Between Destiny and Duty: A Chuck McCain Novel- Book Two Read online

  McCain and Fleming were soon heading North, looking forward to seeing their families in Virginia.

  THE PEN CENTRE MALL, ST. CATHERINES, CANADA, SATURDAY, 1140 HOURS

  Jennifer Hughes sipped from a Starbucks cup as she slowly moved through the mall, pretending to window shop as she waited on their target to arrive. A specially molded earpiece was deep in her right ear canal, covered by her shoulder length, sandy-blonde hair. She listened for the team leader to alert them when the Chinese agent showed up.

  Pen Centre was only a single story and much smaller than most American malls. Jennifer’s partner, Chloe Wilkerson, was paralleling her on the next corridor over. While Hughes was a petite Caucasian, Wilkerson was a muscular African-American woman. Rather than sipping coffee, Chloe carried a bottle of water. She, too, wore an earpiece, waiting for some news. A stylish gray stocking cap covered her ears to keep anyone from noticing the communications device.

  The third member of the observation team sat on a bench at the rear of the mall, near the food court. A black leather jacket covered Tu Trang Donaldson’s solid frame. A Buffalo Bills cap sat on his head as he stared at his smartphone, the perfect image of a patient husband waiting on his wife in the packed shopping center.

  “Alpha One to all units,” team leader Jay Walker’s voice transmitted, “it looks like our boy has arrived. He’s heading towards entrance one. Alpha Three, you’re the closest,” Walker told Jennifer. “See if you can get eyes on him.

  “Alpha Four, move towards the food court. That’s the probable location of the meet. He’s wearing a black running suit and matching shoes. He has a bodyguard with him wearing gray slacks and a blue blazer.”

  “Alpha Three,” Hughes acknowledged.

  “Alpha Four’s clear,” Wilkerson answered.

  “Alpha Five, if he’s going to the food court, he’ll probably walk right by you.”

  “I’m clear,” Tu said, standing and striding across the corridor to a Cole’s Bookstore. He entered and began scouring a clearance rack near the entrance.

  Walker sat in the back of a windowless gray van in the rear parking lot of the mall. The former Navy Master Chief and SEAL Team Six member calmly took a sip of steaming black coffee from his stainless steel Yeti travel mug, waiting for the operation to unfold. Gabriella Vargas sat beside him, loudly chewing a large wad of bubble gum, two computer screens providing multiple views from the mall’s security system that the young woman had easily hacked into. Her fingers were a blur as she typed, giving them the best camera angles.

  They watched the tall Chinese man glance over his shoulder as he entered the mall, his shorter bodyguard holding the door open for his boss. Major Wang Lei Chen of the Chinese Ministry of State Security-International Intelligence Division carried himself with a military bearing, though clearly trying to appear casual, wearing the Nike running suit, a leather computer bag slung over his shoulder.

  “Alpha One to Alpha Two, status check?” Jay called to the last member of their team.

  “Alpha Two, just sitting here enjoying this beautiful Canadian weather,” Southern California native and former SEAL Chris Norris answered from the opposite end of the mall, watching a snow plow push the fresh snow into piles while clearing lanes for people to drive through. April in Canada was cold and the dark skies gave the promise of another winter storm. Norris sat in the driver’s seat of a white Hyundai Tucson with dark windows, allowing the CIA operative to also watch the closed-circuit cameras on his iPad Pro tablet.

  “Any sign of the police or mall security on your side?” Walker asked.

  “Negative. I’m guessing they’re some place warm, sipping something hot.”

  “Alpha One clear.”

  Jay had seen two bored mall cops wandering around the inside of Pen Centre on the video feed. They were both currently flirting with a pretty blonde in the jewelry store near the front of the mall. The cameras followed the two Chinese men down the corridor towards the food court. Chen paused, scanning the seating area of white tables and red chairs. After a moment, the intelligence officer said something to his companion, walked over to the restrooms adjacent to the eating area, and disappeared inside the men’s room.

  Instead of following Chen, the bodyguard got into line to order at the Thai Express, pointedly looking around as he waited on his boss’s lunch to be prepared.

  “Alpha One to all units,” Walker transmitted. “Target scoped out the food court and then went into the men’s room. His body language seemed to say his contact hasn’t arrived yet. The bodyguard is ordering at the Thai place.”

  “Alpha Three moving into position,” Hughes said, quietly.

  “Alpha Four to Alpha One, I’m in position now, right behind the food court. You want me to go grab a table? It’s starting to fill up.”

  “Ten-four, Alpha Four. Go get some lunch and let’s see what happens.”

  Chloe ordered a chicken burrito bowl from the Mucho Burrito Mexican Grill. The target was taking his time in the restroom and Wilkerson seated herself on the far edge of the food court, allowing her to see not only rest of the tables, but also to keep an eye on the row of restaurants.

  She watched the short, stocky Chinese man out of the corner of her eye at the Thai Express counter. Chloe scanned him for weapons, noticing the bulge of a pistol on his right hip.

  “Looks like the bodyguard is packing,” Wilkerson transmitted quietly to the rest of the team, holding her phone up as if she were sending an audio message.

  After getting his meal, the bodyguard took the tray, seating himself five tables over from Chloe. A few minutes later, Chen returned from the restroom. The bodyguard immediately stood and withdrew as the operative seated himself. He laid his briefcase in the chair next to him and took a bite of his lunch. The bodyguard stood just outside the food court, far enough away where he would not hear anything his boss and his guest talked about but close enough to respond to any threat.

  Walker wished he had a bigger team, but this had been a hastily thrown together operation. Kevin Clark, the new Director of Operations for the CIA, had just briefed Jay on the mission three days earlier. Clark was still in the process of rebuilding operations. The new director of the agency, Larry Purvis, was under orders from the president himself to give Kevin free reign in getting the ops directorate back to full strength with experienced people.

  Jay, Chris, Jennifer, and Tu all worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. Wilkerson, and Vargas were both contractors. Their full-time employer, Century Tactical Solutions, had an arrangement with the CIA in which they often supplemented missions requiring certain skillsets. Gabriella was brought on for her computer-hacking skills. Chloe had a background in intelligence from the Army and had worked for the Agency before. She excelled at surveillance and blending into her surroundings.

  Director Clark had tasked Walker with moving quickly to put the pieces in place to spy on Chen’s meeting. Even though the Ministry of State Security operative was based at the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, he had been on the radar of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency for several years, traveling regularly to the U.S. The major was a suspect behind several cyber attacks in America but his diplomatic passport had protected him so far. To stop, detain, or arrest Chen would provoke an international incident unless the United States government had overwhelming evidence of his crimes.

  The NSA had finally managed to hack into one of the Chinese agent’s primary email accounts and discovered that he had been communicating with someone inside the United States, apparently trying to recruit them. The NSA quickly passed the intel onto the CIA. The emails from Chen to his superior in Beijing indicated that the person he was trying to recruit was a potentially important asset. Weng Lei had given his target the code-name of “Big Dragon.”

  For the Chinese, recruiting Americans as spies had become a common occurrence. In many cases, the goal was to steal military or business technology or proprietary information of some sort. It is estimat
ed that the Chinese steal as much as five-hundred billion dollars a year from the U.S. in technology, along with the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets.

  In other situations, Americans had been recruited to provide top-secret information to the Chinese. One of the most famous cases took place from 2010 to 2012. Chinese agents were able to recruit a former spy from the CIA, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, who sold them an entire network of Agency operatives and informants inside of China. At least twenty people were imprisoned or executed because of the traitor’s information. If the Big Dragon was on Chen’s radar, he was potentially in a position to provide sensitive and strategic intelligence to the Chinese. Kevin’s team was tasked with finding out the identity of the mystery recruit.

  Aaron Richards stood in the corridor near the Landmark Cinema adjacent to entrance six of the mall. He had parked his rented Ford delivery van next to the loading docks between entrances five and six, walking in carrying an empty box and a clipboard. He soon found himself in the storage area for the Dollar Store, a fixture for every mall on the planet, Richards surmised. He dropped the box and the clipboard, slipped into the store, and then out into the corridor.

  Now, he stood behind a sunglasses pagoda that was parked in the middle of the walkway. Aaron pretended to look at the shades as he stole glances into the food court. With my size, I’ll take any advantage I can get, Aaron thought. He was six-foot four inches tall and a steroid-enhanced two-hundred and forty pounds. Today, he was wearing a black beanie, a heavy black coat and dark jeans. He had shaved off his goatee and was wearing a pair of clear glasses. The comforting weight of a full-size Springfield .45 ACP pistol was tucked into his waistline.

  The Chinese spook was sitting on the near side of the food court, eating and occasionally looking around. Another scan of the area revealed the bodyguard, trying to appear unobtrusive, standing nearby. Most of the tables were occupied, the Saturday shoppers pausing to replenish themselves. Aaron took a deep breath. This was a big step and there would be no return once he crossed the threshold and approached the Chinese agent.

  The man who had contacted him through his LinkedIn page six months earlier had given his name as “Joseph Lee.” Aaron had set up his page after being fired from the CIA. As a former Army Special Forces soldier before his time with the Agency, Richards had decided to pursue the military contractor route, knowing his skills should translate into some good money.

  The large man was still furious over being fired. That son-of-a-bitch, Kevin Clark, the new ops director, had terminated him for “conduct unbecoming an agent.” The previous ops chief had sent him and his team to apprehend or terminate a rogue agent, Jennifer Hughes. As it turned out, Hughes had not been a traitor at all, but deep under cover in an effort to take down the former CIA Director, Maxwell Sterling.

  Unbeknownst to Sterling, he had starred in a porn video with two underage girls. Not long after he became aware of the video’s existence, Maxwell had been asked to join the Democratic Presidential ticket as the vice-presidential candidate. Of course, Sterling had to recover the movies and attempted to use Agent Hughes to locate “evidence in the war on terror.” After Jennifer discovered what she was really looking for, she had managed to turn the tables on Sterling and bring him down.

  When Maxwell realized that he had been double-crossed, he issued an “Apprehend or Terminate” order for Hughes. Aaron and his team were unable to locate the woman, but how was he supposed to have known she had video cameras throughout her apartment? Director Clark had shown Aaron the video of him digging through Jennifer’s underwear drawer, rubbing a number of the soft garments against his face. Richards had really hoped the hot rogue agent would’ve been in her apartment. He had planned on “interrogating” her on the bed before killing her.

  There’s no way that playing with lacy underwear was a firing offense, the former agent thought bitterly. He wondered if Clark had been able to access his military records. Probably. He is the ops director for the CIA, after all. If he read that report of me being kicked out of the Special Forces because of that little Afghan teen-hottie, that might’ve influenced his decision. Maybe, I’ll cross paths with Kevin Clark again he thought with a grim smile. I’d love to give him a little payback for terminating me.

  Well, that was all water under the bridge now, Aaron thought. After posting his LinkedIn profile, a message from Joseph Lee had popped up almost immediately wanting to discuss a job as a “security consultant.” Knowing that LinkedIn was only the starting point for a conversation, Aaron had given Lee an email address and they had begun corresponding. The emails had led to several phone calls, Zoom chats, and eventually Lee’s request for their first meeting two months earlier.

  The Chinese and the American had met for lunch at a nondescript restaurant in Potomac, Maryland. Joseph had asked a number of questions, trying to pull data out of Richards about his military background. At the same time, the former Green Beret had only given bits and pieces of information while attempting to obtain some knowledge of who he was really dealing with in Mr. Lee. Richards already suspected he was with one of China’s intelligence services. That did not necessarily bother the American, knowing that he could enrich himself if he didn’t get caught.

  After the pleasantries had been exchanged in the first meeting, Lee got down to business.

  “I deal in information, Mr. Richards. If you can provide that, I believe we can help each other.”

  “What kind of information are you looking for?”

  “Originally, I was most interested in up-to-date intelligence on the American Special Forces. However, I recently discovered that you were also employed by the CIA for over a year. I understand why you would not put that on your LinkedIn profile but it is very interesting to me. I am sure you have some fascinating information from your time there. This could be worth a lot of money, Mr. Richards.”

  Aaron had a pretty good poker face, but he struggled not to show his surprise. How did this guy know that he had worked for the CIA? Then again, if he was a spook for China, he probably had sources within different American agencies. The former spy did not consider himself a traitor, but a mercenary. If the Chinese wanted to pay him for his knowledge, skills, and expertise, he would be happy to take their cash.

  The location for this second meeting had surprised the American. Why Canada? The more he had thought about it, though, the more it had made sense. The U.S. had no jurisdiction in the country to the north and Lee and Richards would both be safe from arrest— except for the illegal pistol I’m carrying, Aaron smiled to himself.

  This is a big step, he thought. I sure don’t owe that bastard Uncle Sam anything after the way I’ve been treated. Hopefully, today’s meeting would end up being a nice payday. After checking the area again and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, Aaron walked over and seated himself across from the man he knew as Joseph Lee.

  Chloe recognized Richards as soon as he sat down with Chen. He had been a part of the operations directorate at the Agency while she was there. They hadn’t worked together but she would never forget that smirk. Jennifer had told her that he had repeatedly pressured her to go out, even after Hughes had told him she wasn’t interested and was already in a relationship.

  Walker’s voice transmitted over everyone’s earpieces. “We’ve got a big white male that just joined the Chinese agent. We’re running pics through our photo recognition software.”

  Wilkerson shifted in her seat, concerned that Aaron might recognize her. He had pointedly looked around as he had joined Chen, his eyes glancing over and then moving on. The young woman stood, turning her back to the two men, gathered her tray, and moved out of the food court, pausing to throw her trash away. She needed to alert the rest of the team but had to get clear of Richard’s line-of-sight first.

  “Mr. Richards, it is a pleasure to see you again,” Lee’s English was perfect, with the hint of a British accent.

  Aaron nodded at his companion, watching the muscular black girl stand up
from several tables down and walk away. She’s spent some time in the gym, he thought appreciatively, taking in her disappearing backside.

  “Do you have something for me?” the Chinese agent asked, wiping his mouth with a paper napkin.

  After being fired from the CIA, Aaron had been struggling to make ends meet. He really hoped that this meeting would lead to consistent work and compensation. He had given a lot of thought in preparation for today, trying to decide what a foreign government might pay for.

  He withdrew a thumb-drive from the inside pocket of his jacket and slid it across the table. Without a word, Lee pulled out his laptop from the leather bag, and inserted the memory disk into the side. A few keystrokes later, Aaron saw the other man’s eyebrows rise as he stared at the screen.

  “Ah, very good, Mr. Richards. This is very good, indeed.”

  The former CIA agent had listed the names and personal details of every agent he knew in the ops directorate, field agents, analysts, along with a number of agents he had crossed paths with overseas when he was a Green Beret. He even listed people that he had contact with in the HR Division of the Agency. If Lee was a Chinese spook, any of these names was a potential contact.

  The CIA was a large organization with over twenty-thousand employees. This document barely scratched the surface, but still provided Lee with some excellent intelligence. The Chinese agent stared at the screen for several minutes before ejecting the thumb drive and placing it and the lap top into his bag.

  Lee withdrew a thick 5x7 manilla envelope and handed it Richards.

  “There’s $25,000 dollars. There’s also a bonus gift inside. It’s an encrypted smart phone to allow us to communicate better.”

  Aaron opened the package, the stacks of one-hundred dollar bills jammed inside with the phone, feeling a sense of relief with the influx of cash. He folded the envelope and put it into an inside jacket pocket. Something had been digging away at Richards’ subconscious for the last several minutes. He looked around the area again, still not seeing anything out of the ordinary.