Two Peasants and a President (22 page)

After dinner he went to his desk to firm up what he was going to tell
Shumer
.  It was then that he noticed a small metallic disk sitting in the middle of his desk. 

“Dear
, do you know anything about this thing on my desk?” he called to his wife who was still cleaning up in the kitchen.

“What?” she said.

“This little round thing on my desk, did you put it here?”

“
Lanny
,” she said.  “I knew you weren’t listening.  I mentioned it at dinner and you didn’t even look up.”

“Sorry, dear, but I’m a little preoccupied.  What is it anyway?”

“Well, if you had been listening you would know that it came from your jacket pocket.  I found it when I was putting the dry cleaning together.  I have no idea what it is.”

Brewer looked more closely.  Then he opened his desk drawer and pulled out a magnifier.

“Shit!” he said so loudly that his wife scolded him for swearing for the millionth time.  He picked up the phone. 

“Stuart. 
Lanny
.  I need to see you,” he said quietly into the phone.  “I need to see you now.”

“Christ,
Lanny
!  It’s almost 9:00.  You obviously know I’m at home.  Can it wait till morning?” said
Shumer
.

“OK, but first thing,” replied Brewer. 

3
8

He pitched his suitcase onto a bed whose cover was threadbare in places.  His backpack landed on a desk of Formica and pressboard with chipped edges.  The bathroom would make a sixties’ Holliday Inn look luxurious.  The people he’d seen in the lobby appeared to be mostly Chinese and Indian busi
nessmen
whose expense accounts compelled them to stay in a hotel that went for around US$50 a night.

It was definitely not the part of Hong Kong where most tourists stayed, but it had what the other hotel couldn’t provide, a view of the pier.  Having to peer through a narrow corridor between two other buildings couldn’t exactly be described as a good view, but he was able to see the pier and part of the approach to it.

Richard had first returned to his original perch to observe the junk and related cruise office, but remaining in one spot looking through a camera with a long telephoto lens called attention to him.  Several people had already noticed and sooner or later they would inform others. 

It had occurred to him that those involved with the junk’s operation might logically suspend their activities until things cooled down.  Brett had left no doubt that at least one American family knew what was going on.  But the junk cruise location was all he had to go on.  At this point his only hope was that by watching the pier he might learn something.

Brett and Maggie were sitting in a Hong Kong jail; there was little he could do about that for now.  Commander Moore had assisted in ensuring that they received a visit from the Consulate and were afforded an attorney.  It was likely that Maggie would be released soon, but severely beating a seaman was a serious charge with the potential of a hefty prison sentence for Brett.  Exposing what was going on was the only thing that could save him. 

On the second day spent watching the dock, the suspicion that the o
p
eration had been suspended weighed heavily.  He had spent many hours in a cramped room looking through a telephoto lens while Ray and Holly’s clock ticked.  That Commander Moore had seemed a bit evasive during his last visit troubled him too.  US China relations were at a low point and those manning the Consulate no doubt felt they had to proceed cautiously.  Had it not been for Brett’s recording, they might not have helped at all. 

He had just returned to his room with carryout; there was no room service here, when a police car pulled up to the dock.  Two uniformed police
officers got out and walked over to the junk.  A seaman doing maintenance work topside appeared to call to someone below decks who emerged and approached the police officers.  They spoke for some time as the captain photographed them.  The officers then entered the cruise office, where they remained for approximately ten minutes.  The captain photographed them entering and leaving. 

Moore had agreed to meet him over dinner.

******

“On the flash drive there are some shots of two police officers visiting the junk and the cruise office,” he said handing it to Moore.  “Look, I know it isn’t much; they could be there for a lot of reasons.  But it’s a place to start.  If there’s any way you can learn anything about them, it might just point us the right direction.”  Thi
nking that the Consulate might b
e able or willing to investigate two Hong Police officers in their own country seemed unlikely, but he was desperate.

“Captain, I’ll do what I can but you understand
–
no guarantees.”  Richard nodded.  “The Consulate has a good attorney working on Brett and Maggie’s case.  He says it looks like she may be released the day after t
o
morrow, but they’re going to deport her immediately.  You won’t even be able to see her.”

“Even if I could, it would just give away the fact that I’m here,” replied the captain. “I’m fairly sure that if they haven’t moved on me by now, they probably don’t know I’m tied to this.  What about the evidence in the case?  What do the police have?”

“Unfortunately, under Chinese law, the fact that there were no wi
t
nesses is outweighed by the victim’s description of Brett and the condition the sailor was in when they got him to the hospital.”

“Commander, if no one saw Brett then, how the hell did they find him among thousands and thousands of tourists moving through this c
ity every day?
I’ll tell you how
, because he’s
the spitting
image of Ray and he forced the seaman to tell him what happened!  He all but handed them his name.  They nailed Brett and Maggie just two and a half hours later because all they had to do was match Ray and Brett‘s last name.  That makes it clear that they knew about Ray and Holly.
I don‘t understand
why the Chinese authorities can’
t be confronted with the facts unless they are a part of this.  I still find it hard to believe that this is anything more than some rogue operation, which should make it more likely that the Chinese government would want this thing stopped; I mean how many tourists does it take to go missing before tourism
starts to drop off?”

“Captain,” the commander said.  “I need to speak to you in the strictest confidence,” he paused as though considering whether or not to even co
n
tinue.  “There is an effort being made to help you.  I cannot reveal the details because I don’t know them.  What I do know is that I’ve been instructed in the clearest possible terms to be very, very cautious about what I say to you.  I’m not even supposed to reveal what I just said.”

The captain thought for a moment and then said:

“Commander, I appreciate what you’ve just told me and I will not r
e
veal it to anyone.  I would, however, remind you that the United States Navy once trusted me with a billion dollar warship and a top secret security clea
r
ance.  I had the best training that the Navy has to offer and my initiative saved untold thousands of American lives.  I understand how things work and why I was canned, but that doesn’t change the fact that I might be able to be of help if your superiors would let me in on what’s going on.”

“I will find a way to make that known, Captain,” replied the co
m
mander,
“but I must stress that it is critical that you do nothing but observe at this time.  Any action that you might be tempted to take on your own could jeopardize what is being done.  Am I clear?”

“Perfectly, Commander.  I wonder, is it possible to get a message to Brett and Maggie?”

“I wouldn’t recommend it.  The representative from the consulate, as well as the attorne
y are closely watched when they’
re with them.  There’s no such thing as attorney client privilege here; we have to
assume that everything is recorded
.  You seem to be operating invisibly so far, and I think it best for you
,
as well as us
,
to keep it that way.”

“Captain,” he continued, “it has been suggested to me that as far as the phone is concerned, that going forward you refer to yourself as Lawrence
Tibbets
when you leave a message.  The Consulate attempts to thwart any eavesdropping, but the Chinese are quite good at it.”

39

Brewer was waiting when
Shumer
arrived at the office at 7:30. 

“You meant it when you said first thing,”
Shumer
said in lieu of a greeting.  “Come in.”

The two men sat down with the door closed. 
Shumer
glanced at Brewer for a moment.  The look on his face said that something was very wrong. 

“Spill it,” he said, dispensing with any pleasantries.

“Stuart, I’ve got two pieces of bad news.  Which one do you want first?”

“Let’s start with the worst.” 
Lanny
took the tiny disc out of his pocket and flipped it onto the desk. 

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Looks like it to me,” replied Brewer.  “For all I know it’s still active so why don’t you put it somewhere it’ll get real lonely.” 
Shumer
briefly considered smashing it with his shoe but then though better of it, deciding to put it in the fireproof office safe until he could have someone examine it.  When he came back into the inner office, he looked at Brewer.

“Where the hell did it come from?”

“My wife found it in my jacket pocket.”

“Any idea how long it was in there?”

“Not really, could have been there since the last time it was at the dry cleaners, I suppose, but I think I would’ve noticed it before that.”

“Jesus,
Lanny
,”
Shumer
sat shaking his head.  “You’ve always been a careful guy.  How the hell could this happen?”

“Beats me, it’s not like I loan my clothes out or anything.”

“You check your pockets this morning?”

“There’s not so much as a piece of lint anywhere.”

Shumer
leaned back in his chair, trying to remember the conversation they’d had, a pro
cess interrupted by a muttered “Oh shit!”
and then
a “
Damn it
”
, as what they’d discussed came to mind.  He sat silently for a few minutes, shaking his head slowly until finally he looked up again at Brewer.

“What’s the other bad news?”

“I can’t find
Rawles
.  I gave him a hard time when he couldn’t deliver and he stormed out of the office.  I drove all the way out to his house. 
Looked like nobody was around.  It doesn’t make any sense.  Problem is, he’s the one who knows the broad; I never asked him about her, other than did he think she could do the job.  So unless he shows up, we don’t have any way to try it again.”

When Brewer was gone,
Shumer
sat for a long time thinking over what he was
going to say to the president.

******

“We private now?” asked
Shumer
, after the secure connection was a
c
tivated. 

“Shoot,” replied the president.

“Sometime before
Lanny
was here last time, someone slipped a bug in his jacket.  It was still there during our conversation.  We have to assume there’s a recording out there somewhere.”

“Oh, that makes my day,” replied the president sarcastically. 

“That’s not all,” said
Shumer
.  “
Lanny’s
boy, the one with the broad, has gone missing.  We don’t know where he is or what he’s doing.  He’s the only one who knows the broad, so we don’t have any way to contact her to try to make it happen again.”

“Somehow, when I got up this morning, I knew this day was going to shit,” said the president
.  “The Chinese vice president
will
be here in three days and I don’
t have anything for him, unless I just give him Kansas.”

“I can think of worse ideas,” said Brewer.
“What did you
make of Baines’ rant?” he asked.
“What the hell was
he
talking about anyway, you know,
the part about compelling proof?
  It made me worry about the r
e
cording for an instant but frankly, I don’t think we said anything that we have to worry about.  It was all pretty vague.”