Three more people had joined Zhao on the deck. A slim Asian woman in her later thirties in a red bikini approached Zhao, embracing him from behind. Two young girls, both no more than ten years old, followed her across the deck.
Caine swore under his breath. Zhao had a family, and he had brought them with him on his holiday. Chen had conveniently left that detail out.
Caine treaded water as he stared at the woman and children. He knew they were innocent. They probably knew nothing about Zhao's illegal activities, or his rivalry with Chen. They were collateral damage. Pawns sacrificed in a game they didn't even realize was being played around them.
But Chen… He had Rebecca and Jack. If Caine didn't complete this mission, it was they who would be sacrificed.
He closed his eyes, and thought for a moment. He heard the sound of the water, waves rising and falling around him. A warm breeze blew across the surface. It carried the muted sounds of the two girls, laughing and playing on the boat in the distance.
The charges are safer, a cold voice whispered in the back of his mind. A push of a button, and this is all over. Rebecca and Jack will be safe.
He glanced at the detonator attached to his belt. It swayed up and down in the water.
He made his decision. As if a switch had been flipped, Caine quickly changed from his scuba equipment back to the snorkel. He dove again, holding his breath as he swam down to his tactical pack. He dropped his tanks, and stuffed the detonator and speargun back in the pack.
He made his way for the surface, rising up at the stern of the boat. Caine crawled on board, timing the sound of his movements with the lapping of the waves against the hull. He slipped off his flippers and left his mask on his forehead. Then he slid his P226 pistol from its pouch.
He crept forward, keeping low against the sidewall of the boat. He could hear Zhao laughing with his children, playfully threatening to smear them with the fish entrails.
It was Zhao’s wife who saw Caine first. He was crouched only a few feet away from her, his pistol aimed at a point on her forehead. Caine had studied Zhao’s file. He knew the attractive woman's name was Li Li. She sucked in her breath, and froze. Her wide brown eyes stared back at him with a mixture of surprise and terror. She grabbed the nearest girl, and held her tight.
Zhao glanced over at her. "Tā shì shénme?" he asked. "What is it?" Then, as if suddenly realizing what was happening, he spun around. He held up the filleting knife in a white-knuckle grip.
“You,” Zhao growled. “You were supposed to die in Columbia, Caine.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Caine said. His voice was flat, devoid of all emotion.
Zhao's face was red with fury. “So now you are here to kill me? To murder my wife and children?”
“I came to make a deal,” Caine lied.
“A deal?” Zhao seemed surprised.
Caine thought for a second. “Your billion dollar drug deal went south," he finally said. "You pissed off a lot of people. You won't survive long on your own. I’m here to offer you a way out.”
Li Li sobbed, trembling where she stood. Caine didn’t blame her. Nothing could be more terrifying than knowing your own children were being threatened and there was nothing you could do to stop it.
Zhao was tense. The muscles in his body seemed to pulsate with anger and frustration. But his face remained calm as he spoke. “Really? And how exactly do you propose to do that?"
“Let's talk about it. Just you and me. Send Li Li and your children to shore. They don't have to be involved in this."
Zhao stared at Caine in surprise. He started to speak, but the words seemed to die in his throat. His proud features seemed to sag, and his sun-kissed skin went pale.
He nodded and spoke to his wife in Mandarin. Caine couldn’t follow the conversation. He could sense it was tense and full of fear. Caine was fairly certain Li Li and her children didn’t speak English. They hadn't understood anything that Caine and Zhao had discussed.
Zhao turned back to Caine. “Can I at least say goodbye?”
Caine nodded. He kept his pistol aimed firmly at Zhao.
Caine said nothing as the man embraced his family. After several minutes of kissing and hugging, tears and sobs, Li Li and the children climbed into a motorized dingy. Zhao forced himself to smile at the children as the tiny boat motored towards the shore.
He turned to face Caine, his face a pale, blank mask.
"Letting my family go… I appreciate that, Caine. You are not at all what I expected. But I was right, wasn't I? You are here to kill me?"
“That was my deal,” Caine growled. “Your life for theirs.”
Zhao glanced at his family's boat. The buzzing of its motor began to fade in the distance. "Please," he said quietly. "Just let them get a little farther away. So the little ones… So they won't hear the shot."
Caine nodded. "Alright Zhao. I'll give you a minute. One more minute. And after that… you die."
Chapter Thirty-One
The two men stood alone on the deck of the forty-foot yacht. They stared at each other, neither daring to break eye contact. The deck bobbed up and down, rocked by the gentle motions of the sea. A tropical breeze kissed the tips of the waves that rippled through the water. But for Caine and Zhao, the tranquil beauty was merely a backdrop for their game of life and death.
“How did you find me?” Zhao asked through gritted teeth.
“Easy,” Caine answered, keeping his semi-automatic aimed at Zhao’s head. “Chen Fa Li told me.”
“Chen? The MSS operative? He sent you to kill me?”
Caine nodded. “We made a deal.” He had no desire to elaborate any further.
“He knew, all along?”
“About your cocaine smuggling plans? Of course.”
Zhao shook his head. “I underestimated him. I should have let El Lobizon's men take care of him for me.”
“Like you tried to do to Su Liao? And her family? You imprisoned an innocent woman's parents, just so you could make a buck.”
Zhao laughed. “You think you have all the answers, Caine. But you still don’t know the truth about Liao.”
Caine's finger tightened on the trigger of his gun. He knew he should shoot Zhao and get it over with. But he hesitated. Zhao had caught his attention.
"Alright, Zhao. Enlighten me.
“Well, for one thing, Su Liao is not her real name. She’s not even Han Chinese. Su Liao was born Aynur Sabir, to Uyghur parents.”
“What?”
Zhao laughed again. “You and the CIA are pathetic when it comes to infiltrating Chinese intelligence. It’s not because you lack the technical skills. It is because you don’t understand our culture and our way of life. You miss what is right in front of you.”
Caine gestured with his weapon. “Keep talking. What happened to her?”
“Her parents were terrorists. They were captured and executed by the PLA when Aynur Sabir was only five. Perhaps the soldiers who killed her family took pity on the girl. Or maybe they were simply incompetent. Either way, young Sabir disappeared, and escaped her parents’ fate. Later, I discovered she was taken in by a Han couple who couldn’t have children of their own. The Liao family. They brought her up as Han Chinese.”
Caine glowered at the man over the barrel of his gun. “So you threatened Su Liao with exposure if she didn’t cooperate. I bet she had no idea about her ancestry until you told her.”
“That’s right,” Zhao grinned. “It almost killed her when she found out. The shame. The dishonor. But it was worth it. When she confronted her adopted parents, it scared the hell out of them. They tried to go into hiding, but I was ready. I arranged for them to be arrested as Uyghur sympathizers. After that, Sabir, or Su Liao, if you prefer, became my pawn. With her parents held hostage, she had no choice. Her will was broken. She made sure my Type 093 submarine could not be tracked across the Pacific. I couldn’t have done it without her.
“But you didn’t factor Chen into the equation,” Caine replied.
“He knew what you were up to from the start. He got to Su Liao, and used her against you.”
“And now he is using you against me. Tell me Caine, how did Chen manipulate you? What kind of leverage does he have?"
Caine's thoughts turned to Rebecca and Jack as he considered Zhao's question. Their lives depended on what he did next. In the end, this wasn't about Su, or Zhao, or submarines… It was time to finish this. He glanced out at the water, checking on the tiny boat that carried Li Li and the children away.
It was a moment of distraction, a fraction of a second. But that was all Zhao required. He swept up with his fishing knife. He moved fast, clearly well trained in weapons and hand-to-hand combat. Caine fired, but the man's strike had knocked his gun off axis… the shot roared past Zhao's head. Blood sprayed from his ear as the bullet tore through skin and cartilage.
Zhao grunted in pain, most likely deafened by the near miss. But he kept moving, slashing the knife across Caine's forearm. A crimson gash erupted across his skin. His fingers spasmed as pain shot through the nerves in his hand and wrist. The gun fell from his weakened grip, clattering across the deck.
Zhao swung again. The blade powered through the air, plunging towards Caine’s heart.
Caine sidestepped just in time. The blow missed, but he slammed into the boat's sidewall, losing his balance in the process. Zhao spun around, landing a kick that knocked him over the railing.
Caine felt himself tumbling, falling. As he hit the water, his mask tore loose. He closed his eyes tight, blocking out the shining rush of the ocean.
It took him only a second to get his bearings in the churning water. As he kicked his way to the surface, he realized his pistol was still up on the boat's deck. His speargun was attached to his pack, deeper in the water. He was weaponless.
Wiping the saltwater from his eyes, he heard the boat's motors chug to life. As Zhao motored away from him, he swung the vessel in a wide circle.
BANG! BANG! Tiny explosions erupted from the water around him. Zhao had grabbed his gun… he was shooting at him!
Caine dove. Kicking his way down to the seabed. More bullets pierced the water, leaving long white trails of bubbles in their wake. He had one chance before Zhao made his escape. Caine swam low, skimming across the coral reef. He squinted, ignoring the burning saltwater as he searched for his tactical pack.
But he saw nothing. Only reefs and thousands of fish, eels and sponges. In the sparkling blue water, everything looked the same. He couldn’t remember where the detonator was, and without his mask, everything was blurry.
His lungs burned. He was running out of breath. He took one last look, then kicked his way back to the surface.
Gasping for breath, he saw the yacht, completing its wide turn in the distance.
It was coming back.
It was coming for him.
Caine sucked in a deep lungful of air, then dove again. The sea grew dark as the boat streaked above him, blotting out the sunlight. His feet barely cleared the spinning propellers. Looking back, he saw a turbulent mass of bubbles above him. The razor-sharp blades churned the water into a white froth as the boat sped away.
He swam down until he reached the seabed again. But still he saw no sign of his pack.
Maybe it’s gone, he thought, carried away by the current.
Out of breath, Caine surfaced again.
The yacht was turning again. He knew Zhao would keep coming for him until the propellers tore him to shreds. Even if he managed to evade the deadly blades, he couldn't keep this up forever. Sooner or later, he would drown from exhaustion.
But Zhao didn’t know about the explosives strapped to his yacht.
Caine filled his lungs and ducked down again. The yacht rushed over him. This time, Caine's body spun through the water, caught in the turbulence of the propellers. He couldn't see, couldn't tell, which way was up. His breath exploded from his lungs… he had to surface again.
As he bobbed in the water gulping at the air, he heard the boat. Its motors whined as it turned around for another attack.
Gritting his teeth, Caine dove. He knew he was fighting a losing battle, ducking and diving each time Zhao attacked. Zhao could keep coming until he ran out of fuel. But Caine would soon be too exhausted to swim.
He only had one option left. Find his scuba gear and the detonator.
He crawled through the water, trying to spot landmarks that could guide him to his equipment. He swam in circles, moving out from a central point, but even that was difficult to do. The minutes ticked by.
Finally he saw something. A beam of light from above, glinting off metal.
Before he could swim any closer, he felt his lungs heave and burn. He needed more air. He forced himself to surface.
As his head broke through the choppy water, he saw the yacht in the distance. Its motor chugged, but it sat motionless in the water, like a moray eel waiting for its prey to swim too close.
As Caine gasped for more breath, he saw Zhao standing on the deck, searching with binoculars.
Caine ducked back into the water and dove again. He didn't know if Zhao had spotted him, but he didn't intend to wait and find out. He zeroed in on the scuba gear, and swam straight for it. The distance was further than he expected. He was slower now, and his muscles ached with exhaustion. His lungs were already burning, as his body depleted oxygen at an accelerated rate.
The shimmering silver tanks grew closer in his vision. He was almost there… He kicked harder, ignoring the pain in his chest. His fingers brushed against the smooth, curved metal cylinders of the tanks. He grabbed the scuba gear's floating regulator, placed it in his mouth, and took a breath. A curtain of bubbles expelled from the mouthpiece as he exhaled.
He had done it.
He took a few more breaths, then slipped the tank over his body. He heard the yacht's engines, muted and distant through the water. Zhao had given up… he was fleeing. Caine was running out of time.
He rummaged through his tactical pack for the detonator. His flippers were still on the yacht and he had lost his mask, but he’d gladly give up both items for the scuba tank any day. His fingers closed around the tiny blinking detonator. Looking up, he saw the boat pass overhead.
Too close, he thought. Got to put some distance between us.
Caine swam, headed east towards the coast of Nusa Penida, staying a few meters below the surface. When he had covered several hundred meters, he surfaced. He hung below the water line, giving himself a few moments at that depth to decompress. Then he kicked back to the surface.
The yacht was far behind him now, and speeding away from the area. In a few seconds, he knew it would be out of range.
Caine wrapped his fingers around the remote radio-controlled detonator. He raised it above the water, and flicked off the safety switch. Then pressed down on the red detonation button.
In the distance, a massive explosion ballooned beneath the surface of the water. The yacht tore into three pieces, as a series of brilliant fireballs erupted across the deck. Then, as if in slow motion, the burning debris flew up into the air. The fragments of the yacht vanished within a rising plume of frothing white water.
For a few moments, the water seemed to hang in the air, like a storm cloud heavy with rain. Then it fell back to the sea, pelting the surface with bits of mangled wood and metal.
The boat was gone, annihilated by the blasts. Caine watched as the remaining fragments sank beneath the waves. Within seconds they were gone, claimed forever by the shimmering blue depths. A bitter smile crossed his lips.
He knew Zhao’s fate would be no different.
Chapter Thirty-Two
CHANGI AIRPORT, SINGAPORE
Thomas Caine, Su Liao and Jezebel Yan stood in silence on the edge of the tarmac, as the Chinese cargo plane taxied across the runway. Behind them, a group of CIA paramilitary officers stood ready and waiting. The next few minutes would prove decisive. They could set into motion a series of events that could have profound consequences for b
oth American and Chinese intelligence operatives across the globe.
Caine swallowed. It was hot and humid in Singapore. Even though it was early morning, his skin glistened with a sheen of sweat. He had done all he could to save Rebecca and Tyler, as well as Su Liao’s parents. All he had been able to do since Bali was wait. He watched the plane come to a halt with an intense, smoldering stare. There was no telling what tortures and other horrors they had endured over the last six days. Caine clenched his right hand into a fist.
If Rebecca had been harmed… He forced the dark cloud from his mind, as the passenger door of the plane swung open.
The first to step off the plane were an elderly Asian couple. They struggled to walk, even to hold themselves upright. Their blue pajama-like prison uniforms were threadbare and soiled. The CIA’s SOG paramilitary operations officers took chain of custody, and checked them over. After they were cleared, a medical team stepped in, offering first aid complete with wheelchairs, bandages and IV drips.
“Are they your parents?” Yan asked Su, crossing her arms and narrowing her gaze. Like him, she would have to learn to live with the consequences of this operation, whatever they might be.
Su nodded. Silent tears rushed down Su Liao’s cheeks. She stood between Caine and Yan, as if shielding herself from the others on the tarmac.
“They are so thin.” She turned to Yan, who gave her a nod.
Su was about to step forward when Yan grabbed her by the elbow. “Su, wait,” the CIA Station Head warned. “Remember, they may have been indoctrinated. They will have been told many false stories about you. Maybe while under torture.”
Su pulled away from her arm. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means this may not be the reunion you hope for. It will take time."
Su turned and marched across the tarmac. The mother looked up, and seemed to recognize Su immediately. She threw her arms open and embraced her daughter. They held each other tight, not letting go. Soon the father joined the group hug. Caine could hear their sobs, building in intensity. Then Su turned, and he saw her smiling. Her face seemed to light up. She was weeping tears of joy.
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