“OK, people. Let’s talk about the elephants in the room.” Batista’s voice cut through the tension as he began. “First, let’s start with this announcement from Foreign Minister Qiao. Apparently, the PRC plans to refer to President Ching-te as Governor of Taiwan Province.” He paused, letting that sink in. “I’ve directed the Taiwan Study Group to accelerate the timeline for the delivery and operational status of their mission to be ready by the first of April. What I need to know from the rest of you is this: Does the PRC plan to enforce these customs inspections with military force via a civil police action? A Hong Kong 2.0. Is this more saber-rattling, or the start of the next round of trade talks with the Grain Consortium?”
Mara Whitford leaned forward. “Jim, I need to share something first.”
Evan Rallus raised a hand as Alicia started to speak. “Hold up, Alicia. We’ll circle back to you. Go ahead, Mara.”
“Thanks.” Mara’s fingers drummed once on the table. “I reached out to a friend, Alex Donnelly, at our Beijing embassy. We’ve worked on different projects together for going on fifteen years, so I know him pretty well. He’s now the Economic Unit Chief, Political Section.”
She glanced briefly at her notes. “For a little more than three years, Alex has regularly met with Zhao Lifen — he’s the Deputy Director, Trade Policy Coordination Office. They meet weekly for breakfast and lunch, sometimes both if it’s important. Alex said Zhao’s a pragmatist, walks the line at Commerce. Officially handles trade messaging before his office and our embassy. Unofficially, however” — her eyes swept the room — “he’s become State’s back channel for de-escalation.”
“So I asked Alex, is this more chest-thumping from Ouyang? Same rhetoric we’ve seen since twenty-eight?” Mara’s expression tightened. “Yesterday, Alex left me a voicemail. His voice was… off. Spooked, even—”
“Really? What did he say?” Alicia couldn’t wait this time, concern etching her features.
Mara nodded slowly. “Zhao told Alex to ensure President Ashford understood something: Ouyang was going to be firm on Taiwan.” She let the words hang. “Does that mean he’ll escalate to a direct conflict? Alex wasn’t certain. But in the three years he and Zhao have been meeting, he’s never been this blunt.”
The room was absorbed by quiet, with no one speaking for a moment.
Batista finally broke the silence. “OK, then, I think we have our answer. We’ll circle back in a few days and discuss how we should respond to this once we’ve had some time to think on it. Now that we’ve solved world peace and ended homelessness,” Batista joked, trying to break the tension of the moment before shifting to the next meeting update, “Rooke, you mentioned your people at CYBERCOM had an update on some unique offensive capabilities. Floor’s yours.”
Colonel Everett Rooke sat a little straighter in his chair, the former NSA operative’s fingers unconsciously tapping binary patterns on the table. His North Carolinian drawl emerged, clipped and precise.
“Yes, sir. My team’s been developing a new tool kit targeting Russian rail infrastructure.” He pushed his brief to the main display for everyone to follow along. “Specifically, we’ve gained persistent access to their automated rail-line-switching systems.”
The screen filled with some technical schematics. Rail networks spider-webbed across Russia, Belarus, Iran, China, and the Stan countries, pulsing in an amber color.
Batista smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “Very nice. Walk me through it. How’d you get in and what are you able to do with it?”
“Patience and luck.” Rooke allowed himself a thin smile. “Thankfully, the Russian rail network management system uses a version of Huawei routers that we’re familiar with and have exploited in the past. Chinese hardware, Russian implementation. Neither side fully trusts the other, so it’s created some vulnerabilities that we’ve been quick to identify, and that’s allowed us to create a series of back doors we can access later on at a time of our choosing.”
“Ha-ha, good one, Rooke. The seams once again for the win,” Morane laughed.
“Exactly. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Rooke said, sharing a humorous moment with Morane before turning serious again. “As we moved through their system, we identified the weak link we could exploit to sow some chaos and cause serious damage when the time comes. What we found was a component part, a timing controller chip that still accepts firmware updates.” Rooke smirked as he highlighted code snippets. “Huawei pushes out a series of patches quarterly. We’ve been injecting our own code into those patches for going on eighteen months now.”
“Christ almighty!” Cross’s hand tightened on his coffee cup. “You’ve been inside their rail network for a year and a half?”
“Yes, observing only. At least until now.” Rooke’s expression hardened. “Given current tensions, we’ve gone ahead and developed some active measures.”
