Kim ordered dinner and joined Cai, who was looking out the window at the Songhua River.
“This is a fantastic view, Kim. It’s where the Ice Festival was held.”
As they stood together looking at the river and the sparkling lights on the boats, Kim put his arms around Cai’s waist and pulled her close to him. He kissed her on the lips and neck passionately and slowly. He could feel her tense up and then relax in his arms as she kissed him back. Kim couldn’t believe this was all taking place. He never would have dreamed when he first came to Harbin that he’d be kissing the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in a luxury suite that was probably meant for celebrities and rich executives.
They heard a knock on the door and they knew dinner had arrived. The dinner consisted of an assortment of dim sum, Cantonese dishes, and some local Heilongjiang dishes such as cooked wild pig. Both the food and the champagne were exceptional by any standards but were truly magnificent compared to what Kim was used to eating. During dinner they discussed the project.
“Who do you think is funding us, Kim?”
“I have no idea, but my superiors really want to know.”
“I think Shen is working with a foreigner. Lian says Shen was given a special phone for the project with encryption capability and that Shen was speaking English to someone outside of China.”
“That’s what I assumed. I don’t believe the funding source would be someone who lived in China. The potential risk would be too large if things didn’t go well. The Chinese government would be in a difficult position if this was a plan that originated with one of their citizens. It would look like it had their backing.”
“I’m concerned that the only people we know on the project are Shen and Lian. Doesn’t that seem strange?”
“It looks like the project organization has been broken into separate cells. It’s a technique used by terrorist and intelligence organizations. It allows a large organization to be run without raising much attention while also being insulated from surveillance. No one except the funding source and his representative knows who’s involved outside of their cell. The representative is clearly Shen.”
“I think you might want to perform some surveillance on Shen to see if you can identify who the funding source is.”
“My thought exactly, and that will be my next assignment for the North Korean agents who I’m meeting with tomorrow.”
“Great. Now to more important matters such as our plans for the rest of the evening.”
“Did you want to go home or stay here and enjoy the room?”
“I want to stay, Kim. But first I need to get out of this dress and into one of those bathrobes in the bathroom.”
Cai smiled and then stripped off her dress slowly in front of Kim, exposing her breasts, which were as perfect as the rest of her. He watched as she slowly walked to bathroom while looking back at him. He could hear her turning on the shower, so Kim took off his clothes and joined her. It was a very long shower.
Afterward, they both got into the huge bed and talked about themselves.
“How big is your family, Cai?”
“It’s just my father, mother, and me. My parents have been happily married for twenty-four years. What about your family?”
“My father died when I was young, so it’s just my mother and sister.”
“It must have been difficult to lose your father.”
“It was, but my uncle took his place. He’s a fleet admiral for the North Korean Western Fleet, and he’s been my mentor for as long as I can remember.”
“Do you like being an intelligence agent?”
“I like the cybersecurity part, but I hated spying on our citizens.”
“What are your future plans, Kim?”
“Finish school, and find a way to get my family out of Nampo.”
“What about you? Do you think you’ll go back to North Korea?”
“It’s my country. I hate our government, but it could be a great place to live, if . . .”
“You said you can’t defect to China, but what about another country, like America?”
“It would be difficult to get there and even if I could, I’m not sure they’d accept me.”
“I think they would,” Cai said. “With your knowledge of North Korea and its military, you’d be highly valued. We should go there together. I have relatives in New York.”
Kim and Cai fell asleep in each other’s arms and awoke in the same position the next morning. Cai kissed Kim, and said, “Let’s call for breakfast and then shower.”
“Sure. What do you want?”
“How about an American-style breakfast with eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, orange juice, and coffee. It’ll prepare us for our future trip to New York.”
“Sounds like a great idea.”
After eating breakfast and enjoying another long and sensuous shower, they got dressed and took the elevator to the lobby. Kim asked the front desk to call them a taxi and if there were any charges.
“No, sir, everything was paid for.”
“Can I ask who paid for all of this?”
“I can’t tell you that, sir. He wants to be anonymous.”
“Here’s three hundred yuan, can you tell me now?” Kim whispered.
“Wait here, I’ll be right back,” the clerk said, as he grabbed the money and quickly put it in his pocket. When he returned, he handed Kim a business card with the name Sean Flaherty, Esq., of Fisher and McGowan in New York City.
Kim went over to Cai, passed the card to her, and whispered, “It looks like our benefactor might be an American working in the same city as your relatives.”
“New York is a huge city, and none of my relatives are named Flaherty, Fisher, or McGowan.”
The taxi finally arrived. She was dropped off first, since her address was closer to the hotel.
“You live in a nice neighborhood, Cai. Do you live alone?”
“No, I have a roommate. Her name is Mei. I have to go, Kim. I’ll see you in class.”
Cai gave Kim a kiss and then quickly ran into her apartment building, which Kim found curious.
Kim arrived at his apartment at around noon and changed into his normal weekend clothes of blue jeans and an HIT sweatshirt. At one, the North Korean security officers arrived.
“Come in and please introduce yourselves and show me your credentials.”
“I’m Lieutenant Park and this is Ensign Park. Here are our credentials.”
Kim looked at their identification cards. “The both of you look very much alike. Are you related?”
“Yes, sir, we’re brothers.”
“From now on, neither you nor I will refer to each other by military rank, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” both agents said simultaneously.
Kim shook his head. “No, you can’t acknowledge my rank in any way. That means you can’t call me ‘sir.’ No one is to know that I’m an officer in the KPN.”
“Should we just call you Kim?” Lieutenant Park asked.
“Yes, that’s fine. I have someone in my class at HIT that I want you to follow. Report back on everywhere he goes and who he meets. One of you already met him at HIT, so make sure you aren’t seen. He’s smart and he drives a Mercedes-Benz, so you’ll need a car to follow him. His name is Shen Wei.”
“We can get a car.”
“This individual is from a very prominent Chinese family, so don’t harm him in any way and don’t get caught. Is that clear?”
“Very clear.”
“Good. Report back to me immediately on anything you find out. Make sure you have a good digital camera to take pictures so you can email them to me. Don’t send the pictures to anyone else until after I’ve reviewed them. I need to determine if they’re just his friends or someone we need to take a closer look at.”
“Will you come along too?”
“No, he knows me too well. I’m in his class at HIT, and he’d get suspicious if he saw me tracking him. I also have to go to school, and
if I started missing class it would look suspicious.”
“We understand. We’ll start immediately.”
“Good. Keep me informed.”
After they left, Kim called Cai on her cell phone.
“Hi, it’s Kim. Are you okay? You ran into your building after we said goodbye. Were you sick?”
“I’m fine, Kim. But my roommate is dating someone I detest. I try to avoid him since he’s very crude.”
“What’s he done?”
“He asks if I’d want to have a threesome with him and my roommate. He also takes advantage of Mei by constantly borrowing money. He’s even tried to borrow money from me.”
“Is he a student?”
“No, I think he washes dishes at a local restaurant.”
“Has he threatened you or Mei in any way?”
“Not yet, but I’m thinking of moving out.”
“I can talk with him, if you like.”
“No, you could get in trouble. Maybe we could find a place together if things get really bad.”
Kim knew his superiors would never allow that.
“Yes, maybe we could. What’s his name?”
“My roommate calls him Woo Lei, but I’m not sure that’s his real name.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you in class tomorrow. I love you, Cai.”
“I love you, too, Kim.”
9
When James got to his office the morning after his meeting at VSI, he immediately drafted a letter to the president and then called Barbara Chang.
“Hi, Barbara, do you have a minute?”
“Actually, I have more than a minute. The president’s over at the Hill meeting with some senators about the majority leader’s death. What do you need?”
“As you know, I was hoping to talk to the president at yesterday’s meeting about a possible short leave of absence. Unfortunately, the death of the majority leader delayed that, which I entirely understand. My situation has changed since then. I’m couriering a letter to you requesting an indefinite leave of absence so that you can give it to the president.”
James didn’t hear anything and he thought he’d lost the connection.
“Barbara, are you still there?”
“Yes, James. What has changed that would require an indefinite leave of absence?”
“I had a meeting with the VSI senior management after our meeting yesterday, and I was informed of some corporate problems that are very serious and need to be addressed. After thinking about it last night, I’ve decided that these problems will require more of my time than I originally thought.”
“This is a very bad time for you to be gone, James. I hate to put it this way, but with the senator’s death, the roadblock preventing the passage of the foreign cyber-attack bill has been removed. You had more to do with defining the requirements for that bill than anyone else.”
“I appreciate that, but VSI needs me now that Philip is gone. I didn’t realize how much, until yesterday.”
“Okay, James, I’ll get the letter to the president. When do you think you’ll be leaving?”
“I need to tie up some loose ends and brief my staff so they can take over. Maybe two weeks.”
“That soon. Okay, can we at least call on you if something comes up?”
“I’d be upset if you didn’t. I won’t be that far away.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Give the president my regards.”
“Will do.”
James then called Shelly Brockner.
“Good morning, Director. I’d like to meet with you this afternoon to discuss some news that relates to my partner’s murder.”
“Sure, James, how about one thirty at my office? I’d like to have Special Agent Tanner there.”
“Great. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
James quickly checked his favorite news sources from his laptop to see if there was any more news about the majority leader’s death. The big story of the day was the DC medical examiner stating that her office needed at least a week or two to complete their examination. This was questioned by many of the political reporters, who claimed that examinations of most deaths by natural causes are completed in a few days. James wondered how long it would take if the causes weren’t so natural.
After looking at a few more news articles about Senator Thompson’s death, James pulled up the latest version of the senator’s foreign cyber-attack bill on his laptop. He began marking the areas of the bill that would need to be removed or changed for it to look more like the house bill. At one p.m. he called for a car to take him to the Hoover Building for his meeting with Director Brockner.
During his drive, James noticed two texts from Tom Allen asking him to call. That was unusual, since Tom rarely contacted James after he’d left VSI. Tom had developed a special bond with James, who hired him from Caltech. While Philip used Christopher as his right hand, James had relied on Tom, who had proved himself as a brilliant design engineer. He thought Tom felt betrayed when he left VSI to become Federal CIO. James was happy to see Tom reaching out to him again and immediately called him.
“Hi, boss,” Tom said. “I texted you because I found some information that could help identify the military officers Philip met with. The car they were in was in a fender bender on the way to the meeting. Their SUV got rear-ended while stopping at a light near the Lexington Park sign as you enter town. The guard at our front desk remembered what time they arrived and that the driver was pissed at how long it took the state police to respond to the accident. Apparently the brass in the car were very upset that they might be late for the meeting. I looked up the date that the Ravens played the Redskins, and I can estimate the time of the accident from what the driver said to the guard.”
“How does that help us determine who they are?”
“The driver would have had to file an accident report with his guys at Fort Meade. If we can get the information on the accident that day, we could probably get the license and registration for the car as well. The accident report should also identify the driver and the passengers.”
“Thanks, Tom. Please email me the information.”
That was a start, thought James as he entered the Hoover Building. He checked in through security and was met by Special Agent Rick Tanner. James expected a SEAL to be built like most swimmers he knew, tall and lanky. Instead, Rick was built like a fullback, standing no more than six feet with a barrel chest, broad shoulders, and huge biceps that almost bulged through his suit jacket.
“Great to finally meet you, Mr. Jordan. I assume you got the message I left on your home phone.”
“I did. Please call me James.”
The director was waiting for them when they walked into her outer office.
“Please come in, James,” she said. “I’d like to ask you if you could help Rick with the investigation of your partner’s death. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, I was actually going to ask you if I could assist the FBI in your investigation. He should know everything I know if we’re going to work together.”
“I agree, and I think you’ll find Rick to be one of the best young agents we have at the FBI. He’s also very computer literate. Rick graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School with a master’s degree in Cyber Systems and Operations, with a specialization in cybersecurity.”
“Better be careful, Director. Some IT company like VSI might try to hire him,” James laughed.
Neither Shelly nor Rick laughed. James quickly got down to business.
“Has there been any progress on Philip’s case?”
“You know that we found the SUV tracks we were looking for near Philip Wu’s home, right?” asked Shelly.
“Yes, Rick left me a message to that effect. But can you be absolutely sure it was the murderer’s vehicle?”
“Nothing is ever absolute in this business,” Rick said, jumping in. “It’s clear that the tracks start outside the protected community where your partner lived and led dire
ctly to his house. The same is true for the tracks from the house to the main road that adjoins the community. I’d say that someone was definitely seeking a specific house and was probably using a GPS to get in and out.”
“Have you found the agency where the vehicle may have been rented?”
“Not yet, but we did get some video from a security camera near the marina that recorded the deceased assailant driving Mr. Wu’s Jaguar. We also found another video taken a few hours later of a black Ford Escape leaving the marina parking lot. That fits the approximate time of the Chinese assailant’s murder. We have a picture of the license plates, but unfortunately they trace back to plates that were stolen from a 98 Buick in Brooklyn several months ago.”
“Can you identify the driver of the Ford from the video?”
“Not really. The driver had his head to the left and was looking down as if he was trying to avoid the camera.”
“Do you plan to release any information to the public?”
“No, we don’t want to alert the suspect, and we don’t have sufficient information for an ID.”
“Do you have anything you can add, James? It seemed like you wanted to discuss something when you called my office earlier to set up this meeting.”
“Yes, I do, Director. I had a meeting with some of the senior management at VSI yesterday, and I learned some interesting things.”
James described the strange circumstances surrounding the cyber attacks on the VSI networks and the meeting between Philip and the military officers. He included the information Tom had told him earlier about the car accident.
“We know the date, time, and location of the accident. Couldn’t the FBI request the information from NSA on who was involved?”
Shelly looked at him sternly. “I probably could, but I’d need a damn good reason. Have you got one I can borrow? I haven’t heard anything so far that comes close. The cyber attacks on VSI are suspicious, and our Cyber Division could’ve investigated them. But it was over a year ago, so that trail is cold. The meeting at VSI may look suspicious to you, but it could easily be explained by security requirements for a highly classified project that we know Mr. Wu was working on.”
“There must be something the FBI can do,” James said, hopefully.
Cyber Countdown Page 12
