The Wuhan Mission

Sam took the elevator back down to his office where he looked over the files that the Deputy Director had sent him. Most of the intel was not pertinent to Xue Lin’s situation, but the news about the green antidote and the sinister purpose of the vaccine could be of some relevance to Xue Lin, who was tasked with stealing and carrying hazardous materials during a potentially difficult escape. He looked over the routes of egress that they had researched during Xue Lin’s final three weeks of specifics training.

Chapter 34 Passengers

Sam fidgeted nervously as he waited for Sam to arrive at their park bench overlooking the river. Marcus had shown up early to think about what was about to go down in China. There was a lot on the line now and the Chairman’s actions were hard to predict.

“Sam! Glad you could make it. Sorry for the short notice. I believe it’s time to think about getting them all out of China. Snow Forest too. I mean real soon.”

“What’s going on?” Sam asked.

“The package is a virus. I don’t know exactly what kind it is, but the Chairman just used it on his own people. It’s called SARS-COV-2”

“Jesus Christ!” said Sam, suddenly worried about Xue Lin.

“Yeah, I know. It’s bad. Could be much worse than 2003. I had two operatives there for that too. That time my people forced the scientist to change the virus so it couldn’t touch us white people. Did you ever hear about the Barbecue Couple?”

“Yes, I did hear something about that. They got kicked out of China. Lucky they weren’t executed.”

“Yeah, and I may as well tell you, they were the ones who adopted Xue Lin.”

“Jesus, Marcus, why don’t I know this?”

“Need to know basis, Sam.”

Sam was silent.

Roet continued: “Xue Lin has to bring both my assets with her, Jimmy and the Doctor. We need them both. Also tell her to grab whatever she can from Wu’s lab. Virus should be labeled ‘SARS-COV-2.’ Apparently there is an antidote too. She may have to coerce it out of Wu. He might not be so willing… after his daughter and the… incident.”

“Two passengers? You are shitting me right?” said Sam.

“Wu is the foremost virologist in…”

“Yeah I got it. You need Wu. I’ll tell her when she calls.”

“They’ll need extraction if the shit hits the fan, which it probably will with two passengers, especially if any of them are already compromised, which is a possibility.”

“I’ll have a team on standby” said Roet.

“Good” Sam replied, “I’ll be going in with them. I’ll fly to Seoul tonight.”

“Jesus Sam, aren’t you getting a bit old for this shit?”

“I guess we’ll see.”

*

Jimmy thumped on the steel door of the Tool Man’s basement apartment. A few nights earlier he had put in Xue Lin’s order for a few more tools. He had also added his own list to the order.

He squinted up at what appeared to be a piece of scrap barbed wire hanging to the right of the door. He knew that’s where the tiny security camera was hidden.

The door opened and Jimmy walked in as the Tool Man closed the door quickly behind him.

“I got almost everything you need. How about you? You got what I want?”

“Jimmy smiled as he put his bag on the concrete floor and, one by one, pulled out several bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. They had been a re-gift from Jimmy’s ex-boss, the Secretary, who had been given two cases by foreign diplomats, but didn’t drink Western Liquor on principle. The Tool Man loved Scotch Whisky.

“Gooooood!” said the Tool Man, smiling, opening one, smelling the top of the open bottle. He grabbed two glasses, putting them on his wooden work bench, and poured two drinks, pushing one in Jimmy’s direction.

“Gan Bei!” they both gulped the whisky.

The Tool Guy’s face glowed. “You got the money too?”

Jimmy threw a wad of Chinese currency on the bench.

“I couldn’t get the whole amount because the whisky was so expensive…” Jimmy lied looking at his feet.

“OK, only coz we are old friends you cheap bastard.” said the Tool Man, pulling out an open cardboard box from under the bench.

“Micro GPS tracker, home made. Very small eh? Peel the back off and it stick to anything.”

Jimmy nodded.

“Works with this phone. Very good phone. It was hard to hack.

Plug in this long aerial, work like SAT-phone.

To connect to satellite you have to tell the Americans the number on the back, they will understand.

Date rape drug, rohypnol: 2 large doses, liquid form, fast action, out for 1 hr+” This for you Jimmy?… You good looking. You don’t need this.”

Jimmy shook his head, smiling back at his cheeky friend.

“Ceramic scissors. Won’t set off metal detector.”

Jimmy figured that Xue Lin must have a special reason for those.

“Flash-bang grenade. Hard to get. I made this one. Much better.” He lobbed it up in the air to Jimmy who had to strain to catch it, shaking his head and smirking at his friend.

“Also, black backpack is Kevlar, bullet proof, more or less.”

He passed it to Jimmy who noticed that it did have some weight to it for an empty backpack.

“Two Chinese passports and ID cards. New names. No travel stamps.”