Red Sky

by Chris Goff

  The woman barely dipped her head.

  Jordan made another visual sweep of the room, this time noting the location of the filing cabinets and additional exits.

  Walking back to the car, Davis gripped her elbow and caught one of the bruises. Jordan winced.

  “What the hell was that back there?” Davis asked. “That wasn’t part of the plan. The plan was to find a way in to talk to Ping, not make us both personae non gratae by bringing up Zhen.”

  Jordan glanced back. The woman was back at the window pacing like a shark gliding back and forth watching the swimmers wading into the water.

  “Your plan wasn’t working,” she said.

  “You didn’t give it a chance.”

  Charlie waited until they were back in the car and then asked, “Did you get what you wanted?”

  “Not even close,” Davis said.

  “That’s not true. The receptionist claimed the owner wasn’t in, but someone was watching from the office window across the way. And I’m sure she recognized Zhen’s name, though of course she denied it.”

  “Where to now?” Charlie asked.

  Jordan was curious to see if anything came out of stirring the pot. “Head toward Shaoguan but pull over at the first place you can park and not be seen.”

  “A stakeout!” Charlie seemed almost exuberant. “Maybe now we’ll get a look at the bad guys.”

  They didn’t have to wait long. The car engine was barely cool when two blue pickups full of men peeled out of the REE parking lot and headed north. Davis instantly identified the man sandwiched into the back of one of the trucks.

  “Wait a minute. That’s Kia Zhen.” He looked accusingly at Jordan. “All this time you knew he was alive?”

  “I can explain, but right now we need to follow those men.” She reached forward and grabbed Charlie’s shoulder. “Can you tail them and keep from being spotted?”

  Charlie’s face hardened in the rearview mirror. “You understand these men are Triad. A dozen of them to three of us.”

  “The PO told me you were the man for the job.”

  “There’s a difference between driving dangerous and being dead,” Charlie said, starting the engine. “This is a very bad idea. The Triad will kill you if you mess with them.”

  “It won’t be the first time they’ve tried,” Davis said.

  Jordan shot him a glare. “You’re not helping.” She looked back at Charlie. “Just don’t get too close.”

  Charlie switched his gaze from Jordan to Davis in the rearview mirror. “This is either one brave or one crazy girl you have.”

  “Possibly both.”

  “Just drive!”

  The road wound up the mountain and joined with another one at the top of the hill. To the left was concrete, to the right dirt. Fresh tracks in the red clay soil combined with the rev of the pickups signaled which direction they’d gone.

  Instead of peppering her with questions about Zhen, Davis slid forward to the edge of the seat and craned for a better look. Jordan was glad for the reprieve. She knew at some point she would be made to explain.

  Charlie glanced up at the mirror. “This could be a trap.”

  “It could.” Jordan rolled down her window and listened. “But I don’t think so. Both trucks are still moving. Turn right up here.”

  Following the sound of the vehicles, they wound back along the damp clay road, becoming more and more isolated. Jordan began to question her logic in following when she heard one of the truck motors cut out.

  “Pull over,” she said, gesturing to a small side road that angled off through the trees. “Cut the engine!”

  Jordan jumped out before the car bucked to a stop and listened for the men’s voices. She could hear them talking, but it was impossible to tell how close they were. Shutting the car door with barely a click, she leaned in the window.

  “You guys, stay here,” she whispered.

  “And miss getting the action shots? No frickin’ way.” Davis picked up his camera and slid out of the car on the driver’s side.

  “I’m going to climb the hill and find out what I can see from above,” she whispered. “I need you here, ready in case we need to make a run for it.”

  “You’re not going up there alone.”

  “Believe it or not, Davis, I can take care of myself.”

  “It’s not up for debate.”

  By his expression, she knew he would never be dissuaded. At least not in the amount of time they had. “Then stay close, keep low, and be quiet! Got it? And if we get jammed up, you do what I tell you.”

  “Got it.”

  Jordan turned to Charlie.

  “I’ll wait with the car,” he said.

  “We may need to make a quick getaway.”

  “No sweat.” He must have seen concern on her face. “Don’t worry, Agent Jordan. I’ll be fine. I know kung fu.”

  Jordan pulled out her phone and checked for his number. “Make sure your phone is on vibrate only. If we’re not back in fifteen minutes, get the hell out of here and call the PO.”

  Charlie leaned across the front seat as they started away. “Break a leg.”

  Chapter 22

  Jordan slowed her climb as she neared the crest of the hill, carefully watching where she placed her feet. The red clay was slick underfoot, the soil saturated by monsoons. Sensing Davis close on her heels, she signaled him to stop. The men’s voices were louder, and she could make out some of their words.

  “How did the American agent know where to look for you, zuk-sing?”

  If she had her Cantonese right, the man had to be talking to Zhen, zuk-sing being a derogatory term used for a Chinese person born away or who identifies too closely with Western culture.

  “Are you eager to go back to the U.S., Zhen? You no longer want to be in China?” The voice sounded like it belonged to her favorite aggressor, the man Davis had laid out in the street.

  “Why would I want to leave?” That had to be Zhen, and he sounded scared. “The Americans want to try me for espionage. I’m as good as dead if I go back.”

  “You’re as good as dead here.”

  “Please, dude, I’m telling the truth. I don’t know why the bitch was here.”

  “Mr. Ping wants to know what happened at the police station.”

  “Nothing happened. It was total chaos. The police held me for a while, asked me some questions, then they just cut me loose.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “How should I know? I was just glad to be free.”

  Inching forward, Jordan could see Zhen now. He looked younger than eighteen, the age listed on his dossier. Fear had drained the color from his face, and he was trembling. From the look of things, it wouldn’t be long before he was begging for his life.

  Unless she did something before things escalated. She considered leaving him to the Triad and saving the U.S. taxpayers the expense of a trial. After all, he was a traitor. An alleged traitor, she reminded herself, which meant turning her back on him wasn’t an option. He was an American and as such deserved a fair trial by a jury of his peers, a group that would no doubt remand him to prison. How long he stayed there would depend on what kind of deal he cut for himself, how forthright he was about what he knew, and what he’d done. None of which concerned her in the least. Her only job was getting him home.

  Davis’s camera clicked, and Jordan turned, making a chopping motion across her neck. He snapped her picture and then twisted his camera around to rest on his back. Jordan pointed to a spot on the path with a little more height.

  From either vantage point, she couldn’t see much—Zhen and the feet of the man he was facing. Otherwise, she only had a view of the backs of the trucks. There was no way of telling how many Triad members were below them or how well they were armed. From what she’d seen when the trucks left REE, there were at least eight gang members, and they’d been armed to the teeth.

  Signaling Davis, she backed off the ridge, and he followed. They needed a div
ersion, some way to draw off the guards.

  Charlie!

  Once back in the safety zone, she filled Davis in on her plan. “He just needs to drive the car farther up the road toward the mines. If we can lure some of the Triad members away, it would leave Zhen with minimal supervision, at which point we could attempt a rescue.”

  “Are you nuts?” Davis said.

  “I know it’s a risky plan, but I know you can fight, and there’s no reason for the gangsters to hurt Charlie. By most accounts, they simply run locals off.”

  “Except these guys are on edge. What if this is the time they decide to send a message?”

  She’d texted Charlie while they talked, and now her phone emitted a tiny beep. She held up Charlie’s reply for Davis to read. “He’s good with the plan.”

  “Only because he knows kung fu.”

  “This’ll work.” It had to. It was their only window of opportunity. “Are you in or out?”

  “In.”

  “Great. Let’s hope we at least cut the number of guards by half. I’ll go for Zhen. You disable any vehicle left behind.” It went without saying they’d have to take out the guards. “Any chance you carry a knife?”

  Davis shook his head. “I’m a weapon-free zone.”

  “Not anymore.” She handed him her tactical pen. “The end is razor sharp. Stab the tire sidewalls and tear sideways.”

  “Perfect. And if we’re caught, I can use it to commit harakiri.”

  “Not in China. That’s a Japanese custom.” She started up the hill, then turned back around. “Just remember, you’re the one who wanted to come.”

  The two of them returned to their perch on the ridge and watched as Charlie snaked the car up the red dirt road. Her instructions had been for him to get as close to the mining operation as possible in order to lure as many gang members away from Zhen as he could. It worked, with one exception. The gangsters piled into both pickups, which meant the Triad still had both sets of wheels.

  “Let’s go.” Jordan slid down the side of the hill with Davis behind her. Wrapping her arms around small tree trunks, she worked to stay on her feet before pushing through the undergrowth. At the sound of breaking branches, the two remaining gang members turned.

  She moved in one direction. Davis moved in the other. One gang member charged into the brush after Davis, while the other kept a tight grip on Zhen.

  Circling around behind Davis’s attacker, Jordan scooped up a rock and struck him in the back of the head. He dropped like a stone. Then a sharp blow from the side drove Jordan to her knees. The other gangster had left Zhen and was about to come at her again. He grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off her feet.

  “Get Zhen,” she yelled at Davis.

  “If it isn’t the bitch from Guangzhou.” The gangster’s breath, warm on her neck, reeked of garlic.

  It was the man from Shangxiajiu.

  He tried lifting her off her feet again, but Jordan hooked her legs behind his. As he struggled to get a good grip, she grabbed one of his fingers and snapped it back. He loosened his hold and she twisted, jabbing her thumb into his eye socket.

  The gangster screamed and backed away, and then his hand came up with a knife. Flight was no longer an option.

  Ignoring the pain in her ribs from his earlier blow, Jordan sucked in a breath and assumed a fighting stance. When he thrust the knife at her, she sidestepped and circled out of range.

  “You think you’re tough?”

  Jordan didn’t react to the taunt. She kept her eyes on him and the weapon. She didn’t know where Davis was, but she hoped he had collared Zhen and headed back to the rendezvous point.

  The gangster lunged again.

  Jordan deflected the blow. Then using a move she’d only trained for, she slid her hand down his forearm, grabbed his wrist and bent it inward. To her surprise, it worked. Next thing she knew, she was standing behind him, hyperflexing his wrist. Applying pressure, she stepped forward, tripping him and sending him to the ground. He let go of the knife as he fell, and per training she followed him to the ground. In the final move, she locked her feet around his torso and brought his right arm down on her leg, twisting until she felt his elbow give.

  His scream shattered the quiet of the pullout. It was time to go.

  “Davis!”

  “Here.” He had Zhen by the collar, his hands bound by the laces from Davis’s shoes. Between them they dragged their prisoner back up the hill.

  “Any sign of Charlie?” she asked.

  “He passed by a few seconds ago. If we can outrun the gang, he should be in place.” Davis gestured behind them toward the oncoming trucks. “We’ve got to move.”

  It took the gangsters a few moments to realize what had happened. By then Jordan and Davis were dragging Zhen down the hill toward the car.

  “Get in,” Jordan yelled, taking shotgun.

  Davis pushed Zhen into the backseat and climbed in beside him.

  Jordan slapped her hand on the dashboard. “Let’s go!”

  “I also took race car driving lessons,” Charlie said, lurching onto the road. Jordan spotted a blue pickup in the rearview mirror. Davis looked over his shoulder.

  “Then why are they gaining on us?” he asked.

  A gunshot shattered the back window of the car, and Davis pushed Zhen onto the floor.

  “You going to have to pay for that,” Charlie said, looking at Jordan.

  “Just go!”

  Hunching over the wheel, he pressed down hard on the accelerator, and the car leapt forward. The lead truck closed the gap, pulled up tight, and rammed the back bumper of the sedan.

  “You’re going to pay for that, too.”

  “Move it!” Jordan yelled.

  The pickup veered toward them, and Charlie slammed on the brakes. Jordan braced herself against the dashboard as the truck careened across the road in front of them. Then punching the accelerator, Charlie clipped the truck’s back fender, sending it into a spin on the mud. Jordan caught a glimpse of the terror and anger on the gangsters’ faces as the pickup climbed the embankment and the sedan shot past. The truck flipped, coming to rest in the middle of the road like a turtle on its back. The second truck slid to a stop.

  “Didn’t I tell you I know how to drive?”

  Chapter 23

  After crossing the bridge into downtown Shaoguan, Jordan used the GPS on the phone, directing Charlie into the parking garage of a three-star hotel near the main intersection of Fengdu Street and Heping Road. As soon as he’d put it in park, Davis asked to talk to her privately, outside of the car.

  Leaving Zhen with Charlie, the two of them walked a few feet away.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Zhen was alive?” Davis asked.

  Jordan went with honesty. “I didn’t know for sure, and I didn’t know how far I could trust you.”

  “Care to fill me in now?”

  His dark eyes drilled her, and she self-consciously looked away. “There’s not much to tell. According to the DNA test we ran in order for the U.S. to repatriate the body, the dead prisoner with McClasky wasn’t Zhen. Someone else came out of China that day.”

  “Who?”

  “We don’t know. He hasn’t been ID’d yet, but someone went to a lot of trouble to make the switch.”

  “Who?”

  Jordan looked at Davis. “You tell me.”

  “Who benefited most by getting him out?”

  “My guess? The Triad.”

  “There are no other possibilities?”

  “Well, sure,” she said. “It’s possible the imposter wanted out of China and arranged for someone to help him switch places with Zhen.”

  “I can buy that.”

  “There’s the Chinese. Maybe they needed someone from their camp back in the states. There’s the CIA.” Jordan’s frustration mounted as they ran through the possibilities. Every scenario pointed to someone having access to classified U.S. intel. “The only thing we know for sure is that
whoever arranged for the switch knew McClasky was coming.”

  “How many people knew?”

  Davis’s question brought her up short. Up until now they’d been talking in broad hypotheticals, but now he was asking her to boil it down to specific individuals. He’d helped her out of a couple of tight situations, but that didn’t mean she would throw her colleagues under the bus or that she could trust him with secret information.

  “I’ve already said too much,” she said, turning back toward the car.

  Davis reached out and grabbed her arm. “Don’t cut me out now, Jordan.”

  “Take your hands off me.”

  He let her go, and she took two steps back.

  “Sorry.” Davis held his palms up. “Look, this isn’t about my being a reporter. I’m smart enough to know that there’s more at stake here than a story. This is about you deciding whether you can trust me. Let me help you figure it out.”

  Jordan trusted very few people. Not as a child, not as a woman. It made her tough, focused, and hard to manipulate—one of the reasons she was so good at her job.

  “Would it help you to know I’m still an active Special Forces Reserve officer?”

  It caught her attention. “That wasn’t in your file.”

  “Only because it would make me a target in some of the places I go. I’ll make it easy for you, Agent. Either I’m all in or I’m all out.” The switch in tone and manner made his position clear. He was done screwing around.

  Slowly she turned to face him. He waited calmly while Jordan wrestled with her demons. On one hand, her instincts urged her to put her faith in him. On the other, she feared his betrayal. She wanted nothing more than to have someone to collaborate with, someone she could count on to have her back. If he was still active reserve, he had the best interest of his country at heart. But it also meant involving another command structure. Plus there was his affiliation with Reuters, which wasn’t going to make Lory happy. Unless, of course, it turned out to be some sort of cover.

  “What’s it going to be?”

  “You better not be playing me.”

  “I’m not.”

  Said the wolf to the lamb. “RSO Lory knew about McClasky. He was the one who sent me to Hoholeve to retrieve the bodies. But he definitely didn’t know anything about the exchange.”