"This really limits our options, Bob." Mark Birch's calm expression did not match his voice. "You're going to have to get rid of him."
"You still want him, right?" Bob glanced over his shoulder to see if Sun Dinghuang was nearby. Seeing no sign of the Chinese pilot, he sent Takeshi to keep an eye out. "If he's anonymous he won't cause problems."
Birch shrugged. "If you can get him here fast. Forget Sri Lanka, if Rahman's dead the job's dead too. Now let's see, where do we have contacts..." He turned to his other computer and began typing.
"You said Australia, right?" Taylor winced upon hearing this. He did not relish the idea of such a long trip just to get rid of Sun.
"Australia's too far. Zach probably agrees." Birch turned to face the camera once again. "I've got someone on Java and someone on Borneo."
Bob scratched his chin. "Borneo? Malaysia or Indonesia?"
"Malaysia. Miri City, Sarawak province. Sent you coordinates and information for both." Mark typed furiously just below the field of view. "That's the better contact. In Sarawak, there are plenty of English speakers. On Java, you'd be up a creek unless one of you can learn Indonesian in no time flat."
"We speak English, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, and Thai right now." Bob realized as soon as he finished speaking that he'd referred to Leah Silverstone with the last language.
Birch noticed the abnormality for a different reason. "Who speaks Thai, Bob? Rene left, right?"
"Yeah, I thought he was still with us for a moment there." Mark did not question Bob's reply, despite the obvious matter of why he had not listed French if that were the case. "So Sarawak it is. Hope this guy doesn't read the news."
"He's a sly bugger. He'll know what's up, and he may charge me the equivalent of the reward on Mr. Sun. I hope it's small, and I hope he's worth it. In any case, no more jobs for Do Young Kang." Birch scowled.
"Speaking of jobs, anything near Miri?" Bob leaned across the controls, prompting a faint protest from Taylor. "It would be nice to have a job over there."
Mark glanced over from the second computer. "Way ahead of you." He turned his attention back to the machine for a few more seconds. "No contracts in Sarawak. No contracts in the whole of eastern Malaysia. One in Brunei. Two bounties out in the Miri area."
"Bounty hunting's better than nothing." Bob sighed. "Details?"
"One's a bunch of bounties on pirates. Most of the pirates are probably dead by now, though. The other one is about $15,000 for a strange man in a white mask who's been causing problems around Miri, apparently. The contract is to break up a Greenpeace blockade which has been announced for about two weeks from now. No restrictions on this one, either."
"Good, good." Bob noticed Leah Silverstone approaching out of the corner of his eye. "We're on our way! Goodbye!" Mark barely had a chance to respond before Sadeski ended the call. Bob turned to face Silverstone. "So, this is the life of a mercenary. No more Sri Lanka. We're going to Malaysia now!"
Leah's eyes lit up. "I've never been there before. East or west?"
"East." Bob stood and walked out of the room, Silverstone taking his arm as he passed and accompanying him out. "We're going to meet a man..." His voice receded into the ship as Taylor entered the new coordinates into the GPS. He remained silently annoyed with Leah Silverstone and with Bob's decision to bring her aboard.
This time, Gordon Weston took over the controls from Zach fairly quickly. Taylor fell asleep with his headphones on after trying unsuccessfully to ignore the occupants of the next room over. He knew his frustration was pointless- Sadeski acted more strangely under the influence of women than any drink Zach had ever seen his captain try. Some of his mercenary spirit seemed to fade. Taylor didn't understand it- he was a sailor, and as the song went, his life, his love, and his lady was the sea. He fell asleep humming the tune.
The trip was a slow one, with the danger zone expanding southward as Indonesia and Malaysia mobilized their own navies to defend against any action by the less-than-friendly forces amassing north of the Spratly Islands. A massive standoff was evolving in the South China Sea. Bob had the boat travel in an arc to the south, hugging the Malaysian coast, rather than take the direct route and risk encountering a fleet headed northeast. Tensions aboard the ship were rising higher than when Bob had thought Rene was a saboteur, but the captain did not notice. Much of his time was spent with Leah Silverstone.
Nobody seemed to think badly of Silverstone as a person, but the very idea of her presence was problematic. In the eyes of the crew, she contributed nothing to the boat by being aboard, and, if anything, distracted the captain. Sadeski's leadership had not yet been affected significantly, but Leah had only been present during voyages so far- in port the scenario would be quite different. While Sun Dinghuang was also not especially welcome, the former pilot's time with the crew would be limited, he was quite useful in that he could take over Rene's shifts steering the boat and claimed to have combat experience, and had a generally genial attitude toward everyone, even Silverstone, that didn't seem forced by the awkward situation. Wong had quickly become close with Takeshi Sato- the pair spent much of their free time playing video games or going through Sato's sword collection.
The worst part of the trip was the open-ocean passage from western Malaysia to Borneo. Bob had a watch posted for approaching ships during the day and blacked out most of the boat's lights at night. The whole crew was on edge, and Leah Silverstone's insistence on taking on watch and steering shifts did not help matters with anyone except the pragmatic Gordon. It was during one of her shifts that Sun Dinghuang and Bob, waiting in the control room, worked out the details of Do Young Kang's plan. The businessman had profited massively from this entire chain of events, taking advantage of his alliance with Fan Xiaolong.
"So we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time?" Bob sighed.
"Exactly. And so was I. We already know he wanted to cause trouble in Xinjiang, because it's easy to make money and gain influence from that." Sun shuffled a deck of cards as he talked. "It would also be easy to buy stock in Mr. al-Qassad's rivals in the spice trade just ahead of this assassination, and then claim that I did it to make someone look bad. I was supposed to be in Beijing."
Silverstone shifted in her seat. "I would not want to be on this guy's bad side."
"I think there's probably more to it than that." Bob took the cards and dealt out blackjack hands to himself and Sun. "You're now going to be a target for every bounty hunter in this part of the world." He suddenly froze, a look of fear in his eyes. "Dammit." He dropped the deck of cards to the table. "Check all your stuff. Now. Look for homing devices."
"He's tying up loose ends." Leah voiced Bob's thoughts for him.
Sadeski stomped out of the room behind Sun. "Zach! Wake up! We're checking the deck for bugs. Now!"
Taylor groggily leaned into the corridor. "Bugs? What?"
"Homing devices. Now." This seemed to rouse Zach somewhat. "We're checking the deck and the hull."
"We can't check below the waterline. We're moving full speed, right?" Taylor rubbed his eyes.
"I doubt any are down there. We'll check when we get into port. Come on. Right now it looks like we're still going south rather than east. We have to get anything that's there before we get to Miri if we can." Bob stalked off down the hallway toward the cabin door. "Miri is a rich city about fifty miles from pirate country. If Sun's being tracked, there will be a dozen bounty hunters waiting for us at the dock. We'd lose a huge payout."
Zach followed his captain slowly, sleep not having fully left him yet. "Who do you think is looking for him?"
"Do Young Kang." Bob opened the door, letting in some sea spray and morning sunlight.
"Well then, perhaps he's trying to get rid of us too?"
"Probably." Bob stepped out onto the deck.
ns 15.158.61.21da2
