“What background is that?”

“You’ll be perfect. Your knowledge of the Navy should even help. But mostly…your knowledge of ARES.”

“What does this have to do with ARES?”

ARES was the codename for a cyber-weapon that David had researched a little over two months ago. The NSA was enormously interested, and David had been sent out to evaluate and secure the technology for the US government.

“You’ll find out when you get there. Plan to discuss it. You know it better than anyone besides those MIT kids who created it. From my understanding, many of the people that will be going will have different pieces of the puzzle. The group that has put this little shindig together knows enough to realize the danger, but we need to get you all in a room together to really make sense of it. And that can’t be done easily; too many possible eavesdroppers to worry about. Hence the remote location.”

David glanced out the window. He could see the setting sun painting the tops of the clouds orange on the western horizon. He sipped his coffee and tried to make sense of it all. He wasn’t sure what to believe and couldn’t think straight. He was still too worked up from what had just happened. He was worried about his wife and how she would react to his being gone for three weeks without any phone calls. Hell, she would probably be a wreck after he didn’t show up tonight.

“You’ll call my wife soon?”

Tom nodded. “Scout’s honor.”

“Tom, I gotta be honest with you, this is all a little too insane. Is there anything else you can tell me about what I’ll be doing?”

Tom said, “I’ve seen some of the evidence. The threat is real. There’s already one CIA agent that sacrificed his life to get the word out. In light of the Chinese spy ring, finding people that we can trust has proven to be quite challenging. Even deciding on a secure location was a challenge. But here is what I can tell you. You guys are going to come up with plans that could help stop this war. There is a woman there running things. She’s very high up in the intel-world. She’s excellent, and right at the heart of all of this. Give her whatever she asks for. You have full authority to talk about any of the things you’ve worked on in the past. That’s why you were chosen.”

David was processing, shaking his head. “Why would China go to war with the United States?”

Tom replied, “Can’t say for sure. The Chinese didn’t bother to tell me.”

Brooke finally spoke up, “Why does any country go to war? National security, land, economics, religion, politics.”

Tom said, “Times are a changing in China. My personal opinion? Decisions for war always come down to what is in the best interests of the powerful few. The people in charge get scared that they will lose their throne. So they act. Powerful people like these ones we’ve been looking into don’t have the same inhibitions we little folk do. For them, every option is on the table. Even war.”