Catalyst (Breakthrough Book 3) (19 page)

36

The Brazilian’s stop on the way up the mountain was more than momentary.  Otero stood in the shade of a small rubber tree, watching the long line of Salazar’s men digging along a deteriorated section of road, trying to repair it enough for their trucks to pass.

Otero lazily slapped a hand against his neck at another insect.  The treelined canopy above them was not enough to block the glaring sun, which had turned their stretch of the forest into a sweltering sauna.

After being outside for even a short time, it was enough to drive Otero back to the air conditioning of his Land Rover.    Russo faithfully followed and climbed in on the opposite side.

The road reconstruction was being directed by Salazar’s second lieutenant.  A man in his early thirties, standing out in the heat with his men while Salazar also remained inside his lead vehicle.

Sitting silently behind Salazar was a female with short dirty-blonde hair, dressed in a white sleeveless shirt.  Being a civilian zoologist assigned to the mission by a much higher-ranking officer did not prevent Salazar from pushing his authority onto her.  Authority she had thus far largely ignored.

Dr. Becca, as she was known, kept her head down inside the cab, reading more on the work the deceased Mr. Alves had been conducting at his so-called “preserve.”  A place which apparently had a number of dark secrets.

She’d read the information on the capuchin monkey several times, looking for any details or facts she may have missed.  It was crucial she knew everything she could.  One of the images gleaned from a security camera gave a better than average picture of the monkey –– all solid gray fur, as opposed to the more common speckled colors, which meant at least some hope of ever finding the animal.  But all in all, Becca was highly skeptical.

From her perspective, she had been pulled from her existing job at a prominent research center in Salvador to assist an army group of Neanderthals into the jungle in search of a mystical primate, supposedly carrying the secret to immortality.  And not just human immortality but apparently all cellular life on the planet.  It sounded ridiculous.

Becca had enough biology experience to know that immortality was a farce.  A dream envisioned by people who never made very good use of the time they had until it was nearly up.  Nothing in the biological kingdom had thus far escaped the tendrils of death, and she was sure that neither she nor any of the grunts outside were going to be the first.

Her goal was simply to find whatever they were looking for so she could return to her work in Salvador. However, she did have to admit that, while she found the immortality story absurd, she was somewhat fascinated by the more credible possibility of a capuchin having a higher level of intelligence than normal. 
That
was how nature worked.  Advances in small steps over long periods of time, not some magical leap.  And given that capuchins were already rather intelligent, finding an outlier was far more believable…and interesting.

Becca continued reading through her thick folder, unaware that Salazar had opened his own door and climbed out until she felt the wave of heat rush past her.

Outside, he approached his lieutenant and waited for an update, even though there was little to offer.  Anyone could observe the men still toiling away in sweat-soaked shirts.

“How much longer?”

His lieutenant turned away from one of the other soldiers.  “At least an hour, maybe two.” 

Salazar pursed his lips with agitation.  With hands on his hips, he spun around and looked back downhill the way they came.  He spotted the Land Rover with Otero and Russo speaking inside and smirked.  He wondered just how the two thought they would possibly retain control of anything they found when surrounded and outgunned by Salazar’s men.

Fools.

Inside, Otero was looking forward to the look on Salazar’s face when he found out who was really in charge.   And where the loyalty of his men truly stood.

“The idiot still has no idea.”

When there was no answer, Otero turned to find Russo gazing out at the forest.

“Christ, this isn’t about your ghost again.  I already told you it’s not related.”  He shook his head.  “I don’t pay you to be paranoid.”

Russo grinned and turned back to him momentarily.  “Yes, you do.”

The older man conceded.  “We can’t accomplish anything from up here.”

“I’ll still feel better when we know who it is.”

“It’s coincidence.  When we return, we will deal with them…and
their
family.”

Unless it really is the U.S.  But why would they want retribution for Blanco?
  Russo shook his head.  “Something doesn’t feel right.  The timing of it all.”  He turned back to Otero.  “What if Blanco talked to the U.S. about the monkey?”

“Why would he do that?”

Russo thought about it.  “He wouldn’t.”

“Exactly.  I tell you, it’s something else.  We’ll find out who and why.  Then we will deal with them.”  Otero motioned outside.  “But this comes first.”

Russo nodded silently.  It wasn’t the right time or place.  He simply needed more information.  He was sure there was a connection between the attack on his men and the U.S. but he couldn’t seem to find it.

What Russo didn’t know was that soon he would be far closer to his
ghost
than he ever imagined.

37

In Beijing, Qin stood examining items in General Wei’s old office when his phone rang again.

“Yes,” he answered.

“I have information you’re going to want to hear,” M0ngol said.

Qin slid a book back into the huge bookshelf.  “Go ahead.”

“You wanted to know what our General Wei was involved in before his death.  The answer is something very secret and very big.  So big that he was reporting directly to the Politburo Standing Committee.  I recovered some deleted emails that refer to a project in South America.  A project they were all very careful not to mention.  Instead, they referred to it as
Element
.”

“Element?”

“Yes.  Most of the communication appears to have been verbal, but there were some written exchanges required, particularly around authorization of resources.”

“What kind of resources?”

“Men.  And ships.  From what I’ve pieced together, it looks like the project was some kind of excavation.  Something they insisted that no one else know about.”

Qin stared thoughtfully through the darkness of the room.  “It appears they succeeded.”

“Yes, it does.  I can find more, but it will take time.”

“If Wei was keeping their secret, why destroy him and his reputation?”

“Maybe he didn’t keep it well enough.”

It was possible.  However, thus far every indication suggested Wei’s death was indeed a suicide.  It was far more likely that Wei had not compromised their secret at all but, instead, may have kept it
too well
.  But why?

“If there was a split in the Politburo,” Qin said, “then we should be looking for something after his last visit.  Something unusual.”

M0ngol smiled in the glow of his monitor.  “You mean like a secret flight of a new prototype jet to South America and back?”

“What?”

“That’s right.  A day before Wei disappeared.”

“Where?”

“It landed here in Beijing.”

“What was on it?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Qin stood frozen, thinking.  This was why Xinzhen hadn’t told him everything about General Wei.  There were some things Xinzhen didn’t want him to uncover.  “So we have an excavation in South America, and a secret flight back just before he disappears.  Then he reappears to kill himself.”

“Sounds strange.”

“No.”  Qin silently crossed the room and looked out over the glowing lights of Beijing.  “It sounds like a man trying to hide something.  Do we know where he went yet?”

“We’re still working on that.  And there’s something else you will want to know.”

“What?”

“Someone else is trying to find out where he disappeared to.  They’ve been accessing the same servers and records, even before we did.”

Qin’s eyes blazed.  “Who?”

“We don’t have an ID yet.  We are tracing backward, one server at a time.  Whoever it was is very clever.  We think it came from Washington, D.C.”

Finally, Qin showed genuine surprise.  “Washington,” he whispered. 
That was it.
  The piece explaining China’s altercation with the Americans in the Caribbean Sea.  Of course, to the Americans it was more than an altercation –– they’d lost. 

It took only moments for Qin to connect the dots. 
It was a fight over the excavation.  Whatever it was, the Americans knew General Wei had it flown home.  Now they too were trying to find out what Wei had done with it.

“Find out who was in the system.  Use the entire team if you must.”

M0ngol nodded on the other end.  He was going to do more than just find him.

Fifteen hours away in his own dark computer lab, Wil Borger had his answer.

His farm of servers had successfully found and tracked the pixel profile of Wei’s car and displayed not just the path of the car, but where it had stopped.

And just like Clay had deduced, it was a small rural hospital.

Borger couldn’t dial the number fast enough.  When Clay answered, he almost shouted into the phone.  “We have it!”

“Have what?”

“Wei’s destination.  And it was his only stop after leaving with the case.”

“Location?”

“Just over four hundred and sixty miles due north of Beijing!  In the mountains.  Looks like it’s a small hospital for several surrounding towns and villages.  I’ll text you the name and coordinates.”

“Nice work, Wil.” 

“Listen,” he continued.  “There’s also a small airfield about ninety miles further north.  It looks usable and would probably allow you to get there faster, but it might be military.  Just an FYI.”

“Okay.  We’ll stick to the roads then.  Should be in Beijing in about twelve hours.  I’ll check back in three.”

“Sounds good.”

Clay ended the call and looked at Tang in the driver’s seat.  “You need a break?”

“Not yet.”  Tang nodded to the satellite phone.  “Where we headed?”

“A small hospital about four hundred north of Beijing.  We’re looking for General Wei’s daughter.”

Tang raised an eyebrow but kept his eyes on the dark road in front of them.  “The intel I got said Wei’s daughter was dead.”

“Yeah.  Ours too.”

38

At just past six a.m., Doctor Lee waited patiently by the door while his nurse helped Li Na Wei back into bed.  They were both amazed at how quickly her strength was returning after being nearly motionless for three weeks.  There was minimal shaking in her legs and her balance was quite good.

The nurse propped a worn pillow behind Li Na’s back, allowing her to sit up straighter.  Once she was settled, the nurse straightened the sheets and blanket again before nodding to Lee and leaving the room.

It was far too soon in his opinion, but a pledge was a pledge.  If she awakened, Wei wanted his daughter informed immediately.  A decision Lee still felt was excessive given the girl’s current state of health.  The last thing she needed at the moment was an emotional blow like this.

He sat down on the foot of her bed and leaned forward with a soft look on his face.  “You are doing very well, Li Na.  Very well.  But there are things I need to tell you.  Things about your father and things about how you got here.”

“Okay,” she said, peering at him curiously.  Her body still felt weak, but her eyes were wide awake.

Lee reached inside his dingy white coat and retrieved an envelope.  Without a word, he handed it to Li Na.

She took it in her right hand, examining it, and then turned it over to find a familiar seal on the back.  It was her father’s chop.  She slid her finger under a loose section and ripped the flap open, breaking the wax seal.  Several sheets of paper were folded neatly inside.

Li Na glanced at the doctor nervously as she pulled them out and unfolded the pages.  Her father’s handwriting covered both sides of every one. 

Beneath the room’s single fluorescent light, and while Dr. Lee waited, Li Na began reading.

When she finished, she was weeping.

“Is this true?”

Lee frowned.  “I don’t know what it says.”

“My father is dead?”

The doctor nodded solemnly.  “Yes.  I’m very sorry, Li Na.”

She covered her eyes with both hands and sobbed.  “Why?!”

She knew why.  It was all in the letter.  Her final days of a deteriorating disease, most of which she was not conscious for.  Her father’s depression after losing Li Na’s mother, and his utter devastation at the impending loss of his daughter.  His princess.

But unlike many fathers who might be struggling with the same agony, there was something he
could
do.  There was a slight chance that Wei could still save his daughter’s life by giving his own.  By sacrificing everything he had, including their family name.  Their honor.  He wrote about the many memories he had of her as a young girl.  The dancing, the smiles, the laughs.  And her hugs that made him feel as though there was no one else in the world but them.

He explained that in the final days, those memories were all that enabled him to get out of bed in the morning.  To continue on, accompanied only by desperation and the fear that he would run out of time.

He never revealed to her that he’d been in charge of a project investigating a unique discovery deep in the jungle.  One that proved to be as important as they hoped.  And just as dangerous to the world as he feared.  Something utterly miraculous.

Alas, to use the discovery meant erasing every link or reference to it that he could, including himself to her.  It was why he sought out Dr. Lee and secretly moved Li Na from her hospital in Beijing.  It was why he destroyed much of the information and falsified the rest.  And ultimately, why he took his own life, returning to the eternal arms of Li Na’s mother.  He died just for the hope that his precious daughter might live. 

Some Chinese fathers were bound by honor.  Others were bound by love.

Finally, he told her to remember how much they both loved her, what an amazing young woman she was, and that one day she would change the world.  The greatest honor of his life had been as her father, and he would be grateful for eternity for that distinction.

Li Na kept her head against the headboard and slowly opened her eyes.  “I don’t want to live,” she said, shaking her head.  “Not without either of them.”

Lee didn’t answer.

She brushed several strands of wet hair out of her face and stared at Lee. 
Parents were the only true anchors a child had to the Earth.  And now…now she was cast adrift.  What did anything even matter now?

As if reading her mind, Dr. Lee cleared his voice.  “This might be difficult for you to hear, but your father was proud to do what he did.”

She laid a hand back over one of her eyes.  “I know.”

“I learned something, Li Na, when my father died several years ago.  He was very old, but I was happy to spend time with him before he passed.  We talked for hours, and I told him the most important thing to me, as his child, was to know that he was proud of me.”

She lowered her hand and blinked.  “I know he was proud of me.”

“Do you know what my father told me?”

She shook her head.

“He told me that the most important thing to him, as my father, was to see me live.”  Lee thought for a moment before his eyes returned to hers.  “I’ve been a doctor for many years.  I’ve seen a lot.  And still it’s hard to explain.  Understand, Li Na, that when a man loses a spouse, it destroys his heart.  But when a father loses a child it destroys his
soul
.”

Across the bed, her bottom lip began to tremble.

“I can promise you, there was nothing more important to him than saving your life.”

She didn’t speak again for several minutes.  Finally she asked, “What exactly did he do?”

Dr. Lee shook his head.  “I have no idea.”  When she looked puzzled, he continued.  “He wouldn’t tell me.  He said it would only make things more dangerous.  That no matter how thorough he was, someone would still find out what he had done.  Of that he was sure.  The discovery was so important to the government that they would never give up.”

“I can’t stay here, can I?”

Lee was hesitant but shook his head.  “Not for long.”

“How long?”

“That depends on you.  On when you’re ready.  I personally think you have a lot more healing to do, but then again, I don’t know the things that your father did.”

“Neither of us does.”

Lee’s lip curled slightly.  “That’s true.”

The room fell quiet before Lee promptly stood up.

“I have some things for you.  From your father.”  He left the room and returned a few minutes later.  In one hand was a soft leather satchel.  In the other was a square case made of metal.  Lee put them both on the bed within reach of her good hand.

“Take your time.  These were left for you and they have not been opened.”  He walked to the door where he turned back to her.  “Don’t try to figure everything out today.  We have time, and I’ll help you.”

Li Na watched him pull the old wooden door closed behind him. She peered down curiously at the two items resting on her bed and picked up the leather satchel first.  She began to open it but paused.  Her emotions might not be ready for what was inside. 

She set it back down and instead pulled the metal case closer.  After studying it, she tried one of the clasps which promptly sprung open.  She followed with the second, which opened just as easily.

Slowly, Li Na lifted the cold top, pushing it up and away.  The contents were surprising given the bulkiness of the case’s exterior.  Inside were three large vials fitted neatly into a hard interior gel.

One was filled with a frozen, pinkish material. The other two were empty.