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Yunho laughed. “Oh, heavens above, no. I simply never thought I’d see him look at anyone the way he looked at you just now. I’ve known Asher for a long time.”
“He told me.”
Yunho quirked a surprised eyebrow. “He did?”
“How you met. How he helped you, and how you’ve helped him since then.”
He smiled. “He trusts you. Not a gift he gives often. Thus proving my point.”
Harry inhaled deeply and sighed. “He and I have a lot in common. I can count the people I trust on one finger, and he’s asleep down the hall.” No, Harry didn’t count Yunho in that sum, and he wasn’t sorry. He’d known the man for all of five minutes. “I trust you by proxy,” Harry added. “If that counts.”
Yunho didn’t seem one bit offended. He waved him off. “This life we lead, in the shadows, trust is something earned and seldom shared. No explanation required. But I will admit,” he added, “I had concerns when things went south in Madrid. I knew you by reputation alone. Your résumé is quite impressive and I worried for Asher. After all, having two lions in one cage rarely ends well. But he told me you were different. Watching you two work together was interesting, and knowing you saved Asher was one thing. But seeing you with him, how gentle you are with him, how you care for him, is another. And if I could ever choose any one person for him, it would be a mountain of a man who would stop at nothing to protect him.”
Harry didn’t know how to take that. Compliments weren’t something he encountered often. Hell, he wasn’t even sure thatwasa compliment. “For the first two days, I wanted to kill him a dozen times. He talked non-stop, and he goaded me continuously. He just poked, poked, poked until I’d almost snap. He was relentless.”
Yunho laughed and clapped his hands. “He’s like a song you can’t get out of your head until it drives you crazy. Then he burrows into your heart and you’re never the same again.” Yunho was still smiling though he grew a little teary, and Harry realised then that Yunho thought of Asher as a younger brother, or even a son. “Isn’t he just the best?”
Harry nodded. “He is. He deserves good things.” Harry assumed now was as good a time as any to bring this up. “We have the USB, but I’d like Asher to be the one to give it you.”
“Fair enough.” Yunho gave a nod before getting to his feet. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Harry stood but looked back down the hall. “Asher...”
“Asher will be fine,” Yunho said. “This is an island. No one can get even close without alerting us.”
So Harry followed him through the house to a door with a keypad. Through that door and down a set of stairs to another door, this time with a fingerprint scanner.
Christ.
Inside was a room that put government war-rooms to shame. The far wall was filled with screens, and a long table in the middle of the room had another three screen stations.
Harry had seen the inside of national intel departments a few times early on in his career, but this...? Harry thought the outside of the house was James Bond worthy. But this, nowthiswas James Bond worthy. There even was a digital thermostat on the wall, which Harry assumed kept the room at the perfect temperature for all the screens and computers.
There were two other people in there, a man and woman. They both stood up when they saw Harry.
“This is Harry Harrigan,” Yunho said. “Harry, this is Lucas and Aranya.”
Lucas was a tall white man, with greying blond hair, about fifty years old. Aranya was Thai, maybe in her twenties, short with glasses. Her long hair was in some kind of knot on top of her head.
Harry gave them both a nod.
“Harry will be staying for a while.”
“And Asher?” Lucas asked, his accent faded English, his gaze darting between Yunho and Harry’s. “Is he okay?”
“He’s resting,” Yunho replied. He gave Harry an apologetic smile. “They saw the photo you sent of him.”
One screen showed CCTV of the dock, and on another was the living room he and Yunho had been in, and one of the hallway. Asher’s door was still closed. But they’d no doubt seen Harry and Asher arrive, and they’d watched Yunho and Harry talk.
Harry wasn’t sure if he liked this level of security or not.
Then he noticed other screens on the wall were of various buildings, inside and out. Harry thought he recognised one in Prague? There were a few screens of profiles, complete with faces and names Harry didn’t recognise. There were other screens of satellite maps and a few screens full of nothing but numbers.
It was a whole operation.
Yunho turned to Lucas. “Can you please bring up what information we have on Mr Clive Parrish.”
Lucas tapped away on a keyboard, and a few seconds later, all the screens blinked and new images filled every screen on the wall. Images of Parrish spanning a decade, at least. Images of assignments, most of which Harry had completed, now withdeceasedstamped across the black and white profile faces. Screens of information, of news articles, financial transactions, phone records, names, dates. More photographs...
