“No. No! I only come up to you because I hear you are journalist. In Poland we have journalists who are heroes, heroes in Poland. They stand up to Soviets. My father, he is one of them. They kill him, but he is still hero,” he added proudly.
“I’m sure he is. But you can’t just not tell anyone. You have to go to the police.”
Lesnik took another step back. “No, no police. I do not like police.”
Katie looked at him warily. “Are you in some sort of trouble?”
Lesnik didn’t answer her. He simply glanced away. “No police. I must go now.”
She clutched his arm. “Wait a minute.” Katie thought quickly. “Look, if I promise not to reveal my source, can you at least tell me what you saw? I promise, I swear on a stack of Bibles I won’t ever tell who told me. After all, you came up to me. You must want me to help somehow.”
Lesnik looked unsure. “I don’t know why I come up to you.” He paused. “You… you can do that? Not tell?”
“Absolutely.” She looked over his anguished face, his small, childlike frame, and his shabby clothes. She could easily envision him hiding terrified inside a copier as gunfire erupted all around him. “How about I buy you something to eat and we can talk? Just talk. If you’re still uncomfortable, you can walk away.” She put out her hand. “Deal?”
He didn’t take her hand.
“I’m sure your father would want to see the truth come out. And to see murderers punished.”
He slowly slipped his fingers around hers. “Okay. I go with you.”
As they walked along Katie said the one question she’d been dying to ask.
“Did you see who did it?” She held her breath waiting for the answer.
He nodded. “And I hear them too. I hear them good. I know the language they speak very good.”
“Language? So they were foreigners?”
Lesnik stopped walking and stared at her. “They were Russians.”
“You’re sure? Absolutely certain?”
For the first time his face took on a confident expression. “I am Pole. From Krakow. I know Russian when I hear it.”
CHAPTER 54
“WE NAMED THE COMPANY after the Chinese phoenix, the Feng Huang,” Feng Hai said as they sat in an office off the main foyer. “In Chinese mythology the phoenix stands for virtue, power, and prosperity. It was also said that the bird represented power sent down to the empress from above. You might know that Feng means male phoenix.”
“And Feng is also your surname,” commented Shaw. Unlike the West the Chinese put their family name ahead of their given one. So Hai was the man’s first name.
Feng nodded. “That also gave me the idea, that is correct.”
“And the connection The Phoenix Group has to China?” Royce asked.
“It is simply a Chinese company doing business in London, like many others.”
“Your employees seemed to think a wealthy American from Arizona owned it,” Shaw noted.
Feng shrugged. “Rumors, obviously.”
Shaw said, “I think it was more than that. I think it was a deliberate cover.”
Royce sat forward while Feng glared at Shaw. “So it was basically a think tank that studied global issues funded by you and your partners? That was the business model?”
Feng nodded.
“And you set it up for what reason?” Royce asked.