White Ghost (25 page)

“This is how things stand,” Zhang said to him. “If you cooperate, you'll be allowed to go home in a few weeks, longer if you can't travel. Until then you'll be under my protection and supervision.”

Zhang took out his PLA identification card and held it out so Taiwan could read it.

Taiwan nodded.

“We only have a few questions before we start driving to the doctor.”

Taiwan grunted.

“Answer carefully. You only have one chance to make things right. You understand?”

Taiwan nodded.

“Why did you kidnap Lew?”

Taiwan hesitated, glancing between Zhang and Gage. He winced against the pain, then said, “I was told if anything went wrong with the deal to kill him.”

“What went wrong?”

“Nothing. The deal went as planned.”

“But?” Zhang said.

“But I spotted people watching Wu's house. My instructions were to break the link to the United States if the deal was compromised.”

“What did you think was happening?”

“I thought it was Chinese police getting ready to grab Lew. I needed to keep them from questioning him.”

“Have you told anyone about the problem?”

Taiwan shook his head. “I was told to act on my own.”

“When do you have to report in?”

“Within the next two hours. After that, there'll be questions.”

Zhang and Gage stepped away from the van.

“Can we trust him to make the call now?” Gage asked Zhang. “I can't tell how sincere he is. I mostly see pain on his face.”

Zhang displayed his gun. “The man wants to live, and this will purchase some sincerity.”

They walked back.

“We want to you make the call now,” Zhang told Taiwan. “What are you supposed to say?”

“Either that everything is fine or that the problem has been solved, and then hang up.”

Zhang smirked. “And how is everything?”

Taiwan swallowed and glanced back and forth between Gage and Zhang. “Everything is fine.”

“What's the telephone number?”

On hearing the number, Lew's shoulders sank. He buried his face in his muddy hands.

“Ask him whose number it is,” Gage asked.

As Zhang translated, a look of panic swept Taiwan's face.

“Tell him it's a test,” Gage said, “and he better not get it wrong.”

Taiwan looked as if he was struggling to overcome great internal resistance, perhaps even violate a vow of loyalty he'd once taken during a secret brotherhood initiation in an incense-infused room.

“It is a mobile phone in California.”

“And?”

“It is a man named Ah Ming.”

“You passed the test,” Gage told Taiwan. “You'll live to kill again.”

Zhang pulled out his cell phone, punched in the number, pressed “send,” waited for the first ring, then handed the phone to Taiwan.

“Everything is fine.”

M
alee will kill me . . . and she'll never forgive you,” Cobra said, looking up at Gage from the dining room table where he had been laid in the doctor's house in Nantong. His voice was groggy from the painkiller that was now taking effect. “She might not let us play together again.”

“She'll be so happy to see you she won't notice either the entrance or exit holes.”

“I'm lucky there was an exit hole.” Cobra winced. “Did you hear Taiwan yelling when the doctor dug out the slug?”

Retired colonel Dr. Yin entered the dining room to check on his patient. Even in his seventies, Yin hadn't seemed disconcerted by the appearance on his doorstep of two gunshot victims, a PLA general, a Thai-Chinese woman, an old man, and a white ghost. The wry expression on Yin's face told Gage that for him it was just another day in modern China.

Yin checked Cobra's bandages, verified that the bleeding had stopped, and announced that he was free to leave. He said he wanted to keep Taiwan for a few days because Gage's slug had punched through his hip and he needed to stabilize it.

Zhang assigned two soldiers to guard Taiwan and handed Yin
all the money he'd taken from the wounded man's pockets, an amount equal to $2,900 US, more than a year's pay for a doctor.

Kai and Gage helped Cobra off the table and draped a blanket around him, then guided him to Kai's car and eased him into the rear passenger seat.

Zhang followed them outside. “There's still the matter of my chips.”

“I'll have the serial numbers as soon as I get to the hotel.”

“What if they're not there?”

“They'll be there. Ask Taiwan.”

“I already did.” Zhang smiled. “Not all that screaming was medical. He said ‘everything is fine,' I just wanted to make sure how fine.”

“You have to learn to lay off,” Gage said. “That guy was ours.”

Gage glanced into the car. Cobra was asleep in the front passenger seat.

Ferrari brought Lew outside and Gage positioned him in the back between himself and Kai. Then Ferrari drove them to the hotel. And while Ferrari took Lew to Kai's room, Gage and Kai helped Cobra to his own where she arranged him in bed.

Gage checked his phone and found the list of serial numbers Sylvia had sent and forwarded it onto Zhang. Gage and Kai found Zhang waiting at his door when they arrived. The tension and expectation in Zhang's walk as they entered the room reminded Gage of a lion looking forward to his next kill.

“When do you want to make the announcement of the seizure?”

Zhang's question suggested to Gage that the general was now in pursuit not of financial, but of political gain and it was too soon to make that move.

“Not until the heroin is on its way from Taiwan to the States. That way there's no turning back for Ah Ming.”

Gage felt a wave of exhaustion shudder through him. He
looked toward the window so Zhang and Kai wouldn't see it on his face. His mind went gray for a moment. He knew he wasn't seeing something. Some complication. He could feel the pressure of Zhang's gaze. A thought came to him: Ah Ming would hear on the news about the PLA raid and the chip seizure and might conclude that his operation was compromised and abandon the heroin at the U.S. port.

Gage looked back at Zhang. “When the time comes, have Huang Medical turn itself in. That way you won't have to explain how you got involved in this, and Ah Ming will think the seizure isn't related to him. The company can say that they were suspicious about the origin of the chips. And have Huang make up a purchase order for a fake company and a fake invoice to give themselves a paper trail. Make the payment terms sixty days from now. That way they won't have to answer any questions about how they paid for the chips.”

Zhang smiled. “You think like a criminal. Maybe you made a bad career choice.” His smile faded, then he adopted a sage's smile. “Your idea is perfect as far as my government is concerned. It'll be a way for China to assure corporations in the West that it's complying with their demands for enforcement in technology crimes, but we won't have to punish a successful company.”

And,
Gage thought to himself,
Huang Medical's continuing success will necessitate regular kickbacks to Zhang to keep his mouth shut, probably paid into his offshore Calico bank account.

And Gage wanted something, too. “I need to reward someone for his help. Any objection to an FBI agent coming over and collecting the chips? Maybe make a show of it. He works out of Silicon Valley.”

“I can deal with him directly if you want. I'll look better that way.”

“And I need you to hold Lew for about thirty days.”

Zhang squinted up toward the ceiling. “What would Cobra say?”

Kai answered. “
Mai pen rai.
”

“That's it.” He smiled again. “
Mai pen rai.
”

“One other thing,” Gage said. “Find out where Taiwan was staying—gently—and have someone search his and Lew's rooms.”

“I'll have my people bring everything to you. Neither one will need a hotel anymore.”

Gage locked his eyes on Zhang. “Don't you mean, they won't need rooms for the next couple of weeks?”

“Yes, of course . . . that's exactly what I meant.”

G
age and Kai walked over to her room and sat down at the dining table with Lew. Ferrari checked the windows and confirmed that an attempted escape would only result in death ten floors below, then he stepped into the hallway.

Lew had adopted an impassive expression, seemingly strengthened by time and distance from the violence and blood, and from Zhang.

“Did Wu have anything to do with my kidnapping?” Lew asked Gage.

“As far as we know, Ah Ming ordered it directly from the States.”

For reasons Gage didn't understand, Lew sighed as though grateful that it hadn't been Wu who'd set him up.

“We want Ah Ming. We know he was behind the robbery where that boy was killed.”

“I had nothing to do with that.”

“At this point we can't prove otherwise.”

“I just handle paperwork.”

“Somebody had to. How well did you know Ah Tien?”

“He managed some affairs for Ah Ming and I managed others. I was shocked to learn he was murdered. I wasn't involved. I don't approve of violence.”

Gage felt a flush of anger at Lew's evasion and self-deception. “But you sure seem willing to overlook a hell of a lot of it.” He bore down on him. “You know the American expression, what goes around, comes around?”

Lew drew back. “You won't let Zhang hurt me, will you?”

“This is his territory, not mine. But in exchange for the right answers, I'll try to dissuade him.”

Lew sat in silence for a few moments, then said, “I realize I'm not in a strong position, and I don't know exactly what you've done today. I don't even know whether Zhang has seized the heroin and the chips. But do I know this. I won't do anything to harm anyone except Ah Ming.”

Lew looked at Kai. “I think you might understand. I won't help General Zhang against anyone here. My life began in China and in a way I hadn't anticipated, it is my home again. And if this is where my life has to end, fine, it will end.”

Gage pointed at Kai. “She and I need to talk.”

Kai instructed Ferrari to order dinner for Lew, then she and Gage walked back to his room.

“I think he means it,” Kai said, sitting down on the couch. “And he knows you won't let Zhang hurt him. He sized you up right. He's a survivor.”

“I think he's lying about the robbery and I think he's lying about Ah Tien. Ah Ming wouldn't send him over here if he wasn't completely trustworthy, and if he's trustworthy in one thing, he's trustworthy in the other.” Gage paced the floor, getting angrier with each step. “That little weasel is starting to tick me off. His self-deceiving melodramatic ‘China is my home again' is sickening. All China needs are more Lews. He knows
we can't make him on the robbery or Ah Tien's murder. He's also figured out we need him for something. And we do. We need to tie the heroin to Ah Ming and I doubt I can do it without him.”

“There's another American expression I learned in the States,” Kai said. “Take what you can get.”

“You're right. Let's go make a deal.”

Kai and Gage arrived back at her room just after the room service waiter set bowls of noodles on the table. Ferrari followed him back into the hallway and closed the door.

Lew laid his chopsticks across the bowl and looked up.

“What does Ah Ming think you're doing now?” Gage asked.

“We agreed—or at least I thought we had agreed—before I left that since I worked so closely with him, I had better stay away for a while. I wouldn't even contact him again at least until after the heroin had been distributed.”

“When will that be?”

“The same day the container arrives.”

“At Sunny Glory?”

“Sunny Glory?” Lew's voice rose. “You know about Chau?”

“I know a lot of things.”

Uncertainty crossed Lew's face. Now he wasn't sure exactly what Gage knew.

“Chau has no idea what's really going on,” Lew said. “He's willing to believe all of this is about avoiding trade restrictions going into China and customs duties in the U.S.”

“You mean that's what he wanted to believe.”

Lew shrugged. “We didn't care what he believed. He was convenient because he has branches both in the States and in Taiwan.”

“And he's greedy.”

Lew nodded.

“Isn't Chau in United Bamboo?”

Lew shook his head. “But I think his partner in Taiwan is. Chau isn't tough enough for that kind of life.”

“Does Ah Ming deal with Chau directly?”

“Only Ah Tien and I dealt with him. Ah Ming would terrify him.”

“You mean he wouldn't be able to believe what he wanted to believe.”

“Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“What about his customs broker, InterOcean?”

“Only me and Ah Tien. We picked them for the same reason we picked Sunny Glory. They have branches in both San Francisco and Taiwan.”

“These people are all Chaozhou and involved in smuggling,” Kai said. “Surely everyone must at least suspect the possibility that it's heroin they're moving.”

“They have no idea the shipments coming out of China originate in Thailand. They're chiselers at heart. They don't think about things they don't want to think about.”

“What about the Thai end?” Gage asked. “Who does Ah Ming deal with?”

Lew shook his head. “I can't answer that. It'll get you no closer to Ah Ming and it'll hurt others unnecessarily. If you want to widen your net, you'll have to cast it elsewhere.”

Gage decided not to fight him. His more immediate need was local.

“What about ChinaCom?”

Lew nodded. He'd answer that question. “ChinaCom wanted some separation between themselves and the chips, so they brought in Huang Medical. If you know about ChinaCom, you must know it was a ChinaCom executive who brought the cash to pay for the chips. I've been thinking that he secretly owns Huang himself.”

“And you used the money in the briefcase to pay for the heroin?”

“Yes.”

“What currency?”

“Dollars. The supplier insisted on dollars.”

“What route will the heroin follow to the States?”

“The reverse of the one the chips followed. Through Sunny Glory in Taiwan and back onto a container. Unless there are delays, it will go out on the Hanjin
Beijing
to the Port of Oakland and will be trucked to Sunny Glory in San Francisco.”

Lew smiled. Gage saw in his eyes that he was drawing back to stab Ah Ming.

“East Wind makes pickups at Sunny Glory almost hourly. That's Ah Ming's secret. His heroin operation is invisible. After the heroin arrives, the trucks will collect boxes of processed garlic, like on any other day, but the ones with special numbering will contain the heroin. A dash and two ones after the product number. The drivers continue on their routes and make their deliveries. It's for much younger men than me to know who receives the heroin, cuts it, and delivers it to the distributors. Ah Tien knew and managed everything, but he's gone.”

Gage looked at Kai; she shook her head. There was no reason to pressure him about who pulled the trigger that killed Ah Tien. Lew wasn't about to confess to participation in a conspiracy to commit murder.

K
AI AND
G
AGE LEFT THE HOTEL
for a walk along the river. Gage needed to think and needed distance and evening air. He felt his body starting to let him down, a kind of fatigue that seemed to radiate outward from his heart to his limbs.

Within a block they came upon an outdoor food market. Flames shot up from woks resting on gas burners, and the smell of garlic, ginger, and smoking peppers infused the breeze flow
ing in from the Yangtze. Workers were buying dinner on their way home, and after-school children with their heavy backpacks and little uniforms were chattering as they walked hand in hand.

It was a mundane place to make a tough decision.

They paused and leaned against a railing and stared down at the water. Rippling streaks of light reached toward them from the shops and office buildings on the opposite bank.

“If we let the heroin go to Sunny Glory and track it from there,” Gage said, “we'll have a very complicated job of connecting it to Ah Ming. Chau will claim Ah Tien used Sunny Glory without Chau's knowledge, and Ah Tien's dead. And even if the U.S. attorney accepts our theory about what happened, Ah Ming will claim he knows nothing. He'll say East Wind was used by disloyal employees, Lew, in particular, who'll have appeared to have run away.”

“What about sending Lew back to the States? Force him to testify about Ah Ming?”

“He'd tell the prosecutor about the connection between the heroin and the chips. That would expose Zhang and his cut, and us.”

Gage noticed an old man sitting on a bench next to a food cart. He dug snuff out of a container etched with a drawing of a eucalyptus leaf and snorted it into each nostril.

“I know what I'll do.” Gage straightened up, then looked over at Kai. The fatigue lifted for a moment. “I'm going to give Ah Ming a billion-dollar overdose.”