“Yes, but let’s look at that for a moment. What’s our real objective?” David asked.
“Ending the war,” the NASA woman said.
“Winning the war, and having a planet left to live on…” the NSA man added.
David pointed at him. “Exactly. The use of ICBMs was always for nuclear weapons. But what if we could use ICBMs as a conventional weapon? Military tacticians use the term ‘simultaneous time on top.’ The idea is that all of your weapons hit their target at the same time.”
The naval officer said, “The leftovers after a global strike on all enemy nuclear weapons would most likely be the enemy boomers. The handful of nuclear missile submarines hiding off our coast. If we’re lucky, it will be just one or two. We’ll hopefully sink the rest. But one or two boomers still leaves enough nukes to wipe out a huge part of the population and create a disaster.”
The NSA man said, “Twenty-five nuclear warheads are enough to do serious damage in the hands of an unstable madman.”
David’s face hardened. “Then we must kill the madman too.”
26
Minister of State Security Dong thought about what the American CIA officer working in the Japanese embassy had said to him. Lena Chou wants the war to end. She is loyal to Jinshan but she will be rudderless when he succumbs to his illness. In the interest of peace, we must be sure that you, Minister Dong, maintain influence over Jinshan’s successor.
He looked at the thumb drive in his palm, the one the CIA officer had given to him during the meeting. Dong opened up his office safe and removed a laptop maintained especially for these purposes. The computer had no wireless connectivity and was hardened against even the most sophisticated electronic attacks. Normally it was used to view the extremely sensitive reports he received from MSS agents overseas. The thumb drive message was encoded with an older version of MSS crypto, a version the Americans had, unknown to the MSS, cracked. This was clever. If Dong was caught, he could say that a Chinese agent had passed him the information. The CIA was very careful not to give him anything that wouldn’t fit that excuse.
Dong attached the memory stick that the CIA officer had provided during their last meeting. There was only one file. Within seconds, he had scanned the entire five-page document, his eyes widening as he read.
Lena arrived at her home — a luxury apartment in Beijing — to find two MSS security service personnel standing guard outside the front door.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” she said.
They said nothing, but one held open the door for her. Minister Dong was sitting on a sofa inside, speaking on a cell phone. Seeing her, he held up a hand, signaling her to wait. Lena mentally prepared herself for whatever this might be.
“Hello, Lena.” Dong hung up the phone and stood to shake her hand. “I hope you don’t mind that I’ve made myself a guest in your residence. I took the liberty of ensuring it was clean of any listening devices.”
And probably inserted a few, Lena thought.
“I welcome the company, Minister Dong.”
“Please, sit.”
Lena set down her bag and took a seat across from Dong. They were alone in the house, and the security guards had closed the door. To her left, the city lights gleamed out her balcony window.
Minister Dong said, “I heard you have a new title. Special Liaison to the Russian Federation. How has your father taken the news?”
Lena considered her response. Deciding on the truth, she said, “Not well.”
General Chen fumed when he read the official Russian communication. All Russian military and intelligence matters must flow through the new Special Liaison’s office. He had understood what the Russian president was doing.
Dong said, “We will need the Russians if we are to prevail, I think. And now you once again have leverage.”
“I wasn’t aware that I’d lost it, Minister Dong.”
Dong’s lips curled into the beginning of a smile. “Not yet. But Jinshan is almost gone.”
There it was. No one would say it out loud until now.
Jinshan had been her only connection to power, and the reason her father was paying attention to her. He was also the reason Dong didn’t lock her up for suspicion of cooperating with the Americans. It appeared that her favor with the Russian president was a new lifeline. But Lena had another that Dong didn’t yet know about.
It was time to use it.
Lena said, “How long have you been working for the Americans?”
Dong’s smile faded.
Lena could see his pulse beating in his neck. A moment of silence turned into two. Then Dong said, “Why did the Americans let you go?”
“They didn’t. I escaped.”
“I don’t believe that…”
Lena said, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I can only assume that you misunderstood something you heard. Or saw.”
Lena raised one eyebrow. “I saw.”
Dong hummed. “I see. The agent in question is mine. He works for the MSS.”
“Not the Americans?”
“He provides information to me. Because of him, I now know where American forces plan to consolidate their military.”
There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other, Lena deciding how to respond.
She said, “Perhaps I should apologize, Minister Dong. I must have merely witnessed a meeting that, as you say, I didn’t fully understand. Thank you for clearing it up.”
“No need to apologize.”
“What would you like to discuss?”
“Your next assignment.”
Here it was. The carrot being dangled in front of her.
“What would you wish me to do, Minister?”
“I plan to be Ma’s vice president when Jinshan passes. I ask that you support me. And stop this ridiculous quest your father sent you on. Spying on me?”
So, he knew the truth. Of course, he did. Lena’s anger was stirring again. But not at Dong. She was annoyed with herself for again allowing her father to cloud her judgment.
“Lena, I must share something with you. It may be upsetting. I’m sure that it will be, in fact. But before I show you, I want you to know that you can trust me. I see your greatness, the same way Jinshan did. If you support me, I will return the favor tenfold. I intend to let you shine. But you must stop this nonsense with your father. You need to know who you are collaborating with, whether he is your blood or not.”
Dong removed an envelope from his inner jacket pocket and handed it to her. Lena took the envelope and removed a single sheet of paper of a printed image, double-sided. Several document pages had been scanned onto the paper. Tiny print, but legible.
Her childhood name and picture.
She frowned. “What is…”
Lena continued reading and caught her breath. Her eyes fluttered over words that couldn’t possibly be true.
Dong leaned forward, his hands clasped tightly together. “I know it must be shocking. But you need to know the truth. Jinshan will die. And when that time comes, you will have a choice to make. Many of us will. You will have to choose where your true loyalty lies. With your father, or me. But know this. Your father betrayed you in the worst possible way.”
Her hands shook as she re-read the document.
“How do I know this is true? Why should I believe you?” Lena blinked back tears.
Dong cocked his head. “You know it is true.”
And she did.
It made sense. Back then, she was just a girl. In those early days, she didn’t know how these recruitments and manipulations were carefully staged. But now, seeing this… everything began to fit into place. In her hand was the Minister of State Security’s documentation of her own Junxun recruitment. The psych profiling conducted when she was only fifteen, a year before the incident happened. The careful selection of certain boys with certain physical and psychological characteristics to be placed in her class. The whole operation was staged. They intentionally set up the conditions for one of the boys to rape or impregnate her so they would have leverage. So she would have to turn to the MSS for a way out.