The Wuhan Mission

Jimmy handed the three identity cards to him. The officer looked at him for a long couple of seconds, then at the three IDs, then back at Jimmy and then said: “I’ll be back with these in just a few minutes.”

“Go.” Jimmy said rather calmly as he shot the cop from his window and got out quickly enough to catch him before he fell. Skillfully wrapping his left arm around the cop’s neck he walked him forward using him as a shield, raising the barrel of his own pistol in the direction of the cops ahead.

Xue Lin was already out of the van. She lifted the machine gun and took a knee next to the open door and squeezed the trigger spraying the heads of the two cops still in their car, then she smoothly jogged up the right side of the road to get an angle on the second and third police cruisers.

“Two down!” yelled Xue Lin, aiming at car doors behind which the cops were attempting to take cover. She fired a short spurt piercing the doors of the second cruiser. “Four down!”

Jimmy aimed his pistol at the last cop who was trying to radio for backup from inside the third car. He pulled the trigger releasing a single slug into the forehead of the cop.

“Two down. That’s all of them. Check them!”

Xue Lin efficiently looked over each of the cops, almost casually putting a bullet in the head of the sole remaining badly injured cop who was defiantly trying to lift his pistol.

“Let’s go!” yelled Xue Lin. “No, wait! Jimmy get the IDs from your human shield there.”

Jimmy located the three IDs on the ground near the cop’s body and brought them back to the driver’s side.

“Any bullet holes anyone?” Jimmy said flippantly, looking in at Dr. Wu huddled in the back seat.

“No… bullet… holes.” Wu answered.

“Well that went well” said Xue Lin sarcastically. Pulling out the magazine to check how many she had left. She replaced it with a full one.

“Maybe we should clean this shit up before someone comes along” said Jimmy.

“And grab one of their radios. They will have the new channel. We can listen in again.”

Xue Lin and Jimmy, working as quickly as a team, put the six bodies in the trunks of the cruisers and parked them on the side of the road behind a cement barrier. Perhaps motorists might see them in their rearview mirror after they had passed, but the bullet holes would not be apparent. It would seem strange, but hopefully not strange enough to report.

“Let’s go Jimmy. We need to put some miles between us and this mess.”

Jimmy put his foot down and the van lurched forward onto the highway. His driving had suddenly become much more aggressive. There was no point sticking to the speed limit now. As long as they stuck to this highway there likely wouldn’t be any more roadblocks. Xue Lin turned up the volume of the cop’s radio that Jimmy had picked up and listened intently for new information.

*

The Chairman summoned his assistant to his office.

“I need you to get me the Director of the Ministry of State Security. Get him in my office this afternoon please.”

“Yes sir. Will that be all for now sir?”

“A pot of tea.”

“Yes sir.”

The Chairman felt an old excitement creeping back. It had been all politics. Shaking hands with Presidents. The espionage of late had been a welcome diversion and the thought of increasing China’s power was an exhilarating one. Some of the coming changes may have a certain amount of blowback on the Communist Party, but it would all be worth it in the long term.

This morning’s theft of bio-materials by an American spy could easily be spun into an elegant conspiracy theory by the Ministry of Propaganda. It would muddy the waters when the press started to point fingers. America’s own propaganda machine would crank up, trying to cast blame on China.

The lack of speed of contagion in the West was the only thing he was worried about. Relying solely upon tourism to spread the virus would reduce the sudden impact he was hoping for, even if entire cruise ships of full of infected tourists were unleashed upon major cities in the West, it may still be too slow to cause the hospitals to be overrun, which was the key to forcing quarantine conditions.

His assistant knocked three times and entered. “Your tea sir.”

*

Jimmy had been at the wheel for three hours since the roadblock. Doctor Wu was still looking shocked in the back seat. It was approaching noon as Jimmy announced that they would be needing gas shortly. He was still dumbfounded at the unexpected police radio transmission they had overheard an hour ago.

“Why on earth would they call off the search already?” asked Xue Lin, incredulously. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders: “I dunno, maybe a trick. You heard it though. Sounded real to me.”

Jimmy suddenly looked like something had dawned on him.

“You got the bug sweeper with you in that backpack? Maybe they know where we are, don’t need to block roads.”

Xue Lin pulled it out, thankful that she’d decided to keep it for the escape.

Jimmy said: “You can check in a minute when we stop for gas.”