by J C Ryan
“Oh. Well, maybe this will help. I just picked up a conversation on the captain’s cellphone that someone will be collecting Margot in three days. She’s planning to stay on the yacht until then.”
Rex literally felt his anxiety level drop. “That’s great news! That means I won’t have to worry about losing her, and I can concentrate on finding out what these other people are up to if I have to.”
“Okay, good. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Will do.”
***
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, the drone of the taxi’s engine had begun to wear on Rex’s nerves when the back doors of the vehicle opened, and the two passengers got out. They closed the doors as quietly as they could and stepped to the side as the taxi rolled away, made a U-turn, and sped off.
An observant man by training, profession, and self-preservation, Rex studied the men intently as soon as he could see them. His first impression was that they were Caucasian, not Asian. One was tall and had the physique of a retired wrestler, with broad shoulders, a hulking sort of gait, and, not to put too fine a point on it, he was spectacularly ugly. Rex changed his idea of the man’s former career to boxer when he noticed one cauliflower ear and a bulbous nose that leaned slightly to one side. He was bald.
The other gave Rex the idea that he must be the senior in rank. He was much smaller, perhaps five-foot-ten, and his slender build suggested office work rather than the boxing ring, and if the man’s looks were anything to go by, probably had more brains than his companion. In contrast to the other man, he had a full head of light brown curly hair, and had nondescript looks that could have blended with a crowd anywhere in Europe but definitely not here in Asia.
Their distinctiveness had Rex briefly wondering why they’d been chosen to follow Margot, whatever their purpose was. He shrugged. Whatever, they wouldn’t be hard to keep track of. He mentally labeled the first one ‘Brawn’, and the second ‘Curly.’
Rex and Digger watched carefully as the men made their way closer to the yacht by fits and starts. It was obvious they wanted to conceal their presence. Nevertheless, Rex mentally criticized their fieldcraft as they continued to show carelessness.
Rex’s original instinct that Margot was in danger had been off the mark, but the perception of danger was back in full force again as it was clear something was indeed going on, and he was almost convinced she was unaware of it.
His decision whether to contact her and let her know he was there or not had been made for him. No matter why she had deliberately disappeared, it was apparent he wasn’t the only one who had an interest in her. But before making contact with her, he had to find out who these men were, if possible.
Rex dropped his hand to Digger and scratched behind his ears, running his hand over the ear with the comms unit to be sure it was still in place. When Digger looked up at him, he tapped the side of his nose and felt Digger’s alertness ramp up a notch. He pointed discreetly at the two men, who were by now almost opposite him across the street and moving closer to the Java Princess.
Digger crept out from beneath the table and began trotting toward a spot near where the taxi had disgorged the men. He stopped and sniffed at spots in the street, wandered back and forth, but always on a tack that would lead him near the men. If they’d been watching, the men would have seen a stray dog looking for something to eat among the litter. They wouldn’t notice that the dog was working its way toward them.
Digger’s fieldcraft is far superior to theirs.
When Digger made his way to the opposite side, his tactics changed. Rex split his attention between the dog moving in and out of shadows and the iPad screen that showed what Digger was seeing. Soon, the two pairs of legs belonging to the men following Margot came into view. Then the angle changed. Digger would be on his belly, crawling silently toward his target.
He’ll be within inches of them before they notice him, if they ever do.
Rex looked up at their position and even he couldn’t see Digger, the dog blended so perfectly with the night.
But as he watched, one of the men must have sensed movement behind him. Digger was only a foot or so away. As the man turned, Digger adopted a cringing attitude. Through the comms unit, Rex heard the man speak gutturally, but he couldn’t hear what the man said or what language he said it in. The man kicked out, missing Digger by inches as the dog let out a yelp and whirled away.
Digger gave the perfect impression of a stray cur as he scurried away with his tail between his legs, his body hunched in self-protection. Once he gained a deeper shadow, closer to where the taxi had waited, he straightened up and turned to look at the two men. He watched alertly for a few minutes, and then sat down to wait for Rex’s next command.
“Good boy. Return,” Rex ordered. Digger resumed his stray-dog act as he meandered toward the restaurant. Rex watched the men to be sure they didn’t watch the dog, but their attention was firmly on the yacht.
Digger arrived in due time and wriggled happily as Rex praised him sub-vocally. Digger heard the praise loud and clear, the comms unit and his superior hearing interpreting the sounds of Rex’s words even though they were barely audible to a human. “Good boy! Damn, you’re a good actor. We should go to Hollywood and make you a star! You’re the smartest dog in the world, did you know that, buddy? You’re a very clever boy.”
Digger basked in the praise. As a matter of fact, Rex believed Digger knew he was the smartest dog in the world. His happy grin proved it.
When the yacht’s interior lights went out, Rex felt it was safe to try to get a few hours of sleep in. He’d put Digger on watch, and if the two men across the way decided to make any moves, the dog would pick it up and alert him.
“Digger, guard.” Rex said, pointing to the two men.
Digger dropped to his belly, front legs outstretched, back legs bunched beneath him, head up. His head was pointed in the direction of the two men, and Rex decided to leave the camera on, so he could check the situation now and then. It would only take a tap to wake the iPad and see the feed.
He found the softest spot available, a scrap of lawn surrounded by shrubs next to the restaurant’s entrance, put his backpack down for a pillow, and promptly went to sleep. Sleeping patterns when in an operational situation differed from those when not in a tense situation. It was not a deep sleep, it was more a state of restful alertness. It was a skill honed over the course of his years of training and on many missions. Rex came out of it without a startle reflex and was instantly one hundred percent aware of his surroundings when Digger nudged him two hours later.
The two men were approaching their position at the restaurant. Rex whispered, “Hide!”, and Digger slunk off around the side of the restaurant, staying low. Rex turned over and, nudging the backpack in front of him, inched further into the shadows of nearby trees cast in the moonlight. When he felt he’d better stop moving, lest the men notice, he slowly turned his head to see if it was as he suspected, the two men who’d been following Margot earlier.
He caught a lucky break when, as if they’d heard something behind them, they both turned to look toward the yacht. Rex took the opportunity to twist and turn so that he could look at them directly but was even further under the tree, nearly right up against its trunk and curled around it so he blended with it.
Then he heard one speak.
Russian!
Because it was one of the languages he spoke fluently, Rex understood every word. The one who was speaking told the other that their leader would be there soon, and they should move away from the line of sight from anyone on the yacht. “We’ll meet her further down the docks.”
Her? Hmmm. So, Curly isn’t the leader after all.
Rex clicked the mic on his comms unit to signal Digger to come out as the men turned left and proceeded down the street toward where their taxi had waited. Digger came, still crawling on his belly, and nosed Rex to let him know he was there.
“Good boy.” Rex pointed to the men and said, “Tr
ack. Hide.” From this compound command, Digger knew to follow the men but stay out of sight. It would be nice if he stayed close enough to hear what they were saying, but it wasn’t imperative. Rex would be able to tell quite a lot from the video feed.
As Digger moved out, Rex watched on the iPad, his attention divided between the screen and his thoughts about the Russians.
Why in hell would Russians follow Margot? Is there some kind of shady spy business going on here? Is Margot involved in it?
The feed showed the men walking confidently down the wide paved area that was part of the long string of piers that protruded from it into the water, interspersed with buildings or stacks of shipping containers that hid the piers behind them from his perspective. The pavement between where Rex still lay concealed and those structures was about as wide as a four-lane city street back home, and showed evidence of carrying vehicular traffic regularly, like the taxis Margot, the Russians, and he had used to get there.
As he’d told Rehka, the Russians’ taxi had waited about thirty yards from his location, but they now were beyond that point and still moving. From the angle of the video feed view, Rex could tell that Digger was walking along his side of the street, presumably staying in concealment because he was almost parallel with the Russians and gazing at them steadily as they moved.
Before they’d gone much farther, movement on the edge of the screen told Rex that someone else had arrived. Probably the person the men had been expecting, since they stopped and waited as a car came into view. Rex was frustrated to see that the car had stopped between Digger and the men he was following. However, he could still see their heads over the roof of the car. While he watched, the door opened, and one person stepped out and swung the door shut. It was a woman, judging from the long blonde hair that cascaded down her back and the short raincoat that revealed bare legs and spiked heels on her shoes.
She walked around the front of the car to join the men in conversation. In the poor light available to Digger’s video camera, it was impossible to make out facial features, yet something about her seemed familiar. But Rex couldn’t place her. Once she was engaged in conversation, Rex commanded Digger through the comms unit to close in on them, so he could listen to the conversation.
“Close in, boy. Hide.”
Instead of crawling through the moonlit street on his belly, Digger walked across with no attempt at concealment, but meandering again. Rex shook his head in admiration.
Digger you’re one damn smart dog.
The men would think nothing of seeing the ‘stray’ they’d seen before. If they did, at worst they’d chase him off. But no one looked at the dog. The woman’s back was to him, and the men’s attention was fully focused on her.
Rex hadn’t been able to make out much of her appearance. The blonde hair shone in the moonlight, so he was sure of that. The glimpse he got when she got out of the car indicated a slender woman, but the raincoat had a full skirt, so it was hard to tell just how slender she was. He didn’t get a good enough angle to have a good look at her facial features, and now in the video feed they were too small to get a better idea.
As Digger gained the hiding spot represented by the car, and belly-crawled around it from the back to get close to his targets, Rex could make out the low murmur of conversation, but not the words. And then, when Digger rounded the right rear fender, suddenly, the words were clear, and he could make out the woman’s features in profile.
It was with profound shock that Rex recognized her.
Ida Engberg!
More confusion settled in his mind.
What’s that obnoxious Swede doing here? What does she have to do with the Russians? What’s she got to do with Margot?
But it took less than a minute for the penny to drop. From the conversation, and her body language, Rex realized she was it. Their leader. As he eavesdropped on more of the conversation, a cascade of memories fell into place. Ida had been spying on Margot on Vanuatu all along! She wasn’t Swedish at all, but Russian.
Another one who pulled the wool over my eyes. Although I can’t say Digger didn’t warn me about this one. He never liked her.
The one thing he gleaned from the conversation that gave him a sense of relief was that she was telling the men to stay out of sight and just keep an eye on Margot for now.
Whatever is going on here, it’s not a kidnapping scheme—not yet. And probably not a collusion scheme either.
Ida’s instructions to the men were just to keep her in sight and wait for further directives.
As if trying to figure out why the two Russians were following Margot and not coming up with any logical explanation wasn’t maddening on its own, the surprise appearance of Ida on the scene was threatening to send Rex into a really foul mood. There were moments when he had a good mind to walk over to the Russians, knock their heads together, and get the story out of them. Appealing as the thought was to him, the frustration was that he had no idea what Margot’s role in this was. By all indications, she was unaware of their presence, but he couldn’t be sure. Unlikely as the notion sounded, and mindful of Margot’s role in French politics, he had to admit there was a slight possibility he could be interfering in some very important government business, which was the last thing he wanted to become involved in.
What are these further instructions Ida referred to? Are they planning to make contact with Margot at some stage? What are they waiting for?
Chapter 37
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
WHEN IDA GOT back in the car, Digger quickly moved out from under the rear bumper and followed the two men, who had turned and started back toward their observation post. But no one appeared to spot him.
Ida had made a U-turn and was driving away, when Rex spotted another vehicle, parked about hundred and fifty yards away, pulling out and following her vehicle. As it was passing under a streetlight, he could make out two people in that car.
Ida’s backup? Margot’s backup? More surveilers? Surveilers surveilling the surveilers? This is getting more unusual by the minute.
More unanswered questions. But at least Rex was now convinced there’d be no danger for Margot tonight. He halted Digger’s progress and slipped behind the restaurant, making his way behind the buildings to the exit while staying on his side of the street. When he got closer, Digger joined him, and when they got beyond a curve in the pavement, Rex broke into an easy jog.
His intention now was to find a cheap hotel, get a few hours’ sleep in a bed, have a shower when he woke up, and be back at the restaurant before dawn. It was going to be an interesting morning, he suspected.
***
REX FOUND A surprisingly clean-looking small hotel with its lights still on just a block from the port entrance. He’d gotten five solid hours of sleep, showered, and assured Digger that they’d have breakfast at the restaurant where they’d been observing the night before.
He felt a sense of anticipation for the day. Today, he would probably contact Margot and tell her about the parade she was leading unbeknownst to her. But first, he’d try to understand who was following Ida. If that required having a private chat with the Russians, so be it.
First things first, though. The good news was the restaurant was open for breakfast, with pho, a noodle soup, the featured, and in fact, the only offering—beef, chicken, or vegetable pho. The not-so-good news was Rex already knew Digger wouldn’t enjoy it as much as he would. In fact, to get anywhere near enough of the nutrients he’d need, Digger would have to have two or three servings.
Digger looked at the beef pho Rex offered him, and then back at Rex as if to say, “You must be joking, mate. What the hell is this? Two nibbles of beef, some weird green stuff, and water?”
“Try it, boy. You’ll like it. It’s good, see?” Rex took an overfilled spoon of his own soup, slurped it noisily, and then uttered a genuine, “Mmmm!” Digger must have bought it, because he lowered his head to the bowl discreetly placed under the table for him and started licking and
gulping his portion too.
Rex suppressed a smile when he saw the look of bewilderment on the server’s face when he returned to take the two empty bowls and ask if there was anything else, and Rex ordered two more of the same plus a cup of tea.
This time, the bowl in front of him was just window dressing as Digger rapidly finished his second bowl and stuck his nose on Rex’s lap demanding the third one.
This dog is reading my mind. How did he know I ordered it for him?
Rex switched the bowls quickly and sipped at his tea while Digger polished off the third bowl of pho in less than a minute. There still hadn’t been enough protein in the entire meal for the dog, but Rex would supplement it later, as soon as he could, with half a roast chicken. He’d eat the other half himself.
During the entire time, Rex had been aware that if Margot made an appearance, he’d have to ditch the meal and follow. He was wondering how Digger would react if he was told to forget about the food and follow Margot. Fortunately, Rex didn’t have to find that out today, Margot only appeared half an hour later as he was sipping his second cup of tea after paying the bill. She was alone on the gangplank and made her way to shore.
Without the captain by her side, it would’ve made it convenient to approach her, were it not for the tails.
Despite Margot’s colorful scarf that he’d be able to see a mile away, he couldn’t just get up and follow her. First, he’d have to give the Russians the chance to fall in behind her, and then he’d have to wait and see if there was anyone following the Russians. He still had no idea who was in that car that followed Ida the night before. Whoever it was, he’d have to give them a chance to show themselves.
He didn’t have to wait long before he spotted them, two more Caucasians from the look of them. Rex quickly decided that these men were not there in support of the Russians. They employed different surveillance and counter surveillance techniques than Curly and Brawn. Second, they were observing Margot and the Russians. He couldn’t be certain it was the same two people he’d seen only in shadowed silhouette the night before.