Invasion

by James Rosone

  Seth knew the job he was performing was essential to the mission and kept him out of harm’s way, but he missed being assigned to a team. The short stint in Kosovo reminded him of how much he liked being in the thick of the action, where it was easy to see that he was making an impact. Now his country had been invaded, and instead of carrying out Special Forces missions against the invaders, he was stuck trying to rapidly train up an internal DHS security force.

  Knock, knock.

  Looking up, Seth saw a face he hadn’t expected to see.

  “Smith. What are you doing down here?” he asked, bewildered.

  “It’s good to see you too,” Smith responded with a mischievous grin. “Mind if we go for a walk?”

  “Um. Yeah…sure,” Seth stammered. He grabbed his beret as they headed out the door.

  Neither of them said a word as they walked through the hallway of the old building on their way to the exit. They ambled past the parade ground where the recruits were doing their morning routine and continued to stroll toward the dock along the lake.

  Finally, Smith turned to look at Seth. “Are you enjoying this training gig your boss set you up with?” he asked.

  Seth snickered. “Mine is not to ask why, but to do or die,” he replied, giving the standard military nonresponse to such a troublesome question.

  “That’s what I thought,” Smith said with a smile. He pointed to a bench on the dock. “Here, let’s take a seat. No one can hear us talk out here, and you don’t exactly have a SCIF at this joint.”

  “You know, we could go for a drive if you’d like,” Seth offered.

  “No. I’d rather talk out here and watch the sunrise. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

  Nodding, Seth didn’t say anything. He just waited for Smith to get to the point of why he was here.

  “Remember when we were in Kosovo, and you interrogated that Chinese national?” Smith asked.

  “Wen Zhenyu. Yeah, I remember him. What about it?”

  “We’ve had him at one of our black sites, and we’ve continued our conversation. Let’s just say he’s provided a bit more information since you last spoke with him.”

  Seth’s left eyebrow rose.

  “As a matter of fact, he’s helped us piece together a few aspects of what’s been going on with this whole UN-led mission and the Chinese invasion. The whole world, and in particular, our country, has been played from the beginning. It’s been very Sun Tzu if you ask me.”

  Seth shook his head. He’d thought from the beginning that there was a larger grand plan involved in orchestrating this charade—he just hadn’t been able to put his finger on who was pulling the strings. While he was managing this training program at Camp Blanding, he’d gotten removed from that world, effectively cut off from the classified side of things.

  “So, how do I fit into all of this?” Seth asked. “You’re clearly here talking to me for a reason.”

  Now it was Smith’s turn to smile. “You always were sharp, Seth. I like that about you. Well, you’re right. I’m not here for a social call, or to inspect your training program—which I will say looks impressive considering how little time you had to throw it together. I’m here because I need you.”

  Seth slumped his shoulders. “Well, you’re talking to the wrong person,” he responded. “General Royal specifically assigned me to this program.”

  Smith waved his hand in the air as if swatting off a fly. “That’s already been taken care of, Seth. You’ve been effectively reassigned back to the Agency.”

  “What?” asked Seth incredulously. “How’d you manage to pull that off?”

  “Once you work for us, Seth, you never really leave. I made the case that we needed you and your specific skill set, and it was signed off on. When we get back to your office, your new orders will be on your desk, and your replacement should be there waiting for us,” Smith explained with a mischievous grin.

  Seth shook his head in disbelief. “Who are you really, and what is your position within the Agency?” he pressed.

  “That’s not important,” Smith said jovially. “What is important is that we uncovered some new information, and I’ve put together a small team to go hunt down the missing pieces. This is important, Seth. The world has been hoodwinked, and it’s up to us to uncover this plot and reveal its true nature to the rest of humanity. Our country’s future depends on us getting this right and doing it sooner rather than later.”

  “OK, Smith,” Seth replied with a nod. “Count me in. Not that I really have a choice, but yes, let’s go hunt these guys down and expose this plot.”

  *******

  Warrenton, Virginia

  Camp Perry

  Seth entered the dormitory and summarily plopped his hockey bag down on the bed. He walked over to the closet and opened it up. There were about a dozen wooden hangers in there, along with an ironing board and iron. Looking at his watch, he saw he had about forty minutes before he was needed in the briefing room. Unzipping his bag, he went to work on getting his clothes and few personal items he’d brought unpacked. Seth wasn’t sure how long he’d be here, but he didn’t like living out of a suitcase or duffel bag if he didn’t have to.

  Midway through, he pulled his picture frame out and sighed as he looked at his most recent family photo, a picture of all of them at Disney. It was hard to comprehend that this memory was from four short months ago—it felt like a lifetime had happened since then.

  It angered Seth to know that his country was being torn apart by some outside force. As a husband, father, and soldier, he felt powerless to stop it. When Smith had shown up in Florida the other day, he’d had a twinge of hope that he might just have a shot at going after the people or group that had started this whole thing.

  Thirty minutes later, Seth made his way down the hallway to the briefing room where he’d been told to meet his new team. As he reached the entrance, he stopped and took a deep breath. Then he pulled the door open and walked in.

  Seth smiled when he saw Brigadier General William Lancaster from JSOC, who was now sporting a second star. Sitting next to him was Lieutenant Colonel Patrick “Paddy” Maine. Seth knew he was a squadron commander at Delta—he’d been with them in Kosovo. Both men returned the smile, obviously glad that Seth was joining them on this new team.

  Seth walked up to Lancaster with his hand extended. “Congrats, sir, on the second star. I hadn’t heard you were promoted.”

  Standing, Lancaster shook his hand. “Thanks, Seth. I owe it in large part to your cracking Wen back in Kosovo. It’s good to have you on the team with us. I have a feeling we’re going to need your area of expertise again soon.”

  Paddy also stood up and shook Seth’s hand. “It’s good to have you with us, Mitchell.”

  Just then, a handful of scruffy-looking men wearing 5.11 clothes walked in and took a seat near Paddy. They nodded at Seth but mostly kept to themselves.

  More people started filtering into the room, some wearing military uniforms, others wearing civilian attire. A few minutes went by, and eventually, the room filled. The crowd was nearly split between those in the military and those who weren’t. Clearly, whatever was in the works was going to require both skill sets.

  A woman in a business suit walked in and made her way to the front of the room. She cleared her throat to get their attention. “Good morning, everyone. I’m going to pass out a sign-in roster that I need everyone to sign. Use your legal name and social security number. Next, I’m going to have each of you sign a document reading you on to the Special Access Program you’re now a part of. This is non-optional. You either sign, or you will be reassigned immediately. When everyone has completed this, I’ll collect the papers and signatures, and we’ll begin.”

  She walked up and down each of the rows, handing everyone the appropriate paperwork. The legalese on the document was mostly benign, except for the line stating, “I understand that if I talk about this program or my participation in this program, I will be tried for treason.�
� Seth almost laughed at that, but when he thought back to what Smith had told him, he realized the secrecy involved and the importance of the program—they were serious. He swallowed and signed, feeling a bit more somber.

  After a moment, the woman in the business suit came around and collected everyone’s signed papers. Then she placed them all in a folder and left the room.

  Next, FBI Director Nolan Polanski walked in. He was quickly followed by Tony Wildes, the Deputy Director of the NSA, and Marcus Ryerson, the Director of the CIA. Then, to their collective surprise, President Jonathan Sachs came through the door, flanked by a handful of heavily armed men kitted out in combat gear and weapons.

  Everyone jumped to their feet when the President entered the room. The military men moved to the position of attention until told otherwise. Whatever they were about to be a part of was extremely important if the leaders of the nation had come here to talk with them personally.

  Not missing a beat, the President walked to the front of the room. He surveyed the men and women gathered there before he announced, “I won’t take up a lot of your time. Director Polanski and Ryerson will brief you on the details of why you’re here and what you’ll be doing. I’m here because I first want to thank you for volunteering for this mission. Second, I want to instill upon you the importance of what you’re about to embark upon.

  “Our nation has been attacked and invaded. A small group of people has put into motion a series of events designed to destroy our nation and supplant America as a world power—we can’t allow that to happen. Each of you has been chosen because you have a specific skill set needed to accomplish this mission. I want each of you to know that you have my backing to do whatever is necessary to accomplish this mission. You will be given every available resource you need, and every effort will be made to assist you in completing the tasks ahead of you. I don’t want to say you guys have a blank check to do whatever you want, but the leash has been taken off, so to speak. With that, I’m going to leave and let these gentlemen get you guys up to speed on what’s transpired these past few weeks.”

  The President then turned and left the room with his bodyguards in tow. All eyes then turned to the remaining national leaders in front of them.

  The FBI man spoke next. “I’m Director Polanski of the FBI, for those of you who don’t know who I am. I’ve tasked Assistant Deputy Director Ashley Bonhauf to be the FBI liaison officer for this task force. She’s a career FBI agent with fifteen years of experience working both in our counterintelligence and cybersecurity departments. Ashley brings a wealth of experience and is one of the key individuals who uncovered the postal worker scheme to rig the election.

  “As an FBI agent, she will also provide your task force with the legal oversight and authority to operate within the US. This is critically important as we look to build a legal case against those who’ve orchestrated this grand scheme to take down our government. Ashley has the complete backing of the FBI and a direct line to me personally for any help or assistance your task force may need.”

  Ashley stood and waved to identify herself to the group.

  Polanski continued. “During the operation in Kosovo, JSOC apprehended a Chinese national by the name of Wen Zhenyu. Many of you have no idea who he is, but thanks to some unique interrogation techniques, we learned that he was a deep-cover agent for the Ministry of State Security. Since his initial interrogation in Kosovo, he’s disclosed some new information that led us to discover that this entire UN-led peacekeeping mission, the rigging of our election, and the killing of our Supreme Court justices were all planned out many years ago.”

  Several people in the room shared nervous glances. A few others gasped at the allegation, and a few more cursed quietly.

  Deputy Director Wildes from the NSA jumped in. “Once we knew when and where to look based on the intelligence Wen provided, we uncovered some information that painted a bigger picture for us of what’s going on and who all is involved.

  “If you’ll remember back a few years ago, Google announced a major cyber breach. They learned that the account logins and passwords to every Gmail account had somehow been compromised. Once the FBI and FireEye got involved in the forensic analysis of what had happened, we eventually traced it back to ATP10. It was initially believed the Kosova Hacker’s Security group or KHS was the group responsible; however, when we peeled away the onion, it became clear they were just the patsy to the real culprits. ATP10 is an elite Chinese cyber-hacking unit. They go by the name Unit 61398, and they’re essentially the Delta Force of cyber-hackers.

  “This group is probably responsible for the bulk of China’s cyber-espionage efforts globally. More importantly, Wen Zhenyu has admitted to not just being a member of this unit, but he was one of its senior commanders and deep undercover assets in Europe. He’s the reason why the EU and nearby countries gave us so much grief while we were in Kosovo and why parts of the Serbian government got involved in protecting the Islamic State in Serbia. They were being coerced by the Chinese government to impede our efforts in the region. They wanted to keep us from uncovering the true nature of the terrorist attacks happening in our country prior to the election and put pressure on us to release Wen back to their custody.

  “We obviously needed to hang on to Wen and continue to debrief him. However, we couldn’t continue to hold him in Kosovo, and we couldn’t move him out of the country—not with the Chinese using their economic and political power against Kosovo and the surrounding countries. So, we reluctantly agreed to hand him over.”

  Seth heard a few grumbles in the room. “General Lancaster here,” Wildes said, pointing to the general from JSOC, “came up with a clever way for us to make the Chinese believe Wen had been killed so we wouldn’t have to lose him as an intelligence source. Using something called Deepfake technology, we developed a computer program that pieced together some very convincing CCTV footage of Wen that would pass a forensic analysis test. We made it appear like Wen had attacked and killed several of his guards, then acquired their weapons and broken himself out of Camp Bondsteel.

  “We knew the Chinese were watching the base like a hawk with their satellites and probably human sources nearby, so we needed to make this look convincing from all vantage points. When Wen would have supposedly found his way out of the building, we used a body double and had him make his way over to a US government-plated SUV, get in and drive off the base. Through some further trickery, when the vehicle had driven about three miles away from Camp Bondsteel, we had it get blown up by an IED.

  “The subsequent ‘investigation’ into the blast, which we made sure was leaked, revealed that the IED had been placed by Luan Rexhepi’s group, Islamic State in Kosovo. Supposedly, the ISK blew up the US government vehicle in retaliation for the US’s attack on their training camps and the capture of their leader.

  “We weren’t sure the PLA would buy it, but we made sure the CCTV video and report of what had happened was compromised and able to fall into their hands. Our hope was once they pieced the information together, they’d believe Wen was killed and no longer a loose end or asset they had to recover. Thus far, that cover story has held up, and it appears they have written Wen Zhenyu off as a casualty of this new war.”

  Director Ryerson from the CIA jumped into the conversation. “Once Wen had been assured his government no longer believed he was alive, he told us what they were really after. While all of you know about the public Gmail attack, what you don’t know is that was just the face of it. It was the PLA’s cover for what they were really after—the White House secured email system.”

  Now everyone leaned forward in their chairs, eager to know what all of this was about.

  “Unit 61398 had been tasked with obtaining the secret communications between the President, the Secretary of Commerce, Treasury, and the President’s key trade advisors, discussing a series of tough sanctions and trade regulations that were going to be aimed at reining in China. Armed with this information, the Chinese leaders had ha
d an inside track on every move our government made economically. They also used that information to help foment a conspiracy between some other powerful individuals and groups to insert their Manchurian candidate into the 2020 race.

  “What your task force is now being assigned to find out is who all is part of this conspiracy. Right now, the only person we know is involved for sure is Peng An. He’s the CEO of the China Investment Corporation, which essentially runs China’s sovereign wealth fund. He’s also a close friend of President Chen. We need to find out who his co-conspirators are.”

  “Now that you guys know what’s at stake, and what your overall mission is, I’m going to hand you over to Major General Lancaster, who’s going to be your task force commander. He has the full support of our agencies and the President.” Ryerson signaled for the general to come forward, then he and Wildes left the room—their part in all of this was done.

  All eyes turned to the general from JSOC. It was suddenly apparent to Seth how he’d ended up in this room, since Lancaster was apparently in charge.

  “Ryerson and Wildes are right,” said Lancaster. “We don’t have a lot of time to uncover who all is involved in this conspiracy. The world is steadily uniting against us, and at some point, these powers are going to be more than even our great military can overcome. We have to defuse the situation, and we have to show the world they’ve been deceived. That means we need to track down everyone involved in this. Right now, we have one name—Peng An. We need to figure out how we can capture him so we can debrief him on what he knows. That, or we need to find another link that can provide us with the other conspirators.”

  Lancaster took a step back, softening his demeanor. “Prior to us digging into this, I’d like us to take a few minutes to go around the room. Briefly tell us who you are, what agency or group you work for, and what your area of expertise is.”

  The next hour was spent getting to know everyone. The group quickly learned that the people in the room all brought a unique set of experiences and skills—a broad spectrum of expertise that would be needed to track a global adversary. They had a financial crimes expert from the IRS, a cyber-hacker working for the NSA, and a plethora of military and counterintelligence operators.