Killing Rain

meeting personally.”
    “You weren’t able to make it personally last time?”
    The man was pressing. Maybe he was the petty type. Maybe he was just testing Hilger’s mettle. It didn’t matter. Hilger said, “I wasn’t. But perhaps that’s for the best.”
    He heard the man chuckle. All right, that was good.
    “Where do you propose we meet?” the voice asked.
    “Why don’t you come here, to Hong Kong? You’ll be my guest. I’ll put you up in the best hotel. We can charter a boat, go to the horse races, whatever you like.”
    “I’m afraid I’ll be pressed for time.”
    Yes, the man was the petty type. He wanted to show that he was setting limits, that he was in charge. But the main thing was that he had implicitly agreed to the substance of what Hilger had proposed. The trick now was to close on that substance and at the same time let the man feel he was in control.
    “I understand,” Hilger said. “Still, if your schedule permits, I think you’ll find a first-class, all-expenses-paid visit to Hong Kong to be very enjoyable.”

    There was a pause, and he could feel the man considering. In Hilger’s experience, the wealthy were typically the cheapest, greediest people on the planet. With the people he had behind him, this guy could probably buy half of Hong Kong, yet he was salivating at the prospect of someone buying a tiny part of it for him.
    “We’ll see,” the voice said.
    Hilger knew that meant yes. He smiled and said, “Why don’t I make a few arrangements and post them on the bulletin board. Would tomorrow for dinner be possible? We can discuss business then, and after, if you have time, you can stay for a few days as my guest.”
    “Dinner tomorrow will work,” the man said, committing to the only part Hilger gave a shit about.
    “Excellent,” Hilger said. “I’ll make the arrangements and post them right away.”
    “Very good.” The man hung up.
    Hilger got up and walked over to his desk. He fired up his laptop, then spent a few minutes thinking. With Calver and Gibbons gone, it made sense to bring Winters to the VBM meeting. Winters was coming to Hong Kong anyway, to brief Hilger on what he got from Rain and Dox. VBM might not like the slight surprise, but at that point he wouldn’t back out. It would be worth temporarily ruffling the man’s feathers to have backup at the meeting, and to have someone to whom he could delegate after. And he’d still need Manny there to offer his imprimatur. That would make a nice party of four. Hilger knew just the place.
    He spent the next hour on the phone and the Internet, making the arrangements, alerting the players. When he was done, he checked one of the secure bulletin boards.
    Son of a bitch, he thought, feeling a flush of pride at the quality of the men he worked with. There had been a break, a bit ofluck that had enabled Hilger’s people to track Dox to Bangkok. The man had made a mistake, and it was going to cost him. If Rain was with him, as Hilger was betting he was, it would cost them both.
    His phone rang again.
    “Hilger,” he said.
    “It’s me,” the caller said.
    Hilger recognized the slightly nasal voice on the other end. His contact on the National Security Council.
    “Go ahead.”
    “We’ve got a new problem.”
    Hilger waited.
    The contact said, “I got a call this morning. A reporter from the Washington fucking Post. ”
    Hilger’s concern expressed itself in a feeling of almost deliciously cool calm.
    “What did he want?”
    “He wanted to know about a rumor that the men in Manila were CIA officers and had died while meeting with a known terrorist.”
    “Did he have anything else?”
    “Not that he said.”
    “Maybe he was fishing.”
    “I doubt it. His information was pretty accurate in certain respects. I think it’s more likely that he has a source.”
    Shit, someone was putting together the pieces pretty quickly.
    “He’s going to run a story?”
    “I don’t think so. Not yet. I think he’s looking for more information, corroboration.”
    “Then we still have time.”
    “Listen, I used up a lot of capital to straighten things out after Kwai Chung. I don’t know if I can do that again.”

    Hilger breathed once, in and out. He said, “You won’t have to.”
    “You need to put this thing to sleep quickly,” the voice answered. “We can’t afford the scrutiny. Not again.”
    Yeah, no shit.
    “It’s being handled today,” Hilger told him. “I’ll call you when it’s