In Between Dreams (22 page)

The trio spent the rest of the flight talking quietly, taking short naps, discussing the mission, reading, and watching movies. Bailey noticed that Sam and Daniel must have a made an agreement, because when Daniel woke up, Sam went to sleep less than fifteen minutes later. Bailey took a couple of small naps, each time waking up in her apartment in Seattle.

When they were landing in Hong Kong, Daniel shook her awake softly. “Bales. You gotta put your seat up.”

Bailey opened her eyes, and Daniel was laughing a bit. “What?”

“You kinda snore,” he told her, and nudged her with his elbow.

“
Ew!
No I don’t.” Bailey covered her mouth in embarrassment.

“It’s not bad, just a little.” He imitated it. “It’s not terrible. I think it’s adorable.”

Bailey put her seat up and looked at Sam, who was reading something. She waved at him, and he nodded back at her. Bailey was suddenly shaking, now that they were minutes away from being in Hong Kong suddenly the reality set in. “What’s our plan?”

“As soon as we land, I’ll call Halene,” Daniel said it like a promise. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not going to drink on this mission. I have to be sharp, because we’ve already lost so much time.”

“Good idea, bro,” Sam said from across the aisle.

Daniel shot him a glare. “Don’t call me bro, mate,” he said “mate” like the word was covered in poison.

Bailey took a deep breath and looked at Sam as if to plead with him not to counter. “Let’s not fight. It’s been a very pleasant plane ride, and I’d like to just get to Mei,” she offered softly.

Sam and Daniel exchanged one more look before turning forward. Bailey gripped the armrest as they started their descent, and Daniel grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “You’re with me. We’re going to be fine,” he promised. His voice was calm and rugged, and Bailey closed her eyes and listened to him.

Sam looked over at them with hatred in his eyes. He silently prayed them to land quickly so Bailey’s and Daniel’s hands would part.

She let Daniel hold her hand while she chewed on her cheek a bit, and finally she heard the wheels hit the runway and felt the bumpy
drive into the airport. Bailey took a breath and let go of Daniel’s hand. His demeanor noticeably changed.

His lips were in a straight line, and he was looking straight ahead with one of his eyebrows up. This change told Bailey that it was business time. She looked at Sam, who seemed to have a similar expression.

She knew she had to get her head in this too. She needed to think about Mei and only Mei. She couldn’t keep thinking about Sam and Daniel. She took a deep breath, looked forward, and thought about her. Her gut seemed to drop every time she thought of Mei. She looked at Sam, who finally looked back. Her face was full of terror. Sam’s eyes softened, and he reached out to comfort her. She shivered a little when he touched her hand. “I can’t believe we let this happen,” Bailey said. She was speaking to herself. Both men heard the pain in her voice.

After two drunken hours at Babette’s, a two-hour wait in the airport and a sixteen-hour flight, it finally set in. Sam and Bailey had
lost
Mei. The 14K took her back, and they had failed her. Sam squeezed her fingers gently.

“I’m going to make this right. I promise,” Sam said softly.

fifteen.

D
aniel paced the sidewalk talking on his cell. It had been less than an hour since they landed in Hong Kong, and Daniel had been on the phone with Halene almost the whole time. Bailey gazed at him with curiosity as he mumbled into his phone. Both she and Sam sat on the street bench across the sidewalk watching his nervous actions. Bailey’s eyes were drooping; she was exhausted and stiff from the long flight. She patted herself on the cheek twice to wake herself up while rubbing her lips together nervously. Her mind was moving from scenario to scenario with the possibilities of where Mei could be. She couldn’t shake the thought of Mei in some basement somewhere. Cold and alone.

“Listen, we need someone on the inside. Plan A isn’t going to work,” Daniel said in a low voice to Halene. His eyes met Bailey’s, and he turned away immediately. She wished she knew what Halene was saying to Daniel to get him so riled up. Bailey shook the thought from her mind and rubbed her eyes and slapped her hands on her thighs demonstrating a new sense of urgency.

Bailey turned to Sam’s solemn face and nudged him with her elbow. “Got any ideas?”

“I just work here,” he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, and looked at his hands laying in his lap, where he was twiddling his thumbs back and forth. He and Bailey both felt useless. They’d been burning time. “God, I wish we could do something.” His frustration was
apparent. They were all sensing the need to get engaged. They were in China but felt lost.

Daniel spun around and looked at Sam with a heavy glare; he pulled the speaker of the phone away from his mouth and covered it with his hand. “Wanna get yourself killed? Be my guest,” he growled before returning to his conversation.

“I can’t go in blind,” Daniel said loudly into the phone for the sixth time. Daniel’s hair was sticking up at weird places where he had pulled at it. He was clenching his teeth between talking. His forehead had a hard line from raising his eyebrows in aggravation. A steady, light flow of rain started to sprinkle on them, and Sam lifted up the hood of his jacket over his head. Bailey opened up the bag on her lap and pulled out a jacket and put it on quickly, pulling the hood over her head as well.

Daniel lowered his voice once again as he paced in the rain. Sam and Bailey exchanged a glance. “I’ve never seen him like this,” Bailey noted. “Why do you think he’s so amped up?”

“I didn’t think he had the ability to get
this
nervous,” Sam mumbled. He was trying his best not to be angry with Bailey for kissing Daniel. But the only thing that he saw when he looked at her was her lips on Daniel. He had told her in the airport that he was in the race for her heart. He’d felt so foolish and insecure after he’d said that. But he couldn’t help himself. She was warm; she was inviting. Not only that but she had a drive about her. She had guts. When she wanted something done, she went for it. She had a stubborn abruptness about her that made her so irresistible. She was perfect to him.

Sam shook the thoughts out of his head, resolving not to think about any of this right now. They had a mission, and he needed to be 100 percent invested. He looked at Bailey again, the image of her kissing Daniel still strong in his thoughts. The image of Daniel falling onto her, pushing her into a wall, and kissing her harshly was all he could see. He had to push himself to think of Mei instead.

Bailey’s mouth was open, as if she thought to respond but the words wouldn’t come out. Sam and Bailey looked at each other for a second. Bailey tilted her head, portraying her confusion about his coolness toward her. Sam gave her a faint smile, and suddenly Daniel was pulling
her up by her arm. “We’re meeting someone that’s going to help us at a bar a couple blocks down.” Daniel put his other hand up to hail a cab.

Bailey breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“We can walk,” Sam said. Daniel pointed to the sky as his response. “It’s just a little rain,” Sam mentioned.

“This is a designer shirt, asshole,” Daniel shot back. A cab pulled up to the group, making a sloshing noise as it stopped.

“It’ll save you money,” Sam said. “And I’d really like to discuss the plan, so let’s walk.” Sam unzipped his hoodie to offer it to Daniel.

“No way in hell,” Daniel said, referring to Sam’s offer. He turned to the cab and waved it off. “Let’s walk.” Daniel seemed put off by Sam’s sudden boost in confidence; it was dethroning. Bailey tried to hide the soft smile that crossed her lips. She had to admit to herself: it was hot to see Sam stand up to Daniel.

Finally
, Bailey thought.

The trio walked with purpose. Daniel walked slightly ahead of the other two. Bailey and Sam walked behind him side by side. “What did Halene say exactly?” Sam asked, beginning the conversation. “We need some perspective.”

“Here’s what we believe happened,” Daniel started. “Mei had always been a prisoner of sorts. But she was living in her own home; she was still able to do things like go to the grocery store. Routine things like that. But she always needed a guard present shadowing her every moment.”

“How was she able to escape before?” Bailey asked. It hadn’t occurred to her that she met Mei within the confines of that hotel room. How she got to that hotel room was never fully explained to her.

“I forgot that you came into the mission a little late,” Daniel noted quickly. Bailey looked at Sam, who seemed to want the answer to her question as well.

Sam must have come into the mission when I did
, Bailey thought. Bailey hadn’t realized that she’d come into the mission later then she should have. She thought about the beginning of the mission, trying to remember if she remembered why. Before she could continue the train of thought, Daniel started explaining.

“Halene found an old member of the gang to help Mei escape. The accomplice distracted the guard long enough for Mei to get away from him into a waiting cab. She went a couple of blocks and changed cabs. She repeated the movement multiple times. At one point, she ran for a block and got in a cab going in the opposite direction. This gave her the confidence she had lost her pursuers for the time being. The accomplice had secured a safe house, which is where I met with her. I took her to the hotel room. Which is where you came in. Yeah?”

Bailey nodded softly.

“Since she disobeyed Yin, chances are, he would have put her in one of two places. Both are basements of high-rise apartment buildings that the 14K use as home base. The man we’re going to meet—his name is Hui—would know exactly where they would take her.”

“How’s that?” Sam wondered aloud.

“He was a previous Vanguard to the 14K,” Daniel explained. “He used to be Yin’s father’s second-in-command. My understanding is that Yin forced him out. So he’s been in mainland China for years, avoiding any contact with the 14K. He should be able to give us the information to get us where we need to go.”

“How are we going to get him to help us? Are you sure you can trust him?” Bailey asked, worry scribbled all over her face.

“Relax, Bales. I have a plan. Let the logic handle this,” he instructed.

“What makes us so sure that Mei is still alive?” Sam asked, urgency in his voice. The words seemed to be coated in bitterness, their tension coming to a head. Bailey felt the need to smack him, nudge him, make him shut his mouth. She didn’t want to think of the worst-case scenario. She knew it was a fair question, but she wished it hadn’t come to this.

“Yin will keep her alive for the same reason he never killed her before,” Daniel reminded the other two. “She is of no use to him dead, is she?” He let that resonate for a moment. “If she is gone, we’ll take that as it comes. We’re going to assume she’s alive and develop a plan accordingly as soon as we have a location and survey the comings and goings.”

Daniel was being his logical self. He was not acting high-strung or intense. He was simply telling them how it was. Bailey decided to take
her cue from Daniel’s way of thinking. She needed to be the comfort when the time was right and, until then, an active member of the group. She needed to do what needed to be done to get Mei back.

“This is it.” Sam pointed to the short brick building they were approaching. There was a large window that allowed the group to look into the restaurant. The building had multiple people outside smoking, though the place itself seemed relatively empty. Bailey looked inside and knew the place was a tourist trap. Everything was written in English and Mandarin. Ninety percent of the people in the area were American. She could see only two people who looked Chinese, and they were both waiters. The rain was getting heavier. Bailey looked at the darkening sky and sighed.

“Anything else we should know?” she asked Daniel.

“I don’t think so. We’re hoping Hui is going to have all the answers,” Daniel stated quickly, and opened the door to the bar. He pointed for Bailey to go in, and she shook her head.

“I’m going to stand out here for a little while,” she said. “Enjoy the rain for a minute while we wait for Hui.”

“You all right?” Sam asked, nudging her side.

“I’m fine. I’m always fine.” Bailey said it like a promise and smiled a smile that was usually reserved for their clients. She didn’t need to be comforted. She wanted to give the comfort. Starting right then.

Sam walked inside. Daniel followed him while Bailey leaned against the glass of the building. She had only known Mei for a little while, but it all felt personal to her. She irrationally thought it was her fault Mei was in this situation. She really liked Mei; she didn’t want her to go through any more pain. She needed to focus; she needed to make sure Mei was safe. Bailey sent out a silent prayer that everything would go okay. She had never been religious, but whenever she felt hopeless, she prayed. Sometimes she didn’t even know who she was praying to. In any case, she prayed they could reach Mei and get her back from the grasp of Yin.

She walked into the bar to see Sam and Daniel sitting at a small table at the back of the bar. She took a seat in between them and focused on the table in front of them. It was sticky with spilled drinks and fingerprints.

The man they had been waiting for walked in and glanced around the bar quickly. He saw the trio and came directly to their table. He spoke a few words in Mandarin, and Sam nodded and then introduced the group to him. He was a short Asian man in his midforties. He wore a collared shirt that seemed to large for him and a pair of disheveled slacks. His shoulder-length dark hair was slicked back haphazardly into a low ponytail.

“This is Hui,” Sam said to the group. Sam and the man exchanged words for a moment until Sam looked at Daniel. “He can speak English.”

Daniel seemed somewhat relieved. “I confused,” the man said in heavily Chinese accent. “Is this dream? I haven’t been to Hong Kong in years.”

“Yeah, this is a dream,” Daniel said casually, and patted the seat next to him. “Please. Sit.”