The Washington Lawyer by Allan Topol Read Free Book Online Page B

Alright. That’s enough. Try for Friday. And it better be your work, too. Not just Diane’s.”
    Feeling pleased, Paul charged down the stairs. He lined up bright-eyed Diane to help him.
    Between Martin possibly becoming chief justice and Jenson, Paul saw his path to partnership as a minefield. But he would find a way to navigate through it.

Beijing
    L iu Guan sat at the head of the polished rectangular table in the director’s conference room adjacent to his large corner office in the Xiyuan headquarters of the MSS. The four men he had selected to be members of his select operations committee were the best people in the agency. He had divided up the world among them. Chang had Europe; Chu, Asia and the Pacific; He, Africa; and Peng, Latin America. Liu reserved for himself control over operations in the United States.
    He took one final puff on his cigarette, blew smoke circles in the air, snuffed it out, and began talking.
    â€œWe are embarking on a new day for Chinese intelligence operations,” Liu said. “Our old methods of relying primarily on our information coming from our scientists and engineers who travel abroad to conferences, as well as on information from foreign tourists, including ethnic Chinese, who happen to come to China for meetings, will still be utilized.
    â€œBut these will be secondary. We are now establishing an extensive network of agents in place in foreign countries, often as members of our embassy staff or as journalists. These agents in place will be charged with obtaining secret information in their host country and relaying it to Beijing. This change is consistent with our new status as the primary rival of the United States in the world order. We are on the verge of surpassing the United States economically and militarily within ten years.
    â€œI want each of you to develop in thirty days a plan for installing at least ten agents in place within your assigned territory. Those will be the beginning of much more extensive networks of Chinese spies throughout the world. I won’t tell you how to do it. Each of you should use your imagination and creativity.”
    Liu paused to push back his wire-framed glasses and to run his hand over his pencil thin mustache.
    â€œNow are there any questions?”
    Looking around the silent room, Liu felt the vibration in his jacket pocket of an electronic device, connecting him to his secretary. She was aware that this was an important meeting for Liu. She would not have sent him a text message unless it was critical.
    Liu removed the device and glanced at the message: “President Yao wants you to come to his office as soon as possible.”
    Whenever Liu received a summons from the Supreme Leader, he dropped anything he was doing.
    â€œThis meeting is now over,” Liu said. “I will be expecting each of your plans in thirty days.”
    The fifty–eight-year-old Liu marched back to his office. Though he was five foot ten, not a short man, he wanted to stand higher than most other men to gain a psychological edge, so at the MSS he wore platform shoes, which added another three inches, but they slowed him down. That wasn’t a problem. He wasn’t running any races within the MSS headquarters.
    â€œCar ready?” he barked at his secretary.
    â€œYes, sir. Chou is out in front. He’s arranged a motorcycle escort.”
    Xiyuan in the West Garden section of Beijing, near the Summer Palace, was only seven miles northwest of Tiananmen Square and the president’s office. The late afternoon traffic in central Beijing was fierce, and the motorcycles with their sirens and flashing lights, indicating an important official, were essential for Liu’s car to cut through the gridlock. Beyond that, Liu, the son of a wealthy Shanghai real estate developer, loved the trappings of wealth, the symbols of power that elevated him above the common man.
    Ten minutes later Liu was in the back of a plush black