“What about Carson?” I asked, my eyes widening. “Jude? He was there too. The Anton guy? What happened to the medic?”
I hoped beyond hope that it hadn’t all been for nothing. That Eric wouldn’t have flown here just to rescue me. I wanted, more than anything else, for this nightmare to be over.
But instead, Eric just shook his head with clear regret. “The police took the medic into custody, and they’ve been questioning him, or so Cho says. But Jude and Anton left just before we arrived—they likely saw us on security footage, but your condition made it impossible to use you like the bait they intended. There has been no sign of Carson or anyone else since.”
I wilted with defeat. “Then it was all for nothing. I ruined it all, didn’t I?”
Eric said nothing. Even under the layer of haze, my heart ached.
“I—I—” I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t even think straight. Sorry, I wanted to say, but the word wasn’t even close to adequate. What was?
“What is it?” Eric asked, scooting closer. He cupped my face, and his thumb stroked my cheek. “What do you need, gorgeous? Anything.”
I closed my eyes and leaned into his hand. I needed a lot of things. The enormity of what I’d been through was beginning to dawn on me, but I was pretty sure it would get worse once the sedatives wore off completely. Food. Water. Shelter. Eric. I needed them all. But right now, I wanted more sleep. And I wanted one other thing.
“Home,” I whispered. “I just want to go home.”
Interlude II
Present
Eric paced in front of the steps leading up to the DVS jet. Tony stood stolidly by their entrance, watching his boss’s every move. The other security members—the two new ones Eric had brought from New York as well as the other three who had come with Jane on this journey, were already seated, nervously drinking sparkling water. Jane’s detail likely thought they’d all be without a job once they reached New York. Eric still wasn’t sure what to do. After all, she had been taken on their watch.
But for now, much like his wife, he just wanted to go home.
If they even could.
After a week in the hospital, Jane was stable—not the bullshit half-in-a-coma stable where the doctors had tried to convince him she was perfectly fine, but really and truly stable. No more fever, the infection was waning, and her face didn’t look like death anymore.
They could fight this battle from New York—if they could get there at all.
They had been sitting at the military air base in Suwon for hours, waiting to get the final go-ahead to leave. But just as the pilot had started taxiing toward the runway, they had been called back. A problem, said air control, with customs.
With Carson, Eric knew. The man wanted them here, and after hearing Jane’s gradual retelling of the things she had overheard between fever dreams on top of what she and Cho had uncovered, he now knew why: Carson needed DVS transport. For something. Something big.
Not that Eric gave two shits about that. Carson was still MIA, but unfortunately it had become a matter of who had the most pull with the government—South Korea’s or the U.S. And since Carson had been actively involved with both for so long, as opposed to Eric with less than a year at the helm of DVS, Eric was losing the game. Badly.
Still, Eric had personally met with the Minister of Trade, who had assured he would do everything he could to protect their departure, even getting them special dispensation to leave from the Suwon base under the supervision of the U.S. Army’s air defense battalion instead of having to go through Incheon International Airport. Eric had accepted the favor, but he honestly wasn’t sure it was even for the best, considering how deep Chariot was in the military’s pockets.
Because despite the fact that Detective Cho had called the NIS directly to alert them of the kidnapping, nothing had happened. No arrests had been made. It was like Jane and Yu-na’s entire abduction—the abduction of two American citizens—hadn’t happened at all.
Eric shivered in the cold, but stopped pacing when he spotted a vehicle speeding across the tarmac.
“That looks like U.S. military this time,” Tony said, pointing at the truck.
Eric squinted. The closer it came, the more he could make out the even mix of air force fatigues and officers’ uniforms.
“Shit. They’ve corralled the lieutenant colonel into this.” He swore again. Lieutenant Colonel Clifford, the commanding officer of the U.S. battalion, really didn’t like the fact that his base was being used to give in to the demands of a spoiled aristocrat and had made his impressions of Eric clear immediately after they arrived.
“Who’s the suit with him?” Tony wondered.
Eric shook his head. “I don’t know. More bureaucratic red tape, I’d guess.”
The car pulled to a stop, and the lieutenant colonel exited, followed by a man and a woman, both in civilian suits.
“What’s this about, Colonel?” Eric asked. “My wife and mother-in-law have been through a harrowing ordeal. I thought we had gotten through all the paperwork needed to get us home.”
The colonel, a barrel-chested man with a beefy neck, shrugged as he gestured to the other two people who had exited the car with him. “Intelligence has a few more questions for you, Mr. de Vries,” he said gruffly, clearly not pleased about the new development. “This is Agent Kym, from the CIA.”
The woman reached out to shake Eric’s hand. “We are working with South Korea on subjects relating to North Korean disarmament,” she said in perfect English. “This is Agent Suh, from the NIS.”
The other man grunted.
Eric blinked. He was beyond this kind of small talk.
“We just have a few things to ask your wife and mother-in-law before they depart,” Agent Kym continued.
Eric eyed both of the agents, then shook his head. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Not without our lawyer present, and he’s in New York.”
“Aren’t you and your wife both attorneys?” snapped the colonel. “Your plane has been sitting on our runway for half the damn day. My battalion hasn’t been able to run most of its drills today.”
“We are,” Eric said smoothly, “but my practice was primarily securities, and my wife was a prosecutor. I’m sure you’ll understand that neither of us have the background to represent ourselves adequately in a unique international situation like this one.” He looked back at Agent Kym. “We’ll be in New York if you need us. Shouldn’t that make things easier? Everyone on this plane is an American citizen. We’ll be on home ground.”
“Mrs. Lefferts is a Korean national,” Agent Suh finally spoke up. “She never renounced her South Korean citizenship.”
Eric scowled. “As I understand it, she holds dual citizenship. That means she has as much a right to return to the States as me or her daughter.”
“It also means we are within our rights to hold our nationals subject to our laws, Mr. de Vries. You have no right to take her without our consent.”
They glared at each other, Eric’s steely gaze holding Suh’s inky one in a tense challenge until Agent Kym diplomatically cleared her throat and turned to the colonel, who was becoming increasingly agitated.
“Colonel Clifford, this will only take a moment, and I know you have more pressing things to do. If you’d like to have your assistant return you to base and send him back for us, I’m sure we will be finished by then.”
The colonel glanced between them, clearly battling between what he was told to do, likely in veiled terms, and what he felt he should be doing. “Hell,” he muttered, tossing a hand up at all of them. “If it gets this thing off my runway, I’m all for it.”
And with that, they watched as he and his underling returned to the Jeep and drove to the American side of the base.
Agent Kym turned to Eric. “Mr. de Vries, I’m sure Agent Suh would say that of course Mrs. Lefferts can and should return to her home. But for the sake and expediency of our own investigations, we would be grateful if she and your wife would answer a few questi
ons for us before she leaves.” She tipped her head to the side. “I’m sure you can understand why the CIA might prefer to conduct this kind of interview in the comfort of your jet instead of the constraints of the base.”
It took a moment, but answers quickly dawned on Eric. Why Agent Kym had so brusquely shooed away the colonel. And Agent Suh was eyeing the control tower every so often.
Perhaps Eric did have some allies in South Korea after all.
“All right,” he said. “Let’s make this fast.”
They followed him into the jet, where Eric quickly instructed the lingering security to wait outside. “Except you, Tony,” he said to the big man. “You should stay.”
As soon as the large men had gone and the fuselage was closed, Eric led the agents to the bedroom at the back of the plane. He knocked on the door. “Yu-na? Jane? Can I come in?”
There was a low groan, and then a raspy: “Of course you can come in, you goon. It’s your airplane.”
Eric opened the door with a wry smile at Agent Suh, who looked taken aback at Jane’s response. Agent Kym just hid a smile.
Jane and her mother sat on the bed, bundled in a thick down comforter. Both women still looked incredibly frail and weak, but they both had color in their faces and had lost that terrible, glazed dilation.
Jane’s eyes, benefiting from a spare set of glasses Eric found in her hotel room, cast sharply back and forth between the two agents. “Who are they?”
“South Korean and American intelligence. They…have a few questions.” Eric made introductions, and when he pointed to Agent Suh, Yu-na shrank more against the headboard.
Jane looked about as amused by their sudden appearance as Eric had been. “What do they want? Are they aware that I am recovering from a botched forced abortion and my mother is recovering from almost two weeks in drugged captivity? We’re kind of tired.”
It was all Eric could do not to shove the two agents out of the plane right then and there.
“I think they want to help,” he said quietly. “Agent Kym is from the CIA. A part, that, um, did not want the U.S. military involved here.”
Jane perked up. “Zola?”
Agent Kym nodded. “A colleague of mine was in touch with Matthew Zola, if that’s what you mean.”
“I see. Well, we already gave our statements to the Hwaseong police,” she said. “My cousin, Cho Dong-hyun, is a detective there. He is also in charge of the local investigation, right, Eric?”
Eric nodded.
“We read those files, Mrs. de Vries—”
“Lefferts,” Jane put in. “My last name is Lefferts de Vries.”
Eric ignored how much it hurt that she didn’t take his last name the same way she did in the hospital.
Agent Kym cleared her throat again. “Lefferts, I apologize. Anyway, I’m sorry to say it, but your statements seemed…incomplete. Agent Suh and I were hoping, now that you and your mother are no longer sedated, that you might be able to recall a few other details.” She leaned in. “The CIA is taking these crimes against your family very seriously, Mrs. de Vri—ma’am. We intend to follow up on everything you say. Particularly anything to do with John Carson or Chariot Industries.”
At the sound of her biological father’s name, Jane stiffened, and Yu-na turned white. Eric reached down to take her hand, but Jane pulled it away. She hadn’t wanted to touch him since they left the hospital. He couldn’t blame her, but he also couldn’t say that it didn’t hurt too.
“Because Detective Cho has alleged that Mr. Carson is responsible for the most famous serial murders in our country, but he also happens to supply thirty percent of our military’s munitions,” snapped Agent Suh. “This is a very grave matter for our government and our national security.”
Eric opened his mouth to inform the man he didn’t give a good goddamn about the national security of the South Koreans when they couldn’t have been bothered to help him ensure the security of his wife. But before he could say so, Yu-na spoke.
“You can take it,” she said quietly, handing the man her Korean passport. “I will not come back anyway. Take it and go. We have nothing else to say.”
Agent Suh scowled, and once again, Agent Kym stepped in.
“Mrs. Lefferts,” she said as she took a seat on the end of the bed. “Let me assure you that no matter what, you are going home. You are a citizen of the United States, and therefore, you have its complete backing.”
At that, Yu-na relaxed a little, but not much. And she tensed right up when Agent Suh began a long line of questioning—this time in Korean.
“Do you know what he’s saying?” Eric whispered to Jane.
Her side-eye slipped around her frames. “Did you forget everything you know about me? I know swear words, all the best shaming phrases, and that’s about it.”
Agent Kym turned to them kindly, though her eyes still followed the rapid-fire conversation. “He is only asking about what happened to her. I’m sure as lawyers, you both understand the importance of going over a witness’s account multiple times to be sure it is the right one.”
Eric and Jane both watched Agent Suh pepper Yu-na with questions while she offered curt, if somewhat weak-voiced answers.
The exchange continued like that for several minutes until something Agent Suh said definitely got under Yu-na’s skin. She broke forward, rattling off a much longer spat of Korean that ended up making the immovable agent look the slightest bit ashamed. Agent Kym just looked on with more mild amusement.
Jane’s eyes widened. “Eomma,” she whispered. “Talk about feisty.”
Agent Kym blinked. “I’ll say.”
“What did she say?” Eric asked.
Jane shrugged. “I only caught a few words at the end, but they weren’t very nice ones.” She patted her mother’s leg kindly. “Way to stick it to the man, Eomma.”
Yu-na was not amused.
Agent Suh leaned forward with one more curt, cold question. And at that, Yu-na’s small hand flew out from under the covers and hit the Korean agent squarely in the jaw.
“Whoa, Eomma!” Jane remarked, genuinely shocked. “What just happened?”
Yu-na landed Agent Suh with what must be her famous glare and Eric finally appreciated why Jane compared her mother to a basilisk. Eric would probably have gone with Medusa himself.
“He asked me,” she said coldly, “if Jane and I are prostitutes.”
Eric sprang up. “That’s it. Get the hell out.”
Suh rose as well, though he made no other move to leave. “You are aware that the U.S. shares an extradition treaty with South Korea,” he said with a derogatory sniff toward Yu-na. “Mrs. Lefferts is making some very serious accusations about a very good friend to Korea. If I do not get the answers I need, my government will request her return.”
“Try it,” Eric growled. “I’ll wrap your government in so many goddamn lawsuits, you’ll be begging the North Koreans to nuke you out of existence.”
“Eric—” Jane put in. “Come on, you don’t know anything about international law.”
“Jane, stop,” he retorted. “I’m handling this.”
“No, you stop! You’re pissing off the people who are trying to help us!”
Maybe he should have been glad that she was finally feeling well enough to fight back and tell him he was acting like an idiot, but the reality was, he wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of Seoul. He wanted to get the hell out of this hemisphere.
Jane coughed again. The circles under her eyes were darkening. As soon as he spotted them, Eric sank back onto the bed beside her. Fuck. He was fucking this all up. Again.
The NIS agent’s phone buzzed, and he grimaced when he pulled it out. “This is not over,” he informed them, and walked out of the room.
“Eric,” Jane said with a hoarse voice. “My bag. My things from the hotel. Were they recovered?”
Eric nodded. “Hold on, I’ll grab them.”
He retrieved her messenger bag—good God, was this the sam
e army surplus piece of shit she had carried with her through law school?—and brought it to the back of the plane. Jane was sitting up with some pain still playing across her face, but she accepted the bag, looking visibly relieved when she opened it and pulled out a thick folder.
“Here,” she said as she handed it to Agent Kym. “I think you’ll find the proof you need. It’s the investigator’s file along with my notes and some of my cousin’s.”
“Good God,” Agent Kym murmured as she paged through the documents. “John Carson has been—”
“Conducting illegal arms deals with Pyongyang under the South Koreans’ noses?” Eric finished for her. “Yes, it looks that way. He started in the mid-eighties, but after the Soviet Union disintegrated, we think he suspended operations. He’s been taking advantage of the relaxed U.S. relations with North Korea alongside the more recent destabilization of the South Korean government to continue the work. His life’s accomplishment, as it were.”
“This isn’t just an arms deal—” Agent Kym looked up. “The nuclear facility was just the tip of the iceberg. Chariot Industries was constructing a pipeline. Mr. de Vries, I’m afraid I must take these. We will need them as a gesture of good will to get cooperation from NIS. As you might have gathered, they are feeling rather…torn…about the issue of John Carson.”
“Then they might want to check the flight manifests for marked women on that list,” Jane put in. “Half of those crimes were probably copycats, but the other half? They were regional flight attendants for the same airline my mother worked for in 1987. All from the same part of Hwaseong. All killed around times when John Carson was on record being in the country. And all part of the same…ring…that led to my conception.”
She nodded regretfully at Yu-na, but the older woman just stuck her chin out defiantly.
“My father’s journal from the period may corroborate some of these implications as well,” Eric said. “I believe John Carson tried to extort him into using my family’s shipping liaisons here in Korea to move weapons across the border, but it never came to fruition.”
The Love Trap (Quicksilver Book 3) Page 16