“Son, these days, we have people
“This could be tricky,” Thorn began.
“Not in the least. We aren’t going to let the Chinese get their hooks on this guy — he knows too much about us.”
“I’m uploading the file now,” Jay said.
“Good job,” Hadden said. “We’ll let you know how it goes. Hadden out.”
The image disappeared.
“So that’s it? We have some M.I. ops or spooks over there who drop by and collect this guy Shing and what? Somehow sneak him out of the country and back here?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but, yeah, I expect something like that. Maybe they debrief him there, but I don’t think they want to leave him in Macao to tell stories to the Chinese.”
Jay nodded.
“Of course, this is just the first part of it,” Thorn said.
“Huh?”
“We know who he is and, pretty soon, probably how he did it, thanks to you. But the big question is…
Jay blinked, and Thorn realized he probably had never even considered that part of it. That was the thing about technical people — turn them loose on a problem and they could move heaven and earth to solve it, but they sometimes didn’t see the big picture.
Somebody had attacked the U.S. military computer system and done bad things to it. You found out
If Hadden’s people got to the guy before the Chinese did, Thorn was pretty sure this fellow Shing would tell them what they wanted to know. Once upon a time, the United States would have played it differently. These days, whatever it took to protect the country was what got done. Scary, in some ways, but it made would-be terrorists realize that being captured by Americans when you were a danger to them was not going to be a walk in the park anymore.
33
When Locke got to Mayli’s apartment, Wu opened the door before he could knock.
Wu led him into the living room. Mayli sat on the couch. Here was a surprise. Why…?
“Tell him,” Wu said.
Locke looked at her.
“Men came and took Shing,” she said. “Three of them. Two were Chinese, one was a Westerner. He did not speak, the Westerner, but he was in charge.”
“What did the Chinese say?”
“They pointed guns and told Shing he was coming with them. Shing did not resist. They left.”
“That’s all?”
“They knew who he was, they did not ask him to identify himself. They told me to sit still, and that was just what I did.”
Locke looked at Wu. “Police? Triad?”
Wu shook his head. “Not police. And I don’t think tong — his debt is not ripe enough for this.”
“Then who?”
“Who else would be looking for Shing?”
“Americans. Possibly the French.”
Wu nodded.
“How could they have found him?”
“Other than that he made a mistake? There are but four of us who knew what he was working on,” Wu said. “And three of us are here now.”
Locke pulled his cell phone and thumbed in a number. After a beat, a male voice he didn’t recognize answered, in English: “Yes?”
Locke broke the connection, slid the back off the phone, and pulled the battery, just to be absolutely sure the un-traceable phone didn’t hold any secrets. “That was Leigh’s secure number and somebody else answered it. They have Leigh — that’s how they got Shing.”
“How did they get Leigh?” Wu asked.
Locke shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”
Wu said, “We’ll have to move the schedule up.”
“I don’t like that idea,” Locke said. “The fuse is still burning in the Americans’ computers, even if they have Shing, right?”
Wu said, “Shing will crack faster than an egg dropped on a sidewalk. He will tell them what he did, how he did it, and how to stop it. He is more American than Chinese.”
“I thought Shing said it couldn’t be stopped, short of shutting down their entire system.”
“I think we can safely assume that Shing lied. His arrogance would not let him give up that much control. We cannot chance that. We must move soon, or not at all.”
Locke tried again: “Shing knows nothing of our plans.” He glanced at Mayli.
“She knows,” Wu said, confirming what Locke had just figured out. “But while Shing doesn’t know what I intend, he does know who he works for. If the Americans have him, they will eventually be coming to pay me a visit, one way or another. We must be finished by the time they get around to that.”
Locke nodded. He didn’t like it, but Wu was right. “All right. How soon can your men be ready?”
“They are ready now.”
“Yes, right, of course they are. How soon? Realistically?”
“Three days.”
Locke sighed. “Three days. I’ll go see the managers.”
He looked at Mayli, who wore a Mona Lisa smile. Here was an interesting development. No more fingers in that honey pot, not for him, he knew. Wu had claimed her for his own. Well. No matter. He could have a different woman every day for the rest of his life, given the money he stood to make. Mayli was not that special. Wu could have her, and he’d better watch his back, too.
Thorn looked up to see Marissa smiling at him from the doorway.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” he said. “Come on in.”
She did. “What did you do, Tommy? I’m getting rumblings from something transpiring on the Chinese front.”
“Jay ran down the Chinese hacker. My, uh, new boss thought it would be better if agents of the U.S. government got to him before the local police had a chance to talk to him.”
“Smart man. I thought it was something like that. This last day has seen more spooks than a big-city graveyard zipping around in the Orient. Did they get him?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t heard yet.”
“Maybe I can find out. So, I have a few minutes. Do you have time for another fencing lesson?”
“Always.”
He stood, and his secure line rang. The ID showed that it was Hadden. He held a hand up toward Marissa.
