Qubit, page 28
“Park here,” said Dinsha.
“This is a fool’s errand and a total waste of time,” continued Rao, pulling off the paved road and onto a gravel berm.
“I’m sure you’re right,” said Dinsha as he got out of the car and walked around to the other side to meet Rao. “Now follow me and keep your mouth shut, or you won’t make it to thirty, period.”
ψ
Abhishek Rathod, a distant cousin of the Big Man of the family in Singapore, stepped out onto the porch of the apartment building where, for nearly two mind-numbing weeks, he’d been stuck babysitting the brat upstairs. He was a lean man with an air of dangerous agility, wearing a black T-shirt with blue jeans and black dress shoes. He eyed the two men approaching the building with keen interest. It was the most excitement he’d had since the stupid bitch had run away.
They were obviously cops. They had that disheveled, tired air. And the shitty rental. They weren’t local, or he’d have been told they were coming and he’d probably have recognized them. One looked like a tall, skinny girl and the other like he didn’t care. He’d have to toy with them a bit to make it interesting. Or maybe he’d just have them killed; that would make things interesting. He could tell Pradeep that they had pulled their weapons or—
“Good day, young man. My name is Dinsha Kumar, Ministry of Law Enforcement. Are you the manager of this apartment building?”
He hadn’t bothered to introduce his girlish companion, Abhishek thought bemusedly. “I could be,” he replied.
“My superiors, in their infinite wisdom, have somehow come to believe that there is a young American girl being held in this very building against her will.”
Abhishek laughed. He was disappointed, though. These kind of cops took all the fun out of being a bad guy. They just didn’t care and would just as soon leave you to your business, however illegal that might be. “You have a warrant?”
“No, no,” said Dinsha, wearily. “I was hoping not to have to bother with that. I’d have to file all the paperwork. And say we were refused entry. Next thing you know, my boss will really start to believe his own bullshit, and we’ll end up with an entire unit out here. Bad enough that my young friend Rao had to call his mother and tell her he’d be late for dinner.”
Abhishek glowered, playing along. “All right. Let’s get this over with, then.”
ψ
By the third apartment building, Abhishek was bored. This wasn’t going to be exciting at all, he decided. The two cops were barely even making a show of it. They’d step into a flat, walk through the living room and kitchen, peer up the stairs, and then move on. The girly cop did seem to be getting hot and bothered about something, and kept whispering to the other one. Maybe it was her period, he chuckled to himself.
Still, Abhishek found himself growing tense as they entered the fourth building. As with the first three apartments, the two cops took a cursory look around. The lazy cop surprised him by deciding to go upstairs. Of course, he would pick this apartment to look upstairs. Abhishek turned to two men standing in the front entrance—they’d been discretely shadowing his little tour—and nodded. They both came inside and followed Abhishek up the stairs. By now, the pair of cops were looking around the first bedroom. The girly cop opened the closet and Abhishek found himself licking his lips with anticipation. This was going to get interesting after all.
The cops made their way into the bathroom. The lazy cop turned and asked him why the window was boarded up. Abhishek told him that the window had broken and with the dust storms and all… He was a bit disappointed to discover that his mouth had gone dry and his heart was racing. This was what happened when you sat around doing nothing for two weeks, Abhishek chided himself. Even a couple of deadbeat cops could give you scare.
They went into the second bedroom. Abhishek waited for the girly cop to go for the closet. He stepped back and motioned the two men behind him forward. He started thinking ahead to the next step—they’d need to relocate quickly and get rid of the bodies. Abruptly, the lazy cop awkwardly circled around so that he was facing the girly cop and announced they were done with that room. The girly cop began to whine about the closet, but the lazy cop kept pushing him out of the room. As he passed Abhishek, he gave him a knowing look.
Abhishek gnashed his teeth. The lazy cop knew. He’d known all along. Did he want some kind of bribe, was that it? Maybe he should just kill them both anyway. They barely glanced at the master bedroom and then made the same cursory show of it in the last two apartments. Finally, the lazy cop sidled up to him and began talking about how expensive things were these days and didn’t he agree. Abhishek did agree and invited him back tomorrow so they could become better acquainted. The lazy cop said he’d much rather come on personal business than police business, and Abhishek laughed and embraced his new friend. As they left the apartment building, he turned to the two men, who stood just behind him at the entrance, and shook his head.
And that was that. Just another cop with his hand out. They’d move the girl as soon as they were gone, and then, when the cops came back tomorrow, Pradeep would put them on the payroll. Not nearly as exciting as having to kill them, but then one could only expect so much.
ψ
Back in the car, Rao was beside himself. “I’m going to report you, you know. I know what happened back there. It’s no wonder—”
“Drive,” growled Dinsha. “Now.”
Rao was suddenly quiet.
“Turn here,” said Dinsha.
“The highway is back that way,” protested Rao. “I should—”
“We’re not going back to the highway.”
“We’re not?”
“No. Now pull in here…drive the car up behind this building…no, the next one…here is good.” Dinsha reached back and grabbed a pair of field binoculars and got out of the car. They walked past several children playing and Dinsha cursed quietly. He led the way up a staircase to a row of second-floor motel-style apartments. He went from one to the next, looking in the windows. “Here’s good,” he said and, after trying the doorknob and finding it locked, stepped back and casually kicked open the door. He waved Rao forward and followed him inside, closing the door behind him.
The apartment was dark and empty. Dinsha walked quickly to the kitchen window and squatted down beside it, bringing the binoculars to his face. “Perfect,” he said.
“What are we doing?” asked Rao, the confidence gone from his voice.
“What does it look like we’re doing?”
“A stakeout?”
“Obviously. Get down.”
Rao squatted next to Dinsha, facing him on the opposite side of the window. He said nothing for a while. “They were going to kill us, weren’t they?”
“Oh, yes.”
“The girl is there?”
“Oh, yes.”
“She was in that closet.”
“Yes.”
“The boarded windows.”
“Yes.”
“And the kitchen…it was messier than the others.”
“Very good.”
Rao paused. “What else? Did I miss anything?”
Dinsha spoke slowly in a low, rumbling voice, as though in a trance. “There was no furniture in the other bedrooms, and the closet doors were not shut. In that bedroom, the closet door was firmly shut, and there was a folded cot leaning up against it. The cot was stained with blood. There were also bloodstains on the floor opposite the closet. There was a table with a single chair. There was dried food on the wall. There was a well-worn easy chair, possibly for a guard. In the corner, there was a white dress. In the bathroom, in the bathtub, there was long brown hair in the drain clog. In the trash, there was an empty box labeled ‘butterfly catheters’ and an empty plastic bag. Finally, there were the two men who followed us upstairs, each armed with a handgun.”
Rao eased himself to the ground and pushed himself back up against the wall. “I didn’t see their guns,” he said, his voice barely audible. “Question,” he said after a moment.
“Yes.”
“What do the catheters have to do with anything?”
“The girl is trying to starve herself,” explained Dinsha simply.
Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore
Friday, May 11th
6:00 p.m. SGT (Singapore Time)
Lock and Sanjay watched as Katya took a seat at the far end of the bar. Lock casually took a sip of scotch and stared ahead, pretending not to notice her.
“That chick is checking you out,” said Sanjay, staring at Katya.
Lock was relieved—for a moment, he’d thought Sanjay had recognized her somehow. He glanced over at Katya, who was twirling the straw of her drink and smiling flirtatiously. Lock turned to Sanjay. “You think so?” he asked, trying to sound incredulous.
“Yeah. You should go talk to her.”
“Maybe she was looking at you.”
“I don’t think so.”
Lock pretended to sneak a look. Katya smiled and tossed her hair back.
Sanjay’s eyes widened. “You see?”
Lock found that he was happy to see her, eager to be near her. He looked away and took a deep breath. “Maybe you’re right,” he conceded, struggling to sound indifferent.
“Just remember. If you do anything, I have to watch.”
“That’s weird.”
ψ
Lock sat down next to Katya. “Sanjay thinks you’re flirting with me.”
“I saw you had company. Figured maybe you needed an excuse to get away.”
“Good call.”
“About last night…”
Lock closed his eyes and groaned. He remembered Katya bringing him up to his room. He’d been embarrassingly drunk. “I’m sorry.”
“You told me you were going to tell me everything.”
“Did I?”
“Yup.”
“Maybe you’re just saying that.”
“Nope.”
“The thing is…there’s been a development.”
“Oh?”
Lock glanced over at Sanjay. “You sure it’s safe to talk here?”
“Relatively sure.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“Well, you can never really be sure. Just lean in a bit so it looks like we’re having an intimate conversation. Which we are, actually, so it’s not much of a stretch.”
Lock leaned in slightly. He could feel the heat radiating from her body.
“Perfect.”
“They know something,” Lock said, his voice just above a whisper. “They were asking me if I was talking to anybody. That’s why I have a chaperone now.”
“What did you say?”
Lock caught some delicious combinations of scents that he didn’t have words for. It wasn’t exactly a perfume. Maybe it was her shampoo or soap? Whatever it was, it was…distracting. “I said no. Obviously. But it has me worried.”
“Do you think they’ve made me?”
Lock forced himself to focus. “Made…what?”
“Identified. Do you think they’ve identified me? Do they know who I am?”
“Ah. No, I don’t think so. They didn’t seem to know specifically…they were just asking a lot of questions.”
Katya was thoughtful. “What about your friend there? Is he going to tell on you?”
Lock resisted the urge to look over at Sanjay. “You mean that I met a girl at the hotel bar?”
“Right.”
“I don’t think so. If push came to shove, though…”
They sat in silence for a while, Lock swirling his drink by moving his glass in small circles in the air with his hand, Katya stirring her soda water with a straw. What am I doing? wondered Lock.
“I’m going to laugh here in a second,” whispered Katya, forcing Lock to lean closer to hear. “Like you said something funny. Your friend’s looking over here, and I just don’t want it to look too serious.”
“Okay.”
Katya leaned back in her bar stool and laughed out loud.
Lock looked up and watched her laugh. He smiled in spite of himself. Their eyes met as she leaned forward again. “You should have been an actress,” he said.
“I kinda am.”
“I see that.” Lock’s smile faded. “Any word? About a rescue mission?”
Katya’s smile faded too. “Not yet.”
Lock considered taking a swig of scotch, but put the glass down instead.
“Take the money,” he heard Katya say.
Lock looked at her. “What?”
“That’s what you were saying last night.”
“Oh. That.”
“Tell me.”
Lock scratched his head. She’s not really flirting with you, he reminded himself. She’s not even your friend. She’s a CIA agent who is using you to get information about Vipul. She hasn’t been able or willing to get a rescue mission organized.
“Why haven’t you just arrested me?” he asked finally. “Why haven’t you just taken me back to CIA Headquarters or Guantanamo Bay or wherever and tortured me until I told you everything?”
Katya laughed musically. “I can’t really. You’d have to come voluntarily. Or I’d have to arrange for the SPF to arrest you and then extradite you.”
“The SPF?”
“The Singapore police.”
“Oh.” Lock slowly pushed the glass of scotch away from him. He eyed Katya critically. She had produced that sat phone with all the intel on it, he thought. Just because he hadn’t been able to make use of it wasn’t her fault.
Steve the bartender came by to ask if something was wrong with his drink. Lock asked for a club soda. As Steve worked, engaging both he and Katya in small talk, Lock found himself quietly admiring Katya. He couldn’t remember ever meeting anyone who seemed so genuinely happy. Steve handed Lock his club soda and refreshed Katya’s before discretely withdrawing to the other end of the bar.
“So…take the money?” prompted Katya.
“Right.” Lock paused. “Before we get to that…what did you mean by greenmailing, exactly?”
“What?”
“Greenmailing. When we first met, you used the word greenmailing. Something about the world’s largest greenmailing campaign.”
Katya put her finger to her lips. She leaned forward, and Lock did the same. He caught that crazy scent again. Katya began whispering. “Someone—we suspect Vipul, obviously—threatened to crash the stock markets unless we met their demands. It’s like blackmailing, only since it’s finance related, I guess it’s called greenmailing.”
Lock thought back to something Kirin had said, a lifetime ago. We’re going to put a nice little scare into some folks on Wall Street.
“What?” asked Katya.
Lock raised his head and looked at her. “What were his demands?”
Katya frowned. “I don’t know. It’s classified.”
Lock grunted and then began rubbing his chin. He looked at Katya intently. “Do you have information about Vipul’s IPs? Home? Work? Anywhere?”
“IPs?”
“Internet addresses.”
“No. But we can probably get them.”
“What about street addresses?”
“Yeah. All that background info is on the phone I gave you.”
“It is?”
“Yeah. I think I put it in a folder named ‘Vipul.’ Why?”
Lock paused and ran his fingers through his hair. “Because I’m an idiot, that’s why.”
“Don’t look now, but here comes your friend,” warned Katya.
“Ah.” Lock raised his voice without looking up. “Personally, I think it was Michael’s sense of obligation to his family, to his father, mostly—”
“Hey, Lock,” said Sanjay.
“Oh hi, Sanjay,” said Lock, turning away from Katya. “We were just talking about The Godfather. Which is in the queue for tomorrow, I think.”
“It’s getting late,” observed Sanjay. Lock could hear the apprehension in his voice. “We should get some dinner and go back to the room.”
Lock forced a smile. “I’m gonna stay here.”
“Yes, okay, but…you know what Anand said,” protested Sanjay, lowering his voice.
Lock stood up and put his arm around Sanjay, guiding him away from Katya. “C’mon, man. Give me a break here. She’s really into me.”
“I know. I am sorry. But what can I do?”
“I mean, look at her. Would you want to go back to our room and hang out with me?”
“No. No offense.”
“None taken. Look, how is Anand ever going to know? It’s just between you and me. I’ll come back to the room later.”
Sanjay stared at his shoes.
Lock pressed on. “I mean, fuck Anand, right?”
“Yeah, but…”
“They’ve got my daughter. And your family.”
Sanjay looked up and seemed to stare into the distance. Lock followed his gaze into the vast marbled lobby. “Motherfuckers.”
“Exactly. So…fuck Anand.”
Sanjay smiled. “All right. Fuck Anand.”
Lock gave Sanjay a squeeze. “I owe you one, man.”
Sanjay laughed.
Lock watched as Sanjay headed toward the elevators. He came back to Katya, signaling the bartender for his check.
“What’s going on?” asked Katya.
Lock turned and looked into Katya’s eyes, unsmiling. “We’re going back to your place.”
“We are?”
“You have a laptop I can use, right?”
“Yes.”
He leaned in close to her again and noticed a small mole beneath her earlobe, near the rise of her cheekbone. “I set up a backdoor to the lab back when I thought I might to raise money to pay Ray and his team. So I can add some filters to the monitoring based on your information on Vipul.”
“Great! I have no idea what that means. But you can tell me everything you know about this whole business. Right?”
Lock signed the check, absently adding a hundred-dollar tip, charging it to his room. He looked up at Katya and took a deep breath. “You help me, I’ll help you.”
