by Chris Goff
Davis didn’t hesitate. He headed for the railgun, wire cutters in hand. Jordan moved forward to provide cover if needed.
“I need updates, Charlie.” Without putting herself in the open, Jordan had no way of knowing where the danger might come from. The compact bullpup rifle felt odd pressed against her shoulder in ready mode.
“Most are running to the production plant. Ping left one guard. The two of them are standing outside watching the action.”
“How long do you think we have before they figure out it’s a false alarm?”
“Not long.”
“How’re you doing, Davis?”
“I’m almost done.”
Jordan backed toward the gun.
“You’re out of time.” It was Zhen’s voice, and it held a note of trepidation. “They’re coming back.”
Davis tore off a piece of tape with his teeth and fastened the wires to the contacts on the back of the armature.
“Davis, we need to go.” Jordan started pulling back.
“One more piece.”
She watched as he slapped the tape in place, his handiwork visible if anyone looked too closely.
“It’s good enough,” she said. “Let’s go!”
Jordan covered him to the doorway, turning around at the last moment. Behind them she could hear Ping berating his men.
“It was a false alarm,” someone said.
Agitated, Ping demanded to know where the missing guard went. He must have sensed something was wrong. Jordan knew that little voice, at least the one that lived in her own head. It was telling her that she and Davis needed to get out of there quickly. “Let’s go.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“It will,” she assured him. It had to.
“Get out of there, now!” Charlie said.
Jordan and Davis pulled back into the warehouse just as Ping strode toward the doorway. He stopped and sniffed, like a bloodhound on the scent. Pressing her back to the inside wall, she reached for Davis’s hand to stop him from moving. She held her breath, felt his fingers grip hers, and they waited in the sharp silence.
A burst of Chinese released the tension. Ping had turned back.
Letting go of Davis’s hand, she gestured for him to head for the main office while she brought up the rear. He was halfway up the stairs with her standing ready on the warehouse floor when Charlie spoke.
“We have incoming. A car is pulling around to the back.”
She stopped moving. “The dragon?”
Davis turned on the stairs, and she waved him on. Zhen opened the door. Davis looked back, then disappeared inside.
“The car bears the flags of a government vehicle.”
Jordan crept back through the warehouse toward the cordoned-off truck bay.
“What the hell are you doing?” Davis said over the comm.
She ignored the three men in her head and hunkered down just a few feet back from the opening slit in the plastic. Camouflaged by deep shadow, she watched two bodyguards and a middle-aged Chinese man in a suit climb out of a black Maserati. Jordan took in the red power tie and Ping’s deference to the man. This had to be the dragon.
Pulling out her cell phone, she snapped several pictures. Then before she could retreat, Ping ordered his men to move the gun into position for a demonstration and insisted someone go check on the missing guard.
Jordan tucked herself between two pallets and held still. The gangster sent on the mission moved past her, and she edged back out.
“What’s all the excitement?” The man in the suit asked. “Perhaps we should do this another time?”
“No, no,” Ping said. “It was nothing, just a false alarm. There’s no need for concern.”
The suited man hesitated then signaled his men, who took up protective positions. “You indicated I could see a demonstration of the weapon.”
“Of course, we’re moving the gun into position now.”
Jordan’s heart started to beat faster. Would they notice the crude reconfiguration of wires? It was darker outside, and they were working to impress their potential buyer. How close would they check?
“How does this work?” the man asked, stepping into the garage, allowing the truck to pass.
Ping rattled off statistics of distance and velocity as the gun was repositioned outside. “From here, we must shoot on the horizon with reduced capacity. We have a range of only three miles. We’ve also placed several targets along the bullet’s path to slow it down. The final target is a block of steel over eight feet thick. You will see that the bullet will nearly punch through and take under a minute to hit the target. When fired using the GPS guided system, the time to target can vary.” Ping gestured that they should go outside. “We’ll stand on the other side, where you can best see the action of the gun.”
“Jordan, get out of there,” Davis said over the comm. He sounded strained.
Not knowing where the guard had disappeared to, Jordan didn’t respond and held her position.
“Watch your six,” Charlie said. “It looks like he found your man in the closet. They’re headed back your way.”
Jordan heard them on the stairs simultaneous to the warning. She could see Ping on the far side of the weapon, his arm raised to signal the discharge.
“There she is,” shouted one of the guards.
Jordan stepped into the open, fired the bullpup, and dropped one of the men on the stairs. The other man ducked for cover. Hiding behind the pallet, Jordan pressed her back to the steel and waited.
Ping dropped his hand. A bright flash lit the area. The air tingled, then everything went dark.
Chaos erupted around her. Men shouted. A large humming filled the room. After a few minutes, the generators kicked on. The electromagnetic pulse had knocked her down, and she pushed herself up off the floor. The guard who had ducked for cover appeared dazed. Through the doorway, she could see several men on the ground. The armature appeared warped, the metal twisted and melted by the charge.
“Mission accomplished,” she said and then realized her comm was blown.
Chapter 29
In the chaos, Jordan made it back to the main office, and the four of them had slipped out in time to see the black Maserati pull away. Now safely back in the suite in Shaoguan, they faced another problem. They needed a way out of China.
“Word has leaked out that you have Zhen,” Lory said. Jordan had him on speaker phone. “The police have issued an all-points bulletin on both of you. The good news is, it appears Davis and Charlie are both in the clear.”
“What are the charges against Zhen and me?”
“You’re being accused of spying. Ping Mu leveled the accusation. One of his men identified you. Of course, no specifics were given, but let’s not forget that the Chinese have been known to execute spies. Even if you could make it back to the consulate, the counsel general will be forced to detain you for your own security.”
“What do you suggest we do?”
Lory hedged. “You did a good job, Jordan. All of you. Exactly what was needed. I received the encrypted files, proof that REE was involved. It’s a shame we didn’t get the dragon ID’d. We may have been able to use that as leverage with President Xi Jinping.”
“I have photos, provided Henry can pull them off the microSD card.” Her cell had been fried when the pulse was unleashed.
“It doesn’t change the present situation. Right now our priority is getting you out of the country.”
“What about the embassy in Beijing?”
“The situation’s the same there.”
“How about a private jet?” Davis asked.
“We’re actually working that angle, but we need someone we can trust.”
“How about someone with a vested interest?”
Jordan frowned. “It sounds like you have someone in mind.”
“Who do we know who is currently in Kyiv and has a vested interest in keeping details of your detention from going public?”
H
is words acted like a light switch. “Ellis Quinn,” she said.
“What about her?” Lory asked.
“She’s attending the leadership conference at the Intercontinental with Mrs. Linwood.”
“Sit tight,” Lory said. “Let me make a few calls.”
* * *
It had taken him an hour to make the arrangements. Ellis Quinn would land at Ganzhou Huangjin Airport, approximately two and half hours north of Shaoguan. The region was known for its large reserves of tungsten, and Quinn Industries had a supplier there. She wasn’t exactly happy with the situation, but she’d set up a meeting and been granted permission to fly into Chinese airspace. It was on them to figure out how to get on board the plane before she took off. She would arrive around 2:00 PM, and they’d been given a two-hour window to be on board.
“It’s a private plane. They park them in a different area of the airports,” Charlie said. “She’ll need a car to pick her up and return her.”
“How does that help us?” Jordan asked.
“I am a driver from her consulate. I’ll go in to pick her up. Security will be thorough going in the first time, but not so thorough on the return. They will recognize me then and not be so concerned. I can take you through in the trunk. Trust me.”
* * *
That night, Jordan spent a fitful night on the couch in the suite while Charlie and Zhen sacked out on the bed and Davis slept in the chair. In the morning, news of the explosion and fire at the manufacturing plant headlined the news. There were casualties, but no specifics were released of what exactly had happened.
They didn’t talk much on the trip to Ganzhou, but Charlie broke the silence as they parked in a lot near the airport.
“Travel by private jet is a new phenomenon in China. Only the very affluent buy planes, and the government likes to make it difficult for them to fly. That is to our benefit.”
Jordan bit. “Why is that?”
“It means the areas designated for private planes are small, usually off to one side and not heavily guarded. Observe.” He pointed to a gate with only two guards.
It didn’t take long before one of the guards disappeared.
“He’s gone on break,” Charlie said.
Jordan grinned. “And then there was one.”
“One we can handle.”
The Quinn Industry plane arrived early. While Jordan, Davis, and Zhen waited in the parking lot, Charlie drove to the gate. True to his prediction, the guards searched his car from top to bottom, even pulling out the spare tire in the back. Then they waved him through.
Davis put into words what Jordan was thinking. “You realize, even if they don’t search the car when he comes back through, there isn’t room for three of us in the trunk.”
“Which means you’re flying commercial,” she said. He pouted and made her laugh. “Tell me you’re disappointed.”
“A little. Hey, it’s a Gulfstream G-650.”
“At least no one is looking for you.”
“What about the gang members? They saw both Charlie and me.”
“I doubt any of them could pick you out in a lineup. Me, on the other hand, I’m on everyone’s no-fly list.”
Their eyes met and caught.
“Will you be in Kyiv when I get there?” he asked.
“Why?”
“Because it’s going to take Charlie and me a while to get back to Guangzhou and for me to schedule a flight, and you promised me a story, remember?”
Of course, the story. For a moment, she’d let herself think he wanted to see her again. She turned her head and stepped back, putting a little distance between them.
“I’ll be there. Unless, of course, my job requires I be somewhere else. For all I know, they’ll put me on the first plane to Tel Aviv.”
Chapter 30
Landing in Kyiv in the early hours on Sunday, the Gulfstream had been met by an armed escort from the embassy. Zhen was taken into custody and booked into a holding area. Jordan was sent to see Lory.
Shown into his office, her first question was about the Russians. “Have they been located?”
“No. The general consensus seems to be that they’re safely behind their front lines by now. The Ukrainians are eager to put this behind them. They’ve worked fast, and the first of the crash remains are on their way by train to Krakow now.”
“They’ve completed the investigation?”
“As far as the IIC is concerned, the crash was due to a mechanical failure of the left engine.” Lory leaned back in his desk chair and smiled. “Your work here is done, Jordan. RSO Daugherty has arranged for another agent to accompany the ambassador’s wife home. He suggested you take a few days off.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“No, Agent Jordan, consider it a thank you for a job well done.”
“Sir, the Russians still have a prototype of the railgun Quinn Industries has in development. They didn’t bring it this far into Ukraine just to turn tail and run. They have a plan.”
Picking up a pencil, he bounced the eraser off the desk. “In this business, there are times you have to sit back and let things play out. This weekend, the prime minister and the ambassador are attending a summit. The minister is signing an alliance agreement that was nearly derailed by Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. Meanwhile, they continue to make headway toward a peaceful end to Russia’s take-over of the Crimean Peninsula. Bottom line, right now is not a good time to go accusing the Russians of illegal weapons trading, especially without solid evidence.”
“But we know who the manufacturer is, and we have a witness to the arms trade.”
“Do you really expect anyone to take us seriously? The only witness is a fugitive, wanted for treason.”
“I saw the second prototype, so did Davis.”
“Again, your word against the Chinese. There’s just no tangible proof.”
“What about the files we e-mailed back?”
“It’s not enough.”
She suddenly felt defensive. “We did what we had to when we destroyed the gun.”
He was quick to allay her guilt. “I know that. You know that. In reality, everybody knows that. It’s just that no one is going to take action unless we have a lot more evidence to back up the claims.”
She still had her fried phone. If Henry could pull the files, she’d have pictures. “What if I can produce photos?”
“Give it up, Jordan. At this point, we gain nothing, and we stand to lose a helluva lot if we start leveling accusations we can’t substantiate.”
“But sir, I’m telling you, the Russians—”
Mary banged open the door. Walking past them to the credenza, she picked up the remote and clicked on the TV. “You’re going to want to see this. A reporter, claiming to have been at the crash site, has just gone live with the information that Kia Zhen was not killed aboard PR Flight 91.”
“Damn, if it isn’t our guy Davis,” Lory said.
When the television picture came up, it showed a split screen with the in-studio reporter on one side and Nye Davis on the other. Stunned, Jordan watched him say he had an unidentified source who had confirmed that the man being transported by the DSS was not the fugitive wanted for espionage as suspected, but a man with a similar last name thought to be affiliated with the Triad. A surge of adrenalin hit Jordan’s system, a buzzing in her ears overpowering his voice. He’d given his word he wouldn’t say anything, not until she’d given him the green light.
When the picture cut away to another act of violence in the Middle East, Lory clicked off the TV. “Actually, he might have done us a favor. He just took the wind out of everyone else’s sails.”
Jordan stared at the blank screen. “He promised to sit on the information.”
“He lied.”
Funny, that’s what she’d said to Zhen about Eddie. The only positive spin was that Davis hadn’t filled in the details. He hadn’t given any specifics about Eddie or his alleged connections with the CIA. He’d said nothing
about the hacking of a U.S. defense contractor.
Jordan suddenly felt drained. “You know,” she said, pushing up from her chair, “I think I will take a few days.”
“Good idea.” Lory got to his feet and shook her hand. “And next time”—he jerked his head toward the TV—“you might want to pick better friends.”
She didn’t bother to remind him that Davis had put his life on the line for her and to stop the Chinese. She doubted he’d care.
Mary wasn’t at her desk, but Jordan helped herself to a lab request form on her way out. She still had the pictures to follow up on. Lory may have told her to walk away, but she had a nagging suspicion that they were all missing the bigger picture. She didn’t believe the Russians had turned back. They were headed somewhere, and the clock was ticking.
Henry was in the lab when she pushed through the door and seemed genuinely glad to see her. “Whatcha got there? I thought maybe you’d left without a good-bye.”
“Not yet. I need a favor.” She pulled out the phone she’d been using when the electromagnetic pulse had misfired. “This phone was fried, but there were some pictures on the microSD card. Any chance you can pull them off? I really need an ID on the man in the photos.”
He looked skeptical. “I’ll give it a try, but I can’t promise anything.”
“What more can I ask? Any idea how long it’ll take?”
“We’re buried, but since it’s for you, I’ll fit it in. Do you have a new number?” He waggled the phone.
“It’s on the form.” She smiled and started to leave, then hesitated near the door. “Oh, and Henry?”
“Yeah?” He looked expectant, hopeful, like a puppy waiting for a treat.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anybody about the photos. Could you just give me a call when you have some answers? I’d like to keep this on the down low, just for now.”
“Not even Lory’s office?”
Especially not Lory’s office. “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
Chapter 31
The night train to L’viv departed at 11:00 PM. With no leads to follow, she decided to take a few days to research her family history. It gave her a reason to stay in Ukraine, plus L’viv was the birthplace of her father. It was as good a place as any to start looking into his past.
