Operation Barracuda (2005)

"I had a few problems but I'm here. And you're right, I'm exhausted."

"We'll go to my apartment as soon as I'm finished with some things here. What did you do with your car?"

Mike said, "I dumped it in Oklahoma. Stole another one there and I just left that one in the LAX long-term parking. If I'm tracked maybe they'll think I hopped on a plane."

"Good thinking. You took a taxi here?"

"Yeah."

"Are you hungry? Want some lunch?" Eddie asked.

"That sounds good. Then I want to sleep for a week. But I can't do that because I'm going to Hong Kong tomorrow!"

Eddie laughed. "Not tomorrow. I hope to have you leaving in two or three days. Four at the most. In the meantime you'll stay at my apartment and chill out. How does that sound?"

Mike wrinkled his brow. "What do you mean? I thought you had it all arranged."

Eddie waved him off. "There have been some complications. Don't worry about it, I've got it under control."

That wasn't what Mike wanted to hear. He was too tired to push it so instead he looked around the office and asked, "You really work here?"

"Nah. Well, yes and no. I'm not officially on the payroll. I'm a troubleshooter. I help out with immigration and work visas."

"Oh, right. Eddie Wu, the Wizard of Work Visas. Illegal ones."

Eddie laughed. "Something like that."

"So what is this place, anyway?"

"It's one of Ming's many businesses. The Lucky Dragons back GyroTechnics financially but it's a legitimate enterprise here in America. They employ top scientists from Hong Kong and China and the Lucky Dragons help to get them here. That's my job."

"You mean it's a means by which scientists defect from China?"

"I guess you can say that. So far the authorities in China haven't figured out where their physicists are going. That's why GyroTechnics keeps moving around and changing its name. We stay ahead of the Americans that way, too."

"So where's the guidance system? I've been waiting for news about the final piece of Professor Jeinsen's project for a long time."

"Right. It's done, ready to ship."

"So what's the problem? I thought I was to take it with me to Hong Kong."

Eddie frowned and looked away. "Like I said, there are some complications."

Mike didn't feel like playing games. "What is it, little brother? What are these complications?"

"Ming. He's canceled the sale of the device to the Shop."

"What the hell for? Isn't it what we've been working toward for the last three years?"

"Yes. But Ming is afraid the Shop is selling it to a general in China. General Tun. Have you heard of him?"

"Yeah. The guy that's so dead set to attack Taiwan. Is hethe Shop's customer for all this stuff?"

"I think so. I don't know for certain. Ming seems to think so. He's ordered me not to ship it and await further instructions."

"But . . . but that means we don't get paid!" Mike said. Now he was truly alarmed, forgetting how weary he was. "This deal has to go through. I'm looking forward to my new life in Hong Kong!"

"You're still going, don't worry. You just won't be carrying the guidance system with you."

"That was my cover! I was supposed to be one of your scientists, delivering it from California. Shit, has all that changed?"

"It's still being worked out, Mike. Don't worry! We have a few days to work it out."

Mike Wu was furious. He stood and shouted, "Damn Ming! He's screwing with a machine that was working so well. The minute you start changing things is when you get caught. I say we go ahead and sell the thing to the Shop without Ming!"

Eddie looked at his brother in shock. "What are you saying? Are you mad?"

"Screw Ming! What has he really done for me? I sat there in Washington for three years, supplying the Lucky Dragons with Jeinsen's stuff, with no payoff whatsoever. It was all on spec, to be paid in one huge lump sum when I arrive in Hong Kong with the guidance system. To hell with that! I've got my own co

"Mike, you don't know what you're saying! Look, I'm sympathetic to how you feel. But we can't go against the Lucky Dragons. We'd be dead men. Ming would come after us and he'd find us. He has the means to do it, too. You underestimate the guy."

"Does Ming know what it's like to be wanted by the Washington, D.C., police, the Oklahoma police, the FBI, the NSA, and probably the CIA, too? I have to get out of this country before they find me! I'm reallya dead man if they do. Espionage against the United States government is one thing they don't take too lightly. Not to mention the murder of government employees."

Mike paced the room. "Eddie, if you're not with me on this, I'm going to the Shop myself. I'll tell them Ming has stopped the sale and if they can get here then I'll sell the guidance system to them on my own. And I can ask a very high price. A few million dollars will go a long way toward protecting us from the Lucky Dragons." He pointed to his sibling and said, "And youwill back me up!"

Eddie looked at his older brother and rubbed his chin. "Maybe," he said. "Let me think about it. I suggest we go back to my place so you can get some rest. We'll talk about it tomorrow, all right? Let me find out what Ming has pla

Mike shook his head and slapped the wall. "Damn it, Eddie." He took a deep breath and finally resigned himself to the situation. "All right. But let's go now. I'm dead tired."

JEFFKehoe could have sworn he had seen Mike Wu get out of the taxi that had stopped in front of GyroTechnics' gate. The guy punched the call button and went inside before Kehoe could get a good look. The FBI agent wasn't too worried, though. What went in eventually came out. As long as Kehoe stayed put in his car and kept his eye on the one road that led out of the facility, he'd be able to make a positive ID.

One of the L.A. field agents had spelled Kehoe overnight so that the FBI agent could get some sleep. Kehoe had resumed the stakeout outside of Wu's apartment in Chinatown that morning. It wasn't long before Wu emerged from the building and got into his BMW. Kehoe tracked Wu back to GyroTechnics to sit in the Lexus parked outside the compound, waiting for a sign that Mike Wu might have come into town. When the taxi pulled up to the gate and an Asian man got out, Kehoe was almost positive the fugitive had been located.

Kehoe called in to the FBI field office and told Nudelman what he suspected. He then waited for nearly two hours until Wu's BMW finally appeared and left the premises. As the car passed, Kehoe got a good look at the two men in the car.

The driver was Eddie Wu, of course, and there was no doubt in Kehoe's mind that the passenger was his brother Mike.

"Bingo," Kehoe said to himself as he fired up the Lexus and followed the BMW at a safe distance.

20

" SAM, the Mercedes is moving down the West Kowloon Highway."

Frances Coen's words reverberate in my ear. I type a reply to her on my OPSAT: I'M RIDING IN A TAXI AND CAN'T SPEAK. COMMUNICATE BY OPSAT PLEASE.