Chapter 43
Lincoln spun around to see two large bodyguards dressed all in black, followed by the bent figure of Tanaka leaning on his cane, struggling with the way the sand shifted underfoot.
His blood froze. He’d been so sure that Tanaka’s people hadn’t followed him. Goddamn it.
“You have something that belongs to me. You came here to retrieve it.” Tanaka stated these facts as if they weren’t in any doubt. Which, of course, they weren’t.
“How—?”
“It was clear you were holding something back. What else could it be? My men followed you this direction before, but those incompetents lost track of you. You must have hidden my property then. So now, you are here, and you will hand it over.”
The two bodyguards shifted their jackets—they must be so hot—to reveal their sidearms. Message received.
“Look,” said Lincoln, lifting his hands in a “stay cool” gesture. “That wasn’t part of our deal. I’m holding up my end, but not if you’re going to treat our partnership like this.” He gestured with his elbow at the guards and their guns.
“What were you planning to do with my technology?” Tanaka demanded. “Beat me at my own game? Partner,” he added dryly, as if they both knew their so-called partnership was a load of crap.
Lincoln slid a glance at Zara to check on her. She’d lost every bit of color in her face and kept flicking glances at the guns. They must feel like such a violation of her beloved Banyans Beach.
Options…options… Tanaka already had plenty of that trigger material.
His goal, Lincoln guessed, was to make sure no one else had any of it.
Handing the chip Mia had found would make things more challenging, but it wouldn’t bring Tanaka any closer to his goal of making his all-powerful weapon.
Only the CHUM could do that. Without the chip, Lincoln would have to figure out another way to alert the weapons experts to this new danger.
“I’ll return it to you,” he finally told Tanaka. “Just give me a moment. I have to dig it up, so no one overreact when I move. Understand?”
“No tricks,” Tanaka said sternly.
After a careful glance at the bodyguards, Lincoln took a step in the direction of the banyan tree. Before he could go any further, Zara stepped forward.
“I’ll do it, Lincoln. You’re nowhere near the right spot.” Although her voice was shaking, she turned to address Tanaka. “I’m the only one who knows exactly where it’s buried. Lincoln doesn’t quite have the hang of my triangulation system.”
What was Zara doing?
Tanaka shot him an angry glance, but Lincoln kept his face still. He’d just have to trust whatever Zara was up to.
“But if I find it for you,” she went on, “you have to release Lincoln from whatever crappy deal you made with him. Clearly, it’s not a great partnership. Where’s the trust and the mutual respect?” She gestured at the armed bodyguards. ”It was all a farce anyway, wasn’t it?”
“Zara,” Lincoln said through gritted teeth.
She ignored him, although her pupils were so large her eyes looked more like molasses than honey.
“Unless you want to dig up the whole beach, you should accept my terms, but it’s up to you, Mister Tanaka.
Shooting me won’t solve anything. Everyone on this beach knows me.
You’ll draw way too much attention and I’m sure you don’t want that. ”
After scrutinizing Zara intensely, endlessly, Tanaka turned back to Lincoln. “This is what you want? I have offered you the prospect of magnificent wealth. It can still be yours. This girl is nothing.”
Lincoln clenched his jaw so hard it nearly exploded. “It’s what I want.”
She’s what I want.
After an interminable moment, Tanaka nodded. “Then it’s done. Dig it up,” he ordered Zara.
With her gauzy coverup fluttering in the breeze, she walked across the beach to a spot at least a few yards from where Lincoln had planned to dig.
It was closer to the water than he’d remembered.
In his memory, they’d been right at the edge of the banyan’s outer canopy.
But now that he thought about it, his imagination had probably added the banyan, as if the tree would protect their secret.
They all followed closely behind Zara. Tanaka’s cane sank into the sand, which was denser and wetter closer to the water’s edge. A wavelet flowed toward them, rippling around the rocks embedded in the sand, then retreated.
Zara correctly remembered exactly where they’d left their treasure, and after a few moments of digging with her hands, she rose to her feet with the little burlap bag in which they’d stashed the tin of lip balm.
“Here it is.” She brought it to Tanaka, who gestured for her to hand it to one of the guards.
“Open it,” he told the man. Another wave touched his shoes, but he ignored it.
It took the guard a few moments to unwrap the burlap and reveal the tin. The brightly colored image of a mango looked almost cartoonish on his big palm. He pried the lid off and there was the chip, glinting in the sunlight.
“Ah.” Tanaka smiled in satisfaction. “Give it to me.”
The man passed the opened tin to Tanaka. He gazed at it avariciously. Lincoln knew that feeling. He probably looked like that when he was around the CHUM crystal. Or he had, when all he’d seen was dollar signs. But that time was long gone.
Another wave crashed onto the beach and sent a shimmering wash of water toward them. This one had more force to it, enough to send a splash right across Tanaka’s shoes. With a jolt of surprise, he shifted his focus from his hand to his feet.
The tin tipped out of his hand, glinting in the light.
A moment later, it sailed back down the beach on the retreating wave and into the ocean.
“Get it,” Tanaka yelled at his guards in Japanese. The two of them went charging into the water, stumbling over rocks, then jabbing their hands into the surf in hopes of snagging the little tin.
Beside him, Lincoln heard Zara’s intake of breath, almost a giggle, or a prayer.
A few minutes later, the guards, now sopping wet, trudged back up the sand, empty-handed.
From the look on Tanaka’s face, two more guards were about to get fired. Either that, or given lethal orders out of sheer fury.
Lincoln felt adrenaline run through him, followed by ice—the same thing that happened during business negotiations.
Start talking, Lincoln ordered himself. Keep your cool.
“There you go, Tanaka. It’s gone, so you don’t have to worry about me reverse-engineering it.
That’s what you wanted to prevent, right?
The ocean has it now. No one else. Not me, not anyone. ”
“I ought to have you shot right here and now,” Tanaka growled, beside himself at being outmaneuvered by a wave.
He might, thought Lincoln. Tanaka still had the advantage over them. The guards were already fumbling for their guns, ready for his command.
“Look, how about a gesture of goodwill.” Lincoln spread open his hands. “Even if we aren’t partners, I think I can offer you something you’ll appreciate, maybe even more than that little chip.”
Tanaka gestured for the guards to stand down. “Talk.”
“You mentioned some, ah, dissatisfaction with your heirs. Maybe they just need a little more time to get up to speed. Which means that you need more time. Have you explored the field of longevity? It’s a real growth industry, extremely lucrative and quite effective.
I had an entire department focused on it at Higher Ground.
You can have all of that research, everything that Higher Ground has developed, which I can personally vouch for.
You could extend your lifespan beyond what you ever imagined possible.
Just ask my father. He’s taken advantage of some of our discoveries. ”
He caught the twitch in the corner of Tanaka’s mouth and knew he’d scored a direct hit. Tanaka wouldn’t want KiYun Chun living longer than him. Why not use that endless feud to his advantage? And if Tanaka’s sons were so useless, why shouldn’t he try to live as long as possible?
“Very well,” Tanaka said, grudgingly. “I accept. You can live.”
He jerked his head toward the guards and they all turned as one unit and marched away up the beach, toward the black SUV that had brought them here.