The German shuddered.
Wolz’s narrow face sharpened even further with displeasure, either because of the inclement weather or because of the fact he had to wait nearly two minutes before being picked up.
Or both.
The German pulled the silver Toyota minivan up to the curb and stopped, turning to make eye contact with Wolz, but the middle-aged man with the pencil mustache and angry blue eyes just stared straight ahead as if the van didn’t even exist.
Taking the hint, the German swore under his breath and crawled out of his seat and scrambled around to the other side of the vehicle. He opened the sliding rear passenger door and Wolz finally acknowledged him with a quick study of the German’s face and, finally, a curt, humorless nod.
Wolz stepped into the rear of the minivan and took a seat in the center of the bench, carefully setting his hand-tooled satchel beside him as the German dashed back around the Toyota and crawled into the driver’s seat, hurrying to avoid the airport police, who he knew circled the terminal in regular four-minute intervals in search of parking violations.
The German pulled away from the curb and eased into the departing traffic. They rode silently toward their hotel, where a special meal was being prepared for Wolz’s particular dietary needs by the Romanian woman the German had picked up two hours earlier from the same terminal. Wolz was the last member of the team needed to carry out the mission. Paul Brown’s movements had been carefully tracked and recorded, and both vehicles and weapons had been secured.
With Wolz finally in position, all they were waiting for now was the word to engage.
36
Jack made his way back to Clementi Avenue 6 and connected with the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) heading west, then turned south on Pioneer Road, making the final turn onto the side street that dead-ended at the building he was looking for down near the port.
Jack wasn’t completely surprised to see that the building was surrounded by cyclone fencing and razor wire or that there was a guard shack and a barrier arm. What did surprise him was the fact that the guards, dressed in street clothes, were armed with weapons printing beneath their baggy shirts. They were hard and serious men — not your typical Asian rent-a-cops. His gut told him they were operators, but he couldn’t prove it. But a wolf always recognizes another wolf, even when he’s dressed like a lamb.
Jack pulled up to the guard shack and rolled down his window. The taller of the two guards stepped out of the shack and leaned over toward Jack’s window while the other one picked up a phone.
“Sir?”
“My name is Jack Ryan and I’m with Hendley Associates doing an audit on behalf of the Dalfan corporation. Here are my credentials.” Jack handed the man his Dalfan security pass and identity card.
The guard examined them briefly. “Wait.” He returned to the guard shack and conferred with the other guard, who now examined Jack’s credentials while still talking on the phone.
Jack drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. What the hell was the problem? A moment later a four-passenger golf cart pulled up to the gate and four more beefy security guards jumped out.
The tall guard came back out of the shack and handed Jack his credentials as the man on the phone hung up and stepped outside.
“Not permitted entrance.” The guards who arrived in the cart now surrounded Jack’s Audi TT on all four sides. None of them had unholstered their weapons, but none of them looked like they were shy about the possibility.
“What do you mean ‘not permitted’? I have access to every Dalfan property in this city.”
The guard scowled. “Leave.”
Jack pointed at the phone in the guard shack. “Pick up that receiver and call your boss, Lian Fairchild, or better yet, call her dad, Dr. Fairchild. They both know who I am and they sure as hell know why I’m here.”
The tall guard straightened and pointed at the road behind Jack. “You leave now.”
And if I don’t? Jack wanted to ask. But there was no reason to. He clearly wasn’t going to make his way in today, even if he had a weapon. More important, Rhodes had given explicit instructions to keep a low profile. That was probably a good idea anyway for all parties concerned, especially him.
“I must be mistaken. Sorry for the trouble.” On a hunch, Jack beckoned the tall man with his index finger to come closer. The man leaned over and Jack snapped a photo of him with his iPhone, then gunned the engine and threw the car into reverse. The two guards behind his car bolted out of the way, afraid he was going to run them over. Instead, Jack eased his way out of the drive lane and onto the street that would lead him back to Dalfan headquarters, but not before snapping two more photos of the irate and embarrassed guards cursing him in Mandarin.
Jack did a slow 180-degree turn, stopping just long enough to glance in his rearview mirror. The guards stood clustered in a loose formation, watching him leave and making sure he didn’t change his mind and turn around. He didn’t. He punched the gas and sped away.
Pulling back onto Pioneer, he wondered for just a moment if maybe Paul had gotten the address wrong or if there was some other kind of mistake. But his gut — the one that Clark told him to always pay attention to — told him there wasn’t any mistake, at least not on his part.
After turning back onto the AYE, he texted the photos of the guards to Gavin and spoke a text requesting an ID of them ASAP.
“How ASAP?” Gavin replied.
“Yesterday.”
“Sure. I’ve got nothing better to do.” Gavin didn’t dare tell Jack that he was working his tail off for Paul.
“Thanks,” Jack said. “It’s important.”
Jack stormed into Lian’s office. She was on the phone. “You had no right to block my entrance to that facility.”
Lian spoke into the phone: “I’ll call you back.” She slammed the receiver down and stood. “How dare you come into my office with that attitude. You’re the one that took evasive action today and lost my security escort.”
Jack saw that several people in the area were staring at them, including Paul and Bai across the suite. Jack stepped farther into her office and closed the door.
“I never asked for a security escort. In fact, I said I didn’t want one.”
“I suspended my people for failing to keep track of you. I’m tempted to fire them.”
“It’s not their fault. I take responsibility for what happened today.”
“Why would you take responsibility? Oh, yes, because somehow you managed to throw off two highly trained security personnel. How did you manage that?”
“What are you implying?”
“It takes training to defeat training.” She stepped closer, examining his face. “Yes, Jack Ryan, I think you have training.”
Jack thought of a quick lie. “Of course I have training. My father taught me how to shake a tail when he taught me how to drive when I was a teenager. It was a game we used to play.” He flashed a boyish smile.
“You’re a lot of trouble, that’s what you are.” She crossed back over behind her desk and fell into her chair. “Tell me why you were so eager to go it alone today.”
“It’s a violation of international auditing protocols to allow a client to observe an investigation.” Even Jack was surprised how good he was getting at lying on the fly.