night’s festivities, poking about in all the rooms, ensuring that no one could hide out. Baluyevsky even went so far to look through the kitchen cabinets. Once, as a much younger man, he and his soldiers had been attacked by a Chechen youth who had hidden in the cabinet beneath a kitchen sink. Two men had died that day, and Baluyevsky never looked at a kitchen quite the same way again.
The house was clear. The grounds were clear. Lin was safe in his second story master suite, guarded by two of Alexsey’s best men. The suite’s doors and and walls were virtually impenetrable, and Baluyevsky would not be surprised if they could withstand the blast of a 155 millimeter artillery shell. The windows were likewise hardened and bullet-resistant. And if that failed, one of the master suite’s walk-in closets had been turned into a safe room. If an attacker decided to come after his employer, Baluyevsky hoped he or she brought a lunch.
Just the same, he watched as his security team checked the grounds, using flashlights, hounds, and night vision devices. Nothing more amiss than some unnoticed party garbage came to light. Baluyevsky had the men check again. Only after the second check was completed did he release them, and only after they left did he allow himself to relent in the face of what felt to be nearly bone-crushing exhaustion. It had been days since he had had a proper night’s sleep, but he dared not reveal that his performance was degrading. After all, his employer slept even less than he did, and had been doing so ever since the death of his prized son and heir Lin Jong. While Baluyevsky was not enchanted by Chinese in general or Lin in particular, he had to admire the older man’s ability to continue to function on almost no recuperative rest whatsoever.
Baluyevsky took in the view of San Francisco from across the bay. Many of the city’s lights had dimmed as the night wore on, but there was still a quality of sleeplessness that surrounded it. Even though the majority of its inhabitants were fast asleep, the city itself and those who tended it remained awake, watchful, never succumbing to exhaustion or fatigue. Baluyevsky stood and watched the city for a few moments, his hands clasped behind his back. A chill had crept into the air, but he barely felt it. He was from the Ural Mountains, and the bitter cold weather he had grown up with had left him almost invulnerable to simple chill such as this. He unclasped his hands and checked his watch. It was 4:40am. It was time to get as much rest as he could before starting over again tomorrow. Hopefully, that troublesome American Manning would be able to get something actionable out of Ryker and then they could put all this weariness behind them, once and for all.
As he turned, he heard the vague rustle of clothing over skin, barely audible over the whisper of the breeze that blew in from the San Francisco Bay. His right hand went for his pistol, strapped to his hip. At the same time, a shape disengaged from the darkness almost directly in front of him, visible only when it moved. Baluyevsky was surprised, and initially thought it was an animal of some sort-but it was no animal. He stepped back as his hand closed around the butt of his pistol. At the same time, the shape lunged toward him with more speed than Baluyevsky had thought possible from a human being. Pain flashed through his arms, and he found that he could no longer draw his pistol. Two more strikes on his biceps made the pain go away-in fact,
It was a blade.
And then, the blade twisted inside his skull, and cohesive thought came to an end.
CHAPTER 21
Manning awoke to find he was alone in his apartment. There was no note, no indication that he had ever not been alone, except for the vague smell of Maggie Shi’s perfume on his sheets. He ran a hand through his hair and prowled through the apartment. He found no trace of her, which was slightly unnerving. Manning was a light sleeper, both by nature and from training. How had she left the apartment without him knowing?
His cell phone buzzed, and he checked its display. The caller ID read PRIVATE. Manning was tempted to let the call roll into voice mail, but answered it anyway.
“Hello.”
“It is I,” Lin said in Mandarin. “Come to my home immediately.” The line went dead.
Manning stared at the phone for a long moment, then put it on the night stand and headed for the en suite bathroom.
Manning circled Baluyevsky’s body for a second time, moving slowly, trying not to disturb any elements surrounding the dead Russian. He was grateful for the tall hedges that surrounded the courtyard and the swimming pool area, for the day was off to a bright and sunny start. If this had happened in the hills of Los Angeles, say, then the body would be visible to dozens of people.
Lin stood nearby, along with Baluyevsky’s second-in-command, a man Manning had not been introduced to. The security man kept his hands in his pockets, but the hunch of his shoulders betrayed his tension. For the first time since they had met, Lin looked tense as well.
“What can you see?” he asked Manning in Mandarin.
“I’m not a medical examiner or a forensics expert. I think you should call the police, Lin Yubo. Waiting will make them suspicious.”
“So you see nothing?” Lin demanded.
Manning straightened and put his hands on his hips. “I see a dead man with what appears to be a knife wound beneath his chin. Looks like the blade transited through his sinus cavity and probably intersected with the brain stem. Alexsey might have drowned in his own blood, and his death wasn’t quick.”
“What else?”
“The killer’s address and phone number.”
Lin was deathly silent for a moment. Then: “This is not the time for humor.”
Manning looked at him squarely. “Whoever did this caught Baluyevsky by surprise. At the end of a very long day, when his responses would be degraded. From the position of his right hand, it appears he might have been in the process of drawing his weapon. What I’d really like to see though, is the video.”
“We have it,” said the second man.
“Who are you, and what do you do?”
“I’m Nyby, security staff. I reviewed the video myself. I saw the video this morning, right after we found Alexsey. It shows the…the engagement. It went down almost like you said. We didn’t catch the killer on any of the perimeter sensors…well, that’s not true. At about the same time, we had a family of deer enter the estate through a small gate that’s hidden by the brush over there.” Nyby pointed to the right side of the estate. “About a hundred meters that way, behind those shrubs. The gate’s been broken for some time, but no one has fixed it yet.”
Manning was gobsmacked. “You mean…you
Nyby became a bit indignant, forgetting the fact his boss was dead on the ground only a few feet from where he stood. The corpse’s pale eyes were now dry and stared up into the sky. “Alexsey knew all about it, but only deer came through there. They’ve been tripping off the motion detectors for days. He wanted it repaired as soon as it was discovered, but”-Nyby glanced at Lin quickly-“but Mr. Han wanted to find a vendor who would honor a specific price point.”
Lin sighed wearily and nodded. “It’s true, Manning. Han did mention this to me. He was known to be notoriously miserly all his life, even when the money was mine.”
Manning rubbed his face. “You allowed a break in your physical security.”
“We had electronic-”
“Mr. Nyby, electronic measures are meant to
