surveillance operation. Ding had fifteen years more experience in these sorts of things than did Yao. But of course Adam Yao could not reveal his discomfort to the businessmen working with him.
“Okay,” he said. “First thing first. Everybody put on your Bluetooth headsets and dial in to this number.”
Ding asked, “What number is this?”
“This will set all three of us up on a conference call. We will be in constant communication this way.”
They all logged in to the conference call and checked that they were in touch with one another.
Then Adam reached into his glove compartment and pulled out two small devices, each not much larger than a matchbox. He handed one to each of the two Hendley Associates men.
“What are these?” Jack asked.
“It’s called a slap-on. It’s a magnetic GPS beacon. I use them to track vehicles, mostly, but I can track you with them just as easily. Just stick it in a pocket, and I can monitor you on the map on my iPad. I will stay way behind you guys in the car while you do the foot follow, and I’ll navigate for you.”
“Cool,” admitted Jack.
Ding and Jack exited the Mitsubishi and headed off to the south. Yao stayed in communication with them as they headed up opposite sides of a busy pedestrian street. Chavez picked a passerby at random to begin following, and he stayed well behind her as she window-shopped along Nathan Road.
Ryan managed to fight his way through the thick pedestrian traffic, and he got ahead of her on the other side of the tree-lined street. He was waiting inside a clothing store, watching her through the window as she passed.
“Ryan has the eye,” he said.
“Copy that,” replied Chavez. “She seems to want to continue heading south. I’m going to get on the far side of the street and head to the next decision point.”
Now Yao came over their headsets. “Ding, that’s going to be the Austin Road intersection. There is a 7- Eleven there. You can go inside and retain visual on the subject as she makes that corner.”
“Copy that.”
Yao controlled both men from the map on his tablet computer. He moved his car ahead of the surveillance more than once to be in position to pick the woman up if she climbed into a vehicle.
They continued their coverage for an hour. The unsuspecting woman shopped, stopped for coffee, talked on her phone, and finally returned to her hotel room on the fifth floor of the Holiday Inn, all completely oblivious to the three-man team that kept her under constant surveillance.
Adam was impressed with the abilities of the American businessmen. Of course, it was no surprise to him that Domingo Chavez possessed such skills, but Ryan’s abilities were, frankly, suspicious, considering the fact that he was an analyst in a financial management and currency trading concern.
POTUS’s kid knew how to operate in a foot follow without being compromised.
They all rallied back at the car, which was now parked in an underground lot near the Jordan Road MTR station.
Yao went over his observations and talked about how things would be that night. “The Triads are running countersurveillance measures, so we’ll have to back off a little from what we got away with today.”
Chavez and Jack agreed, but Yao could tell Ryan did not seem satisfied.
“Jack, something bothering you?”
“My only problem was that I was recognized a couple of times. Add that to the guy in the Peninsula last night, and that’s three times in about eighteen hours. I almost never get recognized at home.”
Adam chuckled. “HK is incredibly crowded, and it’s one of the hubs of world finance. On top of that, there is a lot of connection with the West here. Everybody knows who your dad is. A few know who you are.”
“Not much I can do about it.”
Adam said, “That’s not exactly true. You want people to stop noticing you, the solution is easy enough.”
“I’m in your hands.”
Yao reached into his backpack and pulled out a paper air mask that attached to the face with rubber bands that went behind the ears.
Jack had seen hundreds of people walking the streets of Kowloon wearing these paper masks. Both Avian Flu and SARS had hit Hong Kong hard, which was no surprise, considering the dense population. Many people, especially those with compromised immune systems, took no chances and wore masks to help filter the air.
Adam placed the blue paper mask over Ryan’s face. Then the Chinese-American dug in the pack again, and retrieved a black baseball cap. This he positioned on Ryan’s head. He took a step back and looked at his handiwork.
“You are a little tall for a local, but look around, a lot of Chinese men are over six feet these days, and there is still a huge British population here. All in all, you will blend in just fine in that getup.”
Jack wasn’t crazy about wearing a mask over his face, especially in the stifling heat and humidity of Hong Kong. But he understood that getting recognized at the wrong time on this foot follow could prove disastrous.
“One less thing to worry about, I guess,” he said to Yao.
“That’s right. This will help with the Westerners, but to most people around here, even with the mask, you’re still a
“A
“Sorry. A foreign devil.”
“That’s harsh.”
Adam nodded. “Yeah. It would serve you to remember that the Chinese are a prideful people. They think, in general, that they are superior to foreign races. They aren’t an inclusive society, overall.”
“I’m not planning on buying a condo here. Just tailing Zha.”
Adam chuckled. “Let’s get back to the Mong Kok Computer Centre. Zha will be leaving work in about an hour.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
At eight-thirty p.m. Zha Shu Hai left the side exit of the Mong Kok Computer Centre with a security detail of four. Chavez had the eye; he was up the street in the 7-Eleven, heating up some frozen dumplings in the microwave. He started to turn away to announce to Ryan and Yao that the bird had left the nest, but he saw Zha stop suddenly and turn on his heels, as if someone had called out to him. He moved with his entourage back to the entrance of the building, and there he all but snapped to attention like a lance corporal. Chavez caught a glimpse of a man just inside the light from the streetlamps. Zha was talking to him with obvious deference. Ding knew this could be important, so he risked blowing his cover for action in the convenience store, pulled his big Nikon camera with a three-hundred-millimeter lens from his backpack, and took a picture of the men fifty yards up the street. Quickly he looked away from them, walked to the back of the 7-Eleven, and checked the digital image in the viewing pane of the camera. It was fair, at best. He could sort of make out Zha, and he could make out the one Triad sentry who was facing the 7-Eleven, but he could not see many features of the man in the dark.
Quickly he used the e-mail function on the camera, sent the image to Gavin Biery back in the suite in the Peninsula, and then took himself off the eye.
“Ryan, move in, I need to back off for a bit.”
“Roger that.”
He headed up the street and called Gavin.
“What’s up, Domingo?”
“I just sent you an image.”
“Looking at it right now.”
“I need a favor.”
“You need photography lessons.”
“Yeah. Right. Anything you can do to make that clearer?”
“No big deal. I’ll send it to all of your phones in a few minutes.”
“Great. From the way our boy FastByte leapt to attention when this guy called him, we may be looking at the
