Point of Contact

36

Jack made his way back to Clementi Avenue 6 and connected with the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) heading west, then turned south on Pioneer Road, making the final turn onto the side street that dead-ended at the building he was looking for down near the port.

Jack wasn’t completely surprised to see that the building was surrounded by cyclone fencing and razor wire or that there was a guard shack and a barrier arm. What did surprise him was the fact that the guards, dressed in street clothes, were armed with weapons printing beneath their baggy shirts. They were hard and serious men — not your typical Asian rent-a-cops. His gut told him they were operators, but he couldn’t prove it. But a wolf always recognizes another wolf, even when he’s dressed like a lamb.

Jack pulled up to the guard shack and rolled down his window. The taller of the two guards stepped out of the shack and leaned over toward Jack’s window while the other one picked up a phone.

“Sir?”

“My name is Jack Ryan and I’m with Hendley Associates doing an audit on behalf of the Dalfan corporation. Here are my credentials.” Jack handed the man his Dalfan security pass and identity card.

The guard examined them briefly. “Wait.” He returned to the guard shack and conferred with the other guard, who now examined Jack’s credentials while still talking on the phone.

Jack drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. What the hell was the problem? A moment later a four-passenger golf cart pulled up to the gate and four more beefy security guards jumped out.

The tall guard came back out of the shack and handed Jack his credentials as the man on the phone hung up and stepped outside.

“Not permitted entrance.” The guards who arrived in the cart now surrounded Jack’s Audi TT on all four sides. None of them had unholstered their weapons, but none of them looked like they were shy about the possibility.

“What do you mean ‘not permitted’? I have access to every Dalfan property in this city.”

The guard scowled. “Leave.”

Jack pointed at the phone in the guard shack. “Pick up that receiver and call your boss, Lian Fairchild, or better yet, call her dad, Dr. Fairchild. They both know who I am and they sure as hell know why I’m here.”

The tall guard straightened and pointed at the road behind Jack. “You leave now.”

And if I don’t? Jack wanted to ask. But there was no reason to. He clearly wasn’t going to make his way in today, even if he had a weapon. More important, Rhodes had given explicit instructions to keep a low profile. That was probably a good idea anyway for all parties concerned, especially him.

“I must be mistaken. Sorry for the trouble.” On a hunch, Jack beckoned the tall man with his index finger to come closer. The man leaned over and Jack snapped a photo of him with his iPhone, then gunned the engine and threw the car into reverse. The two guards behind his car bolted out of the way, afraid he was going to run them over. Instead, Jack eased his way out of the drive lane and onto the street that would lead him back to Dalfan headquarters, but not before snapping two more photos of the irate and embarrassed guards cursing him in Mandarin.

Jack did a slow 180-degree turn, stopping just long enough to glance in his rearview mirror. The guards stood clustered in a loose formation, watching him leave and making sure he didn’t change his mind and turn around. He didn’t. He punched the gas and sped away.

Pulling back onto Pioneer, he wondered for just a moment if maybe Paul had gotten the address wrong or if there was some other kind of mistake. But his gut — the one that Clark told him to always pay attention to — told him there wasn’t any mistake, at least not on his part.

After turning back onto the AYE, he texted the photos of the guards to Gavin and spoke a text requesting an ID of them ASAP.

“How ASAP?” Gavin replied.

“Yesterday.”

“Sure. I’ve got nothing better to do.” Gavin didn’t dare tell Jack that he was working his tail off for Paul.

“Thanks,” Jack said. “It’s important.”

Jack stormed into Lian’s office. She was on the phone. “You had no right to block my entrance to that facility.”

Lian spoke into the phone: “I’ll call you back.” She slammed the receiver down and stood. “How dare you come into my office with that attitude. You’re the one that took evasive action today and lost my security escort.”

Jack saw that several people in the area were staring at them, including Paul and Bai across the suite. Jack stepped farther into her office and closed the door.

“I never asked for a security escort. In fact, I said I didn’t want one.”

“I suspended my people for failing to keep track of you. I’m tempted to fire them.”

“It’s not their fault. I take responsibility for what happened today.”

“Why would you take responsibility? Oh, yes, because somehow you managed to throw off two highly trained security personnel. How did you manage that?”

“What are you implying?”

“It takes training to defeat training.” She stepped closer, examining his face. “Yes, Jack Ryan, I think you have training.”

Jack thought of a quick lie. “Of course I have training. My father taught me how to shake a tail when he taught me how to drive when I was a teenager. It was a game we used to play.” He flashed a boyish smile.

“You’re a lot of trouble, that’s what you are.” She crossed back over behind her desk and fell into her chair. “Tell me why you were so eager to go it alone today.”

“It’s a violation of international auditing protocols to allow a client to observe an investigation.” Even Jack was surprised how good he was getting at lying on the fly.

“I have never heard of such a rule. But then again, we’ve never allowed any outsiders like you to come so far inside our organization.”

“My job is to make sure that Marin Aerospace and Dalfan Technologies reach a fair and equitable agreement on stock valuation, and part of that valuation is dependent upon your profitability as a company and the accuracy of its financial records.”

“Have you found a problem?”

“That’s what I was trying to determine.”

“Where did you go?”

“You know where I was.”

Lian frowned. “No, I don’t. You lost my tail, remember?”

“You had me blocked from entering.”

“I did no such thing.”

“You didn’t tell the guards to not let me in?”

“Again, if I didn’t know where you were, how would I do that?”

“They called you.”

“No one called me about you.” She frowned. “What were you looking for?”

“Just checking up on a loose end. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Nothing — and yet you had to ditch my security team to look for it. I want to know where you were.”

Jack wasn’t sure what to tell her. If she was the one behind the hidden warehouse, he didn’t want to tip his hand. But then again, he wanted to get inside, and if she was on the level, she could arrange that. The trick was to give her just enough information to suss her out but not enough to allow her to interfere with his investigation.

“I was at your warehouse facility on the west end.”

Lian frowned. “We don’t have a warehouse on the west end, or anywhere else. Why don’t you take me there and we’ll check it out together?”

Jack cursed himself. She gave him the worst possible answer. If she was innocent, that’s exactly what she would say. But if she was trying to interfere, she’d want to find out what it was he had discovered.

“No need. It’s my mistake, I’m sure. Sorry for the trouble.”

Jack turned to leave, but Lian stopped him. “One second, please.” She punched the speed dial and engaged the speakerphone.

“Yes?” Yong answered.

“It’s me. Question for you: Do we have a warehouse facility on the west end I don’t know about?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Just tying off a loose end. Thanks.” Lian hung up. “I hope that clears things up for you.”

Jack smiled, lied. “It does. Thanks.”

“And if you change your mind about riding out there together, I’m happy to oblige.”

“I appreciate it.”

Lian watched Jack leave, more curious than ever about what he was up to.

Back at the warehouse across town, the tall guard that had turned Jack away stood in the wood-paneled office near his boss’s desk with his arms crossed behind his broad back. He was trying not to listen to the woman’s conversation, but he kept stealing glances at the heart-shaped mole above her upper lip. His blood surged at the thought of her mouth and what he would do to her if she were willing, and the pleasure it would bring both of them.

His boss stood just a few feet away from her, tugging on his collar and patting away the beads of sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief. The guard didn’t know the woman’s name, only that she was from Beijing. The guard, however, knew his boss — a ruthless bastard, and a Party man to the core. If his boss was scared of her, the guard knew he needed to watch himself, no matter how desirable she was.

He had reported the incident with the man who identified himself as Jack Ryan to his boss, who in turn reported it to this woman. When she arrived she demanded to speak to the guard and to see the security footage herself before confirming Jack Ryan’s identity.

Whoever this Jack Ryan guy is, the guard thought, he better watch his ass.

How did he find out?” Yong demanded. He was on the other end of the line.

Meili glanced at the tall guard, studiously ignoring her, judging by the blank expression on his broad, cunning face. She turned around, her back to him.

“No idea. But I don’t have to tell you he can’t come back.”

“Obviously.”

“How can we stop him?”

Yong laughed. “You mean besides running over him with a car?”

Meili didn’t laugh.

“I’m joking.”

“Don’t. This is not good. For either of us.”

“I have an idea.”

Yong ended the call, but his hand still gripped the receiver. Jack Ryan was becoming a problem, quickly, and he needed to be dealt with.

He told Meili that killing him wasn’t an option, but he wasn’t sure if she agreed with him. If Jack Ryan couldn’t be discouraged from further investigation, he needed to be driven away for his own sake or else she would deal with him, one way or another.