Rules of Betrayal

by Christopher Reich

Connor frowned. “He’s a bad one. I’m sorry.”

  Jonathan felt something cold and hard and merciless settle inside him. He had never been one to harbor grudges, to catalogue wrongs done to him, slights received, indignities and insults, in the vain, misguided hope of one day paying them back. In his younger days, he had had his own method of dealing with assholes, and that method invariably involved a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey and his fists. He found his method to be cheap, expedient, and effective at resolving matters between individuals. Unfortunately, it was also illegal, and landed him overnight stays in jail in ten cities across six counties. As he grew older, and (eventually) matured, he’d learned that violence was not a means to an end. It was just a means to feed the devil inside you. Instead of hitting people, he ignored them. He traded mayhem for a medical degree, fists for a scalpel and forceps. He needed his hands in good condition for surgery.

  But all the while, the devil inside him waited, biding his time, doing pushups in the deepest corner of his soul, gathering strength for the moment of his return. Jonathan knew this, and, ever vigilant, had kept him at bay these many years.

  Chains … cattle prods … cigarettes … sometimes he drags them behind his car.

  Connor’s words penetrated to that deepest corner, and now, seated at the table as the carrier shuddered with the launch of another jet, Jonathan felt the demon stir inside him, the hounds bay for revenge.

  Payback.

  “So this is about getting to Rashid?” asked Jonathan, with a new and improved outlook on the matter.

  Connor shook his head. “Not just yet. The situation is fluid. Rashid doesn’t matter at the moment. We’re more interested in finding out the identity of the man for whom he purchased the weapons. If he’s a new player, we want a name. If he’s an established entity, we want to know that, too.”

  “But Rashid hurt Emma. You can’t just let him—”

  “Rashid is an SOB, and one day he’ll pay. You’ve got my word. But right now there’s no way we can get close to him. He knows we’re watching. He’ll have his defenses buttoned up tight. The only way in is through Balfour. You see, Balfour doesn’t just supply weapons, he flies them to wherever his clients need them. If we can find out where Balfour delivered those guns, we’ll know who Rashid’s mystery friend is. As I said, we need to get close to Balfour, and you’re the only one who can do it.”

  “I already told you that I don’t know anything about him.”

  “That doesn’t matter. It’s what you can do for him that counts.”

  Connor spent several minutes explaining Balfour’s history, his rise to power as an arms trafficker, and his subsequent fall from grace as a fugitive on Interpol’s Red List. When it was done, Connor paused and leaned back in his chair, his shrewd eyes fixed on Jonathan. “Still interested?” he asked.

  “Keep talking,” said Jonathan.

  “Balfour is in trouble and he knows it. The Indian government is closing in on him. The Pakistanis may pull the welcome mat from beneath his feet at any time. He needs a way out and he needs it now. The problem is, there’s nowhere for him to hide. So … Balfour needs someone to alter his appearance so that he can start a new life incognito. He’s in the market for a plastic surgeon, and he wants him to perform the procedure at his compound in Pakistan. We would like you, Dr. Ransom, to be that surgeon.”

  “You want me to change his looks? To turn him into someone else entirely?”

  “Hopefully, you’ll never have to perform the operation,” said Connor. “Balfour conducts all his affairs from offices inside a palatial compound outside Islamabad. We want you to use your status as Balfour’s guest to locate information telling us the identity of Rashid’s client. There’ll never be a better opportunity to get inside his business. Rashid’s client is just the tip of the iceberg. If things go well, we’ll get enough information to turn the arms market inside out.”

  “How long will I have?”

  “You tell me. How long does that sort of procedure take?”

  “Start to finish? A lot depends on just how radically he wants to alter his appearance. Nose, chin, implants. We’ll have to see. In any event, I’ll have to do a full workup on him, a physical, blood panels, that kind of thing. We’re talking two days minimum if we can get results back quickly. What kind of equipment does he have?”

  “Knowing Balfour, he’ll have the best.”

  “In that case, the surgery itself will only take a half-day. But he’ll need to rest for a few days afterward. There’s no way he can get on a plane for at least a week.”

  A klaxon sounded on the ship’s internal speaker system. A man announced that chow was being served in the enlisted mess and that the movie for that night was Batman Returns. Jonathan spent a moment running over all that Connor had told him. “You said Balfour’s in the market for a surgeon. Has he chosen someone?”

  Connor said yes.

  An uneasy feeling took hold of Jonathan. “What’s going to happen to him?”

  “He’ll be taken out of the picture,” said Connor matter-of-factly.

  “Taken out of the picture?”

  Connor nodded. “Obviously, we need to get him out of the way.”

  “You guys just don’t get it. I can’t trade Emma’s life for his.”

  Connor stared with obvious disappointment across the table. “Is that how you see us? A bunch of amoral killers willing to do anything to accomplish our objectives? You, of all people, should know how seriously we value human life.”

  Jonathan didn’t miss the unspoken message. He, a civilian, had been privy to several of Division’s operations. He knew far more than any civilian should. If Division made it a policy to eliminate any and all individuals they considered a risk, he would’ve been dead a long time ago. “Yeah, maybe,” he admitted. “It’s just that I’m not too good at figuring out who has to live and who has to die.”

  “You leave that part to me. Right now, you just need to do as I tell you. You good with that?”

  Jonathan said that he was, but already a voice was sounding inside him, saying that Connor was holding something back. “So what happens now? How much time do we have?”

  Connor checked his watch. “Jesus, where did the time get to? You’d better haul your butt upstairs to the flight deck. Your carriage is waiting.”

  “Now?”

  “This minute.” Frank Connor guided him out of the wardroom and down several flights of stairs, stopping at the pilots’ ready room. He barked a few orders, and an officer emerged with a flight suit and a helmet.

  “Put ’em on,” said Connor. “Now.”

  “Where am I going?” asked Jonathan.

  “To see some friends of mine. You’ve got a lot to learn before I can send you into Balfour’s den.”

  Jonathan looked at the flight suit and helmet. “Hold it a second,” he said, keeping his hands at his sides. “What about Emma? You told me she might be in danger. Isn’t this about her?”

  “It certainly is. The best way you can help your wife is to finish what she started,” said Connor. “Lord Balfour was one of the last people to see Emma before Rashid tortured her. If anyone knows what happened to her, it’ll be him.”

  15

  Frank Connor stood on the flight deck, watching from the safety line as Jonathan climbed into the rear seat of the F-18/A. An airman leaned into the cockpit and tightened Jonathan’s harness and acquainted him with the plane’s features. At one point the airman pointed to something at Jonathan’s feet and then crossed his hands over each other dramatically while shaking his head, and Connor knew that Jonathan had just been advised not to pull the ejection handle except in an absolute emergency.

  The airman closed the canopy and leaped down from the ladder. Farther up the deck, a flight controller waved a green flag. The pilot gave a salute. The sound of the aircraft powering up was like an industrial turbine red-lining. Connor saw Jonathan glance his way. Feeling that something was expected of him, he forced an
arm up and gave a thumbs-up. It was an awkward gesture. He’d never been good at the rah-rah stuff. It wasn’t that he didn’t have much practice at it. Rather, it was that he felt it disingenuous in a business that made its home in the gray regions of the human condition, where success was measured by acts of greater or lesser evil and death was ever-present. Still, he was the director now, and it was his duty to offer encouragement. He smiled, and Jonathan nodded.

  The flight controller dropped his flag. The lights on the meatball went from red to green. The F-18 shuddered, then burst from its chocks and thundered down the flight deck, shooting like an arrow into the sky. The engine glowed orange, then red. Connor watched the fighter bank hard right and assume its direction to the north. An amateur, he thought darkly. He had sent a rank amateur without a day’s training to do a professional’s work. He thought of Balfour and the men that protected him, hardened criminals all. One in particular stood out, a six-and-a-half-foot-tall Sikh named Mr. Singh who did Balfour’s dirty work. Ransom was entering a nest of vipers, and he didn’t even know it. Connor stood rooted to the spot until the plane was nothing but a gray speck. Finally it disappeared altogether, swallowed by the sky.

  Connor turned and began to walk back to the Island. He had his own flight home to arrange, and he was in no condition to sit like a goddamned daredevil in the back of one of those jets. A helicopter to the nearest major airport would be fine. He walked to the hatch and stopped a step shy, a force beyond him compelling him to take a last look into the sky.

  “Godspeed,” he whispered.

  16

  Midday traffic in Islamabad was no more horrendous than usual. Cars, vans, light trucks, and juggernauts, motorcycles, bicycles, tuk-tuks, and auto rickshaws clogged the broad, well-manicured boulevards of the government district, everyone vying with everyone else for the right to advance another ten meters. Horns blaring, the convoy of white Range Rovers peeled away from the curb in front of the Colonial Building and fought its way onto Kitchener Road.

  “Where’s our escort?” asked Lord Balfour, checking over his shoulder for a sign of the ISI agents who had been their constant companions for the past two months.

  “They haven’t been on us all day.” The driver caught Balfour’s eye in the rearview mirror and grinned. “We’re safe now, boss. No one’s coming after us.”

  Balfour said nothing. The truth was the opposite. He was as safe as a wounded fish in a shark tank.

  “What did the solicitor say?” asked the driver, a young man he’d brought in from the streets and trained himself. “All good, I’m sure?”

  “Everything’s fine,” said Balfour, forcing a pleasant tone. “Just get us home, will you? There’s a good chap.”

  “Yes, sir.” The driver smiled broadly and leaned on the horn to show he meant business.

  Balfour sat back, the polite smile vanishing as he replayed the meeting from start to finish.

  “The Indian police have furnished the Pakistani police with proof of your involvement in the raid,” the solicitor had begun nervously, as soon as Balfour sat down. “The serial numbers from two of the machine guns used by the terrorists in Mumbai match those on a shipping manifest that passed through your warehouses a month before the attack.”

  “How the hell do they know that?”

  “They possess a copy of the shipping manifest.”

  “Impossible,” said Balfour, restraining himself from saying that he alone had a copy of the manifest. “But those guns could have gone anywhere in between. A month is a long time.”

  “Not likely,” said the solicitor. “Your reputation precedes you.”

  Balfour didn’t bother protesting. His dislike of his native government was well known. It had been a private pleasure to arm the band of fighters and point them in the direction of his homeland. The surprise came in learning how successful their attack had been. One hundred eighty killed, dozens more wounded. Mumbai, or Bombay, as he and anyone who had ever lived there still called it, held hostage for three days. A metropolis of millions paralyzed by the actions of twenty brave men. A pleasure indeed.

  The solicitor, however, was not so sanguine. “Your meddling has become a political football. Delhi is willing to forgive several border incursions in Srinagar if you are promptly turned over to the government.”

  “And Islamabad?” asked Balfour, meaning the Pakistani government.

  “I’ve placed a call to General Gul. Unfortunately, I haven’t heard back.”

  “He’ll call back. He enjoys his fifty thousand U.S. a month.”

  “It may be beyond even him.”

  “Nonsense,” said Balfour. “This is Pakistan. Everyone’s for sale. Call the PM.”

  “I have,” said the solicitor. “He refused the call.”

  Balfour had nodded and put up a good front. “I hope to hell you got a copy of the evidence.”

  The solicitor said that he did, and produced a copy of the shipping manifest. “I’m afraid there’s very little we can do except wait. I trust you’ve taken precautionary measures. The Indians will know immediately that you’ve lost your official protection. I wouldn’t put it past them to come after you. Do be careful.”

  Balfour had not answered.

  That had been thirty minutes ago.

  Now, in the safety of his automobile, Balfour unfolded the manifest and studied it closely. It was genuine—no doubt of it. Aware of the sensitive nature of the order, Balfour had chosen to oversee the shipment himself. Only one person besides him had access to the paperwork. He placed a call to his personal aide.

  “Yes, Mr. Medina, I’m just on my way back from the city. Tell the grooms to tack up Copenhagen. No, it’s not a special occasion. My solicitor gave me some good news, that’s all. This whole thing about Mumbai looks to be blowing over nicely. An afternoon ride is just the ticket.”

  Balfour placed a second call. The respondent was his Sikh chief of security, Mr. Singh. “We have a problem. Mr. Medina has been talking out of school. I’ll be meeting him at the stables in an hour. Make sure our guest has an unobstructed view of the punishment. It’s important to send a clear message about the rules of betrayal. Have the thoroughbreds ready. Thank you, Mr. Singh.”

  The Range Rover slammed to a halt as a string of porters carrying bales of saffron-colored cloth on their heads crossed the road in front of them. Balfour looked out the window at a boy crouched beside a brazier, selling chicken kidneys at ten rupees a skewer. Beside him a woman with crippled legs sat in the dirt.

  Balfour rolled down the window. “Two skewers,” he said.

  The boy chose his two finest and thrust them into the car. Balfour handed him a five-hundred-rupee note. “Give the rest to your mother,” he said.

  The boy took a closer look at the banknote and cried out in delight, jumping up and down.

  Traffic picked up. Balfour waited a few seconds, then rolled down the opposite window and chucked the kidneys out. A passing cement mixer blasted a cloud of exhaust into the car. Balfour sank back into his seat, coughing. He couldn’t get out of this damned country fast enough, he thought to himself.

  But where to go?

  To calm himself, he ran a hand over the buttery leather upholstery. It was Alcantara leather special-ordered from Spain at a cost of $51,000. The Range Rovers were armored by Alpha Armouring Panzerung of Munich and equipped with supercharged V-12 engines, at a cost of $225,000 apiece. There was little chance he’d be allowed to export them.

  Balfour caught sight of his reflection in the window. He had dressed for his meeting in a Brioni suit, Egyptian cotton shirt from Ascot Chang, and Hermès tie. His shoes were handmade, from John Lobb of London. Even his underwear was tailor-made: monogrammed silk boxers from Hanro of Switzerland.

  His obsession with luxury was hard-earned. His work demanded a steady state of paranoia and forbade him friends. He had only associates and colleagues, and too many underlings to count. He enjoyed the company of women, but distrusted them on principle. Material possess
ions offered lasting tactile satisfaction while providing an ever-visible reminder of his success. He had sold chicken livers on the street once, too.

  The convoy left the highway and followed a razor-straight two-lane road toward the rolling Margalla Hills. After a few kilometers, they approached an armed checkpoint. Guards clad in black utilities and Kevlar vests, with Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine guns at their sides, ran to lift the barrier. The cars passed without slowing. A sign nearby read, “Private Property—No Trespassing” in Urdu, Hindi, and English. The skull and bones below needed no translation. The road continued dead straight for exactly two kilometers. Apple orchards gave way to oranges and then almond trees. Balfour rolled down his window to smell the sweetly scented air. His desire to leave Pakistan faded.

  Ahead, he made out the stately gateposts that signaled the official entry to his property. A guard box painted with black-and-white diagonal stripes no different from those at Buckingham Palace stood to one side. No Queen’s Guard in a bearskin cap; just another member of his private army, clad in black head to toe, his machine gun at the ready. The ornate wrought-iron gate rolled back. Balfour waved to the guard, and the guard threw his best parade-ground salute in return.

  The Range Rover drove for another two minutes before Balfour caught sight of the man-made lake. The cars crossed a plank bridge and swept into a gravel courtyard, continuing past the front entry and around the back to the stables.

  Balfour had named his home Blenheim, in reference to the Duke of Marlborough’s grand palace in England. And Blenheim was a two-thousand-square-meter Palladian palace built to rival its namesake.

  Mr. Medina was waiting beside the cross ties as a black stallion was being saddled. Medina was a thin, meticulous man with pince-nez glasses and hair swept off his forehead in a pompadour. Balfour had originally hired him as an accountant, only to be impressed by his near-photographic recall and his willingness to work all hours.

  Balfour walked directly to Mr. Medina and handed him the copy of the shipping manifest. “Did you supply this to the Indian police?”