[Quinn 02] - The Deceived

also carrying a bag, though it was more of a canvas shopping bag. “You’re the doctor?” Quinn asked. Though the man looked scared, he nodded. “Then get the hell over here,” Quinn said. Ne Win pushed the doctor through the door. “Don’t worry. Dr.

Han good doctor. He just not have to make house call in a while.” Dr. Han quickly scanned his new patient. “What’s the problem?”

“Shoulder,” Quinn said. “Dislocated, I think.” “Right or left?” Dr. Han asked Jenny. “Left,” Quinn said. The doctor glanced at Quinn, then bent down to get a better look

at Jenny’s shoulder. As he began probing with his fingers, Jenny gritted

her teeth, barely holding in whatever cry of pain she wanted to let out. “I’ll need you to remove your dress,” Dr. Han said. Jenny looked at Quinn, then Ne Win. “Maybe you two can go make some coffee,” Orlando said. Quinn didn’t want to leave. He felt responsible. But he nodded and

turned for the door. “Quinn?” Jenny said. He stopped. “I know you were only trying to help, and that maybe you were

right, maybe I shouldn’t have gone there.” “You’re all right now,” Quinn said. “Everything’s going to be fine.” “No, it’s not,” she said, with more force than any of them expected.

“You don’t understand. Steven died trying to help me stop it.” “Stop what?” Her eyes grew intense, flickering wide open for a moment, then

half closing again as if she’d spent whatever energy she’d had left. “If you really want to help me, you’ll get me to the congressman. We’re his only chance.”

“His only chance?” Quinn said. “You listened to the tape, right? So you know,” she said. “Guerrero. We have to save him.” “Can I have a few minutes alone with my patient, please?” the doctor said. Reluctantly Quinn nodded. He wanted to hear more, but it could wait until after the doctor had left.

“Nothing to worry about,” Ne Win said to Quinn. They were both sitting in the living room while Dr. Han worked on Jenny. “Dr. Han is okay. He does a lot of work for me.”

“He’ll keep quiet?”

“Very quiet. He know if he doesn’t, he is not doctor for long.”

They fell into silence. At one point, Ne Win held out the canvas bag to Quinn.

“The data player.”

Quinn took it, then set it on the floor beside his feet. “Thanks.”

The old man rose and headed toward the kitchen. “You want something to drink?”

Quinn shook his head.

For twenty minutes, neither of them spoke. Ne Win slowly sipped his glass of water, while Quinn tried to make sense of everything. Why would she want to save Guerrero? He was the one after her. It was one of his men that had shot at her. It was his men that had undoubtedly killed her boyfriend.

Quinn looked over at Ne Win. “Why did you send Markoff to me?”

The old man looked at him. For nearly half a minute, neither of them even moved.

“I only did what he told me to do,” Ne Win said.

“What?” Quinn asked, not sure he’d heard the old man correctly.

But Ne Win remained silent.

“Are you saying Markoff told you to send his body to me?”

It seemed as though Ne Win was still not going to say anything, then he leaned forward. “He told me if anything happened to him, I should get word to you.”

It was almost as if the air had suddenly gained weight. It pressed down on him as if trying to collapse him.

Markoff.

He was the one who had wanted Quinn involved. It wasn’t just chance, or someone thinking Quinn should have been the one to bury his old friend. It had been Markoff from the beginning.

“Tell me what happened,” Quinn said.

Ne Win thought for a moment, then began to speak. “He came to me, much like you did this week. Need my help. I think okay. Markoff always fair with me. No problem help.”

“What kind of help?”

“A little equipment,” Ne Win said, then added, “and some manpower.”

“Manpower?”

“One guy. Markoff doing surveillance. Needed someone to help him.”

“The Quayside Villas,” Quinn said.

“He did not tell me where.”

“But your man did.”

“My man is dead. Like Markoff.”

Quinn paused. “I’m sorry.”