Page 33 of Shadow Lies

“So we tell her.” He spun from the far wall where he’d paced in his agitation. Facing Alexis again, he said, “We shine a light on this whole thing. Let Charley know not only what we know but that we’re on to her. She can’t possibly go through with it after that. She won’t know if I’ve written a letter to the New York Times. Or if you’ve spilled it all to your hacker friends who will plaster the internet with it if anything happens to us.”

Alexis stood there looking torn. Finally, she reached for the cell phone on the table. “You sure about this?”

He snorted. “You have a better idea? You want to bring it to your old CIA buddies? Because they were so responsive the last time you brought information to them.”

“I see you really embrace the fact you’re allowed to be sarcastic in the monastery.” Scowling, she pulled the chip out of her pocket and started to reassemble the cell. “And no. I don’t have a better idea. I just—Charley scares me a little bit.”

Kane let out a snort. “Yeah. I can see why. Want me to talk to her?”

Her eyes lit. “Would you?”

“It would be my pleasure.” He’d love to tell her she was wrong. He only hoped Alexis was right.

Even if the information wasn’t accurate, he didn’t feel at all bad looking into it. He was done blindly following orders. He had questions and he was going to ask them.

“Call her.” They were on the clock here.

For the first time since coming here, he felt the press of not having enough time. The stress of having too much to do and not enough time to do it.

He’d have to remember to thank Alexis and Charley for that.

There was that sarcasm again. Maybe Alexis was right. He embraced it a little too much.

ChapterEleven

“What do you mean when you say I’ve got the wrong guy?” Charley repeated Kane’s words.

Alexis could hear Charley’s displeasure through the speaker phone.

“Well, I assumed you wanted me to take out the person in charge, so unless youwantedme to take out the wrong target, Wei’s not the one. He’s not pulling the strings,” Kane said.

“Please explain what you’re talking about.” Was that frustration, in the always cool and calculating Charley’s tone?

Fascinating.

Alexis glanced at Kane. He’d heard that exasperation in Charley’s voice too. She saw the satisfaction on his face.

“Wei is just the puppet. We don’t think he’s doing it willingly. There’s someone else behind him. Either the government or the mining company or both. We believe it’s whoever it was that threatened his daughter Peng. Her safety is what forced him to become the poster child for the camps. So you can take him out, but I’m sure they’ll just install someone else in his position before his body is even cremated.”

Cringing, Alexis glanced at the open doorway. Hits. Bodies. This discussion was appropriate for the CIA or the military, but it was no kind of talk to be having in a Buddhist monastery with the door open.

God, her life had gotten strange.

Charley’s momentary silence caught Alexis’s attention. They’d surprised her.

Had she really discovered information the all-knowing Charley and her organization hadn’t known? A bit of pride swelled in her chest.

Little old her, shamed ex-CIA, had thrown big bad Charley for a loop. She only hoped Charley didn’t take her displeasure out on her—or Kane—with a sniper’s bullet.

They still didn’t know to what lengths this woman and her organization would go. She had a feeling in Charley’s world you didn’t get a final paycheck and escorted off the premises by security with all your stuff in a cardboard box when terminated.

Termination with Charley was probably a whole lot more permanent.

“Who is theweyou keep speaking of?” Charley asked, back to using her cool, confident voice, although now her smoothness seemed to have a sharp edge to it.

“Alexis is apparently a computer whiz. She did some digging and found evidence of Peng’s possible kidnapping and return right about the time Wei took center stage as the man behind the Xinjiang camps.”

Again, she was quiet for a moment. Dead silent.

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