Dragon Head

by James Houston Turner

  “Promise me, Alex.”

  “Nothing is going to happen.”

  “We do not know what lies ahead, or to what lengths these people will go. I need to know my kids will have someone to look after them. A parent.”

  “They already do.”

  “Promise me. I need to know my kids will be taken care of.”

  Talanov led Zak a few more steps away. “And Emily? What about her?” he asked quietly.

  “The bond of love is not there. You know that as well as I do, and if something happens to me, Emily will send them away. Don’t get me wrong. Emily is not a bad person. But she will send them away if something happens to me. If that happens, I need to know they will have someone who will love and care for them, no matter what. Someone who will never desert them.”

  “Like I said, that someone is you.”

  Zak clasped Talanov on the shoulder. It was a firm clasp that communicated emphasis. “I need to know you will be there for them.”

  Even in the darkness of the parking lot, Talanov could see the intensity in Zak’s eyes. “With pleasure, my friend.”

  Zak gave Talanov a brief embrace before returning to the others and leading them toward the motel.

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” Ginie told Zak before running back to where Talanov was standing. “I just want to say, don’t worry about things at my end. Zak will be watching over us and I will be watching over him. I know it must sound stupid for me to be saying something like that . . .”

  “Not at all,” said Talanov. “You’ve always had his back, and with so much else going on, he needs someone watching his back.”

  After hugging Talanov and kissing him on the cheek, Ginie ran and caught up with the others, who were waiting for her in front of the motel room door.

  “Is there something going on between you two?” asked Wilcox.

  “I think you know better than that.”

  “Does she know about Larisa?”

  “I think it’s time we talked,” said Talanov, leading Wilcox to the shaded side of the van, where they could hear Straw Sandal still kicking against the door. “Okay, Bill, what gives? Who am I dealing with here? Why am I involved in whatever this is?”

  “Your prisoner’s name is Chin Cho Ho,” answered Wilcox, “although she goes by the name Straw Sandal. She’s from Hong Kong and is the daughter of a crime boss named Dexter Moran, also known as Dragon Head.”

  Wilcox then gave Talanov a summary of Moran’s history and rise to power.

  “So Dragon Head’s not Chinese?”

  “Nope, he’s Irish,” said Wilcox, “although he was born on the island back when it was a British colony.”

  “And you know his daughter how?”

  “She and another Chinese woman murdered Diane’s secretary, then used her laptop to hack Diane’s server in order to find out where you were. The murder was caught on camera and a friend of mine in the Hong Kong CIB confirmed her identity.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Talanov. “Moran’s people flew all the way to Washington, killed Diane’s secretary, then hacked her server in order to find me? For God’s sake, why?”

  “We don’t know. They’re Chinese, so we think it’s all related to the assassination attempt on Diane.”

  “Come on, Bill, we’ve been through that already. Unless of course Turquoise Girl has confirmed something that I don’t know about. Is that the case? Has she provided you with a name? Has she given you anything solid?”

  “No, and she isn’t saying much, either, not that she knows much, anyway.”

  “Then you need to shake things up,” said Talanov. “You need to cut her loose and tell the media your main suspect is being released on a technicality, but that investigators will be taking her into custody again once the correct paperwork has been filed.”

  “We can’t do that! Whoever hired her will hunt her down.”

  “Exactly. And your people will be waiting. Only then will you know who’s behind this, and I’m betting it won’t be

  Dragon Head.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “The pieces don’t fit. For one thing, Dragon Head wants me, not Diane. He has no motive to kill her.”

  “Which we can determine by questioning Straw Sandal. That’s why we need you both in DC.”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t?”

  “Su Yin’s kidnapper has ordered me to bring Straw Sandal to Hong Kong. If I don’t, Su Yin will die.”

  “We need you in DC. It’s a matter of national security.”

  Talanov remembered Wilcox bluffing the policeman back at the pizza parlor with that excuse. “No disrespect, Bill,” said Talanov, “but how is this an issue of national security?”

  Wilcox knew the details were classified, but he also knew Talanov was the focal point of Amber’s murder, or at least one of the focal points, and if they wished to find out why, they needed his cooperation. Yes, Talanov could be put into an interrogation room and grilled as a hostile witness. Angus Shaw would certainly be in favor of that. He and Gustaves, on the other hand, favored a friendlier approach, and that meant looping Talanov into what had actually occurred.

  Inviting Talanov to walk with him, Wilcox spoke on the condition of absolutely confidentiality, and once Talanov agreed, proceeded to bring him up to speed with what Gustaves had told him, namely, that Chinese hackers had penetrated their GPS network and fed in false coordinates that almost caused a midair collision over the Pacific. And while the reactionaries in Washington were blaming the Chinese government, he and Gustaves knew Dragon Head was to blame.

  “That’s why I’ve been ordered to bring you and Straw Sandal back to DC,” Wilcox said, pausing beside a neatly groomed tree. “Look, I’m sorry about the little girl, but we need to find out why Dragon Head went to such lengths to find you, and how you relate to the hacking of our GPS. That’s why this is an issue of national security. You’re at the epicenter of something huge, and we have in our possession the daughter of the man responsible. We can’t let this go to waste.”

  “Go to waste? If I don’t deliver Straw Sandal to Hong Kong, Dragon Head will kill Su Yin. That’s her name, Bill, Su Yin. She’s not just some nameless little girl. Zak loves her as if she were his own flesh and blood. And I’m now her godfather now, so I feel the same.”

  “I understand your predicament,” said Wilcox, “but you’ve got to understand mine, and what takes priority. What I can do, though, is phone my friend in the Hong Kong CIB and have her look into it. Maybe she can help.”

  “Maybe she can help? That’s not good enough. We’re talking about an eleven-year-old girl who’s been caught up in something she doesn’t understand, and sure as hell doesn’t deserve. Her life is on the line because of me, so if you think I’m going to hand her future over to someone who can possibly help, you’ve got another think coming.”

  “It’s all I can do right now.”

  Talanov started to lecture Wilcox about bureaucratic bullshit, but decided instead to walk away before he said something he would later regret. Yes, he was angry – furious, in fact – but Wilcox was a friend and a good friend at that.

  He understood the tough spot Wilcox was in. Gustaves, too. A catastrophe had almost occurred and Diane’s congressional opponents would be scheming ways to exploit this for political gain, with top dogs like Shaw barking orders to subservients like Wilcox. The orders would be hastily issued and geared to make the top dogs look authoritative and in charge.

  Unfortunately, those orders would not be practical or beneficial. They would only make matters worse, because the top dogs had already decided who was guilty, and in their one-eyed efforts to prove that, would ignore the trails of actual evidence, which these days did not seem to matter. To people like Shaw, destruction of political opponents was more important than anything else.

  “Will you please stop?” Wilcox called out while trying to keep up with Talanov’s long strides.


  Talanov paused beside another of the groomed trees that dotted the parking lot. When Wilcox caught up, he suddenly noticed the Hawaiian shirt and plaid shorts that Wilcox was wearing.

  “Do you know how ridiculous you look?” asked Talanov.

  “I was on my way to Disneyland,” snarled Wilcox, “but rerouted my plane so that I could come and get you. So quit giving me a hard time.”

  Talanov laughed, then grew serious. “You have your orders, Bill. I get that. But do you really think questioning Straw Sandal in DC is going to help us find out why Dragon Head wants me in Hong Kong?”

  “Actually, yes, I do. In DC, we control the narrative. Right now, the narrative is controlling you.”

  “And that right there is their blind spot. A blind spot we can exploit. But we can only do that in Hong Kong.”

  “And I can’t let you do that.”

  “You have to,” said Talanov. “If we do this your way, Su Yin dies.”

  “I don’t think you understand how serious this is. They hacked our GPS. If a midair collision had occurred, up to a thousand people would have died. National security is not some abstract term. Lives are at stake here, Alex. Potentially, millions of lives if this continues.”

  “I understand that. But you need to think this through. Flying us to DC will not give you the answers you need. If Dragon Head is behind the hacking, and if you really want to stop him, then the only place to do that is in Hong Kong. DC is a waste of time. We need to do this my way.”

  “And I’m telling you that’s not going to happen. My people are going to question Straw Sandal . . . in DC.”

  “How long will that take? Days? Weeks? Months? How reliable will she be? What if she decides to stall so that Dragon Head can hack your GPS again? Who’s controlling the narrative then?”

  Wilcox did not reply.

  “There are times you stay on the highway, Bill, and times you go off-road. That’s because the highway doesn’t always go where you need to go. Sometimes, the only way to reach your destination is on a path that doesn’t exist. Except we do have a path, and that path is me, and Hong Kong is where I’m going.”

  CHAPTER 35

  Inside the motel room, Ginie was finishing her shower while Jingfei and Kai were on one of the queen-sized beds, arguing over the remote. Emily was in the other bed, reading the motel Bible. She was propped against the headboard, pillows stuffed behind her, the Bible in her lap. She was trying to concentrate but found it hard with all the noise. At regular intervals, she would throw the kids sharp glances, but they were too busy to notice, or didn’t care. Leaning against the credenza, his arms folded in front of him, Zak was lost in thought.

  Jingfei soon abandoned the fight and jumped up off the bed. “When are we going to do something?” she complained,

  pacing back and forth.

  Motioning for Jingfei and Kai to follow, Zak stepped outside and, once the kids had joined him, closed the door and said, “We’ll get her back. Alex will get her back.”

  “No way can you promise that,” Kai replied.

  “Technically, no, I can’t. But I’ve known Alex since he was a skinny cadet of sixteen. I’m also the person who trained him. So in many ways I know his ability better than he does. Which is why I can assure you, he’ll get her back.”

  “But you don’t know that, right?”

  With a rueful smile, Zak watched a young couple enter their room three doors down. “Like you and Alex,” he said, looking back at the kids, “my parents were killed when I was young. In my case, I was two. Having no family, I grew up in the military with a bunch of other recruits. But when I turned seventeen, I met Annika.”

  Zak paused and smiled at the memory.

  “Annika had hair the color of maple syrup,” he continued, “thick and long, to her waist, and eyes so blue they made the sky looked pale. She was sixteen and smart as a whip. Funny, too. Anyway, we fell in love and she soon got pregnant, which was the happiest day of our lives. Nine months later, our little girl, Yana, was born. I was so happy to be a father. About three months later, I was sent away to Siberia for maneuvers, and while I was gone, Annika and Yana were taken to the hospital for a round of required vaccinations. Four days later, they were dead. Faulty vaccines, I was told.”

  “My God,” Jingfei exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand. “Zak, I never knew.”

  “Years later, Alex found out the KGB had stepped in to make sure I didn’t have any ‘distractions,’ as they called them, or divided loyalties, or potential weaknesses that a foreign agent could exploit.”

  “You mean, they killed them?”

  Zak nodded. “It took Alex two years to track down the agents who murdered my Annika and Yana, but he did, and he made them pay.”

  “You mean, like . . .”

  “Yes,” said Zak. “And while that’s probably the worst example for me to use right now, let me assure you, Alex will get Su Yin back. You need to hang on to that.”

  Jingfei and Kai both nodded.

  “Do you still think about them?” asked Kai.

  “Every day,” Zak replied. “Annika was the love of my life.”

  “So, why’d you marry Emily?” asked Jingfei, then flinching. “Sorry, that’s none of my business.”

  “It’s okay,” said Zak. “Emily has a good heart, and we both shared this burning desire to change the world. Her way of doing it is through the legal system. Everything a battle. My way is through the community center. Everything personal and chaotic. Emily wasn’t prepared for that.”

  “Do you think you can work things out?”

  “I made a commitment and I’ll honor it.”

  “What if she doesn’t honor hers?”

  “All you need to remember is,” said Zak, wrapping a burly arm around each of the kids, “I will honor my commitment to you. No one is taking you away.”

  Jingfei gave Zak a hug.

  “Although I am curious,” added Zak, “about how you were able to listen in on that original telephone conversation between Emily and me.”

  Jingfei and Kai shuffled uneasily.

  Zak waited and did not speak.

  Finally, Jingfei said, “I put some spyware on Emily’s phone that recorded your conversation and uploaded it automatically to the cloud.”

  “Why on earth would you do that?”

  “Because Emily was always complaining how you had no money. So I put some spyware on her phone that allowed me to access your bank account and see how much money you really had. It also recorded her conversations.”

  Rubbing his chin, Zak nodded thoughtfully. “When did you install it?” he asked.

  “Nine months ago, maybe, I guess. That’s when I learned how much you were spending on Kai, and how you were always bailing him out and paying for stuff he stole. I knew then you were the real deal.”

  Zak chuckled. “Then that explains it.”

  “Explains what?”

  Zak recounted the change that he noticed in Jingfei’s attitude nine months ago. Prior to that time, she had been defensive and sour. After that time, she began volunteering in the kitchen, doing odd jobs, helping in the office.

  “You also began to smile,” said Zak.

  “I smiled before then.”

  “Really?” asked Zak, amused.

  “Okay, so maybe not a lot. But I smiled, though, didn’t I, Kai? Go on, tell him I did.”

  Kai grinned and shrugged.

  “I did!” insisted Jingfei.

  Kai grinned and shrugged again.

  “Jerk,” grumbled Jingfei, punching Kai on the arm.

  “Hey, after what you three went through, I don’t blame you for not smiling a lot,” said Zak, recalling the night he met the kids.

  They had been sent to him by “Dutch,” the seventy-some-thing-year-old Chinese owner of Little Sami Sun’s convenience store down the hill. Little Sami Sun’s was a neighborhood icon, with neon signs advertising an ATM, check cashing, beer, lotto, and fresh coffee, plus windows full of decals featu
ring ice cream, soft drinks, dim sum, phone cards, hamburgers, French fries, and, of course, his famous wonton tacos, which were spicy meat-filled dumplings made with tortillas instead of rice paper.

  “How did he get that name” asked Jingfei. “A man from China named Dutch?”

  Zak laughed and said he remembered asking Dutch the same question. “And do you know what he told me? He said, ‘You remember me good, yes? Not many Chinamen named Dutch.’”

  “So, he just . . . made it up?”

  Zak laughed again, then told Dutch’s version of how the kids had entered his store about ten o’clock one stormy night. “He said you were ragged and soaked and shivering, so it was obvious you weren’t there to buy anything, which he could tell by the way you lingered in front of the fast food section. So he called you over to the front counter—”

  “—and gave us free corndogs and fries!” said Kai. “Dutch was a really cool guy, even though he was, like, really old.”

  “Those corndogs tasted so good,” added Jingfei. “And while we, like, wolfed them down and drank that weirdo Chinese canned drink, he phoned a taxi.”

  “And told the driver to bring you to me,” Zak said, completing the story.

  “He said you were a good friend who served free food to anyone who came through his doors.”

  “And eat you did,” said Zak, recounting how Jingfei and Kai devoured four helpings of leftover meatloaf while Su Yin chatted happily about storm clouds and how they were formed.

  “And you asked, ‘Where did a young girl like you learn about equatorial evaporation and cumulonimbus cloud formations?’ And with her hands on her hips, Su Yin said—”

  “—‘I’m nine years old,’ as if that should be reason enough.”

  Everyone laughed at the memory and stood in silence until the sound of voices drew their attention toward three silhouettes moving toward them across the parking lot. And while it was too dark to see their faces, their physiques were unmistakable. Talanov was the tall one, Wilcox the wide one, with Straw Sandal the petite one in between.

  Jingfei looked back at Zak. “So, are you, like, mad at me about the spyware?”

  “How can I be mad about something that’s caused so much good?”