had when she’d met him in the middle of the night.
“Need a ride?” she asked.
“Oh, thank God. I thought I was never going to get out of there. The line was endless.”
“Did you have trouble?”
“Not really. The line was a bit long, but it moved pretty quickly.”
“My car’s this way.”
It had gotten dark and cold since Corrine had arrived at the airport. Her thin sweater did little against the wind.
“It’s all in the bag,” Sonjae told her as they drove. “Computer disks, a big tape, and dirt.”
Corrine said nothing, deciding it would be best if she acted like she knew what the items were.
“How’s Ferg doing, anyway?” Sonjae asked.
“You would probably know better than me,” she said. “You just saw him.”
“No, I mean, with the cancer.”
What cancer? thought Corrine. But she kept her lawyer’s face on.
“I think he’s doing pretty well,” she said.
“I hope so. He looked a little run down. Probably the jet lag and everything.”
“Probably.”
“Shame,” said Sonjae. “I’ve known Fergie since he was a little kid, off and on. His dad and I go back. Long story.”
Corrine nodded. “So you knew him before the cancer?”
“Oh yeah. I only found out about that because I was visiting his father a few years back, before he died. Ferg’s kind of quiet about that. Always kept things to himself. Probably the way he was raised, I guess.”
Sonjae fell silent. Corrine tried to think of something to say to prompt him to continue. His exit was coming up.
“Hungry?” she asked as she took the turn onto the ramp.
“I could use some food, yeah.”
“Come on. I’ll buy you dinner.”
17
When Ferguson returned to his hotel, he discovered that during his absence the room had been bugged — a very promising sign. He put the bug to good use, pretending to use his sat phone to call a contact in Russian Georgia and telling him that things were going nicely. Then he removed the bug. While it would have better to leave it in place, he wasn’t an expert on them and would need to give it to someone who was to have it identified.
With the room now clean, he called Corrigan to check in and to tell Slott he was going to North Korea.
“Ferg, where the hell have you been?”
“Good morning to you, too, Jack.”
“What are you doing over there?”
“Sight-seeing.”
“Slott is pissed. He wants to talk to you right away. And I mean
“Here I am. Listen, before you get him on the line, I’m going to be out of touch for a couple of days. I’m going north of the border on a business trip.”
“What?”
“Mr. Park is getting up a junket. I’m going as Manski, the notorious Russian arms dealer.”
“Why are you going to North Korea?”
“Park wants to talk about something, but I get the feeling that he doesn’t think it’s safe in the South. I don’t know exactly what he’s up to.”
“Ferg. You can’t go north.”
“I am Russian citizen. I go anywhere.”
Corrigan slapped him on Hold. Slott, breathing hard and talking a mile a minute, came on a few seconds later.
“What the hell are you doing?” Slott asked. “Are you out of your mind? Have you lost your senses?”
“Following a couple of leads. I don’t think so. And no. In that order.”
“You outed a fellow officer. I can’t believe you did that, Ferg. That’s way over the line.”
“When?”
“You blew someone’s cover last night in Daejeon.”
“Jeez, I almost forgot about that.”
“Look, I didn’t blow her cover. I didn’t say anything about her, except that she worked for the trade commission, which
“Why were you even near her?”
“I was undercover, she was staring at me, her jaw scraping the carpet; I had to do something. I left things vague.” Ferguson, annoyed, sat down in the chair and put his feet up on the bed. “It was a reception that Park went to. Park’s the guy who owns Science Industries.”
“What the hell is Science Industries?” said Slott.
“Science Industries has a guy on its staff who’s an expert in extracting bomb material. Or was an expert — he killed himself a couple of months back. It was a suicide. Suspicious.”
“And what else?”
“You know Park Jin Tae?” Ferguson asked.
“Park Jin Tae? I know of him.”
“What do you know?”
“Billionaire. Extreme nationalist.” Slott calmed down as he spoke. “He was connected with March 1, a political movement. They may have been thinking about rioting. It was hard to know where the South Korean’s charges ended and the truth began. In any event, he bought his way out of trouble.”
“Well, he owns Science Industries. He wants to talk to a notorious Russian arms dealer up in the People’s Democratic Hell Hole tomorrow.”
“What arms dealer?”
“Me.”
“You?”
“I figured it was the easiest way to talk to him.”
Slott exhaled so loudly Ferguson had to move the phone away from his ear.
“Sometimes you go too far, Ferg.”
“I don’t think so, Dan.”
“North Korea’s pretty risky.”
“Park goes there a couple of times a year. Something’s gotta be up, right? Arms dealer comes to him, says I can get you whatever you want? And Park says, hey, take a trip to the outlaw paradise of the world.”
“All right. I’ll tell Seoul. We’ll set up—”
“I wish you wouldn’t tell them.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t trust them. I barely trust you.”
Actually, he wasn’t sure that he
Slott didn’t answer.
“You still there, Dan?”
“Just because you’re Parnelles’s fair-haired boy, don’t think you can get away with everything,” said Slott.
