“You did not file the papers yet?" Jang-Chung asks.
“Our attorneys are researching the case law and writing the appropriate motion as we speak. I’m told they’ll be filing it in the next seven days."
"It was stated at a news conference that they issued a subpoena to the United States for information about the alleged payment. Will your government be providing them any of that information?"
"No.” Stein folds both of his hands in front of him and decides to fan the flames already burning between himself and the other two men. "How do we know China didn’t leak this information?"
The ambassador's face turns noticeably red. “Outrageous! This embassy would never leak sensitive information. We are confident it came from your side.”
"You have no basis to pin it on the U.S. We're going to find out who leaked it. Let's hope your country is doing nothing to undermine our agreement." Stein stands. "Are we done here?"
"Yes, thank you for coming to meet with us," the ambassador replies.
As Stein walks through the main hall of the embassy, he realizes another shoe will be dropping, it's just a matter of when.
Chapter 42
Dex
Amanda kicks some small pebbles with her sneakers, walking from the farmhouse to the Broken Halo facility. The smell of Roosevelt pines in the nearby woods carries on the wind. She enters the expansive room with a number of couches and recliners facing televisions mounted on the walls. Loud random noises fill the room as patients play computer games.
"Hi Julia. Do you think I can borrow Dexter for a little while and take him out to the stables?"
As Julia, his aide, starts to answer, Dexter turns and sees her. Leaping to his feet, he drops the controller in his hand and it clatters to the floor.
"Jenna! I been waiting for you!"
Before Amanda can make a move, Dex wraps his arms around in a bear hug, forcing most of the air out of her. Several of the other patients crane their necks to see what the commotion is about.
Releasing her, Dex begins clapping his hands and launches into a rap.
"Booty, booty, that’s what I need.
Jenna, Jenna, the booty queen …"
"Gimme some of those …" He reaches his powerful hands out for her boobs, but she easily deflects them. Some of that Quantico training paying off.
"No, no, Dex…"
"Booty, booty, some of that booty…"
Dex continues his rap, now spinning around while clapping.
"Sorry Amanda, you know Dexter." Julia apologizes.
But the apology is unnecessary. Amanda knows the story all too well. Dex, then a freshman at William & Mary, was helping out with a wedding reception at a privately owned lighthouse on Chesapeake Bay. Someone—never identified—left a gangway up, and in the darkness of that moonless July night, Dex fell through the opening almost 20 feet to the hard surface of the supply boat deck docked below. He lay unconscious for an unknown length of time before being discovered. By the time he was rushed ashore and transported to the trauma center, the damage was done. At 19 years old, a permanent brain injury wiped out his promising future.
A dashing six-foot-two high school lacrosse star, no one would never know it from afar, it only becomes apparent when conversing with or standing close to him. His parents, proud working-class Virginians, heard about the Crossroads program and enrolled him for a full year. He became fast friends with Amanda.
"Dex, will you help me feed some of the horses?"
“Yeah, yeah."
Amanda holds Dex’s hand as they walk through the center of the stable, and she carries a bag of long carrots in her other hand. The FBI agent on duty stands outside the entrance.
“Give some of the carrots to Voodoo, my favorite horse, okay?"
He doesn't respond and Amanda feels his hand grabbing her butt.
"Dex, keep your hand off my booty." Amanda swats his hand away. She accepts his behavior as uncontrolled and harmless. They hear Voodoo neighing. “Here's a big carrot. I want you to hold this up and feed it to Voodoo. Can you do that for me?"
"Yes Jenna, let me feed him." No one knows why Dex calls Amanda “Jenna,” just one of his many Dex-isms. He grabs the carrot out of Amanda's hand and holds it in front of Voodoo while he nibbles on it. He laughs like a three-year-old when the horse’s tongue slurps over his fingers.
"That tickles. Haaa…! Look at his big teeth! It stinks. Poop, poop, poop."
"They eat food so they poop, Dexter. We poop too." Amanda picks up a bucket and walks to the nearest faucet with Dexter right beside her.
"Water, water. I love water Jenna. You know I operated cruise ships. Bigger than this stable."
"Really? Were you the captain?"
"The biggest ship you ever seen. I'm licensed. I'm a captain of Queen Elizabeth. I take ships through dark tunnels. I have ships that fly too, ships with wings that fly."
"Cool Dex, how high do they go?"
She holds his hand as they walk toward the door. Outside, he points up at the sky. "Do you see those clouds right there?”
The blue sky is dotted by a few cottony cirrus clouds forming a delicate, meandering string.
“As high as those clouds. Higher than those clouds, and I can go right through them. Oh, oh, a caterpillar.”
Dex kneels down and releases Amanda’s hand to scoop up the caterpillar, which he cups gently in both hands.
“Can I keep her, Jenna? I will be good to her.”
“It needs food to become a butterfly, Dex, and they don’t allow insects or animals inside.”
The teen mopes, staring at the fuzzy insect in his hand. Amanda asks him to let it find its way home to its family and he finally relents. He kneels near some shrubs and places the caterpillar softly on the ground, staring at it slowly moving along the ground.
Amanda tries to distract him from having to leave his new friend as they walk back to the rehab center. "What does it look like when you're up in the sky, when you look down from the clouds while you’re steering your ship?"
"Green and blue, blue rivers. But it rained yesterday. It rained really hard. You could hear the rain so loud I covered my ears. It hurt my ears."
"You didn't get wet, did you?"
"Yes, I got so wet, it was a flood right through the room. I was, I was swimming, trying to swim away, the water was taking everything away, the horses were in the water, the trees were in the water, but I stopped the water. I stopped it."
"Amazing! You saved the day."
"Saved the day. I have to pee-pee. I gotta pee."
Dexter starts holding his crotch with both hands. Julia has been monitoring them unobtrusively, but now she notices Dex holding himself. She walks over and tells Amanda she'll escort him to the restroom.
"I'll see you soon, Dexie."
"Booty, booty, gimme that booty …"
She hears Dex singing as he and Julia walk back into the facility, and it brings a smile to Amanda’s face. Turning toward the farmhouse, she kicks a few of the small rocks on the road with the toe of her shoe again.
Chapter 43
LuLiXi
Solarez scans through the emails on his phone, refreshing incessantly, and sees the new one from Birdie he had been waiting for since he confirmed the transfer of the $100,000 almost four entire minutes ago. He clicks open the email:
LuLiXi Pharm Co., largest Chinese research and development company in pharmaceuticals. Heavily subsidized by Chinese government. Contractors working for LuLiXi kidnapped Justin Michaels just after birth, with help from the government. Don’t know where Justin is being held. If discovered, will provide later.
-- Birdie
This must be fabricated, Solarez decides. No way my operation was compromised. I vetted Odette, the surrogate, myself. No chance this info is accurate.
He can't begin to wrap his head around the implications. Should I call Ron Michaels? No, I should drive to Sherwood and talk to him face-to-face.
He looks at his watch and decides he can't
go today, then he remembers he has to talk to Isaacson and relay the information first anyway. He buzzes Director Isaacson's administrative assistant and makes arrangements to be at his office as soon as he can get to Langley.
Solarez resolves to throw every available analyst on LuLiXi and dig in to every possible place the company has labs and offices. And he provides direction to surreptitiously obtain DNA samples from Ron Michaels son, Justin. Or whoever the boy is.
Chapter 44
Conflict Check
Ty Ryan hates going to the office because no meaningful work happens within its walls. But sadly, the owner of the private investigation agency requires him to stop in regularly. He’s scanning his inbox when a conflict of interest check email catches his eye. Investigative firms have to be careful about such conflicts, particularly with work relating to divorces. Ethics are sketchy at best in this field, but any half-decent agency avoids working for both spouses in a failing marriage.
The email is from Stephanie DeFalzo. The subject line reads “Conflict Check,” normal for an email like this at their agency. However, the content is anything but routine:
Potential Client: Melanie Franklin
Opposing Potential Party: Paul Franklin, Attorney.
Any conflict with this one?
--Steph
Ty freezes a moment. No one at the agency is aware Franklin is the principal for the front company, Litigation Support Associates, that he does Franklin’s investigative work, or that he played a role in the current RICO suit. And now one of his co-workers is going to be investigating Paul on behalf of his rightfully pissed-off wife.
Should I tell Steph? He knows he can't. So what the hell am I going to do? Tell Paul? He'll have to think about that.
Chapter 45
Birdie
Solarez debriefed Isaacson, who encouraged Solarez to travel to Sherwood to meet with Michaels.
They also discuss the topic of security at Sherwood in light of the confirmation that the largest pharma company in China was responsible for kidnapping Ron Michaels’ baby.
“Steve, you realize this could be coming from the top of Chinese intelligence, they may be using LuLiXi as a surrogate to carry out their bidding. We’ve known for years that this company is responsible for black market fentanyl dumping. Some of the fentanyl comes straight from China, while other shipments funnel through Mexico or Canada. Raw fentanyl, precursors, analogues, fentanyl-laced counterfeit prescription drugs, you name it. Reports I have seen suggest LuLiXi may be the biggest illicit Chinese exporter, who knows how much money they are raking in. But, getting back to the issue at hand, China, and LuLiXI as its largest pharma company, both stand to gain from the commercialization of the telomere biology.”
Isaacson sprawls on the small couch that sits opposite four client chairs in front of his massive cherry desk. Solarez sits in one of the client chairs, tapping softly on the right chair arm with his middle finger.
“I need to engage Birdie in more emails. We need to isolate any likely city or region where Justin could be held. Something tells me Birdie knows, or can find out.”
“You’re convinced he’s inside the embassy here in D.C.?”
“That’s the most likely scenario, because he reached out to me. It makes sense that Birdie knows exactly who I am, but I don’t have enough intel to figure out who he is yet. I have a list of all known personnel, which I’ve narrowed to perhaps 10 suspects. Also, the reply times make it likely Birdie is on Eastern Daylight Time or in a nearby time zone.”
“What if he has pondered defecting?” Isaacson asks.
“I doubt that’s his or her plan. No one working in the Chinese embassy is allowed to bring their families with them to the U.S., that’s one of their government’s strongest leverage devices. If Birdie defects we both know they’ll round up his family and send them away to a work camp, never to be seen again. No, I think it’s about money, plain and simple.”
Solarez sends an encrypted email from his office desktop computer.
Subject: Justin
Birdie: We need to know an exact GPS on Justin. If you don’t have that, we need a probable city or region based on your knowledge. Secondly, we need the names of any assets you have inside Sherwood and what electronic surveillance you are running.
After lunch, a reply arrives.
Steven:
I don’t have details on the location of Justin Michaels. LuLiXi has a principal business office in a suburb of Beijing, and its largest pharmaceutical factory is further west of Beijing in Fangshan district. The Beijing area is most logical. I am familiar with our assets at Sherwood, but that is far more confidential intelligence, and far more valuable, surely you agree?
Solarez digests the Justin Michaels info and resolves to meet with Isaacson on mobilizing CIA assets in Beijing to ramp up their efforts as to Justin. But he immediately emails Birdie back on the Sherwood issue.
Subject: Sherwood
What’s your $$$ request to give us the asset at Sherwood and explain how electronic surveillance is getting past our cybersecurity efforts there?
Solarez gets no response that day or night. Maybe Birdie is not ready to commit that kind of treason, the kind that might get him or his family killed.
Chapter 46
Angie Decides
Angie’s hands shake as she reviews each of the photos from the unmarked envelope. Impulsively she grabs her cell phone to call Paul, but changes her mind before she hits “send.” She drops the phone on the coffee table and falls onto the couch, letting her thoughts run wild.
Once she returns to some semblance of rationality, she exchanges several text messages with Paul and agrees to meet him for lunch the next day at an out-of-the-way Chinese restaurant they have frequented before.
Grinding through her work the next morning, Angie's mind refuses to focus on the tasks at hand. Over and over she rehashes exactly how she’s going to handle the situation. Based on his behavior she’s convinced his wife hasn’t confronted him yet.
As she walks toward him at the restaurant he rises from his chair, but she avoids his embrace, instead maintaining a businesslike demeanor.
"It's great seeing you. You look fantastic."
Ignoring his compliment, she dives right in. "I guess I’m not surprised I wasn’t your only one. I mean, besides Melanie obviously. But—"
"Angie, what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you having an affair with me and someone else at the same time. Who the hell is she?"
"Someone’s lying to you."
With that, Angie withdraws the folded envelope from her purse and sets it in the middle of the table. "These pictures aren't lying, you are.”
Franklin glances at several of the photos. “Angie, look, she’s an associate at the firm. She literally seduced me, and it only happened once—”
“You can forget about me coming to work for you or helping you bug Andy’s office. He is ethical and honest, traits you are sorely lacking. As a matter of fact, maybe I should tell Andy about your plans to bug his office.”
“Angie, you can’t do that, I mean don’t do that, I’m begging you.”
“We’re through. You can sweat it out. Don't call or text me ever again."
Angie stands, slightly pulling on the tablecloth and knocking over the salt shaker. She grabs her purse and storms out of the restaurant.
Paul Franklin knows he has a big, big problem on his hands. And at precisely the wrong moment.
Chapter 47
Parade Route
In anticipation of the parade, Ron ordered a Mickey Mouse costume for Justin to wear. Ron is also dressed up, but in a disguise involving spray-painted dirty-blond hair, a handlebar mustache and a pair of nerdy tortoise-frame glasses. He’s completely unrecognizable. The entourage leaving Sherwood includes four FBI agents, Ron, Justin, and the nanny, divided between two black SUVs with tinted windows.
"Justin will be so excited to see his first parade," Mrs. Kolfax says.
&n
bsp; “No doubt. This will be great,” Ron agrees, staring out the window at the passing countryside.
The Disney Costume Parade route occupies no more than three blocks near the waterfront in Annapolis. Speakers are mounted along the parade route, and families from far beyond the city limits line the streets. Kids squirm anxiously on the curb in front of multiple rows of adults, many well-prepared with folding chairs. Familiar Disney songs blare from the speakers, heightening the anticipation.
The Sherwood group arrives 30 minutes early and locates a spot in the middle of the route, near an Applebee’s and opposite Walgreen's. Justin sits on the ground between Ron’s legs and Mrs. Kolfax stands beside him with a lightweight folding stroller and diaper bag.
Hearing the word “Da-da," from Justin breaks Ron's heart, now that he’s convinced this Justin is not his Justin. Ron’s eyes dart around to the faces of the dozens of kids around him, looking into the eyes of the boys similar in age to Justin. How will I ever find him? He’s brought back to reality by the increased noise as the first of the characters and parade floats appear.
Music continues to vibrate from the speakers and a line of fancifully-dressed men appear, banging on snare drums mounted at waist level. They move in choreographed sequences, circling each other and twirling their drumsticks in the air between beats. Next is a pastel-painted float featuring at least a dozen Disney characters, including Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. They wave to the crowds on both sides.
"Justin, that's Minnie Mouse, and right next to Minnie is Mickey Mouse." Ron points out the characters and Justin’s eyes widen in amazement. Stilt-walkers in brightly-colored costumes dance into view with long walking sticks and pumpkins on top of their heads. Just beyond them, the next float carries Peter Pan, Captain Hook, and Tinkerbell.
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