“How much longer?”
His lieutenant turned away from one of the other soldiers. “At least an hour, maybe two.”
Salazar pursed his lips with agitation. With hands on his hips, he spun around and looked back downhill the way they came. He spotted the Land Rover with Otero and Russo speaking inside and smirked. He wondered just how the two thought they would possibly retain control of anything they found when surrounded and outgunned by Salazar’s men.
Fools.
Inside, Otero was looking forward to the look on Salazar’s face when he found out who was really in charge. And where the loyalty of his men truly stood.
“The idiot still has no idea.”
When there was no answer, Otero turned to find Russo gazing out at the forest.
“Christ, this isn’t about your ghost again. I already told you it’s not related.” He shook his head. “I don’t pay you to be paranoid.”
Russo grinned and turned back to him momentarily. “Yes, you do.”
The older man conceded. “We can’t accomplish anything from up here.”
“I’ll still feel better when we know who it is.”
“It’s coincidence. When we return, we will deal with them… and their family.”
Unless it really is the U.S. But why would they want retribution for Blanco? Russo shook his head. “Something doesn’t feel right. The timing of it all.” He turned back to Otero. “What if Blanco talked to the U.S. about the monkey?”
“Why would he do that?”
Russo thought about it. “He wouldn’t.”
“Exactly. I tell you, it’s something else. We’ll find out who and why. Then we will deal with them.” Otero motioned outside. “But this comes first.”
Russo nodded silently. It wasn’t the right time or place. He simply needed more information. He was sure there was a connection between the attack on his men and the U.S. but he couldn’t seem to find it.
What Russo didn’t know was that soon he would be far closer to his ghost than he ever imagined.
37
In Beijing, Qin stood examining items in General Wei’s old office when his phone rang again.
“Yes,” he answered.
“I have information you’re going to want to hear,” M0ngol said.
Qin slid a book back into the huge bookshelf. “Go ahead.”
“You wanted to know what our General Wei was involved in before his death. The answer is something very secret and very big. So big that he was reporting directly to the Politburo Standing Committee. I recovered some deleted emails that refer to a project in South America. A project they were all very careful not to mention. Instead, they referred to it as Element.”
“Element?”
“Yes. Most of the communication appears to have been verbal, but there were some written exchanges required, particularly around authorization of resources.”
“What kind of resources?”
“Men. And ships. From what I’ve pieced together, it looks like the project was some kind of excavation. Something they insisted that no one else know about.”
Qin stared thoughtfully through the darkness of the room. “It appears they succeeded.”
“Yes, it does. I can find more, but it will take time.”
“If Wei was keeping their secret, why destroy him and his reputation?”
“Maybe he didn’t keep it well enough.”
It was possible. However, thus far every indication suggested Wei’s death was indeed a suicide. It was far more likely that Wei had not compromised their secret at all but, instead, may have kept it too well. But why?
“If there was a split in the Politburo,” Qin said, “then we should be looking for something after his last visit. Something unusual.”
M0ngol smiled in the glow of his monitor. “You mean like a secret flight of a new prototype jet to South America and back?”
“What?”
“That’s right. A day before Wei disappeared.”
“Where?”
“It landed here in Beijing.”
“What was on it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Qin stood frozen, thinking. This was why Xinzhen hadn’t told him everything about General Wei. There were some things Xinzhen didn’t want him to uncover. “So we have an excavation in South America, and a secret flight back just before he disappears. Then he reappears to kill himself.”
“Sounds strange.”
“No.” Qin silently crossed the room and looked out over the glowing lights of Beijing. “It sounds like a man trying to hide something. Do we know where he went yet?”
“We’re still working on that. And there’s something else you will want to know.”
“What?”
“Someone else is trying to find out where he disappeared to. They’ve been accessing the same servers and records, even before we did.”
Qin’s eyes blazed. “Who?”
“We don’t have an ID yet. We are tracing backward, one server at a time. Whoever it was is very clever. We think it came from Washington, D.C.”
Finally, Qin showed genuine surprise. “Washington,” he whispered. That was it. The piece explaining China’s altercation with the Americans in the Caribbean Sea. Of course, to the Americans it was more than an altercation — they’d lost.
It took only moments for Qin to connect the dots. It was a fight over the excavation. Whatever it was, the Americans knew General Wei had it flown home. Now they too were trying to find out what Wei had done with it.
“Find out who was in the system. Use the entire team if you must.”
M0ngol nodded on the other end. He was going to do more than just find him.
Fifteen hours away in his own dark computer lab, Wil Borger had his answer.
His farm of servers had successfully found and tracked the pixel profile of Wei’s car and displayed not just the path of the car, but where it had stopped.
And just like Clay had deduced, it was a small rural hospital.
Borger couldn’t dial the number fast enough. When Clay answered, he almost shouted into the phone. “We have it!”
“Have what?”
“Wei’s destination. And it was his only stop after leaving with the case.”
“Location?”
“Just over four hundred and sixty miles due north of Beijing! In the mountains. Looks like it’s a small hospital for several surrounding towns and villages. I’ll text you the name and coordinates.”
“Nice work, Wil.”
“Listen,” he continued. “There’s also a small airfield about ninety miles further north. It looks usable and would probably allow you to get there faster, but it might be military. Just an FYI.”
“Okay. We’ll stick to the roads then. Should be in Beijing in about twelve hours. I’ll check back in three.”
“Sounds good.”
Clay ended the call and looked at Tang in the driver’s seat. “You need a break?”
“Not yet.” Tang nodded to the satellite phone. “Where we headed?”
“A small hospital about four hundred north of Beijing. We’re looking for General Wei’s daughter.”
Tang raised an eyebrow but kept his eyes on the dark road in front of them. “The intel I got said Wei’s daughter was dead.”
“Yeah. Ours too.”
38
At just past six a.m., Doctor Lee waited patiently by the door while his nurse helped Li Na Wei back into bed. They were both amazed at how quickly her strength was returning after being nearly motionless for three weeks. There was minimal shaking in her legs and her balance was quite good.