Nash looked at the guard. “Do you speak English?” The man looked at him blankly. Nash said to Thura, “Tell him that the men who we killed were not part of the plan. We were the ones hired to free Masuyo, and the other men ambushed us and then got here before we did with the other woman, who they took from us. They were trying to kidnap Masuyo for their own purposes.”
Thura slowly translated all of this to the guard, whose face showed increasing levels of astonishment.
Nash said, “Now tell him he is to drive the prisoner on to the hospital in the Toyota hidden in the bushes. He’s to report in and let them know about the ambush attempt and that the kidnappers have all been killed. The substitute will be returned to the prison as Masuyo. He will be hailed as a hero.”
Thura conveyed all of this. The guard looked across at the smoke and flames and dead bodies. He told Thura that he understood and it was good that they came along when they did. Nash found the Toyota’s keys in the pocket of one of the dead men and handed them to the guard. Nash then seized the man’s gun, pointed it in the air, and fired off the remaining bullets.
“Tell him I did this so they will believe he shot and killed the other men.”
Thura translated, and the guard smiled and nodded. Nash handed him back his empty gun.
“Tell him good luck.” Thura did so. When Nash handed the man the envelope full of cash the guard even shook Nash’s hand and said some words that Nash did not understand but deduced were probably “Thank you.”
Nash climbed into the Jeep and said to Thura, “Nowyou can drive like a bat out of hell.”
While Thura drove, Nash turned and looked at Masuyo. His time had been consumed recently with the mission of freeing the woman, and now seeing her in the flesh Nash concluded that he was underwhelmed by her appearance.
But then, when she glanced at him, he saw, just behind the eyes, something he had seen before. In the daughter. A level of extreme ruthlessness, coupled with a haughty superiority that made his skin crawl. He shot Temple a look, and the man shrugged and glanced nervously at Masuyo.
Nash gave further directions to Thura. They made the turn at the crossroads, and after a short drive down that road they saw the chopper parked in a cleared field.
They left the Jeep, hurried across with Masuyo, and climbed aboard. The pilot asked no questions, but upon seeing Masuyo he nodded, powered up the bird, and they were soon aloft. The flight to Lashio was swift and uneventful.
When they landed in Lashio, a vehicle was waiting and they were immediately driven off toward Mandalay. No one would be searching for them because the prison officials would believe the attempt to free Masuyo had failed and the kidnappers had all died at the scene. If they investigated carefully some holes in the story would emerge, of course. But Nash could do nothing about that. And they’d be long gone by then.
He did wonder about Steers’s carefully timed getaway plan. He hadn’t known about the plot to switch Masuyo with a manufactured twin. If things had gone according to plan, the only way the substitute plan would have worked was if the guards had all been killed, save the inside guard, but the kidnappers would have either all been killed or else fled without Masuyo. That seemed convoluted, thought Nash.
But if we were supposed to die, then Steers’s plan had to be that we were the only kidnappers. We would be found dead there, having failed to free Masuyo, the other guards would have been killed, and Steers’s paid-off guard would be the only one left to explain what had happened. Which was why he had to kill the driver. So we really were the patsies.
Right before they arrived in Mandalay he finally got a reply to his days’ earlier message to Agent Reed Morris.
Can you make it back to Hong Kong? We can arrange to meet you.
Nash texted back,We’ll be heading there shortly in Steers’s jet. But no need to intervene. We are delivering Masuyo to Steers.
The FBI agent’s reply was fast and terse: Are you out of your damn mind?
Nash texted back, Maybe.
He had debated whether to get the FBI involved at this point and bring Masuyo into their custody. But what would that do? It was highly doubtful the FBI would be able to leverage Masuyo to get to Steers. And then Nash would have no more access to Steers and thus no possibility of bringing her down. He would just have to go into hiding for the rest of his life with no justice for his daughter.
Or for me.
When they reached the private airstrip Steers’s sleek jet was waiting, its door open and the jetway down. Two pilots and a flight attendant stood at attention.
The flight attendant came over to them, bowed to Masuyo, and handed her a passport. The elderly woman’s fingers clutched the object like it was gold. And for the first time since her freedom had been secured she smiled. Nash and Temple already had the necessary documents to clear entry into Hong Kong. However, Thura’s presence had not been planned for. When Nash explained that they needed to get him into the country under Steers’s orders, the attendant nodded and said that on the flight she would communicate the information to Steers’s people in Hong Kong, and the necessary entry documents would be awaiting them there. She took Thura’s passport and then hurried onto the plane to begin this process.
Nash glanced at the jet and thumbed in another message to Morris, giving the man the jet’s tail number. That way the Bureau would at least be able to track it to Hong Kong.
Thura said, “You gonna be mixing up more stuff that goes boom?”
“You never know,” replied Nash as they all headed on board.
Five minutes later the jet rocketed eastward into a clear sky over Myanmar and back to a woman who had tried her best to leave them dead in the very same place.
CHAPTER
25