the Chinese computer authority, and as a result, had arrested a British national here in Macao. Questioning had revealed nothing of use so far, but it might be possible that this man, a foreigner; was involved in the terrorist plot, yes?
Locke had almost laughed aloud. Yes, he had told the policeman, it was possible. The Army would like to question this prisoner. They would send men to collect him and transport him back to the base for interrogation. It was not a request.
The police were only too happy to comply.
Locke pulled in a couple members of his personal team, already outfitted as soldiers, wrote transfer papers on Wu’s official stationery, and sent them to collect Leigh. How perfect was that?
The police were going to turn the only man who could blow the whistle on Locke’s operation over to him!
Leigh, unfortunately, would have an accident shortly after he came into Locke’s custody. He was a loose end Locke had planned to wrap up anyway, and this just made it easier.
That done, there was nothing else to stop them, nothing.
35
Jay removed his rig, stripped the casters and sensor gear and mesh off, and just let it drop on the carpet. Later, he’d shove the sweaty mesh into the ultrasonic cleaner, and use dry-clean wipes on the bits that he couldn’t immerse in the ultrasound’s liquid, but for now, he just wanted to go and take a shower himself.
It hadn’t been pretty, but it was, at last, done.
No matter how good a scenario you could spin, running down the rascals that Shing had caused to infest the military and CyberNation computers was dull, grinding work. Like pulling crab grass up by the roots, or scrubbing a dirty floor, or maybe chipping barnacles off a ship’s hull. Each bit had to be done manually, and once removed, the place where it had been had to be sanded, smoothed, wiped, repainted — remade so that the chunk removed didn’t leave a gap or hole or whatever.
It was scut work, and not Jay’s thing, but it had to be done, it had to be done
But, finally, it was finished. As far as Jay could tell, all traces of the tampering done by Shing and his allies were no more.
His virgil beeped in its computer dock. Seurat.
“Good evening,” Seurat said when Jay accepted the connection.
“Hey.”
“How goes it?”
Jay managed a tired grin. “We got the guy, we got his modus, and I just finished cleaning it out. The military system — and yours — are as clean as new pennies. At least as far as this hack is concerned.”
“
“Just part of the job, Mr. Seurat.”
“But you must call me Charles,
“I must?”
The man sounded way too happy, even though Jay had done him a good turn.
“Do you like Paris, my friend?”
“Sure.”
“Then you must come and visit. To a wedding.”
“Somebody getting married?”
“Yes. Me. I have met a wonderful woman — an American, no less. She is perfect, the most beautiful and intelligent and funny woman in the world.”
“Save one,” Jay said.
“Ah, you are married?”
“Yep. Got a baby son, too.”
“This is wonderful, no?”
“Yeah. It is. And after I take a shower, I’m going to go and spend some quality time with them. This has been a bastard of a case.”
“But you have solved it, and all is right with the world, no?”
“As close as it gets for me,” Jay said.
After he and Seurat broke the connection, Jay smiled. For him, all was right with the world. Or would be, right after he took a shower…
36
The Net Force 747, an old workhorse but one that still did the job, droned along six miles up. Kent came awake and looked around. About half of his unit was napping, the others reading or working on their battle laptops.
Kent had four squads, ten troopers each, and thus a single platoon. Each squad would be deployed in different parts of the operation — security, communications, transportation, with the actual strike team being six or eight strong. No way could he take enough troops into China to get into a shooting engagement with the Chinese Army.
In fact, the unit would technically be spies if they were caught, because they were all going to be in civilian clothes — an uninvited, uniformed force on foreign soil was sometimes necessary, but in this case, a bad idea.
Next to him, Julio Fernandez, who looked as if he were asleep, said, “General Howard is gonna be sorry he missed this.”
“Only if we don’t screw it up.”
Fernandez grinned. “Well, at least we can blame it on the jarheads if that happens. Sir.”
Kent shook his head.
The plan, hurried as it was, seemed pretty reasonable. They wouldn’t be flying into China, but to a military base in south Taiwan, where they would transfer to a seaplane that would rendezvous with a boat in the sea south of Macao. The final leg in would be the most tricky, but supposedly, that was covered with enough bribes to make it relatively safe.
CIA and Military Intelligence, along with some intel from the Brits, would, Kent hoped, tag Comrade General Wu so that they could approach him away from his military base. They’d grab him, spirit him back to the boat, and, all things going well, haul him back the same way they’d gotten in.
All things going well…
Chang had a bank of three seats to himself, a rare luxury, and he had lifted up the dividing arms and made himself a short couch, upon which he was lying. He kept the center seat belt loosely fastened around himself, just in case they should hit rough air while he was asleep. It was a long flight, and sleep would be welcome.
As he dozed, he considered his trip to America. It had gone well, much better than he could have expected. He had not only seen how Net Force operated, he had done them a large favor, one which was already paying dividends. He had hardware and software he would not have been able to buy on his own, and the good will of Jay Gridley, Net Force’s top computer operative, which was worth more than gold.
More, Chang’s government had in custody a man connected to the attack on the U.S. military, and, with luck,
