River of Ruin

The Radisson Royal Hotel Panama City, Panama

Lieutenant Foch was waiting at the hotel where Mercer stashed Harry and the Herrara family. He sat in a club chair, his forgotten drink tinted a watery brown as its ice melted away. Harry sat opposite, his drink vanquished by thirst rather than neglect. Behind them, staring across the glittering cityscape through the curtains, stood Rene Bruneseau. The hard-looking spy had his hands clasped behind his back, his face a mask. The air-conditioning system battled the hot anger infecting the luxury suite.

Carmen and the children had another room on a lower floor, ordered there by Mercer during his brief phone call from Limon where he’d parted ways with Juan Aranjo. He’d told everyone what had happened at Pedro Miguel. He’d also asked Roddy to call the dive shop where Lauren had rented her equipment. He was afraid that if the gear was identified, Liu would pay the owners a visit.

The expected knock on the door barely caused a stir. Roddy hastily answered it.

Mercer paused in the vestibule. His expression was savage, deepening the redness around his eyes and the purple-black bruises beneath them. His clothes were salt-rimed with dried sweat. His gaze caught Bruneseau’s reflection in the dark glass and the agent turned.

“Where were you when we got back from the Twenty Devils Mine?” Mercer moved his hand to the butt of Lauren Vanik’s pistol that stuck from the front of his shorts.

Rene matched the hard stare and answered, “At a mosque.”

This wasn’t what Mercer had expected. “You’re Muslim?” he asked lamely.

“For professional reasons I’ve hidden my religion. Even changed my name,” the Frenchman replied. “Yours isn’t the only country with racial prejudices, it’s just the only one to address them. I never would have risen to my current position if my superiors in the DGSE knew I was Muslim. The few Muslims in the agency are low-level translators or undercover men who aren’t entirely trusted no matter how loyally they serve.”

Mercer asked, “What would happen if people learned that you were a Muslim?”

Rene shrugged. “At best I’d be fired. At worst I would be jailed as a security breach and spend years being interrogated to find out if I’d ever betrayed the DGSE.”

Mercer had never believed Bruneseau would betray the Legionnaires, but he needed to know that what Rene had been doing during his absence was damaging enough to his career that he’d risk such suspicion. Admitting to being a Muslim in a predominantly Catholic country that had suffered countless terrorist attacks from Algerian extremists was enough in Mercer’s mind.

Now that he knew the truth, Mercer let the matter drop. Bruneseau’s religion was of no interest to him. “You know that Lauren and Tomanovic are dead because somebody tipped Liu. He was expecting us.” Mercer’s voice sounded like it had been dredged from the grave, rendered flat by the conflict of emotions.

He continued. “I don’t know if they found anything in the waters surrounding the lock, but I can still provide proof that China is about to blow up the canal. If I can do that will you go to your superiors?”

“To do what?”

“Stop them, for Christ’s sake!” Harry White snarled. “What the hell do you think we’ve been trying to do?”

“It depends on what you give me,” Bruneseau said. “Foch ran down all your speculations. Sounds compelling but means nothing. I can’t push a recommendation without something solid. And I’m sorry to say that losing Corporal Tomanovic and Captain Vanik in a diving accident aren’t enough.”

“It wasn’t an accident,” Mercer said.

“My superiors sent me here looking for missing nuclear material, not fanciful plots about taking over Panama. I don’t think your word will be enough to convince them of anything.”

“When I get back to the United States, I’m taking a position as Special Science Advisor to the President. I don’t know all the details about my new job, but you can believe that my word carries a lot more weight than you’d think.”

“But not enough,” Rene said, not to be sarcastic, but needing to put that fact out there.

“Too much is at stake to trust my contacts alone. I need you and your organization to back me up. Probably through the CIA or State Department.” Mercer then added, “I’m also going to call Lauren’s father, an army general.”

Lauren’s phone had a programmed number simply labeled “Daddy,” which he suspected was his private cellular line.

Bruneseau lit a cigarette, adding to the smog Harry had already breathed into the room. “I can’t make any promises,” the agent finally said. “Tell me your proof.”

The relief Mercer felt wasn’t enough to smother even part of the grief settled in his stomach. Still, he felt some. “Lauren and Tomanovic are dead because we were set up. I can give you the person who told Liu and will be able to verify some of what’s been going on.”

“Who did it?” Foch asked, his body erect, his knuckles turning white.

Mercer looked at the soldier, feeling his hatred. He felt for the Legionnaire, understood how badly he wanted revenge. He also knew that now wasn’t the time for sentiment. Logic was what would defeat Liu Yousheng, cold logic and a whole lot of luck. When Mercer answered, his response had the desired effect of confusing the soldier and dampening some of his rage. “Maria Barber.”

“Your friend’s wife?” Roddy gasped.

“His friend’s widow,” Harry corrected. “Mind explaining why she would help the Chinese when it was them who mutilated her husband?”

“I think it was Maria who first told Liu what Gary was doing.” Mercer took a seat, accepting the beer Roddy handed him from the mini-bar. “When I spoke with her in Paris, she told me that Roddy had made a critical discovery, something he was eager to show me, yet she didn’t sound too interested. From what I know of her she’s about as greedy as a person could be. She should have been screaming that she was about to become rich. It didn’t fit that she was so low-key. Same goes for when I showed up and wanted to head to the River of Ruin immediately. She seemed reluctant to come with me and had some pretty flimsy answers why Gary’s radio was out.

“None of this mattered at the time. Even when I found the bodies in the jungle I didn’t get suspicious. Granted she didn’t act like she was too upset, but she’d told me that she and Gary were having problems. She didn’t even want to come for his funeral.” Mercer shuddered, thinking about her coldness that day and how she’d come on to him just a couple of nights later. “After what happened tonight, I was thinking about who could have set us up and that’s when I recalled her odd reactions. I think she knew her husband was dead before we got there. Only she believed that the camp had been overrun by Liu’s men, not CO₂ gas.

“I arrived in Panama a full day before she was expecting me and didn’t give her a chance to warn Liu that I’d go to the camp. So it was no coincidence that his choppers were there the next day when Lauren, Miguel, and I were exploring the lake. They knew about Gary’s purported discovery from Maria and were already in the middle of securing the treasure for themselves.”

Rene interrupted, “I can believe that Liu was told that Barber was about to find the treasure, but couldn’t he have learned it from someone living in the nearby village?”

“It’s possible,” Mercer conceded. “That wouldn’t explain what happened tonight. Only Maria knew about Gary’s discovery and that we were going to the lock.”

“Oh, God,” Roddy cried quietly as he realized his role in what had happened. “I told her on the phone that you were out on Lake Gatun. She must have informed Liu and he made the connection to the lock. It was the same as if I told the Chinese myself.”

“You couldn’t know what she would do with that information,” Mercer said, hoping to assuage some of Roddy’s misplaced guilt.

“I should have.”

“How? No one suspected her until it was too late. Roddy, listen to me.” He waited for the Panamanian to look him in the eye. “No matter what you’re thinking, you are not to blame for Lauren and Vic. Maria Barber was the one who passed on that information, knowing what Liu would do with it. We can’t afford your feelings of self-recrimination. It’s selfish.”

Harry cleared his throat to get the conversation back on track. He gave Mercer a look that said he’d talk more with Roddy afterward.

“You still haven’t shown me any proof,” Bruneseau said. “You suspect Maria Barber had her husband killed. You think she was the one who told the Chinese that you were in the canal. Even if I believed you, this is simply more conjecture.”

“Vic’s death isn’t conjecture,” Foch snapped.

Bruneseau gave him a hard look. “You know what I mean.”

They started arguing in French, their voices crashing in the middle of the room like artillery barrages. Their hands were in constant motion. Mercer was too drained to try to stop it so it went on until Harry tucked two fingers in his mouth and blew a whistle loud and shrill enough to make everyone wince.

“I said earlier that I can give you the proof you need,” Mercer spoke into the stunned silence. “I want to meet with Maria Barber.”

“She’ll tell Liu the moment you phone her,” Roddy said, appalled that another of his friends could be lost.

“That’s true.” Mercer studied Foch. “But I don’t plan on giving her the opportunity to tell him and I’m relying on you and your men if things do get hairy.”

“You believe that Maria Barber can give you the evidence?”

Mercer nodded at Rene and took a long draw off his beer.

“What if she doesn’t know anything?” The agent continued to probe for holes in Mercer’s plan.

“Wouldn’t it be enough that she told the Chinese about us being on Lake Gatun tonight? Even you can see the causative link. It’s safe to infer from there that everything else we’ve deduced must be close to the truth.”

“Meaning,” Harry said in a lecturing tone, “that the Chinese will be in economic control of a country that’s close enough to the United States to lob nuclear missiles from.”

Mercer hadn’t listened to his friend. He’d laid out his arguments to Bruneseau and sat waiting for an answer, drained by the emotional toll this day had taken. But something broke through his exhaustion and he leaned forward. “What did you say?”

“That unless we stop them, China’s gonna run Panama the same way the Soviet Union used to run Cuba.”

“And it’s close enough that a medium-range nuke could hit the States.” Mercer’s voice went vague. He suddenly launched himself from his chair. From the suite’s desk he grabbed a piece of stationery and plucked the pen Harry always carried in his shirt pocket for doing crossword puzzles.

“What are you—?”

“Shut up.” Mercer cut off Rene’s question and excluded everyone else in the room as he thought back to when he and Lauren had been in the Hatcherly container facility. The secure warehouse. It was where Liu had stored the crushed ore he was using to make the mine look legit. Near it had been some strange trucks. They’d looked like some kind of special cargo transporters, painted yellow like most of the other vehicles at the port. It took him five minutes to sketch one of the massive trucks, detailing its eight heavy wheels and the crane attachment on its low bed. When he was done he showed the picture to Bruneseau. “Recognize it?”

The French spy went pale. “Where did you see this?”

“There are eight of them about ten miles from where we’re sitting,” Mercer answered.

“You know what this is?”

“I do now, thanks to Harry.”

“What is it? What’d I do?” the octogenarian asked, not liking that they were talking like he wasn’t in the room.

Bruneseau held up the picture so Harry, Roddy, and Foch could all get a look. Only the Legion officer recognized it. He sucked a breath through his teeth. “That’s the transporter for a DF-31 intermediate-range nuclear missile.”

“Road portable,” Rene added, borrowing the pen to sketch in a rocket sitting on the back of the big truck, “with the ability to cold launch a missile with about two hours’ notice. Guidance package automatically compensates for wherever it’s erected. New intel reports give it a range of thirty-two hundred kilometers because of an improved solid propellant.”

“About two thousand miles,” Roddy said. “Such a missile could hit New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta. Or Washington, D.C.”

“China doesn’t have the technology to hit us with weapons from the mainland so they’re going to park eight of these shorter-range missiles here. Once they control Panama’s economy and the canal all we can do is lodge diplomatic protests.”

“We could blockade,” Harry offered, “like Kennedy did with Cuba.”

“No way,” Mercer replied, once again in awe of Liu Yousheng’s audacity and genius. “This isn’t some isolated Caribbean island. Eleven thousand ships a year pass through the canal, representing flags from just about every maritime nation on earth. With the canal out of action for a couple of years, Hatcherly Consolidated will still be able to move roughly seventy percent of that cargo on their railroad and oil pipeline. We’d disrupt the entire global economy by enforcing a blockade.”

“But it would be China’s fault,” Harry persisted.

“Yet we’d be the ones sending cargo ships on a ten-thousand-mile detour around South America. How long do you think world condemnation is going to remain focused on China’s acts when it’s a U.S. fleet costing countries their seaborne commerce?”

“By making their temporary stoppage of the canal look like an accident, Hatcherly can deflect an American reprisal,” Roddy said, “so long as they have my government under some sort of control. No doubt President Quintero is involved. My question is what happens when the waterway’s reopened after a year or two? By treaty, the United States could come in and take it by force to ensure nothing ever happens to it again.”

Bruneseau answered, “The question should be what the Chinese want to accomplish in those two years by stationing nuclear missiles here.”

“Well, they’re always going on and on about Taiwan,” Harry said from the mini-bar, where he was dumping Jack Daniel’s onto the thin film of Coke he’d already dribbled into his glass.

“You mentioned Cuba,” Mercer said to his old friend. “I think you’re on to something. The whole reason Khruschev put missiles there in the sixties was to get the United States to pull our recently deployed Atlas rockets out of Turkey. While history records that Bobby and Jack won the particular game of nuclear chicken, few people remember that shortly afterward we brought those missiles home. In effect, the Russians got exactly what they wanted. And apart from a few sleepless nights, it didn’t cost them anything.”

“You think China is putting missiles here only to offer to remove them again if America promises not to interfere with the takeover of Taiwan?”

“That’s precisely what I’m thinking,” Mercer answered Foch.

“But in our case, China is paying a very high price. They’re going to have to subsidize Panama with hundreds of millions of dollars once they take out the canal.”

“It won’t cost them a dime, Rene. They’re getting the right to plant nukes here and they’re paying for it with gold looted from an ancient treasure.”

“If Liu finds it.”

“You saw the equipment he had at the volcanic lake above the River of Ruin. He’ll find it.”

“And if it’s not there?”

Mercer looked him in the eye. “It’s there, all right. If I had a few hundred pounds of dynamite I could show it to you.”

“What?” the four men said as one.

“I know where the treasure is,” Mercer said coolly. “There’s a clue in the Lepinay journal that jogged my memory about something I saw at Gary’s camp. But that’s not important right now. We need to focus on Liu.”

It was testament to their professionalism that a billion dollars in gold and precious gems couldn’t hold their interest beyond a couple of sighs and a few thoughtful grunts.

“You’re right. The treasure can wait.” Bruneseau made his decision. “By identifying ICBM launchers at Hatcherly’s warehouse you’ve given me enough to take to my director. Getting Maria Barber to admit she told Liu about tonight will only add to the evidence.” He turned to Foch. “You’ll help Mercer pick her up.”

“No need to make it an order,” the Legionnaire replied. “Tough part will be keeping my men from killing her for what happened to Vic.” He caught Mercer’s concerned scowl. “Don’t worry. I can keep them in check.”

They spent the next half hour, before Mercer fell asleep on the couch, formalizing a plan to grab Maria the next morning. Harry chuckled to himself after the others had gone. With Mercer on the sofa, he got the bed, the opposite of countless nights he’d crashed at Mercer’s home.

He covered his sleeping friend with the comforter from the bedroom. “I hope that couch’s more comfortable than the damned leather thing at your place.” His voice was as gentle as he could make it. “Sleep well. You deserve it.”