Vauxhall Cross, London
‘I’VE CALLED YOU all in here,’ announced Jack Searle, head of the China team, ‘because the Chief wants an update on exactly what intelligence we think is on the flash drive that Hannah may still have in her possession. I’m talking about the raw CX she went to collect from Blue Sky in that Hong Kong café before she got lifted.’
There were nine people around the table that afternoon and not a single Chinese among them. Jenny Li was a notable exception in the Service. Other than her it was proving too difficult to get candidates with Chinese backgrounds through the rigorous Developed Vetting process. Donald, the lone Scotsman on the team, raised his hand.
‘Yes, Donald?’
‘A question,’ he began. ‘I hate to mention the elephant in the room but we’ve now got three missing people on this operation and surely our priority needs to be tracking down Jenny and Luke. Plus, is there not a risk that this entire operation is compromised after Angela’s phone was hacked?’
There was an audible intake of breath at the mention of Angela Scott. The chair she normally sat in was now occupied by someone else. Her absence was an awkward reminder that one of the most loyal, stalwart intelligence officers in the Service was also responsible for the worst breach of digital security anyone could remember.
‘I hear you,’ Searle retorted, ‘I really do. But Security Section is taking care of all that and they’re working closely with Taipei station. We’re sending two officers out there to help with the search. Now, Lucia. Your thoughts, please.’
Still only in her twenties, the girl on secondment from GCHQ sometimes found it hard to believe how much responsibility she was being given so early on in her career. The next-youngest person in the room was twelve years her senior. Lucia was also sufficiently new to the job to be unfazed by the low pay and long hours.
‘I’ve been going through the whole file on Op Boxer with Donald,’ she said, ‘and there’s no question that Li Qiang Zhou was incredibly well-placed. So—’
‘Please use his designated codename, Lucia, if you don’t mind,’ interrupted Searle. ‘Thank you.’
Blushing, Lucia pressed on. ‘Sorry. Blue Sky was incredibly well-placed inside the Central Military Commission. He had top-level clearance, which gave him access to practically everything. So what we’ve done is to produce a shortlist – well, a sort of shopping list, if you like – of all the areas of interest to us that he could, in theory, have placed on that drive.’ She looked across at Donald. ‘D’you want to …?’
‘Yes, I can pick it up from here.’ Donald nodded. ‘Let’s start with procurement.’
‘No, let’s not,’ interrupted Jack Searle once more. ‘We’re in the middle of a full-blown crisis in the South China Sea. The Chief wants something she can take to the Joint Intelligence Committee. She’s not going to want to hear about long-term future items, like procurement. Can we cut to the good stuff?’
Now it was Donald’s turn to blush. ‘Of course, Jack,’ he said. ‘So Blue Sky would have known exactly what the Central Committee’s plans for Taiwan are. He would have known if they were serious about going for a full-on invasion or just bluffing in order to put the squeeze on Taipei. He’d have known about timings, troop movements, requisitions of commercial shipping to get troops across the Strait. But most of all,’ and here he exchanged a knowing glance with Lucia, ‘he would have had access to the launch codes for their entire arsenal of hypersonic missiles.’