Gunmetal Gray

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

Court sat down at a picnic bench outside Fan’s earshot and felt the sticky blood on his hands and arms, mostly from Zoya’s back wound, but he could tell by the screaming pain in his forearms that they had been scraped and gashed, probably on the cliff face but maybe climbing out the window in the yacht.

His right shin ached and throbbed where he’d cracked it diving for Zoya on the cliff; he needed to ice it but doubted he’d find any ice here, and he needed to check it out, but he told himself it would hurt less if he didn’t know what it looked like.

And his mouth. He’d split his lip, and although it wasn’t bleeding bad, it was severe enough for Zoya to notice the swelling while she was in the process of getting her shoulder stitched up, partially under the effects of the heavy painkillers.

There’d been no passionate end to tonight’s action between the two of them. He and Zoya might have said a nice thing to each other when it was all done; he couldn’t even remember now. But his face hurt too bad to kiss her, and her entire body, inside and out, hurt too bad for her to endure the embrace of another human.

No… they both just needed sleep, and the recovery time for their bodies that would come with it.

But sleep would have to wait for the American assassin. As he sat at the table he kept his eyes on both Fan and the guesthouse while he set up an account with his new phone and downloaded publicly available encryption software, and soon he was listening to his secure connection as it was answered on the other end.

It was no great surprise to him that Colonel Dai picked up his phone. While Court knew a lot of Chinese must have died tonight, he didn’t expect Dai would have been close enough to any real fighting tonight to get his hands dirty.

Court opened the call with, “It’s me.”

Dai replied, “So… you are alive? Major Xi insisted you and the girl were shot and killed in the boat you stole as it left the shore below our safe house. He said the boat sank offshore.”

“I have a funny feeling Major Xi is about to become Lieutenant Xi.”

“The woman who was with you. Obviously she is not a tourist whom you met in Bangkok. Who is she?”

Court thought about sticking with his original story, but he decided against it. “She used to be a Russian spy. Now she is in the private sector, just like me.”

“I thought the Gray Man worked alone.”

“Yeah, but did you get a look at her?” Court joked.

Dai sighed a little, then said, “She survived as well, I take it?”

“Yes.”

“I will do more than demote Xi. I will have him put before a firing squad for his failure.”

Court said, “Are you in an executing mood?”

Dai answered, “Very much so, yes. I lost nearly thirty men tonight, and Fan Jiang was apparently not at the compound.”

“That’s not what I’m asking you. I’m asking if you have already killed Fitzroy.”

There was a significant pause. Then, “Not as of yet, but he owes you no favors. Leaving him behind when you and your Russian girlfriend escaped virtually ensured a slow and painful end to him.”

Court pumped a fist into the air. If Fitz wasn’t dead yet, then Dai wasn’t going to kill him. Court hadn’t had any leverage against Dai for the last several hours, but he did have leverage, a lot of leverage, right now. He said, “You left Fitzroy alive because there was a chance I was still alive, and we had a deal.”

“You don’t think killing my men rendered our agreement null and void?”

“Absolutely not. I never agreed to be kidnapped. You want me alive because I’m the one man who can get you what you want.”

“Your stock has fallen to nothing, and you don’t even know it. I’ve lost hope in you. Fan wasn’t where I thought he was; it was obviously a trap. But that means he wasn’t where you thought he was, either.”

“Yes, he never was at the estate; I confess I was just as wrong as you about that. But the difference between you and me is that I figured out where he was.”

Another long pause. The colonel was unaccustomed to failure, and he was equally unaccustomed to being the man in a conversation chasing the answers. Finally he said, “Are you saying you know Fan’s location?”

“He was being kept on board the Medusa, the one-hundred-sixty-foot yacht that was anchored south of Trisara. Also on board was Kulap Chamroon, and several men from ’Ndrangheta, the Italian mafia group from Calabria. Apparently a deal had been made to trade Fan to the Italians, but the deal included getting China off Fan’s tail. Chamroon used Fan to send an e-mail to the Americans, something they wouldn’t necessarily even see, but something he knew cyber experts in China would be certain to immediately intercept. Chamroon knew you would come down to Phuket and raid the Chamroon property, so he filled it up with some militia group from northern Malaysia.”

Court added, “And you sent your men right into the trap.” He joked now, “And yes, I’ll hold while you execute your intelligence chief.”

Colonel Dai’s voice sounded at once skeptical and suspicious. “How do you know all this?”

“Because Fan Jiang told me.”

The Chinese army officer did not hide his astonishment. “You… you spoke with Fan Jiang?”

“Spoke with him? Right now he’s twenty yards away. Wait a second.” Court motioned for Fan to come over, which he did, nervously. He took the phone.

“Department Director Dai. You are speaking with Chief Sergeant Class Three Fan Jiang of Unit 61398, Detachment Red Cell. Identification L522678941.”

Dai positively growled at the young sergeant. “You have been stripped of all rank and identifiers, Fan. Stop using your title.”

Fan spoke subserviently, as he was trained to do. “Xie de, lujon shangxiao.” Yes, Colonel.

Court took the phone back and gave the young man a thumbs-up, and Fan shuffled off through the predawn towards the bed waiting for him inside the guesthouse.

Court spoke into the phone. “How ’bout them apples?”

“What? I don’t understand you.” Dai was confused, but he must have worked out it was an American phrase, because he didn’t wait for an explanation. “But you are an assassin. Why is he still alive?”

“Listen carefully, Colonel. I will deliver a living and breathing Fan Jiang to a place of my choosing, in exchange for a living, breathing Don Fitzroy. What you do with Fan after the fact is none of my concern.”

A pause. Then, “Why is Fitzroy so important to you?”

“Damned if I know, he’s a real pain in my ass, but that’s the deal.”

Dai said, “I think I know. I know why you must have him alive. I watched you in my office in the safe house in Hong Kong. You were hard at work looking out at the skyline, measuring distances to known locations. In that moment I knew you were planning on returning to save Fitzroy.

“Do you know what people say about you?” Dai asked.

“I can imagine.”

“Maybe not. Maybe you cannot imagine. They say you are a paladin. That you possess some odd moral code that only you understand, but a code that demands you do what you think to be right. I knew that before I met you, and the way you reacted to Fitzroy convinced me you felt like you owed him some great debt.”

Court was too tired to be psychoanalyzed by a man who would probably try to kill him down the road. He just asked, “Do you want Fan or not?”

Dai asked, “How do I know this isn’t some sort of a trick?”

“For me to take Fitzroy and Fan? I don’t want Fan, and I do want to get paid at the end of all this. Remember our deal?”

Dai went silent now. Court gave him a moment, then pressed. “If you’re scared you will be double-crossed, don’t come yourself. Send Major Xi along with Fitzroy. Hell, send every gun you still have in the country with you. It’s just me and Fan.”

“And the woman,” Dai interjected.

Court said, “No.”

“Why not?”

Court thought a moment. “She’ll have a sniper rifle lined up on Xi’s head. If I don’t walk away with Fitzroy, we’ll kill your men and take Fan directly to the U.S. embassy. I’m sure they’d love to get their hands on him.”

Dai said, “I will do as you say. No tricks.”

Court smiled a little into the phone. “No tricks. Here are my instructions for the handover.”

Ten minutes later, Court still sat at the picnic table, and he waited for a new call to be answered. He picked at the sticky scab on his lip for the first time, and he realized how swollen and sore his face was. He wondered if Zoya thought he looked ugly, or just ridiculous.

“Brewer.”

Court couldn’t hide his exhaustion. It was five a.m. and his body was utterly worn out. “Yeah, it’s me.”

Brewer’s voice sounded rushed through the protocol. “Identity challenge, Stable.”

“Look… I don’t fucking remember. You can hang up if you want, but—”

“It’s fine. Tell me where you were born.”

“Glen St. Mary, Florida.”

“Confirmed. We know about the fight on the Medusa. I presume that was you.”

“That was me.” Court sniffed. “I’ve got him. I’ve got Fan.”

There was a long pause. “And we are learning there has been some sort of explosion or series of explosions along with gunfire at the Chamroon estate on Phuket. Police and federal authorities are there now, but—”

Court said, “There were seventy-five guns in that fight. RPGs, too.”

“Christ.”

“The Chinese lost thirty. Dai is alive, and he still has Fitzroy.”

Brewer brushed the comment away. “No one cares about Fitzroy. Fan has been the objective all along.”

Court clenched his jaw. “All along. You mean all along from the beginning, when CIA and MI6 came up with the plan to arrange the murder of Fan Jiang’s parents so that Fan would be forced to defect to avoid his own execution?”

Suzanne Brewer said, “Whoa. You are going way off mission with that talk, Violator.”

“Right. I wasn’t supposed to figure it out.”

“Look… I don’t know everything. This wasn’t my operation. I didn’t come up with it. I was thrown on board at the same time you were.”

“Maybe so, but you know more than I do.”

“I’m the handler; you’re the agent. I will always know more than you.” She was silent a moment, then said, “I was made aware that there was an operation involving a PLA computer cyber intrusion expert’s defection, and it became an in extremis situation when he went missing once he was over the border in the New Territories, north of Hong Kong. And yes, I was given some background. But most of what you just said I know nothing about. Sounds like one hell of a lot of speculation to me.”

Court said, “I want to talk to Hanley.”

“I’m your handler. You talk to me. Tell me where you are, and I’ll have the SAD men from Bangkok come pick up Fan Jiang. And Zoya Zakharova, as well. We’ll talk to her; she doesn’t have to come back to the States, but we’re going to make a very attractive offer to her.”

Court drummed his fingers on the picnic table. “Okay… Zoya needs medical attention. Shoulder wound, it’s stable; just let Ground Branch know that their medics will need to check it out in the helo.”

“I’m making a note of it. She’ll be taken care of.”

“Good.” Court gave Brewer the address to the guesthouse, even his hotel room number.

“And Fan? I assume he’s there with you?”

Court prepared himself for the fallout of his next comment. “You’ll find Zoya here. Fan and I are going to split.”

“What?”

“I want to talk to Matt. I’ll call you back in twelve hours. If Matt Hanley is not on the line, Fan and I are going to do our own thing. Fan has no interest in spying against China, and I have no interest in cleaning up a dirty mission to murder innocent family members for my country’s convenience.”

Suzanne Brewer almost screamed into the phone, “I’ve about fucking had it with your phony morals, Violator! You’ve killed so-called innocents in the past, and you know it. It’s too late to make peace with God now.” She took a breath. “I know all about your failure all those years ago.”

“I assumed you did,” Court said. “And I don’t give a damn.” Then he continued, “Pick up Zoya. I’ll call you back in twelve hours to speak with Hanley.”

Court hung up the phone, then threw it overhand into a garbage can next to the picnic table.

Back inside the little room, Court knelt over Zoya, checking her wound in the dawn’s light coming through the window. He then looked at her face and found her sleeping peacefully. The medication would have her out for a few hours more.

Despite his injured face, he leaned over and kissed her cheek, then nestled his face in her warm neck behind her ear. He kissed her here, too.

She stirred a little, but did not wake up.

Now he stood back up and turned to Fan, who was tucked in the covers in his double bed. Court gave him a shake.

“Sleep well?”

“What? I just lay down.”

“Gotta go, kid. Shake a leg.”

“I… Where are we going?”

Court looked out the window a moment, gave a shrug, then said, “Off grid.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you and I are about to disappear.”