Li nodded, understanding. She said, hesitantly, “Spies?”
Jinshan smiled. “In a word, yes.”
“And when you say that I would need to sacrifice my identity… it is because I would become a… spy?”
“I am offering you the opportunity to serve your nation as a covert operative.”
“What types of things would I be doing? If I may ask?”
“Of course you may. The Ministry of State Security has many arms. We engage in counterintelligence, the collection of our adversaries secrets and technology, and if needed, a variety of special activities that we don’t need to go into right now.”
“It sounds… exciting.”
“It can be. It can also be incredibly boring. For every exciting day, you will have two hundred days of the mundane. But the work is very fulfilling. And there is no greater way to serve China with honor.”
She took a deep breath. “I accept. What do I need to do now?”
A wide smile crossed Jinshan’s lips. “Excellent. Tomorrow you will leave this camp to begin your training. It will be different from anything you have done in your life. Much more rigorous. Military training. Language schools. Schools in espionage tradecraft. We must prepare you, Li. You will remain in China for another year or so. Then you will move to the United States and live under your new identity. You will become an American citizen. You will attend an American university and get an American job after you graduate. We will help with that.”
He slid over a manila envelope.
“What is this?” She reached for it.
“Open it. This is your new identity.”
She looked down at the sheet of paper. “A new name?”
“Yes. A more American-sounding first name. I thought it was similar enough.”
She looked down at the name and the life summary beneath it. The name had a nice ring to it, she thought.
Lena Chou.
11
Susan walked over to David’s desk. “I just sent you a link. Check it out.”
David searched his email for the message from Susan and clicked on the link. It took him to a Top Secret portion of the share drive where recent intelligence data was stored. He pressed his thumb up against the biometrics reader to open the folder to gain access, and then began scrolling through the imagery.
David said, “What am I looking at?”
He scrolled through pictures of…
“Is that the island? Who took these?”
The profile was not an overhead view. All he had seen so far were images from reconnaissance drones. But these pictures were taken from the surface. As if someone had taken them from a boat.
Susan said, “Your access just went through, so now you’ll be able to see all our surveillance intel on the Red Cell island. This one comes from the USS Jimmy Carter. It’s a Seawolf-class submarine. Ultra quiet. She’s orbiting around the island, gathering as much information as she can. But since almost all of our satcom is down, we’re only getting her reports and data sporadically. You’ll also get electronic eavesdropping information from our surveillance aircraft in the area. The updates come in about every hour.”
David kept scrolling through the files. “This is great stuff.”
She said, “Yes it is. Anyway, take a look. We’re meeting at two p.m. to go over the latest information. Can you join us?”
Until now, David had been asked to provide information almost solely based on his experience on the island. This was different. Now they wanted him to help out with the analysis of the collected intelligence.
Part of this change in his treatment might be due to being short-staffed. Some of the men and women who had been assigned to the SILVERSMITH project were reassigned to the Middle East desk after the Beltway attack. The war with Iran was going to happen. It was no longer a question of if, but when.
This China theory, as some called it, was becoming a lower priority, despite interest from the director. While it frustrated David, he found that the more noise he made, the less credibility he had. Chase kept telling him that he needed to earn their trust first, and then give his opinions. This seemed to be the first evidence that the strategy was working.
“I’ll be there.”
She nodded. “Good.”
He sipped on his coffee and resumed scrolling through the images on his screen, taking notes.
The next day, David watched an interrogation of the Chinese operative with a mix of intrigue and frustration. He sat next to Susan and a few others on the SILVERSMITH team, in a darkened room behind a two-way mirror. Some of them wore headsets so they could hear the interrogation through the speakers. Two video monitors showed the Chinese spy’s face at different angles as he answered questions. But the man’s answers didn’t help David get any closer to the answer to his problem.
For the past twenty-four hours, David had been studying the data from the Red Cell island that Susan had granted him access to. His job was to look at the data coming from the USS Jimmy Carter, which was surveilling the Red Cell island, and compare it to other bits of intelligence.
Thinking he might have found something, he decided to look at the tail numbers of the large Chinese transport jets that were now landing on the island every day. Among the information they had access to were the details from the flight plans that the Chinese pilots filed before takeoff. Each of these files contained the tail number and takeoff time of the aircraft.
Next, David used the imagery and written summary provided by the USS Jimmy Carter. Its mission was to monitor everything that happened on that island, using its high-tech sensors to gather a variety of information. They were able to get pictures of almost every aircraft that landed on the island.
What David found interesting was that the tail numbers and the time stamps provided by the USS Jimmy Carter didn’t match the filed flight plans. He was about to tell Susan about his find when the director stepped in.
“Morning, Susan,” the director whispered, not wanting his voice to carry through the two-way mirror. While the rooms were supposed to be soundproof, they weren’t perfect. “I’ve got about ten minutes. What have you got for me?”
“Sir, we’re starting to hit a wall,” Susan replied quietly. “He has confirmed his own role in instigating the Beltway attacks, but links to China are tenuous. We have a list of potential personnel within the US who might have assisted him. None of them have any ties to the Chinese, though. They’re just third parties he has used.”
“So where did he get the orders from?”
“He claimed that they were verbal orders, from Lena Chou.”
“Another person the Chinese don’t claim to own.”
“Correct, sir.”
“Anything more on Latin America and Chinese military movements?”
“No, sir, just that they are taking place. No distinct locations yet, although we’re working with US Air Force and other reconnaissance assets to narrow down a few possibilities.”
“What about the Red Cell?”
“He claims not to know much about the Red Cell. Our interrogator told us he would be digging more on this today. It seems the initial shock of being captured has worn off. Now he’s sticking to his script more, and giving us less.”
The director nodded. “Alright. Anything more from our friends in Beijing?”
He was referring to a human intelligence source within the highest levels of the Chinese Politburo.
“Sir, our source has triple-verified that the Chinese president and top generals in the PLA know nothing of any Chinese participation in the Beltway attacks. They aren’t convinced one way or another about Jinshan’s participation.”