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Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. ALSO BY TOM CLANCY
  3. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
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  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

“I know. But I think he’s having an affair with one of the corporate principals, and I’m convinced she’s working for the Chinese.”

Paul’s heart sank. He felt terrible lying about Jack, but he knew that Gavin would do anything to protect him.

“Good for Jack,” Gavin said. “In my youth, I had my way with a few ladies myself.”

“I bet you did. But how many of them worked for the Ministry of State Security?”

“If you know for sure she’s MSS, we need to tell Jack right now.”

“No, I don’t know for sure. That’s why I called you. I only have my suspicions. What I need is proof. I have a plan, but it requires you to write a piece of software for me.”

“You’re making me nervous. Maybe we should bring Gerry in on this.”

“No! Are you kidding? What if I’m wrong? Jack and I are here to help close a deal between one of Gerry’s old friends and the company this woman runs security for—in fact, she’s the daughter of the owner.”

“I don’t like the way this is sounding.”

Paul began to panic. Gavin was about to blow the whistle on him.

“Look, Gavin, if this woman really isn’t MSS but word gets out that we think she is, it will kill the merger. And if word gets out that Jack is having an affair with this woman, it might get him in trouble with Gerry, whether or not she’s a spy.”

“But especially if she is.”

“Which is why we need to find out for sure without Gerry or anybody else knowing. That way, we can protect Jack and protect Gerry’s client all at the same time.”

“Okay, I get it. I’ll keep my mouth shut, at least for now. So what exactly do you need?”

Paul laid out what he was trying to do—find a work-around of the encryption on the USB drive, which was true. The lie he told was that he needed to be able to breach Lian’s computer to find out if she was working for the Chinese. He was under strict orders from Rhodes that nobody could know about the CIA spyware, and that included Gavin.

“That’s a tall order,” Gavin grumbled.

A woman dashed past Paul with a paper mask on her face and a clear plastic umbrella over her head. He stopped talking and kept his eyes on her until she was out of earshot.

“I think I’ve figured out a way to beat it. But it requires you to write a piece of software I can load on my laptop that will capture the encryption code on her USB drive when I load it.”

“That won’t be too hard,” Gavin said. “But once you’ve captured the encryption code, what do you plan on doing with it?”