On Fire

“What?”

  Hui Lee looks at Huiliang seated in front of him in his office, his phone to his ear. It’s Tao Deng, his boss, the Director of Counter Intelligence.

  “Premier Gaoli is with Huichang now.”

  Lee is having trouble believing that the Vice Premier is back. He is well into his seventies and not a frequent visitor of the MSS, even though he has titular authority over the organization.

  “They have requested your presence on the Wang matter.”

  This is all very unexpected. The obvious tension in Deng’s voice sounds a great deal like a note of displeasure, the kind of displeasure that comes from having a subordinate grab the spotlight and attention of higher ups, in effect going over the boss.

  Again, Lee gives Huiliang a look, as if for moral support.

  “Okay.

  “Go!”

  “Okay!”

  He hangs up. She says it before he has to.

  “Do you want me to come with you?”

  Lee nods his head.

  “But we have to go now. Right away. The Minister’s office.”

  Miss Tai and he have just been going over things, including Wang, but hadn’t finished. He definitely wants her with him.

  The two grab their things and rush through the basement over to the new building, rising in the express elevator all the way to the top, to Minister Geng Huichang’s office. They step out and into the aviary of an office, adjusting their eyes to the light as they come forward to the big conference table.

  Hui Lee is uncomfortable being here without his boss. He decides he will have to fill Deng in right after the meeting.

  “Please come, sit down,” Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli waves at them.

  Having a Premier take an interest in operations is as much a surprise to Geng Huichang, the Minister of the agency, as to Hui Lee. Geng appears to regard Zhang with a measure of fascination. Lee and Miss Tai take seats across the table.

  “Now, what’s this I hear?” asks Zhang.

  Lee and Tai look at each other.

  “He must be talking about the attacks” she offers.

  “Yes,” Zhang says, training his focus on them in a way he knows is intimidating because it is meant to be.

  “Probably one of the triads, but we have no proof,” says Lee.

  “Oh?” asks Zhang.

  Huiliang jumps in.

  “We have identified a man named Dai Gu, who works for the Chung Yao Triad, as the person pursuing them in Hong Kong,” she says.

  Hui clear his throat.

  “But we have been unable to identify who hired the various men responsible for the attacks in Jaipur, Monterey and Osaka. It could have been Yao. It could not have been. It could have been a competitor shaking the tree as it were.”

  “Someone wanting to see what falls out,” says Huiliang, nodding her head at the same time.

  The Vice Premier chuckles and the Minister joins him. Hui and Huiliang are a little puzzled.

  “Dai Gu has shown up on our radar in Paris,” offers Lee.

  “We believe he had a meeting with the Russians,” adds Huiliang.

  The Vice Premier seems, if anything, more amused.

  “The Russians?” he ventures the question, like a comedian begging for a punchline.

  “There are many of these underworld connections,” Huiliang observes and there is no one in the room who would doubt her.

  “Chung Yao has connections with the Russians?” Zhang asks.

  “It appears that he does,” says Lee.

  “A splinter of a splinter. Kaliningrad,” Huiliang says.

  “Oblast,” points out Lee.

  “District?” asks Huichang.

  “Yes.”

  “An exclave, not an enclave.”

  “It was called Konigsberg before the War,” Huiliang amplifies.

  “For like seven hundred years,” says Lee, leaning back and getting more comfortable.

  “An ice free cold water port surrounded by NATO,” says Zhang, enjoying this exercise in geography.

  “A geo-national oddity,” agrees the Minister.

  Zhang taps his papers with his pen vigorously and finally looks at Hui Lee.

  “Have you ever been to Paris, Mr. Lee?”

  Chapter 58