Taylor’s ho is in Arica, but not in New York, so after he got back to Arica he went ho. What Gao Yang couldn’t figure out was what the hell Taylor was doing running to New York for no reason.
"What’s Taylor coming here for?"
"No idea, he just said he had to co over once."
Fine, let him co, it wasn’t a big deal. Gao Yang waved his hand casually and laughed. "Then we’ll just wait and see him."
Gao Yang didn’t take Taylor’s visit to heart, kept chatting and joking with everyone, but very quickly, the news that Taylor was coming back seed to change flavor.
Gao Yang’s sat phone rang. Normally, if Gao Yang’s cell rang, it wasn’t anything serious, but if his satellite phone rang, then it was definitely sothing big.
Gao Yang picked up. It was Murphy calling, and Gao Yang imdiately kept a straight face and went into his bedroom to take the call.
Murphy only said three words.
We have a mole.
Once he was back in his room, Gao Yang lowered his voice and said in a deep tone, "Go ahead."
Murphy said calmly, "You’ve got a mole at your side. His na is Taylor. He’s yours, right?"
Gao Yang let out a breath like he was on stage, then slowly said, "Yeah, I’ve got soone with that na."
"Does he know a lot?"
Gao Yang was silent for a mont, then said quietly, "A lot. Way too fucking much. He knows everything."
"Including Butter Knife and Cerberus?"
"Yeah."
"Then that’s trouble. Real trouble. Anything else is manageable, but Butter Knife got wiped out right under the president’s nose. If that gets dug up, I gotta say the Cleaners might not be able to do anything."
Gao Yang drew a deep breath and said, "But I don’t believe Taylor is a mole."
"I’m not sure either. Let the facts speak. If you’re in New York right now, you’d better... be ready to run."
"F**k! Oh, F**k!"
After cursing twice, Gao Yang lowered his voice. "What’s going on? Can you lay it out for ?"
Murphy said softly, "You know we have people inside the CIA, and we have dossiers on everyone in Satan. You’re an S-level client, your people are heavily monitored. Given the relationship between Satan and the CIA, we gave our CIA mole a task: keep an eye on Satan’s mbers. If the CIA starts investigating your people, it’ll trigger our firewall. Just now, we picked up sothing: CIA people are in contact with a guy nad Taylor, and they gave Taylor a mission. The classification on this is very high. I don’t think Taylor is innocent."
Gao Yang swallowed once and said, "You got anything more detailed?"
"No. Ram, there’s sothing I have to tell you."
"Say it."
"Given the depth of your cooperation with the Cleaners, and all the secrets between us, we’ll do our best to help you. But if the Butter Knife thing can’t be covered up anymore, then it’s serious."
Gao Yang sighed. "You won’t be able to protect , right?"
"Right. So I have a suggestion."
"Go on."
"If you’re in a situation where you can’t get away, I hope you’ll kill yourself. Once what you know leaks, for you, for us, for anybody, it’s a disaster. And if you really fall into CIA hands, we’re all screwed. This is a personal suggestion from ."
Gao Yang was silent for a mont, then said, "I get it. If I really can’t escape, I’ll kill myself, you can count on that. I know better than anyone what happens if you get taken alive."
Murphy also spoke softly. "That’s the last thing we want to see. Right now I just hope your Taylor hasn’t spilled everything yet. If he really has beco CIA, or always was, my suggestion is you at least take him out imdiately. We can help on this. You gotta move fast. Whether or not he knows about the Cleaners, Ram, we have to trigger the circuit breaker."
"What circuit breaker?"
"Cut off the risk of contagion. Dead n always keep their mouths shut. Doesn’t matter what he said while he was alive, at least once he’s dead we can be sure he won’t talk."
"You don’t need to get involved in this. I’ll handle it. Relax, not a single one of my people is ever getting taken alive, least of all . And I trust Taylor, so before I see him, you are absolutely not allowed to make a move on him. That’s it. If sothing cos up I’ll let you know."
After hanging up, Gao Yang’s mind was a ss.
Gao Yang genuinely trusted Taylor. Even now, he still refused to believe Taylor was a mole.
But Murphy’s warning definitely wasn’t baseless, and if Taylor really was a mole, then they were in deep shit.
Gao Yang’s thoughts were a little chaotic, but was he scared?
Strictly speaking, Gao Yang wasn’t scared, because he had the three nuclear warheads Grand Ivan had given him. That was his Amulet, and Satan’s. Not even Murphy knew he had nukes, which was why he was worried about Gao Yang being taken alive. But even if all the bad shit really ca down, Gao Yang still had plenty of confidence he could get out of Arica.
Only, if he left Arica, everything he had now would be gone. Even Yelena would have to disappear with him into so corner of the world.
But as things stood, Gao Yang was very glad he had enough places to hole up. A wily rabbit has three burrows; he at least had two safe dens in Somalia and South Sudan.
If Taylor really was a mole, then things were pretty urgent; at the very least he had to get everyone ready to pull out imdiately.
After putting down the phone, Gao Yang thought for a mont, then stepped out of the bedroom, clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention and smiled. "Alright, people, today’s just a simple welco thing, just to let you all et Joseph. I didn’t prepare any feast for you, because the bodyguards are about to arrive. I have to go with Joseph to et them, especially to see if they can handle protecting all of you. So I’m really sorry, but you all have to head ho now. Tonight we might have to get together again to et the bodyguards. Oh, gentlen, if you want to use your professional eye to size up those bodyguards, you’re welco to co along."
When he finished, Gao Yang hugged Yelena and kissed her, then smiled. "You go back too, pack so things. Once I sort everything out here, we’re flying to Portland tonight. We’re going back to the farm for a while."
Yelena was thrilled. "Okay, then hurry up. I have to bring my violin, and my pistol."
With just one look from Gao Yang, everyone knew sothing bad had happened, but nobody showed it. They kept chatting and laughing.
But once the won left one after another, the atmosphere in the room instantly dropped to freezing. Glolov, face grim, looked at Gao Yang and said, "What’s going on?"
Gao Yang raised a hand and rubbed his stiff face, then said in a deep voice, "We’ve got a mole."
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