in the ass, Chen thought, but hard to believe they’d range this far and deploy scarce resources just to annoy their Chinese older brothers with no discernible benefit to themselves.
Perhaps the Cuban DI—Dirección de Inteligencia—was behind this disaster. At one point, thirty-seven thousand Cuban soldiers were fighting in Angola, and ten thousand were killed during the civil war. China had since displaced Cuba as a force in Angola. Were the Cubans laying the groundwork for a resurgence in the region?
As the limo sped along Beijing Financial Street, Chen began to panic. The MSS certainly had sources within the Western intelligence service, and bribes could be offered to other amenable bureaucrats. But that would all take time, and time was the one commodity he was short of.
Chen lit a cigarette. He was missing something. What was it? He searched his mind.
A place? A name?
Yes. Both.
“CHIBI,” he said aloud.
“Sir?”
“Nothing. Drive.”
Chen pressed a button. The security glass rose, separating him from the driver’s compartment.
He cursed himself. How could he have forgotten? CHIBI was one of the strangest experiences of his professional life. His brain must have buried it like a traumatic memory.
As his Red Flag limo pulled up to the Stalinist marble edifice of the Ministry of State Security, Chen made a decision.
He would reach out to CHIBI one more time. It was fortunate the enigmatic source had left instructions for just such an occasion.
Chen would express his concern that the information provided previously was well appreciated but likely a fluke. In order to participate in the London auction, he would need another proof-of-concept demonstration of his own choosing—finding actionable intelligence on the Lobito assault. Five soldiers who led the attack would be easier to locate than an unknown number of invisible assassins who murdered Fan Min. Chen was certain that finding the NFLA attackers would lead to the assassins eventually.
It was a long shot. Perhaps CHIBI was no longer interested in his proposed quid pro quo. Perhaps he couldn’t acquire the intel needed. Perhaps CHIBI was, in fact, a digital honey trap.
But if CHIBI could help crack this case, it would save Chen’s career—and, more important, his life.
49
WASHINGTON, D.C.
AMERICAN POLICY AND SECURITY INSTITUTE (APSI)
Senator Dixon rose to a round of enthusiastic applause and approached the podium, flanked by teleprompters.
She shook hands with a beaming Senator Blair, the retired former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. His impassioned introduction of her—some would call it a hagiography—was his blatant and rather ham-fisted attempt at securing the directorship of the ODNI in her administration after she was elected President.
Fat chance, she told herself. But let him dream.
The smiling faces of the American Policy and Security Institute board members in the front row were equally committed to a Dixon presidency, though for different reasons. Over the last three years, she had elevated the status and reputation of the think tank, opening doors to Chinese military, political, and ministerial elites that few others could enter. Because of this access, APSI now held private meetings with the most important players in Congress, in the Pentagon, and on Wall Street.
Thanks to its pivot from European to Asian security and economic matters, APSI was now the most influential think tank in D.C.
Best of all, they were exceedingly well funded. The Center for East-West Progress and Advancement (CEWPA), a Hong Kong nonprofit, had selflessly underwritten all of the institute’s administrative and personnel costs, provided generous salary increases for senior fellows, added five new administrative staff positions, and fully funded two additional endowed chairs for the study of Chinese-American relations and East-West peace studies. The director of CEWPA, Dr. Lixia Yang, was in attendance tonight, along with her husband and two beautiful daughters.
Senator Dixon’s speech tonight would further solidify the institute’s reputation when she announced her presidential campaign. It would also burnish Dr. Yang’s status with CEWPA’s board of directors and, more important, with the head of the United Front Work Department, an organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, which secretly funded CEWPA’s operations.
* * *
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Ladies and gentlemen,” Dixon began, “I want to thank you for your warm welcome, and especially to Dr. Lixia Yang and CEWPA for your friendship and generosity, and in particular to Senator Blair for his years of service to our great nation and his kind introduction.
“It has been my pleasure and privilege to work with APSI over the last several years, and I’ve come to rely on both the brilliant scholarship and the practical insights of its incomparable contributors and fellows.
“More important, ASPI’s