"One of the ingredients of the elixir is the powder of 'burning silver rocks'. The computer confirmed that those rocks must be very high grade uranium ore. Ore like that would impact China's nuclear weapons production."
Harker's pen drummed away on her desk. "Yang might want the book to find out where those priests got their supplies. But how would he know that? We just translated it and no one read it before."
"If he has the companion book," Carter said, "he'd know your book would have what he's looking for. Did you find out where these rocks came from?"
Selena brushed a lock of hair from her forehead. "No. But directions can be found where the emperor was taken. That location is marked on the map."
"How accurate is the map?"
"The names of the landmarks are archaic and we'd need to find modern equivalents. Mount Kailash is unmistakable. It shouldn't be hard. That part of the Tibetan Plateau is fifteen thousand feet high and barren. There's not much there except yaks and a few villages."
"We can pin down landmarks with satellite imagery and GPS," said Harker. She made a note. "We'll get that today. In the meantime, how shall we handle the FBI? Nick, you know Jordan. Is he our mole?"
"I can't see that. He's dedicated. I don't think he's the one."
"Then we need to bring him up to speed. We have to inform the FBI we think there's a leak. Steph, how are you coming with those risk scenarios?"
"They'll be finished this morning."
"Good. We'll meet with Jordan this afternoon. Anything else?"
No one had anything to add.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
There was no sign of Cathy Chen. Selena, Ronnie, Stephanie and Nick were in the Director's office with Jordan. Harker told him about the theft of Selena's computer. She tossed out the conclusion there was a mole in the Bureau.
"I don't believe it."
"Do you have a better explanation? Someone passed the information to Wu. Your people and ours are the only ones who knew Nick and Selena survived. General Hood at NSA is in the loop now. It's not him and it's not one of us. It's got to be someone in the Bureau."
"Am I a suspect, then?" Jordan was getting angry.
"No."
"I don't like what you're saying."
"I don't like saying it. If I'm right, we have to find out who the informant is. If I'm wrong, I'll owe you an apology. What I want to know now is if I can count on you to help us sort this out."
Jordan took a deep breath. "All right, Director. But I think you're wrong."
"Then help us prove it."
"I'm not sure where to start."
"Communications," Carter said. "Our mole had to contact Wu. Run a trace on the phone numbers of people in your unit, cross reference Wu's numbers from our intercepts, see if there's a connection. NSA does this all the time."
"I wouldn't call Wu or his contact from my own phone if I were the mole."
"People get over-confident. They make mistakes. It's worth a try."
Jordan nodded. "Okay."
"Financial records." It was Ronnie. "We run checks on everyone in the Asian Criminal Enterprise Unit and see if someone's getting richer than they're supposed to be."
"I can get authority for that," said Jordan. "All right, I'll do it. But I want to keep this internal. If one of ours is bad, then we have to be the ones to take him down. Agreed?"
Harker nodded. "Agreed."
Carter felt sorry for him. Who needs to hear someone you're working with might be a traitor?
"Is there anything else, Director? I'm due back at headquarters."
"No. I know this isn't easy."
"No, it's not. I think you're wrong, but you're right about one thing, we have to know one way or the other." Jordan got up, annoyed.
Stephanie escorted him out. When she returned, the Director went on with the meeting.
"We will no longer involve the FBI in what we're doing, until we know who tipped off Wu. I didn't want Jordan to hear the next part of our discussion. Stephanie, what do the scenarios indicate?"
"As we thought. High probability of a conspiracy to take over control of China. The computer factored in the defector interviews, all the rest of the intelligence we've been getting from China in the last few months, the FBI's concern about the Triads, Wu's actions, everything.
"Selena was curious about a reference to burning rocks. The computer confirms it refers to high grade uranium ore, over ninety-seven percent probability. The process described in the book is the same as what we use today to produce yellowcake. That gets refined into uranium oxides. You put that through centrifuges to get the enriched uranium you need for bombs. You can get yellowcake from low grade ore but it's tedious. High quality ore yields a lot more for the same effort."
"That would explain the passage in the text about changing from silver to yellow or gold," Selena said.
The Director set her pen to the side. "What about the immortality elixir? What does the computer say about that?"
Stephanie adjusted the gold bracelets on her wrist. "The computer doesn't have the bias we do about the existence of an elixir of immortality. It projects the elixir may be discovered."
"What's the probability of success?"
"For finding the complete formula and the place where it was manufactured, eighty-six per cent. The same for finding the location of the uranium. Regarding the coup, that's more hopeful. At best, there's about a fifty-fifty chance Yang can pull it off."
"What happens if he doesn't find the elixir?"
"Still fifty-fifty. They're not related."
Carter said, "Does the computer back up our ideas about the Triads?"
Stephanie nodded. "Provide a distraction while Yang brings up the tanks. I was careful not to program in our conclusions. The computer was analyzing the same intel we have and its conclusions are similar. The scenario indicates high probability for West Coast targets in the Bay Area, but we could be looking at attacks on a national level. The emphasis is on disruption of basic infrastructure, including the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, the transportation system, water supply and especially power sources."
"What do you think will happen, if we're right?" Carter tugged at his ear.
Harker picked up her pen. "It could lead to war."
"Let me see if I've got this right, Steph," said Ronnie. "If there was a big terrorist attack here there'd be plenty of speculation and talk, right? World attention?"
"Yes."
"And that would keep the Chinese government and everyone else preoccupied?"
"Yes."
"So while the world is looking the other way, Yang makes his move and takes over."
Stephanie nodded agreement. "That's about it."
Harker tapped her upper lip with her pen. "The big question is when? It must be soon, or why move on Connor and grab his accounts? Nick, if you were doing this, when would you do it?"
"I'd pick a time when our guard was down, when people were thinking about something else. Like a holiday."
"The Fourth of July." It was Selena. "That's five days from now. It's the only holiday coming up anytime soon. Big crowds for fireworks, traffic jams, lots of confusion. If they're going to try something soon, I'd bet on that."
"That makes sense." Tap, tap, tap on her desk. "I'm going to have to give a heads up to Homeland Security. I can't go to the President yet."
"But how much can we tell them," Nick said. "Whatever we give them is bound to leak. Yang will find out we're on to him."
"I only have to tell them enough to get them to raise the security watch. I can do that without giving away the store. The main thing is to get them on it. This is going to get complicated."
Elizabeth dreaded the nightmare of Washington bureaucracy. If the various agencies started putting in their two cents they'd argue about what to do and how to do it and who would be in charge and form a joint task force. It would be next year before anything happened. There wasn't time for that.