Drone Command

The dark-skinned woman allowed herself a small smile. “Gee, I hope not. I couldn’t walk for a week after that.” She dropped her cell phone into the bodyguard’s open hand and let the other one wand her down. After the all clear, she clambered in. The doors shut, the guards climbed in and the Mercedes sped out of the parking structure with tires squealing.

The Mercedes sped westward on the crosstown highway toward Jianli’s recently built high-rise penthouse in Charlottenburg. It was after two in the morning and traffic was light, especially at the usual exit for Loschmidstraße. Jianli had already popped a Viagra and was eager to go, but a police barricade on the deserted street brought them to a standstill. Police lights splashed against the windshield like blue strobes, and a beefy Berlin police officer flashed his bright LED light through the driver’s window, tapping the bulletproof glass with the heavy metal casing.

“Show him your papers,” Jianli commanded from the back. The sooner they got through this, the sooner he could get into action.

The reluctant driver hit the automatic-window button and lowered the glass, handing his passport and driver’s license out the window, never hearing the muffled pop of the silenced 9mm hollow-point bullet that blew his brains out.

At the sound of the muzzle blast, the blonde threw a sharp elbow into Jianli’s face, cracking the cartilage in his nose and blinding him with pain while the other woman stabbed his guard through the ear with a razor-sharp plastic blade.

The two women hustled young Jianli out of the backseat as the two other men posing as Berlin police made preparations to move the Mercedes and dump the bodies.

The blonde nodded at the blood on her friend’s hand. “You okay?”

“Not mine.” The dark-haired woman wiped her hand on Jianli’s tailored shirt, then carefully removed from his wrist the white-gold Patek Philippe watch he’d been fingering nervously all night. She knew it contained a tracking device. She smiled at the thought that some lucky homeless Berliner in urine-stained coveralls would soon be wearing a ten-thousand-dollar Swiss timepiece.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the Mercedes was dismantled and parted out in a local Bosnian chop shop and the two Chinese corpses were incinerated by a crematorium under a blind contract with Mossad.

On the other side of town, Tamar Stern and her blonde comrade made the final arrangements for a live video broadcast from a safe house in a heavily treed suburb off Königstraße on the far west side of the German capital. Tamar covered herself head to toe in black athletic wear and a balaclava, and used brown contacts to hide her striking green eyes. She knew the moment the video feed went through that her life would be forfeit if the Chinese MSS ever discovered who she was. They might anyway. She was willing to take that risk.

Had to.

FORTY-SIX

MINISTRY OF STATE SECURITY REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS

NINGBO, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA

16 MAY 2017

Vice Chairman Feng checked his Patek Philippe watch. It was nearly time to begin Pearce’s interrogation. He’d discovered through the years that simply leaving a man alone with his worst fears was sometimes enough to break him. He doubted the former CIA special operations group officer would cave so easily, but an active imagination coupled with a sleepless night without food and water would at least soften him up. His ultimate goal wasn’t to just extract information from him, but to turn the big American into a useful thrall. Feng’s government was making great advances in drone technology, but someone with Pearce’s practical knowledge could help greatly in furthering their tactical and strategic deployment.

A panicked knock rattled Feng’s door.

“Enter!”

A young army lieutenant dashed into the room, one of several trusted aides and the newest. The handsome young officer was the son of a key Politburo ally and a vigorous paramour. If the boy’s father ever discovered his son’s behavior, he would be disowned, which only bound him more tightly to Feng.

“Sir, there’s an urgent message for you on your private phone.” He thrust the smartphone into Feng’s hand. The threatening text message was terse and included both a private URL and a password.

“Who else has seen this?”

“No one! I swear.”

Feng’s searching eyes examined Lieutenant Chin’s strong but anxious face. “Good. See that it stays that way.”

“Yes, sir. Of course.”

The vice chairman dismissed him with a wave of his hand. After the door shut, he removed a private laptop with special security features designed by his own cyberwarfare specialists to thwart any attempts to monitor his online activity. He hoped it worked as well as promised.