by Sam Powers
‘Chairman…’
‘The chair recognizes the Interior Minister. Now, Wen, what is it that required such an outburst?’
Wen counted silently to five before answering, reigning in his desire to spit fire at the ever-manipulative Chan.
‘With the utmost respect to the chairman – and with my thanks to the vice-premier for ensuring I was included in the visit – we have only one option: we must find this agent and his associate, Ms. Lee, and we must eliminate them before they take any findings across one of our many borders. Should Legacy succeed – and if what we have pieced together is true, this summit is a prime target – the damage could be multiplied by any notion that we knew in advance of what was going to take place. We must prevent any connection from being made between Jiang Qing’s insanity and modern, competitive China. Surely the chairman, a man of far greater wealth than any of his countrymen, recognizes that most of all.’
The committee muttered on mass once more. It was nothing less than a veiled threat to his mandate as the committee’s leader, Chan knew, a challenge that he ‘put up or shut up,’ as the Americans liked to say. He waited until the noise had subsided somewhat. ‘The learned minister is no doubt aware that I personally approved his request to come with us to America and I commend him for his bravery, given what seems a certainty on his part that Legacy is a grave threat. I am not so certain, from what we have so far seen, that such is the case. However, I share his concern about any… misinformation that the American and our rogue operative might decide to disseminate in the west… if not his histrionic expression of such. My understanding from our last briefing is that the same criminals interested in handing the American over have promised to recover him for us?’
Yan stood and bowed to the chair and vice-chair. ‘They have, sir. The Black Crane society has eyes and ears all over Northern China…’
‘As do we,’ Wen interjected. ‘Surely we are not leaving such an important matter to a gang of thugs?’
‘Once again, Interior Minister…’ Chan said almost laconically, ‘you disrespect the committee’s members and work when you do not follow rules of order.’
‘Mr. Chairman, this is not a small matter, but one of considerable…’
‘Order!’ Chan barked, banging the gavel again. ‘Or I’ll end the meeting now and we can discuss your conduct at a state disciplinary session.’
Wen sat back down and was quiet, crossing his arms in an almost child-like defiance.
‘Of course, we will martial other resources,’ Chan offered. ‘But we will do so quietly, while the Black Cranes can make as much noise as they like without any of it being connected to our responsibilities. And we shall attempt to arrest this American and find out what he knows; your zeal to eliminate him worries me and strikes me as short-sighted, Wen. Perhaps this individual can offer us real insight into how Legacy remained active or was once more triggered.’
‘Yes, but… Mr. Chairman…’ Wen began to implore.
‘Enough!’ Chan reaffirmed. ‘Mr. Undersecretary, ensure our assets in the Northern cities are put on alert to their presence. And make it clear to the Black Cranes that we want both agents alive, if possible.’ He turned and gave Wen a stare that was as close as he would get to conciliatory. ‘But that either way, we need results. And we need them now.’
After the session had broken up, Yan paced the worn red carpet to his office, not looking into each office as he passed, instead deep in thought. In a sense, he knew, the meetings were a form of high farce, politics masquerading as good intentions. Most of those in the room were there by family connection rather than high achievement, and rarely offered much else beside muttering. At least Wen and Chan’s battles were backed by purpose, even if their true intentions were often shrouded in secrecy.
Once at his office, he closed the door behind him, removed the encrypted phone from his side pocket then hung his suit jacket on the hook. The room was becoming cluttered, he realized, the wall-length bookshelf full and magazines finding new homes in small piles ahead of various volumes. He walked behind the desk and sat down, then opened the phone app.
‘Your suspicions were correct, if that meeting is any evidence,’ the man in the shadows observed. ‘He is going to be a potential problem for the entire trip unless we can get him to drop Legacy inquiries entirely.’
‘His authority makes him dangerous, sir… Perhaps we should deal with him pre-emptively in some manner.’
‘As I was forced to do so many years ago, you mean? No, let’s not repeat that mistake. Once you take a man’s life with direct impunity and involvement, you place a target on your back. In this case, it would be exceedingly large and exposed. The plan was designed to accommodate this sort of distraction.’
‘Then I shall meet you in New York,’ Yan said. ‘And when the Black Cranes deliver our spies?’
‘Ensure that does not happen,’ the shadow man said. ‘Ensure they take care of Mr. Brennan and Ms. Lee permanently. And bury whatever’s left deep; the sooner both are forgotten, the better.’
35/
‘PLENTY’, An artificial American town in Inner Mongolia.
The men approaching the building from the front were all young, probably hired from the slums of Hulunbier. Chu peeked through the thick glass on the front doors as they worked to get Brennan’s preparations in place. The plan seemed utterly mad, but Chu had to admit he couldn’t think of any alternatives.
The band of criminals was twenty yards away, having parked up the hill. The sniper had probably called them, filled them in on what they were facing. ‘I don’t recognize any of them,’ Chu said. ‘If they’re Cranes, they’re not from Harbin. My guess is they put a bounty on us. My uncle would prefer me returned alive, but I’m not entirely sure, given the circumstances, that he wouldn’t decide to make an example of me.’
‘Come on, quickly!’ Brennan called to them from the stairwell to the basement, halfway down the corridor.
Lee finished up, slapping her palm on the door to make sure her work held tight. ‘There!’
They ran back to the stairwell and joined him. ‘This is either going to work beautifully, or we’re in it deep,’ Brennan said. ‘Either way, when they come in hard, I’ll be running for whichever door looks most open, so keep up.’
They’d bolted both sets of doors. Brennan had noticed the metal twenty-gallon drums by the filing cabinet in the office. The opportunity was there. They’d just needed a couple of minutes, and it had taken their opposition that long to settle on a plan of attack. By Chu’s count they had five out front and at least one coming down the back hill. They’d figured on at least one more car, out of sight, so maybe four more on top of the first six.
And they had fourteen bullets in total, which meant adapting.
‘Are you sure about this, Brennan?’ Lee asked. ‘If we’d piled more objects in front of the doors….’
‘They would still get through eventually. They have us completely outnumbered and outgunned. Can you think of an alternative?’
She looked at Jackson. ‘Can you negotiate us out of this?’
‘That’s very amusing,’ Chu said. ‘If you recall, they didn’t ask questions first when that sniper appeared on the hill. No… no, I don’t think that’s going to happen.’
‘If we get out of this…’ Lee began to say.
‘You’ll concede I’m better at this than you?’ Brennan suggested.
She sighed. ‘Men! I was going to say ‘… we still have to get across the border, find someone to fly us to safe territory and get what little information we have back to our people.’
‘You sure know how to take the fun out of a last stand,’ Brennan said.
The doors at both ends of the hallway began to thump inwards. ‘Here they come,’ Chu muttered.
‘It looks like they’re going to try and overwhelm us from both sides at once,’ Brennan said. ‘Be ready, this could happen quickly…’
‘I hope you’re right about this, Gwai Lo.’
The thundering blast came just as Brennan leaned the other way, firing off two more shots. The second explosion was a split second later. The highly flammable film flashed, blew the barrels, which ignited the developing solution poured around the base of each door… which lit the remaining film, taped to the doors and walls at each entrance. The initial blast took out six of the ten men. The ensuing wall of flame that shot up caught the remaining four men, their clothes slick with burning chemicals, the screams loudest from the three at the back door.
They didn’t have time to wait for a clearer path. ‘Let’s go!’ Brennan yelled. He sprinted up the steps, then turned left toward the front doors. Lee and Chu followed him. He stopped in front of the administration office and reached down to peel the ancient, crusted doormat off the floor. ‘Get behind me!’ he yelled over the cacophony of burning wood and cracking glass. He flung the mat over his head like a cape and hood and they huddled behind him. Brennan stepped over the burning men and pushed past the flash fire, his shoelace catching. They shoved the doors open and burst outside, Brennan tossing the burning mat to one side. Lee spluttered and coughed up chemical smoke.
Chu was on all fours still as Brennan rose and turned. The school looked like it was made of concrete but there was evidently enough wood inside to act as kindling because it was going up quickly, flames licking the roof.
‘The other film!’ Chu said. ‘The film of the spy program. He left it on his desk.’ He stumbled to his feet and began to head back toward the school.
Ahead of him, the doors burst open once more. The gangster who stumbled out was engulfed in flames, one arm outstretched as he burned to death, squeezing the trigger almost blindly. He got five shots off before he emptied the magazine, two striking Chu in the chest. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed to his knees, then coughed up some blood, before slumping to the ground.
‘Jackson!’ Lee yelled. She began to run back to his prone body as the flaming gunman continued to click the trigger on the empty weapon. Brennan raised Chu’s pistol and shot his killer once through the head, the man collapsing on the school steps, his corpse still burning.
Somewhere inside the school something blew, the explosion tearing a hole through the roof, concrete chunks showering the ground behind them.
‘He’s gone!’ Brennan yelled. ‘And we might be right after him if we don’t go now!’
She looked at the Black Crane, immobile in a widening puddle of his own blood. Then she turned and ran back to the car with Brennan. He started it as she climbed in.
‘What now?’ she demanded.
‘The Cranes won’t have been satisfied with leaving this to local thugs. They’ll have more men coming up from Harbin. We need to get across the border. Their reach is limited in Russia, and I have contacts who can make new arrangements for us.’
He stepped on the accelerator.
‘What do you think?’ she asked, pushing away the guilt over ignoring Chu and getting back to business. ‘The target wasn’t implicit, from what he told us…’
‘There are three highly trained, deadly assassins on the loose in America, and someone is pulling their strings,’ Brennan said. ‘They talked about the program creating a new regime in China, with Fan at the top. To do that…’
‘They would have to get rid of the old one. I believe we know who their target will be,’ she agreed.
‘They’re going to kill the premier of China,’ he said. ‘And it’s going to look like Americans were responsible.’
36/
DAY 15
NEW YORK, New York
David Chan watched CIA deputy director Jonah Tarrant saw into his steak, the cuts quick and precise, the morsel just enough to be worth a few chews.
He even eats efficiently, Chan thought, like he was bred to handle bureaucrats and other stifling incompetents. I like him.
The hotel had closed off the revolving dining room at the delegation’s request so that the two men could have a private meal. The premier and vice-premier weren’t to arrive for two more days, but the logistics of the trip, the security and the sessions demanded that the men actually running things be ahead of schedule.
‘I find it odd that we find ourselves here,’ Chan said, to break the silence. ‘Do you not?’
Tarrant swallowed, then patted his mouth with a cloth napkin. ‘In what sense?’
‘The entirety of it, really. After all, this sudden need for our two nations to make some decisions about the region… it came about because of an action by North Korea against Japan. And yet, once again, it is China and America who are going to the table to talk.’
Tarrant seemed non-plussed. ‘With great power… you know the saying.’
‘Certainly. There is always the underlying social issue of whether something is right or wrong, of course. Perhaps that is what fascinates me, that two countries with no immediate role in the issue at hand are the ones to reach such a decision.’
Tarrant finished his meal and put down his knife and fork. A waiter appeared from nowhere instantly and removed the plate. ‘Thank you,’ he told the man, before turning his attention back to Chan.
‘I’m only interested in how we got here, Mr. Chairman, inasmuch as it relates to China’s international obligations. While North Korea is the nation breaking international law, neither of us is foolish enough to believe that Dictator Kim would do so without alerting your country first.’
‘An alert is not a request,’ Chan stressed. ‘You may be assuming too much, with respect to our input.’
‘Then we would have common ground,’ Tarrant said. ‘Surely, if he’s willing to fire a warning shot with a nuke and do it without China’s express permission, he’s willing to risk just about anything.’
Chan knew there was logic in it. But he also knew that China’s dossier on the Korean leader was complete; he was rabidly opposed to dying himself. There was no delusion of real religious or spiritual significance, or any nonsense about ‘ascending’ this life to something else in Kim’s belief systems. If unleashing nuclear weapons meant his own death and his nation’s destruction, the intelligence experts were convinced, he would not take that step.
It was just as easy, and politically beneficial, to allow the North Korean leader to think his decisions went unchecked. It was plausible deniability on a global scale.
‘Your own intelligence, I am quite certain, tells you that Kim does not ask for our permission. But neither does it suggest he bares any ill will toward China. Ultimately, we must be responsible for our own citizens, not the machinations of an unstable man. We are, however, quite willing to negotiate our assistance with Leader Kim, should the United States be willing to make some concessions.’
Tarrant wasn’t sure what to make of the man. Of all the senior Chinese politicians willing to push for positive, economically driven change, Chan seemed the most approachable, the most aware of how important it was to co-operate. He was Harvard educated, rich, and had made a career of standing against any notion of slipping backwards to more authoritarianism. It wasn’t as if China was exactly lacking in social controls.
But he still seemed ruthless on the Korea issue, regardless of the lives at stake.
‘Chairman…’
‘Mr. Tarrant, please do not think me ignorant of American intentions or of the benefits that global trade has offered both our nations. But we cannot simply override an internationally recognized nation-state, regardless of our influence there. And, as you say, he is unpredictable. And we are much closer to him than you are. There is no grea
t willingness among my colleagues to abandon our cautious support for the regime, if only for the fact that it keeps his crosshairs squarely elsewhere.’
‘So, better Japan or America, than…’
‘The people I represent? Yes, I’m afraid so. And as that hesitancy to confront him puts us in much the same boat as your nation, our only influence comes through his belief in our alliance.’
But Tarrant knew there was another card China could play. ‘You could do one thing for us that would make us more willing to bend on trade.’
Chan felt his pulse quicken. This was it: the deal, the point of either man being there, possibly in them even existing. He’d come to love the deal; that sense of a win, even in small percentages but best when it was a big one. ‘I’m listening.’
‘China has helped North Korea invest its ill-gotten gains around the globe. Much of that money was sourced from online theft and fraud, along with outright theft from other nations, piracy both electronic and actual.’
‘We’re acutely aware of the problems they cause online,’ Chan agreed. ‘Then… you would like us to stop helping them spend their money and lose our cut? I’m afraid…’
‘To the contrary,’ Jonah said with an assured smile. ‘We’d like you to help them invest much, much more.’
And of that, Chan was unsure what to think. He wasn’t surprised often in life – ever, really. It was an odd sensation. ‘Explain.’
‘The reality, sir, is that our intelligence suggests Legacy makes your colleagues in the Chinese leadership as nervous as you. You’re all rich men, capitalists in charge of a non-capitalist system. And you all have investments here. If the chairman was so heavily invested in America…’
‘He would be loath to attack it.’ Chan allowed himself a small smile. ‘Of course with the economic embargo it can’t be direct. You’d have to backdoor any such investment through a partner…’