General Chen considered this as he stood inside Chairman Jinshan’s darkened personal chamber, listening for a beat before he walked around the corner and into sight.
He hoped to hear snoring.
Instead, he heard his daughter’s voice.
Lena loomed over Jinshan’s frail body.
Fear crept into his eyes. Jinshan knew this was the end. Or he was at least beginning to suspect it.
“What has upset you so, Lena? Someone must have said something.” Jinshan was employing the tactics of an old intelligence officer. A quest for information, camouflaged to sound like sympathy.
“Someone did.”
She could see his mind working out the problem. Trying to find a solution.
“Your father,” Jinshan guessed.
Lena didn’t answer.
“Listen to me, Lena. You know that he cannot be trusted. Your father wants your loyalty. He sees the way you and I have worked together and…”
“You still haven’t answered my question. That day before you recruited me. Tell me, who gave the boy the key to my room?”
His voice was silent, yet his gaze held her answer.
Jinshan closed his eyes. “Life is a cruel gift…”
Lena felt the old familiar tug inside her. The pull toward violent action. Although this time it wasn’t just a bloodlust. It was a craving for revenge. She forced herself to remain disciplined, and continued listening to the old man on his deathbed.
Jinshan opened his eyes and looked at her. “I once had faith in our system. But there came a time, when I was about your age and working for the MSS, that I became disenchanted. I saw the corruption. The failure of governments to perform. Not just ours. My travels showed me that it was the same in every country, under different guises. I was without purpose. But I had skill. I could influence others. I could out-think my opponents. I used my connections to build my net worth and power, just because it felt good. But still, I was without purpose. Until this.” He held out his hand for effect. “This war to end all wars. This was my symphony. My purpose. I used my talents to take control of China, to unite the nations around the world. I used whatever means were necessary, because the end result will be worth it.” His eyes watered as he spoke.
Lena’s lip quivered. This was the siren song that had moved her over the years, but this time with a twist. Jinshan’s whispers of truth, his ultimate goal, resonated with her. She too saw the flaws in governments around the world. The endless imperfections. But he had lied to her. From the beginning he had lied.
Jinshan said, “I never married. Never had a child. You were the closest thing…”
Lena shook her head forcefully, a tear streaming down her cheek. “Don’t. You chose me as your recruit before the boy entered my room that night. My assault was part of your plan. You selected me for your program based on my performance in your camp. You made a deal with my own father to bring me into your organization. Did he know? Did he know how you were going to do it?”
A tear streamed down Jinshan’s own face now.
Lena continued speaking through gritted teeth. “Then you set in motion plans to ruin me. To have that boy ravage my body. To destroy my innocence so I would be broken and vulnerable. You used that vulnerability as leverage to gain my trust and cooperation. So you could rebuild me into your…”
Jinshan began slowly nodding. “Yes.” His voice was but a whisper. “An assassin. An intelligence officer. I built you into my greatest asset. Lena, you are my proudest achievement.”
She said, “You are not who I thought you were. I used to believe in you. But everything you’ve given me, everything you’ve said… it all started with this unforgivable betrayal.”
Jinshan’s face went red. “I know what you came here for. I can see it in your eyes. I suppose I deserve it.”
“You do.”
“Go ahead, then, if you must.”
With the quickness of a trained assassin, she removed a razor-sharp knife from the concealed sheath at her waist, then leaned forward and carefully moved the blade across Jinshan’s throat.
A dark crimson line appeared.
She had carved a half-inch-deep laceration in his neck, slicing open his carotid artery and windpipe. Blood began pouring down from the gash. Air bubbles spewed from the windpipe.
Jinshan’s face morphed in excruciating pain. His eyes widened and his fingers fumbled at his neck, and then Lena watched as the life drained out of him, his eyes staring off into the dark abyss where his soul now resided.
Lena’s heart pounded. She looked down at her hand, now covered in dark blood.
She had just killed the most powerful man in the world.
Lena froze as she heard a shuffling behind her. She turned to see her father standing alone in the dark, cavernous room. Her heart beat faster still.
The knife was still in her hand.
“He is dead?” General Chen’s mouth was agape as he stared at Jinshan’s corpse.
Any moment now he would call in the guards to arrest her.
The sound of the door opening a second time. A single pair of footsteps on the marble floor. Lena expected to see a guard, but then Secretary Ma appeared, standing next to General Chen.
He covered his mouth. “What?” he cried, running over to Jinshan and placing his hands on his neck as he tried in vain to help the dead leader.
Lena looked up at her father, who was staring back at her.
General Chen called out, “Guards!”
29
David heard the commotion as he entered the Silversmith team’s tactical operations center. Groups of men and women were high-fiving and hugging each other.
“The war is going to be over!” one analyst cried out.
David saw Susan standing in her office doorway, speaking to one of her operations officers.
“What happened?” David asked.
“We just received word that Jinshan Cheng has died,” she replied.
David’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding?”
One of the younger CIA operations officers said, “I mean, it’s over now, right? Ma will be put in charge. He wants peace. That’s what our sources tell us.”
Someone else said, “Shh. Don’t start talking like that. Just be patient.”
David followed Susan into her office, and the door shut behind them. He could still hear the jubilation outside.
“Why aren’t you celebrating?” David asked.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. The battle at Panama was a stalemate at best.”
“We sank three of their carriers and half of their Jiaolong-class ships.”
“True, but the Chinese army has weakened our ground forces near the Panama Canal Zone. And half their fleet is missing.”
“Missing?”
“The troop transports weren’t near the Galapagos, where they were expected to be. A good number of their warships are also unaccounted for.”
“Maybe they dropped off their troops and cargo and were sent back to China to reload?”
“Probably. Which doesn’t bode well for this being an end to the war.”
David said, “Jinshan just died. We need to see how Ma behaves. Our agents in China say he will be more favorable than Jinshan. We may be able to strike a peace agreement sooner than previously thought.”
“There is still fighting going on. Nothing has changed yet.”
David said, “It will take time for new orders to permeate through the ranks. Be patient.”
Susan still didn’t look happy.
David said, “How did Jinshan’s death occur? Natural causes or…”
Susan sat behind her desk. She typed on her computer, then turned the monitor to face David. The screen was polarized so that it could only be seen if someone was facing it directly. When the message came into view, he read it quickly and asked, “That’s Tetsuo? Holy shit, how did he get this information?”