Chapter 28 Mandarin for Fun

Chapter 28

Mandarin for Fun

We’d been playing full-contact checkers until I accused McDuffy of killing his mother. After that, the game became something akin to Russian roulette with baseball bats.

I turned to Anya. “Do you mind giving me a little one-on-one time with Mr. Barbour?”

She glared at me for a moment before locking eyes with our prisoner. “ Ty budesh’ vesti sebya khorosho, da? ”

He never looked away. “ Da. ”

I hadn’t spoken Russian with anyone for months, but I didn’t need a refresher to understand that Anya was asking Barbour if he was going to be nice.

She stepped from the cell and slid a chair inside.

I took a seat a few feet in front of my well-bound friend. “Let’s have a chat,” I began. “It appears I have three advantages at this moment—physical, psychological, and legal. You’re tied to my chair in my brig on my boat. Anya spent the day filling your head full of demons who’ll never stop dancing. And we now know the CIA would do almost anything to get you back in their hands.”

I wasn’t expecting a response, but I gave him plenty of time just in case he felt the desire to open up. He apparently did not.

“I’m going to lay all the cards on the table for you to see, Sidney. Or do you prefer Stephen?”

He licked his lips. “I’m thirsty.”

Playing head games with a master requires constant focused attention, so I wasn’t about to let him distract me with requests for anything—not even water. “Here’s what I want, Sidney. I want to know if Kenneth LePine is still alive, and even if he’s not, I want to know where he is. That’s the only key that could possibly open the locks required for you to leave this ship alive and free.”

For an interrogator, showing surprise is all seven of the deadly sins rolled into one, but it took every ounce of will I could summon to avoid showing my disbelief when he laughed.

Of all things, he laughed and said, “I haven’t been free since my junior year in college when I was recruited into the pig stye called Langley, Virginia. You offering me freedom is like a fish jumping in your boat to escape a shark. The fish is dead either way. His pea-sized brain just isn’t big enough to think it through.”

With great effort, I maintained my calm demeanor. “I’m going to locate Kenneth LePine, with or without you. If you cooperate, you may get to be Sidney Barbour again, but if you don’t, I won’t lose a minute’s sleep over handing you over to your old friends at the Agency.”

He laughed again, and I was growing tired of the sound.

“Kid, you’re too young and na?ve to know how deep you’re digging your own grave.”

I closed one eye and stared at the ceiling. “You threatening me isn’t productive, and I’m too busy for you to waste my time, so either tell me where Kenneth LePine is, or I’m calling Virginia. Pick one.”

He closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ve got about a million reasons to lie to you, but I’m not going to do that. You’re obviously a serious guy, so here’s the truth. Of course I know who Kenneth LePine is. I want to buy the mineral rights to his property, but he’s not interested in selling. I don’t know why. We’ve been more than fair. Far more than fair, to be honest. He’s sitting on a bunch of oil and natural gas, but he’s clearly not motivated by financial gain. The man’s mind is different than yours and mine.”

I was taught, and I’ve learned it to be true, that saying nothing is often the most effective interrogation technique. Barbour or McDuffy or whatever his name was had been through much of the same training as me, so I wasn’t going to surprise him with any tactic. I gave waiting a try, and to my surprise, it worked.

He kept talking. “Here’s the rest of the truth. There have been times when I, or people who work for me, have been a bit aggressive—physically aggressive—in negotiations, but not with LePine. He’s an old man, and he’ll die soon. That means all I have to do is wait him out.”

I continued listening, and he continued spewing. “Look, I don’t know what happened to your buddy, LePine, but I do know that whatever it is, we didn’t do it.”

My patience reached its terminus. “That’s it? All you’ve got is you don’t know?”

“I’m telling you, I know him. I’ve spoken with him. I’ve made offers face-to-face, but he’s not interested. It’s not worth the trouble to push him. Like I said, he’s old. What do you want from me?”

I made a show of checking my watch before making eye contact again. “Anything else?”

He changed tack. “We’re the same, you and me. We are. You’ll see. Someday, it’ll be you tied to a chair. You don’t have to do this to me.”

I smirked. “I’ve been tied to more chairs than you can count, but nobody who ever tied me to one is still breathing, so you and me…we’re not the same.”

“You may not believe it now, but here’s an example of how you and I are two peas in the proverbial pod. If you were trying to track my movement over long distances, what would you do?”

This time, he waited, and I remained silent.

He said, “Here’s what you’d do. You’d locate my typical means of transportation and plant trackers, cameras, transmitters, and listening devices until I needed an exterminator to get rid of all of those bugs. That’s exactly what you’d do, and you know it.”

I wanted to put up an argument, but discretion prevailed, and I didn’t flinch.

Barbour smiled—a reaction almost as bizarre as laughing—and said, “I know that’s what you’d do because that’s what I did to you. I bugged your airport, your boats, your airplanes, and even that piece-of-crap Volkswagen Microbus. You found most of the bugs. So, one operator to another, I have to give you credit for that.”

Sucking me into his world wouldn’t happen, but my refusal to take his hand on a stroll down Espionage Lane didn’t stop him from beckoning for me to follow.

He cleared his throat. “When you’re my prisoner, I won’t deprive you of water.”

“Tell me where Kenneth LePine is, and you can have all the water you want. I’ll even feed you and fly you back to Texas if your story checks out. It’s that simple.”

He licked his lips. “Give me ten million dollars, and I’ll let you live.”

Nothing about his strange threat made any sense. “What are you talking about?”

He said, “I’m proving a point. I don’t know where Kenneth LePine is. I don’t know if he’s gator bait or partying his ass off on Bourbon Street. I can’t give you what I don’t have, and I don’t have LePine—just like you don’t have ten million dollars.”

It was my turn to laugh, so I did, and I made it a good one. When I regained my composure, I stood and patted Sidney Barbour, or Stephen McDuffy, on the cheek. “Nice try, but I could drown you in hundred dollar bills, and it wouldn’t change my lifestyle one iota. You’re boxing out of your weight class, McDuffy, and I’m the reigning heavyweight world champion.”

I gave my chair a push with a boot and let the grating sound of metal on metal reverberate from the deck. “So, the woman I’ve got upstairs, I’m going to throw her over the stern rail. I obviously can’t just apologize and send her home. I’m in this thing a little too deep to leave a loose end like that hanging around. Since she’s not your wife and you think we’re the same, I’m sure you understand that men like us have no choice in situations like that.”

A rookie would’ve watched Barbour for twitches, or pupil dilation, or even a verbal reaction, but my rookie days were long gone, and I was in the heart of my career. I never looked back. I didn’t care if Barbour reacted. In that moment, I was a farmer planting seeds and hoping one would take root and grow.

On my way to the CIC, I stopped by Mongo’s cabin and found him hidden away inside a noise-canceling headset. He tapped his phone and pulled off the headset. “Hey, Chase. What’s up?”

“What are you listening to?”

He shook his phone. “Oh, I’m just trying to learn Mandarin. It’s tough, but I’m picking it up.”

I shook my head. “For fun, you’re learning Mandarin?”

“It’s not so much fun as something to keep my mind sharp.”

“I think I’ll stick with good bourbon and Cubans, but good luck with the Mandarin thing. When you need a break, run down to the brig and water your dog. He’s complaining about being thirsty.”

He tossed the headset onto his bunk. “Aww, poor baby. I’ll take care of it. Did you get anything meaningful out of him?”

“Maybe. Either he’s the best liar on the planet, or he doesn’t know where Kenneth is.”

“Interesting.”

I said, “Maybe he’s just playing me. I don’t know yet, but he admitted to breaking in and bugging the airport and planes. Why would he give that up?”

He stood and consumed most of the space in his cabin. “He’s trying to build trust by feeding you morsels of truth. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, Xiǎokǒu tūnyàn zhēnxiàng gèng róngyì. ”

“I’m sure that means something profound, but I have to admit I have no idea what you said.”

He chuckled. “It means the truth is easier to swallow in small bites.”

“Is that really what you said?”

He slugged me on the shoulder as he stepped past me and into the corridor. “I have no idea what I said. I made it all up, but the confidence was solid, right?”

“Solid, indeed. Feel free to have a little fun with our guest while you’re down there.”

He said, “I think he’s been through enough for one day. From what Shawn told me, Anya did a number on him. I think I’d rather have her gut me like pig than have her whisper in my ear for five hours.”

I closed his door and followed him down the corridor. “You’re a wise man, my friend. Don’t ever change.”

With Barbour’s thirst resolution in good hands, I made my way to the CIC. Once inside the secure compartment, I discovered three of the four most important women in my life huddled around a monitor with headsets of their own firmly positioned over their ears. I was instantly certain none of them was learning Mandarin, but whatever was happening inside the devices had their absolute attention.

When my hand landed on Skipper’s shoulder, she jumped as if she’d been shocked.

She yanked off her headset and screamed, “Don’t do that! You scared me to death.”

“Sorry. I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you. What’s so engrossing?”

She hit a key to stop the audio, and Celeste and Anya yanked off their sets.

The Russian huffed. “Do not turn it off. It is wonderful. He is perfect student. I will kiss him again, but this time for reward and not for learning.”

Skipper frowned down at Anya. “You’ve got to stop kissing people as a reward. Not all of us are Eastern European goddesses. We can’t compete with that, so keep your tongue in your own mouth and give the rest of us a chance.”

Anya smiled and tilted her head. “You are jealous. I think you have maybe crush on Gator. He is very good kisser, and I could teach him other things to make him perfect for you if you would like.”

Skipper’s face flushed bright red. “I do not have a crush on Gator or anybody else, and no, I don’t want you teaching him anything else to make him perfect for me. He’s fine just like he is. I mean, he doesn’t need… Never mind. Just leave him alone, would you?”

Anya raised both hands. “I am sorry. I did not know you already think he is perfect.”

“That’s not what I said!”

As much as I enjoyed whatever was happening before my eyes, it wasn’t productive, so I pulled Skipper from the fire. “Are you listening live, or is it recorded?”

Skipper said, “I paused it, so it’s not live anymore, thanks to your interruption and Anya’s offer to molest Gator. We’re at least two minutes behind.”

“Can you catch me up?” I asked.

Celeste said, “He’s doing great. I think Cecilia may have some information that she doesn’t even realize could be helpful, and Gator is pulling it out of her piece by piece. I agree with Skipper. He’s pretty perfect.”

Skipper growled. “That is not what I said. Cut it out!”

“Give me an extra headset,” I said. “I should probably nestle up with this hen party and see how Romeo’s doing.”

Skipper handed me a set and restarted the audio. The quality was astonishing. Celeste outdid herself with the setup, and I was immediately enraptured by the soap opera unfolding through the comms.