The Cleaner

CHAPTER 16

The next morning there was another message from Duke.

Quinn sent Duke a confirmation.

“We’re definitely leaving today,” Quinn said.

He and Nate were sitting with Orlando at the table in her dining room eating pho—Vietnamese soup — that Trinh had made. Quinn had already filled both of them in on his meeting with Piper, leaving out only the part about Leo Tucker tailing Nate. Though Orlando was aware Piper and his team were in Ho Chi Minh City, she was pleased to hear they weren’t aware of her.

Quinn turned his attention to the job in Berlin. “Were you able to find anyone for me?”

“I don’t want you to argue with me about this,” Orlando said, her eyes locking on his. “It makes the most sense.”

“No,” Quinn said, realizing where she was headed.

“I’m the logical choice. There’s going to be a lot of surveillance going on. That means a ton of data that needs to be processed and analyzed. That’s what I do. I’m the best and you know it.” She paused. “There’s no choice here, Quinn. You need me. And I’m coming.”

“We can do this without you,” he said. “There are others who can handle it.”

She stood, picking up her empty bowl of soup. “I’ve already got my ticket,” she said. “I leave tomorrow.”

Nate looked down at his bowl of pho as if it had suddenly become the most important thing in the world.

“Dammit!” Quinn said. He stood and followed her into the kitchen. “I said I don’t need you.”

“My son will be fine while I’m gone.”

“I didn’t say anything about him,” Quinn said.

She set the empty bowl in the sink, then looked at Quinn for a moment. “But it’s what you’re worried about.”

Quinn took a deep breath. She was at least partially right. But it was more than just her son that concerned him.

Orlando returned to the living room. Again, Quinn followed.

As she sat back down she said, “Remember that Indian restaurant near Oranienburger Strasse?”

“What are you talking about?” Quinn asked.

“It was just north of the Mitte.”

Quinn closed his eyes for a moment as his mind switched gears. “Amit? Amid? Something like that?”

“Amirit,” she said. “We’ll meet there at nine p.m. Saturday.”

“Orlando—”

“Quinn, don’t. Just tell me you’ll meet me there.”

He didn’t bother masking his irritation. “I’m not going to be happy about it.”

“Good. You shouldn’t be,” she said. “Today I’ll work on getting all the equipment arranged. Any special requests?”

Quinn took a deep breath, then thought for a moment. “A surveillance kit. Weapons. We’ll need video taps, too.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know,” Quinn said. “At least fifteen to be safe.”

She looked over at Nate. “What do you use?”

Nate looked up seconds later, confused by the silence. “What? Are you talking to me?”

“What kind of gun?”

“I have a Walther back home.”

She frowned. “A Glock would be better. Light-weight. Single-action. Easy to use.”

“I’ve never had any problems with the Walther.”

“A Glock would be better.”

A hesitation, then he said, “Okay.”

Orlando wasn’t writing any of it down, but Quinn had no doubt she would remember. She asked, “Is that it?”

“If you have any time, a little info on what Borko’s been up to lately could be useful.”

“Don’t press your luck,” she said.

“What kind of name is Borko?” Nate asked.

“That’s a stupid question,” Quinn said.

Nate looked momentarily stung, then his eyes narrowed in thought. “Okay,” he said. “Should I be worried about him?”

“That’s better. And the answer is yes,” Quinn said.

“He led a group of Bosnian Serbs during the war,” Orlando added. “They were particularly adept at ethnic cleansing.”

“Great,” Nate said, not looking happy.

Quinn turned to Orlando. “So how about it?”

“I’m going to have to bring in some outside help on this,” she told him.

“Your paranoid friend?”

“Not paranoid. Just cautious. He’s already helping us with the slide, anyway.”

Orlando’s contact went by the name “the Mole.” Quinn had never talked to him. For all he knew, the Mole was some college geek playing spy out of his dorm room. Given his choice of a code name, Quinn wouldn’t have been too surprised if that was true. “Just don’t run up a big tab. Okay?”

“Mama?”

The child’s voice came from behind Quinn. He turned.

Garrett, Orlando’s son, was standing near the entrance to the dining room. Awake, he looked even more Caucasian than he had when he was sleeping.

“Garrett,” Orlando said as she stood up.

“I heard loud talk,” the boy said in English. “Are you mad?”

“No, honey. Everything’s fine. Come and say hello to Jonathan and Nate.”

The boy approached cautiously, then stuck out his hand. “Hello, Mr. Jonathan. Hello, Mr. Nate.”

Quinn squatted down to the boy’s level to shake hands. “Good morning, Garrett,” Quinn said.

“Are you a friend of Mama’s?”

“Yes. I am.”

Garrett turned to Nate. “What about you?”

Nate nodded his head. “Sure. I’m her friend.”

“Do you want to watch a movie with me?” Garrett asked. He looked up at his mom. “Can we watch Increbidolls?”

“We’d love to,” Quinn said. “But we have to leave.”

Garrett frowned, disappointed.

“Maybe next time,” Orlando said. “But you can watch it in my room, okay?”

“Okay,” Garrett said, brightening.

Quinn put a hand gently on Garrett’s shoulder. “It was a pleasure meeting you. You take it easy, okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

Quinn looked at Orlando. “I don’t want you to come.”

She looked back at him. “Neither do I,” she said. “I’ll see you in Berlin.” She pulled Garrett to her and mussed his hair.

Her son smiled. “Mama, stop.”

Back in his hotel room, Quinn gathered the few things he’d unpacked and threw them back in his bag. The new clothes and other items Nate had picked up had already been split between them and put in each of their bags. He then met up with Nate downstairs so they could make their flight arrangements.

“There are several airlines that fly out of Ho Chi Minh City,” the woman at the desk told them. “Thai Airways. And Air France, of course. Their office is just across the street, next to the Hotel Continental.”

Quinn thanked her, then headed for the exit with Nate in tow. While Thai Airways was one of his favorite ways to fly, Air France sounded like the better bet. They should be able to make it all the way to Europe with minimal trouble. And if they could go through France, even better. A couple of Caucasian passengers carrying European passports and arriving on a European airline would draw little attention.

The woman at the counter of the Air France office informed Quinn that there was a flight leaving that evening for Bangkok, where he could connect on a flight to Paris. “Are there any seats available?” Quinn asked.

“How many tickets do you need?” She looked Vietnamese and spoke English with a French accent.

“Two,” Quinn said.

“That shouldn’t be a problem. May I see your passports?”

Five minutes later, they had their tickets.

Quinn allowed Nate a final meal at Mai 99, but didn’t let him go alone. Of course, Anh was there. In a way, he envied the distraction she had provided Nate. There were times when Quinn longed for a similar tangent, a little time when he could forget the shit his life had become. In reality the few women he had gotten even remotely close to had only served as ultimately unsuccessful attempts at self-deception, none ever completely helping him forget the fact he wanted to be with someone else. They basically ended up being only bridges from one point to another. Nothing more. An emotional connection, something deeper that could have lasted more than a few months or even a year, eluded him.

He tried to convince himself it was his line of work that made things difficult.

“Getting hooked on one woman is the last thing you want to do,” Durrie had told him when Quinn once casually mentioned he’d met a woman he liked. “She becomes your weak spot. And once you have a weak spot, you’re through. Fuck around all you want. There’s pussy everywhere. Just don’t get hung up on just one. It’ll get you killed. Understand?”

Ironic, given Durrie’s own entanglement with Orlando, but it had stuck with Quinn. He even turned it into a kind of mantra, using it as an excuse for why he had to live his life alone. But deep inside, in the part of his mind he always tried to ignore, he knew the truth. He knew the reason why his relationships didn’t work. It had nothing to do with his mentor’s advice.

Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it. He had made a promise, and to act on his true feelings would mean breaking that promise. It didn’t matter that Durrie was dead. Quinn had given his word to avoid getting involved with her.

“You’re her best friend,” Durrie had said. It was a week before the operation that took him down. He had asked Quinn to fly down to San Diego to discuss the upcoming gig. “If she needs anything, and I’m not there to help, you make sure she gets it.”

“You know I will,” Quinn said.

“By helping, I don’t mean moving in. You get me?”

Quinn froze momentarily. “I—”

“Shut up,” Durrie said. “I’m not stupid. I know you love her, Johnny. But she’ll always be mine. Understand?”

The only thing Quinn could do was nod. Durrie was a shit to the end. He knew Quinn too well. He knew when Quinn made a promise, he’d keep it. Even a promise to a dead man.

He’d kept the promise, too. Even in the years he and Orlando had not talked, he’d kept tabs on her. Paying others to go to wherever she was living, checking that everything was okay. But he never went himself. He feared he wouldn’t be able to stay away from her if he did.

After Quinn finished his dinner and drank the last of his Tiger beer, he slipped Nate five hundred dollars under the table.

“What’s this for?” Nate asked.

“Put it under your plate when we leave.”

Nate still stared at him, not getting it.

“It’s a tip.”

“This is not a tip,” Nate said.

“Think of it this way,” Quinn said. “You may not ever see her again, but she’ll never forget you.”

“I thought the idea was always to be forgettable,” Nate said.

Quinn stood up, gave Nate a half smile, then turned for the door.