World of Trouble (9786167611136) (31 page)

When she put down the telephone, she gave
Shepherd a long look. “You didn’t tell me how charming your Mr.
Darling was.”

“He called you himself?”

“In person, the asshole. He wants me to send
someone to fix the gate. He seems to be in a hurry.”

“Well then. Let’s not keep the man
waiting.”

They all trooped downstairs to the garage and
got into Rachel’s official vehicle. It was a Toyota Land Cruiser
with a blue bubble light on the roof and a couple more blue lights
behind the front grill. It took only a few minutes for them to
cross the main road and enter the airport through a manned security
gate right on the other side.

Once on the field, Rachel switched on her
blue lights and turned into a perimeter road just inside the fence.
The road circled around the runways to the other side of the field
where Robert Darling was fuming in front of a gate that wouldn’t
obey him.

“This is fun,” Shepherd said. “Let’s switch
on the siren, too.”

“I don’t have a siren.”

“Damn.”

A big commercial jet passed directly overhead
and the thunder of its engines enveloped them like a rainstorm. The
plane was so close that Shepherd could pick out the individual
rivets peppering its skin. They looked like a bad attack of
metallic acne. He knew all the scientific explanations about why
airplanes flew, of course, and he believed them. Up to a point. But
when he was a couple of hundred feet directly beneath one of those
aluminum monsters, watching it hang there in the air without any
visible explanation for the apparent miracle of it all, he could
only hold his breath and hope that science wasn’t just blowing one
out its ass.

When the engine noise had died away, Keur
cleared his throat. “I think I should be the one to talk to
Darling, Jack.”

“Too late,” Shepherd said, holding up the
jacket and baseball cap. “I got the disguise.”

“That’s not going to fool anyone.”

“It will just long enough for me to walk up
to his car.”

“And then what are you going to do?”

It was a good question, but a little
embarrassing since Shepherd hadn’t worked that part out yet.

“Look, Jack, I’m a trained law enforcement
officer. I do this kind of thing for a living.”

“It’s my play, Keur. Don’t try to pull rank
on me.”

“But what do you think you’re going to
accomplish?”

Damn, another good question.

“Make up your minds, boys,” Rachel said. “ETA
three minutes.”

Shepherd twisted around in his seat and
looked at Keur.

“I know Darling,” he said. “Even better, I
irritate him. I’m going to ambush him and piss him off and see if
he screws up.”

“Screws up what?”

“Look, Keur, think about what we know
here.”

“That won’t take long.”

“Darling owns half of Blossom Trading,”
Shepherd went on undeterred, “which you say is really an arms
dealer. He’s just arrived in Dubai from Thailand, which seems to be
on the verge of civil war. He arrived on an airplane operated by a
CIA front company, which I’m told is being used regularly to run
guns into Thailand. Charlie owns the other half of Blossom Trading.
He’s disappeared. Three days ago, Charlie’s assistant turned up in
Thailand hanging beneath a bridge with this head cut off. Now what
connects all of that?”

“I don’t know,” Keur said. “You tell me. What
connects all of that?”

“I have no goddamned idea either. So I’ll ask
Darling. Maybe he’ll explain it to me.”

“There’s the car,” Rachel interrupted.

A white Mercedes sedan was sitting in a
driveway that ended at the airport’s perimeter fence in front of a
closed gate. Next to the gate was a small grassy area shaded by a
half dozen palm trees with a white picnic table and two benches. It
looked like the quarantine area for smokers. No one was in sight,
so Shepherd assumed Darling had to be inside the Mercedes. The
question he really ought to be asking himself, he knew, was who
else
might also be inside the Mercedes?

But he didn’t ask. He already had a matched
set of questions he couldn’t answer. What use was one more?

“Stop in the blind spot on the driver’s
side,” Shepherd said to Rachel.

He pulled on the jacket and pushed the
baseball cap down on his head.

“Block him in against the gate, but don’t be
too obvious about it.”

Rachel glanced at Shepherd. She looked like
she might be about to say something, but instead she just
nodded.

As soon as the big SUV stopped, Shepherd
pushed the door open and jumped out. He tilted his head down so
that the bill of the cap hid his face and pretended to study
something in his hands as he walked quickly toward the
Mercedes.

The driver’s door started to open just as
Shepherd reached the car, but he shoved it shut and pushed his hip
against it. The driver lowered his window and Shepherd bent over to
look inside.

Darling was in the driver’s seat. And he was
alone.

“HELLO, ROBERT.”

“Shepherd?”

Darling appeared completely bewildered.

“What are you doing here?”

“The very question I was going to ask you,
Robert. The very question.”

Shepherd had never before seen Darling
wearing anything but a suit with a bow tie. But now he was wearing
a black t-shirt and jeans. It took a little getting used to.
Darling tried again to open the car door, but Shepherd kept his hip
against it and Darling stayed inside the Mercedes.

“Easy question first, Robert. Where did Tommy
go?”

If Darling had begun to recover from his
shock at finding Shepherd standing on the airport driveway and
pinning him inside his own car, the mention of Tommy took him all
the way back downhill again. His eyes shifted first one way and
then the other. He seemed to be trying to convince himself that he
had misunderstood Shepherd’s question.

“Look, Shepherd, I haven’t a clue what
you’re—”

“I saw Tommy with you when you left
Harvey.”

“What are you talking about? Who in the
everlasting fuck is Harvey?”

Shepherd decided it wasn’t the best time to
start talking about a six-foot tall white rabbit and made a mental
note not to use the name Harvey with Darling again.

“I saw Tommy leaving the plane with you. A
white 737, all-freight configuration, tail number A6-NSU. The one
that’s…”

Shepherd turned and pointed at the hanger
with the green roof.

“…in there.”

Darling remained expressionless, but Shepherd
was watching his eyes. He was pleased to see the shock there.
Shepherd had hoped to see at least some fear, too, but he didn’t,
so he laid out his best card.

“With that impoundment order in place,”
Shepherd said, “you’re not going to be flying that arms delivery
back to Thailand for a while. You do know about the order, don’t
you?”

Darling’s face stayed as flat as a dinner
plate. He didn’t even blink.

“What the hell’s going on here,
Shepherd?”

“I’ve arranged for your plane to be
impounded. It’s not going anywhere.”

“How did you manage that?”

“I’ve got a lot of friends.”

Actually, Shepherd figured he probably only
had two friends right then. And they were both in the SUV with the
stupid looking light going around on top of it like somebody was
about to announce a K-Mart blue light special.

He stepped away from the Mercedes and pulled
open Darling’s door.

“Come on, Robert. It’s come to Jesus time.
Let’s go sit under that tree over there and have a good old
fashioned heart-to-heart.”

They left the Mercedes where it was and
walked over to the picnic table. Darling sat down on one of the
benches. Shepherd took off the baseball hat and jacket and sat on
the other.

“All we need is some potato salad and fried
chicken,” Darling said.

He glanced again at the darkened windows of
the Land Cruiser.

“Would your friend like to join us?”

“It’s just an airport security man they
assigned to drive me. Forget about him.”

Darling nodded slowly, but Shepherd saw some
uncertainty in it. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Maybe it
would even help.

“So why is Tommy in Dubai with you?” he
asked. “And where is he now?”

“I’m not going to answer that.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re a civilian, Shepherd. I don’t
answer questions from civilians.”

Darling pulled a box of Gitanes Brunes out of
the right-hand pocket of his jeans and shook out a cigarette.

“Still haven’t managed to quit, huh?”
Shepherd asked.

Darling threw out another of those Gallic
shrugs that Shepherd wished he could do just half as well.

“We’ve all got to die of something,” he
said.

In an automatic gesture of courtesy, Darling
tilted the box toward Shepherd and raised his eyebrows. Shepherd
shook his head. Darling produced a book of matches and, leaning
forward, cupped both hands around the tip of his cigarette to
shield it from the light breeze and lit up. Darling tossed the book
of matches onto the picnic table and exhaled slowly, blowing smoke
out through his pursed lips in a steady stream. Then he returned
the box to the pocket of his jeans.

“You don’t have the slightest idea what
you’re into here, do you, Shepherd?” he said. “Not the
slightest.”

“Hey,” Shepherd said, leaning back and
spreading his hands, “I’m willing to learn.”

Darling smoked quietly and seemed to think
about that. He looked like a man who had just gotten a low-ball
offer for his car and was mulling over whether a counteroffer was
even worth the effort.

Darling could just get up and walk away
anytime, Shepherd knew, but he hoped he wouldn’t. What could he do
about it? Wrestle him to the ground and tickle him until he spilled
the beans? But Darling didn’t get up and walk away. Darling started
to talk. It seemed to Shepherd that Darling looked almost happy to
have the opportunity.

“Thailand’s fucked, Shepherd. It’s going to
be in somebody’s pocket when this is all said and done, and I want
it to be ours.”

“Ours?”

“The US of A, my friend, your native-born
country. Or now that you’re living large in the third world, maybe
you’ve forgotten that you’re an American.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Good man, Shepherd. Good man.”

Darling fell silent and smoked some more.
Shepherd didn’t push him. He seemed to be trying to make up his
mind about how much to say, so Shepherd just waited.

“I’m only going to say this once, Shepherd.
Listen carefully.”

Shepherd nearly asked Darling if he wanted
him to take notes, but he choked back the words before they slipped
out. This probably wasn’t the best time to be a wiseass.

“The future is going to come down to America
and China,” Darling continued after a moment. “Nobody else matters.
It’s the Chinese and us, and we’re going to divide the world.”

Shepherd thought that was a lot of garbage,
probably, but he nodded encouragingly anyway. At least Darling was
talking. He could decide later if he had said anything
worthwhile.

“You ever hear of something called the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Shepherd?”

Shepherd shook his head.

“It was the concept used by the Japanese to
justify their aggression in East Asia in the 1930s. They equated it
with establishing a new international order for Asian countries in
which they would share prosperity and peace, free from Western
domination. The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is
remembered today as a front for Japanese control of occupied
countries during World War II, a period during which puppet
governments manipulated local populations and economies for the
benefit of Imperial Japan.”

“Are you saying that—”

“China is beginning to flex its muscles just
like Japan did in the 1930s. But they are more cautious than the
Japanese were. They are feeling their way, expanding their
influence first just to their immediate neighbors. Hong Kong and
Macau are already Chinese. The Europeans gave them back without a
struggle. Tibet is firmly under Chinese control, too. Taiwan will
come next. After that, it will get more difficult for China.”

Shepherd nodded again. Darling kept
talking.

“To the west and north, China is sealed in by
Russia. There’s Mongolia, of course, but who gives a fuck about
Mongolia? To the south, they are sealed in by the Himalayan
Mountains and, on the other side of them, India. To the east,
there’s not much but the Pacific Ocean. To the northeast, there’s
Korea, but who gives a fuck about Korea either? That doesn’t leave
any direction for China to go but southeast. Burma, Laos,
Cambodia—”

“And Thailand.”

“Thailand’s the prize. It’s the most
developed country in Southeast Asia and geographically it’s at the
heart of it. Control Thailand and the rest falls into your hands.
First mainland Southeast Asia, then Malaysia and Indonesia. It’s
China’s twenty-first century version of the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

“You’re telling me you believe that the
Chinese are about to invade Southeast Asia?”

“Don’t pretend to be a simpleton, Shepherd.
You understand exactly what I’m saying.”

“Spell it out for me. Just in case I
don’t.”

“You don’t take countries over by invading
them anymore. You take them over by replacing their institutions
and culture with your own institutions and culture. Ethnic Chinese
already control all of the banks in Southeast Asia and most of the
money, and you know where their real loyalties lie. All China needs
is for a few governments to be beholden to them, too, and they’re
home free. Complete domination of the economies of their client
states, naval bases on the Gulf of Thailand and the Indian Ocean,
the works.”