Colonel Dai was led to the back row of first class; he was seated against the window, and several men positioned themselves around him.
The other SAD guys from the tarmac found seats of their own here in first class.
While Court stood there next to Hightower, Suzanne Brewer stepped out of the cockpit. Court had never met her in person, but he’d had a brief video chat with her the moment she became his handler, so he had no trouble recognizing her. She walked up the aisle towards him, and he noticed she had a limp and a little wince when she walked, as if she were in pain.
Brewer looked past Court and to Fan Jiang. “Mr. Fan. My name is Suzanne and I am in charge. You have my word that you will be able to make your own determination if you want to work for us.” She smiled a little. “After we get some preliminary information, which, I am afraid, we will require.”
“So I work to earn my freedom?” Fan said. “Lady, do you know how many times someone has said that to me in the past month?”
Brewer smiled ruefully, like she really gave a shit what this man had been through. Court saw through it, and knew Fan would, as well. She said, “A week from now you won’t know why you were so hesitant to come with us. We will bend over backwards for you.”
She turned away, looked to Court, and said, “Follow me.”
“I’ll stay with Fan,” Court said.
“No… you will follow me.”
Brewer stopped at Dai now. “Colonel, we spoke on the phone yesterday.”
Dai nodded. “I only hope you will live up to our agreement.”
“Likewise, sir,” she said. “We have every intention of rewarding you if you are forthcoming with us. Many people at my agency were skeptical that someone with your background could be persuaded to provide assistance to the United States. I convinced them to give you a chance, and now you have just that.” Brewer looked at him with unconcealed skepticism. “A chance.”
The colonel looked out the window. “If I returned to China, I would be tortured to death. I know that, and you know that, so there is no need for me to engage in a charade that my decision is due to any political awakening on my part. I am here because I place some value on my life. No other reason.”
Court and Dai made eye contact, and Dai said, “Interesting. You look even less pleased to find yourself in this situation than I do.”
Court said nothing; he just started following Brewer to the curtains to the next section.
Then he stopped. He stood there a moment longer, turned around, and looked hard at all the Americans sitting here with guns on their chests. They all stared back at him, wondering if they’d have to get up and subdue the Gray Man.
Court asked, “Is it always going to be like this? Every time we see each other we have to figure out if anybody is going to pull iron and start shooting?”
Jenner was up front. He stood, turned, and spoke up for the group. “That’s your call, tough guy. We can be friendly, or we can be unfriendly. All I know is—”
Court interrupted. “All you know is jack shit! Every story has good guys and bad guys. You don’t even fucking know it, but on this op, you… me… Brewer, Hanley… we’re the villains.” Court motioned to Fan Jiang. He seemed so small tucked in between all the jocked-up American muscle. “That man’s the good guy.”
Jenner shrugged, then sat back down.
Court sighed, looking around at all the men. He said, “Treat him right. He’s just a kid.”
Travers spoke up now. “We got him, Six. Don’t worry. Our orders are to let him do anything he wants but run away. White-glove treatment. You have my word.”
Court looked at Fan. “I’m sorry, Jiang.”
Fan Jiang looked away.
As Court headed towards the next section, Hightower called out from his seat next to Jenner, “Good to see you, brother. Sorry you lost this round. Keep your chin up. You’ll get another shot.”
Court’s eyes were still on Fan. “Fuck you, Zack. You’re not my brother.” He disappeared through the curtain.
A minute later Court sat alone in an economy seat and watched Brewer talking on the phone. The aircraft started moving as his CIA handler reported in, probably to Hanley, letting him know they were on the way.
A few men and women Court took as analysts, operations officers, and security sat around the large economy cabin, but Court was sequestered from all of them by more than a dozen empty rows; when Brewer finally ended her call she limped over and sat down next to him.
“I’m truly sorry we have to meet face-to-face for the first time under these circumstances.”
Court gazed out the portal next to him as the aircraft went to full power and began racing down the runway. “I thought Fan was the pawn in all this. Turns out it was me.”
Brewer said, “Take a look at a chessboard. There are lots of pawns.” She added, “Why in the hell are you feeling sorry for him? Sure, he’ll get a long debrief. Months, for sure, quite possibly a couple of years. But he’ll have a nice apartment, whatever he wants to eat, and armed protection from those trying to kill him. And then, at some later date, he’ll get witness protection. He’d never get a security clearance from the U.S., but I know there are a dozen agencies, my own, in fact, who would employ him gainfully well past his retirement date forty years from now.”
Court said nothing.
“That little bastard up there is going to end up a lot better than me, and a hell of a lot better than you.”
Court said, “The whole operation was shit. Killing his parents so he’d be forced to run into our arms.”
Brewer replied, “Not my fault.”
“No,” Court said. “But dragging him back to the U.S. so that a dirty mission ends up as a success. That’s all on you.”
“You found him for us,” she said coolly. “You grabbed him for us. You brought him to us.”
Court leaned his head back. “The U.S. flag is supposed to represent something. Not this.”
Brewer said, “We saved his life. If Fan Jiang went back to Taiwan, he’d do it with a target on his head. Chinese intelligence has infiltrated Taiwanese intelligence, and there is no way Fan would get to that island without Dai’s replacement knowing about it. Fan would be a marked man, and he’d be dead in a year.”
“That was his decision to make,” Court said. He was barely listening.
“Some people think zoos are terrible places,” Brewer said, causing Court to look at her for the first time since he sat down. “And for some species they are. The predators, I mean. Put a lion in a cage, and you’ve taken everything from him. But the prey? The gazelles and the rabbits? The lemmings and the sea otters? Put them in a zoo and their lives improve. No fighting, no slaughtering, all their needs met. The zoo is the closest thing to utopia that we humans can craft on Earth.”
Court glowered at her. “We’re doing Fan Jiang a favor? And in so doing, we happen to suck all his intel value from him.”
“He chose to work with Unit 61398.”
“Actually no, he didn’t.”
“Well… he chose to run from it.”
“We fucking set him up!”
“Don’t say ‘we.’ I didn’t; you didn’t; Hanley didn’t. It happened. Yes, it happened, but the person who started the ball rolling was the former head of the National Clandestine Service, and he’s not around to answer for it. We cleaned up a mess. That’s all.”
Brewer was right, Court knew. In this dirty world, Fan Jiang’s outcome was as good as it was going to get.
Court just shook his head. “How did you manage to score Colonel Dai?”
“We reached out to him. Got his number off one of his captured men. Told him we were his only lifeline.”
Court said, “Still… China will kill his family for this.”