As Reaper and Ryan stepped off the Navetta they watched three black Escalades approach from the road to the north and then pull up alongside the dock.
Eddie Kosinski climbed out the back of the first Escalade and flashed his badge at Carvalho. The police sergeant was clearly expecting him and immediately waved him and his men through the cordon.
He marched up to the ECHO team as bold as brass and ran a hand over his stubble. “Pretty down these parts, huh?”
“Why are you here, Kosinski?” Hawke said. “
“A little bird tipped me off that there was something going down in Rio and you know what I did?”
Scarlet stared at him. “Tried to buy a personality online but couldn’t find any that fit your ego?”
“No — and that’s not funny by the way. What I did was get a few buddies together and come down here for a long weekend. You don’t mind if I join you now, right?”
“Who’s pulling your strings, Kosinski?” Hawke said, taking a step closer and squaring up to him.
“You know that saying about the world being on turtles all the way down? Well with me it’s bosses all the way up, Hawke. You know how it is.”
“If you want the man who tried to loot the Lost City,” Lea said, “he’s on a Jet Ski in that direction.”
Kosinski grinned. “Just leave that to us…”
“You don’t seem to be in much of a hurry to catch the bad guys,” Scarlet said.
It was clear whoever had sent the CIA down here knew a hell of a lot about what was going on, and Kosinski’s ‘little bird’ reference was a cheap shot trying to make him think Alex had been the leak. Hawke grinned, knowing how satisfying it was going to be when he finally crushed Eddie Kosinski. “You know, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re deliberately letting Dirk Kruger get away tonight.”
“Like you said, you don’t know any better.”
Kosinski gave them a sarcastic smile and walked over to the Navetta. “If you don’t mind, I have an ancient lost treasure to inventory.”
The ECHO team walked along the docks and looked back at Kosinski and his men as they removed the treasure from the Theia.
“We need to get to the bottom of Eddie Kosinski,” Hawke said. He crossed his arms and perched on the edge of a dock piling. “What do we know about him?”
“He’s smug,” Lea said.
“And a bastard,” said Scarlet.
Lexi sighed. “And he gets the better of us too many times.”
“And he’s CIA,” Reaper said.
“Right — so he’s working for someone at the CIA who knows about Dirk Kruger and his activities,” Hawke said.
Scarlet blew out some smoke and looked up at the stars. “Not to mention all that immortality stuff.”
“I think we need Alex to start digging round Langley,” Lea said.
“Agreed,” Hawke said. “She’s very good at that.”
Scarlet let out a heavy sigh and casually flicked her cigarette butt into the sea. “Come on, you bastards. Let’s go and get a drink.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Tiger looked at Pig and Pig looked at Tiger. Neither man knew the other’s name, and that was how it had always been done. Neither knew where the other lived and neither wanted to know. They were not bloody-thirsty, undisciplined gangsters but highly-trained public servants with a job to do. It might be a dirty job, but someone had to do it, and that someone was Tiger and his associates.
Unlike Tiger, Pig was nearing retirement and looking forward to a generous pension which he planned to spend in Zhuhai with his wife. The prefecture-level city was in the subtropical south but the South China Sea kept the temperatures down. It was the perfect place to retire. Just one more job to do and he would punch out and leave the Ministry behind for the rest of his life.
“Who?” was all Pig said. A visit from Tiger could mean only thing and it wasn’t to play wŭzĭqí.
Tiger said nothing but slid the manila folder across the table.
Pig glanced from the folder back to Tiger and then back down before gently lifting the cover. He raised his eyebrows and then sucked in his lips. “I see.”
“Zhou wants it done in a hurry.”
“Zhou can take a shit in a hurry,” Pig said. “A job like this takes time and careful planning.”
Tiger nodded. He was thinking the same thing.
“Who else have you in mind?”
“Rat.”
“Inevitable, of course.”
“And Monkey.”
Pig nodded his head and after taking another lingering glance inside the folder closed it back up. “He’ll have to be watched.”
“I can handle him.”
Pig nodded. “She’s aged well. Seems a shame.”
“She’s got new friends now. Likes to play games in the West.”
Another tired nod. Tiger wondered if he was keeping the other man away from his bed.
“Where is she?”
“Rio de Janeiro. We don’t know why.”
“When do we go after her?”
“As soon as we get the others. Do you know where they are?”
“Rat is where he always is,” Pig said with a yawn, and pushed his chopsticks back into his soybean noodles. “I dread to think where we’ll find Monkey.” He deftly pulled out a string of the wheat noodles and twirled them around to gather more of the zhajiang sauce. Then he pinched some of the stir-fried beef and dipped it into the salty soybean paste before passing the whole bundle into his mouth.
“How’s the meat?” Tiger asked.
Pig wiped his mouth with a napkin and nodded vehemently. “Delicious.”
The beef was always delicious here.
And Agent Dragonfly’s days were numbered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“You win some, you lose some.”
Hawke downed his lager and put the glass on the table with a loud smack. “Maybe, Lexi,” he said. “But you don’t lose against a man like Dirk Kruger. We’ve had too many losses. We let Mendoza get away in Mexico — and look at the carnage that mistake cost. We lost Maria and maybe even Rich, and now we let the man responsible for most of that slip through our fingers like sand.”
Ryan took a sip of the lager. “On the bright side, I’m still here. That’s how come we didn’t get Kruger. None of you would have screwed that up.”
Scarlet laughed loudly but immediately stopped, glancing at Ryan. “You’ve changed.”
“Have I?”
She nodded. “You’re now half-nerd, half-man.”
“Well the nerd half wants a cigarette,” Ryan said, and helped himself to one from Scarlet’s pack. He put it in his mouth and fired it up with her Zippo. Everyone stared at him as he blew the smoke out into the air and sighed.
Lea looked concerned. “Are you okay, Ry?”
He gave her a sharp look. “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You don’t smoke cigarettes, for one thing.”
Ryan downed his beer and took another drag. “I smoke weed all the time, so what’s the difference?” He shrugged his shoulders and fixed his eyes on her. She could see something was missing now. She knew he was still in shock from the news of Maria’s death, but this seemed like something else, something more… he had a new look in his eyes, a new recklessness she had never seen before.
“Just sayin’…”
Hawke broke the tension by rising from his chair and asking anyone if they wanted another beer. The consensus was clear, so he stepped inside for a few moments. He emerged a few minutes later and pulled his chair out. He sat down with a sigh and handed around the cold beers. The mission had been successful — to a degree. They had ended Saqqal’s insane bioweapon threat and passed the Utopia plague to the authorities, and they had also stopped Kruger from stealing the Lost Treasure of the Incas, but they had lost it all to Eddie Kosinski. Someone had tipped him off and his CIA boys had been all over the Rio docks like white on rice. It wasn’t the first time he had lost the grand prize to Kosinski.