Karyn Kane: Conspiracy of Fire Part 18

42.

Deng Tao looked at Karyn, his black eyes eating into her soul. "I had hoped, that once you had seen for yourself the majesty of our cause, you would join us. Ms. Kane. Calista Johnston, who always has a great deal of intuition in these matters, a.s.sured me that you were a strong and forward thinking woman; just the sort of person we would have ride at the very forefront of our new world order. And yet, you seem reticent, as though you prefer the tired allegiance of the past instead of joining with us. It saddens me Ms. Kane, that you would feel that way."

Karyn soaked in the rhetoric then said, "You like to talk the big talk don't you Tao? Yet you don't know a d.a.m.n thing about the small things that make the big world turn on its axis-things like loyalty, commitment and decency. If you want to buy your way into a new future for mankind, it is going to cost you more than a pocket full of gold coins. When it comes to real people, your smooth talking sales pitch won't matter a d.a.m.n. They will see through your talk of a new elite for what it is, a h.e.l.l-ride to nothing."

Deng Tao stared at her, his flat implacable eyes eating up every word. He wasn't smiling now. The sharp little teeth tightened, his thin cruel lips twisting against Karyn's words. "How very sure of yourself you are Ms. Kane. I can see that your misguided sense of duty has blinded you to the true nature of the golden future that awaits us all. No matter." Deng Tao clapped his hands and the heavy bronze doors opened slowly.

"Tomorrow, as the new future rises with the dawn, you will have to consol yourself, that you wasted a great opportunity." Deng Tao raised his chin, his face twisting with displeasure. "Farewell Ms. Kane, your commitment to the politics of failure has sealed your destiny. We will not meet again."

And with that, Deng Tao turned abruptly on his heel and stalked out of the room.

Karyn watched him go. She turned to Brad Verner and said, "Your new best pal is quite something Verner. Are you really flying out to the Big Island tomorrow?"

Brad Verner gave Karyn a desperate look. "I have no choice, you know that don't you?" Karyn pursed her lips and nodded slowly, "What ever you think Verner." Karyn paused, looked after Deng Tao and said, "This is going to end badly you know that don't you?"

Desperate and afraid, Verner's eyes widened as though he were tying to communicate some unspoken message.

Smiling ever so slightly Karyn nodded and said, "I have business in Seattle next week, perhaps I could drop in on your parents, if they are around that is?"

Brad Verner looked ready to choke. "I am sure they would be delighted to see you," he managed at last."

Karyn nodded. It was just as she had thought. Deng Tao's people had Verner's parents. If they were lucky they would be bound and gagged, maybe a little ragged around the corners, from a cursory beating designed to give them a taste of just how bad things would get if they didn't do as they were told. And if they weren't lucky-well in that case, they would be dead already.

Karyn said nothing more. She stared at Brad Verner as he blinked at her then turned away, with slow hesitating steps. Karyn watched him go as he followed after Deng Tao, his new Master.

Looking back over his shoulder Brad Verner's lips worked loosely, a confusion of thoughts hammering through his conflicted mind. He tripped, staggered, corrected and scampered away, as though fleeing from a looming tempest- but fleeing where? Where is there to flee, in a world that is spinning ever closer to madness? Karyn stood, watching as Brad Verner disappeared and the giant bronze doors closed after him.

Standing alone in the fish tank room, Karyn suddenly felt a crushing sense of claustrophobia. Above, below all around her the vast ocean was everywhere. Beyond the gla.s.s, vast schools of fish sparkled and whirled. Above them, larger more sinister shapes circled in the gloom. Sharks. That crazy, power mad freak Deng Tao had turned his ship into a giant floating Shark tank. Karyn watched as the sharks circled-beautiful, elegant, deadly. For a cold second she contemplated the idea of the ocean flooding the room. What would she do then? Millions of gallons of water flooding in and no way of escape.

"Ms. Kane." The voice came from behind, dripping smooth like warm honey. The intonation was vaguely French but with an unmistakable twist of the East.

Karyn turned slowly to see Calista Johnston, and with her, a quite beautiful Asian woman, wearing an elegant silk c.o.c.ktail dress in shimmering jade green and gold. The woman's face had a high-boned, imperious quality, accentuated by the way she wore her hair, slicked tight behind her head.

Karyn raised her hand and circled a finger in the general direction of the newcomer, "Let me guess, the mysterious Mrs. Tao," said Karyn.

An insidious look edged at the corners of the imperious face, and the woman's heavy rouged lips parted, as though preparing to pa.s.s comment.

"This is quite some place you got here," said Karyn. "And your husband is a bona-fide character to say the least."

The rouged lips pursed with the faintest trace of disapproval. "You were right Calista very beautiful, but perhaps not quite so beautiful as you had led me to believe." The woman held out her hand. "My name is Cheena Tao, I understand you are an investigator Ms. Kane?"

"You could say that. If chasing down blind- alley leads in a case no one much cares for counts as investigation."

Cheena Tao tilted her head at an angle that might have suggested vague amus.e.m.e.nt, but her bone-china features remained inscrutable. "How fascinating." The words dripped cold like acid, eating into the dappled silence of the room. Bubbles trickled their way up the sides of the giant tank, struggling to free them selves from the oppressive gloom. "So tell me Ms. Kane, what progress have you made in this investigation of yours?"

"Not a whole lot. Matter of fact I will have to fly back to the mainland tomorrow. The promise of oversight often causes local law enforcement to redouble their efforts, but in reality reports don't write themselves..."

"So you must leave us, and so soon. Well, I must say I am disappointed Ms. Kane I was hoping that you might join us for dinner, so that you could regale us with bloodthirsty tales of your investigations to date."

Karyn examined Cheena Tao's face, for any depth or sincerity, but found none. What she found instead was a cruel, hard-sculpted exterior that boded cold and superficial. Despite her words, Cheena Tao quite clearly didn't give a d.a.m.n about anything, or anyone. Then there was the tiny veiled hat perched on the back of her head, black and incongruous like a giant bug. Who wore hats these days-I mean really.

Cheena Tao's black gaze swept quickly over Karyn and to the heavy bronze door beyond, "My husband is an important man Ms. Kane. He is driven. And he always gets what he wants, no matter what the price."

"Not on this occasion." Cheena Tao gave Karyn a tart look. If you are not working with us, then you must be working against us Ms. Kane. Surely you would not wish to do that?"

Karyn smiled. "Work? I like that Mrs. Tao. I wouldn't have taken you for the working type."

Raising her chin Cheena Tao said, "You joke of course Ms. Kane. But you must know that my tireless and all encompa.s.sing pa.s.sion is to provide support to the Humanistian cause."

Very commendable I am sure, " said Karyn, her voice cold and even. "But meanwhile, back in the real world, us working stiffs, we get to trudge through the rain and write reports in grey little buildings, no one much cares for. So that smart- suited executives can make big-bonus budget decisions and look good on television. It is government Mrs. Tao-the way of things, I am sure you understand."

A look of distaste twisted at the corners of the rouged mouth. "I cannot say that I would even pretend to understand Ms. Kane. It all sounds too dull for words. But if you absolutely insist in flying back to your dreary little life in Washington, or wherever it is you government people lurk these days, then you are a fool." Cheena Tao, didn't wait for a response, she stalked past Karyn without a second look. "Come Calista, our guests await." The words were enunciated with the harsh authority of a pet owner speaking to a wayward dog.

Calista Johnston reached out and touched Karyn on the arm. "Perhaps we will meet again in Washington, or some such place Ms Kane." The old woman's bony fingers pressed into Karyn's flesh, lingering rather longer than necessity dictated.

Karyn looked her in the eye and said, "You better hope you play your hand better than that husband of yours, or you might well be joining him and sooner than you think."

Calista Johnston batted her spider web eyelashes. "You are concerned Ms. Kane. How very sweet of you." She flashed her ivory grin and said, "Be sure to tell your superiors in Washington that my worthless husband made absolutely the right career choice when he dived out of that window."

"Too bad he took the plunge, he's never going to see that power station of Deng Tao's come online, is he?" Karyn frowned then said, "He could have been the hero of the people, just like he always wanted. Maybe he could even have had a shot at the Presidency, if he played his cards right."

"The Presidency?" Calista Johnston gave a musical laugh. "How thoroughly charming you are Ms. Kane. We are working towards far higher ideals. In the new future, such positions of high office will seem as antiquated as the Pharaohs of old. Such a pity you won't be joining us." Enrique sidled up beside his mistress and threw Karyn a lascivious look.

Karyn narrowed her eyes, "This bright new future you talk so much about sounds like a three- card scam to me. You better hope you get out before the rush, or you might just end up losing everything you have."

Calista Johnston's smile broadened. "Perhaps you will join us for a c.o.c.ktail Ms. Kane? Enrique and I will be flying back to the mainland tomorrow. It might be the last chance we get to enjoy a relaxing drink together. Unless of course you choose to join us for the flight home."

"A kind offer, but I am running a tight schedule, so I am sure you will understand if I take a rain-check on that."

"I cannot say I am surprised," Calista Johnston pouted, "But I am certainly disappointed, as is Enrique," She turned to her a.s.sistant. He threw her a smug lascivious look. "Such a pity, we could have all had such fun together, couldn't we Enrique?" She gave Karyn a wistful smile. "No matter. Destiny awaits Ms. Kane. You will excuse us I am sure." And with these final words, Calista Johnston sashayed off in the direction of the party. Enrique followed close. He ran a hand over Calista Johnston's a.s.s. As they got to the big bronze doors he turned, looked back at Karyn and laughed, like nothing in the world mattered anything worth a d.a.m.n.

43.

Karyn took an early launch back to the Kahanamoku Beach key quayside, leaving the ever- noisier party on the Chanchu behind her. She grabbed a cab amid the throng of quayside revelers and ordered the driver to hit the gas. She told him to head uptown into the city night and keep driving, until she gave the word. He gave her the eye in the rearview and asked her where she wanted to go. She told him Ben Franklin and his pals would know when they had arrived. The driver pulled away from the curbside faster than an Indy-Car front- runner and melded with traffic, to a serenade of blaring horns. Six-blocks west of the Hawaiian Gardens hotel. Karyn folded over the Benjamins into the driver's sweaty palm and hit the sidewalk. She watched as the euphoric driver cut into traffic, with a squeal of hot rubber with the fresh-folded hundreds nestling happily in his breast pocket.

Standing on the sidewalk, Karyn did a 180, scanning for any sign of a follow car. Nothing. The Feds must be losing their touch, either that they were holding the bag loose, figuring they could move in with a takedown, just as soon as they felt the need.

Running through the past 24-hours in her head, Karyn was beginning to draw form to the dark events that were unfolding on the Island. Deng Tao and his rotten little friends were on the verge of a big play, there was no doubt now. He was going to make a political move against the Federal Government that much was certain, but there was something more, much more, than some emergent philosophy at stake here. Tao was going to use the opening of the new power plant to leverage his political ambitions, but what form would that leverage take? With Brad Verner in his power, any kind of madness was possible. But could the Tao Corporation really wreak the kind of destruction that Verner had suggested?

Then there were the attacks. The muscle outside Club Carmady was HPD for sure, there was no way the Feds could have fumbled a play like that. The dudes outside the Fountainhead were a different matter however, those guys were Fed heat, had to be-but the Feds had underestimated her and botched their takedown badly. The creeps probably figured they were dealing with some weak-limbed little bureaucrat from the Department of Justice. Big mistake. Given the chance, they would have bundled her into the trunk of their car and spirited her away to some quiet little spot on the edge of town, for some hard questioning and a bra.s.s-knuckle run over. No doubt they would have had the denouement figured from there-a tumble from a cliff top, or a long drive up the coastal drag, out of sight of the tourist trap boulevards, then a shallow grave on a lonely hillside. Karyn was glad she had damaged those guys; those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had it coming.

Walking more quickly now, Karyn scoped the street again, keeping a subtle but ever watchful lookout for interference. Every burning instinct told her the Feds were watching but there was no way they would ever get the drop on her, she couldn't allow that-not ever.

Karyn played tradecraft moves as a matter of course. She darted across the Boulevard, to shake any tailing units. Horns blared, and brakes squealed, but that was OK. Now she was walking against traffic, any follow car would have to flip a u- turn, or circle the block to regain position and by that time she would have changed direction again. It was a precautionary measure. The opposition were wise to her moves and although they could not know her Agency pedigree, or the exact nature of her motives, they were worried no question.

Karyn checked the mirror application on her smart phone, scanning the street behind her for any sign of a chase team. Deng Tao and his friends were messing with her right now, fielding interference to distract a big noise Investigator from the Department of Justice. No doubt that creep Tao had run her name through every Beltway political connection he had, trying to dredge clues as to who, or what he was dealing with. The Agency always had those kind of moves in hand. Anything Tao's people came up with would be finely crafted baloney that backed up every word she had told him, and a lot she hadn't. But the thought of this cherubic little messiah running the make on her made her skin crawl. There was something about Deng Tao and his posse of happy-clappy helpers that was cultish and deeply unsettling. Karyn frowned. Tao was involved in the Johnston killings, no doubt, but the creep was a shot-caller not a triggerman. He had franchised this sordid little murder out to freelancers. The knowledge that Tao had sanctioned three deaths made Karyn want to pop him right between the eyes. But that kind of hit would create a tidal wave of blowback that would ride all the way to Washington. Deng Tao was protected-or so he thought-the trouble for Tao was he had crossed the line. Murdering democratically elected government officials meant his billionaire a.s.s was now a blip on the radar of death and with each pa.s.sing sweep of the scanner beam, he was inching ever closer to an inevitable destiny.

Checking her phone more regularly now, like a busy executive fielding calls on her way to the next meeting, Karyn picked up the cable van crawling the curb, maybe two hundred yards back. The dark tint on the van's windshield told Karyn she was looking at trouble, though what kind it was hard to tell. Fed's usually played the swarm gambit, moving in for a takedown with a dozen agents or more. The van could be their control car, two men up front and a takedown team in the back, all kitted out with body armor, helmets and a whole mess of heavy weaponry. But if they were going to make a move, they would come from all angles. They would strike at a pinch point, like an intersection or an alleyway. They would have street people working undercover and an intercept wagon to pull in front. The attack would come so fast and hard. There would be no time to even think of pulling her weapon. She had to act now, get the jump on the opposition before they got the jump on her.

Karyn's pulse raced. Senegar had thrown her in deep this time, enemies wherever she looked and no nearer to reaching her mission objective than the day she had arrived. She paused. Peered into a cafe window, as though checking out the interior, while scoping out the mirrored street reflection in the gla.s.s. The black van was rolling. A street corner vagrant was looking her way. They were coming. A squeal of tires at the intersection just ahead was the signal. Karyn didn't even look around, she pushed open the coffee-shop door and was inside with three quick steps.

She dropped the bolt on the door, tilted a chair against it and held her DOJ badge high. "Police Robbery Squad. Everyone down. There is going to be shooting, in the street," she announced with calm authority.

The coffee shop was spa.r.s.ely populated with the late-evening crowd. The announcement drew looks of paralysis and disbelief. The head barrista moved out from behind the counter his face lined with concern, wiping off his hands on his ap.r.o.n as he came. He tried to bar her way, like she was some kind of crazy person. Karyn shouldered past him. She cannoned down a long narrow corridor that led past the bathrooms and headed towards the emergency exit with building speed. She leapt in the air to drop kick the door release bar and heard a crescendo of breaking gla.s.s in the store front behind her. The bad men were coming, and they were coming in force.

44.

The Pacific Kellerman lay on the floor of galley in the smoldering wreckage of what used to be a corridor, but now resembled a twisted ruin. Scorched bomb- damaged metal and sparking electrics hung down from the ceiling and a thousand bullet holes covered every broken surface.

Kellerman moved her fingers. She couldn't move anything else. And what her fingers felt boded deeply unpleasant-thick oozing grime all over the floor, mixed with metal fragments, cartridge cases and some kind of sloppy mess that might once have been part of her body. Those creeps had got her. They had caught her good. She struggled to move, but paralysis held her tight.

A heavy weight, pressing down from above. No feeling in her lower body, just an unending pressure, like everything below her stomach had been blown away. She swallowed down the fear, knowing these last precious seconds of consciousness might well be a final tenuous communion with life. But as the seconds pa.s.sed, death remained elusive, replaced instead by a dark and oppressive silence that pressed in all around.

She could barely draw breath, barely move and then there was her face-hard and oven-baked, covered in a thick coat of something acrid and cloyingly unpleasant. Perhaps the blast had burned away her flesh, so that she might live the rest of her life with the torture of disfigurement. Her heart raced faster, as the horror of her plight ran through her mind. She felt herself circling in and out of consciousness. It was all over now-it had to be. Buchanan blown apart by the force of the explosion, their plan to take back the ship from the pirates over before it had even started.

A long, dark silence. The taste of water-hot, warm salt-water, washing against her body.

Then-a sudden burn of light beating down from above.

As her faculties came alive, Kellerman realized with shock that she was trapped beneath a heavy door. The force of the explosion had blown it off its hinges and it had fallen over her, pinning her to the floor. Perhaps she would live after all perhaps-a feeling of release, a weight falling away-then-rising up, moving higher until- The slap came hard, and then again. Kellerman felt her cheeks ringing with the impact. The oven-baked feeling was gone now, replaced by a raw and throbbing soreness. She squinted against the brightness and opened her lips experimentally, so that she might enquire as to what kind of afterlife she had been transported to. She tried to speak, but words came hard. She could manage nothing more than a dry croak. She ran her tongue out over the edge of her cracked, salt-caked lips, like a lizard scenting the air, then pulled her tongue back just as quick-This was no heaven, or h.e.l.l either, this was- Another slap. Kellerman felt the world spin;, felt her knees and her legs and her feet move under her like rubber.

Her feet-they were still there-not blown away in the explosion as she had thought. She smiled. Alive-she was alive. As the euphoria filled her, she sagged forwards laughing uncontrollably. Strong arms pulled her upright-strong arms and rough hands, twisting tight beneath her armpits.

"Your friend is dead, blown into a thousand pieces and yet you laugh Officer Kellerman? Are you heartless, or mad?"

A face now; drawing close to hers. A nasty, savage, tight little face filled with animosity.

"You killed my men, very many of them. Perhaps I should kill you too mad lady-cut you open with my knife so you can watch yourself die."

Kellerman was too exhausted to say anything. Instead she squinted into the harsh light and examined her inquisitor, the smooth thin face, with fish-belly skin, the heavy-oiled black hair shaved short at the sides-he was young too, at least he seemed that way, but with the tight drawn features and thin coal-black eyes eating into her, Kellerman figured the creep for the wrong side of thirty, at the very most.

He slapped her face again, leaned in with his halitosis breath and barked, "You give us plenty trouble Officer Kellerman. You think perhaps you can act like a hero and come out of this? Well you are wrong. The brave die quick-all the quicker if they don't do as they are told."

"How do you know my name?" rasped Kellerman.

The thin, savage little face twisted unpleasantly. "You stupid American. So consumed with your own importance, as the world marches against you and your kind. Did you think you would be able to evade the wrath of the new future?"

Kellerman stared blankly. This guy was nuts, had to be-some kind of religious freak, or a nut-job politico, frothing with the swirly-eyed look of indoctrination. "I got no idea what you are talking about bucko, but you got to know you are dealing with more than a ship here. You are dealing with the Federal Government of United States. So whoever you are, your future is going to be short and ugly, unless you release me and everyone else on this ship right now."

"My name is Captain Kim. And you are witnessing an historic event Officer Kellerman- the first bold step in the overthrow of world government. You should be proud to be a part of this day. Rejoice, because many years from now school children everywhere will speak your name."

"I got to tell you bucko, I ain't the biggest fan of schoolchildren," rasped Kellerman throatily. "And I ain't too big on revolutions either, so why don't you and your pals go sell your mad-cap plans to someone who gives a d.a.m.n."

Captain Kim nodded. "I understand you murdered Engineering Officer Heung. How did that feel Officer Kellerman? Did you experience a flush of excitement as you killed your first human?"

Kellerman narrowed her eyes.

"What would your family in Ma.s.sachusetts think of your actions, or your friends at the East Village Arts Park in Long Beach? Do you think you will ever be able to look those comfortable little friends of yours in the eye, knowing that you are a killer many times over?"

Kellerman scowled.

Captain Kim laughed. "Don't look so surprised Officer Kellerman we have planned every part of this operation. I have studied the mundane details of your cozy little life so thoroughly, I feel as though I almost know you."

"You got no idea bucko, let me tell you." "Your feeble protestations have no interest for me. All that matters is that you a.s.sist us in our operation. If you cooperate, not only will you and the other members of your crew be spared, you will be immortalized as heroes of the new order of mankind."

"a.s.sist you how?" asked Kellerman.

Captain Kim smiled; it was a sick, ugly smile. Looming over her, with his fists planted hard against his waist, like some blackshirted dictator. He said, "The electrical systems in the bridge, we need your a.s.sistance to restart them."

Kellerman frowned harder. If the systems were down, the folks at NOAA would be initiating emergency procedures already. They would be cycling through satcom frequencies, trying to raise a contact and if they couldn't make a connection- "You took the systems down, why don't you figure out how to start them up again genius?" growled Kellerman.

"Do not waste my time," snapped Kim, "You will help us, or we will kill everyone aboard and send your ship to the bottom of the Pacific. By the time the planes from your feeble Navy arrive, there will be nothing left for them to find."

Kellerman scowled, "I guess you don't leave me much choice do you?"

45.

Oahu, Hawaii Laughter cut through the night, a woman's laughter. The laughter sparkled with a knowing and l.u.s.tful quality that suggested the woman had been drinking hard and had now reached a place where consequences no longer mattered.

Ted Congo stood by the gate, shrouded by thick blooming oleander bushes and examined his fingernails. That fat freak he had tossed into the volcano had busted the end off one nail and split another into the G.o.dd.a.m.n flesh. Not even three days since he had visited that sweet little Filipina manicurist over on Kalakaua and now he would have to go back again. That cute little freak would be squealing like a bossy schoolgirl when she saw the state of those delicate little pinkies. Congo sniffed. He hadn't poured it the pork as yet, but it was only a matter of time. That cute little manicurist sure as h.e.l.l had it coming. Congo sucked his fingers, and allowed a slow smile to develop at the edges of his mouth. Pretty soon the whole world would be spinning right for a change, the bulls.h.i.t hierarchy who had been running things so long would be burning their spoiled little liberal a.s.ses on the bonfire of history.