. I know that this can be a problem sometimes, but I have been around enough to understand that you are a NOC as well--as in no other career. I realize that may be a bigger problem. You don’t have to tell Emmett I had anything to do with discovering your mole. Make it sound like you figured it out. I really don’t care. I have already had one career, and one is enough for me. I don’t need another.”
The station chief looked closely at Charlie. “Come on, it will only take a few minutes more. When we are finished, I'll have an embassy car take you back to the hotel, and then have them pick you up tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will have someone at the airport that can grease your way through Kazakh customs. It will be cool,” Pearlman assured him, putting his arm around Charlie’s shoulders and leading him back toward the DOS.
By the time Charlie finally got to the hotel, the group was already on dessert. It was Kulmak, a kind of thick pancake they had eaten once or twice at Tekeli. Trevor was at the head of the table, waiting for the check. “Please join us,” he offered. Charlie shook his head, and picked up an apple instead.
Dave Dieter was already heading back to his room, but paused when he saw Charlie arrive. The two of them shook hands, and wished each other good luck. “Have to keep in touch,” they both agreed.
Roger Pembroke had returned from his hosting duties with the congressmen. He sat across from Elaina and Nadia, and was planning to drive the two of them home. Nadia first of course.
Charlie sat down beside Nadia, and whispered, “you really did a good job with the interrogation,. You have a lot on the ball and, in addition, you’re a great young woman.”
He slipped her Pearlman’s card. “You should call him tomorrow. I talked with him, and he has a job opening, and would like you to apply. He will have to check out your credentials, but I assured him there is no problem. He thinks his opening could lead to a whole new career for you.”
They all rose from the table together. Roger was eager to leave. Charlie kissed Nadia on the cheek, and told Elaina and young Pembroke good by. He and Trevor shook hands.
Heading toward his room, Charlie turned and hurried to catch up with Nadia. “By the way, it might be best not to mention anything about our little conversation with Mai Lyn to anyone.” He paused, and then added as an afterthought, “particularly Pembroke.” She understood, and smiled her agreement.
The flight tomorrow would be a long one, and he needed a good night’s sleep. The weeks in Kazakhstan were the longest years of his life.
32
Istanbul
The flight from Almaty to Istanbul was overnight, setting down at Ataturk Airport in mid-morning. Charlie managed to catch a few hours sleep, but still felt tired. Clearing customs was easy. Pearlman had given him a diplomatic visa.
The ride to the hotel was uneventful. After he was settled in his room, he headed directly for the rooftop lounge. The only people there were a lone bartender, and a dozing waiter. The startled waiter leapt to his feet, awakened by the footsteps of an unexpected customer.
Charlie gazed out the window of the lounge, slowly sipping a Bombay martini. He had decided to stop over in Turkey on his return from Almaty. It seemed to provide certain symmetry to his journey. Closing the circle perhaps.
His thoughts turned, once again, to the people he had met. The face of his dead friends continued to haunt him—they would be seared in his mind forever. Trevor had assured him that he would make sure that both men’s remains would be returned to their families.
He rarely thought about Sammie any longer. Such is the blessing of selective memory. He had noticed, sometimes when he least expected, he would be overtaken by a cold chill, followed by a shiver running down his spine. He attributed it to the bitter cold he experienced chasing Sammie through the snow that dark night in Tekeli.
Outside of the lounge an almost impenetrable fog was beginning to roll in. As he watched, the prow of an ancient freighter slipped out of the advancing bank, followed silently by a rusty bow with undecipherable Chinese figures.
The old vessel was coming into harbor after passing the Golden Horn, and was now bearing relentlessly toward the Bosporus Bridge. The hull moved up the channel, towing the fog bank behind.
It looked to Charlie like a phantom vessel that was arriving from a ghostly port, and reentering the world of commercial reality. Occasionally, the sound of a muffled foghorn would penetrate the thick lounge windows, providing an additional eerie aspect to the scene. It matched Charlie’s mood perfectly.
He looked away from the window, and motioned to the waiter for a second martini. God knows he deserved it after what he had been through.
The waiter was deep in thought, rocking heel to toe alongside the empty bar. Charlie snapped his fingers, and held up the empty glass. The bartender saw his only customer demanding attention. H
e nudged the waiter, and turned back to preparing the martini.
Before the bartender finished mixing the drink a loud jangling of the bar’s telephone demanded the waiter’s attention. He listened intently, then hung up the receiver and began writing in a hotel notepad. He was finished in seconds, then folded the note in half and laid it carefully on his tray alongside of the sweating cocktail glass.
Charlie heard the telephone, and watched as the waiter approached his table. He took a sip of his drink before picking up the note. He opened it slowly—apprehensively.
Very few people would know how to contact him. One was his wife, and the other was—sure as hell it was Emmet Valentine’s number. No note, just a number. He had done it again. He knew the old man wasn’t trying to get in touch to congratulate him on the successful completion of his assignment. Not Emmett. He didn’t work that way. Charlie decided he was going to have to quit coming to this bar. But then, somehow they always knew how to find him.
Death on the Silk Road Page 27
