David said, “You heard about Victoria, I assume.”
Chase’s jaw clenched. “Yeah.”
“A Red Cross observer was allowed to inspect the POWs at one of their camps. According to that inspection, the prisoners are being treated appropriately.”
“We have to get her out of there.” Chase looked at his brother. “Will there be any prisoner exchange? Or a rescue op?”
David glanced at him. “I haven’t heard anything being discussed yet.”
The car drove through a security gate, and the driver and both passengers were made to show IDs. They drove past a large hangar with multiple cameras and security personnel positioned outside.
“Susan still running her show from in there?” Chase said.
David nodded. “Yup.”
Susan spent most of her time inside the hangar, which housed a system of prison cells, interrogation rooms, and communications equipment. Part of Silversmith’s charter was to mislead the Chinese political and military apparatus through a robust counterintelligence operation. Susan had compartmentalized this effort, personally supervising the program out of the old hangar.
The US had several POW camps for captured Chinese combatants, but this one was different. The prisoners here were officers and assets of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. The MSS was China’s version of the CIA, FBI, and NSA all rolled into one.
The highly classified prison was hidden among acres of Florida swamp and wilderness, far from the more interesting parts of the sprawling Eglin Air Force base. Even inside the American military and intelligence communities, very few people knew this program existed. Inside the hangar, groups of experienced American interrogators extracted information from Chinese spies, and recruited double-agents. Those who turned assisted in the deception programs. This was one way the CIA influenced the river of Chinese intelligence that flowed back to their mother country.
Their car came to a stop outside a small single-story building next to the hangar that held only one prisoner. The most important one, in Chase’s opinion. The one who started it all.
Lena Chou first came to the United States as a teenager after completing several years at elite MSS training schools. Lena was one of Jinshan’s top sleeper agents. Her identity was changed upon entry into the US. A series of Chinese penetrations in the US government enabled administrative string-pulling. This eventually led to Lena being selected as a CIA officer, where she naturally excelled. Chase had met her while they were both stationed in Dubai.
Their relationship extended beyond work. They’d spent many nights together, sipping champagne while overlooking the beaches of the Arabian Gulf and making love atop the plush white sheets of Dubai hotel rooms.
All the while Lena had been spying for China. And using Chase like she had so many others.
“Right this way, sir.” A security guard led them through a full-body scanner.
Once through security, Chase followed David down the hallway and into a darkened room, stopping on the observer side of a two-way mirror. Chase’s heart beat faster when he saw Lena in the other room. She was doing pull-ups on a wall-mounted bar, her muscles flexing like the elite athlete she was. Sweat dripped from her forehead. The burn scars were healing, but they would still draw stares, especially the one that ran down the side of her face. Chase wondered if she blamed him for that.
Her cell had a twin bed with a nightstand. Paperback books. A toilet. And some sort of empty roller cart with a cloth interior. For laundry, maybe? Chase wasn’t sure.
“Welcome back, Chase,” Susan said quietly. The lone observer on their side of the room, she was sitting on a plastic chair, reviewing handwritten notes. She gestured to the chairs across from her. “Have a seat, gentlemen.”
Chase sat down, planning to tell Susan he was sorry about Rojas slipping away. But then he found himself distracted by something going on in the next room.
Susan studied his face as it happened.
On the other side of the mirror, Lena’s cell door opened and three people entered: two security guards and someone who appeared to be a nurse.
And she was carrying a baby.
The nurse handed Lena the baby, whom she took without hesitation. Then Lena began nursing the child while the others waited.
Chase’s mouth dropped open. He couldn’t speak. His face was contorted as he tried to make sense of it. He hadn’t seen Lena since the day he helped capture her in Maryland, a little over eighteen months ago.
Susan finally said, “When Lena arrived here, she was pregnant.”
Chase turned to look at Susan.
She examined her fingernails. “The timing suggests that she got pregnant in Dubai.”
Chase blinked.
“You were in Dubai around that time, right?”
Chase felt his jaw sliding open further. His palms grew sweaty. “Are you saying…”
“Yes,” Susan said.
Chase kept shaking his head. He tried reviewing the timeline but found that his brain cells weren’t functioning. “I just… I had no idea…”
“Gentlemen, I’ve worked for the CIA for over thirty years. There is one axiom that holds true all over the world. People can be idiots sometimes. You are no exception.”
David let out a small cough.
Chase looked at his brother. “You knew about this? Are you guys actually saying that I’m the father of that child? And you didn’t tell me for what… how old is it?”
Saying the words aloud made it all the more real. Chase stood, peering through the two-way mirror, feeling the urge to examine the baby.
Susan said, “This child’s existence is known by only a select few. You of all people were not to be told. I made sure David knew that.”
Chase shot them both a disapproving look, then looked back at Lena and the child. Lena had finished breastfeeding, and the nurse was patting the baby on the back. He got a glimpse of its tiny face. As the nurse rested the baby down in the cloth cart next to Lena’s bed, Chase realized it was a portable crib. Curiously, Lena was looking away from the baby, her arms folded across her chest.
“Why is she doing that?”
Susan said, “This is her normal behavior. She agreed to feed the child, but wants nothing to do with it other than that. Three nurses rotate shifts, and we’ve had two psych evals performed on Miss Chou over the past six months. Her disinterest in the child likely means one of two things.” Susan began reading from her notes. “… either a stubborn unwillingness to be leveraged by her captors. Or a genuine distaste for a half-breed with the enemy.”
Chase’s face contorted. “You’re kidding me, right? She’s that brainwashed that she…”
David said, “We don’t really know, Chase. That’s one of the reasons we brought you in.”
“You should have told me about this. Did you have the baby tested?”
Susan nodded.
“And?”
She nodded again.
Chase sat back down. “Holy shit.”
They sat in silence a moment. Chase rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, then looked up. “You said that’s one of the reasons you brought me here. What else?”
Susan said, “You saw the intel reports that Rojas is still in the region?”
“Near Peru, yes.”
“We think that Rojas is being taken to the Chinese base in Manta, Ecuador. It’s been built up quite a bit. This is the same camp you assaulted with a Marine special operations team. They are forcing Rojas to work there, at a Chinese research facility.”
“You want me to lead a hostage rescue.”
“No. The Chinese have a substantially larger footprint there now, and it’s growing by the day. We have very little intel about the base. Without more intel, it’s too risky. He would likely be killed, as would the assault team.”