White Jade

Chapter Twenty-Seven

There was no sign of Cathy Chen. Selena, Ronnie, Stephanie and Nick were in the Director's office with Jordan. Harker told him about the theft of Selena's computer. She tossed out the conclusion there was a mole in the Bureau.

"I don't believe it."

"Do you have a better explanation? Someone passed the information to Wu. Your people and ours are the only ones who knew Nick and Selena survived. General Hood at NSA is in the loop now. It's not him and it's not one of us. It's got to be someone in the Bureau."

"Am I a suspect, then?" Jordan was getting angry.

"No."

"I don't like what you're saying."

"I don't like saying it. If I'm right, we have to find out who the informant is. If I'm wrong, I'll owe you an apology. What I want to know now is if I can count on you to help us sort this out."

Jordan took a deep breath. "All right, Director. But I think you're wrong."

"Then help us prove it."

"I'm not sure where to start."

"Communications," Carter said. "Our mole had to contact Wu. Run a trace on the phone numbers of people in your unit, cross reference Wu's numbers from our intercepts, see if there's a connection. NSA does this all the time."

"I wouldn't call Wu or his contact from my own phone if I were the mole."

"People get over-confident. They make mistakes. It's worth a try."

Jordan nodded. "Okay."

"Financial records." It was Ronnie. "We run checks on everyone in the Asian Criminal Enterprise Unit and see if someone's getting richer than they're supposed to be."

"I can get authority for that," said Jordan. "All right, I'll do it. But I want to keep this internal. If one of ours is bad, then we have to be the ones to take him down. Agreed?"

Harker nodded. "Agreed."

Carter felt sorry for him. Who needs to hear someone you're working with might be a traitor?

"Is there anything else, Director? I'm due back at headquarters."

"No. I know this isn't easy."

"No, it's not. I think you're wrong, but you're right about one thing, we have to know one way or the other." Jordan got up, annoyed.

Stephanie escorted him out. When she returned, the Director went on with the meeting.

"We will no longer involve the FBI in what we're doing, until we know who tipped off Wu. I didn't want Jordan to hear the next part of our discussion. Stephanie, what do the scenarios indicate?"

"As we thought. High probability of a conspiracy to take over control of China. The computer factored in the defector interviews, all the rest of the intelligence we've been getting from China in the last few months, the FBI's concern about the Triads, Wu's actions, everything.

"Selena was curious about a reference to burning rocks. The computer confirms it refers to high grade uranium ore, over ninety-seven percent probability. The process described in the book is the same as what we use today to produce yellowcake. That gets refined into uranium oxides. You put that through centrifuges to get the enriched uranium you need for bombs. You can get yellowcake from low grade ore but it's tedious. High quality ore yields a lot more for the same effort."

"That would explain the passage in the text about changing from silver to yellow or gold," Selena said.

The Director set her pen to the side. "What about the immortality elixir? What does the computer say about that?"

Stephanie adjusted the gold bracelets on her wrist. "The computer doesn't have the bias we do about the existence of an elixir of immortality. It projects the elixir may be discovered."

"What's the probability of success?"

"For finding the complete formula and the place where it was manufactured, eighty-six per cent. The same for finding the location of the uranium. Regarding the coup, that's more hopeful. At best, there's about a fifty-fifty chance Yang can pull it off."

"What happens if he doesn't find the elixir?"

"Still fifty-fifty. They're not related."

Carter said, "Does the computer back up our ideas about the Triads?"

Stephanie nodded. "Provide a distraction while Yang brings up the tanks. I was careful not to program in our conclusions. The computer was analyzing the same intel we have and its conclusions are similar. The scenario indicates high probability for West Coast targets in the Bay Area, but we could be looking at attacks on a national level. The emphasis is on disruption of basic infrastructure, including the Golden Gate and Bay bridges, the transportation system, water supply and especially power sources."

"What do you think will happen, if we're right?" Carter tugged at his ear.

Harker picked up her pen. "It could lead to war."

"Let me see if I've got this right, Steph," said Ronnie. "If there was a big terrorist attack here there'd be plenty of speculation and talk, right? World attention?"

"Yes."

"And that would keep the Chinese government and everyone else preoccupied?"

"Yes."

"So while the world is looking the other way, Yang makes his move and takes over."

Stephanie nodded agreement. "That's about it."

Harker tapped her upper lip with her pen. "The big question is when? It must be soon, or why move on Connor and grab his accounts? Nick, if you were doing this, when would you do it?"

"I'd pick a time when our guard was down, when people were thinking about something else. Like a holiday."

"The Fourth of July." It was Selena. "That's five days from now. It's the only holiday coming up anytime soon. Big crowds for fireworks, traffic jams, lots of confusion. If they're going to try something soon, I'd bet on that."

"That makes sense." Tap, tap, tap on her desk. "I'm going to have to give a heads up to Homeland Security. I can't go to the President yet."

"But how much can we tell them," Nick said. "Whatever we give them is bound to leak. Yang will find out we're on to him."

"I only have to tell them enough to get them to raise the security watch. I can do that without giving away the store. The main thing is to get them on it. This is going to get complicated."

Elizabeth dreaded the nightmare of Washington bureaucracy. If the various agencies started putting in their two cents they'd argue about what to do and how to do it and who would be in charge and form a joint task force. It would be next year before anything happened. There wasn't time for that.

She made up her mind. "It's Homeland Security's job to be on the lookout for an attack. We can alert them, but that's all we can do and all we have to do. We've got mobility the others don't and we need to take action. I want something to back up our analysis."

"How do we get that?" Carter reached under his jacket and adjusted his holster. He felt a headache start. He knew what was coming.

"Right from the start everything has centered on the book. Yang wanted what's in it and now he has that. He has the same directions and information we do. His best chance at finding out anything more is to look for the place where the emperor was taken. That's in Tibet. We need to get there before he does, document anything we find and block Yang from getting it."

"That area is pretty remote," Carter said. "We could get in with minimal risk of detection, but how long will it take to find this place? We don't even know for sure it exists."

"We'll run satellite images and cross reference with the map in the book. If we can get a good idea where, we'll go in."

"Who's going?"

"Don't worry, Ronnie, you're on the team."

"You need me along," Selena said.

"You don't know what you're asking," Carter said.

"You don't think a woman can do the tough stuff?"

"That's not what I mean."

"What do you mean?"

"We'll have to jump in. It's rugged terrain and high altitude. If the Chinese are there it could get bad, fast."

"I've been skydiving for years, I'm qualified. I have over seventy jumps. None of you speak the languages and you couldn't make sense of any writing you might come across. You need me."

"It's not a goddamned farmer's field. It's the Himalayas, for Christ's sake."

Selena just looked at him.

Harker said, "Anyone on that team has to be armed, Selena."

"Guns don't bother me."

"They're not guns, they're weapons. How do you feel about shooting someone? You think you could do that?"

Her heart started pounding. She took a deep breath. "If I had to."

"You have a point about the language barrier." Tap, tap.

There was silence. After a moment Carter said, "How would we go in?"

"I think a B-1B modified for Special Ops, out of Dyess. That plane is perfect for high altitude penetration. Chinese radar won't pick it up. With a small team we can give you a vehicle, supplies, everything you need. How many personnel do you want?"

"Fewer is better," said Ronnie. "If we run into opposition, more bodies won't get us out of trouble and we lose mobility with more. Keep it small."

"Nick?"

"I agree with Ronnie. One vehicle, weapons, a few days of supplies. In light and out as fast as we can. But I want to know exactly what we're getting into before we get on that plane."

"We'll get as much intel as we can." Harker's pen tapped, went still. "Selena, I'm willing to put you on the team but I want Nick to get you familiar with the weapons you'll have to carry."

"That's fine by me."

"Wait a minute," Nick said. "Selena's not combat trained."

"Then I guess you'd better get her up to speed. She goes. We don't have a lot of time. Yang and his people are going to get there as fast as they can. We have to beat them to it."

"You're putting us at risk."

"She goes." Harker's voice had an edge in it. Carter had heard it before. It was her don't-fuck-with-me voice.

He gave in. "When do we leave?"

"We have to set up transport and supplies and get a clear location. If it's a go, tomorrow night. That gives you time to work with Selena on the range. Ronnie, you get on logistics. Make sure nothing points back to us and that you've got plenty of whatever you need. Better add climbing gear. It'll be cold weather and thin air. Lay in oxygen."

"What about radiation equipment? If there's anything there, we need to know it."

"Good point. Take a counter and dosimeters for everyone."

"Are you going to tell the President?" Carter asked.

"No. Not yet. He needs to be able to deny it."

She didn't say what they were all thinking. If Rice had to deny it, something would have gone wrong. Big time wrong.

Like that, they were on their way to Tibet.