The Project 01 - White Jade

schedules?"
    "Communications breakdowns. A problem with the military units. Interference from nations outside China could do it. World reaction is a big factor. What would we do , for example ?"
    Zeke unbuttoned his collar , a major breach of FBI dress code. Carter imagined J. Edgar turning over in his grave.
    Harker's pen was going full speed on the desk. She realized what she was doing and set it aside.
    " China is a known factor, with a stable government. A right wing coup would be dangerous. We wouldn't want that to happen."
    "You think there's the political will to intervene, Director?" Jordan settled into his chair.
    " If the President thought national security was at stake . But t he risk of war would be huge."
    "How could you keep us from getting involved?" said Jordan .
    " If we wanted to? You couldn't. Unless…" Carter stopped.
    "Unless what?"
    "Unless we were occupied with something else. Something that had our attention while Yang took over."
    "It would have to be a damn big attention getter , " Ronnie said . "It would have to be something national, something that drew a lot of resources."
    "What about a terrorist attack?"
    Everyone looked at Selena.
    "Well," she said, "don't look at me like that. Isn't that what you do here? Go after terrorists?"
    "Yes." Harker watched her.
    "An attack would keep everyone busy. Yang could use the Triads to make trouble while he grabs power."
    Ronnie raised an eyebrow. " That's really devious . Remind me not to play poker with you. But we'd find out it was him. We'd have to do something."
    "What? Send in troops? Nuke China ?"
    The room was silent as each of them thought about that.
    " How many in the Triads ? " Harker picked up her pen again .
    Jordan said, " Several thousand in the Bay Area, if you count the youth gangs. They ' re usually sent as enforcers. Thousands more spread out over the country, particularly Houston , L.A. and New York . W e ' re not certain. "
    Stephanie said , " We need more data. "
    " How do we get that? " asked Jordan .
    The Director tapped her pen. " For openers, there ' s the book. Why does Yang want it? Selena, I need you to get it translated. I assume computer time will help? "
    " It will. I ' ve identified points in common between what I can read and what I can ' t. I want to run a matrix comparison. It should give us an idea. "
    " Good. Stephanie , program it in for her. W hile Selena is working on the translation you can run probability scenarios. I want to see what the computers say about what we ' ve been discussing. "
    " Yes, Director. "
    Harker said, "All we've got is speculation and Deng's story. We have pieces of intelligence but we don't have any proof. We may be wrong."
    "You don't think that," Jordan said.
    "It doesn't matter what I think. I can't go to the President and tell him someone's trying to take over China without hard facts."
    Jordan looked at his watch. "Director, I can let my boss know what we've been talking about, but no one's going to do much based on speculation."
    "I'll brief you as we develop this."
    "I guess that will have to do."
    When Jordan was gone Selena said, "I'd like to go back to my rooms at the Mayflower. No offense, but that apartment of yours is depressing. I t's confining, hard to think in. I need room to pace around ."
    "That's not a good idea. There's no security at the hotel . "
    Carter said , " S he c ould stay at my place. I've got a spare bedroom. I t would be a lot more comfortable than downstairs. There ' s an empty unit next door to mine . Ronnie can set up in there and keep an eye on things . "
    Harker gave him a curious look. " You think it ' s safer than here? "
    " No, but it's safe enough. T here ' s a security desk, cameras. They have to think Selena and I are dead in that mine. "
    " Selena, are you comfortable with that? "
    " I guess so." She gave Nick a thoughtful look. " T here ' s no reason those people would know we ' re still alive. "
    "All right. Just make sure you take every precaution."
    Harker stood. " Let ' s get going. "

Chapter Twenty- Two

    Selena, Nick and Stephanie went down to the computer room . Wide doors of thick glass separated the room from the hallway . Stephanie punched in numbers on a keypad and stood close to a facial recognition scanner mounted on the wall . A line of green light tracked back and forth across her face. The glass doors slid open with a quiet hiss.
    The room was frigid with arctic air conditioning. Half a dozen towering Cray super computers