The Thought Cathedral
Page 31
He pondered how much longer it would be like this. The onslaught of extended shifts had begun rather suddenly and without any explanation. His inquiries into how long this would continue were met without any concrete answers. Something big was going down, of that much he was certain.
Phong grasped his headphones off the desk and slid them over his ears. He examined one of the monitors in front of him. A list of surveillance transmissions for him to monitor had accumulated during his brief respite. He clicked on the one that had been sitting in the queue the longest.
The transmission was, as usual, somewhat garbled due to the fact that it had been transmitted in Manhattan where there was a massive amount of other electronic interference to contend with. He studied the label on the transmission ID. This one was coming from inside Wu Xiang’s apartment in Lower Manhattan. The computer software automatically cut through any long delays in speech patterns so, thankfully, there were only a few seconds of static before Phong heard voices. The voices were speaking in Mandarin. The computer automatically translated the speech to English, however, due to the complexity of the Chinese language and the importance of context, there were frequent errors. That’s where Phong came in and why he was so valuable. Since he was fluent in Mandarin, he could provide the proper interpretation.
Phong played with the filters in the software for a few seconds, which helped to move the interference to the background and accentuate the voices. Once he had a clear transmission, he focused on the content.
There were two voices in the transmission, though he could identify only one of them. The ability to ID the voices was due to subtle patterns of speech that the computers were able to analyze, store, and match against a database maintained by the FBI. The known voice belonged to Dr. Wu Xiang, whose photo and bio appeared in the lower left of Phong’s screen. He studied the translations on the screen as the multicolored sign wave signatures for each of them flashed intermittently.
ID1:
Wu, Xiang: …
ID1: I realize this, but let’s not
Phong clicked on a control tab to stop the recording.
Honeycutt.
Phong moved the mouse to an adjacent monitor and clicked on an email application. He brought up an email dated from a few weeks prior from Reardon and scanned it over. Once he confirmed that Honeycutt was the name of one of the abduction victims, he clicked to continue the recording.
ID1:
Wu, Xiang: Where did you say…
Phong shook his head in frustration. Too much interference.
ID1:
Wu, Xiang: Which one is that?
ID1:
Who or what was currently at Dragon’s Nest Two? Were they moving the abductees around to different locations? Phong stopped the recording and studied the transcript. This was the first time any of the abduction victims cited by Reardon had appeared in any of the recordings he’d listened to. And, it seemed, there was a possibility that Honeycutt was being kept at the intersection of Pell and Grant Streets, though it was not certain. If the Chinese were moving them from location to location, her time there could be limited.
Phong emailed Reardon the transcript with a short explanatory note and then dialed his secure cell. Reardon answered on the second ring. Once he’d finished and Reardon had disconnected, Phong continued listening to the transmissions. At 2 a.m., Burghoff replaced him. He left without any further information to forward to Reardon.
Chapter 25
New York City
Friday, February 20, 3:18 p.m. EST
Rose coughed twice and cleared his throat as he waited a few moments for the chatter amongst the other agents to fade. “I’ll begin with an update on Halberstom and Craig,” Rose said.
“We all know by now the circumstances of Dr. Jonas Craig’s death, so I’m not going to re-hash too much of that. I’ll just reiterate that his body was found in Prospect Park in Brooklyn near a tree line in a clearing located at the center of the park. Forensics placed his death within twenty-four hours of the time the body was discovered, which was at 7:15 in the morning on this past Tuesday, February 17. The time of death was sometime on Monday the sixteenth.
“The only thing of note regarding Halberstom and Craig at this time is that they both died in nearly identical fashion, which is to say they were both strangled by a thin black leather string or rope of some sort. It’s very possible that the same weapon was used for both. Both Halberstom and Craig had cuts and leather burns on their necks as well as bruising of their wrists indicative of handcuffs. The nature of the damage to the neck on both Halberstom and Craig indicates that it was a long, thin strip of leather like a shoestring or maybe a necklace or something similar.
“As I’m sure you’ve heard from Benny already, we did find a ransom note on Dr. Craig’s body identical to the one found with Halberstom. Same request for information. Same digital drop box. And, just to be up front here since I know I’ll get this question, our legal attaches in Hong Kong have not made any significant progress in locating the owner of that drop box. They’ve been getting stone-walled by the Hong Kong government, and there certainly appears to be a high degree of involvement from Beijing. I’m not expecting any real positive development on that end.”
Reardon asked, “Did you decide to do the news spot with respect to Than’s body?”
Rose said, “No, not yet. I advocated for it, but the whole thing’s too sensitive. Lorren shot it down. Pernetta’s been leading a less public canvassing of Bronx Community College and the immediate area. Any updates, Pernetta?”
“No good leads yet. I’ve spoken with a number of people who may have been in the near vicinity of Than’s car at that time. But none of them purport to have actually seen Dr. Than, or a black SUV, or anything else similar.”
“No security cameras on campus that may have caught anything?” Mathiason asked.
“None in the vicinity of where Than’s car was found.”
They fell silent again for a moment before Cardenas asked, “Milt, anything else arise from that video footage of Craig’s abduction?”
Reardon cleared his throat before speaking. “I’ve been working with the photo analysis people. The first three characters on the license plate are clear. They’re the letters FAE. We’ve got the fourth character down to either an eight or a three, but we’re not sure. The photo’s too blurry. Of course, I was hoping this number might match to one of the four men named in the sea vessel that Lee placed the camera on. Unfortunately, there’s no such match as of yet. So, even with this information, there have been thousands of auto owners to sift through. I’ve made it through a good number of them, and there are a handful of people we’re looking at very closely and may be placing limited surveillance on shortly.”
“Do you have a profile made up of these people?” Walker said. “I’d like to see them.”
“Certainly. I’ll have one completed very shortly. I’ll forward that to each of you as soon as it’s finished.”
“If you need another set of eyes on that, let me know,” Cardenas offered.
“I’ll take you up on that, Benny. Thanks.”
Rose continued: “And how ’bout an update on that surveillance on the four men, Milt, since you were leading it. Neither Pernetta nor Mathiason have been updated.”
Reardon, who’d been leaning back in his chair, shifted his weight so his torso was upright. He crossed his massive forearms in front of him so they were resting upon his chest.
“It was a curious thing,” Reardon said. “We thought we had them in the middle of an abdu
ction attempt. Our teams had located and intercepted all of them by early last Wednesday morning. We’d followed them around New York all that morning and into the evening. Finally, at about ten o’clock, they all started to converge to a single geographical point which appeared to be somewhere right on or near the campus of Brooklyn College. All four of them met up at a location one block south of campus and entered into a black SUV. The SUV had only gone two blocks when it suddenly stopped and pulled over. Three of the agents proceeded again on foot. All three of them simply walked back to their homes or to their work locations as if nothing had happened. Just went on with their normal lives.”
“And the fourth?” Walker asked.
“The fourth was the one that had entered into the SUV and acted as the driver.”
“So this fourth man had been on foot as well, and then someone picked him up?” Walker asked.
“No, the SUV had already been parked on the side of 28th Street. This was in a residential area of Brooklyn so there wasn’t really any video from security cameras available as there may have been if it was a commercial area. We did talk to some of the residents in the area and have concluded that the van was parked there sometime in the early morning hours the previous night.”
“I see,” Walker said. “We still have surveillance on these four men?”
“Yes, of course. Still on them, but there’s been nothing else unusual in their behavior since last Wednesday. They’ve all gone back to their normal routines of daily life.”
“So, you think they aborted an abduction attempt?”
“Yes, that’s absolutely what we believe,” Reardon said. “We don’t have any idea what tipped them off to our presence.”
Walker frowned. “Do we know who owned the SUV?”
Rose interjection for Reardon. “The owner of the SUV was a thirty-four year old woman by the name of Sophia Yang. She lives in Upper Manhattan, but works in Midtown. She also happens to be the cousin of Yang Yongping, who’s one of the four men we were following that day. She’s got no criminal history to speak of or anything else unusual.”
“I’m also curious,” Walker said, “if this was an abduction attempt, who they may have been going after?”
Rose turned toward Agent Frank. “Jillian?”
“Yes, well it took me a lot longer than I thought it would and I had to have assistance from some of Brooklyn’s HR personnel, but I think we have it narrowed down to a couple of people who are the most likely candidates. There are quite a few Brooklyn employees who are currently attending school at colleges throughout the New York area. However, all of the people who’ve been abducted so far are people who have specific characteristics. They are all highly educated in physics. In fact, all four of them had earned doctorate degrees. Also, all four of them are currently working as part of the Magus project at Brooklyn Capital or in a project that is intimately related to Magus.”
Walker interjected briefly. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Jillian, but what does ‘magus’ mean?”
“It’s Latin for ‘magic,’” Frank said. “Brooklyn likes to use a Latin naming scheme for their projects.”
“I gotcha,” Walker said.
“Certainly. Anyway, we have two people who are the most likely candidates. The first is Dr. Luis Kriegler. Dr. Kriegler has been working for Brooklyn Capital on the Faraday Project for seventeen months and, previous to that, he was on the Magus project for six years. He earned his doctorate from Stanford in 1982 at twenty-seven years of age, which makes him now fifty-eight years old. He also currently teaches a couple of introductory physics classes at Brooklyn College.
“The second and less likely candidate is Judith Franklyn. She has also worked with Project Magus in the past, and she did earn a master’s degree in physics at Brooklyn College and also teaches an introductory class at Brooklyn.
“I checked with someone at Brooklyn College, and both Kriegler and Franklyn had class on Wednesday night, so they both would’ve been on campus.”
“Have they been contacted yet?” Walker asked.
Rose saw that Frank was looking at him as though unsure whether to field the question. “I’ve got this one, Jillian, thank you.” Rose looked toward Walker. “Yes, we’ve been in touch with both of them. They’ve both requested protection until everything is resolved, which we are providing.”
There were a few seconds of delay before Cardenas broke the silence. “How many surveillance people do we have working this case right now? I can’t recall ever having worked a case with so much surveillance going on.”
Rose nodded in the affirmative. “This has, obviously, turned into a very big case. It is essentially, at this time, a surveillance war. I’m not at liberty to say exactly how many people we’ve got on it now, but it’s a big number. This is, and will probably continue to be, a very expensive case for the Bureau.” Rose paused for a few seconds before continuing. “Does anybody have anything else they’d like to add at this time?”
There was no response, so Rose spoke again. “We do have another potential break in the case. This has just come up within the past few hours.” All the agents were looking at him attentively.
“This tip has come from a transmission received from a mic that Jillian’s recruit, Lyn Lee, was able to place inside Dr. Wu Xiang’s apartment. Wu was speaking to an unknown third party this past Thursday, the twentieth of February, when the third party mentioned in conversation an address in Chinatown at the intersection of Pell and Grant. The context of the message indicates that the address is being used as a safe house for Chinese agents. We have some reason to believe at least one of the abduction victims, Rochelle Honeycutt, is being held there. We’ve been trying to get some surveillance at that location, which is an apartment building. With the possibility of Honeycutt being held there, Lorren and I have made the decision to raid this room. The raid is being executed by one of our hostage rescue teams early tomorrow morning at 5:30.”
Rose paused for a moment to see if anyone had any questions. There were none. “You all, of course, will be the first to hear of the results from the raid. Any questions at all about this?”
Jillian Frank spoke up. “John, you’re certain you want to raid? Are we not getting any other information from the surveillance of the location?”
“The location, with respect to any surveillance, has been silent. The opportunity for surveillance is limited due to the amount of other interference around the location. We also believe the Chinese probably have some kind of an electric barrier installed to keep whatever is going on in there from being heard by us. We believe the potential for information is greater if we can gain access and, with luck, capture one or two of their agents. It would give us a chance to question them. Not to mention the possibility of locating and freeing Honeycutt.”
Pernetta Walker spoke up again. “Would it be possible for us to get a copy of the manuscript from the transmission? Never know what you might find with multiple eyes having a chance to look it over.”
“Yes, of course, Pernetta. The manuscripts are quite lengthy, but I’ll forward to all of you the portions that seem to have the most relevance.”
“Any other questions?” Rose asked.
“Just one,” Cardenas said. “I’m curious as to the politics of this whole situation. Just following the current nature of the relationship between the U.S. and China, it’s difficult to imagine the Chinese attempting something so brazen like this. The relationship is very sensitive. There’s a tremendous amount of distrust between us and China and, really, a lack of communication. Also, there’s the fact that we’re so economically dependent upon each other. I mean, a state-sponsored abduction and murder of some of our best and brightest here within our own borders would have an enormously negative effect on our relationship. I just think it would be extremely callous on China’s part to even attempt something like this. It’s hard for me to imagine such a scenario.”
“I can assure you, Benny, that this case is being monitored at the very highest lev
els of our government. Lorren is in touch regularly with the Director of the FBI, SECDEF, the secretary of state, and the president regarding this case. We have analysts both here at the Bureau and in the CIA working on this. The majority sentiment is the same as what you’ve just suggested. However, there are plenty who believe that the Chinese leadership is arrogant enough to try something like this. Remember that the Chinese just went through their formal change in leadership this past year. Many in Washington think the new leaders want to make a big, bold statement both within their own country and throughout the rest of Asia and, really, the world. Something like this may fit the bill nicely for them.” Rose paused for a few moments. “Any more questions at this time?”
Nobody spoke up, so Rose dismissed them. It was still several hours until the planned raid on the Chinatown location, but he was already anxious for it. It would be a long wait until 5:30 the next morning.
Chapter 26
Beijing, China
Saturday, February 21, 6:55 p.m. China Standard Time
Joe Leonard’s polished black dress shoes clicked on the pavement as he paced outside the front entrance of the Qianmen Jianguo Hotel along Yongan Road in central Beijing. He was dressed in a black lined leather coat, a white button-down, and a black tie. There was no breeze whatsoever, but it was cold enough for him to see his breath. He glanced at his watch. 6:55 p.m. He was getting a little nervous. Jiang needed to arrive soon in order to meet one of the hosts at the Liyuan Opera Theater and be shown their seats.
He paced until 6:57, when a cab pulled to a stop underneath the portico connected to the front entrance of the hotel. Jiang Liu stepped out of the cab, using her long legs for support as she grasped the door for leverage. Leonard dashed over to assist her, but she’d managed to clamber out before he could get to her. She’d reached back into the cab to pluck her black purse from the seat as he approached.