Beijing

Mei Ling sat in the back of an Audi limousine taking her to a meeting with President Li. She was a petite figure, with short black hair, who no one would have guessed would be celebrating her sixtieth birthday in January.

Her face was virtually unlined as a result, she was convinced, of a herbal compound she diligently applied each evening. What was most striking about Mei Ling was her eyes. They were coal black and when she stared at people, her eyes cut into them like lasers.

The Audi was stuck in gridlock traffic. Nothing Mei Ling could do about that, so she didn’t fret. Instead, she closed those coal black eyes and reflected on the long rollercoaster ride which had been her life.

Her father had for decades been a close confidant of Mao’s. That made her practically Chinese aristocracy with all the perks she wanted, one of which was two years at Stanford University in California following her Chairmanship of the Party Youth League. When Mao turned on her father, as he did most of his colleagues late in life, her father was sent to prison, tortured, and executed. She became an outcast. Reinstatement came at Mao’s death.

Her father’s friends engineered a meteoric rise for Mei Ling in the Chinese political leadership. Recognizing the importance of her years at Stanford in terms of understanding the United States, she was given a seat on the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee and was elevated to Chairman a year later. She became a member of the Politburo and the Central Advisory Commission.

With her influential connections, she arranged the appointment of her husband, Admiral Xu, to be Commander of the Chinese navy. She wanted to catapult him to Commander of all the Armed Forces. But General Zhou was too powerful in the military.

With her encouragement, her husband displayed enormous courage in defying General Zhou, the head of the Chinese Armed Forces, when he tried to implement Operation Dragon Oil—a plot with Iran to cut off the flow of foreign oil to the United States. Though she could never prove it, Mei Ling was convinced that General Zhou, every bit as evil as Mao, had her husband murdered and made it seem like a heart attack.

Mei Ling recalled with pride that she had thwarted General Zhou’s Operation Dragon Oil. It was only because she had delivered to Elizabeth Crowder a copy of Zhou’s agreement with Iran that the Americans were able to foil his plot.

Afterwards, she fled to the house of friends in the country outside of Beijing where she went into hiding to escape General Zhou’s wrath. Once she learned that General Zhou had left China in exile, she returned to Beijing and resumed her life, spending time with the country’s political elite.

The car began moving again, only to stop thirty seconds later. Normally, she would have been cursing the traffic, but today she had something else dominating her thoughts. How odd the call was that she had received this morning from President Li. “I want you to come and see me,” he had said. “It’s quite urgent and confidential.” She had no idea what he wanted.

An hour later, the interminable drive ended. After she was ushered into President Li’s office, overlooking Tiananmen Square, all of his aides quietly withdrew. It was only Mei Ling and President Li.

He looked pale, ashen, and was moving slowly. He’s a sick man, she thought, trying to remember the last time she’d seen him. It must have been two weeks. He looked bad then, but nothing like this.

He pointed to a sofa in a corner of the office. She sat while he slumped down in a leather chair facing her. His skin seemed chalky white. She was afraid for him. She wanted to say, “What’s wrong?” But it wasn’t up to her. It was his meeting and he was the Chinese president. She had to be patient.

“I’ve been diagnosed with colon cancer,” he said.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Actually, the doctors made the diagnosis some time ago.” He paused and took a deep breath. “Perhaps I didn’t want to believe it.
I thought by ignoring it, I could make it go away.”

“I’ve done that from time to time myself with medical issues,” she said, sounding sympathetic.

“Well at any rate, it’s become aggressive. My primary doctor has wanted to do surgery for some time. But I found another doctor who thought he could treat it with herbal medicine. So I tried that in an effort to avoid surgery. It hasn’t helped. I’ve run out of options. I’m having the surgery in five days. The surgeon believes they can save my life.”

“I’m very happy to hear that.”

“I’ve kept all this confidential. Even my top aides don’t know.”

She wondered why he told her. She had never considered herself close enough that he would confide information like this.

As if reading her mind, he said, “I’m afraid I won’t survive the surgery.”

“But you just told me that your surgeon believes he can save your life. You should accept his judgment. He’s the expert. Of course you’ll survive. And recover.”

“You don’t understand.” President Li’s voice was weak.

She leaned forward to hear him.

“Or I’m not making myself clear.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m convinced something will happen to me in the surgery. That I’ll die.”

She was stunned. “What do you mean?”

“We both know General Zhou. He’d give anything to become
president of China.”

“But he’s in exile.”

“His brother’s here. And extremely powerful.”

“Put soldiers in the operating room.”

“I will, but they’ll be useless. That’s not how Zhou and his brother will do it. They’re too smart. There will be a medical accident. An unexplained cause of death. The same way your husband supposedly had a heart attack. That’s how they do things.”

“You should thoroughly check everyone who will be in the operating room.”

He smiled faintly. “I’ve thought of that. It can’t be done exhaustively.”

“Then have the surgery done abroad. In the United States, Paris, or London.”

“Do you know how bad that would look from a PR standpoint?”

“Then please tell me what you want me to do. How I can keep such a dreadful thing from occurring? How I can save your life? I’ll do anything.”

He closed his eyes and leaned back for a long moment. When he opened them, his face was distorted. “Sorry, sometimes I have waves of pain.”

“What can I do?” she repeated.

“Nothing about the surgery. But afterwards.”

“Afterwards what?”

“I’ve spoken with members of the Central Committee. I’m convinced that if I die during the surgery…”

“You won’t die.”

He ignored her words and continued. “That a majority of them will support you to be the next president of China.”

“They would never accept a woman.”

“I thought that initially. But I realized from these conversations that I was wrong. People on the Central Committee admire your work on the Politburo and the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee. Also, I’ve let them know privately what a key role you played in thwarting General Zhou’s Operation Dragon Oil. They would prefer you to General Zhou.”

“Has he been talking to members of the Central Committee about the Presidency?”

“His brother has. And spreading around money. Should I die, a group within the Central Committee wants to bring General Zhou back from exile and make him president. Right now, I believe they are a minority, but…”

She finished the thought for President Li. “I’ve learned never to underestimate General Zhou and his brother, Zhou Yun. They are capable of anything.”

“I agree. If you challenge him for the presidency, you should have armed guards around the clock. You’ll be putting your life at risk. Are you prepared to do that?”

She nodded her head vigorously. “Anything to prevent General Zhou from becoming president.”