CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER
A MONTH LATER, STEERS’S JET CUT smoothly through the sky. On board the plane were the pilots, the flight attendant, Steers, and Nash. On Steers’s orders Thura and the rest of the security team had remained at the estate.
Steers had told Nash that they were flying to LA. He had already assumed such a trip would take place after Agent Morris had told him that Connor Lord was now on the West Coast. But Nash, of course, had to play ignorant of that fact.
They had been served a meal and drinks, and the flight attendant had retreated to her jump seat in the cockpit with the pilots, leaving Steers and Nash alone. Steers fiddled with the sleeves of her blouse and then did the same with the scarf around her neck.
“Did you tell my mother that I am selling the business?”
“I did. And that the price was acceptable to you. And if she had other questions she should ask you. Has she?”
“She has no need to,” Steers answered mysteriously. “As I am sure you deduced, I am to meet with my potential buyer on this trip.” She sipped her tea and looked across the table at Nash with an unreadable expression. “His name is Connor Lord, just in case you are curious.”
“Never heard of him. Who is he?”
“A formidable partner, a more formidable adversary. However, I have never actually been his partner, only his subordinate. Though I may very soon be his adversary.”
“Should we have brought more men with us then?”
“That won’t matter, Dillon-san. It is not nearly so simple. And the lion kills the hyena at his leisure.”
“I actually see you more as a honey badger. And I believe that lions actually would prefer to take on a pack of hyenas than a single honey badger.”
She self-consciously smiled at his quip, showing that it had pleased her.
“Do you think Lord was the one who tried to kill you back in Hong Kong?”
“Doubtful, or else I would be dead.”
“So someone else then?”
“I have many enemies.”
“Has Lord agreed to buy you out?” he asked.
“That is why we are going to see him. To receive his answer.”
“You told me you lowballed it, but I still hope you’re getting a lot of money,” he said.
She looked at him curiously. “Why?”
“Well, for one, it’s worth a lot of money. And, second, you might need the resources if he does becomes an adversary.”
“Again, Dillon-san, it will not matter. He is too powerful, honey badger or not. I cannot create an alternate truth. I must accept reality.”
“Then you’re just ceding victory to him?” he asked.
She looked over his brawny physique. “What would you do when confronted with someone that you cannot defeat on your own?”
Thinking of Shock, Nash said immediately, “I’d find someone who could help me to beat my enemy.”
She looked out the window. “I have been all over the world, many times. But if I had my wish I would never travel anywhere again.”
“What would you do then?”
“I would have a little place where I could do my artwork and tend a small garden.” She turned back to him.
“When I was very young, Hiroko-san managed a garden at our home in the countryside in southern Kyoto. My mother did not care for such things, but my father grew up in a place called the Cotswolds in England, and his family had a large kitchen garden. He graciously allowed Hirokosan to also have one. As a little girl I would work with Hiroko-san caring for the flowers and the herbs and the vegetables. I had my little spade and a bucket and a pair of blue gloves and ‘Wellies’ that my father bought for me. I would go there early in the morning and work until I was quite weary and sweaty. But I adored every minute. It was just me, Hiroko-san, and the earth. It was truly. . .glorious.”
As Nash watched and listened to her he wondered how this seemingly soulful, thoughtful, and introverted person could have become what FBI Agent Reed Morris had first described to him as a global criminal who had no compunction about killing anyone.
It was as though there were two vastly different people occupying her body and mind.
And which is the real one? Or is it both?
“You really cared for your father, didn’t you?”
“He was. . .a good man. Who had different priorities in life from his wife. But then we both became . . .”
“Became what?” asked Nash.
“It is held deeply in the past and matters no longer.” Steers looked away, seeming to realize that she had revealed too much.
He broke the silence. “After the sale of your business, will you go after that dream of tending to a kitchen garden and devoting more time to your artwork?”
She glanced at him. “If I get the chance, perhaps, yes. And what will you do, Dillon-san? Once this is all over.”
Nash sat back and drew a shallow breath. He was confused and conflicted by everything.
No, just by her, really.
“I. . .I might travel a bit.” He then blurted out, “And then I might come and see if you need help in your garden.”
He had no idea where that had come from. His mission was to bring this woman to justice, not plant tomatoes with her.
She stared at him, her wide, deep eyes seeming to swell like a fruit ripening at fantastical speed.
She then looked away. “I trust you can do far better than that, Dillon-san.”
“That may be your opinion. But I don’t have to agree with it.”
“Perhaps you should. You will find me dangerous company, I am sure.”
“Well, you’ve always been dangerous company. That’s right in my wheelhouse.”
“Do not do this out of any sense of loyalty to me. I have not treated you well. As I told you before, I am not a good person. You have your life to lead. I suggest that you lead it.”
“But before, you told me that you would need my loyalty, my ability to protect you.”
“I did, yes. But I have rethought things, and I have decided that is too much to ask anyone to do.”
“But what if Lord turns you down?”
She once more looked at him. Her eyes now seemed depthless. “My future does not depend on his answer, at least not solely. And regardless, I will be dangerous company.”
As the plane flew along Nash finally worked up the courage to tell her. “Victoria-san, I have information about your mother.”
In a distracted voice she said, “What sort of information?”
“Such that I do not understand, but that has been communicated to me by a credible source.”
“What is it?”
“That your mother was never a prisoner in Myanmar. I believe that she was brought there solely so we could bring Masuyo to you. And since you told me that Connor Lord controlled the prison, that means he was part of this plan. That might impact your business with him.” He paused.
“I just found this out and thought you would like to know.”
Nash didn’t know what he expected her reaction to be. Steers had lost control only once in his presence, when she had been threatening to kill herself before Hiroko had intervened. So he didn’t expect anything as extreme as that.
Steers closed her eyes and jerked her head sideways once and then twice, as she had done before, when she had been confronted with something extraordinarily difficult.
And then the woman rose without a word and retreated to her cabin for the rest of the flight.