Sunshine or Lead

by Adam Van Susteren

Chapter 23

  Manny and Nat stood before Aaron Baker, who was passed out cold and oblivious to the world. Manny whispered to Nat, “Hand me the phone. Let’s tap mute so the leaders of the two most powerful countries on the planet don’t hear us try to wake Aaron up from a drunken stupor.”

  She handed him the phone and whispered, “Good idea.”

  With the phone muted and a conversation going between the President of the United States and the President of the People’s Republic of China, Nat gently shook Aaron’s shoulder and called his name for him to wake up.

  Aaron turned away from the nudging and groaned. Manny took a turn for a few seconds and Aaron curled up further into the chair and away from the nudging. Manny backed off to let Nat try again. Then he held the phone up to his ear. He was hearing a private conversation between the Commanders in Chief of the two largest militaries on the planet arguing about what to do over him and his plane.

  Manny heard President Shortree ask, “So how do you know that these American civilians and one off-duty government agent tried to sneak two Chinese citizens out of your country?”

  There was a pause in the communications, likely a Chinese intercom being muted so the Chinese Situation Room could discuss the situation. Pauses like these were quite common, especially after a tough question was asked that needed an answer from an underling.

  “Because we placed a listening device in the room of Chen and Huifang Gong. We were apprised of a suspicious circumstance and attempted to prevent a fraud being perpetrated against them.”

  With the United States’ mute button clicked, the President asked, “Who are they?”

  An aid responded, “Parents to the client of Aaron Baker, Xiaowan.”

  With the intercom on, the President asked, “Why exactly did you record Xiaowan’s parents? Wait, never mind for now. Our jets are fifteen minutes away from potential engagement, Premier Mao. Do you want to stand down and have our State Departments meet and confer about this dispute?”

  After a ten second pause, the Premier answered, “What dispute? You sent people onto the Chinese mainland to kidnap our citizens. That is a crime, those people must be returned to be held accountable for their actions. We are a sovereign nation. Do you not respect our ability to create and enforce our own laws?”

  Without conferring, the President said after reviewing a one-page memo, “Of course we do. But let’s not play games here. We know there is a program, started forty years ago, to send Chinese citizens to foreign companies and governments around the world to steal trade secrets.” The memo that was handed to him by Aurora’s boss. Despite the understanding with Aaron that this was a completely off-book operation, Aurora sent a confidential memo about the missions to her boss in case something like this happened.

  Without conferring, Mao said, “That is an outlandish claim. Do you have any evidence to support it? Would you risk throwing the world into chaos with a threat to disclose the existence of an unsubstantiated espionage program?”

  The President immediately responded based on the brief memo in his hands. “Would you risk a war over keeping the program a secret? We are ten minutes away from what could be a military conflict, over what potentially? A child trying to bring her parents to visit her because she was supposed to be a Chinese spy and chose to be loyal to the United States over China?”

  Manny couldn’t believe his ears. He never understood the importance of getting Xiaowan’s parents to leave. Now he did, because a Chinese spy program was discovered by the United States and the program might go public.

  After a meet and confer pause, Mao said, “Do not sit there so high and mighty. You have just survived a huge scandal where your government cannot be trusted with its own money. We own trillions of dollars of your debt and could do more damage to your administration, in one demand of repayment, than Helen Cluntz and her team have caused. And do not think our fighter pilots are afraid of yours. We would win this firefight and could take out your installations in Okinawa before you can get a Big Mac from McDonald's.”

  President Shortree didn’t like being pushed around and responded immediately. “I could get on Air Force One right now, accompanied by an escort of a thousand fighters, land in Beijing in twelve hours, and order a Big Mac on…” he whispered to an aide, and after hearing the answer he finished, “any one of a thousand streets.”

  Mao laughed. “You know the largest McDonald’s ever built was in Beijing? You know it is demolished? Nothing lasts forever.”

  An aide held the mute button down and said to the President, “Approximately eight minutes until intercept.”

  “President Mao, our countries are the biggest economies in the world. The trade we do with each other benefits us both greatly. If and when this spy program comes out, it will be devastating to international trade and both of our economies. We can produce enough food, oil, and everything else to sustain us in the event of global trade problems. I can’t say the same about China.”

  “Your manufacturing plants are here in China. Who will build your cell phones and everything else? We have the skilled manufacturing labor. Without us, your country is set back twenty years. Maybe it is time to show the world what we showed in the Olympics. China is the most powerful country in the world.”

  The President said, “Between our countries, we have 1.5 billion people. Do you want to put them all at risk over this airplane that does not contain any Chinese citizens and is already out of Chinese airspace?”

  “Do you risk the same, for some allegation that nine people are making up that there is a global spy program, which you have no evidence of?”

  “President Mao, there are a few things I have learned in office. One, you can’t suppress the truth forever. Two, the truth should never be suppressed. Combine those and sunshine is the best disinfectant for past wrong deeds. The third thing I have learned is that the United States has the resolve to maintain any war, even if there is no way to win the war, as you see in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

  “You have learned very much, but I do not believe you have learned your lesson. China is not to be trifled with.”

  “The last thing in the world I, or the United States, want to do is upset our relationship with China. But we must stand by what we feel is right. If there is an altercation in the next few minutes, the entire world will know about it and why.”

  After a few seconds’ pause, Mao continued, “So if our fighters engage, the world will hear your allegations about the alleged program but, if they stand down, you will keep it confidential?”

  President Shortree responded, “Yes, at least until we get a handle on it. Our State Departments can sort out details and make a deal.”

  Both sides had their mute buttons pressed. An aide shouted to the president, “The two F-16s have the civilian craft and two Chinese fighters on radar, they can engage in two minutes. They are requesting permission to engage them as hostile.”

  The President said, “Denied, do not fire unless fired upon. Open the line back up. President Mao, it looks like we are out of time. Here is the question for you: Are we going to have sunshine or lead?”

  After what seemed like the longest twenty seconds in the history of time, an aide to the President pressed mute again and said, “Chinese fighters have changed course and are headed back west towards mainland China.” The eight people in the Situation Room let out a singular sigh of relief. A few hands clapped until the President raised his hand and made a horizontal slicing motion.

  The PRC President said, “President Shortree, you would agree that some things are better left private. Let us have our State Departments discuss your allegations and review any evidence that substantiates these allegations. At that point we can agree on what deserves, as you say, sunshine, and what unsubstantiated claims should remain in the dark.”

  “President Mao, I think that is an excellent idea. I suggest we have our State Departments meet here in Washington D.C on Monday. And then if you would like to be my guest here in our capital, or
anywhere else in the United States, I would be happy to meet with you next week. Or I would be happy to go to China.”

  President Mao responded, “I will have my staff contact yours to arrange meetings tomorrow in Washington D.C. and Beijing. I do not believe anything will come out of these meetings, but would still like to meet with you to discuss trade and the solvency of trillions of dollars’ worth of U.S. bonds owned by China.”

  “I will clear my schedule to meet with you, just let me know where and when you wish to meet.”

  “Your talk of sunshine makes me think of Hawaii.”

  “We can make that happen. Our staff can arrange the time and travel location,” the President said looking around the room that was still without his senior leadership and advisors.

  “Okay President Shortree,” President Mao said. And with the final bit of a power play, he terminated the phone call without formal salutations.

  The President barked, “Who has a briefing on this goddamn spy program? What the fuck is going on?”

  One of the shorter men in the room, representing the National Security Agency, stood up. “Justin Chernick, NSA. We have very little hard evidence linking any spy program to the Chinese. It has been nothing but an unsubstantiated theory following the Congressional Cox Report.”

  The President asked, “Cox Report[2]?”

  “Yes, Mr. President. In 1998, Congress appointed a committee chaired by Representative Christopher Cox to investigate the nuclear warhead secrets that the Chinese obtained from the United States. Two companies, Loral Space & Communications and Hughes Electronics Corporation, were fined more than ten million dollars each as a result of the security lapse. To this date, the Chinese insist they developed the secrets on their own.”

  “Anything since?”

  “Yes, just a few days ago the Justice Department charged Sinovel[3], a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, with stealing trade secrets from American Superconductor Corp. The Canadian telecom company Nortel[4], which went out of business, accused the Chinese of stealing their proprietary information. The House also had a committee investigate a couple of Chinese telecom companies that were stealing secrets[5]; those names escape me right now.”

  The President shook his head and said, “I need to learn more about this.” He looked at Justin. “You seem to know a lot about this for NSA.”

  Feeling put on the spot, Justin said, “Sir, I was in charge of listening in on communications from suspected intelligence thieves, including Chinese Americans and those here on student or work visas over the past five years.”

  The President asked, “Did you find anything? Is there a rampant spy program?”

  “Honestly, Mr. President, all of the terrorists and criminals know about the surveillance of cell conversations so they don’t use phones that we can tap into. We have listened in on millions of hours of recordings and ran filtering programs to try to find information, but we simply don’t have the man-hours to listen in on the conversations of all the people we suspect could possibly do something wrong.”

  “Nor should we,” the President said with remorse at the rampant spying his administration had been engaged in. And that activity has not even left him any confirmation of whether there is an active Chinese spy program or whether none exists. “I sure as shit hope Aaron Baker has something to report on this.”

  With that name being repeated, Justin’s eyes widened. Justin Chernick had come to know Aaron Baker from afar. Being one of the best and brightest, Justin was charged by the NSA to tap into Aaron Baker and Tina Lee’s phones last month at the behest of the NSA Chief, as requested by Helen Cluntz. Justin had kept in touch with Aaron Baker, providing little tips on how to secure communications. Aaron Baker, with distant affection, referred to him as Ozzy, short for Ozymandias.

  President Shortree looked around the room and asked, “Do we still have the airplane with the agent and Aaron Baker on the line?”

  “Yes, Mr. President,” was called out.

  “Put them on speaker please.”

  A voice said into the phone being held by Manny, “You are live with the President.”

  Manny said, “President Shortree, Manny Gaglione here with agent Nat Rosetti. Aaron Baker isn’t able to take your call.”

  A disturbed Barrett Shortree asked, “Why the hell not?”

  “Agent Rosetti can’t seem to wake him long enough for him to take a call. He had been up for twenty-four hours straight, with the last twelve drinking alcohol as part of his cover of being on a bachelor party.”

  “So you mean to tell me Aaron Baker is passed out drunk? And he might have information that I need to negotiate with the Chinese government about a spying program?”

  “Yes, Mr. President.”

  “Put Agent Rosetti on the line.”

  “This is Nat Rosetti, on a line that is supposedly secure but not confirmed.”

  That gave the President pause for a moment. “Agent, you and Aaron Baker need to come to Washington immediately for debriefing.”

  “Yes Mr. President.” She held her breath for half a second. “Mr. President?”

  “Yes.”

  “Agent Aurora Wulfers is on assignment related to this issue.”

  The President barked to the room. “Get me FBI Director Michael Schwartz.”

  “And tell the kitchen to serve coffee and pastries in the Cabinet Room at midnight. Make sure my Chief of Staff, the NSA Director, FBI Director, CIA Director, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs are there. And get the Commander of the Pacific Fleet on the line right now.”

  The President started making a list of the people he just named and thought about others he wanted at the meeting. He noted down Nat Rosetti’s direct supervisor when his train of thought was interrupted with an announcement. “Admiral Speziale is on the line.”

  The President said, “Admiral, I’m not sure what you’ve heard about the recent dustup with China, but as an extreme precautionary measure, start monitoring things more closely. Especially in Hawaii. I was speaking with the President of the PRC and he made mention of meeting in Hawaii. If that was a threat, we don’t want to be caught with our pants down.”

  “Yes Mr. President.”

  “Admiral…”

  “Yes?”

  “Keep this as quiet as you can. It is just a precautionary measure and I don’t want to incite a panic over what is probably nothing. We’ll be getting debriefed from the military installation at Okinawa shortly.”

  “I’ve already been apprised and have called the westernmost part of our fleet to increased readiness to support a defensive position.”

  “Excellent. Last thing in the world we want is a war with China, but we have to be prepared.”

  “Agreed, Mr. President. I’m here at your service and to provide any support or insight that I can.”

  “Expect a conference call after midnight Eastern Time. Thanks, and goodbye.”

  “Bye Mr. President,” Admiral Speziale said before calling in her own top brass. The chain of command can be an extremely efficient machine when working properly from the top down. It’s not always the case when getting clearance from the bottom up. Admiral Speziale wondered who fucked up what to brew this shitstorm.

  Chapter 24

  A text message woke up Aurora and Xiaowan just after five am. It was from a CIA agent that had been charged with following Zhou. He reported that Zhou was in a taxi with a suitcase, destination unknown and unable to be followed.

  Less than a minute later, Aurora’s secure pager received a second message, “Time to return to Washington D.C. with Xiaowan immediately.” Aurora relayed the news to Xiaowan, who in turn asked, “What happened?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you think Zhou is headed for the airport or to the Ameriprobe campus?”

  “I don’t know. If I had to guess, the airport, and that he received a similar message to mine. But that’s just a guess.”

  Xiaowan looked defeated and the two sat in
silence for nearly a minute until Xiaowan broke the silence. “I want to go see what information there is about the influenza cure. Maybe something will help us.”

  “We’re supposed to go straight back to D.C.”

  “I know, but there is just too much we don’t know. What if we find something that leads to an understanding of the program?

  Aurora thought for a second. “Make me a deal. We drive around, and if it seems like we’re being watched, we don’t go in. After that, we head straight for the airport.”

  “Deal.”

  Aurora called the fake taxi service again to wake up the agents tasked with helping her. “Xiaowan, what time does the campus open?”

  “It never closes.”

  Aurora made arrangements with the man on the phone to be picked up in fifteen minutes. The agent was to bring a telephoto lens. The other agent was to stand by and watch over Tina and Jessica.

  At five thirty on this Sunday morning, La Rambla was finally quiet. Only the hardiest of dalliance seekers remained walking along the center island. Aurora and Xiaowan were dressed in gym clothes and standing outside the hotel.

  A taxi driver signaled to them from just thirty feet to the south of the hotel. They walked over and the driver asked in accented English, “Where to go?”

  Aurora said, “I’m sorry, but we already have plans to go with another taxi.”

  Visibly annoyed, the taxi driver cursed them under his breath in Spanish as he drove off down the road. Aurora pulled out her cell phone and snapped a picture of the back of the car as it drove away. She checked the picture and could read the license plate.

  Aurora looked up and down La Rambla. There was a group of three men all wearing shorts, button-down shirts, and flip-flop sandals. They appeared drunk and each had a beverage in his hand. She saw a man and woman holding hands, with the woman carrying a clutch and the man carrying her high-heel shoes. There was a man sweeping up the streets. She didn’t notice anyone sitting in cars. She started scanning through hotel windows that might afford a good vantage point and asked Xiaowan, “Anything look out of place to you?”