She said, “I got this end. Don’t you do anything stupid. When the ferry comes back, I want you on it.”
Brett said, “Stupid is as stupid does. We’re about to conduct an unsanctioned slaughter of Chinese nationals in a Five Eyes country. Can’t get much more stupid than that.”
She smiled and said, “If Nicole’s on the boat when I get back, that won’t be stupid.”
He nodded and said, “I know. Take care of Mr. Basketball there.”
“I will.”
I watched her walk off the ferry, then kept my eye on her even as we pulled away, feeling a sense of foreboding. Knuckles snapped me out of it, saying, “Okay, let’s go over the plan one more time.”
Chapter 46
Charlie Chan forged a contact statement from a confidential source, cleansing Paul’s message traffic as if it had come from a routine report inside the department. He stamped it with a compartmented security clearance that would guarantee nobody would see the results but him, his assistant, and the people who conducted the analysis.
While his primary concern was protecting Paul’s status as still being active inside the NSB, he had others that were just as important. Paul was quite literally the most highly classified project Charlie Chan had ever run, with extremely sensitive repercussions, but the Air Force uniform concerned him. With the elections coming up in Taiwan, tension was everywhere, with citizens seeing Chinese PRC around every corner, and if word got out that there might be an inside threat high up in the Taiwanese defense forces, it would generate chaos and a lack of confidence.
It might also be lynching a man who didn’t deserve it.
He pressed a button on his desk and said, “Mouse. Come in here. I have a special task for you.”
The speaker said, “Yes, sir. On the way.”
The door opened, revealing a short man of about forty, wearing thick glasses and a rumpled suit. He had been Charlie’s assistant for more than eight years, and had a habit of moving at all times like he was about to jump from some threat. Charlie said it reminded him of a mouse nervously sniffing a bit of cheese in a trap, and had taken to calling him “Mouse” because of it. He was Charlie’s trusted right hand, but even he wasn’t privy to what Paul was doing.
“Yes?” he said, coming forward.
Charlie slid the folder across and said, “I need to know who this man is, but it is extremely close hold. I want you to hand-walk it to the L Directorate and have them do a compartmented search. Facial recognition, target association, organizational connections based on historical movement, and whatever else they have. You stay for the duration. When it’s done, and they have a dossier, you bring it straight back to me.”
Mouse nodded, pulling the folder off of the desk. He said, “Where did it come from?”
“Compartmented source, but that’s irrelevant. It’s the information that’s explosive.”
Mouse said, “Which one? Which project did it come from? It might help me work with L Directorate on the analysis.”
Because of his position, Mouse was read on to every program Charlie ran at his level, and had access to all of those below.
Charlie leaned back in his chair and said, “I told you it’s compartmented. A single use. It’s not a program you’re aware of.”
Mouse did his nervous shuffle, taking the implicit reprimand about asking questions without another word.
He turned to leave and Charlie said, “Remember my orders. Your hands only, and you stay until it’s done, even if that means you spend the night.”
Mouse said, “Yes, sir,” and walked back down the hall to his office. He placed the folder on his desk, then flipped it open. He took one look at the photo on top and knew he had a problem.
He stood up and locked his door, then opened the bottom drawer of his desk, kneeling down and reaching inside, shoving his hand upward until it connected with the drawer above it. By feel alone, he flicked a switch on a compartment affixed to the steel, then pulled out a cell phone.
He hit a speed dial number, waited for it to connect, then said, “I have a Dragon Alert on Ocelot.”
Waiting on an update for his deep fake video inside the Twelfth Bureau, Han Ming listened to the report on the phone, rubbing his forehead. What was once a clean, pristine intelligence operation was slowly but surely unraveling.
First, Bobcat was proving to be an idiot, and the Fifth Bureau men were proving to be little better, with a breach of Bobcat’s operation still running loose on the Australian continent.
Now his highest mole inside the National Security Bureau of Taiwan was reporting that the commander of the unit itself was focused on Ocelot. Which would be devastating.
He didn’t mind sacrificing Ocelot, because even that outcome would pay untold publicity dividends, but he needed him for the endgame. Ocelot had to be protected.
He said, “Who is working the issue? Can we tie off the knot?”
“You mean eliminate the source? No. I have no idea who it is. It’s stovepiped, even from me.”
“I thought you were read on to all programs.”
“I did too, but this one, according to Charlie Chan, is a one-off. A one-time mission for a one-time target. And somehow he’s focused on Ocelot. It’s not like that college student I fed you—the poor nobody that one of Charlie’s men turned. It’s much more compartmented.”
Han thought a minute, then heard the door open, seeing the Twelfth Bureau commander, Yuan Bo, enter with a smile on his face. Han snapped his fingers and pointed to the door. Yuan exited with a scowl.
Into the phone, Han said, “So this is so highly secret that the only person who knows about it is Charlie Chan himself?”
“I believe so.”
In his position of commander of the directorate responsible for the takeover of Taiwan, Han was well versed on Charlie Chan. He was a nemesis who had been a thorn in Han’s side for close to a decade. A consummate professional who had thwarted many penetrations Han had conceived, and, in truth, because of this, Han respected him. Respected his dedication and his skill. But Han had a mission, and he wasn’t going to let respect get in the way of succeeding. He’d considered this option many, many times, but had never followed through because of the implications, but now it seemed he was given no choice.
“You believe Charlie Chan is running this operation at his level? Nobody else is involved?”
“As far as I can tell, yes, here at headquarters. Somebody in the field had to feed him the information, but I have no idea who that would be. He told me to walk it through personally. And I’m the sole man outside of him who’s read on to every operation the NSB conducts. Why?”
Han thought of the quote from Sun Tzu, speaking from the past. Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.
He said, “Because I’m going to tie off the knot. Don’t take that package anywhere for analysis and stay by the phone.”
Chapter 47
Jennifer exited the ferry, leaving a family between her and Dunkin. Once on the dock, she whispered, “Dunkin, Dunkin, you copy?”
She heard, “Yes. I got you. How about me?”
She continued up a winding staircase, seeing the crowds start to disperse left and right, the ones to the right having chosen to walk up the hill into the zoo. The ones to the left had paid extra to ride the cable car to the top and walk down, saving themselves the trek both ways.