Page 99 of Rising Tiger

“When you helped get Topaz and his family out of Afghanistan. He had uploaded a trove of encrypted data to the cloud. Once they landed in D.C. and were handed their American passports, he gave us all of the passwords.

“While Pakistan might have been one of the first nations to recognize and formally establish diplomatic ties with China, Beijing has been trying to wrap Afghanistan in its tentacles.

“China signed a thirty-year copper mining agreement for the Mes Aynak deposit outside Kabul—the second largest in the world—and is spending fifty million dollars to help set up a Taliban-controlled TV and radio network, and is dangling the construction of a nationwide railroad network as part of bringing Afghanistan into the Belt and Road Initiative.”

“For which,” Harvath said, “Beijing will not only have the government in Kabul by the throat, but I imagine the CCP will demand a lot of dirty work in exchange.”

“Correct,” Lawlor replied. “They want the Taliban to agree to help crush an al Qaeda–affiliated group of Uyghur fighters formerly known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and now called the Turkestan Islamic Party, or TIP. Pakistan has already agreed and is actively helping China in this regard. The TIP has cells in multiple countries. It has been agitating for independence of a large portion of Xinjiang, which shares a border with a handful of nations including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, and India.”

“So it’s kind of a reverse extortion racket. Afghanistan gets money and infrastructure and in return China gets its Muslim terrorism issue cleaned up.”

“More or less,” said Lawlor. “But there’s also the U.S. Defense Department study that projects Afghanistan is sitting on deposits of various minerals including copper, rare earths, and lithium valued at over one trillion dollars. So, the sooner China can get its hooks into Afghanistan, the better.”

“With all of the blood and treasure we spent over there, the United States should own a permanent piece of any money that comes out of that ground.”

“I know a lot of people who would agree with you. But you and I know that’s not how we roll. We went with the objective of denying terrorists a sanctuary, got caught up in nation building, and then pulled out. It was never about plundering another nation’s resources.”

Harvath understood the argument. The same could be said for Iraq. He had lost a lot of good friends in both countries and couldn’t help but view both wars through that lens.

Be that as it may, he—like them—was a soldier. He would do what he was ordered to do. Right now, he had a mission to accomplish.

“Did Topaz have any other information on Durrani?” he asked.

“The dossier he uploaded was thin, but we’ve got a photo, as well as the NGO in New Delhi he allegedly has been working for as a cover.”

“Send it to me.”

“I will. There’s also something else that may be of interest.”

“What’s that?” Harvath asked.

“A Romanian intelligence officer named Alexandru Suliman. He metDurrani while studying at Pakistan’s School of Military Intelligence and introduced him to a pretty wild brothel and swinger’s club in Bucharest called the Terrace Club. At some point, the two drifted apart. Suliman thought Durrani’s predilections were grotesque and quite cruel. It offended his sense of honor.

“He also didn’t like that Durrani kept making visits to Bucharest, claiming to the ISI that he was coming to groom Suliman as a double agent against Romanian intelligence. So, he decided to screw him.

“Suliman tried to sell a blackmail packet to Afghan intelligence. When they passed, rumor has it that he sold it to the Chinese. It’s all in the file.”

“Good copy,” said Harvath. “I’ll read everything and get back to you.”

Disconnecting the call, he approached Asha.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“We may have a lead.”

“Leads are good. What is it?”

“We’ve been able to get our hands on a dossier that belongs to the man Sayed referred to as Malek Hamid.”

“That’s fantastic,” said Asha. “Who is he?”

“A deep-cover operative for the ISI, based here in New Delhi,” he replied, watching as her face flushed with anger.

“So, it was thefuckingISI who tried to have me killed?”

“The Chinese were probably involved as well. Listen, I need a favor.”

“I’ll trade you for the dossier,” she offered. “My boss is going to want to see everything you’ve got on this guy. So will I.”

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