The Trail to Buddha's Mirror - Don Winslow [146]
It’s all about making money now, Neal. Is that what Crowe said? Is that why he came so quickly to Mill Valley to pick me up?
“Was it Crowe who tried to shoot me that night?”
“No. To the best of our understanding, that would have been Mr. Simms. It appears now that Mr. Simms was working for our government, and he wanted Lan and Pendleton to make it into China, where I could be implicated along with them. He apparently mistook you for Pendleton, but the shot was intended to miss.
“When you made such a bother of yourself in Hong Kong, Lan argued that she had to meet you, to persuade you to give up your obsession. Frankly, I would have preferred to have you killed.”
“You tried,” said Neal, remembering the gang with the choppers and the Doorman’s bloody death.
“And Simms intervened and saved your life. He had further use for you. You confirmed his good judgment when you tracked down Lan that night and ‘persuaded’ her to defect. After you saved her life that night from the Taiwanese thug, Chin, Lan would no longer countenance your being eliminated.”
Neal turned his gaze to Lan. “So you lured me into the Walled City and dumped me there.”
“May I remind you,” said Xao, “that she also rescued you?”
“Why?”
“Again, this arose from a miscalculation. Your friends and employers were creating a stir. Lan would not let you simply perish in the Walled City, and we could not let you return to your employers and tell what you knew. The only solution was to bring you here and either buy your silence or give you convincing disinformation to take home with you.”
Neal’s head was starting to clear. They had run him past Li Lan at the commune to see if he’d keep his mouth shut. Encouraged when he did, they’d sent Li Hong, pretending to be her sister, to sleep with him to ensure his silence when he went home. But he had screwed that up when he demanded to see Pendleton personally. Queered the deal and also sentenced Hong to death.
“You knew that Peng was working for the other side,” Neal said.
“Of course. We knew that you would lead him to the rendezvous on the mountain. Your obsession with Lan would not let you turn back. So we wanted both you and Peng to see Lan and Pendleton commit suicide. That was the word we wanted you to take to Washington and Peng to take to Beijing.”
Neal looked at Lan. “Your sister was willing to do this?”
Lan nodded. “She was eager. Life had become a torture for her after Mother’s suicide. I had hoped her sacrifice would not be necessary, but your obsession with me demanded it.”
“Let us be honest, Mr. Carey. Hong never forgave herself, but neither did I. After my wife’s death, Hong took part in the worst of the Red Guard infighting. She trained as an agent, a killer. She was consumed with self-hatred. After the chaos, when I came back to power and influence, I had her found. And I imprisoned her myself. We were chained together by our guilt and sorrow. I asked her to perform this mission.”
“Your own daughter?”
“I do not expect you to understand.”
“And it was Hong I was with on the mountain.”
“Everything went according to our plan, except for the presence of Mr. Simms. That was something we didn’t expect. We didn’t realize he was working with Peng until he fired his rifle.”
At the tall man in the black cloak. A. Brian Crowe.
“How did Crowe happen to catch that bullet?”
“He was my handler,” Lan said. “He introduced me to the artistic community in California. He arranged for me to go to the correct parties and meet the correct people.”
“Why?”
God, Neal thought. I