White Jade (The PROJECT) (14 page)

He'd plugged it with war
. He was good at war, it was pretty much all he knew how to do. But m
aking love with Selena had changed something. The hole was coming unplugged.
It made him nervous, the feeling. It wasn't something he was used to.

Chapter
Twenty

Harker sent a Gulfstream GIVSP to pick
them
up at Beale.
It was a government executive model,
all leather and luxury and wood inside the cabin.
Five hours later, the lights of
Washington
stretched away off the port wing.

T
hey
stepped off the plane
at Andrews. The air was hot and humid and smelled of jet fuel and diesel, with a hint of ripe garbage and stagnant water
.

Ronnie was waiting.
He
wore
another shirt from his Hawaiian collection, this one a hallucinogenic riot of purple, red and orange featuring waving palm trees in green and dancing Hula girls.

His
black Hummer
was
parked inside the security zone barriers.
On the way in
Nick
looked over at Selena, leaning back with her eyes closed. Maybe
they'
d ended up in bed because
they
'
d been under fire together
. M
aybe it was the mine. Maybe it was karma. Whatev
e
r it was,
he knew he'd
better be careful about
her
.

At
the Project building
Ronnie went with
them
to the apartment.

"
The Director said tell you when you got in there isn
'
t anything can
'
t wait for morning, so the two of you should make yourselves at home. There are two bedrooms for privacy.
"

Ronnie
'
s expression gave no indication of what he might be thinking, which told
Carter
everything he was thinking.

"
We meet with Harker at 0700. I
'
ll see you then.
"

"
Thanks, Ronnie.
"

"
Hey, no problem. See you tomorrow.
"

He closed the door.

The living area where
they
stood was furnished with a hide-a-bed couch, lamp, coffee table and two chairs. A self contained kitchen unit featured a sink, burners and small fridge. The overhead lighting was uninspired, the carpeting a faded blue government industrial. The bedrooms had twin beds.

Selena turned to
him
.

"
I think he knows we slept together.
"

"
You picked up on that. There
'
s no law says we ought to hide it.
"

He
looked at her and wanted her.
He
stiffened
. She saw it.

"
Nick
."
She
was tense
.
"
I
can
'
t do this right now. Have sex, I mean. Part of me wants to, but it
'
s too much, everything is moving too fast.
"

He wanted to crush her against him
but her words brought an odd sense of relief. Maybe he wanted more than casual sex with Selena. The thought unsettled him.

"
It's okay.
It's like you said. Sometimes people end up in bed after something happens."

Th
e tension went out of her face.

"You mind if I use the bathroom first?"

"No, go for it."

She went into
the bath
closed the door. H
e
thought about tomorrow.
Harker would have
a plan.
She always did.

Chapter Twenty
-One

T
hey
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 rep
eat
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
. B
ut 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
. T
hey'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.

H
er
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
remind
ed
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,
"
W
e
identified
one of the men who came after you
in California
from prints on the wine bottle
. He
'
s Wu
'
s gofer.
"

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

"
That
'
s him,
"
Carter
said,
"
the one who tossed the grenade.
U
gly 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
. W
hen 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.
A
n arm and part of a face came out of the driver
'
s window
. T
here 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, "
T
ell him about the book
, Nick
."

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

"
A
n
ancient
book that belonged to Selena
'
s uncle
," Nick said. "
The Chinese were looking for it
when they killed him. H
e
hid it in
California
. We went there to retrieve it
. T
hen 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.
S
omething
's
up involving the Chinese
Triads
and Wu is mixed up in it.
We
followed him to a meeting with the T
riad
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. W
hat 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. "T
he
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. "
H
ow 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 the
m
."

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."