The Fellowship Read Free Page B

commission from the Chinese government to improve child nutrition in rural areas. They got way more than they bargained for. LifeEmberz created a new breed of supercattle, achieved by leveraging a blend of mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA, and using what Zhu calls extreme cloning techniques. In the past week, they’ve told audiences at Oxford, University of Edinburgh and Sapienza University that they’ve reduced the per-animal cloning process to less than a week.”
    “ Impressive,” Shipmont remarked without enthusiasm. “But from a security standpoint, I still don’t know why we care about this guy.”
    Carver dropped his laser pointer. “We think the Chinese government commissioned LifeEmberz to work on military programs. We fear at least one might be a bioweapon. And we think another involves cloning, uh, supersoldiers.”
    The room got quiet. The DD chuckled. “As in Attack of the Clones ?” she said, referencing the Star Wars storyline.
    Speers stepped forward. “That’s right. Supersoldiers. A clone army. Go ahead and laugh, but I know people here in Washington who have discussed it with a straight face.”
    “ But it’s been difficult to get to Zhu,” Carver said. “So when we heard that LifeEmberz was going on the lecture circuit, we decided to use the opportunity to get close to him.”
    The DD leaned forward. “Get close to him?” she said. “Why didn’t we just hack in and plant the malware remotely?”
    Oh yeah, Carver thought. For that matter, why didn’t they just take him out with a drone strike? He was so tired of questions like this. Any operation that required an actual human on the ground was automatically questioned, and anything that could be handled via remote control from a secret government facility in the states was automatically applauded. Nobody understood that espionage was still a high-touch business. It was as much about psychology and relationships as it was technology. 
    Speers scratched his salt-and-pepper goatee.  “ Blake, I think Claire’s question is a reasonable one. Why did we need an operative on the ground to hack into a phone?”
    “Stealth” Carver said quickly. “Every LifeEmberz employee, including Zhu, now uses a device that’s issued by the Chinese government. If we hacked into their network to get control on one or more specific mobile accounts, it’s only a matter of minutes or hours before they detect the intrusion and start looking for us. Our solution is completely local, and allows us to reach one user at a time without the risk of getting past numerous gatekeepers. This way, the malware could theoretically go undetected for as long as he used the phone.”
    “Smart,” the DD admitted. “But expensive.”
    “We just got some footage of Zhu’s lecture from our contact in Rome,” Carver said. “I think you’ll find one part of the presentation very illuminating.”
    The door to the back of the room opened. It was Arunus Roth, and he looked even paler than usual. He drew an imaginary line across his neck.
    “Sorry, everyone,” Carver said. “We’ve gotta cut this short. Thanks for coming. I’ll reach out to each of you to reschedule.”
    As the suits filed out of the room, Arunus Roth made his way to the front. “ The hit and run victim is Spencer Griffin,” he said.
    Carver sat down. “And Zhu?”
    Roth shook his head. “Callahan overheard the other LifeEmberz employees saying they can’t get hold of him. They think he might have been kidnapped.”
    Carver’s blood ran cold. If Zhu really was working on some sort of supersoldier project, or even an advanced bioweapon, there could be any number of countries that might want the secrets he had locked up inside his head.
    “Well , we know where he is, right? Maybe we should go in.”
    “Slow down, bro.”
    “Don’t call me bro.”
    Carver looked up. Speers was standing behind the kid. He had heard the entire thing. “You’re asking for the go ahead to extract