by Trevor Scott
As Jake had been talking with the men, he had noticed Sirena pull up to the curb on the southern edge of the park, less than a block from the Embassy of Finland. He thanked the men for their help and walked off.
He got into the front passenger seat of the Ford and Sirena pulled away from the curb immediately.
Neither of them said a word for a while.
Finally, Sirena said, “You were kind of a dick to them.”
“I know. But sometimes I can’t help myself. It’s the dysfunctional nature of my character.”
“We could have used their help,” she said.
“That was never going to happen. But they did save us a lot of legwork.”
“We’ll still need to verify that young Irishman’s intel.”
As darkness drifted into Dublin like the fog, Sirena drove by the Chinese safe house, while Jake checked out potential problems. Then they drove by the Chinese embassy, which look like any other structure in the neighborhood. The place looked like a regular two-story red brick house with a low stone gate surrounding the property. It even had a bus stop right out front. Jake guessed that the average pedestrian walking by would have to look carefully at the little sign out front to know it was even an embassy.
“Are we sure that’s the embassy?” Sirena asked as she slowed the car slightly while passing.
“That’s it,” he said. “My guess is they use it with only a small staff during visits by trade reps. The important people in that regime stay at one of the swanky hotels downtown, closer to the action.”
Sirena took a left at the next street and drove by the safe house one more time. “Are they sure the officers involved in our guy’s death are still here?”
“I believe so. This is the perfect low-key location for Bureau Two officers of the Chinese Ministry of State Security.”
“You’re right. Now what?”
“Now we get a place to stay for the night and we start our surveillance.”
“Who would you like to be this time?” she asked with a smile.
“Let’s go with our Canadian legends,” he said.
“It’s aboot time.”
“Don’t lay it on too thick, eh.”
“It’s a process.”
“Just drive, dear.”
26
A couple of days passed with Jake and Sirena taking turns watching the Chinese safe house. To keep from being discovered, Jake arranged for a different car rental company to deliver a new car each morning to his hotel.
Today, Jake and Sirena decided to watch the house together. The boredom of surveillance had already seeped into both of their bones—not to mention their sore butts.
“Did you specifically ask for a BMW?” Sirena asked.
“No. They upgraded me from a VW Passat or similar.”
“Well, I’m glad they did. These leather seats are plush.” She sipped on her large cappuccino from behind the wheel.
In the past couple of days, the Chinese intel officers had gone nowhere but their embassy a couple of blocks away. And they walked there with purpose. From the position of their car on a side street with a view of both the safe house and the Chinese embassy, they had not even been required to start the engine to follow their actions. They had given the Chinese officers pet names. The obvious leader, the one constantly giving the other man instructions, they had dubbed Tall Mao. The follower had been named Shorty.
But this morning, a couple of minutes after eight, the one-car garage opened for the first time. Shorty pulled out a seemingly new Audi A6 in charcoal gray. He waited for his boss to come out the front door and get in the front passenger seat.
“Here we go,” Sirena said, finishing off her coffee and starting the engine.
Jake knew it was almost impossible to follow someone with only one car, but they were stuck and had no choice. “Hang back as far as you can without losing them.”
Sirena rolled her eyes and waited for the Chinese to pull out onto the main road. Instead of heading toward the embassy, they backed out of the driveway and went in the opposite direction.
Since it was Monday morning, Jake saw that the heavy traffic made their tail much easier. Although there were more cars on the streets, it also slowed down their target vehicle. Jake texted Sancho Eneko the license plate of the Chinese car. Within a few minutes their tech guru had the car identified with a link to track them. Now they could hang back even more to stay undetected.
Soon they crossed the Grand Canal and were in the Silicon Docks area of the city, between the canal and the River Liffey. Here nearly every major high-tech company in the world had their European headquarters. The Gomez organization had an office here, along with a manufacturing facility in the southern area of the city.
The Chinese pulled up to the curb ahead and sat with the engine running.
“What the hell are they doing?” Sirena asked.
Jake pulled out his phone and zoomed in on the car up the block. He took a couple of photos. Then, Tall Mao suddenly jumped out of the front seat. Jake hit record. He saw a gun and then the man cover it with a jacket as he moved in on a woman approaching him.
“Shit,” Jake said. “It’s a hit.”
But instead of shooting the woman, Tall Mao shoved the gun in the side of the woman and moved her quickly into the back seat of the Audi. Then he jumped in after her and the car pulled out quickly.
“Kidnapping,” Sirena said, pulling out after the Chinese.
Jake checked what he had recorded and ran it a couple of times.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“The woman looks familiar,” he said. Then he texted the video to Sancho and waited.
The Chinese drove immediately away from the Silicon Docks area and entered a main spoke heading south.
Instead of received a text, Jake got a call from Sancho Eneko.
“Do you know who that is?” Sancho asked.
“No,” Jake said. “But she looks familiar.”
“She’s the Chief Technology Officer for our organization.”
“That’s right,” Jake said. “A Catalan woman from Barcelona.”
“Right. Gabriela Vivas.”
“Why is she in Dublin?”
“I have no idea.”
Jake considered what was happening. First, the Chinese took out the top security officers from the company to make a point. Now, they had just kidnapped the CTO of the Gomez organization.
“You need to get the word out to every principal officer in the company to go nowhere without security,” Jake said.
“Roger that,” Sancho said. “What will you do?”
“What I’m paid to do,” Jake said. “Protect the assets of this company.”
Both men hung up and Jake checked the tracking of the Chinese car on his phone.
“Who is the woman?” Sirena asked.
“The Gomez Chief Technology Officer. A woman named Gabriela Vivas.”
“I thought she worked out of the headquarters in Barcelona.”
“She does,” he said. “But she must be here for a reason.”
The road got wider and the traffic could move faster as they got closer to the outer ring of freeways.
“Where do you think they’ll bring her?” she asked.
“Not the safe house. Somewhere outside the city.”
Soon they entered the freeway heading southeast. Jake moved the map on his phone forward, seeing that this freeway eventually met up with another one, which would head down the eastern coast of Ireland.
“Why do you suppose the Chinese didn’t just kill her?”
Jake had wondered this himself. “She had a satchel with her. Perhaps she has technology they want to steal. If the Chinese can’t buy a company, they’ll often steal what they can or reverse engineer the tech.”
“Then they’ll kill her,” Sirena said.
“More than likely. I told Sancho to warn the other principals from the company. The Chinese could be doing another coordinated attack.”
; “You don’t think they’ll ask for a ransom.”
“I don’t think it’s money they want. They want the tech.” Then Jake thought about others in the Gomez organization that might be vulnerable. He took out his phone and made sure Sancho warned the best engineers in the Gomez organization. He also had Sancho brief Gomez himself on the problem.
They merged with the other freeway, heading along the coastal city of Bray. Within seconds they left County Dublin for County Wicklow. Jake had only been in this area of Ireland once, and that was on a leisurely drive along the coast that turned into a rather rugged pub crawl and a stay in a B&B above one of the bars. He had woken the next day beside a beautiful redhead with a fuzzy recollection of the night before.
“What’s up?” Sirena asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking about my last visit to County Wicklow.”
“It’s a gorgeous area.”
That it was, he thought.
He checked the tracking of the Chinese and said, “They turned off the freeway ahead and are heading toward the sea.”
As they got to the offramp, Jake could see the Audi turning left. “Let’s go, Sirena. There’s an airport and a seaport ahead. If we let them take a plane or boat, we’re screwed.”
“So is Gabriela Vivas.” Sirena picked up the pace now, barely stopping at the top of the offramp and powering through the gears after the Chinese car.
“There they are ahead,” Jake said.
Here the road was much narrower and passed through lush green fields with small patches of forest.
“They turned right ahead,” Jake said. “They’re slowing down.”
Then the Audi turned right again, heading back toward the freeway. Jake checked the map and saw that the road ended about a mile down that road, with a house set back in the woods. Very isolated, he thought. That’s their destination. The fields leading to the woods holding the house were divided off by four-foot-high rock walls. Only a narrow passage allowed cars or farm implements to enter from the main road.
Sirena stopped the car before entering the long driveway, shutting down the engine.
Jake reviewed a satellite view of the property to verify there was no other way out of there. He saw a main structure and a couple of out buildings.
“What do you think?” Sirena asked.
He pondered that a moment. Then he said, “If these Chinese have weapons like those who came for us on Pico Island, we’ll be outgunned with only our handguns.”
“My thoughts precisely,” she said. “However, we would have the element of surprise.”
“Yet, they could have a few more people inside.”
Watching the Chinese for the past couple of days, only Tall Mao and Shorty had been present at the safe house. But that didn’t mean this location didn’t have more officers waiting for them.
Jake shook his head. “It would be nice to have at least one long gun, but we can’t wait for those. My guess is that these men could be in there right now doing their best to get the information they need from the CTO. We have to go in now.”
Sirena nodded agreement and put her hand on his. “Then we go in together to avoid crossfire.”
Her statement was appropriate, considering the current conditions outside. Since their arrival, a thick bank of fog had rolled in off the ocean. They could use that to their advantage.
Sirena started the engine and moved the car sideways across the driveway opening, shutting down the engine again. Now there was no way the Chinese could escape this way.
Quietly, they both got out and stepped softly toward the old farmhouse, the moist air chilling their exposed skin.
27
The farm house sat back under a grove of thick pines, the fog obscuring Jake’s view of the place until they stepped gently into the tall trees.
“Damsel in distress?” Jake whispered to Sirena.
“That could work,” Sirena said softly with a full Irish accent.
“Car trouble. Give me ten minutes to work my way around to the back of the house.”
She nodded, and turned on her comm unit.
“Check,” Jake whispered.
“Clear,” Sirena answered.
Jake walked off alone, checking the trees for cameras and motion sensors. But so far, he had found none. He knew that arrogance often led to complacency. These Chinese officers obviously knew they were impervious to arrest by the local police. And the most the Irish government could do to them was expel them from the county. Then the Ministry of State Security of the People’s Republic of China would simply protest loudly and without true meaning before replacing these officers with a few more. Meanwhile, lives would be lost and the fallen would have died for God and country. With the resources the Chinese possessed, they could pay for three intel officers for every one the CIA hired.
Drifting with great stealth through the forest, using lower bushes and the thick tree trunks for cover, Jake had finally gotten to the back of the main structure.
“Around back,” Jake said. “Moving in toward the house.”
“Heading to the front door,” Sirena responded.
Jake got to the side of the brick building, keeping clear of the windows. Then he pulled his gun out and waited for Sirena.
He didn’t have to wait long. Jake could hear the door bell and scrambling inside the house. She had surprised them, he thought. Good.
Through his earbud he could hear the front door open.
One of the Chinese men said, “Go away. We don’t want to buy anything.”
Sirena said, “Well, then, that’s fine, since I’m not selling anything. My car broke down about a mile down the road. I was hoping to make a phone call.”
Jake used this precise moment to check the back door. It wasn’t locked. So, he slipped into the door quietly, finding himself in the kitchen. His mind suddenly flashed to the Chinese attack on their place on Pico Island.
“You do not have a cell phone?” the Chinese officer asked.
“I’m afraid it’s dead,” Sirena said. “I had a long night last evening, and I was away from cell service. I guess my cell phone kept searching for a signal, wiping out the battery. I don’t know much about these things.”
Jake tried not to laugh as he stepped quietly through the kitchen, hoping the floor would not squeak. When he got to the door leading to the front room, he could see the man they called Shorty with a handgun out, crouched around the edge of the front door. But from this angle Jake couldn’t see Tall Mao because of the entryway wall.
“I’ve got Shorty to your left,” Jake whispered.
“I’m afraid we have no phone service,” Tall Mao said to Sirena.
The man’s English was nearly perfect, Jake noticed. This man had been educated in the West.
“Darn it,” Sirena said. “I guess I’ll have to walk back to my car and try the other direction.”
Before the Chinese man could respond, there were three shots. Jake saw Shorty jump to his feet and aim his gun. Without hesitation, Jake aimed and shot the short Chinese officer three times, hitting him first in the left shoulder, then the chest, and the third bullet hit the man in his left jaw. Shorty crashed to the wood floor and Jake moved into the living room.
“One down,” Jake said, his gun aimed toward the front door.
What seemed like minutes but was only seconds, Sirena finally said, “My guy is dead.”
Jake pushed toward the front door, checked the man he had shot for a pulse, and then moved to the front entryway, finding a bloody mess. Half of the man’s gray matter was splattered across the wall, and blood pooled out from the Chinese man’s torso. Sirena had hit him twice in the chest and once between his eyes. A gun lay on the man’s side.
“Clear the rest of the house,” Jake ordered.
Both of them made their way through the main structure. The place was sparsely furnished with old furniture. But it wasn’t a huge farmhouse, so they were able to quickly clear it of any other officers.
They met in the livin
g room and holstered their guns.
“Where is she?” Sirena asked.
“I should have checked the out-buildings,” Jake said.
“What do we do with them?”
“Leave them in place, guns and all,” he said. “The police will run ballistics and find these were the men who had kill Jimmy Leary. At least they can close that case. Let’s find the woman.”
Not sure if there still might be more men on site, Jake took out his gun as he hurried toward the larger of the out-buildings. Sirena broke off and went to the small structure.
The double door had a lock on it. The lock was brand new, out of place on the old structure. Jake found a shovel leaning against the worn wooden wall and smacked the lock a couple of times until it broke free. Then he quickly opened one side and rushed into the barn structure.
Cowering on the floor, her hands and feet bound and chained to a thick wooden post, was the Gomez organization Chief Technology Officer Gabriela Vivas.
“We’re the good guys,” Jake said. “With Gomez security.”
Sirena came up behind Jake and went directly to the woman. She pulled a knife and cut loose the zip ties around her wrists and ankles.
“I thought they were going to kill me,” Gabriela said, her voice nearly crying.
Jake put his gun away and said, “They would have. Did you give them any information?”
“They took my satchel,” Gabriela said, “but my computer and other devices are heavily encrypted.”
“We’ll collect them before leaving,” Sirena said.
“What did they want?” the CTO asked.
“Technology from the Gomez organization,” Jake said. “First they tried to buy the company. Then they killed our people to try to force a deal.”
“Carlos would never sell by intimidation,” Gabriela said emphatically.
Jake nodded agreement. “We know. So, then the Chinese decided if they couldn’t get the information by buying it, they would steal it.”
“This is crazy.”