Danny Huang called his team into his dorm room. He spoke in rapid Chinese.
“We have three weeks to put our plan in action and in that time, you must remember that at all times you are masquerading as members of the Armed Police Force, in training to guarantee the successful fulfillment of the G20 security mission. You have limited or no English, hence we are here to learn. One slip and you will jeopardize the mission.”
They nodded their understanding.
“That includes accidentally using our real names and not those of the officers we are meant to be. From now onwards, we will use our given names, not family names.”
“But they won’t match the given names of the officers we are replacing.” Kiang Hai stated the obvious.
“No,” Danny Huang agreed, “but we can say they are nicknames if they ask. Westerners love their nicknames and there’s less chance we’ll slip up. Besides, our names mean something. Your name, Kiang Hai—Hai means sea.”
“That fits,” Fan Wen said, “being a naval man.”
“I get it, named as such because of my love of the sea,” Hai agreed. “Good thinking—at least we are not learning new names.”
Danny Huang nodded and continued. “Fan Wen shall be Wen, a nickname meaning?”
“Cultured,” Fan Wen replied. “Yes, that’s me, a cultured frogman.” The small, compact man laughed at the prospect of being cultured given his poor upbringing.
“We could call you Froggy… because you take to the water like a frog and have a love of diving,” Hai suggested.
The men laughed. Danny Huang nodded. “I like that. Froggy you will be.”
Fan Wen grinned. “My mother would be so proud.”
Danny looked at the two navy men. “Right, Hai and Froggy, it is.”
He turned to the young communication whiz, Pan Ru.
“Ru means scholar, does it not?” Danny asked.
Pan Ru nodded.
“Then as you are here as a scholar to learn, Ru it is. The Americans will ‘rue’ the day you came to their shores.” Danny smirked. “And you can call me Danny or Sir depending on where we are. Danny can’t be traced to either my name or the police officer I’m supposed to be. We’ll say I selected it after a Western pen friend from my childhood. Understood?”
The men nodded.
Danny went to the fridge in the dorm room and opened it. It was stocked with water and Coke. He offered drinks to the men, then sat down with a bottle of water. He continued. “We have three days of classes from eight in the morning to midday Monday to Wednesday in English. Afternoons are for training with the US squad, Thursday, Friday and the weekend are ours to assimilate and practice, in theory. In this time block, we will follow a strict routine to get our work finished. You are to keep no written evidence of your work or findings; nothing that can be connected to us. Understood?”
Again, there was a general murmur of assent. Danny looked around the room.
“Hai and Froggy, you are responsible for the lifting of the VIP. With the help of young Ru on communications, you are to work closely with our Beijing team, know their every move, check and double-check when is the easiest time to perform the lift, remembering we need a clear window of ten hours to move the VIP before taking him offshore.” Danny moved to stand right in front of the two naval agents as they sat on the furniture around his dorm room. “Be prepared in case this should change. On Thursday morning, I want you to get down to Cape Hatteras and case the area. Check our tidal readings are correct and that the area our Beijing crew expects to access is workable and has the visibility we need. I want you to also prepare the VIP house.”
“What shall we say if we are asked why we chose to go there?” Froggy asked.
“We will say that a friend of Hai’s family once visited there and spoke highly of its history. Being keen divers, you wanted to dive around the wrecks. While in Cape Hatteras, monitor everything going on but stay below the radar. When we come down with the VIP, he needs to remain invisible while we wait for the connection. If you know the lay of the land, there should be no reason for anything to go wrong.”
Froggy and Hai nodded.
“And you will be practicing your English with the locals,” Danny said. “Remember it is broken English; you are here to learn, so don’t speak well. I doubt anyone will care too much about us moving around the tourist areas, we are cops after all.”
The group smiled at the irony of their new status.
“Ru,” Danny began, “I want everything the VIP says recorded and anything of note reported to me. It might be best to bug his phone as he’ll always have that with him. I will be meeting with him Wednesday night so give me whatever you need planted and instructions. I want summarized daily dialogue.”
“Yes, sir,” Ru nodded.
“I need to be sure the VIP does not get cold feet at the last moment,” Danny said.