Killing Rain

record of being able to run really bad guys like Manny. Plus your Japanese contact, plus Kanezaki, both say those guys in Manila were ex-spooks, not current. That’s independent confirmation, far as we know.”
    “What about that Washington Post report?”
    He shrugged. “Some reporter, fishing. Making the same mistake the Israelites made.”
    I nodded. “Can’t disagree with any of that.”
    “Plus Hilger did abscond with that two million dollars from Kwai Chung.”
    “I’m not sure which way that cuts. He could still be government, just dirty.”
    “That’s kind of what I’m getting at. What I think is, Hilger is Agency, but he’s wandered a tad off the reservation.”
    I considered. “That would be a very interesting possibility.”
    “Damn straight it’s interesting. If I’m right, and the news gets out, the Agency would likely disown Hilger like the wayward child he is. I’ve seen it happen.”
    “He would be vulnerable to that, it’s true.”
    “So you agree with what I’m saying?”
    “I do.”
    “Think we ought to go to Hong Kong?”
    I looked at him. “I think we ought to leave in the morning. Bangkok’s feeling a little hot after Brown Sugar, anyway.”
    I checked a few sites and found a Thai Air flight leaving at 8:00 that morning. I looked at my watch—less than seven hours away. Good. I wanted us out of the country before Hilger got news of what had happened to his man Winters, or at least before he had a chance to react to it. I reserved a seat for me, then one on an 8:25 Cathay Pacific flight for Dox. It would be more secure for us to travel separately. To be doubly sure, I used one of the backup false identities we were traveling under just in case Hilger had thought to put a customs hit on our names. I booked rooms for us in a couple of big, anonymous hotels—the InterContinental on Kowloon for Dox and the Shangri-La on Hong Kong Island for me.
    “Glad to see we’re going deluxe,” Dox said, as I made the reservations.
    “The China Club is members only,” I said. “We need hotels that can get their guests in.”
    “Hey, I’m not complaining.”
    “We’re going to need some clothes, too,” I said. “The club is formal. There ought to be a tailor right in the InterContinental shopping arcade who can get a suit ready for you while you wait. If not, ask the concierge for a recommendation.”
    He smiled. “I love Hong Kong. Fastest place on earth.”
    “Just tell the tailor you want something dark and conservative, a suit,” I said. “Let him do the rest. He’ll pick a tie for you, too.”
    “Hey, man, don’t you trust my sense of style?”
    I thought it best not to answer. I finished up on the computer, then purged the browser again.
    Dox said, “One thing occurs to me. If Winters is supposed to show up for dinner at the China Club and he doesn’t, Hilger’s going to be concerned. Or maybe Winters was supposed to check in beforehand, and when he doesn’t, Hilger might change his plans. Wasn’t that what you were worried about, why you tried to make it look like the man hadn’t died being interrogated?”
    I nodded. “We’ll have to take that into account. But the fact that the meeting place was already decided is encouraging. It would have been more secure for Hilger to have just told people the general venue, and waited until the last moment to give the exact location. My guess is that VBM, whoever he is, isn’t all that reachable. Or there are some other limitations on their ability to communicate in real time. And you have to figure this meeting is related to what happened in Manila. They’ve already been disrupted there once. I doubt they’d want to cancel again just because someone didn’t show up or failed to check in. I may be wrong, and if I am we’re going to find out, but I have a feeling their dinner’s on.”
    He leaned back in his chair. “I’ll buy that. What’s the general plan?”
    I started envisioning things, figuring out what more we’d need and how we were going to get it.
    “Manny and Hilger,” I said. “We take them both out. Manny satisfies the Israeli contract. We get paid. As for Hilger, either he’s not CIA at all, or he is and he’s off the reservation, but either way he gets disowned postmortem. At which point, the Israelis realize that they don’t have a problem with the Agency. It gets everyone off our backs.”
    “You know, though, even if the government disowns Hilger, someone might be interested in