Irving Waters - The Wuhan Mission

“Balance is a bit off,” the Tool Man mumbled. “That’s it,” he looked at Jimmy. “I hooked you up bro!”

Jimmy looked at him earnestly. “This is going to be a tight operation. I could really use your help with the tech. Might help me not get killed. I can make it worth your while.”

“Oh yeah? What you need?”

“I need you to loop the closed circuit video in the Institute of Virology. Just 10 minutes will do it. Easy job, just sit in your van. I can get you 5k.”

“Let me look if I can get into their system.”

The Tool Man started typing code into his computer hacking into the building specs. “No problem. I can do it.” He looked up at Jimmy and said: “But that’s all. Pay me later tonight, I meet you tomorrow morning”

Jimmy smiled. “One more whisky for the road.”

“OK Jimmy.”

The Detroit customs officer motioned the Chinese scientist to open his bags. The scientist was tired from his flight in the tight economy seats on his Delta flight. He was highly stressed and appeared nervous. The officer’s gloved hands soon dug out the vial which was in the toiletry bag, another officer walked over, summoned by the officer holding the vial with the yellow liquid.

“It says: ‘Antibodies’,” read the officer handing the vial to his colleague, smiling, eyebrows slightly raised.

His senior colleague looked at the sweaty scientist, shaking his head: “You’ll have to come with us please sir.”

Meanwhile at JFK International and LAX airports the two other scientists were having similar experiences with US customs officials. Within four hours of each inspection the FBI had been called in to all three airports. The scientists were taken into federal custody and the case was handed to the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, which handled terrorist threats, including those involving biological weapons.

The three scientists would be held and interrogated thoroughly in the coming days. The FBI was now chasing the trail to find out who else was involved on either end of the yellow vials’ journeys. The Patriot Actwould allow for the indefinite detention of the scientists, and the wire tapping of anyone they were to contact on American soil. Over time, there would be more people implicated in the conspiracy including American academics, administrators, research assistants and students.

The FBI began “Operation F1” the following day. Over the next twenty-four hours all foreign Chinese Nationals who were in the country on a student visa and who were on the FBI watch list were picked up and brought in to FBI locations all over the country for questioning. Most were let go, but a few were taken elsewhere for more serious questioning under the umbrella rules of the Patriot Act.

Sam got out of the elevator on the seventh floor of the CIA building. He’d been called up for a meeting with the deputy director. Sam had never been to the seventh floor before, but he assumed with everything that was about to go down in China, the higher-ups would have something to say.

“Please come in Sam. I’m Deputy Director Wood. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said as she shook his hand.

“Please have a seat.”

Sam had a quick glance around the modestly sized office. It didn’t give away much about her.

“I understand you have been working with officer Roet on the China situation, is that correct?”

“Yes Ma’am. That is correct,” said Sam wondering what was in the file she had opened and was perusing.

“It says here that you have been successfully running one of our young operatives in Wuhan, and Officer Roet has two assets there. It has come to my attention that there is a bio-weapon that has recently been released by the Chinese Communist Party on its own people, or… at least it has been released on those in the city of Wuhan. Very strange don’t you think?” She stared at Sam.

“Those guys play hardball Mrs Wood. Maybe they are being used as an example for some reason.”

“That’s what we think too. We believe that next they will be forcing a mandatory vaccination program, and we have several theories about what that’s about. But that’s not why you are here. We need to know what has been going on in the Institute of Virology. Roet’s asset at the lab, the high level virologist, may have been compromised. You probably heard about the mess Roet made in New York.”

“Yes Ma’am, I heard about it. Shot the daughter himself.”

“Roet has become somewhat of a liability. He’s always been a problem for us, but we’ve been able to overlook most of his mistakes. You understand that there’s potentially a lot riding on the outcome of this virus situation. Roet’s operatives fixed things back in 2003 so that the SARS virus couldn’t do damage to us, but Roet almost got them both killed in Beijing. They were lucky to get out.”

She paused and opened a bottle of water offering it to Sam.

“No thanks Ma’am.”

She continued: “The Chinese Communist Party have had people working on virology for years now. Of course you are up to speed with the situation we had recently, involving the capture of three Chinese scientists and their network that included some of our own academics and administrators.”

“Ah yes, I am mostly caught up but I would really like to talk to the scientists if possible?” Sam asked.

“They are currently… on vacation. Anyway, you have bigger fish to fry. I’ll get you the intel on them now so you have the whole picture.”

She turned her attention to her computer and sent through a folder containing transcripts of the scientists’ painful few days at a black site.

“Most concerning to us, Sam, was the loss of control of Roet’s asset: Doctor Wu.” she said reading the scientist’s name from the file.

“We need Doctor Wu brought to us, or if that is not possible, your operative is to take him out and bag any intel she can. Is she trained to transport biohazard material.”

“Yes, she is.”

“We need you to keep an eye on Roet. If you see him about to screw up, you have our permission to go around him and call your own shots. We can’t afford any screw ups. You do what you need to do, and don’t leave any mess in China, do you understand?”

Sam looked back at her, knowing what she meant.

“Yes Ma’am. Nobody left behind in enemy hands.”

“That’s all. Good luck Sam.”

Sam took the elevator back down to his office where he looked over the files that the Deputy Director had sent him. Most of the intel was not pertinent to Xue Lin’s situation, but the news about the green antidote and the sinister purpose of the vaccine could be of some relevance to Xue Lin, who was tasked with stealing and carrying hazardous materials during a potentially difficult escape. He looked over the routes of egress that they had researched during Xue Lin’s final three weeks of specifics training.

Sam fidgeted nervously as he waited for Sam to arrive at their park bench overlooking the river. Marcus had shown up early to think about what was about to go down in China. There was a lot on the line now and the Chairman’s actions were hard to predict.

“Sam! Glad you could make it. Sorry for the short notice. I believe it’s time to think about getting them all out of China. Snow Forest too. I mean real soon.”

“What’s going on?” Sam asked.

“The package is a virus. I don’t know exactly what kind it is, but the Chairman just used it on his own people. It’s called SARS-COV-2”