Hightower unclipped his seat harness and communication cord and began walking aft through the aircraft, careful to always maintain hold of something. The last thing he needed was to hit some turbulence and knock himself out before they dropped bombs. He patted both of his combat systems officers on the back, making a few jokes to keep them loose. Smiles all around. But he knew that they were nervous.
After relieving himself in the latrine, he walked back up to the cockpit and strapped back in. As soon as he plugged in his comms, he said, “I’m back. Anything happen while I was gone?”
“Nope.”
“Roger. I’ve got the controls.”
“You have controls.”
“Alright, we’re about twenty minutes out. Let’s start with the checklists.” The crew began going through all the final preparations before releasing their weapons.
“Sniper POD is ready.”
“Roger.”
The senior combat systems officer said, “RAMROD just started jamming.”
“Copy.”
They flew for another ten minutes before the real action began. The B-1B used its laser designator to guide its slew of bunker-busting bombs to the target. Theirs was a coastal underground missile launch site on the western edge of North Korea. The second aircraft did the same, on a nearby mobile missile launcher. The targets were close enough to the Yellow Sea that neither aircraft had to go over land. They dropped their payload of bombs and held the laser designation on the target until impact.
The missile sites exploded in a cloud of grayish smoke, the shockwaves shattering the windows of nearby buildings and vehicles.
“Good hit on target.”
“Roger, coming around. Let’s get back to Guam and have some beer.”
21
That week, Natesh worked from seven in the morning until eight in the evening each day. Then he met with David and Tetsuo each night. Natesh was still planning logistics for Jinshan. But he also used his network access to identify and bring back crucial bits of intelligence that the CIA needed to pass on.
Tetsuo’s countersurveillance team provided constant support for their meetings, always on the lookout for any pair of eyes that might be watching them. Natesh was staying in a penthouse room at the top of his hotel. Tetsuo secured a room several blocks away, at the Conrad Tokyo. Each night, Natesh would take a different route, prescribed by Tetsuo, and arrive at the hotel. He would walk into one of its several lounge bars and have a drink for a few minutes, giving Tetsuo and his team time to watch out for any of Jinshan’s operatives. Then he would leave and take the stairs to Tetsuo’s floor.
Tetsuo walked into tonight’s meeting room on the twentieth floor. The luxurious Conrad Tokyo suite had an impressive view of the Hamarikyu Gardens and the Sumida River below. The floor-to-ceiling windows gave a glimpse of deep blue and city lights before the shades were permanently shut. Tetsuo ordered a variety of food, now spread out on a white-cloth-covered tray. Stir-fried shrimp and scallops with chili sauce. Braised noodles with duck. And deep-fried Japanese beef with a green salad.
David waited until Natesh and Tetsuo began eating before following suit. The smell and sight of the food gave the meeting the feel of a gathering of friends. It was all part of the charade, David realized. The painting of the picture for the agent. Tetsuo wanted him comfortable and happy. He wanted his asset to trust him, and to work hard for him. So far, it seemed to be working.
“A convoy of merchant vessels left China ten days ago,” Natesh said as he used chopsticks to take a bite of duck.
“A convoy?”
“Yes. They’re transiting the Pacific together. I don’t know what’s on them. But they have specially modified containers. I stumbled onto this. But I think it’s important.”
Tetsuo sat on the sofa, a white cloth napkin in his lap, barely touching what was on his small plate. “How did you acquire this information, and what do you mean specially modified?”
“I’m overseeing much of the logistics planning. I’m helping Jinshan’s operation to plan the entire supply chain for his Pacific war. I have a small team here that’s analyzing and optimizing everything they set up. It’s complicated. But I discovered something in the data. Certain units in the Chinese military have been planning to use cargo ships — specially designed — to transport a massive number of Chinese troops and military equipment across the Pacific. It’s a shortcut that we came up with in the Red Cell. I actually observed one of the shipping container factories with Lena a few weeks ago.” Natesh looked at David briefly, shame in his eyes. “Instead of using their military transport ships, which are too few in number, or building new ones, which could take years, the Chinese are using what they already have.”
“Merchant ships?”
“Yes. And they have a lot of them. There are factories in Guangzhou and Shanghai that are already working on these shipping containers. They create hundreds of them every day. These ones have special cutouts for piping and cables to run through them. They put bunks and lighting inside. Some of them are bathrooms. Some of them are little kitchens. It’s like one big Lego ship. They can mix and match the specially made shipping containers to transport thousands of personnel. It turns a merchant ship into a giant troop transport.”
David said, “Natesh, we’ve heard about these specially made shipping containers and cargo ships. Are you saying that some of them already left? In this convoy?”
Natesh nodded quickly. “Yes and no. A few of them left ten days ago. Six ships, I think. I traced the serial numbers of the shipping containers back to the factories that were making them. We have thousands of these specially made containers stored in ports in Shanghai and Guangzhou. But several hundred of them made their way onto these now-departed ships.”
David said, “So how many people is that?”
“That’s the weird part. They aren’t loaded with enough of the specially made containers. Instead of one of these merchant ships having thousands of troops each, they only have a few hundred each. I don’t know why they did it this way. It’s very inefficient. So maybe a thousand troops, across all six ships. But some of these shipping containers have a reference number that’s different than the troop transport containers. That’s the part I don’t know about. I don’t know what those are used to transport.”
“Where are the ships headed?”
“Ecuador, I think. That was their destination from the internal documentation I observed.”
David looked at Tetsuo, concerned.
Tetsuo said, “When are they due to arrive in Ecuador?”
“In a few weeks. I’m not sure exactly, but that’s not what’s important. You see, these merchants went off the grid five days ago, right before their track was supposed to veer southeast. That’s what triggered me to look at them more closely. They’ve all turned off their transponders, so even I can’t see their location, course, or speed.”
“What do you mean, before the track went southeast?”
“The intended track was available in our network archives. They looked to be taking a southerly route across the Pacific, towards South America. I would guess this is to stay away from any American sensors.”
David signaled Tetsuo. Tetsuo then turned to Natesh and said, “Can you excuse us a moment?”
David and Tetsuo walked into the bedroom of the suite and spoke softly. David said, “He’s a computer expert and somewhat of a genius. He’s seen how Jinshan’s hackers and intelligence operatives work. He’s got access to PLA military networks. Tetsuo, if we can trust him, he’s our key to defeating the Chinese.”
Tetsuo glanced back into the other room. Natesh was sitting on the couch, looking through the thin white drapes at the Tokyo cityscape. Tetsuo said, “What information would you want?”