CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER
A MONTH LATER, STEERS CALLED HIM to her office at the estate and informed him of some men who were coming to meet with her.
“They are from Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras,” she said. “They are business associates who are here to listen to a new proposal of mine.”
“I assume they’ll be bringing their own security?”
“They will be bringing a small army, but discreetly.”
“How is it possible that these men can travel so freely in the United States?”
“Dillon-san, they are not on watch or detain lists and neither am I, or else I would never have come back here. At most they would have to endure some secondary screening.”
“But the authorities must suspect them of criminal activity. And they’ll know they are coming here? Is that smart?”
“I still need to conduct my business. And the police have no adequate proof that I or any of my business partners have done anything wrong. And this needs to be done in person. Electronic meetings can be intercepted. This is why I do not ‘zoom.’”
Nash thought about the evidence he was compiling against her and wondered what she would think when the hammer came down.
Not as smart as you thought you were.
“But wouldn’t it make more sense for you to go to them? That way the police here wouldn’t know of the meeting.”
“You think the police from different countries do not share information? And your CIA? You, I am sure, will not be surprised to learn that they have long been interested in my affairs around the world. There is no way to escape their scrutiny, but I have learned to live with it and survive it. Now, some of the ones I do business with can no longer enter the U.S. And I do not visit them when I go to their countries, because that would place me in a precarious legal position. I deal with them discreetly through intermediaries.”
“Well that makes sense.”
“But people suspect me, of course. Like the police in Hong Kong. They would have arrested me if they had the necessary proof. But they do not.”
“But would China even let them?” asked Nash.
When she looked at him suspiciously, he said, “I’m not stupid, Victoria-san. I pick up on things, and it was clear when they met with me that the Hong Kong police’s hands are tied. I assume that is why you made your home there.”
“I have what you Americans call belts and suspenders on that score. No evidence the police can use, and also powerful allies in case such evidence materializes.”
Until you turn on the Chinese and they then turn on you, thought Nash. And maybe that’s already happened.
“But you mentioned that the FBI had tried to get people inside your operation.”
“They continue to do so, of that I am sure.”
Nash knew he shouldn’t, but he had been at this for a long time and needed to make a breakthrough.
“Rhett Temple told me about one of them: Walter Nash?”
She glanced up at him from behind her desk. “It is a complex game that I have to play, Dillon-san. And I play it as well as I can. But there is no room for mistakes. And the less you know of the matter the better off you will be.”
“Okay, but I heard that the FBI said that Walter Nash had been framed, and that he hadn’t killed his daughter. She was what, nineteen?”
She took a few seconds to respond. “It is a hard world and I do not make the rules, but I have to live by them.”
“I guess innocent young people dying is just the price of doing business?”
She looked sharply up at him. “What do you care about any of this?”
“I care because I’m an honest man. I was forced to become part of this world.”
“And yet you have never tried to leave, have you?” she retorted.
“How? I was in a foreign country and you were holding a murder charge over my head.”
She eyed him coolly. “Well, there was no murder, as you now know. And you are no longer in a foreign country. I am.”
“Do you want me to leave?” said Nash.
Now her superior look faded. “I.. . .What I want is to no longer discuss any of this.”
She then waved him away, and Nash reluctantly obeyed.
It had all been a surprisingly candid reveal by her, Nash thought later.
And by me as well.
* * *
The motorcade pulled through the gates of the estate while Nash and Thura stood guard by the front entrance. As the large SUVs, looking more like tanks than civilian vehicles, stopped and the armed men piled out, Thura glanced nervously at Nash.
“Shit, these muthers look serious.”
“They are serious,” Nash said. “As serious as they come.”
Nash could only imagine the situations these men had to deal with in their world, where someone was gunning for you every second of every day. It made men into something less than human.
In fact I’m looking at a pack of wolves coming right at me.
But then he thought about his own transformation.
Who am I now: Walter Nash or Dillon Hope? When I look in the mirror now, I don’t see Walter anymore, I only see Dillon. And I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Pushing these troubling thoughts away, he stepped forward to greet the man who appeared to be the leader of this crew. He looked like a carbon copy of Nash: tall, built, shaved head, and tatted.
He introduced himself as Gabriel Aguilar and wanted to know where all exterior entrances in the main building were, and Nash told him.
When he asked how many personnel Nash had, Nash lied and said, “Two on the point, a dozen you’ll never see unless there’s a problem, and CCTV on every speck of this place. ”
Aguilar nodded approvingly. “Ms. Steers came to see us a while ago, now we reciprocate.”
“She told me,” said Nash. “I’ll take you to the meeting place.”
As the men walked through the house Aguilar said, “You have many problems with your police?”
“Not so far. But tomorrow’s a new day.”
“Your days sound very much like mine. But in my country we maybe have the cops better in line. But that can change. Muy rapido.”
“Yes, it can,” said Nash. And don’t I know that.
There were seven men in the meeting with Steers. Lynn Ryder dropped in at the last minute and took a seat at the large rectangular table inside what had once been the home’s ballroom. Interestingly enough, Masuyo was not in attendance. Nash wondered if that was by the woman’s choice.
Or her daughter’s?
The staff served drinks and snacks and then quickly left. Aguilar had his men arrayed strategically around the property, while he took up a post with Nash right outside the double doors leading into the room.
“The place has been swept for bugs?” asked Aguilar.
“Right before everyone settled in,” replied Nash. And I planted my bug right after that.
With his earpiece in, he settled against the wall across the hall from Aguilar and commenced listening as Steers called the meeting to order.