After crossing the bridge into downtown Shaoguan, Jordan used the GPS on the phone, directing Charlie into the parking garage of a three-star hotel near the main intersection of Fengdu Street and Heping Road. As soon as he’d put it in park, Davis asked to talk to her privately, outside of the car.
Leaving Zhen with Charlie, the two of them walked a few feet away.
“Why didn’t you tell me Zhen was alive?” Davis asked.
Jordan went with honesty. “I didn’t know for sure, and I didn’t know how far I could trust you.”
“Care to fill me in now?”
His dark eyes drilled her, and she self-consciously looked away. “There’s not much to tell. According to the DNA test we ran in order for the U.S. to repatriate the body, the dead prisoner with McClasky wasn’t Zhen. Someone else came out of China that day.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know. He hasn’t been ID’d yet, but someone went to a lot of trouble to make the switch.”
“Who?”
Jordan looked at Davis. “You tell me.”
“Who benefited most by getting him out?”
“My guess? The Triad.”
“There are no other possibilities?”
“Well, sure,” she said. “It’s possible the imposter wanted out of China and arranged for someone to help him switch places with Zhen.”
“I can buy that.”
“There’s the Chinese. Maybe they needed someone from their camp back in the states. There’s the CIA.” Jordan’s frustration mounted as they ran through the possibilities. Every scenario pointed to someone having access to classified U.S. intel. “The only thing we know for sure is that whoever arranged for the switch knew McClasky was coming.”
“How many people knew?”
Davis’s question brought her up short. Up until now they’d been talking in broad hypotheticals, but now he was asking her to boil it down to specific individuals. He’d helped her out of a couple of tight situations, but that didn’t mean she would throw her colleagues under the bus or that she could trust him with secret information.
“I’ve already said too much,” she said, turning back toward the car.
Davis reached out and grabbed her arm. “Don’t cut me out now, Jordan.”
“Take your hands off me.”
He let her go, and she took two steps back.
“Sorry.” Davis held his palms up. “Look, this isn’t about my being a reporter. I’m smart enough to know that there’s more at stake here than a story. This is about you deciding whether you can trust me. Let me help you figure it out.”
Jordan trusted very few people. Not as a child, not as a woman. It made her tough, focused, and hard to manipulate—one of the reasons she was so good at her job.
“Would it help you to know I’m still an active Special Forces Reserve officer?”
It caught her attention. “That wasn’t in your file.”
“Only because it would make me a target in some of the places I go. I’ll make it easy for you, Agent. Either I’m all in or I’m all out.” The switch in tone and manner made his position clear. He was done screwing around.
Slowly she turned to face him. He waited calmly while Jordan wrestled with her demons. On one hand, her instincts urged her to put her faith in him. On the other, she feared his betrayal. She wanted nothing more than to have someone to collaborate with, someone she could count on to have her back. If he was still active reserve, he had the best interest of his country at heart. But it also meant involving another command structure. Plus there was his affiliation with Reuters, which wasn’t going to make Lory happy. Unless, of course, it turned out to be some sort of cover.
“What’s it going to be?”
“You better not be playing me.”
“I’m not.”
Said the wolf to the lamb. “RSO Lory knew about McClasky. He was the one who sent me to Hoholeve to retrieve the bodies. But he definitely didn’t know anything about the exchange.”
“Then we rule him out. Who else?”
“The DSS director knew.”
“Apprehending Zhen was their mission. Why would he sabotage his own operation? What about the CIA?”
“I thought that, too. The political officer at the consulate knew. He’s possible CIA.” She jerked her head toward the VW. “Charlie’s likely an asset.”
“Do you think the PO’s chief of station?”
“It’s what I was told.”
Jordan ran the toe of her shoe along a crack in the cement. It was like the dividing line in a group of variables. “The PO helped negotiate Zhen’s release from jail. RSO Todd and Detective Yang knew McClasky was coming, but I’m confident we can rule them out. Then there’s whoever handled the prisoner swap inside the jail, whoever McClasky might have told, and the Triad’s involvement. We have too many unknowns.”
“There has to be a way to narrow it down. How do you think the prisoner swap happened?”
Jordan told him about the sting operation.
“Damn. That cracks the suspect pool wide open.”
“Of course, you don’t know any of this,” she reminded him. “Any splashy headlines would end my career. Besides, I think the longer we keep all this under wraps, the better.”
“Based on your reception in Guangzhou, it seems somebody has gotten the word.”
“Either that or someone doesn’t want me uncovering Zhen’s secrets. For all we know, he could have staged his own death to avoid an indictment for espionage.”
She heard tires squealing on pavement as a car turned into the garage. She whipped her head around as a car full of teenagers drove past, openly curious about the two tall Americans standing in the middle of the parking lot. A car door opened, and then Charlie called out over the top of the car. “Hey, you about done? We need to get out of sight. You two don’t blend in so well.”
Jordan glanced around the cavernous parking garage. Until the teenagers, she hadn’t seen anyone else coming in or out. She also hadn’t been paying attention.
“I’m on it,” Davis said. “Stay here, and I’ll go get us a room.”
“What about your passport?”
In the end, Charlie had gone inside while Jordan and Davis waited in the car with Zhen. Ten minutes later, he came back holding the keys to a suite in the Shaoguan Hotel.
“We’re all set,” he said, handing both Jordan and Davis a key card.
“Do we need to worry about hauling Zhen through the lobby?” she asked, conscious of how disheveled they must look. She still wore the clothes she’d purchased in Guangzhou, and they’d taken their share of abuse. Her white shirt was streaked with red clay, and there was a tear in one of her pant legs. Davis hadn’t fared much better, and Zhen’s hands were tied behind his back. “Any chance we’ll set off some hotel employee’s alarm bells?”
Charlie gave them the once-over. “It could be a problem.”
“What’s the layout of the lobby?” Davis asked.
“The elevators are to the left through the door. The desk is across the lobby. To the right is a seating area.”
“I’ve got this,” Davis said. “Give me a thirty-second head start.”
Unsure of the plan, Jordan counted off the seconds, feeling apprehensive as she pushed through the hotel doors. She quickly realized she’d worried for nothing. Good to his word, Davis strode in through the street access, requesting assistance in finding an address and commanding the attention of everyone in proximity. His lanky carriage and easy smile offset the ugly American routine and captured the full attention of every woman in the lobby while eliciting glares from the men. No one even looked at the three of them.
Nudging Zhen toward the bank of elevators, Jordan felt him balk and exerted pressure on his bound wrists. “Don’t even consider it.”
Once they were headed up, she released her grip on his ties.
“This sucks,” he said. “Why is this necessary? No way I’m going to run. I’m better off with you. The Triad will kill me if I go back there.”
He’d said something similar to the gangsters about returning to the United States. She figured both statements were true.
Charlie began to respond, but Jordan headed him off.
“No more talking until we’re safe in the room.” Call her paranoid, but she didn’t want to risk someone overhearing anything they talked about. It could spell disaster if the wrong people put together what they were doing in Shaoguan.
* * *
The living room of the deluxe suite looked like a miniature version of the lobby. Its overstuffed furnishings included a red couch and two red chairs across from a buffet holding a flat-screen TV. Near the floor-to-ceiling windows were a desk and chair.
Charlie swiveled the screen toward him, picked up the TV remote, and sat down at the desk. “You mind?”
Jordan shook her head and deposited Zhen on the couch. After making a quick sweep of the rooms for cameras and listening devices, she stepped to the windows. The suite was on the seventh floor, with no balcony. In the distance, purple mountains backed a city landscape gleaming in various shades of sunset yellow. Once satisfied the room was secure, she untied Zhen’s hands.
Rubbing his wrists, he stretched and propped his feet on the coffee table. “Any chance of getting something to eat or drink?”
Before Jordan could answer, Davis let himself into the room. “What’d I miss?”
“Nothing,” she said. “We were just about to order room service.” She also needed to check in with Lory. By now the PO would be aware they hadn’t gone straight to the safe house, but the more information she could give her boss when she called, the better.
“Sounds great,” Davis said. “I’m famished.”
They settled on a variety of dim sum, tea, and two Diet Cokes—one for Jordan and one for their prisoner. While Charlie called in the order, Jordan turned back to Zhen. She wanted some answers. Talking in front of Charlie was chancy; likely anything said would find its way back to the PO. But her need for answers outweighed the risks, and she’d already granted Davis a pass.
“Tell us what you’re doing in China, Kia.” She went with his first name, hoping to develop rapport. “Maybe you could start by telling us how you ended up in the hands of the Triad.”
“I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to tell you.”
Jordan wondered what was that supposed to mean. “You’re wanted on charges of espionage. Now isn’t the time to be cagey.”
Zhen flipped back his mop of hair. “It’s not what you think. My cousin Eddie works for the government, undercover. He asked for my help hacking into this company’s servers. It was all on the up and up. He said he’d pay me one hundred thousand dollars.”
“Are you saying the hack was sanctioned by a government agency?” Davis asked.
“Exactly. It was all for show. Eddie just needed the files as bait. He never intended to sell them.”
“Did he tell you what branch of the government he worked for?” Jordan already had a good guess what his answer would be.
“The CIA. His contact was someone at the consulate in Guangzhou.”
The fact Eddie’d divulged his affiliation with the CIA to Zhen made Jordan suspicious. No one working for the agency was that forthright, not while they were still employed. Though, if Eddie was telling his cousin the truth, it supported the theory that the PO helped orchestrate the prisoner swap—the kid for his CIA asset. Even if Eddie was Triad, it made sense to export him in place of Zhen. Eddie likely knew more, which also made him a target.
“Does Eddie have a last name?” Davis asked.
“Zhen, same as me.” The kid leaned forward, elbows to knees. “Where the hell is he anyway? I haven’t seen him since we got busted.”
Jordan skipped past his question. “Tell me what you took.”
The kid’s eyes narrowed. Did he suspect she was holding back? Finally, he shrugged and told her what she wanted to hear.
“They were plans for a new military weapon under development for the U.S. Navy.”
“What was the name of the company?”
“Quinn Industries.”
If Zhen was telling the truth, her hunch that Quinn Industries had been cyberattacked was correct.
“And you bought into your cousin’s bullshit?” Davis was mimicking Zhen’s posture. It was an interrogator’s technique designed to put the subject at ease, given you asked the right question.
“Eddie’s my cousin.” Zhen sounded defensive. “I didn’t think he was doing anything illegal, if that’s what you mean. I still don’t.”
Jordan leaned forward, too. “Eddie lied, Kia. The CIA would never sanction this type of bluff.”
At least that’s what she wanted to believe. She looked at Charlie to gauge his reaction. He appeared to be watching TV.
Zhen’s face contorted in anger. “You’re wrong. Eddie’s mission was to infiltrate the Triad and ID the buyer. The Chinese respect a good hacker. He was forced to produce the goods. The plans were never supposed to leave his hands.”
“So what happened?” Davis asked.
“Once I delivered the plans to Eddie, he told me I was done. He said he was going to take things from there, and I could expect payment in a couple of weeks. The next thing I know, my name is on the top of the Feds’ Most Wanted List. Eddie said it was all a mistake. He told me to lay low, that he’d straighten things out. Then he showed up, saying we need to get out of the country. It was supposed to be temporary. He said someone was onto him, and the only way to salvage the op was to pretend to go through with the sale.”
“And that didn’t seem sketchy to you?”
“I trusted my cousin,” he reiterated. “I still do. Eddie’s a brave dude. I’ll admit I had reservations about messing with the Triad, but not Eddie.”
“Did you ever meet his CIA handler?” Davis asked.
“Hell, no! That was top secret shit. The only person I ever met was Ping Mu. He was the buyer. To be honest, I was starting to think Eddie was still working his way up the Triad food chain.”
Jordan hated to break it to Zhen, but it sounded to her like Eddie was just out for a big score.
Davis scooted closer to the edge of his seat. “He had the plans, so why bring you to China?”
If looks could label you “idiot,” Davis would be a drooling mass of Jell-O.
“It was just as dangerous at home. What do you think would have happened if I’d been picked up in the States? I would’ve been screwed, and it would’ve blown Eddie’s whole op. Besides, he needed me to tweak the plans.”
That caught Jordan’s attention. “What do you mean?”
“The guidance system specs totally sucked. The U.S. government has been telling everyone they were ready to roll out the gun this year, but that’s a load of crap. Eddie asked me if I could come up with a fix.” Zhen spoke as if he’d been asked to tweak his cousin’s high school science project.
“Were you able to fix it?” she asked.
“Frickin’ A I did. It’s not perfect. The portable power system still has flaws. It works great for one firing. After that it has to be recharged or needs to be hooked up to some type of continuous power source.”
Davis suddenly straightened. “Hold on a minute. What kind of weapon are we talking about?”
She and Zhen looked at each other, then answered in unison. “A land-based railgun.”