Chapter 39
Aboard the Oregon
Juan Cabrillo was deep in the bowels of the Oregon’s engine room with Max Hanley when he took another call from his primary client, Langston Overholt IV.
“Kinda in the middle of an inspection, Lang. What’s up?”
“Just wanted you to know the fentanyl sample and evidentiary materials you passed along have been received. The secretary of state is beyond thrilled. Well done.”
“It’s why you pay us the big bucks—speaking of which, when can I expect your deposit?”
“Any day now. But I have even better news. President Olmedo has expressed his extreme gratitude and has requested a personal meeting with the soldados asombrosos who pulled off the mission.”
“Yeah, sure. Someday. Maybe.”
“He was hoping tomorrow.”
“We’ve got a lot on our plate right now. Still getting squared away from our last two missions. I’ll pass.”
“Consider it a diplomatic mission.”
“I’m expecting a call from Linc and Raven any minute now. I’ve got to be ready for the exfil.”
“President Olmedo will soon be an important strategic partner. He’s also a true visionary—the future of Latin America. Perhaps even a George Washington for his people.”
“Bad teeth, eh? That’s too bad.”
“I thought you were a fan.”
“I am, very much so. But I’m not much of a schmoozer.”
“Neither is he. I’ve only had one conversation with him. He’s no ordinary politician. Something of a philosopher king. I think you two will hit it off famously.”
“You sure I can’t take a rain check?”
“You’ve thrown a Hail Mary on this one, and now we’re just inches from the goal line with Olmedo. I need you to punch it through with a quarterback sneak and score the winning touchdown.”
“A football analogy? I thought you were into the pickleball thing.”
“A presidential escort will pick you and your team up at the airport at precisely ten a.m. tomorrow. You’ll be taken to Olmedo’s personal residence for brunch. It’s quite an honor.”
“It’s more like a pain in my keister. But you’re right, I actually would like to meet him.”
“Wonderful. I’ll confirm with his people.”
Overholt rang off.
“Champagne and pupusas with a president? Yeah, I can see why you’re dragging your feet,” Max said in a mocking tone. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
Max nodded. “Linc and Raven. Yeah, me too. You know if there was a problem, they’d reach out.”
“If they can.”
★
Murphy’s first mistake was to assume Linlin was not a threat to the Oregon. The puppy dog devotion that flashed in his lovelorn eyes the moment he saw her destroyed any suspicions he may have entertained.
His second mistake was to assume she was as naive as he was. His childish emotions betrayed his brilliant mind. He should have known his lame explanation for why a man with his training and expertise was working on a civilian cargo ship wouldn’t hold up under modest scrutiny.
Murphy’s third mistake was failing to realize that hiding his true work on board the vessel was telling her the vessel itself must be hiding some larger secret. What could it be?
Murphy blocked her access to the ship’s computer. Why? Who in the world would want to steal the manifest of an insignificant cargo ship? Preventing her from accessing the vessel’s mainframe meant there was something valuable on it.
Mark Murphy had his many faults, but he was no criminal.
She was certain he wouldn’t be involved in illegal activities.
Whatever was valuable on that mainframe was something Murph wanted to protect, and despite his childish prevarications, nothing was more important to him than computer science.
His brilliant paper on organoid computing alone proved that.
Could it be something as valuable as an organoid computer?
Linlin’s pulse quickened. Of course!
What better place to hide such a monumental project than a completely anonymous cargo ship?
Linlin gleamed with satisfaction.
Thanks to Murphy’s series of ham-handed mistakes, her mission to find an operational organoid computer seemed tantalizingly close.
And Cabrillo was clearly no ordinary ship’s captain.
Linlin had trained with some of China’s finest special warfare operators and she knew the type well.
Despite his roguish charm, the “Chairman” carried himself with the self-possessed confidence of a sheathed blade, just like the one hidden beneath his tropical shirt.
His navigator, Seng, was cut from the same cloth.
What more proof did she need?
She’d laid low long enough, and had taken the proper security precautions. It was finally time to take the next step.
★
Linlin had placed her empty breakfast tray and dishes out in the corridor to be retrieved by a member of the ship’s crew. Now she sat at her desk with her e-reader on the table and her backpack at her feet. She appeared to be scrolling through a booklist on her reader. But she wasn’t.
Linlin had already performed several clandestine visual inspections of her small cabin and was utterly confident she was not under optical or electronic surveillance, though an Oregon crew member was lurking in the passageway outside of her room even now.
She carefully opened up her backpack and pulled out her espionage gear. She’d packed her bag as if she had just thrown in whatever she could at the last moment under duress. Anyone inspecting the bag wouldn’t be the least bit suspicious of its contents.
The essentials were all there, starting with her passport and a small coin purse. There was also a toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, extra pairs of panties and socks, a couple of mashed candy bars, and other sundries.
She’d also tossed in the e-reader tablet, earbuds and charger, pencil case and sharpener, and a spiral planning calendar filled with appointments, names, and phone numbers.
It was these latter items Linlin removed first, beginning with the spiral calendar. The German A4-size calendar was close to the American eight-and-a-half-by-eleven format. The daily/monthly calendar had plastic covers and sheets on the front and back.
She then pulled out the other items and began assembling her device.
Detaching the blade from the pencil sharpener, she carefully cut away the rear plastic “Holidays” page in her calendar.
The half-millimeter page was actually a flexible polymer computer motherboard laminated between sheets of Gorilla Glass.
That motherboard was a system-on-chip with a multicore CPU and an integrated graphics processor.
Eight gigabytes of processing memory was built into it along with basic firmware and a minimal operating system.
The next thing Linlin did was to snap open the pencil sharpener’s bottom revealing a high-density lithium-polymer battery providing four hours of stable power.
She then pulled out a ballpoint pen from the pencil case. She removed the pen’s clip, which was actually an antenna gain filament. She attached it to the motherboard. The antenna gain boosted her wireless range significantly, and would easily receive and transmit through the ship’s bulkheads.
Next, Linlin selected four different pens and laid them out in a line. Despite their different shapes, they all connected together to form a single eight-inch-long module.
The first pen was a large permanent marker. This unit was an additional system-on-chip board that doubled her CPU capacity, accelerating her encryption cracking and intrusion scripts.
The second unit, a stainless steel mechanical pencil, was a one-terabyte solid-state storage device. This could be used to store large data dumps of files and caches of live closed-circuit video feeds.
The purple gel pen she pulled out next was another lithium-polymer battery extending her operational time another two hours.
The fourth, a fountain pen, was a retractable high-grade fiber-optic probe tip. This could be used for interfacing with maintenance ports or direct network links, though neither existed in her cabin.
Linlin next fetched her two earbuds from their charging case and gently snapped them onto magnetic connectors located on the barrel of the stainless steel mechanical pencil. Each earbud contained a microprocessor cluster, two gigabytes of additional memory, and a micro battery.
She then opened up the small coin purse and removed three specialized hardware accelerators disguised as subway tokens.
She attached them to an edge-embedded ribbon connector on the motherboard.
The first token was dedicated to encryption and decryption, the second was a memory cache expander, and the third provided additional interface logic to reduce redundancy and stabilize network connections.
Finally, she Bluetoothed her touchscreen e-reader to the motherboard, providing her with a discreet, low-power control terminal and visual monitor.
Linlin checked her watch. She had assembled the entire cyberdeck in just under six minutes, a full thirty seconds faster than she had ever achieved during her training session. She was pleased. If necessary, she could disassemble it in half the time.
Now the fun could begin.