Chapter 10

Smith tried to react at the sight of the gun pointed at him. The pilot stretched his arm, almost touching the muzzle on Smith's head, and snapped:

"Don't be fool, Mr. Smith. If you want to stay alive, get right back to your seat. My co-pilot will be there with his gun aimed at you. Any brisk movements and you'll be shot with no further warning."

Smith nodded, turned back and sat beside Jadzia without any words. He knew the menace could not be fulfilled. There were chances that the bullet could make a hole in the plane's fuselage or even break a window. Those who were without their seat belts would be sucked out of the plane in a few seconds.

The co-pilot knew, too. He stood there with the gun aimed at Smith's head, not so far away to assure an exact shot, and not so close, to avoid Smith's reaction. Indeed, he was ordered not to shoot. The CIA agent would be killed by another way, at another time.

Smith looked out down the window and saw just water beneath them. He knew they were flying over the Barents Sea, headed to the North Pole. He felt that something had gone wrong since he met that man in the black Dahlia. He'd had two choices: either follow Jadzia's plan, as he did, or take his own way, trying to leave Russia alone. He chose the wrong way. Smith tried to understand what was going on, but he was still mixed up. If KGB knew he was smuggling classified documents, why didn't they arrest him - and Jadzia -- when they were still on the ground? Maybe KGB forged those documents to give phony information to the CIA. That didn't make sense, he thought. They would not have stopped him if they wanted the faked documents delivered to the CIA.

The Great Wall

While satellites can take pictures of almost any place on Earth, there is one structure that needs no special camera. It's the only man-made monument that can be viewed from space with naked eyes: the Great Wall in China.

The Great Wall is about 1,500 miles long, winding along the edge of the Mongolian plateau. It is spotted by a lot of watchtowers, some of them now being used by the Chinese intelligence service as top security meeting places for high-rank government officers.

The meeting was taking place in one of those watch towers. The satellites could see its roofs, but not what was going on inside the secret rooms. Two men were comfortably seated in of them, talking about something which seemed to give them considerable pleasure.

"What about our foolish CIA agent?" asked the first. He was in his sixties and seemed to keep an ever-present smile on his face.

"We have the control now, comrade. They're flying over the Barents Sea, headed to Svalbard, a Norwegian dependency where we have a secret base. We are going to blow up the plane minutes after its landing. We'll make it appear like a plane crash. The documents we've prepared will be left along with the agent's corpse. They're will be no doubts about their authenticity."

The first man seemed to enjoy the good news. "And what about our agents?" he asked.

"Jadzia will be kept at the crash site, with just some light scratches on her skin, pretending to be fainted when the rescue team arrives. She will be our guarantee the message will hit the target. The two pilots will be taken to our submarine, near the shore."

"The future of China depends on that plan. I remind you that any failures will be unforgivable," snapped the first man without losing his smile. It was now a cold smile.

"There will be no failures, comrade," replied the second man.

"Good. You will be well compensated after our victory. Remember though, if anything were going wrong, your head will be at stake."

Turbulence

The plane began to shake violently due to turbulence, and the co-pilot had to reach something to keep his balance. Smith, watched, unbuckled the safety belt, and rose at the moment the co-pilot lost his balance. Smith grabbed the co-pilot's right hand and threw a punch to his chin. He missed. Both men lost their balance. The plane was shaken again, this time with more violence. The gunshot was unavoidable.

The bullet began its deadly course.