The Project 01 - White Jade

without being discovered and punished.
    If it wasn ' t money, what else would motivate Yang? Wu had sent his Sergeant to fetch a book. What was in it? Had he been successful? Yao would assign a team to Choy when he arrived home. General Yang was in Beijing and surveillance would begin immediately. Colonel Wu was in San Francisco , but that was no obstacle. Yao would contact his agent in the Consulate and give him instructions.
    Yao looked out the window. He decided to elevate Yang and Wu to priority level. Until he found out what they were doing, they were under suspicion of being enemies of the State, distinguished careers or not. Yao trusted his instincts. He would find out what was going on, it was only a matter of time.
    He put his hands behind his head, leaned back and looked out into the hazy air of Beijing . Yang was up to something treasonous, he could feel it. Yao breathed deeply of the smog and felt the exhilaration of the hunt beginning.

Chapter Twenty- Four

    Selena made herself at home in the spare bedroom . She had some things sent over from her rooms at the Mayflower.
    Carter's apartment was minimal in terms of decoration. A good copy of a Paul Klee painting h ung over the couch . The carpet was a neutral tan . There were Japanese woodcuts on one of the walls. The furniture was European Modern, clean and functional.
    Ronnie sat on the couch, reading a magazine. He ' d set up shop next door. The book was locked up back at the Project . Selena had scanned it onto her laptop and was working on the translation.
    Carter was in the kitchen putting together a salad and pasta . He liked salad and pasta. It didn't challenge his culinary skills, which were minimal at best. Selena's cell phone rang. He heard her talking, voice excited and pleased.
    She paused, covered the phone. " This is an old friend, Cathy Chen. We used to go out and have drinks, go dancing, that kind of thing. She ' s here in Washington and want s to get together. We ' re not supposed to be out on the town, but I thought she could come over here and we could talk. You don ' t mind, do you? "
    " No, o f course not. "
    Selena gave directions and hung up.
    " I need to let security know downstairs. When is she coming? "
    " She said it would take about half an hour. "
    " Then we ' d better eat. Everything ' s ready. "
    " Best news I ' ve heard today, " said Ronnie from the couch.
    Carter set the food on the table and cracked a bottle of Pinot. He called security and told the guard to expect Selena ' s friend . They sat down.
    " How are you doing with the translation? "
    " I ' ve got the Sanskrit done and I ' m making progress with the Linear A. It ' s all here on my laptop. You remember I told you one of the ingredients for the elixir was something called burning silver rocks ? "
    " Yes? "
    " The text says the silver rock turns black . The directions say to crush the rocks and leach them with what is probably some kind of acid. That turns the rock gold, or at least yellow in color. I've never seen the particular word construction before. Then you powder the result and mix it with the other ingredients in a liquid infusion. Or maybe it ' s a solution. "
    " Sounds like Alchemy. The Alchemists were always trying to turn th ings into gold. "
    " T his formula already contains gold. I have an idea about those rocks. I think they ' re uranium ore, extremely high grade. I asked Stephanie to program my translation into her scenarios to see what comes up. We ' ll know tomorrow. "
    " How do you figure uranium? "
    " W hat kind of rocks ' burn ' ? There's not h ing in the text about heating them. The only thing I could think of is something radioactive. I did some research . U ranium ore can be silver in color. It oxidizes and turns black. "
    " China has uranium deposits. Why would that interest Yang? "
    " China ' s deposits are poor quality. It takes a lot of processing to get anything you can use . "
    " Like for bombs? " Ronnie asked.
    " Yes. If th o se rocks are from a high grade deposit, Yang would want to know where it was . There ' s only one known deposit like that in the world, in Saskatchewan . The Canadians get as much as seventy-five percent useful refinement from their raw material. The regular stuff produces only one or two percent. "
    " That would give Yang something to speed up China ' s nu kes program. It makes more sense than hunting for an elixir of life. " Carter drank some wine.
    Ronnie buttered a piece of sourdough bread and took a large