‘—placing lander in the quarantine chamber. Checking for microbes and foreign bodies.’

Jack heard a soft hiss as the chamber’s lid closed.

Then something beeped approvingly.

‘— vehicle is clean.’

A man’s voice came in over the tapped line: ‘Open it,’ he commanded.

A voice-identification system got to work and some text appeared on a screen.

VOICE IDENTIFIED AS:

GENERAL LAU LIEPING, PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY.

‘General Lau,’ Abrahamson said. ‘One of the most senior officers in the PLA. This goes all the way to the top, Jack.’

‘It doesn’t sound like he’s on the boat,’ Jack said. ‘Must be directing things from Beijing.’

They saw the leader of the Chinese commando team on the patrol boat open the quarantine chamber’s heavy lid, reach in, and then, using an electric screwdriver, open a panel on the space vehicle.

‘Zoom in, please,’ Jack said softly. The satellite technician in front of him obliged.

The image on the screen zoomed in on the lander.

The Chinese commando leader reached into it.

‘— I have the laser rangefinder,’ he said.

‘—And…?’ Lau’s voice said anxiously.

‘—and the camera…’ the commando said.

‘—Excellent.’

As Jack watched from overhead, the Chinese commando extracted a box-shaped camera from within the lander.

On the black-and-white screen, Jack couldn’t make it out clearly.

‘Pull out again, please,’ he said.

The image pulled out—

—just as eight dark shapes rose up from the water all around the Chinese patrol boat, unseen by the Chinese commandos on it.

Men in diving suits, moving with supreme stealth, and gripping silenced MP-7 sub-machine guns. They quickly and expertly slipped up the sides of the Chinese boat.

‘Oh my Lord…’ Abrahamson breathed.

Jack couldn’t believe what he was watching.

A covert attack, live in real time.

It took him a moment to deduce where the dark figures had come from, because this Chinese patrol boat was in the open ocean, hundreds of miles from land.

‘There’s a submarine out there,’ Jack breathed in realisation. ‘Underneath that Chinese boat. But how did it get there so quickly?’

Like silent ghosts, the eight assassins surrounding the Chinese boat slithered up its sides and sprang onto the rear deck where the Chinese commandos were gathered and, as Jack and the others watched in horror, opened fire.

Jack’s jaw dropped as he watched the massacre take place live before his eyes.

The Chinese soldiers were cut down by a hail of gunfire. Some convulsed, others dropped where they stood.

In a few moments, it was over.

The eight attackers now owned the Wuhan-II and its precious cargo.

The leader of this stealth force immediately grabbed what they were after: the moon lander and the camera.

Thanks to his facility’s incredible listening equipment—which picked up all radio signals around the Chinese patrol boat—Jack heard the lead assassin’s voice as he spoke into his own radio.

His accent was American, southern, Texan.

‘—Base, this is Vulture Six,’ he said. ‘We have secured the target vessel and eliminated all threats. I have the prize.’