“Yes.”
David shook his head. “This has to be set up.”
Susan nodded. She walked over and picked up her phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“I want to have some of the NSA folks put some numbers behind this. I want to know what the Chinese media and social media are saying about all this.”
David looked back at the screen. He covered his mouth, disturbed by the image of two bodies swinging from a noose, burning.
“I’m not sure that you need the NSA to tell you. They’re going to be going crazy.”
One of the people wearing a white robe walked out onto the garden area, dragging a younger-looking Chinese woman with them.
“Who is that? She looks young.”
The person in the white robe lifted up a pistol from beneath the garment, aimed it at the head of the young woman, and fired.
“Oh my God.” David winced and turned away for a moment.
Susan shook her head. “I think that might have been the daughter. We’re going to need to put together a preliminary assessment of how this is playing over there.”
Director Buckingham was in his office with one of his deputies when Susan and David arrived.
“What are your thoughts?”
Susan said, “It’s too early to say who’s responsible.”
“Gut?”
David crossed his arms. “This sounds like Jinshan. Everything we’ve seen from him has been carefully orchestrated. He has a talent for manipulating public opinion.”
Susan filled the director in on the information David and the team had uncovered regarding Lena and the religious fanatic, Charles Beulah.
“So this is the work of Lena Chou?”
“And by association, Jinshan. That’s a guess. The evidence is sketchy right now, but we’ll obviously dig further.”
The deputy director of the CIA said, “You think Jinshan would have the balls to off his own president? He’s in prison right now, isn’t he? How the hell is he supposed to orchestrate anything?”
Susan said, “Sir, we have reports that he’s still been active, even while awaiting his trial. Putting him in prison in China is like putting Pablo Escobar in prison in Colombia. He still has access to and communication with many of his loyalists.”
The dark blue phone rang and the director picked up, glancing at his audience. “Director Buckingham. Yes, sir, Mr. President. I’m just speaking with my team now.” He looked at his watch. “Very well, sir, I’ll work out timing with the chief of staff.” He hung up the phone.
“We need something fast. The president wants an estimate on what we think the Chinese reaction will be. I assume that Secretary Zhang is now in charge over there. Please confirm that and coordinate with State to make sure they’re feeding you everything they know. Susan, you have one hour to prepare a brief. I want you two with me when we head to the White House.”
“Me?” David said.
“You know Lena Chou better than anyone. You two better get moving.”
David found the Situation Room utterly intimidating. He wanted nothing more than to leave, but the importance of the conversation kept him from letting his mind wander too much.
The president had just finished listening to Susan’s geopolitical estimate — how China would react to the death of their president, ostensibly at the hands of an American religious fanatic.
“So, you think that this Cheng Jinshan might be responsible for this? And what — they decided to blame it on religious extremists?”
“Not just any religious extremists, sir. Christian extremists. Americans, specifically. We think that was very purposeful. This particular man who the Chinese are holding responsible has been vilified on Chinese news media sites for several weeks now. Just before this meeting began, I saw that the Chinese state-sponsored news is now showing an image of Beulah’s corpse at the crime scene in China, supposedly shot by police. But based on our own initial investigation, we suspect that this may be a ploy. We think that Chinese agents may have taken that religious fanatic from his home and brought him to China. It’s possible that this is another deception created by Jinshan.”
The president raised an eyebrow. “Why? I mean, why a religious fanatic?”
Susan said, “Sir, it’s possible that Jinshan’s war plans are still being executed. In their Red Cell operation, when they created their set of psychological warfare plans, one of the objectives was to sufficiently motivate the Chinese people.”
“Motivate them to do what?”
David said, “To want to go to war with America, sir. The Red Cell was looking for social or cultural issues that would help drive a wedge between the two countries. Religion was it. We looked at polling. In 2016, over seventy-three percent of the United States identified as Christian. Eighty-two percent identified as religious. In China, while religion statistics are hard to accurately measure, the polls we looked at were flipped. Between fifty and ninety percent of Chinese citizens were not religious. And only two percent were Christian. Those who do practice religion in China do so with the government carefully watching the churches.”
“So what’s the idea? Make the Chinese people hate Christians? Make America into a Christian boogeyman?”
“Pretty much, Mr. President.”
He looked at the director of the CIA. “What’s your take? Would that strategy work?”
“Mr. President, at this time, we’re just trying to confirm whether or not Cheng Jinshan had a part in this. But it fits with his profile. He has enormous influence over the Chinese government’s communications tools — its media messaging. This Christian extremism angle could be a very effective cornerstone for a propaganda campaign — one designed to rally a country to war.”
The acting National Security Advisor said, “But Jinshan is supposed to be on trial, right? Is that still happening?”
“We believe so, yes.”
The president said, “Let’s pretend for a moment that Jinshan is continuing his war plans — are we seeing other signals that are consistent with a war drumbeat?”
Director Buckingham said, “This is the other item that we need to discuss. While we are seeing coastal military activity and Chinese naval activity decrease, we’re still seeing a flurry of movement with the Chinese army and air force at bases located several hundred miles or more inland. Our analysts are in disagreement over what this means. It could be that the inland military activity is unrelated, and that the coastal and naval military activity is them complying with our demand that they stand down after last week’s hostilities.”
The president said, “I’m guessing that I’m not going to like the other theory, am I?”
“No, Mr. President,” said Director Buckingham. “Sir, the other theory involves electromagnetic pulse weapons.”
The president closed his eyes for a moment and then reopened them, turning to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Let’s start talking about how we can prepare for the worst.”
The attorney general said, “Look, gentlemen, my background is in law. And the evidence that you’ve presented is highly speculative. Bullets at a crime scene at sea as evidence that the Chinese military did it? A picture that shows an Asian woman with half her face covered as evidence that the Chinese kidnapped someone on American soil? Let’s just slow down. Yes, there has been a tragic event that has occurred in China. But, Mr. President, if I may… this could present us with new opportunities. If Secretary Zhang is installed as their new president, that could be very good for US-China trade relations. And that would mean jobs, Mr. President…”
David could see the twinkle in the eyes of both politicians. Jobs. Approval ratings. Votes.
The president said, “General, what is your take? Give it to us straight. Is China preparing for war?” He spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.