Torching the Crimson Flag Read online

  “Oh my God,” Jasmine expressed.

  “We need to lay out everything we know and start developing a strategy that is nimble, fluid, and responsive.”

  “Yes, sir,” Michi agreed. “I’ll get Bao Zhen and Lin Lin Ma. I think they’re unpacking.”

  Helmut Wagner was standing in front of his floor to ceiling office window overlooking the Huangpu River. Off in the distance was the Hangzhou Bay, and beyond it, he could barely make out the East China Sea through the polluted air.

  Shanghai has a population of just under twenty-five million people, making it one of the most populous urban areas in China. A global center for finance, manufacturing, and transportation, it serviced the world's busiest container port. For most of its 6000-year history, the city was a fishing village and market town whose most significant challenge was fighting off a continuous stream of Japanese pirates intent on taking it over. But in the 19th century, it grew in prominence as a hub for trade and a favorite port for domestic shipping. During the First Opium War, it was one of five harbors forced to open to foreign trade, and its journey into the international shipping industry was already underway. In the 1900s, the city continued to flourish and position itself as the primary commercial and financial hub for the Asia-Pacific region until the Chinese Communist Revolution. When the Communist Party took over mainland China in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries only, and the city's global influence went into a freefall.

  It took forty years for Beijing to recognize they were losing traction in the global economy, but finally, the government launched an intense redevelopment of Shanghai in the 1990s. They introduced substantial economic reforms and successfully brought finance and foreign investment back to the city, bolstering its resurgence as an international hub.

  Wagner had been along for the ride. Deciding that he couldn't compete with giant international shipping conglomerates, he carved out a niche for himself in building custom containers for very discreet clients. Whether it was a container that needed a specific temperature for shipping sensitive computer parts, or a steel box that needed reinforced walls to transport ammunition, whatever the need, he could create the container.

  The order that he’d gotten from Seiko Chiu several months ago had been a pretty complex build, but once he’d perfected the templates, it was easy to fulfill. Soon her special containers were entering circulation with all the others. As he looked out over the busy city, he waited for his phone to load his offshore bank account information. Feeling a little vibration, he looked down at his screen. The transfer had been completed. He stared at his bank account balance. It had just grown substantially. Now, there was the other matter that he had been asked to take care of. The wheels were already in motion. It would take some money out of the Red Flag network's global fund, but that is exactly why they all contributed.

  He thought about his family. Both of his children had attended the prestigious Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now, the twins were about to graduate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His son had majored in Business Administration, and his daughter had decided to do her own thing completely. She majored in Fashion Technology. He guessed that she had been influenced by the famous Shanghai fashion world. When he asked her once what her major meant, she said it was about allowing clothes to be more than just things that are worn, and enabled interaction with fashion and textiles. Both of his kids knew Shanghai and Honolulu very well, traveling between them regularly.

  His wife was the quintessential Shanghai woman. She spoke with gentility and acted so overtly hospitably that people couldn't resist being awed. Almost as tall as he was, and graced with quintessential Asian beauty, she had a subtle but commanding presence. Well-bred, smart, capable, elegant, and quite caring, she was an inspiration to many. But behind the scenes, she was so extremely high maintenance that he preferred not to be around her. When she flew to Honolulu to be near the children, he would fly to Shanghai to be near his business. When she wanted to visit her mother in China, he would find a reason to fly to Honolulu. It wasn't that he didn't love her, but her insecurities would usually result in ridiculous demands for a higher quality of life. She would regularly refurnish their oceanfront house in Hawaii. She had the floors redone every year. Artwork came and left the home like traveling hotel guests. And she’d often whisk the children away to take them on some random whirlwind tour of the world during their vacations. None of it was very appealing to him.

  He found out after their marriage, that sex with her would be infrequent and only if she felt he deserved it. Over the years, he guessed that she had some gentlemen callers servicing her needs, and truthfully, he had his own ways of finding satisfaction. There was no overt hostility between them. They just recognized that they had very different agendas in life. As long as they didn't interfere with each other, everything sailed smoothly.

  Helmut looked down at his phone and signed out of the banking app. He needed to focus on his next task.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Justin and Bora arrived at LaunchPad and saw that everyone was huddled together in the conference room. Not wasting any time, they walked straight into the meeting. Everyone stood up and give them warm hugs, welcoming them back, and when they had all retaken their seats, Leonard Stone resumed leadership of the conversation.

  “I just got an update from David, and they are flying in a brisk tailwind. They'll reach their target a little bit faster than originally anticipated. Our top priority is to get them overwatch support. Justin, can you work on that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “It's important enough that if you need it you should have a video conference with Saara in the medical clinic to get her input.”

  “Okay. You want me to get started on that right now?”

  “Yes, please. Do you need Michi’s help?”

  “Not right away.” He turned to her, “Did the comms test work?”

  “Yes,” Agent Imada responded. “We’ve labeled them as Blue Team in the software, but you’ll have to connect them with the satellite visual footage. I didn’t know how to do that.”

  “Perfect. I’ll get going,” he said, standing up and leaving the room.

  Leonard resumed his briefing. “As soon as we get real-time satellite imagery up and running, we will have to figure out how many hostiles are surrounding the warehouse. I'm sure that they have it heavily guarded.” He pulled out his tablet and shared the screen with the high-tech glass table interface, mirroring what he was seeing. “Dusti sent us the footage tracking the vehicles. This is the exchange that happened in the woods. She enhanced the video as best as she could, but it's still a little dark.”

  He hit play, and the group watched the events unfold. When Nathan Harris was out of the Chevy Tahoe, he paused it. “Obviously, that's why she was one hundred percent certain that this was an exchange. Iris is wearing the same black hood that he had on when he left the embassy. Unfortunately, the grainy video makes it impossible to see any of the faces involved in the exchange.” Touching play, the video continued to advance as he narrated. “They leave the dirt road in the woods and get on the highway here. I'll speed it up to where they arrive at the pig farm.” He sped the footage along with his finger on the slider. “Okay. Here it is. That large structure is an abandoned pork processing facility. There are a lot of them in this area.”

  Bora raised her hand.

  “Yes?”

  “I wasn't sure which one they were using, so I researched the six that were around Falling Creek, North Carolina. Just a minute. This one hasn't been used for about a year. But the property was purchased nine months ago by a company called The McMantis Group, LLC. I haven't found out much about them yet, but that was going to be the next thing I was going to research.”

  “That's great, Bora. Do you know what kind of industry they’re in?”

  “It looks like their main focus is real estate acquisition. But I don't know who owns them or how their company is structured.”

 
“Okay. Let me just advance it a little bit and then here. You can see that the Jeep stops, and Iris gets taken into the building.”

  “Does the footage continue?” asked Bao Zhen.

  “No. Reach out and see if we can get a few hours of footage after the exchange. I'm not sure Dusti can get it right away for us. She pulled in some serious favors to get us this already.” He paused, collecting his thoughts. “So, that's our primary focus.”

  He stopped sharing his screen and then leaned back in his chair. “The next issue that we need to focus on is of grave concern. There is a very coordinated attack against our operatives. It has me deeply concerned. When Fox and Ashley were attacked, my first thought was that it was someone connected to their past. I thought that maybe it was a personal attack against Fox in particular. If he wasn't in critical condition, I would’ve interviewed him to see if he had any enemies that we didn't know about. Obviously, each of our team members has been involved in lots of altercations against dangerous people. Worldwide. But when Boyd was hit, that changed everything.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Bora, shocked.

  “I'm sorry. You didn't know, yet. I don't know any details; she should be calling us soon. but I got a text message from her that said a kill team had attacked her, and she survived and is okay.”

  “What?! That’s terrible!”

  “Michi, can you slip out and update Justin with that news? Come right back.”

  Imada got up and left the conference room.

  “Whoever is behind these attacks had the resources for an assault on the East Coast and another one, thousands of miles away,” Lin Lin said.

  “You’re right. And if Boyd took out the team, they’ll have suffered quite a blow.”

  “Having just watched Jasmine and Agent Imada work on the comms, it’s made me curious about how this team that attempted to kill Fox could have communicated,” Bao Zhen commented.

  “Me, too,” Leonard agreed. “As soon as possible, we need Saara to crack their phones.”

  Michi slipped back into the room.”

  “Thank you,” he said, nodding to her.

  “Okay. The fact that Boyd was attacked on a remote island in the Pacific while Fox was attacked here in Maryland could mean two things. In our last mission, she worked closely with Fox. They were in London together and brought down a very significant target, as you know. The coordinated attack on the two of them could be a collateral attempt at vengeance. That would be a best-case scenario. Still not easy for us to focus on at this time, but at least we would be pointed in the right direction, and the rest of us are safe.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “The second option is much more sinister. We could all be on a list. And whoever is calling the shots is serious about taking us all out.

  Everyone in the room was silent, realizing the ramifications of what he had said.

  “I refuse to operate under a spirit of fear. We need to focus on getting Iris back. He’s our number one objective. We have a direct plea from the president of the United States to bring him back home.” Dr. Stone paused, letting the weight of that statement overpower the threat of being on a kill list. It was a smart move, and he could tell that the LaunchPad team was refocusing. “Also,” he continued, “there are several heads of state around the world who are deeply concerned. He has translated for countless meetings that included top tier security clearance. With his exceptional memory and skill, the knowledge that he has retained from those meetings has unlimited value. So right now, there are a number of very important people depending on us to do our job at the highest level.”

  “What can I do to help?” Lin Lin Ma asked.

  “I know that you’re a top-level linguist yourself, and Bao Zhen, you’re also highly intelligent and capable, so I hope you two won’t mind a menial but important task.”

  “Not at all. Whatever you need, Leo.”

  “We’re almost out of food here in the warehouse, and our team will need to stay hydrated and fed. Could you both sit down and figure out meal plans and snacks for the next two weeks? Then you'll need to go shopping and pick up everything you need.”

  “Of course. We can do that. We’ll cook all the meals and keep a ledger to make sure that everyone is eating well.”

  “Perfect. Thank you. Our mental and physical energy levels are top priority. It would also be helpful if you could keep track of who is resting, when.”

  “I can do that,” Bao Zhen responded.

  “I have a list of everyone’s nutritional preferences,” Bora added. “Justin made it a few months ago. I’ll email it to you.”

  Leonard was about to keep speaking when his phone rang. It was Boyd.

  Seiko was deep in thought. She had an upcoming meeting and wanted to be sure that all the bases had been covered. Pulling out a stack of files from a filing cabinet that could only be opened with her thumbprint, she began to go through them methodically.

  A few years ago, The Red Flag Commerce and Development Company was too diverse. They’d had a submarine-building interest in Croatia; they were involved in human trafficking in Southeast Asia; had helped serve the needs of the fearsome Chinese mafia organization the Triads; they’d also been involved with a Russian mob that had ties to the former KGB; and had a list of cops, politicians, CEOs, and immigration officials that they’d had to bribe. The whole portfolio would have been as thick as a phone book if they had published it. On top of all that they’d had shares in Mongolian gold mines, had dabbled in the technology of self-driving cars, and were regular donors to philanthropic foundations that helped cover their trafficking. It was way too much. The company came close to being exposed when someone from the Chinese Ambassador’s staff in Vietnam got ahold of sensitive documents and was going to testify in court. Fortunately, they were able to take him out and control the damage. Another close call came when an important charitable foundation to their interests, the Ahmaadi Foundation, spectacularly crashed and burned just ten months ago. The twin brothers who owned the organization were well known around the world. Fawwaz Ahmaadi owned a European football club, and his brother, Ghalib, ran the foundation. Both were accused of being involved in the trafficking of weapons and children. Ghalib committed suicide with a shotgun wound to the back of his head, a few days after being in jail, waiting for arraignment. His brother, too, hung himself in his cell. She doubted that either one of them had wanted to die, but unfortunately, as soon as their organization went down, somebody had to be sacrificed, and in this case, the sacrifice was the twins themselves. She guessed that their deaths were at the hands of some influential Arabs who didn't want their names to surface in any drawn-out investigations or court proceedings.

  Before her brother and sister-in-law made their fateful trip to India, the family had met at Seiko’s vacation home in Jeju. It was a twenty-one-day affair where they reviewed everything they were involved with. After careful, prolonged discussion, they decided to distance Red Flag from all of the illegitimate operations. But rather than lose the significant income they were getting from illegal activity, they decided to set up a screen of shell corporations that would serve as fronts for their interests. None of their own names would be tied to these shells. And Red Flag wouldn’t be mentioned on anything. On paper, the Chiu family would only be involved in above-board transportation enterprises. Of course, on paper, all of the shell companies looked legitimate as well, and if any one of them got into any hot water, they would just go into bankruptcy be dissolved and disappear. Then they would reinvent themselves later.

  To help with the task, they had pulled in several talented and very wealthy business people with whom they’d worked in the past. These people had asked for favors from the Chiu family over the years, and now they were politely being asked to reciprocate. Seiko wasn’t expecting them to work for free, of course. Each one would be investors in the shell companies and would get significant profit-shares in exchange for putting their names on the documents. Most of them didn’t know what these little c
ompanies were involved with, exactly, but they didn’t really want to know. Once the money started rolling in, they wouldn’t care. And that was what today was about. Actually, it’s what the whole week was about. She was going to meet with each one of them and let them know how profitable these shell companies had become. It was payday, and she was looking forward to rewarding them, and to tightening their leashes.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Boyd!”

  “Hi, Dr. Stone.”

  “I'm in the conference room with Bora, Michi, Lynn Lynn Ma, Bao Zhen, and Jasmine. Justin is out in the office area.”

  “Copy that.”

  “What happened?”

  “I decided that I needed to head back to the Kona-side. To be closer to the airport in case you needed me to jump on a plane. So my uncle came and picked me up from my ohana in Kohala. We made a little detour to grab lunch and then drove to one of our favorite spots to eat.”

  “Where was that?” Bora asked, pulling up a map on her tablet and sharing it with the table-screen.

  “Everybody knows it as the Little Red Church, but on the map, it would be Pu’uanahulu Baptist Church.”

  “Got it. Okay, thanks.”

  “After lunch, we pulled out of the property and turned left to head to Kona. As soon as we pulled out, I noticed a gray sedan that was parked on the shoulder over by the neighbors pulled in behind us. Right away, it didn’t feel right. Then they smashed into our back bumper and tried to run us off the road over a cliff, but my uncle's old F-150 wasn’t going to go that easily. We raced them down the hill and whipped onto a dirt road on private property on a ranch nearby.”

  “I see it,” Bora commented.

  “It got pretty hairy. I'm not going to lie. All I had was my mini Glock and a P90 with one mag.”