The Chairman encouraged the men to react this time, smirking, nodding at them, looking around the table at each of them.
“Their feeble governments will allow this to happen as they will be cowering behind their wall of political lies, not knowing what to do, more worried about their own political longevity than their people’s future, the politicians will stand back as China bulldozes its way across the Western world while we build up China and cut out our own weaknesses.”
“You will all be given the antidote, so not a single one of us will be touched by the virus. This is an honor which you have all earned.”
The Chairman waved the guard at the nearest door to bring in the nurses. The door was opened and twenty nurses in uniform carrying stainless steel trays with syringes and alcohol swabs. The nurses stood around the table just behind the committee members.
“Please accept this gift from the People’s Party as we sing:
“The East is Red”
A small brass band entered the room and began to play an introduction as the nurses began swabbing the men’s arms in preparation for their injections of the green liquid.
They began to sing, even as they were being injected:
“The East is red, the sun is rising.
From China, appears Mao Zedong.
He strives for the people’s happiness,
Hurrah, he is the people’s great savior!
Chairman Mao loves the people,
He is our guide to building a new China
Hurrah, lead us forward!
The Communist Party is like the sun,
Wherever it shines, it is bright
Wherever the Communist Party is
Hurrah, the people are liberated!
Chapter 25
The Fate of Ning Wu
As rush hour began in the streets below, Jimmy was having a big breakfast of rice and pigs’ feet in his own kitchen. He’d been out to dinner the night before as Doctor Wu had gone to bed very early. Jimmy’s computer flashed a banner which meant a recording had come through from the audio bug in Wu’s car. Jimmy took a large bite from a pig’s foot and walked to his laptop and pressed play.
As Jimmy listened to the call from Roet, which Dr. Wu had put on speaker, he stopped chewing for a moment. It was now clear that Marcus Roet was blackmailing Dr. Wu by threatening to harm his daughter. Something about forcing him to create an ‘Asians-only version of the virus’.
Jimmy rewound the recording and listened to it a couple more times before dialing the Chairman’s direct line.
“Hello Mister Chairman, this is Jimmy”
“Yes, Jimmy, what do you have for me?”
“Doctor Wu has a daughter studying in New York. The CIA are surveilling her and sending videos of her to Dr. Wu threatening him to alter the virus so it only infects Asians. From what the Doctor says to himself when he gets off the phone, it would seem that he is only pretending to go along with the CIA, but not actually doing it sir.”
“That’s interesting news Jimmy. Thank you. Good work.”
“Thank you sir. I will send you the audio file and the text file on the daughter which has her contact details in New York.”
*
The Chairman’s assistant arose from her seat behind her desk outside the Chairman’s office. She formally greeted the Head of Foreign Covert Operations and showed him into the office where the Chairman sat behind his desk.
“Welcome Colonel.”
The Colonel nodded, looking impressive in full Uniform.
“Superior men are always held in fear and in awe” the Chairman said.
The Colonel nodded, knowingly. His men feared him, and he used this to his advantage whenever possible.
“There is something that has come to our attention but it is rather sensitive and anything we do needs to be completely below the radar. There is a Chinese girl in New York who the CIA are watching. She is the daughter of a man who is doing important work for me. I cannot afford for him to be compromised by these foreign dogs. I need you to bring her back to China. It needs to be clean. None of your team is to be captured.”
“I understand sir.”
“Here is her name and home address in Manhattan”.
As the General handed the file over, he said: “Good luck. Take care of it quickly.”
“Thank you sir.”
The Colonel saluted and turned efficiently and left the office.
*
Chapter 26
Asians Only
Doctor Wu had, until now, been holding off on making any forays into the work that Roet was demanding from him, however, he’d recently felt watched and had become afraid that Roet may find out that he had ignored his request.
Dr. Wu reopened the file on his computer that contained the genetic targeting data. He had based his new virus on a previous ‘crown shaped’ version that was called SARS-CoV. SARS, which stood for ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome’ had been released in China back in 2003. He had been given some older classified documents about the engineering of the SARS virus and he had noticed that SARS was designed to be harmless to white people, in fact it was harmless to anyone who was not Asian!
“Must have been CIA then too!” he said out loud, shaking his head disapprovingly, alone in his lab. He could, if forced to, still go back and alter his new virus to target Asians only.
Dr. Wu’s discovery that one version of his virus was able to mutate and was, in a sense, smarter than the SARS-CoV-2 was very concerning. If the virus was able to change itself, it could roll across the world’s population, attacking younger and fitter patients. Even babies, eventually. If this version of the virus was released, it could lay waste to whole economies. It could destroy humanity, worst case scenario…. That was not what he wanted. He wasn’t a sociopath. He was a pragmatist. However he was being strong-armed by two of the most powerful organizations on the planet. He was however incensed that the Americans were threatening to harm his daughter, and the mutating version of the virus lurked amongst his darker thoughts.
He continued working diligently to create the virus that the Chairman had ordered. No possibility of mutation, and with a small target death rate aimed at just the weak and the elderly. His work was nearly complete. He was glad that there was very high security protecting the lab because his workflow dictated that he keep all versions of the virus created along the way. This meant that in his lab there was a series of several Corona viruses ranging from ‘non-contagious’ all the way up to the most dangerous one that could mutate. He intended to incinerate all other versions the moment his work was complete. In the meantime, the viruses were color coded, and locked up in the bio-hazard safe. The final Yellow Virus would be labelled: “SARS-CoV-2”
Dr. Wu set to work, a cup of strong coffee on his desk. The final steps would take him the rest of the day and probably some of the night too.
Dr. Wu’s email program pinged. He had a message from the Chairman’s office. He clicked on the message and saw there was an attached video. He opened it. An iPhone video of his daughter! He clicked the play button.
“Daddy, I am safe. The Chinese Government men grabbed me off the street! They showed me pictures of all the little cameras that the CIA had put in my apartment. Can you believe that? I feel so violated. Apparently there was even one in my bathroom! But I’m OK. I want to come home Daddy. They are going to get me home. I don’t want to live in this country anymore. I will be seeing you very soon. Well, that’s it. I love you!”
Dr. Wu couldn’t believe it. How did the Government know about the CIA watching her?
He thought to himself about how he was no longer obligated to work on the CIA virus, and closed his laptop and put away his notes. He closed the safe and took his white coat off. He was going home to celebrate. As he walked through the lab to security the lab assistants all said goodbye respectfully, but he didn’t really hear them. His thoughts had already returned to the mutating Red Virus and the devastation it could do to America.
Chapter 27
A Lost Asset
Marcus Roet sat in his office reading intelligence briefings on his computer. He’d been working at the agency since he graduated from Rutgers University on the East Coast. He’d applied to the CIA through the regular channels. He hadn’t been recruited and didn’t have any special talents that made him stand out, but once he was in the door, he knew how to slide up the ladder, usually at the expense of others. A bad word about someone in the appropriate ear could do irrepairable damage. He played on people’s dark side. Also he never questioned orders, no matter what they entailed. Ironically, Marcus Roet would have made a great Chinese citizen.
The CIA directive from the seventh floor had been to ‘turn’ Dr. Wu, force him to alter the virus that they had discovered he’d started work on, and then steal a copy of it to keep for American use on the Chinese in the future if needed. Roet was apprised of the type of virus Wu was working on. The Generals had been concerned for the last few decades about use of bioweapons on the armed forces. Control of Dr. Wu was of vital military importance. The alteration of the virus would ensure that US armed forces and allies would be relatively unaffected. China would be shooting blanks at them, much like SARS-COV back in 2003.
Roet knew that if the virus was altered in such a way as to only affect Asians, it could also be a highly effective biological weapon to deploy against other Asian countries including Vietnam, Japan, North Korea. Roet also saw the paradoxical nature of using a Chinese made bio-weapon against the Chinese.
Chinatown
Dr. Wu’s daughter pressed the ‘end call’ button on her phone. She was happy to hear her father’s voice and was excited to tell him that she was going to Chinatown for dinner with a friend.
She was already in her pretty dress that she’d bought yesterday using her his credit card.
She google mapped the route to “Joe’s Shanghai” a very popular soup dumpling restaurant just off Canal street. It was an easy trip: one subway and a ten minute walk.
She texted her friend that she would meet her outside the restaurant at eight, but if she was late, to just get in line for a table.
The A train was half empty and she found a seat and opened her book.
She had more than forty minutes before her stop and didn’t have to look up from her book except for the occasional check on their progress downtown. She did accidentally meet eyes with the Chinese man sitting opposite her, each of them looking down immediately, slightly embarrassed. Those accidental interactions were always awkward in New York City, as eye contact was avoided at all costs, especially if you were a little Asian girl.
“Canal street” came the announcement. She waited until the last second before getting up to go the door. Most of the passengers left the train, including the Chinese man. She walked up the furthest staircase, knowing the way to the street from this station. Heading east along Canal Street towards Chinatown, she pulled her phone out and sent a quick text:
“Canal Street, walking from A train now. C U soon.”
The Chinese man from her subway carriage was on his phone too as he walked behind her. She didn’t notice that she was being followed as she was focused upon her phone.
She crossed Mulberry Street, and was startled as a white van pulled up violently to the curb next to her and the door slid open. She felt a shove behind her and two men in the van dragged her inside without much effort. The Chinese man who had been following her also got in the van, grabbing her phone from her hand and tossing it out the door. As the phone landed on the footpath, the van had already jerked away from the curb, rubber squealing for a moment, and sped away toward the Manhattan bridge which would take it to Brooklyn.
“Cal 911! Call 911! Yelled a young hipster, picking up the girl’s phone that still displayed the open WhatsApp text exchange.
The next morning at 9AM Marcus Roet dialed Sam’s office extension from his desk at Langley.
“Sam, meet me in an hour. Same church?”
“Yep. What’s up?”
“Bad news” replied Roet and hung up.
*
Sam Chilvers pulled up across from Immanuel Presbyterian. He saw Roet’s car outside. Sam scanned the street and surrounding area before putting his phone in the glove compartment and grabbing the pistol.
Marcus was waiting inside, seated in the same place as the last time.
Sam joined him, sitting close, but looking around the church to make sure that they were alone.
Roet started with: “We lost Wu’s daughter. The Chinese took her last night.”
“How the hell did the Chinese find out about her?” exclaimed Sam.
“We must have a leak” said Roet. “They picked her up on the street, near Chinatown. Grabbed her in broad daylight…well it was nearly dinner time.”
“You didn’t geo-tag her all this time you’ve been watching her?” asked Sam incredulously.
“Yeah, we put locator on her keys. We know where she is, or at least we know where her keys are. The locator puts her in Brooklyn in a warehouse. It hasn’t moved since it got there last night.”
Sam nodded. “Are you sending a team in?”
Roet nodded back: “FBI SWAT are giving me a team. We’re going in tonight after midnight. There’ll be fewer people around. I’m flying to New York in two hours. I’ll lead the team. We will be going in heavy. They probably won’t be expecting us.
*
The FBI jet touched down on Long Island with Roet aboard. He’d managed to hitch a ride despite the annoyance in the voice of the FBI agent whom he’d had to convince.
The SWAT team approached the Brooklyn warehouse in four unmarked sedans.
“Comms check.” The team counted off as the cars pulled in a block from the entrance to the warehouse.
Roet’s voice came over the comms: “We need to take the girl unharmed. Once we have visual confirmation, clean up the scene, shoot to kill. Get everybody.”
The team quickly and silently jogged into position outside the side entrance. The warehouse was listed as ‘restaurant kitchen supplies storage’ but there was no knowing the layout of the place.
“Breach!” came the order, and the entry ram hit the door which bent and swung open with a loud clang, giving away their presence in the building to whomever was inside.
Roet and the team of six were inside in seconds. The dimly lit warehouse was deathly quiet as they all found cover and began working their way inside through the rows of shelves toward the back. Quietly clearing each section as they moved forward, covering each other. Roet, wearing a bulletproof vest, carrying an MP5 submachine gun, handed to him by the team captain in the car, huddled behind the agent in the lead who had a bullet proof shield.
“Please don’t shoot me in the back with that thing. Are you trained on an MP5?”
“Of course I am!” snapped Roet, lying.
As they approached the back wall of the warehouse, Roet saw that there were three doors. The leader motioned that they would split into three teams of two, and open the doors all at once.
The leader signaled the countdown with his fingers: “3 - 2” and then suddenly the whoosh and thud of five bullets hitting three members of the team. “Contact high right!” yelled the Team Leader. Muzzle flashes on the right side of the warehouse... Pistols with suppressors continued firing at them. The team returned fire to the right. Roet opened the cheap wooden door in front of him to take cover. He heard the crack crack of a pistol in front of him and felt two painful thuds in his chest before he saw the Chinese agent inside who had shot him. As Roet fell to his left, his finger pulled back on the trigger of his own weapon, spraying the contents of his magazine around the right side of the room, as the Chinese agent lunged low tumbling skillfully toward the doorway, springing again to his feet, making his escape to the street and into the night.
The Team Leader lit up the shooters to the right with automatic fire, bringing all three to the ground. The three FBI agents still standing e
ntered the other two rooms which were empty. “Clear!” came both the signals.
The Team Leader turned on his radio: “We have four team members down with gunshot wounds, three suspects killed. Send ambulances ASAP.”
Roet grunted as he loosened his vest to feel behind it. Relieved, he thought ‘No penetration’ as he looked around the room at all the bullet holes he’d made in the walls.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Roet yelled as he saw the lifeless and bloody body of the daughter of Dr. Wu lying in the corner. Roet realized that he had shot her squarely through the neck with his machine gun fire and she had already bled out. He wasn’t used to the weapon, having never used one like it before.
“Damn!” said the Team Leader as he saw the girl’s body, lifeless on the floor.
The ambulances arrived, red lights blinking, and the three downed FBI agents were taken to hospital with various bullet wounds, and the girl was put in a body bag and taken to a morgue in Manhattan along with the three dead Chinese agents. A botched operation, and worse, the Chinese agent who had escaped could relay back to China that Wu’s daughter was now dead.
Dr. Wu would not only be upset about his daughter, but he would also be free of CIA control. A lost asset.
*
The Chairman listened sternly with the phone pressed to his ear. He was alone in his office in Beijing.
“This is very good news. You are absolutely sure that she is dead?”
The Chairman lit a cigar as he let the Chinese agent in New York finish his account of the botched FBI operation to get the girl back.
“Excellent, despite losing three men, all of whom died in service of the Party. Well done to you and thank you for your service. Are you staying in America or do you need to come home?”
The Chairman’s puffs of smoke billowed into the wide open space of his enormous office.
“Fine, if your cover is intact you can stay in place and wait for your next assignment. The Party thanks you for your service.”
The Wuhan Mission Page 9