63
NASH WATCHED RESPECTFULLY AS STEERSknelt in front of the rectangle of grass with the large stone in the center, closed her eyes, and said words he could not entirely make out. He thought he heard both Japanese and English, and perhaps a smattering of Mandarin.
She was there for nearly twenty minutes before rising and saying, “I will be back, Hiroko-san.”
She and Nash gathered up the picnic elements, then carried them to the car.
On the drive home Nash said, “When do you expect to hear from the buyer?”
“He is a man who lives by his own timetable. There are only a very few people in the entire world who have any influence over him at all, and I am not one of them.”
“And if he accepts, what then?”
“Then a new life for me commences, as it does forhim.”
“And your mother?”
“My mother will land on her feet, just like a cat. Indeed, it will be fascinating to see just how well on her feet she is able to land.”
“And me and Thura?”
She looked at him. “No matter my new life, elements of my old one will follow me. I will need you if you are up to it and so desire.”
“You mean I have a choice?”
“In some ways, significant ones, Dillon-san, you have always had a choice. But with that said, things will come to a head. And you will be truly free once more.”
“And you?”
“We will see.”
“If he completes the sale I assume the man will be no more danger to you.”
“Oh, Dillon-san, do not make assumptions like that.”
“Then you will need my services for the long haul.”
“Perhaps. But perhaps not if things turn out the way I intend them to.”
He didn’t know what she meant by that. Or maybe Nash did know but was afraid to confront his own fears.
Then Shock’s warning came back to him: This woman would kill him given the chance. He could afford her no quarter. If the opportunity arose, he should end her life because otherwise she would do the same to him. Yet there was a significant part of Nash’s psyche that simply refused to accept this as true.
And if I’m wrong, it will cost me my life. And Maggie’s death will never be avenged.
“May I ask you something, Dillon-san?” she said.
He broke from his thoughts and looked at her. “Yes, of course.”
“The night you came to me back in Hong Kong, before you left for Myanmar. You said that I had a weakness, a flaw in my plan, with respect to you and Mr. Temple rescuing my mother. You would not reveal it before, and with good reason. What was it?”
“Can I be frank?”
“I hope you would be.”
“I believed that you sent us there to take the blame for whatever happened with your mother. You were going to make the switch regardless, but you already had men in place who could free her. Now, you couldn’t know those men would try to double-cross you,” he added quickly, and dishonestly. “But we would be left behind, dead, to take the blame. Is that not so?”
“I must admit that that was my original plan. So the flaw?”