Jared remained a safe distance behind Collins as he followed his black umbrella through Seattle’s streets. The man didn’t seem concerned about being tailed; he walked at an easy pace and never looked back. One minute into the pursuit, Jared was soaked and found himself wishing he had his own umbrella.
This was stupid. He shouldn’t have asked Zira to change the plan at the last minute, slipping the device to the Brotherhood member, Li Huang, instead of Collins. There was no guarantee that Collins was even going home now. He could get in a cab and be gone in an instant, and they’d be right back where they started at the beginning of this mission. For his own sake, he hoped that wouldn’t happen; Zira would kill him.
If he was honest with himself, Jared knew he’d decided to change the plan more out of selfishness than because he actually thought it was a good idea. It was a split-second decision, and even as he’d called Zira, he knew it was wrong. But just seeing Li’s face again had been enough to raise goosebumps all over Jared’s skin. Rage steamed and festered inside him as memories of his captivity in a Brotherhood outpost rushed to the surface. He tried to shut them out, focusing on his target’s back to avoid thinking about the smirk on Li’s face as he’d come to interrogate Jared day after day.
Collins caught a bus several blocks away from the diner. Jared ran to catch up and made it on board just before the doors closed. Collins didn’t seem to notice anything unusual, and Jared took a seat in the back corner where he could keep an eye on his target.
He should tell Zira. He hadn’t before because he hadn’t known how much the Brotherhood would actually be involved in their assignment. If they weren’t directly involved before, they were now; Jared had seen to that when he’d told Zira to bug Li instead of Collins. He had to give her an explanation; it was only fair that she knew what she was getting into. Still, his insides twisted at the thought of talking about it. She’d have questions, and then there would be that unavoidable pity in her eyes whenever she looked at him. Or worse, admiration—like he was some sort of hero for enduring what he had and coming back to do his job the same as before. There was nothing heroic about those memories, though, and nothing noble about the way he’d just changed the parameters of their mission without thinking through it clearly. Wasn’t that what he’d told her just a few days ago, that he always thought things through before acting? Most of the time that was true. Today, it was nothing but a load of crap.
He could worry about that later. Right now, he just needed to do his job. He shoved the memories back down where they’d been buried before and focused all his attention on Collins. The man got off the bus with half a dozen other people at a stop in front of a unit C distribution center. Jared waited until the new passengers boarded, then slipped out the back door and found Collins’ black umbrella. He let the man get a fair distance ahead of him again. They walked a few more blocks to a small neighborhood with old townhouses lining the street end to end. When Collins unlocked the door to one of them and walked inside, Jared smiled to himself. Maybe Zira wouldn’t kill him after all.
* * *
Once he got back to the hotel, Jared took a hot shower to get rid of the chill in his bones before knocking on Zira’s door. “I hope you found out where he lives,” she grumbled, standing aside to let him in. “Otherwise, we just wasted four days in that stupid van for nothing.”
“I found his house,” Jared said. “Is the bug working?”
“Yeah, but I waited for you so we could listen to it together. Because that’s what good partners do. You know, communication.”
He ignored the jab—he probably deserved it—and walked over to the small table where she’d moved the room’s hologram projector. Using a PEACE Project access code, he set up a secure connection between his CL and the projector to pull up the readings from the device Zira had planted on Li. She sat on the bed and he took a place beside her, then played the audio recording from the beginning.
“Hello, Marcus,” said Li Huang. His voice still had the ability to send ice across Jared’s skin.
“Mr. Li,” Collins replied.
The waitress came to take their order, attempting to make small-talk before Li abruptly dismissed her. When she was gone, the two men resumed their conversation in murmured voices. “You said it would be ready by now,” said Li. “My boss is getting impatient.”
“I told you there would be delays. I had to disassemble the whole thing and start from scratch because of the changes Mr. Feng requested. The cloaking parameters—”
“Will it get past the sensors?” Li asked.
“Absolutely. But I need a little more time. I’m waiting on a shipment from Nevarez Industrial Supply, but until it gets here, my hands are tied.”
The waitress came back with their coffee and Collins paid her. “So be it,” Li said when she was gone again. “However, Mr. Feng has insisted that you complete your work before you receive the rest of your payment.”
“That’s not what we agreed. Some of the parts have been expensive, and I have to pay for all of that up-front myself.”
“That’s not our problem.”
“I’ve done everything you wanted, no questions asked. I should be compensated.”
“And you will be,” Li said. There was a dangerous edge to his voice that Jared was all too familiar with. He could picture the threat in the man’s eyes as he looked at Collins. “No more delays, Marcus. Mr. Feng’s patience won’t last forever.”
The conversation ended, and there was the sound of the door opening and shutting as both men left the diner and went their separate ways. Then there was only the patter of the rain.
Jared fast-forwarded the recording. More rain, then silence. Li was indoors somewhere, likely alone. The quiet was interrupted by voices again. The timestamp at the bottom showed 1:32 P.M.—just half an hour ago.
Li was talking to someone over his CyberLink—someone who’s voice instantly froze Jared’s blood. They conversed in Mandarin Chinese. Jared was about to ask Zira to pull up a translator on her CL, but she was a step ahead of him; the translation was already scrolling by on the projection above her wrist.
Hello, Mr. Feng.
What did you find out from our friend?
It’s not finished yet.
What’s his excuse this time?
The changes you requested are causing some delays.
Did you tell him about the new payment arrangements?
Yes. He wasn’t happy.
Does he realize that I am not happy with the current situation?
I told him.
Good. If he hasn’t made any more progress by next week, bring him in. It might be time I talked to him myself.
Yes, sir. I’ll keep you updated.
The conversation ended. They listened for a few more minutes, but there was nothing. Zira turned to Jared. “Any idea who this Feng guy is?”
Jared gnawed at his lip, trying to figure out the best way to tell her. There was really no good way to go about it. “Feng Kai is the leader of the Red Flag Brotherhood.” He busied himself with severing the connection between his CL and the projector in order to avoid looking at her. He didn’t want to see her reaction when she put the pieces together. “He’s also responsible for the death of my last partner.”
“That’s how you knew Li was with the Brotherhood,” she said. She didn’t sound angry—not yet, anyway. “That’s why you had me plant the device on him instead. And your last partner—that’s why haven’t had one for two years.”
Jared nodded. He sighed, ran a hand over the top of his head, and turned to face her. “I should have told you. I just didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Because you don’t know me well enough?” Now she sounded angry. “That’s not fair. You dragged me into this without giving me any idea what it really was.”
“I told you I thought it was worth looking into the Brotherhood’s plans, and I meant that. That’s all I wanted to do—just look into things. I figured we’d pass some information on to
Ryku and that would be the end of it. But then Li showed up. I couldn’t just let him walk away.”
The memories engulfed him like quicksand. Karyn, Titus, and Rowan—the three other operatives who’d gone on that assignment with him almost two years ago. His friends, his partner, all killed by members of the Red Flag Brotherhood. They only needed one to answer questions, they’d said. Jared had been the youngest; they’d thought he would be the easiest to break. He was locked in a cage like an animal, starved and beaten and interrogated about his mission for hours on end. Feng gave the orders and watched Li carry them out. Both men chatted and joked while Jared watched his own blood drip onto floor.
How could he have let Li just walk away after all that?
He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. Zira turned towards him, waiting for an explanation. “About two years ago,” he began, “a group of us were sent to the Republic of Asia to take out the Brotherhood’s leadership. There were more of them than we anticipated and things went bad. They killed the other three operatives I was with, including my partner, Rowan. I was captured.”
He paused and attempted to distance himself from the memories, focusing on the impartial facts about what had happened. “Americans generally aren’t allowed in the RA in the first place, so the Project denied any knowledge of the incident. The RA government refused to get involved because they didn’t want to associate themselves with the Brotherhood. Negotiating my release was impossible.”
“You were left to fend for yourself,” Zira said.
“I was there for two weeks.” He didn’t go into the details of what had happened during that time. She already knew more than he wanted her to, and talking about it wasn’t going to improve anything. “I was sure I’d die there. Then Ryku showed up with a whole team of operatives. They took out most of the Brotherhood’s key players and brought me home, but no one ever found Feng and Li. I never expected to run into them again here.”
Jared waited for the questions he knew Zira must have, but she didn’t ask them. She didn’t say anything for a long time, and when she did, the hostility had left her voice. “I get it now. I still don’t like it, but I understand.”
“I’m sorry. I know I compromised our mission and that’s unacceptable. You should call the shots from now on. Whatever you want to do, I’m with you.”
Zira stood and walked to the window, considering this for a few moments. “We should eliminate all of them.”
“All of them?” Jared wanted to make sure he understood her. He’d expected her to insist that they focus on Collins and forget about the Brotherhood altogether. That’s what he would have done, if their positions were reversed.
“Li, Collins, Feng,” said Zira. “All of them. You were right about the Brotherhood. If Collins is dead, they’ll just find someone else to make their bomb.”
“How do we pull that off?” Jared had a few ideas of his own, but he wanted to know what she was thinking. That, and he didn’t entirely trust his own judgment right now given his history with Li and Feng.
“We make sure Collins doesn’t finish that bomb. Feng will be mad that he missed the deadline again. Li will pick Collins up to go talk to Feng, and we’ll follow them to wherever it is they’re all meeting.”
Jared nodded; it was a solid plan. “We’ll need to get approval from Ryku.” He doubted the chairman would have an issue with the change; Li and Feng had been on his list of targets ever since they’d eluded capture in the RA two years ago. Still, with Ryku, it was always wiser to ask for permission before stepping too far outside the given mission parameters.
“He likes you a lot better than he likes me,” said Zira. “You ask him.”
“I’ll call him tomorrow morning.” He stood and walked to the door, then turned back to look at her. He couldn’t meet her gaze for long; there was something in her cool blue eyes that seemed to see straight through him. “Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t thank me. I’m still pissed at you for not telling me any of this up front.”
“I know. But still, thanks.” He walked out and shut the door behind him before she could say anything else.
CHAPTER FIVE
After Jared left, Zira sat by the window, watching the rain fall and thinking about what he’d told her. Had she made the right decision? In giving her control of the assignment, he’d given her an easy way out of this mess with the Brotherhood, but instead, she’d chosen to plunge into something that might be more than she could handle. And for what? Revenge? Jared hadn’t said exactly what had happened to him in the Brotherhood’s custody, but two weeks was a long time, and Zira was not so naïve as to believe they hadn’t made him suffer every minute he was there. They’d killed his friends and held him captive, and if anyone deserved vengeance, he did. But that was his problem, not hers. Getting herself mixed up in this might be the most foolish thing she’d done as an E-2 operative so far.
This wasn’t just about Jared’s revenge, though, and she knew that wasn’t solely what it was about for him, either. They both understood that the Brotherhood was a real threat. Eliminating Collins would slow them down, but it wouldn’t prevent them from conducting some kind of attack later on. Maybe killing Li and Feng wouldn’t do much good either in the grand scheme of things, but it was a start. They were as much a threat to peace as Collins was, if not more so, and it was her job to eliminate threats.
Early the next morning, Zira and Jared met in the lobby to eat breakfast before splitting up for the day. Chairman Ryku had agreed to their plan, so now they needed to intercept the shipment Collins was waiting on. They’d looked up Nevarez Industrial Supply and found out it was a legitimate company; whatever components Collins had ordered from them likely weren’t dangerous on their own, and making arrangements to receive them in secret probably would have roused unnecessary suspicion. The package would therefore most likely be delivered by regular post to either the university where Collins taught or the unregistered townhouse he lived in. Jared took a bus to the university, and Zira drove the van to Collins’ house.
Surveillance was even more boring here than it had been at the diner. With no one to keep her company, the hours dragged by mercilessly. Collins returned home for the evening just after five o’ clock. Zira waited until six to drive away; postal delivery usually stopped at five, and if the package hadn’t arrived by now, it wouldn’t until tomorrow. Or the day after. Or the day after that. Just thinking about spending another four days cooped up in the van irritated her.
Thankfully, it only ended up being one more day. Zira was sitting in the van humming along with the radio the following afternoon when the delivery bot wheeled down the street. She looked around; there was no one outside, so unless Collins had particularly nosy neighbors, she shouldn’t have any trouble intercepting the package. She got out of the van and hurried to Collins’ house, standing at the end of the sidewalk as if she’d just walked out to meet the delivery bot. It stopped in front of her. “I have a package for Marcus Collins.” The electronic voice emitted from a set of speakers just under its blocky head. “Please confirm identity.”
Zira pulled up her PEACE Project ID and credentials on her CyberLink and held her wrist under the robot’s scanner. It took longer than normal, and for a moment, Zira worried that the bot wasn’t going to accept the override. She had a pistol under her jacket just in case, but she hoped to avoid shooting the thing.
The bot chirped, and the metal box that made up most of its body slid open. “Accepted. Please remove your package.”
Zira took the top package from the stack inside and the door slid shut. The robot continued on its way, and Zira headed back to the car with the box tucked under her arm. She sent a quick message to Jared. I got it. Meet me back at the hotel.
* * *
Zira watched Jared turn the box over in his hands as they sat in his hotel room. They were waiting for a call back from the unit A tech girl who was setting up a system to reroute Collins’ outgoing calls and messages. “Wi
ll you stop doing that?” Zira said. “What if you break something?”
The contents needed to remain intact and untouched, so they hadn’t opened the box and didn’t know exactly what was inside. Chairman Ryku wanted unit E-1 to inspect the package when they got back to the compound. If Collins was able to acquire the materials to build a bomb so easily, it was worth looking into how he’d done it.
Jared sighed, but to Zira’s relief, he put the box down anyway.
His CL lit up. He answered the call and projected the girl’s face as a hologram. “We got that all set up for you,” she said. “All of Mr. Collins outgoing messages and calls will now be redirected to your CL. You can decide whether or not you want to let them through, disconnect, or answer them yourself.”
“And he won’t be able to detect any of that?” Jared asked.
“No. For him, everything will still show up as normal. If you answer a call, he’ll be able to hear your voice and see your face if you choose, like any other normal call. If you reply to a message he’s sent, the real recipient’s name and information will show up in place of yours.”
“Perfect. Thank you, Amelia.” Jared disconnected the call and turned to Zira. “Well that was easy.”
“And now we just wait for Collins to call someone about his package,” said Zira. This part of the plan had been Jared’s idea. When Collins realized that his package hadn’t shown up when it was supposed to, he was sure to try and contact someone about it. The last thing they needed was for some helpful representative of Nevarez Industrial Supply to tell Collins that he had, in fact, approved delivery for the shipment and offer to send him a replacement. As an added bonus, Jared could also prevent Collins from contacting Li to convince him to extend his deadline. Not that that was likely, but it was still reassuring to have such contingencies in place.
Now that they’d set Collins up, Jared and Zira had little else to do but wait. Neither of them were keen on the idea of just sitting around the hotel doing nothing, so they took to wandering the city and jogging every morning together. More and more, Zira became aware of how she’d misjudged him at first. Jared was serious about his work, but outside of that, he was easy to talk to and had a quick sense of humor. Since they were both in the same unit, Zira didn’t have to keep her guard up for fear of revealing information she shouldn’t. It was liberating to finally be able to talk to someone about the things that had become such a big part of her life.
Secrets of PEACE Page 4