White Ghost

by Steven Gore

  “Is that why you didn’t tell him you were tracking the chips?” Kai paused for a moment. Gage could hear the rumble of traffic on the road. She then answered her own question. “I get it. You want him to believe that this is all or nothing and it all depends on him.”

  “Exactly.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Gage lay awake, worried about Lucy, feeling the failure of having misread her, of not having anticipated that the urge to act would overtake her. He imagined her lying on a rooftop overlooking East Wind, peering down or slumped in her car peeking through the windows and Ah Ming’s people scanning their surroundings, checking for surveillance, any movement, any change from the ordinary, any vehicle parked too long, whether occupied by a cop looking to take them down or by a crook looking to take them over. And, compounding all that, Sylvia trying to search without appearing to be searching, trying to avoid giving herself or Lucy away.

  His cell phone rang. It was Sylvia.

  “We found her.”

  “You mean she really was surveilling East Wind?”

  “Worse than that. Remember what you said about the shortest distance between two points? She went in. I had Viz spotting on the entrance while I watched the back. He saw her walk inside.”

  “What’s she doing there?”

  “I don’t know yet. I sent Annie Ma to look around inside, but she didn’t see her.”

  Gage thought for moment, trying to work his mind past both his anger at her and his fear for her.

  “Let’s hope she went in pretending to be a potential customer.”

  “But what if she confronted him?

  “Then it’s already too late. They would’ve stuffed her into a car trunk and taken her to a safe house to interrogate her.”

  “You want me to call the police and report it as a kidnapping?”

  “No. They wouldn’t find her and it would prove to Ah Ming she knows something. It would only make it worse for her—I’ll call you back.”

  Gage telephoned Cobra who was staking out the Sunny Glory branch in Taichung, a few hours’ drive north of the Kaohsiung Port, waiting for the container to arrive.

  “Whatever is happening over there hasn’t changed anything over here,” Cobra said.

  “Call me if you pick up countersurveillance. If so, we’ll abort this thing and I’ll send people in to shake up East Wind.”

  After Gage disconnected, he allowed himself to feel the annoyance engendered by Lucy interjecting herself into what he was doing. It was something of an emotional high-wire act because he was angry at a person, a young person of intelligence and potential, who might have already been tortured and murdered.

  Gage’s cell phone rang. It was Sylvia.

  “She just walked out of East Wind.” Instead of relief, Sylvia’s voice vibrated with worry, even fear. “And we’re in big trouble. Viz is sending me live video. Guys are on either side of her. Suits. They’re heading toward a van parked in front.”

  “Are they holding her?”

  “One had his hand on her elbow . . . still walking . . . they’re stopped . . . she’s looking around . . .” Sylvia blew out a breath. “She’s walking away.”

  “Anyone following her?”

  “Doesn’t look like it. The two guys got into the van.”

  “Stay with her, but don’t get close until you’re sure no one is watching her.”

  Gage allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of annoyance. It’s easier to be angry at the living.

  Twenty minutes later Sylvia called.

  “We lost her going into an apartment complex in South San Francisco. She was out of sight by the time we snuck through the gate behind another resident. We’re looking for her car . . . Hold on a second . . . I think Viz found it . . . He’s got it . . . I’ll call when we figure out which apartment she’s in.”

  A few minutes later Sylvia called back.

  “I’m with Lucy. She got herself hired using her Chinese name. Part-time. Working mornings.”

  “Put her on.”

  The next voice was Lucy’s, and angry. “I just couldn’t sit around and wait.”

  “You should’ve talked to me first. Ah Ming is dangerous and smart and has near-perfect instincts. If he reads tension on your face, he’ll act on it.”

  Lucy didn’t respond. Gage could hear her breathing.

  “Did he hire you himself?”

  “No. The head of the shipping department.”

  “Has he noticed you?”

  “I don’t think so. He can’t see my cubicle from his office in a far corner and it’s not along the aisles he walks down either from the back lot or from the front door. I can just not show up anymore. I don’t think they could find me.”

  “Quitting so soon may raise suspicions. I’m not saying this to scare you, but they certainly would be able to find you. You’re an amateur and amateurs always leave a trail. Let me talk to Sylvia.”

  Gage heard Lucy pass the phone.

  “Do you think she could deal with staying on at East Wind?” Gage asked.

  “Let me go into another room.” After a few moments of shuffling, Sylvia said, “We caught her by surprise, but she didn’t fall apart. And she was able to forge past employment records and was cool enough in the interview to get herself hired.”

  “It would help us if we had an inside person even if all she does is watch. But we’ll need a plan to get her out if things blow up. And don’t tell Casey about her being in there. It would compromise the criminal case against Ah Ming if a defense lawyer figured out that there was someone in East Wind who Casey knew about and had some control over, even if only through us. It could be construed as an illegal search.”

  “Got it.”

  “Put her back on.”

  Gage heard more shuffling as Sylvia walked back to where Lucy was waiting.

  “We want you to stay at East Wind,” Gage told her, “but don’t play detective on your own. Just watch and report to Sylvia.”

  “I’m sorry for not asking you, but I’m grateful you’re letting me help out.”

  “I’m just trying to make the best of a bad situation. And don’t make it worse by telling anyone. Call your parents. Say that you’ve been distraught about your brother and went to a therapist who suggested you take some time off so your academic future wouldn’t be compromised. You decided on your own to change apartments. Be apologetic. And call them every day.”

  After repeating the plan to Sylvia, Gage hung up and called Cobra. “We’ve got it straightened out. What about the container?”

  “It’s due into port tomorrow. A classmate of mine from MJIB training days manages security for Hanjin Lines down at Kaohsiung. He confirmed it’s still owned by Sunny Glory, but he can’t be certain it will actually be hauled there. It could get diverted and sent directly to Sunny Glory’s customer. Whoever that is.”

  “Then make sure we don’t lose it.”

  CHAPTER 41

  Kai telephoned Gage at sunrise, unaware that Lucy had cost him most of a night’s sleep. He made up an excuse about catching up with some work and put her off until noon. Over a lunch in the hotel café, she reported on her conversations with Eight Iron.

  “Last night he went to a casino in the Khao San district, near the river. He talked to some jao phor godfathers. He didn’t get any specific information about dates and routes, but he found out Ah Ming has been getting a regular supply of Triple K and 555 from the Wa State Army through a syndicate set up by United Bamboo.”

  “How far do you think Eight Iron is willing to go?”

  “It’s a little complicated. If he asks about the heroin, then a load is captured right away, everyone will think he was behind it. And if it gets captured by U.S. agents, he’ll look like a DEA informant, particularly since everyone knows he isn’t in heroin anymore. People will assume he cut a deal to avoid prosecution for yaba.”

  “Does that mean you think he’ll bail on us?”

  Kai shook her head. “He wants this too much. He pu
t the word out that he has an old customer who wants a big load. He made it sound urgent and implied that the customer is already in Thailand. He flew up to Chiang Rai early this morning. He may need you to go up there and pretend to be his buyer. He wants someone to blame if things blow up.”

  “You mean me?”

  “No, he means you,” Kai said, flashing grin. “I’ve got other things to blame you for.”

  “Get in line.”

  “Behind who?”

  “Maybe the DEA. The last thing I need is to have my name show up in a DEA intelligence report negotiating for heroin. But the more serious problem is that I might know some of the people he’s dealing with from the old days.”

  “No one would wonder about Cobra.”

  Gage shook his head. “If someone has to face off with the Wa State Army, then I’d rather do it myself. I’ve got less to lose.”

  Kai’s brows furrowed and she peered at him. “What do you mean, less to lose?”

  Gage shrugged, then came up with a reason different from the one he was thinking, but no less true.

  “Only that Cobra’s got to live here after this is over. As long as he’s in the shadows and the Wa don’t know about him, he’ll be okay. If we can’t guarantee that, I’m not sure I want you involved in this either.”

  Kai looked down and picked at her rice, then looked up with raised eyebrows and said, “Well . . .”

  “Well what?”

  “If this is going to be our last day together, maybe we should go up to your room and . . .”

  Gage smiled at Kai as if at a persistent child. “You’re what the kids in the States used to call scandalous.”

  “That settles it. If I’m getting the blame, why shouldn’t I at least get to commit the crime?”

  “Because you’d have to make me a coconspirator to do it.”

  “I promise I won’t . . . what’s the American word?”

  “Snitch, you won’t snitch.”

  “Right, I won’t snitch on my coconspirator.”

  Gage leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “Would you explain to me how come wherever our conversation starts, it always ends up here?”

  “I’m from an old and mysterious culture. We’ve learned to flow with the inexplicable current of events.” Kai smiled. “I think it would be better if the white ghost surrendered to the flow.”

  “There’s nothing inexplicable about the current. It’s just you paddling.”

  Kai released a fake sigh. “Apparently I have lost my subtlety.”

  “And I take it that’s somehow another reason we have to sleep together before I leave?”

  “Of course, everything is a reason why we have to sleep together. I thought you understood that.”

  CHAPTER 42

  The container arrived at Kaohsiung,” Cobra told Gage in a call from Taiwan. Kai was driving them toward Eight Iron’s compound in northern Bangkok. They’d just passed the trunk of the flat-topped Elephant Tower office building. “Sunny Glory’s was one of the first off the ship. It’s in customs now. We’re set up to follow it when it gets released.”

  “What about security at their warehouse?”

  “Nothing more than before.”

  “Doesn’t that suggest the chips might not be in there?”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Adding extra security could raise questions. The workers might not know that there is something hidden in the container and it’s better not to give them a reason to ask. If they don’t know something worth protecting is on its way, they can’t set up Sunny Glory from the inside to be ripped off.”

  “Kai and I are in the middle of something, and I may need your help down here a little sooner than I expected.”

  “Just let me know. My people are all ex–Ministry of Justice Intelligence agents, most with backgrounds in electronic intelligence. They’ll follow through if I have to leave.”

  Kai honked her car horn as they rolled to a stop in front of a razor-wired metal gate, the only opening in the ten-foot-high walls surrounding Eight Iron’s mansion. An eye appeared on the other side of a peephole. When the gate slid open, they discovered that the eye belonged to a guard cradling an AK–47 across his chest. A second guard stood at the bottom of the stairs and others at each corner of the house.

  The interior that met Gage when they crossed the threshold into the living area was far different from the array of utilitarian chairs and couches that he’d encountered the last time. Mirrors, pieces of jade, and furniture whose placement seemed determined more by superstition than function told him that someone had made serious efforts to ensure that no good luck would ooze out of the house and no bad luck would flow in, feng shui and AK–47s willing.

  Eight Iron met them in his teak-paneled office on the ground floor. He directed them to one of two facing couches. The low table between them and Eight Iron seemed to divide them into teams, voiding Gage’s hope that he could generate a feeling of working together.

  “Welcome to my modest home,” Eight Iron said as he sat down. Gage watched him rub the dragon head carved into the armrest as though it was a rabbit’s foot.

  “It’s far from modest,” Gage said.

  “My most recent minor wife is an interior decorator.”

  Kai’s voice hardened as she translated the words “mia noi,” minor wife.

  Eight Iron made a regal gesture with his hand. “She suggested a few things and I allowed her to do them.” His hand swooped down and he poured white tea into small red clay cups, then handed one to each of them.

  “I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon,” Gage said.

  “And I didn’t expect things to move so fast.”

  Gage tensed at the delight in Eight Iron’s voice.

  “There’s a big load of 555 in production up there.” Eight Iron pointed northeast, toward the Golden Triangle. “And there’s a lot of worry among the Wa about the financing. How the syndicate will pay for it and even whether they ever will. They don’t like what they view as the novelty of it. And given the demand for China White these days, they aren’t sure they should’ve bothered with it.”

  “What did they mean by novelty?”

  “They didn’t say directly, but I got the idea that no money would actually change hands.”

  “You mean the Wa is fronting the whole load?”

  “They wouldn’t do that. It’s something else.”

  Kai glanced over at Gage. He didn’t look back, but guessed she was thinking the same thing he was. If it was Ah Ming’s deal, the novelty would be that it would be barter, not cash: chips for heroin. Heroin into the bodies of American drug users, chips into Thai-made electronics. It was brilliant and exactly the kind of mutation in crime he’d talked about in his speech to the International Fraud Investigators Association. And it made him feel both insightful and stupid at the same time. Ah Ming had combined robbery and drug trafficking in a way Gage hadn’t anticipated, but now knew he should have.

  It was almost as if Gage hadn’t been listening to his own speech.

  Not only had Ah Ming figured out how to do a drug deal without money and without a money trail, but he’d obtain the heroin almost for free: just the cost of the robbery plus a few thousand dollars in shipping fees.

  “Why were people willing to talk to you about it?”

  Eight Iron smiled like an actor knowing he’d delivered the perfectly spoken line. “Because they thought I was approaching them about buying yaba pills. Apparently the Wa laboratory producing the heroin is also used for making yaba. They’ve gathered all the ephedrine and other precursors to make a huge batch in the next few weeks. They want it sold in advance, so they’re on the hunt for buyers.”

  “Sounds like they’re under pressure to finish the heroin first.”

  “From what I gather, it’s almost done. At a lab inside Thailand. It used to be in Burma, but the skirmishes between the Wa and Shan forced it to move across the border.”

  Not only had the Wa and Shan been fighting to free the
mselves from China and Burma, but had been fighting each other over the heroin trade by which they financed their armies.

  Eight Iron sipped his tea, then said, “But you’re not really interested in those details as much as in the big news. Which is that United Bamboo is the buyer and the broker is one Ah Ming has used in the past.” He took another sip of tea and smacked his lips. “I’ve already sent Kasa to Mae Sai.”

  “Hold on.” Gage locked on Eight Iron’s eyes. “I don’t want anyone grabbing the heroin. We don’t even know for certain it’s for Ah Ming, and we don’t want to start a war.”

  Gage then remembered Eight Iron had said he needed a fake foreign buyer and Kasa didn’t qualify, both because he was well known in the Golden Triangle as Eight Iron’s enforcer and because he was a Shan. The Wa would never sell to a Shan even through a broker they trusted.

  “Why’d you send Kasa up there? You told Kai you just needed someone to play the part of a customer, and that’s a part he can’t play.”

  “I only sent him up there to find the lab and arrange to follow the 555.”

  Gage remembered Kai’s image of Eight Iron as a bloodhound and decided that he needed a leash.

  “I’ll send Cobra up there to work with him.”

  Eight Iron smiled again. “If you’d like. We can always use someone with his skills.”

  AS THEY WERE driving away, Kai glanced over at Gage. “He plans to intercept the heroin. That’s why he rushed Kasa up there. Has to be.”

  “It’s possible. I don’t see Eight Iron spending his own time and money unless he expects to get something concrete in return. A warm feeling of having gotten revenge isn’t enough. He wants to feel either white powder or someone’s blood between his fingertips. And another thing. First he wanted someone to play customer and go meet the broker and now he doesn’t. That tells me something else. He’s trying to keep us from finding out what’s really going on.”

  “And whatever that is might account for his enthusiasm.”