“You can come in,” she said. “My manager wishes to speak to you.”
Without hesitation, Kirsten strode through the doorway. But as soon as she stepped into the back room, two big Lisu men closed the door behind her and grabbed her arms.
They held her still while a third man patted her down and went through her pockets. The thug took her cash, her satellite phone, and Arvin’s flash drive and dumped them all on a desk in the middle of the room. Sitting behind the desk was a fourth man, who was also Lisu but much smaller and older than the other three. His hair was white and his face was wrinkled, but he had lively eyes and perfect teeth. He wore a gorgeously tailored pin- striped suit and a gold chain with a crucifix.
“Hello, Ms. Chan,” he said in English. “How good of you to stop by.”
Startled, Kirsten wondered for a moment if the old man was a Module, despite his full head of hair. But then he held up a sheet of paper, and she saw her own picture on it, and Jim’s as well. It was the same flyer she’d seen in the hands of the police officers in Yichang. Thousands of copies had probably been distributed across the country by now.
“My name is Wang Khaw,” the old man said. He waved the flyer in the air. “I received this yesterday from one of my friends at the Public Security Bureau. They know I do a fair amount of business at the border, so they try to keep me informed.” He tapped a bony finger on the Mandarin text below her photo. “It says here that you’re an intelligence agent for the Americans. Is that true?”
Kirsten nodded. There was no point in lying to the man. The satellite phone was a dead giveaway. She tried to approach Wang’s desk, but the thugs tightened their grip on her arms and pulled her back. “Look, there’s three thousand eight hundred dollars on your desk,” she said. “And that’s just a down payment. If you help me cross the border, I’ll contact the CIA agents in Kachin State and get you some serious cash. Fifty thousand dollars, how does that sound?”
Wang frowned. “Fifty thousand? That’s all? The Ministry of State Security is offering twice as much for you.” He shook his head. “Fortunately for you, Ms. Chan, I’m not interested in money right now. I want information. Specifically, any information you have about the PLA operation that took over my town this afternoon.”
The old man’s face was tense. Kirsten could see why Wang might resent the presence of the Chinese army, which would surely put a damper on his smuggling activities. And because the Lisu of Yunnan Province were close cousins to the Kachin of northern Burma, she supposed that Wang might not like the idea that the PLA was preparing to attack the Kachin militias.
She gave him a sober look. A good intelligence officer, she reminded herself, makes the most of the facts she has. “This deployment is obviously a reaction to what happened at the Three Gorges Dam. The People’s Republic is lashing out at its enemies, and the Kachin rebels are at the top of the list. The Burmese army can’t control Kachin State, so the PLA is going to do the job for them.”
Wang curled his lip. “Is that the best you can do? Telling me what’s obvious?” He raised his voice. “Does the Chinese government really think the Kachin blew up their dam?”
“It doesn’t matter. The PLA sees this as an opportunity to crush the militias once and for all.” Kirsten didn’t know if this was true, but she spoke with the utmost confidence. “There’s been a change in the leadership of the People’s Republic. The Politburo has become more aggressive, and they’ve launched new operations to eliminate their opponents. I’ve been investigating one of those operations, a project named Tai He. It’s based near Lijiang, just one hundred and fifty kilometers from here.”
“Go on,” Wang said, leaning back in his chair. “Is Tai He connected to the PLA deployment?”
“I believe so. The Politburo is obsessed with keeping the project secret, but I managed to infiltrate one of their computers.” She stepped toward Wang’s desk and this time the thugs let her go. She pointed at Arvin’s flash drive. “All the information is in there. I’m trying to get it to my superiors in Washington. That’s why every policeman in this country is looking for me.”
Wang picked up the flash drive. “And what secret could possibly be so important?”
“Tell me something, Mr. Wang. Have your employees noticed anything strange over the past few months? Any odd gray clouds that hover over the mountains near the border? Clouds that move like swarms of insects?”
It was just a guess. Kirsten had no idea whether the Guoanbu had sent drone swarms to the Burmese border. But it was an educated guess. The section of the border near Pianma was certainly one of the places where the Chinese government would’ve wanted to conduct surveillance operations. And after several seconds of stunned silence, Kirsten realized she’d guessed right. Wang exchanged glances with his thugs, who shifted nervously from foot to foot.
She took another step forward, approaching the edge of Wang’s desk. “Did you see it yourself?”
The old man nodded. “I thought I dreamed it at first. But my men saw it, too.”
“That swarm was part of Tai He. They’re insects embedded with antennas and computer chips. For spying on dissidents and enemies of the state. And delivering biological weapons.”
Wang put the flash drive back on his desk and pushed it away as if it was unclean. “It’s the work of the Devil,” he muttered. “An abomination.”
Kirsten looked again at the crucifix hanging from the old man’s neck. “You’re right,” she said. “What they’re doing is satanic. So will you help me stop them?”
He didn’t answer right away. He lowered his head and stared at the floor, deep in thought. The old smuggler was clearly a clever man who didn’t do anything without thinking it through. Kirsten and the three thugs stood there in silence, waiting for him to finish calculating.
By the time Wang finally raised his head, he’d regained his composure. “Business is business,” he said. “As soon as we take you across the border, I want my fifty thousand dollars.”
SIXTY-SEVEN
Jim’s troubles started at the timberline, about a mile and a half from the radio tower. For the past five hours he’d ascended the tree-covered ridges of Yulong Xueshan, taking cover behind the thick summer foliage. But the tower loomed above an alpine glacier at the mountain’s summit, and between this ice sheet and the timberline was a long barren slope littered with loose stones. If he tried to climb this slope, he’d be exposed to the dozens of surveillance cameras that were surely monitoring the area around the tower. He’d lose the element of surprise, which was one of the few things he had going for him.
He lingered at the edge of the woods, unsure what to do. Although it was only 5:00 P.M., the sun had already sunk behind the high peaks of the mountain range. He knew that waiting for nightfall wouldn’t help; Supreme Harmony’s surveillance network included infrared cameras, and the thermal image of Jim’s body would shine like a beacon against the cold mountainside. He peered around the trunk of a large pine tree, trying to determine where the cameras were, but he spotted nothing on the bare gray slope above him. Then he saw something move beside another tree at the timberline, a figure in an olive-green uniform, about a hundred yards away. An instant later he heard the rapid-fire bursts from the soldier’s AK-47.
Jim ducked behind the pine trunk as the bullets whistled past. The soldier had to be a Module—his marksmanship was too damn good. The AK rounds slammed into the tree, ripping off slabs of bark and pulp. Jim crouched low and raised his Glock, but he was badly outgunned. When he snaked his prosthesis around the pine to return fire, the barrage from the AK gouged the trunk and showered him with splinters. The Module circled to the right, shooting as he ran, and Jim scuttled around the tree to stay behind cover. Sooner or later, he knew, one of the bullets would hit him. It was just a matter of time.
Thinking fast, he pulled his satellite phone out of his pocket and displayed the image of Medusa on the screen. “All right, I give up!” he yelled. “I’m throwing down my gun.” He tossed aside his Glock, which landed on the pine needles that blanketed the ground. “Now hold your fire! I’m unarmed!”
It was risky. He didn’t know if Supreme Harmony would want to take him alive. But even if it had no interest in incorporating him into its network, he assumed it would want to interrogate him. Out of curiosity, if nothing else. After a few seconds the Module ceased firing, and the woods fell silent.
Jim raised his hands in the air, holding the satellite phone in his prosthesis. Then he stepped out from
