Part 4

Summer

“There is nothing, no power that can stop or hinder the US in what they do however illegal.”

Harry Clinton was sipping coffee with Patrick Mason at the mobile café in Hyde Park by the Serpentine. Harry was formerly from the service but had left for a career in security in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the CIS. His knowledge of the KGB was invaluable as the KGB itself downsized and left many of their elements to be annexed by the Russian Mafia. Harry’s clients were mostly international companies doing business in Russia. It was a land of opportunity and risk.

“I’ve seen your guns. There’re so bloody many on the street anyone can get one. Before it was easy, only the Mafia had guns. Now we have to duck every merchant and businessman who feels even the slightest bit wronged.”

Summer was no longer summer, nor winter winter. It seemed that the seasons were becoming less well defined. It was a cold summer’s day and Mason stretched out in a coat which he would not have normally worn for that time of year.

“What makes you think the arms are American? There used to be a thriving trade in Chinese made AK-47s.” Mason remarked. It was still going on but facing much competition from the Far East. Mason assumed Harry was up to date.

“Well they’re American in design and that little fiasco in ASEAN stopped the copy guns so I’m guessing these must be American. They’re everywhere, which is certainly very American, and they’re displacing the Chinese guns. The Russian design is very reliable though and can knock down a tree.” Harry exaggerated. He was right about the reliability of course and the fact that the Chinese manufacture was being displaced was interesting to Mason.

“Still working the illegal arms assignment are you Patrick?”

“Yes. I have a man in St. Petersburg right now buying a consignment. I’d like you to meet him when you return to Moscow. He’s as useful to you as you are to us. And by the way, I wouldn’t make too much of my opinions about the Americans.”

“They are American aren’t they?” Harry caught on fast. Or thought he did.

“As American as IBM.” Mason said with a wry smile.

Patrick Mason was a busy man. He had operations across central Asia investigating the arms trade which was centered around counterfeit arms from South East Asia and from China as well. Just a week ago Mason had found that the principals in the US were not only not very concerned about the counterfeiting but had provided technical advice to the counterfeiters. The discovery was important in that it threw suspicion upon Britain’s closest ally in NATO and perhaps UN. Mason had called on a very reliable source of political and economic advice, his old friend Richard Chang of the Sheerluck Group for advice and found it as insightful as ever. ‘The most powerful weapons are social or economic in nature.’ Richard had said to him once. Now it was down to guns and Mason needed a new perspective.

Following the collapse of the common currency a mere 5 years from its inception, the apportionment of blame had become rather contentious in the EU. The fact was that for the first three years of the Euro, the notorious hedge funds had been testing the currency and the European Central Bank, the ECB, and the financial structure that had emerged with the single currency. When they had decided that the time was right, they struck. Parity with the almighty USD, once an absurdity suddenly became wishful thinking. The Europeans pointed accusing fingers at the hedge funds, which were mostly American or had American backing and financing, and the Americans in retaliation took a protectionist stance against the EU, Euro bloc or not, thus including a rather bewildered Britain.

‘When everything is getting cheaper, everyone’s going to want to be cheaper than the next guy. There’ll be problems.’

Patrick remembered the warning and when it had been given. He needed to speak to Richard once again but remembered that he had warned Richard off. He thought he would give Richard a call anyway.

“Patrick. Don’t tell me you’re still on the trail of gun runners.” Richard was in the middle of being fitted for a new suit. The interruption did not faze the experienced tailor who went about his business as Richard spoke into his mobile.

“I need some financial advice.” Mason said.

“I’ll be back at Sheerluck in an hour.” Richard replied and shut down his cellular. He apologized to the tailor who had by then finished measuring him up for the suit. Mason had sent the warning fax clearly as a way out for Richard and his team, so why had he come calling again? He would find out soon enough.

It had been a month since Richard had dissolved the project and Daniel had been living in bliss. He had found his Mickey and summer was upon them. Life had gone back to normal and had brought with it the inconveniences that would later define the period in their memory. It is not the extraordinary that we remember best but the mundane drudgery that once gone, once displaced by a new life, calls itself up in our memories and makes us long for a previous life. Daniel had known this through experience and he knew that the long and tedious walk from Russell Square to Hughes Parry would one day be a sweet memory, as much as it was a warm and tiring walk that it was now.

Mickey could have stayed at Sheerluck Hall which would have been twice the convenience and luxury and half the distance. Richard had discreetly left her a message on her answering machine when she was staying temporarily at one of the married couple’s rooms at Sheerluck. Basically he had said that she was welcome with or without Daniel to remain at the Hall. Daniel of course would be at the Hall for another year at the least, after signing up for the Ph.D. course in Financial Economics. She had decided after much consultation with him to attempt the Actuarial Course at the LSE. Money was not a problem for her, as her mother’s business in Australia was doing well. Daniel envied Mickey sometimes, she was able to do what she pleased without consideration to cost, well, almost without consideration. For Daniel, the Ph.D. was sponsored by Sheerluck and despite his desire to be independent of Richard Chang, it was an offer that was too good to turn down. He accepted it on the spot the moment Richard offered it.

He let himself into the room with a duplicate key and found Mickey busy at work on an airbrushed painting. It was the beginnings of a whale seemingly in space.

“How did it go Daniel?” Mickey asked.

“It was all hassle. Did you know the tax rate in this country?”

“50%?”

Mickey greeted him with a kiss. Daniel had just been to the LSE administration office. As a Ph.D. student there was teaching assignments which were paid and so involved tax issues. He returned the kiss and put his bag on the floor by the door. The life he had envisaged when he had first left his home for the UK almost four years ago was now reality. That he had also found love was something he had not expected but he welcomed it all the same. There would be no more clandestine meetings with suspicious characters or hacking into school computers at the risk of expulsion. The scholarship that he had obtained came with no strings attached, unlike the old one that had brought him to his knees. Suddenly the events of the past three years seemed like a bad dream fading in the memory.

“You look tired.” Mickey said when she caught him staring out of her window.

“I’m not tired. I’m happy.” Daniel said looking back into the room which seemed so dark for a moment. It took a while for his eyes to adjust.

“I’ve never felt so free. I’m almost afraid it’s a dream. Or that things might change.” Daniel voiced his fears as lucidly as he dared without frightening himself.

“Richard is a man of his word.”

“Sometimes things get complicated all by themselves Mickey. Through no fault of anyone.”

“The Sheerluck scholarship is free of any bond, Daniel. Richard’s always kept his word. I think its high time you and I learned to relax.”

“Have you talked to your dad?” Daniel asked.

“I went to see him when I got into town. He’s OK now. I think it’s just a matter of time before he moves to Canada. He keeps talking about it.”

Daniel could not get used to the fact that his girlfriend’s father was once a member of organized crime, and at management no less. She was a girl with a complicated history and would probably not meet with his parent’s approval but that was a problem he would deal with when it came up. For now, life was good.

“And you mother? She plans to remain in Australia?”

“We have family in Melbourne and I guess she feels at home there. Maybe when we graduate we can head on down under. You know, these past months in Oz, it’s quite a nice country.”

“Good for bringing up kids as well?”

Daniel hugged Mickey from behind and squeezed her affectionately.

“You’re not going to domesticate me so easily, boy.”

“You sure you want to go up against the Americans?” Richard swiveled round in his chair away from his computer to face Mason.

“It’s just a job we do Richard.” Mason said with a wry look. He seemed almost sheepish.

“So you have state sanction. What if they kiss and make up at the table? What happens of your investigation? You have elements in Central Asia who can’t just be pulled out on a whim.”

It was a painful reminder to a fact that Mason had tried to bury in the back of his mind. His thoughts went to Vince Decker who was now sitting in a Hammersmith flat eating pizza and waiting for time to go by. Vince Decker had been part of an American operation in Central Asia. When the revelations of impropriety in the South East Asian arms trade resulted in the operation being shut down, Vince Decker was left in the field without back up or assistance. High and dry. If it hadn’t been for Mason, Decker would still be somewhere in China with neither cash nor guns. Courtesy of he US government. Mason saw a bit of his own predicament in Decker’s situation and he sympathized with the man. Today it was Decker, the next it could be his turn.

“I think you really should walk away from this one.”

“I can’t. I take orders.” Mason said resolutely.

“The American involvement thing was significant. Has the Minister seen it?”

“He wouldn’t know what it meant. I’m submitting my report to London Centre recommending that the case be forwarded to Foreign Office. It is as you correctly say, a political matter.”

“There is a way out. CNN won’t do the story but maybe one of your local newspapers will. I think the best thing is to turn this thing into a big news story. Get the main line newspapers and the tabloids behind it, blow it all out of proportion and embarrass the Americans into submission.” 

“That’s my plan more or less.” Mason said with a sigh. “Now to make it the plan. We know now that the Americans are in on the Silk Road. I wonder how far it goes though?”

“You’re thinking about the trouble in China?”

“No. We already know about that. I’m wondering how long this has been going on and how far it goes, the extent I mean.”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing.” Richard admitted.

“The Americans have been financing the Chinese rebels and providing them with guns. What we failed to see was that it was cheaper and more convenient from a cover point of view to let the Asians make the guns. Of course the financing would get cheaper if the contractors were allowed to overproduce and sell the overruns. I don’t know if that was the plan but it certainly worked out that way.”

“The Chinese were already using the Silk Road to peddle their own manufacture. Was it a coincidence?”

“I don’t know how much of it was planned but the whole thing came together beautifully. The South East Asian guns were cheaper and better quality. Now we know why, they were getting free R&D from the principals. They were crowding out the Chinese stuff. How much do you think the trades worth Patrick?”

“A few billion pounds a year at least. Based on what we’ve managed to seize. I think tens of billions given that much of it slips through. So you think it’s a commercial war as well?”

“It works out to be. We’ve always hypothesized that America supported ASEAN as a foil to China’s power. We’ve always thought it was a political balance and not a military one.”

“You think the Americans have always been there?”

“Since Vietnam. The intelligence infrastructure was there. ASEAN was the US Army’s mess so to speak. What if they never left? Or indeed if they left custodians, locals.”

“Your mind is twisted as ever. You’ve been influenced by Colin.”

“You’ve always disdained his theories while you feared that they were true. When we shut down the ASEAN operations last summer, the developments that followed confirmed his suspicions. He may be paranoid but he is perceptive. Subtlety is not a strong suit though. He wants to go up against the Americans.”

Mason laughed a little at that.

“Your friend Lauffer. You think he’s privy?” Mason asked changing tack.

“No clue. Are you suggesting that I continue our activities possibly with action in ASEAN? That’s a tall order my friend. My immediate reaction would be to pull the hell out.”

Richard was aware of the lack of transparency and controls with the Americans. They could have done whatever they wanted, killed, lied, cheated, all with impunity. UN would probably just slap them with a reprimand, the US newspapers would make some token noise and the American juggernaut would continue on its merry way. For good measure a US President might even be sacrificed but the outcome would remain unchanged. It was not good to tangle with the Yanks.

“I don’t think I’ll have a choice. My orders are to investigate to the full and I’ll be doing that. We’ll share information as usual but we’ll insulate you. As for anything you want done at home, well, the opportunity might arise.”

“I will analyze as usual. Can’t say really if we’ll be in on the ops.” Richard was noncommittal. 

“Can you get me in touch with Lauffer?”

“Of course. He wouldn’t tell you if he’s in on it.”

“Then we’ll enlist his help. Or the US President’s.” Mason quipped.

Mason’s cellular rang and he answered it. It was his point man John Lane calling from the Vengeance in the Gulf.

“Patrick. Bad news.” John said gravely.

“What?”

“The helicopter we sent to pick Garcia up at the rendezvous was destroyed.”

“And our man?” Mason said his mind racing. He was considering the possible scenarios.

“From our records, the helo arrived at the pick up and found no one there. Our satellites were tracking. Helo hovered around for a couple of minutes, attempted an infra red imaging, tried hailing frequencies, then boom. Looked like a hand held SAM.”

“Damn. What did we lose?  Guns?”

“A truck. Shall we go in with Guns?” Lane suggested. It was clear that he was angry and wanted some payback.

“Yes but not in offense. Get a team back in to clean up. Not a trace. Watch out for follow up forces. You’ll need a couple of trucks with ground support in the hold, maybe four guns. Go to it and pick up the pace eh?”

Mason was troubled, not least by the destruction of one of his fire units and the loss of his men but by what he had to tell Vince Decker as well. Now how was he going to explain this to Decker?

Valerie was surprised to find him at her door. She told him to wait while she got dressed then invited him in. It was rare for Richard to visit her and she often thought that he deliberately avoided her. She opened the door and welcomed him.

“How long more will you be in London Val?” Richard asked making himself at home on her big chair. She poured him a coffee which he declined. She replaced it with cold milk remembering his preference for the cold.

“Another year perhaps but I will be going back for the summer. I have to work. Unfortunately.” Valerie replied.

“I’ll miss you.” Richard said with a shy smile.

Damn him, she thought. He was still charming.

“I’ll be gone for a mere two months, and you can email me.”

“How would you like to hear another conspiracy theory?” Richard climbed out of her chair and went to the window. He turned around to face her and was framed in the window, silhouetted against the morning.

“The story of your life. You’re amazing Rick. First of all the Bible was a conspiracy, then the entire Singapore Army is a big conspiracy, now what?”

“It’s the Americans. You don’t have to go back you know. You can stay here, get a job, start a life.”

“I have a job and a life. Why would I want to trade it in for this crazy weather?” Valerie retorted.

“Are you propositioning me Rick?”

“If I believed for a moment that I had a chance against your integrity I would have tried to make you stay. But I know you. I miss you even now Val. I’ve missed you since you first left London and I’ve missed you all this time. Even when you came back. I never got you back.”

“You are a charmer Rick. You’re talking to a married woman.”

“Engaged. Not married. And I’m not asking you for anything. I can bring him here for you.”

“What’s happening Rick?” Valerie’s suspicions were aroused. “Is there something I should know?”

“Nothing.” There was sudden distance in his voice and he threw his gaze to the outside behind him. She saw his distance and in it familiarity. For a moment she missed him too, for he was far away. Separated by things beyond their control.

“I know you. Why do you want me and Chong here?”

“I’d rather just you but seeing as you’re engaged. It’s a wonderful day, the sun is shining, I can think of nicer places to be but.”

He turned and smiled at Valerie who was confused. She was puzzled that he had come to see her and his purpose was unclear. Richard always had a reason for whatever he did.

“You’re the strangest guy I’ve ever known.” She smiled back.

“The other day? Your kiss.”

Richard was at a loss for the words to finish what he had begun. Valerie looked on expectantly, not providing him with much help.

“I liked it. I loved you since the first time we were here.”

He smiled now to hide the depth of his emotion.

“You helped me when no one else would. You gave me a start Val. That’s more than anyone can hope for in a friend.”

“You paid me back when I told you not to. I took it as a sign from you. You remember what I said.”

“That if I ever repaid you more than you gave me it would be the end of the friendship.” He remembered clearly.

“Yes. You might as well have told me to my face.”

“I was angry. I was wrong Val. You can’t know how I felt.”

“You never said anything. How could I know you loved me?” 

She knew, even then, yet pride or whatever came between her and her feelings. She knew that she was as much to blame as he and that he did love her.

“You remember one day at my room. You stayed the night because you were moving to another hall. I told you that you would always have a place with me and you asked if I would always have a place in my heart for you.”

“I remember. I can’t believe I said that.” She laughed.

“I couldn’t believe it then either. I should have kissed you then and told you everything.”

“I suppose it was unfair to expect eloquence then.”

“Did you ever feel anything at all?”

She hesitated. There was truth and then there was reality and they were not always compatible. It was a strange morning. Richard was totally out of character, and yet if she remembered long ago enough, there was a bit of that madness that had attracted her then. In fact that was all she could recall he was. The coldness and the bitterness had come after.

“You were different then.”

“I was broke and in need of a little finance. And I suppose a little less responsible. I had nothing to lose. But even though you were never mine I felt I lost you. I’m a free man now.”

“You’ve found love now.” Valerie was vague in her tone.

“Nicole, I mean.”

“She was a friend since I can’t remember. She’s lesbian. Or bisexual I guess.”

“You love her?”

“I do. It’s a strange relationship. I know we can’t be together. It’s a very strange relationship.”

There was no other way Richard knew how to put it.

“So where is the relationship heading?”

“I haven’t a clue.” He said earnestly. “We grow up believing that there’s one special person for life and then you grow up, love someone, lose someone, and then you learn that there isn’t one special person. It’s just luck or fate or you end up with someone by default. But you still believe in that one special person. And it can destroy what precious love you have. Then its back to looking for that special someone again.”

Richard’s casual tone made the words ring even deeper in Valerie’s consciousness.

“I know. Is Nicole that special one?” Valerie asked.

“There is no special one. That’s just something we like to believe in.”

“Surely if you believe in it, then it is.”

“In our first year, I thought it was you. I knew it was you. You’ll never know how much I loved you. We can talk now like it was other people’s lives but it was all real to me. You never have me a second look.”

“I did Rick. I asked you once if there would be a place in your heart for me.”

“I said yes.” Richard smiled. She was right. He had been so afraid of the love that she held out to him, afraid of that lifeline that she offered. Why? He wondered that still when he was quiet and alone.

“Was it because I gave you money?” Valerie probed.

“You gave me more than money, you gave me a vote of confidence and you lifted me more than anyone could.” There was a faltering in his voice and a softness in his eye. And the room seemed smaller and the light a little warmer.

“I seemed to lose you when I lent you the money. What happened?”

“You started dating Chong as I recall. Not that I have anything to say about that but I thought, you know…”

“We had known each other for two whole years and you’d been the most romantic man a girl could know and yet you never let me in. You never let me get close. I thought you had someone at home or something. Being as close as we were, we shared more than friends could share. You never once kissed me or held my hand or hugged me or anything. You just talked. For God’s sake Rick, I thought you had someone else and I was just a side show.”

“If you were, wouldn’t I have made a move on you?” Richard reasoned.

“How the heck would I know? You were a strange kind of guy. Maybe you never did because you loved your girlfriend at home, I don’t know. Maybe you were just lonely and wanted a companion.”

They looked at each other in the still of the room wondering how they got there and how different things could have been.

‘I never have the words to say.’ Richard thought. There was a hope that her candour meant more than candour but he had a duty and honour.

“I never had a girlfriend at home.” He said at last.

“Anyway, look. I have to go now. There is a lot of work at Sheerluck but I’ll see you around.”

Richard got up to leave and Valerie watched him pick up his jacket and throw it on. He looked younger for a moment, just like he was before she left for home the first time.

“Rick,” she said. “You’ll always have a place in my heart.”

He stopped and looked at her with a gentle smile.

“I know Val. We’ll always be like that.”

It was late when Mason’s helicopter landed on the Vengeance. He was not in any particular hurry but John Lane was. He met Mason in the conference room on the island tower behind the bridge with the intention of giving him a full briefing. Mason preferred to take it in the officer’s mess below deck.

“So tell me what happened.” Mason asked as he sank himself into the deep leather sofa.

“All the information we have was relayed to you in London. Right now you know as much as I do. As for the clean up, it’s gone by the numbers.”

“Good. I met up with an old friend in London. Harry Clinton.”

“I know him.” John said. “Colleague of yours at one time?”

“Yes. He works in Russia now. Security work. A lot of American business in Russia. They need to keep the Mafia of their backs and the Russian Mafia use a lot of ex-KGB. He’s found a pretty lucrative niche, has Harry.”

“He’s seen some of the arms on the street?”

“Too much of it.” Mason said emphatically.

“He was saying that it’s interfering with his work. Too many guns around these days and they’re ours. Harry thinks the guns are American.”

Lane laughed at the suggestion.

“The fakes are that good are they?”

“Harry’s seen a lot. They didn’t fool him though. He was just surprised at the quality of some of the fakes. Not so much the guns. The scopes. The optics was as close to the real thing as he had ever seen. That’s one thing we haven’t checked out. Were there any scopes with those guns we took?”

“Only the special arms and those were preinstalled. We have some on board shall we look at them?”

“Later. I need sleep. Tomorrow we travel.”

World connectivity was thought to be a good thing, but it also allowed people legally or not, ethically or not to invade the privacy of any individual who was not a hermit. Having put Daniel and Nicole out of the picture Richard called Colin with a proposition, a last concerted effort at discovering the truth about the Silk Road, which they would then publicize anonymously. That was the plan. And so the two men got together and began collecting data on the one lead they had, the directors of the Malaysian company Song Ching Haw Pte Ltd. World connectivity meant that hackers like Richard and Colin could intrude wherever they pleased extracting whatever information they pleased.

It was the third day of a grueling search on the Web that involved building their own database manually from the information extracted on line and they were tired. Working from two portables at a café on Kings Road helped a bit but it was still hard work. Colin ordered more coffee and lit another cigarette. The ashtray was already full.

“One guy?” Colin said through smoke.

“One main guy. We have this other chap. Malaysian, Bumi. He doesn’t show up in the Singapore companies but his holding in SCH is substantial and he has stakes in most of the subs including the unlisted parent SCH Holdings. No annual report available for that company I’m afraid.”

“At least we have these photographs.” Colin referred to the collective photograph of the board of directors that he had scanned it into his machine. He sent one copy to Richard’s machine via the uhf wireless connection.

“I wonder how old these guys are?”

It was easy to find out. First to the registrar of companies for name and passport numbers, then to the respective country inland revenue services, the easiest one stop location for information really, down to the individual file.

Ng Keng Chye was 53 and Abdullah Azmi was 55. The former intrigued Colin. Oxford. Kings. PPP. Colin called up the name list for Ng’s year and the years before and after at King’s. 66 names. Thank God it wasn’t some other university.

“Bank accounts.” Richard said.

“This won’t be easy. Any ideas how we start?”

“Driving license, car purchase, financing, bank account. Once you’ve found one the rest should fall into place. There are other ways of course but that’s one.”

It took Colin all of ten minutes to collect the data. Ng Keng Chye had bought several garden variety Mercedes Benz’s and paid in full from a Bank of Singapore current account. He held several time deposits in various currencies and had a share trading account and an Internet merchant account. There were numerous credits from major international banks but the most frequently recurring ones were Barclays, UBS, HVM a BNP Zurich. The two Swiss accounts were numbered.

“Our man has one USD 13 billion in cash in his Swiss accounts.” Colin said with a gasp.

“Cash man! That’s not equity or gearing or any shit like that. That’s cash.”

Richard was mildly impressed. It was little compared to what he had stolen over the years but it was substantial.

“Archive all that. What else has he got?”

“He’s got SGD 43 million in Singapore. That’s total of all the BoS accounts time and current.” Colin reported.

Richard took over the search, scanning for payments out of the two Swiss accounts. He found a regular payee.

“Coutts, a very private bank. Information only, account is numbered and there’s no identification. Pays to a company account, Memnoch plc. This is going to take all day.”

Richard clicked on the PC clock and saw that it was past lunch. 1412hrs. He referenced the UK registrar of companies and searched for Memnoch plc and a list of directors and signatories. Gabriel Owen was the sole signatory. He extracted a National Insurance number. This time Colin was just watching a mirror of Richard’s machine on his own screen as the originator of the technique went to work. The interactive/adaptive algorithms insinuated their way almost intelligently through firewalls and password gateways, cleaning up behind them as they slipped seamlessly and noiselessly through the commercial and sometimes government system servers.

“We have an address and a photograph. Eaton Square, very nice. And there’s the scan.”

The scan loaded and both men looked at it wondering what kind of man that was and what his place was in the scheme of things. He was an elderly gentleman with a head of white hair immaculately quaffed. “The transactions go both ways for Mr. Ng but only debit from and credit to Mr. Owen.

“Nice suit. Savile Row you think?” Colin remarked.

“Very nice.” He magnified the image.

“Look at that. The tie, the insignia, a square and compasses.” Richard pointed out.

“What else can you tell from the picture?”

“Lets have lunch. We should do all this cloak and dagger at night really.”

Richard hid the windows and shut the screen. 

“I think we got pretty far. We know who calls the shots in ASEAN now, at least one of them. Next thing is to check out this Abdullah guy and also Mr. Owen here. Hey Colin, you know any Freemasons?”

“Actually we do. Patrick is a Mason, apart from his surname.” Colin said.

“You think he might know?”

“We should ask him anyway. And I think its time he started watching our Ng Keng Chye.”

Washington

It had taken James Lauffer quite some maneuvering to get an audience with the President but he managed it in the end with a little help from his boss the deputy assistant National Security advisor David Mercuro. Both men sat before their Commander-In-Chief as he read the report that Lauffer had prepared. It was an impromptu meeting that had an unofficial stamp of secrecy on it.

“That’s quite a story.” President John Book said looking up from the document.

“I’ve only had this morning to read this but are you sure about this? I mean, the evidence looks good but you are extrapolating here.”

“Yes sir I am. This analysis is corroborated by someone we worked with six months ago on the Asian Deal. He brought this to our attention. The analysis is not entirely unoriginal as this ties in with suspicions that began as much as five years ago.”

“When you first joined the NSA’s office.” President Book confirmed.

“That’s right sir.” Lauffer was really sticking his neck out on this one. The NSA himself had decided to allow Lauffer to go over his head on this one just in case it turned out to be a false alarm and it took all of Jim Lauffer’s faith in Richard Chang’s analysis to summon up the courage to take this to the President. Mercuro had been supportive and took the matter up with his boss who had done the political thing.

“Mr. President, we are not aware of any such policy or effort in Asia and we thought it best to at least consult with the NSA. We did not cross check CIA as they are implicated in this.”

“Lauffer if this is true, I know nothing of it, which means that I’ll be asking the relevant departments to advise me. If there’s still nothing, and if NSA doesn’t know about this, I doubt anyone else will, I’ll have to order a full investigation. That means you may be in the hot seat. Both of you.”

John Book knew that this could well kill his political career, but it was his second term and he had nothing to lose. It all meant a big dent to his Vice President Charlie Schroder’s Presidential aspirations. He also understood the time frame for such an effort and the implications it would hold for past Presidents, in particular the man who had authorized the effort. However secret, someone signed off on it sometime.

“Jim, who brought you the fax?” The President asked.

“Patrick Mason of MI 5. British Intelligence. We have collaborated in the past.”

“So the British know about this.” The President intoned with a sigh. A professional report would have told him that but Lauffer was front line. He had obviously limited experience reporting this sort of thing except verbally. Book decided to cut him some slack.

“This matter is too big for it to remain here. I’m going to have to inform the Vice President and place this directly under Riley. I know he didn’t want this but I think the best thing is to regularize it and investigate through channels. Proper channels albeit not the usual channels. There are parts of this government we can still trust believe it or not.”

Lauffer was surprised at the candour of the President and he was both warmed and reassured by it. With John Book at the helm he was pretty sure there would be no cover up.

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party retains control in a landslide under the leadership of the new man Toshiro Fujiki, the headlines read. Richard was not surprised. The previous Prime Minister had presided over a turning point in Japan’s history and economy. He had also restored much clout to a leadership that had lost much of its prestige over the past decade or two. Keiko Sato had passed the torch successfully after cutting a deal that constituted perhaps the most important piece of foreign policy earlier in his term. Unfortunately, the world would not know of this for a long time, if ever.

The massive rationalization that took place in Sato’s time had resulted in companies larger than the still flourishing Microsoft Corp. in the USA. Sony had become the world’s largest maker of microchips after the annexation of Fujitsu and Toshiba. And it all began from game technology. In a swift and unforeseen stroke, the centre of technopreneurial activity had shifted from Silicon Valley to the scattered hubs of Japan. The reasons for Japan’s resurgence were clear enough if people cared to look. To the experts, the recovery came from nowhere.

Richard Chang often consulted Murad Khan on more than mathematics for he was also well versed in the discipline of economics and often approached the problem with more rigour than most market practitioners. Khan had been out of London for some time, preferring to live in Kent. From the state of London it was not surprising. The trouble was that Richard did not like the videophones very much and so had to travel to Canterbury each time he wanted to speak to his friend. This time, the drive had been particularly tedious as Colin had insisted on coming along and then revealed a long list of errands he had to run for his girlfriends. Richard settled for being dropped off at Khan’s house just ten minutes from the university campus. The house was beautiful by any standards and cozy. That Khan had rebuilt the old place and decorated it single-handedly amazed Richard.

“The Japanese,” Khan explained, “were a whole step behind in the computer age. They merely caught up to one step behind the West.”

It was a view Richard shared but he wanted confirmation and perhaps a second opinion.

“All those predictions of a total meltdown in their economy and social order turned out wrong. I guess strategists always extrapolate in straight lines.” Khan laughed.

“They do, usually. What do you think of their future?”

“With the new man? Good I should think. Sato left leaving behind a booming and mildly inflationary economy behind him, plus a new respect for the Japanese government.”

“Do you think the Japanese might have been installed to keep balance in Asia?” Richard interrupted Khan. He had other more pressing matters on his mind.

“Possibly but that’s a bit far fetched isn’t it? I mean it is the world’s second largest economy and will be the largest if the US continues to potter about.” Khan objected.

“China was placed with Japan to be the one of the booming economies in the new millennium. So much for that prediction, however, is it possible that they were not intended to make such fast progress?”

“Another conspiracy theory?” Khan said with a touch of irony. He was used to Richard’s oblique reasoning but he respected the man for his track record. Of course the Euro collapse might have been self-fulfilling but he had to give the man his due credit.

“Containing the Chinese would be a Western purpose.” Khan advised.

“So what’s the latest technology?”

“Nothing, this is the plateau upon which the leaders stagnate and regress and the slow developers catch up, improve, reengineer, take over the mantle. It so like nature you know.”

“No further on connectivity?”

“Further yes but all we have now is refinement and it is twenty year old technology we’re refining anyway. Sandwich?”

Khan offered a plateful of egg mayo sandwiches to Richard who took one.

“They’re better than cigarettes.”

“I’ve quit.”

“Really? Does anyone really ever?”

“It was a conspiracy.”

Khan laughed at his friend.

“Let me guess, Philip Morris is causing cancer deliberately as a human experiment.”

“No. The government is responsible. Without punitive taxation there would never have been the impetus to provide filters. Cigarettes are quite harmless, it’s the damn filters that are carcinogenic and these are tested and approved by government agencies. So you see…”

“You are completely mad. Quite mad.”

“How about the cholesterol in eggs?”

“These have none. They are genetically engineered.” Khan said quite seriously.

“Could they hatch into chickens?” Richard asked before taking a big bite.

“Probably not. Probably hatch into some pretty frightening mutations. I wouldn’t eat those.”

Killshot

It had been ages since Richard had last returned to his homeland Singapore. This time he traveled with Colin on a Qantas flight whose final destination was Sydney. Uncharacteristically for Richard and much to Colin’s relief, they flew first class. They traveled light and neither had any baggage to claim so they headed out immediately to the car rental where Colin had reserved a BMW luxury sedan with 6 litres and about 400 horses on tap. Colin drove of course and nosed the car out of the car park onto the highway while Richard slid his seat all the way back and opened the screen on his subnote PC.

It was a typically warm and muggy day and though it was only 0830 the sun was already burning down and the traffic was beginning to build. Richard could remember travelling this very route so often. His old house was close by somewhere north of the coastal highway in a cheap part of the island. That was the old house. The new houses he had sold just weeks ago so that they were forced to put up in a hotel. Colin was expectedly extravagant choosing the Shangri-La in the heart of town.

“Nice to be back eh?” Colin said as he slowed down in sympathy with the traffic.

Richard grunted a reply as he put on his sunglasses. It was impossibly bright and he could barely see the output on his LCD screen even at maximum backlighting. 

“We’re going to caught in the rush hour jam. Why don’t we get off the expressway and head north to the suburbs? We could get some breakfast and let the traffic thin out.”

It was a good suggestion so Colin pulled left in search of an exit. He found one quickly and took it at rather high speed to Richard’s annoyance.

“Hey, take it easy. There are cops everywhere. I don’t want to end up with a hefty fine.”

Colin just smiled and put on more speed. They were headed to Old Changi, a suburban neighborhood which was in fact where Richard had grown up. But then it was a little developed village almost. Colin was surprisingly familiar with the area and got them to a coffee shop selling Indian food. He parked illegally by the curbside where the coffee shop owners placed the chairs and tables. Apparently there were still places like that in Singapore where you could get away with that sort of thing.

“Nothing much other than the usual mail.” Richard said putting his subnote away. He took a sip of the syrupy iced coffee while Colin tucked into a heavy Indian breakfast.

“No word from Patrick?”

“None. He’s got his hands full cleaning up the mess in Kazakhstan.”

“Do you think the Americans are on to him?”

“That’s a distinct possibility. He took a risk and contacted Jim Lauffer remember?”

“I hope that was the right thing to do.”

The weather was not about to get any better as the sun got higher in the sky. It was a feeling Richard had not felt for years for he had been to places of extreme heat, but never coupled with the level of humidity he had to put up with now.

“Rick, ask you a question.” Colin said casually. Richard nodded.

“You and Val.”

Richard did not flinch as Colin paused to see his reaction.

“Yeah?”

“You used to like her right?”

“I did. That was over five years ago. She’s engaged now. We talk still, of course.”

“She’s with…” It was Colin’s way of warning and Richard understood it as that.

“The central bank. Her sabbatical was quite remarkable and I was of course suspicious that it might be one of those conditional scholarships again. It was.”

“She knows you know?”

“She came clean with it. Apparently they never told her until she was well into her course.” Richard said with great tiredness in his voice.

“So they know about your political alignment.”

“It’s never been very secret. I think they suspect a bit more which could be dangerous to our little excursion but I have some insurance.”

“I think they know nothing. They track to many targets.”

“Do you have to light up in this heat?” Richard was objecting to Colin’s nicotine habit.

“What’s going to happen to Val?”

“I don’t know? I offered her a way out with her fiancé but she declined. I guess she’s old enough to take care of herself.”

“She came to you with the admission?”

“Yes.”

“You still love her?”

“Do I ask all about your private life?” Richard said dryly.

“That’s what friends are for. Prying, being nosy and generally embarrassing the shit out of each other. Come on, tell me. I think she still likes you.”

“I’d have too many women in my life then. I don’t have your skill in juggling relationships.”

Colin smiled at his friend’s defensiveness. Richard had a point but Colin wasn’t about to give up his lifestyle anytime soon.

It was when they resumed their journey to the Shangri-La Hotel that Richard brought up the subject of Valerie.

“It was pretty clear to her what her scholarship entailed.” Richard said unexpectedly.

“I think she just hoped it wouldn’t be and took it. She just looked the other way, pretended that she’d never be asked for a quid pro quo. When they asked…. I sometimes wonder if perhaps she had already begun the work, if she’d been doing the job up to a point where the demand got out of hand.”

“She came to you remember?”

“I know. I just think that she didn’t come to me immediately after she discovered it. I think she was probably doing as told for sometime. Something stopped her.”

“Something like what? Feelings of affection, or protection.”

The sounds of thunder accompanied the forking tendrils of lightning across the Singapore skyline as Colin watched on from the penthouse suite.

“Looks like we’re in for a storm.” He said to Richard who had just emerged from the shower in a bathrobe.

Richard’s first act was to turn on the TV and tune in to CNN for the news. They were reporting on sports news and Richard was waiting for the English Football results.

“Fulham’s playing United tonight.” Richard informed Colin. Fulham was Colin’s local club in London and it had been a right royal fight to climb into the Premier League let alone mount a challenge to the ever-intimidating Manchester United.

“Really. I thought it was next week. By the way there’s a car show in town at Suntec City and Ferrari are showing their new GTO.”

“I’m not into Ferraris Colin, I’m more a Toyota kind of guy. Do we have the time?”

“Do you have the inclination?” Colin asked as he turned away from the churning skies.

“No. Hang on, there’s some breaking news on CNN.”

The CNN Newsroom cut to a scene in Washington with the White House in the background. Washington Special Correspondent Justin Wolff was reporting.

“US President John Book was the victim of an assassination attempt…at 11.30 p.m. today as the Presidential motorcade was returning to the White House the President was shot through the bullet proof glass of the special MPV that he normally rides in. Apparently there were two shots one of which struck the President in the shoulder area. At this time Doctors are fighting to save the President and his condition is said to be serious….”

“Are you seeing this?” Richard asked.

“Shit. How do you manage to shoot the President in Washington? That’s like close to impossible.” Colin said in disbelief.

“Book is a good man. If anything they should have shot the last two Presidents.” Richard said coldly.

In another part of town KC Ng watched the same news from his living room TV. Outside the rain came down with a vengeance and thunder punctuated the drone of the storm. He had been wrong about a great many things but the failure of globalization was the most disappointing. President John Book was reported to be serious condition. Apparently there had been two shots fired. The first, shattering the bulletproof glass on the Chevy Suburban and the second that did all the damage. KC knew a little about the security business, as he was an employer of such services. He knew that in Washington, an assassination attempt on the President would have been just about impossible. He picked up the phone and dialed a number.

“Are you watching this? Someone has shot the President of the United States.”

Ali Kilrathi, the National Security Advisor, Singapore, replied that he was.

“Is there a National Security Issue here Mr. Ng?”

“I don’t know. It’s your job to tell me isn’t it? Right now it’s just a PR thing.”

Ali Kilrathi was a man to be feared for his wide-ranging powers but even he feared the man with the cold and gentle voice who spoke to him like a mentor to a charge.

“This other matter.”

“Is being handled Mr. Ng.” Ali said.

“Everything is in place and we should have a meet within a day or two.”

“Good. Thank you Ali, I know I can always rely on you.”

They had just made love. Rough and vigorous sex. Daniel and Mickey lay in bed recovering from the strains of love as she brushed his hair from his face. She was so perfect he thought. So fresh and young and alive. And so like himself. She rolled over and got up from bed, squeezing her legs together as she felt the wetness between her legs. How like a man, he thought. It was the man who left the scene of the crime first. That was what Mickey did every time. She went over to the PC monitor and sat down in front of it as Daniel felt another arousal. He could not get enough of this girl. It was her wantonness, her sluttishness. He had read of her affairs in her diaries and wondered often how the other men had been. Now he saw her naked on a chair, her hair falling down her shoulders and he was aroused. He climbed out of bed and went to her cupping her breasts from behind and kneading them. She could feel his hardness again and was rather impressed reaching behind to hold him. She closed her eyes in pleasure as he moved one hand down to her sex. And then he stopped.

“What?” She exclaimed in surprise and disappointment.

“Fuck me.” He said by way of curse. It was not a come on.

“Somebody shot the President.”

They sat transfixed reading the CNN screen numbed by the shocking news.

“Get dressed.” Daniel said.

It was a phenomenon. Every time something big happened on CNN the halls would come alive and university town would be crawling with a seething energy and for the best news he knew he had to turn to Richard or Colin as they would have hacked into whatever sources they could by now.

Daniel hadn’t thought to call, he just headed down the corridor and around to the East Wing where Richard was only to find that he was not in. He then headed back to his room almost colliding into Mickey as she followed after him.

“He’s not in. Must have gone to the TV room or Colin’s.”

Colin had recently moved into the Hall after finally pulling himself away from Passfield’s mysterious presence. They tried Colin’s room, which was just a few doors away but got no answer.

They were puzzled and went back to Daniel’s room where he rang Colin’s mobile. Thankfully Colin replied.

“Did you hear the news?” Daniel asked excitedly.

“The President of the United States? Yes. You just heard?” Colin replied.

“Where are you man? Richard’s not in either. You guys dig up anything from the source?”

“We’re in Singapore Daniel. I suppose we could dig something up on Richard’s portable but we’re on vacation man.”

Richard would never go to Singapore on vacation, Daniel thought. Nor would he, but that was a different matter. Colin was lying. They were in Singapore but it was no vacation. That or Colin was alone in Singapore. That must have been it, Daniel thought. Was Richard in Washington?

“Where is Jim Lauffer?” Vice President Charlie Schroder asked of Riley the NSA. Schroder sat at the head of the table in the boardroom, a position he would have assumed under less distressing circumstances.

“We have him on the premises. He’s safe.” Riley replied. Riley was Lauffer’s boss. He had been the one to suggest to Schroder that the meeting that he had set up between Lauffer and the President may have had something to do with the assassination attempt. At least for now it was just an attempt for the President was still alive.

“I need to talk to him now please Alan.” Schroder said with a bit of irritation.

He was more irritated by the presence of the Joint Chiefs whose job was to advise him regarding any possible military threat to the nation as a result of the shooting.

Riley gave Schroder a look.

“Get me Lauffer in the oval office. I’ll talk to him there.” Schroder altered his directive. At once Riley got up to execute the order.

“He’s waiting for you there Charlie.”

There were protests around the table but Schroder silenced them with a wave of the hand as he followed Riley out.

“What’s your take on this Alan?” Schroder was smart enough to seek advice.

“Lauffer came across some information about a black op in central Asia. The tip off came from MI5, Britain’s finest. A man named Patrick Mason whom we have worked with before. That means the source was good. Mason even warned about this eventuality and we advised the President but he thought that that would have been unnecessary. Apparently we were wrong.”

“Let me get this straight Alan. British Intelligence tipped us off to a black op we were running? John didn’t know about this?”

“None of us knew. I would not have brought Lauffer in if not for the fact that Mason warned that they might try to suppress the story.”

“That would make Lauffer’s position pretty hairy.”

“Yes sir.”

They were escorted into the oval office where Lauffer was sitting idly. He had had a rough day. Since the very moment the President was shot the Secret Service had yanked him and his family to a safe area within the White House confines. The introductions were quick and informal. The men sat around the sofa on the side as Schroder was totally uncomfortable with the idea of taking his Commander-in-Chief’s chair. At Riley’s request Lauffer related the contents of his meeting with the President just two days ago.

“This is a load of trouble. If the threat is internal then we better get the Army boys busy, give them something to do.” Schroder said to Riley who was taking notes.

“Call it a terrorist attack. A suspected terrorist attack. Get our elements in the Middle East cracking. In the mean time this investigation is ongoing?”

“Yes sir. I think at this point we have to assume that the lives of all those privy to the investigation are in danger.” Riley warned.

“The only way we can really work this,” Lauffer interrupted, “is by leaking it to the press.”

There was a deathly silence.

“What if its something else?” Schroder thought aloud.

“We could get the military to investigate the terrorist angle while we work the central Asian connection. We tell them that the central Asian thing is a blind that we’re feeding the press so they can get on with it…”

It was a pretty good idea actually.

Urumqi

The aircraft were unmarked but their silhouettes were unmistakable. Bell AH100 Stealth Attack Helicopters. Garcia and company watched from inside the building as the four birds circled around menacingly. The local Chinese villagers were quite terrified and huddled in their wooden houses like the poor citizens in a lousy spaghetti western. From the 3^rd floor window Garcia could see one of the birds settling down on the main street. His Chinese counterpart Li RongXing walked out toward the chopper waving his arms in welcome. Something told Garcia that something was wrong.

“John.” He said to his 2IC. “ Are we expecting visitors?”

“Gambill said he’d be here in a week. It’s been a week so I guess.” John Clancy the burly 2IC replied.

“John. I don’t like this. Get everyone down to the underground tunnels. Do it now.” Garcia commanded calmly.

“Everyone. Including our Chinese friends.”

Li continued waving to the impassive metal face of the stealth chopper when all of a sudden the nose turret gun of the machine spat fire ripping the man in half where he stood. Garcia watched on in horror.

“John. Get going now!” He shouted. His team was way ahead of him, flying down the stairs with what equipment they could carry. The other choppers were flying around laying down suppressive fire and punching holes in Garcia’s old headquarters in the canteen. One of the birds fired of a cable guided missile turning the entire wooden dwelling into a ball of flame. It was only a matter of time before they turned on the only stone building in town. Clancy made for a window with GPMG in hand only to be stopped by Garcia.

“Are you nuts. Those are Gatlings. Forget it, let’s go.”

The big man cursed under his breath and headed down the stairwell ahead of his commander who followed after. The choppers did turn their attention to the stone building. Garcia could hear the gunfire and bullets strafing the room they had been in. They were leaping 5 steps at a time now, heading for the ground as quickly as they could, hoping to make it underground to the labyrinth that the rebels had set up since so long ago. It was their only hope for Garcia knew the MO. The birds would fry everything. Women and children included.

Aircraft Carriers were big things and the fleet surrounding them made them even more conspicuous, and yet in the large expanse of ocean they could be notoriously difficult to find without the aid of the best satellites. Patrick Mason watched the little war from his vantage point on the ridge. He had concealed himself well among the tree line and was watching intently the pack of four attack helicopters ravaging the little town. Where the bugger could those birds have come from? They needed to refuel. India? Indian Ocean? Carrier group, but where? His own carrier group was off the coast of Pakistan and already they needed a refueling base hidden in Afghanistan. He felt silly assuming that the Americans had not such facilities as well. Mason got up and walked down the ridge, back to where his own stealth gunship was idling. He was taking a big risk here. The Aerospatiale-Westland gunship was a bigger and had more fire power but he was just one and no match for four fast attack helicopters.

“Take us up.” He ordered. He had a plan. They were faster than those small little choppers.

“Get us up to 2000 yards and then we advertise our presence.”

The driver dutifully took the bird on maximum vertical climb making the occupants feel like they were in a very fast express elevator. At 6000 feet he shut down the stealth avionics and turned on the active radar scanning the area around. It would take the Chinese minutes to find him at this rate and find him they did. An airforce base just four hundred miles east of Urumqi found Mason’s radar lighting up the airwaves and pinpointed his location. When Mason was satisfied that he was being looked at by a high power ground radar he made a beeline for the besieged town at full speed before switching the stealth systems back on again and diving and turning away. Mason knew that the Americans might well have seen him as well but they were in a firefight and would have been looking for something else.

Meanwhile, the walls literally fell in on Garcia as he tumbled headlong through the hole in the floor. Debris and brick and mortar fell in after him as the men already in the hole caught him.

“God damn!” He growled as he steadied himself.

Above the sounds of explosions and gunfire continued. They knew that they had to seal the entrance to their system of tunnels at this end or risk the aggressors following them.

“Good thing we got these tunnels.” Clancy said as they moved further down the tunnel. He chucked a grenade back to the entrance end and ducked pushing Garcia ahead as he did so. The explosion brought the rest of the house down on the tunnel entrance sealing it for good.

“God damn John, how about a little warning.” Garcia complained.

The stealth choppers were busy systematically destroying the town that they didn’t notice the incoming MiGs. MiG37 close air superiority fighters, 8 in formation came super-cruising in at high speed sans afterburner. One chopper was splashed by a not so subtle missile attack. The remaining three pilots were given a rude reminder that the enemy was not always as stupid or helpless as they were used to facing. The choppers were in disarray but neither were they without defences. They dived low and sped along the terrain picking up speed to almost 500 km/h heading south towards India. But 500 km/h was not enough to outrun MiG37s. Amid a flurry of explosions on the ground close to the choppers another one was lost this time to the terrain as it ploughed into the ground. The remaining birds increased speed further and flew even lower, their only chance of escape.

At the high burn that the choppers were going at they were no longer stealthy and Mason could see them on his terminal on an infrared satellite view. The Aerospatiale was no slouch even in stealth mode managing a speed of some 400 km/h as it headed southwest. There was a risk that the MiGs might see them and give chase but Mason was quite confident that he was tracking all of the MiGs. What he was wondering is where the hell the American airbase was. It had to be a carrier somewhere on the Indian Ocean.

“What do we do now?” Clancy asked Garcia who was just settling down for a rest.

“I don’t know John. We got to hole up here for a while more. Till dark. Then we exit at the south end of the tunnels. How much supplies we got?”

Fortunately the tunnels were used as a store as well and there were ample supplies of food and ammunition.

“Plenty. We could hole up here for a week.” Not that Clancy wanted to stay that long. One thing was on both their minds and the minds of the remainder of the team that had made it underground, they had been attacked by apparently a western force which intruded into Chinese airspace to do it. The aircraft looked American as did the crew and tactics. There was no other conclusion really. A couple of weeks ago they had lost their CO and now this. For most of the men, the conclusion was obvious, this black op would be disavowed. They were as good as dead.

“John. Head count, then I need to talk to the men.”

They had forty-two in all out of seventy-seven, Americans only. Thirteen Chinese rebels had made it down the tunnels with them.

“OK listen up. We’ve been fucked over by our own people, that much is obvious.”

The faces that looked at him all displayed a defiant strength.

“But we’re going to make it. Two weeks ago when Commander Decker was taken by the enemy, well, he wasn’t taken by the enemy. He was taken by a British Commando team working out of Pakistan. They took him in for questioning so they know all about us. That lot out there that took out our command post were not Brits. You saw the Super Apaches. They were our own.”

“What if the Brits are in it with CIA?” One of the men asked. It stopped Garcia dead in his tracks. That was a possibility indeed.

“Its our only chance, people. Come sundown, we’re going to surface at the south end of these tunnels and make a phone call to Commander Decker’s phone. It should be on line whichever side they’re on. Then we see. For now we got to pack what supplies we need and then make the call at sun down. Then we head for the hills to the east of the village. From there we should be able to see any incoming.”

It was a good plan. Hell, it was the only plan.

At 0748 hrs the call was made from the Unicom phone. Vince Decker himself answered the call.

“Dammit Garcia where the hell did you guys go?” Decker said with much urgency.

“The Brits are looking for you.”

“We moved back to base Vince. No choice. Gambill was waiting when I got back and I had to go along. Vince they just blew the base the hell away. We need extraction Vince.”

“Need to know where you are Harry. Call me back in an hour. Meanwhile you move. These Unicom signals can be tracked.”

Nothing really surprised Valerie anymore these days but it was rather unexpected when Simon Ser, one of her colleagues at the MAS showed up at the door at eight in the morning. She was surprised to say the least but invited him in all the same. Simon was her senior and had been a scholar under the MAS scheme as well only he had been to Harvard. He was one of the high flyers as they were called. Still he was a pretty humble and down to earth kind of guy.

“How are you Valerie? I knew you were in London and I am here to attend the Euroland conference on cooperation with ASEAN so I thought I’d drop in on you.”

“I see. Hey, can you get me in to the conference or is it invitation only?”

She had some interest in trade blocs and Euroland was a large and powerful bloc.

“I might be able to. By the way I’m here at London House as well. For a week. Room 454 just upstairs in the west wing. Listen, do you want to have dinner tonight at the refectory?”

“ Yeah sure. Why not?”

Home

It was another bright and sunny day after a spate of thunderstorms and Colin and Richard were thankful to get a chance to explore a place they had once known so well but which had become alien in their absence. Colin drove as usual and they cruised down the famous Orchard Road. They did a little bit of shopping at the newly built Harbour City which was a concept development at the time of having an automobile free environment with climate control. They had to park the Beemer at the old Marina south and take the train into the futuristic city within a city. The Hub was the largest building in Harbour City and connected the other buildings. It was cool walking along the open-air walkways suspended a couple of hundred feet above ground with climate control maintaining a comfortable temperature all round. Colin went on a shopping spree which led Richard to believe that that was the real reason he had chosen the Beemer saloon instead of some red hot coupe. Before noon they were on the road again headed east towards one of the quieter areas of Singapore. They drove down a street which Richard had always wanted to live on and he saw that the plot of land that he had bought and then subsequently sold was still vacant. He had planned to build a house on it, turn it into a home and return to Singapore someday. It had been bought at considerable cost for he did not wish to haggle. Unfortunately he sold it at a loss when he sent Nick to dispose of all his Singapore assets. Richard told Colin to stop in front of the plot of land. He remembered his plans for it and wondered if perhaps he would have been happy just living there and not gone on to teach abroad. They drove on to the main road and made a left and drove on for a short distance. Advanced Ideas Pte Ltd.  They pulled in front of the block of shop-houses, the kind usually only found in the Far East and got out.

The Advanced Ideas office was a futuristic glass and metal office which was completely automated. Richard had only to speak to the voice analyser to gain entry as the glass doors slid open.

“Doesn’t anybody work here?” Colin asked, noticing that the office was empty.

“Not anymore. We had about thirty people in here but the company has been shut down. This is the only property owned by Sheerluck BVI in Singapore. The flat upstairs is quite nice so I decided to retain it. I’ll convert this office into a bar or coffee shop.”

“What happened to the people?”

“They were given a choice to move to KL.”

More automatic doors and then a lift to the third floor. It opened into a two level open concept dwelling. An upper level with a steel railing overlooked the living area which included a kitchen and living area. A double bed was placed in a corner with a futuristic glass wardrobe which displayed the clothes inside.

“Nice.” Colin commented. “Connectivity?” He said as he walked down the stairs and found under the loft a mean looking concept computer casing and table. The monitor was almost less than a centimeter in thickness and was suspended from an arm mounted on the wall.

“Lights.” Richard intoned and the room lit up with hidden spotlights.

“How did you do that? What if I said ‘lights’ in conversation?” Colin asked, amazed.

“You just did. And if I said ‘lights’ in conversation like so, it knows. The technology was developed downstairs. They were an ace team and right now they are in KL. Most of them. Make yourself at home.”

Richard kicked of his shoes and had a chat with the climate control before jumping into bed and closing his eyes for a bit. Colin meanwhile was checking out the futuristic apartment flicking on and off switches, talking to holes in the wall and being pleasantly surprise that the room was responding to his voice as well. He noticed Richard snoozing comfortably in the king-size bed and was exasperated.

“Hey, Rick. We have work to do.”

Rick woke with a start and then collected his thoughts.

“Don’t worry about it Colin. The US President just got shot. The chaps here will be in a spin over the diplomatic angle and China since the US did underwrite the peace deal they struck last year. They’ll have problems of their own. If anything this assassination just extended our vacation. Besides, we aren’t on a timetable.”

“Frankly, I just want to get this one over with. Then we can take off to Sydney.”

Richard sat up and thought it out for a while.

“Colin. This one could last a bit longer than we’d like.”

“You mean they won’t have time for us?”

Richard did not answer. His mobile telephone rang. It was Daniel.

“This is the latest news Rick, China just lodged a complaint with UN and issued a statement. They just shot down two US helicopters in Central West China.”

“That’s where Mason and his team were. Where did you get this?”

“It’s all over CNN Rick. Where the hell are you?”

“In Singapore.”

“You told us you wouldn’t pursue the matter any further. Are you on vacation?”

Deep down inside Daniel knew the answer. He just wanted to hear it from Richard.

“Loose ends Daniel.”

“I want to help.”

“We got it covered. Me and Colin.”

“How can I help?”

“By carrying on as if you know nothing. Look in on Val for me.”

“Nick thinks she may be at risk if you’re up to something in Singapore. She wants to have a chat with her.”

“No. Jesus, Daniel, you go see her. Tell Nick that you’ll go see Val.”

Richard was aware that he hadn’t covered all bases with Valerie and that she was a loose end. There was a small risk. He had to stop taking risks with other people’s safety. Richard cursed under his breath as he sprang up from the bed. He could feel a potential fuck up just around the corner.

“Thank you.” Colin said in exasperation to a rather confused Richard.

“What?”

“I told Daniel that we were on vacation. Not business.”

“You shouldn’t tell lies.” Richard said jokingly.

They spent the rest of the day downstairs in the office on the computers priming the V1 programs for their next mission and seeding the local servers of the University net and the nets of the local banks and stock exchanges.

On the Battle Bridge of the HMS Vengeance, Patrick Mason stood facing the video conferencing screen. Facing him in virtual reality was the Minister for Defence and the Head of MI5 Colin Underwood.

“You have seen the reports. China has detected the US presence and is conducting a sweep of the area. They mean to take this up with UN but there is no guarantee that they will stop there.” Beckett said gravely. There was a hint of rebuke in his tone.

“It was them or us Minister. The operations were American after all. We were just in the area conducting surveillance when the Chinese came crashing in. Our orders were not to engage.” Underwood was good at running interference even if his agenda was not always clear.

“If I may, Minister. There are American elements still in the area. Part of Mr. Decker’s team. They’ve been abandoned and the Chinese are sweeping for them. We know there are several other units but we have a link to this unit and a good chance at extraction. With your permission…”

“Are you mad.” Beckett spat. “You are on the brink of an international incident here. Would you like the Chinese to find dead British soldiers as well?”

“The Chinese are looking for American ground forces. They know that the Americans will not be mounting a search and rescue in Chinese soil.”

“But you will is that it?”

The Minister was clearly not in a good mood.

“The team in question telephoned their CO Vince Decker whom we have in safe custody. They are in clear and present danger and are requesting extraction. Under maritime law, we have to respond.” Mason said impassively.

“Do you make policy here or do I Mr. Mason?”

“Minister,” Underwood interjected. “Perhaps the Americans could be put to good use.”

There was a pause as Beckett collected himself.

“Leverage against the Americans. We would have evidence against the Americans whose return they would be very grateful for.”

“I’m sorry Colin. This has gone too far. You never even told me about the surveillance mission and you had James bloody Bond here running a private operation against both the Americans and the Chinese.”

“I’m sorry gentlemen but as a member of the Royal Navy, this fleet is bound to respond to the distress signals transmitted by the Americans and we will respond.”

“You are disobeying orders.”

“No sir. Maritime law. You’ll need a countermanding order from the Admiralty. It should take about half an hour. I’ll be back in an hour.”

Mason saluted, wheeled and turned his back to the screen, signaling to the ensign to cut the transmission. The ensign obeyed rather unsteadily.

“Patrick. Is this wise?” John Lane asked of his superior officer.

“No but it is necessary. Our birds ready to fly?”

“Yes. All teams on standby.”

“Let’s go. We need to accommodate about 50 strength.”

“Report.” Charlie Schroder ordered.

“The Chinese Ambassador is seeking an audience regarding our troops in China. They have some physical evidence. Two Super Apache attack helicopters shot down over Chinese soil. Apparently there are troops as well but so far the Chinese have been unable to find them. Or produce them. On our side we have no record whatsoever of a black op in central China.” Director of Ops reported.

“So what do I say when they return the wreckage of our helicopters and the dead crew? Tell them they’re Canadian? No. This is not acceptable. I’m convinced that there was a black op and that the Chinese have hard evidence. What are our options based on those assumptions?”

“Not much I’m afraid.” General Springfield intoned. He was a distinguished soldier who had risen through the ranks and was one of the few that Schroder knew he could trust.

“If they have evidence, the best we can do is challenge the evidence. Nobody will believe us. We’re on the Security Council which means they’ll never find sanction in UN but they might take an alternative course. Worst case is a return to Cold War. China closes shop and we go back twenty years in diplomacy.”

“There was a black op dammit. We just don’t have any proof of it.” Schroder cursed.

“Mr. Vice President. I think we can be honest about this to the Chinese. If anything it will buy us more time. Keeping silent just makes us look bad.” Jim Lauffer suggested.

“Tell them that we’re not sure if there was an operation in China? That we didn’t know and if there was then its not our fault really?” Director of Ops said mockingly.

“You know a better way?” Schroder asked earnestly.

“I think Lauffer’s got a point. It would force them to react to us instead.” General Springfield added.

The telephone rang and Schroder answered it. When he was done he looked up at the men in the room.

“The President has regained consciousness. This meeting is adjourned but you guys got to be recallable 24 hours OK.”

The turned off Holland Road into Leedon Heights and sped along the narrow lanes until it got to the high walled plot. Richard instructed the electronic gates to open and they did. Colin continued past the gates and up the long driveway to the beautiful and opulent mansion that was so well hidden from the road. There was no apparent resistance and they drove up to the house, parking the car in front of the entrance. They got out of the car and Richard rang the doorbell. Colin waited impatiently by.

The man who answered the door was the man himself, Ng Keng Chye, and he wore a cashmere cardigan and cord trousers and looked as if he would have been more at home in some other less warm and humid clime than Singapore.

“Come in,” he said apparently unfazed. It was almost as if he was expecting them.

“Welcome to my humble home. You must be Richard Chang.”

Richard took his hand and shook it as he entered.

“I am. You must be Mr. Ng Keng Chye. It is a beautiful house indeed.”

“It used to be more secure.” Ng said with some humour. 

“And you must be Colin Choo. Malaysian aren’t you?” Ng said.

It was a strangely amicable scene for what each party was aware was a potentially explosive situation. They were invited to Ng’s study where they sat around a glass table. Visible through the window was the rear of the house with its swimming pool and landscaped gardens.

“I have been expecting you both. It seems that you have a strong interest in the fate of ASEAN. True patriots in the purest sense of the word I must say. May I ask why you decided to come here?”

“We came to clarify some points that we don’t understand about the nature of ASEAN and the leadership. We came to ask for your help in getting some answers.” Colin opened. “It appears that the true power behind the leadership of ASEAN lies not in the hands of the government as we know it but with others who use the government as representatives.”

“That would be the people. The government represents the people. It is the most basic foundation of democracy.” Ng said smoothly.

Colin was about to retort when Richard stopped him.

“Mr. Ng. We are neither patriot nor traitor. I think you know the questions we are here to ask and I think you have the answers. The American involvement in South East Asia is a lot greater than most people including the people of this state know isn’t it?”

“I think there is something you should know before we continue Mr. Chang. Do you recall someone by the name of Ning?”

Richard knew the name at once and froze in his tracks. To jog his memory, Ng took out a photograph of a young woman and placed it on the table in front of Richard. Colin’s mind was racing now. It must have been an old lover he had not known about.

“She was you lover in London after Valerie left you. Wasn’t she?” Ng asked in a patronizing tone.

“Obviously you have her in safe custody.” Richard said at last.

“ She is safe. She might well be safer with me than with you. The words you say border on heresy and the Americans might take offence.”

Ning had been the girl after Valerie. When Valerie left she left behind a void. Richard had been alone then and then he met Ning. It was a chance meeting, one of those things that happen and then you wonder how it could have happened. At least that’s how it felt to Richard. She was from King’s Law and she was a pretty wild child. This one was proof that a relationship could grow from sex alone to more than sex. That’s how he liked to remember it. Whatever it was, he lost her too. Unlike the others he never mentioned her to anyone, not even Nick or Colin for he never got over that loss.

They had met at the International Hall bar all those years ago. He was drunk from the success of a kill and she was drunk on cheap whiskey. From where he sat she looked like a cheap whore in her denim jacket and torn jeans. They had almost made love in the bar and it was only the presence of a whole bunch of other people that prevented them from doing it on the bar counter. They went up to her room and before either of them knew better they were screwing like a bunch of rabbits. The morning after held no embarrassment or apology as each got up and went their way. The affair lasted all of one passionate and crazy year during which his shame kept her a secret from his friends.

“Colin. Please leave us now, I have to speak to Mr. Ng alone.”

Colin was unsure and lingered a moment. The look that Ng gave him was strangely reassuring and so he got up and left the men.

“Mr. Ng. Release her to me now.”

“You are a dangerous man Mr. Chang. She is my only surety that you will not attempt to injure me.” Ng said.  “Besides, I assure you she is well and no harm will come to her.”

“If she has been harmed in any way…”

“Mr. Chang, please. I am an honourable man.”

“I am not. You went to great lengths to find out about Ning and to find her. You also know that I will not negotiate on this. Release her.”

“She has not been abducted but is at her home somewhere in Singapore. She is being watched and my people are in place to abduct her should you threaten my safety. Its only natural that I defend myself Mr. Chang.” Ng extracted a cigar and handed it to Richard.

“I wonder how much you think you know Mr. Chang. I won’t harm your precious Ning. I need your help.”

Richard felt that there was more to the man than he had discovered on the data banks of public systems and annual reports. Something told him that Ng was as much a victim as his own victims. It did not make him any less dangerous.

“You are not the only ones to suspect that the order in ASEAN is manufactured. Or installed if you like. The British have suspected this for ages. As have many scholars in our own ranks whom we were forced to silence. The time for silence is past. It past when the deal with China was done last year. You see Mr. Chang, the Americans have been running a secret war in central Asia. The real details and purposes are unclear I suspect even to those who run it. Unfortunately, when the arms trade was uncovered the American elements in central Asia who fed off the arms and who had been waging a controlled war with China, it also meant that these elements would be disavowed. The deal in the form the Japanese presented it allowed the cessation of ops in central Asia to be temporary. The moment the main elements of the deal had been carried out, the arms trade resumed as did the secret war. Nobody expected the Brits to extend their investigations. Or the annoying persistence of a certain CNN reporter.”

“Whom you had killed I suppose.” Richard asked derisively.

“No. That was some other people. In any case things have come to a head. China has discovered the US presence on her soil and God only knows what her reaction will be, the US Executive will realize that the allegations are true and that he had no knowledge of it. The perpetrators are too old and entrenched, too powerful for a young President to handle. There will be hell to pay. I myself have plans and it is here that I require your cooperation.”

“And Ning will be unharmed.”

“I am aware of your capabilities and of your resolve. She is insurance. No more.”

“Who is Gabriel Owen?”

“That is a truly long story. Unimportant for now. You came here with a purpose, what was it?”

“I came here to find out the truth about ASEAN, the leadership and people like you.”

“You can find the truth but what then? What would you do with it? You couldn’t publicize it.”

“It seems I won’t have to now that the Chinese have stumbled on that game on their backyard.”

Ng looked puzzled as if he didn’t know how Richard had figured out the connection between Fieldstone and the Americans.

“Tell, me Mr. Ng, how does it work? Any explicit system of command or are you given a free hand in most things?”

“I will save you a lot of time by saying that your suspicions are founded. Right now, however, there are more important things to do. The Americans will move on us if we fold. No ASEAN government will admit to the truth, they would rather silence you first. This China thing is potentially explosive. The Americans have moved three of their Carrier groups into the Pacific around Japan while the Chinese have a fleet surrounding Taiwan.”

“And you would like a discreet exit.” Richard said with a satisfied smile.

Ng smiled back.

“I need to know the entire structure. Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, the whole lot. Who are the masters and who the fronts. I want a list.”

“Which you can never publish?” Ng was mildly amused at Richard’s apparent naivete.

“Just give me the list. Company structure, the mechanics of the system, everything. Not one omission or the deal is off. I want to know who slept with who.”

“I have assets to move.” Ng began to explain his position. “Family. Cash.”

“I can help.”

“Would you like to see the girl?” Ng offered.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Colin was in the dark as they drove out of the lion’s den. He had many questions not least of all what kind of deal Richard had cut with Ng but he thought best to wait till they got back to the apartment. Instead Richard suggested a stop at a coffee shop where to Colin’s surprise Richard asked for a cigarette.

“So what did Ng say?”

“He’ll reveal the whole thing. But he won’t stand behind it and he wants safe passage for his family and him out of here. We have to arrange that. And the safe transfer of his assets out of here plus laundry.”

Colin wanted to ask about the girl but he knew better. He thought in the end to ask about her safety.

“Is she going to be alright?”

“She’ll be fine. But we have to get Ng and his family out of here and to Europe. Ning is hostage to the deal.”

“What was the plan with Mason?” Colin asked.

He was sure that helping Ng out would conflict with Mason’s plans somewhere. This girl Ning must have meant a lot to Richard to make him abandon a well thought out plan.

“Did you know that we were compromised? And how did Ng know?”

“Sometimes I talk too much Colin. There are times when it’s safer for you to work alone. Can you work this one alone Colin?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Get Ng and family out in their regular names. Sydney is best I think. He has Swiss bank accounts. He needs to access them after a couple of name changes. The chaps at Sheerluck can help you with that. Ask for an Alan Cooper at the George Street office. I’ll call ahead to tell him to expect you.”

“Time frame?”

“T plus three.” Richard said decisively.

“And Mason?”

“Mason does not know of our plans here. He has his own plans that don’t include us. We still need Mason to get Ng and family some new travel papers. Put them up at the north shore safe house for a while, same one we put Michelle and her mother in.”

“You are staying here?”

“I have to see Ning.”

“You never said anything before…” Colin said carefully.

“I didn’t plan to. It was a weakness I know and I’m sorry.”

“No need to be. I understand.”

“Yes you would.” Richard jibed at his friend.

It was dangerous work now that the Chinese were alerted to a foreign element on their soil, even with the stealth helicopters. The route was a dangerous one that involved flying through an open area with no cover to a secret mobile refueling base at the southern end of the Tarim Basin before heading further south over Pakistan. The stealth helicopters were capable of terrain hugging flight that rendered them hard to spot both by radar and visually. That, and the vastness of the steppes were the only protection they would have. Two troop carriers and four gunships armed to the teeth made the run towards the Urumqi gas pipeline, careful to maintain radio silence and a stealthy profile. With supercruising the flight took all of two hours. The six helicopters took cover, landing in the hills just south of the pipeline.

Mason set up a command post after sweeping the area and satisfying himself that there were no Chinese elements in the area that might post a threat.

Mason set up the satellite link to the portable computer and began establishing the link. Meanwhile his people were all set to move at his command. He scanned for the telephone signature from which Garcia had made the call, then pinged the phone so that it did not ring but would send staccato signals back to the nearest Unicom satellite overhead. Mason got a signal and a fix.

“John. I’ve got the phone location. They are on the north face of this very range. I’ll call it.”

Mason dialed the number and got a reply.

“Mr. Garcia?”

“Yes?”

“We took Decker. We are here for you. Your strength?”

“42. Where are you?”

“Can you come out into the open for a while or are there enemy elements around?”

“There was some activity yesterday but it looks like they completed their sweep and moved on. I can move into the clear ground about a hundred yards north of here. Wait, let me get you an MGR.”

“No need. We’ll be there in ten minutes. Get moving soldier.”

With that Mason terminated the transmission and turned to John Lane, his 2 IC.

“John, here.” Mason pointed to the position on his computer screen. “GPS coordinates are 43.24 by 87.03. Ten minutes.”

In exactly 10 minutes the helicopters descended down the side of the mountain range hugging the terrain with the aid of computer pilot. Infra red sensors detected the men they were there to pick up who were waiting in the open ground around the base of the mountains. The two transports moved into land while the four gunships formed a protective perimeter defence for the stationary transports. 42 men in two transports was a tight squeeze and they found that they had to fill 18 into each transport and switch positions to load the remaining six , two each into three of the gunships. Once fully loaded the six helicopters took off at high speed and headed into the mountains once again. It would be another risky flight without cover across the steppes of the Tarim Basin, towards the mountain ranges north of Pakistan.

The rhetoric that was flying across the Pacific was getting a bit too heated for comfort. US President John Book though conscious was still unable to speak for the USA and that task was left to Vice President Charlie Schroder. The Chinese spoke through their Chairman of the National People’s Congress, Li QiaoFong.

The Chinese were threatening retaliation for the interference in their sovereign territory by threatening to take Taiwan by force in a show of strength. They said that Taiwan had been spared reunification as a concession to the US and that the blatant disregard for Chinese sovereignty now required a revoking of such concessions. The fleet build up around the waters of Taiwan was awesome and ominous.

The US was forced to react by an informal pledge given by the President that Taiwan would benefit from US protection from military action from China. VP Schroder ordered the 3^rd, 7^th and 11^th fleets into the Pacific near Japan. It was not something he wanted to do but his advisors had so advised.

The military status in ASEAN was at full alert as reports of a build up of ground troops in China around the Vietnamese border came in on the newswires. ASEAN Navies went to sea in the South China Sea in what they called security patrols. The move was off dubious wisdom as there was no apparent threat until such a move. Suddenly the tension in the region had escalated out of control and the slightest mistake could have been taken in the wrong way.

Ng was a careful man and his family had already been moved out of the country to San Francisco ‘on holiday.’ He himself stayed behind as for a man in his position, it was not easy to leave. On Tuesday morning he met with the Prime Minister and Tan Sri Abdullah Azmi of the Malaysian side at the PM’s office.

“I have decided that we have to negotiate directly with the Chinese.” Ng informed the two men.

It surprised them. The Chinese were not easy to deal with and ASEAN had dealt with them only on commercial matters in the past. In fact, through the Millennium ASEAN had aligned itself with the Japanese and the US in the institution of a defence pact. The pact had greatly angered China but matters of trade and commerce had appeased them somewhat.

“What do you propose we say to them?” Azmi asked. It was a good question since none of them had a clue what was really going on.

“We have to explain our position in the South China Sea and the timing of these ‘exercises.’” David Quah said.

“In retrospect, our initial decision to conduct exercises at this time was not wise.”

“It was felt that we had to put up a defence of some kind. That was the initial reasoning. And still is.” Azmi argued.

“I think it is good that we go to explain our position. We can say that we are putting our Navies at sea to ensure that no ships US or Chinese stray into our waters. Stress our impartiality on the matter and call it a self defence exercise.” Ng said.

“Any chance of getting an audience with Li QiaoFong at a time like this?” Azmi was skeptical.

“The Chinese do not wish to go to war. Taiwan is not their objective either. It now appears the only objector to China’s inclusion to the World Trade Organization is has done her an injury that the international community might feel is unfair.”

It was a good argument and Azmi and Quah thought about it for a bit.

“You really think that’s what this is about?” Azmi asked. He was clearly convinced but needed some back up argument.

“What else could they want? A shooting war with the US? The US has grown too powerful in the last decade. They have gone over UN on numerous occasions to bomb Iraq, Colombia, Rwanda, and Yugoslavia. Militarily there is no match in the world for the US. And the cost of running a war would just about sink China at this point.”

“It would unite the nation though.” Azmi countered. “And they are having problems with the peripheral states. The Muslim Kazakhs are not an issue. They’ve never fought for independence or given the Chinese problems. At most they were mercenaries. The main problems come from ethnic Chinese in the periphery who are fighting guerrilla wars with the aid of US expertise and our arms. The reason for the fight is economic. They fight for a Communist cause believing that the Party has sold out to Western values. A war against the West might unite China.”

“They fight for Communist ideals only because they are the poorer. They would not fight if they were coastal capitalists. The concern here is money. China needs money and they need WTO membership. That’s what they’ll be gunning for.” Ng argued persuasively.

“I intend to meet with the Premier to discuss a possible deal involving membership to the WTO. In return for the injustices done them by the US.”

“Very well. I will inform the others tonight and will contact you. When do you plan to see them?”

“I will be in Hong Kong on Thursday. The Minister for national Security will host a dialogue. I’ll press for an audience with the Premier then.”

West End Night

He found her with the help of Ng who had been good enough to supply an office address and number. She worked at Sivalingam, Wong and Partners, a small law firm at Raffles Place in the heart of the city. It was five thirty when Richard went up to the 22^nd floor  office of Siva, Wong and Partners. He asked to see her and was asked to wait in the lobby. The lobby was a typically plush and opulent Singapore office. All wood and leather. While waiting Richard picked up a copy of the newspaper and read it. The headlines spoke of Navies at sea yet again and the tone of the article was ominously upbeat. The media was known for their sensitivity to the feelings of the people and the article was full of hope and downplayed the severity of the situation. Taiwan it seemed had readied her forces and was patrolling the sea and skies at the boundary of her territories, dangerously close to Mainland China.

Ning came out to greet him and he saw that she had not changed much but for the shorter hair. It took her a few seconds to recognize him for they had not seen each other for over 4 years.

“Rick? What are you doing here?” She exclaimed and advanced to shake his hand.

“I’m here on business. And then one of my associates mentioned that he was your client.”

“Let’s use my office.”

They went to the end of the long circular corridor where Ning’s office was. It was a nice office but was an incredibly small one. The view was of the river and the rest of the city was breathtaking, however.

“Where have you been Rick? You must tell me all about you.”

She still exuded that lightness and effervescence he had known so long ago. The asymmetric smile that could light a room, the eyes that sparkled with mischief, it seemed that she had never left. Richard smiled involuntarily in response to that source of light.

“Ning. You look very well.”

“Loosen up Rick, I’m sober now. I’m not going to pounce on you.”

“So you’d only pounce on me when drunk is that it?”

“I’d pounce on you anytime darling. I just want to make sure I’m not going to hurt Mrs. Chang.”

“I don’t think my mother would object.”

They laughed as if they had never spent a day apart and suddenly Richard realized that the relationship that had started out for all the wrong reasons had perhaps been the only one that had made him truly happy. Here she was now but he could not tell if they could go back to the place they came before. There might be a Mr. Li after all.

“You left in the Millennium?” Richard asked.

“In the new millennium. 2001. You never called.”

“I know.”

“It hurt.”

“You didn’t call either.” Richard pointed out.

“I was waiting for you.”

“I’m sorry. These things happen.”

“Was it my drinking?” Ning asked earnestly.

“I should have called. I should have helped.”

“You did Rick.”

He knew little about her. He didn’t know where she lived or anything about her family or anything beyond her academic life in those short years she spent in London. In fact they had shared but 8 months together before each disappeared abruptly from each other’s lives.

“Married?” he asked.

“You first.”

“Twice divorced.”

She laughed but his delivery was good enough so she couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not.

“I’ve never seen you in a suit.” He said. “Very nice.”

“Thanks. Face it, you’d rather see me without a suit.” She flirted impertinently. 

“I’d rather see you in a gown, a white gown of satin and lace.”

“Jumping the gun a bit aren’t we?” She flashed that lopsided smile again

“We jumped it once, rather well actually.”

“So what do you do?” She changed the subject.

“I don’t do much. I’m a computer terrorist. I fuck up systems unless I get paid.”

“Sounds exciting. Do you need a sexy leather clad assistant.”

“No. Wouldn’t get any work done. It won’t work baby. I’m not that guy you knew.”

“I was only joking. Hey, let me buy you dinner.” She said in a quieter voice.

“Won’t your husband object?”

“No. He won’t mind. We’re just friends right? So what’s the big deal? I still can’t believe it’s you.”

Ning packed her briefcase and the two of them left for the day. At Ning’s suggestion they made their way down to Boat Quay, to a fashionable Bistro called Marco’s about 6 doors from the corner McDonald’s. They found a table outside on the roof top with a view of the Singapore River and the rest of Boat Quay. In the light of the setting sun she looked even more beautiful than when they last saw each other.

It was the summer of 2001 and the end of an affair. She had left for Singapore and left the keys with Richard so he could use the room for a few more weeks and so he sat alone on the bed where they had made love and where they had slept. The room was empty now and the shadows that fell marked the emptiness even more. It seemed that there were no shadows when she was there. Even the cupboard was bare except for an empty bottle of Absolut. She had left without a trace. Sure, she gave him her home address and contact numbers but her physical self was so strong that the void was the greater.

The gentle sun caressing her face showed off her features delicate and not severe. Her lips were thin yet sensuous and her eyes smallish yet full of life. She wondered what he saw when he looked at her so, looking almost into her soul.

“Do you see me now as I am or as that girl you knew?” she asked snapping him back to the present. It was an uncannily pertinent question.

“When all you have is memories they tend to fill your imagination. I stayed a week after you left and the room was cold. You left an empty Absolut in the cupboard.”

It was her drink of choice and unfortunately she chose to drink it rather too often.

“I left the bottle in London Rick. I can even drink once in a while now. Wine, that is. What did you do with yourself after that?”

Richard gave her a brief description of his life from her departure to the present but he made no mention of Sheerluck nor the danger that he had put her in albeit inadvertently.

“I live with my parents. And I have an elder sister and a younger brother. Did you know that?”

Richard shook his head as he sipped the Chardonnay. It was dark now and the lights had come on. Below there was the bustle of a renewed Boat Quay, revived from the ashes of the post Asian Crisis Boat Quay.

“So does your husband mind your living with your parents?”

“You’re nothing if not persistent. I’m single but I’m seeing someone, OK.”

“How many since you came back?”

“Does it matter?”

“No but it might.”

“Sex or relationships?” She asked mischievously. “Two. One just wanted to fuck and the other, well, if you’re good I’ll introduce you.”

“I’m only here for a few days.”

“Rick, you were a bastard not to call me.” She said with deceptive venom.

“I wanted to but… The drink was destroying me as well. I didn’t know how to help you Ning.”

“Leaving was a good thing it turned out. I waited for your call and I drank myself do death. Strange thing was, I told myself that I would show you someday. I’d make something of myself to show that bloated warthog, I said.”

“The bloated warthog is sorry. And he can only thank God that things turned out well for his most precious.”

“Still the charmer. I’m 24, I’m not a child anymore. We all crash and burn sometimes and some of us are lucky to get out alive. That night at International, you saved my life.”

“You tried to take it one week later. Why?”

“I don’t know. Can we talk about something else?”

I was the first sign of irritation all evening. He asked her about her life and she told him much of it, from her homecoming to the job at Siva, Wong and partners. She was from a middle class family, her father was a doctor and her mother a lecturer at the University. They lived in a modest part of town in the eastern part of the island.

It was only about 2030 but both of them were a bit tired from a long day.

“I should tell you a couple of things.” Richard began. The change of tone made Ning sit up and listen intently.

“This meeting was not by chance. There are some bad people who want me to do some stuff for them. They are watching us now and they will try to hurt you if I don’t do as they say.”

“OK. What people?” Ning asked suspiciously.

“It’s a long story and it’s really better that you not know. I have known that these people might want to threaten me and so I disposed of all my assets in Singapore. Somehow they found out about you. I never thought anyone would ever know but somehow they found out and we are fucked. There are two things we can do. I can comply or I can screw them. Say I comply. What then? You won’t be safe until you’re out of this country anyways.”

“And what if I don’t believe you?”

“Why should I show up after 4 years with a cockamamie story like that?”

She considered it for a while and then spoke.

“No sale. You’ve given me nothing to believe you, no evidence, no proof. And where do you expect me to go? Take off with you back to London? I have family and I have commitments. I’m not some spaced out girl who’ll go to the ends of the earth with you Rick.”

“Do you remember those days at International? You said you would follow me until the end of the world. The end of our worlds may be closer than you think. Either way I’m sticking around till they make their move. Then you can decide if you want to leave this island or not.”

“You’re not serious. What are you going to do Rick? Follow me around? That’s stalking Rick.”

“Give me one chance Ning. Come back with me to the hotel…”

She gave him a withering look.

“I’m seeing someone now Rick. If I wasn’t I’d be on the first plane with you to anywhere but I can’t. I’m really not that girl anymore. I’m older and I have a life now.”

“I’m not asking you to sleep with me for God’s sake. I want to show you something. Your life is in danger because of me. If you won’t listen to me I’ll force the issue by revealing to you why it is they want to threaten me…”

“Then they would want to silence me as well…”

“Then you’ll believe me. When they try to silence you.”

“I’ll go with you to your hotel.”

The suite at the Shangri-La was the one that Colin and Richard had been in for the past week. Colin was on his way to Sydney if he had not already arrived. Richard eased the BMW into the porch of the hotel and handed the car over to the valet. Ning and he made their way through the lobby to the elevators and then to the suite.

“Nice. Company expense?” Ning asked as they stepped into the beautifully appointed suite.

Richard powered up the portable PC and hooked up to the Web. He then sat Ning down and began to tell her the tale of deception and treachery that had led him from his home in London back to Singapore.

“That’s the most ridiculous story I’ve heard.” She said flippantly. “A child might believe it though I must say it sounds pretty good.

“It fits the facts doesn’t it?”

“Lots of strange tales fit the facts.”

She was right of course and Richard decided that perhaps the best thing to do was to comply with Ng’s requests. As a back up plan, Colin was already making arrangements to help with complying to Ng’s demands.

“You may be right.” Richard said.

“Anyway it’s late and you should be heading home. I’ll take you home.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me to stay the night?” Ning asked.

He was tempted, seeing how sexy she was in her tight little suit. She was still as alluring as the first night they met.

“I can offer you the bed. I’ll take the couch outside.”

She smiled a different smile, warmer and quieter, and she came over and kissed him gently.

“You deserve better than someone like me Rick.”

“That’s the gentlest put down I know as well.” Richard said wryly.

He got up and went to the bathroom and returned with a towel.

“You go shower and get ready for bed. I still have work to do.”

She had showered and dried herself and emerged in one of his t shirts which she found in the wardrobe. The bed was turned down for her and she could see Richard in front of the computer in the living room. She remembered the wild days they had spent and the wild sex and she half wanted for Richard to have been irresponsible and proposition her that night. Like the first night they were together at International Hall. She went out to see what he was doing and he turned to see her. He looked a little older and there were more lines on the face but he still attracted her.

“Not going to bed?” She asked moving around to see what he was looking at on the computer. It was a news page by the local newspaper.

“I will soon. You look absolutely irresistible.” He said looking at her athletic body beneath his white t shirt. She could not let that pass and locked him in a passionate embrace. The eyes that looked back at hers bore not passion but sadness and she was puzzled.

“What?” she asked.

“We can’t do this.”

“You have a girlfriend back in London?”

“Yes.”

“You liar. Who is she?”

“What’s it to you? You have your boyfriend.”

“And all we have left is maybe tonight Rick.”

“We had a lifetime’s love Ning. We had enough for a lifetime. Now is different. You got your life and I got mine and the only reason we even met this time was because someone threatened you. I didn’t even know where you were or what you did…”

“Well you came barging into my life again and…”

She was at a loss for words.

“I should have called you then but I didn’t and I shouldn’t have called you this time but I did. I should have done a lot of things different Ning. But when he showed me your picture, I hadn’t seen you in so long, I thought I could forget.”

“Do you think it’s been easy for me to forget as well? You came to me Rick. You came to me. I didn’t ask you to come to me. I have a relationship that maybe I have a chance at…”

“Bullshit. If your relationship was anything you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t have come here and you wouldn’t be standing here now in nothing but my shirt…”

She kissed him hard and held him tightly, biting his lip till it hurt.

“Maybe I love you Rick. Maybe it wasn’t just a couple of months of kinky sex and wild living, maybe I love you.”

He kissed her back gently on the neck and held her head in his arms.

The red spot of a laser sight was unmistakable to Rick even in his emotional state and he saw the red spot fly erratically across the room before settling on his chest. Instinctively he threw Ning to the ground and kicked himself back from the desk. The glass window beside them turned white in a split second and a small hole was punched in it. He checked himself to see no damage was done and then yelled to Ning to take cover. They crawled along the floor to the wardrobe where he pulled a pair of his jeans off the wardrobe drawer top and told her to put it on. She reached for his belt and used it to tie the jeans in place.

“What the fuck was that.”

“That was a sniper and a pretty lousy one at that. A good one would have had a back up shoot the window away with a big bullet before taking his shot.”

“They’re after you not me, right?”

“They’re after you now. We go to get to a car.”

Richard scrambled to get his palm top computer and hand phone from the dresser. The next thing he got was his passport. Ning was checking out the room for cover, pillars and walls. The damn suites were full of windows. Richard shoved everything into his jeans pockets and joined Ning behind a pillar. He kissed her on the mouth and found a passionate reply.

“This is a hell of a time Ning. Where is your passport?”

“At home. They’ll probably be watching the house right?”

“Look, Ning. All we need is a clean break. We get out of here; we can get your family out. Can we get to your passport?”

“Wouldn’t they just block us at the airport?”

“Leave that to me.”

They made their way via the lifts down to the lobby and collected the car from the valet. Out in the open was the only way to be safe. Richard made Ning drive and she did so rather recklessly.

“Hey, slow down. We don’t want to get pulled over by a cop. And take the coastal road, the Pan Island Expressway is jammed solid.”

Richard opened the palm top and connected it to his mobile phone. His first action was to prime the notebook computer to self-destruct the memory chips if anyone tried to access the machine. Next he connected to British Airways on line and booked himself on a First Class to Sydney leaving two hours hence. Now came the tricky part.

“Ning, do you know your passport number?”

“S8167093G.”

Richard accessed immigration control computers and found his passport had been blocked as had S8167093G. He made a few changes to the digits and redirected the alert messages and designated identities to two other people. It would take them a while to realize that they had been duped. He hoped that they weren’t passing around hardcopies of their photographs. Richard checked the airport printer queues to see if they were drawing from the database for a print or if any previous queries had been made to his and Ning’s files. There were none. Obviously immigration had all faith in their computer system, which was fine by Richard.

“OK. Ning. Our passports have been blocked but I rerouted the identities so that they will be referencing somebody else’s files and pictures. They may find out that we hacked into the system but there’s a good chance that won’t happen for a while. Right now we got to get your passport.”

“Rick, they’ll be waiting for us. We can’t go anywhere near home now.” Ning protested. She was right. At that moment her house, her boyfriend’s apartment, her best friend’s flat, her grandmother’s house were all under surveillance. So too was Richard’s apartment on the East Coast.

“OK. Get us to the Ritz Carlton.” Richard ordered.

He was on line searching for a Malaysian Chinese woman in her mid twenties on the Ritz Carlton’s registers. He found one. Her passport was in the custody of front office. He called up her particulars and room number and then placed a call routed through that room’s telephone to the front desk.

“You are Larissa Lai Mei Ling. Age 22. Born April 10, 1983. Ask the front desk for your passport. Tell them to pass it to you and that you will be around to pick up in ten.”

Richard was back into British Airways changing the details of the reservation to a Ms Larissa Lai.

It was the longest ten minutes of his life. They ditched the BMW by the side and walked up the road to the Ritz Carlton. Ning went ahead to the reception to get her passport while Richard went to the basement car park via the car park exit. He was looking in particular for a keyless entry car and found the ideal target: A Mercedes Benz S500. He brought the palm top to the pillar of the car and began an algorithm that searched the Daimler Chrysler Nissan databanks in Detroit for the right code. In a matter of seconds the car doors unlocked and the driver’s door opened silently. Richard got in the car and fired up the engine with the mere touch of the auto shift. He drove up to the barrier and using the Ritz Carlton’s emergency codes lifted the barrier. He then drove up to the porch where Ning was waiting for him.

“Nice car.”

“No choice. It was the only fully computerised car and the only one I could get into. You drive and let me see that passport.”

Richard got out and got in on the other side letting Ning drive. He had a look at the passport and whistled.

“What a babe.”

“Me or the Larissa?”

“You’re Larissa now. Better get that straight. OK Larissa. No slip ups. You’re on your way to Sydney after a three-day visit to Singapore. Says so on your entry visa. You flew in on MAS and you are outbound on BA. And slow down because your drivers license says Ning.”

She did not slow down but threw the S500 eastwards towards the airport at 120 km/h.

“Dammit Larissa, slow down. We’re going to get pulled over.”

It had to happen. They sped right past a highway patrol BMW which lit up its flashing lights and started after them. Richard turned back and saw the flashing lights and he knew at once that if they were pulled over it would all be over for them. He got to work on the police radio frequencies and finally located a general emergency line. He transferred the input to voice and began to speak into the mobile phone.

“Attention all units in the area of Fort Road. We have a three car accident, potential fatalities, all units respond at once.”

“Damn it Larissa, I don’t know the correct protocol. I hope they go for it. Slow down about the Fort Road exit and we’ll see.”

Responses from several units could be heard on the speakerphone. Much to Richard’s relief he saw the Highway Patrol Beemer veer off at the Fort Road exit.

“They’re gone. Now slow down. They might check against any pursuits in the Fort Road area and come up with a description of this car.”

“You are one paranoid son of a bitch. You’d better charge that phone, its gone red.”

Richard pulled out the cigarette lighter on the dash and plugged his phone in.

The airport was in a state of alert and roadblocks had been set up at various points. By now, however, everything the police were planning was being filtered and reported by the V1 virus to Richard’s palm top.

“We’re not going to be able to drive in. They have a general description of you and me.” Larissa said.

“Yeah but they’re looking for two other people.”

“Maybe, but we’re still a guy and a girl in a big hurry and we’re not married and our passports are from different countries. You want to explain that? How about your other ID. We cannot be stopped or checked Richard. I have an idea. We can drive to one of the MRT stations on the eastern side of the island and take a train into the airport. Then we could go separately.

“Ning, I couldn’t let you go alone. You might need me.”

“Oh I need you Rick.” She turned and gave him a look of assurance like a brother in arms. “I need you to get me on that flight out and I need you to help me get my family out.”

“And your boyfriend.” Richard reminded.

“I don’t think they will threaten him.”

They drove to Tampines New Town where they parked the car dutifully in the underground car park next to the Mass Rapid Transport station. They then made their way to the station and bought tickets for the train to the airport.

“How much time we got?” Larissa asked Rick who checked his Rolex SeaDweller.

“One hour forty minutes. It will be close.”

They walked briskly to the station platform. The monitor on the platform said 3 minutes.

“Rick.”

Richard saw the police emerge at the far end of the platform. They hadn’t seen Larissa and Richard but they were clearly looking. Larissa and Richard took a step back into the shadows beneath the stairs and Richard examined his telephone. It was giving out short bursts of signal. Someone was pinging the phone.

“The phone. Turn of the damn phone Rick.”

“I need the connection. Switching to Unicoms mode. This is going to cost.”

Richard switched out of the local Singapore Telecommunications CDMA network and hooked on to the global satellite system known as Universal Communications or Unicoms. It was about ten times more expensive but it meant that his signal was secure again. It was a mistake to transmit voice directly into the police band but he had no choice at the time.

“Train coming. I’ll go to the centre of the platform, you wait here. I’ve arranged so that the train will stop for a few seconds only and then only the last two doors will open.”

“No wonder they want to get you.”

The train came in a little bit faster than usual to the surprise of the operator or driver. He found himself unable to open the doors but the two doors at the head of the train did open to allow Richard and Larissa in. Once inside the doors closed again and the train began to move off, to the consternation of the passengers on the platform. The police were similarly puzzled and called in to report.

By now Richard was performing so many tasks on the palm top that he had to get it into speech recognition mode and talk it through. He called up an overhead US Defence satellite and aimed the camera down towards the eastern area of the island. He then put the system on hold.

“Do you have to talk to that thing? You’re bringing attention to us.”

“ETA 12 minutes if we stop.”

“If we don’t stop there’ll be a reception.”

Made sense to him. He let the train stop at the next station. There were police everywhere but they were chasing the wrong people.

The train finally pulled in to Terminal One of Changi International Airport. The doors opened and everyone rushed to get out. There was no way the police would be able to screen the whole lot. Richard was giving commands exclusively by voice now with the phone and the palm top in his pockets. He got off and walked right past the policemen at the escalators, leaving Larissa to walk through on her own behind him. When he reached the ground level he went to the British Airways desk to check in. He had been careful to make similar bookings with several other airlines with similar profiles to several different destinations. The gentleman at the BA First Class desk was very helpful and gave Richard his ticket while making some comment about the alert status of the airport due to some escaped convicts in the area. Richard laughed it off and Larissa followed after to claim her ticket.

They would not meet inside the transit area until they got on the aircraft. First class had the privilege of boarding first and Richard and Larissa were careful to board separately. Once on board Richard had to turn off the Unicoms connection and was at last disconnected from his electronic protection. The beauty of first class was the availability of notebook PCs and an Internet connection and Richard immediately requested one for himself and Larissa. The stewardess brought him the machines and helped set them up for him.

“Can I log on now? I don’t have to wait till we’re in the air do I?”

The stewardess assured him that the connection that they used was safe for civil aviation and would not interfere with the avionics of the aircraft. Once connected, Richard altered the names on the flight manifesto on the ground, switching identities with two passengers in the back and then switching their identities to those of people on another flight. Next thing was to upload that information to the in-flight manifesto.

On the ground the authorities were frantically searching for the two fugitives. The anomalies on the train system towards the airport told them that their quarry had already reached the airport and may indeed be already on a plane. Passenger lists were being checked against bookings and against immigration control. One of the officers on the ground was going through the immigration computers and came up with a suspect listing. One Larissa Lai who was supposed to have come in on MAS from KL two days ago and stayed ten days had apparently changed her mind and decided to leave seven days early. While she did clear immigration, according to the computer records she was not on any outbound flight. The officer raised the alarm and soon a swarm of his colleagues was busy sifting through the data. Richard had disposed of the identities without giving them a credible burial and now a trail was being pieced together. The police checked back against air line bookings and found Larissa Lai booked on BA906 to Sydney. The officer looked up at the flight info screen mounted against the wall. BA906 was about to depart. 

Orders to detain BA906 were immediately issued but it would be close as the Boeing 747 was already taxiing into a take off position. Inside the aircraft Richard was frantically trying to recall the sequence that he had used 6 months ago to shut down the air traffic control and replace it with a working dummy. That algorithm was archived at the London server.

“If I can’t activate that program this is going to be one short flight.”

Larissa did not reply. She just reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. It was only a matter of time before the program was completely downloaded into the air traffic control computers.

It was 0017 hrs and the control tower issued an order to the pilot of BA906 to abort the takeoff and turn the aircraft around. At 0018 hours all power to the tower was cut. The entire airport went to emergency alert and fire safety crews were deployed. From the air, all inbound and outbound aircraft found that they were put into holding patterns by air traffic control. The program was up and running and creating the illusion of a full scale power failure while simulating the tower to the active aircraft.

At 0019 hrs BA906 was cleared for takeoff and the pilot powered up the engines and released the brakes throwing the 747 into full acceleration. At 0026 hrs a squadron of F-16s took of from a central area airbase on the island and flew south on an intercept course for BA906.

By redirecting BA906 Richard made sure that by 0035hrs BA906 would be in Indonesian airspace.

“What are you doing?” Larissa asked seeing Richard was still busy with the computer.

“They just sent a squadron of fighters after us. I’m monitoring any attempt to hail us and blocking the signal. There’s a big bad US war-bird directly above us that’s giving me visual. That satellite can also vaporize anything it can target. Right now I’m tracking 8 F-16s on an intercept course and I’m selecting them as targets.”

“You can do that?”

“I told you I was a cyber-terrorist. I wasn’t joking Ning.”

Richard was engrossed in his work and did not turn to look at her. In a matter of minutes the after-burning fighters would be in striking distance. Richard could see that they were trying to force a landing rather than strike at a distance. He loaded a voice synthesizer and typed in a message to the inbounds: ‘Break off pursuit or be destroyed. As proof of ability and intent, lead F16 will be splashed.’

He sent the message and then instructed the war-bird to fire a laser at the lead target that it had been tracking since it was in range of BA906.

The F16s got the message read to them by a female synthesized voice. In a matter of seconds the lead Fighting Falcon’s right wing disintegrated in a ball of flame as an invisible laser struck from outside the atmosphere. A total of 1000 separate pulses each on infinitesimally different paths were fired at the right wing of the F16. ‘Typical fighter’ was the target type selected and the on board computer did the rest. The crippled F 16 managed to fly for a bit before the pilot ejected to safety.

Richard looked at his watch and saw that it was 0039hrs. They were in Indonesian airspace. Permission to enter or co-operation from the Indonesian’s would take some time to get but to be safe he primed the satellite to strike yet again.

Pearl Harbour Military Installation. The satellite tracking station was abuzz with activity. One of their prize Star Wars war birds had fired off at an unknown target and reported a target splashed. No one had activated or authorised a firing, which was a big thing. The Star Wars program was secret and said to have been cancelled in the Reagan years following its inability to find funding in Congress. The truth was that the project had been completed anyway and accounted for under a special general defence budget amendment.

Just who had fired their precious Star Wars satellite weapon and how had it been done? They would never know. As that satellite passed over the target area the program used to wrest control was erased and replicated in the next satellite to move into the target area.

Ng looked pretty worried at the news of Richard’s escape and Ali Kilrathi was disturbed by this. KC Ng was not easily fazed and he had been a source of strength to the cabinet. In truth, Ng was worried because he was no longer assured of Richard’s co-operation and had to rely on his word. KC Ng was never satisfied to rely on any man’s word. What worried him most was that the order for a full-scale effort to detain Richard and company had not come from him but from the Prime Minister. There was a good chance that his game was up. He had summoned Ali to see if his allegiance was still with him or if indeed the Prime Minister had discovered his attempt to leave the sinking ship.

David Quah was an intelligent man but his thinking was two-dimensional. He often relied on the advice of Ng for the more major decisions especially in dealing with the alliance. This time he had put his trust in Abdullah Azmi. The PM’s Mercedes pulled up to Ng’s residence and the PM got out and made his way unescorted to meet with Ng and Ali at the study.

“KC, Ali. I’m here to brief you about this Richard Chang. He’s escaped together with an accomplice, a Larissa Lai, a Malaysian. This guy is a serious hacker. I’ve never seen anything like this. He interfered with police radio, MRT train timing and the entire airport immigration system. We managed to trace him after all but he shut down the air traffic control. Right now we know he is headed for Sydney. We’ll get Australian police to help us arrest him and extradite him. By the way, why didn’t you tell me he was in Singapore? He had been here for almost a week. We could have nabbed him anytime.”

“Mr. Chang travels on an Australian passport. He renounced citizenship a couple of years back and our records would not pick up a foreign passport even if he was once holding a Singapore passport.” Ali explained. We did have him under surveillance once he tried to hack into our National Security databases. That’s how we found him.”

“David. Leave the man. Our first priority is the Chinese. I have to prepare for that. As for this Richard Chang. I think we scared him off without him achieving his objective.”

KC Ng was always a voice of wisdom and restraint and his counsel seemed to have sit well with David Quah.

“What did he come here for anyway?”

“We were investigating him. He was suspected to be looking into our business. If you recall, I brought him to the attention of the National Security board some months ago. Ali, is our database intact?”

“We managed to lock him out sir.”

Milsons Point. The taxi dropped Ning and Richard at the door of a block of apartments on the Parramatta. They made their way to the 5^th floor flat.

“No key?” Ning asked as they approached to door.

“No need.” Richard replied before peering at what Ning assumed to be the eyehole in the door.

“Richard Chang. Open up.”

The door buzzed and clicked open.

“Modern technology. Come on in.”

The apartment was modern and well furnished. The view of the river was breathtaking from the large glass windows. Richard powered up the systems of the apartment and went through all the rooms checking them and looking for all the telephone points. Ning was in the living room checking out the open plan kitchen and trying to find a drink. She found an electric wine cellar and examined the contents. There was an impressive range of Australian wines and a few Champagnes. Richard emerged from one of the rooms and went across to the master bedroom which had two doors opening at separate ends into the living room. He was almost comical in how intent he was in preparing the apartment for full security. Ning realised that she was still wearing his jeans which were way too big for her so she undid the belt and climbed out of the jeans, flinging them on the leather sofa. Then she went to the master bedroom to find Richard opening a safe in the wall. He turned to see her standing before him in that T-shirt and looking sexy. Her hair was tousled and her eyes slightly puffy from the long night. She saw his eyes undress her and she felt so sexy and dirty. She advanced on him and took him in her arms and kissed his lips. The desire surged in him and he pulled her roughly to his body, kissing her fiercely.

Richard was surprised to find himself unable to move when he opened his eyes the next morning. The light from the outside streamed in and blinded him and he tried to struggle but in vain. He found that his feet and hands had been tied to the four corners of the bed. Ning straddled him and smiled down upon him.

“Good morning Rick.”

“Hey. What are you doing?”

She was dressed in a bathrobe and nothing else and she straddled his stomach. She bent down and kissed his mouth and nuzzled his cheek.

“I’m going to fuck your brains out. Last night you used me like a cheap whore, today I’m going to use you like the worthless slave that you are.”

It was 2 in the afternoon by the time they got dressed and were hungry enough to forgo lovemaking to go out in search of food. Ning had no clothes of her own and had to resort to cross dressing out of Richard’s wardrobe again. Richard led them to the underground garage where he kept a silver Bentley coupe.

“Shall we go down to the docks for some seafood?” Richard suggested.

“If you can stand more fucking this evening, OK.”

Richard pulled Ning to his lips and kissed her lovingly.

“I guess I should ask if this is just a fling or if I should be concerned about your boyfriend."

“5 years ago something came between us that was really silly if you think about it. I don’t want to go back home Rick. I want an adventure for life.”

“And when the adventure ends?”

“Baby, we’ll make adventure. Do you love me?”

“I never stopped Ning.”

“I’m not going to walk away again. Whatever your adventure, I’m in it. It’ll be our adventure.”

Richard kissed her again and heard her tummy rumble. Their last meal had been an early dinner the day before and both were ravenous. He gunned up the turbo charged six litre and pulled out of the garage past the automatic doors.

Dinner was a romantic affair at the large glass observation deck of the International Quays at the South shore across from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ning wore a blue gingham cotton dress that hid her sexy curves but gave her a casual ease.

“I know so little about you Rick. Tell me what happened in London. How did you get all this money?”

“I told you. I’m a terrorist.” Richard said in earnest.

“We hardly had enough for cigarettes. What happened?”

“You don’t smoke anymore?”

“I cleaned up my life Rick. No booze and no smokes. I guess your secrets are too deep to share.”

“I have no secrets from you Ning. I was a Cyberterrorist. A computer hacker. I get into critical systems of corporates and governments and I ransom them. That was in the beginning. I don’t do that anymore. I got myself a respectable job as a reader at the school, I have a consultancy with a big financial group, I’m not desperate anymore.”

“You’re still on the run though.”

“Not for long. Tomorrow morning you’ll have a new passport. Australian and legal issue and in your real name. I couldn’t call you anything else when we make love.”

“You’re so sweet.” She reached across the table to kiss him.

“I may have cleaned up but I guess you’ll never know if I’m the same slut who fucked at the drop of a hat. After all I fucked you at the drop my pants”

“If I can’t make you stay of your own accord then I guess you should go. But I love you Ning and I haven’t been able to say that to too many girls in my life. Two?”

“Who is number one then?”

“Number two is a friend. She’s also bisexual so I’m not letting you two meet.”

“Name?”

“Nick. Nicole Liu.”

“You fucked her yet?”

“Yeah.”

“Still fucking her?”

“No. We began as good friends and we decided that was best after all.”

“No desire for men huh?”

“Ning, I got to ask. What are your plans?”

“What choices do I have Rick? I’m in your hands now.”

“I can give you a couple of million bucks and you can decide for yourself where you want to be. I know where I want you to be but it may not be where you want to be.”

“You could do that?”

“Yes.”

“I’m more interested in where you want me to be.”

“With me. Always.”

“I need some time Rick. I just lost a home.”

“OK Ning.”

“What happens to Asia now?”

“I don’t know. It’s out of our hands now. The Americans will try to solve their end and the chaps who planned the Asian colonisation will probably be tooth and nail against it. I think it’s an economic solution that China hopes for.”

“WTO?”

“You learn fast my dear.”

“Oh I am fast baby.” Ning said with a twinkle in her eye.

“You were really cool back there in Singapore.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. Most girls would have crumbled or got in my way. You helped me out of there.”

“That night we met in the bar, it wasn’t for nothing.”

“How did you like the clothes?”

“Rick, we shopped in one shop. I got what I need but I’d like to buy some lingerie so I don’t always have to wear cotton. What do you like Rick?”

“I like your tan. I like cotton, especially your etoile de la mer ones, and cacharel.”

“How about silk and lace?”

“How about just T shirt and jeans.”

“And a silk G string or French knickers?”

“Are we discussing supper here?”

They laughed heartily and for the first time Richard trusted her with the Chardonnay. 

Ning poured him the last bit of the Chateau Yquiem and then looked suggestively at the bottle.

“We could save the bottle for later.” She said mischievously.

“Remember that bottle that I used as a dildo? We left it in the room and my friends all saw the disgusting thing by the bed side table.” She laughed.

“Are you still as wild as I remember?” Richard asked. Ning was a little horny from the atmosphere and the light alcohol and she got up and led Richard by the hand. They went to the ladies bathroom and Richard barely escaped notice. Inside the cubicle Ning raised her cotton dress and put a leg up on the toilet seat while Richard entered her from behind. The quickie began to last a bit and she was breaking out into a sweat. She could feel his power inside her and she felt lewd and indecent. Richard could sense her excitement and quickly pulled out of her leaving her to curse and spew expletives. She grabbed him and begged him to fuck her but to no avail. Five minutes later they emerged stealthily and returned to the table to settle the bill.

The other safe house was even more beautiful than the Milsons Point one and it was in Kirribili. Colin had been using it for the past few days planning an escape plan for Ng Keng Chye. It was eight in the morning and it was a cool winter morning at that. Colin was awoken by the sound of someone in the living room and came out to investigate. The alarm had not gone off and Colin correctly deduced that it must have been Richard.

“Hey Rick. What kept you?”

Colin was a bit surprised to see the girl with Richard and nodded a greeting.

“Colin, this is Ning.” Richard introduced her.

It was a good thing it was bloody winter or he might have come out stark naked, Colin thought. He noted that she was a fairly pleasant looking girl and quite attractive too though he preferred voluptuous to athletic.

“Hi Ning. Breakfast?”

“We can go to the diner two blocks down the street.” Richard suggested. “Get dressed. We got work to do.”

They took the Toyota Landcruiser to the diner instead of the Bentley, which could only seat two comfortably anyway. Colin gave Richard a run down of what he had prepared for Ng Keng Chye and what remained to be done. Everything was pretty much set for Ng to leave discreetly from his rendezvous in Hong Kong. The thing was that now that Ning was safely away, Ng might feel that it was unsafe to trust his safety to Richard.

“You think he’ll go for it?” Colin said sceptically between puffs of Marlboro.

“He could go either way. I would go with the plan since staying is a losing proposition. You can’t initiate something like that, abandon it and hope nobody notices. His family is out anyway. Any luck locating them?”

“I have all their names and I started a search last night so we ought to have a result soon.”

“We need to find them soon.” said Richard as his mind went through the possibilities. Colin was thinking the very same thoughts.

“They are somewhere in Australia. He has a house in Melbourne in a company name. I imagine he wouldn’t like news of that to escape.”

Daniel’s Home

It was about 6 p.m. when Daniel emerged from Changi International Airport. He trudged his way out to the long taxi queue and joined the line, standing in the unnaturally warm air. It had been a whole year since he had been home and though he liked his life as a student abroad, home was where his family was. He had spent too much time away and was losing touch with what was his motherland.

It was cool once again in the air conditioning of the taxi. Daniel looked out at the landscaped scenery and was impressed by how clean and orderly it all was. London was a dump in comparison. He remembered the time before he ever left and how broke he was. All he had was the little that he had saved of the meagre army allowance. The scholarship had given him a chance and had later withdrawn that chance. He realised that whatever he did, he would never be an owner of capital, he would never be more than working class. Not that there was anything wrong with being working class, but he had been hostage to his lack of means. He looked with dispassionate envy at the Mercedes Benz’s and BMW’s that overtook him in his taxi.

Sheerluck was an option. It was like any other large organisation but he had already got a foot in and he was on their scholarship. He respected that much, that the scholarship was unconditional and did not carry a bond. It was given by the organisation gratis. Daniel had sometimes felt that the award had been a reparation on the part of Richard but Richard had assured him that he would have qualified anyway on merit alone. Daniel began to miss Mickey whom he had left behind in London. It was summer and he could hardly have stayed away from his parents another year without visiting.

When they had arrived at Daniel’s flat in one of the large and faceless public housing estates Daniel got out with what little baggage he had with him and paid the driver. It seemed a brighter cleaner place than when he had seen it last. Daniel took the lift to the 14^thfloor where his apartment was and rang the doorbell. His mother answered the door and was elated at seeing her son. It had been over a year since she had last seen him and he had not called ahead. She hugged her son like he was a child and tears streamed down her eyes. She called to his father who came out in his singlet and shorts. Daniel’s father was not a man of tears but he did give Daniel a big hug.

“We must have dinner with the family.” Mrs. Tan said. She helped Daniel with his bags and brought them into his room which they had kept pretty much unchanged. His sisters used it as a sort of study room but apart from that the wardrobe and the bed were untouched. Daniel inquired about his sisters and was told that they were out on dates.

“Your sisters don’t come back much these days.” His father told him.

Chatting with his parents he felt that he was truly home and despite his dislike for the society around him he discovered that absence did make the heart grow fonder and that he could not remember when he had ever been so at ease talking to his parents. It was something he never did and Mr. and Mrs. Tan noticed as well a sort of subtle change in the once angry young man, as if he had grown wiser and more forgiving of things beyond his control. Mrs. Tan quickly got on the telephone to arrange for a dinner which they would host the next day and Daniel decided to call all his friends just to hear their voices.

It was Raymond whom he called first. Raymond was his closest friend in the army when he most needed friends, when an anger raged inside him against those who would impose their authority on him. It was almost 2330 hrs but Raymond insisted on coming to pick Daniel up for supper at one of their usual haunts when they were in the army. It was midnight by the time they got there but the feeling of nostalgia was well worth the effort.

“How long more will you be away?” Raymond asked a rather dazed Daniel. He was dazed not from lack of sleep but rather from the assault on his senses.

“One more year.” He lied. There was a job offer at the end of the scholarship and Daniel was seriously considering it.

“How are you man, you must be doing well.” Daniel nodded at the big Mercedes that they’d come in and which Raymond parked just by the side of the Indian coffee shop.

“It’s not like that. I’m living off savings man. Luckily our family is quite OK financially. Things are better now but it’s still slow. The Japanese are spending again, all those designer boutiques are booming. Our kind of business is still slow.”

It was strange talking business with Raymond. They had always talked about all sorts of things but the last time he met Raymond the conversation was also about business. It seemed as though wealth or the seeking of it had come between them. Perhaps it was the Millennium Depression that Asia had been precursor to, or perhaps it was just an Asian thing. Raymond by virtue of being the eldest male in his generation was by default chosen to lead the family business and the grooming of the part had been tough. 

“There’s more trouble than just the economy.” Raymond continued. “This trouble with China and the US is dangerous. It was not our affair but those idiots want to send our ships on training exercise, now they got a diplomatic problem. It seems like this region became unstable when the economy turned for the worse.”

Daniel grunted his reply. A silence came between them and Daniel felt that the years apart had indeed distanced them. So different was the culture even among the Asians abroad that he could not relate to the hopes and fears of those at home.

John Book was recovering and more importantly, he was back in the White House being briefed by his Vice President and NSA. Book himself was well aware that his recovery alone was a danger in that it would set the agenda for the conspirators to act. The inquiry initiated by Charlie Schroder was well underway and though it met with some resistance in military circles there was some progress.

“Charlie, good work.” Book said from behind his desk. He was well enough to move around but he was still wheel chair bound.

“We’re still hitting brick walls John. So far what we have is that there are elements stuck in China and we’ve isolated them by removing all back up. We’re offering China assistance in apprehending them on condition that they are moved to neutral territory.”

“Their answer?”

“No go.”

“Damn. What could they do?”

“They could use this as an opportunity to take Taiwan.” The NSA spoke.

“Do they really want to take Taiwan by force? I doubt it.” Charlie objected.

“They want business.” John Book said as he began to realise what meant most to the giant country.

“WTO entry?”

“We threw them out in 2002 remember, over the nuclear issue?” Book reminded his men.

“We may have a way out. But you got to get me the people on our side who have been fucking on the side.”

It had been some time since Richard and Mason had talked and each had news for the other. The video conferencing room in the Milsons Point house was better in terms of technology and security and so Richard used that to contact Mason.

“We managed to pull some US troops out of China Richard. Apparently they were equipped with weapons from your part of the world.”

“I have someone who wants to turn. He’s top management and will be able to corroborate your side of the story. He’s still inside though and it’s not always easy to do an extraction.”

“Need help?”

“We prefer less violent means. In any case he’s a willing agent. This chap can expose the entire Asian operation from the production side, your US troops can testify to distribution.”

“I alerted the Americans to the conspiracy. As you probably guessed.”

“Let’s hope they can proceed from there. Sometimes the rot can go pretty far and high. Are you well? Nothing broken?”

“Just a few laws.” Mason laughed. “And you.”

“I had to hurt some people’s feelings. Listen, once I get the package I’ll give you a first bite. But he wants his freedom.”

“Anonymity?”

“He’ll ask but we don’t have to give him everything he wants.”

Ning was watching from the living room and the cold way in which Richard and Mason discussed Ng’s fate chilled her. It was so unlike the warm and loving man who held her just the night before. There was a certain inhuman detachment in Richard’s voice as though they negotiated an asset and not a human being.

“Patrick, one more thing.”

Mason paused for his friend.

“This is not my line of work. Once I give you Ng and we get the story signed and sealed, he’s yours and so is this whole thing. I don’t want to wake up one night with a US Marine’s Beretta up my nose.”

“Don’t worry. Give us your man and we guarantee total confidence all round.”

Hong Kong, the Peninsula Hotel. Ng Keng Chye always took the suite wherever he went and this one gave him a view of the harbour and most of the Hong Kong skyline. His aides and the rest of the diplomatic mission were on the floor below. While they travelled in official capacity, Ng was incognito. He had a dinner date with Sung Qitong the Minister for National Security.

Ng turned on the TV to catch the news on CNN when he was surprised by a familiar face though he was a bit slow to register in his mind. It was Colin Choo, the man who had come with Richard Chang to visit him in Singapore.

“Surprised Mr. Ng? The Web has grown beyond the imagination of its creators and controllers. If you’re wondering if this is a recording, it’s not. The hotel security cameras are being commandeered for this temporary meeting.”

“Have you done as I requested?”

“Everything is as you requested. Soon you will be able to join your family down in Melbourne. Nice property you have there Mr. Ng. I don’t suppose your colleagues know of your little hideaway?”

“It is held at arms length.”

“Mr. Ng, we know your plots and purposes and we know all your little liberties and indiscretions so I think you should co-operate fully with us. I hope you’re not getting cold feet about your defection because we really have to insist that you go ahead with it. Your colleagues might not be too happy about your lack of faith in the country.”

“The extraction will go ahead as planned, you needn’t worry, Mr. Choo. Is Mr. Chang well?”

“Mr. Chang is very well. He has some matters to discuss with you arising from your impending presence in Australia. I trust you would prefer CNN to listening to me ramble on.”

Ng waved Colin off and was promptly returned to the weather girl at CNN.

CNN: Negotiations between the US and China regarding the troops in China scandal continue in Beijing. Last night, Secretary of State Leonard Muller flew in to Beijing for high level talks to try to resolve the alleged infringements against Chinese sovereignty by US troops. So far the Chinese have been unable to produce any US personnel thought they have physical evidence of US made weapons and ammunition.

South China Morning Post: Editorial: Muller in Beijing fails to find common ground. Beijing says it has been unable to capture US personnel on Chinese soil because there was an ongoing rescue effort taking place on Chinese territory by the US military. Despite vigorous denials by Muller, the Chinese remain adamant and have taken a threatening stance towards Taiwan. So far China’s demands for reparation have been all but clear. While they have accused the US of trespassing they have yet to specify a penalty and it appears that the US is accommodating to the point that they are beginning to look guilty.

Ng Keng Chye was in a difficult position. If his negotiations with the Minister for National Security were successful he would hardly wish to be attempting to leave the region in which his power was substantial. If the negotiations broke down then he would go ahead with his plans to escape. Unfortunately his escape arrangements were a little bit more binding than he anticipated. As he sat in the private study in the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, he wondered if perhaps he could scuttle the negotiations and make his run. The Minister would be arriving in about 10 minutes and Ng was left to ponder his options alone.

Minister for National Security Sung was ushered in by his delegation and the ASEAN delegation to the meeting room where Ng waited. He got up to shake the Minister’s hand and found the man to be friendly and casual at first sight. These were the dangerous ones, Ng told himself.

“I would prefer that we talk alone, Minister.” Ng said, dismissing the ASEAN part of the deal. Minister Sung looked rather apologetically at his delegation as he told them to wait outside.

When they were alone, Ng came straight to the point.

“Minister, as you know, the Americans have approached us to speak to you about a settlement for the present tensions between your country and the US. They chose to make an attempt at conciliation through a less overt channel and they asked me to talk to you in the hope that an amicable solution can be found.”

“Mr. Ng, China has been wronged and the degree of the trespass is significant. Therefore we feel that the US should make substantial reparations. Secretary Muller is in Beijing talking to my boss to find a solution.”

“Mr. Muller is talking in an official capacity. I am here incognito. If a deal can be made that is mutually beneficial then perhaps Mr. Muller’s job can be made easier while Chairman Li will probably gain more than adequate compensation for the nation and the people. I’ll be blunt. I would like to see a list of wishes, in complete confidence of course. From there, we may be able to come to some compromise.”

The meeting went well and it was agreed between the two men that a list would be prepared and sent to the Singapore Prime Minister’s office before being forwarded to the Americans.

It was a warm and humid morning and Hong Kong throbbed with an energy that had never seemed to wane even in the wake of the flagging economy in China. Ng got up early and packed before calling up for breakfast and the newspaper. True to form the hotel staff managed to procure a copy of the Straits Times instead of the local newspaper, knowing that their guest was from Singapore. He had meant to ask for the South China Morning Post but decided that he could always get a copy en route to the airport. He checked his wallet and counted the US Dollars he had with him. He would need cash and would have no access to cash for some time so he made sure he brought enough. He would bring as much as he could without having to declare it at his next destination.

The trip from the Peninsula Hotel was a tedious one fraught with delays and traffic jams and it was a relief to get into the Airport terminal. Flying first class had it’s advantages as Ng Keng Chye and the ASEAN delegation relaxed in the Raffles Lounge while a representative of the airline checked them in. Fifteen minutes later the representative came back and handed each one their passport and boarding passes. Ng was reading the South China Morning Post, in particular a column by one Nuri Vitachi, who wrote about the demise of the English language at the hands or mouths of the natives of Asia. At about ten Ng glanced at his watch and decided to take a walk outside. He did not take his hand luggage with him but told one of his men that he was just going to buy a magazine. There had been very little information given to Ng about his escape. Colin had told him that he would be met at the airport and that he would be booked on another flight. He was told to go to the toilet with his passport at the set time but was not told who would meet him or indeed what he was expected to do. The less he knew, Colin reasoned, the better their chances of extracting Ng with the minimum of initial suspicion. There was a chance that suspicion would not fall on Ng until after the delegation had returned to Singapore.

Ng was mildly surprised to find a W H Smith’s at Chep Lap Kok and he went in to and bought a copy of the Far Eastern Economic Review. When he came out he went to the gents toilet. The toilet was quite empty and Ng was a bit hesitant. A Chinese man who was combing his hair at the basin turned to him and brazenly asked for his passport. Ng wordlessly handed him the document. There were no secret signals or prearranged drops. Just like that, Ng could have been duped by only god knows whom into giving them his passport.

“You come back here just before you go inside the passenger area. I wait inside third cubicle. Just knock and enter.”

With that, the man turned and went on his way leaving Ng to stand in the bathroom holding his magazine. He decided to return to the lounge to read his Review.

The deal had gone well with the Chinese and Ng was not pleased that he had been forced into this course of action. What annoyed him more is that he had initiated the course of action himself. It was inconvenient insurance. In many ways his hand had been forced. His complicity in the Asian conspiracy had been discovered and the two men who had come to him had every intention of blackmailing him into giving evidence. His action had been pre-emptive and intelligent and he had actually outmanoeuvred them and his allies. It was just that the best possible outcome was not available. Second best was not bad but Ng was never one to settle for second best. As he sat there staring blankly into his newspaper, his mind was already working out a way out of his current predicament. Could he turn his newfound conspirators in and accuse them kidnapping his family? What if he did that? What if he just report the theft of his passport and throw the deal into disarray. Ng was a man who did not like that kind of risk. He had always been the clear winner in any bargain and he did not like his prospects. If he played along his family would be safe and he would be safe. He would still have the hundred or so million dollars he had spirited away as a nest egg.

The final call was made for his flight to Singapore and the first class passengers were all asked t proceed to the departure area. At the bottom of the escalators Ng told one of his aides to hold his luggage while he went to the toilet. Third cubicle to the right, Ng knocked gently and pushed the door open. The man inside beckoned to him to enter and he did.

“QF82. Boarding now at gate E5. Good luck.”

The man handed him back his passport and new boarding pass.

Ng left the toilet and quickly rejoined his group. They went through passport control at immigration without hassle and proceeded to the duty free area. It was here that he would have to make his move. Again he asked an aide to hold his hand luggage saying that he wanted to buy some liquor while he went to check the timing on one of the information screens. QF 82 to Sydney was departing in 15 minutes. There was little time. A couple of the other chaps wanted to buy some duty frees as well and followed him into the liquor and tobacco area. Ng was careful to appear as casual as possible. He actually bought a bottle of Remy Martin Cognac. The cashier as usual asked to see a passport and boarding pass and Ng was hard-pressed not to appear rushed. He could have killed the woman at the till for taking her time processing the sale. Once he had paid he took his booze and walked away down to the E gates. The Singapore Airlines flight was leaving from the D gates.

By the time they noticed that he was missing, Ng had already boarded the Qantas Boeing 747. The bastards put him in economy and he cursed their hides for it. In fact he considered turning back then laughed at himself to the bewilderment of the old couple sitting next to him on the aisle. The immediate reaction was slow with some of the grunts looking around for him and then someone put in a request to page him on the PA. By the time they figured that something had gone wrong they were forced by lack of time to board and deal with the problem in Singapore. The one thing that never occurred to anybody was that Ng had been a willing party to the ‘kidnap.’

‘Treading these paths of cool and dark

Shadows of your memory

Haunt me as the path bends away

To yesterday and sunny days

Hot summer nights

But I cannot walk these ways any more

They lead me back to days of heaven

Times we wasted on that street

That watched unfazed

The many loves that passed

Warmth in the winter sharing

Warm in the summer heat

What was that cold that came in autumn’s wake

And why did we watch

Love  pass

I cannot walk those paths without my heart

Yearning for a past long lost

Haunted by memories of love and passion

Knowing then that now would find

Me alone and you without

Walking those paths without my heart’

“Where did you write this?” Ning asked Richard who was sitting idly on the balcony looking out onto the river.

“What?”

“This poem you wrote. In your wallet.”

“What are you doing in my wallet?” Richard asked.

“I was looking for some money. For the Pizza man when he comes. Where did you write this?”

“I wrote it in England.”

“Where in England?”

“In the park. Is it important?” Richard did not look back at her but continued to gaze at the water. It was peaceful and the sun was just setting.

“Which park?”

“Hampstead Heath. I wrote it after walking there. I went to a café, Café Mozart.”

“Is it about us?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never been to the Heath with you.”

“It doesn’t matter. I thought of you then. And then I got drunk at the Café Mozart. That’s when I wrote that.”

“Its beautiful.” Ning said visibly moved by the earnestness of the writing.

“I was in love.”

She went out on the balcony where Richard sat and put her arms around him.

“Are you in love now?” She whispered in his ear.

“I never stopped.” Richard said and was rewarded with a kiss behind the ear. Ning put her arms around his shoulders and looked out across the water. It had been a wild ride but there was a feeling of permanence now. She moved her hands across his chest and rubbed her face into his neck like a cat. She began to nibble on his earlobe and her hands began to rub his chest and stomach.

“Rick.” She whispered his name in his ear. “How did we love each other?”

“I think it was at first sight. Sex first and then love. I don’t know. I really don’t.”

Rick returned her caresses and kissed her firm and small lips. The telephone interrupted a passionate kiss behind his ear.

“Richard, Daniel has gone back.” Mickey’s voice sounded frantic over the phone.

“Gone back where?” Richard asked calmly.

“Home. He downloaded all the files on that what’s its name company and their directors and all the other files on your machine to do with ASEAN. He copied it onto a chip and he left.

“When did he leave?”

“I don’t know. He left a note in your room but he never told me shit.”

“And what did the note say?”

“That he was going back to Singapore and that you should call him at his house. He wants to publish the data.”

Michelle was desperate. She understood that resistance under that regime was futile and sometimes fatal. Daniel had given her no warning and he was alone and did not know Richard’s agenda. Or so she thought.

“Hang up. I’ll call him right away.”

Daniel was well aware of what Richard’s agenda was, or so he thought. When Richard called him at home he answered the phone.

“Daniel. Michelle called about you. She says you downloaded some data before you left.”

“Yes. The Merlin files, you called it. It outlines the whole conspiracy, lays out the evidence and accuses the guilty. You’ve had it for months and did not publish it. I thought I’d bring it back and get it published on line and on hard copy. I have sent copies to the Liberal Democratic Party of Singapore and the Labour Party as well. FreeSpeech have decided to publish it on line as well as make hardcopies.”

“When did you do this?” Richard asked. He was impressed at Daniel’s resourcefulness.

“Three days ago. They jumped at it.”

“FreeSpeech was responsible for getting Michelle abducted. I’d be a bit wary of dealing with them. How about leaving the country Daniel?”

“I can’t, they’re watching me.”

“I can help.”

“Richard. So far you’ve done nothing but cut deals and make money. The truth has to be published now. Nobody can wait any longer. Anyway it’s done.”

“I can still help you get out.”

“No you can’t Richard. They are watching me night and day. The fliers have gone out. The opposition has people on street level handing out pamphlets outlining the conspiracy. A copy has been sent to the Malaysian opposition and the Chinese associations. This thing is going down now.”

Director of CIA Gary Perlman asked for to see the President and was shown in to the oval office where President Book, NSA Riley and VP Schroder were already seated. The President invited Perlman to sit and asked him what he meeting was about. Perlman had specified a confidential meeting and had not expected to see Schroder and Riley around but he was already at the table and could hardly object. His hesitation was clear enough to Book.

“What have you got for us Gary?” The President prompted.

“We may have a way out Mr. President.” Perlman began. He understood that he would be telegraphing his position as one of the conspirators but he had been appointed to bring the deal to the President and he knew that his career was just about over. What he could not anticipate was the President’s reaction to the proposal.

“Last night the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN, approached the Chinese with an offer to negotiate on their behalf with us. They managed to extract a list of demands which the Chinese will require for the safe return of our elements in China.”

“ASEAN just decided to mediate? Just like that?” Riley was a bit sceptical.

“They have a great interest in the stability of the region, having just come out of a massive recession. They want a stable Asia Pacific. They may have saved all of us a lot of effort and face by playing mediator.” Perlman said. “Their list of requests sir.”

Perlman gave the President a document which outlined what China wanted in return for the safe return of the US troops still in China.

“Do we have troops in China, Gary?” President Book asked his Intelligence Director.

“We don’t have any record of troops in China Mr. President, however, the military is not always forthright about their operations and I’d say the Chinese would not have come up with an accusation that was this left field unless there was some shred of justification.”

“Or they’re getting desperate and would try anything. Maybe we ought to hold out. Really hardball them. What do you thing Gary? VP Schroder and Riley here have been discussing with me if we should strong arm the, stonewall them, basically refuse everything till we see some troops at least.”

“What if they just haven’t found our troops? What if we need their co-operation to get our boys out of there?” Perlman objected.

“So you think we have troops in there?” Book pressed again.

“I don’t know Mr. President. If we do we owe it to them.”

“So they’re offering us a deal.” Schroder clarified.

“Unofficially. They want us to offer them this deal.” Perlman replied.

“If we do this then we might never know who put our troops in China.” Riley objected.

“At least while China is a problem, there is an onus on the people who started this whole thing to seek a solution. Assuming that they’re patriots.”

“Alan. This deal is it. It’s those people surfacing and I think it’s as far as they’ll surface.” The President said then turned to Perlman.

“You’re going to help us nail these bastards Perlman. Whether you like it or not. The man who brought you this deal was acting for the conspirators. I want those conspirators. I want to know who it is who sent our troops into a foreign territory covertly without the sanction of the US government.”

There was silence for a moment as Perlman digested the President’s request.

“Sir, there is a task force currently investigating this matter…”

“You’re not listening Perlman. I want you to give them to us. The Asian who brought you this deal is an instrument for this syndicate. Follow it up Perlman. I want those conspirators. Unless you want the task force to do it for you, in which case they will need your full co-operation. Perhaps that’s the way to go. Don’t you think Charlie?” The President sought his Vice President’s advice.

“I think that might be the legal way to go, sir. We’ll get the task force to work with Gary on this one.”

“Your call Gary.” John Book said to the cornered Director of CIA. “You can get these guys for us, or we can get the task force to audit the CIA; which they will do in due course anyway unless we get some results before that.”

The Deal

It was almost nine by the time the Landcruiser returned from its pick up at the airport. When the vehicle got within range of the garage doors, an alarm alerted Colin and Richard to their approach and they got ready to greet their erstwhile enemy. The driver brought Ng Keng Chye up to the 4^th floor flat just below the one Richard and Ning were occupying. Colin answered the door and showed the rather tired gentleman in. They met in the living room where Richard was waiting.

“Mr. Ng. Welcome to Sydney.” Richard said rising to shake Ng’s hand. He offered Ng a seat and saw the man sink wearily into the leather sofa. He remained silent but did not look overly distressed.

“This apartment is for you until you rejoin your family wherever it is you wish to go to.” Colin said and placed a black attaché case before Ng.

“Your bank accounts have been successfully transferred to Swiss numbered accounts. The details are inside the case. Take your time with it.”

“Mr. Ng. I know you are anxious to join your family and I have no wish to detain you any longer than necessary so…”

“Mr. Chang, I think you should know that the negotiations with China that we were involved in yesterday went well.”

He allowed Richard a pause to consider the implications of this.

“Then this is a most noble sacrifice, sir. You will be meeting a colleague of ours who will want to question you about a couple of things. When you are done he will want a forwarding address for follow up corroboration. Once you have satisfied his curiosity you will rejoin your family here in Sydney. We have taken the liberty of relocating them here away from your Melbourne property just to be on the safe side.”

“You didn’t say anything about this interview with your colleague.” Ng objected.

“No. I decided to change the terms of the deal. Perhaps you feel you are being treated unfairly.” Richard suggested in so innocuous a tone that it seemed menacing to Ng.

“Of course not. I just want to know how long it is before I can go.”

“Your family is already here and safe. Answer this man’s questions and he may arrange domicile in a favourable location, but you must answer the questions and there will be no anonymity. There will be asylum and protection but no anonymity and you have to publicly corroborate your statements.”

These were not part of the deal and all parties knew it. For Ng, it was a risk to his safety and that of his family and the protection offered would be a limited one, which could never replace anonymity. In his line of work, the only real safety was anonymity or oblivion. He would have taken either over asylum.

“Anonymity is important Mr. Chang. Under circumstances as these, it is essential. I cannot compromise the safety of my family.”

In many ways Richard understood and empathised but he had other considerations.

“Mr. Ng. You will have to corroborate publicly. Following resolution of this China US matter we can arrange for a legal change of name for you and your family. I will have someone contact you about that. We’ll arrange it so that none of us will be able to find you. That is all I can offer, pray I don’t alter the deal any further.”

The Deal II

CNN:

The US President today affirmed the US stance to engage China in a constructive way. Relations have hit crisis levels with China targeting US cities with her arsenal of ICBM’s in retaliation for the presence of US military troops within Chinese boundaries.  China accuses the US of waging a secret war in Central China by supporting rebel groups operating in the area. Chinese rebel groups have been a pain in Beijing’s side for a long time but the recent activity has been unusually high and damage done more substantial.

‘The terrorists used to lob bombs into government offices but now they are targeting more sensitive infrastructure.’ An official was quoted as saying. Last week a gas pipeline from the Siberian region was blown up in a terrorist attack.

President John Book has been critical of his own government saying that a ‘black op’ was run in China without the official sanction of the United States. Currently a task force called the Lauffer Commission is investigating suspicions that factions within the Military were allowed to wage a covert war in China. The Commission has so far been unable to report saying that the conspiracy was too deeply entrenched and that senior flag officers may be involved. As the Lauffer Commission vacillates the danger in the Pacific grows as China becomes increasingly restless receiving neither explanation nor compensation from the US.

SCMP:

The US-Japan Defence agreement which involved the creation of a missile defence system was but one of the moves that have exacerbated the tensions between China and the US. In 2004 China was knocked out of the WTO at the initiative of the US for trade violations of unspecified nature. The US, which had resisted China’s inclusion in the WTO since as far back as a decade ago, seemed to have won that round of the bout. The current developments in Central China show that the fight is far from over and that China may be able to find a backdoor to the WTO by strong-arming the US into allowing it entry. While this seems to be the intention of Beijing China has always been a bit of a mystery.

NSTP:

For a while there it seemed as thought the US owned the world. The recent events in China are a welcome reminder that there are limitations to how far the Americans can go and that they cannot simply walk over everyone and everything. Perhaps it was the economic success of the US model and the ever-increasing stock market that led to the new psychology of the USA. While the economy and the stock market has taken a long breather and now seems human after all, the mentality that wealth brought with it seems to be lingering. How long more will the free world tolerate the US throwing its weight around and dictating terms without the sanction of UN? China it appears will have none of it.

FT

The political tensions between China and the US are beginning to link two regions in the world economy in a tangle of hurt. With the slowdown in the mature markets the hope of investors came to rest squarely on Asia and particularly on the two largest markets, Japan and China. The quarrel that has developed between the US and China are now hurting both markets badly. Japan, as an ally of the US and base to her missile defence system is also caught in the crossfire. So far China H shares have fallen 35% over the last 3 months, Hong Kong –42% and the S&P –35%. Japan, the star performer over the last three years has fallen by about a quarter over the last 3 months.  It is a far cry from the late nineties when booming markets shrugged off any sort of turbulence economic, commercial or political. Today’s markets look a bit fragile and as the tension rises so do they fall. Unfortunately, this time, we can’t rely on the comfort that at least lives are not at stake….

It was a cool yet sunny day Down Under. Richard Chang was not used to being in the dark but the lack of dialog between the US and China, the silence from the British and the news blackout in Singapore meant that in Sydney, he was flying blind. His last communiqué from Daniel was ominously bereft of detail and seemed to have been written under stress. Daniel was the greatest concern Richard had at the moment. Ning was at the wheel of the 20-foot wood and composite Riva and she was guiding the boat expertly west up the Parramatta. Richard reclined behind with his attention fixed on the little IBM he had brought along. A Unicoms unit connected him to the Web. They were headed for a restaurant on an island about half an hour up the Parramatta. The Rica slowed and pulled up to a bay on the island as Ning cut power and nosed in towards the lone pier.

“Are you OK?” Ning inquired.

Richard had seemed distant and distracted the whole morning and had his head buried in the IBM the whole way.

“Yes. I’m just a bit worried about Daniel.” He replied as he got up and joined Ning at the wheel. She turned the boat expertly and guided it alongside the wooden pier.

“Can’t you help him out?”

“They haven’t moved against him. I suspect they want me to try.”

They moored the boat and climbed up the pier. The restaurant was at the edge of the water and was a favourite among the locals. Not many tourists would know the place.

“You look good in deck shoes.” Richard commented.

“Thank you. And you look good in flip-flops darling. I love you so much.”

She gave him a hug as he was walking and almost put him off balance.

It was warm and dark inside the wooden single level house and the waitress was friendly and casual. Richard explained that they were joining a Mr. Mason and the girl quickly showed them inside where Mason waited.

“Richard. You always pick the nicest places. No wonder my expenses are coming under scrutiny.” Mason said as he stood up to shake Richard’s hand.

“This is Ning. Watch out, she’s a lawyer.” Richard introduced. “Patrick Mason, watch out, he kills people.”

“Only those who deserve it.” Mason joked.

“I’ve never met a spy before. You look like James Bond.” Ning said as she appraised Mason’s appearance. “Ya. You do look like James Bond.”

“I’m afraid you have insulted Patrick. Patrick, will you forgive her for my sake?”

“Of course. We have finished questioning Ng and we have all the video and audio records so you can turn him loose if you like. There lie a few dangers.”

“This peace deal ASEAN is mediating?”

“Yes. We never expected them to mediate. It was a good tactical move. We can nail the Americans but of we publish the ASEAN connection we might lose them their position in the talks. Worst case everyone walks away from the table.”

“Which is pretty bad.”

Richard sat there and fiddled with his watch.

“I have more bad news Richard. I fear the conspirators, we’re calling them the Syndicate for want of a more original name, may have more influence than we suspect. They are probably all trying to save their own skins at this point and using all means necessary.”

“I made some promises to Ng.”

Mason sat back with a sigh.

“ A directive came from on high. We are to turn over the investigation to the foreign office. It’s ceased to be an ops and become political. I made some promises to the chaps we picked up as well.”

“They’ve seen their share of broken promises. How do you think it will go?”

“I don’t know. Really. The Americans’ fate is not in my hands any longer. Their man Decker, he’s a good man. I’ve put in that he be recruited though I don’t know if he’ll go for it. It may be all he’s got. Him and a few others of his team. They really chewed me up over that rescue.”

“It was courageous. And noble.” Richard affirmed.

“My fear is that the syndicate may escape again. They appear to have some power in your backyard.”

“I know.”

“You know the boy, Daniel.”

“Yes.”

“He went back to Singapore to spread the word.”

“No. Is he alright?” Richard was concerned. He had hoped that Daniel’s involvement had ended months ago and this was distressing news to him.

“They watch him but do nothing. I think we should help his cause. Not that he is without support. He managed to disseminate the files we built up to the opposition parties in Malaysia and Singapore and all over ASEAN in fact. Websites and pamphlets, people on the street. Resourceful chap.”

“But what a risk eh?” Mason said gravely. “You know, he may achieve what we fail to do.”

Richard looked quizzically at Mason.

“He’s getting the story out despite the efforts of the syndicate. I wonder why they haven’t tried to stop him.”

“The power of the syndicate in Asia is by proxy. Someone wants Daniel to continue his work. That’s the only thing I can think of.” Ning interrupted. She had been listening quietly to the conversation and piecing together what they said with what Richard had told her. It made Mason sit up and pay attention.

“You think there are those in Asia who would resist the syndicate?”

“I don’t know much.” Ning admitted. “It was just a thought. Why don’t you use the press?”

There was a risk that the story would be suppressed and then there was the legal risk to the publisher. They needed some pretty hard evidence.

“I know a man at The Times. We could leak this through the newspapers.” Mason suggested. The man in question was Sean Caroon, himself a believer. He had been investigating a lead given him by a friend when the friend was killed in a freak accident and the lead went cold.

“Will they print it? And what kind of slant would they put on it?”

“I wouldn’t worry about The Times, they’ve antagonised this government before. Our evidence is good and I can quote sources inside. Reliable and anonymous. It’s our usual channel we use for disinformation. They know but they do it all the same. This time I have to convince them it’s the real thing.”

“Have them corroborate Daniel’s information. That ought to get some attention on both sides.” Richard reasoned. “You also want to divert attention from what all the papers are saying about China’s WTO agenda. The Chinese don’t like being embarrassed and this analysis though correct may discourage the deal.”

“I’ll get Caroon the file and I’ll get my people lined up to support it. Meanwhile you two lay low and enjoy the scenery.” Mason ordered. “What about Daniel?”

“Corroborate his story and you’ll be saving him.” Ning advised.

Daniel’s War

Daniel had been busy. He knew his telephone lines and Internet Service Provider account was being monitored and that there was no way he could upload any more updates and news to his Website. He also knew that the Website had been blocked by the proxy servers of all Singapore ISPs. In order to publish and be seen, Daniel had to be a bit more clever. The organisations that he had sent the incriminating files to had sites of their own but they were mostly filtered out with the exception of FreeSpeech. Even so most of the computer literate would find it easy to circumvent the futile attempts at censorship that the Asian governments put up. Already a Daniel had a considerable following on the Web, mostly young, educated individuals like himself who had been bribed by circumstance and drugged by economic stability into a quiet acceptance of what was a suspect leadership. The Net citizens were a sophisticated lot and more than able to reach the sites and mirror sites that Daniel put up from his mobile communicator via a UK line, an expensive but untraceable procedure. The governments, especially in the less Net savvy countries were at a loss as to how to stop the flow of damaging information. A cult following developed for the roaming site known as: Merlin. Nobody knew why it was called that but they visited the sites anyway to discover the truth behind the miracle that was ASEAN.

An unseen ally known only as BOB in Malaysia took up the cause and started discussion groups and forums resident on the main networks of the Information Superhighway much to the consternation of the authorities. They tried desperately to track BOB down but found that he was using a foreign server. In fact what BOB and Daniel and most hackers did was to use a virtual server, one with no physical form and which flitted across borders and boundaries. BOB had become such a dangerous force that soon there was a general ban on the public visiting his Sites. The surveillance software was provided by the authorities in their neighbouring country, Singapore. The Internal Security Department in Singapore had a means of tracking the path history of any computer which surfed the Net, allowing them potentially to audit and prosecute infringements. The reality was safety in numbers. There was no way to easily sift through the volume of data without some preconceived idea of what they were looking for or who they were looking at. Still the Malaysian authorities decided that there was sufficient bandwidth to apply their new toy.

Sites were being raised in Hong Kong, in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Australia and in Singapore and Malaysia. The underground grew exponentially while the policing was bursting at the seams.

It was only a matter of time before the authorities decided to question Daniel. It was about 5 in the afternoon and he was on his communicator connected to his site when the Internal Security officers came for him. His parents knew nothing of the matter and were very afraid for his safety. Daniel simply told them not to worry, what else could he say, and left quietly with the men in white. All the time, his only concern was for his parents whom he had to leave behind. He wondered what they would do to them. Daniel was taken to a nondescript building at the eastern end of the island, at Changi, near the old hospital. The building looked more like a resort house than an office. Inside he was shown to a large hall with very little furniture and made to sit facing a large desk with several chairs arranged around the far side. An Indian man came in and sat across from Daniel.

“Daniel Tan.”

There was hardly a trace of Indian accent. It sounded like a typical Singapore Chinese accent.

“Yes.” Daniel replied not wanting to be rude.

“You have been publishing some material on the Internet that is compromising the security of the country. Are you aware of this?”

Daniel kept silent, wondering how best to reply.

“Are you aware of the internal security act Mr. Tan?”

“I have heard of it.”

The man placed sheaf of papers in front of Daniel and spread them out for Daniel to see. They were print outs of hi site.

“These look familiar to you?”

“Yes. They’re from a website I authored and published.”

“Are you aware that the content is libellous against your country? Today we are not even concerned about whether or not these allegations you make are true, they are not but even of they were true the ISA forbids such publication.”

“I wasn’t aware of the ISA’s specific action.”

 “You are in a lot of trouble. You were a signaller in the army yes?”

“That’s right.”

“In your website you refer to the SAF without first getting permission from the authorities to do so. That itself carries a harsh penalty. You think all this is a game? We are going to nail you my friend. We are going to make and example of you and we are going to make sure you never walk free again. Do you understand me?”

“Yes. But the truth has already slipped through your fingers.” Daniel said calmly. He was rewarded with a slap across the face. It stung but the interrogator’s experience meant that there would be no damage or physical evidence. Daniel slapped him back hard. He knew that if this man lost his temper and beat him then there would be signs of brutality and their plans would be set back some time. All he got for his efforts was a cold stare.

“Striking an officer of the law is a very serious crime. We have it all on video and it will be used against you. And if you think this is the end you are wrong. We have ways to make you as uncomfortable as possible, without any visible signs. We are experts in that area so you just sit back and enjoy.”

What followed was a rude awakening for Daniel as he was stripped naked, gagged and secured to a chair so he could not move and then placed in a featureless room where he was deprived sound or sight and the temperature was brought unbearably low. He had expected some form of torture and at first he thought that the darkroom a silly way to torture anyone. Slowly the unbearable cold got to him and he found that he could not move a muscle, so tightly bound was he. He tried to call out but could not for he was gagged.

Outside the interrogator, Glen Chandra, stood with Ali Kilrathi at the edge of the garden. Behind them stood the old white house and before them a path that led down to the beach. The sea was glistening with the dying light of sun set as it stretched away from them. Chandra lit himself a cigarette and blew the smoke out with a deliberate puff.

“This one will crack.”

“We already know his accomplices. We just need to know how to block his site and erase it forever.” Kilrathi said.

Glen Chandra was familiar with the state of technology and he understood that the suppression of the story was no longer viable. They were too late and the Web, too convoluted and complex for a complete or even effective censorship of that particular page. However, Glen Chandra had a job to do and it was to extract whatever information he could to enable the ISD to shut down the site and stem the flow of the seditious information.

“Gentlemen, we have to assume the worst.”

It was Abdullah Azmi who spoke to the group of men around the table. Among them was David Quah, the Singapore Prime Minister, Alejandro Eustaquio, the Philippine President, Lieutenant General Widjayo, the Indonesian Army Chief of Staff and the Thai and Malaysian Prime Minister.

“But who could have kidnapped KC?” Abdullah Zain thought out loud.

“That is not the worst case Prime Minister.” Tan Sri Datuk Abdullah Azmi corrected his own Prime Minister. “There was an entire delegation with KC when he disappeared. From the fact that his family is also missing I would say he has decided to resign. Discreetly.”

“How damaging is this potentially?” Quah asked. He was more interested in damage control.

“In itself, not very. As part of a greater plan, it could be very damaging. KC was privy to the innermost workings of this group. He was connected to the very people you represent.”

Azmi was reminding them of their positions as mere representatives.

“Several disturbing developments have arisen in the past two weeks. Internet sites that represent our political opponents have emerged that we have not been able to track down or shut down. These sites expose our working organisation and several other secret projects that the organisation has undertaken in the past.”

“Fieldstone?” Quah blurted.

“Among others, yes.” Azmi continued.

The Daniel Revelation

Sitting in the confines of his cell, in the dark and cold and quiet, Daniel considered his actions and the path it had led him down. It was deathly cold and he had not been fed for a whole day. Why had he done what he had done when he knew the consequences would be unavoidable? He wondered what was happening with the revolution he had begun. Why had he bothered anyway when all were profiting from the hiding of the facts? Perhaps it was selfishness, that he was not profiting from anything. He had seen too many people prosper from looking the other way, from colluding with the enemy, the government. He felt himself the patriot, the one who did not sell out. He also felt that he sold out the treasonous conspirators because he hadn’t been a party to it all. But he was. He remembered. The scholarship, being sent to London, having a guaranteed job on his return to Singapore. He had been party to it, could have profited from it. Why did fight them? Principle? He saw in his mind the self satisfied smiling bureaucrats who toed the line for a big fat paycheque for doing buggerall save politic all day and play golf on shareholders’ or worse taxpayers’ time and money. He was a small fry and he hated that. Had he done this for that? Or was it the principle. No one was ever that noble, Daniel reasoned. 

Outside on the streets there was a hush and a growing suspicion that the rumours were not only true but that the circulation had reached a substantial enough proportion that it would create problems. Critical mass was being achieved and in every office and in every coffee shop the word was out that the entire ASEAN power base had been a Western aided effort. News of Daniel Tan and his now infamous website spread like wildfire from Thailand to the Philippines, through the streets of Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Eventually an unfounded rumour began to circulate that Daniel Tan had been arrested or even murdered for he was nowhere to be found, unfounded because it was begun by people who were not in the know and merely voicing their fears and suspicions.

All this time the internal security forces of the respective countries were out in force secretly collecting information and feeling out the general sentiment on the street. Their reports were all the same. Not in the last decade had the popularity of the governments fallen so low, nor the suspicions against the leaders been so strong.

TC Koo was ecstatic. When he had heard the news of the Daniel revelation his immediate thought was to aid in its dissemination. This young man obviously had the expertise and the nerve but not the connexions nor the money to finance a significant assault on the credibility of the ASEAN governments. It was Koo who sought to contact Daniel and it was that effort that led to the realisation that Daniel must have already been detained by the authorities. Koo immediately sent a message for Richard to contact him ASAP.  This Richard did in all haste. Somehow he was not surprised that Koo had taken an interest in the story.

“Why don’t you help him?” Koo asked Richard.

“Because it would endanger myself and people I care about. What’s your excuse?” Richard retorted.

“I’m trying to find him to help him Rick. Still looking out only for yourself I see.”

“I stick my neck out for nobody.” Rick said with a wry smile at Ning who was sitting beside him.

Richard was not about to risk losing anonymity in a rescue bid but he did furnish Koo with a few telephone numbers that might have helped him find Daniel. With that little information TC Koo went to work.

“That was a man by the name of TC Koo. He has an axe to grind with Malaysia and Singapore.”

“He wants to help Daniel?”

“He wants to help himself. Still, he might be able to achieve what we cannot. Openly promote the Daniel revelation.”

John Book was conferring with his vice President Schroder.

“Charlie, I just can’t figure them out. The whole WTO issue last millennium? The Chinese looked like they almost didn’t want to get in.”

“Off the record Mr. President, I think they could never understand why free trade required entry to an organisation. Truly free trade should be allowed to proceed unencumbered by any formal agreements. I mean, all this talk of subsidies and all is a bit fallacious. No country can sustain a policy of subsidies without some nation taking advantage and buying volume. The Chinese sought entry because WTO allowed unfair competition.”

“You’re holding with the Chinese then?” Book said with a wry grimace.

“No. Just trying to see how they might feel. But I think you’re right, they almost seem reluctant to join. Some of the conditions they refused were almost trivial.”

“Then it may have been trivial to ask them. You see how it goes when all sides are unreasonable? Who the hell negotiated the 2000 round anyway?  Secstate Robert Westlake. Secstate at the time.”

“What the hell about Trade?”

“Westlake was appointed by executive order. President Lowell saw fit I guess.”

“Lowell did a lot of things I’ve had to undo Charlie. I don’t know if we can undo this one. Where the hell is Lowell now, U Penn?”

“Harvard. Professor Lowell no less.”

“Charlie, we got to keep up the heat on CIA and as for the Asian offer, delay them a bit. If we can hand the bastards over to the Asians, I’m not too concerned about burning a couple of bad Americans for the good of the nation. If we go to the table with just the WTO issue then we’ll end up giving everything away trying to appease them.”

“Are you certain she’ll run the story?” Mason asked Caroon who had just assured him for the umpteenth time.

“She wants a first crack at it before I do the print. You want full coverage don’t you? We’ll TV will get you there faster than print. Tomorrow’s breaking news. That’s what Lily said.”

Lily Tyler was news anchor at BBC news. She was tough as nails and as independent as they came, so independent that Caroon always marvelled at how far she’d got living with her principles.

US Fighter aircraft fire upon Chinese frigate. In the South China Sea today at 1302 Zulu a US Navy F18/A fighter-bomber from the USS Ronald Reagan fired two AIM-7 Sparrow air to air missiles at a Chinese frigate of the coast of Taiwan sinking the boat. Survivors have been reported though the exact number is unknown. China has called the attack an act of war while the US has declared the attack an accident. US officials submitted that the Chinese frigate was not in an offensive posture nor posing any threat to elements US or Taiwanese.

The White House was abuzz. President book had summoned the Joint Chief’s for an emergency meeting. It was not something he needed as he was still recovering from the assassination attempt. Earlier in the evening he had spoken with his NSA who had reported that the Director of CIA had not yet reported on the Asian conspiracy case. It had been a troubling day and it looked like he was going to start the new day with even more distressing developments. General Lawrence Fudge began the briefing by describing the events and circumstances leading up to the fatal error and then left it to the President to ask the questions.

“What kind of fire control was there, General?”

“All proper fire control was observed. The pilot, Major Lee Goswell, reconfirmed twice, expressing his reservations verbally on speaker to the carrier.”

“So an order was issued?”

“Mr. President. The facts as I have presented them are, that Major Goswell claims to have received an order to fire upon the target. There are no records of any order from the carrier group. Major Goswell expresses reservations including noting that the F18/A as configured was not capable of a surface strike, nor was there prior order to attack any potential unfriendly elements in the area. He says clearly: Are you sure about this? I have no surface strike capability on board as configured. I will have to improvise. Target does not appear to be in striking range of any friendlies. Please confirm. He goes on to request confirmation and receives, twice, authentication codes for the target. Acting on the alleged orders Major Goswell approaches the target unopposed and splashes the target. The carrier group has no record of any orders to attack nor any requests for or transmission of permission to fire. Weapons were tight for the group at the time.”

“The F18 received an order to attack that did not originate from the carrier group.” President Book surmised.

“Our elements in the area, are their weapons tight?”

“No sir. Under the circumstances, their weapons would be free.”

“Tell them that they are not to fire on the Chinese.” The President ordered.

“The Chinese have called this an act of war.” General Fudge pointed out.

Another flag officer interrupted the General. It was Col. Clint Hardy of War Games.

“Had the Chinese wished to wage war, we would have heard about it from CINCPac in the form of a damage report. This is not to say that the risks of war are not high. War is imminent but it is not yet war. We should attempt to communicate.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Said the President. “Chinese ambassador?”

“Currently on his way out in accordance with their declaration of war.” Fudge replied.

“Get a message to him. Tell him we have to talk.”

Lily Tyler had planned to spend the morning with her two girls but the China US incident had scuttled those plans. The BBC On Line office called at 0814 to recall her to the studio for a quick job. It was a problem because her husband was in Manchester on business and Lily had counted on taking care of her girls herself. She now had to arrange a baby sitter on short notice and rush out to the studio. She made a few phone calls but could not find anyone who could make it at such short notice. At last she decided to give Mrs. Howell her neighbour a call and ask her to come over to collect the girls. Then got into her work clothes and headed out to the street where she had left the Mercedes.

A man in a grey pin striped suit was leaning against her Mercedes and reading a newspaper. He looked up at her as she came out of the house and she gave him a reprimanding look as if to shoo him from her car. The man seemed to want to speak with her and approached as she locked the door. The man made it half way to Tyler who had her back turned before a spot of red exploded behind her head and she was thrown face against her door. Lily Tyler let out screams of pain and shock as she slumped against the door. Her body convulsed as it slid to the floor. The suited man ran to her in utter shock and horror but stopped short and turned around crouching down as he realised that Tyler had been shot with a silenced sniper rifle. His heart began to race and he broke out into a sweat as he contemplated his next move. He could not see or hear the shooter but a second shot ricocheted on the cement floor next to him. In panic he ran from the scene praying that the sniper would not be able to track his erratic path. He saw a bus approach and he ran after it jumping in at the last moment. The driver stared at him and he wondered if he had seen the gun which he had hastily tucked away in his waistband but the driver only asked him where he was going.

“Fulham.”

“You’re in Fulham, mate?”

“The FC.” Said the man remembering that there was a match at the stadium that morning.

The murder of Lily Tyler sent shockwaves through London and the police began a massive manhunt. Neighbours and people in the area had sighted a well-dressed man loitering around Lily Tyler’s house just moments before she was murdered.

Mason received Caroon’s call moments after the murder was reported.

“Patrick. They tried to kill the story.”

“I know. The police are looking for the wrong man, Sean. And we can’t tell them. The shooter was some way off and used a rifle. The fact that the round was 9mm tells does not imply a pistol as the police suggest. There are at least 6 medium range silenced assault rifles that could have been used. Range would have been limited to maybe across the street or a block behind. Can you get that to the police?”

“The man on the street?”

“Was ours. Sean, if the police want the right man they have to know this. We’re interviewing our man and will make all the facts available to you but you have to be patient.”

“I don’t want the story Patrick. I want the original story out. I’m going to print it.”

Sean was outraged and wanted to thwart the enemy’s plans but his anger was clouding his judgement.

“Hold it Sean. You won’t get much notice with the murder in the news. Let it cool. We can do it next week. You lie low for now and I’ll give you 6 men. I’m sending their bios over so you can view them. They’re good enough so you’ll never notice them though.”

“I’ll wait to hear from you but otherwise we’ll run it Sunday and Monday. Patrick, she was my friend.”

“I’m sorry Sean. We’ll have to make this count then.”

Ambassador Chenggang was at Dulles International at the VIP lounge awaiting his flight to Beijing. The situation was getting worse by the minute and he knew it. His Prime Minister Li QiaoFong had made a threat against Taiwan and he knew that under the circumstances backing down would be taken as a sign of weakness. Chenggang’s fear was that China would be forced into a course of action she never intended to take. The indiscretions of the Americans were too much this time, however, and Chenggang did not see a peaceful solution available.

The call came as a welcome relief to Ambassador Chenggang, it was Alan Riley the NSA on the line and he was asking to speak to him. It was a complete breach of protocol to have the NSA call the Ambassador and it signalled to Chenggang the extraordinary circumstances of the call. Riley called to invite the ambassador to the White House for an emergency meeting with President Book. Chenggang didn’t think twice but agreed and ordered his envoy to return to the embassy. The bureaucrats were aghast of course but Chenggang was not to be swayed. He understood that what he was undertaking to do was completely outside standard protocol but he saw this as an opportunity to prevent a major conflict from arising out of something neither side fully understood. Within minutes the Ambassador was in a Lincoln limo sans entourage and more remarkably sans Chinese security but with Secret Service escort. It was Riley himself who came to meet him and bring him to the President. Riley had prepared himself to talk to the man without compromising the official position. He read the dossier on the ambassador and was impressed. Oxford PPE, Chicago PhD, Professor of economics at the University of Beijing. Co authored several papers with people like Colin Trope, now Chairman of the Fed, Richard Soluna, Treasury Chief, Art Magrath, Deputy Director IMF.

“I realise this is not the usual done thing Your Excellency but the circumstances are extraordinary.” Riley explained once they were under way.

“I understand Mr. Riley. Your country has infringed the sovereignty and rights of China on numerous occasions in the last few weeks. Or months. I would like to hear what your President has to say about this inexplicable behaviour.”

Inexplicable. The choice of words was purposeful and chosen to convey more than the ambassador could do explicitly.

“The President is eager to discuss with you the events in the last few months that have given rise to this misunderstanding.”

Richard Chang arrived in London at 0700 as planned and was in The Claridges by 0900. He had travelled under the assumed name of Ngoh Ah Chai with a Malaysian passport.

He arranged to meet a private banker from Coutt’s and a lawyer from Sheerluck and then together they travelled to SwissBank’s head office at Canary Wharf. There, one of SwissBank’s private bankers who did not know either of the men met them and took them to a private office where had much work to do. The basic objective of the meeting was to transfer control of the Sheerluck Group away from Richard so that it would become an autonomous entity capable of functioning without him. The next order of business was to separate the wealth that was his away from Sheerluck as cleanly as possible and then to remove any paper trail so that his legal tax liability would be minimised. The cash accounts that belonged personally to him was transferred to various Swiss numbered accounts and the existing trust accounts closed and buried. The instructions were being given in London but the actual execution would take place in Zurich which would make the non disclosure kosher. By the time Richard Chang left Canary Wharf alone, having left the bankers and lawyers to settle the mechanics of the deals, he no longer had anything to do with Sheerluck and his money had been transferred safely away into accounts in Switzerland and Bermuda. The accounts would require no identification to operate but relied on a conceptually simple and yet computationally complex code.

By 1800 that same evening Richard Chang was airborne bound for Sydney once again. UK Immigration would have no record of his ever being in the country and he was careful that he did not use any electronic payment or other action that might identify him as being in the country for that period.

Back in Sydney at the Milsons Point house Richard Chang placed all evidence of the Ngoh Ah Chai identity, namely credit cards, driver’s licence and passport into the burnbox, secured the box and incinerated the lot. He moved quietly to the room to find Ning sound asleep and he bent over and kissed her softly on the cheek careful no to wake her. He thought a while about the coincidences that had led to their reunion and he wondered how his luck had led him back to her. One loose end remained.

“Mr. President. I do not see how we can resolve this issue without some major concessions on your side.” Ambassador Chenggang said to President Book.

“Your Excellency, the United States does not deny the fact that troops were found on Chinese soil nor the fact that the a US fighter bomber attacked and sank a Chinese Navy frigate. I’ll be frank with you, there are forces within both our governments who would like to see us at war.” John Book said gravely.

“There are always such elements. Your position is not strong Mr. President. China cannot allow these indiscretions to go unanswered. What is your answer sir?”

“We need more time. Time enough for us find those subversive elements and bring them to justice.”

“Time is a luxury we do not have Mr. President.”

The two men looked at each other gravely.

“How much time do you need?” Chenggang said finally breaking the deadlock.

“As much as you can get us. Two days?” Book said hopefully.

“I’ll try to get you your two days Mr. President but you will have to give us a credible answer then.”

Charlie Schroeder was counting on Gary Perlman the Director of CIA turning in his co-conspirators and he was not disappointed. At 1800 hrs as most of the staff were leaving the Director came to Schroeder’s office seeking a meeting. He was shown directly in.

“Sit. Do we have a conclusion?”

“We do.”

The Director handed Vice President Schroeder a file and a computer disk.

“This is the file compiled by me and a small team I assembled to investigate the matter we discussed.”

“How many names?”

“Four Senators, A Congressman, eighteen Flag officers, thirteen significant civilians.”

“Eighteen?” Schroeder could hardly contain his indignation.

“How about staff?”

“More than we can finger in the time frame sir.”

“OK. Sit tight. Nice work. I will call the NSA and we will look through this. As for you Perlman, you’ll have to spend the night here with us. I suggest you call home to tell your Anne that you’ll be late.”

Shock Revelation on Asian Leadership, the headlines of the London Times exclaimed. The foreign office had arranged through co-operative channels to have the story appear as headlines in as many of the national papers as possible. The lead story was by Sean Caroon but appeared uncredited in the Times while subsidiary material was circulated to the other new services.

Patrick Mason read the headlines in the Independent with some satisfaction. He had already seen the Times and was trying to get a comparison between the information disparity between what the Times had and what had been given to the others. The new programs at the four channels would be reporting the story later that evening.

“Nice work Sean.” Mason commended the journalist who was temporarily in protective custody in the Battersea safe house.

“Thanks. If only we could have protected Lily Tyler.” Sean said with some regret.

“Oxford was it? Class of ’83?”

“A dear friend and colleague. We were at Reuters for a time.”

“How long will the story last?” Mason wanted to know.

“If we play it up, at most a week unless we can find more fuel for the fire.”

“We can. New file from an insider placed high in the Asian directorate. Implicates Americans and a couple of Britons as well. Involves some big business.”

“Could run for two weeks. Its hard to tell really but if you give us carte blanche with the material we could run it for a whole month. In fact, tie it in with Lily’s murder and we’ll have local coverage for a good month or so. Its anybody’s guess how this will turn out in America though. Could fizzle out in two days, could impeach the executive.”

“Sean, I’ll be supplying you new information in real time. All I need is for you to run with this and be our point man. I know some of the Americans collaborate with you. The story will come from here and it will be controlled from here. The American angle will be dealt out from here as well so that they can’t stop it over there.”

“Bit political as well isn’t it?”

“Entirely Sean. Entirely political.”

“Repercussions in China?”

“You are running ahead of yourself Sean. The China thing is between the Americans and China. We are just digging up the dirt on the Americans and leaving it as that.”

“Won’t that precipitate war?” Sean asked a bit puzzled at the objectives of his government.

“No. If anything we might be able to avert one. The name list is all-important. The list of conspirators provided by our informant. We will release that day after tomorrow. We are getting corroboration from the US.”

“Must be a powerful source.”

“The White House.” Mason said with a smug smile.

Abdullah Azmi was dismayed at what he saw on the front page of the South China Morning Post. It was the ASEAN leadership story run by the London Times the previous day. Already the New Straits Times and the Star of Malaysia and the New Paper and the Straits Times of Singapore, the Bangkok Post and the Jakarta Post had received the story from their international sources and were in a difficult position regarding the printing of the story. Emergency meetings were held at the newspapers’ offices and advice from official government sources was sought. None was forthcoming. It seemed that the strategy adopted by the governments was to neither deny nor confirm the allegations set out in the reports.

“Refute it.” Abdullah said over the phone to the Singapore Prime Minister David Quah.

He was referring to the headlines in the Times and the requests from local newspapers to run the story.

“Allow them to print it? We could shut the story down under the Internal Security Act.” David suggested.

“The story is on the London Times On Line and it will be on CNN in half an hour.”

“We’ve already stopped the CNN feed.” David informed.

“Hong Kong is still broadcasting CNBC. There’s CNN.com. All the major international newspapers are on line. You could kill the telecoms and declare martial law but I think that’s a bit drastic and only gives credence to the story. Let them print it. Let’ have a look at what they want to say, vet it, and let them print it. We come up with a rebuttal in time for tonight’s new and tomorrow’s headlines. We’ll bury the credibility of the story.” Abdullah Azmi advised.

“Conference call in one hour. Now get this straight. Vet all their proposed texts and use that to construct a rebuttal. This is a dangerous time. We need to read the original Times story carefully. Do that before the conference call.”

There was no escape for them this time. The article was damning.

The contents of the article were broadly:

ASEAN was an American agent in South East Asia to balance the powers in the north and west.

The governments were supported with monetary aid and intelligence regarding opposition as well as each other in the control of ASEAN.

The existence of a spy network in academic and commercial networks.

The Silk Road, illegal arms trade in central Asia and the deal between the US and China that buried the facts. How this led to the discovery of the greater conspiracy.

Quoted sources included two highly placed sources in an ASEAN government.

The Daniel revelation website which featured the very same content including the efforts of BOB, another Internet crusader against the Asian conspiracy.

The presence of US troops in China and their connection to the Silk Road.

Page 12 of the Financial Times: Sheerluck Long Time Advisor Resigns.

Richard Chang of the Sheerluck Charity Trust has resigned as economic advisor to the charity trust. No reason was given for his departure but sources close to the high profile charity say that Chang was asked to leave after disagreements with senior board members of the trust…

The Shangri-La hotel, a presidential suite with its own terrace and small garden, David Quah was visiting Abdullah Azmi prior to an emergency meeting they had later that evening.

“This man came to speak to Ng Keng Chye before his disappearance.” David Quah said to Abdullah Azmi who was in Singapore for the meeting of the leaders.  “The Singapore side has been keeping tabs on him for a long time. His dossier.”

David handed Abdullah Azmi the document. There was not a lot in it considering that Chang had been advising Sheerluck, one of the largest charity trusts in the world. Azmi looked through the document casually.

“You keep files on a whole lot of people don’t you? How did this escape you?”

“It didn’t. It was concealed. Which leads me to believe that Ng defected and was not abducted. It is highly probable that he is one of the witnesses mentioned in the London Times article.”

“We’ll know in a couple of days won’t we?” Abdullah Azmi said wryly.

“You say this Daniel Tan is a friend of his?”

“Yes.”

“I think we should kill him.” Abdullah Azmi suggested offhandedly.

“That would convert your Internet contained revolution to a very real and physical one. No way. Chang will come for his friend and we will get him then.”

“Chang is dangerous. He has connections.” Azmi warned.

“That’s why we must arrest him in a legal manner, under the Internal Security Act. At the highest level, we won’t even have to tell anyone.”

“You think he will come for his friend?”

“ We know that there are elements already in the country asking a lot of questions about Daniel Tan. This Richard Chang is testing the waters. What we need to do is provide him an opportunity. Oh, he’ll come. I have it from a good source that he’ll be here in a matter of days.” David said self confidently. “Then we’ll jack him in a cell for the next two hundred and seventy years.”

The two men chuckled wickedly at David’s humour.

“Universal Microbotics Corp. Model 1132-A2.” Richard Chang announced to Colin who gaped in awe.

“What on earth is that?” Colin asked incredulously referring to the kevlar and steel toy dog that stood at Richard’s feet.

“Latest surveillance droid. Limited but pretty good AI. 100 hrs autonomy.”

“Fantastic. Who are Universal Microbotics?”

“Australian technology company. Private. Very cutting edge.”

Richard sat down beside Colin and the droid followed coming to rest by his feet.

“I’m going to Singapore for a few days, incidentally.” Richard informed Colin who was even more shocked.

“You’re not going after Daniel are you?”

“I am. He’s a friend. Besides, it’s getting boring down here. The story’s out so we may as well be in the thick of it. I have a feeling that there’ll be some considerable upheaval this time Colin.”

“You think so?” Colin said sceptically. “That bunch are the most weak and spineless lot that ever cast a vote. And in the meantime where will Ning go? With you back into that place?”

“She’ll wait here. Once everything settles down I’ll come back again.” Richard assured his friend.

“I’m not staying around here if you’re going man. I’m with you.”

“Could be trouble in the region.” Richard warned.

“Not in Singapore.”

“Perhaps, but I will be travelling north of there as well.”

“Then you’ll need me around.”

“I need all my friends and interests out of there. That was what Nick came here to do before all this.”

“What did you go back to London for those three days?” Colin asked suspiciously.

“Just building an escape route Colin. One that you won’t have when we’re there. That’s why I have to go alone.”

“This was a fight I’d always looked forward to Rick. You can’t deny me this.”

“There are alternatives to fighting. I am going to get Daniel out of there and get out of the region as discreetly as possible. I can’t do except alone. Besides I need you in London.”

“And what abut Ning?”

“She is safe here. There are five droids all reporting to the London server at the Chelsea House. I need you there to co-ordinate things.”

“Patrick know of your plans?”

“No and I’d rather he not know. There is more to a rescue than getting in and getting out.”

“Could get sticky?” Colin pressed hoping to be invited along.

“I have V1 and a beta of the ST1.1. Trouble is someone’s been trying to track V1.”

“Surely that’s not possible?”

“It’s hard but not impossible. I’ve been getting some feedback from V1’s lookback functionality that’s tracking someone or something tracking it. I wish I had ST1 operational before I left but there’s just no time. I just won’t be able to have V1 on line for too long.”

“How’s that voice recognition thing you were working on, will you be using that?”

“Yes. It’s no longer experimental. Murad got everything up and running fully functional a few weeks ago so I’ll have that with me.”

“How about some back up Rick? With V1 at risk and all?” Colin offered.

“I’ll be frank Colin. This is pretty risky with or without V1 being totally invisible. These people keep a billion records and they know my psychological profile. I have to choose something pretty close to home and play it by ear once I get there. A Malaysian or even a Singaporean. Someone who is supposed to be in the country. And I need a decoy. Trouble is, this bunch are pretty subtle and if you’re too subtle yourself, they might just might miss the decoy and head for you instead. I don’t want you or anyone in on this one. Just in case.”

There was an ominous finality in Richard’s words as if he expected something to go wrong. Colin was worried and it showed but he knew enough than to try to change his friend’s mind.

Reaction

The trouble started in Thailand first with the people taking to the streets in a show of force in response to the government’s lack of response to the allegations published in the foreign newspapers. Thousands thronged onto the streets turning Bangkok and other major towns and cities into a war zone. The military did not act except to protect the surrounding areas. The central district had been turned into an arena and the government was at a loss as to how to respond. The military, it seemed, was unwilling to intervene on either side. The result was chaos and the fate of the government was at best uncertain.

The next country to see outright violence on the streets was Indonesia. Already an unsteady country with a shaky government Indonesia soon collapsed into anarchy with total chaos on the streets. Looting and pillaging was widespread and the government, like Thailand, had not the support of the military. It was an unprecedented break of the military from the governments. So far the only countries able to maintain order, albeit a fragile and tense one, were Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.

Prime Minister Li QiaoFong read the letter from his ambassador to the US, Chenggang, conveying President John Book’s request for an emergency meeting as soon as practicable. He was aware that the President was greatly opposed to any sort of conciliatory negotiations with the Americans and he understood that he had a responsibility to restoring the political and perceived power of China on the international arena but here was a opportunity to step away from the brink. He ordered the Permanent Secretary to reply that he welcomed the American President at the earliest possible time convenient or not. It was a bold step to take without consulting with the mandarins that ran Beijing but it was also the only way to get it past them. He next had to advise his President.

There was precious little time as the posturing in the Pacific worsened. Chinese MiGs were now flying closer and closer to the US Carrier fleets and it was only a matter of time before the heat of the moment would overwhelm better judgement. Also as at noon the day before, the Chinese Navy had begun to outright engage the Taiwanese Navy in the straits and a shooting war had begun.

In the US, John Book was hard pressed to explain his pacifism to his opponents who were baying for blood. His problems were a little more complicated than he could announce and soon he was in the air on his way to Beijing on a secret peace mission while Vice President Charlie Schroder held the fort.

John Book opened the file on the monitor on Air Force One as it flew across the Pacific. Their flight path had been altered to bypass the hot spot in the vicinity of Taiwan.

“General, what do you make of this action in the Taiwan strait?” Book asked of the intelligence flag officer.

“Irrational. War, however, is always irrational. It appears that the Chinese are quite aimless in this endeavour and that there are elements of conflict in their ranks.”

“Meaning?”  The President asked impatiently.

“They may be as willing to negotiate as we are.”

“We were caught with our hand in their cookie jar. There may not be any opportunity to hardball them.”

Book had seconded Colonel Clint Hardy of the War Games Centre to the White House because he recognised the man’s insight. He hadn’t been disappointed.

“I’m sorry sir, I am not familiar with all the intricacies preceding this deal.”

“In a couple of hours we land on Chinese soil and we have to convince them that our actions against them are the result of terrorism and not representative of the official policy of the United States. You want to tell them that we didn’t mean to have our soldiers in their backyard? I don’t think they’ll find it too convincing.”

“Understood. I merely submit that there may be elements within their ranks who are in similar position as we are in relation to our own circumstance.”

John Book reclined to review the report Schroder had prepared. The number of conspirators struck him, as did the degree of military and civilian participation. He now had to offer these gentlemen and ladies up for prosecution in the US and in the worst instance, for prosecution in an international court. What he feared was that the Chinese might demand prosecution on Chinese soil. It was something he hadn’t yet resolved and he knew that he should have before embarking on negotiating for a peaceful resolution in the Pacific.

The other issue that Book had to deal with was the Asian Conspiracy which had been headlines across the world for the last 48 hour. He had read the report on CNN.com the night before and realised that it all fell together. Already Charlie Schroder and Alan Riley were putting a team together to investigate the extent of the rot. It would be the same group, different members perhaps, but the same group. Book planned to negotiate a peace with China before he went public with disclosing his government’s stand on the indiscretions of his people. He needed to secure something before he weakened further the political power of his own nation.

In the background was another task force charged with uncovering Chinese spies in the US. This would be John Book’s wildcard. He didn’t want to use it but he knew that he might need something like that to improve his bargaining power. Director CIA was busy on the case knowing that failure might have grave personal consequences. That was the vague assurance that Schroder had given him as he sent him out to find the moles.

Turns Again Home…..

Richard Chang arrived at Changi International at 1200 hrs on Thursday on a Qantas Boeing 747. He had with him nothing save the clothes he wore and the cash in his wallet. He cleared immigration under the name of W.M.Liu, a Malaysian software engineer working in Sydney but whose family was residing in Singapore. W M Liu walked to the taxi rank and took a cab to the Hilton where he checked into a suite under the same name. 

That same evening Liu purchased a mobile communicator from one of the local dealers on Orchard Road paying in cash. The account name was registered as Sam Leong with accompanying documents and the account was activated within minutes of purchase. Richard turned the communicator over and plucked out its identification chip tossing it into a nearby rubbish bin. He took out from his wallet another chip and put it in the receptacle activating the communicator under a new anonymous account. He decided to spend the day strolling around the shopping district of town. Later that day he went back to the hotel and hired a car for the next few days, selecting a Toyota Corolla. That evening, Richard drove to the East Coast of the island, to a shop house in the old Changi Township, near the infamous Changi prison. The shop was protected in the usual electronic way and Richard had only to speak a code to the voice analyser to gain entry. He found the package as he had expected he would and took it back with him, careful to leave no physical trace of his ever being there. The package was a small briefcase of uncertain contents. Unwilling to return to the bustle of town, Richard drove around the old town, reminiscing about the times when he had frequented the place in search of some peace and quiet. His mind was clear and was far away back in those days when he had neither wealth nor worry and he felt peaceful. He drove along the coastal road and stopped at one of the car parks so favoured by illicit lovers. The sun was setting and the sea was purple and red. There were boats and ships in the distance stretching out into the horizon and Richard strained his eyes in search of an island he had called home for a time. He could not find it in the half-light but stayed to savour the warm breeze blowing through his hair and clothes. He was a much changed person from the boy who had walked along that beach a decade ago, who harboured dreams of making good in some foreign land so he could come back to a better life. Fate scrambles the best laid plans.

James Ito was a professional hit man who began his career in the Yakuza before going freelance in the US for better money. He was at the top of his profession and had been given a contract worth two million USD, a pretty large price tag. The snag was that his target was in Singapore, one of the toughest places in the world for a criminal to escape the law. His target was Tetsuro Fujiki, a merchant banker with the Yamamoto Trust Bank who had recently ascended to the post of Regional Head, South East Asian Operations. James Ito was not there to ask too many questions, he was there to make a killing. His employers had supplied him with all the travel documents and identities that he would need to get in, get the mark and get the hell out with the minimum of noise.

Ito arrived on a Saturday from London Heathrow on a BA flight. He handed his British passport to the immigration officer who was too bored to even look at him. He was punched in at 0645 in the morning and went directly to the Hilton Hotel where he had booked the Stamford Suite. Ito quickly unpacked his meagre luggage and set his firearm out on the desk. It was an individual arm of German manufacture crafted out of hi tech plastics right down to the ammunition. It had been carefully hidden away separately in false bottoms of his baggage and in parts of a dummy camera and radio.

Richard spent the morning rewiring the hotel room computer to his communicator so that he would have the luxury of a 19-inch flat screen and a full sized keyboard. He was monitoring the electronic digital communications of the Internal Security Department and true to form they were monitoring the movements of Richard Chang. They had found his various false identities as he expected they would and they were fast closing in on their quarry. They knew he was already in the country and Richard could see that they were busy searching through the hotel registers.

Ito was a meticulous worker and began his job by studying his mark. He visited the Yamamoto Trust Bank office posing as an Asiabanc representative and asking to speak to Mr. Fujiki. The two men met for a while and Ito gave him some corporate advertising spiel, offering research and dealing services. The meeting lasted a brief 45 minutes after which Ito went to check out Fujiki San’s residence which was in the upmarket River Valley area. Later that day, he retired to the hotel to consolidate his notes.

Tuesday 0800 hrs. Ali Kilrathi got the call from the Prime Minister David Quah himself ordering that Daniel Tan be brought to the PM’s office for he wanted to question the man himself. He was reminded that Daniel should be brought to the PM’s office in an unmarked vehicle and that there was to be no police escort of any kind. The prisoner was to be immobilised of course.

Ali complied with the order, calling to the safe house at the eastern tip of the island and informing the guards there to prepare the prisoner for the transfer. He then drove out to the safe house himself taking the company Volvo instead of his more extravagant Mercedes which was primarily for his wife.

Daniel was in a daze, not knowing if it was night or day, or what day it was or indeed where he was. The sensory deprivation had rendered him a rag doll. His eyes were blood shot and the light that streamed through the open door struck him like a physical thing. The men who came were rough and brutal. They dragged him out, as he had not the strength in his own legs to support himself. They dragged him to a bathroom where they hosed him down with cold water and scrubbed him with a brush on a pole. Daniel was too busy trying to drink the water to mind the painful scrubbing and the cold of the water. His thirst overtook all other senses and the sight of water came as a liberation.

“Where are you man?” David Quah’s voice came over the hands free loud and sharp.

“On my way to get Daniel Tan for you.”

“Ali, get over to my office now, your people can handle the prisoner. I need you here ASAP.”

David Quah sounded impatient and irritable and it annoyed Ali to be spoken to in that tone.

“OK Boss. I’m on my way. Give me 20 minutes.”

Ali Kilrathi cursed under his breath as he looked for a convenient spot to make his illegal U turn and he called ahead to the safe house once again this time to tell them not to wait for him but to bring Daniel to the PM’s office directly. Two minutes after he had made the turn and was headed back towards the city Ali Kilrathi received a call from the Internal Security Special Task Force informing him that they were on the verge of locating Richard Chang. They had traced a false identity that was not assignable to any known person on their databases and also found a trail of credit card purchases and restaurant bills.

“We’ve traced the man to a room at the Hilton on Orchard Road. He booked a suite. What are your orders sir?” the voice on the speakerphone asked anxiously.

“Wait for me, I’m on my way, what is your location?”

“We are in the hotel. Officer Subramaniam and his team are on site and have covered the whole area surrounding the hotel.”

“Keep watching but do nothing. Get some photos. I want some photos of this guy.”

Ali Kilrathi had to call his Prime Minister and tell him that he had something more important to do than to chat over tea and biscuits.

Exit

Richard Chang was in his hotel room watching the computer monitor which was showing the views from the hotel’s own security cameras in turn. He was watching carefully, trying to suss out the opposition. On his computer monitor’s speakers he was broadcasting the interception of the police band and could hear all of Mr. Kilrathi’s plans loud and clear. Richard’s mode of communicating with the V2 had changed from keyboard to voice and the voice recognition AI was working seamlessly.

Daniel was in a daze as he was led to the white Volvo and roughly shoved in. His feet and hands were shackled and it was difficult to even move. Two guards got in to the back seat, one on either side of him. The driver and a senior officer made up the full complement. They dispensed with the blindfold this time and for once Daniel was able to estimate his position within Singapore.

Just as they were about to get on the Pan Island Expressway the senior officer got a call on the mobile from Kilrathi.

“Who is that? Ah Leong is it? Change in plans.”

Ah Leong was not about to argue with an angry Ali Kilrathi. Apparently the great Tan Sri Abdullah Azmi had requested to see this Daniel Tan and had asked  the PM who of course complied. Daniel was to be taken to Changi International to be loaded onto a Malaysian Airlines flight for Kuala Lumpur under the guard of the Malaysian police. Neither PM David Quah nor Ali Kilrathi was pleased at the changed in plans apparently and Ah Leong could hear the seething fury in Kilrathi’s voice. He was to take Daniel Tan to the airport which thankfully was a mere 10 minutes away and hand the boy over to the Malaysian police. There, presumably the boy would be taken before the Malaysian leaders for questioning. Ah Leong reasoned that it must have been the Malaysian initiative to uncover BOB, the pesky Internet crusader for free speech in the region. BOB it was suspected was Malaysian from his Internet addresses under which he accessed the Internet. Ah Leong ordered the driver to head to the airport and for Daniel the future became even more uncertain.

The Volvo did not take the regular route but went through the staff entrance to Terminal 2. It wound its way to a car park where there was a barrier that was automatically lifted as the driver took the car up to it. They proceeded all the way through to the aircraft hangars and drove up to the passenger terminal area. The Volvo wound its way around the parked aircraft until it came to stop near a Malaysian Airlines 737. There were some men waiting who opened the doors as the car came to a stop. The men exchanged greetings with Daniel’s captors and shared a few cigarettes. At last they escorted Daniel away and up the ramp to the aircraft. Eight men in all surrounded Daniel in the business class cabin. The business class cabin would be closed to all passengers on this one special flight and passengers were sent directly to Economy via a door further aft along the fuselage.

“Where are we going?” Daniel asked the guard on his right.

“We’re going to KL International Airport where you will be transferred. I don’t know any more than that.” The man replied honestly. His job was just to escort Daniel as far as KLIA where someone else would take over the charge of escorting Daniel to an uncertain fate.

1800 hrs. Ali was at the café on the ground floor of the Hilton having a coffee with Subramaniam.

“Why don’t we just go up and get him?” Subramaniam asked. He was ops, not too bright but pretty efficient.

“We have to be sure its him and then we would like to get him alive and not to mention quietly. This man may be unarmed but he is dangerous.”

“How so? We were told nothing about him.”

“He is a computer expert. He could wreak havoc in our city with all its connectivity. I want this done as quietly as possible and we must catch him off guard.”

“We tried to look inside his room but the CCTV is only for the common areas.”

“He’ll have to come out for dinner. We’ll get a good look then and we can grab him when he returns to his room after that. And if he doesn’t leave the room, he’ll have to call for room service. We can send in one of our men to look around. Camera in the spectacles for our benefit and we should be able to ID and grab him anyway. Do you have a tap on his line?”

Ali was a thorough man and left nothing to chance. Already his mind was racing through all the possible scenarios. The one thing that could get past them was if the man used mobile phone but they were already monitoring the airwaves in the area and looking for a roaming line logging in as a guest.

“We have everything covered.” Subramaniam assured his colleague.

Richard had set the hotel security video room’s monitors in a loop replaying a section of recording made several hours earlier. This was to throw anyone who was watching off the fact that the real time object of surveillance was in fact the team that was hunting him. He watched their every move and listened in to their mobile phone conversations, tracking each one on his communicator on a virtual map of the hotel that he had downloaded from the maintenance schematics stored in the hotel computer. He also tracked the movements of a few of the hotel guests. At 1930 hrs Richard unhooked his communicator and rewired the hotel computer. He packed some things with him and turned the communicator on, making a connection that he would keep open and on line. He synchronised his Rolex SeaDweller with the atomic clock at the National University of Singapore and then he left the room and went downstairs for a walk.

James Ito got a call on his mobile and he at once recognised the voice as that of his employer. He left his room and headed downstairs to the shopping arcade of the Hilton hotel. Ito was a careful man which meant that for the most part he was not armed. He wandered around the Giorgio Armani and Donna Karan boutiques on the ground floor before heading for the toilet next to the Checkers Restaurant near the business centre.

Subramaniam’s point man Alan Teoh was explaining the events of the evening to the men and was surprised to find Ali Kilrathi sitting in on his field briefing in the back of the van. The eight men crouched in the small space of the van parked just outside the Hilton.

“At about seven thirty Richard Chang gets a call from somebody on his mobile. Shortly after he comes down to the ground floor by the main lifts and is seen by our man in the lobby who was at the Cartier boutique. He confirms a visual identification for the subject Richard Chang. Chang goes to the lavatory next to the business centre at the entrance to Checkers. He is seen carrying an aluminium briefcase. In the lavatory we see that there is no switch and that he does not speak to anyone. Instead he opens the briefcase and checks the contents: Cash and a plastic gun. Plenty of cash and the gun? This is a state of the art German manufacture gun. The style is unmistakable. Later Chang walks out and walks back to the lifts. He then goes back up to his room.”

“Why did he take that walk do you think?” Ali questioned Teoh.

“We don’t know but maybe it is to check out the area. I think he suspected that he was made. That’s why he did not proceed. I think he was on his way out and probably made one of our men, then dived for cover. When he realised he must have been cornered, he turned tail and went back to his room.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Subra added in support of his man.

“Tell us what did happen Alan.” Ali coaxed.

“We got our teams in place and we were ready to take the target. We could not follow him up the lift of course but we had the lift CCTVs and he was seen sweating profusely and fidgeting nervously. He got off on his floor and we lost surveillance both electronic and direct for a few moments. The next time we saw him, he was getting into his room. He goes in and closes the door behind him. CCTV shows him arming himself with his weapon. For a few moments, the tape changeover interrupts the transmission and we are blind again. Our teams move in across the street for a window shot and the inside team is positioned outside his door. We attached explosive to the door and blow it. Then we go in. He is ready for us and manages to fire a few rounds, can’t remember how many. We lost the lead officer, Sergeant Lim. Shot right through his kevlar vest. We had three men on our side, returned fire. Suddenly there was a loud bang and there was flame and smoke everywhere, spilling out into the corridor. When we clear the room the subject is down. His hands had been blown off and there was a hole in his chest. There were burn marks all over the subject and some of his clothes were still on fire. We put out the fire crudely and called for back up and now the subject is with forensics.”

“Dead. Had his hands and face blown off.” Subra added for effect.

“How the hell?”

“Preliminary examination of the scene indicated that the subject was using a German ceramic automatic sub assault rifle. Apparently the mechanism malfunctioned and the weapon exploded in his hands. Now, the suspect was known to always carry a communicator. The brand is Philips I think. The communicator was booby trapped with dry two-part explosive meant to prevent anyone else but the subject from using it. Looks like everything backfired tonight. The gun blowing up took his hands and set off the two-part explosive which then took his entire chest cavity and his entire face off.” Subra elaborated.

It was a mess and Ali Kilrathi knew there would be hell to pay for bungling the arrest. Richard Chang was meant to be taken alive, not in pieces wrapped in plastic. The Prime Minister would be furious and there was no telling how much information had died with Richard Chang that night. But the night was still young and Ali Kilrathi’s problems were far from over. If anything, they had just begun. Kilrathi’s mobile went off breaking the intensity in the van cabin.

“Where the hell are you Ali?” It was the PM.

“Where the fuck have you been?”

“I told you sir, I had to see to the Richard Chang arrest.” Ali explained.

“Ali. We just lost our star witness.”

“Who?”

“Daniel Tan. You had him delivered to the airport did you?”

“No. No you did not. You had him sent to Changi airport and shipped out on an MAS flight.”

“No sir, I gave no such instruction.” Ali insisted. He was really getting worried now as the realisation that he had just lost Daniel Tan crept over him.

“Sir, I gave orders that he be taken to you directly from the safe house.”

“Your idiots just told me that they had a call from you telling them to deliver Daniel Tan to the airport as the Malaysians wanted to question him as well. They said that call came from you, you fucking idiot. You’re under arrest. You place yourself under fucking arrest and get your cunt over to my office now. Do you understand?”

There was not much Ali could do except comply.

In the meantime the Singapore authorities contacted the Malaysians informing them of the fugitive Daniel Tan and his possible presence at KL International Airport. The police on the ground were immediately put on alert but unfortunately they could not say for sure which flight Daniel Tan would be inbound on.

As Ali drove off to a rather unwelcome audience with the Prime Minister, Subramaniam and his men went back up to Richard Chang’s room to re-examine the evidence. There was not much really. Alan Teoh led his investigators through the suite getting them to check all of Chang’s belongings of which there was not much. The blast had been particularly vicious throwing Chang across the room and against the window cracking it but not breaking through it. Had he broken through it, the mess would have been downstairs.

The search revealed three different passports and accompanying drivers licence, credit cards, even a library card. The man was thorough to a fault. He had tapped his own phones and booby-trapped his wardrobe drawer in which were the identity documents and a smaller ceramic hand gun with twenty ceramic rounds. The wardrobe revealed a vain man with three Versace suits and two pairs of Cesare Paciotti shoes. By the bed was an ashtray full of Marlboros. Reds.

In the living room, Alan found a wristwatch covered in blood, probably ripped off with Chang’s hands when the gun misfired, lying in a corner. It was a Rolex Submariner and though the sapphire crystal had been shattered the watch was still running.

Daniel Tan’s flight landed in KL a half an hour after it had taken off at Changi, way too early for the Malaysian police to react to the connection he would be passed on to. The guards who were escorting him took him to the main terminal where they were instructed by ground crew expecting them that they were to take him to another flight and that they would be met. The guards led a rather dazed and confused Daniel Tan, who though dazed and confused was fast wising up to what was happening around him. The guards took him back via the light rail connection back to another departure module where the eight guards were met by two men in suits. They relieved the guards of their duty and took Daniel Tan into their custody. The next thing Daniel knew, he was on his way onto a flight bound for London. It was just before the aircraft closed its doors that his escorts got up to leave and left him with a briefcase.

“You’ll find all you need in their Mr. Tan.” Said one of them to him before they left him alone in the business class cabin to figure out his fate.

Daniel was partly elated and yet he felt that he had left behind him a load of unfinished business. Who had set him free? Was it the plan of the conspirators that he be freed and discredited? Was it a big payoff? Daniel opened the case and found inside an envelope, some documents one of them a Singapore passport in the name of Chan Ming Fai. He opened the envelope and read the letter inside:

Daniel,

You’ll find inside a passport and driving licence in the name of Chan Ming Fai, alias Daniel Chan with a PR in the UK. You work for Universal Traders Malaysia. There are also two bank accounts with their chequebooks and bank cards and credit cards attached. There are fifty thousand pounds in each account which should keep you going for a while. Your name has disappeared off all computers around the world but don’t worry about your degree. You’ll be awarded your degree in your new name. When you arrive in London, go to the following address:

13 Marlborough Mansions, Bayswater Road, London W2. Further details are inside the house.

The letter was unsigned and there was nothing more in the envelope. Daniel counted the money in the briefcase and saw that it amounted to some twenty thousand pounds. He shut the case, locked it and prepared to sleep through the long flight ahead.

Singaporean Rebel Shot Down in Hail of Bullets.

Richard Chang, economist and one time Director at the Sheerluck Charity Trust was shot down by police in his hotel room as he resisted arrest on firearms charges. -The Straits Times. Singapore.

Richard Chang Fired From Sheerluck Just Weeks Before Shooting.

Richard Chang was removed from Sheerluck just weeks prior to his death in Singapore. The circumstances for his dismissal were never clear. Sheerluck has declined to comment leaving rampant speculation that Chang was using Sheerluck funds to finance illegal activities in South East Asia. –The New Straits Times. Malaysia.

Ex-Sheerluck Director Shot Dead In Gun Battle With Singapore Police.

Former director at the Sheerluck Charity Trust Richard Chang was shot dead by police as he resisted arrest in a hotel room in Singapore. The details of the arrest are as yet unknown. Singapore police were attempting to arrest Chang on firearm charges when they cornered Chang in his Orchard Road hotel room. –South China Morning Post. Hong Kong.

Ex-Sheerluck director and economist Richard Chang Killed in Singapore.

The economist and director of Sheerluck Charities was killed in a gun battle with police in a hotel in the heart of the city. Police claim that they were arresting Chang on suspicion of possession of firearms. No further detail were available about the charges nor if there were additional charges in regard of Internal Security. Richard Chang was a long time resident of London holding a post at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His leadership of Sheerluck has seen the group move from more mercenary exploits in the past to become one of the leading charities in the world. The London Times. London.

Philanthropist and Economist Shot Dead in Singapore. The Sun. London.

Richard Chang’s death would not make even the first three pages in the newspapers. He was after all a private and secret person of little significance to anyone outside the field of artificial intelligence and computing and his passing would go largely unnoticed. At the time, the biggest news was of the negotiations in Beijing between President John Book and the Prime Minister Li QiaoFong over matters of conflict between China and the USA.

First Day Of Beijing Summit Ends In Stalemate.

The first day of negotiations between the leaders of China and the USA proved to be fruitless after Beijing rejected terms for a military stand down by both sides proposed by the Americans…

When Ning got the news of Richard’s demise in the local newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald, she could not believe it. The shock was too much for her and she broke down into hysterical sobbing. When she had regained her composure she checked other sources for information such as the Internet newspapers of the region and found that indeed her fears were not unfounded. Then she called Colin who was surprisingly cool to her.

“He left you a letter, a package. I’ll drop it off at lunch time.” Colin told her.

He did drop by at lunchtime with the package, which he seemed to want her to open in front of him. She grieved over Richard, still unable to believe that something like that could befall him, still half believing that it was a bad dream from which she would awaken. It was no dream. She opened the package and found it to contain a stack of documents. A letter explained the contents. Upon his death, Richard had left her the Milsons Point house and some cash. It was substantial enough that she would never have to work again, but at the moment she was so distraught that she wondered if she could ever live again. Colin sat through the whole time a stone cold figure devoid of expression. It seemed as if he had a lot on his mind and indeed he did. Richard’s instructions to him were a bit more complicated and involved his returning to London.

“How did they get to him Colin? I just can’t understand it.” Ning said her eyes still swollen and red.

“I don’t know Ning. He didn’t tell us his plans, which means he didn’t tell anyone his plans. The only thing I can think off is that they managed to trace the hacking. He did mention that there were problems with V1.”

“The Virus?”

“It’s a hacker’s tool. Its an adaptive algorithm, it learns, mutates, collects and returns information. Richard said that it was being tracked, something that has never happened before.”

“I’ve seen him use it. He said it was untraceable.”

“There are some real high power hackers out there under the employ of the enemy.”

Colin felt sorry for the girl. She had come to Australia as a fugitive, brought in in tow by Richard. Now she was alone and out in the cold with no friends or family she could contact. Another victim of Richard’s plots like Michelle, thought Colin ruefully. He could not dwell on these thoughts for he had to return to London to wrap things up. Richard had been neat and thorough with Sheerluck, severing all ties before he went back to Singapore for the final time but he did leave a couple of loose ends which only Colin knew about and now he wanted Colin to go and tidy up. Colin hated it. For one he hated the long and tiring flight and so Colin booked himself on First Class.

The chaos and disorder that reigned in Thailand and Indonesia had continued for over a week and was threatening the fragile powers around them. In Malaysia demonstrations were sprouting out sporadically in the capital Kuala Lumpur though these were quickly dispersed by the police. In the Philippines the people took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations while in Singapore the tense atmosphere thankfully remained just that. Authorities in all ASEAN called for calm and order and assured that they would address the allegations in due course. Their first statement was of course denial, which was of course similarly disregarded.

What was surprising really was how concerned the Australians were about the situation in Indonesia. It was always thought that Malaysia and Singapore would have much to worry about from their giant neighbour. The unrest that arose in Jakarta was frightening to their ASEAN neighbours mostly because they regarded allegations that were directed at the ASEAN leadership as a whole and not just to Jakarta in particular. The violence in Jakarta and Bangkok served as a sort of warning to the others that all was not well and that the people were still waiting for an answer. Australia’s fears were more difficult to understand unless you were Australian and realised that Indonesia was really very close by and that the Australian army was relatively small. Not that Indonesia would outright try to invade Australia. The fear was that civil strife in Indonesia might lead to an exodus of some 200 million people and that since the problem ranged to ASEAN, the only viable place to escape to would be Australia. Every day Colin could see the news in the Sydney Morning Herald about the unrest in ASEAN and he could feel their unease over it.

China

In the end a tenuous peace was reached between the US and China and President John Book would go down into the history books as the President who presided over the decline of American supremacy on the world stage after a decade of growing American power. The terms that Book was forced to concede were significant but the President’s hands were heavily constrained by the illegal nature of his own Secret Service’s indiscretions inside China’s own sovereign territory. The final deal involved delivering the US conspirators over to the Chinese to stand trial in China. This would be a major blow to Book’s popularity and to his Vice President’s ambitions to the Oval Office. Charlie Schroder had been reasonably insulated from the fallout of the negotiations with China but his association with John Book would give his opponents much ammo.

China also won entry into the World Trade Organisation, a goal it had pursued since the old millennium. The membership was more significant now than it was when she first began her campaign for membership, as the world had become a less co-operative place.

The media was unsympathetic to the Americans and John Book was found guilty by association. On Air Force One en route back to Washington, the President was reading the on line newspages which were full of condemnation for the US. The only favourable editorial came surprisingly from the London Times in which he found himself portrayed as a President kept in the dark, hostage to the policies secretly put in place by his predecessors. Still, it spanked of incompetence.

Back in the States, the hunt was on and already the number of arrests had exceeded the original estimates and stood at 34. VP Schroder was preparing for President Book’s public address when he got back to the White House the next day. He knew that that his hopes at running for President were just about dead now but he had to come up with some damage control not just for his President but for his own career as well. Still, John Book was a hell of a statesman and the most presidential President the country had seen since the eighties. Somehow they had to rely on Book’s charisma and innocent honesty to pull them through this time. It was a long shot but then John Book’s critics had expected him not to make President citing his political naivete and lack of killer instinct. John Book was in his second term.

When the President returned to the White House he was ready to go on air to address the nation. In fact before Air Force One had touched down at Dulles he had already sent word to Schroder that he was all ready and that he would scrap the prescribed script in favour of his own speech. It was something the team had got used to over the past 8 years.

John Book walked briskly through the corridors leading to the Oval office with his entourage in tow barely catching up. Schroder was sweating profusely as he briefed the President with the progress of the hunt for the conspirators. When they got to the Oval Office Book took his place behind the desk as the others fanned out and took their seats.

“OK guys. The damage is done. I need a quick rundown before I go to the pressroom.” Book said calmly.

Schroder filled him in on the events of the past few days. 34 arrests later they had covered all the names in the Director of CIA Perlman’s report.

“Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Americans. These past days have been trying ones for us, particularly for myself. It has come to my attention that an extensive and major covert military operation has been conducted by our country against China on Chinese soil. This military operation was sanctioned by certain high-ranking officers in our military acting without the sanction of the country and in collaboration with several prominent people in American business and society. Their actions are illegal and have been investigated.

Two months ago, allegations of such illegal activities came to my attention and I ordered a full investigation. This investigation ended in the arrest of 34 persons including high ranking military personnel and members of Congress and the Senate. The full details of the investigation will be made public tomorrow at noon. What I can tell you is that we will not tolerate the perversion of government and we will prosecute to the full any indiscretions especially when they related to persons in whom we put our trust and faith. The exact nature of these crimes will be detailed in the report tomorrow but I can tell you this: US troops were sent into Central China to aid in terrorist activities. These troops have since been either evacuated or captured by the Chinese. Last night I spoke with the Chinese Prime Minister Li QiaoFong and he has agreed to release all of these men and help to extract any other troops that may still be in China, an effort which involves a US team on site. Prime Minister Li has been very generous and it is right that we should be similarly co-operative. Beijing has asked that the persons involved in the ultimate control and maintenance of the illegal military operations be handed to them for trial in China. Ordinarily I would not allow this but under the circumstances, as the injured party is China, we will make certain concessions. We will make available to Beijing all non sensitive information regarding the investigation. On a case by case basis we will allow certain individuals to be tried and potentially sentenced in a Chinese court. This will definitely include all the military personnel named in the investigation. We will allow these persons to be tried and sentenced in a Chinese court but their sentences will be carried out here in America under the supervision of the Chinese embassy.

These are not the only problems that we face today. The tip off that led to the investigation also mentioned allegations of involvement and interference with the governments of South East Asia. These allegations include providing governments with information and intelligence about their political opponents. Unethically interfering with commercial and economic dealings between South East Asian governments and their corporates and US corporates or government; aiding and abetting a massive illegal arms business based in South East Asia and distributed throughout Central Asia and Eastern Europe. There are further charges but these are the major ones. Our investigations show that the same group of individuals involved in the illegal military ops were also involved in this other matter.

My fellow Americans. These people will be brought to book. We will not shrink from prosecuting them and we will not offer them protection from prosecution. What makes America great is the prevalence of justice and we have to uphold that when it conflicts with the protection of our own citizens. For if we do not, then we allow the dishonourable few to dishonour the entire nation. We must not let that happen.

The investigations into the military op and into the South East Asian affair are closed and their findings will be published in great detail tomorrow at noon. That, however, is not the end of the matter. A separate investigation will begin as of now into how this fiasco was ever allowed to happen. We have to know this if we are to prevent it from ever happening again…”

The question and answer session that followed was a noisy and draining affair and it was with great relief that John Book finally retired from the briefing room. He did not retire to bed, however, but rather to the boardroom with the Vice President and the NSA to discuss the new investigation that he had initiated.

When Colin arrived in London he was contacted by Patrick Mason the very night he arrived. They met at a pub just 5 minutes from the Chelsea house. At first neither man knew what to say about Richard Chang’s assassination.

“I’m sorry about Rick.” Mason said. He sat down with a scotch and a cigar while Colin chewed on a Marlboro.

“The dream was over. He thought he was invincible. That was his trouble.”

“How did they find him?”

Patrick Mason was familiar with Richard’s ability to remain invisible in this age of connectivity and it surprised him that Richard had been tracked.

“Someone found a way to track the computer application Rick uses to hack into systems. He noticed it weeks ago but didn’t have the time to reengineer another virus.”

“Who would be able to decode the application?”

One loose end remained: Daniel. Neither Colin nor Patrick knew where he was or if he was still in the custody of the Singapore authorities. From what they had heard, Richard had managed to buy Daniel enough time to free himself but left no further means for him to leave the country. With the degree of activity in South East Asia intensifying, there was no safe way to go in and even begin to look for Daniel. Both men knew that and they decided to bide their time.

Ghost

Nick was aware that it was dangerous using the virus again after what had happened but she could not resist. For safety and anonymity she accessed the virus via a school computer in the British Library for Political and Economic Science.

It was 0230 GMT on a cold morning. Colin was drinking with a couple of friends in a café just off Leicester Square when he got a call from Nick. She told him to wait for her, as she would come out to join him. She was only fifteen minutes away.

She knew the guys Colin was with and was invited to sit. Arven brought Nick her usual espresso. The place was thick with cigarette smoke and noisy with talking; for three in the morning on a weekday it was a pretty lively place.

“What brings you out here this time of night?” Colin asked lighting himself a fresh one.

“Nothing much. Just bored sitting around doing nothing. You guys come here often?”

Nick was pretty much a regular herself but this was the first time she met the guys at this café. She was more used to seeing them in school.

“Colin’s party. We just came out to talk about who’s seeing who. Guys gossip too you know.” Derek said to her. Nick was well liked in school but her sexual orientation did scare some of the guys a bit. And disappoint others…

When she was able to speak to Colin privately she leant over and spoke softly.

“I hacked into the internal security department’s files.”

“Using V1? Are you mad? That’s how they tracked Richard.”

“Colin. Richard Chang isn’t tracked unless he means to be.”

Colin knew how much Richard meant to Nick and refrained from pointing out that he was dead probably because of the oversight.

“Anyway, there’s a new upgrade on line and I didn’t put it there nor Khan and the Singapore virology team has been disbanded…”

“Could be a trap.”

“Colin. The files. You know how many watches Richard has?”

“Quite a few.”

“Rolexes?”

“A GMT II, a SeaDweller, a Submariner…”

“This is that Sub, Colin.” Nick held up her hand for Colin to see. Indeed it was.

“Yeah? So?”

“The report had the victim wearing a Sub. The serial number indicates a Sub of some 10 years old. Do you remember Richard owning two Subs?”

“No.”

“I’m wearing his Sub.”

Colin could see the discrepancy but he could also see many reasons why Richard could have another Sub.

“Why would he buy a brand new Sub or even an old Sub if he was already wearing a SeaDweller?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who uploaded the upgrade?”

“I don’t know.” Colin conceded. “It could be a plant by ISD. To flush others like us out. Was a DNA match done?”

“Yes. They had a match.”

Nick was quiet for a while.

“ISD couldn’t have come up with something as smart as this. Everyone knows you’re a collector but Richard isn’t.”

“I’m more concerned about Daniel right now.” Colin digressed.

“I also wanted to talk to you about that…”

The guys turned their attention to Colin and for the moment the privacy was lost and Nick sat back and gulped her coffee.

Merlin

The invitation intrigued him and so despite the risk due to the political turmoil at the time Abdullah Ghazali decided to keep the appointment. He left his office at Bank of Malaya at 1300 hrs and drove in his Mercedes M420 to the North South Expressway, or Ekspressway, as it was formally known in Malaysia. His destination was the west coast town of Port Dickson in the ninth state of Malaysia. The road was fairly clear as it was midday and the Mercedes ate up the miles quickly and smoothly. The rendezvous was a small restaurant off the beaten track and located on a stretch of beach some 10 miles outside the town centre. Access was via a dirt road that was still fairly smooth and did not tax the suspension of the M420 too much.

The message in his email had specified GPS coordinates for the rendezvous and also referred to the restaurant by name. The message was signed, an old friend from the class of 1996. Abdullah graduated from the London School of Economics that year with an Actuarial Science degree and he was still in touch with most of his mates from that class. His mind ran through the possibilities as he drove on. It must have been someone from another discipline, he thought. It was 1420 by the time he found the northbound turnoff from the main trunk road that headed west to Port Dickson. He swung the massive 4X4 onto the dirt road and continued at a quick pace. The intelligent 4X4 traction control system on the Mercedes kept the track true and the M420 hurtled along on a northwesterly bearing.

Abdullah found the restaurant which he was quite familiar with despite its rather out of the way location. It was comprised essentially of a cluster of small wooden huts by the beach. He parked on the grass patch in front and got out. The warm air of midsummer Malaysia struck him like a wall of heat and the smell of salt assaulted his senses. Abdullah walked up to the tables and took one nearest to the beach. A young man in t shirt and shorts ambled out to take his order. Abdullah ordered drinks and told the waiter that he was waiting for someone to join him. It was a hot day, very hot, and the sun was strong and the shadows well defined and Abdullah began to perspire. Fortunately the breeze that blew in from the sea was not too warm.

The tide rolled in and the waves slid lazily in as Abdullah Ghazali waited for his mysterious rendezvous. He glanced at his Rolex and saw that it was 1440hrs. So far he had counted three trucks and a saloon passing by along the dirt road and began to wonder if he had been had. The reference to himself by a secret call sign he had used on his more adventurous exploits told him that the person who had sent him the email was serious. In the distance he could see a car approaching and the dust it was kicking up indicated some speed. Abdullah saw the silver auto turn in and come towards the huts. The auto was a Range Rover from of old and he immediately recognized the person who stepped out.

“Hi Bob.” The man from the car said as he took a seat and put his sunglasses on the table.

“You are Merlin?” Abdullah said incredulously and then burst into loud laughter. Of all the people, he was the one Abdullah least suspected of being the Magician.

“Nice work with the Daniel revelation, Bob. Couldn’t have done it better myself.” Merlin said. He motioned to the waiter for a drink by indicating Abdullah’s drink.

Abdullah looked his old friend over. It was typical of him to be dressed in a t shirt and chinos that looked like they fell of the back of a truck. He himself preferred a Zegna linen suit for the tropical heat.

“How did you know I was BOB?” Abdullah asked.

“Same way you know I’m Merlin. Mostly guesswork. That was a stand up job you did back there, man.” Merlin complimented Abdullah.

“It was the right thing to do. Besides, I was getting any of the money. You’ve been doing this a long time my friend. I heard through our underground channels that they got you.”

“They damn near did. They got a hit man, a Japanese hit man in town on a corporate job. It was really nasty. His face got blown off, and his hands and teeth.”

“DNA?”

“Can’t alter a person’s DNA but you can fool with the database.”

“Cool. Where do we go from here?” Abdullah swigged his Coke.

“Nowhere. I don’t know. The recriminations will take months to sort out but I think the governments will seriously have to change now. We’ll be there to make sure that there’ll be total transparency.”

“There’s no guarantee that the crooks and criminals won’t try to make a comeback in the next elections.”

“There never is Abdullah. But they’ll be a bit more careful now that they know that nothing is hid that will not be revealed.”

“FreeSpeech. The people still don’t know.”

“FreeSpeech has been detoxed. Check out their website. There is a history section that explains the set up and the restructuring. We’re laying everything on the table so there is no escape.”

“The people may lack courage.” Abdullah pointed out.

“They did. But they’re alright now. There are alternatives to fighting.”

“I never thought you might be Merlin. You seemed…” Abdullah could not find the words. If he could he might have called his friend bland or laid back or just uninterested.  He got a raised eyebrow in reply and they both laughed. Abdullah watched his friend lean back and breathe a sigh of relief and tiredness. The sea was as blue as the sky and the warm breeze blew right through them. Along the beach in front of them a couple of dogs strolled along the waters edge, chasing and being chased by the fingers of foam that stretched out to touch them and then rolled tantalizingly back into the sea. The smell of sea salt pervaded the air interrupted by the smell of cooking. Abdullah’s lunch of fried seafood noodles arrived and he tucked into it voraciously.

“I think Merlin’s had enough.”

Somehow Abdullah knew that that was coming. Merlin had been a major campaigner for the truth in the past few years. There were others of greater presence and dedication but Merlin was the watcher, the one who warned them off when they were too close to the heat and pushed them on when there was opportunity. Merlin knew and Merlin lit the way, exposing the traps and finding the secret passages.

“I think Merlin’s through.”

“Whatever will become of FreeSpeech? Or Amnesty Asia?” Abdullah asked.

“There’s Bob, there’s Judge Dredd, or how about Gestapo Cop…”

“All talk and no action.”

“More has been achieved through communication than guns and bullets.”

“Where are you going?”

“Nowhere. I just want to go through one day without checking the Web or keeping someone clued in or keeping someone our of harms way. All you need is vigilance and good communications channels and all the others will be able to keep it together. I need a rest.”

“So take a rest.”

THE END