Xue Lin paid the cab driver in local currency and walked in the direction that her phone was indicating. On reaching the exact spot, she pulled out a blank piece of paper from a folder in her dry bag and dug a thumb tac out of the wooden post that stood in front of her. She reached up and pinned the paper to the post where there were a few other thumb tacks already embedded. Then she walked a hundred meters along the river where she could still see the post where she had pinned her page.
Nine minutes on her phone’s stopwatch had passed when she saw a figure appear on a motor cycle, walk to the post and pull down the blank page. She walked towards him warily.
“I love this river,” she said as she approached him.
“Would you go fishing in it?” he replied
“Only if I needed fish,” she sang back to him, smiling.
It was a ridiculous way to confirm identity. This guy had clearly watched too many spy films. Somehow though, Xue Lin liked it as it was so silly. The paper on the post was interesting, however. That was a new one.
“What’s up with the blank paper on the post?” she asked.
“I have binoculars on a tripod over there in my apartment. Easy to see when a contact arrives. Good field of vision.”
“What’s your name?” she asked, as a further security measure.
“Call me Jimmy.”
Xue Lin noticed that his Mandarin had a strong Beijing accent.
“OK Jimmy, what do you have for me?”
“Not here. Let’s go to your new place!” Jimmy pointed to a small motorbike parked on the corner.
“Let’s go then!” said Xue Lin, somewhat excited to be going on another leg of her adventure.
The cheap, useless helmet he handed her was large on her head and as the bike lurched forward onto the road, it tipped forward covering her eyes. Jimmy steered the bike through the streets across town, pulling into the Shuiguo Lake Residential district and turning up a side street in front of a shabby looking apartment building.
“Helmet.” Jimmy held out his hand and Xue Lin tossed the paper thin helmet to him. He shoved both the helmets inside the seat compartment and gestured for her to follow him into the building.
“This key is for the front of the building,” he said holding it up.
“You are on the third floor. You can use the stairs or the elevator. Follow me.”
They walked up two flights as Jimmy said: “You are paid-up for six months rent, no problem, no questions. Anybody asks, your daddy paid.”
The stink of fish sauce hung in the stairwell. Loud televisions blared, and cheesy pop music added to the assault on Xue Lin’s senses.
“Apartment 310. Got it? Not too big but good for a lab assistant,” he said smiling.
“Oh yeah? You got me a job?” she said, surprised.
“Interview” he replied “but you are pretty. He’ll take you for sure.”
“Why thank you Jimmy, you are very kind” she replied almost genuinely, while thinking to herself what a slippery character this Jimmy seems to be.
“Here’s your stuff. Special order by your boss.” He pulled back the bed cover revealing a spread of equipment.
“One Ruger LC9S pistol and 5 magazines. Cleaned and oiled. One laptop. Don’t use it to communicate with anybody except work friends. Never break cover on this computer. Not secure. They are always reading and listening in China. Use this radio. They can’t listen. I show you how to disassemble.”
Jimmy proceeded to pull it apart, slowly, piece by piece, looking at her after each step to see if she had it. Each piece fitted into a clock, a lamp, a power outlet or some other appliance somewhere in the apartment. It was very clever.
“Instructions for contacting your boss.” Jimmy pointed at a notepad on the bed. “Memorize and then destroy.”
“Cash, People’s currency.” Jimmy threw a sizable roll of notes on the bed.
Xue Lin counted it. “You’re short,” she said looking accusingly at Jimmy.
“You know, tax…” Jimmy showed very little shame. She let it go. Xue Lin knew exactly what Jimmy had been assigned to provide her with, and noted that Jimmy had a tendency to take care of himself at every step of the way.
“Reading glasses, your prescription, but Chinese geek-style. Make you look like science girl. Your job briefing and a copy of your file for the interview, Friday 10am. Wear something low cut. Dr. Wu is a boob man,” Jimmy said, not smiling.
Xue Lin picked it up and leafed through it. ‘Impressive,’ she thought.
“Micro GPS locator, quite small. Twist to activate and you drop it in their pocket or bag. Follow them on App on the phone,” he said pointing at the phone on the bed.“Phone, not secure for talk or text. Always listening. Don’t forget. Better to turn it off if you need to break character.”
“Handbags.” Jimmy picked up three fake designer handbags from the floor. “All Chinese girls love designer handbag. You will look funny without one if you go out at night with your new friends. “Garrote wire”. He picked up the deadly wire with metal handles and mimed the strangling of an imaginary victim. Xue Lin shook her head disapprovingly at his little macabre pantomime, though she was happy he had provided one as it was a good close-range weapon, long favored by the CIA.
“Data recovery,” Jimmy pointed to the familiar tool and it’s wires, used to download data from phones and computers. “Better hide this. If they find this, we won’t find you. Lock picks, just in case you need to get in somewhere. Multi frequency bug detector. This was very expensive. Sweep your apartment every day when you get home, especially before using radio. Chinese Communist Party is not too shy to bug everybody. Sometimes they like to watch too.”
Jimmy looked at her concerned: “You know you have to hide this on the street somewhere right? They find you with this, you go to jail, do not pass Go.”
Xue Lin rolled her eyes.
“And security camera.” He tossed her a stuffed Hello Kitty toy which she caught and turned over in her hands looking for the recorder inside.
“It’s all in the eye. Very small,” Jimmy explained.
Xue Lin yanked the eye out of its socket and examined it. “Not bad!” she nodded, genuinely impressed with the small size of it. “OK Jimmy, good work.” Xue Lin tossed the Kitty-cam back on the bed. “Where will my big interview be tomorrow?”
“Wuhan Institute of Virology. Show them your ID, they are expecting you at ten in the morning.”
“If you need me again, call your boss on the radio. That way I get paid.” Jimmy shut the door behind him.
Xue Lin picked up the pistol, rapidly dismantled and reassembled it, checking the mechanisms thoroughly and put it back on the bed, loaded. Protocol dictated that she must assume that her room would be searched and possibly bugged in the future, so she would have to hide most of this gear semi-permanently in the walls. She could dig it out later when the time came.
The bug detector and the other tools that she might soon need would have to be hidden outside the apartment. She would need to sweep the place every night when she came home.
Chapter 16
The Interview
Xue Lin walked from her apartment to the Institute. It was Friday morning and rush hour was still going strong. Here in China there were a hell of a lot more motorbikes and bicycles. She hadn’t yet become accustomed to the Chinese style breakfast, but the streets and alleys in her area had a steaming selection of hole-in-the-wall vendors and restaurants that were serving oily noodles in paper bowls, egg soup, and wontons. They called it ‘guo zao.’ It was a real Wuhan thing. She had read about it on the plane.