Private Beijing

Chapter 77

Fang’s apartment became the epicentre of a major police and intelligence operation. The streets around the building were cordoned off and packed with vehicles. Police vehicles, forensics trucks, and ambulances lined up alongside unmarked saloons, vans, and a large command center located in an unmarked trailer. Hua, Zhang Daiyu, and I were interviewed separately, each of us three times by different men and women in plain clothes. They presented no identification but I guessed they were Guoanbu officers. Even after they had finished talking to us we were told not to leave. We loitered by the command center under the watchful gaze of two uniformed cops who’d been tasked with guarding us. It had been a little over three hours since Fang Wenyan had jumped, and I was tired and impatient to reach Moscow.

Zhang Daiyu was on the phone making the final arrangements with the charter firm for the private jet that would take me from Beijing to the Russian capital. I reflected on Fang’s revelation that the current director of the SVR — Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki — Russia’s foreign intelligence service, was out to get me. I’d foiled a major intelligence operation in Moscow, bringing down a previous director, Yevgeny Salko, and had followed it up by exposing an incredibly sophisticated Russian encryption tool after rescuing a US military pilot from Afghanistan. I’d been told I’d made enemies there but had never expected a response quite so extreme.

I used our period of captivity outside Fang Wenyan’s building to access Private’s secure server and research SVR Director Valery Alekseyev. I wanted to know more about the man who was out to destroy me.

There wasn’t much on him. Colonel in Russian Special Forces before moving to intelligence operations. Rumored to be a hardliner with a strong belief in military expansionism. There were two decent photographs. One taken from a distance showed a tall, muscular middle-aged man standing in swimming trunks next to Vladimir Putin while on holiday in the Black Sea. The second image was an official army photograph. It showed a man with close-shaved jet-black hair, a lean face, and hard eyes that seemed to be attempting to burn the camera lens. He looked like someone who saw the world as being naturally full of enemies; there was no sense of humanity.

He looked cruel, determined, and cold-hearted.

I saw Ma Fen round the rear corner of the building. She’d been with the team examining Fang’s body.

I had mixed feelings about his death. He’d escaped justice, but would he ever have served a day in prison for his crimes? He’d foreseen the future ahead of him, most likely killed at the order of one of his fellow Three Dragons conspirators.

“I’m not surprised he jumped,” Fen said as she approached us. “His death protected the identities of the traitors he was working with. That’s all he cared about. It’s going to be much more difficult to identify them now, but we will try.”

“How much longer do you think you’ll need us?” I asked.

“You’re free to go,” she said. “I heard the name he gave you, so I imagine you have a plane to catch.”

I nodded.

Behind me, Zhang Daiyu relayed instructions to the charter firm.

“The People’s Republic cannot condone intervention in another sovereign country, but given what has happened here, I would like to wish you every success in your endeavors.”

I was surprised she was expressing support and it must have showed on my face

“Fang Wenyan and the fools working with him didn’t realize they were being made tools of Russia, importing ideology and methods that have no place in China,” Fen explained. “If they had been successful, they could have caused division and instability that threatened China’s security. We were aware of a power play by this cabal, but until you arrived had no idea how well developed it was or that it involved a foreign state. Your investigation exposed these things, and for that reason your agency will always be welcome in China. As will you.”

She offered me her hand and I shook it. She said something in Mandarin to Hua and Zhang Daiyu and they replied in grateful tones.

“Your flight leaves in ninety minutes,” Zhang Daiyu said to me. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

“You need to stay here and help Shang Li rebuild,” I responded. “Can you let Dinara Orlova know what time the plane will arrive in Moscow?”

She nodded.

“I would never have been able to do this without you, Zhang Daiyu. Thank you.” I turned to Huang Hua then. “And you, Hua. I appreciate everything you’ve done.”

He nodded. “Delun, Kang, and Jinhai were my friends too, Mr. Morgan. I had to help avenge their deaths.”

My phone rang and I saw Justine’s name flash on-screen.

“Hey, Jus,” I said when I answered.

“Jack?” I was on edge immediately. I sensed fear in her voice. “I’ve been trying to reach Dinara like you asked, but I can’t get hold of her. Or Feodor Arapov. I can’t reach anyone at Private Moscow. It’s as though they have all disappeared.”