White Jade

Chapter Twenty-One

They ate a mediocre breakfast in the cafeteria and at seven were in the Director's office. Stephanie was there, sitting at a computer console set off from Harker's desk. Steph had a wide, pleasant face and dark hair cut in bangs. She wore a black and red combo that concealed a few extra pounds. Gold bracelets jangled on her wrist.

She looked like the sort of person you'd see standing at the edge of a soccer field cheering on her kids. Stephanie didn't have any kids. She had a Glock 40 millimeter in a speed draw holster tucked high on her waist. She had the Project.

Harker said, "There's a new twist on Yang." She pushed a piece of paper and her pen across her desk to Selena. "Before I get into it, I need you to sign this."

"What is it?"

"I'm upgrading your security clearance. You sign that and you go to jail if you repeat anything you hear in here. You can't talk about it with anyone except us."

Selena said nothing. She signed.

Harker put the paper in a drawer. She said, "Deng Bingwen defected. Langley's got him."

Carter was stunned. "He's been building bombs for them for years. Why would he come over now?"

"Yang wants a war and Deng wants no part of it. Or so he says. He says Yang heads up a group called the White Jade Society. According to him it's a cover for a conspiracy to seize power. Langley is listening to what he says about China's nukes, but they don't believe him about a coup. They don't think anyone could pull that off, or would even try. If he's telling the truth, the money Yang stole could help fund a takeover."

Selena said, "The White Jade Society? White jade symbolizes immortality in Chinese culture. Maybe that's why they wanted the book. But it's just an old formula. No one could take it seriously."

Carter tugged on his ear. "Who's in this group?"

"Colonel Wu is one, but he's small fry. It wasn't hard to get a list. They're heavy hitters. The head of their naval forces, two of the missile base commanders, the Minister of Railways and several senior generals from the PLA, including two armored division commanders. There are other government and military leaders."

She tapped her pen. "A coup would destabilize the entire region. Pakistan, India, Russia, Iran. All those countries over there ending in 'stan'."

"You call Afghanistan stable?"

"Don't be a pain in the ass, Nick. You know what I mean."

Harker was definitely in Director mode. He decided to keep quiet.

Her intercom buzzed.

"Special Agent Jordan is here."

"Bring him up."

Jordan wore a blue suit and blue silk tie with gray accents that matched the color in his close cropped hair. The collar of a crisp, white shirt cut a deep crease in his thick neck.

He reminded Carter of pictures of Leadbelly, the famous blues singer. Big, hard, with a life of being black in America written deep inside his face. Jordan was a serious man.

Harker settled back in her chair. She said, "We identified one of the men who came after you in California from prints on the wine bottle. He's Wu's gofer."

Stephanie tapped on her keyboard. A picture came up on the big monitor.

"That's him," Carter said, "the one who tossed the grenade. Ugly bastard, isn't he?"

Jordan cleared his throat and pointed at the screen. "His name is Choy Gang. He's a real piece of work. The night you were in that mine a CHP patrolman made a routine stop outside San Francisco. He wrote up a safety violation. When he gave it to the driver he noticed something and went for his gun. The driver blew him away, three shots, nine mil. The camera in the cruiser taped the whole thing."

On screen, the video played. An arm and part of a face came out of the driver's window. There were three flashes as the gun fired and the officer went down. The video was badly lit but the hard looking face behind the gun was Choy's.

Jordan continued. "We got lucky and found a print on an empty casing. They usually burn away, but we've got a new process that sometimes can bring them out. We matched it up with Choy. We sent people over to the Consulate yesterday.

"They were told Choy was no longer in the country and had left two days before for the People's Republic, so there had to be a mistake in the identification. The Consulate representative said several weapons used by the security guards had been stolen a week before, so perhaps that was why Choy's prints were found. He expressed his sincere condolences over the death of our police officer and offered any assistance he might be able to provide. Then he showed our agents the door."

Nick had to say something. "Can't you get a warrant?"

"Not for the Consulate. It's off-limits. We don't want any incidents here."

"Shooting a cop isn't an incident?"

"Not big enough."

"What about Wu and Connor?"

"There's no hard evidence. Anyway, Choy is gone and there's nothing we can do about it."

Jordan looked at Carter as if it were all his fault. "What I want to know is why the Chinese are throwing grenades at you and in general making a whole lot of trouble."

Harker said, "Tell him about the book, Nick."

"What book?" Jordan ran his finger under his tight collar.

"An ancient book that belonged to Selena's uncle," Nick said. "The Chinese were looking for it when they killed him. He hid it in California. We went there to retrieve it. Then Choy showed up and you know the story.

"They were after the book, because why else drive up there? We think the attack here in DC was an attempt to kidnap Selena and get the location of the book from her."

"What's in it that they want?"

"We don't know yet. We'll find out, now that we have it."

"Where is it?"

Selena held up the book. "Right here."

Two old pieces of wood with yellowed pages between. It had already cost at least eight lives and might cost more before they were done.

Jordan loosened his tie. "I've been authorized to brief you. My unit tracks Asian criminal or terrorist activity. Something's up involving the Chinese Triads and Wu is mixed up in it. We followed him to a meeting with the Triad bosses from San Francisco, Oakland, New York, and Houston. That's a big deal. They never get together like that."

Jordan looked around the room, then at the Director.

"Why is a senior officer from China's military intelligence ordering sanctions and meeting with Chinese criminals? You want to help me out with that?"

Harker tapped FDR's pen on her desk while she considered what Zeke had said. Carter watched her. He knew the look. The analyst in her was computing possibilities. Debating how much to say, whether to bring him in. She made up her mind.

"We've received some new intelligence but we haven't had time to analyze it. What I'm about to tell you is speculation. You need to bear that in mind."

Jordan nodded.

"It's possible there is a group plotting to take power in China. The meetings Wu had with the Triads could have something to do with that."

"A plot to overthrow the Chinese government?"

"Yes. Colonel Wu is part of the group we're concerned about. It's led by General Yang. Head of their MI."

Jordan frowned. "The Triads don't like Communists. They'd like to see a change in government over there."

"Could be where the money comes in," Ronnie said. "The money he stole from Selena's uncle. Pay them to do something."

Harker tapped on the desk. "How could the Triads help Yang? Maybe in China, but here in the States? Why would he need them for anything?"

Selena brushed hair back from her forehead. "How do you take over a country as big as China? If we knew that, we might get an idea of what Yang wants from them."

Jordan said, "How do you take over China?"

Carter said, "You take out the heads of the government, all at once. You make sure the military is on your side, especially the army."

Ronnie picked at a surfboarder on his shirt. "You need surprise," he said.

"That's a given." Carter tugged on his ear. "Let's assume a coup was in progress. Go back to our original question; what could the Triads do here to support Yang over there?"

Jordan loosened his tie a little more. "What does Yang need to pull it off besides surprise?"

"Well, he needs time," Carter said. "Once he sets things in motion, the clock starts ticking and he wins or he goes down. He needs time to consolidate control and get his hands on all the strings."

The Director tapped her pen. "What would upset his time schedules?"

"Communications breakdowns. A problem with the military units. Interference from nations outside China could do it. World reaction is a big factor. What would we do, for example?"

Zeke unbuttoned his collar, a major breach of FBI dress code. Carter imagined J. Edgar turning over in his grave.

Harker's pen was going full speed on the desk. She realized what she was doing and set it aside.

"China is a known factor, with a stable government. A right wing coup would be dangerous. We wouldn't want that to happen."

"You think there's the political will to intervene, Director?" Jordan settled into his chair.

"If the President thought national security was at stake. But the risk of war would be huge."

"How could you keep us from getting involved?" said Jordan.

"If we wanted to? You couldn't. Unless…" Carter stopped.

"Unless what?"

"Unless we were occupied with something else. Something that had our attention while Yang took over."

"It would have to be a damn big attention getter," Ronnie said. "It would have to be something national, something that drew a lot of resources."

"What about a terrorist attack?"

Everyone looked at Selena.

"Well," she said, "don't look at me like that. Isn't that what you do here? Go after terrorists?"

"Yes." Harker watched her.

"An attack would keep everyone busy. Yang could use the Triads to make trouble while he grabs power."

Ronnie raised an eyebrow. "That's really devious. Remind me not to play poker with you. But we'd find out it was him. We'd have to do something."

"What? Send in troops? Nuke China?"

The room was silent as each of them thought about that.

"How many in the Triads?" Harker picked up her pen again.

Jordan said, "Several thousand in the Bay Area, if you count the youth gangs. They're usually sent as enforcers. Thousands more spread out over the country, particularly Houston, L.A. and New York. We're not certain."

Stephanie said, "We need more data."

"How do we get that?" asked Jordan.

The Director tapped her pen. "For openers, there's the book. Why does Yang want it? Selena, I need you to get it translated. I assume computer time will help?"

"It will. I've identified points in common between what I can read and what I can't. I want to run a matrix comparison. It should give us an idea."

"Good. Stephanie, program it in for her. While Selena is working on the translation you can run probability scenarios. I want to see what the computers say about what we've been discussing."

"Yes, Director."

Harker said, "All we've got is speculation and Deng's story. We have pieces of intelligence but we don't have any proof. We may be wrong."

"You don't think that," Jordan said.

"It doesn't matter what I think. I can't go to the President and tell him someone's trying to take over China without hard facts."

Jordan looked at his watch. "Director, I can let my boss know what we've been talking about, but no one's going to do much based on speculation."

"I'll brief you as we develop this."

"I guess that will have to do."

When Jordan was gone Selena said, "I'd like to go back to my rooms at the Mayflower. No offense, but that apartment of yours is depressing. It's confining, hard to think in. I need room to pace around."

"That's not a good idea. There's no security at the hotel."

Carter said, "She could stay at my place. I've got a spare bedroom. It would be a lot more comfortable than downstairs. There's an empty unit next door to mine. Ronnie can set up in there and keep an eye on things."

Harker gave him a curious look. "You think it's safer than here?"

"No, but it's safe enough. There's a security desk, cameras. They have to think Selena and I are dead in that mine."

"Selena, are you comfortable with that?"

"I guess so." She gave Nick a thoughtful look. "There's no reason those people would know we're still alive."

"All right. Just make sure you take every precaution."

Harker stood. "Let's get going."