by Andrew Watts
“So to be clear, this looked legitimate to the members of the Red Cell.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And where are these five people who triggered the travel and participation requests? What happened to them?”
“Four of them are missing. Each appears to have fled the country or gone into hiding.”
“And the fifth?”
“Tom Connolly turned up dead on the shores of Bandar Abbas the day of the Gorji assassination.”
The director nodded. “Ah, yes. Tom Connolly. Delightful. Please proceed.”
David thought it was odd that the CIA director would have asked these questions today. David had been home for weeks. He had been interviewed many times by various government agencies, and especially the CIA. So the investigation into the Red Cell would have been going on for at least that long. The director must already know these things. He does know. He’s just trying to give the members of the Red Cell credibility. To show that while they were duped, they should be considered loyal Americans.
“On October twelfth, the jig is up. Chinese military personnel storm the island and—we assume—take all the Americans into captivity. In the confusion, David Manning and Henry Glickstein escape from the island on a small Chinese watercraft. A few days later, the two men are picked up by an Australian fishing trawler. They spend fourteen days at sea and arrive in Darwin, Australia, on October twenty-fourth.
“This is the same day that two other events occurred. First, the Iranian politician, Ahmad Gorji, was killed, along with his wife, on the highway outside Bandar Abbas, Iran.”
The screen changed to show an overhead drone’s video feed of a highway near the ocean. A freighter truck was parked at an odd angle, blocking the highway. Three black cars stopped in front of it. A gunfight erupted. Then the screen went bright green as an explosion flattened the whole scene.
Susan continued to speak as the video played.
“The attack was extremely well-executed. Our own analysis corroborates the Iranian claims that US and Israeli-made weapons were used. About a dozen armed men emerged from the truck here and began attacking the politician’s convoy of cars. We think that these men were a diversion. Hired Iranians who didn’t know too much about their target. Once the firefight ensued, claymore mines and a very talented sniper finished everyone off.
“The former CIA employee, Tom Connolly, was found dead near the beach, one mile away. This is the same man who had worked at In-Q-Tel and convinced several members of the Red Cell to attend a few weeks earlier. Also, Lisa Parker—aka Lena Chou—sent an unclassified email to several CIA employees indicating that she was a part of the mission.
“It was an obvious framing. But because of these US connections, the Iranians think that we really were responsible for the assassination. Our analysts also stress the personal connection between the Iranian leadership and the people who were killed. Emotional responses are not usually rational ones.”
The lights were dimmed, but David could see a few people were shaking their heads.
The director said, “Tell me about this Parker woman.”
“Lisa Parker, aka Lena Chou. Graduated from the University of Maryland. Division 1 track athlete there. The Agency recruited her out of college. She’s been with the CIA for almost fourteen years. Started out in Central America. Spent a few years there working anti-narco-terrorism operations. Top evaluations got her a slot in Iraq in 2007. She’s done some work in Japan for us, but most of her time has been in either the US or the Middle East. She’s a political action group officer, but she’s also reportedly an expert at unarmed combat. Her file says that she spends a lot of her personal time training in martial arts.”
“Married?”
“No significant others or kids.”
“Family in the US? I’m assuming that she’s US-born?”
“She was raised by an aunt in the San Francisco Bay area. Her birth certificate says she was born there. And records show that the people that were supposed to be her parents were killed in a car crash in 1997. In San Fran. That’s what the file says, anyway. And that’s what all the background checks have stated, but…a recent investigation indicates otherwise.”
He cocked his head. “Please elaborate.”
“We now think she arrived in the US as a teenager right around the time the people she claims were her parents died in the car crash. Our analysts have been evaluating pictures of Lena Chou both before and after her parents’ death. They don’t match. Immediately after the car crash, the daughter went to live with an aunt in the suburbs of Baltimore. But no one who knew the daughter in San Francisco could identify Lena Chou when we showed them pictures. Granted that it would be fifteen years later—but still.”
“Meaning what?”
David couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Meaning that we think Lena Chou was swapped for this daughter of the car crash victims,” Susan said. “The aunt took her and God knows what happened to the real daughter after that. But then the aunt picks up Lena Chou and takes her to Maryland. Then she starts working for the Agency, and her cover name becomes Lisa Parker. But the big news is that we now think she took the girl’s identity as a teenager.”
“How sure are you of this?”
“We’re still investigating. We should know more by next week.”
David watched as video on the screen changed to an image of Lena Chou looking up at the sky. The camera was overhead, so it was easy to make out her features. An official CIA photograph of her was displayed on the screen.
Susan said, “Lena Chou/Lisa Parker was involved in the Iranian assassination. We know that from this drone feed. Only weeks earlier, she was a CIA employee with a sterling record, working in Dubai. When word of a mole in Dubai Station was received, a counterespionage team was sent over to investigate. The team flagged Miss Parker for inconsistencies and asked her to fly back to Washington. She was told that she had been cleared of any suspicion, and that the flight back to D.C. was for training purposes. Apparently she knew better.”
“Why was she allowed to travel back to the States by herself?” the director said.
Susan squirmed. “Sir, this is obviously not standard procedure, and we’ve reprimanded the counterespionage team member who made that decision. Apparently, he had a prior relationship with—”
The director’s hand went up. “Alright. Please see me about that detail later. Continue.”
“The second big event on October twenty-fourth, none of you need reminding about. The Blackout Attack. We have with us Mr. Diaz from the NSA to go over what happened.”
A squat man in a V-neck sweater took the small microphone in his fingers. “Thank you, Susan.” The screen changed to a map of the US. “The Blackout Attack, as people call it, was actually two distinct attacks. Each was executed simultaneously on October twenty-fourth. The first, we now know, came from the ARES cyberweapon. The transmissions emanated from several locations in Southeast Asia and affected approximately seventy-five percent of all satellites in orbit. I can’t emphasize enough how complex an attack this was. The GPS satellites are beyond repair. This alone has caused massive problems. Estimates on getting replacements launched are at six to twelve months.”
Chase whispered, “That’s insane.”
The NSA man continued, “What’s worse—Internet and telecommunications have been greatly damaged by attacks on data centers and root servers.”
“What are root servers?” the director asked.
The NSA man cleared his throat. “Yes, sir…uh…think of root servers as the decoder keys for the Internet. Instead of typing in a sixteen-digit number into your browser to take you to a website, you can type Walmart dot com, for instance. But in actuality, the website is really identified by a sixteen-digit number. Thanks to the root servers, when you type Walmart dot com, it automatically syncs those letters to the correct number identifier and takes you to the correct website. But with these root servers down, there is no longer a decoder ke
y. So technically, the Internet still works. But it’s rendered useless to ninety-nine point nine nine percent of the population.”
“Anyone but people like you?”
Nervous chuckles.
“Yes, sir, I’m afraid so.”
The director said, “So why are we able to use Internet now? It went down for, what, thirty-six hours? It’s slower, but it’s back up. What happened?”
“Director, it appears that the ARES cyberweapon was effective in bringing down several of these data centers and root servers, but the Internet has just become too big and strong. It’s developed immunities, if you will. Technology companies have built so many redundancies into the network that, unless the attack was perfectly coordinated with the physical destruction of undersea cables and other backup data centers, it was only going to be a partially successful attack. What we’re living through now is a damaged Internet. But the tech companies are working hard each day to get it back to full strength. Effectively, we’re going to have another one or two months at low performance before we get back to where we were.”
General Schwartz said, “It’s still killing my IRA. Stock market’s down lower than in 2009.”
“Yes, sir. The psychological impact, and the economic impact of the disruption, are very real.”
“Thank you, Mr. Diaz,” Susan said.
The man nodded and returned to his seat.
The director looked at his watch, then back up at Susan. “Tell me more about Jinshan.”
“Cheng Jinshan has multiple roles—he’s a Chinese national, the billionaire head of multiple Chinese Internet- and media-related companies. His companies make up a large portion of the cybersecurity and censorship wings of the Chinese technology industry. We also have strong evidence that he started off as, and continues to be, a covert agent within the Chinese Ministry of State Security. The confluence of these two positions has made him a major power player in the Chinese government. To put it another way, he has his hands in everything. Jinshan has a personal relationship with the Chinese president, who recently appointed him head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. This is the Chinese agency intended to root out corruption in the government. But the CIA’s Chinese bureau thinks that Jinshan may have been using the CCDI to insert loyalists across the government.”
“Sounds like a busy guy,” said General Schwartz.
“Yes, sir. Our sources tell us that Jinshan has been trying to prepare China for what he sees as a coming collapse of their economy. Our own analysts agree that a Chinese economic downturn is inevitable.”
The general said, “I thought the Chinese economy was booming. They make everything over there.”
“Sir, while Chinese manufacturing is robust, their manufacturing boom occurred between ten and twenty years ago,” Susan said. “Now, the money from that economic boom has made many Chinese citizens wealthier. People have moved from the poor rural areas to the wealthier and more congested cities. While it is still a communist nation, the Communist party has been propped up by the furious pace of economic growth. But that rate of growth is now slowing. The low-hanging fruit has been plucked from the tree, so to speak. China has effectively put off the bubble bursting by using artificial currency manipulation. But even that can only do so much to keep reality from taking hold.”
The director said, “So is that what all that Dubai Bitcoin stuff was about? Currency manipulation so that China could keep its economic advantage?”
Susan nodded. “We believe that’s part of it, sir. Cheng Jinshan had a team of hackers that was trying to manipulate the value of Bitcoin. He then helped to influence the Chinese government to partially adopt backing its own currency with Bitcoin. But the hacking and criminal manipulation of the Dubai Bitcoin Exchange became public thanks to the work of our CIA team in Dubai. Now, proper safeguards are in place, and that artificial manipulation cannot take place. However, the Chinese economic situation is looking more dire by the day.”
“So the bubble is about to pop, and the owner of the largest army in the world, a communist nation, will have hell to pay if it can’t make its citizens happy.” The director looked at General Schwartz. “You have any questions?”
“What else do we know about Jinshan’s background?” Schwartz asked.
Susan looked down at her notes. “He is highly intelligent. He was a competitive chess player in college. He’s charismatic—a gifted orator, when out in public. But he prefers his privacy. We’ve only recently been made aware of how deep his influence goes. He has no family—never married. No vices that we know of.”
The director looked skeptical. “Everyone’s got something. Keep looking.”
“Sir, there is one thing, although it’s not a vice. It’s his health. Our investigation in Dubai uncovered that he may have visited a cancer specialist while he was there.”
“Really? That’s interesting. Any chance this situation is going to resolve itself in the near future?”
A few laughs from the group.
“We aren’t sure, sir. That’s all we’ve managed to find out thus far.”
The director looked at his watch again and then stood up. “Alright. The general and I need to run. I want updates twice a day, and any time there is any urgent news. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
One Hour Later
The Situation Room, The White House
The president sat at the end of the long conference table. “Please proceed, Admiral.”
“Mr. President, at twenty-two thirty local in Tehran today, electronic surveillance aircraft picked up a conversation between the Iranian Supreme Leader and his head of the Iranian naval forces. In that conversation, he told the Iranian Navy head to prepare two Iranian Kilo-class submarines to deploy under what we in the US military would term as a weapons-free ROE.”
“Mr. President, under the weapons-free rules of engagement, a military asset would fire at anything not identified as friendly,” the chief of staff said.
The admiral continued, “Sir, for a submarine—especially an Iranian submarine that doesn’t have the sonar capabilities and training that our subs do—this would mean that they would start sinking just about everything they see. This order is in addition to movement we have witnessed indicating that the Iranians are preparing to lay mines, sir.”
The president shook his head. “Now what in the Sam Hill is that madman thinking?”
Finishing the thought, the chief of staff said, “He likely intends to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, sir.”
The president waved for him to keep going.
“Sir, we have a location of all of their subs right now. One is at sea. The other will take twenty-four hours to get underway. The mini-subs are all on alert. We recommend a preemptive strike on all Iranian submarines and mini-submarines within the next twelve hours. We also recommend striking all SAM sites, surface-to-surface missile sites with ranges greater than ten miles, and a cluster bomb strike on their go-fast gunboats. This will neutralize their medium-range and submarine threat.”
“What about their aircraft?” the national security advisor asked.
The admiral said, “We feel confident that our combat air patrol would be able to neutralize any Iranian air threat on short notice if they take off and show any indication of hostile behavior. The ROE we agreed to last week gives our CAP aircraft that leeway. In short, we don’t feel the need to attack their air force—yet. And we’d rather minimize our strikes, per the president’s instructions.”
The president looked at the CIA director. “Do you still think China may have been behind the attacks in Dubai?”
The CIA director chose his words carefully. “Mr. President, I believe that there are people working for the Chinese government and/or military who were at least partially responsible for the attacks over the past few weeks. Both the attacks in Dubai and the cyberattacks in the US.”
The president said, “And what do you base this opinion on?”
The CIA direct
or spoke up, “Sir, multiple sources, including information from the two gentlemen who escaped captivity in the South China Sea—”
“Yes, I’m quite familiar with those two,” said the president.
There was audible laughter from the others at the table, particularly from the national security advisor, Charlie Sheppard. The director tried to ignore it.
The story of the Red Cell was controversial. Half the media thought it was just a miscommunication. An understandable cross-wiring of information during the confusion of the past few weeks. The other half of the media thought that it was a crazy conspiracy theory.
The US government leadership was also split on their feelings about David Manning and Henry Glickstein’s Red Cell claims. Some in the government believed that David and Henry were lunatics, and that the whole story was some type of hoax. The NSA fell into this camp.
The more extremist news agencies were calling it a conspiracy theory. The national security advisor loved to quote these reports, when it suited him. The CIA director had his suspicions why that was. The NSA had done lobbying work for a lot of different firms. Some with heavy ties to China. That was something that he was quietly looking in to.
Director Buckingham was on the other side of the fence when it came to the Red Cell. He had seen enough to know that there was a good amount of truth behind David Manning’s story.
These extremist news agencies, Director Buckingham knew, sometimes got tidbits of news from sources that originated in China. Some NSA reports even showed that Cheng Jinshan’s cyberoperations center pumped up these extremist news networks by using millions of fake social network accounts.
But there was just enough doubt in David Manning’s Red Cell story to cause the US to go soft in its objections to China. A few of the eighteen “missing” personnel had contacted their loved ones, for instance. They had left messages that supported the idea that they were on legitimate personal or business trips. Director Buckingham’s CIA analysts thought that these messages were coerced or outright faked. But the CIA’s own intelligence reports in China had found that no one in the Chinese government leadership circles knew anything about the Red Cell. And that was very odd.
