Vital Force by Trevor Scott

am truly sorry about your friend. And, we can’t be sure he gave you up, but he was obviously tortured. I certainly couldn’t blame him if he did.”
    She considered that. “Doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
    â€œWhat’s over?”
    â€œOur job,” she said, defeated. “You might as well go back to Beijing, catch a flight back to Europe.”
    Jake smiled. “You obviously don’t know me very well.”
    She shrugged. “They say you pig-headed and...what’s that word? Obstacle? Obnoxious? No, that’s not it.”
    â€œMaybe...”
    â€œNo I’ll get it. Give me a second.” The wheels were turning fast now. “Obsessed. No.”
    Jake found the main highway and headed in the direction of Qiqihar. He wasn’t sure if they should stay on the main road, but for now it was the fastest way out of town.
    â€œObstinate,” she said proudly. “That’s the word.”
    â€œI’ve been called worse,” he said. “Still, we’ve gotta assume they know about you. Your friend didn’t know about me, right?”
    She shook her head.
    â€œBut it won’t take the cops long to figure it out. The cop on the train got both of our names. If he’s got a halfway decent memory....”
    Her concern registered again on her expressive face.
    All the more reason to get the hell off the main road, Jake thought. First, he’d need to figure out if their mission was remotely possible now. If her friend had given up Su, he could have just as easily told them that he would be driving her to the remote location. Hopefully that’s all he had known.
    â—
    Outside the contact’s apartment, police cars had blocked off the street and two men were carrying the man out on a stretcher, down the front steps and into an unmarked military van.
    Leaning against a police car, bundled in a parka, the bald man cast his gaze on an army colonel in a green wool uniform standing before him.
    â€œI’m sorry, sir,” the colonel said, his eyes and head nodding toward the street.
    The bald man laughed, his voice echoing against the apartments, breaking the silence of night. Then his disposition changed to a determined stare.
    â€œYou are the Fool on the Hill,” the bald man said. “I am the Walrus. Goo goo g’ joob.”
    The colonel looked at him like he was insane.
    The bald man continued, “It doesn’t matter. Luckily I don’t depend entirely on you.” In fact, he did not depend on the colonel at all, or anyone else in the military of incompetents. But he knew he would need them eventually, when his plan came to full fruition. So, even though he did not like it at all, he would have to appease this colonel. For now.
    The bald man moved off of the police car and put his hand on the colonel’s shoulder board, running his fingers through the stars. “Let’s sanitize the apartment. He was a troubled young man. Suicidal, in fact.” Then a smile came to his face and a chuckle turned in to a full guffaw.

15
    Bend, Oregon
    It was Friday morning and Special Agent Jane Harris stood at a table in the downtown branch of the Bank of the Pacific, pretending to fill out a form, and taking her time about it. Sitting at a small table a short distance away, Cliff Johansen and the Asian woman talked with a bank official. But she was just out of ear shot.
    Moments later, Cliff signed something and then went with the banker into the vault. The Asian women glanced about the room, checking her watch every now and then.
    Harris knew she couldn’t stay there much longer. She was being too obvious. She had to move. Picking up some literature on a bank credit card, she went to an open teller and asked her a few questions about their current rates. Then she smiled and left, returning to her vehicle parked half a block from the Trooper.
    â€œWell?” asked agent Drew Fisher. “What’s