American traitor, p.38
American Traitor, page 38
part #15 of Pike Logan Series
After fleeing the Grand Hotel like a teenager caught in the bedroom with the farmer’s daughter, we’d relocated to one of the more modern establishments downtown—this time without allowing Paul to use his credit card. I’d end up paying the bill, but I was fairly sure I could charge the U.S. government when it was all over.
We’d reconsolidated, with me pulling out my team from the Grand Hotel, and as the darkness grew, so did the protests. They had grown stronger during the day and a half we’d spent at the Grand, beginning as soon as the sun went down. We’d ignored the chanting while we planned for the next phase, which was following Colonel Ryan Won—AKA Fly Boy.
We’d waited until his GPS beacon had alerted, and then launched in a three-car surveillance effort, shocked to see that the protests from the night before now included property damage, with multiple buildings having had their windows shattered, glass and other debris littering the streets—although it seemed the majority of action was still centered away from us near the presidential palace and other government buildings.
I had Paul with me, Knuckles and Brett in another car, and Jennifer with Veep. Not unexpectedly, Fly Boy had returned to the Taipei 101 garage, and I’d set up a box around the place, with Veep and Jennifer acting as the trigger.
Sitting in our car, killing time while we waited on the call, I’d asked Paul what he thought about the protests.
“They’re tearing the country apart, and they’re supported by the Triads, paid for by China. I’m sure of it—and Fly Boy is the link.”
“You don’t think it’ll just burn itself out?”
“I hope so—but it hasn’t in Hong Kong. China is consolidating its grip there, and I’m sure they want to do the same here. I mean, any unrest is good for them. Best case, their preferred candidate wins the upcoming election. Worst case, they cause the government to fall. Either way, it’s a win for them.”
And then Jennifer had interrupted with the trigger. Fly Boy was leaving the garage, and he now had Pirate with him. I’d expected to see the beacon move before we actually had a visual, but that hadn’t happened. Fly Boy had exited the garage in a different vehicle.
Thank God I hadn’t relied on technology.
I said, “Give me a description.”
“Late-model Hyundai SUV, black. I don’t have the plates.”
I said, “Good enough. Knuckles, Blood, you copy?”
“We got it. I see the vehicle. We have the eye.”
And then my team had given chase, ignoring the beacon. The target had traveled an hour south, leaving the main highway and winding through the mountains on back roads, eventually ending up at some complex called the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology.
We’d pulled aside and let them enter. I’d repositioned everyone with bumper positions up and down the entrance road, because I was fairly sure there wasn’t a back way out of the place. The complex was locked down like Fort Knox, so I knew they were coming out through the same gate they’d entered.
During our wait, Paul told me the facility was apparently a research arm of the ROC defense forces, used to develop missiles and other technology, not unlike our own U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—or DARPA—which scared the hell out of me, given what I thought Jake Shu was doing.
Eventually, Jennifer had triggered again, confirming that both Fly Boy and Pirate were in the car. I had no idea what they’d done inside the facility, but I was sorely regretting not taking them down before they arrived.
Sometimes developing the situation is the way to go, sometimes it’s the strike, but it was too late now.
She said, “Vehicle intending north. I say again, vehicle intending north, both packages inside.”
Which was to me. I glanced at Paul and said, “We’re on station. Knuckles, Blood, you copy?”
“Moving now.”
Five seconds later the SUV passed us, headed back up the lonely road we were on. I put the car in gear and began to follow. We wound through the mountains outside the compound on the narrow blacktop, snaking through switchbacks every hundred meters as the road tried to get back down to the valley where it could run flat out. And it gave me an idea.
We had about seven minutes before this car reached the valley floor and the main highway. Seven minutes of switchbacks that I could use, while they were all alone.
I got on the net and said, “I’m going to PIT these guys. Knuckles, get on me now. Close the far end after I interdict.”
Knuckles said, “I’m thirty seconds out. Give me the call.”
Jennifer said, “This is Koko. Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. You are the extract. I’m going to take him at the next turn. Knuckles and Blood are security. You’re extract.”
I heard Jennifer say, “Roger all,” and knew she was now furiously trying to catch up.
The car wound around another mountain switchback, the road twisting back on itself as it descended to the valley floor, and I goosed my car, Paul saying, “What’s a PIT?”
I saw the vehicle ahead of me and said, “It’s basically where I crash the shit out of the car, forcing it to stop.”
The vehicle reached another hairpin turn and slowed, giving me an advantage. I heard him say, “What? What do you mean, a crash?”
I sped up, sailing down the slope and hitting the curve at thirty miles an hour. I saw a look of fear from Jake Shu in the passenger seat as I pulled abreast of them. I swung the wheel right and kissed the left rear quarter panel of the SUV, causing its tires to break free from the pavement. I hit the gas while still steering to the right and their vehicle slid sideways for a moment, then spun around, hammering into a guardrail and stopping, its back end hanging over a cliff.
We sped past the wreck and I slammed on the brakes. I threw the car in park and jumped out just as another vehicle came from the other direction. I shouted, “Paul! Get on the target car!” then held my hands in the air as if I was flagging someone for an accident. Paul leapt out and began jogging to the car I’d wrecked. The vehicle stopped, and two men exited.
Two I’d seen before. The MSS assassins from the hotel.
They started shooting as soon as they set foot on the asphalt. I dove behind the back of my car, pulling my own weapon out and saying, “Paul! Threat!”
He flung himself to the ground and I started shooting back, not very accurately, but giving them a reason to duck. They flopped down behind the open doors of their car and Jake Shu entered my peripheral vision, running up the road with his hands in the air.
I shouted, “Jake! Jake! No!”
But it did no good. He was staggering like a drunk, his hands flopping back and forth, his eyes wide with fear. One of the men behind the Chinese vehicle raised up, saw him coming, and nailed him right between the eyes. He collapsed on the road like he’d fallen asleep while running, sliding forward on the pavement, his face grinding into the asphalt.
The man who’d fired realized he’d killed the wrong target and screamed in frustration. I saw his partner start sprinting from the other side of the car, trying to flank me on the hillside.
I raised my pistol, took a slow bead in my holosight, led him a fraction, and punched two bullets center mass. He staggered across the pavement and then fell into the hillside on the far side of the road, looking like a deer that had been shot and had kept moving until its body told him it was done.
I shouted, “Paul, Paul, get on Fly Boy!” and leapt up.
The second man put down a fusillade of lead at my appearance, and I dove back down behind the cover of my rental, the bullets puncturing steel and shattering glass. I heard an engine up the road, and Knuckles came around the corner, driving flat out. The man saw him coming and stood up, punching rounds through the windshield in an effort to get him to stop, but it did no good.
Knuckles ducked down below the wheel and slammed his car into the open door of the man’s vehicle, hammering it hard enough to launch the man hiding behind it over the cliff.
I turned around, seeing Fly Boy leaping down the slope, Paul in pursuit. Down below me, on another switchback, I saw another car on the road.
Fly Boy reached it, the door was flung open, and Chen Ju-Long appeared. He looked at me, and I saw recognition. I snarled into the air, but there was nothing I could do to stop what was happening.
Fly Boy piled into the back, and the car executed an accelerated J-turn, snapping around like it was nailed into the road by the hood, and then began racing toward the valley.
I raised my weapon, wanting to shoot, but I knew it would do no good. Paul made his way back up the slope and stopped at Jake Shu’s dead body.
I went to Knuckles’s car, finding him and Brett outside, searching for the bad man in the bushes, but there wasn’t anything left to harm us. He was dead from the impact.
Knuckles said, “Is this how it was supposed to end?”
I could tell he was pissed. My plan hadn’t gone the way I’d thought it would, but that was water under the bridge now, and there was no reason to dwell on it. Instead, I gave it right back to him.
I said, “You mean you crashing your car into a guy we could have interrogated, launching his ass off a cliff?”
He grinned and said, “Well, I could have let him kill you.”
I said, “Check your vehicle. Make sure it runs. We need to get out of here.”
I got on the net and said, “Koko, Veep, exfil on the alternate route. We’ll see you at the hotel.”
Veep came back, “What happened?”
I said, “I’ll tell you at the hotwash, but it isn’t pretty.”
I walked over to Paul. “He alive?”
“No. He’s most definitely dead.”
I sighed and said, “Fuck. What a debacle.”
Paul said, “There is a silver lining.”
“And what, pray tell, is that?”
“Chen Ju-Long is driving Colonel Won’s car. And it still has the beacon.”
Chapter 84
Chen Ju-Long drove for about a mile and a half to the valley floor. Before he accessed the on-ramp of the north-south highway he pulled over, saying to Zhi, “Take the wheel. I have to make a call.”
She did so, and he dialed his control, waiting on the encryption to synchronize. When it did, and the line cleared, he said, “This is Tiger. The implant was a success, but we have a problem.”
“Problem? What happened?”
“The Americans from Australia appeared here in Taiwan. I was wrong about it being a coincidence before. It wasn’t just an anomaly based off the killing of their friend. I don’t know who they work for, but they are definitely tracking us.”
“Can you evade them until we initiate MANTIS? After that, it won’t matter what they do.”
“That’s the primary problem. They interdicted Ocelot and Bobcat’s vehicle. Ocelot gives us the access we need to the bases here, but Bobcat built the program. He had the back door to execute. And he was killed.”
“Killed? By the Americans?”
“Yes. They also killed the two men you sent from Tainan. They are skilled. Ocelot managed to escape, and he’s with me now. We’ve broken the surveillance effort through the fight and by a change of vehicles, but we don’t have a way to initiate now.”
His control said, “This is very disappointing. Continue your mission. I’ll call you back.”
Chen hung up and said, “Go to Tainan.” Zhi entered the highway and he turned around to Ocelot, saying, “What happened up there?”
Ocelot looked like he wanted to throw up, holding his head in his hands. “I don’t really know. We were hit by a car, knocking us into the guardrail. Before I could even figure out what had happened, there was a gunfight between your men and the car that hit us. Bobcat freaked out and ran toward your men, trying to escape, I think.”
“And the Americans killed him?”
Ocelot said nothing. More forcefully, Chen said, “And the Americans killed him? Talk to me.”
Ocelot pulled his head out of his hands and said, “No. Your men killed him. He ran toward them seeking escape, and they shot him.”
Chen slapped the dashboard in frustration. Zhi said, “They didn’t know who he was. It isn’t their fault.”
“Yes it is. Continue to Tainan. Maybe Control can salvage this mess.”
After two hours on the road his phone rang again. He saw the number and realized it wasn’t his control. He answered, saying, “This is Tiger.”
“This is Lion. I understand there is an issue with the execution of MANTIS.”
“Yes, sir. We’ve lost the ability to initiate. Bobcat is dead. I don’t have the back door. I have no way to execute now.”
“I have one here, in Beijing.”
“How?”
“The American here worked with Bobcat on the program. He has the access control. He can initiate. Let me know when you arrive at the airbase in Tainan. It has to happen today. The full mission profile of the PLA exercise begins soon. We need that signature to quell any fears that the algorithm is incorrect.”
Traveling down the road, Chen wondered if they weren’t pushing the issue. Wondered if they hadn’t extended themselves too far. It had happened in the past, but it wasn’t his job to question why.
He said, “Yes, sir. I’ll let you know.”
He heard some steel through the phone. “Tiger, make no mistake, Ocelot has to use his power to get the command to launch the missiles. Once we initiate, he needs to convince them that it isn’t an exercise. Today is the day for victory. Tomorrow is too late. Do you understand?”
Chen said, “Yes, sir. I understand. I’ll get it done.”
We evacuated the target area, reconsolidating the surveillance effort at a roadside stand just outside the entrance to the valley highway. The team arrived one by one, coalescing around a picnic table under a gazebo.
Once everyone was accounted for, I said, “Okay, here’s the deal. Jake Shu is dead, so we’ve probably short-circuited whatever China had planned. Mission accomplished. I’m about to call the Taskforce to give them a SITREP, but when I do, I’m going to tell them I’m not done.”
Knuckles said, “What’s that mean?”
“Chen Ju-Long killed Dunkin. Murdered him. I’m going to take him down. I realize that’s outside our target set and the Taskforce charter, but I’m going to do it.”
Veep glanced between us, looking at Brett, then Jennifer, clearly not liking where this was headed. He finally said, “Hey, Pike, I think we should get sanction for any further operations. I get the loss of life, but last year in Brazil was over the edge. Let’s not do that again. I don’t want to start a trend here. That’s not us.”
I turned to him and said, “That’s why we’re here talking. I want to know where you guys stand. You don’t want to play, no harm, no foul. I’m not ordering anyone to do anything, and this isn’t a Taskforce operation, but actions have consequences, and I’m going to be that consequence. If you want, you can go back to Taipei. I won’t think any less of you.”
Clearly uncomfortable, he said, “That’s not what I meant. I mean, we do what we’re ordered, and sometimes people die. We accomplished the mission, but we don’t do revenge.”
I saw Paul Kao on the outside edge of the group shuffle his feet, wanting to say something, but unsure if he should.
I said, “Veep, I understand where you’re coming from. I honestly do, but that’s not why I’m asking to execute. What I’m saying is that a Chinese intelligence organization killed Dunkin. The Taskforce cared about why, and we solved that riddle. I care about the death. He deserves our support. He’s got a girlfriend in the United States who has no idea why he died. Yes, we stopped the Chinese, but they still murdered him, and there is not going to be any justice without us. Justice isn’t revenge.”
I looked at my team and said, “I’m going to deliver the justice. Chen Ju-Long will kill again somewhere in the world, and it will be some other innocent victim to project Chinese power. It might even be an American. We have the beacon trace of the car, and I’m going to find it. What I want to know is who will follow me. I’m not ordering. I’m asking.”
Veep looked at Jennifer, asking her with his eyes what she thought. For the first time I realized she was someone the team relied on for an answer, and it gave me a small bit of pride. I should have been upset, because basically he was trying to split her from me, but I wasn’t. She had earned that right. I would do what I was going to do, alone if necessary, but she would get a vote.
He said, “Jennifer, come on. You know this isn’t right. We don’t do assassinations. That’s what the Chinese do.”
She looked at me, and I saw the anguish of Dunkin’s death. She still blamed herself. She took my hand in hers and squeezed it, then glanced at Paul, saying, “This isn’t an assassination. Those men are trying to alter the life of an entire country. We stopped one small event here, but it won’t stop the men like Chen Ju-Long from continuing. We don’t have sanction here, but I’m willing to prevent it.”
Veep said nothing, the tension thick, and Paul stepped forward, breaking it with his very presence.
Tentatively he said, “Can I speak?”
I said, “By all means.”
He turned to Veep and said, “Look, this isn’t a vendetta. I can’t stop what’s happening without you. The high command of the PRC are doing something bad. Can’t we just prevent it? Without all this verbal dancing about vendettas?”
A little startled at his comments, I turned to him and said, “You don’t think it’s done? Jake Shu is dead. Whatever he was doing is gone.”
“Maybe, but he just left the NCIST. You told me he was a computer guy, and that was the only reason he was in there. He’s dead, but we don’t even know if that matters. No, I don’t think it’s done. I think it’s still going.”
I glanced around at the team and said, “This isn’t our country, and there is no threat to the United States, but we can deliver some justice for Dunkin and maybe help Taiwan. I’ll do it alone if I have to.”
Knuckles said, “That took some time. Can we get our jihad on now?”
