Solemn Duty (1997) (30 page)

Ashley put her can down. "What about Tanner, do you control him?"

"Eli? Now we're talking about a different type of man. You can't put him in a box and say that's Eli Tanner. I know, I tried-it's what I do, label people. I found I couldn't do it with Eli. I guess that's why I tried so hard to get close, to learn what he was about. Problem was, the harder I tried, the more he kept me at a distance. It's funny how that happens. You think you've found the right man and you know you can. make wonderful music together, but he doesn't want to listen to you play your song. I have to tell you, I resorted to all the cheap tricks . . . but like everything else I tried, they didn't work. So the answer to your question is, no. Eli has a way about him that I can't put my finger on. I'm working on it, though, believe me.

I'm going to try a whole new approach. I'm not sure what it is yet, but the direct approach probably is going to be my choice.

If it hadn't been for that damn call, I'd have had my chance when he was sleeping."

Ramona stood. `"Talking about sleeping! I'd better call the deputy director and remind him that most of this crew has been on their feet for almost twenty-four hours. He needs to field a new crew so we can all take a good long rest."

Ashley rose, wiping the dead leaves from the back of her cotton slacks. "Do you think the case is over, Doctor?"

Ramona motioned to Tram's body, which was being photographed. "He was too old and too thin to manhandle his victims the way they were moved about. He might have been the planner. Maybe he even pulled the trigger. But there's no way that man didn't have some serious help."

"The Triad?'

Ramona pulled her cell phone from her pocket. "I'd bet on it."

.

9:00 P. M. Leesburg, Virginia.

Jean Paul Devoe stood on the veranda looking toward the moonlit river. When he heard the footsteps behind him, he turned to face the eleven men he'd asked to join him. All were from his country and, like him, had been refugees in Hong Kong. Each man had served in the military and been with the unit for more than five years.

Jean Paul motioned the men to sit down in the patio chairs and looked at his small audience with a somber expression. "It has been confirmed by our Chinese friends that our old friend makes his journey with the enlightened one. We all grieve for his loss but know he will be blessed by those who have made the journey before him and cried out for justice to be done. Our old friend suffers no more."

Jean Paul paused and nodded as if to himself. "You have all been with me for many years, and we have achieved great respect. But no one respects you more than I. The past weeks, you have helped me fulfill my duty and we have accomplished every task . . . except one. We now must begin planning to finish the work. Unlike the others, this will be very dangerous.

The authorities have Anderson protected in the Fort Belvoir hospital. His extraction will be difficult, but we have the advantage of surprise. Tonight we will all pay our respects to our old friend, then sleep. Tomorrow we begin preparing and we move to our alternate base. I am sure the authorities know of our existence, and I do not trust our Chinese hosts any longer. From now on we will be on our own-as it should be.

Remember, my friends, this will be our last mission together.

As I promised, once the operation is over, you may go wherever you desire, to live the rest of your lives in comfort and peace. Good night, my friends . . . and may the enlightened one bless you."

In silence the men rose, bowed, and made their exit. Their leader was alone.

Jean Paul looked once more at the river and whispered, "Farewell, old friend."

Chapter 16.

J. W. Marriott Hotel, Washington, D. C.

Ashley rolled over in bed. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the curtains were pulled back, allowing in the morning sun.

Confused, she sat up, saw her luggage beside the bed, and remembered. At Ramona's insistence they had moved from the Fairfax Day's Inn to the plusher Marriott, taking rooms next to the doctor's. Ashley glanced around at the beautiful suite; she'd had little time the night before to appreciate her new accommodations. She had walked in, dropped her luggage, and fallen into bed. The TV was concealed in a huge armoire, the refrigerator was stocked with goodies, and they even had mints on the beds. Getting up, she caught sight of herself in a mirror. "You look like the cat just dragged you in, dear," she said aloud. "And you smell like it, too."

Twenty minutes later, after showering and changing, she felt like a new person. She left the bathroom and only took three steps into the bedroom before coming to a dead halt. The digital clock on the nightstand read 6:10. Impossible, she thought, and lifted her wrist to look at her Casio. My God, it is six-ten.

Great! I thought it was around eight. Now what do I do? Coffee! Must have coffee.

Picking up her purse, she walked out the door. She was about to turn right and follow the long hallway when the door opened one room down and Ramona stepped out in a robe. She was holding a tray. Bending over, she set it clown by the wall then stepped back into the room, closing the door.

Ashley took a step forward, thinking she might be wrong.

But she could already see she wasn't. The numbers were right there, 207. Eli's room. Ramona's room was 209. On the tray Ashley saw two plates with breakfast leftovers. Taking in two deep bread's, she set her shoulders and began to walk down the hallway.

Eli was at the elevator doors when they slid back, revealing Ashley. He smiled as she stepped out "I was just on my way down to the cafe to look for you. I've been looking everywhere."

Her face said, If looks could kill, he would be dead and buried.

He held up his hands. "What did I do now?'

'What do you want, Tanner?"

Eli backed up a step. Clearly, she was upset about something, or really had a bad case of morning-person blahs. He spoke softly, hoping that might help. "We're working in my room and we need to run some ideas by you. We've ordered up coffee."

"I'll come by in a while," she said over her shoulder.

Eli shook his head and mumbled to himself, "I give up trying to figure her out."

Minutes later Ashley marched through the open doorway of Eli's room. Ramona's charts were taped to the walls, the TV cabinet, and even the mirror. The doctor was still in her robe, writing furiously on yet another piece of illustration board.

Charlie stood beside her, nodding. Eli sat in a chair facing the wall and studying the charts. He motioned to a tray holding cups and a pot of coffee. "Grab a cup and take a look at this and tell me what you think."

Ashley looked at Eli, then to Ramona, then back to Eli again. "No thanks, I've had my coffee already. How long have you all been working?'

Eli rolled his eyes and motioned to Ramona. "She woke me at five, came over with her pad, and has been Magic-Markering up a storm ever since."

Charlie sighed and shook his head. "She called my home at four-thirty and ordered me here as if she were my drill sergeant. Would you like some breakfast, Agent Sutton? Eli and I had ours brought up a while ago. I highly recommend you eat-it appears the good doctor is on a tear and we'll be here awhile."

"I heard that," Ramona said as she looked up from her work.

"You like my option, don't you?'

Eli shrugged. "I want my pard to hear what you two have come up with and see what she thinks."

Ashley sank down in her chair as far as possible and managed to say, "What are you all working on?" She felt like digging a hole and falling into it; it was clear Ramona hadn't slept with Eli.

Eli set down his cup. "We've all been told to report to the deputy at ten this morning so he can congratulate us officially for breaking the case. The trouble is, none of us think the case is over. There's still the question of the other Cambodians who helped Tram with the executions. We know the deputy is going to tell us it's only a matter of time before they're caught since we have their pictures and prints. Ramona believes there's a way to do more than wait until they're caught. She and Charlie want to give the deputy another option."

Eli motioned to the first chart on the wall. "Ramona started from the beginning with the facts to see if we might have missed something. It appears we didn't. Colonel Anderson's story fits with why Tram committed the murders. It was pure revenge. Now, the question Ramona asks on the next chart is, why did Triad assist Tram in committing the murders? We all agree Tram could not have moved so fast without Triad's help.

But they're business people whose bottom line is profits . . . so why were they involved in helping Tram with the murders?

Their providing help doesn't make sense unless, A: they helped Tram because something was in it for them. Or, B: the organization owed Tram for services rendered."

Eli motioned to Charlie Lee. "Charlie thinks it's option B.

Tell her why, Charlie."

Lee sat on the bed looking at Ashley. "Agent Sutton, as I told you, the organization's competitors have had more than their fair share of bad luck. What if it wasn't bad luck at all?

What if the accidents were in fact acts of sabotage executed by a small group of highly trained specialists?"

Ashley leaned forward in her chair. "You're saying Tram was part of a commando squad?"

Lee picked up a piece of paper from the bed. "I called my counterpart in Hong Kong last night and had him fax me everything he had on Cambodians working for the family. He sent me this. Basically it says Triad has traditionally used outsiders to do its dirty work. It's safer that way--the hired guns never see their bosses, they deal and receive their instructions only through middlemen. The last paragraph of the fax is very interesting. It says that in Hong Kong it is common knowledge that a small group of highly trained Cambodians was brought into Triad twelve years or so ago to be, in their terms, `garbage men.' Our term is hit men."

Ramona pulled a piece of paper from her pad and placed it on the bed. "When Charlie called me last night and read me that fax, he basically ruined any chance I had for sleeping. It got the machinery whirring in my head. Charts three, four, five, and six are just one-liners, background on Triad here in the States. Look, however at chart seven--over there, the one taped to the mirror. The Cambodians came to the U. S. one year ago. Now look at the dates of the organization's major competitor's accidents. Isn't it odd that they all occurred in the past year? None the year before and only a small fire in a computer parts plant a year before that. To me that implies a connection.

Now to chart eight, the one on the minibar. I'm assuming the organization has a dirty-tricks squad in its employ. Assume Tram was the leader. Assume now that Tram is in the U. S. carrying out commissions for the organization and he concludes it's payback time. He uses the organization's assets and tracks down the Special Forces team, surveils them, and when he's ready, he strikes. Everything goes well--except he hadn't counted on Colonel Anderson pulling a John Wayne on him.

Now Tram has problems, because we've got bodies and a suspect. All of them are Chinese, and that could link them to the organization."

Ramona picked up the chart from the bed and held it up.

"Tram is dead. But what if he wasn't? What if we collared him alive and he told us who his middleman was?"

Ashley smiled. "You want the organization to think he's alive and talking to us."

Charlie nodded and took over. "Exactamundo. We have my office leak that we have Tram, that despite the reports of his death he is very much alive and talking up a storm about his sabotage work for Triad. Any one of five Chinese Americans in Bureau headquarters could be the organization's informant We leak the info and see which one bites. Monitoring their calls is no problem, and we'll rig an ether net up to their computers and slave it to another computer to watch everything that comes up on their screens if they try using the Internet to communicate with their cutout"

Ashley pulled on her chin. "What do, we get out of this? I mean, sure, Charlie, you'll find out who the informant is, but we'll be no closer to finding anything on Triad than we have now. If they're half as smart as you say they are, the informant will notify a cutout who will pass on the information to the organization through some untraceable means."

"You're right," Ramona said. "But think of the repercussions within the organization. They'll know we think they're dirty. Now I ask you a question. What would you do if you were the head of the Washington office of Triad and you knew the FBI was sniffing around?"

Ashley shrugged. "I'd get rid of all possible evidence of my organization's involvement"

"Right," Ramona said. "And who are the only people who have been doing illegal activities for the organization who aren't family?"

"The Cambodians." Ashley nodded. "I see what you're doing. You're making sure the Cambodians are no longer a threat to anyone."

Ramona nodded. "And more. We'll be putting the organization on notice they'll be watched by us from now on. We might not be able to prosecute them for what they've done in the past, but at least they'll have to think twice before using sabotage to get ahead in the marketplace. We don't win, but we don't lose, either."

Ashley canted her head. "What about the Cambodians? Will they be killed by the organization or just disappear?"