The Wuhan Mission

“Micro GPS locator, quite small. Twist to activate and you drop it in their pocket or bag. Follow them on App on the phone” he said pointing at the phone on the bed.“Phone, not secure for talk or text. Always listening. Don’t forget. Better to turn it off if you need to break character.”

“Handbags.” Jimmy picked up three fake designer handbags from the floor. “All Chinese girls love designer handbag. You will look funny without one if you go out at night with your new friends. “Garrote wire”. He picked up the deadly wire with metal handles and mimed the strangling of an imaginary victim. Xue Lin shook her head disapprovingly at his little macabre pantomime, though she was happy he had provided one as it was a good close-range weapon, long favored by the CIA.

“Data recovery” Jimmy pointed to the familiar tool and it’s wires, used to download data from phones and computers. “Better hide this. If they find this, we won’t find you. Lock picks, just in case you need to get in somewhere. Multi frequency bug detector. This was very expensive. Sweep your apartment every day when you get home, especially before using radio. Chinese Communist Party is not too shy to bug everybody. Sometimes they like to watch too.”

Jimmy looked at her concerned: “You know you have to hide this on the street somewhere right? They find you with this, you go to jail, do not pass Go.”

Xue Lin rolled her eyes.

“And security camera.” He tossed her a stuffed Hello Kitty toy which she caught and turned over in her hands looking for the recorder inside.

“It’s all in the eye. Very small” Jimmy explained.

Xue Lin yanked the eye out of its socket and examined it. “Not bad!” she nodded, genuinely impressed with the small size of it. “OK Jimmy, good work.” Xue Lin tossed the Kitty-cam back on the bed. “Where will my big interview be tomorrow?”

“Wuhan Institute of Virology. Show them your ID, they are expecting you at ten in the morning.”

“If you need me again, call your boss on the radio. That way I get paid.” Jimmy shut the door behind him.

Xue Lin picked up the pistol, rapidly dismantled and reassembled it, checking the mechanisms thoroughly and put it back on the bed, loaded. Protocol dictated that she must assume that her room would be searched and possibly bugged in the future, so she would have to hide most of this gear semi-permanently in the walls. She could dig it out later when the time came.

The bug detector and the other tools that she might soon need would have to be hidden outside the apartment. She would need to sweep the place every night when she came home.

Chapter 16 The Interview

Xue Lin walked from her apartment to the Institute. It was Friday morning and rush hour was still going strong. Here in China there were a hell of a lot more motorbikes and bicycles. She hadn’t yet become accustomed to the Chinese style breakfast, but the streets and alleys in her area had a steaming selection of hole-in-the-wall vendors and restaurants that were serving oily noodles in paper bowls, egg soup, and wontons. They called it ‘guo zao.’ It was a real Wuhan thing. She had read about it on the plane.

A few blocks away, at the institute, Dr. Wu was sitting in the conference room at the head of a large white table. In front of him were the ten folders containing the resumes of the applicants for the two lab assistant jobs. He had chosen the candidates personally from over forty applications. He had included one male, just for appearances, but he wanted girls. He just liked them better.

He spent ten minutes interviewing each of the candidates. Most of them had been quite typical: dull, bookish and meek. Dr. Wu was famous in his field, so despite being quite geeky himself, he was their equivalent of a celebrity. The candidates’ obvious admiration for him was a turnoff for Dr. Wu. He preferred a bit of push back. Some spine. Some character.

The last three candidates’ interviews were more interesting to him than the first seven and he put their files aside for a second round. These three were especially pretty. Dr. Wu called his secretary in and asked her to bring the three finalists into the room. A moment later the three girls entered the room in single file as the secretary closed the door behind them.

Dr. Wu gestured for them all to sit at the table opposite him as he opened the three files again and laid them side by side in front of him. He’d noted that one of them was from Beijing where he had often been invited to give guest lectures at the University of Science and Technology.

“You are from Beijing!” he said looking at Xue Lin. “Did you ever have Professor Yu Meifang? He is a good friend of mine.”

“No, I never had the honor of being in his class.” Xue Lin replied.

“Ah, pity.” Dr. Wu’s eyes glanced briefly down at the opening of her blouse which had not been buttoned up all the way.