Sunshine or Lead

by Adam Van Susteren

  Xiaowan scanned the surroundings. “No.”

  “I don’t know as much about Barcelona as I should, but it strikes me as odd that there would be a man sweeping at five thirty. I could see a mechanical street sweeper or possibly a crew emptying garbage, but all the restaurants are broken down. He could be a government worker.”

  “I guess that could seem out of place. He looks Spanish. Or European of some sort.”

  “I think so too. Certainly not Chinese, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t hired.”

  “What about the couple or the three men?”

  “They seem to fit in. But that’s also what good agents do.”

  And on cue, at around two hundred feet away, one of the twenty year old drunks noticed the girls’ gym outfits and yelled, “Hey, quieren correr, vamos con nos,” then started jogging with greatly exaggerated arm swings and high legs.

  Aurora shook her head. “No, gracias.”

  One of the other two said, “Porque no? Tenemos carbs,” as he started chugging his beer. His jogging friend and the third started cheering him on. He finished the can and threw it as high into the air as he could. When the can reached the apex, at thirty feet or so, he leaned over and started vomiting.

  Aurora said to Xiaowan, “If those are agents, they have great cover,” and the two giggled for the first time that morning. The can came down about ten feet from the man and his pile of vomit.

  The couple that was approaching moved to the other side of La Rambla; they watched the scene with interest and disgust, but moved on. Aurora noted their reaction as well as that of the sweeper. He wasn’t upset nor did he show any exasperation. Either he was used to it at this time of day or he had no intention of cleaning it up because he wasn’t actually there to clean.

  When the puke machine finished, he took off his shirt to wipe his face and started jogging in the same exaggerated fashion as his friend had previously. The three young men laughed and all jogged away from the mess they left, thinking this was the cap to their hilarious and legendary Saturday night exploits.

  A taxi pulled up and Aurora asked the driver, “Are you for hire?”

  “Headed to Ameriprobe?”

  Aurora got in the back seat of the taxi with Xiaowan and said to her, “Watch the janitor, see if he makes a phone call,” before she spoke with the taxi driver and was handed the camera with the giant zoom lens.

  Xiaowan said, “He’s making a call,” as Aurora nearly hit her in the face with the lens while positioning the camera at the janitor through the rear window and snapping several pictures.

  Aurora asked the driver, “We don’t have ears, do we?”

  He shook his head. “We aren’t set up for that.”

  Aurora pulled out her phone and read off the license plate number of the taxi that had driven off earlier. She added, “At this time of day, let’s keep an eye out for anyone that follows us. We need to get pictures and identities, if possible.”

  “Understood,” the driver said as he kept an eye on all mirrors, entered the highway, and drove ten kilometers under the speed limit. Any car that didn’t pass them would be incredibly suspicious and Aurora would try to capture their picture in the approaching dawn.

  The three kept their eyes on every car and scanned the roadway repeatedly. A few cars passed them, none bearing the license plate of the taxi that Aurora took a picture of outside the Hotel Montecarlo.

  Aurora said to the driver, “I didn’t notice anything yet, let’s circle around the campus.”

  “Got it,” he replied, and complied with a ten-minute drive around the buildings and facilities that were referred to as the Ameriprobe campus.

  Aurora took pictures of each car and person she saw in the neighborhood, but saw nothing that struck her as unusual. She didn’t see any high vantage points that needed further inspection; nothing stuck out except for the beautiful colors breaking across the morning sky with the sun’s rise.

  They turned left onto Calle de Geneticos and drove down the two-lane street with grassy fields on both sides of the road. The tired guard at the front gate, who is part of a team of security that patrols the two thousand employee campus, had but two hours left on his midnight to eight am shift.

  The taxi stopped at the front gate. Xiaowan handed an identification card to the guard and said in English, “Good morning. I am Xiaowan Lerma from the San Diego campus. I’m not expected today but I’m here on vacation and want to use the gym; I also have a few things I need to do for work.”

  The guards at the front gate were paid well to remember the names and faces of employees. He did not know hers so he said, “Good morning Ms. Lerma. It’ll be a minute while I check your credentials. May I ask who your friend is? I also need to see her ID.”

  Xiaowan nodded and Aurora handed over her real passport. The guard checked the IDs, confirmed their identities, and returned to the booth at the gate. He swiped Xiaowan’s work ID through a credit card-style machine that brought up information on a computer monitor indicating she was an employee with high-level clearance. He then put Aurora’s passport face down on a flatbed scanner. It was instantly scanned, cross-checked for any known security threats, and verified as having a valid American passport number issued to Aurora Wulfers.

  The guard spoke in lightning-fast Spanish into a walkie-talkie then handed the passport and work ID back to Xiaowan. He said, “I’ll have a cart come pick you up here and take you anywhere you need to go. It will be easier than getting around in the taxi.” The guard also knew it would be easier to get the car off the premises than to search it, and it would help confirm they are going to the right areas. Xiaowan’s access card would grant her entry into most of the secure areas on the campus.

  The women made a spectacle of paying the agent driving the taxi, who Aurora trusted would drive off no more than ten minutes away and keep a watchful eye on them. Within a minute, an extended version of a golf cart approached.

  “Good morning,” the driver said cheerfully. “Going to the gym?”

  “Yes,” Xiaowan replied. “But first I want to show her the office park. And while I’m here, I need to send a few emails about a project.”

  “Okay, just buzz the front when you need a ride back out there then.”

  It was a quiet three minute ride stretching over half a mile past several three story buildings before they reached an eight story building that housed the administration and business offices. Xiaowan and Aurora thanked the driver for the ride and entered the building after Xiaowan swiped her key card next to a lock on the door.

  “At our campus in San Diego, we have a chip in our card so we don’t even have to swipe it; we just need to get close.”

  The two entered a completely deserted ground floor of the large building. Aurora looked at the empty reception desk. “Why do you need a receptionist with all the security you need to get through in order to get in?”

  “We have lots of meetings on campus and most of them are here. The research is done at the facilities we passed by.”

  “Are we going to sneak into those facilities?”

  Xiaowan shook her head and smiled. “We probably wouldn’t understand it, and don’t need to see it,” she said as the elevator doors opened before her.

  “Why not?”

  “On these computer servers, on this intranet, I’ll have complete access to all the financial information. Within a few minutes of accessing the database through the SAP software, I’ll be able to get a general understanding of all the financials for this campus.”

  “So?”

  “If there is a billion dollar drug in the pipeline, there will be millions spent on research. We can confirm this by following the money.”

  “Aren’t you worried the program will be off the books?”

  “No. This isn’t the federal government. Every penny has to be accounted for. That’s not to say there won’t be some vague expenditures, but I can identify any irregularities to see if there is a big project being funded. If so, I’ll kn
ow who the project manager is and we will know who to talk to.”

  “Okay. I’ll just relax and be amazed by the tour.”

  Xiaowan nodded, feeling steeled by the vote of confidence and familiarity of running through budgets and expense reports.

  They exited on the fifth floor and walked down a hallway past an office door that was closed with the blinds drawn and the lights on. Xiaowan whispered, “Only one person behind on deadline so far.” They walked past another five doors, then Xiaowan swiped her key card at a door that had a small sign above it noting “auditory access.”

  The door opened and inside was a small conference table with six chairs surrounding it. On the wall was a fifty-inch flat screen monitor. At the head of the table was a computer workstation.

  “The data security is beyond my understanding. We do not carry much data on our personal computers; we have to log into mainframes that will access restricted information. This terminal gives access to the intranet servers containing financial information. Everything is very confidential when it comes to information that affects the Securities and Exchange Commission. The numbers will be accurate and access is extremely limited so as to prevent insider trading.”

  “Any chance we are being recorded?”

  Xiaowan nodded yes but said, “I don’t think so. But it doesn’t matter.” She logged into the computer with her specific user ID and password and started browsing through the database by pulling up R&D budgets for the Barcelona division.

  It would often take millions upon millions of dollars to develop a new drug. To get something as advanced as an influenza cure, it would have taken at the very least tens of millions of dollars. Xiaowan was unable to find any such expenditures that were unaccounted for. After twenty frustrating minutes, Xiaowan said, “There have not been any unaccounted purchases or any purchases for large animal research in the past six months. There is no influenza drug or animal trial here in Barcelona.”

  “How sure are you?”

  “Almost one hundred percent. Money doesn’t lie.”

  “What the…?”

  Xiaowan looked exasperated. “I don’t know. Zhou and Kimbo seemed so sure. It’s very possible there has been research for it, but there is nothing as advanced as a cure.”

  “Should we walk through the facilities where they hold the animals to see if there is something unusual?”

  Xiaowan shook her head and said, “I doubt that would help much, we aren’t DVM/MD and wouldn’t know what to look for.”

  “DVM/MD?”

  “Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Medical Doctor. They are the best research doctors for animal studies and how the studies cross over to humans, we have several at our campuses.”

  “This company is so huge, are you sure there is nothing?”

  “Of course I’m not one hundred percent certain, but yes. I generally know the science behind everything; my dual master’s in Biochemistry and Business make me well suited to understand the reasonableness of expense requests. I have been working here for over five years. I have vested stock options. I tend to know, just like every stock analyst in the world, what our pipeline drugs are. We are a publicly traded company so we have to be accountable to our shareholders when it comes to our expenditures.”

  “Did we have to come all the way to Barcelona for this? Could you have confirmed this in the States?”

  “No, there are different budgets. This campus uses the profits from Europe and other parts of the world and never sends the money back to the United States. If they did, it would be subject to a second corporate tax of thirty-five percent. Divisions in different countries run off separate budgets. This level of confirmation was important. I was seventy-five percent sure there was no major research for an influenza cure before; I am ninety-nine percent sure now.”

  “Okay, I’ve got orders to get you back to the States. Let’s go.”

  They jogged to the front of the campus and called their taxi driver. They told the guard at the front that they were going to go jog by the Mediterranean Sea instead of going to the campus gym for a workout. As they kept walking past the security post, Aurora asked, “Do you hear that?”

  Xiaowan listened. “No, nothing.”

  “A buzzing sound?”

  Xiaowan listened more intently. “I think so, what is that?”

  Aurora looked at Xiaowan with great concern then she started scanning the sky, looking for a reflection or anything that stood out against the sunrise’s kaleidoscope of colors. “I think it’s a drone.”

  Xiaowan started to panic as she scanned the sky. Aurora took her hand and started jogging towards the spot the taxi would meet them. After thirty seconds, they stopped and listened; they didn’t hear anything. When they saw the taxi approach, they jogged for a few seconds, then walked, and met their taxi driver.

  “Go! Go! There’s a drone following us.”

  The driver hit the gas and bolted for the freeway.

  “The drone can’t follow us to the airport. It’ll be spotted and shot down. Agent, get your partner to pick up the other two at the hotel and bring them to the airport immediately.”

  The driver picked up his phone and made the call. Aurora called the hotel and asked for Tina’s room. Jessica answered and, with disbelief, she calmly relayed to Tina that they were to grab all the bags, including Xiaowan’s and Aurora’s, and wait in the lobby to be taken to the airport by one of the CIA agents they met last night.

  Without showers or makeup, the women did an admirable job packing for four in less than five minutes. There were no double-checks or phone charger concerns; their only concern was making sure they had their passports. They were in the lobby, and then in the taxi with the familiar driver, within ten minutes.

  They met Aurora and Xiaowan at the Iberia Airlines terminal to talk about changing their flight and happened to luck into a flight on US Airways headed for Philadelphia. For a hundred fifty bucks each, they could change their ticket. Under these circumstances, the change fee felt like the biggest bargain in the world.

  Chapter 25

  Nat decided to let passed-out Aaron sleep for the six hours it took to get to Hawaii for refueling. Halfway between drunk and hung-over, Aaron mumbled out loud, “What time is it?”

  Manny looked at his Breitling watch, “Just after eleven.”

  Aaron noticed the plane wasn’t moving. “You mean we haven’t left yet?”

  Manny chuckled. “No. Macau is eighteen hours later than Hawaii. We flew through six time zones and landed right around the same time we took off.”

  Aaron looked around and saw that Kor, Leonard, and Josh were sleeping. He saw Nat. “Where’s James?”

  “On the tarmac getting some fresh air and thinking. He’s hoping his in-laws are still alive.”

  Aaron looked around again. “Shit, they didn’t make it.”

  Nat, looking clearly annoyed, said, “No, they didn’t make it and we have big issues to deal with. The President wants us in D.C. immediately.”

  “Why?” Aaron started rubbing his temples.

  Manny opined, “Probably because we were as close to starting World War III as anyone else has come in the past seventy years.”

  Aaron sat up. “What?”

  Manny told the story of the fighter jets and the conversation with the President. Aaron listened with the wonder and disbelief of a child listening to a campfire ghost story. Nat sat silently throughout the entire story, watching Aaron’s expressions and occasionally glaring at him to show her frustration.

  “You’re telling me I slept through all that?”

  Manny nodded. “It’s been ten years since I’ve been to the White House. It will be nice to see what they’ve done to the place. I have to say Aaron, this has been the most exciting and terrifying bachelor party I have ever been on.”

  Aaron looked at the sleeping men. Suddenly, a jolt of apprehension shook through his body. “Is Tina okay? How are Xiaowan and the girls?”

  Manny looked at Nat who took the qu
estion. “Last I heard, they are fine. They were boarding a plane to Philadelphia then connecting back to D.C. Now are you ready to go over what the team in D.C. has been able to piece together in the six hours you slept?”

  “Sure, ah, just a minute,” Aaron said as he got up to relieve himself in the bathroom. He splashed some water on his face, looked in the mirror, and thought, ‘What the fuck?’ He came back out and sat down feeling tired, queasy, and generally like shit. But he knew it would get worse. He was still a little drunk and not fully hung-over yet.

  Nat looked at Manny. “Nothing personal, but would you excuse us? I would normally take this to a conference room but don’t have that option here. I have found out some very interesting information over the past six hours that some wonder kid at the NSA was able to piece together.”

  “No offense taken,” Manny replied with a smile as he complied and left the plane to get fresh air and check on James.

  “I have received a brief from D.C. in a secure attachment that I have been poring over and trying to make sense of. You know the law firm Oseff, Wai & Cantwell?”

  “Yes, a pretty big international law firm. They have been retained by Nannette.”

  “And they have also been the recipient of several phone calls from Xiaowan’s mystery man, Zhou.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. During her normal briefing, Aurora let her boss in D.C. know about Zhou and that he was in Barcelona. FBI agents in San Diego went to the Hard Rock Hotel, scanned every receipt from that night we took pictures of him, and sorted through his room charges. He was a guest at the Hard Rock Hotel but made no phone calls from his room.”

  Aaron nodded.

  “This wonder kid at the NSA triangulated cell tower service to identify all cell phone calls that were made from the rooms directly above, below, and adjacent to Zhou’s room. It was like a Hollywood Squares grid. So he pulled every number from outgoing calls made from those occupied rooms over the length of Zhou’s stay.”

  “And?”

  “Three different cell phones called the law firm of Oseff, Wai & Cantwell during Zhou’s stay at the Hard Rock.”