Irving Waters - The Wuhan Mission

The Chairman motioned for Jimmy to come in, closing the door behind them both and walking over to the small bar on wheels containing crystal glasses and bottles of high end liquor.

“Scotch Whisky?”

“No thank you sir. I am a bourbon man.”

“Very well, Jimmy. Bourbon for you,” the Chairman replied, smirking and picking up the Jack Daniels that Jimmy could see had the word ‘monogram’ on the label.

Jimmy thought to himself: “Ah the good stuff.”

As he poured Jimmy’s drink and then his own, the Chairman said deliberately:

“We only have to travel down the road for the next mile, and if we are willing to go step by step, we can reach any goal, no matter how far it seems, just by focusing on immediate, reachable goals.”

Jimmy nodded and watched the Chairman’s face intently, hoping for an indication of what the hell he was talking about.

“The reason you are here today,” the Chairman continued, “is that you have been assigned a special job. You are moving on. You are relocating to the Hubei Province. More precisely, its capital, Wuhan. You will be my eyes and ears in Wuhan where I have some special projects going on. From time to time you will be assigned extra jobs. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“You will be provided with a car, new clothes, a much better salary, and most importantly, more responsibility.”

“Yes sir.” Jimmy said, nodding, poorly concealing his excitement and relief.

“I need you to be down there in Wuhan by Monday. You are to report directly to me on a regular basis.”

“Yes sir.”

“That is all Jimmy. You have the rest of this week to make any preparations you need for the move. You are relieved from your duties serving the Secretary.”

“Thank you sir.”

The Chairman raised his glass, and yelled “Gan Bei!” throwing back his whisky.

Jimmy then followed suit and hurled the expensive bourbon down his throat. His eyes watered.

“Xiè xiè! Zià Jiàn!” Jimmy said, as he saluted formally and turned officially to walk out, closing the heavy door behind him politely.

Jimmy returned home and immediately called Roet.

“Hi-ya Boss, it’s me Jimmy. What’s up with you bro?”

“Hello… Jimmy…” Marcus Roet’s snide voice crackled over the secure line on Jimmy’s phone. Jimmy talked quickly and excitedly:

“I found your ‘Doctor Wu.’ He is in Hebei Province. Wuhan. Easy for white man to remember right? Doctor Wu, in Wuhan, hahahah.”

Jimmy paused, waiting for a reaction, but could just hear Roet waiting silently for him to continue.

“Dr. Wu doing something real special. Some shady shit. I could try to get myself reassigned to keep an eye on him, but it’s gonna be tough. Have to bribe a couple of people to make it happen, but I can do it for sure. Gonna cost you fifty grand to have your favorite guy Jimmy in Wuhan. You can do that right? 50K easy for you,” Jimmy’s lies came easily.

Roet was smiling on the other end of the line. “I can maybe get you forty grand, but that’s going to have to be enough for now. I’ll make the transfer tomorrow. When do you think you might start there?” asked Roet.

“I can be there by the end of the week. Kicking it in Wuhan baby.”

“Confirm when you know. I’ll be standing by.” Roet said before hanging up.

Dancing his arms around in the air, Jimmy said out loud: “OK boss, thank you for giving me all your muNNNy.”

Jimmy had been living in a small modestly furnished apartment provided by the Government while he was on the security team of the Secretary in the nation’s capital. The move to Wuhan was simple and easy for Jimmy as he didn’t own any furniture and had very few belongings. The moment he was notified that the Government had assigned him the new apartment in Wuhan, he drove himself straight there. It all happened very quickly, probably because the Chairman had given the directive. Jimmy’s twelve hour drive took him south through picturesque rural areas. He listened to the American pop music playlists stored lovingly on his phone connected via bluetooth.

As he drove through the countryside, Jimmy ran through future lists of things he would buy if he managed to get out of China and change his identity in America. Of course he would be considered a dissident and there would be Chinese spies trying to find him. Maybe he could even work for the CIA, hopefully with a different boss than Roet, who was obviously a total racist asshole. Lucky he paid well and was also quite stupid. ‘Probably got his job through contacts’ Jimmy thought.

Jimmy parked his dusty car on the street in an inner neighborhood of Wuhan and followed the walking map on his phone to his new place. He opened the lockbox on the wall of his new apartment building and pulled out the apartment keys that had been left there for him. He was on the top floor, but there was a modern elevator.

Opening the door of the apartment Jimmy smiled. This was a big upgrade from the crappy place he’d been stuck in in Beijing. A real bachelor pad. Nice view of the city in two directions. He opened the fridge. Empty. The mattress was new, with a set of new bedding still in its plastic sitting on the bed. The security system was not bad, but he would have to make some improvements. He’d call his friend in town, the Tool Man. This guy was even better than the tool supplier in Beijing, and he was a good friend.

Jimmy made two trips to the car and he was all moved in. He opened the wardrobe and saw three new designer suits, all in his size. On the desk was a military grade laptop which he opened and hit the space bar. The file on Dr. Wu was already open, so Jimmy, still standing, leaned forward on the desk and read through the file aloud to himself.

“Wife died in 2003, leaving one daughter, Ning Wu, currently studying at New York University.”

The file went on, with Dr. Wu’s resumé, his movements over the last forty years, his few transgressions which were very minor, the names of his friends, addresses and phone numbers. Dr. Wu was very much a good citizen. A good worker.

“Should not be any trouble at all.” Jimmy thought to himself.

Jimmy picked up his phone and called Roet.

“Yo Boss, I’m all set up in Wuhan. Thanks for depositing the dough.”

“You are welcome Jimmy. I hope you did not draw attention to yourself. Did they assign you there or did you do something dumb to get yourself posted there?”

“Yeah man, no it was all legit! The Chairman needed someone he could trust to keep an eye on Doctor Wu. Nobody else signed up but me so he put me on him. I’m supposed to keep tabs on him and to make sure he don’t make no new friends, no hookers, no bars. Maybe twist his arm sometimes. Don’t really know yet.”

“Well done Jimmy. Good work. Now I need you to find out if your Doctor Wu has a daughter in New York. We are still connecting the dots. We need to confirm him at your end.”

“OK boss! Two thousand dollars you can do? I have to pay people off for info. Intel not cheap. Risk my life you know?”

Roet was silent for a moment.

“Very well Jimmy, I will deposit it after you call me with the intel about the daughter.”

“Ok Boss, I’m here for ya.”

“Check in with me if you have any more specific news about what Wu is working on.” Roet hung up.

Jimmy felt like this was all too easy ripping off the CIA. He was always ahead of the game. Marcus Roet was always paying him to do things he had already done. It was perfect. He was going to be rich when he got to America.