Gunmetal Gray

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Court drove a Toyota Vios, essentially a newer Tercel made for and marketed to the Southeast Asian market. He moved his own big pack into the backseat and threw the Russian woman’s bag in next to it. He moved his pistol from the small of his back to his left side, then climbed behind the wheel while she got into the passenger side.

Court said, “I’m not going to tie you up, and I’m not going to hold a gun on you. I need to earn your trust, so I’m just going to ask you very nicely not to jump out of the car until you hear what I have to say. After we talk, if you want me to drop you off somewhere… I will do as you ask.”

The woman said, “Right.”

Court could tell she didn’t believe him.

As he pulled away from the youth hostel she looked around at the little gray four-door. “I would have expected the Agency to give you a nicer car.”

“The agency? You mean the car rental agency?”

The Russian just stared at the American for a moment, then asked, “Where are we going?”

“It will be dawn soon. I’ll get us a hotel room, someplace near the airport where it won’t look strange to show up so early. We will get checked in, and then we’ll sit and talk. Are you hungry? We can find some food first, but I don’t want to talk in public.”

The woman shook her head. “No. I am not hungry.”

Court said, “Well, I’m starving and, like you said, I’ve got the gun.”

“I could eat something, I guess.”

Thirty minutes later they were checked in at the Novotel Suvarnabhumi, within sight of the airport runways at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Before they even took their bags to their room they sat in the restaurant, their plates full of items from the breakfast buffet.

Around them a few businessmen and businesswomen started their day in small groups, many already talking about work.

But Court and Zoya ate mostly in silence, and they drank copious amounts of coffee.

Even while Zoya ate her eggs and bit into her toast, she never took her eyes from Court. She was mistrustful, confused about the entire situation, but on top of that she was trying to commit his face to memory.

Court ate a bite of oatmeal, then, apropos of nothing, said, “Your… colleagues. Did any of them make it?”

Zoya looked down to her plate. “Two. They are injured, but they should survive.”

“Friends of yours?”

“No. I wasn’t even working with them tonight.”

“How many did you lose?”

The woman seemed hesitant to answer. Then she gave a little shrug. “Five men died.”

“I’m sorry. I heard Oleg mention that you were recalled to Moscow, but you didn’t go back. Is that true?”

The Russian woman snapped back now. “If you heard him say that, then you have your answer, don’t you?”

She chewed her toast slowly, still looking hard across the table. When Court said nothing to this, she said, “I was down here on my own, trying to help. Obviously, I failed.”

Court sipped his coffee. “That’s not obvious to me. Your team walked into a buzz saw tonight. There was a unit of well-trained operatives from the Chinese mainland hitting at the same time your countrymen did. And the Chamroon Syndicate hires its security officers from only two places: Arintharat 26, which is the Royal Thai Police Federal SWAT team, and—”

The Russian woman interrupted him. “And the Underwater Demolition Assault Unit of the Royal Thai Navy. SEALs, basically.”

Court said, “Sounds like you did your homework. Your friends shouldn’t have hit that fortified location.”

“I’ll tell them if they ever get out of surgery. Of course, that will be difficult because they’ll be in a Thai prison.”

Court called for the check and got two full cups of coffee to go, and then the two of them went upstairs to the room. It was a small suite with a living room with a sofa and chairs divided by a door to the bedroom and the bathroom. Court tossed the packs against the wall, then sat down across from the Russian in the little sitting area.

She asked, “Do you want to clean up first? I can still see the soot from the fire on your face.”

Court shook his head. “I’m pretty sure you will walk out if I turn my back.”

“Why would I do that? You have some amazing proposal to offer me, and I’m free to leave at any time.” She said it with obvious skepticism.

Court smiled a little. “Oleg called you by name, but I couldn’t understand it.”

“Just call me Sirena.”

“That’s a shitty code name.” Zoya did not respond to this, and Court thought a moment. “Sirena Vozdushoy Trevogi. Your code name is Banshee.”

She neither confirmed nor denied, but Court didn’t wait for her to do either.

“That’s better than Sirena.”

“What is your name?” she asked.

“I’m Bob.”

“Right. I’m Jane.”

“I like Banshee,” Court said. “You told Oleg, and you told your handler, that you found out where Fan is being held.”

Zoya said, “I just told them that to get them to help me. The truth is Nattapong didn’t talk.”

“So you just gave up and shot him?”

“That’s right.”

“You don’t strike me as a quitter.”

Zoya looked right at Court but said nothing.

He switched gears. “I saw you at the Wild Tigers safe house in Vietnam, climbing the wall of the villa.”

Without blinking, Zoya said, “If you saw me, why didn’t you shoot me?”

“I couldn’t. I was laying low, impersonating a plant.”

“I’m sure you were very convincing.” She lifted her chin a little. “And I saw you on Po Toi Island. You sat at the bar, pretended to be British, and you asked the bartender something about some men you were looking for. It made him nervous, and it made me curious.”

Court’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t…” With a slow nod, Court just stared at her, dumbfounded. “You wore a leather headband?”

The woman nodded.

“I thought you were about nineteen.”

“Who says I’m not?”

“Who was the other woman?”

“From Germany, I think she said. I met her on the ferry and attached myself to her. Thought I’d look less suspicious that way.”

“It worked,” confirmed Court.

“It usually does. My ‘hippie girl traveling with others’ is my best third-world cover.”

“Better than the Hungarian hooker?”

“They both have their place.” With a challenging tone she said, “How about you, Bob? What’s your best alias?”

“Quiet guy who asks a lot of questions but doesn’t answer many.”

She gave him a quizzical look but said, “And you are in character now.”

“Actually, this is the real me. I want to know where Fan Jiang is being held.”

Zoya looked out the window.

Court said, “You seem nervous being here with me. If I posed a real threat to you, do you really think I’d take you from your hotel, bring you here, and buy you breakfast? You are in danger, sure, but not from me. I wish you would relax a little so we could talk freely.”

Zoya thought about what the man had said, but she did not let her guard down. “Obviously you saved my life tonight, and obviously I took advantage of your kindness, stole your gun and your prisoner.”

“And you threw me over your hip. Don’t forget that.”

“Yes, I did. I have no right to expect anything else from you after what I did.”

Court said, “I understand the job. You had an objective. I was in the way.”

“If you understand the job, as you say, then why did you risk rescuing the five of us?”

“Just because I know what my job is, it doesn’t mean I always do it.”

“Your employer must get very frustrated with you.”

“You have no idea.”

Zoya waved a hand in front of her. “But you seem to be back on mission now, because you are here, with me, and you are asking about Fan. Why am I not in some CIA rendition facility getting water poured up my nose?”

Court chuckled. “I don’t work for the CIA.”

“Right.”

He leaned forward. “I saw what happened tonight, and I know that whatever happens to you, you aren’t going back to Russia with Fan Jiang to receive a hero’s welcome. Any decent investigation by the SVR is going to show that you killed Oleg. The circumstances of why will be irrelevant. I hate to break it to you, but you are no longer an operative with Russian intelligence.”

She nodded. “No… I am not. But why do you care?”

“The question is, why should you care about my operation? And I’ll tell you. I heard what you said to your handler, and you are absolutely correct. China is a great danger to both of our nations. The USA sees it. Clearly Russia sees it, too. We’re going to need intelligence from the Chinese intelligence networks, and that kid Fan can do that for us.”

“We?”

“I mean the West. China has plans for the world. What you and I do now can help us slow down their dominance, maybe knock them down a few steps.”

“What do you mean, ‘what you and I do’?”

“You tell me where Kulap Chamroon is hiding Fan Jiang. I go and rescue him. I’ll get him away from the Thais and save him from the Chinese before they assassinate him.”

Zoya cocked her head. “Why on earth would I help America?”

“Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t believe you are my enemy. You were thrown off this mission, but you came back on your own, despite the danger. Despite what you knew it would do to your career to defy the Lubyanka. Well… you still have a chance to succeed now. Not for Moscow, but for the West.”

“How do I know you won’t just kill me when I tell you?”

Court sighed. “Would it help if I handed you my gun now? Would that demonstrate to you I was no threat?”

Zoya nodded slowly. “That would help a great deal.”

Court made no movement towards the pistol tucked under his T-shirt.

“Well?” Zoya asked.

“You aren’t getting a gun. Jesus, lady, I’m a nice guy, but I’m not fucking crazy.”

“No, I don’t believe you are. But I also don’t believe you are as heroic as you make yourself out to be. I think you are… what do you guys say in America? I think you are playing me.”

“You mean you think you are being played?”

“Yes. That’s it.”

“I just want Fan, and you know where he is. It’s as simple as that.”

Zoya said, “The truth is, I don’t know Fan Jiang’s location. Nattapong did not know exactly where Fan was being taken, only that Kulap would move Fan and get out of Bangkok because of what was going on at the Black Pearl. He was going someplace where he’d be protected.”

Court said, “But you know where.”

“Nattapong told me where he thought his brother would go. Still… I only have the guess of a Thai gangster to go on.”

Court said, “It’s more than I’ve got. Will you tell me?”

Zoya looked at him a long time. “Where is everyone else on your team?”

He shrugged. “It’s just me.”

“You are a liar.”

“I’ll rephrase that… it’s just me on the hunt. I have been told I can call in some help on the ground for the actual rescue, but for now, everyone else is somewhere safer.”

“Then your colleagues aren’t much better than mine.”

“At least they haven’t tried to kill me.” It was a bald-faced lie. The CIA had spent years trying to do just that, but since he was back in their good graces, sort of, and since he was only speaking about this particular mission, he felt he was being honest enough.

“Yet,” Zoya said.

“Right. Yet,” Court allowed.

Finally, she said, “I was given a job, and my job is not completed. I want to go with you. I want to see this operation through to the end.”

Court stared at her a long time. Finally he said, “Agreed. Where do we go to look for him?”

Zoya hesitated a moment; she was afraid to play her one card. But finally she said, “Phuket, Thailand.”