Still, Lena wanted to gather more information while she had him in her sights. She followed him through the city streets, careful to stay far enough back that he wouldn’t notice. It didn’t take her long to confirm he was a professional. When he did a reversal, she just barely escaped his view by slipping into a clothing shop. After fending off a pushy salesperson who was thrilled to finally get a customer, she departed the store and frantically searched for the agent again.
There. He was backtracking, and Lena was on him.
Until she wasn’t.
He disappeared right outside the Japanese embassy.
No, Lena realized.
He had gone inside.
Lena was one of the few people in the world who could be granted an audience with Jinshan at her leisure. Each of his security men and handlers knew her well.
Now she stood next to Jinshan as he took his tea on the balcony outside his bedroom, looking down at the quiet garden where security guards with automatic rifles patrolled under the shade of the manicured trees.
“You are sure it was Minister Dong?”
Lena nodded. “Yes.”
Jinshan frowned. “There could be a number of reasons for the meeting. You’ve taken such meetings.”
“As a field operative, yes. Not as the most senior official in the MSS. It seems odd.”
“And you say you have images of the man he met with.”
“Yes. I was hoping to bring them to someone who will be discreet. Obviously, I don’t want to use MSS resources to avoid someone finding out I was looking into this.”
“I will put you in touch with someone you can trust.” Jinshan shook his head, muttering under his breath. He was clearly disappointed in Dong.
Lena said, “You favored him as Ma’s vice president? After you…”
The words didn’t quite make it out of her mouth. Very few things could make Lena emotional. But the future death of the man who had shaped her life since she was a teenager was one of them. She cursed herself inwardly. Motherhood had made her soft.
Jinshan looked up at her. “After I die.”
“The rumors are that Ma will be your successor. And Dong or my father will be Ma’s vice president and main advisor.”
“The rumors are true. I want Ma to make this decision, but I have offered him my thoughts. Your father has proven to be a surprisingly adept politician. He has members of the politburo backing him now.”
Lena looked at the floor, unable to meet his eyes. “This decision needs to be made and announced soon.”
“I am well aware that if a succession plan is not in place before I am gone, it will be a chaotic mess. But if I announce it too early, then I am neutered. And I can’t be. Not yet.”
“Hence the delay.”
Jinshan said, “Yes. Dong has shown good judgment until now. Much better than your father. I recommended that Ma choose him, when it is time.” He paused, peering into her eyes. “It is too much of a coincidence for you to be the one to bring this to me. You didn’t just stumble onto this now, on your own.”
Lena didn’t flinch. “My father asked me to look into Dong.”
Jinshan looked amused. “Of course. He sees you as another pawn. Does your father think you will be loyal to him?”
“I serve our nation.”
“But you did your father’s bidding, in this instance?”
“You taught me to always keep my eyes and options open.”
Jinshan looked back out over the garden. “There is a man at my cyber security firm. I will give you his name. He will help you with this name identification.”
“I will go immediately.”
Jinshan sighed. “I want you to continue to look into Dong. Quietly. See where it takes you. You will know what to do, I think. Now, tell me how it went with the Russian.”
Two hours later, Lena stood in a private office at Jinshan’s cyber technology firm, one of the businesses that had made him wealthy.
She looked over the shoulder of Jinshan’s trusted cyber operations specialist. The man was a former member of the 3PLA cyberwarriors, an elite Chinese military cyber operations group. He now worked exclusively for Jinshan’s firm, which specialized in providing the government with facial recognition software. While the firm was closely tied to the Chinese government, Jinshan still commanded loyalty among its elite members.
“Is it finished?” Lena asked.
The cyber operations tech had uploaded Lena’s picture of the suspect. The software program compared the image to over one billion faces in the registry. Results took only seconds.
The tech said, “We have a ninety-five-percent match with this man.” An image popped up next to hers.
“You have his bio?”
“Right here.”
Lena scanned the information. “Hmm.”
The tech said, “A Japanese embassy official? Low-level, by the sound of it.”
Lena thought the suspect’s biographical information sounded like a typical intelligence officer’s cover legend. But Japanese? Japan had surrendered to China. Lena wondered if Japan still deployed intelligence officers to Beijing. It was possible, but unlikely. The MSS would be keeping a very close eye on Japanese military and intelligence operations, both here and in Tokyo. Why would a Japanese intelligence officer meet with the head of the MSS in private? The only explanation Lena could come up with was that Dong didn’t want the others in his circle to know. But why? Was he planning something that Jinshan and some politburo members would disapprove of?
“Well that’s odd.” The tech continued scrolling across the biographical information on the screen.
Lena stretched her neck forward for a better look. “What is?”
The man typed on his keypad and a new window appeared with more of the Japanese man’s files.
“I accessed some of the archived information on Japanese government servers, cross-referencing his past known images from social media, emails, and his past cloud storage accounts. When I try to match a few older pictures from the same man’s file, we only get an eighty-five-percent match. Not ninety-five, like the first time.”
Lena frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The first facial recognition match was based on the official picture on file here, at the Japanese embassy, comparing it to your picture. But when I match the picture you took with the older archived images, the confidence score goes down.”
“And that’s abnormal? What does it mean?”
“It’s still a possible match, but unusual. The program is meant to account for aging. We usually see something like this if a subject has gotten reconstructive surgery.”
“Can you look up that information?”
“Hold on.” The tech began typing. After a minute, he said, “I did a search of Japanese medical records, and there is no indication this man ever had plastic surgery.”
Lena said, “Expand your search. Cross-check my image with any known American intelligence operatives. Prioritize ones who have worked in Japan.”
He resumed typing. “Of course. That search should be very quick since there are so few. See? All done. Nothing of high confidence. One is somewhat close, though. This one.”
Lena recognized the face on the screen. This was who she’d been reminded of when she first saw the man on the street. She’d seen his face in Tokyo a year ago. The American CIA officer who had been working with Chase Manning.
21
Tap tap tap. Tap tap.
Victoria awoke to the sound of her cell neighbor signaling through their concrete wall. If she listened carefully, she could also hear the faint sounds of other prisoners communicating in similar fashion.