“Sure, honey. Want a peanut butter and jelly?”
“Yes, please.” She held out her sandy hands. David brushed them off, took out a quarter of a PB&J sandwich from the cooler, and handed it to her.
Lindsay pointed to Henry’s drink. “Can I grab one of those?”
“Of course, madam.” He handed her a sparkling water, and Lindsay sat next to David on the towel.
“She still sleeping?”
“She starting to move, but yes.”
Lindsay sat on the towel next to David, their knees touching. She said, “Henry, how long have you had this home?”
The three-story beach house was stunning. A large open floorplan, great views. Lindsay had been talking about getting a beach house for years.
“I got it a few years ago. After I began working for myself. It’s nice to come out here whenever I want.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yup. Retirement is nice.”
She said, “So are you still getting interviews with three-letter agencies, or are they done with you?”
Henry glanced at David. “Not sure I’m supposed to stay this, but yes, I still get calls occasionally. But I think they feel they’ve sucked everything out of my brain that’s going to help them for now. I didn’t get a job offer, like some.” He smiled at David.
“Well, some of us don’t have beach homes, so we still need jobs,” David shot back, also smiling. Henry laughed.
“I mean this, folks — you guys are welcome down here whenever you desire. Even if I’m not here.”
They lay on the beach making small talk for another twenty minutes, until the baby woke up. Then they collected their beach gear and went back into the house. Maddie got cartoons on the iPad. “It’s vacation,” Lindsay said, justifying the extra screen time.
Henry put on Fox News in the kitchen, and the adults made lunch from last night’s leftovers. The volume on the news channel was low, but David could still read the headline. It was all anyone was talking about.
CHINA TENSIONS STILL BOILING AFTER HIGH SEAS COMBAT
One of the talking heads was the recently ousted National Security Advisor. He was making arguments for something he called “strategic patience.”
The other talking head was a China expert from a D.C. think tank. He claimed that the Chinese political scene was like the novel and TV series Game of Thrones, with power struggles and deceptive tactics throughout. His argument was that only time would tell who was really in control, and what China would do. David agreed.
Henry handed David a beer. David opened it and took a sip.
“David, something has been bothering me and I’d like to get your take on it.”
“What’s that?”
“Jinshan is a master planner, right? A billionaire, a genius. Everyone agrees.”
“Right.”
“So why didn’t he have his ducks all lined up in a row when they were attacking our Navy off the coast of Ecuador?”
David furrowed his brow. “Well, I think they were acting in a panic. The Chinese were surprised by a team that we sent down there. I can’t really say more than that.”
“I know. And I read about it online. Some black ops group infiltrated their base in Manta. Blink twice if I’m close.”
David smiled. “I can’t say.”
Henry continued. “But what I mean is… Jinshan must have been planning a coup, right? The Chinese president wasn’t in on it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have arrested Jinshan when the United States showed their evidence on what he was up to. Right?”
David nodded. “I think it’s generally accepted now that Jinshan had intended to stage a coup.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“That timeline doesn’t strike you as odd? Jinshan, a master planner, a genius, was in the process of staging a coup, but doesn’t strike while the iron is hot? What was he waiting for? I mean, he must have a ton of support. Otherwise it wouldn’t work. Jinshan doesn’t plan something without a lot of preparation. Just look at the island.”
David felt a tickle in his brain. Henry was on to something. “Say more.”
Henry looked at the wooden blocks that David’s three-year-old daughter was playing with. She had built them up into a tower. “So Jinshan is building this castle, right? He’s been working for years at this. Building it piece by piece. The military forces are starting to be sent overseas. He’s got schemes going on in the Middle East to tie up our forces there and hurt our economy. And he’s got his cyber forces starting to cripple US communications — like how they’ve taken out our GPS satellites. Now to me, it sounds like Jinshan is pretty darn close to completing this castle. But one major piece seems to be missing. He isn’t in charge of China.”
David sipped his beer. “And what you’re saying is that he must have been ready to execute the coup, if he was this far along in all his other plans.”
“Exactly. Which brings me to my real question — why didn’t he? Why didn’t he execute the coup on time?”
“I see what you mean.” David looked out at the ocean. “I guess if Jinshan was planning a coup, and he had everything set up, it might still be pretty easy to move forward with it. But he didn’t. Why?”
Henry tipped his beer towards David. “Yes. That’s been bothering me something fierce. From what I saw in that Red Cell, everything was raring to go. If they stayed on schedule, that means that their military exercises have been prepping for an attack that should take place right around now. And their industrial capability should be shifting over to wartime production. Shipping containers should be specially outfitted for military uses. Undersea cables would be cut. EMP attacks. Everything we talked about over there. The works. But when we were in the Red Cell, we didn’t much talk about convincing the Chinese leadership.”
“No,” David admitted. “We pretty much took that one for granted.”
“Right. Instead, we talked about winning over the Chinese people. Hearts and minds. Popular support for the war. That was what the Shrink kept talking about. And Natesh, the bastard.”
David glanced over at his wife, who was eyeing them, the children right next to her.
Henry said, “What?”
Lindsay walked over from the kitchen, smiling, and whispered, “You said bastard.”
“Sorry. Not used to the little ones being around.” Henry reddened.
She waved it off. “We’re just busting your chops. You guys want a sandwich?”
“Sure. Thanks, honey,” David said.
Lindsay nodded and walked back into the kitchen.
David turned back to Henry. “What if those two things are related somehow? What if Jinshan can’t gain control of China’s leadership until he successfully motivates the Chinese citizens towards supporting war against the United States?”
“That might solve the puzzle.” Henry rubbed his chin. “So what, then — a big event that causes all of China to hate the United States? We did sink their ships. Is that the catalyst?”
David shook his head. “Nah. I don’t think so. We’ve been monitoring their news and Internet. The Chinese version of events doesn’t place total blame on the United States. They say it was a training accident related to Jinshan and Admiral Song. Chinese media is saying that they were arrested for crimes against the state. But they don’t list what those crimes against the state actually are.”
“You’re kidding.”
David shook his head. “Nope.”
“Don’t their people know? Can’t they read about it on the news?”
“State-controlled news is all they’re broadcasting now. They’ve tightened up which TV and Internet news sources are accessible even more than normal. Even in places like Hong Kong, which are traditionally more lenient in that department. The great firewall of China is alive and kicking.”