Lock’s cell phone rang as he stepped from the Gulfstream. He recognized the voice, if not the number. It was Orzana, a.k.a. El Mecánico.
“You found me a car yet?” said Lock.
“No, but I have located the other packages you were interested in.”
Lock turned, Ty at his shoulder. They walked back into the cabin. Lock waved at Li and Chow Yan and sank into the closest seat.
Chow Yan and Li hurried from the back of the aircraft to stand next to him. Lock put his finger to his lips, hoping the gesture of calling for silence was universal.
Chow Yan shifted his weight from one foot to the other, the billionaire tycoon gone, replaced by a concerned father.
“That’s good news,” said Lock. “What are they going to run me?”
“Ten,” said Orzana. “A piece.”
Lock didn’t miss a beat. “That’s absurd.”
Chow Yan must have caught enough of the conversation. He half lunged for Lock’s cell phone. Ty placed himself between him and Lock, and patted his shoulder as Lock hit the mute button.
“This is what I do,” said Lock. “Let me do it.”
“But I can pay that. It’s nothing.”
So much for the hard-headed oligarch, thought Lock.
“Hello? You there?” said Orzana.
Lock unmuted the call. “Give me a second. I didn’t realize I was dealing with a bunch of amateurs.”
He hit mute again, and shifted in his seat so that he was facing Chow Yan.
“If we take the first offer they’ll be suspicious. They’ll assume that we either have no intention of paying it or, more likely, that we’re working with the cops. It has to be a manageable number.”
Chow Yan puffed himself, taking in the luxuriously fitted cabin of the plane. “It’s manageable.”
“In their mind, not yours. They’ve pulled a number out of their ass here. It’s a test. You accept the first offer and it sends the wrong signal.”
“This is my daughter’s life we’re talking about,” he pleaded.
“I know, but to them it’s business. That’s how we have to deal with it.”
“And if you’re wrong?” said Li.
It was the question guaranteed to screw a negotiator. Lock wasn’t going there. He couldn’t allow himself to go there. This was a situation where you couldn’t allow yourself to contemplate being wrong. As soon as you did, you were as good as dead.
“The only thing you have to decide is whether or not you want me to handle this,” Lock told them. “Yes or no?”
All eyes settled on Chow Yan.
He nodded.
Lock went back to the call. “Ten’s too rich. The insurance company won’t cover that kind of exposure,” he said.
There was a pause. Lock was almost certain that this was the first time the assholes had heard the word ‘insurance’ in relation to kidnapping.
“So what will they cover?”
“Maximum payout is five hundred K per package,” said Lock, deliberately low-balling.
“Get the hell out of here.”
Lock smiled. That was a fast counter. It was a good sign. They had begun the negotiation without Orzana even knowing that was what he was doing.
“What can I tell you? That’s the ceiling.”
“Then I guess someone will have to cover the excess,” said Orzana. “If you don’t want them damaged in transit.”
Lock said nothing.
“We know you have access to money,” Orzana followed up. “A lot of money.”
“Maybe we can go higher. Cover it out of our own pocket.”
“You’d better,” said Orzana.
“Call me back in five,” said Lock. “Oh, and before this goes any further, we’ll need POL.”
“POL?”
Lock suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Chow Yan and Li were still watching him from a few feet away. “Proof of life.”
“What? You mean like a picture with today’s LA Times?”
Lock swiped a hand over his face. He was going to ask Orzana if he’d ever heard of Photoshop, but he didn’t strike Lock as a man who dealt well with sarcasm.
“I was thinking more of a video call. Skype. Facetime. That kind of thing.”
“I’ll see what I can do, but you’re going to have do a lot better than that chickenshit offer. We’ll need at least two. Each.”
“Call me back,” said Lock, killing the call.
“Give them what they ask for.”
From Li’s agitated body language, Lock could tell that he was not used to seeing his boss like that. Chow Yan stalked up and down the aisle of the plane, his fist pounding into an open hand.
Lock stood with Ty near the exit, and waited for him to settle. “We will, as soon as they decide what they want.”
“They told you,” said Chow Yan, raising his voice.
Lock gestured for Chow Yan to sit down. Reluctantly, and with a loud sigh, he did so. Lock squeezed in across from him. “This may sound counter-intuitive . . .” said Lock
Chow Yan looked confused. Li provided a quick translation of the phrase into Mandarin, then indicated with a nod that Lock should continue.
“. . . but it’s important that the kidnappers feel like there’s been a process. People in their circumstances get jumpy if you give in too readily. Both parties have to work towards the resolution. But we’re very close. We get a phone call, you confirm that Emily and Charlie are alive, we negotiate the final terms and then we make the exchange.”
The man opposite him seemed to be aging in front of Lock’s eyes. His skin was sallow and the bags under his eyes were growing darker as the minutes ticked by. He spread his hands, palm down, on the table. “Okay,” he said. “Do I need to gather the money?”
“No,” said Lock. “We’ll do it electronically. Guys like these don’t like touching cash unless they have to. Cash takes laundering, and laundering cuts into their profit margin.”
“And how do we know they’ll let my daughter go when they have the money?”
It was a good question. There was no definitive answer. Beyond the initial abduction, the exchange was the tensest part of a kidnap-for-ransom case.
“Leave that to me. We can organize it so that it’s as close to simultaneous as it can be.”
“I hope you’re right about all of this,” Chow Yan told him.
So do I, thought Lock. The truth was that there were no guarantees. The only guide was human nature. Or, rather, the worst part of human nature. The part that focused on greed.
Li watched Lock and Ty get into their car, and drive away. When the Audi was out of sight, he walked back into the plane’s cabin. Chow Yan was still slumped at the table. Somehow, rather than giving him hope, the meeting with Lock had deflated him. The phone call between Lock and kidnappers had made the situation real.
Chow Yan looked up as Li approached.
“If this works, it’s better,” said Chow Yan.
Li agreed. A ransom payment for their return was simple. There was less to go wrong. But what they had talked about still hung in the air.
“What about the Red Tiger?” Li asked.
“What about him?”
“He’s still here.”
“So?” said Chow Yan.
Li didn’t understand how his boss could be so matter-of-fact. The man they thought might solve this seemed to be nothing more than a minor detail. But he wasn’t. How could he be?
“You’re not worried about what he might do?”
“The only thing that concerns me is my daughter.”
“But what if he finds her first? Before Mr. Lock can make this arrangement.”
Chow Yan appeared to take a moment to consider the possibility. “They could be anywhere, and this isn’t home. How could he possibly find her here?”
“He’s already found some of the people who took her,” said Li.