by Steven Gore
“Let’s get this over with. The farther we go, the more of a chance he has to get away.”
“How do you want to do it?”
“You think he likes rice?”
“What?” Cobra laughed. “I got it.”
Cobra slowed as Ferrari sped up, bracketing Taiwan. Gage signaled to Ferrari, pointed at the car’s left rear bumper and made a pushing motion with his palm. Ferrari looked over and smiled, then gripped the steering wheel with both hands and eased up closer.
Taiwan looked wide-eyed in his rearview mirror and tried to pass Cobra, but Cobra’s car moved to the left to block him. He tried to dive along the right shoulder but Cobra slipped back, blocking him again.
Ferrari then made his move. The differential between his speed and Taiwan was no more than five miles an hour, but the tap was just enough to send Taiwan’s car spinning. It spun right, skidding and sliding on the mud until his wheels planted themselves ten yards into the rice paddy.
Ferrari locked up his brakes and skidded to a stop at the edge of the road, just past where Taiwan’s car had run off.
Cobra’s driver turned his van around and headed back.
Stuck in the mud thirty feet from the pavement, the doors blocked by mud, Taiwan rolled down his window and fired a handgun toward Gage’s van, the slugs punching through glass and metal. Gage threw open his door and he and Ferrari dove through it, hitting the ground rolling, then used the van for cover.
Taiwan squirmed out, then fought his way through the mud to the front of the car and began firing at Cobra’s van bearing in.
Holes appeared in the windshield.
The wheels locked as Cobra’s driver hit the brakes.
Cobra jumped out just before it came to a skidding stop nose to nose against the front of Gage’s car. He crawled forward, dropped down next to Gage, Zhang’s 9mm in his hand, his eyes wide, and oblivious to the blood oozing from a bullet hole in his shoulder.
“Let me have him,” Cobra said, sliding himself farther toward the rear of the car to get a shot, his back leaving a blood smear on the paint.
Gage reached for him. “Stop. You’ve been shot.”
Cobra reacted in anger, rather than in fear. “Ta ma de.” Motherfucker.
Gage took the gun from Cobra’s hand and sat him against a tire, then gestured to Ferrari to apply pressure to the entrance and exit wounds.
Gage then looked toward the van. He couldn’t see the driver, but he caught a glance of Zhang crawling out of the sliding door left open by Cobra.
“Are you okay?”
Zhang nodded.
“Can you divert the guy so I can get a shot off?”
“I’ll do better than that.”
Zhang reached down toward his ankle and pulled out a tiny semiautomatic from its holster.
Gage pointed the 9mm at Zhang’s face.
Zhang froze, the gun still by his shin.
“Let’s deal with one thing at a time,” Zhang said. “By my calculation, the heroin is out to sea anyway.”
Gage glanced at his watch, then lowered the 9mm.
Zhang worked his way toward the back of his van. Taiwan took a few shots at Zhang’s feet, then stopped when Zhang paused behind the rear wheel. Zhang caught Gage’s eye, then waved his gun to signal he was going to take some shots.
At the first pop, Gage dove for the back of the van. At the second, Gage peeked around toward Taiwan’s car. He couldn’t see him, but heard him yelling.
Then a hand and gun appeared, firing not at Gage or at Zhang, but into his own car. And not as though he was trying to hit Lew, as much as trying to force him out of the car to serve as a shield for his escape.
Taiwan reached over again and fired into the car a second time, aiming lower, and Lew struggled with the door until it opened wide enough for him to crawl out. He reached out with his hands and forearms. They sank into the muck, sucking him out of the car.
Taiwan fought the mud as he slid along the car to get to Lew, trying to use the open door for cover. But as he pulled himself around the car, he exposed his side and Gage dropped a slug into his upper thigh.
Taiwan crumpled into the mud, his gun hand buried.
Kai’s car skidded up. She jumped out and followed Gage and Zhang to where Taiwan and Lew were trapped.
Lew’s wide eyes, framed by grime, looked up at the white ghost pointing a semiautomatic pistol at his kidnapper.
After Zhang collected the wounded man’s gun, Gage turned to Lew.
“Are you hurt, Mr. Lew?”
“Who are you?”
“Someone who got here just in time.” Gage gestured with his gun. “Do you know why he grabbed you?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Why are you in China?”
Lew shrugged.
Zhang shook his head in an exaggerated expression of disappointment, then hiked through the mud to where Taiwan was lying on his side. Zhang rested his crusted boot against the side of the man’s face.
Gage didn’t need a translation of what Zhang said to him to understand its meaning.
Taiwan didn’t answer. Zhang pushed harder and half the man’s face sank into the oozing mud. His expression transformed from agony to panic.
“You’ll have to make a choice in the next five seconds,” Zhang said to Taiwan. Kai whispered a translation to Gage. “Do you want to cooperate and live or suffocate right here?”
Taiwan twitched.
“Die?”
Taiwan struggled against the weight of Zhang’s boot and shook his head.
“Live?” Zhang asked, removing his boot.
He nodded.
Zhang slogged over to Lew.
“Now, what do you want to do?”
Lew lowered his head, and nodded.
ZHANG CALLED AHEAD to a retired military doctor in Nantong as Gage and Ferrari helped Cobra into Kai’s car. After it sped away, they returned their attention to Taiwan. Ferrari bandaged his wound, and then emptied his pockets and handed the contents to Gage.
While Ferrari took control of Lew, the other drivers carried Taiwan to the van where the table had been taken down and they laid him on the floor.
Gage examined the man’s possessions: a Taiwanese passport, notes and telephone numbers, a hotel key, Chinese yuan and New Taiwanese dollars, and a photograph of Lew that looked to Gage like it might have been taken inside the East Wind warehouse in San Francisco.
Zhang gestured to the driver to bring Lew to the van door and handed him the photo.
Kai stood close to Gage in order to translate.
“This is how things stand,” Zhang said to him. “If you cooperate, you’ll be allowed to go home in a few weeks, longer if you can’t travel. Until then you’ll be under my protection and supervision.”
Zhang took out his PLA identification card and held it out so Taiwan could read it.
Taiwan nodded.
“We only have a few questions before we start driving to the doctor.”
Taiwan grunted.
“Answer carefully. You only have one chance to make things right. You understand?”
Taiwan nodded.
“Why did you kidnap Lew?”
Taiwan hesitated, glancing between Zhang and Gage. He winced against the pain, then said, “I was told if anything went wrong with the deal to kill him.”
“What went wrong?”
“Nothing. The deal went as planned.”
“But?” Zhang said.
“But I spotted people watching Wu’s house. My instructions were to break the link to the United States if the deal was compromised.”
“What did you think was happening?”
“I thought it was Chinese police getting ready to grab Lew. I needed to keep them from questioning him.”
“Have you told anyone about the problem?”
Taiwan shook his head. “I was told to act on my own.”
“When do you have to report in?”
“Within the next two hours. After that, there’l
l be questions.”
Zhang and Gage stepped away from the van.
“Can we trust him to make the call now?” Gage asked Zhang. “I can’t tell how sincere he is. I mostly see pain on his face.”
Zhang displayed his gun. “The man wants to live, and this will purchase some sincerity.”
They walked back.
“We want to you make the call now,” Zhang told Taiwan. “What are you supposed to say?”
“Either that everything is fine or that the problem has been solved, and then hang up.”
Zhang smirked. “And how is everything?”
Taiwan swallowed and glanced back and forth between Gage and Zhang. “Everything is fine.”
“What’s the telephone number?”
On hearing the number, Lew’s shoulders sank. He buried his face in his muddy hands.
“Ask him whose number it is,” Gage asked.
As Zhang translated, a look of panic swept Taiwan’s face.
“Tell him it’s a test,” Gage said, “and he better not get it wrong.”
Taiwan looked as if he was struggling to overcome great internal resistance, perhaps even violate a vow of loyalty he’d once taken during a secret brotherhood initiation in an incense-infused room.
“It is a mobile phone in California.”
“And?”
“It is a man named Ah Ming.”
“You passed the test,” Gage told Taiwan. “You’ll live to kill again.”
Zhang pulled out his cell phone, punched in the number, pressed “send,” waited for the first ring, then handed the phone to Taiwan.
“Everything is fine.”
CHAPTER 65
Malee will kill me . . . and she’ll never forgive you,” Cobra said, looking up at Gage from the dining room table where he had been laid in the doctor’s house in Nantong. His voice was groggy from the painkiller that was now taking effect. “She might not let us play together again.”
“She’ll be so happy to see you she won’t notice either the entrance or exit holes.”
“I’m lucky there was an exit hole.” Cobra winced. “Did you hear Taiwan yelling when the doctor dug out the slug?”
Retired colonel Dr. Yin entered the dining room to check on his patient. Even in his seventies, Yin hadn’t seemed disconcerted by the appearance on his doorstep of two gunshot victims, a PLA general, a Thai-Chinese woman, an old man, and a white ghost. The wry expression on Yin’s face told Gage that for him it was just another day in modern China.
Yin checked Cobra’s bandages, verified that the bleeding had stopped, and announced that he was free to leave. He said he wanted to keep Taiwan for a few days because Gage’s slug had punched through his hip and he needed to stabilize it.
Zhang assigned two soldiers to guard Taiwan and handed Yin all the money he’d taken from the wounded man’s pockets, an amount equal to $2,900 US, more than a year’s pay for a doctor.
Kai and Gage helped Cobra off the table and draped a blanket around him, then guided him to Kai’s car and eased him into the rear passenger seat.
Zhang followed them outside. “There’s still the matter of my chips.”
“I’ll have the serial numbers as soon as I get to the hotel.”
“What if they’re not there?”
“They’ll be there. Ask Taiwan.”
“I already did.” Zhang smiled. “Not all that screaming was medical. He said ‘everything is fine,’ I just wanted to make sure how fine.”
“You have to learn to lay off,” Gage said. “That guy was ours.”
Gage glanced into the car. Cobra was asleep in the front passenger seat.
Ferrari brought Lew outside and Gage positioned him in the back between himself and Kai. Then Ferrari drove them to the hotel. And while Ferrari took Lew to Kai’s room, Gage and Kai helped Cobra to his own where she arranged him in bed.
Gage checked his phone and found the list of serial numbers Sylvia had sent and forwarded it onto Zhang. Gage and Kai found Zhang waiting at his door when they arrived. The tension and expectation in Zhang’s walk as they entered the room reminded Gage of a lion looking forward to his next kill.
“When do you want to make the announcement of the seizure?”
Zhang’s question suggested to Gage that the general was now in pursuit not of financial, but of political gain and it was too soon to make that move.
“Not until the heroin is on its way from Taiwan to the States. That way there’s no turning back for Ah Ming.”
Gage felt a wave of exhaustion shudder through him. He looked toward the window so Zhang and Kai wouldn’t see it on his face. His mind went gray for a moment. He knew he wasn’t seeing something. Some complication. He could feel the pressure of Zhang’s gaze. A thought came to him: Ah Ming would hear on the news about the PLA raid and the chip seizure and might conclude that his operation was compromised and abandon the heroin at the U.S. port.
Gage looked back at Zhang. “When the time comes, have Huang Medical turn itself in. That way you won’t have to explain how you got involved in this, and Ah Ming will think the seizure isn’t related to him. The company can say that they were suspicious about the origin of the chips. And have Huang make up a purchase order for a fake company and a fake invoice to give themselves a paper trail. Make the payment terms sixty days from now. That way they won’t have to answer any questions about how they paid for the chips.”
Zhang smiled. “You think like a criminal. Maybe you made a bad career choice.” His smile faded, then he adopted a sage’s smile. “Your idea is perfect as far as my government is concerned. It’ll be a way for China to assure corporations in the West that it’s complying with their demands for enforcement in technology crimes, but we won’t have to punish a successful company.”
And, Gage thought to himself, Huang Medical’s continuing success will necessitate regular kickbacks to Zhang to keep his mouth shut, probably paid into his offshore Calico bank account.
And Gage wanted something, too. “I need to reward someone for his help. Any objection to an FBI agent coming over and collecting the chips? Maybe make a show of it. He works out of Silicon Valley.”
“I can deal with him directly if you want. I’ll look better that way.”
“And I need you to hold Lew for about thirty days.”
Zhang squinted up toward the ceiling. “What would Cobra say?”
Kai answered. “Mai pen rai.”
“That’s it.” He smiled again. “Mai pen rai.”
“One other thing,” Gage said. “Find out where Taiwan was staying—gently—and have someone search his and Lew’s rooms.”
“I’ll have my people bring everything to you. Neither one will need a hotel anymore.”
Gage locked his eyes on Zhang. “Don’t you mean, they won’t need rooms for the next couple of weeks?”
“Yes, of course . . . that’s exactly what I meant.”
CHAPTER 66
Gage and Kai walked over to her room and sat down at the dining table with Lew. Ferrari checked the windows and confirmed that an attempted escape would only result in death ten floors below, then he stepped into the hallway.
Lew had adopted an impassive expression, seemingly strengthened by time and distance from the violence and blood, and from Zhang.
“Did Wu have anything to do with my kidnapping?” Lew asked Gage.
“As far as we know, Ah Ming ordered it directly from the States.”
For reasons Gage didn’t understand, Lew sighed as though grateful that it hadn’t been Wu who’d set him up.
“We want Ah Ming. We know he was behind the robbery where that boy was killed.”
“I had nothing to do with that.”
“At this point we can’t prove otherwise.”
“I just handle paperwork.”
“Somebody had to. How well did you know Ah Tien?”
“He managed some affairs for Ah Ming and I managed others. I was shocked to learn he was murdered. I wasn’t involved. I don
’t approve of violence.”
Gage felt a flush of anger at Lew’s evasion and self-deception. “But you sure seem willing to overlook a hell of a lot of it.” He bore down on him. “You know the American expression, what goes around, comes around?”
Lew drew back. “You won’t let Zhang hurt me, will you?”
“This is his territory, not mine. But in exchange for the right answers, I’ll try to dissuade him.”
Lew sat in silence for a few moments, then said, “I realize I’m not in a strong position, and I don’t know exactly what you’ve done today. I don’t even know whether Zhang has seized the heroin and the chips. But do I know this. I won’t do anything to harm anyone except Ah Ming.”
Lew looked at Kai. “I think you might understand. I won’t help General Zhang against anyone here. My life began in China and in a way I hadn’t anticipated, it is my home again. And if this is where my life has to end, fine, it will end.”
Gage pointed at Kai. “She and I need to talk.”
Kai instructed Ferrari to order dinner for Lew, then she and Gage walked back to his room.
“I think he means it,” Kai said, sitting down on the couch. “And he knows you won’t let Zhang hurt him. He sized you up right. He’s a survivor.”
“I think he’s lying about the robbery and I think he’s lying about Ah Tien. Ah Ming wouldn’t send him over here if he wasn’t completely trustworthy, and if he’s trustworthy in one thing, he’s trustworthy in the other.” Gage paced the floor, getting angrier with each step. “That little weasel is starting to tick me off. His self-deceiving melodramatic ‘China is my home again’ is sickening. All China needs are more Lews. He knows we can’t make him on the robbery or Ah Tien’s murder. He’s also figured out we need him for something. And we do. We need to tie the heroin to Ah Ming and I doubt I can do it without him.”
“There’s another American expression I learned in the States,” Kai said. “Take what you can get.”
“You’re right. Let’s go make a deal.”
