“We need you to keep an eye on Roet. If you see him about to screw up, you have our permission to go around him and call your own shots. We can’t afford any screw ups. You do what you need to do, and don’t leave any mess in China, do you understand?”
Sam looked back at her, knowing what she meant.
“Yes Ma’am. Nobody left behind in enemy hands.”
“That’s all. Good luck Sam.”
Sam took the elevator back down to his office where he looked over the files that the Deputy Director had sent him. Most of the intel was not pertinent to Xue Lin’s situation, but the news about the green antidote and the sinister purpose of the vaccine could be of some relevance to Xue Lin, who was tasked with stealing and carrying hazardous materials during a potentially difficult escape. He looked over the routes of egress that they had researched during Xue Lin’s final three weeks of specifics training.
*
Chapter 35
Misinformation
After sweeping the apartment for any video surveillance cameras, Xue Lin opened the fridge and pulled out a beer and checked the Hello Kitty cam for any new footage. None, as usual. She’d come to like the apartment over the last few months. Somehow, knowing that there were a couple of Communist Party ‘spy geeks’ listening in on her 24/7 helped her feel less lonely. She had a bit of fun with them sometimes when she was bored. She liked to DJ for them and find really boring science podcasts. She would just leave her phone next to one of the bugged lamps, and she’d go out and have dinner.
Her job in Wuhan seemed to be all about the lab. She did have a few favorite restaurants and street food stalls, but she had been advised by Sam not to carry on too much of a life outside the lab building. She occasionally visited her two friendly coworkers to talk about nothing. A daily run kept her fit. She also enjoyed occasional bike rides around town to keep developing her knowledge of Wuhan’s streets. Xue Lin had noticed a team of four PLA operatives who were taking it in turns, one by one, to tail her when she left the apartment outside work hours. Two of them she had ID’ed as the two who had bugged her apartment. The Kitty-cam had seen to that. Most often, she let them follow her easily so as to encourage each of them to get soft. That way, when she really needed to lose them, it was easy. It was clear that the Government had been onto her from the very first day she moved into the apartment. She still wasn’t sure how, as her entry to China had been perfectly clean. There was only the fishing boat crew, Jimmy and her own two people back at Langley: Sam and Marcus Roet. She stayed on her guard, while doing her best to appear unskilled and uninformed. At least if the Chinese decided to move on her they would seriously underestimate her.
One of the counter espionage methods she had been using to give herself a bit of a ‘looser collar’ was to take up a musical instrument. She had bought an ‘erhu’ in a music shop and she often practiced at night, sometimes for hours. She had a recording of a long practice session, so if she ever wanted to get out of the apartment unnoticed, she could leave the recording playing under one of the bugs, and sneak out over the back fence. The first time she had tried to play it the people listening must have thought she was strangling a cat.
As the deadline for stealing the package had approached, she laid a web of misinformation using the audio bugs. She’d given the appearance of not knowing what was going on in the lab, or behind the scenes. Luckily they didn’t know about Jimmy, who was feeding quality intel to Roet, by the sounds of it. It was pretty damning stuff. Government conspiracies to kill their own people with a new virus. The problem with double agents was always about what they were NOT telling you. Xue Lin often theorized about what Jimmy was holding back, but there was never anything solid to incriminate him.
Xue Lin put the radio together for what would be the last time. She set up under one of the audio bugs, and made her usual phone call out to a burner phone, just so they didn’t suspect use of a radio.
“Good evening this is Xue Lin.” she said, using the ‘disinformation code’ for Sam’s benefit.
“Things are going badly. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m completely in the dark still. I’m going to try and talk to Dr. Wu next Thursday. Maybe I’ll sleep with him and see if I can get him to tell me what he’s working on. I think I have been wasting my time. I really love it here. Maybe I’ll just stay. How is Hungary doing? Anyway, that’s it. I’ll call you on Friday at the same number and tell you how it goes.”
Xue Lin hung up the mobile phone and turned on some heavy metal music for the bugs. Then she moved the radio to the bathroom to make her real call to Sam.
“Hello Poo Eyes, this is Ho’s Forest. Do you read me?”
“Yes, Snow Forest I do read you, unfortunately. Go ahead.”
“I’m a go here for tomorrow. I’m setting up the apartment for permanent vacation. I have a SAT-phone number, but I need you to give it to the tech guys. Jimmy gave it to me. It’s for emergencies only.”
Xue Lin read the number to him, knowing that if she had to use the SAT-phone, things must have gotten bad.
“Received, Snow Forest. You have my SAT-phone number, you call me if you need a boat.”
“Actually, Blue Eyes, the boat is sounding rather attractive right now. I think with the passengers, I’m really going to need you there waiting for us. Can I bank on that?”
“Roget that. We’ll have a team in a ‘quick boat’ off the coast of Shanghai. Just give me a couple of hours notice and we can pick you up, with your two passengers preferably, please.”
“Coordinates?” she asked.
“Standby for those.” Sam sent a text message to the Team Leader. The reply was quick. He read them out to Xue Lin.
“Memorize them.” he ordered, thinking how lucky she was to have a photographic memory.
“What’s the code name for the pickup point?”
“Empire Szechuan. Table for three, telling us how many.”
“Roger that, Blue Eyes.”
“I’m at the base in Korea. You are good to go any time from now.”
“Can you give me details on the package please?”
“Yes, you are to grab three biological vials. One is a new strain of the SARS virus, one is a vaccine, and there’s the antidote. Don’t ask me the difference between a vaccine and an antidote, I just don’t know.”
“Jesus Christ, what are they up to?”
“Diabolical shit, Snow Forest. That’s why you are there, saving the world.”
Xue Lin paused for a moment, letting it sink in.
“Roger that, Blue Eyes. And the two passengers I can shoot if they get on my nerves?”
“That is a negative on shooting the passengers, Snow Forest. Only put them down if there is no alternative. We would much prefer them breathing. Good luck, and try to go quietly like a church mouse. Don’t go ‘bang bang’ or you’ll have half of China following you.”
“ Don’t get your knickers in a knot Blue Eyes. I’ll keep the noise down if I can, but I’m not promising anything.”
“Good enough. Be careful Snow Forest. Over and out.”
Sam went back to eating his take-out kimchee as he looked over at his bed and the pistol he’d just cleaned and oiled. It was time to start planning the extraction with the SEAL Team.
*
Xue Lin left her phone by the lamp, playing some ‘erhu practice’ for the techs who were listening while she set about preparing her apartment for the inevitable break-in which would come soon after the heist went down. She had learned in training to organize a wild goose chase for anyone who might be trying to catch her. She took down her map and put it in the garbage for disposal and put up a second map on the wall with a misleading escape route drawn in red marker. She wrote various lists of contacts in Vietnam, which was the opposite direction to that which she was really planning on going.
She quietly chiseled away at her plaster job in the wall. When she had made a big enough gap she pried the piece of drywall out exposing the pistol and ammunition, and her f
ake travel papers. Next she took apart the radio and destroyed them and separated the working parts into different plastic bags to be put out in garbage bins around the block. When she was done setting up her apartment for permanent vacation, she picked up the dozen plastic bags of incriminating refuse and took them down to her bike where she spotted her tail for the evening. She took off down a cobblestone alley and turned sharply into a thin walkway that was lined with trees and sped up. The tail was already gone, allowing Xue Lin to dump the evidence around the neighborhood in different bins. She headed back to her apartment quickly to make sure that no break-in would occur.
Safely upstairs in her living room again, she packed her tools into her kevlar backpack and then took a shower which would hopefully be the last shower she would take in Wuhan. Tomorrow was a Go. She hoped Jimmy was ready with the cars. If not she would have to take travel plans into her own hands.
She set an alarm for six and put on her pink pyjamas and got into bed. She went straight to sleep and had strange dreams about opening fire in the lab with a submachine gun killing everyone but her friend, the other new lab-assistant.
*
Jimmy took a nap after eating dinner at home. His alarm woke him at two in the morning. Wearily he swung his legs out of bed, already in his suit. He picked up the burner phones he’d bought the day before and added them to the heavily laden Go-bag, slinging it over his shoulder. He headed out to take care of the car situation.
He drove his Government issue Mercedes to the next neighborhood which was known to be the turf of a young street gang who had been selling drugs, stealing cars and robbing old people over the last few months. He parked the car and rolled the driver side window halfway down and got out with his bag, leaving the keys in the ignition.
Then with his bag over one shoulder he wandered the neighborhood looking for a van which would serve for the highway miles they would drive if they managed to get out of the center. He found a tan colored van and broke in easily. He started it with a screw driver and drove it to a twenty-four hour gas station and filled up the tank and checked the oil. He then drove to the planned changeover point near the edge of town. He opened the glove compartment and shoved into it his new passport and ID. He opened the trunk and put his heavy bag inside, keeping only his pistol with him.
Jimmy then set out on foot to search for a Chinese-made sedan, white or black, which would serve to take the three of them from the scene to the van. He walked the streets for a good hour before he came across a black sedan that could pass for a Government vehicle. He felt under the mudguards for a spare key container. This time he was in luck. After putting Dr. Wu’s passport and ID into the glove compartment he drove the car back to his apartment and parked it a block away before heading back to bed to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow he would be leaving China forever, if all went well.
*
Chapter 36
Mandatory Vaccinations
The mandatory vaccinations began in China in December. Wuhan’s outbreak had been building for a few weeks and had been receiving a good amount of publicity in China and in the foreign press. The head Doctor of the vaccination committee followed his directive to start with the large manufacturing cities: Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. Government teams started showing up at factories, quietly without publicity, giving everyone a small shot of the clear liquid that contained the vaccine and traces of certain metals that the Government scientists had found would work with the 5G frequencies.
The factory workers submitted their forearms willingly and without question. Everyone knew when something was ‘mandatory’ that nothing was to be gained from causing trouble or protesting. Very few of them thought about whether it was good or bad. They just knew that there was no choice.
The medical teams moved efficiently from factory to factory before moving on to smaller companies, and then finally setting up public vaccination sites in gymnasiums and halls in each neighborhood where people lined up with their identification. The elderly were vaccinated, even though it would not protect them if they were infected by the virus from Wuhan.
Vaccinations continued around the country including rural areas. Wuhan was left until later. The vaccination committee didn’t understand why Wuhan was being left to the end, but when they did arrive in Wuhan to begin work, they were shocked at the extent of the viruses spread, and even more shocked at the number of bodies that were being incinerated.
It was clear that Wuhan had been left until the end, very late considering the fact that the first cases were found there for a reason, but none of the committee talked about it. As was often the case, in their midst would be a lurking Party informant watching them, reporting back anything unusual that any individual did or said.
*
Chapter 37
Last Day at the Lab
Xue Lin appeared to be working diligently when Dr. Wu arrived early at the Institute building. He eyed her suspiciously, surprised to see her there before any of the other lab assistants. It was only 8:15am.
His work in the Biosafety Level IV area had all but come to an end, having already handed over samples of the Yellow Virus, the vaccine and the antidote to the Chairman’s scientists, for secure storage.
All that remained was to box up his paperwork concerning the remaining contents of the biohazard safe: the Yellow Virus, the vaccine and the antidote. Someone from the Government was coming this morning to pick them up and transport all of it to a secure storage facility. By lunchtime, there would be no evidence of any virus development in this lab. The only witnesses were him, Jimmy and the three scientists.
Last night he had made up his mind to destroy the Red Virus, for the good of humanity. He would put it in the incinerator later in the day.
He would now wait for an opportunity to travel to America, perhaps to retrieve his daughter’s body and belongings, or if that never eventuated, he would remain in China and accept his fate, whatever that would turn out to be. His sadness was getting on top of him today. He hadn’t slept enough, and was drinking too much in the evenings. He had never felt so alone.
Dr. Wu passed by Xue Lin’s cubicle, and he greeted her informally standing behind her while placing a hand on her shoulder. She swiveled into him slowly, without pulling him off balance, and looked up at him with a coy smile.
“Good morning Doctor Wu! How are you feeling today?” she asked him, seeing the sadness in his eyes.
“I am fine, Xue Lin. Your smiling face always gives me hope for a better world.”
Xue Lin asked him for help, drawing his attention to her computer where there was an administrative botch-up that she had made before last Friday. He bent over her, even closer than usual. She winced a little at the stale smell of cigarettes and his night’s drinking binge. She used her razor sharp ceramic scissors to snip his lanyard and slide his security pass away from him and into her lab coat pocket. She needed to make dead sure that he remained outside the lab until she had cleaned up the security guards, one of whom had just left his post to go to the break room for his usual morning cup of green tea.
“I’m just going to make a cup of tea. Would you like one?” She asked Dr. Wu as she stood up and offered him her desk chair, so that he could more comfortably work on the administrative bungle that she had made for him.
“Yes, Xue Lin, that would be wonderful, thank you honey” he said as he looked closer at the mess she had made of the files on her computer. As he watched her perfect ass strut away from him toward the break room he thought to himself: “I’m still glad I chose her, even though she was a disastrous lab assistant.”
Xue Lin entered the break room as the guard poured hot water from the urn into a cup that had “World’s #1 Dad” printed on it. He moved out of her way when his cup was full, and said stiffly: “Good morning comrade. You are in very early today.”
Xue Lin poured water into two cups, as she replied: “Good morning comrade. Did you shoot anyone today?”
“Not yet, but it’s very early sti
ll.” The guard smiled a violent smile, thinking that she was the only one in the lab who didn’t seem scared of him, and she was cheeky. She was unperturbed by the machine gun that hung from his sling. It struck him as odd.
Holding the tiny vial with the clear roofie liquid that she had pulled from her lab coat pocket, Xue Lin knocked one of her cups to the floor. It fell smashing to pieces while she reached back emptying the contents of the vial into the guard’s cup. His attention was on the broken cup. She apologized and grabbed a dustpan and broom from under the sink as the guard watched and picked his own tea up and began sipping it. She quickly swept up the mess and then grabbed a mop. Mentally she was keeping time from the first sip the guard took of his tea.
As Xue Lin filled another cup from the urn, the guard finished his tea and left his dirty cup in the sink.
“I’ll see you later comrade” he said to her as he left the break room to return to his post at the Biosafety Level IV security door where his colleague was waiting for him, still on duty.
Xue Lin quickly set a countdown timer on her phone to tell her very roughly when the guard should be about to keel over at his post. She had to be ready to move on the other guard as he had not taken a break. She would have to take him down herself, preferably without the sound of gunfire.
Outside in a van, the Tool Man had just commenced the video loop on the building’s closed circuit TV. Any security personnel watching monitors would now be seeing the same repeated ‘ten minutes’ from when Xue Lin and Dr. Wu were at her cubicle together. If they paid attention, they might think it was strange that Dr. Wu was at her cubicle for so long, but besides that, everything would appear normal, unless of course, the other staff started to arrive at work, which would be soon.
Xue Lin returned to her cubicle where Dr. Wu had just stood up, having remedied her faulty work.
“Here’s your tea sir.” She smiled sweetly at him as she stood close, looking him directly in the face, holding his attention as she asked him: “Do you wanna go outside with me and smoke?”
The Wuhan Mission Page 13