The General accepted the call but continued watching the screen with one eye closed to make sure the encryption was established. Finally, he held the phone to his ear. “What is it?”
Chao’s words were clear and unmistakable. “The Americans have found out.”
The fog immediately cleared from General Wei’s head, and he sat up on the edge of his bed, thinking. He wasn’t surprised. It was inevitable once the science vessel had arrived. They were smart not to send a warship. Wei instinctively reached for his glasses and slid them on. “But do they know?”
On the other end, Chao held his own satellite phone to his ear and peered into the darkness beyond the glaringly bright glow from the truck’s headlights. “They don’t know yet, but they will. They took a sample.”
“Dammit,” Wei growled. It would take them some time to understand what they had, just as it had taken Wei’s men in the beginning. But it wouldn’t be long. Maybe days. “How much do we have now?”
“About sixty percent.”
Wei nodded silently in the dark. He’d hoped for more, a lot more, but they would have to take what they had. He hesitated, wondering if there was any other way. Maybe the Americans wouldn’t figure it out. Or maybe it would take them longer than he expected. Maybe the politicians would get wind of it and turn it into one of those bureaucratic fights for which the Americans were famous.
Damn it! He shook his head again. He couldn’t take any chances. Those Americans had no idea just how lucky they were to have sent a science vessel. They would soon.
Wei gave a resigned sigh. “Three more days,” he said. “We have at least that long. Then destroy what’s left.”
Chao acknowledged the instruction and hung up, leaving Wei solemn and thoughtful on the edge of his mattress, holding his phone. He finally lay back down on his bed. The other side was empty.
He couldn’t take any chances. It was a once in a lifetime discovery. No, he thought to himself, it was bigger than that, much bigger.
31
Captain Krogstad stepped through the door and onto the bridge, still fastening the last button on his shirt. He gazed out over the shoulder of his Quartermaster of the Watch. An early morning fog surrounded the ship, giving a strange feeling of isolation.
“Where is it?” Krogstad asked.
The Quartermaster nodded straight ahead. “Just a few degrees to port, sir.”
“How fast?”
“Just a poke, really. Maybe five knots.”
Krogstad relaxed slightly, still staring out through the giant window. If someone was attacking the Bowditch, it was a ridiculously slow attack.
The communication's officer turned around. “Sir. I have a call coming in for you over satellite.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s John Clay, sir. He says it’s them on the boat.” The officer then smiled, “And not to shoot.”
Krogstad rolled his eyes. Yeah, like what was he going to shoot with?
Ten minutes later, the strange boat slowly emerged from the fog. When Krogstad saw what it was, he almost laughed. A small fishing trawler.
The old half-rusted trawler slowed its engines and slid past the Bowditch’s bow as the skipper expertly brought the two vessels almost within reach. The trawler’s bumpers were down, but they wouldn’t need them. Instead, they glided closer and closer until they approached one of the Bowditch’s maintenance ladders running down the outside of its hull. With a rumble, the trawler’s engines were thrown into reverse, which slowed the boat to a virtual standstill. The tip of its own bow crept closer. Clay and Caesare turned and acknowledged the skipper before jumping from the front of the trawler onto the Bowditch’s exterior ladder.
When they reached the top, Captain Krogstad was standing over them with arms folded, along with his Officer of the Deck and the Quartermaster. “Nice ride,” he commented, with a smirk.
Clay cleared the ladder and unbuckled his bag, giving the Captain a salute. “We had to leave rather quickly. I apologize for the dramatic entrance. I had some trouble getting routed to you through satellite.”
Krogstad’s lip curled. “What the hell. I don’t get many wake-up calls like that anymore.” He turned to Caesare as he joined them. “I presume your grand return means you found something.”
“You could say that.”
Thirty minutes later, Clay, Caesare, Captain Krogstad, and Will Borger sat around a small metal table in a semicircle. All four men sat facing the monitor. The conference capabilities onboard a ship while underway were much more limited, having to bounce the signal off a satellite first. But all technical limitations aside, the picture was still surprisingly clear. Aside from some occasional pixilation, they could see Admiral Langford and Secretary of Defense Miller quite well. In another window on the screen were National Security Advisor Griffith and Secretary of State Bartman. However, Clay and Caesare were both surprised to see Dr. Kathryn Lokke from the U.S.G.S. in a third window. They had met her the year before in what turned out to be one of the most memorable meetings they’d ever had.
After uploading a picture of what they found in the Chinese truck, Clay waited for the Admiral’s response. The picture was now onscreen and Langford’s reaction was exactly as Clay expected.
“You can’t be serious?!” exclaimed Langford. “A goddamn plant?!”
“Yes, sir.”
They could see Langford and Miller look at each other with disbelief.
“Are you saying,” Miller spoke up, with a look of incredulity, “that all of this is over some PLANTS?!” The other three officials on the screen simply looked on, speechless.
Clay replied again, simply. “Yes, sir.”
Langford shook his head and wrapped a hand over his mouth, while Griffith cut in. “All this time. All this secrecy. The black trucks, the midnight runs, everything… is over a bunch of plants.” His tone was rhetorical.
Lokke’s expression was the only one that had moved on from surprise to curiosity. “Commander,” she said to Clay. “Are you sure the rest of the crates had the same things in them?”
“I am. There were a few gaps, allowing me to see inside. They were all carrying the same contents as the one I opened: giant plants wrapped in plastic.”
Lokke raised her eyebrows. “How much of the plants were in plastic?”
“The whole plant, including the roots. It all appeared to be wrapped in some kind of special medium. As you can see from the one I retrieved, the plants are pretty large. I estimate they had about two dozen packed into each crate.”
The picture Clay had uploaded to the screen was of a very thick and very green section of leaf, appearing to come from a much larger sample. In truth, it seemed to everyone to be a big and otherwise ordinary looking leaf. They had all seen larger leaves before, particularly palms.
“What in the hell would they want with a bunch of plants?” Langford asked. The others remained silent until Langford addressed Krogstad. “Rog, we need to get your people to look at this, ASAP.”
“They already are. Clay gave the sample to our science team shortly after arriving back onboard.”
“Good,” replied Langford. “So far, I see two possibilities. One, there’s something unique about these plants. Two is that the plants are somehow not the main objective of our Chinese friends.”
“Or a ruse,” added Miller.