CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER
THEY WERE ONCE MORE SEATED across from Steers in her penthouse. Nash found his eyes wandering to the spot where Lynn Ryder had died and felt some sympathy for the woman, even though she probably would have cheered if he had been the one to perish.
Getting your humanity back, Nash? Don’t. It won’t be useful now because no one around you has any.
His gaze finally landed on Steers, and he had to fight the urge to try to strangle her.
Steers said, “Gentlemen, what I am about to divulge will show the faith that I am placing in each of you. This mission that you will undertake is delicate and dangerous, but the rewards for each of you will be. . .enticing.”
Nash thought the woman had an oddly formal way of speaking.
But he assumed that Mandarin had been her first language, or perhaps Japanese.
The FBI had told him that Masuyo, while she had purportedly been Japanese and had met her husband there, had actually been an agent of the Chinese Communist Party, and had been sent to Japan to undermine its democratic institutions.
Nash said, “We’re listening.”
Steers closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them they seemed, to Nash, to sparkle with an ethereal force.
“My mother is Masuyo Steers. She is currently being held in a private prison facility in an isolated region in Myanmar near the Chinese border.”
“A private prison in Myanmar?” said Temple. “I didn’t know there was such a thing.”
She gave him a superior look. “You and your father traveled extensively in what was then Burma.”
“How did you know that?” said Temple in surprise.
“I always know what I need to know. And your father worked for me. I elicited this information from him because I knew it might be useful one day. And so it has become. Now enlighten me as to what you do know about the country.”
Temple glanced at Nash. “That it’s a very unstable place.
I wanted to travel there last year on business.
Like you just said, I’d been there with my father a number of times, when it was still called Burma.
I even became passable in the language. But then Covid hit, and the State Department strongly advised Americans not to travel there because of the junta’s coup and the presence of armed militia and insurgents.
It’s a chaotic hotbed with lots of different factions asserting authority over a patchwork of territories and cities. A real mess.”
“Doubtless, you will not be surprised to learn that I am also aware of all that, Mr. Temple,” said Steers.
“But it is good that you are as well and have familiarity with the language. This will increase the odds of successfully bringing my mother home safely and was also the reason I constructed this plan with your involvement.”
Steers now made a point of turning to Nash. “However, while your employer has some value to this mission and has long worked for me, you must think it somewhat curious that I would engage you, Mr. Hope, whom I know not at all, with the task of freeing my mother from her incarceration.”
“Well, you can pin a murder rap on us. And we’re in a foreign country, totally in your control. Our only chance of getting out of this alive is to do all we can to succeed in freeing your mother. I assume that is why you’re entrusting both of us with this mission. It’s not like we have a choice.”
“I must congratulate you, Mr. Temple,” said Steers.
“For what?”
“Your judgment in selecting bodyguards.”
She said to Nash, “Lynn Ryder informed me that you had saved Mr. Temple and a friend from grievous bodily harm.”
“I can hold my own and I did my job, yes.”
“Good, because I believe that your skill set will be required. I will now explain in detail.”