Dance with the Dragon (43 page)

“You’re here on a French passport.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she practially shrieked. “If I’m recognized they might not bother sending me home. They might put a bullet in my brain right here in Mexico City and dump my body in some back alley.”

It wasn’t the reaction McGarvey had expected. If the Middle Easterner lurking in the shadows at Liu’s compound had been a regular, she would have met him. Possibly he wasn’t an Iranian after all. “Recognize you as what, a friend of Chinese intelligence? That should be no problem.”

“Recognize me as my father’s daughter,” she shot back. “They killed him, and they want his family, too.”

“Is that why you don’t want to go back to France to be with your mother and sister?”

Shahrzad looked at him, naked fear on her face. “They’re already dead. I’m supposed to be next. It’s the real reason I want to get to the States. I can lose myself there.” She looked out the window as they approached the Iranian embassy. “Don’t you see? God, you can’t do this to me!”

When they passed the embassy without slowing or turning in, her relief was immediately replaced with anger. “You bastard,” she said. “You drove me up here just to see how I would react.”

McGarvey glanced over at her. There it was again, the same nagging at the back of his head. If her fear had been real, her sudden relief and then anger didn’t ring true. There was no reason for her to be angry. Anyway, what did she think her reaction would reveal?

“You’re wrong,” he told her. “This happens to be the way to my friend’s house. She’s just a couple blocks from here.”

She looked out the window as they passed the shopping center. “I’ve changed my mind. You can take me to a hotel, and I’ll make my way from there.”

“You’ve already accepted the CIA’s help,” McGarvey said. “How will you explain that to your friends?”

“What friends?” she practically shouted. “I don’t have any friends. Can’t you see, you fucking idiot? Louis is dead and I’m alone.”

McGarvey turned at the street up to Gloria’s apartment, the morning gloomy, the air thick. “Louis is dead and maybe you don’t have any friends, but you’re not alone.” He looked at her. “What you’re going to have to do won’t be easy, but I’m not going to walk away from you. I promise.”

“That’s what Louis said.”

“We’re both after the same thing,” McGarvey told her. “You’ll have to trust me.”

“More than you trust me?” she asked.

“It’s the nature of the business. I don’t trust anybody.”

“Neither do I,” she replied bitterly.

*   *   *

When Gloria came to the door she was dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, with no bra and bare feet. Her smiled faded when she saw whom McGarvey had brought with him. “One of your girlfriends?” she asked cattily.

“Don’t you know each other?” McGarvey asked.

Gloria stepped aside to reveal the pistol she’d hidden behind her back. “Never seen her before.”

McGarvey and Shahrzad entered the apartment, and Gloria closed and locked the door after first glancing up at the parking area. She turned back to them and laid the gun on the hall table.

“Is this the one from the photograph?” Shahrzad asked, eyeing Gloria.

“Yes. You said you’d seen her somewhere,” McGarvey said.

Shahrzad pursed her lips and shook her head. “I was mistaken,” she said. “I’ve never seen this woman in my life.”

“Does either of you want to tell me what’s going on?” Gloria said.

“This is the woman I told you about,” McGarvey said. “Shahrzad Shadmand. She was working with Louis just before he got killed.”

“Louis’s mistress,” Gloria said coolly. They hadn’t moved out of the entry hall.

“I was working for Louis,” Shahrzad flared.

“I’ll bet you were.” She glanced at McGarvey. “And now you’re working for him.”

“I don’t have to listen to this—” Shahrzad said.

“Yes you do,” McGarvey interrupted. For just a moment he considered saying the hell with it and turning his back on the whole mess. A CIA field officer had tried to work some deal on his own and got burned for his effort. Such things happened, not often, but they did happen. But Otto’s threat assessment had gone from lavender to violet. Something bad was coming their way.

“Your call, Kirk,” Gloria said.

They went into the living room and sat down, the women on opposite sides of the room, as if they were trying to insulate themselves from whatever they were going to be asked to do. It was an odd moment for all of them, but especially for McGarvey, whose fault was that he was from the old school. He was an anachronism who still thought that women were special, that they were to be put on a pedestal, that they were to be given special treatment, protected, honored, respected. He’d gotten those values from his father and mother, and they ran deep inside of him. He didn’t like bullies. And he especially hated men who treated women badly. His father’s rule from day one was simple: No hitting. Especially not those weaker than you.

“General Liu is a Chinese intelligence officer who has gotten himself in over his head because he likes to strangle women to death while he’s having sex with them,” McGarvey began.

“Cristo,”
Gloria said softly.

“I think that he’s also in over his head because the Chinese government is not paying him enough to maintain his lifestyle. He’s run through his father’s small fortune, and all he has left in Beijing is his family name, and some outstanding accomplishments, especially in industrial and military-technology espionage.

“But most of that happened ten years ago or more. In the meantime he’s run out of money, and now he’s running out of options. He’s a desperate man who’s sold out his own government for money.”

“How do you know so much?” Gloria demanded.

“Gil Perry evidently stumbled across some old FBI files naming Liu as a suspect in a series of rape-murders in New York and Washington and was apparently blackmailing the general.”

“If the FBI did nothing, why would Gil’s threat have carried any weight?”

“Because to this point all the FBI’s suspicions have been kept private. There’s been no hard proof. I think Perry threatened to make the files public. Liu would have been disgraced and would have been recalled to Beijing.”

“You said that Liu had run through his father’s fortune,” Gloria pointed out. “He was broke. How was he coming up with the cash for the blackmail?”

“Laundering drug money,” McGarvey said. “At least on the surface. He’s probably pumping money back home through his father’s old business and manufacturing interests. Senior was a lawyer, but he held majority interests in a number of manufacturing companies that did business with the West, especially the U.S.”

“On the surface?” Gloria asked.

Shahrzad followed the exchange, but she remained silent.

“Otto did a rough spreadsheet on Liu’s spending and the likely profits he was earning from the drug business. Even without the pressure from Perry, Liu wasn’t making enough money. Not by a long shot.”

“Who’s Otto?” Shahrzad asked.

“Guesswork,” Gloria objected.

“On the exact numbers, you’re right,” McGarvey admitted. “But overall the numbers don’t lie. Liu has dug himself a hole and he’s desperate to get out of it.”

“How desperate?” Gloria asked.

“That’s what we’re going to find out, because Otto’s programs have gone violet.”

“Who’s Otto?” Shahrzad asked.

McGarvey turned to her. “He’s the man who brought you to see me in Florida.”

“There’s something wrong with him. He’s a retard, I think. But you trust his judgment?”

“You’d better hope he’s right. If not, all this will be for nothing.”

Shahrzad just shrugged, but again there was something in her attitude that didn’t sit quite right with McGarvey. But for the life of him he couldn’t put his finger on what was bothering him. She was a liar, that much was clear. But he couldn’t make out what she wanted, beyond the vague wish to immigrate to the States. Once she got there, what then? Maybe even she didn’t know.

“I understand what we were trying to do last night,” Gloria said. “What’s next?”

“The two of you are going after Liu,” McGarvey said.

“He’s got all the women he needs,” Gloria said. “The only reason he’d be interested in me is to find out what you’re up to.” She glanced at Shahrzad. “But what about her?”

“She’s going to help you.”

“Not a chance,” Shahrzad protested. “If he finds out that I’ve gone to the CIA he’ll kill me.”

“I don’t think so,” McGarvey said. “First he’ll want to find out what I’m doing here. Maybe I’m part of Perry’s blackmail scheme. Maybe I’m here for something else.”

“Right,” Gloria said. “You didn’t come to Mexico to investigate Louis’s death, or to find out if Perry is running a scam. So what exactly are you doing here?”

“Liu has been coming down here for ten years. I want to know why.”

“If we go after him he’s bound to smell a rat,” Gloria said. “Honestly, I don’t think he’ll give either one of us the time of day.”

“I’ve told everybody that Shahrzad was my girlfriend and I was looking for her,” McGarvey said. “After our little show on the dance floor he’s got to be curious about you. And tonight when I show up with both of you he’ll have to ask himself what game I’m playing.”

“He’ll still suspect that it’s a setup.”

“Not after Roaz kicks me out of the club, and his people try to kill me,” McGarvey said.

“What are you going to do?” Shahrzad asked, wide-eyed.

“I’m going to get pissed off when the two of you leave me for each other.”

Shahrzad didn’t get it at first, but Gloria did and she laughed.

“That’ll get his attention. But seeing a couple of dykes going at it in public won’t make him suddenly tell us all of his dirty little secrets.”

“No, but it will get him to invite you to one of his parties,” McGarvey said. “Either down here at his house, or up in Chihuahua where Louis was killed.”

“And then what?”

“I’ll tell you when the time comes,” McGarvey said. “First we’re going to get the two of you noticed.”

Gloria was intrigued, but she shook her head. “A dozen things can go south with a plan like that,” she said.

“A hundred,” McGarvey replied. “Are you in?”

“You know I am,” she said.

“What about you?” he asked Shahrzad.

“Do I have a choice?” she asked.

“No,” Gloria answered before McGarvey had the chance.

Shahrzad looked at both of them. “Bastards,” she said softly.

“If we’re going out tonight we’ll have to get some sleep,” Gloria said. “And we’ll have to get her some party clothes unless she has something in the bag.”

“I left everything behind,” Shahrzad said.

“In that case we’ll definitely have to do some shopping,” Gloria said. “What about you?” she asked McGarvey.

“I’m going to try to draw out the opposition, see if they’re still interested.”

“Are we in any real danger yet? Should I carry a piece?”

“You should be okay,” McGarvey said. “And I’ll be around if you need help. Anyway, Liu’s people won’t let you get close if you’re armed.”

“Same time as last night?” Gloria asked.

“Yeah,” McGarvey said. “I’ll pick you up around midnight.”

SEVENTY-SEVEN

THE CITY

McGarvey drove over to San Angel and got lucky with a parking space across from the Chinese embassy on Avenida Rio Magdalena. As soon as he pulled up, the security officer at the embassy’s front gate picked up a telephone and called someone.

A minute later two uniformed security officers came out of the main building and walked out to the gate, where they exchanged a few words with the guard, then looked across at McGarvey.

One of them pointed what was most likely a video camera at McGarvey’s car, but none of them made a move to come across the street to ask what the hell he thought he was doing here.

While they were watching him, McGarvey made a show of making a call on his sat phone. The embassy’s roof bristled with at least a dozen types of antennae and satellite dishes. He figured at least one of them would be picking up his call. But it would be an exercise in futility. The phone’s encryption program was unbreakable.

Rencke answered on the first ring. “Oh, wow, Mac, someone’s trying to bust your algorithm. Sloppy, sloppy. They’re leaving a trace. Where are you?”

“In front of the Chinese embassy. They’ve taken an interest, but no one’s made a move so far.”

“You picked up Shahrzad with no trouble?”

“I thought I might have attracted some interest at the airport, but if we were tailed they were damned good.”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s staying with Gloria,” McGarvey said. “I’m sending both of them out tonight. In the meantime I want you to find out about her family in Paris. According to what she’s told me the Ministry of Intelligence had her mother and family killed, and she’s next.”

“If they’re still alive they shouldn’t be too hard to find,” Rencke said. “Did you believe her?”

“I don’t know anymore,” McGarvey said. “One minute I want to toss her back on the street, and the next I’m feeling sorry for her. But if Iranian intel has a price on her head, then who the hell is the guy in the pictures?”

“My program is chewing on it, but I need another head shot, something I can use to compare. As it is I’ve run through all the images we have of every intelligence officer from Saudi Arabia to Iran and back.”

“No matches yet?” McGarvey asked hopefully. Any near misses?”

“A half dozen that have risen to a forty percent confidence level,” Rencke said. “But that’s less than fifty-fifty, kemosabe. Nothing you could take to the track with your rent money.”

“What’s your gut feeling, Otto?”

“This time I don’t know,” Rencke replied without hesitation.

The two uniformed security officers had come out of the gate and were looking for a break in traffic so they could cross the street.

“Looks like I’m going to have some company,” McGarvey. He started the car and put it in gear with one hand. “Call me as soon as you have something.”

“Take care,” Rencke said.

The security officers were just starting across the street when McGarvey caught a break and pulled out. He glanced in the rearview mirror in time to see one of them take a photograph of the Jetta’s tag. As soon as they got to a computer they would find out that the car had been rented in the name of Martin Saint, a low-level American diplomat who was not on the roster of U.S. embassy personnel here in Mexico City. It wouldn’t take long for them to identify McGarvey from the photos they’d snapped, which would leave them with a question: What was the former director of Central Intelligence doing snooping around their embassy in a car rented to a nonexistent person?