Ross gave him a quizzical look.
“Jon, you’re in a lot of trouble.”
“Then this isn’t a social call?”
Shen grimaced and motioned to a beautiful young woman in a miniskirt. She came to the table immediately, and he pointed her to Ross.
“I’ll have a Stoli, straight up with a twist, please.”
“Of course, sir.” She hurried off.
“Russian vodka. How telling.” He focused an appraising look at Ross as he lit a tiny cigar. “So . . .” He put his gold lighter away. “After all these years I find out that your name isn’t really Jon Ames.”
“Liang—”
“And that Interpol has a global red notice out on you. That you’re the FBI’s Most Wanted Man. Imagine my shock.”
“Like I said, it’s complicated.”
“We were buds, Jon. And now it turns out you were an identity thief and a stock swindler?”
“Well, you didn’t tell me you were a spy for the Ministry of State Services back in the old days, either.”
He gave Ross a disbelieving look. “Who was a spy? They paid for my education. I was supposed to come back with ‘mad skillz.’ How is that spying? It’s not like I pretended I wasn’t Chinese.”
“I seem to remember someone wasn’t planning on coming back to China. I seem to remember someone talking about a Web video start-up—”
Shen held up his hand and looked around. “All right, all right. Would you cool it with that shit? And by the way, you were my witness. That was before YouTube. I had that idea before YouTube.”
“We were on dial-up back then, Liang.”
“That’s not the point. I nailed that.”
“And yet, here you are, working for the government.”
Shen rolled his eyes. “I don’t work for the government, or at least I didn’t work for the government until some asshole started fucking with our networks and they reactivated me.” He saluted. “Now it’s Captain Shen, thank you very much.”
“A PLA Cyber warfare battalion? That seems alarmingly conformist for the Shen Liang I knew.”
Shen nodded grimly and took a big sip of his martini. “Yeah, well, I really screwed up in America, Jon. I had to come back here after that, and I had gone way off reservation. I had to get powerful friends fast to dig out from that mess. I had to be stellar.”
“And is that how you wound up at Wuhan Communications Command Academy?”
Shen stopped mid-puff and narrowed his eyes at Ross. He pulled the cigarillo from his lips. “How the hell do you know that?”
“And how you wound up working with the General Equipment Department, modifying Western router chipsets?”
Shen moved to cover Ross’s mouth. “Would you shut up? What are you, crazy? How the hell do you know that?”
“We’re reaching a crossroad, Liang.”
“This isn’t 1999, Jon. The Web isn’t a toy anymore. Network technology is power now—world-domination-type power. This is a deadly serious business. Stop playing around.”
“We had a great time back then. You remember we all thought technology would change the world?”
“Well, it didn’t. Our parents were right, Jon. It’s scary how right they were. Nothing changes. Only the faces change.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way. I seem to remember you having great hopes for democracy in China.”
Shen glared hard at him as the cocktail waitress returned with Ross’s drink. Both men were quiet until she departed.
Shen shook his head and reached for an ashtray. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And besides, we have democracy in China. People get to vote with their money, just like they do in America.”
“But if only money talks, those without money don’t get a voice.”
“Well, the smarter people tend to make money, so I don’t see what the problem is.”
“What happens if someone takes your money away?”
Shen cast a wary look at Ross.
Ross continued, “Because that’s what we’re talking about here, isn’t it? Someone has threatened to confiscate your company if you don’t perform. Is that how a free person lives, Liang? In fear of the powerful?”
“Freedom is overrated. You can be completely free and starving in an igloo in Antarctica. Business is what makes people’s lives better, not democracy. The world is filled with dysfunctional democracies, paralyzed by idiots with votes.”
“Liang—”
“Jon, do you know that the World Bank said that over half the Chinese people lived in poverty in 1980? You know what it is now? Care to take a guess? It’s four percent, Jon. Four. Economic development did that, not democracy.”
Ross nodded. “But that’s the deal they offer, isn’t it? They’ll bring economic development in exchange for you not participating in politics—but that economic development is hollow and has no longevity. Have you seen the markets? It’s already fraying at the edges. Believe me, by the time it ends, you’ll realize they have all the power and you don’t matter. Prosperity is not prosperity if they can just take it from you.”
“So you prefer America then? Like they’re prosperous? They owe us more money than there is on the planet. America is finished. Why are you helping them?”
Ross frowned. He took a moment to digest the question, taking a sip of his drink first. “Helping them? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t even start with me. You know exactly what I mean.”
Ross nodded. “So, you brought me here because you’ve got a problem. A problem you think the Americans are behind.”
Shen just studied him for several moments. “You haven’t asked how I found you.”
“I don’t have to ask. I already know how you found me.”
“Oh yeah? How do you know that?”
“Because I’m the one who told you I was in China.”
Shen paused, looking darkly at Ross. “You’re fucking with me now. That’s why I hated playing poker with you.”
“I’m not bluffing, Liang.”
“Yeah, where did I get the information then?”
“That e-mail you received from Jun Shan. That was me.”
Shen almost bit his cigarillo in half. He glanced around the restaurant again and just shook his head. “Jon, you have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“The PLA reactivated you to find out why the back doors in router chipsets are beginning to fail in North America and Europe. They’re in a panic, aren’t they?”
Shen ground out his cigarette and pushed the ashtray away.
“What the fuck is going on? Who are you working for? The Americans?”
“It isn’t what you think, Liang.”
“Why does a Russian want to help Americans? They’ve been shitting on Russia for decades. They’re imperialist scum.”
“So you want to recruit me, comrade? Is that it?”
“Communism. Capitalism. Who gives a shit? Look, Western imperialism has undermined China since the British started dumping opium here to pry open the tea market. Now that China is taking her rightful place in the world again, the U.S. and Britain are doing everything they can to keep us down. Join us, Jon. I can open a lot of doors for you—especially for a man with your talents. There is virtually unlimited money to be made.”
Ross sipped his vodka. “That’s a great offer, Liang. And I do appreciate it, but I’m going to tell you what’s really going on here. And you’re not going to like it.”
Shen pushed his drink away. “Damnit.”
“You remember why Interpol is looking for me—why I’m wanted by the FBI?”