Lieutenant Page 9

  She didn’t pay attention to the Asian man who was walking in to the school as she walked out.

  The man walked in, made a circuit of the hall and walked out, whispering through his AI, “Yes, it is definitely her. Track that car!”

  ***

  Ell heard a knock on the door between her apartment and Steve’s. “Yes?”

  Steve’s voice said, “It’s me, may I come in?”

  “Sure.” Ell had Allan release the lock and saw the door open.

  Steve said, “Bad news. The parking lot team found a tracker on your Ford.”

  Ell sighed, she’d so hoped that the Chinese had given up on her. “Not on the truck though?”

  “No, the truck was clean and, believe me, we went over it with a fine toothed comb. But we can’t use that parking lot anymore and we’ve got to assume they might track your Focus to another lot and follow you home. You’ll have to try to be even more vigilant watching for tails.”

  ***

  The younger man said, “After she left the school, we tracked her vehicle back to the Air Force Base. Later, her car left the base and parked in a parking lot. That tracking device on her car was destroyed shortly after stopping in the parking lot and the car was moved elsewhere. At a distance we followed the adhesive trackers that we placed into her car’s seat so they must have successfully attached to her clothing. We followed them to an apartment complex. We can’t pick up a signal at present, presumably because they are inside the building somewhere. They are very small and their signal is weak.

  “We’ve checked and none of the apartments are rented in her name. We don’t know what part of her clothing the trackers attached to and so we have no idea when she might wear that item again, nor the likelihood of the tracker being destroyed in the wash. However, we are ready to follow her if and when she does leave with a clothing tracker. We will also try to track her car coming and going from the base again but I don’t think we should attach another tracker to her car because the first one was detected and destroyed so quickly. She must be very suspicious due to the previous attempts we have made to gain her cooperation.”

  “OK,” Zhou said, “have men standing by this ‘apartment complex’ at all times. They should check each person leaving with telescopic imaging, not just wait to detect the tracker leaving.”

  ***

  Inside the van the smaller man said, “Someone leaving the building.” He manipulated a joystick, centering the woman in the field of the camera in the small car parked in the apartment complex parking lot. He zoomed in, “Right height but she’s brunette.” He started to zoom back out and center the complex in the lens again.

  Suddenly, the heavy set man sat up and said, “One of the adhesive tracking beads has just responded to query!” He glanced up and spoke to his AI, “Get Mr. Zhou!” To the smaller man he said, “It’s the bead that was on the headrest. It would presumably be attached to a hat because she would have washed it out of her hair by now.” He fiddled with the controls of the panel in front of him, “A moment to triangulate, yes, the tracker bead is on this side of the building, has anyone else left the building?”

  “No, just that brunette. She’s on the sidewalk heading away from us. No hat.”

  “Maybe she’s wearing a wig! The tracker could be in the hair. Have Dog team follow her! Yes the bead is moving away too! Tell Dragon team to stand by.”

  Zhou joined the conversation then, ordering the surveillance van to stay where it was but confirming that Dog and Dragon should follow the brunette and waking up the other two ready teams as well.

  Shortly they had followed the brunette to a small shopping center and into a martial arts dojo. The two members of Dog team went around to the back of the dojo to cover the rear exit. Dragon team parked in the lot out front, two members staying in the car and Xu walking into the dojo on the pretext of asking about lessons. Twenty minutes later Zhou arrived with Snake and Tiger teams, three per vehicle and parked farther away. Xu came back out of the dojo and walked to the car where Zhou sat, getting in the back with him. “Well?”

  Xu shrugged. “There are many brunette women in there. I think one is thin enough to be Donsaii, but it’s hard to tell how skinny they are in their gis.”

  Zhou called for the surveillance van to bring its sensors over and had it park directly in front of the dojo but it still couldn’t pick up the tracking bead while—or if—it was inside the building. Zhou’s eye began to twitch irregularly as anxiety and frustration made his tick resurface. He decided they must wait for her to leave and tried to settle back to wait but it was hard to be patient. It had taken forever just to find out that she’d been assigned to Nellis AFB. His supervisors had been calling frequently asking for updates and riding him for more progress. Yesterday he’d noticed a small patch of hair was missing on the side of his head. He told himself that he had a much bigger team than the two previous teams that had failed to capture this girl. But, fail they had and my team has had so much trouble even finding her…

  Gary unobtrusively made his way to stand near “Raquel” at the beginning of the class and stayed near her as they made “strikes” on some stationary targets. When Millie called for them to pair up, he turned to her and raised an eyebrow, gratified when she nodded. The longer the class went on, the more attraction he felt for the pretty young woman. Going out dancing with her had certainly whetted his appetite for more. He trotted over to pick up a pair of the padded hand targets.

  At Millie’s direction Gary held up one of the padded targets for Raquel to strike. Graceful as always, she launched a blow, wow she’s quick! She struck the target with a loud “thwap!” Gary’s hand stung like it had been spanked with a ruler! Astonished, he pulled his hand out of the strap on the target and shook out his fingers. He looked the padded target over. There’s two inches of padding on this damned thing! I didn’t think it could hurt through all that! He saw Raquel grimace; it must have hurt her hand too.

  Millie’s head had tracked around at the loud sound, thinking something bad had happened. She saw Gary and Raquel rubbing their hands but neither really looked hurt. She wondered momentarily what those two had done now, but then was distracted back to the students in front of her, big men trying to hit things hard and without finesse!

  The rest of the practice passed without incident, Gary, surprised that none of Raquel’s other strikes had hurt, wondered just what had gone wrong on the first one? When the class finished, he said, “How ‘bout another pizza?”

  Raquel grinned back at him, “How ‘bout? Sounds good to me. Let me change.”

  Zhou’s eye tic got worse as students started leaving the dojo in fits and starts. “Which one? Which one?!”

  Xu said, “I don’t think she’s come out yet…”

  “Are you sure?” Xu shrugged. Some of the students wore their gis, some had changed, some walked out to cars, several small groups went into the pizza place next door, some walked away on the sidewalk but they didn’t look the right height, nor thin.

  Xu sat up sharply, “I think that’s her. With the redheaded man, see how thin she is? Maybe he’s her brother?”

  Zhou exploded, striking Xu on the shoulder “She doesn’t have a brother! Did you even look at the briefing materials?!”

  Xu ducked his head, “Sorry, sorry, yes, you’re right, no brother, she’s an only child, I’m sorry.”

  After a bit a message came from the surveillance van, “She left the dojo and went into the pizza place.” There was a long pause in which no one said anything, Zhou crossed his arms and settled down to wait.

  Gary followed Ell to the same table against the wall that they’d sat at before and they ordered a Coke and Diet Mountain Dew from the waitress. Ell grinned at him, “Wanna live on the wild side and try a sausage and artichoke pizza this time?”

  “Hmmm, that’s kinda out there for me,” he grinned, “but you only live once. Let’s go for it.”

  Gary had intended to learn more about Raquel but she immediately steere
d the conversation back to him. She learned that he’d grown up in Reno; that his Dad was a mechanical engineer and his Mom a software programmer. Then she pumped him for information about the nanotubes he and his professor were creating, wanting to know how long the longest nanotubes were, what conformation, how pure and on and on. Her fascination in him and his research kept him talking, only occasionally thinking of how little he was learning about her.

  Suddenly Zhou couldn’t take it any longer. He undid his seatbelt, “We will go have pizza too!”

  Steve sat at the counter watching the outside and making his coffee and slice of ham pizza last. His eyes narrowed. The four men that’d been sitting in a car out in the parking lot had suddenly stirred. All the doors opened and four Asian appearing men got out and started walking toward Fast Eddie’s Pizza. Steve looked over at Mary and Randy, sitting at a table for two near Ell, intending to draw their attention to the Asians but they were already glancing that way. Ell and her young man were sitting at another table for two, Ell with her back to the wall as Steve had taught her. Steve saw her eyes flick to the window taking in the men walking toward the parlor. A grimace flashed across her face.

  Steve looked carefully at the Asians as they entered. They were a badly mismatched group. Two in Levis, one in a coverall and an older man wearing a sports coat. They didn’t look like they belonged together, they didn’t look like the kind of people who would be going out to dinner at a pizza place, and they all glanced over towards Ell’s end of the room when they came in. Not very good “craft” if they were who he thought they were. He whispered to his AI to contact the rest of Ell’s security detail and get them on their way over to the little shopping center, including those that were “off duty” and asleep. They would only have nine of their ten team members because Barrett was on vacation. Steve’s mind raced. The safest thing would be to go over, get Ell and leave, but he wasn’t sure Ell would like that. He’d come to know her pretty well and she wasn’t timid. He thought she’d rather deal with these guys now than worry about them popping up later.

  On the other hand, what if the Chinese had their own reinforcements? He whispered to his AI to pass a message to Ell, “I think the Chinese are here to try to pick you up. The rest of our team is on its way here. Consider that there are certainly more of the Chinese than the four who just came in the door. Nod if you want me to come pick you up and get you out of here now. Shake your head if you want to take them on now in an effort to stop them coming after you in the future.” Ell gave a little head shake and so Steve started sizing up their prospects for dealing with these guys.

  The waitress showed up with Ell and Gary’s pizza. As she was putting it on a stand in front of him, Gary realized that a group of four Asian guys were sitting down at the table right behind him. That’s weird, he thought, there are plenty of empty tables.

  Zhou had seated himself opposite the brunette woman and now he tried to examine her without staring. That might be a wig, but it was hard to tell with the stocking cap over it. Her skin was definitely darker than Donsaii’s though. And her nose was wrong, a little too big he thought, though he wasn’t sure exactly what was different. He looked around the restaurant, wondering if they could have chosen the wrong girl, but none of the other women in there were slender enough, or young enough. His eyes narrowed, her knuckles were pinker than the rest of her hand! Perhaps as if a dark stain might have been rubbed off by striking things in her karate class. It was her! He looked around the room again, thinking how best to arrange her abduction. This was not a good place, there were too many observers. He sat back, we’ll just follow her when she leaves, he decided. The waitress came to take their orders and he ordered a single medium cheese pizza for the four of them, hoping to be through as soon as the girl and her friend were done so they could leave without it appearing obvious that they were following her.

  Ell grimaced inside. For a little while she had thought that she might have convinced the Chinese men that they were following the wrong girl. She had Allan watching him through her AI video cameras though and the AI said, “The older Asian man focused on your hands briefly and seems to be satisfied about something.” Ell looked down at her knuckles and saw where the bronzer had broken down over her knuckles during their “strike” training. She sighed, wondering if they’d ever stop coming after her? OK, she thought, they probably won’t make a grab for me in such a public place, but I’d like them to do it here where there are plenty of witnesses. We won’t get them thrown out of the country because we suspect they have ill intentions. Probably couldn’t even get the police to give them a good once over. But I don’t want them to come after me here in the main area of the restaurant where Gary or some of the other witnesses might get hurt if they get violent. She reached into her pocket and got her pepper spray out, moving it into her waistband while staring the older Chinese man directly in the eye. Gary had been talking to her but she hadn’t heard what he said, she looked at him with a little frown, “Sorry Gary, gotta run to the little girls’ room.” She got up and made her way toward the back of the restaurant.

  Gary watched Raquel walk gracefully away from the table. The shorts she had on emphasized her shapely slender legs. Wow, she looks great out of a gi! He looked down at the table—she’d again eaten half of a large pizza while he’d only eaten three slices and felt stuffed. Damn! Where does she put it all?

  Zhou realized that when Donsaii looked him in the eye she was as much as saying, “I recognize you for what you are.” Startled, he understood that it was as if she dared him! Then she got up and walked toward the back of the restaurant, Is she leaving?! He looked to the back of the restaurant and saw an exit sign! Just before he leapt to his feet in a panic, she turned into the women’s restroom. But what if she climbs out a bathroom window, or comes back in and turns immediately to go out the exit? He had his AI tell the team out back to watch for her.

  Steve heard Ell’s voice in his earphone. “Steve, I want these guys to come after me here in the restaurant so we’ll have the restaurant’s video record for the police, as well as plenty of witnesses and our own AI video records. We need evidence of their ill intent so the State Department will ship them back home instead of leaving them here to regroup. But, I want them to come after me back here in the back of the restaurant near the restrooms so that, there is less chance that innocent people will get hurt if the situation goes out of control. My plan is to stay here in the bathroom long enough that they get fidgety and do something foolish. Can you forward your video to me so I’ll know what they’re doing?”

  “Sure,” Steve subvocalized, “but what if they have lethal weaponry? Someone could still get seriously hurt, especially you!”

  Allan put the video from Steve’s AI on Ell’s HUD. She studied it while she thought about it. The Chinese guys hadn’t moved but the fidgety older one was looking back toward the bathroom more and more. “I don’t know. Do you think that if they pull out guns I should just go with them until they get me into a less crowded environment?”

  “No! That’s not a good option either! Let me think—by the way the other teams tell me there’s a couple of Asian looking guys sitting in a car out back, and five more in two cars out the front of the restaurant.”

  Suddenly the older Chinese man got up and motioned to the other three who also arose. They all started toward the back of the restaurant. Steve’s time to “think about it” had just run out.

  Gary sat, chin in hand, musing over his good fortune to be having pizza with such a pretty girl. Might she go for a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship? He realized belatedly that she’d been gone to the bathroom for a long time. He turned to look back toward the restrooms. He was surprised to see the four Asian guys from the table behind him, all up, heading to the bathroom together. He frowned, what kind of guys do that? Then they all stopped and stood together arguing in whispers with one another just outside the bathrooms.

  Ell watched the feed from Steve’s AI on her HUD and saw the men app
roach the bathrooms. She got her Taser out of her purse and took it off safe. She put the business end into the open end of her purse, curling her right ring and small finger around the handle and holding the purse over the “barrel” with her thumb and long fingers. Her index finger was just off of the trigger. She looked up at the ceiling. Am I doing the right thing? Am I crazy to think that I can take all four of them, even when I’m in the zone? Ell sighed and wished she could be sure of what she was doing. But I do not want to be dragged off like those other times! Shrugging, she took the pepper spray out of her waistband and palmed it in her left hand. The men stopped outside the bathroom and argued with one another.

  She reached for the doorknob…

  Steve tensed and turned toward the bathrooms himself, lifting his satchel into his lap and reaching inside. He looked at Mary who’d gotten out of her chair and begun walking across the room as if she were going to the bathroom too. Randy glanced out the windows of the restaurant then turned his attention back to the Asian men…

  Gary watched the four men in puzzlement, wondering what they were doing, then worrying again about what was wrong with Raquel. He started to get up. Then the door to the lady’s bathroom opened and Raquel stepped out. Instead of coming back to the table she took a power stance facing the men with her feet slightly apart. Her eyes were flashing in anger while she stared back and forth at the four Asian men. This didn’t look at all like the Raquel Gary knew in class! Or the Raquel he’d gone dancing with! She didn’t look pretty and slender, she looked… she looked scary!

  Ell said, “What do you want?!” to the older Chinese man. She let herself fall into her zone and the world slowed down around her.

  Lifting the lapel of his sports coat to show her the pistol in his shoulder holster, the older man nodded meaningfully. “You will come with us.” He waved with his right hand toward the rear exit door next to the bathrooms. To Ell this brief communication seemed like it took minutes which gave her more time to agonize over whether she was doing the right thing.