Vauxhall Cross, London
ON THE THIRD FLOOR of the MI6 riverside building the China team was gathered round the table for the daily mid-morning review. When the unit was initially put together, at the direction of Felix Schauer, MI6’s Director Critical, there had been some suggestion of calling it the ‘China Crisis’ team. But then one of the older members present had pointed out that there was actually an eighties band of exactly that name. A short and completely irrelevant discussion had followed, while the only person in the room over the age of fifty tried, unsuccessfully, to remember any of that band’s songs. A lot had happened since then.
‘So the rescue mission is in play,’ said Jack Searle, the China desk head, sitting at the end of the table. ‘Top marks to the Chief for getting it authorized so quickly and of course we all hope it’s successful in freeing Hannah Slade so we can get our hands on the data we hope she was able to collect from Blue Sky.’
‘And simply for Hannah’s wellbeing,’ Angela reminded him.
‘Yes, yes, absolutely,’ replied Searle. ‘That goes without saying. But moving on, we can’t afford to be sitting on our hands while we wait for this treasure trove of raw CX intel from inside the heart of China’s war machine.’ He wagged a finger theatrically. ‘Effects team are already asking what else we can produce in short order that throws some light onto Beijing’s intentions,’ he went on. ‘It looks like Washington is blindsided in this area and they’re pretty much reliant on what we and some of our well-placed friends in the region can offer them.’
Unlike their American cousins, the CIA at Langley, MI6 did not have a vast team of in-house analysts. In Britain the analysis was done by the Joint Intelligence Committee in Whitehall or, if it was something technical and military, by Defence Intelligence out of RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire. Smaller, leaner and more focused than the CIA, the Secret Intelligence Service tended to concentrate its efforts on stealing hostile countries’ and organizations’ secrets and getting agents into dangerous places where they could best access those secrets.
‘So,’ continued Jack Searle, ‘let’s run through exactly what we’ve got in play. Lucia, let’s hear from you first.’
‘Microchips,’ replied the young secondee from Cheltenham. ‘They’ve become an obsession for Beijing.’
‘Go on.’
‘We’ve been taking a close look at China’s penetration efforts in the area of these semiconductors and, I have to say, they’re certainly persistent. They seem to be stepping up their efforts to get people inside the loop at the industrial park at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the TSMC. Taipei station report a recent uptick in both phishing attempts and active recruitment. They’re throwing everything at it. It’s almost as if Beijing cares more about getting its hands on Taiwan’s microchips than it does about taking the island.’
‘Hmm. So where are we exactly on “Maiden Run”?’ Jack again, his eyes shining brightly behind his Hammond & Dummer designer glasses.
‘Er … did you mean “Maiden Voyage”? Our double agent inside TSMC, yes?’ Lucia Freer was visibly uncomfortable at having to correct her boss in front of others. He seemed not to enjoy it either.
‘Yes. That’s the one,’ he retorted, frowning.
‘It’s a bit sensitive right now,’ she answered.
‘Isn’t it always? Why, what’s the problem?’
‘Well, thanks to some tech wizardry by Q Branch, he’s started sending us some low- to medium-grade material. It was looking promising but now our Taiwanese friends have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works. Seems they want to cut out the middle man, which is us, and run him themselves.’
‘Sounds reasonable to me,’ Jack said. ‘TSMC is their national asset after all. All right, let it play, and if it starts to look awkward we give Taipei what they want. Next item?’
A hand went up. Ginger hair, freckles, his voice a soft Scottish burr.
‘Yes, Donald?’
‘We’ve got the psych analysis back from Behavioural Science. If you recall, we asked them to work up a psych profile on each of the top members of the CCP’s Politburo?’
‘Good. I’ll read that with interest if I ever get a moment. Just give me the headlines for now, will you?’
Donald shuffled some papers in front of him, ordering them, then re-ordering them before looking back up at Jack. ‘Well, this won’t come as a surprise but all the men at the top are becoming increasingly ideological and at the same time ever more isolated from the population. It probably started about the time of the Third Party Congress, the whole disastrous zero-Covid policy and their endless city lockdowns in 2022. But the net result is we’ve got a bunch of ageing, insular loyalists running the country who view reunification with Taiwan as some sort of messianic goal. It’s become central to their belief in the survival of the Party.’
‘Right. Any dissent? Any voices against?’
‘There is one, yes. Or, rather, there was one. His name’s Mingze Zhu. An economist by training. He’s been warning them of the consequences if they make a move on Taiwan.’
‘And?’
‘He’s out of the Politburo. Last we heard he’s been banished to Urumchi in Xinjiang Province.’ Donald sighed. ‘Look, it really is a tight clique at the top of the CCP, a closed club, if you like. And when it comes to Taiwan there’s not so much as a fag paper between each of them. They’re speaking with one voice and they all seem to want to “take back” the island, whatever it costs them.’
‘Umm, can I just raise one more thing?’ Angela had her hand up, waiting to attract Jack’s attention. ‘You asked me to look more closely into Miss Xinyi Yip, remember? The lady who works for Rodrigues in Macau?’
‘I did, that’s right. What have you come up with?’
‘To be honest, she’s a bit of an enigma.’
‘Come on, Angela, you know we don’t like enigmas in this organization!’ His face was smiling but his eyes were not.
‘OK. If I had to put my money on it, I’d say she’s a floater. She moves between organizations. We know she works for Rodrigues, ergo she has underworld connections. We know she doesn’t work for the Canadians and she lied about that. Her tip about Lau, the man in Macau port, proved accurate, although we still don’t know for certain if Hannah is on that ship.’
Jack Searle folded his hands together and rested them on the table. ‘So what’s your conclusion?’
‘This is why I say she’s an enigma. Because my conclusion is … Miss Xinyi is both things at once. She is useful, and she is dangerous.’