Page 41 of No Time Off (Lexi Carmichael Mystery #15)
FORTY-ONE
Jiang Shi
J iang Shi sat in the office, his posture rigid, eyes fixed on the chair where Slash had sat just hours previously, tied up and at his complete mercy. Now he was in the wind, freed by a woman who had waltzed into a secure compound and tased a guard.
Lexi Carmichael. He knew it had been her. She’d slipped in with delivery personnel and gotten Slash out with ease. It infuriated him so much he could hear the blood rush in his ears.
He’d been so enraged when he’d heard Slash had escaped that he had personally disciplined the guard who’d been on duty. He glanced down at his bruised knuckles and felt a flicker of satisfaction. Tased by a woman. Who trained these imbeciles, anyway?
He inhaled slowly, tried to temper his anger, but it didn’t work. He should have tortured Slash on the spot, found his woman, and made him confess what he was really doing here. Only, he’d thought he had time—glorious time—to do whatever he wanted once Slash was in China. But the American had slipped through his fingers once again, leaving him with nothing.
It infuriated him even more.
His anger still boiling, he glared at his laptop screen. The Cook Islands were small, the airport remained closed, and he’d tightened the ports. Slash and Lexi would not get off this island alive. It was only a matter of time before he found them and the prime minister. Still, he had to be cautious, calculate every mood, and anticipate every challenge. His opponents were good, but he was better.
The door to the office suddenly flew open with such force and surprise, it sent the parrot flapping and screeching about. Chen, his chief of staff in the Cook Islands, and in whose office he now sat, stood in the doorway, holding a printed email with a look of alarm in his eyes.
“Sir, you need to see this,” Chen said, voice strained with urgency. “Immediately.”
Shi’s gaze narrowed. “I’m busy. What is it?”
Chen crossed the room and put the paper on the desk in front of him. “It’s from Maivia. It just came through. He… I don’t know how else to say it. He’s resigning.”
Shi’s mouth dropped open. “He’s what ?”
“Resigning, sir,” Chen repeated.
“What do you mean, he’s resigning?” Shi snatched the printout, his eyes scanning the contents. He had to read it twice.
Maivia, the idiot, had emailed a public resignation letter. A letter that explained the coup wasn’t his idea, but was, in fact, orchestrated by China. Maivia’s apology was as profuse as it was pitiful, but it was the closing statement that sent a shock wave through Shi’s body.
Maivia named the mastermind behind the upheaval—a Chinese national named Jiang Shi.
Shi felt the blood drain from his face. The stupid idiot had mentioned him by name. Worse, the email apparently contained an audio file, too.
“Where’s the audio file?” Shi demanded.
“You’ll have to pull it up on your laptop, sir,” Chen explained and then walked Shi through it. “I already sent it to you.”
Once it was pulled up, Chen told him to hit play. Shi instantly recognized his own voice. He heard himself speaking openly to Slash about the Chinese government’s true intentions—how they were quietly infiltrating and taking control of small, insignificant Pacific nations to expand China’s geopolitical influence in the region and build support in the UN.
It was damning. It was true. It was everything Shi had worked so hard to keep hidden.
“Get Maivia on the phone. Now! ” Shi shouted at Chen, slamming the printout down on the desk, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the edge.
Chen moved quickly, dialing the number. The line connected in an instant. Shi grabbed the phone once Maivia answered, his voice barely restrained.
“Maivia,” Shi said, seething with anger. “What the hell is this resignation email? And what’s with the audio? Where did it come from? To whom did you send this email?”
On the other end, Maivia’s voice was full of confusion. “I…I don’t understand, Shi. What resignation? What are you talking about?”
Shi’s mind was already racing and came to a quick to a conclusion. Slash. Slash had done this. The person who had ruined his life, tormented him, and constantly interfered in his operations. Always one step ahead. Shi had underestimated him, and now he’d flipped the narrative in a way Shi had never imagined.
Next time he had Slash in his grasp, there would be no flying to China, no prolonged torture, just instant, immediate death.
“Take down the internet now,” he shouted at Maivia. “Government websites, social media accounts, everything. They’ve been compromised. Get a team working on reclaiming those pages this very minute, or I swear to God, your head will be on a platter. Get to the bottom of this immediately.”
Maivia’s voice wavered. “I don’t know what’s going on! What are you talking ab?—”
Shi slammed the phone down.
“Sir,” Chen said hesitantly. “It looks like this email also went out to every member of Parliament in the Cook Islands, neighboring islands, and several news outlets here, and in New Zealand and Australia.”
Before Shi could respond to that devastating revelation, the phone rang. Shi snapped it up as Chen quietly slipped out of the room.
“Who is it?” he growled.
“This is Lin Wu,” a man’s voice said. Wu was Shi’s chief of staff in Kiribati, a nearby island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania. “Sir, what’s happening in the Cook Islands? A recording of you has just been released to the government in the capital city of Tarawa. You’re calling them fools, saying how easy it was to buy them and the island, and how much more China would’ve paid for their loyalty, if they hadn’t been so desperate for scraps. They’re calling me, right now, as the Chinese representative on their island. They want answers and they’re not happy. What am I supposed to tell them?”
Shi felt a wave of nausea, but he could still spin this. “Tell them it’s all lies,” Shi snarled. “Artificial intelligence, fake news, propaganda, whatever. All fomented by the Americans. Get them to calm down and tell them we’re handling it.” But even as he said it, he knew it would ring hollow. People would now be looking closely into his personal actions and behaviors, exactly the things he did not want his bosses in China poking around. They were not going to be pleased. Not at all.
His mind spun, each new revelation worse than the last. He had to act fast and gain control or everything would come crashing down.
Shi hung up while Wu was still talking. When Chen returned, his face pale.
“What now?” Shi asked.
“The email, the information, it’s all over the Cook Islands’ websites and social media. But worse, the prime minister is alive and talking. She made a video and is telling everyone she’s been in hiding, but she’s back now and ready to fight for the country. She’s saying the Chinese engineered the coup. She’s calling out our involvement—your involvement specifically.”
Shi’s vision blurred with rage. “What is she saying?”
“She’s saying Maivia is a puppet leader put in place by China and asking people to tune in to an important announcement tonight at seven o’clock. She’s promising more details then.”
Shi slammed his fist down on the desk. “Get Maivia back on the line.”
Chen called, but Maivia still had no idea what was going on. “I don’t know what’s happening,” he moaned. “It looks like someone hacked into my email. I’m trying to deal with that now. I told you we needed to focus on finding the prime minister, and now I have no idea where she is or what announcement she will make.”
Shi’s head throbbed; his fingers clamped tightly on the phone. He glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes until seven o’clock. “Whatever it is, Maivia—stop it! Get the internet down and send reinforcements about town. Who knows where she intends to make her announcement? I don’t care what you do, just don’t let her talk to the people. Take her into custody immediately.”
He slammed down the phone again before Maivia could answer. He had no idea what the prime minister would say, but he knew it would only make things worse. He had to shut her up.
Shi rose from the desk. “Chen, start destroying anything that might be incriminating. You know what I mean. And get my plane ready to go. If we must leave the island, we leave nothing behind. Understood?”
“Understood, sir.” Chen started moving while Shi churned over what was coming next. He couldn’t afford to lose his grip on this operation. If the Cook Islands and Kiribati slipped through his fingers, it would be the beginning of the end. But perhaps there was a way he could still survive this.
It was all Slash’s fault. His career had started and ended with Slash once before. Not again. He wouldn’t allow it.
A storm was coming, and Jiang Shi was determined to survive it.