he’d made sure no one was tailing him. From there he’d take the island’s West Road all the way, until it terminated, some three hundred yards from Blackwell Island Light, which put him in the kill zone. He would start at dusk and be in place before he made the calls directing Kamran and Mei-Lun to the appointed drop site, neither one expecting that the other would be there.
One question still remained in Bolan’s mind: would either of the top men show in person? He believed the odds were good, particularly if he made delivery contingent on their turning up to make the payoff. Naturally, they’d come with heavy backup, hoping to eliminate the stranger who was vexing them and claim the heroin without paying a dime. Bolan was counting on both sides to try their best at cheating him. He needed soldiers on the ground to help him with the mopping up.
And if he missed Kamran, Mei-Lun or both...well, he could take a little extra time to visit them before he moved on to the second phase of his campaign. Why not?
Anything worth doing was worth doing well.
Chinatown
“ROOSEVELT ISLAND?” Paul Mei-Lun pronounced the name as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “What’s on Roosevelt Island?”
“Your shipment,” Bolan replied. “It waits for you till half past midnight, then goes looking for another buyer.”
“That would be a big mistake.”
“I’ll risk it if you don’t show up.”
“I said I’d be there, didn’t I? The park, out by the lighthouse, right?”
“That’s it,” the caller said. “If you decide to change your mind, the bag goes to Kamran.”
“Hey, now—”
But he was talking to dead air.
Standing beside him, almost at his elbow, Kevin Lo asked, “Well? What did he say?”
“Midnight, Roosevelt Island. At the lighthouse park.”
“This whole thing smells.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“It has to be some kind of setup.”
“Obviously. But it’s not the pigs,” Mei-Lun declared. “No mention of the H at all, so far. I show up and they bust me, I can always claim somebody called about my uncle’s missing suitcase.”
“Okay. It’s the Afghans, then.”
“Three of their men got wasted, right along with ours. If they already had the bag, why call me?”
That stumped Lo, but he still was not satisfied. “So what’s the angle, then? This can’t be straight.”
“His angle doesn’t matter,” Mei-Lun answered. “Only ours. He wants to dance, we call the tune.”
“We go in hard?”
“As hard as diamonds, brother.” Mei-Lun checked his Movado Swiss Automatic SE Extreme watch and smiled. “The meet’s at midnight. That gives us four hours to get there. I want a dozen of our best men here in half an hour, dressed to kill.”
“No problem,” Lo assured him. “You’re still going with us?”
“Kevin, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Get moving now and set it up.”
Lo bobbed his head and left the office, cell phone already in hand. Mei-Lun considered changing his command to make it twenty soldiers, rather than a dozen, but that felt like overcompensating. From the early eyewitness reports, one guy had done the killing on Canal Street by himself, and he would likely come alone to claim his payoff for the stolen heroin. But if he showed up with a friend or two, so what? Mei-Lun would have his soldiers waiting at the drop well in advance of midnight, primed to waste this fool on sight.
No, scratch that. They would have to chat a little with him first, to make sure that he’d brought the merchandise. Killing the bastard without getting back the skag would be a waste of time—and it would leave Mei-Lun at risk from Ma Lam Chan when he admitted to the loss.
A sudden thought disturbed him. What if Chan already knew about the heist? He almost certainly had eyes and ears inside Mei-Lun’s Manhattan cadre, someone who would tip him off to any problems Mei-Lun tried to cover up. If word had reached the Dragon Head at home, would he reach out to Paul Mei-Lun, or simply send a team of his enforcers to correct the situation, meting out the punishment Chan deemed appropriate?
Mei-Lun peered at his watch again, counting the hours since the slaughter on Canal Street, guessing how long it would take to have a team airborne from Hong Kong to the States. As he remembered it, the flight to San Francisco took approximately fifteen hours, then they’d face another seven hours in the air, if they were fortunate enough to catch a nonstop flight from Frisco to LaGuardia or JFK. If they were airborne now, Mei-Lun shouldn’t expect to see them nosing around Chinatown until sometime tomorrow afternoon.
No sweat.
He’d have the problem solved by then, the merchandise in hand, and they could tell Chan that he’d taken care of business without any interference from the East. And if that didn’t satisfy the Dragon Head, perhaps they ought to meet and talk about it, face-to-face.
Maybe, Mei-Lun decided, it was time for him to think about advancement in the Family.
Flushing, Queens
“THIS MAKES NO SENSE, WASEF,” Ghulam Munadi said.
Wasef Kamran shrugged in response. “This man stole heroin we planned to steal, and now he wants to sell it. What confuses you?”
“First, that he knows the number where to reach you.”
“Anyone can find a number nowadays,” Kamran replied. “The internet is free to all, and this man has skills.”
“Too many skills,” Munadi countered. “He is some kind of policeman. I’m convinced of it.”
“Some kind? What kind? He asks for money to return an item that was stolen. There is nothing to incriminate us, eh?”
“Until we claim the bag. Then they arrest us.”
“Think, Ghulam! Would the police kill six men in the public eye, then steal the drugs just to arrest us?” Kamran did not wait for his lieutenant to reply. “Of course not! If this person is a cop, he’s more like us. Trying to save a little for retirement, eh?”
“And what if it’s a trap?” Munadi asked.
“I can assure you that it is. We seem to take the bait, then close the noose around his neck. With fifteen men, what can he do?”
Munadi frowned. “I don’t like going to this island.”
“Tell me what you do like, Ghulam. It’s a shorter list, I’m sure.”
“What I would like is to forget this business. Since we can’t do that, I’d like you to remain here under tight security until the bag has been retrieved and this is settled.”
