Man of Honor (Enforcement Division Book 4) by Chris Malburg

Author:Chris Malburg [Malburg, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Writers Resource Group, Inc.
Published: 2017-12-14T22:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 25

Li Yong heard the familiar sound of snow crunching and squeaking underfoot. The fragrance of pine filled his lungs. He exhaled cloudy billows into the icy air. He’d hiked this area on Beijing’s remote northern edge many times. It was more a rough forest than a manicured park. Yet, today it was strange, foreign. He hadn’t felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck like this since his first meeting with the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The fear the man inspired arched up his spine and made his shoulders hunch as if protecting against a blow from above. The fear was for his parents far more than for himself. His parents were old. Infirm. A risk of even minor injury was a death sentence for them. He forced one boot in front of the other. Acid bile rose up from his gut into his throat.

He followed the strangers as they streamed in small groups and families from the parking lot toward the trailhead. All were laughing and joking, looking forward to a winter’s walk in the deep forest. They left footprints in the frosty ground on this Sunday morning. Li Yong kept up, walking among them, unnoticed by anyone.

The pedometer said he was exactly two kilometers into the forest. Which tree is it? Shadows loomed the deeper into the forest he walked. The air reeked of risk and forbidden secrets. Skin prickled. Keep watching…keep watching. There. Right there. Just another pine tree? Hardly. This one had a faded white chalk stripe a meter off the forest floor—just as the American Helen’s encrypted text message promised. A fresh surge of fear knotted Li Yong’s stomach. Move. Yet, his boots stayed rooted to the ground. Move. He took his next step deeper into treason.

Li Yong toed away pine straw from the backside of the tree trunk. Silence descended upon him. There. A cell phone lay in a shallow hole in the ground. It would be the instrument of his treachery. He swept away the remaining pine straw and took it.

The cell phone looked like every other—black case, clear screen. Maybe a little heavier than most. But unlike any other cell phone in the entire country. May as well have CIA printed all over it.

He quickly pocketed the phone then covered over the hole again. Li Yong hiked deeper into the forest. How would he explain such a forbidden device to State Security? But who really is the People’s enemy here? My money’s on the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Demanding mass casualties. For no good reason. My God.

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