The Elephant Game Page 21

  Minutes later, they were back on their own. The other B-1B trailing them was now taking its turn refueling. Then the two aircraft continued on their way, north over the East China Sea, and on into the Yellow Sea.

  “Sir, we have good link with the RAMROD.” RAMROD was the callsign for the US Navy destroyer that would be jamming the North Korean coastline during their mission.

  “Roger.” Hightower turned to his copilot. “You have the controls.”

  “I have the controls.”

  “Be right back. Gonna use the little boys’ room before we start.”

  Hightower unclipped his seat harness and communication cord and began walking aft through the aircraft, careful to always maintain hold of something. The last thing he needed was to hit some turbulence and knock himself out before they dropped bombs. He patted both of his combat systems officers on the back, making a few jokes to keep them loose. Smiles all around. But he knew that they were nervous.

  After relieving himself in the latrine, he walked back up to the cockpit and strapped back in. As soon as he plugged in his comms, he said, “I’m back. Anything happen while I was gone?”

  “Nope.”

  “Roger. I’ve got the controls.”

  “You have controls.”

  “Alright, we’re about twenty minutes out. Let’s start with the checklists.” The crew began going through all the final preparations before releasing their weapons.

  “Sniper POD is ready.”

  “Roger.”

  The senior combat systems officer said, “RAMROD just started jamming.”

  “Copy.”

  They flew for another ten minutes before the real action began. The B-1B used its laser designator to guide its slew of bunker-busting bombs to the target. Theirs was a coastal underground missile launch site on the western edge of North Korea. The second aircraft did the same, on a nearby mobile missile launcher. The targets were close enough to the Yellow Sea that neither aircraft had to go over land. They dropped their payload of bombs and held the laser designation on the target until impact.

  The missile sites exploded in a cloud of grayish smoke, the shockwaves shattering the windows of nearby buildings and vehicles.

  “Good hit on target.”

  “Roger, coming around. Let’s get back to Guam and have some beer.”

  21

  That week, Natesh worked from seven in the morning until eight in the evening each day. Then he met with David and Tetsuo each night. Natesh was still planning logistics for Jinshan. But he also used his network access to identify and bring back crucial bits of intelligence that the CIA needed to pass on.

  Tetsuo’s countersurveillance team provided constant support for their meetings, always on the lookout for any pair of eyes that might be watching them. Natesh was staying in a penthouse room at the top of his hotel. Tetsuo secured a room several blocks away, at the Conrad Tokyo. Each night, Natesh would take a different route, prescribed by Tetsuo, and arrive at the hotel. He would walk into one of its several lounge bars and have a drink for a few minutes, giving Tetsuo and his team time to watch out for any of Jinshan’s operatives. Then he would leave and take the stairs to Tetsuo’s floor.

  Tetsuo walked into tonight’s meeting room on the twentieth floor. The luxurious Conrad Tokyo suite had an impressive view of the Hamarikyu Gardens and the Sumida River below. The floor-to-ceiling windows gave a glimpse of deep blue and city lights before the shades were permanently shut. Tetsuo ordered a variety of food, now spread out on a white-cloth-covered tray. Stir-fried shrimp and scallops with chili sauce. Braised noodles with duck. And deep-fried Japanese beef with a green salad.

  David waited until Natesh and Tetsuo began eating before following suit. The smell and sight of the food gave the meeting the feel of a gathering of friends. It was all part of the charade, David realized. The painting of the picture for the agent. Tetsuo wanted him comfortable and happy. He wanted his asset to trust him, and to work hard for him. So far, it seemed to be working.

  “A convoy of merchant vessels left China ten days ago,” Natesh said as he used chopsticks to take a bite of duck.

  “A convoy?”

  “Yes. They’re transiting the Pacific together. I don’t know what’s on them. But they have specially modified containers. I stumbled onto this. But I think it’s important.”

  Tetsuo sat on the sofa, a white cloth napkin in his lap, barely touching what was on his small plate. “How did you acquire this information, and what do you mean specially modified?”

  “I’m overseeing much of the logistics planning. I’m helping Jinshan’s operation to plan the entire supply chain for his Pacific war. I have a small team here that’s analyzing and optimizing everything they set up. It’s complicated. But I discovered something in the data. Certain units in the Chinese military have been planning to use cargo ships—specially designed—to transport a massive number of Chinese troops and military equipment across the Pacific. It’s a shortcut that we came up with in the Red Cell. I actually observed one of the shipping container factories with Lena a few weeks ago.” Natesh looked at David briefly, shame in his eyes. “Instead of using their military transport ships, which are too few in number, or building new ones, which could take years, the Chinese are using what they already have.”

  “Merchant ships?”

  “Yes. And they have a lot of them. There are factories in Guangzhou and Shanghai that are already working on these shipping containers. They create hundreds of them every day. These ones have special cutouts for piping and cables to run through them. They put bunks and lighting inside. Some of them are bathrooms. Some of them are little kitchens. It’s like one big Lego ship. They can mix and match the specially made shipping containers to transport thousands of personnel. It turns a merchant ship into a giant troop transport.”

  David said, “Natesh, we’ve heard about these specially made shipping containers and cargo ships. Are you saying that some of them already left? In this convoy?”

  Natesh nodded quickly. “Yes and no. A few of them left ten days ago. Six ships, I think. I traced the serial numbers of the shipping containers back to the factories that were making them. We have thousands of these specially made containers stored in ports in Shanghai and Guangzhou. But several hundred of them made their way onto these now-departed ships.”

  David said, “So how many people is that?”

  “That’s the weird part. They aren’t loaded with enough of the specially made containers. Instead of one of these merchant ships having thousands of troops each, they only have a few hundred each. I don’t know why they did it this way. It’s very inefficient. So maybe a thousand troops, across all six ships. But some of these shipping containers have a reference number that’s different than the troop transport containers. That’s the part I don’t know about. I don’t know what those are used to transport.”

  “Where are the ships headed?”

  “Ecuador, I think. That was their destination from the internal documentation I observed.”

  David looked at Tetsuo, concerned.

  Tetsuo said, “When are they due to arrive in Ecuador?”

  “In a few weeks. I’m not sure exactly, but that’s not what’s important. You see, these merchants went off the grid five days ago, right before their track was supposed to veer southeast. That’s what triggered me to look at them more closely. They’ve all turned off their transponders, so even I can’t see their location, course, or speed.”

  “What do you mean, before the track went southeast?”

  “The intended track was available in our network archives. They looked to be taking a southerly route across the Pacific, towards South America. I would guess this is to stay away from any American sensors.”

  David signaled Tetsuo. Tetsuo then turned to Natesh and said, “Can you excuse us a moment?”

  David and Tetsuo walked into the bedroom of the suite and spoke softly. David said, “He’s a computer expert and somewhat of a genius. He’s seen how
Jinshan’s hackers and intelligence operatives work. He’s got access to PLA military networks. Tetsuo, if we can trust him, he’s our key to defeating the Chinese.”

  Tetsuo glanced back into the other room. Natesh was sitting on the couch, looking through the thin white drapes at the Tokyo cityscape. Tetsuo said, “What information would you want?”

  “The SILVERSMITH team is trying to collect exact tracking data on Chinese military units, for one. Of particular interest are these specially outfitted merchant vessels. If Natesh has access to logistics networks, they would need to have locations on all PLA military units, right?”

  Tetsuo nodded. “Makes sense, yes. Let’s talk to him and then bring this information back to Langley. In my experience, they’ll have the best resources to assist. If we just tell Natesh to go find out this information by himself, his snooping might attract unwanted attention. But if NSA and CIA assets are involved…”

  David finished the thought. “Then we might get a lot of information without the Chinese knowing that we’re in.”

  “Right. And who knows, NSA might already have this stuff. Our hackers and theirs are at war every day. But now it seems like the gloves are coming off.”

  The two men sat down across from Natesh.

  Tetsuo asked a few more questions and was then anxious to leave. “Natesh, this is very helpful. Thank you.” Tetsuo had placed his plate on the table and was writing notes down in a black binder. He looked back up. “Does a military base in Liaoning have any special significance to you?”

  David watched Natesh’s head bob. “Yes. Yes. They’re conducting some special forces training there. I wasn’t brought into what they were working on, however. Lena knew about it, but I only heard snippets of information about the project. I heard that there were PLA special forces teams headed there to train. And I know Jinshan was extremely interested in the success of that project. I once overhead him say that it was vitally important to the long-term strategy.”

  “But you don’t know what they were working on?”

  Natesh shifted in his seat, his forehead wrinkling as he thought. His eyes darted from side to side. “Jinshan hired me for a reason.” He looked down as he spoke. “He believed, as I do, that the key to business and war is the same. Uninterrupted flow. In business, one must have an uninterrupted flow of profits, which will enable bigger and better things in the future, allowing firms to dominate their competition. In war, it’s the same. The uninterrupted and cost-controlled flow of supplies—of fuel, weapons, people, and parts—enables a nation to wage war over long distances, for prolonged periods, and at scale. It’s the key to overwhelming one’s enemy. Jinshan knows this. So, my guess is that whatever his secret projects involve, they’ll give him a strategic advantage over the United States.”

  They spoke for a while longer, and then Tetsuo wrapped up the meeting for the evening, reminding Natesh of what to look for and to be careful about not being detected. Natesh left, and David and Tetsuo waited another five minutes to do the same.

  David walked out of the hotel, following close behind Tetsuo. Once on the street, they passed a sedan with tinted windows. The driver’s-side sun visor was down, a green piece of paper barely visible between it and the windshield.

  “We’re clear?”

  “Yup. See? You’re getting the hang of this.” Tetsuo smiled slightly, keeping his eyes on the street.

  Inside the sedan were a pair of CIA employees. Locals who were trained in countersurveillance. Not an easy task in a city as busy and modern as Tokyo.

  Tetsuo said, “We’ll need to move him if things get too hot. It’s risky, us meeting him here. Cities like this are horrible for this kind of thing. Too many cameras and casuals. I’m worried that they’ll know where to look, and they’ll find out he’s been giving us information. At our next meeting, I’m going to brief him on an exfiltration plan.”

  “Okay. What do you want to do about the intel we just got?”

  “We need to go straight to the embassy. I’m going to brief the station chief while I type it up. Langley needs that information yesterday. It’s probably going to make the President’s Daily Briefing. I liked your plan—let’s let the SILVERSMITH folks figure out how they want Natesh to proceed with extracting the data from Jinshan’s network.” Tetsuo looked at David as they walked. “Your sister still on a Navy ship in the Pacific?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Because if I had to guess, I’d say she’s about to get new orders.”

  The next day, David worked from the CIA trailer on Yokota Air Base. Tetsuo entered the high-security facility, his jet-black hair wet from a late-winter rain.

  “Susan wants us to join her on a video call.”

  “Now?”

  “Yup.”

  He showed David to a closed room at the end of the trailer and set up the call. A moment later, David was looking at Susan and General Schwartz in the SILVERSMITH operations room, surrounded by a half dozen analysts.

  “David, Tetsuo, glad you could join us. That was great intelligence that you provided us from Natesh—he could be a home run asset, if we do this right. We spoke with our partners at NSA. They’re sending a few experts to you this morning. They’ll have a device for you to give to Natesh—he’ll need training. It is crucial that we get access to the Chinese military movements. With our reconnaissance networks degraded, and with them having switched their crypto on their own GPS network, we’re getting very shaky data. Everyone’s getting nervous in Washington.”

  “We’re on it.”

  Susan went over the details of how they were to use Natesh to gain information on Chinese military movements. Then she turned to the screen. “David, catch the next flight back here. Tetsuo can manage things there.”

  “Will do.”

  A few hours later, David was flying back across the Pacific, headed home. As he flew, he couldn’t help but wonder where his father and sister were, underway somewhere below. He prayed that they would be alright.

  Tetsuo met with Natesh that night. He provided Natesh with training on a special watch. It looked just like a normal Timex piece. Nothing fancy—not even a smart watch. But that was just the exterior. Underneath, it was quite a sophisticated piece of equipment.

  Tetsuo said, “You’ll wear it to work. Make sure you’re signed in to your computer and logged in to your network. Does your computer at work have Bluetooth or Wi-Fi?”

  “There is a Wi-Fi network for the office. But that’s not the secure network that the work computers are on. There are separate desktop units that we use to access the Chinese logistics network. I’m pretty sure they’ve disconnected any other connectivity. I can check, though.”

  “No, don’t worry about it. We’ll just use the alternate technique. You’ll need to access one of those secure network computers at least twice a day. When you do, aim the face of the watch towards the computer’s hard drive. Press the night-light button like this. Don’t make it look obvious. Let’s practice.”

  Natesh did it a few times.

  “Good. Just like that. You’ll feel a little vibration when it has established its connection. It is important that you hold it there for a full minute. I know that seems like a long time. But when it’s complete with the data transfer, you’ll feel another vibration. Again, try not to make it look too conspicuous. Just pretend you’re scratching your shoulder or something. Like this.” Tetsuo demonstrated. Natesh imitated it. “Good. Yes, just like that. A full minute, okay? You do that twice per day. Once in the morning when you get to work, then once right before you leave in the evening. We’ll meet at a different location tomorrow night. Bring the watch. Actually, just start wearing it all the time. It’s waterproof, in case you’re wondering.”

  Natesh said, “I’m a little nervous about this.”

  Perhaps you shouldn’t have betrayed your country and you wouldn’t be in this position. Tetsuo said, “You’ll do great.”

  “What are you hoping to get from this? I don’t want to hurt a
nyone. That’s why I’m going to do this. Because I want to avoid violence.”

  Tetsuo kept it vague. “Just information that will be helpful to keep the peace. Things that will help bring forth a peaceful resolution. Ship movements, manifest and cargo information.” Targeting coordinates.

  Natesh took a deep breath. “Okay. When will we meet next?”

  22

  Victoria was enjoying her run on the hangar treadmill. Today was one of those rare days when the sea state was so calm that the ship barely moved at all. Normally the ship’s rolls simulated enormous hills on the treadmill.

  The hangar was open, providing her with a nice breeze. The blue sky and the Pacific had a calming effect on her. Victoria had a little longer to go before she got to three miles. Sweat ran down her tee shirt and face.

  Since Plug had crashed their other bird, this hangar had become a makeshift gym. Most of the ship’s crew praised the transformation. Apparently, most felt that since the shooting was over, a gym was vastly preferable to a lousy helicopter.

  But in the past few days, the intel reports Victoria was reading suggested that hostilities were anything but over.

  “Boss!” Caveman shouted from the hangar door.

  “What’s up?” She was breathing heavily, trying to appear as if she was in better shape than she really was.

  “Captain asked for you. Something’s up.”

  She hit pause on the machine, slightly annoyed at the early end to her workout. She dried off the treadmill handlebar and panel with her white hand towel. Then she wiped the sweat off her face and took a swig of water from her plastic bottle. “What do you mean something’s up?”

  “I don’t know. The SWOs are running around, though. The XO and captain are with the COMMO. They asked me to get you. We’re headed west now…”