Heart of Danger by Lisa Marie Rice Read Free Book Online

announced that the Chinese economy was bigger than the American economy. And growing, as the American economy was not.
    It was clear all around him—Americans were poor and getting poorer. It had lost its faith in itself and was hunkered down, hoping the new winds blowing over the world would pass soon. But that was not the nature of the winds of change.
    Lee had kept in touch with old school friends back in China, many of whom were now in positions of power. One in particular, Chao Yu, was now right-hand man to the Minister of Defense.
    Lee and Yu had been working on the plan for four years now, ever since Lee realized the potential of the Warrior project. Yu was his conduit to the Ministry of Defense via encrypted, very long-wave propagation channels. The NSA was too good for them to be able to entrust the plan to satellite transmission. They communicated through the earth itself as they built the Warrior project from the ground up.
    Lee had thought it might take a hundred years for China to rule the world. Which would have been fine. China had always taken the long view. America operated on a quarterly basis. Three months was a ridiculous time horizon. China operated on a century basis.
    But with Warrior, China could take over the world in one short year. And Lee would return triumphantly to the homeland he had never forgotten, a hero and a powerful man. The man who had been the ultimate weapon in China’s hands.
    He, Charles Lee, was going to make history.
    Super soldiers. The dream of every military force since time began. Smarter, faster, tougher. The Americans had a comic-book hero for this—Captain America. But Lee and Yu were going to create one for real—Captain China.
    So far everything was on track.
    With the exception of the Cambridge lab—and General Clancy Flynn had taken care of that—things were going well, though some technical problems remained. But all in all, the plan was coming to fruition along the scheduled timeline.
    The Cambridge lab fiasco had yielded some advantages, however. Three gifted soldiers—true warriors—to experiment on. Three men he could do anything to, study as he wished.
    It was perfect terrain for testing their protocols. Artificially dement them, bring them back, then harvest their brains and analyze the neurological tissue. Testing on warriors would have proved impossible if they were of sound mind and body, but they’d been reduced to physical and mental shells and were harmless.
    He focused again on what Baring had said. “What about Dr. Young?”
    “Dr. Young didn’t show up for work, sir. We were only informed an hour ago.”
    “Did she call in sick?” Lee asked Baring.
    “No, sir. And she’s not home. We checked.”
    Lee felt the faintest prickle of unease. Dr. Young was right in the middle of the analyses of the beta doses. She was a dedicated researcher. Not showing up for work was so unusual as to warrant an alarm.
    She had no idea what she was really working on, but if she ever got the big picture, as Dr. Bryson had, she would be very dangerous. But Bryson had been skeptical by nature, which Young was not. “She might not be answering the doorbell.”
    “When I say ‘not home,’ sir, I mean just that. We scanned the house. There was no one inside.”
    The chill grew stronger. This was very unlike Dr. Young. “Did you track her cell?”
    Baring’s voice grew cold. His words were staccato. “Yes. Sir. Not transmitting.”
    This had been a bone of contention. Baring wanted to inject micro tracers into every single researcher on the Millon campus, but Lee had turned the request down. There was massive IQ on-site. All it would take was for one researcher to figure it out and the news would spread and there would be hell to pay.
    Lee made sure the scientists working at the Millon facility saw the project only through straws, but they were very bright men and women and were perfectly capable of putting two and two together. That was why the average stay at