Apparently the Snow Leopard was paying people—students—to conduct massive protests, just like what was happening in Hong Kong, only this time instead of a spontaneous uprising protesting the PRC, it would be funded by them. Something that would cause a debilitating police response and follow-on ensuing chaos where the law enforcement personnel were the enemy. Something so great it would reverberate throughout the country, creating a seam for the PRC to exploit.
The flyer hadn’t dictated a timeline. It simply said there would be a “trigger,” and when they saw it, they were to take to the streets “just like the brave people of Hong Kong.”
He knew if he’d interdicted that one instruction in a backwater like Jiufen, there were many others. Meetings and cash exchanging hands all over Taiwan in preparation for a massive response. The PRC was infiltrating at the root level, and the implications made him sweat.
Paul didn’t know what exactly the trigger would be, but the information was so explosive it was something Charlie Chan should see, because there was most definitely a traitor in the mix. Someone who was doing much more than just buying Facebook posts like his student asset who had been killed. Someone who was planning actual violence. The traitor was going kinetic, and Charlie Chan needed to identify him.
He reread the flyer, then turned back to his computer to analyze the data, trying to make a connection on his own. His generic homepage blared a headline: “NSB chief dead.”
Incredulous, he read the headline again, not wanting to believe it, then pulled up the news article. It was true. Someone had killed Charlie Chan.
He had no idea if this had something to do with his current tasking, or if it was something else entirely, but one thing was for sure: Whether intentional or not, it had effectively cut him off from all support. He now had no contact inside the NSB.
He had been portrayed as an outcast, ostensibly thrown to the wolves because of “incompetence,” with Charlie Chan leveraging that to allow him freedom of action. And now he had none.
He looked at the flyer again, feeling rage. It was the mole, he was sure. The same one who had set up his student asset at the falls. The same one that Charlie had been worried about, causing him to send Paul into the wilderness, now forever known as a Ronin to everyone at the National Security Bureau.
But unlike Chan, he was still alive. And he had a target.
He began planning for surveillance of the unknown Air Force colonel, mapping his house location and the Foreign Affairs building, seeking vengeance for the death of his mentor.
Becoming a Ronin for real.
Chapter 54
Han entered the twelve-story technology building in Beijing’s Zhongguancun district, wading through the crowd of engineers, each convinced they were the next sure thing in the world of technology. All of them showing absolute disdain for the Communist Party of China in this new entrepreneurial wave. It disgusted him, but he took some private consolation in that every bit of the technology they worked on would only help the PRC obtain dominance, both inside and outside of the country.
He showed his badge at the counter and took the elevator to the second floor, passing through yet another security gate, but this one much more stringent, because it was the entrance to the Twelfth Bureau’s laboratory.
Yuan met him in the lobby, saying, “You have a call on the secure line. I don’t know how they knew you’d be here, but they’re calling.”
Han said, “I told them I’d be here. Who is it?”
“They didn’t say. Just that they wanted to talk to you.”
He nodded and followed Yuan down a hallway, stopping at a small closet with a digital phone affixed to the wall, the keypad replaced by a screen showing Chinese characters. He entered, closed the door, and picked up the receiver, saying, “This is Lion.”
“This is the Tiger element. We are on the way to Cairns as instructed. There have been some issues.”
Han closed his eyes and said, “What?”
“We interdicted the American. He is dead. There will be no leak from that end. Bobcat is secure and I’m headed to his location now, but there was a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The team that interdicted the American was attacked. We don’t know by whom, but it was total. They eliminated everyone in our safe house and killed two more men at the interdiction site for the leak. Someone is hunting us, and they are very, very good.”
“Better than you?”
“No. They let one of my men go. They should have killed him outright at the interdiction site, but didn’t. If they had, I wouldn’t have any of this information. They are not immune from mistakes, but they remain a threat.”
“How do you know Bobcat is secure? Do they know where he is?”
“No. No way. He’s been gone for a day. If he was the target, they wouldn’t have wasted so much time on the American. If I were to guess, they were solely focused on Clifford Delmonty. Now that he’s gone, they’ll leave. I don’t think this had anything to do with Bobcat.”
“And yet they had a team that could kill all of your men? Nobody does that without government backing. And no government does that backing without significant fear of something else. A government doesn’t care about the individual. They care about the state.”
“In our world. Not in theirs. I think this was a coincidence of us falling into an old Army friend of Clifford’s. They ended up having skill that we didn’t account for, to include a woman as deadly as Zhi Rhou, but I believe they’re done. Their mission was Clifford, and he’s dead now.”
“I need to know we are contained. The next phase of this is critical. I cannot have them interfering.”
“We are contained. I promise. I’m on a train headed to Cairns. Bobcat is in Cairns. I have already made contact with him. I just need to know what you want me to do with him. Take the device and dispose of him? Bring him with me? What?”
“Bring him with the device. I don’t want to kill him only to find out we don’t know how to use the data. This is too critical to try to figure out what he has. He knows. Can you get him out through nontraditional means?”
He heard a pause, then said, “I think I can, but it will take significant assets. I’d rather leave him with a bullet in the head.”
“Start planning the extraction. But keep a bullet in your gun for him.”
“Will do. We’re reaching the station. I have to go.”
Han disconnected and exited the secure room, saying, “Where’s Yuan?”
A man scurried to the back and brought him out. Yuan said, “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine. Where do we stand with the videos?”
“They’re done. And they’re good. The American outdid himself.”
“I want to see them. And him.”
“You want to see the American?”
“Yes. Right now.”
Yuan left and came back with a skinny man wearing rumpled jeans and a stained shirt, sporting a four-day growth of beard, reminding Han of a drug addict. He didn’t believe that was true, but he definitely saw someone who lacked self-discipline.
Yuan said, “This is Jerry Tribble, the American helping us with our facial recognition efforts.”