The Risk Agent Read Online Free PDF Page A

beneath you.”
    “If PSB get Danner, that’s where he’s headed. For an eternity. You know the laws. He’ll be considered a spy. We need to beat them to it, and we need to move quickly.” The Public Security Bureau—the Shanghai police—was nothing to mess with.
    “And if I slip up, it’ll be the same thing for me. I’ve got Tommy. No go.”
    “We’ve put a woman into Shanghai. An accountant who knew the hostage personally. She’ll pose as a new Berthold employee and go after the bookkeeping with you. She can interpret it once you’ve got it. The hope is, those docs will help lead us to the kidnappers in time. Meanwhile, we’ll be preparing to negotiate the ransom and the drop.”
    “Dangerous to play both sides like that.”
    “Yeah, but what are you gonna do? If a Triad took Lu Hao and Danner, what do you think they’ll do to the American once the ransom is paid?”
    “Don’t lay this on me.”
    “It’s not about you. It’s about Danner. He’s facing prison or death. You know I wouldn’t ask you otherwise.”
    Knox shook his head. “Bullshit you wouldn’t.”
    “Look, you have a legitimate reason to be in Shanghai. Pretend like it’s a business trip. Meet up with the woman we’re putting in place. Support her. Help find Lu’s accounts. We’ll supply you with whatever we can on the sly. And if we find Danner, you bring him out.”
    “And what if I don’t get out?” Knox snapped, realizing as he said it that his mouth had betrayed him. “What happens to Tommy then?”
    “We’ll pay your fee to him,” Dulwich said, sensing his progress. “We’ll double it. Deep pockets on this one.”
    “I don’t like it,” Knox said.
    “Tommy says you’re bored.”
    “Tommy talks too much. Enough with the cheap shots.”
    “You know what I think?” Dulwich said.
    “I don’t remember asking.”
    “You once said pulling me out of that truck changed everything. Remember that?”
    “Yeah. That’s about the same time I decided not to go to Afghanistan and to get out of the contracting business.”
    “Peggy is eight months pregnant with their second,” Dulwich said of Danner’s wife. “She went hysterical when I told her he’d gone missing. She’s forbidden from flying. Stuck in Houston.”
    Shit. Knox should have known about the pregnancy. Should have stayed in better touch.
    “I can’t put any of our guys into China right now,” Dulwich said. “We’ve had inquiries—formal inquiries asking if one of our employees is missing. They’ll be watching Immigration. But since you do business there on a regular basis, you go in as you. Just another buying trip. You meet up with the woman and together you find the books, find Lu Hao and Danner.”
    “I don’t babysit,” Knox said.
    “You won’t have to. She’s former Red Army,
very, very
smart, and a looker.”
    “Shit, shit and shit.”
    “We have to leave tonight,” Dulwich said. Checking his wristwatch, he said, “Wheels up in ninety.”
    Knox drummed his fingers on the rattan tabletop. “And what if they do kill him?”
    “Then we deliver the wrath of God upon them. You and me. Whatever it takes.”
    Slowly, Knox stood and stretched. “Do I have time for a shower?”
    “God,” Dulwich said with a smile, “I sure hope so.”

4
    5:00 P.M.
    HUANGPU DISTRICT
    SHANGHAI
    The waiting area of the Guangdong Road PSB was a gray, tube-lit room with a poster warning of avian flu, hung thickly with cigarette smoke. The officer-of-the-month photo hadn’t been changed since June. A black-light bug-killer sparked randomly above the door.
    Into the station strode a wide-shouldered Chinese man, Shen Deshi. He had cropped hair, a crushed nose and thin lips. He wore a black leather jacket, a gold chain around his neck and tinted glasses that partially hid searching, distrustful eyes.
    He proffered his credentials to the receptionist, who worked to disguise her alarm. The People’s Armed Police was the most high-ranking, the most