"I do not doubt the assassin's identity, but why would Chairman Yun do such a thing? Without our support, his regime will collapse. Why would he risk offending us in such a manner? It could only bring bad luck to him."
"Give me permission and I will bring much more than bad luck to our esteemed ally," General Liu said.
"This is a time for caution, General," Zhang said. "Like you, I am tempted to remove this annoying thorn in our side once and for all. But we must be aware of the consequences."
"You mean the Americans."
"That is exactly what I mean. If we annex North Korea, it will almost certainly mean war. The Americans are already unhappy with our actions in the South China Sea."
"That is our rightful area of control," Liu said. "The gwai lo will not risk nuclear war over fishing rights."
"No, but we both know that much more than fishing rights are involved."
"The Americans will not permit us to enter North Korea unopposed," Deng said. "Look what they did when Yun sank their submarine. They were angry and sent their Seventh Fleet in spite of his warnings about entering North Korean waters. That is a formidable force. If Yun had attempted to stop the rescue effort, they would have crushed him. They know he has nukes, but they chose to risk it."
"Even Yun wasn't stupid enough to take on the American Seventh Fleet," Liu said.
"He may not be stupid, but you are making the mistake of thinking he is rational," Deng said. "He is not. The man displays disturbing signs of mental disorder. He is delusional."
"Paranoid?"
Deng nodded, once. "The medications he takes support an assessment along those lines. Unfortunately, he does not take them as regularly as he should. If he had not agreed to the solution proposed by our Russian comrades, I believe war would have started. He would have attacked the American ships."
"Comrades?" Zhang looked amused.
"In a manner of speaking, in this particular instance."
"What do you propose?" Zhang asked. "We cannot let this pass unnoticed."
"'A moment of patience in a moment of anger prevents a thousand moments of regret,' " Deng said. "I need time to verify the truth or falsehood of this report."
"How will you begin?"
"I already have. Interestingly, the Korean murderer was recently treated here in Beijing for terminal cancer. My agents are questioning everyone who interacted with him. Perhaps the disease unhinged him and he acted on his own."
"That seems unlikely," Zhang said. "How did he get from Pyongyang to Washington? Where did he get the explosives he used?"
"You have mentioned two reasons why it is possible the report is true," Deng said.
"How much time do you need, Minister Deng?"
"A week should be sufficient."
"What if the report turns out to be accurate?" Liu asked.
"In that case, we will have to consider the best response."
"Yun should be eliminated."
"That may not be possible without starting a war with the West."
"Perhaps," Zhang said, "perhaps not. There is always more than one way to accomplish a goal."
CHAPTER 22
Nick's secured phone vibrated in his pocket as he pulled into the HQ parking lot. Elizabeth Harker was calling from her hospital bed.
"Good morning, Director. You're up early."
"Did you ever try to sleep late in a hospital?" Harker said. "They wake me up at four in the morning to give me a pill."
"What's up?"
"Have you checked the Internet this morning?"
"No, I just got here."
"There's a new video showing up everywhere, an interview with an anonymous source who claims to be a high-level defector from Russia. His face is obscured and his voice electronically masked in the video. It's impossible to identify him. The video was released by the same journalist who wrote about Chairman Yun's role in the assassination of the Chinese ambassador."
"What does this defector say?"
"That the assassination was planned in coordination with Washington."
"What? That's crazy."
"Not according to the man in the video. He says Moscow and the White House have made a secret agreement to ally against the PRC and that the file implicating Yun in the assassination is a false flag, cooked up to distract the Chinese from the real threat."
"And the threat is?"
"That Moscow and the White House are getting ready to go to war with China. According to the report, the assassination was the opening move. The journalist claims to have a copy of our war plans for China and says he's going to publish them."
"How the hell would a reporter get those?"
"I don't know, but he shows the first page in the video. It looks authentic."
"I wonder if the asshole who put this together gave any thought to how it would affect our relations with China, or national security? What's the matter with these people? We don't have an alliance with Russia against China, we both know that."
"I don't think truth matters much to the press, unless it supports the editor's point of view or improves the bottom line."
"That's a cynical statement."
"It's a cynical business," Harker said.
"China isn't going to like this."
"That may rank as the understatement of the year. See if you can find out what's going on."
"Something stinks about this," Nick said, "starting with the assassination. Why a suicide bomber? That's not the North Korean style."
"It was the style during the Korean War," Harker said. "They sent wave after wave of people carrying pitchforks and wearing not much more than quilted jackets against machine guns, knowing they'd be cut down."
"That was the Chinese, not the Koreans. They didn't have much of a choice with Mao running the show. This doesn't add up, Director. It's too neat. A North Korean agent throws himself on the ambassador's car, blows it up and himself with it. Then a computer turns up in his apartment with files on it identifying Yun as ordering the hit. Now we've got an anonymous Russian defector claiming it wasn't Yun after all, that the ambassador was killed as part of a larger plot by the U.S. and Russia against China."
"Go on."
"Put yourself in Chinese shoes. If I'm running the People's Republic, what am I supposed to think? Do I believe the story? Can I afford not to believe it? On a paranoia scale of one to ten, I'd say Beijing just hit twelve."
"It's true they're quick to think the worst," Harker said.
"According to what we've found out, the man who killed Li was a mid-level officer. Why would he have sensitive material about Yun on his computer? Right there, something's off. He wouldn't have access to that kind of information and I can't think of a single reason why it would be on his personal computer if he did."
"I've been wondering about that myself," Harker said.
"Now we have this video by a supposed defector, an anonymous source who comes out of the woodwork claiming there's a conspiracy against China. Why would he do that? Why now?"
"In the video, he states that he's doing it to prevent a war."
"I can't think of anything more likely to start one, if Beijing chooses to believe it."
In the background behind Harker, Nick heard the hospital speaker asking for someone to report.
"I want to question this guy," Nick said. "Someone put him up to this and provided him with at least part of our war planning about China. Whoever did it is guilty of treason. I'm thinking of Stephanie's AI computer. Freddie mentioned the possibility of a third party manipulating events."
"Freddie. I'd forgotten about him. Is Steph there yet?"
"Not yet."
"Go over this with her and have Freddie take a look at it. Let's see what he comes up with."
"If it is a third-party, what does he hope to gain?"
"Maybe he wants to start a war," Elizabeth said.