“Reach into your lower left pocket and withdraw a coin.”
Michael carefully reached past the rotors, removing a Chinese coin.
“Recognize it?”
“Yeah. It’s one yuan.”
“Throw it in the water.”
“You want me to make a wish?”
“I want you,” Huang said, “to throw the coin in the water.”
Curious as to what Huang was up to, Michael tossed the coin. It landed in the water with a small splash, sinking the twelve or so inches down to the cave floor. Huang walked in front of them and a hit a key on his phone. There was a tiny pop, followed by several large bubbles migrating to the surface.
“Sarin gas. I’ve neutralized it with an alkali, but the seven other charges you carry within your front pocket are active. You have been a walking chemical bomb since my men approached you on the bridge, Mr. Chase. In addition to emitting a trackable beacon, each of the coins my agents placed upon you contains a lethal dose of nerve poison. Upon release of the gas you will experience nausea and difficulty breathing followed quickly by a complete and total loss of bodily function. Within three minutes you will suffocate to death in your own shit.”
Michael considered the possibility. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was the fact that weakness would pay no dividend with this man. “Better than listening to yours,” he said.
Huang snickered, revealing a decayed tooth. “Open your mouth.”
Michael just looked at him.
“I said open your mouth.”
Michael immediately felt a crack to the back of his skull, presumably from the butt of the MP5. He opened his mouth.
“Stick out your tongue”
Michael didn’t like it, but when Huang racked the slide on Kate’s Glock, shoving the barrel between his teeth, he saw little choice but to comply. He stuck out his tongue.
“Good.” Huang withdrew a sarin chemical coin from his pocket and placed it on Michael’s tongue. “Swallow.”
“Fuck you.”
Michael spit out the coin.
Huang’s rebuke was as swift as it was brutal. He pulled back the gun and smashed Michael in the face with a left hook, his fist glancing off Michael’s jaw like a wet hammer. Michael felt a rivulet of blood running down his cheek, but found he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to give this prick the satisfaction of seeing him wince. Not if he could help it.
“You are a spy, Mr. Chase. You are a spy like your father before you and you will suffer the fate of all spies. You will die.”
“Yeah, I’m a spy. I’m a slacker Seattle spy come to kick your sorry ass.”
“Michael,” Kate said, “stop it. It’s not helping.”
“The man has a right to know who I am.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“Then I’ll die with a clean conscience.”
Huang was done punching. He pulled back the integrated trigger lock on Kate’s Glock, extending the barrel of the pistol to Michael’s head. The cave was silent for half a second, maybe more.
“Enough!” Ted said. “Michael, just give him the damn rotors.”
Michael caught Kate’s glance. She kept a near-poker face, but he thought he saw the hint of a crack in the façade.
“The sooner he gets them, the sooner we can all go home.”
Huang seemed to have recovered his composure. “Please listen to your friend, Mr. Chase. I think you’ll find you’ll live longer if you do.”
Michael weighed the odds. He didn’t have much choice. Not the way this was going. Plus, he trusted Ted. He trusted him with his life. If this was how it was going to play out, this was how it was going to play out. He made his decision. MP5 still firmly planted at the base of his skull, Michael carefully reached into the front pocket of his cargo shorts and removed the handful of titanium rotors, holding them before him, palm outstretched. For a moment Huang looked like he was about to burst, unable to contain his pleasure. Then, Ted rose from his tired knees, disregarding both the machine guns and Michael’s eyes as he collected the rotors directly from Michael’s hand.
Huang said, “You did well for an American.”
“Don’t push it,” Ted said.
Michael was entirely silent.
“Ted?” Kate said.
“Sorry, Kate. Had to be done.” Ted dropped the rotors into a small nylon stuff sack before addressing his attention back to Huang. “I’ve got it from here.”
“Very good. Be sure to thank Mr. Chase before you shoot him.”
Without a second glance Huang marched off to the hanging belay ropes and harnessed into the compact automatic ascender dangling there. Michael heard an electric hum and the ascender began to move upward, pulling Huang with it like a worm on a hook. Kate couldn’t contain herself. She glared at Ted.
“I knew you were all wrong.”
“After I left the Agency I had some time on my hands.”
“So what’s the MSS paying these days? Better than the CIA I hope.”
“Just zip up and stare straight ahead.”
“Oh come on. You want me to make this easy for you?”
Ted nodded to Huang’s men who stepped forward and circled around so that they were facing the kneeling prisoners. Even in the cold cave Michael saw the sweat on Kate’s brow. Then Ted glanced at his watch. Michael’s mind raced. This was it. This was the moment. He glanced at Kate. Then he saw nothing at all but an intense blast of white light. It was followed, what seemed like an eternity later, by incredible percussive force, slapping him to the rock below, din and flame tearing through the cave like an angry act of God.
Chapter 44
The screeching blade of the circular saw provided a pretty good indication that Mobi’s fast times in Alvarez’s indestructible alcove were about to come to a screaming halt. The first ASAT missile appeared to have detonated somewhere near the Chinese satellite, but as Mobi predicted, it had not resulted in the total destruction that Rand had desired. The system was too buggy for that. Instead, the Chinese bird had ceased transmitting. The good news was that transmissions had now resumed. Mobi attributed the lapse to the EMP effect of the warhead, but regardless of the cause, the fact that the effect had been temporary had Mobi stoked. He might be on his way out, but he was still in the game.
Of course, he knew he wouldn’t be in it long. Sparks from the saw were literally dancing off of his keyboard. Add to that the fact that there was obviously a mole within JPL passing secrets to the Chinese and things were definitely not looking up. Mobi took a moment to rest his eyes. It was time to reassess, or at least examine his fundamental assumptions. He had grown uneasy with the fact that Alvarez had put him in contact with Quiann. What was she really doing talking to a known traitor? She had given him no explanation for this. Could she be the one sending the messages to the Chinese? Putting Mobi onto those messages would certainly be an easy way to deflect suspicion from herself. Not to mention that what Alvarez was saying didn’t make sense. Mobi had assumed that what Alvarez had identified as a hidden clear-code would effectively reset the system allowing normal communication between the Chinese satellite and control. But so far he had found nothing even vaguely resembling a clear-code. Was the answer even in the data stream?
Mobi remembered a magazine article he had once read profiling Quiann. The article was written several years ago in conjunction with one of China’s higher profile space launches. Mobi recalled his impression of the Chinese technology being woefully behind the curve, but what stuck in his mind was something the article had said about Quiann. Something about his alleged earlier involvement in a quasi-cult organization. Mobi thought it had been called the Green Dragon Society. He had dismissed the tidbit as being largely irrelevant at the time, but it occurred to him, what if Quiann did have some kind of weird allegiance to a secret society? That kind of thing could be enough to throw logic right out the proverbial window. What if Quiann deliberately sabotaged the satellite? What if he wanted it to crash down? Over his old alma mater no less? What if crashing the satellite provided the perfect cover for destroying the cold fusion reactor it held? Because Quiann and his cronies wanted to keep the technology secret. Secret from the world. No, Mobi thought, he had been staring at the data too long. Quiann was a man of science. Of course, so was the Unabomber.