“She’s… she’s nobody.”
“Then you won’t mind us eliminating her.”
“I would mind that, very much,” Court said, mustering as much toughness in his words as he could, considering the circumstances. “I met her at my hotel in Bangkok. I couldn’t very well come down to this resort by myself. That would have stuck out. She’s just part of my cover.”
Now Dai spoke directly to Zoya. “I understand you are from Chicago?”
Zoya kept the Chicago accent in place, and a twinge of fear in her voice. “Yes, sir. I barely know this guy. I was just looking for a free trip to the beach.”
Dai stared her down. “Where is your passport?”
“It was stolen.”
“I see.”
Court jumped in again. “Colonel, I told you I would contact you when I had a target.”
“Yes, you did. A day and a half ago. Your inability to communicate in a timely manner has caused me considerable frustration.”
“You hired a private operative, and I am operating privately. Your inability to understand this fact is causing me considerable frustration.”
Court glanced at Zoya. She was in character, looking at the floor nervously. She’d even generated some sweat on her forehead.
Dai asked, “How did you track Fan here?”
Court said, “I encouraged Nattapong Chamroon to give me the information. He said that his brother, Kulap Chamroon, would bring Fan here via helicopter after hiding out in the capital for a couple of days. I don’t know if he is here or not, but I was going into the property to find out. If you get out of here before anyone sees you, then I will have a better chance of—”
Dai heaved a deep breath and blew it out. “Fan Jiang communicated with the American embassy in Bangkok. He said Kulap Chamroon had him under guard. We were able to pinpoint the location from where the e-mail was sent.”
Of course Court pretended like this was news to him. “Was there any other intel in the e-mail?”
“No. Nothing more. Only that he hoped America would rescue him.”
Court now asked, “And Sir Donald? Where is he?”
Dai smiled a little, a look that gave Court chills. Finally he said, “You can’t even pretend like you don’t care anymore. That ship has sailed. Yes, your old friend is here. Until this operation is complete, he goes where I go. Don’t worry, you will see him shortly.”
“Good,” Court said. And then he added, “Because I want to beat his ass for hiring me into this fucking job.”
Dai smiled. “You have nothing to complain about. I am a man of my word, and you will be paid when we achieve our objective. Look at the facts; the objective is within our grasp. We will raid the Chamroon compound tonight at midnight. We will kill everything that opposes us, and when we find Sergeant Fan, we can all go home.”
Court said, “Let me go in with your team.”
Dai shook his head vehemently. “No. You will stay here, under guard with Fitzroy. And your friend here, as well. If something should go wrong tonight and Fan makes his escape… then I will continue to require your services. As much as it pains me to say it, you just might be the only person working for me who has accomplished much of anything in the past two weeks. The information that Fan was at the Chamroon property next door came from a signals intelligence interception by Beijing. But you already knew, and you were already here.”
Despite what Dai had just said, Court knew there was no way the PLA colonel was going to let Zoya walk out of here alive. Dai couldn’t kill her now, because he did not know if he’d need Court’s compliance in the future. But if this group of paramilitaries around this property was able to assassinate Fan this evening, then the “girl from Chicago” would have to die because she’d seen too much.
Court wondered if Dai just planned on doing away with him when this was over, as well.
Court looked to the colonel. “What about you? Are you going into that estate tonight?”
Dai grinned now. He wasn’t quite the cat who caught the canary, but he was the cat who saw that someone had left the canary’s cage door open. “I will go in behind the raiding party. I would love to be the last thing Fan Jiang sees before he leaves this world, but I fear he will already be long dead by the time I get to him.”
Dai looked up to Major Xi. “The major will take you and your friend here upstairs. You will stay there until our operation is complete.”
Court and Zoya were led up a flight of stairs, down a hall, and through a set of doors into a large master suite: a sitting area and a bedroom off to the side. A balcony off the sitting area hung over a cliff, nearly two hundred feet straight down to white waves and jagged shoreline rocks.
Sir Donald Fitzroy was sitting on the sofa, guarded by a single young Chinese officer in a black T-shirt and warm-up pants.
Court saw that Don’s right hand was bandaged, and the last two fingers on his hand were clearly gone. He wore a Huntsman & Sons suit and a thin sheen of sweat, obviously from the pain he’d endured in the days since Court’s actions had led to Fitzroy’s torture.
Before Court could speak to Sir Donald, Xi said, “You will remain in this master suite. If you want water, there is the bathroom sink. You are not to step out onto the balcony. I will have men there with orders to shoot you if you do.”
Court looked at Xi. “So… no dinner in the oven, and if you go out to look at the view, you die. Some B-and-B you’re running here.”
Court’s gallows humor was an attempt to draw a chuckle from Zoya, but she just stared at him like he was an idiot. Fitzroy didn’t seem to be in the mood for jokes, either.
Major Xi just shrugged. “The colonel makes the rules. I wouldn’t have brought a gweilo in for this operation in the first place, and if I were in charge, I’d put a bullet in each of you now and lead the raid tonight myself.”
“You drew the short straw, did you?”
Xi just looked at Court a minute, then said, “I can’t go because I have an injury. I was shot in the leg in the spa in Bangkok. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if you were the one who did it.”
“It would surprise me. I didn’t shoot anybody but Nattapong Chamroon.”
Xi said, “Dai is in a trusting mood because he sees the end of this unfortunate episode for our nation, for our organization. That’s why you’re alive. If he has a reason to doubt you for an instant, that will change.”
Xi turned and stepped out of the room with two of his men, and two more went out to the balcony, shutting the door behind them.
Court looked at his watch and saw that it was four thirty p.m. Dai’s operation would kick off in seven and a half hours, and the Americans would arrive an hour after that.
When the three prisoners were left alone, Court greeted Fitzroy, then turned to Zoya. “Obviously you have questions.”
Zoya said, “Yeah, like who is this guy?”
“Don, this is Whitney. Whitney, Don.”
Fitzroy made a face like he wasn’t buying the name, then reached out with his left and shook Zoya’s hand. “Sorry to meet you under such circumstances.”
She just nodded.
Fitzroy looked back and forth between the two. Finally he said, “I’ve been in this room since the moment the Chinese got here to the villa this morning. They rented the place and entered the same time I did. They didn’t plant any bugs. We can talk freely.”
Court now winced with the inevitable fallout from what he was about to say. “Whitney… would you mind if I spoke with my friend here first? He might be able to clear up some things, so when I try to explain all this to you—”
She got up and left the room without a word, walking into the bedroom. When Zoya shut the door to the bedroom, the older man said, “A girlfriend? Really, lad?”