Lethal Force (16 page)

Yes, she had. And that was the problem with turning over the professor's data directly to Toni. She knew that he would have a hard time saying no to her. Maybe Jake should have just uploaded the research to her. “What can I possibly do that your people can't do?”

Her brows scrunched down with contemplation. “I can trust you, Jake.”

“And you can't trust your own people?”

“We have a leak somewhere. I've been trying to plug it for a while, but no luck.”

He'd worked with leaks in the past. It was never fun. Maybe that's why he worked alone now. “You always seem to have a leak. So, what do you need me to do?”

Toni came to him and gave him a big hug. “I knew I could count on you.” Pulling away and holding his arms, she continued, “The actors in this could be State players, but it could be companies that want this technology.”

“Like we found with the Hungarians years ago.”

“Right. Yet, it could be both. We could have companies paying for the op, using these former intel officers to divert attention away from their own country.”

“That's what I would do,” Jake agreed. “If I'm China I'd use former French agents. Maybe Canadians.”

“So you're not buying this Czech and Ukrainian and Russian cabal?”

He shook his head. “Not really.”

“Me either.” She started toward the door and stopped.

“You're forgetting something,” Jake said, a huff of laughter in his words.

Turning to him, she said, “Right. Where do we go from here.”

She knew exactly what she wanted to tell him, Jake knew. Toni was very good at her job, and her job was to use the best people to reach the best result. And she had probably orchestrated this entire conversation. She also knew that Jake would acquiesce to her before she stepped foot in this Ritz-Carlton. But, since Jake knew what she was doing, it wasn't like he was being manipulated. He was simply a willing actor in her play.

She explained what she wanted from him, obviously leaving out almost as much as she told him. Compensation would flow directly to his bank account in Luxembourg, and Jake knew it would probably come from some obscure internet porn site. Toni had a great sense of humor.

“Korea?” Jake said. “You want me to babysit a congressional delegation?”

“Not officially, Jake. Someone from that delegation is part of our leak.”

“Well, I guarantee that Lori Freeman is not the leak,” he assured her.

“I know that. We think it's from the other side of the aisle.”

“How do you expect me to look into these people with Lori there? She'll see me and know something is up.”

Smiling, she said, “Let me worry about your cover. You need to get on a plane immediately and get there before them.”

“Military transport?”

“Good guess. Be at Andrews at zero three hundred. There will be a pouch and bag waiting for you.”

“Hopefully a gun.”

“Two. Identical Glock 19 gen-fours in 9mm.”

“Nice guns,” he said. “I own a few Glocks.”

“I know. But both of these are registered to a guy from Texas who has been dead for five years.”

“Standard fifteen round magazines?” Jake asked.

“Yes. But I've given you four extra magazines. Besides, I don't expect you to use them.”

It was never expected, Jake thought. But shit always seemed to happen.

“But I just checked in here,” Jake said.

She went to the door and turned back. “You can still get a couple of hours.”

Toni left him alone to consider his current situation. Yeah, he could get some sleep. But now all he could think about was this case. What in the hell had he gotten himself into this time?

●

As Toni walked to the elevator, her emotions fluctuated from longing to disgust. She had just lied to the only man she would probably ever love. Yet, somehow he seemed to know she was lying. Jake could always read her, and that continually pissed her off. Just once it would have been nice to be able to deceive him like her training and experience allowed with other men. Perhaps her love for him was the problem. She couldn't allow herself to be totally deceptive with Jake. Others were merely targets.

She got into the elevator and pushed the button for the garage. The doors closed and she gently felt the flash card in her right front pocket. Somehow Jake had gotten the information they needed without much trouble. Well, he did have to kill that man in Montana and release the kidnapped professor. That was something. But in the short time he had been with the professor he had convinced the man to turn over his research—something the government had tried to do though coercion and persuasion ever since they had found out about his ground-breaking discoveries.

Getting off at the garage level, Toni smiled as she walked casually to her car. A part of her wished she could go to Korea with Jake. To be together with Jake one more time. . .no, that wouldn't work. Or could it? They had been good together.

Before she reached her car, she stopped for a second, as if she had forgotten something and was considering going back inside. In reality, something felt wrong. She wasn't sure what, though. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and tickled her, as if a cold breeze struck her briskly from behind.

Instinctively, she switched the car keys from her right hand to her left as she clicked open the driver's door. Then with her right hand, she drew her 9mm auto handgun from inside her leather jacket and turned swiftly toward a slight shuffling sound behind her.

A man with a gun lowered himself behind the back of a car, giving her no shot. She crouched down low, her gun aimed toward the hostile.

Suddenly, a sharp pain struck her in her right butt cheek, followed by a jolt that knocked her from her feet. She found herself flopping around on the cold, hard concrete ground and thinking about the last time she had been struck by a Tazer, with fifty thousand volts passing through her body. She was helpless. A completely unfamiliar feeling for her.

Her head against the concrete, the clicking sound of the Tazer still zapping her muscles into a bundle of flaccidity, she was aware of the sound of high heels coming toward her. As her eyes focused on this new sound, she smiled when she saw the most beautiful shoes she had seen in years. Rising up from those heels were extremely fit ankles. And those were her last thoughts before the second wave of volts coursed through her body.

Jake considered it a sin to leave his luxury hotel room in the middle of the night to catch a flight on a military aircraft at zero dark thirty. He wished he had a buck for every time he had strapped himself into a web seat on a C-130, or inside a Blackhawk. But he had gotten to Joint Base Andrews and found out he would be riding on what looked like the private jet of a spoiled Hollywood actor, a Gulfstream G550 or the military version C-37B, he was relieved somewhat. He knew they could make the entire flight from DC to South Korea on one tank of fuel. And if he had to fly, this was one helluva way to do so.

After some thirteen hours in the air, with nearly everyone aboard sleeping most of the way, they finally touched down at Osan Air Base, South Korea, some 45 miles south of Seoul. As he got off the plane and onto the tarmac, he couldn't help thinking about the last time he was at Osan, where he had been strapped into a pod in the bomb bay of a B-2, and then was later dropped off into the Russian Far East. Not too many happy thoughts with that mission, other than his brief relationship with Chang Su.

At the operations building, a slight Korean man wearing an oversized black business suit, his close-cropped hair speckled with a touch of gray, smiled broadly when he saw Jake enter with his pack over his shoulder. Jake had heard a man would meet him here, but he had just gotten a name without a description.

“Mister Adams,” the Korean man said, extending his hand. “I'm Kim Chin-Hwa.”

Jake shook the man's hand, his grip much stronger than expected, considering the man's stature. “Chin Hwa?”

“You can call me Kim,” he said.

Sizing up the guy, Jake said, “How long have you been with the Agency in Seoul?”

The Korean's lips tightened, as if he wanted to say something immediately, but he was holding back to form his words clearly. “Did I say I was with the Agency?”

Shaking his head and letting out a breath of air through his nostrils, Jake walked out the front door toward the parking lot and felt the shorter man trying to keep up with his pace.

“Mister Adams,” he said.

Jake continued walking until he reached the passenger side of a black Hyundai sedan. Then he turned to the Korean with a smile.

“How do you know this is my car?” Kim asked.

Scanning his eyes across the small parking lot, there were only half a dozen private passenger cars. The rest were military trucks and cars. “The cars along the back side are from Air Force personnel,” Jake said. “This is the only private-looking vehicle in the lot. The Agency always tries to blend in to the host country. Is this not your car?”

Kim smiled and clicked the doors open.

Jake threw his backpack into the back seat and got into the front.

Settling in behind the wheel, Kim said, “They told me you could be difficult.”

“They?”

“The station chief in Seoul.”

“Your boss.”

“Yes, sir.” Kim turned over the car and headed toward the front gate.

After a long silence, just as they passed through the main gate toward the expressway, Jake finally said, “Will you be babysitting me while I'm here?”

“Do you need a babysitter?”

“I usually work alone,” Jake said, but that wasn't entirely true. “So I don't really need someone watching my every move.”

Kim picked up speed and ran through a yellow light just outside of the base.

“I have my orders,” Kim said.

“How well known are you in Korea?” Jake wanted to know.

“Not well. I just got here two months ago.”

“From?”

Kim hesitated. “I suppose if you wanted to, you could find out on your own. I understand you are a good friend of Kurt Jenkins.” He let that stand, as if waiting for Jake to respond. When Jake didn't bite, Kim continued, “I was in China for three years. Before that, Singapore. Prior to that I worked at Fort Meade.”

“Air Force or Army linguist?” Jake asked.

“Air Force,” Kim said. “Ten years before the Agency recruited me.”

“Hmm. We have a similar background.”

“But you were mostly tactical human intelligence,” Kim said. “I was mostly stuck in a bunker listening to North Korean transmissions.”

The Korean turned and picked up speed as he entered the onramp to the freeway.

Thinking it over, Jake considered he might be better off keeping Kim close to him. He might pick up on the subtle differences between the South Korean speakers and their cousins to the North.

“Where are we heading?” Jake asked.

“Seoul.” Kim turned into the fast lane and picked up speed, passing slower cars and buses. “The station chief needs to brief you tonight. We have you booked on a flight to Gyeongju in the morning. The American delegation will fly in on a private jet tomorrow afternoon.”

“Isn't that city way out in the east?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why Gyeongju?”

“Truthfully?”

“Is there any other way?”

Kim hesitated, his eyes shifting toward Jake and then back to the road. “Dog and pony show. I understand the chair of the house intelligence committee likes the golf course there. The South Korean delegation will have them tour Bulguksa Temple, the Seokguram Grotto and the tombs.”

“What's the real purpose of the meeting?” Jake asked.

“That's above my pay-grade, sir.”

“If you don't start calling me Jake, I might have to hurt you.”

“In Korea we respect our elders,” Kim said with a slight smile.

“Ouch. But in this business if anyone hears you using deference to me, and they assume I'm the boss. The target.”

“Understood. Jake it is.”

They sat in silence for a long while, with Jake watching the tall apartment buildings out his window. He guessed that people would live this far out of Seoul and commute in by train. Although he had slept quite a bit on the plane ride, Jake was still feeling somewhat lagged. Perhaps the travel from South America and Montana was starting to catch up with him. Either that or he really was starting to get too old for this crap.

As they reached the southern edge of Seoul, which was really hard to discern since the sprawl from Osan seemed to be continuous, the sun was setting over Incheon to the west.

“Tell me about the station chief,” Jake said, more of a demand than a request.

Kim's eyes shifted again. “She's a good leader.”

“Demanding?”

“Is there any other kind of Korean woman?” Kim laughed at himself.

“I don't know. I guess I haven't known that many.” Jake thought about it and continued, “What's her background?”

“Stanford undergrad in languages by age twenty. Graduate degree from Harvard by twenty-two. Fluent in Korean, Mandarin and French. Has been with the Agency for nearly twenty years.”

“What's her name?”

“Pam Suh. Her mother was a French teacher and her father a cardiologist in Davis, California.”

Jake never crossed paths with her, but that wasn't unusual, since he had been out of the Agency for so long. “Do you know where she has served?”

“She started here in Seoul for her first assignment. Then Paris, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Langley, and then back here. Of course she had special assignments all over the place.”

Jake could relate. “Where does she want to meet?”

“She'll meet you at your hotel in the Myeongdong area at eight tonight. Dinner in the main hotel restaurant.”

Checking his watch, that was just a little over two hours. In the next few minutes they crossed the Hangang River that split the city in two, and then exited the freeway and wound through the busy city streets lined with the major hotel chains. Kim pulled into the entrance to a huge hotel complex nearly a block wide and stopped at the curb in front. Over the years, Jake had stayed at a number of Lotte hotels. They were all nice and this one looked like no exception. Someone at the Agency was treating Jake like royalty.