The Wuhan Mission

by Irving Waters

  The Chairman hung up, thinking about in which possible directions this bad news might push Dr. Wu.

  He picked up his phone once again.

  “Bring me some tea please.”

  Outside the door of his office, the assistant relayed the request to her subordinate.

  *

  Dr. Wu answered his office phone.

  “Dr. Wu, I have the Chairman on line one” Wu’s assistant said nervously.

  “Thank you honey, put him through”

  Dr. Wu waited nervously doodling a cartoon of a corona virus carrying a suitcase on a legal pad.

  “Doctor Wu, hello, I hope I am finding you in good health!” boomed the voice of the Chairman.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Are you sitting down? I am afraid that I have some very bad news about your daughter.”

  “Sir?”

  “As you know the CIA were planning on detaining her and possibly doing her harm in order to coerce you into doing their bidding”.

  “Sir, I knew that they were watching her. I am sorry I did not say anything to you, but I was afraid for her life. They said that they would not harm her.”

  “Dr. Wu, as you may be aware, last night my agents in New York took her into protective custody. Our agents allowed her to make a short video that we sent you.

  Last night there was a development. The CIA tracked her down and shot her.” The Chairman paused, uncomfortably. “Dr. Wu, your daughter did not suffer.”

  Wu stared into space, not fathoming what he had just heard.

  “Three of our agents died trying to protect her. The Chinese Communist Party would like to honor her in a ceremony when her body is brought back. My diplomats are speaking with the Mayor of New York today to expedite the process. Again, Dr. Wu, we are very sorry for your loss. I am relieved that you will now be able to carry on your important work, free of the strong-arm tactics of the foreign barbarians.

  My assistant will be in touch with any important information as it comes in.”

  *

  Dr. Wu hung up the phone. He reached up to the cupboard where the rice wine was stored, grabbed a bottle, and calmly left the lab, still wearing his white lab coat. As he drove the familiar route back to his house, where he intended to start drinking, he looked at the mobile phone on the dashboard that had been given to him to communicate with Roet. He picked it up to call him but decided against it. Instead he dialed his daughter’s number in New York City.

  “Hi, you’ve reached Ning Wu, but I can’t pick up right now as I am probably in class or with friends. Please leave me a message.”

  Dr. Wu’s eyes misted over as he drove home.

  His thoughts drifted back to the Americans and the fact that they were now off his back. But what wouldn’t he give to have that CIA pig, Marcus, suddenly come down with a horrible virus and die.

  *

  Marcus Roet’s chest X-rays showed a broken rib, but no other damage. Upon release from hospital, he took a cab to LaGuardia airport and was on the first flight back to Virginia where he would have to report to the 7th Floor about the botched operation.

  “No sweat, I’ve done worse with no consequences” he thought to himself.

  The reality though was that he had now lost control of the asset, Dr. Wu, who might now do damage to the United States in retaliation for the loss of his daughter. Roet had to assume that the news would get back to Wu even though the death of the girl and the three agents had been classified. The simple fact remained that one of the Chinese agents had escaped, and he would report back to China that the FBI had killed her. Meanwhile he needed to clear the girl’s apartment of bugs that his team had planted.

  Roet ordered a glass of wine from the first class attendant, and proceeded to call one of his guys to go and retrieve the bugs.

  *

  Chapter 28

  Beijing

  Jimmy had been summoned to Beijing to see the Chairman. He had the small jet to himself and took the time to put his feet up and rest a little. He had no need to worry. Jimmy had come to associate the Chairman with good things in his life and as he drifted off into a heavy nap, he dreamt of buxom white girls in bikinis galavanting about on a rooftop pool deck. The bump of the wheels on the tarmac brought him back and he was soon in the back of a limo on his way to his meeting.

  Shelling a gigantic prawn with his chopsticks, the Chairman sat having lunch at his large ornate mahogany desk. His assistant was holding his calls. Jimmy was asked to wait while the Chairman finished his lunch. The assistant smiled personably at him as he straightened his tie and sat in one of the armless red felt covered chairs.

  Twenty minutes went by agonizingly slowly before the assistant’s intercom buzzed.

  “Please go inside.” She said sweetly.

  Jimmy smelled the strong odor of seafood upon entering the office. The Chairman asked him if he would like a Bourbon, gesturing for Jimmy to help himself. Jimmy poured a very modestly sized drink for himself.

  “The reason for the secrecy, Jimmy, is that the mission you are about to be sent on must never be talked about. The only people who can know about what you are about to do are Dr. Wu, myself and my high level Government officials. The mission is a key part of a great leap forward that our country is on the precipice of taking.”

  Jimmy stared back at the Chairman, not knowing how to respond. He nervously chose to take a slurp of his drink.

  “You must accept that you will never be recognized for this mission. You will never be applauded or blamed. You do this for the glory of China. You do this for the greater good.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The Chairman continued: “You will be notified one day in the near future that you are to go to Doctor Wu’s secure lab where he will give you an immunization. This is to protect you. He will then provide you with some kind of special dispersal device and provide you with instructions to follow.”

  “Yes sir.” Jimmy confirmed.

  “You are to follow the directions that he gives you exactly, and you are not to discuss any of this with any living soul. Nobody.”

  “Understood sir.”

  “You may be wondering what you get in return. I would normally say that the reward for a task such as this would be the sense of pride that comes with an act of helping your Country. In your case, I feel that your service to China has been so valuable thus far that completing this mission would warrant a special reward. I would like to set your retirement age at fifty years old. You may begin taking your full pension at that time.”

  “Thank you sir. I feel honored!”

  “Go now. Continue on as you were, and wait for the call. The Party believes in you.”

  Jimmy turned and walked stiffly to the door, exiting politely.”

  *

  Chapter 29

  SARS-COV-X

  Dr. Wu entered his secure lab the next morning. He didn’t speak to anyone on the way through security or on the floor of the outer laboratory. The assistants were taken aback at his apparent state of mind. He didn’t look at anybody. He entered the door to the high security lab between the armed guards. The sight of their guns snapped him back into thoughts of what had happened to his daughter. He was feeling extremely hungover. He had drunk whisky in his living room until he had blacked out. He was probably still a little drunk now.

  He had lost his only daughter. His only family left in the world. His emotions seesawed violently between sadness and fury. His actions were on automatic. His tasks for today did not require much thinking. ‘Just follow procedure’ he thought to himself as he went through the motions of opening files and closing out all of the experiments that he’d now completed.

  The Yellow Virus was ready for handover to the Chairman’s scientists. All that remained for him to do was to clean up the records of his workflow, and to incinerate the interim viruses that were stored in the bio-hazard safe and served no further purpose, one of which was too dangerous to be in existence. As Dr. Wu closed out another file, he went o
ver in his mind what he’d done in the lab since his first meeting with the Chairman.

  The Chairman had asked for a virus that picked off the weak, the sick and the elderly. Dr. Wu took a sample of the Yellow Virus out of the safe and put it in the small foam-lined pelican case marked SARS-CoV-2. He would be handing this to the three Government scientists.

  SARS-CoV-2 was a dangerous virus, but the new vaccine would work against it in healthy patients. It wasn’t a ‘world killer’ but it would cull the weak parts of the population, people no longer capable of working. The Yellow Virus would inevitably spread to the rest of the world through tourism, particularly those horrible germ incubators: ‘cruise ships’. The problem for the rest of the world was that they did not have a vaccine ready and they did not have the data necessary to create a vaccine any time soon. This indeed was the Chairman’s intention, and it occurred to Dr. Wu that the Chairman may very well order his death to ensure that no vaccine could become available to the West through him. His death would also ensure that the secret of the origin of the virus would not be told. The Ministry of Propaganda would ensure that the report to the world would be about people eating and handling infected bats.

  ‘He’s going to kill me!’ thought Dr. Wu as his fingers paused motionless above the keyboard. He stayed like that for what seemed like a full minute before he continued his work as his panicky thoughts raced through ideas of escape, defection, going to the States and murdering the CIA officer who was responsible for his daughter’s death. For certain, though, he had to get out of China soon, before the virus took hold of Wuhan and he was ‘disappeared.’

  He realized that the CIA would no longer be expecting a special virus from him as they had nothing on him anymore but something in the back of his mind told him that he wasn’t out of danger from the CIA. It was possible that they had a spy in the lab. He doubted it, though as he had vetted every single one of the workers. Still, he had felt like someone was watching him lately, and there was that man from the parking garage who was in the back seat of his car with a pistol a few years ago. Hopefully he wasn’t still around.

  Dr. Wu thought for a moment about the Red Virus which if unleashed could bring down national economies. The vaccine and the antidote would only work on the Red Virus for a very limited number of mutations, maybe just one mutation. His vaccine would be effective for a year at most. Dr. Wu reached into the bio-hazard safe and retrieved the Red Virus, and gently installed it in the second pelican case marked SARS-CoV-X and stashed it under the bench in a large unused drawer.

  He continued his work, storing the antidote that was colored bright green that he had already administered to himself. The vial went into the pelican case marked “SARS-CoV-2 Antidote.”

  Then he gently lifted the vial with the Vaccine from the safe. It was clear in color. He placed it in the Pelican case marked ‘SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine.’

  *

  The three scientists had grown to like Dr. Wu. The truth was that they all feared for their lives. None of them trusted the Chairman, and it was highly likely that each of them would become collateral damage in the process of the Government covering up the Virus plot.

  Every time they visited Dr. Wu in his laboratory they would finish with a drink. Each occasion saw an increase in the amount they drank. Dr. Wu had replenished his supply with a few bottles of the best “Bai Jou” he could find. Better quality equalled less hangover, and he had had enough hangovers recently.

  The men stood together at the work bench as Dr. Wu opened the pelican case marked “SARS-CoV-2.”

  “This” he said, “is the Yellow Virus that the Chairman is waiting for. The vaccine will work against this virus.

  The antidote is colored green and will protect anyone from the contracting the virus and will cure most people already infected. And to that end, may I present each of you with a gift.”

  Dr. Wu reached under the bench and brought up a stainless steel tray with four syringes of green liquid, next to four full shot glasses.

  The three scientists gasped genuinely. Dr. Wu gestured to the men to take an antidote syringe each, passing them each a packet with a sterile swab in it. Dr. Wu took the last syringe and said: “Gan Bei!” and plunged the needle into his forearm, pressing the plunger. The three men followed suit each saying: “Gan Bei!” meaning “Dry your glass.” It made them laugh as it was a saying reserved for drinking.

  “Well, whatever happens to us, we can be sure that we will not die from SARS-CoV-2!” said one of the scientists. They all nodded and laughed loudly, nervously loudly.

  Dr. Wu looked wistfully sad for a moment and gazed into space, his eyes moist.

  “Drink?” suggested Dr. Wu. snapping out of it.

  The four men proceeded to finish a bottle.

  *

  Chapter 30

  Extra Tools

  Xue Lin walked in the door of her sparsely furnished apartment that she had been living in for four months. The wooden venetian shutters cast a striped shadow on the old wooden floorboards. She had spent many evenings alone in the apartment occupying herself with keeping physically fit and staying in touch with her hand-to-hand combat skills. She maintained her cover, doing typical internet searches for a geeky lab assistant and talking with her two friends from the lab about girl stuff.

  Tonight, after making her social phone calls in front of the audio bugs in the living room, trying to make the topics as uncomfortable as possible for the techs listening at the other end, she turned some screechy Chinese opera music on her phone and left it under one of the bugs for her listeners, and then she pieced together her communication rig from the parts she had hidden around the room in the various household items. When the clock showed 8:05pm she made the call.

  “Hello Blue Eyes, this is Snow Forest. I’m in the bathroom”

  “Copy that Snow Forest” Sam Chilvers’ voice came through the ear piece.

  “I’m doing a number two” she whispered, close to the microphone.

  “Over the line Snowflake. WAY over the line.”

  Laughing now, she asked “How’s the shoulder Blue Eyes?”

  “It hurts when it’s about to rain. How YOU doin’?”

  “I’m seeing three new guys going in to the lab with Wu.”

  “Scientists or Government?”

  “White coats.”

  “Understood. Listen, I still don’t know what the package is, but I’m trying to find out. I think it’s safe to assume now that it’s a bio-weapon of some sort, but I’m just guessing. It’s clearly gotten very hot lately, so you had better be ready to move soon. These guys will at some point be under orders to capture or kill you. If they catch you they will string you up by your pigtails and you will be a star on our wall.”

  “Jesus Sam, you are so dramatic. Are you having your period again?”

  Chilvers laughed hard. Xue Lin was in danger but she was still a firecracker. That levelheadedness was a quality that they required in their operatives. Calm under pressure, a sense of humour when needed.

  “Listen,” said Xue Lin, “you tell me what the package is when you know. I’ll handle this end. I could use some more tools though.”

  “Yep, Jimmy can probably get you most of what you need. Are you comfortable using Jimmy?”

  “I…suppose so” she replied.

  Sam paused, then continued a little hesitantly: “Make a list for him. I’ll tell you where to go meet him with it. Best to change it up from time to time. Good?”

  “Fine Sam.”

  “I’ll let you know what he says.” Sam said, “Keep your head down. I’m here for you kiddo. By the way, there was a mess in New York involving Wu’s daughter. She’s dead.” Sam paused for a moment thinking about Roet’s drinking problem, and how the knock on effects could be so tragic.

  Sam continued: “Keep a special eye on Wu. We don’t want him running off the road.”

  “Jesus, what happened?”

  “I can’t tell you just yet. It’s still classified. Let’s
talk soon.”

  “Don’t run out of maxi-pads Sam. Over and out.”

  Sam remained silent as Xue Lin ended the call.

  Xue Lin packed her communications up and headed down the stairs and over the road to the crowded, dirt-floored restaurant for dinner while she thought about her list of needed tools.

  Sam was already sending the urgent message off to Roet:

  ‘Snow Forest needs tools. Tell your Man she will have a list for him tomorrow. He names the location. Evening is best.”

  While she was eating, Xue Lin took out a sharp pencil and began scribbling her list on a notepad in tiny letters, unreadable from more than two feet away.

  Micro GPS tracker: small as possible, long range

  Rohypnol : 2 large doses, liquid form, fast action, out for 1 hr+

  SAT-phone with Bluetooth earpiece

  Kevlar Backpack...

  Chapter 31

  A Trip for Three

  Summoned to see the Chairman, the three scientists were now in the back of a red flagged long limo in Beijing, sitting in silence. The driver bypassed the center of Beijing and followed signs leading towards the Chauyang district. Each of the three scientists made the mental connection that the driver was taking them to the Beijing Capital Airport.

  The Chairman sat at a large modern desk in an executive office in the empty wing of the airport, still under construction. At his feet under the desk were three pelican cases. Two body guards stood inside the door and two outside. The Chairman smoked a large cigar, blowing poorly formed smoke rings out over the desk. He had eaten too much too fast an hour earlier in his Government building where his meals were specially prepared. He’d eaten Beijing Duck for two, and was already feeling uncomfortably gassy and wished that the scientists would arrive early so he could get this meeting out of the way and wouldn’t have to break wind in front of his guards.

  A hard looking man in a black suit hailed the limo to the curb at an abandoned wing of the airport. He nodded at each of the three men as they got out.