The Wuhan Mission

Sam wanted to go with Plan A and try for an exchange, but he was very concerned about the Virus getting out of his sight.

“What do you wanna do Xue Lin? How does it look from up there?”

She looked at Ryan for his opinion.

Ryan replied on the radio: “If we went in now without the package they wouldn’t be expecting us. They probably wouldn’t shoot the hostages. They need them as leverage. Snowflake and I could take out three from here. That would leave you with two on the ground floor. That’s if you can get in that big ’ol door. I don’t think we are equipped for that kind of breach.”

Xue Lin added: “With the door, that’s a whole bunch of moving parts.”

Sam thought for a minute. He asked: “Ryan can you see what the front door is made of?”

“It’s wood sir, but they make ‘em thick here. We’d definitely have to quietly take out their lookout on the street and then you’d have to blow the door.”

Sam was still very pensive. “Xue Lin, if you took out that guard at the front, you could grab his comms and we could listen in for a while before making a decision.

Ryan shook his head: “Security cams outside the building sir.”

“Damn it Ryan. Then what do you suggest?” Sam asked, getting frustrated.

“Sir, I think we have to go with Plan A: You go in; hope they don’t wand you, and we’ll back you up.”

“Jesus. Is Ryan always this annoying?” Sam exclaimed.

The Team Leader nodded: “Yeah but he’s usually right. He’s just like my wife… only a better cook.”

“And better in bed,” Ryan’s voice chimed in.

Everybody was sniggering a little bit despite the gravity of the situation.

Xue Lin said: “We have a little over thirty minutes before they are expecting us to arrive. How about Sam goes and knocks on the door now. Push them off balance a bit. Sam, if they want to wand you or take your comms, you haggle! They are Chinese don’t forget. That guard out front looks young.”

“Roger that Snowflake.”

‘Interesting angle…’ Sam thought to himself.

“I’m going in.”

Sam opened the door of the SUV and stepped to the pavement. There were people in the street, mostly Asians returning to work after lunch. Sam had the backpack slung over one shoulder with the three vials inside. He had a pistol on his hip and one on his ankle.

He walked around the corner, and started towards the Chinese guard posted outside the front door. The guard saw him coming and gestured for him to approach and said something into his comms. The guard tried to start frisking him but Sam wagged his finger at him authoritatively. The guard looked very uncertain and shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the door which had just opened inward. Sam cautiously looked inside before entering. He counted three men in black suits, two of them with machine guns, now pointing them at him. To the back of the building he could see the hostages seated but not gagged.

“Hi there! My name is Sam. How have they been treating you?”

“Very well actually” the male replied. “This is a real nice hotel. Have you seen our daughter? She’s a Chinese girl, not very talkative, very pretty…”

“That’s enough talk!” the shortest Chinese man snapped. He was clearly the senior officer.

“Do you have the vials?”

Sam opened the bag and one of the men came over to take them from Sam.

“Go and check them!” the officer barked, as the vials were taken upstairs to the scientist on the second floor.

Sam looked at the Barbecue Couple and asked: “Is there anything I need to know?”

This time the woman replied, oddly shaking her head: “They just want the vials apparently.”

Sam’s gut was telling that there was some lying going on. He was scanning the couple’s faces for a sign. He was picking up some subtle but quite non-reassuring head gestures. It seemed that not everything was above board.

Sam said to her: “Your daughter is safe.”

They both looked suddenly very relieved. “Thank God!”

“Well, you’ll forgive me for not trusting anybody here and staying on the ball” Sam replied, communicating with his colleagues outside.

Xue Lin kept her rifle trained on the Chinese sniper in the top floor window while Ryan scanned the second floor with his scope, aiming first at the scientist then at the guard who was armed with a submachine gun.

The rest of the American team were ready to take the guard outside, but there was still that closed door to contend with which needed to be opened from the inside.

On the ground floor, the officer was waiting impatiently for the results of the scientist’s test upstairs.

“Hao ma?” he yelled in the direction of the stairs. The guard who was standing behind the hostages shifted back and forward nervously. He had recently lost three comrades in a raid in Brooklyn and was well aware of how trigger-happy the Americans were.

“Hao!” the guard on the second floor yelled down after the scientist had given the thumbs up for the three vials.