States of War Read online

  STATES OF WAR

  The Long Night Series

  Book 3

  By

  Kevin Partner

  Mike Kraus

  © 2019 Muonic Press Inc

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

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  Special Thanks

  Many thanks to my awesome Beta Team, without whom none of my books would be possible.

  The Long Night – Book 4

  Available Here!

  Prologue

  Four Years before The Long Night

  The prayer wheel rumbled to a stop as Annabel Lee was hauled from the cell, gagged and bound, and dragged down the mountainside.

  Strong arms lifted her when she fell, and she tried desperately to see who had captured her. Dressed in black from head to foot, there were at least three of them pushing and prodding her at pace down slippery paths lined with snow, unmistakably heading towards Friendship Bridge and the border with China.

  How had they known she was there? Her visit to the monastery at Liping on the Sino-Nepalese border had been a secret from her closest friends. Even her husband didn't know exactly where she was. So she must have been betrayed by one of the monks.

  Om mani padme hum.

  Annabel tried to focus on the mantra. She'd spent a month battling the darkness that had settled on her soul since the diagnosis. Another betrayal. She'd gifted the world the means of curing the previously incurable only to discover too late that she had a rare and terminal condition.

  Om mani padme hum.

  She stumbled again, but when she was hauled to her feet this time, she could see that they'd reached the bottom of the mountain where a road snaked its way towards the bridge that separated Nepal from China.

  Om mani—

  "Silence!" hissed the man gripping her arm. A Chinese accent. What did they want with her? This was no random kidnapping, so he was either part of a bandit group that was going to hold her to ransom, or this was official business on behalf of the Chinese government.

  Three guards stood on the bridge. With military precision, they unhooked their rifles and pointed them at Annabel and her captors.

  "Declare yourself," the middle guard called. Annabel pushed back the terror and focused her mind—her Mandarin was good, but she had to concentrate.

  One of her captors stepped forward, hands held high. She watched as the man approached the end of the bridge. He was dressed like a cross between a ninja and an SAS commando; all in black, his head covered by a balaclava. From his belt hung what looked like a kukri—the ceremonial weapon of the Gurkhas. Maybe he wasn't Chinese after all.

  She could hear that he was speaking but couldn't make out the words. Whatever he was saying, however, seemed to work as he was invited onto the bridge where the guard took the papers he offered and checked them carefully. He flicked to the final page and suddenly looked up, glanced at Annabel, then turned to his colleagues. She could see him talking to them in hushed but urgent tones before all three retreated to the far end of the bridge and the lead kidnapper followed them across.

  Annabel stepped onto the bridge and tried desperately not to look down. Her fear of heights added another dimension of terror as she kept her gaze on the solid ground at the other end.

  The guard averted his eyes as she stepped onto Chinese soil—it was almost as if he wanted to be able to claim that he'd never seen her. But that was the way in China; it was better not to know. Or so her mother had told her.

  They left the guards behind to resume their watching of the border and climbed the steep road to find a military vehicle—a Chinese version of the Humvee—waiting at the top. A half dozen soldiers stood beside it, weapons drawn, and as they approached, the rear door opened, and a figure climbed out.

  He was wearing a long black coat that covered a dark suit. A black fedora sat on his head and small circular spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose.

  "Ah, Doctor Lee," he called. "Sergeant Gurung, there is no further need for our guest to be restrained."

  The bandit leader turned and drew his kukri. Without looking at her, he cut her bonds so she was able to pull the gag down and draw a lungful of dry evening air. "What the hell is going on?"

  "I am sorry that subterfuge was necessary, but our mission is of the utmost importance and we could not be sure you would come willingly. Here, please come inside, you must be very cold."

  The man in black gestured to the open back doors of the military vehicle. She was beginning to shiver, but, despite its many disadvantages, the approach of menopause did at least mean she had an internal furnace she could rely on. Her BonesWare could, of course, adjust for it, but her BonesWare had been surgically, and secretly, removed. You don't keep a traitor in your midst once he's been revealed, after all.

  Still, she was glad to be out of the wind, even though it felt as though she'd climbed into a prison cell—all black and gray metal, with hard seats and bars separating her from the military personnel clambering into the front.

  "I am called Fang Fen, under-minister in the Department of Science," the little man said as he sat on the opposite bench. The floor vibrated as the engine was started up and the vehicle lurched away. "Again, I must apologize for the uncivilized way in which you were brought here. I trust that Gurung and his men were gentle."

  Annabel grunted. "Yes, they bound and gagged me as gently as possible, I'm sure. What am I doing here?"

  "Ah, the famously direct Annabel Lee," Fang said. "Your reputation for intolerance is legendary."

  Annabel didn't respond immediately. The terror was still there, and she could feel her heart banging against her ribs, but she could also sense the rage building inside her. Good. She'd found that anger made a good cloak to smother fear. Focus on the red mist, she thought as she discarded everything outside this little moving cell and the scarlet dot that was growing in her mind.

  "So, what am I doing here?"

  The little man in black gave a nervous shrug, took off his hat and fiddled with it. "I am afraid I cannot give you much information. I can only say that it is a matter of global importance. My government wishes to make you an offer that I think you will find intriguing."

  "You
could have simply invited me," she snapped.

  "There could be no risk of the authorities knowing that you were here," he said.

  "Then abducting me from a monastery on the Chinese border probably wasn't the smartest idea!"

  Fen gave a little smile. "They might suspect, but they would not know for certain that you are in China. These mountains, after all, are haunted by rebels and bandits. We are circulating a fake ransom demand to throw any more determined investigators off the scent. And you will only be with us for a few days at most.

  "What we have to offer is, in short, the fulfillment of your lifelong dream to eliminate disease. Millions of lives will be saved. Surely that is of interest to you?"

  Her face darkened, and she noticed with satisfaction that he shrank away from her as she spoke. "You mistake me, Mr. Fang, because I couldn't care less if every man, woman and child on this miserable planet dropped dead tonight."

  "But your life's work?" he stammered.

  "And how was I rewarded? After all the sacrifices I made to build a system to diagnose and cure diseases. I've lost friends, family and any semblance of normality in pursuit of my noble dream. And yet I am dying, Mr. Fang. Physician heal thyself? Pah!" she spat onto the floor. "Do what you like with me, I no longer give a damn."

  She awoke the next day in a comfortable bedroom wondering, for an instant, whether the previous night's adventure had been a dream. But she was in no monastery. The walls were made of whitewashed concrete and there was no window to the outside, just a massive photo frame showing animated views of rural China.

  As she came around, she pieced together the events of the previous night. She'd fallen asleep in the back of the truck, awaking when the soporific rumble changed to the gentler vibration of a well-made road. The dark outside was punctuated by spotlights pointed at a tall gate in a razor-wire fence. So she was being taken to a military base. She'd been too exhausted to care as they led her along the corridors to the room she would sleep in. Her conversation with Fen had only succeeded in opening the door onto her black soul. A door she'd been trying desperately to secure during her month with the monks. They, at least, had recognized the darkness that dwelt inside her and they'd almost succeeded in teaching her the techniques needed to keep it at bay. And then last night had happened and she was back at square one.

  There was a gentle tap on the door. She was about to answer it when it opened. So, courtesy was skin-deep around here. Good to know.

  A young woman came in, head bowed and bearing a tray.

  "I bring you breakfast, honored guest," she said as she moved smoothly to the bed before laying the tray across Annabel's lap.

  "Thank you," Annabel responded. "What is your name?"

  The girl flushed and looked to the floor. "That is unimportant, honored guest." She backed away and left the room as quickly as she could manage.

  Annabel devoured the pancakes quickly. She'd wanted to ask the girl how they'd known she was awake, but if she wouldn't even give her name, she was unlikely to offer other, more difficult, answers. It seemed certain that her room was being monitored, perhaps using audio sensors but, just as likely, via video feed. But she needed a shower and was prepared to gamble that the famously prudish Chinese would not place a camera in there, so she stripped in the bathroom and soaked the sleep away.

  She found her own clothes lying on the bed when she returned. Not the tatty, sweat-infused jeans and linen shirt she'd been abducted in, but the spare clothes she'd brought with her to the monastery. Whoever the traitor was, he or she had been thorough.

  She'd barely pulled on a pair of chinos when, after another soft tap, the door opened to reveal a woman wearing a lab coat over military dress.

  "I am sorry to disturb you," she said. "My name is Xun Ju, lead scientist in the Humanometrics Laboratory of the People's Science Department."

  "Surely, this is a military base?"

  The woman nodded. She was of late middle age with a petite figure and graying hair that was cut short. "It was the nearest facility to the border and we wished you not to have to travel further than was necessary, so we came to you."

  "I'm honored."

  "You should be," Xun responded, missing the sarcasm in Lee's reply. "Some of our country's foremost scientists and planners are here to meet you. Now, please will you follow me?"

  Annabel took a final swig of the weak but refreshing tea and followed the woman out of the room into a sparse corridor. She got the impression she had been given a guest suite and wondered, for a moment, whether the great and the good who'd come to meet her were being housed in such luxury.

  It was an oval room with a circular table around which sat a dozen or so men and women. Two wore full military uniforms, their peaked caps placed in front of them, but most of the others wore business dress, with one or two sporting lab coats, as if they'd just that moment been conducting experiments. She knew a carefully curated impression when she saw it—she'd been guilty of similar artifice more than once.

  Xun gestured to a seat at the far end opposite the door, and sat herself in the vacant chair next to it.

  One of the officers stood up and cleared his throat. "On behalf of the People's Republic of China, I welcome you to this classified meeting," he said with an air of pomposity that would have been amusing in other circumstances. "We regret that our identities must remain cloaked, but you may refer to us by these numbers."

  In front of each of them was a card with a number on it beginning, predictably enough, at 1 in front of the officer, round to 12. Though Lee had to focus to keep up with their spoken Mandarin, the numbers were easy enough to recognize and it was certainly a simple system.

  "I would like to invite Scientist Wu to speak," he said, gesturing at the white coated figure sitting behind the number of that name.

  "Thank you, General … Yi," the woman said, glancing at the Chinese numeral in front of the officer before standing up and turning to Annabel. "Doctor Lee, welcome to your ancestral home. I'm afraid I must begin by saying that this meeting is a secret one and that if you were to reveal anything of it to an unauthorized person, you and your family and friends would be in peril of their lives."

  Annabel stared silently at Wu. The stupid woman didn't realize that she had no family she cared about, and her friends were few and disposable. But let her think her threats hit their target. She nodded. "Understood."

  Wu was a tall woman in, Lee estimated, her mid-forties. She had a pleasant face marred by a birthmark on her neck that spread under her ear. Annabel found herself wondering why she'd never had it removed.

  "Thank you. We are great admirers of your work in health and technology and have taken pride in your achievements."

  She couldn't help herself. "Pride?"

  The woman smiled. "You are a Lee, one of us."

  "I'm half English."

  "Which makes your achievements all the more admirable."

  There was a ripple of laughter around the table.

  "But we are here to discuss matters of extreme importance. You will know that we have reverse-engineered your BonesWare technology so that the Chinese people can enjoy its benefits without being slaves to the medical insurance industry of the United States."

  Annabel felt the anger build again. "Presumably, they're now slaves to the government, or are you going to try to persuade me that you don't harvest their data?"

  "Oh, we monitor it, certainly. And we've been doing the same for the BonesWare devices in all major nations."

  "You've what?"

  Again, Wu smiled. "Yes. It took some years to crack the encryption, but anything that is transmitted can be intercepted and, eventually, decoded."

  "And what has this got to do with me?"

  General Yi got up. "I have read your biography, Doctor, and in it you state that your driving passion is to bring healthcare to all, regardless of their means or where they live. Now I ask you: have you succeeded in this?"

  "To an extent."

  "Is it not true
that the pharmaceutical companies have taken over effective control? And it is they who decide which diseases your miracle invention will detect and treat? Profitable diseases, we might say."

  Annabel ground her teeth. It seemed they knew everything. She nodded curtly.

  "And is it not also true that your device failed to detect the condition from which you now suffer?"

  "How did you know that?"

  The general smiled serenely. "We have our sources. The Lee Corporation is no longer controlled by one person, as you well know."

  She slumped in her chair. "Get to the point, will you? What do you want from me?"

  The general sat down and steepled his fingers. "We have told you that we can read the data from the BonesWare devices. We have the same aim as you, we wish to ensure that everyone has access to the full benefits, but to do that we must … upgrade the firmware."

  "You want to hijack BonesWare? No chance—that system is locked down solid for exactly that reason. It would strike fear into the heart of government if they knew the Chinese controlled Bones—you could blackmail the entire country. One flick of a switch and everyone with an implant would have a heart attack."

  Now the general's smile had become crocodilian. "But we would not do that, Doctor. What would be the point? We would, however, use our leverage to influence the US government so that the benefits of BonesWare are enjoyed more equitably."

  Annabel's mind whirled as she tried to get to grips with the enormity of this plan. It amounted to holding a gun to the head of Washington D.C. and every other government around the world. It would be the beginning of the Chinese Hegemony.

  "We believe that you can open up access for our engineers," the general said, as Lee sat silently absorbing the implications. "We would prefer to have your willing cooperation."