His day of leisure momentarily forgotten, he opened the app and read the message, then tapped on the phone icon to place an encrypted call over his wireless network.

The General answered after only one ring. “Where are you?”

“At home,” he said, already feeling a burgeoning arousal.

“I have another task for you.”

Though he had been looking forward to the day, a task from the General portended even greater pleasure. His heart thundered with eager anticipation. “Go on.”

“One of our scientists was discovered revealing details about our operation to an American in Shanghai.”

“What do you need me to do?” Guo Kang was a weapon to be aimed and didn’t need to know why — his trust in the General was absolute.

“Free your schedule and stand by for your instructions.”

After the call ended, Guo Kang received an encrypted file containing a complete target package. It was obvious the General had been keeping his eye on the doctor for some time, and he scrolled through the photos with increasing excitement and memorized the information. He knew where the doctor lived and worked. He knew where her daughter went to school and at what times the school bus picked her up and dropped her off.

After committing the target package to memory, Guo Kang dressed in a pair of black jeans and dark gray sweater and slipped on a pair of all-white Nike Air Force 1 shoes. Satisfied with his appearance, he exited his condo and took the elevator to the parking garage, where he approached the Nardo Gray Audi RS6 Avant parked in one of his two spaces. He slipped into the Valcona leather seat while reaching down to press the button that started the twin-turbocharged V8, smiling at the low harmonic of almost six hundred horses at his disposal.

Guo Kang took his time to adjust the climate control settings and turned on his heated seat, then put the high-performance wagon into gear and pulled out of the garage. The San Diego scenery blurred as he drove north from downtown to La Jolla.

7

University of California — San Diego

La Jolla, California

Tan Lily pulled into her reserved parking space in the lot off Gilman Drive, just a short, shaded walk down a flight of stairs from her office in the Medical Teaching Facility at the University of California San Diego. She wore a long gray pencil skirt and matching wool sweater over a loose white blouse, enjoying the mild temperatures before autumn gave its last gasp and surrendered to winter. She locked the Volvo V60 and walked up the concrete steps to the entrance on the northwest corner of the building.

Smiling at the students and researchers she passed, she realized her mind was already focused on the lecture she was to give that morning. That always seemed to be the case, and she acknowledged that her work consumed her. It wasn’t something she was overly proud of, especially because it interfered with her ability to pay attention to her daughter.

With a sigh, she pushed her increasing guilt aside. Maybe after her lecture she could quiet her mind, if only for the weekend. She grinned at the thought of taking her daughter to the San Diego Zoo and strode across campus, ignoring the simplistic beauty in the medical school’s industrial-looking buildings on either side of her.

Tan Lily walked inside and took the stairs to her office in the Global Health Institute, nodding at her colleagues on the Global Infectious Diseases working group as she made her way to where she had hung her white lab coat from a hook behind the door. She paused to slip the coat on over her sweater, then took a seat behind her desk, where the notes for her lecture sat unfinished in front of her computer.

She was only in her second year with the Institute and had already made a positive impact in their work, helping to identify three strains of carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales — a class of bacteria that caused common diseases, such as E. coli. The Centers for Disease Control had identified CRE as one of the nation’s top five most urgent antibiotic resistance threats, and discovering the strains was the first step in learning how to defeat them. She was proud that their work would have a meaningful global impact.

But she was passionate about the topic of that morning’s lecture.

“Are you ready?” The voice startled her, and she looked up to see the smiling face of Wang Li, a postdoctoral research associate.

“Almost,” she replied, scooping up her notes to review the handwritten comments she had added to the margins.

“Well, I’m eager to hear your lecture, Tan Laoshi.”

With a smile, the girl walked out of her office. Tan Lily appreciated her use of the traditional Chinese form of address — referring to her as Teacher Tan—but it reminded her of what was at stake. She looked at the framed picture of her husband and daughter and felt a tightness in her chest at seeing her once happy family.

With a deep breath, she forced aside her feelings and went back to preparing for her lecture.

* * *