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his watch. “In five hours.”
    “Five hours!” Alexis bellowed. “It will take me that long to pack up my red bag, not to mention my own personal bag.”
    “Then I suggest you get a move on. Ladies, we’ll meet up in the kitchen in five hours. Run along, I have some last-minute details to take care of.”
    Jack Emery’s cellphone rang at twelve minutes past two in the afternoon. He barked a greeting. “Garrity! I hope you have some good news.”
    “Good news, bad news, who the hell knows? What I do know is my dick is frozen. How much longer do I have to stay up in this goddamn tree?”
    “Till I tell you to come down. I stayed up there for four whole days. If I could do it, so can you. Think about warm, sandy beaches, golden sunshine. What’s happening?”
    “OK, they all come barreling back into the kitchen an hour after they split. They go off in all directions. Then nothing until just now. Three women and the gent pile into one of those big black, Chevy Suburbans. They had luggage. It was the black girl, your old girlfriend, the Asian girl, and that guy Charles. He drove, by the way. The big rig is still there and so is the architect’s car. Mrs Rutledge is inside.”
    “I suppose it’s too much to hope that you picked up some conversation?”
    “You’re right, Jack, that’s too much to hope for. If your next question is where are they going, I’d say an airport, but then again they could be headed for Union Station in D.C. I called Dennison and he said he’d start tailing the Suburban as soon as they hit the highway.”
    “OK, stay on it. Call me as soon as there’s any movement at the farm.”
    Jack’s phone rang almost immediately when he ended his call with Garrity.
    “It’s me, boss, Dennison. I’m on the Suburban. I think they’re headed for Baltimore-Washington Airport.”
    “Call me back as soon as you know for certain. That’s where Myra Rutledge keeps the company Gulfstream. I want to know where they’re going, Dennison.”
    The call over, Jack huddled with Mark. “Things are moving, buddy. Told you this was their MO.”

Three

    The passengers were jolted awake as the Gulfstream’s wheels hit the runway. They looked at one another. Their eyes said
We’re in China!
    Charles looked down at his watch. With the eight-hour time difference plus the sixteen-hour flight, he calculated that they were a day behind in Hong Kong. Not that it mattered. At this moment, time was not their problem. Later, time, right down to the nanosecond, could become a deadly enemy. Thank God for Li’s help, which had cut through all the bureaucratic red tape. Even the pilot was one of Li’s men. Somehow he would find a way to make this all up to Li.
    It had been years since he’d been in China. He had never thought he would return, especially under these unusual circumstances. He gazed out the window as the aircraft taxied to a complete stop. The countryside was lush, verdant, just as he remembered. Li had said he lived in the middle of nowhere. This certainly looked like nowhere. All he could see was a sea of green — hundreds, maybe thousands of trees, grass as high as he was tall, and the occasional shimmer of what he assumed to be small ponds as far as the eye could see.
    Yoko unbuckled her seatbelt. “I love the countryside. It is beautiful, this place called Hong Kong.”
    “Actually,” Charles said, “we’re on a small island outside Hong Kong. It’s called Po Toi Island. Li only lives here for part of the year. He’s in residence now with a full staff that will be at our disposal. Li understands that this is a very discreet operation and all his people, he assured me, can be trusted.”
    The little group waited patiently while the ground crew assisted the pilot and co-pilot as they prepared to lower the air stair door.
    On the ground, her legs wobbly from sitting so long, Nikki looked back at Myra’s luxurious Gulfstream. She’d felt safe sitting in the buttery-soft leather reclining