In the center of the prison yard were rows of what looked like tiny doghouses made of cinderblock, each containing three concrete walls and a four-foot-high ceiling.
Jail cells.
A door made of iron bars completed each structure. One by one, the prisoners were stuffed inside their new cells. The doors slammed shut. Guards locked each one as they passed. Victoria barely fit. She could only imagine what some of the taller men were dealing with. Her men whispered to each other at first, then one of the guards began beating a prisoner for talking, and they fell silent.
The cells faced each other. Three cell doors were in her field of view, on the other side of the dirt pathway. Hands gripped the bars. Emotionless faces peered out. Someone was talking again, and Victoria watched as one of the guards dragged the kid out of his cell and into the center area where everyone could see. The guard lifted his baton into the air and came down hard, repeatedly.
“No talking,” he yelled. Then two of the guards dragged the boy’s limp body back into his cell and locked the door.
The bugs came out in force that night. Victoria was sweating profusely in the humid air. She could see the jungle less than a football field away, bird calls and all sorts of other animal noises emanating from inside. Mosquitos swarmed around her, and other insects crawled around the floor. She forced herself to breathe… to be calm. She tried to meditate. To pray. To be at peace, even in this world of pain and suffering. She promised herself that she would prevail.
16
Chase arrived at NAS Pensacola via an Air Force U-28 turboprop to find the base was a flurry of activity, with giant C-17 and C-5 transport jets landing every few minutes. Army Patriot missile batteries were being set up throughout the base, and grass fields transformed into tent cities. Trucks, tanks, and uniformed personnel headed every which way.
A blue government sedan pulled up to the base ops parking lot near the airfield. David opened the door and helped Chase throw his duffle bag into the trunk before the brothers got in and David drove them away.
“Quite the show out there,” Chase said, gazing out the window at NAS Pensacola’s new military buildup.
“No one wants to get caught off guard when the Chinese try again,” replied David.
“Silversmith is here?”
“Until further notice.” David parked his vehicle outside a building labeled “United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron.”
“The Blue Angels?”
David smiled. “They didn’t need the space anymore. Those guys are all with fleet squadrons now.”
Chase looked at the sign as the brothers walked into the main entrance. “I always wanted to be a Blue Angel.”
They headed to the second-floor offices of Silversmith’s senior members.
“Is she in?” David asked a secretary when they arrived.
The woman nodded and the brothers entered Susan Collinsworth’s office. While speaking into a landline phone, she signaled them to sit before ending the call and looking up at Chase.
“Lena’s in China.”
Chase cursed. “That was fast.”
Susan glanced at David and then back at Chase. “I read your after-action report. It sounds like you made the best decision you could, given the situation.”
Chase said, “My assignment was to bring back Rojas and Lena. I have returned with neither. I’m sorry.”
“I imagine you are beating yourself up about it. Don’t. We don’t have the time.”
Chase nodded.
Susan said, “With our changing scope of Silversmith mission sets, we’ll be sending you to serve as our liaison to JSOC. They’ll have you working with DEVGRU.”
Chase was intrigued. When he was a SEAL, he’d applied to the unit twice but was turned down each time. DEVGRU, known by many as SEAL Team Six, was the US Navy’s most elite special operations unit. If there was ever a pointy end of the spear, they were it.
“Understood. What will I be working on?”
Susan glanced at David, who said, “You’ll be training for a variety of potential missions that will be vital to future plans.”
“Right…”
David said, “Sorry. You’ll get more info when it’s ready to share.”
Susan clasped her fingers together. “Let me ask you something, Chase. You witnessed Lena operate more than anyone else. What was her state of mind when she left? Do you think she would continue to work for us in China, given that we have her child?”
Chase was embarrassed at the mention of the child, and strangely thankful that Susan hadn’t said your child. He was going to need to start seeing a head doctor before long…
Chase let out a long sigh. “She could have come back with me, but she left us. She made her decision. I think her loyalty is split between China and the child. But the impression I got was that she thinks she fulfilled her end of the bargain and believes that the child is safe now. So she’s free to pursue other interests, so to speak.”
“Do you think she betrayed us in the field?”
“No.”
“You don’t think she warned Chinese soldiers that you were trying to get Rojas?”
“I watched her kill a PLA soldier. I might not be alive if she hadn’t.”
“But she still didn’t come back.”
“No, she did not.”
“Why?”
“If I had to guess? Cheng Jinshan. She worships the ground he walks on. She’s a true believer. She’s cut the ties of motherhood to go back and be a warrior for his cause. Then there’s her father, the most senior military officer in China. I assume there is some loyalty there as well.”
Susan and David exchanged looks.
Chase frowned. “What am I missing?”
David said, “What if she didn’t worship Jinshan? And what if she had reason to betray her father?”
Susan slid a manila envelope across her desk. “Read.”
Chase removed the documents inside and looked them over.
David watched Chase closely as he read. “We may be able to take advantage of her entry back into China.”
Chase thumbed through the two-page report. “She was a teenager when this happened?”
David nodded. “Chinese high school students have a mandatory military training they must fulfill called Junxun. It’s usually done during the summer months. Local Chinese military units teach the students how to march, salute…”
“… how to be good communists,” Susan said.
David waved his hand, offering, “It’s sort of like a Chinese patriot boot camp. But it’s also where the Ministry of State Security scouts and recruits young agents.”
Susan tapped the documents. “This is how Lena was recruited. She got plucked from one Junxun school and sent to another for the top-performing MSS recruits.”
Chase continued reading, then briefly looked up from the document. “Holy shit, man.”
David nodded knowingly. “Pretty screwed up, huh?”
“The MSS arranged for her to be sexually assaulted by a male student at the school?”
David said, “Look at the recruiting officer’s name. It’s not just anyone. Lena caught the eye of a former MSS officer. One with lofty ambitions.”
Chase whistled. “Cheng Jinshan.”
“Unbeknownst to anyone, Jinshan arranged for a male student to pay her an unwanted visit one night. The operation was supposed to compromise her. The Junxun cadre were to discover them together and accuse her of impropriety. Her father was a colonel in the PLA at the time, and if his only child was kicked out for sleeping with…”