“Sir, Ms. Maxwell was hired by Nova’s mother to track her down and bring her home,” said Mitchell. “Unfortunately, she’s also gone missing, and this is where we come in. Would it be possible for Nate and me to meet the people who last met with Nova Dinu, before she, too disappeared?”
“This is a most unfortunate set of circumstances,” said Sandesh. “However, I’d be glad to help. I’ll have my people arrange a meeting in Singapore for you.”
“Thank you, sir,” responded Mitchell.
“Not a problem.” Sandesh indicted to the chairs in front of the table. “Now that all is settled, please take a seat.”
Mitchell and Jackson pulled out their chairs and sat down.
“Why don’t we play one hand of blackjack, before you’re escorted off the premises?”
“Nate and I forgot to get some chips before coming in here,” said Mitchell.
“It’s all right, I’ll loan you the money,” replied Sandesh as he placed fifty thousand dollars in chips in front of each man. “If you lose, you can have your boss pay me back another time.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Mitchell saw Jackson give him a now what have we gotten ourselves into look.
Sandesh dealt out two cards facedown to each player, and then himself. He kept one card hidden, and turned the other over. It was an eight of diamonds.
Mitchell glanced down at his cards. He had a ten of spades and a nine of clubs.
Jackson didn’t have a pleased look on his face.
“Cards, gentlemen?” asked Sandesh.
Sweat began to form on Mitchell’s brow. He hadn’t played cards in years, and didn’t want to explain to his boss why he owed Sandesh fifty thousand dollars. He took in a deep breath and waved his right hand over his cards. “Stand.”
“Hit me,” said Jackson.
Sandesh placed an ace of diamonds on the table.
“Again,” said Jackson. This time a two of cubs appeared. He let out a long-held breath and said, “Stand.”
Sandesh smiled and dealt himself another card. It was a ten of hearts. He flipped over his cards. He was three over the maximum of twenty-one. He raised his hands in mock surrender.
Mitchell let out his breath.
“The house loses,” said Sandesh. “Normally, I’d pay you your winnings, but as it was my money to start with, and it’s all going to charity, I’m just going to have to say thank you to the two of you for donating your winnings to a worthy cause.”
“Easy come, easy go,” said Mitchell.
“Speaking of that,” said Sandesh, glancing down at his gold Rolex, “I’ve neglected my other guests for far too long. Before I leave, is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No, sir, you’ve helped us out immeasurably.”
“Very well, then; our meeting is over. Since you’re not really supposed to be here, these fine gentlemen will quietly escort you off the premises.”
The two armed guards standing at the door moved toward the table.
A minute later, Mitchell and Jackson found themselves standing outside the back entrance to the casino. A black alley cat walked past them, carrying the remains of a fish in its mouth.
“If I were a superstitious man, I’d take that as a bad omen,” said Jackson.
“Our luck can only get better after what happened tonight,” noted Mitchell. “Come on, let’s arrange to meet Henri a block or two away from the casino. I think we’ve caused enough of a kerfuffle for one evening.”
A side door to the private cards room opened. A rugged-looking gentleman in a dark-blue suit walked into the room, and stopped in front of Sandesh. He had a square build, with jet-black hair and a neatly trimmed beard.
“Sir, you shouldn’t have done that,” said the man. His English was tinged with a Slavic accent.
“It was merely harmless theatrics,” replied Sandesh. “Besides, they would have eventually gone to Singapore.”
The man turned to face Sandesh. “Sir, as your head of security, I must insist that you let me handle these kinds of incidents.”
“Krasimir, ever since you came to work for me I have always respected your advice, but I was dying to meet these men. It takes bravado to try and pull off a stunt like that, and hope to get away with it.”
“Sir, every move you make has the potential to jeopardize the project,” said Krasimir. “I must insist you leave all security-related matters in my hands from now on. Your people are so close to a breakthrough in their research. The last thing we need are people poking their noses in your business. Not now. Not when peace, lasting peace, is within your grasp.”
“All right, you win, Krasimir. Do what you must, but keep things discreet.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sandesh stood. “Time to lose some more money.”
Krasimir waited until he was alone, before reaching for his cell phone and making a call.
The sound of a phone buzzing startled one of the two occupants of a car parked on a side street facing the casino. The driver reached for his phone and answered it.
“Wait until Mitchell and Jackson get back to their hotel, and then make it look like a burglary gone bad,” said Krasimir.
The driver already had pictures of his two victims, and the address of the hotel where they were staying on his phone. “Yes, sir,” replied the man.
His partner, a former policeman with a square jaw, looked over. “Do we have the go-ahead?”
The driver nodded. A sudden rap on the glass next to the driver’s head surprised him. He looked over, and saw a police officer standing there. A beat cop looking for a bribe, thought the man. He was used to the drill, and lowered the driver’s side window. “Yes, Officer?”
Neither man felt the tranquilizer darts shot into their necks. Hours later, when the police woke them on a sandy beach, they were naked, and couldn’t recall what had happened or how they had gotten there.
9
Polaris Headquarters
Jack O’Reilly took his seat at the head of the table in the briefing room, while Mike Donaldson slid into a chair on his right. With his snowy-white hair and black eye patch over his right eye, Donaldson looked more like an aging pirate than the executive officer of a major security corporation.
O’Reilly poured himself a glass of water, and then the same for Donaldson. He made sure to place it where Donaldson could easily grab it with his prosthetic right hand.
“Thanks, boss,” said Donaldson, picking up the glass.
“Did Fahimah say what she and Jen would be covering in their brief?” asked O’Reilly.
“No. I got the feeling that this is only a preliminary update, and that they’ll put together a more comprehensive presentation for tomorrow. Most of what they’re going to go over is based on their recent discussions with Ryan and Nate.”
Fahimah and Jen walked in the room. Jen went to the lectern, slid a memory stick into a laptop computer, and waited for their presentation to come up.
O’Reilly saw the smile on Donaldson’s face the instant Fahimah walked in the room. Their secret marriage had only come to the forefront after Donaldson was badly injured a couple of years back, during a terrorist strike on the building. It took Fahimah’s parents a couple of years to accept their decision, but they now treated him as one of the family. The happy couple were even talking of trying for a child of their own, or adopting one.
“General, this is going to be fairly short intelligence update; Jen and I are still looking into leads given to us by Ryan and Nate,” explained Fahimah.
“Some info is better than none,” said O’Reilly.
“Sir, to keep things in order, I’m conducting the research into the Dinus and Mister Sandesh, while Jen is chasing down what she can on Yuri.”
“Who are the Dinus, and for that matter, who is Mister Sandesh?” asked a puzzled O’Reilly.
Fahimah brought up a picture of Max Dinu from a Romanian business publication. Thick glasses were perched on his bulbous nose. His hair was unkempt, and he w
ore a rumpled shirt with a mismatched tie. Fahimah proceeded to cover in detail how Grace had been hired to look for Nova Dinu, who had gone missing while looking into her father’s alleged suicide.
“I take it Max Dinu’s body was never found?” asked Donaldson.
“That’s correct,” responded Fahimah.
“What do the Romanian authorities have to say about these disappearances?” asked O’Reilly.
“Sir, they had no reason to doubt the Indonesian police investigation into Max Dinu’s suicide,” explained Fahimah. “The Romanian authorities were able to track Nova Dinu until she reached Singapore. Her credit card was used to reserve a room at the Hilton on the day she arrived. After that, she and her electronic trail ceased to exist.”
“I take it this never became a kidnapping for ransom?” asked Donaldson.
Fahimah nodded. “Nova’s mother, Stephanie, honestly expected someone to contact her asking for money, but to date, no one has.”
“Have you spoken to her?” O’Reilly asked.
“Not yet, sir. I intend to, first thing in the morning,” replied Fahimah.
“When you do, please try to find out how she came to hire Grace, and if she’s heard anything from her in the past couple of weeks.”
“Does this family have a lot of money?” inquired Donaldson.
“They appear to be an upper-middle-class family, with no ties to money,” said Fahimah.
“What did Max Dinu do for a living?” asked O’Reilly.
“He was a geneticist,” she replied, “and worked for a Romanian corporation specializing in gene editing.”
O’Reilly shook his head. “What does that mean?”
“Sir, Mister Dinu used to alter the DNA inside living cells. This type of work is not unique, and is typically used to modify crops to thrive in inhospitable areas, or make designer livestock larger to get more protein from them.”
“And Miss Dinu, what did she do for a living?” asked Donaldson.
“She’s a reporter,” responded Fahimah. “I guess that’s why she couldn’t blindly accept the authorities’ explanation of her father’s death.”
O’Reilly tapped his pen on the table for a few seconds. “This is all useful information. Keep digging into the Dinus’ family history, and Max Dinu’s research. It would be interesting to see what specifically he was working on when he allegedly committed suicide.”
“Will do, sir.”
The picture on the screen changed to Varun Sandesh.
“Gentleman, this is Varun Sandesh, who is one of the richest men in India. His family’s wealth is reputed to be around seven point three billion dollars. Varun Sandesh is a Harvard-educated businessman who oversees several genetics firms spread across the globe. Max Dinu was visiting one of these companies in Singapore when he allegedly went missing. Mister Sandesh is a lifelong bachelor who has been tied to several of India’s most beautiful women. He’s a self-professed pacifist, who regularly spends a large sum of his money on global initiatives to end war and violence. Last year he gave tens of millions of dollars to de-mining activities in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. When he’s not with his company, he’s flying around the world to raise funds to support the victims of war.”
“A truly altruistic man,” observed O’Reilly.
“Is there any reason to presume that Mister Sandesh is involved in any of the disappearances?” asked Donaldson.
“It’s far too early to draw any conclusions either way,” replied Fahimah. “But judging by his track record, he doesn’t seem the type to make three people disappear for no reason whatsoever.”
“For now, we’ll just keep an eye on him,” said O’Reilly. “Many people have public and private lives vastly different from one another.”
Fahimah nodded.
“Now, Jen, what do you have for us?” asked O’Reilly.
Jen cleared her throat. On the screen beside her appeared a picture of Yuri Uvarov, a former pilot in the Russian Armed Forces, now a black-market mercenary for hire.
“Sir, Yuri is an unbelievably slippery man to track,” said Jen. “He has a couple of bank accounts in Switzerland that Ryan deposits money in from time to time when Yuri is working for us. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t accessed so much as a dime from those accounts in months. He has numerous other bank accounts all over the world to help pay for the equipment and people he hires to help organizations like ourselves, and I suspect he may have been using one of those accounts when he disappeared.”
“You know he launders dirty money through these accounts?” added Donaldson.
“No one said Yuri was an angel,” said Jen, defending her friend.
“Please carry on,” said O’Reilly.
“On a hunch, I called Yuri’s Sierra Leonean girlfriend and asked her when she last saw him. She said that he had been visiting her in Freetown a couple of weeks back when he received a call. He never told her who called, but left the next day for Rome to catch a connecting flight to Singapore.”
O’Reilly sat up in his chair. “All roads seem to lead to Singapore.”
“This can’t all be a series of coincidences. I take it you’re going to contact Dawn and say we’ll take the case?” Donaldson asked his boss.
“It’s beginning to look that way,” he replied. “Jen, were you able to pick up Yuri’s trail in Singapore?”
“No, sir. I doubt I could. He’ll be traveling on a false passport, and all of his credit cards will be fake as well. What I plan to do is look into known associates of Yuri’s, and see if they’ve had any contact with him, or if they’ve rented out any planes or boats in the past few weeks.”
“Good thinking,” said O’Reilly. “Please keep up the good work, and let me know when you find out anything more about our missing people.”
“How about 1300 hours tomorrow?” suggested Fahimah.
“I look forward to hearing what you have learned. Before you go, you should know that I signed off on another mission.”
Jen reached for her pen to take notes.
O’Reilly continued. “Sam and Gordon are on their way to Oman to look for a British RAF plane that disappeared in the mountains south of Muscat in 1942. Sorry to add to your work.”
“Not a problem,” said Fahimah. “We’ll just divvy up the work and bash on.”
“Don’t forget to forward everything you’ve learned on the Dinus and Sandesh to Ryan and Nate,” said Donaldson.
Fahimah winked. “Already done.”
The women gathered their notes and left the room.
“The Dinus, Grace, and Yuri all go missing in Singapore,” mused O’Reilly. “You have to wonder what they stumbled across to make someone want to make them disappear.”
“Whatever it is, our people had best be careful,” said Donaldson.
“I’ll text Ryan to tell him to be wary, but you know those two, they’ll do whatever they think is right to get the job done.”
10
Singapore
Mitchell and Jackson picked up their luggage and were about to head out of the airport to flag down a cab, when a young, handsome, Asian man in a blue suit with a white shirt and pale-yellow tie walked out of the crowd and strode toward them. He stopped and handed Mitchell a business card. “Gentlemen, my name is Adrian Lee. I work for the Sandesh Corporation, and have a car waiting outside to take you to your hotel.”
Mitchell took the card and shook Lee’s hand. “How did you know we were the men you were looking for?”
“I wouldn’t be good at my job as head of corporate protocol, if I didn’t first research the men I was responsible for looking after during their time in Singapore,” replied Lee.
“Pleased to meet you, Adrian,” said Jackson, shaking the young man’s hand firmly.
“Is this your first time in Singapore?” asked Lee.
“Yes, it is,” replied Jackson.
“According to your itinerary, your time here will be brief. I hope you get the chance to take a look around.”
�
��So do I.”
“This way, gentlemen,” said Lee, leading them outside of the bustling arrivals terminal. A humid breeze greeted the men. The long leaves on a row of palm trees danced in the wind.
Almost right away, a black Rolls Royce pulled up. The driver opened his door, stepped outside, and took Mitchell’s and Jackson’s luggage. Lee opened a door for Mitchell. Jackson smiled at the driver and opened his own. When everyone was seated, the driver edged out into the traffic and drove off.
Lee, sitting up front, turned around and said, “Gentlemen, I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of switching your hotel to the Raffles; the one you were supposed to be staying at isn’t up to the standards of the Sandesh Corporation. Mister Sandesh, naturally, insisted on paying for your rooms.”
“Please thank him for his gracious hospitality,” said Mitchell.
“I shall. But you’ll get the opportunity to pass on your thanks, tomorrow night. He has a box seat for the annual Singapore Grand Prix, and would like both of you to attend as his guests.”
“A hotel upgrade and tickets to a race, this is turning out to be an okay assignment,” said Jackson.
“I take it you have made all the arrangements for Mister Jackson and me to meet the last people who saw Nova Dinu alive?” asked Mitchell.
“I have,” replied Lee. “I’ll meet you in the hotel lobby at nine o’clock tomorrow morning, at which time I’ll escort you to the offices of Hygeia Designs. After a brief tour of the facility, I’ve arranged for you to have a light lunch with the two men who spoke with Miss Dinu prior to her disappearance.”
“I’m impressed.”
Lee smiled. “Don’t be; it’s my job. As it’s the first time here for both of you gentlemen, did you know that Singapore is one of only three city-states in the world? Also, it is a considered to be a city, a state, and a capital all at once.”
“There you go, Nate, more trivia for you to memorize,” teased Mitchell.
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