The First End (21 page)

Ye smiled at the soldiers and said something in
Chinese, pointing to Bill, then herself, and then back to Bill. The
younger soldier nodded, smiling, but the other one just stared at
the American, a frown tugging at his lips. He said something to Ye,
who looked at Bill. “He want see passport.”

Bill had intentionally run the document under
some water several days back and rubbed some dirt over the picture,
obscuring it. It had a passing resemblance to him, and he hoped it
would be enough to allow him through. He figured he could take both
guards out, but the commotion wouldn’t go unnoticed from the
Vietnam side, and he doubted that they would grant political asylum
to an American.

The guard took the passport and began examining
it. He said something else to Ye. “He ask why you want to go
across.”

“I’ve never been to Vietnam. I just want to
spend a day or two there.” Bill pulled out a wad of cash he had
kept for just this moment. “Tell him I can pay the bridge fee.”

The man’s eyes lit up at the sight of the money.
He spoke rapidly to Ye, naming a ‘bridge fee’ to get across. It
took a large portion of his money, but the bribe worked. The guard
waved him through.

Promising to come back in a few days to meet Ye
and her brother—another lie, but a necessary one—he walked across
the bridge towards the Vietnamese side. He gave money to the guards
that awaited him there and still more to the sour-faced owner of a
rickety old car to rent it. Gardner suspected that he paid in rent
more than the car was worth, but then the owner clearly didn’t
expect to ever see his car again—a very astute man.

Two days later, he boarded a flight for the
Philippines, and from there, home.

Only one thing caused him some alarm. A Chinese
man had boarded the plane in Hanoi with Bill and the same man had
gotten on the plane to San Francisco, via Hawaii. He was there
again when Bill transferred planes to New York.

There could very well have been a logical
explanation for the man to have taken the same route as Bill had.
New York was a major hub of trade and commerce, many Chinese made
the exact same trip. But it was the fact that he had followed Bill
from Hanoi that bothered him so much.

When they got off the plane in New York, he
intentionally waited around for the man to see where he would go.
The Chinese man, dressed in a business suit and carrying only a
briefcase, did not even look around. He went straight to a taxi and
left in a cloud of fumes.

“Stop it, Bill!” he whispered to himself. “You
are jumping at shadows.”

He turned to walk to the domestic parking lot
where his girlfriend Karen would be waiting to give him a ride back
to his apartment. Now that he was home safely, he was a bit
bewildered as to what to do next. He dare not contact General
Hynes…not yet, anyway. No doubt the man already knew that Bill had
returned and a call would most likely come at some point in the
future. He had been out of touch with his law firm for so long, he
half wondered if they had rented out his old offices to someone
else.

He sighed, trying to figure out his next steps.
At least Karen seemed happy to see him. She squealed when she
caught sight of him as he stepped out of the elevator. He had to
drop his small tote bag to collect her in his arms lest she bowl
him over. She hugged him tightly. “I’ve missed you so much,
Bill.”

He reveled in the feel of her, the smell of her
brown hair, nestled just under his chin, and the warm sensations of
coming home. He pulled back to look her in the eyes. “I’m so sorry
Karen. I wish I could give you more of an explanation of where I
was or what I did. I hope you can trust me and believe me when I
say it is best put behind us.” He grinned. “It is so good to see
you!”

She allowed a frown to touch her lips. “I was
really frightened, Bill. I had no idea where you were or what was
going on.”

He sighed and pulled her close again. “I know. I
wish I could have called or something, but I couldn’t. I just
couldn’t.”

“I wish I understood why,” she replied
plaintively.

“Me too,” he whispered. “Me too.”

They walked to her new Ford Edge, enjoying each
other’s presence. “Are you back for good,” she asked, unlocking the
car door.

“I better be,” he grumbled loudly. He needed to
change the subject. “How’s the telecommunication business treating
you?”

Karen made a face as she swung into the driver’s
seat. Bill tossed his bag into the back seat and then joined her in
the front. She rolled her eyes. “You remember Jerry? The idiot
tried to make a pass at me the other day. I nearly had to kick him
in the balls to get him to leave me alone.”

A surge of jealously caused Bill’s blood to
boil, but he stomped it down. “Well, you are a most gorgeous girl
I’ve ever met. He’d be a fool not to try. How did you get him to
leave you alone?”

“I told him that my boyfriend was a trained
assassin for the government.”

Bill went cold, his face settling into a mask.
Karen noticed.

“I’m kidding, Bill! Don’t freak out on me. I
just told him that I would slap a sexual harassment suit on his
empty head if he didn’t back off. He did. Apparently he is more
interested in keeping his job than in pursuing me.” She shook her
head at the futility of it all, and Bill relaxed. Her comment had
struck too close to home.

“Good for you,” he said glibly.

They talked about mundane things for the rest of
the trip home. Karen only had a few hours off of work, so she
dropped him off at his apartment and then dashed away. Bill watched
her go, feeling slightly out of his depth. He ran a hand through
his hair, idly realizing he needed a haircut.

He turned to go inside when a taxi drove by.
Something about it caught his eye, and he swung back around to
look. He couldn’t be certain, but the face in the passenger seat
looked to be Asian. He frowned and watched it disappear down the
road. Shaking his head at his own paranoia, he went up to his
apartment.

He studied the door and from what he could tell,
nothing had been disturbed. Opening it, he heard something being
pushed across the floor.

Freezing, with his heart pounding in his chest,
he waiting for something to explode.

Nothing happened.

Taking a deep breath, Gardner poked his head
around the door to see a package lying on the other side. He
glanced quickly up and down the hall, and seeing no one, he closed
his door, locked it, and picked the package up gingerly. It felt
too light to be a bomb, and too thin to be much more than
paper.

He turned it over and saw no markings or
writing. Going into the kitchen, he set it down on his plain dining
room table and got out a knife and a pair of latex gloves he used
for cleaning. There may not be a bomb inside, but a poisonous
powder, such as anthrax, could have been stuffed inside. He wasn’t
about to take any chances. Holding his breath, he slit it open and
poured out its contents.

Two pieces of paper slid out onto the table.
Nothing else. One was obviously a check. He looked at the amount
and blinked in astonishment. He looked at the sender on the check
and his jaw nearly fell open.
Wastend? What the…
Bill picked
up the other note and read:

Bill,

I feel the need to apologize for the rough
treatment you received at the hands of my company. It was unfair to
send you on such a hazardous assignment with no support from those
who hired you. I wouldn’t blame you for your anger, and I don’t
intend this letter to be one of reconciliation.

You served this company with distinction, and
for that you have our gratitude. I grieve for everything we lost
over there, and hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me
the wrong I did to you. I know that nothing can compensate for the
feelings of betrayal you are no doubt harboring, but I have
included a small token of our appreciation.

I don’t know if we will ever call on each other
again, and as things turned out, it might be best we go our
separate ways. There doesn’t seem to be any point in bringing this
up in any legal capacity. That would simply make the lives of a
great many people miserable.

Again, I am thankful.

Sincerely Yours,

Frank Vellore

CEO, Wastend, Inc.

Bill stared at the note. The letter had been
printed on official company letterhead and the signature looked
genuinely Frank’s, but Bill knew Frank never wrote the letter,
though he probably issued the check—under duress, no doubt. No, the
letter had come from General Hynes. He was sure of it.

The situation in China—particularly his
survival—had created some problems for General Hynes. Bill didn’t
doubt that the man really was sorry for the situation he had put
Gardner in, but the letter was also a warning, saying, “Here is
some money. Don’t try to contact us again, and we won’t try to
contact you.”

No doubt China was frantically trying to
discover the truth of what had happened that night at the secret
facility in Beijing, and no doubt they would look for proof that
the US Government was complicit in the attack that had cost the
lives of Chinese soldiers. Everything needed to point to
Wastend…everything. “Even this letter,” Bill said aloud, chuckling
at the absurdity of it all.

He put the letter down and picked up the check.
He whistled in appreciation. “Poor Frank, he must be fit to be
tied!” No doubt the CEO was fuming at having to pay out money to
help with the cover-up. Bill shrugged. It couldn’t have happened to
a nicer guy.

He burned the letter and put the check in his
wallet.

The next day, Bill went to his work. Cassie
wasn’t there, but then he hadn’t expected her to be there either.
Until he went to his office computer, he had no way of contacting
her. He looked around at the empty office and sighed. Cassie had
left everything in perfect order—as usual. But it all looked too
clean. Nothing sat in the ‘in’ box, and he had no prospective
clients. He could live comfortably off the check Hynes had sent him
for a good couple of years, but that seemed routinely unsatisfying.
He needed to be working. He needed to do something. He needed to
forget.

Picking up the phone, he called Cassie’s
house.

“Cassie, Bill here.”

“Mr. Gardner! You’re back!”

“Yeah, it looks like it. Look, Cassie, I wanted
to apologize for my absence. I wish I could have kept you better
informed but the client was a real jerk about it. Anyway, I want
you to come back to work. I’ll compensate you for the time away as
well as a bonus. How does that sound?”

“A bonus?” she asked.

“Sure, my last client paid well.”

“Thanks, Mr. Gardner. I’ll be right in.”

“Take your time. Tomorrow is okay. Today, I need
to readjust. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She hesitated slightly. “Very good, sir. I’ll
see you tomorrow.”

He hung up and sat back in his chair.
Now
what?
He looked at the phone, willing it to ring, willing a
client to be on the other side. The phone remained quiet. He
checked his messages, but nothing was there. All his former cases
had been handed over to other lawyers in the firm. He would have to
rebuild a caseload.

His stomach growled. “Well, that can wait until
tomorrow,” he muttered, standing up. “Right now, I want to get
something to eat.”

Back outside, he started walking towards a
Chinese restaurant. He stopped abruptly, shaking his head.
What
am I doing. That’s the last place I want to be.
He changed
direction, deciding to go instead to the nearest McDonalds.
Good
ol’ American grease. That’s what I need.

As he walked, something began to tug at the
corner of his awareness. Something was not quite right. He glanced
around and saw nothing. Going a little further, it dawned on him
that he was being followed. He looked furtively around, but saw no
one. Whoever was tailing him was good—very good. He didn’t know who
it might be, but he suspected that General Hynes was having him
tailed in an effort to make sure he kept quiet about the entire
China affair.

Still, he resented it. Why couldn’t everyone
just leave him alone?

Deciding to confront his tail, he turned into an
alley that cut across to another major street. He ducked quickly
behind a dumpster and waited. Sure enough, not a minute later a
Chinese man peeked around the corner.

Bill went cold. The Chinese. He swore to
himself, wondering how they had found out. He had hoped they
thought he was dead. He had hoped to get out of China without
getting on the top of their most wanted list.

Clearly, his hope had been in vain.

Not seeing him, the spy moved cautiously into
the alley. When he was but five feet away, Bill stepped out. He
wanted the man close enough to grapple with in case his pursuer
produced a weapon—like a gun.

The man stopped, seemingly unsurprised at Bill’s
appearance. He waited, saying nothing.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Bill
demanded, growing tired of the faceoff.

The Chinese man studied Bill. Finally he said,
“We want vengeance, Bill Gardner.”

“For what?”

“For murder, and for many other things”

“Let’s say, we kill you now, nobody would know.
Your mission was kept secret and so your death will be.”

A sound from behind Bill alerted him to a second
assailant. Cursing his complacency, he lunged forward driving his
fist into the man’s face. Only the man wasn’t there. The wily man
slipped to one side and delivered a punishing kick to the back of
Bill’s knee. His left leg collapsed, causing him to lose his
balance. He fell heavily into a dumpster, which scooted back a few
inches upon the impact.

He managed to keep his feet somehow, but when he
twisted around, the Chinese attacker stood right there. Three
punches in quick succession hit Bill, two in the face and one in
the chest. The chest punch practically knocked all the air out of
his lungs, and the ones to his face, undoubtedly broke his nose.
Blood poured down his face, running into his mouth and dripping off
his chin.