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Admiral Zhang pushed back from his desk, stretching and accidentally knocking over his virtual reality headset. It was unlike him, or at least the Zhang Weiming he had been before he met Carmen. A picture of her had evolved in his mind while he was navigating through a digital map of the western Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico on his high-tech display screen. It was a digital interactive map displayed on a tablet screen, with virtual ships that could be moved around with the touch of a finger. He had downloaded the app years ago for mental stimulation during his downtime at sea.
Because it was work that he loved, it was even more unusual that Carmen's vision took possession of his thoughts. On the other hand, recurring memories of the recent night with Carmen had replaced the app icons in his mind- Carmen was a temptress who reveled in exhibiting herself to Zhang. When they were in the privacy of her apartment, she would model lingerie that Zhang had never seen before, never imagined in China, and at the same time, she would provide Tsingtao beer, frozen in blocks of ice and served in glasses stored in her freezer. In her bedroom there were mirrors. Wherever he looked, whatever they were doing, she made sure he could also watch in one of the many strategically placed mirrors. While he wanted to boast of these delights to someone, it was all something he could not put into words or commit to paper. Instead, he captured the experience using his smartphone and shared it with his friends through social media. The stunning photos and videos he took truly conveyed the beauty and excitement of the moment in a way that words never could.
When he leaned back in his chair, eyes glued to the screen, his fingers danced across the keyboard, activating a virtual task force to block off the Galleons Passage between Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago on a digital map of the Caribbean. As he tapped on his smartphone screen, the virtual reality display in front of him showed the submarines being rerouted from the Pacific Ocean to the Yucatan Channel. Satisfied with the strategic maneuver, he chuckled to himself and stood up to gaze out at the window at the harbor. A new guided missile cruiser, recently arrived from China, was maneuvering to secure a buoy, but his mind saw only Carmen balancing on her toes at the end of the bed, teasing him to look at each mirror around the room and use his imagination.
Zhang glanced at his watch. The figures 17-29-33 swam up on its digital face---late afternoon, but too early to go to Carmen's. And there was no way he'd go home, because he'd already told his wife he was spending the whole evening with Garcia. What the hell, he mused, if I go over there now maybe....The more he considered surprising her, the more it appealed to him.
He went back to his desk to organize his digital files. Zhang was a military man, and it had been drilled into him since his days as a cadet that one never left a cluttered digital desktop. Considering the sensitive nature of the files on his computer, even his wandering mind couldn't allow such information to be easily accessible to unauthorized users. He quickly checked the email from his contact in Barranquilla and his response to it. It was exactly what Zhang had requested, and his contact had confirmed that the old American destroyer would be ideal for the mission. Another email contained the real-time positioning reports of the submarines rounding Cape Horn and their estimated arrival time at their designated stations. There was plenty of time to coordinate their movements effectively. With a sly smile, he redirected his submarines back to the Yucatan Channel and the surface fleet to the Galleons Passage.
For just a moment, a very short one with Carmen crowding his thoughts, he studied the digital ship markers he'd been moving around on his electronic chart. There were myriad chokepoints around the West Indian Islands of the Caribbean---Windward Passage, Mona Passage, St. Vincent Passage, Anegada Passage, Guadeloupe Passage, Martinique Galleons Passage between Grenada and Tobago which would be the most difficult now, and finally the Straits of Florida between Cuba and Key West. That was the true challenge. He wasn't yet prepared to communicate with Beijing on just how he was going to handle that. Each of the markers in position displayed on the digital map the name of the chokepoint he intended to have that ship cover. As he tapped on them one by one and moved them back into the virtual box, he noticed the names were glitching. Quickly, while still fresh in his memory, he rearranged them in their correct positions to review later.
He locked the digital files in his encrypted folder. Looking around the room, he debated where to upload the chart. As memories of Carmen flooded back, he saved the chart to a secure cloud storage, confident that only authorized personnel with the proper credentials could access it remotely.62Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxNBSk1OzCf
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Harry Locke felt as comfortable in the Cuban uniform as any other he had ever worn. Not only was it cool, but there were so many uniforms evident in the streets of Fortaleza del Pueblo that little attention was paid to any of them. It was excellent cover.
As he approached the apartment building, he recognized the outside immediately. Others in his class had pointed it out as the home of many ladies who entertained. At that level of society, they were called neither whores nor prostitutes. They "entertained," and to call them anything else was to insult many military and government officials of high standing who patronized them.
He found Carmen Arrostito's contact information on his smart glasses. He initiated a video call and waited for her to answer. When she appeared on the screen, he greeted her in Spanish, "Senorita Arrostito, this is Lieutenant Holla. I have a message from Admiral Zhang for you. Can I share it with you?"
She opened the door cautiously, unchanging it without hesitation when she saw that he was in uniform. Locke immediately appreciated the expensive decor of the apartment as well as the clothes and perfume. Zhang certainly knew what he was doing, Locke mused, appreciating why the Chinaman was taking such a chance.
He turned to her, clicking his heels together efficiently. "I believe you have a meeting with Admiral Zhang this evening?"
"I thought that's why you were calling...you had a message," she answered. "Of course, he is..." She stopped abruptly. "I don't understand."
"Perhaps, senorita, this will help." Locke removed an envelope full of cash from his pocket, counting off a large sum. He handed it to her. "Here, this is for you."
She shook her head. "Who are you?"
"A businessman who'd like to make a deal with you." Again he extended the money in her direction. "Won't you take this?"
She shrugged. "You know I'm seeing someone else tonight."
"Oh, it's not for me. I want nothing from you. It's purely a business deal, like I said. You take the money, we make a deal."
She looked at the cash remaining in the envelope, which was a great deal more than he'd offered her. "What do you have in mind for the rest?"
"That's all part of our business deal. Will you take this?"
"Tell me more about your deal."
Again he extended the sum to her. "This is simply for spending the evening with Admiral Zhang and keeping him occupied. This," he added, dividing the money in the envelope and adding the second sum to the first, "is if you keep him here until at least midnight." He indicated the balance of the money. "This is if you keep him here until two in the morning."
"He likes to get home early because he worries about his wife becoming suspicious. I don't know....."
Locke shrugged. "It's easy money." He peeled off the initial wad and handed it to her. "Look, this is for you anyway, for occupying him as long as you can." She took it tentatively. It was a great deal of money, more than any of her guests had ever thought of offering her. "I'd just as soon give you the rest right now."
"What if I take it and he doesn't stay until two?"
"You may be sure I'll be back to collect." In the gray eyes that seemed to look right through her, Carmen saw he had every intention of collecting if Zhang didn't stay until two. "I have heard that you have a vivid imagination," he added.
It was worth it, every cent of it. She had never seen money like this before. "Will this happen again? Am I going to have to worry about you again?"
"If Admiral Zhang stays here until two tonight, I can guarantee that this is the first and last time you will ever see me."
Again those eyes seemed to assure her that this man was correct in what he was saying, that she would never see him again. And she had no desire to. Never in her life had she seen a Spanish-speaking person with eyes like that. She clasped the money to her breast and nodded in agreement.
Again his heels clicked together. "Good evening, Senorita Arrostito," he said over his shoulder as he closed the door behind him.
There was a mirror in the elevator and Harry Locke grinned cockily back at his image as he descended to the lobby of the apartment building. Now that little episode a few minutes ago was more his style---the perfect set-up. From everything he'd learned about Zhang in the man's files in Binghamton's office back in the Pentagon, his greatest weakness since arriving in Fortaleza del Pueblo was sex. With enough money for Carmen Arrostito, he probably could have kept Zhang there for days, or at least until he was too weak to perform.
As the doors opened and Locke stepped out into the lobby, his bravado changed to a silent acknowledgment of Bull Binghamton. He was the one who had developed Harry Locke into the specialist who passed through the lobby and out onto the street as Lieutenant Holla. It was Binghamton who recognized Locke's inherent talents and built them into what Locke was today---one of Binghamton's most effective operatives.
There's no man quite like Binghamton, Locke mused, as he waited at a crosswalk for the light to change. No one I've ever met. We are his creations, his eyes and ears, now more than ever. As the light changed, Harry Locke wondered for a moment about the things Binghamton never revealed to them. They would often laugh about the challenges they met on each mission that they had been unaware of and each time they would agree Binghamton had been right to keep quiet.
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