Mitch was sound asleep at five a.m. Wednesday morning when his phone rang. He woke, squinted at the screen and answered. “Hey Dylan, how is it going?”
“Mitch, the students are really starting to trust me. I think I can go all the way. Sorry, did I wake you?”
Mitch couldn’t help but smile. He remembered being that excited to get his first location assignment.
“No, yes, doesn’t matter. Play it steady now. Prepare to sound a bit concerned if they discuss finding your calling … you know like, ‘am I cut out for it?’, ‘I’m not as brave as some, but I want to be’, you know, that sort of thing.”
“Gotcha,” Dylan said.
“Keep me posted and good luck today.” Mitch hung up, levered himself out of bed and dressed for a run. He crept out, doing his best to avoid the cold front coming from Charlotte’s room. He had agreed to move out on the weekend. Until then, separate rooms, early departures and late arrivals were working to his advantage.
Ninety minutes later Mitch was in the office when Justin rang from the office several floors down.
“Scored the early shift, huh?” Mitch said.
“Yeah, lucky I’m a morning person,” Justin said.
“What have you got?” Mitch listened and exhaled. He looked up as John Windsor arrived at work just before seven a.m. and gave him a casual salute.
“Righto, thanks Justin, appreciate it.” Mitch hung up and went to John’s office, closing the door behind him.
“Mitch, how are you?” John began taking off his coat.
“Good. Justin just rang …”
“Yeah good thanks,” John interrupted him.
Mitch grinned. “How are you, John?”
“Good of you to ask, Mitch, just fine. Go on before you explode,” John lowered himself behind his desk.
“The surveillance photos we took reveal we have a very much alive William Ying and Danny Huang both here in the country and visiting Mrs. Ying,” Mitch said leaning on one of John’s cabinets. “Plus, Justin ran the facial recognition software on Danny Huang, and on the customs arrivals at the international airport, and sure enough, he entered the country without any complications.”
“Don’t tell me, he’s one of the Beijing Armed Police Force?” John said.
“He is indeed. He came in under the name of Ip Shi, one of the most senior ranked police officers of the group.”
“Can you believe this?” John asked.
Mitch shook his head. “I need our legat in Beijing to visit the families of the four police officers and see if they have heard from their family member who is training over here.”
“Can’t Dylan make those calls from here?” John asked.
“No, I think he’s a bit rattled already so I want to keep him focused on the task at hand; I’d rather get the legat in Beijing onto it. Besides, it has to be handled carefully. They most likely don’t know their police officer son, brother, father, whoever, is missing,” Mitch said.
“I understand,” John agreed. “Leave it with me and I’ll drop in on International Operations and see who they’ve got in Beijing that we can access,” John said with a look to the wall of international clocks. “It’s about seven at night there now, but it would be good to talk with someone today.”
“Thanks.” Mitch opened the door and greeted Ellen as she arrived for work. He felt like he had been there all day, but the day had barely begun.
Danny Huang listened to his colleagues’ thoughts on the new teacher.
“He’s ripe for the picking,” Hai said.
“Not too ripe is he? You don’t think he’s a plant? It’s a bit opportune that suddenly he steps in,” Danny said.
“Yes and no,” Hai countered. “If they were suspicious, why wouldn’t they have someone in from day one?”
“Should we put him to the test? Give him a little exercise to see if he wants to be involved?” Danny asked.
“I’m not sure,” Froggy said, “I think it is dangerous involving anyone at this stage.”
Ru agreed.
“I think we could,” Hai said.
“When we return from Cape Hatteras, let’s ask Dylan if he would like to go with Ru to organize the drop off of the container.”
Danny nodded. “That’s a good idea. Don’t tell him what is in the container, Ru, just ask him if he would like to come and help you with your English if you need it at the receiving dock. Yes, very good idea,” he nodded begrudgingly at Hai. “If the container stays immersed over the next week, we’ll know he can be trusted. If it is recovered, he’s dead.”
“But so will we be,” Froggy reminded him.
“If that is the case, we’re already dead,” Danny said.