“See, Lu Lei? Everybody loves Canadians.”
“More like everybody loves hippies.”
“Not really.”
Cheng Li had been at the police station all night. After nine o’clock came and went, he decided to call the squad back in. The Barbecue Couple had not surfaced at their apartment, nor had they shown up for work at the factory. The girl was absent from school and no one had seen her, including the Chief’s son, who was now at home being taken care of by the housekeeper.
He sighed and picked up the phone. If it leaked that he had been pursuing them and they managed to evade him and leave the country, it would be him in a room facing a professional interrogator with pliers and car batteries. It was time to call the Ministry. If he told the story the right way, changing the time-line around a little, he wouldn’t look guilty. No problem. Maybe he would even get the Chief’s job.
Lu Lei walked next to her father toward the departure gate. The flashing sign warned that the flight was now boarding. Her mother was still nowhere to be seen. She looked up at her father, whose eyes were scanning the line of people that was filing past the desk through the glass doors toward the waiting plane.
“Lu Lei, you get on the plane now. I’m going to do a quick search for Casey.”
She replied, “Hang on; give me one minute.”
She walked up to the gate attendant at the desk and flipped open her passport for him to see.
“Excuse me, did my mother get on yet? Her name is Jones.”
She clicked away on her keyboard for a few seconds. “No, not yet.”
Lu Lei turned back toward her father and shook her head.
He looked indecisive and then motioned with his eyes for her to check the women’s bathroom.
Lu Lei walked purposefully into the bathroom and checked under all the doors. There were two stalls occupied, but she couldn’t tell if either was her mother.
Quietly she asked, “Have any of you ladies seen my Barbie Doll in there?”
“Does she have two arms, or one?” the voice replied.
Lu Lei spun around, smiling, fists clenched in silent celebration.
“Don’t worry, I found her in my bag. Thanks anyway. Have a nice flight.”
Lu Lei headed straight from the bathroom to join the line for the plane. She gave her dad a big smile and a nod and watched his expression relax as he fell back into character.
Cheng Li jotted notes on a pad of paper while he was on hold with the Ministry. The phone call had been going exceedingly badly, so far. They had passed him through to a senior agent who tore his story apart with a barrage of clever questions. His lies had not lined up. Questions about the Chief had come up, and he’d been backed into a corner and he'd cracked under the pressure. He had all but admitted that he had bungled the capture of the Barbecue Couple. It looked bad. He regretted calling.
“Yes, I’m still here, sir.”
“It looks like the American spies booked a flight from Tianjin that just departed, but they were not on it. Why don’t you come in and see us? We would like to ask you a few more questions.”
“Now?”
“Yes. There will be a car waiting for you outside your building in a few minutes. I suggest you go down directly.”
Cheng Li couldn’t speak. It had happened so suddenly.
“Are you there? Do not worry. We just want to clarify a few things.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cheng Li put the phone down and looked out at his men, perhaps for the last time.
The computer tech room on the seventh floor of China’s Ministry of State Security went quiet, as their commanding officer entered with four other men in dark suits.
“Everybody, stop what you are doing. Two American spies are trying to escape from China. Everyone open the memo and click on the folder. They have been on the list for several years. They are CIA and have loose associations with the Falun Gong. You will see in the file that they have an adopted daughter. She is Chinese. They may have been chipped on the day of her adoption. It’s old technology, but if they still have their chips. You should be able to locate them. You have five minutes to find them. They may travel under different names and nationalities. They may have changed their appearance and could be traveling together or separately. Start with planes, then move to trains and buses. Go!”
Lu Lei moved down the aisle, casting her eye over the faces in each row as she passed them. The many undercover cops she had seen in Beijing all had a certain look about them. There was a hardness to their faces, particularly in the eyes. To her it looked like fear, but her friends described the look as callous. The Chinese faces on the plane were plump and comfortable. Rich people.
Taking her seat, across the aisle from Matt, she saw Casey stowing her backpack near the front, just before the door was closed.
The plane taxied to the runway. Lu Lei looked over at Matt. He returned a reassuring smile, but she could see that he had not relaxed. It occurred to her now that Chinese spies could also operate in Japan.
The computer tech room was alive with the clicking of keyboards.
“Sir, I show three people named Jones, flying to Tokyo. Canadians. Two females and one male, sir.”
“Sir, they are at Beijing airport. It looks like they might already be on the tarmac. No, it has taken off, sir.”
“When does it land?”
“In seven hours, sir.”
“I want men waiting for them at the gate. Find out who we have in Tokyo. I want to know where they are going next. Get their connecting flights. Try under the same name, or under Nelson.”
Lu Lei was woken by the landing announcement. She had been deeply asleep for five hours. Matt had warned her that it was too early to let their guard down. Tokyo airport was not safe, and they had a one-hour layover to get through.
“How did you sleep?” he asked.
“I dreamed of that black scorpion again.”
Lu Lei exited the plane following a Japanese businessman and his wife. Matt’s instructions had been to blend in. He’d winked at her when he said it, which was what he often did when he wanted her to use her own initiative.
The Japanese couple bickered as they walked up the jetway, oblivious that Lu Lei, their new daughter, was close behind, rolling her eyes dramatically.
Her pulse quickened as they entered Tokyo airport. Sticking behind the couple, she looked casually around, scanning the wall opposite the gate for police. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to the crowd getting off the flight. Maybe Matt was being overly cautious. Perhaps they really were out of harm’s way now and she could eat some sushi before the next flight.
She followed the couple off to the left toward customs and immigration. Still within eyesight of the gate, she tapped the wife on the back. “Have you seen the bathroom anywhere?”
The woman smiled and pointed back in the direction of the gate.
Lu Lei headed back to the bathroom near the gate, wondering where Casey was. Surprised by the sight of Matt walking toward her, Lu Lei almost flashed a smile of recognition at him, but his eyes shot a warning. She walked past him, frowning involuntarily.
Lu Lei’s walk slowed. What was that about? He must have seen something that I missed.
She watched to see who might be following Matt. Tourists and businessmen, nobody out of the ordinary. Then, two faces, the harsh faces of secret police. Dressed in jeans and casual jackets, one holding a newspaper. She felt a wave of menace from them and had to stop herself from turning to watch them follow her father, her hippy father with the stick-on beard and wig.
She wanted to turn around and follow them. Matt could surely use some help. Her confidence had been battered by her failure to defend herself against the Chief. She wasn’t sure that she would be of any use against another grown man.
Lu Lei shook her head and turned around to follow, surprised at herself. Wow, I am either really stupid or very brave.
The firm hand that landed with a thud on her shoulder came from b
ehind. Turning, she looked up and saw Casey, who smiled for a split second before the joy drained from her face. “Keep walking with me, honey. We have a problem. Two cops, up ahead, right behind Matt. There might be more. They won’t have guns, but they might have other weapons.”
Lu Lei’s heart began to race. Casey was fiddling with her wire bracelet. It seemed odd.
“Matt will probably try to take the fight into the men’s room. I’ll follow him in. I want you to stay outside. Wait 'til it’s over. If we come out in their custody, I want you to go and get on that flight to New York by yourself. A white lady will be outside baggage claim to pick you up. It’s been arranged, just in case we are caught. She’s an analyst at the CIA and you are only to go with her. No one else. Got it?”
Lu Lei’s mind was cartwheeling. Alone? Alone in America? The memory of Matt and Casey sparring at her parents’ house was still alive in her memory. There’s no way two cops can take Matt and Casey. No way.
“What are you doing with your bracelet?”
“It’s a weapon, honey. A deadly weapon. I hate using it, but it’s quiet.” Casey stopped suddenly. “Okay, he’s gone into the men’s room. Remember, if we come out in their custody, you are gone.” Casey was silent as she watched the two men follow him in, and then, without looking at Lu Lei, she marched in.
Frozen, Lu Lei pried her mind away from thoughts about the bracelet which Casey had pulled apart to make a long wire with two little bars at the end. The thought of Casey strangling a man with that wire...
What if civilians were in the bathroom? What would they do?
There is no way I’m going to America alone. I’d rather stay here and live in an orphanage.
A Japanese man in a suit exited the bathroom looking distraught, and walked away quickly. About three minutes had passed. Lu Lei felt herself walking toward the bathroom, unable to stop herself. Pausing for a second with her hand flat against the door, pushing it inward. She entered and rounded the short corridor. Matt and Casey were each in a stall, bent over the toilet. The legs of their two victims kicking violently.
“Everything okay in here, you guys?”
“Get out. Watch the door.” Matt yelled.
She paused for a moment, still looking on in disbelief at what her parents were doing. She went back out and stood in front of the door, hoping that the businessman had not gone off to get security.
Looking down at her shaking hands, she thought, The child psychologist would not believe what I have been through lately.
The Ministry’s commanding officer picked up the phone. “Yes?”
“Sir, the other two agents are not reporting in. They left me watching the gate and have not returned.”
“Where are the Americans now?”
“Sir, they have just boarded the plane. What do you want me to do?”
“Get on the flight. You are equipped, and you have a ticket, correct?”
“Yes, sir. They are paging all three of us now from the gate.”
“Your new orders are to kill the Americans before you land. Obviously make it look like an accident and things will go better for you at the New York airport.”
“And the girl, sir?”
“After you have put down the Americans, find her and explain to her that her circumstances have changed. She is Chinese. She belongs to us. Give it to her in a way which she will have no choice but to accept. Trick her if you have to. We will have our agents waiting for you at JFK. They will take her to a specialist who will adjust her education before putting her on a plane back to Beijing.”
Watching the other passengers file past, Lu Lei felt guilty as she sipped her orange juice from a real champagne glass. Seated together as a family now, in first class, none of them had yet let their guard down. Neither Matt nor Casey had smiled since the scene in the bathroom. Lu Lei looked at Casey’s hands to see if they were shaking too, but they were not. Matt had the beginnings of a black eye, and his shirt was missing a few buttons. His hair needed a brush. Somehow Casey had come through unscathed, but she had taken a few more minutes to appear from the bathroom.
After the door to the plane closed, Lu Lei whispered to Matt, “You just left two dead bodies in the men’s room?”
“Yes, but for appearances we took a few moments to put them on the toilets with their pants down.” He made a face.
Lu Lei giggled, despite everything. Matt always managed to make her laugh, even at the worst of times. It was partly because of the faces he made when he said things. He was smiling now too, which helped lift the mood. Casey had gulped down her champagne and was holding the empty flute up for a refill.
Matt touched the attendant’s elbow. “Would it be possible to get hold of a whisky?”
The attendant smiled and nodded as Matt passed his champagne to Casey, who was being quiet in the window seat. Lu Lei wondered what she was thinking about.
Casey massaged her temples. Her headache eased after the second champagne. The increased stress of the last two days had crept up on her. Lu Lei looked so sweet as she slept in the middle seat. No one would ever believe what that girl was capable of. Luckily, she was good at keeping secrets, but it was worrying that she had to keep this traumatic stuff inside. Most troubling was that Lu Lei had just watched them, her adoptive parents, strangle two men in an airport bathroom.
Matt was snoring a little. He had visibly relaxed by the time the door of the plane closed. China had been hard on him. He’d done a fine job there, but he was a real American at heart, and besides, he was only a few years from his fiftieth birthday. After the double homicide in the men’s room, Matt was doing his best to hide the fact that he’d hurt his back. The groan when he sat down had been a giveaway. Ah Matt, you really are getting too old for this.
It was time to go home and get comfortable, or at least as comfortable as Lu Lei would allow. They had to concentrate on her now. She would need help continuing to harness her power, her talent, and her anger.
A pretty attendant passed a dinner menu to her, leaning over Matt. She didn’t touch him, but he woke up. Probably the perfume. “How long was I asleep?”
“A couple of hours. You were snoring a bit. How’s your back?”
“My back? It’s fine. I think that guy cracked one of my ribs. He was quick. Did you see that little bastard kick me in the side?”
“Yes, honey, I was watching your fight with great curiosity.”
Matt chuckled at the sarcasm. “And yours? Did he underestimate you, as they always do?”
“No. Unlike you, I just got the garrote around his neck and put him on the floor.”
“Ah, Casey. So textbook. That’s why I love you.”
“I hope there were only two in the airport.”
Matt agreed. “Hard to know for sure. Let me know when you want to sleep. I’ll keep watch.”
He thought to himself, Good spies would know better than to drink and eat from unknown sources without taking measures.
“Oh yeah. You’re right. I didn’t think about it. Okay, let’s play the fussy eater game with them.” He grimaced, “As much as I hate to do it to these nice ladies.”
“What shall we order for our little sleeping beauty?” Casey’s eyes looked mischievous.
“Do you see anything with spinach?”
“Yep, the salmon. Better get her that. When she complains, tell her it’s punishment for stealing her mother’s gun.”
“Okay, I’ll have the lamb.” Matt got up, wincing. “You order for us. I have to go to the bathroom and re-glue this beard. I’ll be right back. Can you get one of those little bottles of red wine for me, please?”
“More snoring, then?”
“You shush.”
Matt moved slowly down the aisle toward the economy bathroom at the tail of the plane, scanning the faces. The flight was half empty. The grogginess from the whisky nap was hanging over him, and he could feel the beard starting to loosen up. The glue was reliable, but the altercation in the airport had made him sweat. There w
as still a slim possibility that there were Chinese agents on the aircraft. The presence of the two in the airport had confirmed that the Communist Party was aware of their escape, but had found out so late in the game that they had taken measures on foreign soil.
He counted six male passengers of military age. No telltale signs, no eye contact.
Matt pushed the bathroom door open and entered. Casey would find the right moment to visit the cabin crew and exchange food orders. She was not a people pleaser, which was one of the many reasons she was such a competent spy. "The fussy eater" was a tricky exercise in timing and insistence, but on a plane, poisoning the food was the easiest way to take someone out. It was also likely, with a poisoning so early in the flight, that the pilots would have to turn the plane around, which meant capture in Japan at the hands of more Chinese agents.
Looking in the mirror, he could see that the beard still looked perfectly convincing. The tube of spirit gum glue was almost empty, so using it sparingly to reattach the chin area, he managed to keep a little for touch-ups.
Done in the bathroom, he unlocked the door and folded it inward. A short lady with her back to him stood in the way. He gave her a polite tap on the shoulder, apologizing in Japanese. She turned and smiled at him, pushed him back into the bathroom, bringing her arm up, a syringe in her hand, swinging down toward his neck.
Caught by surprise, Matt blocked her arm, and instinctively struck hard at her neck, her syringe hand still not under his control, jabbing wildly in the air at his neck and shoulder as he desperately blocked each stab. He punched her powerfully in the solar plexus and grabbed her wrist, bringing the syringe back toward her. Matt could feel that he was much stronger than she was.
Surviving Spies (Irving Waters, Spy Fiction Series) Page 24