The three men—Hai, Froggy and Ru—did not stay to celebrate the test mission’s success. Hai assisted Danny Huang to get the white male intruder into the room they called the cell, and returned immediately with his colleagues to prepare for Monday’s classes. The men drove back in the RAV4, arriving back to the college dorm in D.C. early afternoon. Hai gathered the men in his room for a debrief. He looked at the faces of Froggy and Ru; anticipation was high now the actual date was almost upon them and he was in charge.
As it should be, he thought. He berated Froggy as he entered the room.
“Your tattoo is visible!”
Froggy hurriedly reached to do up his collar.
“Small errors will undermine us,” Hai snapped at him.
“Sorry, sir,” he said and took a seat.
Hai confirmed that since Danny had remained behind with William to deal with the intruder at the VIP house, he would offer apologies for him in the morning.
“We’ll be saying Danny has fallen ill over the weekend, something he ate, but will be back in class as soon as possible. After all, Danny hates to miss out on class and will be studying Ru’s notes to catch up.” The men all smiled. “Ru, anything from the VIP’s office recordings?”
“Nothing that would compromise our mission, sir. It appears to be business as usual. But, if I may sir?”
Hai nodded.
“The VIP did do one thing which I thought was interesting. He rang a travel agent and asked what it would cost to book a one-way flight to Beijing for the end of the month,” Ru reported.
Hai’s jaw tightened. “Why would he do that when we are getting him out … he wants to take someone with him. Surely he hasn’t told his girlfriend?”
“He hasn’t told her in any of our transcripts,” Ru said.
“The idiot. Once he arrives in Beijing and his actions become public knowledge he can bring over the whole country for all we care. But not beforehand! I hope we don’t have to take him out. Froggy, anything you wish to report?”
Froggy pulled a piece of paper from a navy blue folder and handed it to Hai.
“That’s the background report on our new teacher, Dylan Ting,” Froggy said. “He seems legitimate. He’s been a translator and instructor with the internal security department for five years and was involved with the security detail with their G20 team. He’s interesting—Chinese parents and he studied Chinese law at university here in the States.”
“He said to me that he was thinking of going to China to learn about his family’s history,” Ru added.
Hai nodded. “It would be a great advantage to turn him. Glean what you can from him about his loyalties, political beliefs and family. Let’s see how easy he would be to own. But be careful, he speaks both languages fluently, so don’t slip up in front of him.”
Samantha’s head pounded. She opened her eyes slightly and saw Ellen coming into focus. She was back in her hotel room, lying on the bed.
“What happened?” She tried to rise but Ellen pushed her back.
“Just lie for a minute,” Ellen ordered. “You’ve taken a hit to the head.”
“Where’s Mitch?” She looked around.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Nick answered.
“What? No … yes, I saw him …” she rubbed her forehead. “What time is it?”
“It’s after midday,” Nick said. “When we couldn’t reach either of you by ten a.m., we were going to drive out to the VIP house. But we found you in the parking lot downstairs, lying over the wheel in the car. You must have driven yourself back before blacking out.”
Ellen glanced at her watch. “It’s nearly midday and no sign of Mitch. Where is he?”
“Isn’t he at the VIP house?” Samantha asked.
“No,” Nick said, his voice laced with exasperation, “that was the first place I tried.” He sat back on the bed opposite and ran his hands over his face. “The blue car has gone, but the white car is there—otherwise the place is empty. Mitch’s car is where he left it in Maple Lane.”
“You haven’t heard anything on their wire?” Samantha asked.
“I stayed here since we were two down, to listen. I haven’t even heard them talking.” Ellen began to pace as Mitch did.
“So do you think they’ve taken him somewhere?” Samantha asked.
“Yes, obviously, but where?” Ellen asked. “We need to move on this.”
“Mitch will be fine,” Samantha tried to reassure them. “He’s always been able to fight back. He was armed.”
“Yeah but if he encountered all of them, it isn’t the best odds,” Nick reminded her.
“Step us through what happened, Sam,” Ellen ordered.
Samantha pushed herself up on the bed and propped a spare pillow behind her head. “I was looking through the window of the VIP house and … one of the Asian guys came up behind me, next thing I was hit and … Mitch was running towards me … what was he doing there, how did he get there so fast?”
“He was following you because he didn’t want you going out there alone at that time of the morning, so I told him how to find the house and we returned to listen to the debrief.”
“Where is he?” Ellen pressed her.
“I don’t know.” Samantha tentatively touched her jaw. “I saw him running towards me from the other side of the house—the side closest to the road. Then I felt a blinding pain.” She felt her ribs. “And … wait, I remember—I woke for a bit and Mitch was fighting two of the Asian guys … they were both full on at it, real hand-to-hand combat. You could tell they’d trained …”
“Sam!” Ellen snapped.
“Sorry, sorry, I’m groggy. Then Mitch yelled to me to get out of there. But I tried to get into the fight to help, but I got another backhander and I—he said it was an order, you know how he gets, so I stumbled back to the car more or less, but he was still fighting, and I got in and locked the doors, and I remember driving but … how did I get here then?”
Ellen dialed John and put the call on speaker phone.
“How’s Samantha?” John asked.
“Conscious but barely remembers anything. She thought it was two against one when she left, but she has no memory of driving back here,” Ellen said.
“We need to act fast. Ellie, got a plan?” John asked.
“I’m going to the VIP house, Nick is going to the lighthouse and beach, Sam stays here at base for us listening in case we pick up their voices through the wires or Mitch returns. Any luck tracing the blue car?”
“Yes, it’s been returned to the car hire company in D.C., and the three men are back at the dorm. The car is clean, nothing in it, no blood,” John said. “Ellie, I want you to report back to me on the hour every hour. Understood? Every minute is crucial.”