White Jade (The PROJECT) (33 page)

"
I look forward to
hearing more about this,
Elizabeth
. Let
'
s get together soon. Perhaps lunch next week? I like to talk with you about something, but this isn
'
t the place. If you
'
ll excuse me, I think I
'
ll go have a little chat with Gordon.
"
He nodded at
Hood
and moved with purpose toward Westbrooke.

"
You
'
re on your toes today, Director,
"
said
Hood
.
"
That was neatly done.
"

Harker glanced at her watch. It was almost 11:00 P.M. Kevin Hogan, President Rice
'
s Chief of Staff came in.

"
The President will be here momentarily,
"
he said.
"
Please find your seats.
"

Chapter F
orty-
Eight

President Rice entered the room.

"
Good evening, everyone. Please be seated.
"
Rice took his
place
at the head of the table and the others sat.

President James Rice was in the
third
year of his first term and deep in the quicksand of presidential politics. Descended from early American colonists, he was named after an ancestor
who'd fought
in the American Revolution.
He'd
served with distinction as a young Marine officer in
Vietnam
.
At s
ixty-seven he looked ten years younger. His face was strong and comforting, with hazel eyes that seemed to speak directly to you alone. He was popular, charismatic when he chose and possessed of a streak of integrity that defied the conventions of the political world. Harker liked him.

"
Let
'
s get started. Joseph, what is our current situation?
"

The Director of Homeland Security cleared his throat.

"
Mister President, power is out throughout Northern and Central California,
Oregon
, Southern Washington and
Western Nevada
. The effect is spreading as other stations in the grid try to take up the load. The electrical utilities have gone to rolling brownout in an effort to head off more failures.

"
The Governor of California has called out the Guard
.
All civilian emergency forces have been activated.
E
mergency power is up and running at all medical facilities
.
We are currently
at Elevated Alert
.
"

"
Are we certain these explosions were not accidental?
"

"
Yes, Mister President. They occurred at exactly the same time and appear to have been selected to create maximum disruption in the grid.
"

"
Any communication from terrorist groups?
"

"
We have received a statement claiming responsibility from a group calling itself the Beijing Great Nation Brigade.
"

"
Is this a known group?
"

"
No, Mister President.
"

At that moment an aide entered and handed President Rice a note. Everyone watched as he read it. Rice looked up at them. He was grim.

"
There ha
ve been
explosion
s
in San Francisco
with
heavy civilian casualties. Turn on the monitors.
"

Heads swiveled toward the end of the room
. T
he monitors came alive. There was no sound, but the visuals were enough.
All t
he major networks were showing scenes in the Bay Area.

A
live helicopter shot
zoomed in on
bodies lying in the
Ferry
Building
Plaza
.
A bomb had detonated under the restaurant at the end of the Ferry Building Pier. The restaurant was gone.
The pier was mostly gone
.
Under the restaurant a reinforced concrete shaft
had fed air into
the BART tunnel running below the bay. It was gone.
Where it had been, t
he waters of the Bay
churned
in a
seething
whirlpool, pouring into a black hole.

The networks were pooling shots.
Injured and frightened people wandered aimlessly about
. CBS switched to an interview with a panicked mother
sitting outside what was left of the
Ferry
Building
,
clutching her child and sobbing.

CNN was running a banner saying the country was under terrorist attack. Fox had a right wing talking head sounding off. Behind him was a background shot of the
Twin
Towers
burning.

Chapter F
orty-
Nine

"
My God.
"
It was Hansen, the National Security Advisor.

"
Mister President.
"
General Holden spoke from the end of the table.
"
I recommend we go to DEFCON 3. We don
'
t know who
'
s behind this.
This may be a
set up for a larger attack.
"

"
Mister President, may I interrupt?
"
It was Lodge.
"
Before we take further action I believe we should hear from
Director Harker
.
"

Here it comes, Harker thought. Lodge was anticipating political fallout and diverting thoughts of an intelligence blunder away from CIA and
over to
her.

"
Director
?
"

Everyone looked at her. She forced herself to keep her hands resting quietly on the table before her. A memory surfaced of her father, sitting in his big wingback chair in the den.

"
Never let them see what you
'
re really thinking.
"

Her father reached for a glass of bourbon on the side table by his big, green chair.

"
When it
'
s important, when the chips are down, you
'
ve got to conceal your thoughts and control your feelings. It
'
s like poker; you can
'
t let the other fellow know what you
'
re up to
"

Her father often seemed to confuse her with the son he
'
d never had.

"
Yes, Daddy
"

"
Stand up for what you believe in. Don
'
t lie, but you don
'
t always have to say everything that
'
s on your mind. You
'
re smart and you
'
re going to go far. It
'
s certain there will be times in your life when you have to know when to hold
'
em and when to fold
'
em.
"

She decided to reveal the Tibetan operation, before Lodge sandbagged her.
It was time to hold 'em.

Lodge was watching to see how she would handle it. To hell with him.

"
Yes, Mister President. Ten days ago we discovered a ranking officer of Chinese Military Intelligence was responsible for the murder of William Connor, the noted investment banker. This officer reports directly to General Yang Siyu, head of Chinese MI.

"
Large sums of money were
taken
from Connor's accounts
and transferred
to the control of General Yang.
That money was again transferred to accounts here in America controlled by the Chinese
Triads
.

"
General Yang heads a group in
China
called the White Jade Society, composed of senior military and government officials. Analysis of intelligence indicates that this group is plotting a coup to install General Yang as the new leader of China. His man met several times with leaders of the
Triads
.
I believe Yang is using the American
Triads
to create a diversion here while he seizes power in
China
.
"

Rice interrupted her.

"
Director, you believe a coup is underway in
China
and that these terrorist events are related to it?
"

"
Yes, Mister President.
"

"
That is a very broad supposition.
"

"
Yes, sir. May I continue?
"

"
Go ahead.
"

"
Thank you, sir.
William Connor was murdered for money, but also for a
n old
book in his possession. General Yang went to
great
lengths to obtain this book, which Connor had hidden. An attempt was
made
here in Washington
to kidnap Connor
'
s niece in an effort to learn
where it was
. Five Chinese agents were killed
by one of my
team
during that attempt.
"

There was a murmur around the table. She had their attention.

"
We retrieved the book. Again, Chinese agents attempted to intervene. Two were killed, as well as a
California
police officer.
We asked ourselves why this text was so important to General Yang. Translation
revealed
clues to the location of a deposit of  high grade uranium ore somewhere in modern
China
.

"
We believed Yang wanted to find that deposit to enhance China
'
s nuclear weapons program. The book pointed to a specific location in the Tibet Autonomous Region where
directions to the deposit
could be found.

"
The translation of the book was stolen by one of Yang
'
s agents. That agent is in custody, as is another, deep cover agent we discovered embedded in the FBI.
That  informer contacted Yang's man and expressed concern about a possible attack here today.
"

All eyes turned to Westbrooke. He gave
Elizabeth
a hard look. I have made an enemy there, she thought.

"
Based on our analysis, I ordered a team into the field. We needed to know if a uranium deposit exists, since this would impact China
'
s nuclear programs
. W
e needed more intelligence to inform us about Yang and his plans. The only way to get it was to go to the source revealed in the book.
"

"
You sent a team into
Tibet
.
"

"
Yes, Mister President.
"

"
How were they inserted?
"

"
B-1B and high altitude jump.
"

"
Armed?
"

"
Yes, sir.
"

"
And?
"

"
The team reached their objective and confirmed the existence of a
previously unknown
high grade uranium deposit, located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
"

"
Any complications?
"

"
There was a confrontation with Chinese military personnel as the team
prepared
to leave. More than thirty Chinese were killed. The team was then safely extracted to
India
. They are arriving at Andrews as we speak.
"

The table was silent, all eyes on Elizabeth and the President.

The President looked at Holden.
"
Were you aware of this operation, General?
"

"
No, sir.
"

"
How about you, Wendell?
"

"
We were informed of the operation after it had been executed.
"

"
Not aware, then. General
Hood
, you knew the details of this mission?
"

"
I did, sir. The data was solid. We had to know if the ore deposit existed.
"

Rice turned to Elizabeth.
"
Why was I not informed, Director?
"
He
was getting angry.

"
Sir,
t
he decision was not taken lightly. I felt deniability was a factor, as we were going into Chinese sovereign territory. Therefore you were not informed. It was my intention to brief you as soon as our information was complete.

"
I want to point out, sir, that
I
alerted Homeland Security to a potential terrorist threat.
I
also attempted to inform State regarding a possible coup in
China
, but
was
rebuffed.
"

"
Who was contacted at State?
"

"
The Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs. She was quite adamant there was no possibility of a takeover in
China
, or even an attempt at one.
"

Rice turned to his Chief of Staff.

"
Set up a meeting with State for tomorrow, and have him bring the Assistant Secretary with him.
"

"
Yes, sir.
"

"
General Holden and Director Lodge.
Foc
us your intelligence gathering resources on
China
. Look for indications a coup may be underway. General Holden, to address your request, I am ordering you to go to DEFCON 3. Director Westbrooke. Find out who is responsible for these terrorist acts. I want them identified. I want that now.
"

"
Yes, Mister President.
"

"
Joseph, stay at
Elevated
nationwide and go to
Imminent
on the West Coast. Follow our existing scenarios for terrorist attack. They should be adequate or we
'
ve all wasted a lot of time since nine eleven.
"

"
Yes, Mister President.
"

The presidential aide came in
and
whispered in the President
'
s ear. Rice nodded and a uniformed army Colonel came into the room. He went to General Holden,
said something in a low voice
and remained standing behind him.

Holden said,
"
Mister President, our satellites show unusual military movements in and near
Beijing
, in the
central provinces
and off the coast of the Chinese mainland.
"

"
What kind of movements, General?
"

"
I can bring them up on the
monitors
, sir.
"

Holden
went to the computer banks and spoke to a technician. In seconds the pictures of chaos in the Bay Area were replaced with a series of live satellite photos
.
It was full day in China
. The images were clear.
General Holden stood by the monitors and indicated one of the feeds.

"
This is China
'
s principle ICBM base, located in
Luoyang
, in the Eastern Central region. It
'
s manned by the 80304 Unit of the Second Artillery Corps
. We estimate they have
1
5
DF-5 and
25
DF-31 ICBM
'
s targeted on the
US
and
Europe
. Average yield is around 3 to 5 kilotons per missile.
The DF-5s are in silos. The DF-31s are on mobile launchers. They keep them in tunnels.
"

He indicated part of the picture.
"
Notice the movement of equipment outside the base. Th
is is
heavy troop transport and tank movement. The vehicles have blocked access to the facility and appear to be making a flanking or circling maneuver.
"

"
Who commands that base?
"

"
General Lu Cheng, sir. He is known to be a xenophobic hard liner.
"

Elizabeth
sat up straighter in her chair. Lu Cheng was a member of the White Jade Society.

"
Have the silos been activated?
"
Rice asked.