Chapter Thirty-one
Saloya, five miles north of Rutbah
Iraq
“I absolutely, categorically, refuse your insulting allegation, Mr. Hall,” Suen, the MSS commander and Ying’s director, shouted on the phone. “Even the very idea of Ying betraying you is infuriating.”
Justin had turned down the volume on his phone, expecting Suen’s outburst. Even on speakerphone, he was still very loud.
Suen continued, “You’re responsible for Ying’s disappearance, Hall, and you’re inventing this story that she assaulted you and your team.”
Justin glanced at Carrie sitting cross-legged on the carpet across from him and said, “Mr. Suen, I’m giving you an account of what happened, what my team and I saw.”
“No, Hall, you’re branding one of my best operatives as a traitor. I’m not going to allow this, and your director will hear about this.” Suen sounded like he had calmed down, but not by much.
“Flavio has already been briefed on the matter.”
“Well, he has heard your side of the story. Now, he will hear mine.”
“On the topic of your side of the story, I’d like to get some intel from MSS about one of Ying’s ops.”
“Why? Will it help you find her, rescue her from the captors?”
“No, but it will help us to understand her involvement with—”
“Look, Hall, you need to locate Ying and prepare for a rescue operation. No, forget the latter; just find where she’s being held. I’ll dispatch a team that’s competent to rescue Ying.”
“Ying was involved in a rescue op a few weeks ago in Syria—”
“I don’t think you heard me, Hall.” Suen’s voice again rose to a shout. “Whatever Ying did or did not do in the past will not, I repeat, will not, help you find her.”
Justin sighed and looked at Carrie. She made a rotating gesture with her hand, indicating it was time to change the conversation. Justin nodded and said, “All right, all right. Now, about Lim, could it be that your team made a mistake in triangulating his signal?”
“No, impossible. My team isn’t made up of amateurs. If they placed Lim’s phone in the village, he was there, but you missed him.”
Justin ignored Suen’s last words. “Could it be that Lim came up with this trick to throw us off the trail?”
“What, pretend he went to Iraq and instead go to London or elsewhere?”
“Exactly. He could have given the phone to an associate. The signal indicates only the location of the phone, not the—”
“I don’t need a lesson on tracking technology, Hall. We can assume it’s Lim when our system shows us his location, unless you have any evidence to the contrary. You don’t have that, do you?”
“No, but we’re work—”
“Well, until you have such evidence, stop accusing my team of not doing their job, and start doing yours.”
Justin shook his head and bit his tongue, otherwise the words pouring out of his mouth would end the conversation and land him in trouble. “Mr. Suen, it will make everyone’s job easier and more effective if we shared accurate intel.”
“We have and are doing that, Hall. You just need to follow the intel.”
“Sure, we’ll do that. Where does the signal place Lim at the moment?”
Suen did not reply right away. A shuffling of papers came from the background, then he said, “I’ll have to check. The last report I received placed him in the village.”
“All right. We’ll expect an update as soon as you know.”
“Of course. Now, what is your plan to find Ying?”
Justin glanced at Carrie, who shrugged and shook her head. “We’re interrogating everyone who saw or heard anything. Depending on what we find, we’ll come up with a rescue plan.”
“You’ll go back to the village to free her?” Suen’s question sounded more like an order.
“If that’s where she is, then yes.”
“Good, keep me informed about the progress.”
“We’ll do that. Anything else?”
“No. You’re good to go.”
“Have a good day, Suen.”
“Yes, Hall, you too.”
Justin ended the call and sighed. “What a waste of precious time.”
Carrie nodded. “As expected. And we have no plans to go back to Rutbah, right?”
“Of course not.”
“Even if Ying’s still there?”
“She’s long gone. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced she played us. I can’t believe I fell for it.”
Carrie gave him a reassuring smile. “We all did, Justin. This is not your fault. We couldn’t have known.”
“Yes, but we could have expected it.”
“We did. We kept Ying at arm’s length. She knows only what she needed to know. Nothing crucial.”
“Well, apparently she knows about Thames.”
“We’re not sure about that. Even if she did, Ying didn’t learn it from us.”
Justin stood up. “It’s time to figure out how. Maybe Thames has the answer.”
Carrie opened the door, and they hurried down the hall and through the yard, toward the house across the street, where the SAS operative was being held.