Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) (17 page)

Closer investigation of
the vessel proved beyond doubt that the tsunami wave that destroyed Qatar
originated on the vessel.  The Admiral’s log provided conclusive proof of the
origin of the devastating tsunami in Indonesia and contained the exact text of
the order to sink Qatar and destroy the Chinese conquerors there.  Doctor
Rostov and President Orlov’s gamble, unfortunate for the comrades yet
beneficial for the Chinese, provided all the excuse they needed to set the ‘walkers’
loose on their former ally, Russia.

Since the time that Orlov
brought prosperity and order back to Russia after the lawless period of the
oligarchs’ reign, a cohort of Chinese merchants had spread without settling
down around the country.  Though most resided in The Far Eastern Federal
Districts, many traded even in Moscow.  Chou’s fury at Orlov’s apparent arrogance
and treachery in attacking Qatar, justified opening up a new front, even though
the Russians denied responsibility for the attack vociferously.  The new
Chinese conqueror harnessed Chinese nationals and seeded them with small drones
in Moscow in addition to focusing the attention of all of the dormant ‘walkers’
in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on pillage in Russia.

****

Despite Lau's official promotion to general,
Chou kept him waiting in an anteroom before ushering his technical genius into
his newly refurbished living quarters at the command post of the original
staging ground for ‘The Second Long March’.  Lau hadn’t seen Chou for some time
and was curious if recognition had changed the man.  Outwardly, he wore the
same shapeless blue cotton outfit sported during the Cultural Revolution by
diehard communists. 
There’s something else.  He’s exuding a different
energy, more sure, more comfortable in his plans. 
When Chou spoke, his
tone had changed.  He dispensed with the usual Chinese formalities and went
straight to the point of the meeting.

“General Lau, have you
brought me good news?” Chou asked.  Without giving the younger officer a chance
to respond, he continued: “Is the upgrade ready?”

“As you know, Sir, this
programming of an upgrade of this magnitude is-” Lau wanted to ensure that the
effort was appreciated.

“No more excuses Lau. 
My ‘walkers’ were advancing on Moscow and this morning I received news that
they've stalled once again.  Most of them are malingering in the suburbs
instead of making for the center of the city and the banking district.”

At that moment, Lau
noticed a new solid gold statue of Mao Zedong on a pedestal in the corner.  It
became apparent only because Chou absentmindedly clapped his hands to emphasize
his power over Lau and in doing so he activated the statue’s lighting system. 
Lau saw it, and its significance immediately. 
Gone is the pretense of the
peasant marching with Mao,
he thought.
  His true character is rising to
the surface like the bile from poor quality food.

“It is ready, Sir.”

“When will you upload?”

“I have completed the
upload, Sir.  The future is awaiting your command. You may confirm it with just
one click of the mouse.”

Chou beamed at Lau’s
bowing and scraping and stood up to leave the room and go to the underground
command post.

“General Chou, Sir. Please
be at ease. I programmed a secure direct connection for your personal use here
in your quarters.  From now on you may command replenishments and speed up or
slow down the progress of your troops at will.”

Lau handed Chou a tool
similar to a remote car starter.  The general turned it over in his hands
admiring the way it fit in his palm. 
This man never ceases to amaze me with
his abilities.  Perhaps, if his program succeeds I will free his mother.  She’s
almost dead of old age anyway.  I lose nothing now and perhaps he will work
harder still.  I’ll just take a little insurance.  Having that reporter in my
grasp’ll keep him enthusiastic.  Yes.  That’s what I’ll do, thought Chou.

“Allow me, Sir,"
said Lau as he took the control apparatus in his hand and demonstrated its
workings.  “First open your plasma screen at the battlefield view station. 
Next, point and laser click on the word menu on the screen.  You may also touch
the screen if you prefer instead of using the controller.  Now, you can see
your ‘walkers’ in the drone’s nose camera.  Simply either touch the screen menu
to replenish or use the laser from a distance to accomplish the same task. 
Last, watch the immediate outcome on your soldiers on the ground.”

As they spoke a group
of very lethargic men on the ground in the Moscow suburbs rose to attention and
started organizing to march into town.  The drone then autonomously searched
out other groups of Chinese ‘walkers’.  Each group sprang to life in the same
manner.  The plasma screen then moved into satellite mode and Chou saw how all
of the drones were replenishing spent carbon suits and engaging his troops.

“General Lau.  I
commend you and your work.  It is truly impressive.  These treacherous Russian
scum will learn about stabbing me in the back.  They will pay for trying to
kill my troops in Qatar.  I am so pleased that I will send for your mother and
see to it that she joins you here at the command post.  Soon you will have a
new home to accommodate the two of you.”

Lau couldn’t help
himself.  A tear escaped from his left eye before he managed to gain control. 

“There's plenty of room
where I am now, Sir. No need for the expense of a new bunker.”

He had not seen his
beloved mother for almost ten years because of this man.  She was not harmed
but isolated in an inhospitable village and Lau had only been permitted to
communicate once a year with her.  As each anniversary approached, Lau had been
obliged to come up with some dramatic plan to either aggrandize the general’s
power or increase his wealth using computer technology.

Chou noticed the tear
and grinned. 
So easy to manipulate this type.  Weak fool almost burst into
tears.  Wait ’til he finds out what I have planned for his reporter.

Lau fawned.

“Thank you general. I
will serve you with even more dedication as a result.”

Chou clapped his hands
once more.  This time, for Lau to leave.  The statue of Mao lit up again.  Just
like an 80s remote control system.  Lau left the room in a slightly bowed
position.  Chou stared at the screen, watching the Chinese ‘walkers’ taking
possession of Moscow.  After Lau left the general’s quarters, his own suit
reactivated itself. 
So, the general had someone develop a safety zone for
him.  The carbon suits don’t work in his proximity.  I’m pleased he freed my
mother, but it just makes escape harder for me.  All that work finding her and
planning her escape for nothing.  Will I ever get out of his grasp?

The general licked his
lips and rubbed his hands together as he watched the screen in front of him. 
Awakened and revitalized by the stronger, longer lasting replenishments
engineered by General Lau, the Chinese covered the distance to Moscow at
lightning speed.  Resistance was futile.  The Russians had seen the lack of
impact of atomic weapons on the invaders at Armageddon Valley and they
surrendered without a fight to the immense gray wall, a sandstorm of nanofog,
encroaching on Moscow’s city limits.  Pandemonium ensued.  In the Far Eastern
Republics, the call to arms was ‘women’.  The shortage of women in their
Chinese homelands and republics enlivened the cohort’s desire to possess the
women of Moscow and the Far East.  Female slavery became a tool of war.

Chou zoomed the drone’s
nose camera in on a group of people standing paralyzed with fear in front of an
apartment block built in Stalin's time.  The ‘walkers’ approached and a line of
nanofog, specially color-coded: red in one direction, blue in the other,
surrounded them. After it encircled the Russians and the men grabbed their
heads and fell to the ground, blood pouring from their ears.  The women
sashayed towards the Chinese and took their places on one of thousands of
commandeered transport vehicles that followed the advance.  They would be
brought to buildings where they would await their returning heroes. 
All
according to plan.  To think I toyed with giving the Russians the secret of the
nanofog and joining forces with them. 
For a time, ransacked Russian
resources would stabilize the Renminbi, but any further mismanagement or any
military setbacks would unsettle it again.  Chou changed screens and watched
the same process on Armageddon Valley.

****

Meanwhile in Israel on Yona Street at the
clandestine Mossad headquarters of Ekaterina’s special section, the real
Thomas, Yatsick, Jean Pierre, Macaulay, Ekaterina and Yochana got ready to make
the final run through on an attack on Chou’s ‘walkers’.  The Denial of Service
attack was in an advanced stage or preparation.  If totally successful, their
unprecedentedly enormous attack would give them the power to cripple any of
Chou’s advances at will.  Even a less complete result would still give them
some breathing room.  Jean Pierre paced back and forth, shaking his head.

“The math doesn’t hold
up.  We need more time to test.”

“Look at this, Jean
Pierre,” Yochana said suddenly.

A plasma screen popped
on to their left.  Yochana was answering a call by touching her ear and
pointing to the screen.  Thousands upon thousands of previously dormant or at least
lethargic Chinese ‘walkers’ on Armageddon Valley were springing to life.

“They’ve obviously
fixed their problems with their Quantum computers.  Agreeing to peace was a
sham to give them time to prime an upgrade.  I think things have just moved up
a notch.  Although it may seem dramatic, I believe we may have a very short
space of time before all the men in Israel die and the women are enslaved,”
Ekaterina said.

“Jean Pierre, stop
worrying about overloading our systems,” Thomas said.  “We’ll only attack the
‘walkers’ in Israel.  It’ll tax our computers less.  After all, there’s no love
lost between us and the Russians,” he continued.

Yochana looked at the
screen.

“Yatsick,” she
commanded.  “Send our retaliatory drones in now.  Their fog’s prepped to
overpower Chou’s servers and stop the recycling of their fog.”

Jean Pierre looked at
Yatsick before typing a command and pressing the enter button on his laptop. 
Israeli drones dove towards Chou’s drones, catching them in the process of
seeding the ‘walkers’.  On another plasma screen to their right, the four could
see the dramatic results of Jean Pierre’s actions.

Streams of light, made
up of diamond molecules refracting ambient illumination, entered the Chinese
drones.  Ekaterina took in a deep breath and held it.  Thomas focused his
belief that the plan would work.  Yatsick marvelled at Jean Pierre’s abilities
as the Chinese on the ground came to a halt.  The Mossad support staff outside
the glassed command enclosure jumped to their feet and embraced one another. 
Calls of ‘Mazel Tov’ could be heard everywhere, echoing in Israeli command
centers as coffee cups smashed on the floor.  Ekaterina let out her breath.

CNN broadcasting live
showed streaming satellite images of Russian women walking passively towards
transport vehicles while Russian men lay on the ground or ran in circles with
blood pouring from their ears as the ‘walkers’ advanced, always smiling.  The
news program suddenly switched to Armageddon Valley and showed ‘walkers’
milling about aimlessly, some sitting down, some appearing to sleep, none on
the move.  Ekaterina picked up her phone.  On the other end a grateful Prime
Minister thanked her profusely.

“We never doubted you,”
he lied.  “Well done.”

His cabinet shouted
their support as they appeared on a special screen established for them to
communicate directly with Ekaterina’s office.  
Sacrificing the Russians to
save our skins,
thought Thomas. 
Why didn’t I have the courage to help
the Russians too?  We may have had enough power after all.  Are they less
valuable as human beings?  We’ve all become a little less human today.

****

General Chou pressed repeatedly on the button
on his desk, the one he used to summons Lau, but Lau did not appear.  The
General got up and made his way to the underground bunker containing the
command central for his ‘Second Long March’.  A fast elevator took him down and
it opened on a normally quiet room filled with the sound of a hundred
technicians tapping furiously on keyboards in an attempt to counter the attack
on their system.  As he watched, the Quantum computer’s power light flashed an
unstable signal.  Chou felt sure that the Russian advance would also halt now.
Damn
you Lau.
He walked up behind Lau and slapped his head.

“If I didn’t need you,
I’d hang you up by the balls and skin you alive,” Chou said as he returned to
the elevator. 
He can have his mother.  Now I must get that woman. 
The
elevator swooshed upwards to the surface.  Chou left the bunker and made for
his helicopter.  This setback obliged him to report in person to the Central
Committee in Beijing. 
After the meeting, I’ll return and play the Kefira
card. I have to make her talk about the suit I saw her wearing on the overlook.