She nodded and picked up the passport.
“You’re now a member of the Thai diplomatic corps, Elyse Nguyen. Congratulations.” He had used the name they’d agreed upon — French first name, Vietnamese family name.
“I have a feeling my style of diplomacy may be a little different than they’re used to, but hey.”
“That’s a safe bet.”
She handed him a list scrawled on a piece of hotel stationery. “I need to see if your CIA contact can get me these once I’m in the States.”
He studied the items. “How do you know about these neurotoxins? They’re top secret.”
“The Mossad isn’t living in a cave, Matt. You should know there are no secrets.”
“I’ll see what she can do. You may need to have a specialized lab make them. If she can’t get her hands on any, I’m sure she’ll be able to get you the chemical recipe.”
“Fair enough. Then I’ll also need a lab that will moonlight for the right kind of money.”
“Consider the request made.”
“Can I check out the diamonds?”
“Sure.”
She lifted the smaller package first, then carefully peeled back the tape and unwrapped it. Inside was a plastic freezer bag with what looked to her like at least a hundred stones, starting at three carats. She opened the second, larger package and found more like four hundred in that freezer bag, all larger cuts, between four and seven carats.
“That looks like more than ten million, Matt.”
“It is. The larger package is fifty million. In case we need to go to plan B.”
She stared at him wordlessly, then folded the two packages back up and replaced them in the attache and lifted out the passport to inspect it.
“I thought we discussed buying fifty million of laboratory manufactured stones.”
“You run a big risk that he has them tested and figures it out. After giving it more thought, it isn’t worth taking the chance. So you now have sixty-three million dollars of diamonds in your possession.”
“It just seems like too much…”
He grinned and feigned outrage. “What, you mean I’m going to have to limp along now on only a hundred thirty-five million until you bring the fifty back? What will I do? How will I survive?”
“You’re hell-bent on doing it this way?”
“You want your daughter back. Hopefully, plan A will work out and you’ll never have to give him the diamonds, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you now have a solid plan B. Not to be casual about it, but we’re playing with house money. Whether it’s fifty or ten, there’s more than I could spend in ten lifetimes sitting in my safe deposit box, so to me it doesn’t matter. Believe it or not, I’m not a money guy. It’s never been a big priority for me. You don’t go into intelligence work to get rich,” he said, then added bitterly, “unless you’re planning to be in the drug business and sell poison to the world as your sideline. Like our friend.”
“I still go to Zurich and do the deal on the ten million?”
“Of course. I already set it up. You’ll meet them at their bank — they’ll have a private room with verification equipment — and remember that the value of the stones I use is wholesale, not retail, so don’t let them mislead you. Retail value would be triple that — I’ve horse traded these stones enough to know that the values the CIA used were the very bottom of the spectrum.” He pointed at the briefcase. “All of their contact info is on a note in your passport.” He slid a bank card to her, with a slip of paper wrapped around it. “That’s a card with your new name on it that will allow you to access the funds, up to a hundred thousand a day, from anywhere in the world. Between the two I deposited today and the ten you’ll get in Switzerland, you should be able to afford whatever you need to get the job done. Whatever you don’t use of the fifteen you now have, you keep. Consider it your fee for eliminating Arthur and his band of cockroaches. I sort of expect the fifty back…”
She nodded. “That’s more than generous.”
“Again, it’s play money. Just get your daughter back safe and erase Arthur and his gang. To me, it’s a bargain. I’d pay ten times that to have my life back and shut those bastards down once and for all.”
“Do you really think that I’ll need that much?”
“You’re going up against very powerful, very rich men. They routinely deal in billions. Trust me. Fifteen million total firepower is not overkill. You may find yourself having to buy your way into or out of some difficult situations. Specialized weapons. I have no idea. But I do know that I don’t want to hear about how you failed because you didn’t have adequate resources. As an example, to avoid any customs unpleasantness, you should charter private jets to get to Europe and then to the U.S. — it’s a completely different system from the airport cattle lines when you’re a diplomat on your own jet. That alone will run a few hundred grand, easy. And then you have to plan your getaway. That won’t be cheap. Not to mention that if you need to bribe anyone in the U.S., it could cost a few million for anything truly risky.”
“Fine. I’m not going to argue. I’ll bring back the fifty.”
“Just get your daughter. We’ll figure the rest out once you’re done with this adventure. Deal?” He smiled, obviously enjoying playing Santa Claus, and reached his hand to her.
“Deal,” she said, and shook it.
They stayed together like that, her hand in his, for an uncomfortable time, and then he rose and leaned across the table and kissed her. She found herself responding, her pulse quickening in her throat and her breath slowing, a rush of adrenaline hitting her at the unexpected contact.
The bathroom door opened, and Lawan stepped out, and they quickly separated, the moment over. She studied them both with no expression, then the hint of a smile played at the corners of her mouth.
Matt finally released her hand, then cleared his throat.
“Just do what you have to do, and come back safe. There will be plenty of time to figure everything else out,” he said, his voice thick.
“That’s a lot of surprises in a very short period of time.”
“Agreed. But seeing as I’m leaving in a few minutes, I wanted to get it out on the table.”
Matt turned to Lawan and told her to get her backpack and to put her small hygiene kit in it. He moved to the bed and picked his up, hefting it.
“I got a set of night vision goggles and a sat phone. Number is on the slip with the bank info, but scrambled — start on the left then right outermost numbers and work your way inward to the middle. Then add a zero after the fourth and seventh numbers.”
Jet nodded. “How are you planning to get to the border?”
“Nothing quite as fancy as a private jet. I rented a car under one of my throwaway IDs, and I’ll ditch it once we get there. But it’s better than riding the bus.”
“I think we’ve established that.”
When Lawan had finished packing, Jet held out her arms. The little girl ran to her and hugged her, tears running in rivulets down her cheeks. Jet held her for a full minute and then gently pushed her away, got down on one knee, and stared into her eyes. She wiped Lawan’s tears away and smoothed her hair, and nodded. Lawan returned the unspoken affirmation, and then they both faced Matt, Jet rising and meeting his gaze unflinchingly. He leaned in to her and kissed her again, this time cradling her face with his hands, then stepped away and motioned for Lawan to join him. She trailed him as they walked to the door. They both turned and waved to Jet before disappearing into the hall, the door closing softly behind them.
Chapter 32
Jet sat staring at the briefcase for several minutes and then carefully repacked everything. She checked the time and moved to her backpack to retrieve one of the six cell phones she’d bought that afternoon. After carefully slotting the battery in place, she powered it on and walked back to the desk, then searched in her purse for a card she’d scrawled some numbers on earlier in the day at an internet cafe.
Half an hour later, she had confirmed her first charter — a Global XRS out of Hong Kong that would fly her to Zurich, non-stop, at fifty thousand feet — close to Mach 1 — for the bargain price of a hundred and seventy grand.
