Sunshine or Lead

by Adam Van Susteren

  “Hmm. Thanks. We’re just going to grab a quick drink then, and look forward to coming back here to eat.” Aaron made a mental note that Kimbo and Zhou were willing to throw around serious money.

  Aaron and Nat walked to the small crowded bar inside the restaurant. Aaron nodded to the corner of the restaurant. “That’s south. When they were being seated, they were headed to the southwest part of the restaurant. They probably have their attention drawn on the costume-wearing crowd on the street just outside the windows.”

  Nat surveyed the room. She handed him her cell phone. “Do you know how to take pictures with this?”

  He looked at it. “It’s an iPhone. I’ve used Tina’s.” She set the phone to camera mode and handed it back to him.

  “I’m going to go cause a diversion. When everyone is paying attention to me, you get pictures of Kimbo and Zhou.”

  “Okay, how will I know when to do it?”

  She didn’t answer and simply started walking towards the southwest part of the restaurant looking for one older and one youngish Asian male with four young Asian women. Aaron followed about three seconds behind her after cutting over two rows of tables.

  Without any warning, Aaron saw and, above the background music and chatter, heard Nat slap a man dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow that was sitting two tables away from the table of six. Nat was right, everyone in the restaurant heard it and stared at this man who was just slapped so hard that it stung Nat’s hand.

  Captain Jack Sparrow was in complete shock and the woman at dinner with him asked, “What the hell is this about?”

  Aaron walked a little closer and noticed all eyes in the restaurant were on that table. He took that opportunity to snap pictures without a flash, walked a few feet closer, and snapped again.

  Nat asked, “Alan? Oh my God. I am sooo sorry. I thought you were my husband, Alan.”

  The fake Jack Sparrow put his hand up to feel the sting. In disbelief he said, “Wait, who did you think I am?”

  “My husband, who said he came to Comic-Con for work. I thought he was having an affair with this beautiful lady sitting here with you,” Nat said, trying to gush with apologies.

  Aaron took another picture and made a judgment call to turn on the flash since other people were now recording the incident on their cell phones. He snapped one picture with a flash that turned out to be a pretty good image of both Zhou and Kimbo. He then decided to back away and leave the restaurant; he would meet Nat by the elevators.

  Nat reached into her pocket and put a twenty dollar bill on the table. “I am so sorry and embarrassed, please let me get you a drink. I am so sorry.” She put her hands on her eyes and fake sobbed as she hurried out of the restaurant all the way to the elevators. Aaron kept his same pace and she overtook him at her faster pace. Aaron caught up just as she used her key card to enter the elevator.

  “That was a hell of a slap, Nat.”

  “It did the job, didn't it?”

  Aaron handed back her cell phone. “I think so.”

  Nat looked at the pictures. “These are more profile than straight on portrait so it might be hard to get IDs through facial recognition. But Xiaowan should be able to confirm those are the men she had met with and they should be easy enough to tail. I saw only drinks and edamame on the table. They should be there for quite a bit longer.”

  Aaron was impressed with her observation skills. He chuckled out loud. “Where did you get the idea to slap him for the diversion?”

  “I actually saw the Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Captain Jack Sparrow seemed to get slapped a lot, so it kind of just hit me as obvious. Since no one does that in a fine dining establishment, I thought it would work.”

  “Perfectly,” Aaron said with the smile still on his face as they exited the elevator and made their way to the hotel room. Once in the room, smiles abated and they were all business. Nat handed the phone to Xiaowan. “Are these the guys from your meeting earlier today?”

  Xiaowan stiffened like a corpse going into rigor mortis. James put his hand on her shoulder. The tension eased from her shoulder and her entire body slowly relaxed so she could finally nod her head and say, “Yes. The older one, that's Kimbo. The younger one is Zhou.”

  Aurora could see that Xiaowan was nervous and stepped in front of Nat. As smart as Nat was, she didn't always know how to be empathetic. Aurora slightly coddled Xiaowan. “Good. Are you sure?”

  Xiaowan nodded affirmatively and looked around to see Aaron standing next to Tina. Kor was sitting on a bed next to Jessica, holding her hand. Aurora stood right in front of her with Nat directly behind her. She looked up at her husband's hand on her shoulder, then to his face, and her eyes welled up with tears. James nodded at her reassuringly and firmed his grasp on her shoulder.

  Aurora took a second. “What else can you remember about them that might help us?”

  “They both spoke perfect Mandarin. In English, Kimbo had a thicker accent than me, Zhou maybe a little bit less than me. Zhou is supposed to be from China; it was strange to hear hardly any accent at all. He must have learned English in a foreign country at a very young age.”

  Aurora smiled at her. “That's great. Anything else like that?”

  “Kimbo told me that he was one of the first in the program. His business is real estate now so he isn't much help for them. He helped the program steal cell phones and laptops from customers from time to time.”

  “Do you know how Kimbo is involved with you?”

  “I think he was an example of the carrot. If I do what I am supposed to do, I can have a long and wealthy life like him. I didn't see him as having a free life. He seemed boxed in on all sides. It seemed like he just wanted it all put behind him, like me.”

  “What should I do next?”

  Aurora remembered the bag of money Xiaowan talked about at the pier. “We want to dust the money he gave you for prints and view serial numbers on the outside chance it can be traced. Otherwise, why not use it to get to Barcelona under the bachelorette party cover? We can meet up with agents there and see what we can learn.”

  Xiaowan shook her head and asked tentatively, “Agents? What if Zhou finds out? My parents?”

  “I’ll make sure we get your parents into the United States,” Aaron assured her. He looked at Aurora to confirm. “With some help?”

  “Absolutely,” Aurora answered. “Although, we will want to keep this close to the vest and may not want to involve the State Department.”

  “State piping,” Nat added under her breath,

  Xiaowan heard the utterance. “State Piping?”

  Aurora glanced at Nat and answered for her. “Yeah, more leaks than a bad plumber. Her agency and the FBI require secrecy from time to time and there are always politicians and staffers looking to profit from a secret we have. Give something to oversight and it may leak. Give something to State and it’s not a question of if it leaks, but when.”

  The rest of the group understood there were leaks, and heard stories of it in the newspapers and in movies, but never heard insiders talk about how unprivileged privileged information could be.

  Sensing the bewilderment and unease in the group, Aurora said, “That's why we are playing this so close to the vest. We aren't bringing in State to talk about the Chinese government yet and we aren't moving this too far up the chain to bring about questions from oversight.”

  Nat added, “It may be our asses. The possibility of international espionage should go to State and, hell, even to the White House. But we don’t know what we’re dealing with yet and too many eyes could tip off the other side.”

  Aurora nodded and looked at Xiaowan. “You have Aaron in on this. I trust him completely and we are going to go to bat for you. Once you and your family are safe, we'll make sure that our highest levels know about it. You should know that Aaron and I both have a direct line to the President because of the Washington D.C. case that we are still dealing with.”

  “Thanks. I trust you guys. So how do we get my pa
rents out?”

  Aaron chimed in, “How hard would it be to get them to go to Macau? Could we fly them out on a private jet after Kor's bachelor party?”

  “Travel to and from Hong Kong or Macau from Beijing is easy. No special visas are required like they are when coming to the States.”

  Nat nodded. “That's true.”

  Aaron rubbed his hands together. “That's what I was hoping for. We don't need visas to go to Macau either. It would be a great city for a bachelor party and a perfect way to bring your parents to safety. We just need to get them there without raising any suspicion.”

  James said, “Her dad loves free stuff as much as I do. Maybe we can say that he has a free stay and tickets to a show at a casino or something?”

  Xiaowan agreed, “Yeah, I think he would go for that. He loves to gamble but he is so cheap that he just plays the penny slots or the minimum, so I don't think anyone would comp him.”

  Aaron smiled. “I don't think it would be too hard to arrange something. I think I can get in touch with the CEO of a big casino; he was on my old boss Manny Gaglione's radio show a few years ago. I think I could call in a favor with Manny after his goading got me to write that damn white paper.”

  Tina exclaimed, “I love Manny! I want to go eat with him and his wife again soon,” but she trailed off after thinking being excited about happy memories wasn't quite appropriate.

  Aurora said, “Let’s call him tomorrow and see what we can set up. We will have access to some secure lines at the Federal Building. Aaron, you realize that a private jet is very expensive?”

  “What's a few hundred thousand among friends?”

  Xiaowan said, “We have a bag of money that we can give you. If it might save my parents, it will be the best money I've ever spent. Plus we have some savings.”

  “You better get some fresh donuts and cookies on that plane ride if we are chipping in a few hundred thou,” James added.

  Aaron chuckled with him. “Charter private jet to smuggle two Chinese citizens into the country, check. Fresh donuts, ugh, now that'll be tough.”

  Kor asked, “Is this a real bachelor party? Are we inviting people? Josh Ruyle is a really fun dude, plus he’s a cop. He’d be good to have there if shit goes down.”

  “Yes, Kor. We should invite him and a few others. We’ll keep the group small.” He looked at Xiaowan and continued, “We gotta figure out what information you can find in Barcelona to make your handlers happy without revealing any secrets. Do you know anyone at Ameriprobe you feel comfortable bringing into this?”

  “Not that I can think of. But I will think about who I know at the top that I could trust.”

  Aurora said, “Play it tight right now. Let's see what we can get without involving too many more because we already have more people in the know than is ideal in a covert op.”

  “And there are two simultaneous covert ops,” Nat reminded everyone. “But we got this.”

  Aurora said, “We do. I’m going to go to the bar in Nobu and follow Zhou this evening until we can get backup agents here to relieve me. Why don’t you all get some sleep?”

  The rest of the group lost their desire to go out clubbing and left. Nat stayed in the room researching while Aurora found Kimbo and Zhou at Nobu; she watched them do nothing of much interest for an hour while they were at dinner. She lost them when they went into the nightclub so she camped out in the lobby waiting for them to come back down. When she was relieved by another agent at two am, there was still no sign of Zhou or Kimbo.

  Chapter 14

  Aaron felt Tina snuggling up to him. He opened his eyes and saw her looking at him sweetly. “Morning.”

  She kissed his chest near the scar that one of the Secret Service agents left him with a month ago in D.C. “Morning sweetie. What are the odds we wake up in our own bed and not worry about a global super power coming after us sometime this year?”

  Aaron laughed. “Talk about high maintenance...”

  She hit him with a pillow. “I think I'm going to try to see Kristen today. Want to go so you can talk to Pat?”

  “I'll take you there and then head out to meet with Aurora downtown while you stay with them.”

  “Any chance you won't be able to go home tonight?”

  He wondered to himself where home was and dodged her question. “Any place I am with you feels like home.”

  “Ugh. How do I get mad at an answer like that?” Then in her best serious lawyer voice she said, “Objection! Answer the question.”

  He chuckled and corrected her. “Objection, non-responsive.”

  “Thanks. Objection, non-responsive.”

  “Overruled.”

  She hit him with the pillow again. He joked, “Objection, intimidating the witness.”

  “Overruled,” she said as she hit him again. “Seriously, think we can spend our first night together in our home tonight?”

  “I think so, but can't promise. You understand, right?”

  “Of course,” Tina said as she crawled over Aaron to look at his watch. “Sometimes I really hate the no cell phone in the bedroom policy. Is there a way Ozzy can rig your phone so you don't have to worry about people listening in?”

  “I doubt it. As helpful as he's been, I've never met him. Hell, we don't even know his real name.” Aaron pulled Tina on top of him and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. He put his hands on her hips and pushed her up an arm’s length away from him. She kept her balance well and held her core tight like she was Superwoman for a few seconds before Aaron tossed her down on the bed next to him.

  “So your chest is feeling better. Come home with me tonight and we can play…”

  He kissed her again. “Verdict for Tina, no need to deliberate. We'll make it back tonight.”

  After a quick breakfast with everyone, Aaron and Tina, wearing the same clothes as the day before, went to the O'brien house in Mission Valley.

  Pat met them at their car and reached out his hand to Aaron. Aaron extended his, but rather than a firm handshake, he pulled Pat in and gave him the one arm “man hug” where he reached his left arm around Pat and tapped his back twice. Pat did the same. “Good to see you, buddy.”

  “You too.”

  After that quick embrace, Pat reached down to give Tina a quick hug. “Feels like it’s been forever. Kristen misses you a lot.”

  “I miss you guys too. Where is my seester?” Tina asked as they approached the front door and then called out, “Where's Maddy? Maddy, where are you girl?”

  At the sound of her name, the little dog sparked to life and ran down the stairs to see who was calling for her. After a ten second explosion of tail wagging and licking attempts, Tina set the dog back down and went inside. Then ten legs walked upstairs and saw Kristen in the kitchen prepping for a big lunch by chopping fragrant fresh peppers. After the greetings, Tina settled in to give her a hand with the prep. Aaron asked, “Pat, can we chat in your office for a few minutes?”

  Pat nodded and gestured towards his office with his arm; it was up another flight of the condo’s stairs. The office was originally designed as a spare bedroom but converted nicely into Pat’s home office that he used for work and his hobby job. As a financial planner/stock broker, Pat met with networks of people all over the country, including wealthy clients. Wealthy people like to do things: attend sporting events, concerts, plays, etc., so Pat buys tickets to events for his top clients or resells them at a markup. The tri-monitor computer sitting on the small desk to the right isn’t for stocks as one would assume, but for his burgeoning ticket brokerage business.

  Pat took his usual seat in front of the computer while Aaron pulled out the battery from his cell phone and put the parts in his pocket before sitting at an identical small desk in front of a closed laptop where Pat’s wife would often update charts or study for procedures.

  Aaron noted a framed 2009 college basketball schedule on the wall. Pat’s first big score for his ticket business was a large block of San Diego State Aztec basketball
tickets. Season tickets are sold for less than face value. Pat made the purchase because a high school kid named Kawhi Leonard signed with them. He was a pretty big name and Pat saw huge potential for the team when he was recruited. Pat was absolutely right. Even selling the tickets at face value netted him a two hundred percent return on his investment.

  “I’m going to need a lot of money from my accounts to charter a private jet. How did we do on the gold trading from last month?”

  Pat turned on his computer, used a remote link to log into his brokerage firm, and pulled up Aaron’s account. “We bought a futures delivery contract of fifty thousand dollars’ worth of gold that is worth around eighty thousand dollars now; delivery is in one week. We bought three hundred at the money options of gold mining stocks at an average basis of one dollar forty in the exchange traded fund with the ticker symbol GDX.”

  “That sounds good.”

  “That cost forty-two thousand dollars. We sold all of them at an average basis price of eighteen twenty-five. That was a total sale of five hundred and forty-seven thousand and change. A total profit of a smooth half million dollars,” Pat said as he raised his hand to give Aaron a high-five.

  “I might need it all, I have no idea how much a jet costs to charter,” Aaron said as he unenthusiastically returned Pat’s high-five.

  “Shit man, as your financial advisor, I have to remind you about the tax consequences. With your booking fees and everything, you had to have made six figures, plus what you made as an attorney. That money isn’t all yours, Uncle Sam and Aunt California get their cuts.”

  “I know. I should be clear of the payroll tax, so it’ll be thirty-nine percent to the federal government; that’s two hundred G’s. And then ten percent to California, another fifty. So that leaves me with a quarter million.” Aaron wondered if that would be enough, and how much of his own money he might have to put in to help his friends.

  “That’s right, no break for short-term capital gains. And don’t forget you’ll have to pay quarterly estimated taxes on that amount next year. Assuming we don’t make any gains like this next year, you’re going to have to advance the IRS another quarter million dollars in prepaid taxes.”