A Time for War Read Online Free PDF Page B

the actual spy work was ever discussed or planned in rooms with windows, since the Americans had developed software to read the vibration of panes and transform them into speech.
    That was the government’s way of doing things. “Cautiously aggressive,” was how Jintao would describe it.
    But Jing Jintao had another way. He bypassed that bloated, inertial system entirely to do what he felt was essential.
    His young male secretary, Shing Wei, brought him the intelligence dossier that the daily courier had brought from Beijing in the diplomatic pouch. Jintao had known from American news reports that bringing down the U.S. Navy SEAL helicopter in Afghanistan was a success. What he learned from the field report written by Sammo Yang was that the EMP unit had worked exceptionally well.
    EMP—“electromagnetic pulse”—it sounded like a simple medical procedure, such as “CAT scan” or “sonogram.” Originally discovered as one of the effects of nuclear explosions, virtually every country with a weapons development program had been working to create non-nuclear EMPs since the 1940s. The basic principle was to generate a magnetic field and an electric current simultaneously, then shape the resulting electromagnetic field into a pulse and direct its emission at a target. The pulse, upon encountering any electrical system within its range, would produce a surge in the system’s voltage large enough to shut it down for weeks, if not permanently.
    An EMP that disrupted an electrical system upon which human lives depended—such as a helicopter—certainly did have medical impact. Sammo Yang had also mentioned that the EMP unit he had built resembled a medical device. He would be arriving in the United States later that day with the unit, as part of the rotating Economic and Commercial contingent. These were the accountants and investors who helped to saddle the United States with added loans and increased debt. It was fitting that Yang accompany them.
    Jintao went through the rest of the information in the dossier, mostly current names and addresses for operatives throughout the world. It was important for everyone to know where resources were at all times.
    When Jintao was finished reading the update from Beijing, he reflected upon his own operation, one that had nothing to do with the timorous Chinese leaders and their limited, even diffident EMP program. This morning had been a setback: the loss of a choice site and the sacrifice of a promising operative. Jintao had learned of the disaster at Yu Market. Upon hearing how the cell leader had failed to complete his mission, Jintao had condemned him without hesitation. The deliveryman had carried the execution order to the second-in-command. That accomplished two things: it removed a leader who had showed promise in training but impetuosity in the field, and it warned the next leader that similar actions would earn him the same fate.
    But a setback was only a defeat if he allowed it to be. That was not Jintao’s way. He had spent decades watching the insular world and internecine clashes of the ruling State Council, the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party, and the People’s Liberation Army. Beijing did not understand global politics in general or the character of the United States in particular. They did not grasp the need to act strategically and proactively, rather than simply react sluggishly to world events or lash out in small, surgical, punitive actions. His plan was one—the only one—that would guarantee the supremacy of Beijing before the year was out.
    The cell was strong, resilient, and well trained by Jintao’s colleagues in Shanghai. They would recover swiftly and move ahead.
    Jintao informed his secretary that he was now ready to begin the day’s responsibilities of his office: coordinating local athletic and cultural activities, meeting with fellow envoys about interests mutual to