White Ghost by Steven Gore

Author:Steven Gore
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 51

When Gage and Kai walked out the hotel exit, they spotted Ferrari dressed in civilian clothes standing at the curb next to a five-year-old Toyota van with tinted windows. He pulled open the sliding door as they approached and took their bags around to the back. They found Zhang sitting on one of two rear bench seats facing a table on which lay maps, note paper, cell phones, and thermoses of tea.

Soon after leaving the hotel grounds, they passed hundreds of taxis in a line extending from the airport, each driver leaning against his car, waiting his turn to grab a fare for the long ride into the commercial center of Shanghai or to the Nanjing Road shopping district. Gage felt anger rumble inside him when he noticed that most of them were smoking, killing themselves, embracing the cancer that he was fighting, wasting their bodies and their lives.

He forced himself to look away as Ferrari cut north.

Ferrari took them along the far western edge of the city of twenty-three million, skirting the center gasping for the ocean air sweeping the gray-brown haze of diesel fumes and coal ash inland. The pollution didn’t bother Gage as much as the cab drivers’ cigarette smoke, for when hundreds of millions live in poverty, pollution can be seen as a sign of progress, even of hope.

Gage studied Zhang talking on his cell phone, a man he knew to be content in that unpredictable nexus where power and greed conjoined in state-authorized corruption. He then realized that Zhang was so focused on the money he never asked who Gage was working for and what he stood to gain. At the same time, he doubted Zhang would ask what was being exchanged for the chips. He’d likely figure it out on his own and surely keep it to himself.

As they drove farther north and west, Ferrari slowed next to Anting Automobile City. Zhang looked out of the window and pointed at a billboard displaying a Formula One race car, blurred by its two-hundred-mile-an-hour velocity.

“The Shanghai Grand Prix,” Zhang said, glancing over his shoulder at Ferrari. “Maybe someday . . .”

In the rearview mirror Gage could see a smile emerge on Ferrari’s face.

“But not now.”

Ferrari hit the accelerator and they merged back into traffic.

Gage glanced down at Zhang’s cell phone lying on the desk. “You have any leads about when the chips will come to shore?”

“Not yet, but it won’t make any difference. My people will be watching for it.”

“Maybe this will help them.”

Gage handed Zhang a list of the names and decoded numbers they recovered from Ah Tien.

“My staff located two companies that might be involved. They were listed in an address book belonging to a man named Ah Tien in San Francisco. Tongming Tiger and Efficiency Trading. Both are in a city called Nantong.”

Zhang nodded. “I know the place. Commercial and agricultural. About a million people. It’s west of the port and next to a Special Economic Zone.”

“And someone at the local trade bureau may be helping them.

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