Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) (7 page)

“How big is the lake,
again?” asked Sue Ann.

“A little more than
4000 km square,” answered Yuki, referring to her visor.

“Thomas.  Find me a
lake that size in the States so readers can get their bearings.  This is
impossible to imagine.  How many people are we looking at here?”  Sue Ann was
muttering as she tried to get her head around what they were seeing.

“Ah, I’m a trivia
freak,” said Thomas.  “I can do that.  How many kilometers have we covered
since we started seeing people, Yuki?”

“Let’s just round it
off at say 100 square kilometers, that is if they stop on the other side of the
lake,” replied Yuki.

“That’s what I thought
too.  So look, if these guys are shoulder to shoulder down there, that means
almost 10 million people per square kilometer.  Just multiply by 100.”

“That’s almost the
whole population of China.  You can’t be right.”

“They’re not like
sardines everywhere.”

“Still, it’s a lot of
fucking people,” uttered the three of them almost in unison.   Silence followed
as they got their heads around the concept.

Sue Ann snapped out the
reverie first.  “Drop me onto one of those bigger fishing vessels, Captain.”

Thomas interrupted.

“I’ve got a better
idea,” he said.  “Look at that peninsula deep in Russia.  We could fly low
under the radar and drop down onto it.  We’d be able to land on the road and
Captain Yukimura would not have to feel responsible for our safety.  Her nose
cone videos of us dropping in would guarantee our safe release.”

“That’s fair enough,”
Yuki said as she considered the plan.

When they reached the
southernmost tip of the lake, they saw that widely dispersed tourist centers
dotted the region and the beaches.  The nearest town, Kamen Ryblov, a long hike
if they got stranded, was the only real habitation.  The helicopter made for
the peninsula and the protected bay behind it.  The shock of seeing all of the
men crossing into Russia in the lake and on the highways shut off any banter. 
Though Sue Ann knew she was on the cusp of the biggest story of her career,
even her ambition couldn’t crush her fears.  They approached the coast flying
low over the water.

“It’s empty.  Look!”
said Sue Ann with incredulity.

“What’s the heat
signature then?”  Thomas was puzzled.

“You’re a quick study
to get a heat signature up there on your visor,” interjected Yuki.

“Kind of my
speciality,” Thomas replied.  “Tech gear is my thing.”

The craft hovered over
the beach and all of them noticed a slithering movement on the shore.  “Looks
like a huge snake the size of the whole beach moving around down there,” said
Thomas.

“Jesus, they’re frogs,
millions of them.  On the beach – all over.  I can’t take the chance of
dropping you down there.  You won’t be able to walk in that slimy mess.  They
must be twenty centimeters deep.” Despite her pilot’s composure, Yuki sounded
uncomfortable at the thought of squashing the creatures.

“That’s almost a foot
deep.  The walkers don’t like ’em either.  Look over there by the forest where
their heat signature ends,” said Sue Ann.

“They’re watching us
but they’re not moving towards us on the beach.  Probably because of the
frogs,” said Thomas.

“I’ve seen a lot of
stuff in my career,” said Sue Ann, “but this beats it all.”

“Wait!  Look at the
strange color those guys are giving off.  Is it a reflection off the water, or
something else?” asked Thomas

“I see what you mean. 
It’s sort of purple.  No.  Now it’s gone.  It must’ve been a reflection.  Like
you thought,” said Sue Ann, but she sounded a little uncertain.

“Whatever all this is,
I’m getting us back to safety,” said Yuki.  “No arguments.”

“Just bring me over
there and I’ll open a side door.  We can point a directional mike at them and
see if we pick anything up.”  Sue Ann thought it was worth a shot.

“Okay,” said Yuki, “but
I will not let you drop in there.”

“Not your choice,
girl.  You’re responsible for the helicopter, not for me,” said Sue Ann.

“Listen, Sue Ann,”
Thomas said hesitantly.  He wasn’t sure of Sue Ann’s intentions.  “We’ve got
great visuals – visuals that no one else has - and if we drop you in there-”

“Okay.  Okay.  But
let’s get those close-ups with your camera, Thomas.”

The noise deafened
everyone in the bird as it hovered over the water with an opened side door. 
After two or three shutter clicks and about three seconds of video, the men in
the forest near the beach simply vanished. All three people in the chopper found
themselves rubbing their eyes.

“Did you get anything?”
Sue Ann asked in disbelief.

“I got the before and
after,” said Thomas.  “It’s all recorded.” Thomas ran his hand through his hair
and shook his head in disbelief.

“This is too weird. 
Let’s get out of here.”  The pilot was clearly uncomfortable.  Sue Ann nodded.

“I don’t believe I am
saying this, but ya, get us the fuck out of here,” she said.

****

Colonel Lau listened to the feed and chuckled
to himself.  It had been a simple trick.   His drone had responded instantly to
his command, turning on the suits of the walkers watching the helicopter. A
passing drone fed molecules to their suits.  With the suits activated, the men
simply vanished from sight.

Bibi Khanym Mosque – Samarkand

Sue Ann and Thomas’ story, together with the
accompanying slideshows and videos from Lake Khanka, went viral.  They went
from unknown to celebrity in one day.  Every news agency was vying for their
attention and their editor, who had already been predisposed to their activities,
started fawning on their every request.  Wheels within wheels turned in their
favor.  Colonel Lau’s tentacles wound ever more tightly around the Al Jazeera
network after the success of his hidden campaign supporting Sue Ann.  Through a
series of companies acting as blinds, Lau made discrete but enormous
investments in Al Jazeera.  His indirect influence infiltrated to the highest
offices at the network.

Always cautious,
Colonel Lau transmitted his requests through legitimate intermediaries.  He
planted the idea to send Sue Ann Lee to Samarkand to cover an evolving
situation, but at first he’d met with resistance.  Sue Ann was ambitious and
she wasn’t stupid.  Being in the limelight, she refused to go to a backwater at
this point of her career.  Her editor, after a call from his own managing
editor, helped her to understand that her contract, stardom aside, gave him the
right to send her where he pleased.  He gently reminded her of her desperation
when she had signed with Al Jazeera.  The editor neglected to mention the call
he’d received from a highly placed shareholder requesting Sue Ann for this
job.  Sounding unconvinced himself, he placated Sue Ann while Thomas listened
on speaker.

“You’ll be pleased by
the importance of the planned photo shoot at the mosque.  Pick up your tickets
with my secretary.  You’ll like the transport this time,” her editor said just
before the line closed with a decisive click.

“What the fuck's he
going on about, Sue Ann?  Samarkand is the butt end of the universe.  Nothing’s
happening there,” Thomas said in a tone that revealed his doubts.

“Go figure.  You heard
what he said about my contract.  It’s not like I’ve got so many other fish to
fry.”

“You’ve got offers from
every network.”

“I’ll tell you
something my father taught me, Thomas.  Better to be a big fish in a little
pond than-”

“Don’t go giving me
that old Chinese proverb crap,” Thomas interrupted her.

“Let’s not get carried
away.  It was just one story, Thomas.  Ya, it went viral but tomorrow, well you
know.  My ‘creds’ wouldn’t get me past the first interview at a bigger network
and even if they did, those guys working at the big broadcasters would eat me
for breakfast.  I need some time to build up a framework of supporters.  It’s
all good.”

Sue Ann called the
editor’s frosty male secretary and asked for details about which airline desk
they would pick up their tickets at.  His warm manner took her by surprise.

“Why Ms. Lee, your takeoff
is under the radar this time.”

“Sorry.  I didn’t get
the name of the airline.”

“It seems one of our
shareholders has taken a personal interest in your recent work and asked as a
favor that you accept the Samarkand posting.  He’ll fly you there on his
company Gulfstream.”

“Did I hear right?” 
Her voice revealed her surprise.

“I must admit I was
surprised too, Ms. Lee.  It is a full service, direct flight at Mach 0.85.  You
won’t need tickets.  Just present yourself at the Rizon Jet desk.  They are
expecting you.”

“And my cameraman?”

“The same itinerary.”

“Thanks.”

“Please call me anytime
for anything, Ms. Lee.  My private extension is 88345 and call me Ab.  All my
friends do.  It’s short for Abdul.  Is there anything else?”

“Expenses?”

“How silly of me.  The
Rizon desk will have your envelope.”

Sue Ann looked between
the computer screens on their desks at Thomas.  He had been listening on
speaker for the last part of the call.  His hands turned palm upward and he
shook his head while opening his eyes wide.

“Guess it won’t kill
us,” he said while typing 'what planes fly at Mach 0.85?' at the Google prompt.

The answer that popped
up was the Gulfstream G650.

“We’re flying in style,
Honey.  The Gulfstream G650 is state of the art.  Who’d Abdul say sponsored
this little junket?”

“He didn’t.”

“Wonders never cease.”

****

Pleasant weather greeted the men who flooded
out of the Bibi Khanym Mosque after evening prayers.  Sue Ann cursed under her
breath as she instructed Thomas to pan the men leaving the impressive structure
named after the wife of the ruler Amir Timur in the 14
^th
century.
Impressive
reconstruction,
she thought, despite herself and her convictions about
Islam.  They were standing on the corner of Bibikhonim and Chorraha streets. 
Sue Ann was preparing an overdub for the video when a commotion, building in
momentum on the many pedestrian footpaths leading to the mosque, caught her
attention.

 “That haze over those
guys looks familiar, Sue Ann,” Thomas commented as he swung his camera around
towards the noise.

“We saw it before at
Lake Khanka,” she replied, looking more closely.

“Are you thinking what
I’m thinking?”

They both ran for a
decorative but robust tree with low hanging branches near the entrance to the
mosque complex.  Thomas boosted Sue Ann into the tree and shimmied up the
trunk, demonstrating lightning physical skills that surprised even him.  Sue
Ann passed him his camera just in the nick of time; the commotion was about to
become a riot.

 People were running in
every direction.  Bloodcurdling screams, moving closer by the second, came from
just up the walkway.  Some people were so afraid that they had left their
children to the whims of the throng.  Some individuals were trampled under the
feet of escaping worshipers close by the tree from which Sue Ann and Thomas
looked on.  She turned to him.

“You getting this?”

“All of it.  Thank God
we got up here,” Thomas said,

“Do you think we’re
safe?”  Sue Ann’s question was genuine.

“Better than running
down there.  No one’s even looking up.  They’re just too terrified.”

“Jesus, look at those
guys.  They look exactly like the ‘walkers’ we saw at Khanka, the same dazed
expression and everything.”

Thomas filmed the
growing anarchy.

“Look over there,” he
said. “They’re carrying that woman off after slaughtering the men.”

“This is the biggest
event of your career, Thomas.  You’d better get a clear shot,” shouted Sue Ann
over the cascading din.

Thomas concentrated on
capturing the events unfolding on the ground though hindered by the foliage in
front of him. Sue Ann busied herself with breaking a branch directly in front
of them. Thomas panned through the space she had created while nodding his head
in thanks. She slammed her elbow into his ribs, pointed and shouted at him with
excitement.

“One o’clock. Look! 
Isn’t that a drone glinting over the crowd?”

“I’ll zoom in. 
Christ!  Good eye, girl.  It is a definitely a drone and I got it clear.  Hey,
what’s that shit spewing out of it onto the crowd?”  Thomas’s question was
directed to no one in particular.

“Fucked if I know,”
said Sue Ann as the noise from escaping worshipers lulled temporarily.

Sue Ann took a long
headscarf out of her bag and wrapped it around her and Thomas and the tree. 
Thomas snickered a bit.  “In a tree, Sue Ann, dear?”

“Jokes?  Not now.  That
cloud is approaching us fast.  Secure your camera around your neck and make
sure you get that drone coming in above the crowd too.” She felt her concentration
beginning to drift. Just before they both lost consciousness, she grabbed
Thomas' arm. “What’s that buzzing sound?” she managed to say as the heavy mist
enveloped them.

Even though they
collapsed against the trunk of the tree, by some fluke Thomas’ camera continued
filming as it became entangled in the branches. It caught the drone passing
right over them and the film would clearly show something misty pouring out of
a spout under the craft.

****

Although they had not been expecting it at the
time, their film was to be a bombshell.  What they’d captured was the first
deployment of a highly secret weapon system – and a remarkable one at that.  As
the clip went viral in the coming days, talking heads tried to put a catchy
name to the unfolding events, but it was Sue Ann who coined Thomas’ suggestion
in a CNN interview, and it stuck.  “Nano Swarming,” she called it, and the
world media swooned.

No one had fired a shot
and yet the world was at war.  As similar footage that left nothing to the
imagination came in from all over Central Asia, world leaders met to try to
decide how to counter Chinese duplicity.  Meanwhile the Chinese Central
Government leader vociferously denied any knowledge of or participation in the
invasion.  Except for the isolated example of violence in Samarkand, the
unarmed and surprisingly passive movement of men met little resistance. Pacified
world leaders looking for a way to explain away the strange events in Central
Asia turned a blind eye.

As the days passed, the
news media moved on.   All the trouble remained in the previously Russian
Republics and Asia and world interest started to wane. The news media found new
stories. Policies of appeasement incapacitated most world leaders.  The UN
postured, but China’s veto on the Security Council halted any real action. 
Touchy, independent government leaders in the Republics prevented the Russians
from acting in any concerted way. In America, the president remained
preoccupied with nationalistic commitments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. He
made some speeches decrying events in the Central Asian Republics but with no
real effect, the public were barely interested. War fatigue translated into
political and military inertia.  These men were, after all, peaceful and
appeared to pose no military threat.

Despite the fact that
they were crossing borders not struggling to liberate their own people, words
echoing Ghandi’s passive struggle started leaking into news reporting of these
events.  Images reflecting tacit approval and representing the plight of men
looking for wives all over Central Asia dominated instead of the riots in
Samarkand, now forgotten as a blemish on an enormous but otherwise peaceful
migration.

Sue Ann and Thomas’
notoriety receded until one morning Colonel Lau orchestrated a coup beneficial
to her.  General Chou, recently named principal spokesperson for the party as a
whole, agreed to give her a short interview.  Without explicitly answering any
difficult questions, a shocked world looked on as General Chou stood in front
of a large image of Mao Zedong taken during Mao’s ‘Long March’ and delivered a
shockingly flippant statement: 

“Unfortunately the
one-child policies of our misguided predecessors created an imbalance in
Chinese demographics.”  He gave a theatrical pause and then continued.  “These
problems will be addressed over time.  The Chinese Central Committee deplores
any suggestion that the Party or the Red Army are in any way involved in this
unprecedented migration of peace-loving Chinese men.  What is it you say in the
West?  Ah, yes.  I remember now.  ‘Boys will be boys’.  Good day.”

Needless to say, Sue
Ann’s story and Thomas’ video went viral.