The Einstein Papers

CHAPTER 27

It would be easy for the average person to dismiss China as a nation of peasants. A huge land mass containing 1.3 billion people, or four times the population of the United States, all struggling to fill their rice bowls.

The country is far from that.

Chinese mathematicians had already calculated pi by the third century before Christ. The country's inventors were the first to produce paper, the magnetic compass, and the clock. They were even the first to manufacture gunpowder.

In the last few years, the Chinese military had built an enormous power base. The military now controlled 15,000 businesses and 50,000 factories. Norinco, as China North Industries Corporation was called, acted as the principle arms manufacturer for China and controlled a great deal of international arms sales. The company was said to own over eighty international companies that generated billions of dollars in sales each year.

Another company, Polytechnologies, worked as a weapons broker and acquisition agent, and it was even rumored they brokered the purchase of a Kuznetson-class aircraft carrier from the Ukraine. The massive vessel was incomplete when the Soviet Union fell, and after her purchase she was towed to Hong Kong, where work was progressing at breakneck speed to complete her.

In the race to become a world power there was little standing in China's way. At an office on Changan Avenue East the leaders of China were proving that the Florentine political theorist Machiavelli could have learned much from the Chinese.

"Have we heard from the courier yet?" the Chinese prime minister asked Sun Tao.

"Nothing yet," said Tao. "The witnesses to the recovery of the documents have been eliminated, however. We bombed the plane they were aboard. It is being reported in the American newspapers as being attributed to wind shear, so that secret is safe. Hu Jimn was successfully eliminated. His body was identified by one of our operatives about an hour ago. The agent arranged for Jimn's burial in the United States."

"Once the courier delivers the key to Einstein's formula, how long will it take for the scientists to create a working weapon?" the prime minister asked.

"They don't know," Tao said. "Perhaps hours, perhaps weeks. Truly it is of little concern, Mr. Prime Minister."

"Why do you say that?" the prime minister said, sipping tea from a delicate china cup emblazoned with the Chinese flag.

"Once we have the key in our possession, the United States will respond to a bluff. We need only tell them we have an operational weapon, then deliver a portion of the key as proof."

"To save time can we have Einstein's documents faxed here once the courier arrives at the embassy?"

"I would think the age of the paper itself, combined with the frailty caused by its immersion in the ocean, would eliminate that option, sir."

"Then we must have them hand-delivered?"

"I'm afraid that's the case."

"When are we due to hear from the courier?"

"He has orders not to contact us here until he is safely inside one of our embassies."

"So we wait," the prime minister said quietly. He paused and the room was silent for several minutes. "I think we need to start planning a diversion, something that will make the Americans move their naval battle groups out of our area. I want them far away when we proceed with the attack on Taiwan."

Tao thought for a moment. "I have an idea," he then said. "What is the one thing the United States will always fight to protect?"

"Oil," the prime minister noted.

"Our scientists have alerted us to something that was developed in the United States that should help us divert the American military."

"What is that, Mr. Tao?"

Tao explained.