Vital Force Read Free

the man for slipping on wet pavement. She had never seen the Dragon escape so quickly. Zai jian. Goodbye to the man.
    She bowed her head to him. “Wo dong. I understand.”
    â€œGood. Let’s go.”
    The two of them got out and headed across the square toward the river. By the time they reached the edge of the square and crossed the snowy park to the edge of the river, darkness had set in completely over this part of Russia-a place that reminded Li more of Manchuria.
    Laughing Dragon stopped suddenly, his hand on her arm. “We talk English,” he said to her. “More preciously, I talk English.”
    â€œPrecisely,” she corrected.
    â€œExactly. How else I learn words meaning to Abby Road album?”
    Always back to the Beatles, she thought.
    Further up the river a figure appeared from behind some pine trees, his hulking figure a silhouette against the industrial skyline across the river.
    Laughing Dragon pulled Li forward.
    â€œClose enough,” came a harsh voice, heavily accented, followed by a gloved hand extended outward.
    The two of them stopped, the only sound the soft flow of water rippling against a pile of rocks on the river’s edge. She knew nothing of the man. That was out of necessity, as always. He was Russian. That’s all she knew. From five meters she could not see his face.
    â€œWhat go up must come down,” Laughing Dragon said.
    â€œOnly if someone shoots it down,” the Russian said.
    Coded pleasantries over, the Russian slid his hand inside his wool coat and extracted what appeared to be a bundle wrapped in plastic. He threw the package and it landed at the feet of Laughing Dragon, who reached down for it.
    â€œWait,” the man in the shadows said. “Wait until I go. Everything is there.” With that, the man backed behind the pines and was not seen again.
    Poor tactics, she thought.
    Laughing Dragon glanced at her. “You think he not very smart?”
    â€œWe could have had another person up the river,” she said.
    He let out a more subdued laugh and then pointed at a red dot bouncing around Li’s chest. “And we both die here in Khabarovsk on bank of river.”
    She looked around trying to find the source of the red dot, knowing she would be dead before she heard the sound if the shooter dared to pull the trigger.
    Her boss reached down for the bundle and then nodded for them to head back toward the car.
    â€œWhy not open the package?” she said, looking around for the red dot.
    â€œIt there. It always there. If not, it be last time.”
    They shuffled across the square to the car. Once inside, Laughing Dragon opened the package. There was a stack of American dollars, a series of photos, and instructions in English. Which was one reason she had been called in. Her boss could speak English, but his reading was limited to children’s books. He shoved the bills inside his jacket and handed her the instructions.
    She looked them over, memorized her part, and then set the paper on the seat next to her. Although she had just gotten off a flight from San Francisco that morning, catching a connecting flight from Beijing, she now saw she would be heading back to America as soon as she could catch a return flight. She would have to push her contact there. Hurry him into something she knew would include more gratuitous sex. Although that repulsed her, she knew the reward would be well worth the unpleasantness. But first she would have to work here with Laughing Dragon.
    â—
    Hours later, twenty miles southeast of the missile test site, in a bar on the outskirts of Khabarovsk, Jake Adams leaned back in his chair and poured another shot of vodka down his throat, Yuri Pushkina doing the same and then both slamming the glass to the table.
    Letting out a deep breath, Jake said, “All right, that’s the last one, Yuri.”
    The Russian laughed and then his face became serious. “Come on, my friend. This