Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(32)

“Those people are wrong.” Gabe bit off each word.

And why did Li seem disappointed? Damned informants. Rarely friends. What mattered more was whether Li had gone from neutral to biased in favor of one of his other clients.

Li let loose his nervous laugh again. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy, real happy, to have one of my best friends back. Of course.”

“Of course.” Sure. And Gabe might go back to wearing tighty-whities tomorrow. “In honor of our friendship, why don’t you give me some insight?”

“On what?” Li sounded genuinely puzzled. “Like I said, there’s no news recently.”

“Not looking for jobs or background on any of the diplomats in-house.” Gabe tapped the metal rail along the back of Li’s seat. The urge to shake what he wanted out of the man was pretty strong. Still, Gabe would learn more if he nudged Li into babbling instead. “There might be some effort to sweep a few things under the rug, though, maybe a missing person?”

“People go missing every day, especially overseas. Police have more data on those reports than the embassy does.” Too glib. Rehearsed, even. Definitely something there.

“I’m not talking about a kid on the side of a milk carton. And the embassy is the link to the authorities overseas.” Gabe let his tone drop lower. “I don’t want to have to dig for this. Don’t make me.”

“C’mon, Diaz. Shouldn’t you be recovering? Might be too early for you to be up and out in the field.” Li dragged a shaking hand through his hair.

It was. He’d been on light security recently because it let him stay reasonably active, but he wasn’t cleared yet for serious duty. The long plane ride back to the East Coast had left him stiff and aching, a reminder to proceed with caution this trip. Course, caution might have evaporated when Maylin had ambushed him earlier.

No warm, cuddly thoughts right now. Gabe glowered to make sure they didn’t show in his expression.

“You’d like to think so.” He was done with being nice. “But here I am. And my recent experiences don’t leave me inclined to give anyone the chance to betray my trust again. Is that what you’re trying to do?”

“No, no.” Li clutched his saddle bag, but didn’t reach inside or otherwise make any motions to pull a gun or a phone.

Not like a gun was going to help the man at this close range. Gabe could have him disarmed and break something before Li could disengage a safety.

“I’m guessing your stop is coming up soon.” There were more ways to mess with a man’s livelihood than breaking things. “But you wouldn’t mind me getting off with you, right? No one to care if I’m seen with you.”

Li gulped. “It’s been weird lately, Diaz. You know? Nobody respects an objective observer anymore.”

“So I see.” Playing the sympathy card. Going straight to the jelly for a spine. “What’s the world coming to? Giving info on dirty diplomats doesn’t eat at the soul the way other things do. Like covering up the disappearance of a young woman, maybe?”

Li froze.

Gotcha.

“An American citizen, with family looking for her. I can show you her face.”

“No!” Li wiped sweat from his forehead. “I didn’t do anything. Just deleted a few emails and let a couple of calls get lost on hold indefinitely. That’s all.”

Probably true. Li supplemented his translating engagements with temp work as a low-level administrative assistant. He had access to a lot of random information—the kind that wouldn’t be valuable unless it was pieced together by someone with a broader perspective—but not a lot of power to do anything with it.

Gabe leaned harder on the back of Li’s seat. “Helped make a young woman disappear is what you did. What happened to her? Sold? You know what they do to pretty girls? You been making it into a new line of business? How many other people are you making disappear?”

“Nothing like that, no no no.” Li broke and started babbling. Being implicated in human slave trade was too big a deal for an information broker like him. The slave trade business sucked a man in and didn’t let him back out alive. “She’s some sort of genius. She won’t be hurt. Not at all. They took her to do science for some big company. Cutting-edge stuff.”

“Do science? That what they call it nowadays? And what if she won’t do the research they want? What if she doesn’t produce the results they’re looking for? You think about that? She’ll end up sold to make up the investment any way she can.” Because Gabe was thinking about it.

“No, no.” Li actually squirmed in his seat. “The company is legit into research. They take the latest and greatest and apply it to military tech.”

“You’re drinking the Kool-Aid, my friend.” Gabe figured he’d twisted the knife long enough. “Who arranged for this girl’s disappearance?”

“I got no names. You know how I work, mostly emails and avatars. No real identities. People can be anyone on the internet.” Li dragged in a ragged breath, struggling to keep his voice down. “Only a couple people come find me in person.”

A choice few.

“Porter van Lumanee.” Gabe let the name drop like a rock.

Li’s hands shook. “There’s a name. Dunno if it’s real. But he’s someone attached to your missing girl. He’s a chair on the programming committees for a few scientific conferences. He keeps an eye out for talent, scientists of interest to his sponsor. Other than that, he stays out of the messy activity. Probably doesn’t know more than me.”