The Cain Conspiracy (14 page)

“Shelly, I was reading your report on Cain’s adventure in Honduras,” Sanders started.

“It’s a little incomplete,” she replied. “I have to revise some of it.”

“Oh? I was under the impression this was all.”

A slight hesitation engulfed her before she finally relented on telling her secret. She knew it was better to just come out with it like she was volunteering the information than to have him dig for it, knowing it’d come out anyway.

“I had to do some checking on something Cain told me,” Lawson said.

“Which was?”

“Cain said the man who killed Contreras identified himself as George Wentworth.”

“The alias of Eric Raines,” Sanders said. “I noticed you looked into his file last night. You know those files aren‘t for general viewing.”

“I pulled up his file and had Cain look at his picture to see if it was the same man he saw.”

“And?” Sanders asked, seemingly convinced that it was a plausible explanation.

“It was,” she said.

“And you believe it?”

“Cain said there’s no doubt that’s the man he saw in Honduras. Plus he used one of his aliases so I tend to believe that he is in fact alive.”

“Well, I don’t even know what to say to that,” Sanders puffed, stroking his chin in thought, trying to keep his composure.

“I believe we should send someone to Indonesia,” Lawson stated.

“You do realize we had confirmation of his death, do you not?”

“I do, sir.”

“Then what makes you think by sending someone to Indonesia six months later, that we’ll find out anything different?”

“I would like to send someone there to talk to one of his contacts he made there over a year ago, a man named Aditya Gutawa.”

“Did we not talk to him before?”

“There was no reason to. We thought Raines was dead,” Lawson said. “Now that we know he’s alive…”

“And you think Gutawa knows something?”

“I would like to find out.”

“What are your reasons for this?” Sanders asked.

“To find out why he was presumed dead and six months later is found alive.”

“Is that it? Or are your reasons more…personal?”

“I will admit I do have personal feelings on this,” Lawson answered. “But this goes beyond that. As much as I hate to admit it, we need to find out what happened, and why. Him showing up six months later in Honduras killing one of our targets suggests he didn’t just wanna drop off the map. He’s still involved in some capacity and we need to find out where he stands in the game. If he’s now playing on the other side he could possibly compromise our entire operation.”

“So who do you propose sending?”

“I’d like to send Cain,” she revealed.

“Why him?”

“My other agents are deployed elsewhere and I’d rather not pull them off. Plus, I believe Cain can get the information we need.”

“You have a lot of faith in him.”

“I do. He also is the reason we know Raines is alive.”

“That’s irrelevant,” Sanders said.

“I know. I agree but he’s also a newer agent who has no opinion on him from before and has no ties to him which will not cloud his judgment on the situation.”

“That I will agree with.”

Lawson waited silently as Sanders sat there thinking about the best course of action. He agreed on what she was proposing.

“If you want Cain, you got him,” he told her. “When do you propose to send him?”

“Within the next two or three days if possible.”

“Get it done.”

Lawson left the office to get to work on Cain’s excursion. She needed to quickly get his flight together and the logistics of his stay. She also put out some feelers to people she knew to get whereabouts on Gutawa. She didn’t want to call Cain until she got more specifics on everything. Once noon came around she started to get a better idea on what was happening. She was waiting for one more person to call her back on where Gutawa was.

Cain had just taken a seat at the restaurant he was meeting Heather at, waiting for her to stop by. The restaurant had outdoor seating, which considering the nice day that it was, Cain felt Heather would like. It was five minutes to one so he was sure she was almost there. He’d gotten a text from her fifteen minutes before that saying she was done her interview and was on her way. He ordered drinks for the two of them while he waited. Just as he looked at the time on his phone again, it started ringing. Once he saw it was Lawson he knew something was up.

“What’s going on?” Cain asked.

“You’re going to Indonesia,” Lawson replied.

“When?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Not much time to prepare.”

“How much time do you need?” Lawson asked.

“None. It’s good.”

“Your flight leaves at 7:20am.”

“Couldn’t leave any earlier than that, huh?” Cain joked.

“It’s a long flight.”

“How long?”

“Better take some DVD’s,” she jested.

“Great.”

“Leave JFK at 7:20 where you’ll fly to Heathrow Airport in Great Britain. From there you’ll fly to Singapore and then to Jakarta, Indonesia, where you’ll arrive at 6:05pm Saturday.”

“23 hours?”

“That’s the quickest they got.”

“Fantastic.”

“What are you doing right now?”

“About to have lunch,” Cain told her as he spotted Heather walking into the restaurant.

“Well when you’re done, come in, Sanders wants to have a word with you.”

“I will do that.”

Cain hung up just as Heather sat down. She looked like she was in a good mood, indicating the interviews went well.

“Who were you talking to?” she asked.

“Just business. How’d your interviews go?” he replied, brushing the question aside.

“I think they went really well. I think preparing for them was the big thing.”

“When are they gonna let you know?”

“Well, they both said they have other people to talk to, so it could be about a week or so.”

“You’ll get one of them.”

“I hope so. Who’d you say you were talking to?” she asked again, knowing he tried to avoid telling her.

“Just someone from the office.”

“You’re just not gonna tell me anything, are you?”

Just as he was about to reply the waiter came over to take their order. They took turns ordering and Cain tried to switch the subject to something else, which Heather was not having any part of. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to know the person that was calling more so than just wanting to be a bigger part of Cain’s life and hoping that he’d eventually start confiding in her.

“Why won’t you tell me anything?”

“Why do you wanna know?” Cain asked.

“I don’t know, we’re friends, and I’m living in your apartment right now. What you do kind of affects me.”

“Listen, you know I can’t tell you what I do.”

“I didn’t ask that. All I asked was who called. You can’t tell me that?”

“It was Michelle,” Cain finally revealed. “You remember her, right?”

“Oh yes. She doesn’t like me too much. I guess I can’t say I blame her.”

“Maybe you two just got off on the wrong foot.”

“I don’t think there’ll ever be a right foot with her. She call with good news I hope?”

“I have to go somewhere,” Cain told her.

“Where? Are you able to say?”

“Indonesia?”

“Indonesia? Where’s that?” Heather asked.

“Southeast Asia.”

“Oh. Important I guess?”

“I suppose so.”

“When do you leave?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Cain replied.

“Oh,” Heather said, dejected.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, you just got back from a trip. I just thought you’d be here for a while. Was looking forward to that hockey game,” she said, trying to make it not sound like she was gonna miss him.

“Yeah, well, I guess we‘ll have to try for a game once I get back. You’ll look after the place while I’m gone?”

“Of course. How long will you be?”

“I don’t know. Probably a few days.”

Heather was so disappointed that Cain was leaving again, although she tried not to outwardly show it. She wanted to try to spend some time with him, whether it was going out somewhere, or just staying in the apartment, talking and hanging out. She was so upset about him leaving that she really didn’t enjoy the fact they were having lunch together. The fact Cain told her he was leaving the next morning made it more difficult for her to accept since he just got back. She knew it’d be tough for their relationship to grow to where she wanted it to go if he was always going away somewhere.

After having lunch, Heather went back to the apartment, while Cain went to the Center to talk to Sanders and get the rest of the mission from Lawson. He was directed to go to Sanders’ office first. Sanders got off the phone a minute after Cain walked in.

“I’m gonna keep this brief,” Sanders said. “First, good job in Honduras, good work.”

“Thanks.”

“I just wanna make sure we’re clear about Indonesia. You’re there to get information.”

“Yeah.”

“By any means necessary,” he told him. “I don’t care how you get the information we need. Just get it.”

“I understand,” Cain replied.

“Good. Do what you have to do. Shelly’s waiting for you in her office.”

Cain went straight to Lawson’s office, who’d been waiting for him. He sat down in the chair in front of her desk as she got out the paperwork.

“Here’s your itinerary,” she told him.

“Such a long flight,” Cain exclaimed.

“Well, that’s why you’re gonna have company.”

“What?”

“You’re getting a partner for this mission.”

“Why? It’s a pretty simple objective,” he said.

“Well, just in case there are any unexpected surprises.”

“Who is it?”

“They’ll meet you at the airport.”

Lawson talked about the culture of Indonesia, letting Cain know what to expect. The country consists of over 17,000 islands and is the largest archipelago in the world. They also have the fourth largest population in the world, with over 85% of it’s inhabitants Muslim, also the largest in the world. They’d be flying into Jakarta, the capital and largest city. Robbery, theft, and pick pocketing are common there, though most crime is non-violent and guns are rare. Indonesia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world as officials often ask for bribes to supplement their salaries. Though they have a corrupt legal system, they do deal with drug usage harshly. There’s “Death To Drug Traffickers” signs at airports, and the death penalty is mandatory for those convicted of trafficking, manufacturing, importing, or exporting, and a person can be charged with such if drugs are found in their possession even if they aren’t aware of it. Even though the penalties are harsh, drugs are common, especially cocaine, ecstasy, and crystal methamphetamine.

“So where do I look for Gutawa?” Cain wondered.

“Here,” Lawson replied, handing him a paper with an address on it.

“What’s this?”

“His address.”

“You got his address?”

“Took some doing, and talking to a few people, but I tracked him down.”

“Wow. You are good,” Cain gushed.

“I know,” she replied, smiling.

Cain went back to his apartment to pack his bags once they finished going over their business in the office. Heather was on the computer looking up more jobs.

“Still going at it?” Cain asked.

“Well, just in case those other two don’t pan out, I figured I should keep applying for other jobs.”

“Good idea.”

“So how was your meeting?” Heather asked.

“Fine.”

“When’s your flight?”

“Early. I’ll be gone by the time you wake up,” he told her.

“Oh. Don’t know when you’ll be back?”

“Shouldn’t be long. Can’t say exactly though. Takes a day just to fly there. So it’ll be two days just being in the air.”

JFK airport—Cain was sitting in the terminal, waiting for his partner to arrive, though he didn’t know how he’d know the guy since they didn’t tell him who was going with him. About half an hour before they needed to board Cain looked around and noticed Lawson walked toward him. He noticed she was carrying a bag with her.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey. Going somewhere?”

“I did say someone was going with you.”

“I assumed it was another agent,” Cain responded.

“I thought you might have a problem if I told you it was me.”

“Does Sanders know about this?”

“I told him. He was fine with it.”

“Why am I even going?” Cain wondered.

“I’m an information girl. I know how to get it once I know what I’m looking for. I’m not trained in combat. In case something goes down, you’re the muscle,” she kidded.

“Reassuring.”

Chapter 7

Jakarta, Indonesia—Once Cain and Lawson touched down, they traveled using an AC minibus. It was night time and was the most effective and easiest way of traveling. Renting a car was dangerous in Indonesia, as they usually had very bad driving habits. They’d often drive on the shoulder of the road, making lane changes and passing other cars very dangerous. They also often ignored traffic lights. Using the minibus was more expensive but it was the safest way of driving. They immediately went to the address they had for Gutawa. He had a pretty nice looking two story house that indicated he had some wealth. There was often a very stark contrast in Indonesia as you could see those who were very wealthy standing right next to those who were in extreme poverty. Lawson knocked on the door but there was no answer. There were no lights on so it appeared Gutawa was out.

“Come back later?” Lawson asked.

“You can. I ain’t coming back later though,” Cain told her, as he picked the lock of the door.

“I’m not sure this is wise.”

“Listen, I’d like to get out of this country as soon as possible. This isn’t my idea of a vacation so the sooner we get this over with the better. Besides, how do you know when we come back he’ll be here anyway? We’ll wait.”