"And backing down now won't?" Su shouted at Wei, having no filter of charm with which to blunt the expression of his anger. "You have pushed us across a bridge and burned it down! There is no turning back now! We have to see this through!"

"I have done that? I have?"

"Of course. You sanctioned my operation, and you are afraid to sit quietly and wait for Ryan to run away."

Wei said, "President Ryan will not run from a fight."

Su said, "He will run, because if he does not, then he will witness a nuclear detonation in Taipei, and the threat of further strikes in Seoul, Tokyo, and Hawaii. Trust me, if it comes to it, America will have no choice but to back off."

"You are mad!"

"You were mad to think that you could blow navies out of the water while offering free-trade agreements to offset the damage. You only see the world as an economist. I promise you, Wei, that the world is not about business. The world is about struggle and force."

Wei said nothing.

"We will discuss this in person when I come on Thursday. But understand this: I will address the Standing Committee, and they will back me. You should stay aligned with me, Wei. Our good relationship has served you in the recent past, and you would do well to remember that."

The call ended, and President Wei took several minutes to compose himself. He sat silently in his office, his hands on the blotter of his desk. Finally he pushed the button on his phone that connected him to his secretary.

"Yes, General Secretary?"

"Connect me with the President of the United States."

SIXTY-SEVEN.

President Jack Ryan held the phone to his ear and listened to the translator quickly and effortlessly convert the Mandarin into English. The conversation had already been going for several minutes, and Jack had endured a lecture in economics and history from the Chinese president. Wei said, "You made Thailand and the Philippines 'non-NATO major allies.' That was very threatening. Moreover, the U.S. has worked tirelessly to expand intelligence and defensive contacts with India, and to bring them into the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

"America is doing its best to make India a global power. Why on earth would it be in one global power's interests to promote the emergence of another global power? I can answer that question, Mr. President. America wants India's help in keeping China under threat at all times. How can we not feel endangered by this hostile act?"

Wei waited quietly for a response to his question, but Jack Ryan would not be giving ground to Wei tonight. He was on the phone to talk about the cyberattacks and the escalation of Chairman Su.

He said, "Your nation's attacks on our critical infrastructure are an act of war, Mr. President."

Wei replied, "The allegation by the Americans that China participated in any sort of a computer attack against them is groundless and exhibits yet another display of racism as your administration attempts to denigrate the good people of China."

"I hold you personally responsible for the lives of Americans that are lost due to damage to our transportation infrastructure, our communications systems, our nuclear power facilities."

"What nuclear power facilities?" Wei asked.

"Do you not know what happened this afternoon in our state of Arkansas?"

Wei listened to the translator. After a time he said, "My country is not responsible for any computer attacks against your country."

"You don't know, do you? Your cybermilitia, acting in your name, President Wei Zhen Lin, forced an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor in the middle of the United States. If this attack had been successful, thousands of Americans would have died."

Wei hesitated before responding: "As I said before, China had nothing to do with this."

"I think you did, Mr. President, and at the end of the day, that is what matters."

Wei hesitated again, and then he changed the subject. "President Ryan. You do realize, don't you, the leverage we have over you in the economic and commercial sectors?"

"That is not important to me right now. There is nothing you can do to us economically that we will not recover from. America has many friends and great natural resources. You have neither."

"Perhaps not. But we have a strong economy and a strong military."

"Your actions are destroying the first! Don't force me to destroy the second!"

Wei had no response to this.

"Recognize, Mr. President, that you are inexorably linked to Chairman Su's war. My country will make no distinction whatsoever between the two of you."

Still nothing from Wei. Ryan had been involved in hundreds of translated conversations with state leaders in his years in the White House, and he had never known one to sit in stunned silence. Normally the two parties spoke prepared text or jockeyed for position in the conversation.

Jack asked, "Are you there, President Wei?"

"I do not lead the military," he responded.

"You lead the nation!"

"Nevertheless. My control is . . . It is not the same as in your country."

"Your control over Su is the only chance to save your country from a war you cannot win."

There was another long pause; this time, it was nearly a minute long. Ryan's national security team sat on the sofas in front of him, but they were not listening in to the conversation. It was being recorded, and they could listen after. Jack looked at them and they back at him, clearly wondering what was going on.

Finally Wei responded: "Please understand, Mr. President. I will have to discuss your concerns directly with Chairman Su. I would prefer to do this in person, but I will not see him again until he comes to the Politburo meeting Thursday morning, traveling with his entourage from the PLA base in Baoding. He will speak to the Standing Committee, and I will talk to him afterward about this conversation and other matters."

Ryan did not answer for several seconds. Finally he said, "I do understand, Mr. President. We will speak again."

"Thank you."

Ryan hung up the phone, then looked at the group in front of him. "Can I have a moment alone with Director Foley, Secretary Burgess, and Director Canfield?"

Everyone else filed out of the room. Ryan stood, but he did not step around his desk. There was an unmistakable look of astonishment on his face.

As soon as the door shut he said, "That was something I can't say I expected."

"What's that?" Canfield asked.

Ryan shook his head. He was still in a state of shock. "I am reasonably certain that President Wei just purposefully fed me intelligence."

"What kind of intelligence?"

"The kind that he wants me to use to assassinate Chairman Su."

The two men and one woman standing in front of the President adopted the same bewildered expressions he wore.

President Jack Ryan sighed. "It's a damn shame we don't have any assets to exploit this opportunity."

- Gerry Hendley, Sam Granger, and Rick Bell sat in Gerry's office on the ninth floor of Hendley Associates just after eleven o'clock in the evening. The three men had been here all evening, waiting for updates from Ding Chavez and the others in Beijing. Ding had checked in just a few minutes earlier to say his first impression of the rebels was that they were not ready for prime time, but he would reserve judgment for a couple of days while he, Dom, and Sam evaluated their capabilities.

The three senior executives were about to call it a night when Gerry Hendley's mobile phone rang.

"Hendley."

"Hi, Gerry. Mary Pat Foley here."

"Hello, Mary Pat. Or should I say Mrs. Director?"

"You got it right the first time. I'm sorry to call you so late. Did I wake you?"

"No. Actually I'm at the office."

"Good. There has been a new development I wanted to talk to you about."

- The home phone rang at the Emmitsburg, Maryland, home of John Clark. Clark and his wife, Sandy, were in bed, and Melanie Kraft was in a guest bedroom, sitting wide awake.

She had spent the day putting ice on her bruised eye and cheekbone and doing her best to pick the brain of John Clark about just what the hell Jack was doing. John was the wrong man to try to pull secrets out of, Melanie learned quickly enough, but he and his wife were nice enough, and they both seemed genuinely concerned about Melanie's well-being, so she decided to wait on Jack to return before seeking answers to her many questions.

Within five minutes of the ringing phone, Clark tapped on her door.

"I'm awake," she said.

John stepped in. "How are you feeling?"

"A little sore, but better than I would have been if you hadn't made me keep the ice on my face, I'm sure."

John said, "I have to go to Hendley Associates. Something critical has come up. I hate to do this to you, but Jack made me promise to stay with you at all times till he gets back."

"You want me to go with you?"

"We've got a couple of beds there for data guys who work the night shift. It's not the Ritz, but neither is this."

Melanie slid out of the bed. "I finally get to see the mysterious Hendley Associates? Trust me, I don't plan on sleeping."

Clark smiled. "Not so fast, young lady. You'll get to see the lobby, an elevator, and a hallway or two. You'll have to wait for Jack to come back to get the VIP tour."

Melanie sighed while putting on her shoes. "Yeah, like that will happen. Okay, Mr. Clark. If you promise to not treat me like a prisoner, I promise to not snoop around your office."

Clark held the door open for her as she passed. "It's a deal."

SIXTY-EIGHT.

Gavin sat in his office at one in the morning. On his desk in front of him was a technical manual from Microsoft that he'd been reading on and off for the entire day. It was not uncommon for him to work this late, and he imagined he'd be pulling a long string of all-nighters over the next few days while he rebuilt his system. He'd sent most of his staff home, but a couple of programmers were still somewhere on the floor; he'd heard them talking a few minutes earlier.

Since The Campus had men in the field he also knew there would be several guys up in Analysis, although there wasn't a hell of a lot they could do but doodle on notepads without a computer network to assist them.

Biery felt like he'd let everyone down by allowing the virus onto his system. He worried about Ding, Sam, and Dom in Beijing, and even Ryan in Hong Kong, and he concentrated on getting back online as quickly as possible.

Right now it looked like they would not be able to go live for at least another week.

The phone rang on Biery's desk.

"Hey, Gav, it's Granger. Gerry and I are up here in his office, waiting for word from Chavez. We figured you might be down there."

"Yeah. Lots to do."

"Understood. Listen, John Clark is coming into the office in just a few minutes. He is going to back up Chavez and the others on a new operation that is brewing in Beijing."

"Good. Nice to know he's back with us, even if it's just temporary."

"I was wondering if you could come up when he gets here and give him a ten-minute review of what happened in Hong Kong. It will help get him back in the loop."

"I'd be glad to. I'll be here all night, all day tomorrow. I can spare a little time."

"Don't burn yourself out, Gavin. Nothing that happened with that virus was your fault. I don't need you to fall on your sword over this."

Gavin snorted a little. "Should have caught it, Sam. Simple as that."

Granger said, "Look. All we can tell you is that we support you. Gerry and I both think you're doing a hell of a job."

"Thanks, Sam."

"Try and get some sleep tonight. You're no good to anyone if you can't function."

"Okay. I'll catch some z's on my sofa as soon as I give Clark his briefing."

"Good deal. I'll call you when he gets here."

Gavin hung up the phone, reached for his coffee, and then, without warning, all the power in his office went off.

Sitting in the black, he looked out into the hallway.

"Dammit!" he shouted. The lights seemed to be out over the entire building.

"Son of a bitch!"