“We can move the medical team in from their position to the hotel or into the convention center if needed. There’s a legit medical team at the convention center that we have infiltrated, and we have a girl in the nurse’s office here in the hotel. It will complicate the exfil, but we can still make it work.”

“Nisha’s the best in the business, Jed.” John squeezed his shoulder. “Relax, bro.”

Jed nodded, but the overstepping gesture from the smiling spook in chinos and a sport shirt made him feel even more the third wheel. Being told to relax by this dude he didn’t know, who would be safe and secure in the hotel suite while Jed was in the field, was starting to irritate him. He tapped his left ear, the pressure wave activating the micro earbud into VOX mode.

“Joshua Six, One—sitrep?”

“In position with Five. All good here. Angel Three and Four are with us, by the way,” Hyeon replied, referring to the two Chinese operatives from John’s med team in the ambulance with him and Bex.

Jed had no idea if those dudes were managed local assets, double agents working for the CIA, or simply contractors of Chinese American descent working for whatever deep, dark task force John came from. The cocky spook hadn’t seen fit to read him in on the details, and neither had Nisha.

“Roger that,” Jed said. “Just keep doing what you’re doing and try to blend in.”

“For the record, you guys do know that I’m Korean, not Chinese, right?” Hyeon came back.

Jed chuckled and shook his head. Hyeon had brought that up more than once since landing in Hong Kong. “No one’s asking you to speak Mandarin, bro,” Jed replied before John could steal his thunder.

“In that case, we’re all set,” Hyeon said. “You get the target to the park and we’ll do the rest.”

“Check.”

Easier said than done.

Jed looked at his watch.

He was supposed to meet his principal, Dr. Weider, down in the lobby and escort him to the meeting in five minutes. Despite repeated asks, John had refused to confirm for Jed whether the man was the actual physicist drafted as an unwitting pawn in their little spy game or a spook disguised as the man. The ambiguity of this op was driving Jed crazy.

So many moving parts.

So much to go wrong.

That’s why I became an operator, he thought and realized he’d give anything to be fast-roping in on a Taliban stronghold in the Hindu Kush instead of this.

“All right, it’s showtime,” he said with a nod to Nisha as he headed for the door. “See you soon.”

“You’ll do great,” she said and flashed him that little lip-curl thing she did. “And I’ll be watching you the whole time.”

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

GRAND HARBOUR VIEW SUITE, EIGHTEENTH FLOOR

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL HONG KONG