The amniotic sac dissolved. Rayna’s two mothers were kneeling beside her as Rayna sat up. She held Vivian’s hands and looked at the other woman.
“Mama?” asked Rayna to the young girl, barely moving her lips.
“Dui. Wǒ shì nǐ de qīnshēng mǔqīn, Ling (Yes, I am your birth mother, Ling),” soothed the girl tenderly, stroking and touching her daughter’s wounds, pushing her fingers into the bullet holes. There were tears in her eyes and tenderness filled her face.
Rayna looked at Ling, then turned to Vivian. “I will be with you soon.”
“Rayna, it’s not your time yet,” disagreed Vivian.
Both mothers looked heavenwards, pleading to an unseen being. “Did you hear? It’s not her time yet.”
It’s not her time yet echoed repeatedly as the two women began to fade from view.
Rayna wanted to scream, “No!” but her lips would not move.
The bright light returned, engulfing Vivian and Ling in it. As the light grew brighter, the bodies of Rayna’s two mothers melded into its glow.
Just when Rayna’s eyes pleaded for relief from the bright intense light, it disappeared, leaving Rayna back on the hospital bed.
***
In the hospital room, no one had noticed anything unusual for the last five minutes. Dr. Xi was attending to Henry, tapping the needles on his body while Popo had not moved from her kneeling prayer position.
Steve came in for his hourly check and glanced at the ECG machine attached to Rayna.
Something was terribly wrong—or amazingly right. The graph displayed a regular sinus rhythm of eighty-four beats per minute. The P wave, PR interval, QRS complex, ST segment, WT interval and T wave—all of these were what one could expect of a healthy, active eighteen-year-old male. “What the?”
Steve’s outburst broke the concentration of Dr. Xi and Popo who looked at the ER physician. “What is it?”
“Look!” called Steve, pointing at the ECG. “It’s normal. No. It’s more than normal. It’s…” The physician struggled to force out the next few words. “It’s a miracle… I don’t know what else to call it.”
“There are layers to the universe you need to learn, Dr. Steve,” said Dr. Xi. “But I must admit that I didn’t expect recovery this quickly.”
“I didn’t expect one at all,” admitted Steve quietly.
“It was Shangti (God),” says Popo. “Who else can make the blind see or raise the dead?”
Even the most ardent of atheists would find it hard to argue that some kind of supernatural intervention had taken place.
Suddenly, a cough. “Can I get a drink of water?” rasped the voice risen from the dead.
“Rayna!” They all turned to see Rayna sitting up.
“Get her water,” barked Steve to the nurse who had entered the room. “And call Arthur and Barry.”
The nurse scurried out.
Rayna glanced around the room and saw her unconscious father. “How is he?”
“Not good,” exhaled Steve.
She looked at Steve, Popo and Dr. Xi. “You’ve got to do for him what you did for me.”
“Of course, Rayna, but first….” Popo gave her granddaughter a giant hug. “Thank you, Shangti. Thank you, God.”
***
Barry, Chuck and Arthur entered the room. Joy, happiness and relief filled their faces. They had only known Rayna for a few months but, during that period, her charm, vulnerability and warmth had captured their hearts.
“Hello, stranger,” greeted Barry.
“I hope you’ve got eighteen-year-old scotch in that paper bag,” said Rayna to Chuck.
“What else?” smiled Chuck as pulled out the bottle of amber Scottish liquid gold and four shot glasses.
As Chuck unscrewed the bottle top and poured shots, Rayna announced, “I’m ready to go back to work.”
Barry shook his head. “Nonsense. With your injuries, you need bed rest for at least a week. I’ll take your place.”
Rayna lifted the gown off her torso. “What injuries?” she asked, showing off her body without wounds, stitches or blemish.
Oh. My. God…
“I hope you’re an early morning person, Rayna,” said Arthur. “We’ve got a 4:45 meeting tomorrow.”
Rayna’s jaw dropped. “Barry, maybe I am still sick.”
“Right.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
It was still dark when Mary arrived at her office on the fiftieth floor at 4:15 a.m. While she had worked many hundreds of late nights, this was the first time she ever got here so early to catch dawn rising over the city’s horizon. There was no sign of the Mandarin, but she knew there was no point in trying to contact him. He would make his own appearance somehow.
At 4:36, she received a call from the concierge at the front desk in the lobby.
“There are two people to meet with you and your boss.”
“Please allow them up.”
“Yes, Ms. Wu.”
***
Mary was anticipating Arthur and Rayna’s arrival at the elevator. What she wasn’t anticipating was to see Rayna dressed in a navy blue scoop neck silk dress that revealed a hint of cleavage. Mary’s chest tightened as she inhaled Rayna’s light fragrance with a face that glowed from an early morning run. Trying not to stare at Rayna’s ebony hair blow-dried to perfection and sensual almond brown eyes, she led her two guests down the hall, trying to focus on the business at hand. “My boss will be joining us via conference call.” I hope.
“Oh, where is he?” asked Rayna.
“I have no idea. He is extremely security-conscious and meets with very few people. He could be anywhere from Amsterdam to Singapore.”
Arriving, Mary opened the door to the surprisingly small office. There were only two rooms: the reception area and a larger corner office. There were no pictures on the walls and no personal mementos on the desks. Mary led them into the bigger room.
“Nice tight operation,” complimented Arthur, shooting Rayna a quick glance, who gave a nod of recognition. Everything is farmed out.
“Thank you. May I offer you some hot water or tea?”
“No, we’re fine. Thank you.”
From the way Mary sat down, it seemed obvious that she felt entirely comfortable in her boss’s chair. What she didn’t realize was that Arthur and Rayna knew exactly why she sat in her boss’s chair. There was a hidden camera pointing at them, undetectable to anyone who was not familiar with clandestine operations.
At precisely 4:45, the office phone rang and Mary put it on speakerphone.
“Mandarin, please meet Arthur Yang and Rayna Tan from Fidelitas.”
“Pleased to meet you,” replied Arthur cordially. “What may we assist you with?”
“This is in strict confidence. Even if we do not agree to work together, can I trust that you won’t tell anyone?”
“No, you can’t,” stated Arthur firmly.
The Fidelitas executive allowed the discomfort to grow by remaining silent for several moments, then he said, “We will ignore that you have insulted us by not revealing your name nor being here in person, but remember this. We are here because you know we can help you. In order for me to answer your questions, I will have to tell you my ideas. If you choose not to work with me, you could go to someone else to implement them and that is something that will not happen. If you choose, we can end the meeting now.”
***
The fuming Mandarin was in the room at the Paekdusan Hotel with General Park listening in on the conversation. The military officer looked at the Mandarin and nodded, giving the thumbs up. This guy is good. What Arthur said about stealing his ideas was exactly what the Mandarin had planned to do.
The Mandarin gritted his teeth. He was always the one playing hardball. To be at the other end of the stick was an unfamiliar experience. But he had no choice. “I understand. Shall I begin?”
“That’s why we are here.”
“The United States needs to be taught a lesson. They allowed my s
on to die of a drug overdose. As payback, I am going to take one million of their children. I need someone to help me get a new drug, N115, into America. The drug is lethal in small doses. Five milligrams will cause death and there is no antidote. I need help with distribution. Can you handle this?”
“Of course we can, but first a few questions. How much are you willing to spend?”
“Twenty-five million dollars.”
Arthur picked up the paperweight from the desk and glared at the tiny camera lens that was camouflaged in it. “I’m tired of you wasting my time. Fifty million is my fee alone. What are you prepared to spend?”
An angry beat passed. “A hundred and fifty million.”
“Getting closer but we can discuss it later.” Arthur nodded and put the paperweight back on the desk. “How big a shipment are we talking about?”
“Ten kilos in fine white powder.”
“Where are you planning to strike?”
“Los Angeles. That’s where my son was close to,” stated the Mandarin tersely.
“When do you want to do this?”
“Manufacturing will be finished in a week. Then we can hook up with a pharmaceutical company and smuggle our stuff in with theirs.”
“Who do you plan to use to do the distribution?” Arthur asked, making notes on his iPad.
“The Russians, Mexicans and the Italians, of course.”
“And who are you hoping to eliminate?”
“Anyone and everyone.”
“I see. So, if you’ve got it all figured out, what do you need us for?”
“I need some help. The person I was planning to do this with is no longer available.”
“You mean Danny from China Red?” Arthur said calmly.
Even though he couldn’t see the Mandarin, Arthur could feel his shockwaves as surprise of Arthur’s knowledge filled the air.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“I don’t like competition,” said Arthur as casually as if he were ordering the breakfast special at Denny’s.
“You? I thought…”
“Oh, come on. Do you really think someone like Danny was going to get taken out by some cheap trick? Your choice of that two-bit dealer is typical of all that is wrong with your plan. It shows ignorance and a complete lack of understanding of the American situation.”
Mary squirmed. She had bought the line and had convinced the Mandarin of it, too.
“This is the last advice I will give you for free. Save your money. You have zero chance of success with your plan. You might be able to kill a few thousand people with your idea but, as soon as America discovers the problem, every agency will crack down big time. As lethal as your drug may be, what’s the point when it’s pulled out of circulation? And you say there’s no antidote? If it’s new, how do you know that it’s not easily found or developed? But your biggest problems are your distributors and targets. Your distributors will get the easy marks— illegal immigrants and ghetto dogs. So what? These are undesirables. Eliminating them would only benefit the United States. The American taxpayer would no longer have to pay for their welfare payments, jail time, housing and food. It would save the U.S. billions every year.”
Arthur and Rayna did not have to be there in person with the Mandarin to feel his shock.
“And one more thing. Ten kilos is nowhere near enough. Fifty is better. Twenty-five will be okay. You have to allow that some people will take multiple doses, some is just going to be wasted, some you’ll have to throw away because it will only be a matter of time before you are found out… Even if you attack hard and fast.”
Arthur nodded at Rayna and the two stood up, readying to go.
“Wait. What do you propose?”
“If you want to continue this conversation, I want five million dollars deposited into my account by 11:30. If it is, we will be back at noon.”
Arthur scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Mary. “Deposit the funds there.”
With that, Arthur and Rayna walked out of the room.
***
Outside the building and safely on the street, Rayna asked Arthur, “How did you know who it was that the Mandarin was partnering with?”
“A lucky guess. Danny’s death was headline sensationalist news. But, even if wasn’t him, the Mandarin would never be able to verify that it wasn’t us.”
You’ve got to be good to be lucky and there was no doubt that Arthur was damned good.
Arthur called Julio. The CenCom intel head had listened in on the whole conversation through a virtually untraceable and untrackable bug planted into Arthur’s left earlobe.
“Did you find out anything, Julio?”
“Nothing yet and I’m not sure I will. Wherever he was calling from, it had firewalls, security systems and IP re-routers up the yin yang. As far as we could determine, he could have been in any one of a million places.”
“Yes, but not every one of them has the sophistication to make a synthetic drug or the facility for the kind of volume the Mandarin wants,” asserted Rayna. “That’s got to narrow it down.”
“Yeah. That narrows it down to a thousand and I gotta start trying to figure out where it is.”
“So we have until noon to come up with a plan. Are you up to it, Rayna?”
“If you’re asking me if I’m ready to hop in the sack with Mary, the answer is no but what works, works and I’m a working girl.”
Rayna winked at Arthur. “Let’s start brainstorming.”
***
The Mandarin was dumfounded, flabbergasted. Arthur had managed to point out the critical flaws in the Mandarin’s plan with just the sketchiest of information. He knew what Mary thought but then again, sometimes his executive assistant did not think with her brain, especially when there was a girl as captivating as Rayna involved. He turned to General Park. “What did you think? You helped come up with the plan.”
Park hated to admit it but Arthur was right on every count. As the original plan was to have Park play a bigger part in the vendetta, after Arthur’s one minute summary, he knew that Arthur offered a much better chance of success than he did. “Go with Arthur, Mandarin. I’ll stick to the manufacturing.”
“I thought as much. Put the money into his account, Mary. We’ll get back together at noon.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
At precisely 11:57 a.m., Arthur and Rayna sat down again in the Mandarin’s office for another conference call.
“You got the money, right?” asked Mary.
“That’s why we’re here,” stated Arthur.
“What do you have for me?” opened the Mandarin, eschewing chit chat.
“You need to begin as soon as possible. Every day you delay gives your enemy a chance to find out what is going on. It also gives whoever you are working with the opportunity to reveal to the United States what your plans are. That would give them advance warning.”
“I would never do that,” mouthed Park to the Mandarin.
“And don’t think that someone wouldn’t do this. He could make a fortune on one phone call. In war, you have no friends so, the sooner we start, the less chance of a leak occurring.”
“I agree. Continue.”
“You don’t need to have a million deaths but you do need to make the deaths meaningful. What do I mean by that? You have to target middle and upper middle and upper class types, the ones who go to Disneyland, shop at Costco, buy modern cars and most importantly, pay taxes—the nice, decent people who contribute to society or would eventually make positive contributions—regular working people and students. If you remember, there were two thousand seven hundred and fifty-three victims on 9-11.”
“That’s not enough.”
“We can aim for a million but anything over six thousand and you can claim that you not only more than doubled the 9-11 total but you have struck terror into America forever, especially if you follow this next suggestion.”
“Yes?”
“Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York,
Chicago, Seattle, San Jose, and Houston all have non-stop commercial flights from Beijing. Rather than risk all eggs with Los Angeles, spread out the targets. We will have flights to all of these destinations leave on the same day. This reduces the risk substantially. If you focus on Los Angeles only, you have a higher risk of getting caught. By spreading it to multiple locations, you have a much better chance of success in at least one of the areas. Remember, your enemy is not just those who live in Los Angeles. It is all of America that allowed your son’s death to happen. Follow my blueprint and you will have your revenge.”
“What will you charge for this?”
“Two hundred million dollars. We would require an additional fifty million dollars by the end of this meeting if you want to begin.”
Mary, General Park and the Mandarin reeled. This was more than triple what any of them thought it would cost.
“What guarantees do I have?”
“None. Just our reputations and our past work, which you no doubt have already checked out.”
A hint of a grin crossed Arthur’s countenance. He could imagine seeing the Mandarin’s teeth grinding in cursed thought.
“Would you accept…?”
“Mandarin, this is not a flea market operation for haggling,” interrupted Arthur. “I will not accept anything less for my fees. The only way to reduce costs is to allow my colleague, Rayna, to handle the entire operation without my direct involvement. This would save you thirty-five million dollars. She is more than capable and I will offer this. If she is killed or otherwise unable to fulfill the mission, I will take over.”
“I don’t like to deal with inexperienced people. They make mistakes.”
“I may not have Arthur’s breadth of experience,” interjected Rayna angrily, “but this job is not a problem for me. I don’t care if you prefer to go with Arthur but don’t insult me by saying I can’t perform.”
The Mandarin's Vendetta (Rayna Tan Action Thriller Series Book 2) Page 18
