by Andrew Watts
She felt sick. The look on his face—it was as if he felt nothing at asking her this. What kind of man could ask this? She threw out the thought as quickly as it entered her mind. He had given her a second chance in life. Her family was proud of her for serving her country. She would never see them again, but she had retained her honor.
He continued, “Make it look like an accident. This will ensure that you aren’t questioned. Play the part of the devastated girlfriend. You will graduate from college in a few months. Begin to cut ties with any other friends you had while here. We’ll set you up with your next job. I have big things planned, Lena. And I want you to be a part of those plans.”
She thought of last night. Of skin on skin. Of the way he had made her feel. But it wasn’t who she was. She must remember that. Love and lust were fleeting. Duty and honor were immortal. She breathed in deeply, and then let out a slow release of air through her nose. Lena forced all of her emotion out of her body.
She looked back at the man sitting across from her. His single-breasted suit was exquisite. Gold cufflinks and an expensive watch. He spent much of his time in boardrooms and private jets, and looked the part. Jinshan was not here on business, however. Just how he became connected to the clandestine operations arm of her nation’s government was still a mystery to her. But she knew that he held a position of great authority within it. She also knew of his loyalty to those he took under his wing…and of his reputation for being brutal to those that crossed him.
This wasn’t a choice. It was a hurdle. Like so many she had jumped. Lena looked to ensure the barkeep was out of earshot and whispered, “Of course, sir. I will do this without hesitation. I will prove to you my loyalty to my country. My loyalty to China.”
The next morning, a bleary-eyed and nervous David walked into the classroom. He arrived ten minutes before the first session was supposed to begin. Lena stood up on her usual perch, at the top level of stadium seating. He tried not to look at her. He was positive she was looking at him.
In the front of the class, Natesh divided the group into teams as they entered. Each team was assigned a leader, and each leader received a single sheet of paper with instructions for the session. Natesh was going on about how the smaller teams would put out better work faster. Now that they were starting their second full day of work on the island, Natesh was driving them to move quicker and more efficiently. David’s team was to focus on disrupting communications.
Before they broke up, Lena announced to the room, “I need to say something. Just so all of you are aware, Bill Stanley has been removed.”
David thought that was an interesting way to put it.
Natesh asked, “What do you mean?”
Lena said, “Apparently, his wife is very sick. Last night he came to me after our meeting. He asked to be removed from the sessions and returned home. We reiterated the importance of secrecy and flew him off the island immediately.” She looked at David as she spoke. Like she was trying to observe any reaction he might have. He didn’t blink.
On the inside, however, he wanted to scream out to everyone that she was lying. At least, he thought she was. But he couldn’t prove it. And yelling out that he had seen Bill being dragged unconscious into a suspicious-looking helicopter might not be his best move. Not if he wanted to see his wife and family again.
Norman Shepherd spoke first. He was a burly former Marine from Long Island. David thought he had said that he worked for Maersk Line now.
Norman said, “So you just flew him off? Just like that? Man, tonight I’m gonna come say I need a trip to Vegas. Think that would be all right? I knew I heard a helo flying nearby last night. Friggin’ thing sounded like it was right outside my window.”
Natesh said, “Alright, thanks, Lena. Glad that Bill is taken care of.”
Lena nodded and said, “Me too. And please, if anyone else has any personal situations that need attending to, please don’t hesitate to bring them to my attention.”
Natesh said, “Okay, everyone, please go to your assigned team rooms. We’ll meet back here after lunch. Remember, if you need Major Combs or me to look up anything for you today, write it down and give it to me before you break for lunch at eleven thirty. We’ll get it back to you by the afternoon.”
The class rose and funneled out the door into separate meeting rooms. David followed.
He couldn’t believe that everyone just accepted Bill’s departure. But then again, why wouldn’t they? David had been kidnapped from outside his home and taken to this island only semi-voluntarily. The others came of their own volition. They would naturally be less suspicious. Lena had done nothing that would cause anyone to take her at less than face value. If anything, she had positioned herself as the helpful caretaker, able to solve any and all of their problems. She would get you towels for your rooms, organize the American defense for World War Three, and whisk you off the island at a moment’s notice if you asked nicely. The problem was, you might be unconscious or dead when you were whisked. But she was attractive and charismatic and had established credibility. She dished out this lie so effortlessly, and her audience eagerly scarfed it up. David wondered: if she was lying about Bill, what else was a lie?
He needed to keep on his mask. Whether Lena suspected him or not, he couldn’t let his guard down around her.
He now questioned the entire premise for gathering the Red Cell on this island. David had been working out the two most likely scenarios in his head. One, Lena was CIA, just like she said. It was possible that she had rendered Bill unconscious because secrecy was just that important. An extreme measure, no doubt. Not unlike kidnapping someone outside their home and throwing them in a car trunk. While David worried about his well-being in this case, he felt confident that he would likely still be transported back to the States when this was all over.
Hell, if it was just about secrecy, maybe Bill really was home with his wife right now. Maybe Lena had given him a tranquilizer that he had taken voluntarily. He ran it through his head. Okay, Bill. You can go see your wife, but we need to put you under until you get there. We don’t want you to see anyone or anything. Security, you understand. David had been kidnapped and thrown in a car trunk due to secrecy. That could be what happened to Bill. This was the best-case scenario.
But an unlikely one. It was the helicopter that bothered him. That helo didn’t look like any US Navy helicopter he had ever seen, even in the dim light.
The second scenario was what really concerned David. In this scenario, one unsettling question led to another. What if Lena wasn’t CIA? What if she wasn’t American? Then some foreign entity, likely China itself, was using the members of the Red Cell to gather classified information.
Why would any government take a risk like that? Was there really a countdown until China shut off all US satellites? Was there really an invasion plan? If the answer was yes, perhaps that was a big enough reason to justify kidnapping so many Americans from their soil.
What were Lena and crew going to do with David and the consultants when they were done with them? What would they do to them if they found out this was all staged? David couldn’t conceive of a way that any of the consultants would get home safely in this situation. Any intelligence organization that would do this would want to hide it—permanently. Whether that meant killing them or keeping them prisoner likely had to do with their future utility.
Lena was definitely involved in whatever was really going on. But who else knew? David needed to figure out how deep this went. And while he did that, he needed to pretend that everything was just fine. Until he knew who the good guys were, it was too risky to look suspicious.
David walked out of the classroom, careful not to look up at Lena. But he just knew that she was looking right at him.
He walked down the hallway. Cheap tile floors and concrete walls. Fluorescent lights. It reminded David of an old elementary school. Everything was simple, functional, and clean. He walked to the third door on the left. Inside was a small meeting
room where Natesh sat at the lone white plastic table.
Natesh smiled and said, “Hello, David.”
“Morning.” He nodded back. Even common courtesies felt forced after what he had seen last night. David gritted his teeth and sat down. It took everything he had in him to hold it together.
Three others entered the room. Brooke, the woman who worked at the NSA. Henry Glickstein, the telecom expert who rarely stopped joking around. David had met those two on the plane ride to the island. A young woman that David hadn’t met walked in behind them. The woman had short blond hair that was dark at the roots. She looked intense and proud. Like someone who ran the rat race each day and tried to win.
She put out her hand to David and Natesh, saying, “Hello, guys, my name is Tess McDonald.”
They exchanged greetings.
Natesh asked, “And what do you do for a living, Tess?”
“I’m a consultant. I work out of Boston.”
Henry said, “Isn’t everyone a consultant nowadays? I mean, the guy at Blockbuster Video is a consultant. I consulted with him on movie recommendations.”
Tess raised her eyebrows, not sure how to take Henry’s humor. She said, “I’ve done a lot of DOD projects. I specialize in East Asian Affairs—policy and political analysis. And I have worked on a lot of the DOD’s weapons acquisitions programs. I’m pretty familiar with what weapons technology we have and what our capabilities are. If you tell me what you want blown up, I can tell you the right bullet. And I can name most of the members of the Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China. My two specialties seemed to be a good fit for this group. That’s why I’m here, I believe.” Her tone was polite, but all business. Like she was working with a client.
Natesh said, “Excellent. Well, we’re very glad to have you with us, Tess.”
The five group members stared at each other momentarily, then Natesh said, “Okay, let’s get to work. This morning our group is going to get more detailed on how to disrupt the US communications networks. What do we think China would need to do? I agree with yesterday’s hypothesis that taking out electricity would be important. How could we do it?”
The group began offering ideas, just shouting them out.
David didn’t know what to do. He no longer believed in their reason for being here. He wasn’t fully committed. He didn’t want to say anything that could be helpful to a potential enemy nation, if that was a real possibility. After what he had seen last night, he couldn’t speak freely and keep a good conscience. He decided to keep quiet. It turned out to be pretty easy. The others were all talkers.
Henry cleared his throat and said, “Okay, where did we leave off yesterday? I don’t know how you would do it, but I would try to cut the transoceanic fiber-optic cables that connect the United States with the rest of the world. If I were going to lay siege to a house, I’d cut the phone lines. I think the same works for a nation at war.”
Brooke asked, “Could you use some type of depth charge, like in the old war movies?”
Tess said, “Actually, the Navy doesn’t really use depth charges anymore. You had to practically hit the sub with the canister for it to work. During the Cold War the US and the Soviets developed nuclear depth charges. But I’m pretty sure they’ve gotten rid of all of those. It wasn’t the best situation to be in for the attacking force, for obvious reasons.”
Henry raised his eyebrows. “Well, if that’s the best way to get the job done, we should still recommend nuking the cables. I didn’t really want to be the first one to start talking about nukes, but if cutting the Internet and phone lines across the oceans means using nukes, let’s include that as a possible way to do it. Leave everything on the table until we find a better way. Anyone have any other methods?”
Brooke said, “You could get one of those deep submergence vehicles and place explosives on it. It would probably take more time and precision. But then again, you wouldn’t have to worry about setting off a nuclear bomb underneath your boat. I would imagine that most sailors wouldn’t like that, huh?”
Henry said, “I believe those were the obvious reasons Tess mentioned. But, if that’s the best way, let’s look at it.”
Natesh said, “Okay, so we’ve got a submarine laying explosive charges on the cables and/or someone dropping nuclear depth charges. Either way, we recommend destroying the cables, right?”
Henry nodded. “It would be a very effective way to wreck Internet and phone communications that lead into and out of the United States.”
Natesh said, “How many underwater cables are there?”
Henry raised his eyebrows, thinking. He said, “I mean…there are a lot of them. There must be over a dozen locations on both coasts. On the East Coast of the US, the major land entry point locations are near New York and Miami, and in New Jersey. California has a ton of landing zones. A lot of these cables are actually private. Most people think that the Internet is all open. But a lot of the big tech companies and telecoms have cables that just ferry their private data back and forth. It makes it more efficient. All of those cables are spread out far from each other as they cross the ocean floor—diversification.”
“Why?” asked Brooke.
“Safety. That way if there is some catastrophe like an earthquake, the other cables will pick up the load. That makes for a more logistically challenging operation. But eventually, they all end up pretty close to each other when they get to the coast. If you want to ruin as much bandwidth as possible, it would make sense to do it closer to shore where there is less distance to cover by the attacking asset. There would be a smaller area to deploy your explosives to if you did it right off the coast of the US. But then you have to think about the cables that connect Mexico and Canada with the US also. I mean, ideally you would destroy those as well. But even if you don’t, the bandwidth mismatch that you would have created by destroying the submarine cables would crush the flow rate.”
Natesh said, “Okay, that makes sense to me. Let’s just get all this stuff down on our sticky notes, post them up on the board, and we’ll come back to it. Now, what about inside the US? How would you go about disrupting the communication there?”
Henry said, “I’d cut power sources and damage all of the major highway intersections. If you cut the electrical grid in enough places, there will be some real issues. Generators for major buildings would go through their fuel supply pretty quickly.” He got up and went over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room and opened it up. “Anyone want a bottled water?”
A few people nodded and he tossed bottles to them.
“Why would you hit the highways?” asked Tess.
Natesh spoke. “Snail mail?”
Henry said, “Yeah. Snail mail, and even word of mouth. If phones and Internet are taken out, that’s going to have everyone shifting to TV and radio to get their information old-school style, with antennas. I’m not sure most people even still have antennas. But I would imagine that China would also try to target the media centers.”
Natesh said, “Try to remember, for this exercise, we are China. What would you do?”
David didn’t like the sound of that.
Henry said, “Maybe take out phones, TV, and radio with a cyberattack prior to cutting power? That’s how I’d do it. Anyway, people will eventually get their information through word of mouth. If we make traveling long distances hard to do, that will mean that we can control the information better. We could keep parts of the country in the dark longer while we’re invading.”
Tess said, “We should shut down air travel too.”
Brooke said, “Is that communication? Wouldn’t that be more something that the Defense teams should handle? Or…I don’t know…”
Natesh said, “Let’s just keep it as a priority. Just write it down. Any ideas on how you would disrupt air travel?”
Brooke said, “What happened that time in Chicago? The time that they shut down all flights for a few days because air traffic control was burned down and sabotaged
by an employee. Could we shut down air traffic by taking out all of those air traffic control centers?”
Henry thought and said, “Yeah. Yeah, actually that would probably work pretty well. Some aircraft would still be able to fly with their visual flight rules. But most commercial traffic flies on instruments. That means they’ll need those air traffic control centers. That’s a good idea. Although really, if we do two-thirds of these things we’re talking about, the whole country will be in mass chaos anyway. Taking out the satellites and data centers will go a long way, I think. But cutting the hard lines and central hubs like the air traffic control centers—that would seriously inhibit our ability to adapt after the satellites go down. Think everyone in a city driving without any of their GPS or stoplights working. Total gridlock. That’s what we’re talking about.”
David kept getting flashbacks to the night before. He could see Bill being carried along the sandy path to the runway and dumped into a helicopter. The more ideas people came up with on how to disrupt America’s communications, the more David thought that there was no good reason for what he’d seen last night. If Lena wasn’t CIA—if she wasn’t an American—then all this planning was for another country. David was starting to feel ill. He wanted to scream. Instead, he just kept listening to the plans.
Plans.
He didn’t yet have a plan. His father had told David and his siblings a million times as they were growing up that one must always have a plan. After David’s brother Chase had been shot in Afghanistan—it was a graze, but it had still earned him a Purple Heart—his father had amended his advice, comically, to “always have a good plan.” David needed a good plan, and fast. If every group was coming up with plans to invade America like this, David didn’t want to think about what would happen if the plans were actually put into motion.