The older man grunted in acknowledgment. “That doesn’t fit her normal pattern of behavior but is not in itself troubling. Maybe the little girl has a doctor’s appointment. Or…”
Guo Kang didn’t want to interrupt the General, but he needed to amend his instructions and the clock was ticking. “A man is with her.”
“A colleague?”
The light turned green, and he smoothly accelerated into the intersection, turning left into the La Jolla neighborhood. He thought about the General’s question for a moment but quickly dismissed it. “I don’t think so. He moves like a professional. The way he carries himself. The way he drives.”
“Law enforcement?”
“I don’t know,” Guo Kang said, but he dismissed that possibility as well. If the doctor had somehow fallen under the scrutiny of law enforcement, he doubted they would have escorted her off campus in an unmarked vehicle — a European sport sedan at that — and taken her to her daughter’s school.
“Okay. What is your assessment?”
This time, there was no hesitation as he voiced his concerns. “I believe she is now under the guardianship of a personal protection detail. Who or why, I am not sure.” He paused. “It is just one man, and I am certain I can complete my tasking. Do you want me to continue?”
The General sighed. “No. Continue to observe, but do not approach. I don’t want to give whoever has her in their custody an excuse to increase their presence. But be on the lookout for additional security. Where there is one, there will probably be more.”
“Yes, General.” Of course, Guo Kang knew this. But his eyes flicked to each of his mirrors as if the General’s words had suddenly reminded him of the gravity of their operation. He couldn’t afford to be careless.
Only one car had turned to follow him through the intersection — a brilliant blue Dodge Challenger.
“Find out who is guarding the doctor,” the General said.
“Yes, General.”
“Keep me updated.” The call ended.
Halfway to the school, the four-lane road narrowed into two, divided by a wide median filled with trees. His eyes darted left and right, but they kept returning to the modern muscle car shadowing him. It neither closed the distance nor fell back, and by the time they reached the intersection leading to the elementary school, he had convinced himself it was part of the doctor’s detail.
Only one way of finding out.
He made the turn toward the school, knowing it was the only way in and out. Up ahead, he saw the Audi S3 parked in front of a gray wrought iron fence surrounding the elementary school. The passenger door opened, and Tan Lily jumped from the car and sprinted for the gate leading to the administration building. His eyes fell to the car’s license plate, and he memorized it.
Passing the sedan, he circled the cul-de-sac and retreated toward La Jolla Scenic Drive. His eyes fell to the Challenger’s front license plate, then up to the dark-haired woman behind the wheel. She stared back at him as he coasted past.
The doctor has more than one person protecting her.
Guo Kang pressed on the accelerator and made his escape back to his condo in San Diego.
The General will not be pleased.
11
Navy Lieutenant Andy Yandell parked his Jeep in his assigned parking space in front of the off-base apartment complex. The Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni sat on the southwestern tip of Honshu and was only twenty-five miles southwest of Hiroshima, but he wouldn’t have known it by the surrounding landscape of rugged hillsides covered in pine, bamboo, and hardwood trees.
Climbing out of his Jeep, he glanced up at the spartan exterior of the four-story apartment complex, then walked up the narrow sidewalk at one end of the building to the exposed staircase. Looking forward to one last evening on shore before flying out to the ship, he let his mind wander and scrambled up the steps to his apartment on the third floor. After unlocking his door, he pushed it open, but the sounds from inside caused him to pause at the threshold.
Somebody’s inside.
Instinctively, he reached for the pistol he would have carried concealed on his right hip if he had been back in the United States. But his temporary assignment to Det 5 in Japan had stripped him of that right.
“Hello?”
He pushed the door open further and glanced once more over his shoulder before taking a hesitant step inside. It was the absolute wrong thing to do if he suspected an intruder, but he couldn’t help himself. If somebody was inside his apartment, he didn’t want to wait for the police to arrive. He wanted them gone.
“Hello?” he yelled again, peering around the corner into the cramped living room on his right. Directly in front of him, a shoji — a sliding door made of latticework and translucent white paper — closed off his bedroom from the rest of the space. And he thought he saw a shadow move on the other side.
He froze.
Suddenly, the shoji slid open and revealed a shadowed figure standing in the doorway.
He stumbled back a step and clutched at his chest. “What the…”
Jenn sauntered across the floor, her heels clicking on the laminate wood floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
As she stepped into the light, he took in her beauty. She wore her signature purple Delta flight attendant uniform and had her short, dark hair pulled back into a tidy bun, each strand meticulously placed. He was so transfixed by her green eyes as they bored into him that he barely noticed the freshly applied bright red lipstick on her heart-shaped mouth.
Jenn Evers was a beautiful woman, and he was lucky to call her his girlfriend.
“What are you doing here?”
“I needed to see you,” she said, falling into his arms and pressing her body against his. She inhaled deeply, then let out a quiet sob.
The fear had vanished, and all Andy felt was an overwhelming need to comfort her. “What’s wrong?”
She looked up at him and shook her head. “I don’t…”
Andy quieted her with a kiss and led her to the sofa. “How did you get here?”
“When we got back to Los Angeles, I jumped on a flight to Tokyo-Haneda, then took the train here.”
Andy looked into her tear-rimmed eyes, trying to understand what could have possessed her to spend twelve hours on a plane and four hours on a train after an already long day. “Why?”
“Because Lisa…” The last shred of restraint she had been clinging to seemed to dissolve, and she broke down. He pulled her into his arms again and held her head to his chest while she cried in a much-needed emotional release. At last, the sobbing stopped, and she pulled away to wipe at the tears streaking her cheeks.
“Tell me what happened,” Andy said.
So, she did. She told him about her flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai and the older flight attendant she had watched the sunset with. She told him how Lisa hadn’t shown at their appointed lobby time the following day and couldn’t be reached by phone. She told Andy that when hotel staff went to her room, they found it completely empty, as if it hadn’t even been occupied. It was almost as if the woman had disappeared into thin air.
“What is the airline doing about it?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Nothing. They got us another flight attendant, and we flew back to Los Angeles like nothing even happened.”
He tipped his head forward and kissed her, not caring if he smeared her perfect lipstick. It had been weeks since they last saw each other. “Well, you’re here now,” he said.
She pulled back from the kiss and licked her lips, but he felt her body deflate with relief. “Yes. I’m here.”