Red Phoenix: A Thomas Caine Thriller (The Thomas Caine Series Book 2)

by Andrew Warren

  “One sec …”

  He opened the text and saw the picture. A round-faced Chinese girl with a pensive look of fear in her wide, dark eyes. She was just a child.

  And underneath, a single, brutally efficient word. LEVERAGE?

  He remembered Jia’s concern over Alton’s niece, Baozhai. And her last words to him before he left for Shanghai.

  It’s the ones we care about most who pay the price …

  “It’s her daughter,” he said in a quiet voice.

  “Whose daughter?”

  Caine gritted his teeth. He felt a waver of doubt, uncertainty.

  “Red Phoenix. Her real name is Jia Zhao. She works for Human Rights Now. Or at least I thought she did. That must have been her cover.”

  “You’ve made contact with the assassin? When were you planning on telling me this?”

  “She’s not my biggest problem right now. The Triad gangster I told you about, David Fang … he has Sean. And I have something he wants.”

  “I have more intel for you there. David Fang isn’t his real name. And you’re not gonna believe who he really is.”

  “Try me.”

  “David Fang’s real name is Dan-zu Huang. He was a part of the student movement in China, back in 1989. He was a member of a group called Voice of Freedom. China considered them to be dangerous radicals. They staged protests, harassed police, threw fire bombs at tanks, that kind of thing. They also ran a pirate radio station. It broadcast pro-democracy messages twenty-four hours a day.”

  “Sounds pretty elaborate. And these were just students?” Caine grunted.

  “Most were. Some members were suspected to be professional agitators, trained by a CIA program known as ‘Operation Canary.’ And the Voice of Freedom received almost all its funding from a private company. Something called the ‘International Student Endowment Organization.’ I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn the ISEO was a CIA front company.”

  “This is all way before our time. Where are you getting your intel?” Caine asked.

  “Lapinksi. When I showed him Fang’s picture, he cracked. Said the Operation Canary report was one of the files Sun Wai Tong stole in the hack. Not only did he steal it, he tried to erase all copies of it he could find. He must have been in a rush though, because the Tailored Ops guys were able to reconstruct a partial copy.”

  Caine squinted. “Wait a minute … We still don’t know who hired Sun Wai, right? The fact that he specifically tried to erase this file … maybe that’s the missing link. Maybe whoever his contact is didn’t want that file to ever be released. Did Lapinksi give you any more intel?”

  “No, he escaped custody during … never mind, I’ll fill you in later. But if Tong was specifically trying to erase David Fang’s file, that could mean …” her voice trailed off. “Oh my God.”

  “David Fang, or Dan-zu Huang, whatever you want to call him," Caine said. "He could be Sun Wai Fong’s contact.”

  “Tom, there’s more. The files, the black ops stuff … Ted says that was just a smokescreen. The real thing they’re after is something called TANGENT.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  Rebecca’s voice was terse. “It’s complicated. In a nutshell, it’s an NSA cyber-weapon. It can be used to implicate anyone they want for hacking attacks. It also contains a database that proves the NSA has used it on American corporations. A list of cyber-attacks they blamed on other state-sponsored hackers.”

  Caine shook his head. “And you wonder why I want to stay on the outside?”

  “Tom, if Fang is somehow involved in this … you can’t let a Triad gangster control something like TANGENT. It’s too dangerous.”

  Caine looked down at the USB stick in his hands. “That’s not my priority right now. I’ll do what I can, but no promises.”

  “Tom, please—”

  “Are you okay? What the hell happened over there?” Even as he cut her off, a note of concern crept into his voice.

  Rebecca paused. She took a breath. “It’s a long story … but yes, I’m fine. And so is the girl. Her name is Lian.”

  “Good.” The water shut off. Caine heard Jia rustling in the bathroom. “Rebecca, I have to go. Is the extraction arranged?”

  “I sent you the info. It’s a boat, at Yangshan Harbor. They’ll take you to the U.S. airbase in Osaka. You’ll travel by plane to Virginia.”

  “Thank you. Bring the girl.”

  “What?”

  “You’re meeting the plane when it lands right?”

  “Of course, but—”

  “Rebecca, please. Just bring the girl.”

  He hung up, cutting her off her protests.

  Jia stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing her long, damp hair with a towel. She was wearing a cotton robe belted at her waist.

  “Jia …” He paused, not sure how to continue.

  She looked up at him, her dark eyes peering out from behind long, thin strands of wet hair. “What is it?”

  “I know what Lapinksi has on you.” He handed her the phone.

  Jia stared at the the picture of the little girl on the screen. The towel fell from her hands and dropped to the floor with a wet slap. Caine couldn’t tell if the dampness in her eyes was from the shower, or if she was tearing up.

  “Wo kelian de tianshi … my angel,” she whispered.

  She turned her gaze back to Caine. The luminous, warm look her eyes usually held was replaced by cold, bitter rage. “You have her now?”

  “It’s not like that. She’s with friends of mine. She’s safe.”

  “Take me to her. Now!” Jia snapped.

  “I will. But first I have to get Sean.”

  Her mouth twisted into a snarl. “Ni zhege hundan! Bring me my daughter now!”

  She charged towards him. Caine stepped back, surprised by her sudden ferocity. He saw a glint of steel in her right hand … somehow, she had concealed a knife in the thin robe. As she stabbed upwards, Caine reached out with both hands and grabbed her wrist. As he pushed the knife out to his left, Jia slammed her forearm into his chest and drove him back. The tiny apartment shook as his back slammed into the plaster walls.

  “Jia, stop it! That’s enough!”

  Her pupils flared with anger and hate. Staring at her, he recognized the expression. It was the look of one who had been used, betrayed … someone pushed to the breaking point. No hope, no control. Only rage.

  He felt her body pressed up against him, her lean, sinewy muscles stretched taut beneath the thin fabric of the robe.

  “I don’t care who you are," she hissed. "I don’t care what you are doing here. I want my daughter!”

  Using his right shoulder, Caine shoved her backwards. As she moved away from him, he used both his hands to pull her knife arm through the gap between them. He spun her body around.

  His left arm looped around her throat. Using his right hand, he savagely twisted her wrist. The knife clattered to the floor, and he kicked it across the room.

  “Jia, please! She’s all right, I promise!”

  All at once, Jia stopped fighting. Her body stiffened and, for a second, he thought she might be having a stroke, or a panic attack of some kind. Then, as if the exit of all her toxic anger left her body empty and deflated, she sank to the floor.

  Caine slid down the wall with her, loosening the grip of the arm that circled around her. What started as a hold became an embrace.

  He felt her body tremble. After a brief moment, droplets of moisture ran down his arm.

  She was sobbing.

  He repeated his words, softer. “She’s okay. I swear, Jia, she’s fine. As soon as I get Sean, I’ll take you to her, I promise.”

  Her head leaned back and rested against his cheek. Her damp hair smelled of shampoo and chlorine.

  “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault,” she cried, her words quavering as spasms of grief wracked her body. “Lian … she has paid the price for the blood on my hands.”

  Caine shifted his body so he could look her i
n the eye. “No,” he said in a firm voice. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “Her father …" Her words were a breathy whisper. "The Ministry did not approve of him. I thought she would be safer abroad. I sent her to a school in Europe, I wanted her to learn English, learn about the world. I thought, when she was older, when I was out of this life, I could bring her home, show her China. But somehow, this man, this Lapinksi …” She hissed the name as if it was a foul curse. “He found her. He took her. He knew who I was. He knew what she meant to me.”

  “Lapinski was looking for an asset in China,” Caine said. “He works for the NSA, and China is big into cyber-espionage. A man named Bernatto arranged for some contractors to rendition your daughter. Lapinski’s been holding her in Virginia.”

  She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. “How do you know all this?” she asked.

  Caine grunted. “Bernatto was already on my list. Now Lapinski is too.”

  “Your list?”

  “They’ve hurt me. And they’ve tried to hurt people I care about.”

  She pushed the curtain of dark, dripping hair from her face. “So what will you do?”

  Caine stood up. He offered Jia his hand. When she took it, he pulled her to her feet.

  “What do you think?”

  She nodded. “Sean is important to you. His father … he was more than just your friend, wasn’t he?”

  Caine nodded. “He was my partner. The other man I told you about, Bernatto? He had him killed.”

  She bit her lip and looked at him. Her eyes were clear now, thoughtful.

  “I will help you get Sean back. And you will bring me to Lian,” she said in a firm voice.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “One more thing. I don’t approve of everything China does. But I will not betray my country. Never again.”

  “You won’t have to. I’m not working for the NSA, or the CIA, or anyone else. I’m here on my own. I just want to keep my promise. To keep Sean safe.”

  “First we must find him," Jia said in a thoughtful voice.

  Caine looked down and saw the small plastic USB drive on the floor. He had dropped it in the fight. He bent down, picked it up, and stared at it for a second.

  “Do you still have access to those hacker contacts?” he asked. “Could you arrange a meeting?”

  “The Jade Enclave? Yes, I think so. Why, what is that?”

  Caine handed her the towel from the floor. She took it and began to wrap up her long, sleek hair.

  “I don't know. But it’s something Fang wants. I need to find out what it is.”

  He sat down on the futon. His muscles burned with pain as the adrenaline of the day’s battles began to ebb and wear off.

  “Tom,” Jia said quietly. “I’m sorry, about before. I …”

  Caine shook his head. “Forget it. You wouldn’t have killed me.”

  “How do you know?”

  Caine slipped the USB drive back in his pocket. “Doesn’t matter how. I just know.”

  Jia seemed like she wanted to say something more. But instead, she turned away, opened the closet, and pulled out some fresh clothes.

  Caine fell back onto the bed and exhaled. How did you really know? he asked himself.

  The truth was, he didn’t know, not really. He was just too tired to care anymore. He closed his eyes. He could still smell the shampoo from Jia’s hair, feel the humidity left in the air from her shower. He listened to her soft rustling as she slipped into her clothes.

  She tossed something on the bed. “Here. These are clean. They should fit you.”

  Caine opened his eyes. He sat up and slipped into the t-shirt and jeans she had thrown next to him. The fit was snug, but close enough. He thought about asking who they belonged to, but decided not to.

  Turning, he saw she had slid open a hidden rear panel in the closet. He followed her into the tiny, secret storeroom. The walls were lined with weapons and equipment. Racks of pistols, rifles, and knives surrounded him.

  Jia looked over at him, nodding in approval. “The clothes fit. Good. We must resupply ourselves. Then we will meet with my contact from the Enclave. She is … unusual.”

  “I can hardly wait.” Caine exhaled as he scanned the racks of weapons. “The way you fight, what style is that? Kung Fu?”

  Jia grabbed a new rifle from the wall and set it down on a narrow work bench. “It is called Sanshou,” she answered. “It combines elements of multiple fighting styles. Kung Fu, kick boxing, wrestling.”

  Caine turned towards her. “I’ve heard of it. Military training, special forces right? Are you with the SL Commando Unit?”

  Jia shook her head. “No, my unit designation is classified. We report directly to the Ministry of State Security.” She did not look back at Caine as she continued gathering equipment. “When I was a young girl … I had no one. I was like Sean. An orphan. My unit was my family. But now, I am a traitor. Alone.”

  Caine picked up a Beretta PX4 Storm Compact pistol from one of the racks. “I know the feeling,” he muttered. Jia glanced up at him. The faint hint of a bitter smile touch her lips.

  He pulled back the slide and checked the weapon. Like all her equipment, it was clean and well-maintained. “Nice,” he said. “My favorite.”

  “Help yourself,” she replied as she slipped a magazine into a new Glock 42.

  Caine moved over to a medical shelf. It was filled with tranquilizers, pain killers, and other drugs used in their trade. He picked up one of the vials and held it up to the light.

  As he scanned the label of the tiny glass bottle, a plan began to form in his mind.

  Chapter Forty

  Caine and Jia faced the window of the tram car as it sped through a tunnel, far beneath the surface of the Huangpu river. Outside, the tram was surrounded by brilliant, shifting panels of light. They dove deeper, plunging through concentric rings of pulsing blue neon. Brilliant orange orbs that resembled hot lava flowed past the windows. Electronic music played through the tram car, giving the glowing scenery outside a surreal accompaniment.

  A cluster of other passengers stood in the car, but Caine and Jia kept to themselves. They stood alone, in the rear corner of the tram. An invisible field of silence seemed to surround them, an aura that the other passengers instinctively refused to pierce. Caine turned to Jia. The colorful lights outside reflected off the glass, lighting her face with an intense, pink glow. “We’re traveling under the river, right?” he asked.

  She nodded, staring at the light show outside as the tram car hovered along its descending track. “Yes, this is the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. The original plan was to build a glass tunnel that showcased the river, but the water was too polluted. Nothing lives in it, so there was nothing to see.”

  Caine uttered a dark laugh. “So instead we get some kind of Las Vegas light show underground.”

  Jia was silent for a moment. She seemed mesmerized by the tunnel of light surrounding them. “There was a man,” she finally said. “At the apartment building. Expensive suit. His skin is … strange.”

  “I saw him,” Caine said. “Sean had met him before, said he worked for the Ministry of State Security.”

  She looked up at Caine. “Yes, his name is Yong Jin. He was my handler at the Ministry. He was burned once, in the field. Plastic surgery was required to repair his face. That’s why his skins looks …”

  She paused. After a short breath, she continued. “I worked with him on several missions before I was assigned to infiltrate Human Rights Now. He knows me well. Lapinski made me … made me kill for him. I believe Yong already suspects I am compromised. He is hunting me.”

  Caine put a hand on her shoulder. “Then it’s even more important that you leave China as soon as possible.”

  She looked back out the window. “I know. I feel like part of my heart is being ripped from my body. But at the same time, it’s almost a relief. Have you ever worked deep cover?”

  Caine stood next to her, both of them staring out the w
indow, but oblivious to the lights outside. “Yes, I have,” he said.

  “The people at HRN, I have stood with them in demonstrations. Fought alongside them, protested injustice with them. The things I once believed, the things I was told to believe … I am not the same person I was then. Things are different now. I am different.”

  Caine continued watching the lights move by. He had worked undercover many times, including a long assignment in Japan. The prelude to Operation Big Blind. After his betrayal, he had lived off the grid. He’d survived as a two-bit smuggler in Thailand and had lived under an old cover identity. He thought back to his time there, in Pattaya and Tokyo. Faces flickered across the hazy screen of his memory. People he had helped. People he had hurt. People who had died.

  He cleared his throat. “This job, this life … it changes you. Your cover is a lie. A pack of lies, and you have to live with them day in and day out. One day you wake up, and you realize those lies are more real for you than the truth ever was. The person you’re pretending to be … that’s who you become, for better or worse.”

  She leaned her head against him. “I knew you would understand. It has happened to you as well, hasn’t it?”

  Her head rested against the small white scar, just beneath his shoulder. He felt a tiny flash of pain, an old ache rekindled. Was it the pressure of her head against the bullet wound that had healed so long ago? Or was it just a phantom pain, his mind processing the memories of past betrayals and loss?

  He said nothing and continued to stare out the window. The brilliant tunnel of light flashed by.

  “You duo tian,” a girl’s nasal voice said. “You two want to get a room?”

  Caine had been so lost in thought, he had allowed one of the passengers on the tram to move into position behind him.

  Get your head in the game! he reprimanded himself.

  He spun around, his hand dropping to his rear waistband. His fingers wrapped around the familiar grip of his Beretta, but he did not draw the gun.

  He found himself staring into the small, round face of a twenty-something girl.

  She gazed at him with narrow, dark brown eyes. She was tall, and her disinterested stare was almost at the same level as his own piercing green eyes. Her hair was long and straight and looked unwashed; her skin had a pale, translucent quality. The lights outside were reflected in the lenses of her cat’s eye glasses. The frames of the glasses were chunky pink plastic, and tiny glitter-covered bows decorated each temple.