MACAU – Stokes turned right, down a cramped aisle into the coach section
of Air Asia charter flight 711, a non-stop to Macau packed with
people eager to try their luck at the MGM. Yvonne smirked as he
shook his head over the seat he?d been assigned, in the middle of the
last row. He wouldn?t even be able to lean back during the ten-hour
flight with the bulkhead behind him. He turned to make sure she was
following him, and saw she was not.
?Where are you going?? he asked.
She smiled. ?First class, of course.?
Buck, Woody and the others all headed left, holding in their
laughter. ?Them too?? Stokes said.
?We always fly up front.?
He took the crumpled boarding pass and waved it at her. ?Then
what am I doing with this??
?Rohan, darling. I tried. But by the time I knew you were coming
it was too late to get you a first class seat,? she said.
He turned to go back to the gulag of the last row, then stopped.
?Wait a minute,? he said. ?When I showed up, you hadn?t even made
your plans for this trip. You just did this to spite me.?
The queue of passengers loading up behind Stokes as he blocked
the aisle began to get restless. An old woman pushed her carryon into
his leg. She blurted something in Chinese. He didn?t know the words,
but Yvonne could see he understood her meaning as he dropped his
head and started walking back. In Macao the group had to wait almost a half hour for Stokes to disembark, since literally everyone else on board was in front of him.
Yvonne had considered leaving for the hotel without him, but he?d
only track her down through her cochlear implant, and she was
getting tired of that. He came up the tunnel looking as though he?d
been flying in a laundry hamper?his jacket and shirt were wrinkled,
and one pant leg had risen high enough to show a stretch of bare
shin above his sock, and was held in place by static cling.
?You get into a fight back there, Stokes?? Colin said.
?I think I was stuck between two sumo wrestlers,? he said.
Maybe the rough treatment had been too much. Yvonne hadn?t
anticipated his seatmates being Woody?s size. ?Sorry,? she said. ?I got
a little carried away with the joke.?
?I had it coming,? Stokes said. ?I put you on the spot back in San
Fran.?
?And a few other places,? she said.
A stretch limo met them outside the terminal to take them to the
MGM. ?Pansy Po,? Yvonne explained as they got in. ?We?re old
friends. I told her we were coming.?
?Nice to have friends like that,? Nigel said.
?Listen,? Yvonne said. ?Pansy will show us a great time tonight
while we get ready for the job. But you need to promise not to win too
much at the tables. It kind of makes her mad if she thinks she?s
paying at both ends. Just think of it as another way to handle the
bill.?
Silk smiled at her. ?You don?t have to worry,? he said.
?Why not??
?Three decks, shuffled every other hand,?? Buck said. ?Silk had to stop counting cards after most of the houses changed their strategy. He was one of the best blackjack counters in the business before he joined our team.?
?Father taught me in Manila,? Silk said. ?I clean up there too.?
?Now he just bets the animals,? Woody said.
Stokes looked up. ?Animals??
?Horses, dogs? the occasional rooster.?
?That?s where big money is anyway,? Silk said. ?Better odds.?
?Your father was Doug Boland, wasn?t he?? Stokes asked.
?Yes. You know him??
?Knew him in Iraq during Desert Storm,? Stokes said. ?Tank
man. One of the few to fight there and in Nam. Toughest son of a
bitch I ever met.?
?Met Lu at Doug?s funeral,? Buck said. ?We brought him on a
couple of years after, when I saw him win a martial arts tournament
in Thailand.?
?Sorry to hear that your dad passed away,? Stokes said. ? He was
the last of a breed, if you ask me.?
While Stokes cemented his relationship to Buck and the rest of
the team, Yvonne pulled out her laptop and started typing. There
was a Chinese spy satellite in synchronous orbit over Hong Kong
from which she might be able to get images from the airport. The
warehouse that stored Network Systems computers assembled in
China was nearby, and if she could locate it, they could create a map
of how best to execute both her mission and Buck?s simultaneously.
The limo quieted as she worked. ?No,? she said. ?Keep talking.
Don?t let me kill the conversation because I have some work to catch
up on.?
She nodded towards the driver. Pansy Po may trust him, but
Yvonne could not afford that luxury. In Macau, she knew, everyone
had a price?even Pansy?s driver could be working both sides.
The others traded more gambling and war stories while she
hacked away. Finding a signal from the satellite was the easy part?
she knew from experience what wavelengths the Chinese?and most
other sovereignties?used regularly. But what encryption keys might
be employed this week were anyone?s guess. She launched a search
program, but it might take some time to unlock it?her laptop was
nowhere near as powerful as the computers in her lab, and it
crunched the numbers like it. She might have to continue the process
in the hotel room, which was riskier, since the longer it took to
complete the task, the better the chance her activity might show up
on People’s Liberation Army security agency scans. A stationary
target was easier to locate.
Stokes saw what she was doing and leaned in. He whispered,
?CyberCom intelligence says they?re using one of the Jinzhong
protocols. You might narrow your search there.?
She switched to CyberCom?s private communications channel
and accessed a secret folder. It listed protocols intelligence had
uncovered in the previous month. She typed in a few more
commands to go in that direction. Within a minute the program had
given her access to the satellite?s output and functionality. It was
currently relaying images from a military installation in Taiwan.
?The bastards,? Stokes said. ?That?s a violation of international
sovereignty.? He smiled at Yvonne, to acknowledge that she?d be
doing the same thing.
Yvonne changed the coordinates to position the camera to Hong
Kong International and the satellite responded.
?I can?t do this for very long before they realize what?s going on. Maybe just a few
seconds,? she said. ?So I?m gong to have to take get wide angle shots.
As long as we can blow them up later, they?ll be fine.?
?This is the first time I?ve ever hoped their resolution was as good
as ours,? Stokes said.
She downloaded images for fifteen seconds, and then
disconnected the link. ?Glad we were able to do that while we were
moving. I hope it?s enough to tell us what we need.?
?If not we can always take a taxi together and try again.?
Yvonne rolled her eyes at Stokes to let him know it was another
nice try that wasn?t going to work.
Pansy met them at the hotel. Thanks to her history in the casino
Yvonne was given a million dollar limit at the tables. Each of the men
was allowed fifty thousand, plus bar privileges, which made them
visibly happy. For accommodations, the men were doubled up in
ground floor villas. Buck and Nigel volunteered to room together in
what they called the ?seniors suite.?
?You know how early we elders have to get to bed,? Nigel joked. Colin and Silk, being the youngest, paired off. ?Great,? Colin said. ?There?s an Armageddon Squadron tournament I can play in while we?re here.?
That left Stokes and Woody. Stokes took another look at the big
man and said, ?If there?s only one bed in that room I?m in a lot of
trouble.?
Yvonne was given a penthouse. She and Pansy dismissed the rest
of the crew, and went off for a brief tour, and then to the owner?s
private office. If Buck had missed anything in decorating his place
back in San Francisco, Pansy had it here?and more. The furniture,
she explained, was all handcrafted. Hardwoods from South America,
Macael marble from the quarries in Spain. Yvonne sat in a Reitveld
chair and sipped a twenty two-year single malt. Pansy sat and draped
her hands, heavy with jewels, over the arms of her chair. Against the
royal backdrop, she looked something like an empress from one of
the dynasties. It was not too far from the truth?she and her family
had created a new ruling class, even among the supposed socialism
of the Chinese state.
?You?re quite the host,? Yvonne said. ?I feel guilty coming here
to ask for a special favor.?
?I always show my friends the best times. Besides, I am still in
your debt for saving the casino?s network. Anyone else and I?m sure
we would have been hacked by gangsters. What I spend to entertain
you and your friends is just a fraction of what that would have cost
me.?
?In that case,? Yvonne said, sipping her Scotch, ?I need a few things for that project I mentioned in my message. You still have your munitions connections, I assume.?
?In this business, I have to,? she said. ?But I thought you didn?t
like guns.?
?I don?t. But this job has some special risks. I don?t always go on
location to do my work. I usually snoop long distance, where the bad
guys can?t touch me.?
?Something here in Macao??
Yvonne explained the logistics of her search. ?We landed here
first because I have to sneak into Hong Kong. I may still be on their
list of suspects wanted for questioning. Besides, I needed someone I
could trust to help with this equipment.?
?Got your shopping list??
?A van, for starters,? Yvonne said. ?With the logo of the Cathay
ComputerWorks on the side. And then some weapons?enough for
six.?
?I can get you some Uzi-Pro. They have a polymer pistol grip.
Your boys will love them. I?ll see about some explosives too.?
?Oh, I don?t think we?ll need that.?
?You better take them along. And I?ll see you get some night
vision goggles. Best to poke around when it?s dark.?
?Are you sure??
?You computer nerds are all alike,? Pansy said. ?Never think
about the physical danger. You?re lucky you have me on your side,
Yvonne. Brains and beauty?we still make a good team.?
?Wait a minute,? Yvonne said. ?Brains and beauty? What?s left
for you??
Pansy laughed and hugged her. ?You have brightened my week,?
she said. ?I?ll make sure everything is waiting for you when you get
to Hong Kong. But now, come on, let?s have some fun before you
have to leave.?
They started for the casino when Pansy stopped and put her hand
on Yvonne?s shoulder. ?Speaking of special risks, there?s one more
thing you should know.?
Yvonne lifted an eyebrow.
?Shi is in Hong Kong too,? Pansy said.
?Does he know I?m coming??
?No. But I wanted you to be on guard. Ever since Hong Kong
went back to China he?s had a thing for harassing foreigners there.
His men are always looking to make trouble. You show up with your
team and someone?s sure to notice.?
?Thanks. I?ll have the boys split up on the ferry so we?re not so
obvious.?
They walked into the casino and paused to survey the action.
Yvonne looked for the team members, but Pansy stopped and fixed
her gaze on Colin, who was trying his luck on the slots.
?Yours?? she asked.
?Just a plaything.?
?May I borrow??
Yvonne led Pansy over and introduced her.
?Having any luck?? Pansy asked him.
?Not a bit. These things aren?t rigged, are they??
?Totally fair,? she said. ?But slots is for children. Come with me
and I?ll show you an adult game.?
?Like???
?We?ll start with baccarat. After that, who knows??
Colin shot a look at Yvonne, as though he might offend her by
going off with Pansy. Instead she wanted to thank her friend again,
but to say it in front of him would be rude.
?I don?t mind at all. Go ahead,? she said. ?Get yourself an education.?
Pansy winked at her, confirming that the young man would no
doubt learn a few things in the course of the evening. In the morning the team met in Yvonne?s suite to go over photos of the airport. ?We?ve had our fun, gentlemen,? Buck told them, ?but now it?s time to prove we deserve the big money. This mission is going
to be tougher than usual. Not only do we have to avoid the usual
airport security, but our repo target is connected to the government,
and has his own people. We don?t know whether they?ll be in
proximity when we move to take the Boeing, so we?re going to have
to do recon before we can move in. It?s one thing to take a plane from
a corporate hangar. Taking one from a member of the Chinese
government is something else.?
?This has international incident written all over it,? Stokes said.
?Any connection to U.S. government operations would be a disaster
for CyberCom and NSA.?
?That means you have to stay as far in the background as
possible, Stokes,? Buck said.
?And then there?s my little project,? Yvonne said. ?I need to get
into the Network Systems warehouse and examine a few of their
servers to determine if this is where the Mandarin chip is being
added.?
?Exactly. We need to coordinate all this.?
Yvonne spread satellite photos that Pansy had printed for her over
the coffee table. The resolution was not as sharp as she had hoped,
owing to the small window of time she had to download them before
Chinese authorities caught on to her activities. The Network Systems
warehouse was in among a block of industrial buildings in a remote
area. It was at least a half mile from the hangar that housed the 777,
and she could not be sure which structure, exactly, was the one she
sought.
?So it?s not going to be easy,? Buck said. ?Our best plan is to
recon the warehouse and the jet during the day, and make our move
in the wee hours.Woody can go with Yvonne for protection, and we?ll
take Colin to compensate.?
When they were done with the preliminary logistics, Yvonne
slipped the photos into her briefcase. ?Pansy tells me Hong Kong is
crawling with Chinese intelligence these days. We?re going to have
to be extra careful.?
?Shi Tao?? Stokes asked.
?Yes. My old friend from MIT.?
?And my counterpart in espionage at PLA. It?s hard to believe he
learned everything he knows in America, and then took it back to
China to work against us.?
?The American way,? Colin said. ?Give our enemies access to
our secrets and then act surprised when they use it.?
?I?ve always had a thing for him,? Stokes said. ?Maybe we?ll get
to finally meet.?
Yvonne held her emotions inside. She?d had a thing for Shi when
they were back at MIT, too. He?d been as smart as she when it came
to computer theory. And he?d been able to hide his motives the entire
time they were together.
?Listen,? she said. ?When we land in the city we have to split up.
We can?t just have six American commandos?? She looked at
Stokes. ?Make that five? walking down the street together.?
?Best let me go by myself,? Silk said. ?I blend in better than the
rest of you.?
Yvonne wasn?t sure. He was only half Asian, and the half that
was his father seemed pretty obvious. But Buck had said Silk knew
how to hide himself, and she trusted that opinion.
She and Colin would pretend to be a couple again. Buck would
pass as her dad, Nigel as his.
That left Stokes and Woody to team up. Woody looked Stokes
over like he was choosing a ripe tomato. He paused, took a deep
breath, and said, ?You think people will really believe you?re my
bitch??
Everyone broke up, except for Stokes. When the meeting was over Yvonne decided to disguise herself before the ferry to Hong Kong. She wanted no part of Shi Tao. Their
time together had been difficult. He was jealous, vindictive, and a
nightmare of competitiveness. Even when they were dating he made
every class assignment a personal battle between them to see who
was better at writing and hacking code. It was because of him she
almost gave up her career before it started.
It wasn?t even a class assignment, but a dare. Yvonne boasted she
could infiltrate secure systems faster than he, so he made her prove
it. The elevators in the Langham Hotel had just been converted to a
computer system that had improved their efficiency thirty-five
percent. It had been in the Globe. The system figured out how long
it would take each car to respond to a call, and sent the one that
would get there first.
?We?ll screw them up,? he said. ?Take the whole system down.?
He was more malicious than she had imagined. But she couldn?t resist
the competition. She had to beat him. She decided she would get in,
send a car or two to the wrong floor, and get out. No one would even
realize she?d done it. They raced to see who could hack in first. They sat, brazenly, in
the lobby and typed away.
?I?m in!? she said, just a moment before
he said the same thing. The next step was to prove she had affected
the system. But in her rush to win she forgot her plan to divert the
cars?there just wasn?t time. Instead she simply pulled the plug on the
entire system. As did Shi. They both yelled, ?Done!? at the same
time.
They laughed and pushed at each other playfully. No one could
tell who had actually reached the system controller first, so this one
would have to be declared a tie. But Yvonne stopped laughing right
away. Paramedics had been called to the lobby. There were people
trapped in the elevators. ?Don?t worry,? Shi said, ?they?ll figure it out
in plenty of time.?
Except that one of the people on an elevator was an old man who
had suffered an attack of angina. His wife was bringing him down to
meet the medics. Now they were in between floors. Yvonne could
almost hear her screams for help into the emergency phone.
By the time the hotel techs were able to access the car and reach
the couple, the old man had gone into cardiac arrest. He died on the
way to the hospital. Maybe if they hadn?t been playing with the system he would have
made it. Maybe Shi had been the one to pull the system?s plug. Did
any of that matter? She knew it didn?t. Shi couldn?t care less.
His number was up,? he said when he
learned what happened. For him, it was all about being on top, no
matter who got in the way. They didn?t see each other after that;
didn?t even speak again until graduation. And since then she had
promised herself?no violence, nothing that could inflict anything
more than financial harm.
Knowing Shi, he?d given her picture to every security agent under
his command, and she?d be picked up the minute she showed her
face. She had to do something about that.
She took her hair and fixed it into a ponytail, then stuffed it under
a coolie hat she bought the night before, after she?d met with Pansy.
She chose her most unremarkable outfit from the clothes she?d
brought?baggy jeans and a tan blouse?and added a large pair of
tourist sunglasses. Still she was afraid it was not enough. Someone
would recognize her. Most of her missions had been conducted in
the safety of cyber space. This time she?d have no firewall to protect
her.
A knock on the door startled her. Stokes said he?d left his pen on
the table. When she let him in it was his turn to laugh.
?Who are you supposed to be?? he asked. ?A refugee from a Charlie Chan movie??
But when she admitted her fears about being seen, he softened.
?Here,? he said, opening one of her suitcases. ?Let?s see if we can do
something about that look.? He found her makeup kit and opened it,
over her protest.
?Relax,? he said. ?You forget I was in the field for years as part
of my CIA career. I had to learn a few tricks to keep from being
spotted.?
He knelt in front of her and applied powders and mascara. He
took her hair from the ponytail, grabbed a hair brush and restyled
her. Yvonne felt the gentleness of his hands as he worked; his touch
was soft, the way she remembered.
When he was done and she looked in the mirror, she saw a
completely different woman?a tourist from America, somewhere in
the Midwest?not exactly a look she?d ever thought of achieving, but
a far cry from the Uygur province.
?I?d still go with the sunglasses, though,? he said. ?Just to be sure.?
?You should do something about your appearance, too,? she said.
?Very funny.?
?I?m serious. Shi must know who you are. It would be quite a
coup for him to have you in custody.?
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a fake mustache.
It was more of a small caterpillar placed between the nose and upper
lip, an Inspector Clouseau getup that made Yvonne laugh as he
adjusted the corners. Stokes wasn?t so bad after all. If only he hadn?t
been married.
She reached to grab her bags for the ferry trip, but Stokes beat
her to it. ?Can?t let you hurt those magic hands,? he said as he headed
for the elevator. ?Those fingers may just save us from the next cyber
attack.?
End Of Chapter Six
