danger.”
“I didn’t panic with Drevin. Or with Scorpia . . .”
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“The snakeheads are different. You have no idea what sort of people we’re up against. Didn’t they tell you?
They’ve already killed two agents. The first one came back minus his head. They sent the second one back in an envelope. They’d had him cremated to save us the trouble.” Ash drank his beer and signaled to the waiter for another. “I had to see for myself that you were up to the job,” he went on. “We set up a situation that would have terrorized any normal kid. Then we watched how you dealt with it.”
“I could have been killed.” Alex remembered how the first bomb had blown him off his feet.
“You weren’t in any real danger. All the missiles were launched with pinpoint accuracy. We knew exactly where you were all the time.”
“How?”
Ash smiled. “There was a beacon inside the heel of one of your sneakers. Colonel Abbott arranged that while you were asleep. It sent out a signal to the nearest inch.”
“What about the mine?”
“It had less explosive in it than you probably thought.
And it was activated by remote control. I set it off a couple of seconds after you made that dive. You did pretty well, by the way.”
“You were watching me all the time.”
“Just put it behind you, Alex. It was a test. You passed.
That’s all that matters.”
The waiter arrived with the second beer. Ash lit a
S N A K E H E A D
cigarette—Alex was surprised to see that he smoked—
and blew smoke out into the warm evening air.
“I can’t believe we’re finally meeting,” he said. He examined Alex closely. “You look a hell of a lot like your dad.”
“You were close to him.”
“Yeah. We were close.”
“And my mother.”
“I don’t want to talk about them, Alex.” Ash shifted uncomfortably, then reached out and drank some of his beer. “Do you mind? It was all a long time ago. My life’s moved on since then.”
“It’s the only reason I’m here,” Alex said.
There was a long silence. Then Ash smiled briefly.
“How’s that housekeeper of yours?” he asked. “Jack What’s-her-name. Is she still with you?”
“Yes. She said hello.”
“She was an attractive girl. I liked her. I’m glad she stuck by you.”
“You didn’t.”
“Well . . . I moved on.” Ash paused. Then suddenly he leaned forward. His face was utterly serious and Alex saw that this was a tough, cold-hearted man and that he was going to have to watch himself when they were together.
“All right. This is how we’re going to play it,” he began. “You’re in this smart luxury hotel because I wanted to ease you in. But tomorrow that all comes to an end.
We’re going to have breakfast, and then we’re going up to
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your room and you’re going to become an Afghan boy, a refugee. We’re going to change the way you look, the way you walk, and even the way you smell. And then we’re going out there . . .” He pointed across the river. “You enjoy your bed tonight, Alex, because where you sleep tomorrow night is going to be very different. And trust me.
You’re not going to like it.”
He lifted the cigarette and inhaled. Gray smoke curled out of the corner of his mouth.
“We should make contact with the snakehead in the next forty-eight hours,” he went on. “I’ll explain all that tomorrow. But this is what you’ve got to understand. You do nothing and you say nothing unless I tell you. You play dumb. And if I think the situation is getting out of hand, if I think you’re in danger, you’ll clear out. With no argument. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Alex was taken aback. This wasn’t what he had expected. It wasn’t what he’d flown six thousand miles to hear.
Ash softened. “But I’ll make you this promise. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, and when I
