"I do not like this," Kefira muttered softly to Jessie. "Something is not right." They stood with Jean-Paul and Jade at the top floor window of an old abandoned, multi-story warehouse situated across the street from the offices and central warehouse of Lakshmanan Shipping.
Jessie scanned the bustling street in the mid-morning sunshine. She could see nothing amiss. "What is it? Looks calm enough to me."
"Mr. Lakshmanan still has not arrived. It is not like him."
"Maybe he's just taking a day off," Paul suggested with a shrug, but Kefira shook her head sharply.
"No. Mr. Lakshmanan is like my father. His work is his life. It is what gives him a reason to get out of bed every morning. He would not be taking a day off in the middle of the week."
"You're sure he hasn't come in?" Jessie questioned. "You might have missed him."
"I do not believe so. I have known him for many years and I would have recognized him, even at this distance."
"Well, there's one good way to find out for certain," Jade said, rising determinedly. "Stay here. I'll be back."
"Wait a minute!" Jessie demanded. "Where are you going?"
"Why, down to see if Mr. Lakshmanan is available to speak with me. Hadn't you heard? I have some items I need to have shipped."
"You can't just walk in there and . . ."
Jade's laughter interrupted her. "Of course I can! Jessie, this is my part of the world. China, Japan, the Philippines, Guam, India . . . I'm known throughout Indochina. Even if Mr. Lakshmanan and his people don't know me, it will take five minutes on the phone to confirm that I am who I say I am."
"Yes, and two minutes more will have the cops down on you!"
Jade snorted. "As if they could catch me! Furthermore, the last I knew, I wasn't wanted for anything in India. Just stay here. This won't take long." With that, she set off across the cavernous room at a brisk pace.
Jessie snorted in disgust as she turned away and sank down to sit, leaning against a large wooden barrel. "We may as well make ourselves comfortable."
"Is it true? Can she do what she says?" Kefira asked.
"She can do it," Paul replied as he sat down and leaned against the wall.
"How did you meet Jade, Jean-Paul?" Jessie asked idly.
He shrugged. "Just make it Paul. Jean-Paul makes me feel like I should be back in the gallery. As for Jade . . . I met her the same way we all met her. Ran into her as part of an operation in the orient. She wasn't always the most reliable in a firefight, but you could usually trust her information . . . if you could pay her price." He chuckled suddenly. "Except for Race. She must have had a soft spot for him, because it was very rare that he ever had to pay for anything he got from her, and I don't think she ever double-crossed him on anything."
Jessie laughed. "Wrong on both counts. He always had to pay her, one way or the other, and she double-crossed him more times than I can count."
"Ah, but she never left him hanging out to dry. She always saw to it that any time she used him, she left him safe. And when things got rough, she aways covered his back. That's more than you can say for most of the men she worked with. To be honest, I'm surprised you know her at all. I would have thought that Race would have kept his precious little girl as far away from the likes of Jade Kenyon as he could get. When did you meet her?"
Jessie shrugged. "I've known of her most of my life, although the really involved tales I didn't hear until I got to know Jon and Hadji. They met her when they were about ten or eleven. I was about thirteen or so when I met her face-to-face." Jessie laughed a little. "She called my Dad . . . supposedly to help her out of a jam. Turns out she needed him as part of a scam to access a famous ruby she was trying to steal."
"Sounds like Jade," Paul agreed with a grin. "Did she manage to accomplish it?"
"Oh, she got it all right. Didn't end up getting to keep it, though."
Paul shook his head. "See. That's what I mean. Bannon's the only person I ever knew that could blow up a plan of Jade's like that and still remain on speaking terms with her. Never knew how he managed it."
"It's probably better we don't know," Jessie replied sedately. Stretching her legs out in front of her, she dropped her head back to rest against the wall and allowed her eyes to drift shut.
Paul contemplated the redhead for a minute and then said, "So tell me, Jessica, was what you told Jade on the vid-phone true? Did Race and Estella really get married again?"
"Yeah."
"And they're actually expecting another kid?"
"Yep."
"I'll be damned. Well, good for Race. I always thought they were a great couple."
Jessie opened one eye lazily and squinted at him. "Then you were the only one."
"Yeah, well, most of the others had their own agendas. They figured that Bannon's getting married would dull his edge and erode his value to the agency." He chuckled nostalgically. "That certainly didn't happen. I do think the breakup of his marriage had something to do with his chucking the company, though. Man, I've never heard the higher ups howl as loudly as they did the day he walked in and announced that he was quitting to go to work for Quest. They were seriously pissed about that! As for anyone else that didn't figure those two were well-matched . . . well, they just didn't really bother to look beyond the squabbles. Truth is, he was crazy about her and I think she was about him, too."
"She was," Jessie agreed with a slight smile. "Just took 'em a while to find a way to make it work."
"Never could figure out what went wrong between them."
Jessie shrugged. "Who knows? And frankly, it's none of my business. Whatever it was, they seemed to have worked it out. They're happier now than I've ever known them to be, and I guess that's all that counts."
"No arguing with that." Paul glanced over at Kefira who still watched the front of the building across the street. "Anything?"
"I saw her go inside, but she has not come out again."
"She didn't just walk out of this building and cross the street, did she?" Jessie asked, looking a bit more alert.
"No. She drove up in a car, parked it out front and walked in."
Jessie winced slightly. "Well, if she wasn't wanted in India before . . ."
Paul chuckled. "That's Jade. Furthermore, you never know . . . we may need the transportation."
"There she is," Kefira said suddenly.
Both Paul and Jessie rose hastily to join her at the window. They were just in time to see a large 4-door sedan with heavily tinted windows pull out and drive off. It disappeared from their range of view before they could see where it turned. There was no sign that Jade's visit had caused a stir of any kind in the business they were watching and she rejoined them about 15 minutes later.
"Well, it seems Mr. Lakshmanan has been out of the office for several days. Everyone was exceedingly pleasant and kept repeating how pleased he would be to talk with me about shipping my merchandise, however they simply couldn't tell me when they could schedule an appointment for me to meet with him. I got the feeling that they really didn't know what was going on. I'll say this much, though. They didn't like it. It's got them edgy."
Jessie frowned. "I don't like it, either. What do you think, Kefira?"
"Something is definitely wrong," she said decisively. "I believe we must go to his house."
"Do we know how to get there?" Paul asked.
"I have an address and I know how to find the district in which he lives."
"We'll find it," Jade said confidently. "We might as well go. Waiting here isn't gaining us anything and I've got the car parked out back." She grinned at Jessie's pained expression. "No, I didn't steal it. I got far enough away from here on foot and then hailed a taxi and had him take me to the nearest rental agency. The car's currently being leased to one Monica Leveck."
"How did you know about that?" Jessie demanded.
Jade grinned. "Last night I took the opportunity to look at the passport you're carrying. Or should I say, passports? I just picked one." With a quick flick of the wrist, she tossed something to Jessie. When she caught it, she discovered it was the passport she'd had made up for "Monica Levek". At Jessie's glare, Jade just shrugged. "Hey, knowing that you would object to my 'borrowing' it, I just took it. I had to have some form of identification when I rented the car . . ."
"Why not in your own name? After all, you're 'known all over the orient'!" Jessie shot back. Then she shook her head. Securing the passport in the inside pocket of her jacket, she said, "Never mind. I bet I already know the answer. And as much as I hate to admit it, she's right. This is getting us nowhere. We might as well move. Paul, you drive. You've just been promoted to chauffer."
"That's the place," Jade said, checking the address one more time. After a somewhat lengthy search, the four of them had finally located the residence of Zail Lakshmanan. It was situated on the far north side of the city in a relatively wealthy section of Mumbai. The house sat on several acres of heavily wooded land and a high stone wall surrounded the property. Between the wall and the trees, they could see no sign of the house. "So how do we play this?"
"I'm really not inclined to drive up to that gate and announce to the world who we are and what we want," Jessie replied slowly.
Jade looked at her sharply. "Still uneasy?" Jessie nodded wordlessly.
"What's the chance that we'll run into something like dogs if we jump the fence and work our way up to the house?" Paul asked Kefira.
"I have never heard of Mr. Lakshmanan protecting his house with dogs, but I suppose it is possible," Kefira replied
"I think we risk it," Jessie said. "Let's find a place to park the car and get going. We've wasted enough time on this as it is."
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them were moving warily through the timber that ringed the grounds. The density of the undergrowth made progress difficult and Paul kept looking around uneasily. Finally, he asked, "You don't suppose the guy protects his house and grounds with tigers, do you?"
Jessie and Kefira exchanged a grin while Jade looked a bit startled at the thought. "I think it unlikely," Kefira said consolingly. "The last I knew, Mr. Lakshmanan had nine children, some of them very young. I do not believe he would risk their lives by using something as uncontrollable as tigers to guard his borders."
"Well, that's reassuring," he replied, sounding unconvinced.
A short time later, the trees and undergrowth thinned, and they began to catch glimpses of beautifully manicured lawns and gardens."
"This guy does all right," Jade said thoughtfully.
"Jade, I told you," Jessie said in a warning tone. "You leave this guy alone."
"Sure, honey, whatever you say . . ."
They knelt and watched the house cautiously for a few minutes. Finally, Jessie glanced over at Kefira. "So what do you think?" she asked.
"Everything appears quiet," the Indian girl replied. "The gardener is on the far side . . . I just saw him." Gesturing to the left, she indicated a large hedgerow. "I would suggest that calm and an attitude of being where we belong is the most likely to get us to the house safely. There will be a gap in the garden hedge somewhere along the side facing the forest. We can enter there and work our way casually back toward the house. If we run into anyone, we are simply out for a morning stroll in the gardens."
"That's a maze," Paul objected. "If we get lost in there . . ."
"And we're not exactly dressed for a morning stroll in the gardens," Jade added, gesturing to the two young women's black leather attire, and her and Paul's dark cargo pants and shirts. "What do we say if they ask questions?"
"I will deal with it," Kefira said confidently. "It will not be a problem."
Jade and Paul looked like they were about to protest again, but Jessie cut them off. "Good. Let's go!" The two young women set off immediately with their two older companions trailing along behind them reluctantly. It didn't take them long to locate the gate in the hedgerow, however it was secured by a sturdy gate that was securely locked. Once again, Paul balked.
"This is not a good idea!" he protested. "There's got to be a better way."
Finally, Jessie had had enough. She turned to him and said coldly. "You're right. There is. The two of you are going to stay here. Kefira and I will go in alone."
Both Paul and Jade immediately began to protest, but Jessie cut them off sharply. "No! It's a good idea to have some outside backup, anyway. I want the two of you to keep an eye on the place. Go back to where we first approached the grounds and wait. There was a pretty good view of the whole area from there." She checked her watch quickly. "If we haven't gotten word back to you in three hours, you can pick your own way in and come looking for us. But not before. Understand?"
"I don't like it," Paul said.
"You don't like much, do you?" Jessie replied sarcastically. "Just wait. We'll be back." Lacing her fingers together, she looked at Kefira and gestured to the gate. "Up and over." Kefira nodded economically and, placing her foot in Jessie's cupped hands, she launched herself for the top of the gate. Catching it firmly, she boosted herself up and disappeared over the top. An instant later a soft thump on the other side marked her landing. Almost immediately, the rattle of the gate latch could be heard, and then the gate swung open with a single loud squeak.
"Are you sure . . ." Jade began, but Jessie cut her off.
"I said wait," she replied firmly, and then she disappeared through the gate, closing it behind her with finality.
