"The prosecution can't and won't deal on capital crimes," the public defender said wearily.
"You don't understand. I didn't commit the murder," Butler said as he bummed another of the public defender's cigarettes. "Someone tried to kill me. I'm pretty sure they got my two partners."
"What were you doing when this all took place?"
"Is anything I tell you confidential?"
"No, I'm an officer of the court," the public defender said, growing wearier by the minute.
"Lets just say something is missing in McAllen," Butler said quietly.
"Let me see what I can find out. Then I'll see what I can do," the public defender said, rising to leave.
"Can you leave me those cigarettes?" Butler asked.
The defender turned from the door as he waited for the guard to come and take Butler back to his cell. "Sure, Georgie boy. Smoke your lungs out." Two hours later, after he returned to his office, the public defender read a memo that had been sent from the McAllen Police Department. He picked up his phone and placed a call up the river.
The wheels of justice began to spin.
CHAPTER 31
Tsing squeezed through the doors of the subway train as soon as they opened at the Astor Place Station, at Eighth Street. He raced up the stairs leading to ground level, clutching the pouch containing Einstein's papers. Running across Eighth Street, he slipped into the Cooper Union just as a crowd of New York City police officers began pouring down the stairs to the Astor Place subway platform. The first of the officers to reach the platform found the train stopped. The doors were open and the inside of the train was already cleared of passengers.
Tsing walked through the Cooper Union building, then out the back, into Cooper Square. Since the Americans had successfully trailed him from Boston, Tsing reasoned, they would also be smart enough to be watching the Chinese Embassy closely. He would need to make his way to a different embassy, he thought. He searched his mind for a backup plan.
"He got away," Taft explained to Benson over the secure phone as he stood on the Astor Place platform. "Do we have the phones tapped into the Chinese Embassy?"
"They're tapped," Benson noted, "but I doubt he'll try to initiate contact."
"He knows he's being followed. If I were him, I'd make my way to a different embassy. What's the next closest Chinese Embassy?" Taft asked.
"I already checked that out," Benson said. "It's here in Washington."
"Let's hope that's what he decides to do," said Taft.
"That would be my guess," Benson said. "He is definitely not going to escape our net this time. I'm ordering a cocoon of men to cover the area near the embassy. Sharpshooters stationed on the roofs with orders to shoot the man on sight."
"You're going to order him killed?' asked an incredulous Taft.
"No, the sharpshooters will be ordered to shoot for the legs," Benson said quietly.
"Just pray he doesn't try to crawl for the entrance."
Taft paused to think. "There's nothing else we can achieve here in New York. Martinez and I should drive south. We'll keep our eyes open for the courier," Taft said wearily. "Maybe we'll get lucky."
"I'll approve that. But when you arrive, if you haven't located the courier, I want you two to take a break," Benson said. "You're not having much luck catching this guy. I think you're too close to the situation."
"Very good, sir," Taft said as he hung up the phone.
Taft turned to Martinez, standing next to him on the platform. "The general's not too happy with us. He wants to pull us from the search once we get back to Washington if we haven't found this guy."
"I guess that leaves us only one choice," Martinez said. "We need to find him and redeem ourselves."
"My idea exactly," Taft said.
They left immediately, following the route they believed the courier would take.
CHAPTER 32
Six hours later, after the fake oil-service truck carrying the microbes left Al-Jizah, Egypt, it passed At-Tur. The road the truck followed paralleled the Gulf of Suez since crossing onto the Sinai Peninsula. Within the next hour the truck would follow the road turning east briefly at the southern tip of the peninsula. Next the truck would head north along the Gulf of Aqaba before continuing on until reaching Dhahab. A scorpion darted onto the road, then retreated. Nervously twitching, it darted back onto the road just as the truck passed. Crushed by the truck's tire, the scorpion was unceremoniously tossed to the side.
Chup Cho-Sing sat in the passenger seat and once again read the timetable Sun Tao had presented him before he left Beijing. "We are right on time," he noted to the driver, who glanced at his watch and nodded.
"Once we round the tip it should take another three hours to reach Dhahab," the driver said as he swerved to avoid a mound of sand that had blown onto the road.
"Then I will try to sleep," Cho-Sing said as he scrunched down in his seat and pulled his hat over his eyes. "Wake me when we are close."
In Beijing the sun was nearly below the horizon. Inside the prime minister's office the light was growing dim. Sun Tao smiled across the desk.
"Just like we planned, our SPD agents inside Israel report they have the bombs in place. They are standing by to activate them at our command," Tao said to the prime minister.
The prime minister nodded. "These oil-eating bugs, you are sure they will work?"
"We tested a small sample today. The results were horrifying. However, once they are in place two days from now, we'll know for sure they will work on the reservoirs."
"Your plan is outstanding. We blame the microbes in the oil on radical Israelis. Then the bombs we explode in Israel are blamed on Saudi retaliation," the prime minister said quietly.
"Yes," Tao said, "it would seem a flawless plan."
"Quite brilliant. The war that ensues should draw the Americans to the region and allow us the opportunity to liberate Taiwan. After the liberation is complete and we have strengthened our position we can move against Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia."
"We can be certain the Americans will rally their troops to protect their precious oil supply," Tao agreed, "and that will leave the Asian region with a limited United States military presence. Our advisors feel they won't try to stop us from liberating Taiwan unless they possess overwhelming force. It seems that for the last few years the Americans' policy is never to fight a war they are not sure they can win."
"All appears to favor our side," the prime minister agreed. "Have we heard from the courier who holds the Einstein papers yet?"
"Not yet. Our embassy in New York reported they were being closely watched by American agents," Tao noted.
"Those papers are the key to our ultimate success."
"I'm sure our courier Tsing realized the New York embassy was being watched and diverted to his alternate plan."
"The alternate location is Washington, D.C.," the prime minister noted. "Do we have a ship in place to facilitate the delivery of the papers and the couriers escape?"
"I have already taken care of it," Tao noted.
"The time will be tight," the prime minister noted. "October 1st is fast approaching." In the Middle East, three hours and twenty minutes later, the truck carrying the microbes pulled to a stop in front of a large canvas tent that was erected on the sands outside Dhahab. The air was tinder dry. The night sky was a black carpet dotted with the twinkling lights from thousands of stars overhead. From outside the tent the fuel oil lanterns lighting the inside of the tent made it appear to be glowing. On Chou-Sing's orders, several men raised the flaps of the tent and the truck containing the microbes drove inside. Cho-Sing motioned to the man in charge of the operation in Dhahab.