The Devil's Playground

by Michael Reagan

the classic form of flirting of women in China.

  Introductions out of the way the Vice Premier motioned for them to sit down in the sofa and the chair. Present at every formal meeting in China there are two translators, but with the contents of this meeting being so sensitive it was agreed Zhang would assume this role for both parties. Because of this, she sat just to the right of the Premier. Thomas having requested the meeting it was up to him to set the tone. He decided to grab the bull by the horns and to dispense with formality. He addressed the Vice Premier in fluent Mandarin.

  Surprised that Thomas spoke his language, the man listened quietly while he presented the Mayor's offer. Once finished, the Vice Premier nodded with a straight poker face. He then replied in English.

  "An interesting proposal, Sir Thomas. How does your President wish China's answer to be delivered?"

  Thomas paused and then answered in English that a statement acknowledging Russia's historical rights would suffice.

  Hao nodded.

  "When?"

  "By end of today Vice Premier Hao."

  The Chinese politician smiled. Then nodded.

  "I will discuss the proposal with my colleagues," he said as he got up. He nodded his respect to Zhang first and then firmly shook Thomas's hand.

  "Sh? fu l?ng j?n m?n, xi? x?ng z?i g? r?n," Hao said, which translated is 'Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself,' the Chinese equivalent of 'You can lead the horse to the water, but you can't make it drink.' In other words, he was telling Thomas that he could tell the Mayor that he would do his best to get his colleagues to agree to the proposal.

  Keeping his feelings of guilt in check, it was Thomas's turn to note the Vice Premier's statement with a subtle nod of his head.

  "Christ, what have I just done?" he thought somewhat guiltily.

  Having told Thomas that she wanted to stay in Beijing for a few days to see her mother, Zhang left her lover at the Shangri-La China New World hotel and made her way to the Offices of MPS for a progress report with Jiang.

  As the black Audi made its way through the ring roads of Beijing she reflected on what she had just witnessed. A warm feeling wrapped itself around her mind. Her training told her instantly that this was a perception of love triggered the feelings of optimism; something that was false and only offers an agent an illusion. Her training also told her that in such circumstances agents made mistakes that would lead to their deaths. Yet being with and around Thomas, the first powerful man who had treated her an equal and not just a concubine was having an effect on her over the last month. To her surprise, she had found she rather enjoyed it.

  Although a man of many secrets she could see at his core that Thomas was a person who fought his demons every day of his life and was often troubled by the path he had chosen to walk. The meeting she had just witnessed where he looked uncomfortable and troubled with the Mayor's mission (to use his term) that he had given him was an example. His family or Clan, and those he was honor bound to protect were central to every decision he made. At first she had thought this a weakness in his character. She didn't anymore.

  His daughter, the only person of his group she understandably hadn't bonded with, said it was "them against the world," and having seen how they all cared and looked after Benny, his wounded bodyguard she could see what the young girl meant.

  A famous phrase, "Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power," by Tao Te Ching sprung fore in Zhang's mind.

  When they were on his private plane floating across the sky she had asked Thomas why he had looked so troubled with the great responsibility his friend (the Mayor) had given him.

  "It must give you a sense of power, Tommy to know that you have the future of your nation in your hands," she had said with a touch of admiration.

  Yet he had replied, "True sense of power has little to do with the amount of money, strength, or even the prestige you have, Darling."

  "I don't understand?" she had questioned while he smiled at her.

  "For me it has everything to do with my self-confidence and the propensity for adaptation," he had continued.

  "Explain?" she had demanded noting he had paused for second to think how best to answer her at the time.

  "You have it in spades," he had then said, and had sipped his whiskey and continued. "True power means control but it does not necessarily imply force. A large ship can be controlled with one finger for example. Control implies you have access and influence at strategic points where decisions are taken and implemented. If I learned one thing over the last few years, power does not necessarily imply money. I may have a vast fortune but all it does is put me in situations where money does not count and leaves me as vulnerable as anyone else. Tonight has been a classic example."

  He had paused before cryptically saying, "A penniless Monk in a monastery can have more influence on the unfolding of my life than a Captain of industry sitting in his ivory tower."

  Zhang had continued to stare at him with a puzzling look. As always he had read her face and picked up on it.

  "Look at what you did my darling," he had said. "For example, I bet that Congressman had no idea that the beautiful woman who he was trying to impress would one day be sitting across the very man who stands for everything he hates and has the ability to do great damage to his country and what he stands for."

  "So I am the Monk?" she had questioned.

  "Yes you are. That Congressman unwittingly betrayed his country because he had feelings of self-doubt as to whether he was impressive enough for you. He wouldn't have said that if you a man! All of us have self-doubt even those who place themselves in ivory towers like the Mayor. In his case he is the king on the chessboard that is always looking for a person to trust who has no agenda. He believed you had no agenda; that is why he asked you about how China would react over Turkmenistan. But he was wrong; everybody has an agenda, even a simple monk," he had said with sad eyes looking into her soul.

  "I lost the most important person in my life because I tried to control and right the wrongs in her life because I believed I was her knight and that is where my self-doubt lies," Thomas had continued with a sad smile, shaking his head. "I fear failing those I am sworn to protect. In the end, every person's mindset and especially their self-image and perceived identity comes down to their own self-confidence, and with that, having the fundamental belief that, no matter what, you will eventually prevail and come out of almost any situation relatively intact and able to pursue your life's purpose. Whether you're a Congressman, a Mayor, or a Monk," he had said. "So what's your life's purpose?" he had asked her skillfully.

  She had giggled, picked up his hand, and kissed it to close down Thomas's uncomfortable question.

  It was on those words she now pondered.

  Jiang listened intently to Zhang's personal update. The latest report had truly shown him that she was a most valuable intelligence asset, not just a beautiful woman. Yet all the reports in the world told you nothing about what truly drove a target or an enemy.

  "Placing her into the life of Litchfield had been a masterstroke," he concluded. She now had access to one of most important corridors of power in the world that gave him and China direct insight into the mindset of one China's biggest competitors in the new world order. The message her lover had just delivered on behalf of his master to the Prime Minister had only confirmed it.

  Yet as he examined Zhang closely he couldn't shake the feeling that she was hiding something from him with regard to Litchfield. He decided to probe her.

  "What are Litchfield's views?" he asked, noting her reluctance to answer immediately as he did so.

  "He believes that America will respond with force," she stated before going on to explain Thomas's experience in dealing with the Administration and Young. As she explained her mission views, he wondered why she had hesitated in telling this piece of information in the first place.

  Then it struck him. "She thinks she is betraying him! She has feelings for him
!" he concluded. Pangs of jealously wrapped around Jiang.

  "Agent Shu, never lose sight that Litchfield is an instrument of a foreign power," he ordered.

  "Yes, Sir!" Zhang immediately answered, sitting up straight as he went into a thirty-minute lecture on why she must never let her guard down to bring her back into the fold.

  37

  San Francisco

  Married to his childhood sweetheart with three children, fifty-five-year-old Rear Admiral Charles Redding was the current commander the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, the operating force of the United States Navy that is responsible for the Navy's cyber warfare programs, its exercise, administrative, and operational control of its assigned forces. Redding was an average looking man with a hooked nose, angular jaw, hallow eyes, and thinning hair attached to a long but thin body of limited appeal. A Google Algorithm would have told a marketer that he was a man who voted Republican, went to church on Sundays, and even attended bible school, but he harbored a secret: he liked young men; the younger the better.

  As an expert in cyber warfare he made sure he was careful. That meant he never indulged in online forums, downloaded gay porn, or cruised the bars of Honolulu.

  San Francisco was another matter and that was where he met his latest plaything for the night, a cute eighteen-year-old Filipino named Jerry.

  With petite flawless features and owning a very nice tight ass, Charles thought Jerry