The Wuhan Mission

Sam and Xue Lin had been taken into custody while the opera house was cleared out and cordoned off. Allan had successfully managed to empty the entire spray bottle inside the auditorium. He had been as shocked as anyone at the sudden appearance of a gunman firing his weapon into the ceiling and Allan had made his way to the exit with the rest of the panicking public and walked the short distance to his hotel. He just wanted to go back to his room and take a sedative.

He opened the door of his room and switched on the lights. The Chinese agent was sitting there waiting for him, nursing a pistol with a supressor. As he raised the pistol and pointed it at Allan, he said: “You know you are really far too trusting” and fired three bullets into his chest.

*

The CIA had brought in government virologists to ask relevant questions of Doctor Wu who had been taken to a black site for the interrogation. Sadly, Wu’s lifetime of drinking and smoking had weakened his body. The waterboarding proved to be too much for him. Despite answering all the scientists’ questions, Doctor Wu died in custody with his lungs half full of water.

Jimmy Chin underwent a series of interviews and passed the CIA’s polygraph test and was happy to be offered a job at the CIA where he worked diligently for a few years before retiring in the Cayman Islands with his new trophy wife. His bank account had remained intact and Jimmy had diligently continued to add to it whenever he saw the opportunity.

Marcus Roet struggled in a hospital in Virginia for three weeks on a ventilator before succumbing to the effects of the SARS-CoV-X virus. His funeral was poorly attended and, oddly, the eulogy was given by a CIA accountant.

Xue Lin and Sam spent a couple of nights in jail in Milan before the Americans were able to straighten out the ‘American gunmen’ mess that had happened at La Scala. Sam was concerned that the CIA would deny all knowledge of him and Xue Lin, but the Deputy Director had come through for him. He felt like Xue Lin might need a vacation and he was due for one too. The American Ambassador came to pick them up in his limo.

“They want to talk to you in DC” he said to them, turning to Xue Lin, he said: “There’s a plane waiting. Your parents will be on that plane.”

“So, Snowflake. I’ve been thinking… when this administrative crap is all over… Tasmania’s nice this time of year” he said, looking into her eyes.

“OK Blue Eyes. I’m in.”

Copyright

© Irving Waters

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