before, for the first time a few weeks earlier, and in normal circumstances it wasn’t ever anything you wanted to do again. But her. I could kill her.
She smiled, the cat’s smile at the mouse wriggling under its paw. ‘I sell happiness, Mr Capra. I give desperate parents exactly what they want.’
‘Where is my son?’
‘You keep asking like I’m actually going to tell you.’ She took another swig of her beer, scooted a bit closer in her chair like she had a cute story or a joke to tell me as we sat enjoying our evening in the primo bar. ‘I won’t tell you where your son is. I will tell you how you can get him back.’
‘How?’
‘I want you to kill a man for me.’ She enunciated each word carefully, as though I were impaired.
When I didn’t respond, she said, ‘It’s not like you haven’t killed before.’
‘Not in cold blood.’
‘Will it make it easier to swallow if I assure you he deserves it?’
‘Who?’
‘My employer has a traitor. We want him dead.’ She smiled. ‘We have your son, so I think what we want is what you want.’
‘Kill him yourself.’
‘He’s not under our control at the moment. I think you are particularly placed to be able to find him and reach him. You kill him for us and we’ll give you back your son, alive and unharmed.’
‘And I should believe you why?’
‘Why? If we wanted you and your son dead, you would both be dead.’ She smiled, tasted her beer again. ‘Because you have no choice, Sam. That seems to me to be common sense. You must do as we say. We own you.’ She leaned back a little. ‘Your child is cute. He favors you in the eyes, he has his mother’s mouth.’
‘You sold him.’
‘So you were told. But we didn’t. We kept Daniel close, in case he was useful to us. I think it was a smart move.’
‘You want me to kill a man.’ My mind felt clouded. There must be something very special about this man. He must be hard to kill, or hard to reach, or hard to find.
‘And failure, as they say, is not an option. If you don’t kill him maybe we won’t kill Daniel – you will never know – but we won’t sell him to a sweet and kind family. There are all sorts of unappealing people… who will buy a baby.’
I wanted to fling the heavy table into her face. But I bottled the rage. Stuffed it down. Not the time. But I was going to make those words taste like ash in her mouth.
‘Uh, uh,’ Anna said. ‘Anger is destructive. Here is what happens now. Nod if you understand me – I’ve grown tired of your voice.’
Slowly I nodded.
‘Your target will be in New York tomorrow. You’ll have a partner in your hunt; a woman who’s a wizard at finding people who don’t want to be found, she’s gifted. And motivated, just like you.’ Anna gave a smug laugh, she sounded like a bird chirping. ‘So. Get to New York, find him and kill him.’
‘I need a guarantee that you will give me Daniel.’
She pulled a photo from her jacket and slid it across the table to me.
I knew it was Daniel. I knew it just like a soldier long separated from his child, by distance and normality, gets a picture and can see both himself and his wife in the baby’s face. He was wrapped in a blue blanket, green eyes looking up at the camera, not a smile on his face but he wasn’t crying, intrigued with the contraption above his head that was taking his picture. One arm reaching up, his mouth a toothless curl, cheeks full and fat. He looked good. He looked loved. Thin, blond hair crowned his head, like mine when I was a baby before it darkened, like his mother’s.
I gritted my teeth.
‘Now. When you’ve killed the target, and Daniel is returned to you, we are done. You don’t keep coming after us. You don’t help the CIA or the FBI or anyone else in pursuing us. You retire from the grand game. Go be a good daddy.’
‘I want the protocol for the exchange.’
‘When the target is dead, you will phone a number that I give you. When we have confirmed that you’ve completed your side of the bargain, then the child will be left, with a note with your contact information, at a church. A DNA test will confirm that the child is yours. Simple.’
‘No. You’re asking me to trust you far too much.’
‘You do not have a choice, Sam.’
‘If I can’t kill or find the target?’
She made a slow little wave with her hand. ‘Then I guess you’ll have that picture of him as your only memory. Would you like to keep it? Put it under your pillow?’
‘If you hurt or sell my son, I’ll kill you.’
‘Shut up. Do you really think you should threaten me right now? He could get by with nine toes as easily as ten.’
My mind went blank, in the way not of shock but of the way of calculation. I didn’t believe in a truce, not now. They were not going to threaten my child and go unpunished. But I didn’t let the decision show on my face.
‘So. Who is this target you want dead?’
She slid another photo from her jacket to me. ‘Him. His name is Jin Ming. At least that’s the name he used. I think it’s an assumed name.’
I studied the face. I recognized him, although I’d only seen him for a few moments. ‘I think you’ve made a serious mistake.’
PART TWO
14
Las Vegas
‘You want me to kill a dead man.’ I shook my head.
‘I hope you’re better at killing someone than finding a pulse. He’s not dead.’
I hadn’t had but a moment to look at him, he’d been sadly caught in the crossfire between Piet and his thugs and August’s CIA team and he looked dead enough to me. But I was running from the CIA then, and desperate to get Piet, the one surviving smuggler out of harm’s way, where I could put him to use – Piet had been my sole link to Edward, the kidnapper of my wife and my son. So I’d made a mistake. ‘Who exactly is this Jin Ming?’
‘A graduate student from Hong Kong attending the Delft University of Technology, focusing on computer sciences.’
‘And he’s a threat to you. He’s just a geek, a kid.’
‘His age is irrelevant. You’re going to find him and kill him before he surrenders to the CIA. You have two days.’
Jin Ming had walked in with August and the rest of the CIA team. If he wanted to turn against Novem Soles, would he turn to August? Perhaps this was why Anna was eager to use me. I could get close to August, and therefore close to Jin Ming.
‘Why hasn’t he surrendered to them already?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know. He set up a meeting with the CIA in two days. In New York. So get there and kill him.’
