Sea of Lies: An Espionage Thriller by Bradley West Page B

examined the large map hanging on the wall behind her. Giant Shan State dominated the upper right-hand corner, abutting China’s Yunnan Province to the north and Laos and Thailand to the east. Kachin State was even farther north and to the west, a dagger jabbing into Yunnan’s underbelly.
    “Tell me why the search of Burma is focused on Shan State?” he asked.
    Millie looked up and followed his gaze over her shoulder. “In recent years, the number of methamphetamine labs has exploded. It’s a ten-billion-dollar a year export business. Burma is also the number two heroin supplier in the world, trailing only Afghanistan. The Army is the biggest heroin producer with warlords, rebel militias and politicians also involved. It’s pretty much a free-for-all even today. China is the most important consumer, and therefore hates the drug trade the most.”
    “Hmmm,” Nolan grunted in a noncommittal voice. He heard the exuberance of youth and wondered what Millie would think of Burma if she spent quality time in Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Iran.
    “And until last night, you’d never heard of Jay Toffer or Robin Teller?”
    “No, those names are both firsts for me. Remember, though, that I’ve only been in-country since January this year and as staff head of research I function more as a librarian than as an intelligence analyst.”
    “Don’t sell yourself short. My first overseas assignment, I mostly ran a shredder and built spreadsheets for a bankrupt arms dealer. When you’re new, you should be happy just to earn an assignment away from Langley. That alone counts for a lot when it comes time for the next posting to be decided.”
    Millie stood and bent over the desk, arms supporting her ample infrastructure as she leaned closer. “I’d love to hear your thoughts on Teller,” she cooed.
    “My theory is that he’s behaving like this to get everyone focused on him, and not on whatever HVTs came off MH370. Wherever Teller goes next, you can be certain that whatever he’s trying to protect will be moving fast in the opposite direction. I don’t know if it means he’ll send people after you, my family or me. If I’m right, he will go hard only while his treasure is at risk.”
    Millie stood up straight and gestured for him to take her chair. “So when he stops trying to kill us, we’re really in trouble, because whatever he took off the plane will be out of our reach?”
    “Something like that, yes.” Nolan resisted the temptation to run his hands over her shoulders as they squeezed past. He took a whiff of her hair and smelled fresh shampoo. Millie took his just vacated seat as Nolan started tapping away at her keyboard.
    “So what should I do?” she asked.
    “You get out of here today or tonight with me. I’ll have Hecker arrange for a friggin’ Marine Honor Guard to take me to the airport and onto the plane. I want Teller to know I’ve left. Short of shooting it down or putting a bomb on board—both of which he’s capable of—I think I’ll be OK on a commercial flight. If you come with me, you’ll be safe as well.”
    “Yes, I’ll be safe with you.” Millie’s smile was the best thing about this rotten country.
    “This morning I sent my wife to China to hide. She’s going to visit her mother’s family on a Guangdong duck farm so remote the locals don’t even speak Cantonese, much less Mandarin. She’ll be there up to the fifteen-day maximum for someone on a Singapore passport, or until things cool off.” Realizing how that sounded, Nolan winced and looked down at the keyboard.
    Millie stood up. “You keep doing email. Let me speak with Matthews and see what he says. Maybe I can join you on the flight.”
    Forty minutes later, Nolan’s work inbox and personal emails were squared away, but there still wasn’t any sign of Millie. He left a sticky note on the monitor and slowly walked out of Political and Economic Affairs, scanning offices and cubicles for that dynamic silhouette.
    Back at the