Part 59 (1/2)

”Max probably doesn't know,” Donovan said. ”He's the consummate bureaucrat, Tony. You know that. Right now he's concentrating on getting me out of his hair any way he can.”

”There's too much at stake,” Jake said, ”to take either of these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds at their word.”

Donovan looked at him. ”I see I have more bargaining to do.” He nodded. ”All right. Do you recall that Henry Wunderman had a deep-cover a.s.set code-named Apollo?”

”Yes,” Jake said. He dared not glance at Simbal. He wanted to give Donovan no clue at all.

”Daniella knows he exists and his ident.i.ty.”

”She told you this?” Jake said, damping down on his anxiety.

”She did.”

”What's his name?”

”What good would it do you?”

”Tell me,” Jake said, ”and don't ask questions.”

”Mikhail Carelin.”

Dear G.o.d, Jake thought. Carelin's a dead man. ”When did she find out?” he asked.

”We spoke before I left,” Donovan said. ”She had just gotten the intelligence.”

”Jake, what do you think?” Simbal said.

Is Donovan telling the truth about everything? Jake asked himself, or is he taking his own advice and feeding us half truths as lies?

”If you believe me, Tony,” Donovan said, ”it means aligning yourself against Max Threnody. I don't know whether you're prepared for that.”

”I want a chance to get to Daniella Vorkuta,” Jake said. ”Donovan's the only path.” That is, he thought, unless Apollo can get to her before she kills him.

”Is it worth the risk?” Simbal wondered aloud.

”To get to the head of the KGB's First Chief Directorate,” Jake said, ”I'd mortgage heaven and h.e.l.l.”

Simbal thought of Max Threnody, of what he had done to Monica, to the Cuban, to Simbal himself. That was all part of the game, in Max's book. Was this, too, just another ruse? Who was using him now, Max or Rodger?

”All right,” Simbal said at last, making his decision. He called out softly and two of the Shan came and took Donovan. ”You'll be intheir custody until this is all over, Rodger,” he said. ”In the meantime, don't do anything stupid and make us sorry we kept you alive.”

The rain had come again, the storm backing around from the south and sitting athwart the mountains, banging on them like a gleeful child with a new set of drums.

From where Jake and Tony Simbal crouched in the heavy undergrowth, they could scent the opium cooking. Its stench permeated the heavy air, hanging like pollution over the clearing. Their Shan escort, hidden from view, was entirely silent around them.

”If we can get to General Kuo,” Simbal said, ”I think we'll have a chance.”

”Of what?” Jake asked.

”Of getting out alive.” Simbal stretched a cramped muscle in his thigh. ”I don't know about you, friend, but I have no death wish.”

”Is that what you think I have?”

”If the shoe fits.” Simbal shrugged.

”Don't worry,” Jake said.

Simbal s.h.i.+fted the AK-4y on his lap. He was checking its mechanism for the third time. It was important to do that: the combination of the atmosphere and the laxity of the Shan in cleaning their weapons could be lethal. ”Jesus,” he laughed, ”what the f.u.c.k do I have to be worried about?”

Jake thought about that for a time. ”What do you suggest,” he said after a time.

”You and I will go in all right,” Simbal said. ”But not until my Shan have created a diversion at the other end of the compound. That will do two things. First, it will draw General Kuo out in the open where we have a chance of getting to him. Second, it will keep his men busy while we try to find Bennett and Curran.”

”And Chen Ju,” Jake said.

”And Chen Ju.”

For a long time, Jake watched the encampment. At last he said, ”I think you deserve to see the whole picture. What the scientists at Kam Sang have come up with is a way to make a mobile nuclear warhead that can be slipped into existing weaponry such as handheld rocket launchers. The project directors felt that what they had come up with was essentially useless since the radiation fallout resulting from the percussion would undoubtedly kill the initiating soldier as well as his target.”

”Christ,” Simbal breathed. It had all come rus.h.i.+ng in on him.

”That's why the diqui have begun stockpiling Blackman T-93 antipersonnel rocket launchers! With the Kam Sang payloads those T-93S will have the power to destroy the world.”

”What!” That was it: the missing piece! ”Where did you hear that?” So this wasn't about drugs at all. Chen Ju had a far different objective in mind. Jake's eyes bored into Simbal.

”From a man named Run-Run Yi, the diqui's late New York boss.”

”Late? What happened to him?”

”Edward Martin Bennett happened to him,” Simbal said. He recounted the incident at the Trilliant.

”That's Chen Ju's strategy,” Jake said, so appalled that he felt sick to his stomach. ”Members of the diqui will be supplied with stockpiled Blackman T-93S loaded with the miniature nuclear ammunition. With the stolen information Bennett and Curran have provided them, a single man could infiltrate any major American city, hold it for ransom, destroy half its population.”

”G.o.d in heaven,” Simbal said. ”Knowing the ant.i.terrorist directives, he could make himself virtually invisible. He'd be unfindable.”

Jake nodded. His mind was whirling with what they had uncovered. The audacity of the man! ”This is what Chen Ju is after.” Much more than the destruction of the yuhn-hyun, he thought. ”He will infiltrate city after city, making his demands. Members of the diqui are fanatics; death means nothing to them. Chen Ju wants nothing less than the entire world. It's the ultimate stage of terrorism.”

”He's not going to sell this new technology to the highest bidder?” Simbal asked.

”I don't think so,” Jake said.

Simbal agreed. ”He's changed the objective of the diqui from merely transs.h.i.+pping opium to disseminating the ultimate terrorist army. With the technology from Kam Sang, Chen Ju can hold the entire United States for ransom if he wishes.”

”And he does, make no mistake,” Jake said grimly. ”But I think you're wrong on one point. Chen Ju's strategy for his diqui did not change at all. I see that clearly now. This is not something one just jumps into. I think his little toy has grown up into this monstrous weapon.”

”Jesus,” Simbal whispered. ”We've got to stop him.”

”Let's get started.”

Simbal went off to give orders to his Shan warriors. When he returned, he watched Jake's profile for a time. He thought he'd give a great deal to know what was going on inside that mind. ”The clock'sticking down,” he said eventually. ”They're all there. The information's got to be changing hands.” He glanced down at his AK-4y. His hands had told him. Everything in place.