Sea of Lies: An Espionage Thriller

by Bradley West

Frank Coulter was more than a loose end; he was a nightmare. Agency sources said the Australians held Coulter on murder charges, although Nolan wondered how long that would last. There hadn’t been a single press mention of anything that had happened on the Mitchell Plateau or Eco-Camp. Presumably, Coulter was charged with either Wollam’s death—actually caused by Kaili—or Farrokhzad’s death, which technically was either Tony Johnson’s or Wollam’s doing. There was no internal or external press linking Coulter to MH370.

  Meanwhile, Agent Johnson had disappeared. Nolan last saw Tony sharing a cigarette with an SAS trooper before he and Kaili were medevaced in one of the Black Hawks. Nolan couldn’t understand why Johnson went outside blasting, shooting the last sentry and the helicopter pilot before the Black Hawks descended. That the Australians let Johnson go suggested a cover-up, or an extreme act of willful ignorance.

  In the meantime, journalists descended on Burma, leading the authorities to declare the Irrawaddy Delta off limits to foreigners. The Teller backstory was steady page-three fodder in the International New York Times every day. The articles all read the same, which wasn’t surprising as there was only one source. The vanishing of MH370 was the brainchild of Robin Teller, perpetrated out of Burma and involving a few other bad eggs from the 1970s. The Delta Unit’s photo of Teller’s head on a stake made it onto the internet via TMZ, the celebrity website. Nolan was pleased to see Matthews’ suspension mentioned in the Washington Post’s column on Foggy Bottom scuttlebutt. William T. Burns was also on the shelf with Internal Affairs to decide his fate. Constantine had been demoted to chief of station, Burma. Millie had managed to keep her old job and was back in Rangoon. He wished Millie only happiness in a city he had no intention of visiting ever again, particularly in the realm of a COS he didn’t trust.

  There was little evidence of deep thinking regarding the motive behind MH370’s disappearance. London’s Daily Mail dubbed the hijack The Great Plane Robbery with the $8.8 million in recovered cash cited as the justification. That was a ludicrous hypothesis even for a gin-addled Fleet Street scribbler. A 777 stripped and sold for parts was worth at least $30 million. Nolan wondered if journalists actually did independent research anymore, or if they just waited to be spoon-fed.

  The US-led search efforts in the Bay of Bengal were fruitless. Nolan was certain nothing would be lifted off the seabed as long as the cargo hold remained radioactive. But at least they had called off the phony search in the Southern Indian Ocean.

  Coulter should be in a US prison awaiting trial on mass murder charges, but that was the tradeoff Nolan made in return for a pension, the reimbursement of his life’s savings and the pardons. Could he trust Coulter to leave him alone? No. Coulter had offered an amnesty only in respect of their families.

  He was surprised to learn Chumakov was not only alive, but also convalescing in Singapore. Nolan decided to give him a wide berth, particularly when Flynn told him that he had an enormous and lethal bodyguard by his bedside at Singapore General Hospital.

  * * * * *

  Sunday, March 30 was a beautiful spring day in Washington, DC. Bert and Mei Ling sported hangovers, while Joanie and Nolan suffered jetlag. Nevertheless, when the president of the United States invites you to his home to say a few nice words and give you a medal, you put on your Sunday best and wear a happy face.

  “Without this man’s brave and tireless efforts, the mystery of MH370 might never have been solved. There are those who would cast aspersions on these actions, labeling Bob Nolan a whistleblower with a negative connotation. Nothing could be further from the truth. America needs more Bob Nolans, truth seekers and truth tellers. A grateful nation and the Central Intelligence Agency thank one of its long-serving public servants by awarding him the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.”

  Nolan inclined his head to let the president put the medal around his neck, and shook his hand with a broad smile. Nolan wasn’t one to be nervous, but the number of cameras present put the Oscars to shame. The president gestured for him to say a few words. Nolan was deadpan. “I’d like to thank my family, who supported me throughout my career, and particularly over the last two weeks when I needed all the help I could get. Without family, we have nothing. And while I’m grateful for this award, I’m even more thankful to have been able to serve the people of the United States these last thirty-three years. Thank you.”

  The small Marine band struck up “Happy Birthday,” forcing the Nolan family into lackluster support of an off-key president. I’ll be damned, thought Bob. I made it all the way to age fifty-five after all. He smiled and waved a shy hand in gratitude.

  Ten feet away, Mei Ling watched in morbid fascination. Did her father know or care about the difference between fact and fantasy?

  * * * * *

  Nine thousand miles distant, Frank Coulter accepted a cup of coffee from an ASIO officer in the Sydney guesthouse that ostensibly served as his cell. They watched the Rose Garden medal ceremony and birthday celebration in silence. The cameraman pulled in tight for a close-up while Nolan gave his twenty-second acceptance speech. Coulter said in a low drawl, “I’m goin’ to give that man a free pass provided he minds his own bidness, but I’ll bring down hell if he puts his nose near me jus’ one more time.”

  * * * * *

  Ten thousand miles away, Anatoly Chumakov sat propped in his hospital room in Singapore watching the ceremony with minder Boris Ustinov at his bedside.

  “So that’s what your family looks like, Bob,” Chumakov said. He turned to his driver-bodyguard. “I will hurt his children. I will have my vengeance.”

  “Yes, Director, but Comrade Bortinov demands your return to Moscow to face corruption charges. We are short of funds. I heard today from an ISD officer named Lum that the Singaporeans may hand you over to the embassy.”

  “I have a little money yet. Nolan has much more. We will be fine.”

  * * * * *

  The ceremony over, the Nolans went to their hotel where the kids hit the gym and Joanie showered. Nolan sat at the desk and looked out the window at Arlington National Cemetery. He’d signed an NDA in respect to MH370 and the events of the last two weeks, but anything from the past was fair game. Coulter had intimated that he’d ordered Prentice Dupree murdered. Nolan had a flash of insight: Dupree’s handler in Singapore must also be allied to Coulter. That case officer’s name was one of the few secrets Singapore station had managed to keep the last thirty months.

  The president might have hung a medal on him, but Nolan remained an Agency pariah. He was on leave until his formal retirement in two days, but no one in Singapore station would help him in the interim, much less afterward. Nolan had a thought. There was one person who might heed his request. He pulled the number up on his smartphone and dialed, time difference be damned. The phone answered on the fourth ring, the voice laden with sleep.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s Bob. I need a big favor, but there’s no hurry. Can you work Constantine and find out the name of the Singapore-based Case Officer for Prentice Dupree before she died?”

  “What?” Millie asked, still half asleep.

  In the background, Nolan heard a muffled male voice ask who it was. Millie replied, “It’s for me, Dick. Go back to sleep.” There was a pause and she came back on the line, “I’ll see what I can do, but you have to promise to get me out of here. I need a transfer.”

  “I promise. Trust me.”

  NOTES ON NOMENCLATURE: CITY, COUNTRY AND MEASUREMENT GUIDELINES

  As of 2014, the US State Department employed “Burma” and “Rangoon.” The preference of the new, democratically elected government will determine what the world calls the country in future.

  In Sea of Lies, Burma citizens instead use “Yangon” (Rangoon) and “Myanmar” (Burma) to avoid the wrath of the ruling military dictatorship. In addition, there are real (“Hotel Yangon”) and fictitious businesses and institutions that incorporate “Yangon” into their names.

  This book adopts US-oriented measures, so “
yards” instead of “meters,” “miles” instead of “kilometers” and “pounds” in preference to “kilograms.” In real life, most of the characters in the book—including DEA, CIA and US Military personnel—mix and match measurement systems depending on context and their audiences. For example, they typically quote distances in the metric system while weights would be in either kilos or pounds, and heights in feet and inches.

  ABBREVIATIONS AND JARGON

  ASIS: Australia Secret Intelligence Service, the CIA-equivalent

  ASIO: Australia Security Intelligence Organisation, the FBI-equivalent

  COS: Chief of station, the head of an overseas CIA office

  DDOS: Distributed Denial of Service, the use of multiple computer systems to target a single system resulting in a denial of service

  DDSI: Directorate of Defense Security and Intelligence, Burma’s FBI

  FSB: Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the KGB

  HVT: High-value targets, either people or things

  ISD: Internal Security Department, Singapore’s FBI-equivalent

  MSS: Ministry of State Security, China’s CIA-equivalent

  MPS: Ministry of Public Security, China’s police force and domestic intelligence service

  NGA: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the wing of the Department of Defense that analyzes data acquired by the NRO

  NRO: National Reconnaissance Office, the US spy satellite operator

  PASDARAN: Farsi (Persian) name for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (“IRGC”), also known as the Revolutionary Guards

  PLA UNIT #61398: The People’s Liberation Army’s cyber espionage wing

  PSC: Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top governing body

  SCI: Sensitive Compartmented Information, a designation appended to “Top Secret” to indicate that the information is password-protected and project specific. “Top Secret/SCI” sits above “Top Secret” in confidentiality

  SVR: Foreign Intelligence Services, the international spy agency and successor to the KGB’s First Directorate

  CAST OF CHARACTERS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

  BOB NOLAN: CIA employee, Singapore

  SAM HECKER: Head of the Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA"), South and Southeast Asia, Rangoon, Burma

  LLOYD MATTHEWS: Chief of station ("COS") CIA, Rangoon

  MILLICENT (“MILLIE”) MUKHERJEE: Head of research, CIA, Rangoon

  ROBIN TELLER (A.K.A. JAY TOFFER): Ex-US Army Ranger (Vietnam); ex-arms dealer (Thai); head of security for Golden Elephant group, Rangoon

  TRAVIS RYDER: Ex-SEAL and head of DEA South and Southeast Asia Security, Rangoon

  HANNIBAL "HANNY" GONZALEZ: DEA agent, Rangoon; forger

  MYAT NOE: Daughter of deceased Opium King Khun Sa; principal owner and chairman of Golden Elephant conglomerate, Rangoon

  MAJOR ZAW: Chief of police for Einme, North Irrawaddy Province, Burma

  CAPTAIN CLAY ABRAHAMS: Chief of embassy security, Rangoon

  TIM WEILL: National Security Agency ("NSA") program director of Project Acapulco, Ft. Meade, Maryland

  BRIAN (“BUSTER”) GREGORY: NSA Deputy Head of Project Acapulco team

  ADMIRAL WILLIAM "BILLY" PERKINS: Director of Central Intelligence, CIA, Washington, D.C.

  PRENTICE DUPREE: Software developer for Singapore private bank; CIA stringer; found hanged in her Johor Bahru apartment in 2012

  MARK WATERMEN: Ex-NSA employee wanted by the US for the theft of top-secret documents; living in Moscow under house arrest; honorary godson of Bob Nolan

  ANATOLY ALKAEVOVITCH CHUMAKOV: Director of Surveillance, Federal Security Service ("FSB", domestic successor to the First Chief Directorate of the KGB), Moscow

  JOANIE LAM SHAO YIN: Mrs. Bob Nolan, Singapore

  MEI LING NOLAN: Nolans’ daughter, real estate investment banker, Marin County, USA

  BERTRAND (“BERT”) NOLAN: Nolans’ son, University of Washington undergraduate student, Seattle, Washington State

  DAMIEN BARLING: Head of DEA, Singapore office

  RICHARD (“DICK”) CONSTANTINE: Chief of station, CIA, Singapore

  GERALD (“JERRY”) FLYNN: Head of security, CIA, Singapore

  YU KAILI: Deputy Head of Counter Intelligence, Minister of State Security ("MSS"), China; Head of station, MSS, Singapore

  YI XIUBAO: Secretary of the Central Commission for intelligence; Politburo Standing Committee member, Beijing

  LIU ZHENCHANG: Vice Minister, Ministry of State Security, Beijing

  GAO XIANG: Leader of China; General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, Beijing

  REAR ADMIRAL ZHAO ZHIYUAN: Head of People's Liberation Army Unit #61398; China's liaison to Iran on Operation Menander, Shanghai

  LISA FINEGOLD: Director, South Asia policy analyses, CIA Singapore

  MELISSA SHOOK: Head of MH370 task force, CIA, Singapore (temporary assignment)

  COLONEL HASDRUBAL GILANI: Operation Menander supervisor and Revolutionary Guard Special Forces officer, Beirut (temporary assignment)

  DR. FARIBORZ FARROKHZAD: Head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Tehran, Iran

  SPECIALIST 4 TONY JOHNSON: US Army Ranger, Forward Operating Base Chapman, Khost, Afghanistan; DEA "Wild Bunch" member in Rangoon; CIA interrogator

  FRANK COULTER: Ex-SEAL; former Associate Deputy Director of Covert Operations ("ADDCO"), CIA, Weaverville, CA

  CHARLES T. BURNS: Head of CIA Asia Pacific, Tokyo

  GRAND AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI: Supreme leader of Iran, Tehran

  ARSHAD "MORMOROTH" MAZDAKI: Lead software programmer of Iran’s Operation Menander team, Beirut (temporary assignment)

  GENERAL HKWANG: Chief of staff, Burma Army

  MAURY SHOENSTEIN: General counsel, CIA, Singapore

  REAR ADMIRAL JONATHAN "JON BOY" COCHRAN: US Navy head of Sembawang base, Singapore

  SHELDON HOWARD: US Department of Energy, nuclear decontamination specialist, Fukushima, Japan; informally seconded to DEA, Rangoon

  DING TAIPING: Succeeded Liu Zhenchang as Vice Minister and head of the MSS on Tuesday, March 11

  GRETCHEN DOYLE: Chief of station, CIA, Colombo

  WILBUR WOLLAM: Ex-Australia Secret Intelligence Service ("ASIS") case officer, near Truscott Field, Western Australia

  MICHAEL "BIG DUCK" MCGIRTY: Best friend, fraternity brother and roommate of Bert Nolan at University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

  BORIS VLADIMIROVICH USTINOV: Driver and FSB bodyguard for Anatoly Chumakov

  MARY JO LAVIGNE: Head of compliance Asia, CIA, based in Tokyo

  MARTIN POSNER: Head of legal Asia, CIA, based in Tokyo

  DAVID LEUNG: Chief of station, CIA, Hong Kong

  LT IAN "MACCA" MCCULLOUGH: Australia Special Air Service ("SAS") Regiment, Tactical Assault Group leader, Perth, Western Australia

  BARACK OBAMA: 44th president of the United States, Washington, DC

  To Jim Hawes,

  Never out of the fight!

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks to my wife Lai Fan for her unstinting encouragement, some of it backhanded (“I knew you could write, but I didn’t know you could write fiction”); son Max for editorial input, particularly in respect to grammar and syntax (earning him the epithet “Comma drama queen”); and younger son Bart for helping me appreciate the potential appeal of the book to young adults.

  Mentor, friend and American hero Jim Hawes deserves to have his life story told straight up and not in a fictionalized fashion. To Jim and the other warriors of the jungles and shadows, a heartfelt thanks for keeping the US and allies safe.

  To my brother Chris, props for suggesting a visit to Rangoon in March 2014. If not for the keg of Myanmar Beer, Diane Shelton wouldn’t have seeded the idea of an MH370 Burma destination, and I wouldn’t have met “Sam” and “Travis” either.

  Technical advice received with thanks from Fanton Chuck (aviation), Henry Dubois (satellites) and Marc Bradley (computer security and cyber warfare). The remaining errors are my own, however.


  A fist bump to the first reader, too, Robert Hecker—although I did have to name a major character after his son to induce him to pick up the book.

  Aneirin Flynn designed the book covers; laid out the book in electronic and print formats; and created my author website. This young man is a gifted painter and sculptor, and I’m grateful he’s lent his eye and skills to this more pedestrian cause.

  Lael Stanczak edited the book not once, but twice, and helped in many other ways as well. Ivan Tan lent his eagle eyes to a review of the galleys.

  Leah Wohl-Pollack of Invisible Ink Editing is a clever and capable copy editor.

  Mother Jewell proved an eagle-eyed copy editor as well, despite working off a tiny laptop screen.

  Thanks to Amali Fernando for expert legal and contract advice.

  A big thanks to the readers of the True Lies blog on bradleywest.net. This is where I get the inspiration to research and fictionalize contemporary conspiracies.

  Bradley West

  June, 2016

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Explanations of conspiracies fascinate me, but only plausible ones. My fiction addresses various conspiracies or unsolved mysteries in what I hope is a believable fashion. Of course, I’m not offering a definitive solution to riddles such as the disappearance of flight MH370. Do I think hijackers landed MH370 in the Irrawaddy Delta? No. Do I think mechanical malfunction caused a pilotless MH370 to fly along a Doppler-defined arc only to disappear forever in the Southern Ocean? No. More than two years after the disappearance, there is still plenty to be learned about MH370’s fate. I hope Sea of Lies prompts others to ask the governments leading the search efforts—the US, Australia, France and Malaysia come to mind—to share all their findings with the public. Recall that “None of is smarter than all of us.”