“You’re late,” he said, suddenly appearing alongside her.

She startled but recovered quickly. “Shen Yu. You have us all very worried.”

“With good reason.” He looked at his watch before scanning the busy street behind him. “I need to catch a flight back to Hunan.”

“So soon?” She followed his gaze. The sun was still high in the sky, and the smog gave it a milky glow that was oddly beautiful. But the park was empty, and they were alone. “Shen Yu, what is so important that I had to fly halfway around the world?”

“I’m sorry,” the scientist replied. His face was downturned, and his eyes pleaded with her in a way even her childhood golden retriever couldn’t have competed with. “I uncovered something I shouldn’t have.”

She felt her heart quicken. “What?”

He stared into her eyes, and she could tell it was a struggle for him. She knew the respected biochemist had shown a certain hesitancy to trust the Americans, but the consensus at Langley was that her feminine touch was exactly what he needed to overcome his reluctance in helping them.

“Shen Yu. Talk to me.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly with his chin tilted skyward. “I’m afraid they will execute me when I return,” he finally said.

Instinctively, she reached to her right hip, where she would have carried her gun were she back in the United States. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she felt cold as she contemplated the potential extraction scenarios they had considered for this exact situation. At the time, she had shot down every single one, believing they were too dangerous and that she still had more time.

“Then don’t go,” she said. She wasn’t about to let him return to face a sentence she had committed him to. “We can get you out. I will get you out.”

Shen Yu shook his head. “It’s too late for that.”

She reached out and took his hands in hers. They made eye contact, and his lip quivered with a fleeting look of shame that vanished as he steeled himself to do what he believed was right.

“Please,” she said. “What did you find?”

His eyes darted around the park as if searching for hidden assassins. “A splinter element within the Ministry of State Security has developed a synthetic bioweapon designed to start a war.”

“What element? Where?”

He ignored her questions. “I uncovered the plot months ago and thought I had more time to stop them, but I’m too late.”

“Too late?” She struggled to wrap her brain around what Shen Yu was telling her. “It’s never too late…”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but it is. They are going to use it against an American aircraft carrier.”

She swallowed hard. “But Shen Yu…”

“Listen to me,” he hissed. “I couldn’t stop them, but maybe you can.”

She stared at him in disbelief. Shen Yu knew his death warrant had already been signed, and still he had requested this meeting. He had her fly halfway around the world so he could look her in the eye and give her the chance to do what he could not — stop a war.

“How?”

“Did you bring what I asked?”

She nodded and blinked away her tears, then reached into her purse to pull out the envelope. She handed it to him, and he took it carefully in both hands.

Opening it, he removed a small stack of photos and smiled.

“There is still time, Shen Yu,” she said again. “You can be with them again. It’s not too late.”

He looked at the pictures of his wife and daughter living comfortably in the San Diego suburbs. “One day, three autumns,” he said, then muttered what sounded like yaoshi — if in Mandarin — and kissed his fingers and pressed them to his wife’s face.

Then he slipped a flash drive into Lisa’s hand and walked away.

3

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76)

Carrier Intelligence Center

East China Sea

Colt stood over the enlisted intel specialist as he reviewed the video taken from his AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR — Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared — sensor pod. Under normal circumstances, they would have only reviewed footage of the vessels he had rigged as part of the SSC mission. But the foreign object he had ingested in his left motor changed things.

“Nice recovery, Colt.”

He turned and saw Commander Rob “Flap” Roy, the Diamondbacks commanding officer, with a concerned look on his face. “Thanks, sir. Added a little too much power in close,” he replied honestly.

But Flap waved him off. “No such thing as too much power when you’re single engine.”

Colt didn’t necessarily agree with him. Before even flying out to the carrier, they had spent weeks flying FCLPs — field carrier landing practices — and had simulated a multitude of emergencies, including being single engine. He knew Flap was only trying to make him feel better about his “Fair” pass, but it was a hallmark of carrier aviation that pilots were critical of their landings.

“Sorry for breaking your jet,” Colt said.

Again, the Diamondbacks skipper dismissed the idea. “Don’t worry about it. Just glad you made it back in one piece.”