Cargo: A Leine Basso Thriller (7 page)

“Excellent.” Leine rose from her chair. “Shall we?”

Wang gave her a wry smile as he stood. “Once an American, always an American, eh?”

Leine replied, “Would you expect anything else?”

Wang’s driver showed
a pass to the guard at the port gate and drove the car through. Victor Wang continued to ask Leine about her family and background, which Leine found tedious. Although polite, she gave him one- and two-word answers, choosing not to expand on her personal life, fictional though it may have been. After one such question, Wang’s phone rang and he excused himself, answering in Mandarin. Despite Leine’s pretended ignorance of the language, Wang didn’t say anything of interest, remaining noncommittal to the party on the other end. He terminated the call and resumed his questioning.

The car continued through the maze of stacked containers until they pulled parallel to a mid-sized container ship tied next to the dock.

“We are fortunate that the ship doesn’t leave until midnight. It will give us plenty of time to tour the facilities,” Wang explained as they exited the vehicle.

“What’s the decoy shipment?”

“Clothing, cheap trinkets for the tourist market, plastic water bottles, that kind of thing.”

The vessel was a smaller class of container ship, with two deck cranes. Black marine paint covered the upper half, with the bottom a rust-red. The wheelhouse sat four stories high and looked out over the partially loaded decks. Wang led Leine up the gangway toward the center line of the ship, where containers stacked four high had been secured to the hatch cover sockets. Several bright spotlights illuminated the ship’s cargo.

“This is a twin to that which will be used for next week’s shipment, so it will give you an idea.”

“She’s a fairly small ship. How often does she need to refuel?” Leine asked.

Wang shrugged. “Depends on the weather. The crew I will use for your employer’s shipment will be an experienced one from the Middle East, so I expect they’ll chart their course accordingly. As you can see, this ship has a shallow draft and can take on fuel at smaller ports along the way if the need arises.”

They walked over to a container with a large white X painted across the side. Wang nodded at one of the crewmembers to open the door. Inside were dozens of cardboard boxes stacked floor to ceiling with the picture of a water bottle stamped on the side. Wang instructed another crewmember to bring a pallet jack over and remove the boxes from the container, revealing a plywood wall. Wang walked to the wall and slid open a hidden panel near the center. She joined him and looked through the opening.

Leine’s heart beat faster at the scene before her. Built as a false wall, the plywood concealed a distinctly human shipment. Packed together inside the small space, several shadowy figures either stood or sat on the floor. Jammed together in darkness, it was hard to tell where one body ended and another began. The occupants remained silent, except for a sharp intake of breath to Leine’s left.

Kylie.

The young woman stood against the side of the container, her face illuminated by the sharp beam of the deck light. Before Kylie said or did anything that might alert Wang, Leine stepped away from the wall.

“Room enough for many types of cargo,” Wang explained, closing the panel.

“And this is representative of the accommodations?” she asked, keeping her voice calm. Leine needed to conclude the meeting without Wang becoming suspicious so she could contact Lou and the authorities.

Wang nodded. “It is similar to what will be on the ship to Dammam. I have friends in security in both places, so there is no danger of discovery while in port.”

“And if the ship is boarded by authorities at some point during the voyage?”

The barest hint of displeasure crossed Wang’s face. “Should that happen, I have taken measures to give the impression the ship conforms to all international laws.”

“What about the destination port? How do you intend to push the shipment through customs? Dammam is nothing like Dar es Salaam.”

A slight tic pulsed near Wang’s eye. “I have done this successfully many, many times. Your employer need not be concerned.”

At that moment Wang’s phone rang a second time. He pulled it from his pocket, glanced at the screen and said, “Please excuse my rudeness. I must take this call.” He then turned and walked away, speaking in a low voice.

She checked the impulse to text Lou her findings, deciding to wait until she was clear of Wang and his associates in case he grew suspicious and asked her to hand over her phone. The ship wasn’t due to leave for several hours. She had time.

Leine stepped out of the way as the crewmember replaced the decoy shipment, closed the door, and slipped a container seal onto the handle. After he left, she walked over to inspect the seal. It had been neatly sawed in half, making it easy to open and close the container while still giving the appearance of being intact.

Wang ended the call and rejoined Leine. “Shall we continue? I have one more item to show you.”

“I think I’ve seen enough.”

“Please indulge me. It will be of utmost importance to your employer.”

Leine had no choice but to follow him down a metal stairway into the hold, past several containers. Below decks the brackish air of the Chao Phraya River gave way to the smell of grease and diesel, along with other, more exotic fare. Leine put her hand to her nose and breathed shallowly as the stench of animal feces hit her full force.

“What else are you shipping? A zoo?”

Wang led her deeper into the bowels of the hold. “You could say that.”

He stopped at a watertight metal door with a sign that read
Supplies
near the back of the hold and turned to Leine. “Should negotiations with the prince be successful, alternative accommodations may be possible.” He turned the handle and swung the door open, gesturing for her to look inside. Leine stepped forward and at the same time felt a sharp sting in her neck. Staggering, she pivoted, fighting to remain upright as the world tilted and her vision blurred.

With her last bit of strength, Leine lunged forward, driving the heel of her hand toward Wang’s face before she collapsed to the floor and the world went dark.

Leine came to
with
a jackhammer banging inside her head. She opened her eyes to solid darkness and winced as she pulled herself to a sitting position. Her head swam with the attempt and she sucked in air, waiting for a wave of nausea to pass. The air was dank and humid and hard to breathe, and her clothing stuck to her like soggy plastic wrap.

She tried to move her leg and was rewarded with a clank and the weight of hard metal against her ankle.

Where was she? She inhaled through her nose and gagged on the odor of grease and diesel mixed with the ammonia tang of a filthy urinal. Combined with the deep, rumbling vibration below her, she had her answer.

She was on the ship, and it was underway.

Leine wracked her brain trying to remember what was said, what she might have done, how she tripped up in her charade with Wang. Things were going well. He didn’t display defensive or abnormal body language, other than annoyance with her questions. There’d been no significant change in his demeanor that she could tell.

Then she remembered the phone call in the car on the way to the dock. Wang had been noncommittal during the conversation, careful to avoid saying anything Leine might have construed as a warning. Then there was the second call when they were on deck. Somehow, Wang had been notified of her intent to disrupt his plans, although she couldn’t be sure how that might have happened. She’d scared the hell out of Alak and Sam, the
tuk-tuk
driver, threatening both with repercussions to not only them, but their families, if they so much as thought about informing Wang of her search for Kylie, so she doubted they were the problem.

Unless…

Kavi’s smiling face came unbidden into her mind.

But he was vetted by the agency
. Neither of them worked for the agency any longer, and she didn’t have access to their current records. She assumed that because of their prior relationship he wouldn’t betray her.
You know better than that, Leine.
She felt for her watch but it was gone, as was her phone.

At least they’d left her clothes and shoes.

She was on a container ship on her way to East Africa with a shipment of human slaves and wild animals, and no one knew where she was. Taking into account the size and speed of that class of ship, it would take at least ten days to reach the port at Dar es Salaam, longer if they stopped to refuel.

Good job, Leine. Now what the hell are you going to do?
What would happen to April? What if something went sideways during her inaugural undercover case? Leine wouldn’t be there to help.

She climbed to her feet and slid her hand along the wall, searching for an opening. Her fingers found the door at the same time the length of chain ran out. She ran her hands along the edges, looking for a handle. There wasn’t one.

A plasma torch would come in handy about now
. She pounded on the cool metal with the flat of her hand and kicked against the bottom.

“Hey! Anyone there?” she yelled.

“I already tried that.”

Leine pivoted at the sound of a man’s voice and dropped to a defensive position.

“Who’s there?” she asked, squinting against the dense black.

The man cleared his throat. “Don’t be alarmed, now.”

The voice grew closer, followed by the sound of metal scraping the floor. Leine tensed, clenching her fists. There was a hollow click and a small flame flared a meter away, illuminating the speaker’s face. “Allow me to introduce myself,” he said, his South African accent obvious. “My name is Derek.”

Derek stepped closer and held out his hand. Large, intelligent eyes stared back at her from an open face. The flame sputtered, followed by an expletive. “Shit, that’s hot.”

“Your accent. Afrikaner?” Leine asked, still wary.

“Is it that noticeable?” The flame flickered to life, and Derek held it a few inches from Leine’s face. “And you, you’re American, hey?”

“Born and bred.”

Derek extinguished the light, plunging them back into darkness. “Got to save fuel, you know?” He paused a beat before he said, “If you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing here? I mean, I know why
I’m
here, but you don’t look like someone Wang does business with on a regular basis.”

Leine leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. “I’m not sure. I came on board to inspect a shipment and the next thing I know I’ve been Shanghaied.”

That brought a chuckle from Derek. “Yeh. I know what you mean. And you thought that went out with the Barbary Coast, didn’t ya?”

Leine turned back to the door and pounded again.

“That won’t help. I did try it.”

A frustrated groan escaped her as she rested her forehead against the damp metal.

“Why are
you
here?” she asked.

“There’s a price on my head and it’s a good one.”

She heard him slide down the wall and assumed he was taking a seat on the floor. “You know Victor Wang?” she asked.

“Mr. Wang is—
was
—one of my buyers.”

“What did he buy?”

“Elephant ivory, black rhino horn, baboon ass. You know, the usual.”

“You’re a poacher.”

“I like to think of it as big game hunting without the bad shooting.”

“And there’s a price on your head in Dar?”

“Yeh. That’s about the size of it. I’ll probably be sold to the highest bidder. I have a lot of enemies.”

“You don’t sound very concerned.”

“Why should I? If I’m meant to die, then so be it.”

“That’s a bit defeatist, isn’t it?” Leine remained on her feet, keeping her distance. He acted friendly enough, but if the crew had orders not to feed them, she figured things could get ugly, fast.

“Eh, I’ve had a good life. Maybe it’s my time, you know?”

“Sounds like you’ve given up.” Leine slid her hand around the seams of the door, searching for a possible weakness. “How long do you think we’ll be at sea?”

“Well now, that’s a fine question. I’m not sure. Could be we’ll go straight to Africa. Could be we won’t. Wang’s not one for being predictable. Another reason he’s been able to do this so long without getting caught.” Derek snorted. “Along with paying the right people.” He flicked on the lighter once more and peered at her. “You never did tell me your name or why you were here.”

“Claire. And I don’t know, exactly. Wang brought me on board to see what type of ship he used for transport. My employer asked me to check it out for him. He’s very particular. Wang was in the process of giving me a tour and I woke up in shackles.” There was no point in telling the truth. Maintaining her innocence would be difficult if Derek decided to offer the crew information about his new roommate in exchange for leniency. Wang didn’t need a plant to tease a confession out of her—he’d already acted as her judge and jury as evidenced by her floating prison. Why he didn’t have her killed was a question she’d like answered.

“I’m surprised your employer, whoever he is, would send a lady like yourself to do a man’s job. Seems a little off, you ask me.”

Leine let the comment slide as she continued to study the room through her fingertips. “How did you get into poaching?”

“I started out as a tracker helping hunters bag the big five—you know, lion, elephant, rhino, leopard, buffalo. I got to be known for successful tracking, you check? On one of those hunts, some mad tourist asks if I can smuggle him out some ivory, says he’ll pay me triple the going rate.” Derek whistled. “From that point on, I was everybody’s go-to for ivory. I expanded into whatever the market would bear and haven’t looked back.”

“Why would Wang want to take you out of commission? Seems to me he’d be more interested in keeping you on the procurement end of things.”

“
Ja, ja
. Well, you know, I got a bit greedy. Started holding some back for myself. Wang and the other interested parties I worked for didn’t take kindly to me helping myself, so here I am.”

“Imagine that.” Leine stopped herself from making a snarky comment about karma being a bitch, preferring to keep on Derek’s good side for the time being. She’d readily admit she was pissed off at herself for having ended up a prisoner on a container ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and it was messing with her mood.

There was no way she’d be able to be there for April if she needed her. And really, how rusty was she? She’d thought the inspection would be just that: a simple walk-through before supposedly reporting back to her employer regarding shipping conditions. Kavi, or someone, had put a wrench in that proposition. If it was her old friend, he’d cleverly lulled her into letting down her guard, which she had never allowed to happen in the past.

But she’d been trying to leave that all behind, to forget. She wouldn’t relish going back to the old way of doing business. She liked her life with Santa and her daughter. Hell, she was even getting used to living in LA again. She’d hated being continually paranoid to the point of never trusting anyone. Always expecting a bullet or a knife in her back. Yes, she learned to live in the moment, but she
never
felt safe, never had the opportunity to put down roots and have anything familiar to hold onto.

Had she chosen to work for SHEN because in some twisted way she missed the lifestyle?
No,
she thought. She chose to work for SHEN because she believed in the mission, believed she was doing the right thing.

She’d felt the same way working for the agency.

That had turned out so well
.

Kylie’s presence in the container made Leine’s situation even more untenable. If she didn’t get off the ship, she’d be no use to her. But if she did manage to escape, and that was a big if, how would she track Kylie? Africa was a massive continent. Wang could send her anywhere.

Not finding anything worthwhile in her exploration of the room, Leine took a seat on the floor and leaned her head back. She’d resume her search in the morning when there was some daylight.

“Given up trying to find a way out?” Derek asked, amusement lacing his voice.

“For the time being. Tomorrow’s another day.”

“You’re right about that. Whatever happens, we’ve got a few thousand miles of ocean to work on it. I suggest we try to get some sleep. I promise you don’t need to be concerned about me.”

Leine folded her arms across her chest and shifted her position so she could doze sitting up.

“I’m not,” she said.
You have more to worry about than I do
.