China Crisis

“Here, take this map. I have another. Use it to work out what you need to do,” the woman stated.

McCarter folded the map and tucked it under his belt. “Okay. Let’s talk about your people. How many? Where are they and can we get to them without ending up with the local militia coming down on us?”

“The latest report we had said they’re on the run from the military. They located the downed missile before a search party from Guang Lor could get there. They extracted the circuit board and took photographic evidence. But they were spotted and the military pursued them. From what I managed to pick up, there had been a running fight. Hung and his surviving team took refuge in the foothills. Something about a deserted village. It was shelled by the army during one of the strikes against the Uygur. Planes razed it to the ground, the people relocated. In real terms it means many of them were killed and buried in a mass grave.”

“Do they know we’re coming in?”

Anna nodded. “We managed to get a short message through to Loy Hung. He’s our team leader in the area. He understands we have people coming in to help and to collect the evidence because he’s been prevented from delivering it to Hong Kong.”

“The board and the photographs?” McCarter queried.

She nodded and pulled a group of photographs from one of her pockets, handing them to McCarter.

“Loy Hung, Dar Tan and Sammy Cho. They are all that is left of the team. The others died during the escape into the hills.”

“And what about this Major Kang character?”

“He is head of security at the Guang Lor site and for the region. A very ruthless man. He will not have taken this incident well. It will reflect on him personally, so he will be doing everything in his power to regain possession of the board.”

“Okay.” McCarter paused as a thought intruded. He realized it had been niggling away at the back of his mind, kept at bay by more pressing matters, but it was suddenly demanding his full attention. “Anna, the information that came out from Guang Lor said the only reason the U.S. board was used for the trial was that the copies weren’t completed yet?”

“Yes. Why?”

“If we get the original back, that isn’t going to stop Lin Cheung’s development people from finishing what they started. They’ll go right ahead and complete their counterfeit boards, and still have what they want.”

“In other words, they’ll still be on a par with the U.S.”

“Not much use the President waving the genuine board and shouting, ‘We got it back, Beijing.’ All they’ll do is smile and rattle their newly equipped missiles at him and yell, ‘So what?’ They’ll do their best to stop the news leaking out about what they’ve been up to, but in the end they aren’t going to pack up developing their missile system, using technology they stole. And they probably still have other hardware they’ve bought under the counter.”

McCarter leaned back against the bulkhead. He could feel the power of the aircraft vibrating through the metal skin of the fuselage. He focused on the information Anna had given him and the implications of his own thought process and what it meant. Whichever way he turned it around, it looked as though Phoenix Force’s incursion into China was about to have its stay extended and its mission upgraded. Whatever lay ahead, it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Phoenix Force was going to drop in on a potential minefield of problems just waiting to jump up and bite them.

He paused in his thoughts. There were never any guarantees of an easy time. Stony Man didn’t exist to take on peaceful missions or easy tasks. It was here to handle situations that required on-the-spot-down-and-dirty solutions to ugly scenarios. When in doubt, send out Phoenix Force or Able Team. It was what they did best, and they were the best at what they did. He smiled at his own clichés.

He felt Anna’s eyes on him. She had a wistful smile on her lips, head slightly to one side as she observed him.

“What?” the Briton asked.

“I was just imagining what I’d like to be doing right now if we were back in London. Maybe breakfast in that café near the flat,” Anna told him.

“You just fold those thoughts up and store them away, love. Keep them safe until we get back.”

“Okay. I have something else for you. Loy Hung has a man inside Guang Lor. He’s been established for some months. It’s why we got the information on the circuit board and the downed missile. Hung’s man has also passed him detailed information on the security setup and locations within the site. Could be helpful.”

“Will we be able to depend on this man if we hit the site?”

Anna shrugged. “We can’t say. The last time they spoke, Hung’s man said he was concerned Major Kang might be on to him.”

“Let’s hope he’s okay.”

Anna glanced at her watch.

“David, I’m going to get some sleep. It feels like I’ve been in the air for the last week.”

“You do that. And I’d better go have a chat with the lads. Tell them what a pleasant spot we’re going to drop into.”

He pushed to his feet and made his way along the aircraft to where Manning, James and Encizo were checking equipment.

“Briefing session over?” Manning asked.

McCarter joined them. “Oh, yes. You want the good news or the bad news?”

“What’s the bad news?” Encizo queried.

McCarter couldn’t resist a wide grin. “The bad news is, there’s no good news.”

“I hate it when he gets that smug attitude,” James said.

“He likes to think he has comic timing,” Encizo said.

“I do,” McCarter announced.

“Miss-timing more like,” Manning said.

“I just talked to Anna,” McCarter said. “Her people are on the ground and hiding out, waiting for us to make contact, haul them out of trouble and take this circuit board off their hands.”

He passed the photographs Anna had provided so the team would know Hung and his men.

“These are the people we have to locate and lift out,” the Phoenix Force leader said.

“But?” James asked, waiting for McCarter to drop the bombshell he was keeping to himself.

“Collecting one board isn’t going to make the problem go away. And the problem is that the Chinese will still have the copied version of whatever they stole from the U.S.”

“I feel something’s coming that I’m not going to really want to hear,” Manning said.

“Along the lines of we have to neutralize the missile center,” Encizo guessed.

“And make sure all the stolen technology is destroyed,” James added.

McCarter didn’t respond until he felt three pairs of eyes on him.

“Well, yes, something like that.”

“Let’s take a stroll in the park suddenly turned into a rumble in the jungle,” James said.

“We have to be flexible, chums. This was part of the mission brief so we had to expect it.”

McCarter produced the map Anna had given him. He spread it out, and his teammates leaned in closer as he pointed out the various locations.