CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER
MASUYO MET WITH HER DAUGHTER to go over the business.
Then Masuyo spent the next two weeks conducting numerous phone calls with her daughter’s business associates, from very important to very junior.
She also spoke with Steers’s attendants and security detail.
She took all this data in, and the information she received filled out some thoughts in her mind.
My mission now is clear. I need to move forward in the most effective way possible. I now know what she is capable of, but more important, I know what she is not capable of.
The next day Masuyo had her first meeting with Nash and Thura.
Her daughter had provided her mother with her own suite of rooms in the penthouse; one space was a well-appointed office-study, where she sat across from the two men.
Dressed in a colorful pantsuit with her hair styled and her makeup done to perfection by one of her attendants, Masuyo looked radiant, confident, and ready to conduct business.
Nash and Thura sat side by side in the new trim Armani suits that had been fitted to their bodies by an accomplished Hong Kong tailor and his team. Their white shirts glistened as the two men waited for Masuyo to speak.
Masuyo studied them in the same deliberate manner that her daughter employed. She finally said, “I welcome the both of you, Mr. Hope and Thura, into our family.”
“Please just call me Dillon, Mrs. Steers.”
“Thank you, Dillon. And you too, Thura, for all that you have done in the past, and all you will do in the future to protect me from harm.”
Thura nodded and said quietly, “Yes, ma’am.”
The friendly look faded from her expression and when she spoke next, the woman’s speech matched her new sternness. “Now, we must get a few things straight, gentlemen. You both work for me, and no one else.” She stared first at Nash and then at Thura, and repeated, “No. . .one. . .else.”
Nash sat straighter, glanced at Thura, and said, “Um, does that mean—?”
“If you are referring to my daughter, yes. You are to report to me only. If you are unable to do that, I see no future for either of you in this organization, because the only person who detests disloyalty more than my daughter is me.”
Nash realized that they had just been put into a classic catch-22: If they were loyal to Masuyo they would be disloyal to her daughter, and vice versa.
Masuyo seemed to sense his ambivalence. “Is there a problem, Dillon?”
“No, ma’am. I understand perfectly.”
“Now, I have been cooped up in this building long enough. I need to stretch my legs, as it were. So I will be going out on a routine basis. And where I go, you go.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Nash. “But we need to keep in mind that—”
“That I am supposed to be in a prison in Myanmar? Yes, Dillon, I am aware of that. But I think you will agree that I look nothing like the filthy hag who once dwelled there.”
“No, you don’t. But—”
“But my daughter is well known to these people, and if they suspect for a moment that a substitution has been made they will be watching her and those around her for any sign of me?”
“Yes, ma’am, that is my concern.”
“And I say to that, I have my life to live, especially after years of it were taken away. And I intend to live it. And I intend to right some wrongs.”
“And what wrongs are those?” Nash asked.
She said dismissively, “I do not answer questions posed by a mere bodyguard.”
“No, ma’am, I’m sorry. I was just curious.”
“Curiosity is not a virtue in someone like you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I will advise you in advance of my travel plans and you will take appropriate precautions to see that I may do so safely.”
“Of course.”
She studied Nash. “You killed many people that night.”
“I did what needed to be done.”
“The guard you left alive?”
“He posed no threat, and he was part of the effort to free you.”
“He did so only because of money. I would have preferred that you killed him. He did not treat me well.”
“I’m sorry. But if we had killed him the plan wouldn’t have worked. However, if I had known—”
She cut in, “Next time I will make sure that you know, Dillon. And then you will take the action I order you to take.”
Nash glanced at Thura, who sat there frozen.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Nash again.
“You both may go. I am done with you, for now.”
As they rose to leave Masuyo added, “Oh, Dillon, I do have a question for you.”
“Yes?”
“At the airport here you led us over to a man who was waiting for us.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“He was holding up a sign in Mandarin with the name Dai Lu, I recall.”
Nash felt his gut start to burn. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I was not aware that you knew my real name.”
Temple had told Nash that that was her Chinese name and he could have simply informed Masuyo of that fact. But if Masuyo then went after Temple for knowing that information, that might disrupt what Nash and the FBI were trying to accomplish.
“I do my due diligence and I listen. I find it increases the chances of success.”
She stared at him and he wasn’t sure if she believed him or not, but Nash had to be somewhat vague in his response.
“I see,” she said.
He could feel her watching him as he left.
Did I just blow everything the hell up?
As they were heading to the elevator, Thura looked at Nash and said fearfully, “You know what I am thinking, Dillon?”
“No, what?”
“That we’re gonna earn every damn dollar we’re paid working for that woman.”