Red Tide, стр. 17

“It feels heavy,” Greer commented. “What’s in it?”

“Take a look,” Lita suggested.

Greer did as she asked. And found himself looking at a Bullpup submachine gun, a screw-on suppressor, and two extra magazines. “Wow! A Chinese QCW-05.”

Lita looked surprised. “You know it?”

“I know a lot about weapons,” Greer replied matter of factly. “That’s why my squadron gave me the callsign, ‘Gun Daddy.’ Where did you get it?”

“The Chinese ship weapons to the government. President Costas uses them to kill Filipino citizens. Then we kill his soldiers, take their weapons, and put them to good use. Here’s the pistol you were carrying when my father found you.”

Greer accepted the nine-mil. It was tucked into a hand-tooled belt holster. Just right for wearing under the baggy shirt. “You don’t think I’m going to make it, do you?”

“No,” Lita replied. “I don’t.”

***

Aboard the Chinese semi-submersible cruiser, Sea Dragon, Yulin Harbor

Lieutenant Junior Grade Jev Jing was sitting on his bunk, with the privacy curtain pulled, studying for the lieutenant’s exam. That’s what he was prepared to tell anyone who asked. But the truth was quite different.

After successfully installing the keylogger on political officer Lieutenant Commander Ang’s laptop, he’d been able to record every keystroke the other officer entered into his computer, and retrieve the information via Wi-Fi. That was the good news. The bad news was that the data had been encrypted using an unauthorized program.

But Jing had majored in computer technology at the Dalian Naval Academy. And as one of the ship’s communications officers he had the permissions necessary to access various outside networks, including the one set up for students at the academy.

The first step was to submit a snippet from one of Ang’s messages. The second step was to request an ID. The answer came back right away. The encryption program was called “Strong Sword,” after the popular Chinese video game, with the appendage NIK7854 after the name.

Jing felt a sense of satisfaction. Now that he knew what the program was, he could go looking for the necessary decryption software. And that, Jing knew, would be available somewhere on the deep web. Not the dark web, but the considerably larger deep web.

After half an hour of surfing, Jing located a non-indexed site where Strong Sword NIK7854 encryption and de-encryption software was for sale. And that’s where Jing stalled out. The price for a de-encryption key was $1,000 USD.

That was way more than Jing had in his savings account. Not that he could take it from there, because such a transaction would be easy to identify should there be an investigation.

After signing out Jing was careful to delete his browsing history before turning the laptop off. Where was he going to get $1,000? The answer was obvious. He would steal it.

***

The aircraft carrier Henan, Yulin harbor, China

In spite of the work already done to repair the Henan’s flight deck, the carrier wasn’t operational yet. That didn’t stop Admiral Wen from using the flattop as his flagship however. And the command conference scheduled for 0900 that morning was just the latest of the meetings Ko had been summoned to over the past couple of days.

The purpose of the conference was, according to the agenda distributed the day before, “… to formulate an interim plan by which Carrier Battle Group 3 can continue to operate while the Henan is being repaired.” It was a subject that Senior Captain Peng Ko had strong opinions about.

And, since Ko was aware of Wen’s love for military pomp and ceremony, he was careful to wear a spotless uniform, complete with the recently authorized Hero of the State medal awarded to those who reported to the admiral.

A launch took Po from the submarine pens across the bay to the pier where the Henan was moored. A floating platform was waiting to receive Po and his fellow captains, all of whom arrived within seconds of each other.

As the only senior captain present it was Ko’s responsibility to lead the others up two flights of metal stairs to the hangar deck. There a coterie of lesser officers was waiting to escort the visitors to the elevator that carried them up to the Flag Bridge.

Besides Wen’s quarters, the Flag Bridge was home to a large war room, typically used for staff meetings. There was theater style seating for attendees and a buffet along the port bulkhead. After getting a cup of tea, Ko made his way over to the front row where a seat had been reserved for him. Five minutes passed while the officers checked their cell phones, traded bits of gossip, and in one case dozed off.

All of them stood when the Henan’s executive officer shouted, “Attention on deck!” and Wen entered the room. He had a huge personality for a such a small man and Ko could feel it fill the compartment. Wen said, “As you were,” and the other officers took their seats.

Wen was extremely proud of his victory over the Americans and about to celebrate it again. Something which, though understandable, struck Ko as unseemly. “Here,” Wen said pompously, “are the heroes of the glorious battle for the Philippine Sea! A victory so great it will be celebrated a hundred years from now.”

Ko had doubts about that, but was careful to keep his face professionally blank.

“But incredible though our achievement was,” Wen continued, “there’s more to do. Much more. You’ll be happy to hear that we have new orders. As you know, the Xiao Riben (Japanese Devils) have a blue-water navy which they keep under lock and key in Tokyo bay, rather than risk combat. Our job will be to lure the hundan (bastards) out of their hidey hole, and into the Pacific, where we will send them to the bottom of the ocean.”

The line had been written for the occasion. But that didn’t stop the assembled officers, Ko included, from jumping to their feet and shouting “Shengli!” (Victory!)

Wen grinned. “Yes,