Foreign Influence

“How’d it go?”

“You can see for yourself,” she replied, stepping away from the door.

Harvath slid it open and looked inside. There were two large crates with two large, white dogs inside. Stacked next to them were boxes filled with Adda Sterk’s personal belongings from her home and office as well as two laptops, three desktop computers, and stacks of portable drives. “That’s what I call a house call. You work fast. I’m impressed.”

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

He stepped back and closed the door. “The Old Man said you do security too?”

“That’s also why they pay me the big bucks.”

Harvath was definitely intrigued, but he didn’t have time to ask the questions that were going through his mind. “We’ll bring your patients out shortly.”

“I’ll be standing by.”

Harvath fought the urge to look back over his shoulder at her as he walked back into the warehouse. Though he couldn’t be completely sure, he was fairly confident that she was watching him.

Back inside the warehouse, he made a beeline for Adda Sterk.

“I’m thirsty,” she said.

“Too bad. I’ll give you one more chance to leave the dogs out of this.”

“No. No dogs, no deal.”

“Fine,” he said as Nicholas handed him his laptop.

Based on Sterk’s instructions, they logged on to a Swiss discussion forum under her account. Harvath looked up the user name she had given him and typed a quick message. Five minutes later he received a response.

When the instructions were complete, Nicholas loaded the dogs into the back of his van and watched as Peio drove them out of the building.

He returned twenty minutes later. Harvath had him help Riley load Michael Lee into her van and then he stood guard outside.

When Harvath checked the forum, there was a message waiting. The handoff had taken place and the dogs were being taken to “the country.”

He had no idea who the person in the discussion forum was. It could have been Sterk’s boyfriend, a student who owed her a favor, or a neighbor. He didn’t care. All he wanted was the information he needed to stop any more bombings and nail the people responsible.

Though the handoff had moved faster than he had anticipated, they had wasted a lot of valuable time.

He showed Sterk the confirmation message and said, “I’ve done everything you asked; now it’s time to live up to your end. I want to know who is behind the bombings and how I stop them.”

“I’m still thirsty,” she replied.

“As far as anyone is concerned, Tsui’s dead. You’ve also got the dogs. I’m not giving you anything else until you begin cooperating with me.”

“Fine. Although without water, I’m probably going to have some trouble speaking.”

Harvath was done getting jerked around. Turning to Nicholas, he said, “Go heat the cigarette lighter back up.”

As the Troll walked toward the van, Sterk looked up at Harvath. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll give you what you want.”

CHAPTER 39

I never met the people who hired me,” Sterk said as the Troll returned with the cigarette lighter.

“But you know who they are,” replied Harvath.

“That’s just it. I don’t know. All of our transactions were via digital dead drops and wire transfers.”

“So why are you so afraid of them?”

“Because I have seen what they can do.”

“What? The Rome attacks? The Paris attacks?”

Sterk shook her head.

“The hell with this,” interjected the Troll. “I want to know why you were trying to have me killed.”

Harvath motioned for him to be quiet.

“This bitch tried to murder me. I’m not going to be quiet. I want answers.”

“We all want answers,” he said firmly as he turned his attention back to her.

“It’s all co

“Why was I targeted?” Nicholas demanded.

Sterk looked at him. “There was a certain piece of business we did together. The people who hired me wanted any and all traces of it to be wiped away.”

“And that meant wiping me away as well.”

“Yes.”

“I imagine that it also helped to provide the authorities with a false trail to follow.”

Sterk nodded. “That’s why I had the dogs and the dwarf flown to Sicily.”

“So you knew about the bombings in advance,” said Harvath.

It took her a moment to respond. Finally, she said, “Yes, I did.”

He shook his head. “How do you charge for something like that? Is it a flat fee? Or is it on a sliding scale based on how many are killed versus maimed and wounded?”

It was a rhetorical question. She didn’t bother answering.

“This is about the last piece of business we did together, isn’t it?” said Nicholas. “I sold you the location of site 243.”

The woman nodded. “I was hired to help steal what they were working on.”

“I was actually surprised when you contacted me about buying the coordinates. The level of secrecy surrounding it was amazing. I was only able to get its location; and even that took some doing.”

“What is it?” asked Harvath.

“The more appropriate question would be, what was it,” stated Sterk. “Two weeks ago, site 243 was destroyed.”

“By whom?”

“By my clients. They were able to launch an attack inside China on a Chinese military base and not only kill everyone on the base, but they then tracked down the remaining Chinese intelligence officers who had any knowledge of what was being worked on at site 243 and they killed them as well.”

“This was a Chinese operation?”

The woman nodded. “You wanted to know why I fear my clients. That’s why. Who mounts an attack on a Chinese military base, slaughters everyone on it, and then hunts down high-ranking Chinese intelligence agents inside and outside of China? Who has the skills and the resources to do something like that?”

“I still don’t understand what this has to do with the attacks in Rome and Paris.”

Sterk took a deep breath. “The Chinese know that they can’t defeat America on a conventional battlefield. They’ve known that for a long time. To win a war against America, the Chinese would have to engage in unconventional warfare.

“They created a military base in the middle of nowhere in Mongolia with the sole purpose of studying America. Its operatives spoke only English, ate only American foods, read American books, watched American television programs, played American video games, and surfed nothing but American and Western Web sites. It was as close as you could be to the United States while still remaining under China’s umbrella.

“They were steeped in American culture and the American way of thinking. Their job was to study America, find its weaknesses, and develop the most devastating attack they could conceive of. They were encouraged to think outside of the normal military mind-set.”

“And suicide bombers were the best they could come up with?” asked Harvath.

“Look at the impact of 9/11,” replied Sterk. “Look at what it did to America’s psyche and its economy. How many billions were lost? How many billions more were spent preventing another similar attack? Massive governmental agencies like your Department of Homeland Security and the TSA were created as a response. Now multiply that impact across the United States in all new waves of attacks. Pick whatever targets you want: movie theaters, shopping malls, churches, hotels, schools. Your country would grind to a halt, its people paralyzed with fear.”

“But the attacks aren’t happening in America, they are happening in Europe.”

“Not yet.”

“What do you mean, not yet?” replied Harvath.

“Through site 243 the Chinese had created an entire terrorist network. My clients have not only hijacked it, they have activated it.”

“And they are pla