The Identity Mine

XXX

Consciousness came slowly, drifting toward her and then receding like dark waves on a beach at night. Hannah Ford was lying on her back on something hard and she could feel her skin as cold as ice, her bones aching.

The pain reached out to her, called her in, and she opened her eyes and stared into absolute blackness. For a moment she panicked, believed that her sight had failed her, and then she heard the faint sound of a breeze among the leaves above her, saw the subtle motion of branches against tiny stars in the night sky.

Hannah groaned as she forced herself up onto her elbows, her muscles stiff and her head throbbing. She rubbed her forehead with one hand and felt her skin caked with something dry that flaked off in her fingers. She reached down for her weapon but it was gone, along with her cell phone and her identification papers.

Hannah dragged herself to her feet and realized that she was in the same clearing in the forest as when she had been attacked by Mitchell. She turned as she heard a groan of misery from her right and saw another body lying in the foliage nearby.

She scrambled across and recognized Vaughn’s stocky form and black hair as he rolled over. To her horror his face was bruised and swollen, his eyes dark slits that she could barely make out in the starlight.

‘Vaughn?’

Vaughn groaned something as she helped him sit upright and he squinted at her as his eyes widened a little.

‘What happened to you?’ he asked, his voice distorted by his swollen lips.

Hannah realized that she too must have been beaten to some degree as she could taste blood on her lips, could feel it oozing from her nose.

‘Mitchell got the jump on me,’ she said. ‘What about you?’

Vaughn shook his head to clear it, struggled to his feet.

‘I parked the car, started up here, and then somebody came up and slugged me from behind. Before I knew it I was being hammered by a lot of guys and I passed out.’

‘Did you get a look at any of them?’

Vaughn shook his head. ‘I didn’t see any faces, didn’t hear anybody speak. Mitchell must have had back up. We should have known.’

‘Forget it,’ Hannah said as they clambered to their feet and started walking through the darkened forest, seeking the way back to the road. ‘All we can hope is that they didn’t know which car we were using. Do you have the keys?’

Vaughn reached into his pocket and nodded. ‘Yeah, but my cell’s gone.’

‘Mine too,’ Hannah said. ‘Let’s just get back to the Consulate and get in touch with Director LeMay. He needs to know about what’s happened.’

Vaughn limped alongside her, and like two geriatric government agents they made their way down the hillside to the darkened road. The route was devoid of traffic at this time of night, although Hannah could not be sure of the precise time as her wrist watch had also disappeared.

‘They’ve made it out to be a robbery,’ she surmised as they hobbled through the darkness. ‘Two FBI agents overpowered by common thugs, maximum embarrassment.’

‘Mitchell’s a clever guy,’ Vaughn uttered. ‘He’s going to have been avoiding agents like us for years if he’s doing his job completely under the radar.’

‘I don’t give a damn,’ Hannah uttered. ‘What matters to me is that he was interrogating a man up there that he’d tied to a tree, and I got his name. Jin Chen.’

‘Who’s he?’

‘I don’t know, but we’ll figure that out when we get back. He confessed to Mitchell to being involved in the abduction of the NSA agents in 1997.’

Hannah looked up as Vaughn led her to a small wooded parking lot, and there saw their silver sedan still parked where he had left it. Hannah limped across as Vaughn deactivated the locking system and climbed in, Vaughn handing her the keys as he climbed stiffly into the passenger seat.

The drive back into Hong Kong was far quicker than the route out, but the city was still a dense galaxy of lights and moving traffic as they made their way back to the Consulate Building on Garden Avenue. Without papers, they had to wait at the main gates until their identities were verified to the guards, and even then when Special Agent Brad Hinkley walked out to them he was accompanied by two armed agents.

Hannah clambered wearily out of her vehicle and Hinkley hesitated as he saw her.

‘Jesus Hannah, what the hell happened?’ Hinkley turned to one of the guards before she could answer. ‘Get a medical team down here, right now!’

Hannah saw the agent hurry off and she shook her head.

‘There’s no time,’ she mumbled. ‘I need you to pull anything you can on a Chinese man by the name of Jin Chen, who worked at a British bank in the city.’

‘Jin Chen?’ Hinkley asked. ‘What’s happened?’

‘It’s a long story, okay?’ Hannah shot back. ‘Just do what I’m asking and contact the FBI Headquarters. I need to speak to Director LeMay as soon as possible.’

Hinkley looked at his watch and shook his head. ‘He won’t be available for at least an hour or two.’

‘Then wake him up!’ Hannah yelled at the Texan. ‘The Chinese are preparing for some kind of major cyber — attack, and if we don’t let home base know about it what do you think will happen?!’

Hinkley raised his hands in supplication as he whirled and dashed back toward the offices, while in the other direction walked two medics.

‘We need to debrief LeMay or at the very least get this written up,’ Vaughn said.

‘The hell with that,’ Hannah muttered as she was gently led by the arm toward the offices. ‘We need to get the hell out of Hong Kong and back to DC. Whatever’s developing here is going to break on home turf and we need to be there to…’

Hannah was cut off as suddenly four armed police dashed out of the building, their weapons raised toward Hannah and Vaughn.

‘On your knees, now!’

Hannah stared in shock as the police surrounded them, Hinkley hurrying out of the building in pursuit.

‘What the hell’s going on?’ Hannah uttered in disbelief.

Hinkley approached them cautiously. ‘You said that you lost your weapons, papers and cell phones?’

‘We were attacked,’ Hannah said as rough hands yanked her arms behind her back and cuffed her.

‘That’s not what the police are saying,’ Hinkley said. ‘Yours and Vaughn’s weapons were recovered two hours ago at the scene of a homicide in down town, that of a respected businessman by the name of Jin Chen.’

Hannah stared at Hinkley as her heart felt as though it were plummeting into freefall inside her chest. ‘Jin Chen was being tortured by Mitchell in the woods on the south of the island!’

Hinkley stared apologetically at her.

‘Local police uncovered plyers with your fingerprints on them,’ he explained. ‘The bullets in Jin Chen’s body have already been matched to your gun, Hannah. The police are requesting that you be detained in Kowloon until further notice.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me? I saw Mitchell torturing Jin Chen. He was involved in the abduction of the NSA agents in 1997! Mitchell got it out of him!’

The police yanked her aside as Hinkley replied.

‘They’re saying that you must have done this,’ he replied. ‘Nobody knows anything about anybody named Mitchell.’

‘Aaron James Mitchell!’ Hannah shouted. ‘You need to locate him to corroborate what we’re saying.’

Hinkley looked at Vaughn. ‘Did you see this Mitchell?’

Vaughn stared at Hinkley for a long moment. ‘No, I didn’t. I was attacked before I made it to Agent Ford’s location.’

‘Can you identify the people that attacked you?’ Hinkley asked him.

‘No, but it’s likely that they were the ones who also attacked Hannah. This is a set up, Hinkley. If the Chinese or Mitchell is behind it then they’re trying to prevent us from getting back to the states.’

Hinkley nodded.

‘I’ll do what I can.’ he promised. ‘We’ll get on top of this, okay?’

‘You’ll do what you can?!’ Hannah screeched. ‘Get us the hell out of the country!’

Hinkley managed not to shout back at her as he sucked in a deep breath and turned to the police.

‘This is the sovereign territory of the United States of America, gentlemen, and I cannot allow my people to be treated in this manner.’

The police sergeant confronted Hinkley. ‘These people are wanted for murder, Agent Hinkley! What do you think will happen to our countrys’ international relations if they are allowed to leave?’

‘They’ll survive,’ Hinkley snapped. ‘Release them or I’ll have you and your men detained here until this is all cleared up.’

A dozen FBI agents suddenly emerged from the building with their weapons drawn, all wearing uncompromising expressions as they confronted the four Hong Kong police officers.

‘Cleared up?’ the sergeant shot back. ‘Don’t you mean covered up?’

Hinkley did not reply as the police released Hannah and Vaughn and backed off as more agents from within the building arrived to support Hinkley. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Hong Kong police officers retreated under armed escort, their sergeant calling over his shoulder.

‘This isn’t over! We’ll be back!’

Hannah watched as the police were led out of the Embassy and then turned to Hinkley.

‘Good job,’ she said.

‘It needed to be,’ Hinkley replied. ‘You’ve been here less than twenty four hours and you’re already wanted for murder. You need to be out of the country within the hour, understood? I’ll arrange transport.’

‘They’ll intercept us,’ Vaughn pointed out, ‘and we can hardly maintain a low profile looking like this.’

‘You’ll travel on diplomatic plates, private charter. I’ll sort it now. Get yourselves cleaned up and ready to leave. I’ll check in at the Barn and find out what’s been going on, okay?’

Hannah smiled at Hinkley as she turned to leave with Vaughn.

‘I appreciate it, Brad,’ she said, relieved that somebody outside of LeMay’s direct influence was finally supporting them.

Special Agent in Charge Brad Hinkley waited until Hannah and Vaughn were out of sight before he pulled a pack of Luckies from his pocket and lit one, savoring the nicotine hit as slipped a cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number he had memorized some years before. It took only moments for the line to connect.

‘Yes?’

‘It’s done,’ Hinkley said. ‘They’re wanted for murder in Hong Kong and are now on their way. They’ll be in DC by the morning, but they’re officially fugitives from justice now.’

‘Excellent,’ replied the voice through dense digital distortion. ‘We’ll take it from here. Your career prospects will improve greatly within just a few days.’

Hinkley smiled as the line went dead and he lowered the phone from his ear. He took one last drag of his cigarette before he dropped the glowing butt down a storm drain in one corner of the lot. The cell phone followed it moments later.