EXFIL by Anthony Patton (best book reader txt) 📕

meeting tonight for the operation, and I’ve a lot of paperwork to finish tomorrow for the retirement.”

She touched my hand. “I’m sorry the brigadier general promotion didn’t work out. I know how important it was to you.”

I held her hand. “How about we drive to West Point together?”

“I’d like that,” she said.

◆◆◆

Sports fans will remember the Miracle on Ice when the U.S. hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics. Many still consider this one of the greatest upsets in sports history, and many falsely believe that it resulted in team USA winning the gold medal.

What many don’t recall, however, is that we subsequently defeated Finland to win the gold, the Soviet Union defeating Sweden to win bronze. This operation with Jade Envy was similar. With the initial victory out of the way—the tortuous journey of compromising myself to get past the Chinese polygraph—we now had to face a final game against a less challenging opponent. China had taken the bait for the first round and now it was time to close the deal.

Jade Envy and I agreed to meet the night after the big cyberattack in case Cyber Command developed new security patches. From the commentary on cable news, it was clear that the attack was destructive but not lethal. Critical command and control systems were still up and running.

I transported the security patches from Cyber Command to the Pentagon, with a stop at a different underground parking lot along the way. As if all of this wasn’t odd enough, Brett and Nguyen showed me the audio and video equipment installed in my rental vehicle, which had captured my previous meeting with Jade Envy. They needed the recording this time as part of the deal to let me off without legal consequences. I wasn’t offended. They reminded me that Jade Envy was the enemy and gave me a pep talk to keep my head in the game.

Jade Envy and the same computer technician were waiting for me in the new underground parking lot. I lowered the window and handed him the laptop. He looked pleasantly surprised.

“More security patches—already?” he asked.

I nodded as the technician got to work.

“Thanks to you, we had a major success,” he said.

Per the script, I played the role of an angry, coerced source who honestly didn’t give a rat’s ass whether he was pleased with the success or not. “I want my money.”

“You are doing the world a great service,” he said.

“You guys are pushing us to the brink of war.”

“We know many of your senior government and military officials do not support the endless wars,” he said. “Your economic system has reached a point of instability. If you stop the wars and the loose monetary policy with low interest rates, your economy will collapse. And yet, your leaders continue their arrogant ways.”

“You actually believe these attacks are helping?” I asked as the technician continued his work, intrigued by our terse exchange. It was a textbook technique to make a source feel part of the team, but I found it hard to believe that Jade Envy thought this tactic would work on a professional like me. The only thing keeping me calm was the knowledge that they were digging their own grave.

“We will cause no harm to your critical infrastructure,” he said, “despite all the propaganda in the media. Our only goal is to dismantle your war machine. If your warplanes cannot fly and your battleships cannot sail, the wars will end. We can finally live in a world of peace based on mutual respect.”

The computer technician removed the USB drive from the laptop computer.

“Everything is in order,” he announced.

“Hey, not so fast,” I said. “The only way I can continue with this relationship is if you provide me good intelligence. In case you forgot, my bosses still believe you work for me.” Given the coercive nature of this relationship, I had to be irritable and hard to please. Anything less would be suspect.

Jade Envy considered the request and held my stare.

He raised a large manila envelope and handed it to me.

“Those are sensitive cables from the embassy,” he said. “Your experts should be able to confirm their value.” He reached across the divide and offered a professional handshake. “Remember, Colonel Reed, we are on the same team.”

As I sat in my car and watched them drive away, I smiled and felt a moment of satisfaction as I considered the fact that the Chinese were now running two double agents, had accepted two Trojan horses, and would soon pay the price.

TWENTY-EIGHT

By the time you unravel a mystery, life moves you along without the option of a do-over. Many people experience profound insights toward the end of life, and look back with regret as they assess the choices they made. The same is true of relationships. When you’re looking for love, you never find it, and when you stop looking, it finds you. Women who ignored you when you were single come out of the woodwork after you announce your engagement. I imagine many suitors weren’t pleased to hear that Beth and I had got engaged.

I mention these life ironies because as I was about to leave the Army with my dignity intact, to include an honorable discharge and full pension, I got a call from James Bartfield saying he wanted to discuss a career opportunity. I told him I accepted a teaching position at West Point, to which he replied I should have nothing to fear by stopping by to hear him out.

I felt relieved as I poured my morning coffee in the hotel lobby and walked to my car. Despite my career going down in a blaze of glory, I felt liberated in many ways. The thought of not obsessing about performance objectives to pad my annual fitness report for promotions and assignments was a welcome relief, opening my eyes to other opportunities that were closed to me as a military officer, such as getting involved in