The Project 01 - White Jade

The Fourth of July. " It was Selena. " That ' s five days from now. It ' s the only holiday coming up anytime soon. Big crowds for fireworks, traffic jams, lots of confusion. If they ' re going to try something soon, I ' d bet on that. "
    " That makes sense. " Tap, tap, tap on her desk. " I ' m going to have to give a heads up to Homeland Security. I can't go to the President yet. "
    " But how much can we tell them, " Nick said. " Whatever we give them is bound to leak. Yang will find out we ' re on to him. "
    " I only have to tell them enough to get them to raise the security watch. I can do that without giving away the store. The main thing is to get them on it. This is going to get complicated. "
    Elizabeth dreaded the nightmare of Washington bureaucracy. If the various agencies started putting in their two cents they ' d argue about what to do and how to do it and who would be in charge and form a joint task force. It would be next year before anything happened. There wasn ' t time for that.
    She made up her mind. " It ' s Homeland Security's job to be on the lookout for an attack. We can alert them, but that ' s all we can do and all we have to do. We ' ve got mobility the others don ' t and we need to take action. I want something to back up our analysis. "
    " How do we get that? " Carter reached under his jacket and adjusted his holster. He felt a headache start. He knew what was coming.
    " Right from the start everything has centered on the book. Yang wanted what's in it and now he has that. He has the same directions and information we do. His best chance at finding out anything more is to look for the place where the e mperor was taken. That ' s in Tibet . We need to get there before he does, document anything we find and block Yang from getting it. "
    " That area is pretty remote, " Carter said. " We c ould get in with minimal risk of detection, but how long will it take to find this place? We don ' t even know for sure it exists. "
    " We ' ll run satellite images and cross reference with the map in the book. If we can get a good idea where , we ' ll go in. "
    " Who ' s going? "
    " Don ' t worry, Ronnie, you ' re on the team. "
    " You need me along , " Selena said .
    "You don't know what you're asking," Carter said.
    " Y ou don't think a woman can do the tough stuff?"
    "That's not what I mean."
    "What do you mean?"
    "We'll have to jump in. It's rugged terrain and high altitude. If the Chinese are there it could get bad, fast."
    "I've been skydiving for years, I'm qualified. I have over seventy jumps. None of you speak the languages and you couldn't make sense of any writing you might come across. You need me."
    "It's not a goddamned farmer's field. It's the Himalayas, for Christ's sake."
    Selena just looked at him.
    Harker said, " Anyone on that team has to be armed , Selena . "
    " Guns don ' t bother me. "
    " They're not guns, they're weapons. H ow do you feel about shooting someone? You think you could do that?"
    Her heart started pounding. She took a deep breath. "If I had to."
    " You have a point about the language barrier. " Tap, tap.
    There was silence. After a moment Carter said, " How would we go in? "
    " I think a B-1B modified for Special Ops , out of Dyess. That plane is perfect for high altitude penetration . Chinese radar won ' t pick it up. With a small team we can give you a vehicle, supplies, everything you need. How many personnel do you want? "
    " Fewer is better, " said Ronnie. " If we run into opposition, more bodies won ' t get us out of trouble and we lose mobility with more. Keep it small. "
    " Nick? "
    " I agree with Ronnie. One vehicle, weapons, a few days of supplies. In light and out as fast as we can. But I want to know exactly what we ' re getting into before we get on that plane. "
    " We ' ll get as much intel as we can. " Harker's pen tapped, went still. " Selena, I ' m willing to put you on the team but I want Nick to get you familiar with the weapons you ' ll have to carry. "
    " That ' s fine by me. "
    " Wait a minute, " Nick said. " Selena's not combat trained. "
    " Then I guess you'd better get her up to speed. She goes. We don ' t have a lot of time. Yang and his people are going to get there as fast as they can . We have to beat them to it. "
    "You're putting us at risk."
    "She goes." Harker's voice had an edge in it. Carter had heard it before. It was her don't-fuck-with-me voice.
    He gave in. " When do we leave? "
    " We have to set up transport and supplies and get a