“Maybe things are better than you hoped, Ma’am,” Caine said in a low voice.
Yan did not respond. She merely watched the family in silence.
Rebecca and Tyler were next out of the plane. They supported each other as they staggered across the tarmac. Their baggy prison uniforms hung off their bodies. Even from a distance, Caine saw multiple bruises on their arms and faces. There was no doubt… someone had beat them during their incarceration.
The SOG operations officers made a quick inspection of Rebecca and Tyler, checking for any unexpected surprises. It was not unheard of for foreign powers to hide bombs or biological weapons in the bodies of prisoners. But the two were soon cleared, and offered wheelchairs for their trip to the nearest hospital.
Meanwhile the Shaanxi was already taxiing back to the runway. The pilots had no intention of remaining any longer than necessary.
Yan nodded to Rebecca. The medical team was inserting a saline drip into a vein on her arm. “You better go to her.”
Caine nodded and stepped forward. As the ambulance carrying Su and her parents pulled away, he jogged over to Rebecca’s side. She said nothing as he reached out and grabbed her hand. She just grabbed back and held on tight.
“I’m sorry,” were the only words he could think to say.
Rebecca nodded and burst into tears. He held her tight. As she nuzzled her head into his shoulder he watched Tyler in his wheelchair. Paramedics were taking him to another ambulance.
Jack looked like he had taken a beating, and his skin had that grey hue that only came with malnutrition. But he still managed to give Caine the thumbs up.
Caine grinned, and returned the gesture.
“We need to get these two to the hospital,” the paramedic said to Caine.
Caine nodded and walked alongside Rebecca. He climbed up into the ambulance as they lifted her chair, and maneuvered her next to Tyler.
He would stay with them for as long as they needed him.
By mid-afternoon the doctors at Singapore General Hospital gave their four patients a clean bill of health. Caine stayed with Rebecca in her private room. She was exhausted, her face gaunt and ashen. Doctors had given her a broad range of antibiotics and various updates for her vaccinations. The quiet drip of the IV was the only sound in the otherwise silent room.
Rebecca drifted in and out of sleep. Caine held her hand. He sat next to her in silence, but inside, his rage simmered and grew. His eyes held a dangerous, predatory glare. Doctors and nurses avoided his gaze when they checked in on her.
Chen Fa Li, he thought. He was responsible. He had done this to her, and to Jack.
He would pay.
It took a moment for Caine to realize Rebecca’s eyes were open and she was watching him.
He took her hand to his mouth and kissed her.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke weakly.
“What are you sorry about?”
“I lied to you.”
Caine nodded. “You told me you were going to Portugal."
She looked away. “Someone had to go. Your cover was blown in China, Tom."
“I don’t need you to protect me.” He didn’t mean them to, but his words sounded harsh. Angry.
Rebecca nodded and held his stare. “I realize that now. In Maui, I saw the beating your body had taken. I read your after-action report, too. You were tortured in Tumaco. But you never talked about it.”
Caine was silent. He didn’t know how to answer her. His special forces training had conditioned him to keep going, no matter what. Put everything behind him, focus on the here and now. He hadn’t realized he had applied that training to every aspect of his life, including his relationship with Rebecca.
Tears rolled down Rebecca’s cheeks. “I don’t know how you do it. I mean, I’ve been trained to resist torture and interrogation, but you can only hold out so long. I didn’t last a day."
“It’s okay,” he said squeezing her hand. “It’s over now.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said defiantly. Anger was bubbling up inside her too.
“I know you will.”
“But I learnt something important in Xinjiang.”
Caine raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t certain he wanted to hear what Rebecca was about to say.
“Tom, Chen used our relationship against us. He has been since the beginning. He knew I was stationed in Hong Kong. That’s how he knew you’d be there too.”
“He did,” Caine said, nodding in agreement and reflecting on recent events. “The backdoor into the PLA Navy’s submarine program has been patched, by the way. Chen knew about it all along.”
Rebecca nodded. “We can still use Su Liao. She'll still be able to teach us about China’s naval systems. In the end, you were right. She was the real deal.”
Caine said nothing. He just stroked her hand. After a few minutes, she spoke again.
“Jezebel Yan has asked me to come back to Hong Kong. She wants me to work with her there. I’ll be back to my old job. A senior analyst working on Yan’s team.”
Caine nodded. “It’s what you always wanted.”
“Tom, that day, in Hong Kong… When you told me I should stay, even if you had to leave?”
He smiled. “I remember.”
She turned her head to face him. Her eyes were groggy and her pupils dilated, but her voice was clear and alert. “I never wanted that, Tom. That was never an option for me. I guess I was just hurt that you thought it was. I told Yan, I would only take the post if she could find a way to get you cleared again. Yan’s smart. Maybe she can figure something out, make a deal. And if she can’t, then…” Her voice trailed off to a whisper. Her eyes fluttered closed.
Then they snapped open again. “We can’t keep hiding our pain,” she murmured. “We think we’re protecting each other. But we’re not. We’re just… running in circles. If we’re going to be together, you have… to stop hiding, Tom. You have to let me in.”
Caine nodded, and patted her hand. “We’ll talk about it later. Just get some rest.”
He didn’t tell her that Yan had already spoken to him. That he had told her no. That they had both agreed the best thing for Rebecca was to get as far away from him as possible.
He looked away, as Rebecca rested her head on her pillow and fell back asleep.
The rage inside him had been growing in intensity since Bali.
Now it was time to release it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
WEST VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES
Su Liao ran.
She ran for kilometers. She ran for hours. She ran until her legs ached, until the physical pain was greater than her emotional anguish.
Her nights were restless. By day she could distract herself with work, or her exercise regime. But when she lay down for bed, engulfed by the cold, dark emptiness of nightfall… that was when the nightmares came. She would wake up screaming, tears streaking down her face. She would tremble and shiver for hours, until her exhausted body finally slipped back into unconsciousness.
The lack of sleep was taking a toll. She barely ate. Her stomach seemed to be in a constant state of distress. The few times she dared to look at herself in the mirror, all she saw was a ghost staring back at her. A pale, wasted shadow of the woman she thought she should have been.
But still, she forced herself to run. Rebecca had suggested she make a morning run part of her ritual, to help relieve stress. Now, it was the only thing that brought her peace. As she powered through the mountain trails, sunlight streamed through the red pine and spruce forest. Her feet pounded over a soft carpet of fallen needles covering the earth. Misty vapor puffed from her mouth and nostrils as she panted for breath. She forced her arms and legs to keep moving, and considered her predicament.
Everything had worked out as she hoped. Better, in fact. Physically, her parents had recovered, and they seemed like their old selves again. The three of them lived in a nice home in town, paid for by the United States government. They all had new identities. Her pare
nts spent their days tinkering in the garden. And Su ran.
She had been running for three months.
She was paid a salary by the CIA. The backdoor into the PLA Navy’s submarine navigation program was closed now. The CIA could no longer use her to track the movements of Chinese submarines. But they still consulted with her on the coding, strategies, protocols and conventions of the PLA’s information network system. She helped analysts at the NSA and the CIA hack into Chinese systems wherever they could. Su was still useful, valuable. And they trusted her and her family enough to not only let them live without minders, but in a home of their own.
Life, had never been better.
But Su knew it wouldn’t last.
When Chen Fa Li appeared on the path before her, she almost wasn't surprised. He was standing alone, in the middle of the trail. The sunlight illuminated against the haze of frost-filled air. He looked like a shadow at first, a silhouette against the white snow and frost-covered pines. He wore a trench coat and a two-piece suit. He was dressed like an American. The one aspect of his physical appearance that never changed was his sleek, stylish hair, always parted on his left side. He stepped forward and gave a practiced smile. He looked like a politician, or a news anchor. But Su knew he was far more dangerous than that.
She stopped running. Her breath caught in her throat. It made a tiny, strangled sound, a cross between a gasp and a sigh.
“I see you running here almost every day,” Chen Fa Li said in a pleasant voice. “I wonder how you find time to do anything else?”
Su’s heart was pounding. Her breath out of control. Her legs were starting to feel like jelly. There was no chance she could answer him.
Chen came forward and brushed his hand across Su’s soft cheek. He stared at her, but there was no affection in his eyes. He looked at her like a man might look upon a beautiful painting, or a classic sports car. To him, she was an asset. A possession. As far as he was concerned, he owned her.
The worst part was, Su knew he was right. She could not bring herself to look into his eyes.
“Are you ready to work for me again?” he asked quietly.
Su trembled.
“Remember all our long talks, little one? Remember how I taught you how to manipulate Caine, convince Yan and Freeling that you could be of use to them? Remember how you promised that if I got your parents out of Xinjiang, if I saved you from Zhao, you’d work for me?”
She nodded.
He grabbed her hair violently and yanked her head up, forcing her to meet his stare. “Now is the time to honor your promises, Liao. Zhao Jianyu was a problem for all of us. If he sold the Colombian cocaine as planned, his power in China would have increased a hundredfold. We couldn’t have that, could we?”
She shook her head enthusiastically. Or perhaps Chen did it for her. She no longer knew anymore. Her life was not her own. It had not been for some time.
“Say it!” Chen spat out the words.
Su swallowed. “I…”
“SAY IT!” He shouted. She cried out as he pulled harder on her hair.
“I belong to you,” she almost choked on her words. “You… own me.”
“Excellent.” He released her, then brushed away the strands of hair that had fallen across her eyes. “We understand each other, then. Dead drops will be arranged. That is how you will receive mission objectives. You will work towards a permanent position with the NSA, or failing that, the CIA. This is a long game, Liao. If you fail me, Jezebel Yan will be sent video files of our little talks. She will see you pledging your loyalty to me, promising to work as a double agent for the glory of China. She too, will see that I own—”
An explosive crack, like the sound of a whip, echoed through the forest. Su screamed and pulled away from Chen's grip.
She took a step backwards, as Chen’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head. A crimson hole had opened in the side of his skull. Blood gushed from the wound. The man crumpled, fell like a puppet with his strings cut.
Su froze in place. She was too terrified to move, too scared to even blink. She felt pinpricks of heat on her face… she realized Chen's blood was spattered across her skin.
Another man stepped onto the path. His charcoal coat and dark jeans were dusted with snow. His hiking boots gouged deep prints in the frosted earth as he walked towards her. He was tall, with thick brown hair and eyes the color of jade gemstones. In his hand he held a smoking semi-automatic pistol.
Thomas Caine stepped up to Chen’s body and fired two more shots into his chest. Su shuddered with each gunshot. The silence after was even more terrifying. She feared the next shot might be for her.
As the echo of the last shot faded to a distant murmur, Caine looked up at her. When she looked into his blazing green eyes, she was certain… He had heard her conversation with Chen. He knew.
She dropped to her knees, closed her eyes. She had been living in fear for so long, even after she was safely in America, with her parents by her side. Anything would be better than this. Even death.
“Please let my parents live?” she begged, squeezing her eyes shut. “They have done nothing wrong.”
She wondered if she would feel the hot metal barrel on the back of her head before the end came.
Instead she felt a warm, calloused hand take hers, and help her onto her feet.
“Open your eyes,” Caine said coldly. “I’m not here to kill you. Or your parents.”
Su sobbed, and staggered to her feet.
She watched as Caine patted down Chen's corpse. "He… he would not have come alone," she said in a hesitant, halting voice. "There may be others—"
“He came with three other men," Caine snapped. "They're all dead now.”
She remained silent as he finished searching the body. He found nothing of interest.
“You’re not going to kill me?” she finally asked.
He stood and looked her up and down. “No,” he said with a finality that scared her, despite it being the answer she hoped for. “I would have done exactly the same, in your circumstances. But there are consequences.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked at her, his piercing green eyes both terrifying and compassionate at the same time. “You can’t stay in America. If anyone other than me finds out you were working for Chen, playing both sides, you’ll end up in Federal prison. Maybe worse.”
Su shivered. Now that she wasn’t running, the cold was seeping through her clothes, chilling her to the bone.
Caine reached into his pocket. He withdrew an envelope and placed it into her hands. He closed her trembling fingers around the package, ensuring she had a firm grip. “Inside are three Canadian passports, with matching credit cards. And enough cash to get you into Canada and set up a new life. The contact who prepared these is very discreet, and not part of my government.”
“Why are you doing this?” she eventually asked.
Caine was silent for a moment as he considered his answer. “You’ve had an awful life… Aynur Sabir.”
She shuddered at Caine’s words. That was a name she had not heard in a very long time. Her first name. Her real name.
“Zhao told me," he continued. “You are Uyghur. Your adoptive parents were very brave, protecting you for as long as they could. And you protected them in return.”
“But… but I was going to betray you,” she stammered.
Caine shook his head. “Nature of the game. You got yourself and your family out of an impossible situation. Like I said, I would have done the same myself. But Chen, the people you were working with… they caused my friends a lot of pain. If I ever see you ever again… I won’t protect you. Do you understand?"
She nodded. “So what do we do? Just get in the car, and drive north into Canada? Start all over again?”
Caine nodded. “That's exactly what you do. Rent a new car. Use the cards in that envelope, not your old ones. Leave everything else behind, including your cell phones. They can be tracked.”
Sh
e clutched her body, hugging herself for warmth. “Thank you, Mr. Caine. I know I don’t deserve this. But I thank you anyway.” She gave a tiny bow.
He turned to leave, but stopped, and turned around. "You’ll be alright, Su. You know what you’re doing. You’ve been hiding your whole life. I hope wherever you end up, you can stop running. Live your life, enjoy the time you have left. Spend it with the people you love.”
Then he turned and walked away. His footsteps crunched against the snow, as he vanished into the frost-filled air.
After he disposed of the bodies, Caine drove deep into the Virginian forests. He needed time to think. Time to be alone.
He parked his SUV, and walked aimlessly among the shadows of the towering trees. He lost track of how far he meandered, but eventually he found himself standing beside a rushing river. The cool water cascaded over rocks, surrounded by magnificent pine trees and the mountain peaks in the distance. The scene was serene and peaceful, but Caine didn’t feel either of those emotions.
Rebecca was back in Hong Kong now. She had taken the posting, after she recovered from her torture at Chen’s hands. Her career as a senior analyst in the Far East division was on the fast track. Despite her young age, she was doing better than most intelligence officers with three times as much experience as her.
Their parting had been difficult. Harsh words, bitter tears… She had not given in easily. But like all wounds, the pain had lessoned with time. She was there, and he was here. That was all there was to it.
It was what he had wanted, what he knew needed to happen. But it didn’t change the emptiness he felt. The cold, dead space in his heart that she had once helped fill had returned. He felt numb, and hollow inside. But he knew things could be worse… Worse for both of them.
He thought back to his time with her in the hospital. The bruises and cuts on her skin. Rebecca’s words, spoken in a drugged, half-conscious daze… “Chen used our relationship against us.”
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