River of Ruin

“But he’s still charging for the guns?” Harry quipped.

“Beesness es beesness,” the Panamanian cop said in a thick accent. He turned to Lauren. “Vaya con Dios, gringa.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow morning when the dust settles,” she told him in Spanish, and they shook hands. One of Foch’s men left with the officers to hand over Maria.

“Now we have soldiers, weapons, a boat, and one of the vans we’ve been renting.” Bruneseau accepted a cigarette from Harry.

“And a target,” Lauren added. “So far, so good.”

“Then why do I feel like we’ve missed something?” Exhaustion had turned Mercer’s voice gravelly. Part of him wanted a drink to relax and another part craved caffeine to keep him going. He settled on bottled water.

“We’ve been over it a dozen times.” Lauren sat on the couch next to him and casually took a sip from his bottle. It was such a familiar gesture that Mercer had to fight not to smile. Her leg was tight up against his and it would be so easy and right to put his arm over her shoulder. She seemed to be swaying into him as if inviting the touch.

“I can’t think of anything we’ve forgotten.” Roddy looked like he was sinking into one of the overstuffed chairs opposite them.

“That’s what bothers me.” Mercer rubbed his eyes and noted the time. Midnight. “We should all get some sleep. Meet here again at six? Will that give us enough time to get in position?”

Everyone nodded. Roddy and the Frenchmen made their way out of the suite while Lauren claimed woman’s prerogative and scooted into the bathroom first. Harry had just come from there so he bade Mercer a good night with a dismissive wave and closed the door to his bedroom.

Mercer remained on the couch, trying to pull together his fragmented thoughts. He gave up quickly, and sat there with his eyes closed.

“You awake?” Lauren whispered a short time later. She was so close he could smell toothpaste on her breath.

Mercer levered open an eye. She was bent over him, dressed in a T-shirt that just reached the top of her thighs. Her unrestrained breasts were at the level of his head and he had to drag his gaze upward. Her dark hair was brushed back from her face and her skin looked luminous from being washed. “If you heard me snoring,” he said, “then I was asleep. If not, I was silently cursing Harry for taking the second bed again.”

“Poor baby,” she cooed. “If it weren’t for tomorrow I’d invite you into mine.”

Mercer managed to keep up the flirting despite his racing heart. “If it weren’t for tomorrow you’d still be disappointed. I’m whipped.”

She smiled. “In that case, why don’t you come with me. I’m warning you that if you snore, I’ll make you sleep with Harry.”

“I’d do the same to you, but the old bird isn’t as much of a gentleman as I am.”

Her eyes danced. “I think I could trust either of you for one night.”

“What happens if I get a chance for another?”

Lauren took his hand. “You won’t be able to trust me.”

Hatcherly Consolidated Terminal Balboa, Panama

Captain Wong Hui watched critically as deckhands secured heavy manila ropes to his ship. The other end of the lines were wound around diesel-powered capstans at the far end of the dry dock. Powerful lamps attached to the enormous shedlike building spread a glare of white light across his ship and the black waters that lapped against the newly built structure. The massive doors were open and in moments the four-hundred-foot refrigerator ship Korvald would be drawn into the enclosed dock and her long trip from Shanghai would be finished.

He muttered a few terse words to the helmsman as he felt his ship move against the sluggish tidal surge. Athwartship thrusters adjusted her heading, lining her up perfectly with the narrow, concrete-lined berth. His walkie-talkie crackled and an operator at the far side of the building indicated he was ready to engage the winches.

Wong knew that his ship had been chosen by COSTIND, China’s military-industrial combine, because she carried a sophisticated cooling system that usually kept her cargoes of meat frozen, but also because her superstructure was low enough to fit into the dry-dock chamber. Still he kept a wary eye on the roof of the building as the capstans slowly drew the ship past the doors and into the dry dock. From where he stood, forty feet off the water, the span of the ceiling trusses were another fifty feet above him.

Even with fifteen feet of clearance on each side of the Korvald, Wong paced from wing bridge to wing bridge watching to see that his vessel stayed in the exact center of the dry dock. He looked aft in time to see her fantail clear the steel doors and the heavy gates begin to close. She was in. The winches hauled the reefer ship another one hundred feet to the front of the building until her graceful bows loomed over the quay and a pair of forward ropes dropped almost vertically to mushroomlike bollards.

The veteran seaman gave no outward sign that reaching Panama had reduced the tension that had robbed him of sleep since leaving China. He remained erect and aloof, fitting a cigarette between his lips and lighting it from a match. Just because he’d delivered his cargo didn’t mean the danger was past, thanks to the coded orders he’d received en route from General Yu. It would be at least another day before the large overhead crane, normally used to pull heavy machinery from disabled ships, would haul away the Korvald ’s load of eight DF-31 medium-range missiles.

The solid rocket boosters were fifty feet long and weighed nearly nine tons without their nuclear payload. The Korvald had undergone modifications to her hatches while in Shanghai so the missiles could be removed safely. He recalled that when the train carrying the rockets had arrived in Shanghai from the Wuzhai Missile and Space Center near Beijing, it had taken six hours for the workers to settle the boosters into the special cradles deep in the hold. Without the distraction of so many hawkish politburo members watching the work, he was sure the men here could cut that time in half. Once the canal was disabled, he wanted his ship out of Panamanian waters as soon as possible.

Had General Yu not ordered he wait, he would have liked to see the rockets unloaded tonight, but that was not to be.

Wong pitched the stub of his cigarette into the oily waters separating the Korvald from the dock and watched as Liu Yousheng strode down the length of the pier to where the ship’s gangway had been lowered. With him were two armed soldiers and an ancient figure who moved with bird-like steps that covered the ground deceptively fast. Wong supposed he owed Liu the deference of meeting the executive when he came aboard, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead he sent his first officer to the deck to escort Liu and his party to the captain’s day cabin directly behind the bridge.

A steward brought in tea just as Liu Yousheng reached the cabin. He nearly toppled the young servant as he pushed past. The two guards stayed outside the spartan room while the elderly man in the dark suit stood mutely at Liu’s side. Wong struggled to hide his distaste at the man’s pallid appearance.

“Wong?” Liu made no move to formally greet the captain or introduce his guest.

“I am Captain Wong, master of the Korvald.” Wong bowed, sensing the fury already radiating off Liu.

“Your first officer just told me that you won’t allow the missiles to be unloaded.” Liu’s voice was a low snarl.

Wong wasn’t about to be intimidated aboard his own ship and his tone rose to match Liu’s. “By order of General Yu.” He handed over a decrypted transcript of Yu’s recent orders. “We are not to remove the rockets from this ship until after the canal has been sealed. As you can see there in the second paragraph, the general still harbors reservations about your plan and is unwilling to risk the DF-31s in case you fail. My orders are to keep all officers and crew aboard the Korvald and to be prepared to leave this facility at a moment’s notice.”

Liu scanned the orders and then read them again slowly, his anger subsiding as he saw the wisdom in Yu’s