“Impressive watching you extricate yourself from my welcoming party,” a gray-haired man said to me, gesturing at the monitor hanging from the ceiling behind me.
He was wearing a long, red, gilded robe, looking like he’d just been bathed, brushed, and polished. He was leaning against a wide, sheet-covered table on a raised platform in the center of the room beneath a large chandelier. He reminded me of Hugh Heffner at the Playboy Mansion overseeing his stable of bunnies.
“That’s something I’ll have to keep in mind when dealing with you, I suppose,” he said. “I’m disappointed my men failed in their task, but such is life. Is it not?”
“It is not,” I said, shaking off the dizziness brought on by the incense, realizing I was walking on a hardwood floor instead of the marble flooring of the floor below me. Then I saw her. She was leaning against a glass block wall that ran the width of the room behind the center platform, and looked exactly as Jenny had described. She was small, maybe five feet tall, and about a hundred pounds. Her black suit jacket, white shirt, black pants, and black leather shoes contrasted nicely against the glass blocks. She didn’t acknowledge me in any way; she just stared in my direction.
“I see,” the old man said. “Your life, such as it is, you don’t consider that disappointing?”
“Hey, things can always be better, but I don’t go around crying about it.”
I watched her watching me. Then she pushed off the wall, walking in my direction, crossing the floor slowly and deliberately, drawing closer with every step. I saw dark eyes nestled deep within her pale skin, but I didn’t see death; I thought I saw nothingness. Her dark hair, hanging loose around her face and on her shoulders, framed her beauty. My second thought was she was much lovelier than Jenny described. She was exquisite.
“Hello, I’m Peter Heely. And you are?” I asked, offering her my hand.
“We’ll soon know exactly who you are,” the robe-wearing man said, walking down the steps of the platform to join the woman who was now standing directly in front of me.
“Is that so?” I asked.
“Oh, make no mistake,” the man, who I realized must be Laird, said. “You’re not dealing with hired henchman any longer. You wanted to meet the people in charge? Well you have, and if you don’t do what I ask of you, our two faces will be the last ones you ever see.”
“Threats?” I questioned, then warned, “I don’t like threats.”
“My name is Heinrich Laird. This beautiful lady is my daughter, Tia. She’s going to take your fingerprints. Please place the four fingers of your right hand on the iPad screen she’s holding, then the four fingers of your left hand, followed by your two thumbs.”
“Nice to meet you both. You can call me Peter,” I said, and I did as he asked, thanking Wakefield for having my ID backstopped by Zach.
“Oh, we’ll know what to call you soon enough,” he said. “Till then, we can make small talk. Now, tell me something: did you notice the cubicles and computers as you entered the room below?”
Tia walked around me, leaving the room without a word.
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“Do you have any thoughts as to their purpose?”
“I assume at one time they had something to do with the work you do here. What do you do here, by the way?”
“That’s a rather obvious observation, isn’t it? But yes, they are the last vestiges of my empire. I keep the room exactly like that, a time capsule, if you will, to remind me to never forget the tragedy that my greed brought upon my family.”
“Your empire? What empire? And what tragedy?”
“All in due time, Mr. Heely,” he said, walking around me like he was an inspector at a cattle auction. “I share that information with you only as a way of illustrating the point that I never forget anything. Men like you have been trying to kill me for decades.” Stopping in front of me, he smiled and said, “You, too, will fail,” then continued circling. “No, I don’t think you should be concerned with my empire or tragedy. No, right now you should be concerned with one thing and one thing only.”
“I’m not here to kill you; I’m here to help you. But what should I be so concerned with?”
“Why, leaving here alive, of course.”
“Okay, pal, you know what? You’re right; I shouldn’t be here. This is a big mistake. And to think I came here to help you. No good deed goes unpunished, right?”
“Very well. Tell me, then, in your last moments on earth, why you’ve risked your life. I so hope you’ve got a good reason. I really do.”
“I’m a mercenary by trade, and being good at my job, I stumbled across some information you might be interested in knowing.”
“I’m listening, Mr. Mercenary,” he said. “Do tell.”
“That’s where this gets a little tricky, see. I have neither money nor empire or job. I’m one of the great unwashed.”
He laughed.
“You want to deal for your information?”
“A job or payment, but I’d prefer a job.”
“I have men like you downstairs, and I don’t even know if what you’re selling is worth anything to me.”
“I had no trouble getting past your men because they’re not trained like me. They’re not very good fighters, and I’ll bet they’re even less skilled at surveillance, counter intelligence, and protection. I can offer you so much more than those muscle heads downstairs. That alone should be enough for you to hire me.”
“Your life depends not only on the information you have for sale being something that benefits me, but also on whether or not the information we gather on you matches up with what you’ve told me.” Waving his hands around above his head, he continued, “It’s happening while we speak. All those ones and zeros are flying around in cyberspace, connecting the dots of your life, coming together right now, and I’ll be notified of your real name and everything else about you shortly. If I don’t like what we find, it’s bye-bye, Peter Heely, bye-bye.”
Looking around the room, realizing the only way in or out was through the door I entered; I eased back in that direction. But I was too late; there was no escape. I heard someone enter the room behind me. Tia was walking past me, showing her father the iPad she was carrying.
“Say’s here you served in the US Army,” Laird read from the iPad, “and then there’s nothing. It’s like you don’t exist.”
“That’s accurate,” I said.
“I think we might be able to work together. Yes,” he said, nodding. “I can use a man like you, but tell me: what have you been doing these last twenty years or more?”
“Surviving any way I can.”
“I see. A desperate man does desperate things. Yes, I think you’ll do nicely, but first, tell me the information you think to be so valuable.”
“We deal for the information first.”
He smiled at me before turning and walking toward the center of the room and the raised platform, saying one word. “Tia.”
She crossed the room much the same way she’d done before, only this time, the beauty that had shown on her face was nowhere to be seen. A dark cloud of menace had replaced it. The sword was at my throat before I could speak.
“No,” Laird said. “I think we’ll have the information now, and you’ll be compensated with your life.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, backing away from the sword, with Tia matching my movements step for step like we were dancing some macabre Tango. “I said I’d tell you. Can she back off a little?”
“Tia,” Laird said calmly, taking a seat on the table atop the raised platform.
“Check your communications, Internet connections, whatever,” I said, rubbing my throat where the blade of her sword had rested seconds before. “Your system is compromised. You’re being spied on.”
“Impossible,” Tia said, spitting the word in my face before pirouetting away and leaving the room.
“Jesus,” I said, still rubbing my throat. “Was that really necessary?”
“You need to know I’m very well protected,” Laird said, smiling down at me from his perch like some sinister proud papa. “Among the many other skills she possesses, Tia is a master of the katana. If you’re to be part of the team, you need to know I’ll not tolerate insubordination of any kind.”
“Message received.”
Tia reentered the room holding a device in her left hand and the sword in her right. The device looked like a square octopus. The central section was a three by three by two-inch thick black box, with five cables emanating from its sides like tentacles. I was as surprised as they were to see it; I was only hoping to buy time while Zach figured out how to hack into the system. My hunches seldom paid off that big, but I’d believed what Jenny told me about Tia, and had hoped someone might find a woman like Tia worth spying on. Looking at the device Tia was holding, I assumed the cables each performed a specific function, and though it was bulky, based on the anger in Tia’s eyes, it was undoubtedly effective. But the real question was: who had gotten here before us?
“This,” she said, climbing the stairs of the platform and handing the device to her father, “was attached to our communication ports inside the control panel, eavesdropping on all our affairs here. Someone knows a great deal about us, now, and that’s not good.” She walked toward me, sword ready. “How is it you’ve come to know about it, and I did not? Are you the one that placed the device in our system?”
“No, I didn’t place anything anywhere,” I said. “I’m just much better at my job than the security detail you currently employ. Let me guess: you do all the work and security sweeps yourself, and those guys drive your cars and watch your back?”
“My software and hardware is state of the art. I designed the software myself and…” Tia started.
“Yeah, but some of that hi-tech stuff was stolen last year,” I said, interrupting her. “It was made special for MI5.”
“How could you know that?” she asked me, lowering her sword.
“It’s the reason someone like you needs someone like me. I have the contacts and the crew to handle just this type of thing.”
I walked toward the platform, leaving Tia standing where I once stood.
“So, do I have a job or not?”
“I can’t just create a vacancy for you,” Laird said, “but I can engage your services to ferret out the person, or persons, responsible for this breech of our system.”
“Not a problem,” I said. “As long as when I finish the job, the money’s right. I don’t normally give away for free what I can get paid to do.”
Laird smiled and nodded his understanding.
“I will set aside one million US dollars as payment upon completion. Is that type of money ‘right,’ as you say?”
“Not bad. For that kind of payday, I can bring two more people in on the job. I have a crew I work with. Like me, they’re survivors. They’ll be in town tomorrow. I’ll pick the best two from the group to work with me on this. Tell me, will I get access to the files on your people?”
“Slow down,” Tia said. “We’ll need to meet these other people first and then decide.”
“Fair enough,” I said, turning around to address her. “Will tomorrow before noon work for you?”
“Yes,” Laird said. “I can meet your people at say ten o’clock, but I’ll need to check them out, of course. Are they amenable to being fingerprinted?”
“Fingerprinting people in my line of work is never a good idea,” I said, walking toward the door. “You’ve run my prints; I came back clean. Trust me when I say the people I work with are just like me except for one minor difference.”
“And what’s that?”
“They’re women, so don’t make the mistake of underestimating them. One is younger than your daughter,” I nodded in Tia’s direction as I walked past her. She was still standing in the same place as when she’d approached me about the device she’d found, smoldering with anger. “And the other is about my age.”
“I see,” Laird said, disrobing as he climbed atop the table and covering his naked body with a towel. “Convince them to submit to fingerprinting, and we’ll be a big happy family, okay?”
“I’ll try, but listen to me and believe me when I tell you: they’re killers. If you mess with them, that’s just what they’ll do—kill you.”
Lying down on the table, Laird turned his face away from me.
“Tia might have something to say about that as well as the three bodyguards you met today. That’s a lot to deal with, and no one person, or three people, is that good. No, the odds are in my favor. Now leave me, Mr. Heely. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
CHAPTER FOUR
FURUKAWA
LEAVING THE CCP BUILDING, I took my time walking toward the crowded shopping district. It was early in the day and the skies were clear, and I didn’t want to lose whomever Tia would send to follow me.
Passing Leecy and Val as they window-shopped, I nodded at their reflections and said, “Someone should be along any minute.”
“We’ll be behind you,” Val replied, “and we’ll be watching. Is your earpiece working?”
“Yeah, and keep a two-block buffer.”
“Roger that,” Leecy said. “It’s just that we lost transmission after you went inside the building.”
“Ten-four.”
Entering the vibrant shopping district, the cobblestone streets were alive with sounds of Euro-Techno pop music. The smells of fresh pastry and French fries filled the air. Tourists and locals crowded the streets to overflowing, and I tried to lose myself in the mosh pit of shoppers, diners, and revelers.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Your six is clear,” Val said.
“Okay,” Wakefield broke in, “care to update us on what happened with Laird and Tia?”
“Sure; looks like I’m clear. Everyone reading me?”
“Check,” Wakefield answered. “Sounds like you had an interesting meeting.”
“So you heard?” I asked, pausing to window shop.
“We got some of it,” Zach informed me. “Are they running some kind of radio frequency jamming device?”
“That’s a safe assumption,” I said, moving on from the window and walking toward the Cathedral.
“I’m running down the names we picked up: a Lee, Hector, and Taka, but you never got a name to go with the fourth voice we heard before the transmission cut out. Doesn’t matter anyway. Without full names or pictures, I doubt I’ll come up with anything useful.”
“Don’t go to too much trouble; I recognized three of them,” I said while buying French fries from a street vendor. “Taka is an office worker of some kind. The other three guys are former cage fighters. I’ve seen them on Pay-Per- View events. Lee was a middleweight champ in the UFC, and Hector fought in the PRIDE fighting organization along with the one I called Big Guy.”
“Great,” Ryan said. “Guys that really know how to handle themselves.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “This won’t be a cake walk.”
“Ron,” Wakefield said, “what happened after you left those guys?”
“I met Tia and Laird.”
“Your six is clear,” Val said. “Are those two as advertised?”
“Jenny was spot on.”
“That can’t be all.”
“No, there’s more,” I said, lingering a little too long over which sauce to put on my fries. “I told them I heard rumors they were being spied on, and you won’t believe this, but they are. Tia found a device that was tied into their communications inside the building. We’ve got company on this and we need to know who that is.”
“Could be whoever backed her purchase for the MI5 gear,” Zach suggested.
“Or another agency like us,” Val offered.
“Zach,” Wakefield began, “get in touch with Leeds. We’ll start running down everything Interpol’s got on the possible Russian connection in all this hacking.”
“It’s somewhere to start,” I said.
“Anyt
hing else?” Wakefield asked.
“Laird wants to meet my team tomorrow mid-morning.”
“Your team? What team? Why?” Ryan asked.
“Haven’t you been listening?” I said, turning around and walking in the opposite direction, seeing if I could spot Leecy and Valerie in the crowd. “Laird wants me and my team to find out who planted the device. He thinks someone’s after him.”
“Great, so I’m going in with you, then?”
I made a left turn into a coffee shop, depositing my uneaten French fries in a trashcan before ordering a black coffee to go. Back on the street, I answered Ryan.
“Not exactly.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told Laird my team consisted of two women.”
“Ron,” Wakefield broke in, “that’s not your call to make.”
“That’s right,” Ryan said, agreeing with Wakefield, “I should be the one going in. I’m the most senior agent on the…”
“Yes,” I said, interrupting Ryan, then paused, sipping my coffee before finishing my thought. “We’re all familiar with your title and the team’s hierarchy as it relates to titles, but all due respect, you’re all wrong for this.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Ryan barked.
“That’s enough,” Wakefield said. “That’s enough from the both of you.”
“To answer your question, Ryan,” I said, tossing my coffee in the trash, “right now I think I’m the guy who’s being followed.”
“What?” Leecy asked. “How’d they get by us?”
“He didn’t get by you. He was waiting for me to come to him. I just spotted him.”
“You want backup?” Val asked. “We’re fifty meters back.”
“No, it’s just one guy. I don’t want to spook him.”
“Is he part of Tia’s crew?” Wakefield asked.
“I’m sure he is, but he wasn’t in the building.”
“Evade or engage?” Wakefield asked.