He nodded. “That sounds about right.”
“What does the port guy do, do you think?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve been doing a ton of research on container shipping, though, and my guess is that this guy provides the physical access, shows Belghazi and the buyer or seller the merchandise in one of the containers, then takes care of the necessary EDI information to conceal the true origins and nature of the container cargo in question.”
“ ‘EDI?’ ”
“Electronic Data Interchange. Kwai Chung is the most heavily computerized container shipping terminal in the world. If the port guy has access to the EDI system and the physical containers, presumably he could change the necessary identification codes, country/size/ type codes, etcetera, and ensure that the cargo in the container gets sent to wherever Belghazi wants it to go.”
I thought for a moment. “Where is Belghazi now?”
“Still in Macau.” He looked at me. “You learn anything new about the woman? The blonde?”
Delilah. Well, there had been that message, advising me that the wait was almost over. But of course it wouldn’t do to mention any of that to Kanezaki.
“Nothing,” I said. “You?”
He shook his head.
“What about Belghazi?” I asked. “Any calls from Terminal Nine?”
“Not yet.”
“All right, then, we might still have a shot at him.” Without pausing, making the request sound as smooth and obvious as possible, I said, “I’ll need the names and particulars of the NOC and the access agent.”
He shook his head. “No. No way.”
Well, that didn’t work. I looked at him. “Are you having second thoughts about this op?”
He shook his head again.
“Because you know now that there are people in your organization who find Belghazi useful, who want him to stay healthy.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know what game they’re playing. I have my mandate, and my mandate is to have him removed. And knowing who he is, that mandate makes sense to me. If someone wants to disabuse me, they’ll damn well have to be explicit about it.”
“Good. I thought you were wavering there for a second.”
“It’s not wavering. It’s just-”
“Look, I can’t get to Belghazi directly anymore, okay? He’s seen my face, he knows he’s being hunted, he’ll be taking extra precautions. My only realistic hope of getting close is through a third party. Like one of the ones you just mentioned.”
“I understand what you’re saying. But I can’t give you the name of a CIA officer-especially a NOC-or the name of an asset. I’ve crossed a lot of lines with you, it’s true, but I’m not crossing that one.”
I could tell by his voice and his expression-and by recent experience with Crawley, who had refused to talk even in extremis-that he wasn’t going to tell me what I wanted to know. It would be useless to ask about Dox. Even if I asked, I wouldn’t be able to trust his answer.
I thought for a moment, and it occurred to me that there might still be a way to do Belghazi, even without the information Kanezaki was determined to hold back. It might involve calling off the wait that Delilah was counting on, but business is business.
“All right, let’s go back to the beginning,” I said. “What’s the purpose of the ‘natural causes’ requirement with regard to Belghazi, anyway?”
He shrugged. “Well, originally, I was told that it had to look natural because Belghazi has protectors in other intelligence services. But now-”
“Now it seems that the more important objective was to avoid offending protectors in your intelligence service.”
“Yeah, I know. Life at the CIA is funny that way.”
“I told you the right hand and the left aren’t exactly working in perfect harmony with you guys.”
“I didn’t disagree.”
“And now, it seems, the right hand has learned that the left has taken a contract out on Belghazi.”
He nodded. “So it seems.”
“But they haven’t complained to you. They haven’t gone through channels. You’ve suggested they’re afraid to do that.”
“What are you getting at?”
I shrugged. “Maybe you were being overly strict in your interpretation of just how ‘natural’ Belghazi’s demise needed to be. Because, if for whatever reason your people aren’t in a position to complain about the existence of a contract on Belghazi, maybe they’re not in a position to complain if the contract gets carried out.”
He looked away and nodded, rubbing his chin.
I said, “I mean, the point of the ‘natural’ requirement is to avoid blame, right? Plausible deniability, that kind of thing?”
“What you and I agreed on involved a bit more than just plausible deniability,” he said, shaking his head. “More like, Belghazi’s death would happen in such a way that uncomfortable questions would never even get asked. There would be nothing to have to deny.”
“Sure. But we’ve learned a few things since we had that conversation, haven’t we? For example, we’ve learned that Belghazi seems to be in Hong Kong to oversee one of his arms transfers. You’ve got multiple parties involved-buyer, seller, middleman, bought-off port official, CIA overseer-and a lot of money changing hands.”
He looked at me, and his mouth started to turn up into a smile. “Yes, that’s true. A lot of players, a lot of money.”
“Lots of potential for… complications.”
His smile broadened. “And people to get greedy.”
“Right,” I said. “What does a bodyguard make a year? Not much, I’ll tell you that. And he’s spending all that time with Belghazi, securing Belghazi’s hotel suites and then returning to his own tiny room, it’s like watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous from the inside of a slum. He gets resentful, he gets jealous. He gets-”
“He gets greedy. And meanwhile he’s learning Belghazi’s plans-who he’s meeting with, where and when.”
“Maybe even… how much?” I said, raising my eyebrows slightly.
He nodded. “Yeah, he might learn that, too.”
“He’s the bodyguard, he accompanies Belghazi everywhere, including on those trips to Kwai Chung Container Terminal Nine. As the money is changing hands-”
“He shoots Belghazi, maybe a few other people, grabs the cash, hightails it.”
“See? You can’t trust anyone these days, not even your own bodyguards. And the way it goes down, both the bodyguard and the money are missing. It’s obvious what happened and who did it. No uncomfortable questions for anyone else.”
“What happens to the bodyguard?”
I shrugged. “I doubt he would be found afterward. I would expect him to just… disappear.”
“And the money?”
I smiled. “I doubt that would get found, either.”
He shook his head. “You’re a devious bastard.”
“Thank you.”
“I don’t think I meant it as a compliment.”
“So? It goes down the way I just described, that’s natural enough for our purposes?”
There was a pause, then he said, “It’s not what we agreed on.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, finding myself a little tired of his “this is a difficult concession” reflex.
“We didn’t agree on my getting ratted out by your own people, either,” I said, feeling like a rug merchant. “Under the circumstances, I ought to charge you double the original price. In fact, I think I will.”
“Okay, I see your point.”
“All right, then? What I’ve proposed, it’s natural enough?”
He paused for a moment, then nodded. “It’s natural enough.”
I STILL HAD my doubts about Dox, about his role in this. About who the NOC was. But I knew I couldn’t do Belghazi alone anymore. Delilah had been right about that. To make this work, I needed help, and I didn’t have anyone else to turn to. And I couldn’t just walk away, either. Belghazi had too much incentive to stay after me until he was sure I was gone for good.
And keeping Dox close would give me an opportunity to test him, maybe answer my questions indirectly. If I saw something I didn’t like, I could always abort, reevaluate, come up with a new plan.