John Windsor entered his office and closed the door. He dialed Mitchell Parker’s number.
Mitch answered on the first ring.
“What’s the latest with you?” John asked.
Mitch filled him in on the research Samantha was working on and the questions Dylan was going to try and work into conversation with Ru.
“Great, let’s hope something comes of it.”
“John, what’s the plan?” Mitch asked.
“They’ll proceed with your first option, it’s really the only option,” John said.
Mitch inhaled. “Tell me they are not going to blow it with Dylan possibly on board?”
John stared out of his office window to the street below. “These are your orders …”
Mitch left the apartment and limped out to the beachfront. He had to think; there had to be a better way, there had to be a way to get Dylan Ting out of this. He rang Dylan again.
“Can you talk?” Mitch asked.
“No problem, Ru is on the phone again, he’s been on and off to Beijing and the VIP house most of the day,” Dylan said. “I haven’t had a chance to get any info, but I’ll try when we’re doing the six hour drive together to Cape Hatteras. We’re about to leave.”
“Right,” Mitch said. “You won’t be getting in until very late then.”
Both men were silent on the line.
“They’ve said I’m dispensable, haven’t they?” Dylan said. “My government thinks my death is a fair trade for cleaning up the whole exercise. I guess that’s how the Chinese would think too, it’s just that we, I, always believed …”
“Hold up, Dylan,” Mitch said, “you’re not dispensable, the government is not sacrificing you and I’m not either. I just need to manage you out of there. That’s my job. Do you know any more about the plan for tomorrow?”
“No, just that we’ll all be on hand and that I’m to assist Hai as directed.”
“Have you been told if you will be going with the VIP or extradited some other way?” Mitch asked.
“They haven’t said but Ru’s not going with the VIP so I doubt I will either,” Dylan said. “How are you going to close it down, Mitch? What if I’m in the way?”
“Dylan, calm down, we’re in hypothetical mode here. I can pull you now and you can look like you’ve run scared, except they’ll probably shut the mission down and assume you’re a spy. So let’s just work out an extraction strategy based on what we both know.”
“I don’t know anything yet, except …”
Mitch stopped him. “Tell me exactly what Hai and Ru said to you.”
“OK, Hai said that we had to leave ASAP because we all had to be there tonight for a full briefing and extraction tomorrow morning,” Dylan said. “Ru said he would explain what the extraction meant at the briefing. We’re leaving in under an hour.”
“Right. Now listen up, I will get you out, but play cool and carry on until I come back to you. Continue doing the research I asked for. If for some reason you can’t communicate with me or I can’t reach you, we’ll be there tomorrow morning watching. I will extract you Dylan, so stay focused on the job and gather as much intelligence as you can. Do you understand?” Mitch asked.
“Yes, sir,” Dylan answered.
“I’ll come back to you in a matter of hours. Keep your ear to the ground.” Mitch hung up and shook his head.
“For crying out loud, if they’re not disobeying orders, they’re wet behind the ears and freaking out,” he muttered. His phone rang again and Nick’s name came up.
“We’re back in the room, where are you?” Nick asked.
“On the beach.” Mitch turned back to see the silhouette of Nick in the window. “I’ll be back soon.”
“You all right?” Nick asked.
“Well I’d like to have a run to help me think, but I’m having a limp instead,” he said.
“No crutches, well done. Has John come back to you?” Nick asked.
“He has,” Mitch answered.
“And you’re not happy, that’s why you’re there. If it cheers you up, Ellen is cooking. Come back and we’ll talk it through,” Nick said.
“See you shortly.” Mitch hung up. He limped to the rails around the parking lot. He sat on the timber log rail and watched the ocean, thinking through how his plan could dovetail with the orders from the top.
“Ha, I’ve rarely heard Mitch taking orders. Does he always do what you tell him?” Ellen asked from the kitchen.
“I am the eldest,” Nick shrugged. “It’s how we’ve always done it.”
“He’s the boss.”
“I step up when he needs direction, he gives orders when we’re on the job, except earlier today when I might have overstepped the mark and said he should have sent me to the VIP house and not you,” Nick said.
“What?” Ellen stopped to look at him. “I bet I could out-stakeout you any day.”
“Yeah, that’s what he said.”
Ellen looked pleased. She poured cake mixture into a tin. In the oven, a chicken was roasting.
“See, here he comes now, doing what he’s told.” Nick watched Mitch coming up the stairs to the apartment with a pronounced limp. “Sometimes it’s good to just follow a direction, to not deal with everything. It’s easier.”
“I guess so. Want to lick the spoon?” Ellen asked.
“Do I look like I’m eight?” Nick asked reaching for the spoon before she had a chance to rinse it. He went to the door and opened it.
“Ha, you really are cooking!” Mitch exclaimed as he entered the apartment and saw Ellen at work in the kitchen area.
“I picked some stuff up. I thought we could use some real sustenance before tomorrow plays out. Besides, I either cook or clean when I’m anxious.” Ellen began to wash up.
“The perfect woman.” Nick threw the licked-clean spoon in the sink. He flicked the kettle on and reached for three mugs. “Mitch, tell us.”
Mitch sat down on a stool at the bench and sighed.
“OK, let’s refer to the VP as the VIP for security reasons in all further discussions. This is what I know at the moment,” he started. “I have a container sitting in a warehouse which I think has four bodies in it. The men in there have been replaced by a group from the New Red Guard.”
“Communists, socialists or capitalists?” Ellen’s eyes widened.
“They read like capitalist with a socialist bent if that could co-exist,” Mitch continued. “The fake policemen as we know them are coming to the VIP house tonight and according to Dylan, the VIP and two of them, namely Froggy and Hai, will be extracted tomorrow morning at four. Ru and William will go back later that day with the false passports and Danny was meant to go with him. Dylan’s been accepted into the party but is running scared.” Mitch stopped. “With me so far?”
“Yep, carry on,” Nick said. Ellen nodded.
“John’s orders are for us to man the beach and lighthouse tomorrow, observe and confirm on location that all parties including the VIP are present, once we have a sighting. The SWAT team along with USERT—the underwater team—will take it from there and the ship will be destroyed in US waters. There will no information on this. The remnants will be removed there and then. The flippers, snorkel and towel that they leave on the beach or to be washed up on the beach are to remain there. Our media team will support and promote the message that the VIP was catching up with an old friend and has gone missing during an early morning swim. This won’t happen until all debris is cleared, estimated time eight a.m., possibly earlier.”
“Holy crap, the place will be swarming with press after that,” Nick said. “So wipe out the VIP, wipe out all evidence?”
“Except for the fake police agents who remain,” Ellen remind him.
“Exactly. That’s where we step in. We are to capture and close down any action and agents remaining on the beach after we get the signal that the water removal has succeeded—namely William Ying, and Ru should he arrive at the beach or Hai or Froggy if they don’t go with the VIP. We’ll arrest Dylan Ting as well so it looks authentic and release him out of sight of William and Ru. A back-up team will do the same at the VIP house and we’re to drop our cargo there, so to speak. Then we leave as soon as we have the all-clear from John who will get clearance from the other teams. But we’re still no wiser as to what intel has left the US and already been delivered to China and taking out the VIP won’t help in that respect.”
“But we might get this information from the agents we take off the beach and from the VIP house,” Ellen said.
“Maybe,” Mitch agreed.
“So SWAT and USERT are arriving here tonight?” Nick asked.
“Yep, not that we’ll see them if they do their job properly.”
Nick said, “What about Dylan? What happens if he becomes peripheral damage … you know, they insist he stays in the water?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to work out. How do I extract him?” Mitch said. “If he stays with Ru to man the communications at the VIP house then we’ve got no problems. Even if he goes to the beach and stays on land, it’s easier for us to extract him. We arrest him with William and fix it afterwards. If he’s told to go in the sub or even in the water to help out, I’m in trouble.”
“Our team know about Dylan?” Ellen asked, pointing upwards to indicate the powers above.
“Yeah, they know,” Mitch said, “but they’ve left it to me to extract him or lose him.”
“Makes you feel so valued doesn’t it?” Nick said.
“I will extract him,” Mitch said.
“We’ll extract him,” Nick said.
“But what are the odds he’ll go on the sub? It is a midget,” Ellen reminded them.
“Low odds I’m guessing, but we have to be prepared,” Mitch said. “He’ll be eliminated even if he is only immersed in the water.”
“Let’s look at our options. If he has to board the sub, what if when they are all just about below sea level, we open fire, shoot him in a fake shooting, he drops and we clean the rest up underwater,” Nick suggested.
“OK.” Mitch thought it through. “I guess we will be arresting the ones left on shore anyway … but could they radio ahead to abort, reporting that they’ve been attacked? Plus we’ve got dead on the beach in a public space and there’s bound to be a boatie, surfer or someone with a metal detector who sees it all and then reports the incident. But hey, it’s only our first idea. What else?” Mitch looked out the window while he thought.
They thought in silence; accompanied by the sounds of Ellen cooking, the waves crashing and the clock ticking.
“I have an idea but we would only put it in place if it looks like Dylan is going into the water or heading to the sub,” Ellen said. “What is one thing that most men are not threatened by?”
“A woman?” Nick answered.
“Exactly.” Ellen glanced to the clock. “But it would involve getting Sam down here, and she’d need to hit the road now.”