“Taiwan is a big island. I can’t be sure of anything. But I talked to some old friends in the bureau. They would know if he was in country. And he’s not. It’s more likely, given his indiscretions, that he ended up with the communists.”
“Remington is a traitor. I’m not sure the leaders of the People’s Republic of China have much stomach to harbor a man like that.”
“Why not? From what I understand, they paid him quite nicely for his services.”
“That’s what I understand as well. But, as you know, they’re all about appearances and saving face. Once they’ve got everything they need from Remington, they’d be more likely to ship him off to South America than get caught letting the man hang out in Shanghai.”
“They would be more likely to put him in a shallow grave,” Chan Le said. “No, I take that back. They would probably burn the man back to basic elements.”
Jake let out a breath of air and scratched the three-day stubble of beard. “So you have nothing for me?”
“Nothing is something.” The man smiled at Jake.
“Right. One less country to consider.”
“Two countries. Taiwan and my communist cousins.”
This was a total waste of time. Deep down Jake knew that the likelihood of Bill Remington ending up in Taiwan was slim to none. America still had a good relationship with this nation, along with strong extradition. There was no way Remington would be stupid enough to take up residence here. But Jake knew he had to start somewhere with his search, and the death of the banker told him he was at least sniffing around the right kitchen.
Jake got up and started to leave, but Chan Le stopped him with a wave of his hand. Then he turned his large LCD computer screen for Jake to see.
“An uncanny resemblance,” Chan Le said with a smirk.
On the screen was a blurry picture of two men sitting at a table. One was identified as the dead banker. The other was Jake.
“That’s worse than a bigfoot photo,” Jake said.
“You might want to consider leaving Taiwan,” Chan Le said. “Oh, wait. All flights in and out of the island have been cancelled.”
Jake started for the door but stopped and turned with that last revelation. “Why is that?”
“Our government is concerned that our petulant cousins might retaliate by shooting down an airliner.”
“Well the Russians did that to a South Korean airliner in the eighties. I wouldn’t discount that possibility. Thanks for your help.”
“Wait. You might try looking in Singapore. I hear a lot of Americans and Europeans have moved there recently.” Chan Le gave two thumbs up just before Jake left the man alone.
He got out to the elevator foyer area and waited for a security officer to key in the elevator door. This was the second time he had gotten a lead to head to Singapore. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that information. Singapore also had an extradition agreement with America. But in that city money talked. Remington could simply bribe the right government official to look the other way.
When Jake got down to the lobby, the place was crawling with local police. But he was stuck. He couldn’t go back up this elevator without security approval. So he wandered across the massive fifth floor lobby area to another bank of elevators. These were just across from the elevators that brought tourists up to the observation levels. The police were holding what looked like photographs, and comparing the photo to anyone from the west. He entered the elevator and tried to blend in with a crowd of business folks heading up to their offices. Jake was clearly out of business uniform, with his black jeans, leather coat, and longer hair.
He got off on the 35th floor, remembering from the directory that there was a convenience store on that level. He quickly found what he needed and then bought a couple of other items before leaving. Then he wandered down the hall until he found the public bathroom. It took him just ten minutes to pull the body trimmer from the package and shave his head down to stubble, flushing his locks down the toilet. Although the trimmer was more of a tool to cut excess body hair, it was sharp and worked fine. He threw the clippers away and washed his head in the sink. Now he put on a hat he had also bought at the store, and looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t even recognize himself.
Before leaving the bathroom, he thought about his leather jacket. It was the same one from the picture they had of him. Plus the sleeve had a huge gash. He quickly took it off and shoved it down the garbage. Jake hoped this would be enough change.
Drifting back toward the elevator, Jake wondered how the police knew he was in the tower. Did that old security officer sell him out? No time to think about that now. He just needed to get the hell out of this monstrosity.
Jake took the elevator to the ground level and then took the escalator to the food court area. The police were checking everyone leaving the building, but there was always another way. He went through one of the restaurants until he came to an exit that led to an inner passageway. As he wandered past the back side of each restaurant, he guessed this was how they delivered food. After a few wrong turns, he finally found the loading dock area. From there it was just a matter of walking out the building, up a ramp and onto the expansive sidewalk area around the massive structure.
He came around the side of the building and saw more police out front. But he needed his backpack and laptop in the trunk of the taxi. Otherwise he could just walk cross the street and pick up the new metro line.
His taxi was gone. Crap.
About to just give up on the taxi, he turned to walk away from the police out front. Just then the taxi pulled up to the curb, the driver smiling at Jake.
He quickly got into the back seat. “Did the police make you move?” Jake asked the driver.
“Yes. But I almost didn’t recognize you with your hair cut.”
“That’s why I came here. I heard about a great barber.”
The driver looked at Jake in the mirror. “Where now? More temples?”
“Just drive back toward the hotel.”
The taxi driver did as he was told, pulling away from the curb.
Jake needed to get his ass out of Taiwan. But with all flights grounded, that left him just two options. He could jump a ship to Singapore. But that would take days. Or, he could still fly.
“Change of plans. Let’s go to Taoyuan International,” Jake said.
The driver turned to Jake and said, “But all flights have been cancelled.”
“That’s alright. I’ll wait there. I’m sure it’s just a temporary problem.”
6
Alexandra had spent the evening and most of the night preparing for her trip to Singapore. She packed up all of her personal items, like family photographs and guns and documents she had not put into private storage already, and hauled them in the middle of the night to her storage unit on the outskirts of Munich. Now she had just a small backpack with the essentials, including her Canadian passport identifying her as Alexandra Kline, among other passports. Anything else she needed she could buy in Singapore. She guessed the shopping would be great.
She wore everything practical from top to bottom, from the light leather jacket over the thin gray sweater and down to the comfortable black slacks and black rubber-soled leather shoes.
Just about to leave now, she stopped and looked at her BND identification and government issue Glock 19 in its holster on her bedroom nightstand. If her boss needed those to make her retirement official, she would call him and have him pick up her apartment key from her landlord.
Alexandra turned to look at her bedroom one more time. She thought of the times that Jake had stayed there. How they had made love here, spontaneously, finding the pleasure each of them needed. She wasn’t sure if they would still be friends with benefits, or perhaps something more. Either way was fine with her. She wasn’t about to push the issue.