They had kept the secret from Langford and everyone else out of the fear of what would be unleashed onto the world.
And that was the third thing which had caused Borger to freeze in his chair. It was the realization that only the threat of someone else finding out would make John Clay send Borger the message that he did.
Nine characters. A single message before his satellite phone lost signal permanently.
TELLNGFRD.
74
M0ngol didn’t like to be bothered. Not by his colleagues, not by his boss, not even by his friends. As far as he was concerned, his work was too important to be interrupted, which made the surprise visit by two Ministry of State Security agents all that more irritating.
To him, MSS agents were simply thugs, with Qin being a rare exception. He was one of the few who truly understood what someone like M0ngol was capable of and respected his abilities. Others, like the two now escorting the young hacker down an empty hallway, just had no idea. Together, they were taking him through a section of the building he’d never seen before. He had only heard of it.
However, unlike most others, M0ngol was only mildly interested to see the place in person. He had more important things to do than to explain yet again how cyber espionage worked to someone who would never possess the capacity to understand it.
The two thugs on either side of him hadn’t said anything since pulling M0ngol out of his chair downstairs. Together they walked briskly to the end of the hall and turned right, following another long section which ended at two faceless double doors. Outside stood two more agents, waiting for them.
When they reached the doors, he watched the four goons exchange looks of importance amongst themselves. Then the door was opened and M0ngol was ushered inside.
The room was large, and unlike the dreariness of the hallways, it was richly decorated — particularly with the giant mahogany conference table and high-back leather chairs filling the space.
Inside sat a lone person. An elderly man looking outward from the far end of the table. He studied M0ngol carefully before motioning to the table and chair.
“Please sit down.”
The young man complied.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yes,” M0ngol replied. “You’re Yu Xinzhen, Chairmen of the Politburo Standing Committee. Most people know who you are.”
Xinzhen nodded, studying the young man. His tone and posture spoke volumes. He was one of the new generationals, one of the inflicted, as many of the elders referred to them. Immature and emblazoned by a sense of rebelliousness. But in the end, little more than children hiding behind a veneer of maturity, with a shroud of gadgets giving them a feeling of importance. And then there were those like this one, swollen with self-importance and undeserved power, granted by an exploitation of technologies their parents didn’t understand. That most of the world didn’t understand.
He stared at M0ngol with a sense of bemusement. “Do you know why you’re here?”
“No.”
“You’ve been working with Qin.”
“I have.”
“And it seems you have uncovered a great deal.”
Xinzhen watched the expression on M0ngol’s face begin to change. This wasn’t about giving another explanation of what M0ngol was able to do. This was about what he knew… what he had learned. An air of nervousness began to form.
“I have discovered some things, as requested.”
Xinzhen nodded. “As requested.”
“Yes.”
“And by who would that be?”
M0ngol shifted slightly in his chair. Qin had clearly spoken to the old man, but he didn’t know what was said between the two. A fleeting thought that left M0ngol wishing he’d recorded Qin’s call.
“Qin. He asked me to learn everything I could about General Wei.”
“And what have you learned about Wei?”
“Well, we learned that his daughter is alive.”
“And.”
“And that the general may have hidden something with her.”
“And.”
M0ngol stopped. His mind was racing. He looked out through the glass door to find the two agents watching him intently. His confidence was melting. “Um… and… an American is trying to reach her first.”
To M0ngol’s disappointment, the old man’s expression did not show the faintest hint of surprise. Instead, he took a deep breath and placed a delicate hand on the table. “What else?”
“W-what do you mean?”
“My dear boy. You think me a fool.”
“No! No, sir.”
“Then tell me. What else have you been learning about?”
M0ngol swallowed. “What else?”
Xinzhen rapped his fingers on the table. Oh, how quickly they shrink.
“I know you’ve been searching for a great many things on General Wei. Surely you’ve found more interesting facts to share with me.”
“Um… I-”
“You’ve read about our project in South America.”
The young man stammered. “A little.”
“I think you know more than a little. Indulge me.”
M0ngol nodded. “They’re searching.”
A trace of interest appeared in Xinzhen’s eyes. “Who is searching?”
“The Brazilians. Now. They’re searching now.”
“Searching for what?”
“Traces of the plants. They think there is more there.”
Xinzhen’s eyes focused intently on M0ngol. “More?”
“Yes. And they’re also looking for a primate. A monkey. They think it may have absorbed some of the plant’s DNA.”
“And they’re searching now?”
“Yes, Your Eminence. On the mountain. The Brazilians and a small team from the U.S.”
Xinzhen leaned forward in his chair. “The U.S. too?”
“Yes. Friends of the American that came here to find Wei’s daughter.”
The old man’s eyes were now transfixed on M0ngol. He had been told that all traces were wiped clean on the mountain. Destroyed. If the Americans were now there, and the Brazilians, they clearly had reason to believe that something remained. And if they found it first, there would be no stopping them.
Qin said he had Wei’s daughter and now the case. But it would mean little if the Americans found their own source.
“Have they found anything yet?”
M0ngol shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not yet.”
Xinzhen stood up immediately and pointed to the door. “Leave me at once.”
As the old man watched M0ngol practically run for the exit, he retrieved the phone from his suit’s breast pocket and began dialing.
75
Sixty-three minutes later, Xinzhen ended another call and leaned back into his limousine’s soft leather seat.
They had no choice. Xinzhen was about to pull the cover off one of China’s largest and well-kept secrets.
As controversial as the Spratly Islands were in the South China Sea, and even with the constant surveillance from the United States, they simply had no choice.
The archipelago was composed of over seven hundred islands and reefs, all uninhabited. But it was its strategic value as the region’s most important shipping lanes that was the real focus. Shipping lanes which carried a full sixty percent of the world’s trade traffic.
However, completely ignoring the heated territorial claims from neighboring countries, what China was doing in the middle of the Spratly Islands was nothing short of astonishing. Instead of fighting over the small, existing island chains, they were building their own.
With dozens of dredging ships in the archipelago’s shallow waters, China had spent the last two years expanding existing reefs into entirely new military islands. It was a level of progress that stunned the rest of the world.