“Yes,” Hughes said. “But I think we should meet at Steve’s house. It’s just over an hour’s drive for me. And even closer to the city.”

Musil didn’t have to be sold. He checked his watch and saw it was ten forty-five.

“Could you be there between noon and twelve thirty?” he asked.

“Yes. I’ll walk my dog and then head out.”

Musil felt gratified and eager. He’d gotten something accomplished.

“Thank you, Ms. Hughes,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”

People’s Republic of China

Eight thousand six hundred miles around the globe and thirty thousand feet up in the sky, Wei heard a ringtone in his Bluetooth earpiece, took his satphone from his pocket and glanced at the display with surprise and curiosity.

His caller was General Huang Li, one of the CMC’s seven chairs. At sixty, Huang was the panel’s longest-serving member. As secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection, he was probably its most intimidating one after the president himself, being the Army’s highest-ranked authority in charge of chain of command and its breaches.

But while Wei would not quite say they were friends, he and Huang were close in age and had known each other since their military academy days. As cadets they had often joined in idiotic practical jokes and cooked up schemes to slip from their barracks together for nocturnal carousing and gambling. Huang had spent years building up a fearsome aura, and it was well warranted. Still, it helped to remember him drunk and falling ass over tits to the floor in his piss-soaked underwear.

“Hello,” Wei answered quietly, and checked his watch. “It’s close to midnight. I’d think most people would be sound asleep.”

A brief scrape of laughter. “I rarely sleep at all these days, and when I do it’s never sound,” Huang said. “You’re over Haishin.”

“How did you know?”

“I know,” Huang said. “You should be arriving within the hour.”

“If a strong wind doesn’t blow this flying death trap to another time zone.”

Huang was silent a moment. “I want to meet with you.”

“Surely. Say, nine tomorrow morning?”

“No. Tonight.”

Wei lifted a gray eyebrow. “It will be past one o’clock before I’m home.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Huang said. “I’ll have a car waiting for you. You’ll come straight to the Ministry.”

“In the middle of the night?”

“I want us to meet before the full committee gathers.” A pause. “You should know I’ve decided to recommend the harshest penalty for Captain Zhou.”

Wei found himself nodding. “An example must be made of him. Any benefits that may be gained from his wild actions are a separate consideration.”

“I rely on your frankness, Wei. Let’s talk when we talk. I’ll make the rest clear to you then.”

Wei listened to the sputter of barely cooled air from the nozzles over his seat.