They all rallied back at the car, which was now parked in an underground lot near the Jordan Road MTR station.

Yao went over his observations and talked about how things would be that night. "The Triads are running countersurveillance measures, so we'll have to back off a little from what we got away with today."

Chavez and Jack agreed, but Yao could tell Ryan did not seem satisfied.

"Jack, something bothering you?"

"My only problem was that I was recognized a couple of times. Add that to the guy in the Peninsula last night, and that's three times in about eighteen hours. I almost never get recognized at home."

Adam chuckled. "HK is incredibly crowded, and it's one of the hubs of world finance. On top of that, there is a lot of connection with the West here. Everybody knows who your dad is. A few know who you are."

"Not much I can do about it."

Adam said, "That's not exactly true. You want people to stop noticing you, the solution is easy enough."

"I'm in your hands."

Yao reached into his backpack and pulled out a paper air mask that attached to the face with rubber bands that went behind the ears.

Jack had seen hundreds of people walking the streets of Kowloon wearing these paper masks. Both Avian Flu and SARS had hit Hong Kong hard, which was no surprise, considering the dense population. Many people, especially those with compromised immune systems, took no chances and wore masks to help filter the air.

Adam placed the blue paper mask over Ryan's face. Then the Chinese-American dug in the pack again, and retrieved a black baseball cap. This he positioned on Ryan's head. He took a step back and looked at his handiwork.

"You are a little tall for a local, but look around, a lot of Chinese men are over six feet these days, and there is still a huge British population here. All in all, you will blend in just fine in that getup."

Jack wasn't crazy about wearing a mask over his face, especially in the stifling heat and humidity of Hong Kong. But he understood that getting recognized at the wrong time on this foot follow could prove disastrous.

"One less thing to worry about, I guess," he said to Yao.

"That's right. This will help with the Westerners, but to most people around here, even with the mask, you're still a gweilo."

"A gweilo?"

"Sorry. A foreign devil."

"That's harsh."

Adam nodded. "Yeah. It would serve you to remember that the Chinese are a prideful people. They think, in general, that they are superior to foreign races. They aren't an inclusive society, overall."

"I'm not planning on buying a condo here. Just tailing Zha."

Adam chuckled. "Let's get back to the Mong Kok Computer Centre. Zha will be leaving work in about an hour."

THIRTY-EIGHT.

At eight-thirty p.m. Zha Shu Hai left the side exit of the Mong Kok Computer Centre with a security detail of four. Chavez had the eye; he was up the street in the 7-Eleven, heating up some frozen dumplings in the microwave. He started to turn away to announce to Ryan and Yao that the bird had left the nest, but he saw Zha stop suddenly and turn on his heels, as if someone had called out to him. He moved with his entourage back to the entrance of the building, and there he all but snapped to attention like a lance corporal. Chavez caught a glimpse of a man just inside the light from the streetlamps. Zha was talking to him with obvious deference. Ding knew this could be important, so he risked blowing his cover for action in the convenience store, pulled his big Nikon camera with a three-hundred-millimeter lens from his backpack, and took a picture of the men fifty yards up the street. Quickly he looked away from them, walked to the back of the 7-Eleven, and checked the digital image in the viewing pane of the camera. It was fair, at best. He could sort of make out Zha, and he could make out the one Triad sentry who was facing the 7-Eleven, but he could not see many features of the man in the dark.

Quickly he used the e-mail function on the camera, sent the image to Gavin Biery back in the suite in the Peninsula, and then took himself off the eye.

"Ryan, move in, I need to back off for a bit."

"Roger that."

He headed up the street and called Gavin.

"What's up, Domingo?"

"I just sent you an image."

"Looking at it right now."

"I need a favor."

"You need photography lessons."

"Yeah. Right. Anything you can do to make that clearer?"

"No big deal. I'll send it to all of your phones in a few minutes."

"Great. From the way our boy FastByte leapt to attention when this guy called him, we may be looking at the MFIC."

"MFIC? I don't know that acronym. Is that from the Chinese military or something?"

Chavez said, "Just work on the pic and send it back to us."

"You got it."

- Five minutes later the three Americans were back in the Mitsubishi Grandis, following the white SUV carrying Zha "FastByte22" Shu Hai and his six 14K minders as it left the gritty streets of Mong Kok and headed south through late-rush-hour Kowloon into Tsim Sha Tsui.

The SUV stopped at a corner in a chic retail area. Five of Zha's security men climbed out, and then Zha himself appeared. He wore black jeans with silver studs running up the side, a bright pink tank top, and a black studded leather jacket. His detail, on the other hand, all wore the same blue jeans and drab T-shirts under denim jackets.

Zha and his entourage entered a clothing store as a group.

A steady rain had begun to fall; this did nothing for the oppressive heat but only added uncomfortable moisture to the mix. Adam pulled his car over to the side of the road two blocks past the store, then produced four collapsible umbrellas and passed one black and one red umbrella to each man. Ding and Jack slipped the red one in the small of their backs under their shirts and went with the black. This would virtually double their chances of remaining covert, as they could switch out umbrellas to reduce the risk that someone who spotted them earlier would notice them a second time.

As the two Hendley Associates men climbed out of the Mitsubishi, Adam called to them, "Remember, for some reason Zha's security has been alerted that he's under surveillance. You'll have to watch yourselves. Don't push it, stay back, if we lose them tonight we'll pick them up tomorrow night."

Jack and Ding split up immediately and took turns passing the shop every few minutes. The darkness, the heavy crowds on the sidewalks, and the large glass windows of the clothing store made keeping an eye on the young hacker easy work, even when one of the 14K men stood outside the shop to smoke and scan the pedestrians passing by.

Zha and the others left without making a purchase a few minutes later, but they did not climb back into the SUV. Instead the five guards popped umbrellas, one covered Zha with his, and they headed south, stepping into and out of several stores along the way.

Zha spent half the time window-shopping or looking at clothes and electronics inside the various shops, and the other half of the time either talking on his phone or using a tiny handheld computer as the man on his arm led him through the busy streets.

He bought some cables and a new laptop battery in a small store on Kowloon Park Drive, and then he and his goons ducked into an Internet cafe on Salisbury Road, near the entrance to the Star Ferry port.

Ryan had the eye at the time. He transmitted to Yao. "Should I go in?"

"Negative," said Yao. "I've been in that place. It's a small, narrow space. He might be meeting someone, but we can't risk compromise by sending you in."

Ryan understood. "I'll hang back at the Star Ferry entrance with visual on the front."

Yao said, "Ding, that place has a back door. If he takes it he'll end up on Canton Road. Hustle over there in case they are trying to shake a tail."

"Copy that." Ding had been two blocks behind Ryan, but he picked up the pace and made a right on Canton. He put himself on the far side of the street and stood in the rain, his umbrella shielding his face from the streetlamps above.

Just as Yao suspected, Zha and his entourage appeared on Canton road a few minutes later. "Chavez has the eye. Headed south on Canton."

Adam had noticed that the Triads had been doing SDRs, surveillance detection runs, more and more in the last few days. The American CIA operative still had no idea how he had been burned, but whatever he'd done to expose himself, he was damn glad to have the help from Chavez and Junior.

Just minutes after Ding announced he had the eye, Jack saw Zha and the others, moving under a tight pack of umbrellas, approaching his position near the ferry entrance.

Jack said, "Looks like they are getting on the ferry."

"Excellent," said Yao. "He's probably going to Wan Chai. That's where the bars are. He's done that several times in the last week, hitting the girlie bars around Lockhart Road. I don't think he gives a shit about naked girls, but the Fourteen-K run most of those clubs, so it's probably where his guards feel comfortable taking him."

"Can we go in without being compromised?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, you'll just have to watch yourselves. There will be other Triads in the crowd. They may not be working on the Zha detail, but they are a rough bunch when they are drinking."

Jack said, "Don't they all know martial arts?"

Yao chuckled. "It's not one long Jackie Chan movie over here. Not everybody is a kung fu master."

"Well, that's comforting."

"It shouldn't be. They all carry pistols or knives. I don't know about you, but I'd rather take a donkey kick to the chest than a nine-millimeter round to the chest."

"You got a point there, Yao."

"Jack, you go ahead and get in line for the next ferry across. They shouldn't suspect you if you are in front of them, but be careful where you position yourself."

"Roger."

"Ding, I'm en route to pick you up. We'll take the tunnel to the other side and be there waiting when they get off the boat."

- The old Star Ferry boat bobbed and swayed in the choppy Victoria Harbour as it crossed between thick harbor traffic on its eight-minute journey to Hong Kong Island. Jack sat well behind the 14K men and the computer hacker as they rode at the front of the covered deck.

He was confident he had not been spotted by the opposition, and he was also confident they were not meeting anyone on the boat, as no one had approached.

But something else caught Jack's eye about midway through the crossing.

Two men entered the passenger cabin and walked right past Jack's position. They sat down several rows behind Zha. They were fit men in their late twenties or early thirties; one had a red polo and jeans, and on his right forearm was a tattoo that said "Cowboy Up." The other wore an untucked button-down and cargo shorts.

They looked-to Jack, anyway-like Americans, and both men had their eyes trained on the back of Zha's head.

"We may have a problem," Ryan said softly as he looked out the window in the opposite direction of the Triad group.

"What's up?" asked Chavez.

"I think there are two more guys, two American guys, who are watching the target."

"Shit," said Yao.

"Who are they, Adam?" asked Chavez.

"I don't know. They could be U.S. marshals. Zha is a wanted man in the USA. If so, they won't know their way around HK. They won't know how to blend. They won't know that Zha and the Fourteen-K are watching for a tail. They will get burned."

Ryan said, "They are a little too close, but otherwise they aren't being obvious just yet."

Yao countered, "Yeah, but if there are two on him now, there will be a half-dozen on him soon enough. There's only so many wide-eyed Americans you can stick in one place over here without the Triads figuring out their protectee has grown a tail."

The ferry docked on Hong Kong Island a few minutes later, and Ryan was the first off, well ahead of Zha and his crew. He walked down a long ramp into the Central neighborhood, then disappeared down an elevator to the MTR without ever regarding his targets.

He did not need to. Chavez was positioned at the exit to the ferry, and he followed Zha and company as they climbed into a taxi van. They headed off to the south.

Adam had seen this from the Mitsubishi minivan. He announced over the conference call, "I'll tail them. Ding, get down in the MTR with Jack and take a train to Wan Chai Station. I'd bet money that's where they are going. You can be there ahead of them if you hustle, and I'll guide you to wherever they are."

"En route," said Ding, and he disconnected from the conference call and ran down to the MTR entrance to meet Jack.

- As Chavez and Ryan rode in the long subway car, Jack disconnected his phone from Adam and leaned into his superior's ear. "If the marshals get too close, Zha's going to bolt. If he does that, then we'll never know about Center and the Istanbul Drive."

Chavez had been thinking the same thing. "Yep."

But he had not been thinking anything along the lines of what Ryan said next: "We need to grab him."

"How, Jack? He's got a significant security detail."

"Manageable," declared Ryan. "We can orchestrate something quick and nasty. Look how big the stakes are. If FastByte Twenty-two did the UAV hack, then he's got blood on his hands. I'm not going to lose sleep over wasting a couple of his henchmen."

"Then what, kid? We're going to take FastByte back to the Peninsula and interrogate him over room service?"

"Of course not. We slip him out on the Gulfstream."

Ding shook his head. "We stick with Adam Yao for now. If an opportunity arises that looks good, we consider taking him, but right now the best thing we can do is support the Agency guy who knows his way around."

Jack sighed. He understood but worried they would miss their opportunity to bag FastByte and learn who he was working for.

THIRTY-NINE.