First Strike Read Free

Rich.
    â€œGuilty—Ralph?” Chance shook his head. “Yes, I know he set us up against the Mafia, and planted a bomb on you, Rich. But he won’t have any regrets about that. His overriding concern is always for himself and how he can turn a profit. So it’s more likely the champagne was a peace offering. He wanted to make sure I’d hear him out, not punch him out.”
    â€œIt was a risk,” Ardman said. He opened the lid of his teapot and poked at the teabag inside with a spoon. “He’s a wanted man in this country, remember. Oh, he can slip in and out on a false passport easily enough, but making contact with someone who’d recognise him is a big risk. He has no reason to think you’d be friendly towards him. Yet he wanted to tell you something. Andnot over the phone, but in person.”
    â€œAnd he got shot,” Rich added.
    â€œWhich suggests whatever he had to say was important.” Ardman gave up on the teapot and read the note again. “I don’t care for his choice of the word nuclear .”
    â€œHe might not mean it literally,” said Chance.
    â€œIt’s a shame we can’t ask him yet.”
    â€œHow’s he doing?” Rich asked. The doctors had been vague when they had spoken to them, but he thought they might have been more open with Ardman.
    â€œNot good,” Ardman said. “They’ve operated, as you know, and removed the bullet from his lung, but he’s still in a coma. He may come out of it in the next day or two. Or the next month or so. Or never.”
    â€œSo the note really is all we have,” said Jade.
    â€œWell, we do have a good idea of who the sniper was,” Chance pointed out.
    â€œI’d almost rather we didn’t.” Ardman leaned back in his chair as he considered. “Another false passport job, I suspect. I really must talk to the borders and immigration people about how she got here undetected. But a more pressing question is, why does Colonel Shu, one of the most wanted war criminals in the world, go to the troubleand expense of coming to an out-of-town diner in deepest, darkest Gloucestershire to kill a gentleman—I use the term loosely—who runs one of the most successful crime syndicates in Eastern Europe?”
    â€œAnd why do it just as the province she’s trying to liberate is being invaded by the Chinese?” Rich added.
    Ardman frowned. “Not invaded , please. It is a Chinese province; they’re just asserting their rule.”
    â€œIs she working for this Marshal Wieng?” Jade asked.
    â€œAlmost certainly,” her father told them. “They’ve fought together since the rebellion really got going in the 1990s. Not that Wiengwei was ever quiet. Marshal Wieng claims to be a direct descendent of the original Emperor Wieng Tso—an equally war-like man who founded the province, and gave his name to it.”
    â€œAnd is he a descendent?” asked Rich.
    â€œDoesn’t matter,” Ardman said. “The point is that the claim has focused the rebels and garnered them more support. Whether it’s true or not won’t make a difference now. After the Red Army rooted out most of the rebels in 1998, the province has been kept under tight control. But the Chinese took their eye off the ball rather; distracted by earthquakes and Olympics, among other things. That gave Marshal Wieng the opportunityto come out of hiding and start gathering new support.”
    â€œDoes this Marshal Wieng have nukes?” Rich asked. “Could that be what Ralph meant?”
    â€œThe Chinese used to have a couple of strategic missile bases in the province,” Ardman said, “but nowhere near the areas where the rebels are active. The bases are still there, but the missiles were withdrawn and decommissioned back in the eighties.”
    â€œI guess we just have to hope that Ralph pulls through,” said Chance.
    â€œHe’s a