“Let us venture to Kowloon Park.”
“All right, but, as we discussed before, there might be people out there looking for you after your escape from prison. They would know that your daughter lives in Hong Kong.”
“And as I told you before, I look nothing like I did in that place, and I have my life to live and I intend to live it. It is your job to make sure I am not harmed. So do your job, Dillon, and let me worry about everything else.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Nash was going to order a car, but Masuyo insisted that she wanted to walk.
His comm pack in place and his earpiece in, the armed Nash felt like a Secret Service agent on protection detail.When I’m actually quite the opposite of that.
The park was filled with walking paths, water features, and statues of serious-looking men in contemplative poses. But there were also whimsical sculptures of colorful cartoon and superhero characters, graffitied steps, racks of vending machines, and, jarringly, a McDonald’s. There were fountains of different sizes and legions of strutting flamingos, and large turtles swimming in pools.
And rising above all of this were the massive skyscrapers of Hong Kong.
They passed an ice cream shop, where Masuyo had Nash purchase her a cup of soft serve vanilla. “The weather is warm and I am a bit overheated,” she explained, though there was no need to do so.
As they moved along Masuyo really looked at nothing. She just walked with a firm step and stared straight ahead while she slowly spooned the ice cream into her mouth. She had to use a public toilet and Nash offered to hold her ice cream for her, but she refused. When she came back out she led him down a set of steps that opened into a quiet area where there was seating. She settled on a bench and ordered Nash to sit beside her.
For a few minutes she said nothing, and Nash was not compelled to break the silence.
At last she said, “It was my daughter’s idea, the outing withher.”
“Was it?” asked Nash.
She glanced at him. “You are a smart man, Dillon. You know that it was.”
“I suppose she wanted you to spend time with someone from the past. To help you resettle into your new life.”
“I would never have chosen a mereservantwith whom to do so.”
“I thought Hiroko was an honored friend of the family’s.”
“Ridiculous. She was a paid caregiver to my daughter. That is all.”
Nash wondered if the woman did not know about Hiroko pulling Steers from the plane’s wreckage and saving her. “I’m sorry, I just assumed.”
“Never assume. It is not a good tactic, foranyone.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Nash, recalling that Steers had once said something similar to him.
“Now to your knowing my real name, Dillon, let us discuss.”
“I thought we had, ma’am.”
“You did no research. No one connected with my daughter told you. You came by this knowledge another way clearly.”
Nash started to tell her, despite the risk to what he was trying to do with the FBI, that he’d heard it from Temple.
But before he could she added, “And your making up lies or excuses now is neither helpful to me nor beneficial toyou.”
Nash closed his mouth. Too late to try to explain, he concluded.
“What we must discuss is loyalty, Dillon. Where does yours lie?” “I thought it obvious.”
“Not to me. So explain it to an old woman who has been out of the world for so long that her senses are not where they should be.”
I think your senses are far better than most, thought Nash. “I work for your daughter, but my mission is to see that no harm comes to you.”