Rising Tiger (20 page)

“Something makes no sense, though. This Adams could have just killed our man. But instead Adams left our man alive to tell us he was still coming.”

The general shook his head. He sucked down more of his drink and then put some life back into his Cuban cigar, bringing the end to a bright orange glow. “Adams is smarter than I thought. I heard he was the one who found the connection between our organization and the satellite destruction recently. I thought we could just ignore the man. But I guess I was wrong. He’s like that little gnat buzzing around your face in the darkness. You can’t see it, but you still want it to die.”

“What would you like us to do, sir?”

Sometimes the little bug needed to be squashed. “Simple. Find him and kill him.”

The security officer was about to leave, but he hesitated. “How do we find him?”

“That’s why we pay so much money to the Vietnamese government,” the general said. “So we have access to their border enforcement database and their hotel security systems. Every foreigner who enters this country has their passport scanned and entered into this database. The hotels do the same thing. Jake Adams entered Vietnam somewhere today. Access the database and scan the passports. He won’t be traveling under his real name. And don’t only look at American passports. He could be traveling under any country. Keep in mind the woman he’s traveling with. They would have come through the border about the same time.”

“Thank you, sir. What about your visit to your factory tomorrow?”

“Nothing changes. We go there at noon and then leave for Taipei.”

Shangwei nodded understanding and then left the general alone.

But he wasn’t alone for long. As soon as the bedroom door closed, the two beautiful young naked women entered again from the bathroom. One of the girls carried a bottle of gel and the other wore a floppy black strap-on dildo that would soon find its way up his ass. A small part of him wondered what his wife was doing this evening. Then he brushed that thought aside and embraced the two women, his penis on its way to its full glory.

After the late-night encounter with the Taiwanese intelligence officer, Jake had gotten back to the room around one a.m. Alexandra had been sleeping still like a drugged baby.

Now, following a morning sexual encounter, Alexandra had just finished her shower and was drying her hair.

Jake checked his phone for any messages. He had just one email, and that was from his son, the son he had only found out about recently. He was reaching out to Jake, asking to see him the next time they were both available. But Jake had no idea when that would be, since he would be in Asia for a while and his son was deployed somewhere with the Army. Jake typed back a response, saying he would like to meet up and get to know him. For the first time in a long time, Jake felt some reasonable connection to this earth. For his entire adult life he only had himself to consider with every action he took. Now he had a son.

The bathroom door opened and Alexandra walked out naked, her fingers combing through her long hair. My God, Jake thought, she was beautiful. He just wondered how in the hell he would screw up this relationship.

“What?” she asked.

He hunched his shoulders. “What, what?”

“You’re staring at me,” she said.

Jake moved his hand up and down, pointing at her from top to bottom and back again. “You come out like that and then ask me not to look? How the hell is that possible?” He got up from the bed and embraced her. Then they kissed for a long time.

Finally they pulled apart and she said, “What was that for?”

“For being here with me. For deciding to partner with me.”

“It’s my pleasure, Jake. We make a good team.”

“True. But you could just take your pension and retire to some small German village.”

She laughed. “That would kill me. I would be bored silly in a week.” Alexandra put her hand against Jake’s face, rubbing the stubble.

“So, I keep things interesting for you?”

“Exciting,” she admitted. Then she looked down at his boxer briefs. “And not just that way.”

Their relationship had first started off as simply a friendship and colleagues in the intelligence field. Then a few years ago they had taken that friendship to a new level, a degree of physicality. But she was still working at that time for the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany, which made it almost impossible for a real relationship. With her recent departure from the BND, all of that had changed for them. Now, just maybe, they could make things work.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Now you get dressed before I take advantage of that wonderful body again,” he told her. “Then you need to contact someone you trust with your Service.”

“Why?”

“They need to know you’re alive,” he surmised. “Bypass your current boss and reach out to someone else.” He turned to leave, but said over his shoulder, “I need a cold shower to get this image out of my mind.”

●

Once Alexandra was alone and dressed, the shower droning in the background, she sat on the edge of the bed and checked for messages and her e-mail. Surprisingly, she had a few more queries than she expected, wondering what had happened to her. She even had a couple of e-mails from her cousin, who had been contacted by her Service, trying to see if she had gone north in Germany to visit him. He was genuinely concerned.

Jake was right. She did still have a few friends at the BND she could contact. And she needed to make it all about her retirement. Nothing about the people she had left dead in her old apartment.

She decided on her former boss, a man she still marginally trusted, but who had moved up the ladder in the organization. Martin Mayer was a suck up and a political riser. She guessed the man would retire with twenty years, like her, and then immediately run for office. The BND was just a stepping-stone for him. But, the man had contacts, and for some reason he was interested in her welfare.

Reluctantly, she called the man on his secure cell phone.

“My God, Alex. You are alive.” Mayer was the only person who still called her Alex.

“Yes, sir. I don’t know what you’ve been told. But I assure you it’s probably all lies.” Especially if it came from her current boss.

“Your apartment looks like a war zone,” Mayer said. “We were able to take over the crime scene from the local Polizei, and scrub the place clean. What happened?”

She explained her undercover work, and how the men had somehow found her despite her deep cover. Also, how she was only a couple of weeks from retiring, so she had taken leave. She had two months of vacation on the books.

Mayer agreed that she had made the right decision. He would explain her decision to the Service. Many at the BND would be relieved to know she was all right.

“Where are you?” he asked her.

Just then, Jake Adams came out of the bathroom. This time he was naked, making her smile at him. She raised a finger to Jake, indicating she would just be a minute.

“I’m just taking some vacation,” she told Mayer.

“All right. I understand. When can I expect you back? We would like to have a retirement party for you.”

She told him she would be in contact soon, hoping that would hold him. Then she hung up and bit her lower lip as she watched Jake slip new boxer briefs over his nice hard butt.

“Everything all right in Germany?” Jake asked.

“Yeah. That was Martin Mayer.”

“You’re shittin’ me. That guy is such a dick.” Jake put on a pair of black khaki slacks and turned to her.

“I know,” she said. “That’s why I called him. He knows we’re not the best of friends.”

Jake pulled out the guns he had gotten the night before and handed one to Alexandra. They each checked the chamber and then cycled rounds into them.

He never mentioned how the meet went the night before. “Any problems last night?” she asked him.

Setting the gun on the bed, Jake pulled a plain brown T-shirt over his head. “My contact with the Agency was a nun,” he said.

“I didn’t know they had nuns in Vietnam.”

“The French introduced Catholicism here more than a hundred years ago.”

“Wow. She’s undercover as a nun with the Agency?”

“For now.”

Alexandra was confused. “That will change?”

Jake nodded. “I’ll need to have a talk with the station chief here. The nun was compromised.”

“How?”

“You remember that Asian woman you fought in Singapore?”

How could she forget? The woman had some major fighting skills. “Of course. What about her?”

“She followed the nun from our consulate to the church, where she dropped the guns to me. Then the Asian woman attacked me in the park after the meeting.”

“Who is that bitch? I thought she worked for Remington.”

“She did,” Jake said. “But she was undercover with the Taiwan National Security Bureau.”

“She’s a spook?” Really, Alexandra wasn’t surprised. She knew the woman had to either be a trained assassin or a government intelligence officer. Perhaps both. “Why is she still on us?”

“Because we’re still on General Wu Gang,” Jake said. “Her government also doesn’t like what the general has been up to with his current business.”

“The general had to be the one who sent the killers to my apartment in Munich,” she decided.

“I think you’re right.”

“Why not just kill the man?” she wanted to know.

Jake put up his hands. “That’s way above my pay grade. The Agency has told me to back off of the guy.”

Alexandra thought about that, along with the congenial tone her former boss had just displayed to her on the phone. Was it possible that the general had contacts and influence with the governments of Germany and America?

“What are you thinking?” Jake asked.

She explained her theory to Jake, who was more than supportive of her supposition. That’s one of the things she loved about the man. He would listen to any whacky theory and still consider the possibility that she was right.

“All right,” Jake said. “Let’s get some breakfast and then head over to the general’s factory.”

“What can we expect to accomplish?” she needed to know.

He glanced at her, uncertain. “I don’t know. Just to let him know we’re still alive.”

Jake had just finished breakfast when he got a call from his favorite former director of the CIA, Kurt Jenkins. He pulled himself away from the table and out into a secluded area of the expansive lobby.

“What can I do for you, Kurt?” Jake asked, his eyes scanning the room for anyone who might be listening.

“Are you still in Saigon?” Jenkins asked.

“Yes. We’re about to head over to the general’s factory for a little discussion.”

Hesitation on the other end of the line. Finally, Jenkins sighed and said, “You need to stand down.”

“Stand down. You just authorized and organized two guns for us last night.”

“I know. So, you met the nun.”

“Of course.” Then Jake also explained what had happened with his encounter with the Taiwanese intelligence officer.

“Are you sure she’s with Taiwan’s National Security Bureau?”

“I believe so. Could you back channel her story to verify for me? Code name is Lin.” He spelled it for his old boss.

“Yeah, I’ll check on her. But they’re not usually active much beyond their island and mainland China.”

“Special circumstances,” Jake said. “The general is making some big moves. She thinks he’s bringing the two countries to the brink of war. Possibly for economic gain. We tend to agree with her assessment. So, why are you telling me to stand down? Who gave that order?”

More delay by Jenkins. Jake knew the man well enough to know that he was uncomfortable relaying this order.

“From the highest levels of government,” Jenkins said.

“That’s bullshit, Kurt. Just tell me it came from the current director.”

“You’re a smart man, Jake. But let’s say it came from even higher than that.”

Knowing that Jenkins had stuck his neck out for Jake many times in the past, Jake wasn’t going to push the man more than this. But this was a big reason why Jake had left the Agency in the first place—he couldn’t stand the politics of those above him.

Alexandra came from the restaurant and saw Jake, but she kept her distance and hung out on the far side of the lobby, her eyes in constant observation mode.

Jake finally said, “This general must have some pull.”

“Perhaps,” Jenkins conceded. “But I think it’s more than that. Bill Remington embarrassed the administration. If it ever got out that a man of his position was selling out his country, there’s no way for a second term.”

“Since when do you care if this president gets another shot at screwing up our country?”

“Jesus, Jake. I don’t care about that. I’m worried about you.”

He laughed inside. Then he smiled and nodded at Alexandra. “I didn’t know you cared, Kurt.”

“You bastard. I sent you there to find Remington. You did that with great alacrity. But now it’s time to come home. Let the Agency take care of the general.”

Alexandra came over to him and stood a few feet away now.

“Listen, I don’t know if there’s anything else to find here. This guy is a billionaire with friends all over the place. But you have to know that he is at least partially responsible for our ships at general quarters in the straits of Taiwan. This is a potential Tonkin Bay incident waiting to happen. We’re one screw up away from an all-out shooting war with the Communist Chinese. And you want me to stand down?”

“What do you think you can accomplish by harassing the man?”

“Harassing him? He’s tried to kill me since I first stepped foot in Asia. He set up my friend Chad Hunter. He was running Remington like a puppet. He’s also simply buying up huge chunks of the military industrial complex, with the intention of throwing gas onto the fire. Why? To increase his wealth and power.”

Jenkins sighed. “Jake, I really hate when you see a conspiracy behind every tree.”

“When have any of my conspiracy theories been wrong?” Jake asked.

Silence.

“That’s right. A theory is only crazy if it doesn’t turn out to be supported by facts. I’ll get you the damn facts.” With that, Jake hung up on Kurt Jenkins and he shoved his phone into his pocket.