And now Borger was hacking in for one reason and one reason only. Retaliation.
Caesare was all ears as he dropped himself into the chair next to Borger. “Okay. Spill it.”
“They haven’t given up,” he replied, “which means they’ve probably figured out what happened to the vials of bacteria. That they were injected into Wei’s daughter. Which is why I think Qin was killed.”
Caesare savored the thought. He wished he could have been there to see the look on Qin’s face when he realized John Clay had tricked him. A simple, but brilliant move that no doubt left the murderous Chinese agent in a moment of stunned disbelief. And if Qin was dumb enough to try to double-cross the wrong people on his end, Caesare had to agree that Qin was probably no longer alive.
“So what do they have?”
Borger rolled himself forward to the edge of the old tarnished metal desk, where he reached out and began typing. A window appeared, filled with unreadable — at least to Caesare — Chinese logographic characters. With another command, the Chinese text was promptly replaced with English. But the cryptic logs were still readable only to Borger.
“These are system logs. Captured from several of their internal servers. Things like search strings, along with breaches of access into telephone and transportation systems. Including one system which is their own version of our FBI’s facial tracking database. But China is way behind with their local infrastructure, so only the largest cities have enough cameras to yield anything helpful. Which means they are much more limited in trying to find Li Na in a country of a billion people. But they’re trying.”
“Any leads?”
“A lot. But it’s truly a needle in a haystack. At least for now. However, their challenge isn’t being able to identify the needle, it’s finding the right haystack. Coverage is spotty, but if Li Na happens to walk through an area that is plugged in, they’ll find her quickly.”
Caesare peered at the screen of cryptic computer syntax. “Wonderful.”
In a large nondescript, twelve-story building in Shanghai, a set of dark eyes were staring at another computer monitor. With strands of straight black hair hanging in front of his face, the Chinese hacker known as M0ngol was carefully studying a list of cell phone logs. His pale complexion was awash in the glow of his own monitor. Behind him, in hundreds of similar cubes, sat the rest of China’s notorious group known as PLA Unit 61398. Or more specifically, Advanced Persistent Threat 1, the state-sanctioned hacking group identified in 2014 when a United States Federal grand jury returned an indictment for five of the group’s officers.
After the allegation, the Chinese government quickly denied any existence of such an organization, only to acknowledge a year later that it had “multiple” cyber warfare personnel working within its military.
Personnel who were now trying desperately to locate the teenage girl, Li Na Wei.
They had sifted through every piece of information they could find on the girl and each member of her family. Everything. Emails, phone calls, school records — any personal connection they could establish. Which meant every conversation they could find a record of, even handwritten correspondence.
Unfortunately, the girl’s father, General Wei, had been exceedingly careful to destroy every shred of evidence he could on the whereabouts of his dying daughter. In the end, he even took his own life in an attempt to protect her. But eventually, M0ngol found her — at a remote hospital where she was being hidden.
But Li Na had escaped with the help of an American and was now either dead or on the run. The first possibility, he just didn’t believe.
She was out there. He was sure of it. And so far, still hidden. She hadn’t reached out to anyone that M0ngol and the others were monitoring. Nor had she returned to any familiar places in Beijing. Or withdrawn any money from the active accounts they had purposely left in place. Not a hint of a trace.
M0ngol was again at the cell phone logs, still working to identify unseen relationships among millions of calls. If he could establish enough connections, they could begin analyzing voices and keyword patterns. Anything that could suggest someone was in need of help. From there they would start whittling down leads to the most likely proximities.
It was a huge, drawn-out effort, but M0ngol forced himself to be patient. He was eager to redeem himself in the eyes of the MSS. After what had happened to Qin. He had to find the girl. Because in the end, it was either her… or him.
9
The People’s Republic of China held many distinct titles. One, being the most populous nation on Earth. And another, being one of the greatest coal producers in the northern hemisphere. With production peaking at a staggering four billion metric tonnes per year, the country generated nearly seventy-five percent of its electrical energy needs from Earth’s most abundant and dirtiest fuel source.
Yet, its mining industry, like many others, was now in a state of terminal decline. Once-great production areas of the country were systematically being turned into ghost towns. And it was ironic that what had once stood as one of the country’s greatest strengths had now become a major weakness.
Beneath a field of stars, Li Na sat quietly in the train’s last car, nestled into the corner and leaning against the freezing metal. She wore two shirts beneath a thick dark sweater and two pairs of pants now colored almost black from the coal.
The heavily loaded train rocked from side to side under the strain of its own weight, passing the switch point and causing the metal cars to screech briefly as they switched to a different track.
The swaying subsided, and the cars resumed sounding their rhythmic clack-clack as the train began to regain speed.
Li Na’s eyes were low and dull, her arms wrapped around herself to keep warm. The large city of Chifeng passed by in eerie darkness, strangely silent considering the city’s recent prominence as one of Inner Mongolia’s central rail hubs. The government had used it primarily in transporting China’s dwindling coal shipments from the mountains of Dornod to the hundreds of power plants spanning the country’s northern territory.
It was the last place anyone would have thought to look for her. Stashed away in a train car and almost completely covered in black coal.
It was not intentional but she’d been there for almost two days now. It hadn’t taken long for Li Na to realize how well the dark powder concealed her.
A sudden jolt of the car caused her large satchel to slide off, and she reached down to pull it back up and over her shoulder.
Her father hadn’t just saved her. He also knew the government would be coming for her if she lived and had provided her with the means to escape. If she was lucky enough. Included in the satchel, among other things, was some emergency food, a small GPS unit, and several stacks of money.
She reached into the satchel again and withdrew a fourth item. Under the crescent moon, she could make out the faint picture of herself. By including a falsified passport, he had sent her a message that could not have been clearer: get out of the country.
She was now headed toward Shenyang. But first, she needed a place to stay. To hide until she could figure out how to make it to the coast. It was a place her father had once told her about and a place that most people would not believe, even with their own eyes.
It was the best plan she could think of. She was completely alone now and prayed they wouldn’t find her. At least not until it was too late.