“So?”
“So let’s get some answers.”
Chapter 27
Dunkin followed Nicole down the concrete path, threading his way through tables and stools full of tourists out enjoying the harbor night. He half thought about staying there due to the size of the crowds, but the entrance to the Sydney Opera House from the park was a choke point. Short of swimming in the harbor, this was the only way they could have left the park. Staying here was asking to get found.
They jogged up the path next to the water, moving around the street performers and panhandlers out front of the Circular Quay ferry terminals, and Dunkin stopped, saying, “Where do these ferries go?”
Nicole said, “All over the harbor. Come on. We need to get to George Street.”
“Wait. We should take one of these. Get all the way across the bay. They won’t know where we are after that.”
“Dunkin, I don’t know this city that well. I have no idea what ferry to take or where to go once it lands.”
Unconvinced, Dunkin said, “That may not matter. There’s probably a hotel at the far end of one of these. I think we should take one of them.”
“That’s fine, but let’s figure it out first. We can do that after we talk. I know they go to the Heads and the zoo, but not much else. No reason to run off on the first ferry.”
He nodded, realizing she was thinking more clearly than he was. All he wanted to do was run, but maybe taking a breath and coming up with a plan was a better idea. They kept moving, dodging the mass of people coming and going from the ferry terminals. She led him across a small park and up some stairs, reaching the first major road, George Street. She said, “This is what’s known as The Rocks—the first place inhabited by the original Western settlers of Australia.”
He said, “You mean the criminals?”
She smiled and said, “Yeah, them too, but that’s a little bit of a myth. They were here, but we had a lot of just plain old settlers all scrabbling for a living on the rocks of the wharf. It wasn’t pretty. This place was nothing but whorehouses and gambling dens for the sailors.”
She glanced at him and said, “Given what’s just happened, you’d have probably fit in.”
He grinned and said, “Not unless they had computer terminals.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t a computer terminal that was shooting at me.”
He let that slide, saying, “Let’s get to the pub. I’ll tell you what I know and we can figure out a plan.”
They crossed George Street, jogging through the traffic, then passed restaurants and bars until they saw an awning proclaiming “Fortune of War—Since 1828.” As they came closer, Dunkin heard music spilling out. He began to relax. Nicole was right. This place was perfect.
They showed identification to a bouncer, and then entered pandemonium. There was a man with a guitar blaring American music from the seventies, rugby on multiple television screens, and a raucous crowd either attempting to sing along or shout over the noise. She pulled him to the back, finding a two-person high-top table and taking a seat.
Dunkin looked around, noting a back room and a stairwell leading up. He said, “Well, it looks like you found a crowded place.”
“I told you. Nobody’s going to try anything in here. No way.”
He leaned in and kissed her, saying, “Thank you for trusting me. Sorry this happened.”
She pulled back and said, “Okay, so what is happening? What’s going on?”
He felt the last twenty-four hours sap the will out of his body. He said, “I’m honestly not sure. Can we get a beer?”
She said, “Are you kidding me? No, I want to talk. Not drink. No more stonewalling like you did on the drive up here. I want to talk. Now.”
He slid off his stool and said, “I will, I will. Let me get a beer and we’ll talk.”
He stood up, not waiting on a reply, fighting his way through the crowd to the bar and going over what he would tell her. How he could explain what had just happened. In his own mind, he didn’t understand it. How was he on the run from trained Chinese killers? What had he done to get attacked? He’d already thought about every mission he’d run with the Taskforce, and knew that wasn’t it. He’d drifted to his current work, but nothing he’d done would warrant such extreme measures.
It had to be Jake. He hadn’t imagined seeing him when he left work for vacation. And he hadn’t imagined him doing something nefarious. Jake had done something bad, and had known that Dunkin would figure it out—and so Dunkin had been marked for assassination. Now he had to find a way out of this. They’d ditched the Chinese in the short run, but whatever Jake had done had been worthy enough to dedicate the team in the first place, and Dunkin was sure it had the blessing of the Chinese government. With those resources behind them, he was sure they’d find him again.
The first thing was to break Nicole away. Get her out of the line of fire. Staying with him would only put her in danger. Although she might already be in danger just by her association with him. Along with her sister now.
He put his head in his hands, overwhelmed by the odds against him and the stakes involved. He needed some help. And then he remembered Pike Logan. He jerked his head up like he’d stuck his finger in a light socket, just as the bartender came to him.
“Whoa, mate. I’m here. What’ll you have?”
“What?”
“You want a beer? Or are you just here to think?”
“Yeah. I’ll have two Four X. Draft.”
He took them, paid the tab, and fought his way back to the table, seeing Nicole on her phone. He leapt forward, spilling the beer on the high-top and causing her to jump. He said, “What are you doing?”
“Googling the ferry schedule. You said you wanted to get away from here. What is with you?”
He tried to grab the phone and she turned away from him, saying, “Quit it! It’s still loading.”
“Turn that damn phone off! Right now!”
Truculent, she did so, saying, “So how do you plan to see the ferry schedule? Brain waves? What has gotten into you?”
He set the beers on the table and said, “I’m sorry. It’s just not safe to use that phone.”
She stood up, putting the phone in her pocket and saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. I have to use the loo. Watch my purse. And you’d better have some answers when I get back.”
He said, “Don’t turn it on in the bathroom.”
She walked away without a word, heading to the stairs to the upper level, causing Dunkin to feel like an ass. He sipped his beer, thinking about how he was going to contact Pike. He couldn’t do it with any phone they owned. Well, maybe he could. He could use her phone for a split second—or even his—set up a meeting spot, then turn the damn thing off.
He nodded his head, then started to develop a plan about what he was going to tell Nicole. He couldn’t tell her any classified information, but he had to give her enough to make her believe him. Lost in thought, he took a few more sips of his beer, and then realized that Nicole had been gone a long time. He glanced up the stairwell, waiting to see her come back down. She did not. He looked at his watch, startled that it had been over ten minutes. Maybe fifteen. He began to grow concerned, wondering if she’d just left him here in the bar.