Table of Contents

  About Dissemination

  Praise for Mark Posey’s Thrillers

  Credible Threat – Episode Six Dissemination

  About the Author

  Other books by Mark Posey

  Copyright Information

  About Dissemination

  One family’s life is changed beyond anything they could ever imagine.

  A major foreign power has been funneling key intelligence personnel into the United States for nearly a year, hiding them as embassy and consulate staffers, students, and plain immigrants. In response, the FBI activates its Domestic Sleeper program.

  Scattered across the country as architects, cab drivers, and other innocuous roles, failsafe agents in the Domestic Sleeper program are unaware of their status as dormant FBI agents until they’re triggered by a post-hypnotic codeword. Their programming drives them to a pre-arranged checkpoint to receive the instructions necessary to combat a Credible Threat.

  In this episode: Aaron and Marie learn the frightening and life-threatening implications they face.

  Credible Threat: Dissemination is the next episode in the Credible Threat thriller serial from Mark Posey.

  Other episodes in the Credible Threat series:

  Episode One: Brush Contact

  Episode Two: Alias

  Episode Three: Compromised

  Episode Four: Sleeper

  Episode Five: Safehouse Alpha

  Episode Six: Dissemination

  Episode Seven: Tradecraft

  Episode Eight: Burned

  Episode Nine: Safehouse Beta

  Episode Ten: Blowback

  Episode Eleven: Naked

  Episode Twelve: Blown

  Episode Thirteen: Exfiltration

  A Thriller Serial Episode

  Praise for Mark Posey’s Thrillers

  What a fun roller-coaster of a story!

  It continues to amaze me how this writer can give us so much in a short story

  Oh, you want THIS short story!

  Credible Threat – Episode Six

  Dissemination

  Aaron watched Gloria lower the morsel of cinnamon bun that had been on the way to her mouth. “An attack? By the Chinese? On American soil? Tell me you’re kidding.”

  Pa shook his head. “I wish I was.”

  Marie scowled at Gloria. “Have they actually declared war?”

  Pa pursed his lips. “Not publicly or formally. But some of our sources are saying that, behind closed doors, it’s how they’re behaving. Of course, that’s not conclusive. That’s typically how the Chinese always behave.”

  Aaron furrowed his brow. “That’s how they always behave? What do you mean?”

  Pa took a deep breath. “The Chinese don’t look at the world the same way we do. As far as they’re concerned, China is the center of the universe and the significance of any other country depends on how positively or negatively they...enhance China’s glory.”

  Marie scoffed.

  “In the case of the United States, I can’t imagine we positively enhance China’s glory.” Aaron put air quotes around the last two words.

  Gloria frowned. “Hang on...China is the center of the universe? What kind of bullshit is that?”

  Marie waved her off. “Not to oversimplify, but don’t we just have to stop their attack and send them back to China with their tails between their legs? We clearly know who all the Chinese have sent over here to set up their strategy. Why don’t we just kick them out of the country?”

  Pa shook his head emphatically. “Nope. I don’t think that will do it. First, for the moment, we don’t want them to know we’re on to them. Second, there’s the problem of the Chinese view of the world versus the American view, again.”

  Aaron folded his arms. “Now what?”

  Another deep breath from Pa. “Well, in our world, we presume that, as a matter of course, life is in balance. If a problem comes up that throws life out of balance, you solve the problem and balance is restored.”

  Marie nodded. “Yeah, makes sense to me.”

  Gloria and Aaron both nodded in agreement.

  Pa shook his head. “To the Chinese, when you solve one problem, that just puts you on the path to encountering the next problem and solving that one...and so on and so forth.”

  Gloria finally popped the piece of cinnamon bun into her mouth. “So, that means...?”

  “If they’ve decided to attack, to declare war on the United States, even if we beat them—solve the problem—for them that just means they’re on to the next problem.”

  Marie rested her hands on the counter to either side of her. “So, if they attack, they’ll just keep coming, no matter what?”

  “Not if, when. When they attack.” Pa nodded and grimaced. “And there’s a lot more of them than there is us. Even just based on sheer numbers, they hold the advantage.”

  “Speaking of which, how many people have we got working on this?” Aaron frowned.

  Pa held out his hands indicating the group of them. “What you see is what we got.”

  “That’s it?” Aaron shook his head.

  Pa shrugged. “I’m sure you can understand how this whole thing doesn’t play well with the bureaucrats in DC. Senator Schumaker was the only bigwig on our side. Besides, the more people we tell, the bigger chance that the Chinese find out we’re on to them. We’ll just have to make do, for now.”

  The four of them stared at each other.

  Aaron had a hard time reconciling the depth and breadth of the possibilities of an attack by the nation with the largest population in the world. The ramifications were unfathomable. He suspected that the others were having similar thoughts, too.

  Ma came down the stairs and strolled into the kitchen, shaking her head, a slight smile played over her face. She directed her gaze to Marie. “That little girl was exhausted. She’s out like a light.”

  Marie straightened up. “Oh good. I was hoping she’d go that way. I imagine she’ll have lots of questions in the morning.” She caught Aaron’s gaze and raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Yeah, she will. So will Ty.”

  “Speaking of which, we probably need to check on him.” Marie stepped toward the basement door.

  “I wouldn’t worry about that.” Doctor Richards emerged from the basement. “I’ve given him a mild sedative. He’ll probably sleep for the next eight hours or so.”

  Aaron looked at him. “How’d it go down there, doc?”

  Richards crammed his hands in his pockets. “Well, it’s been a long time since I did such basic emergency medicine, but I’d say it went just fine. I cleaned the glass fragments out of his leg and stitched him up. Other than an exemplary scar, in a couple of days, he should be right as rain.”

  Aaron frowned. “What about the blood loss? There was quite a puddle on the seat when I scooped him up.”

  Richards waved it off. “I don’t think it was as bad as all that. In a couple of days, his body will make up the lost volume, no problem. He may be weak during that period but, like I said, he should be just fine.” The doctor glanced at the wound on the side of Aaron’s head. “We should probably get you patched up, too.”

  Marie stepped closer to him. “Hang on...it’s been a long time since you did basic emergency medicine? Exactly what sort of doctor are you?”

  Richards looked rueful. “I’m a plastic surgeon.”

  Marie balked. “No offense, doc, but I think we’ll go check on Ty, anyway. Just for our own peace of mind.” Aaron stepped forward and lay a hand on Marie’s arm to guide her past the doctor.

  They climbed down to the basement.

  Tyler lay on his stomach, his head turned to the left, on what looked like a standard-issue army cot. A grey-brown standard-issue army blanket was pulled up to his shoulders and tucked in around him. His breathing seemed steady and regular.

  Marie squatted down beside the cot and brushed some of the hair away from his face and shook her head.

  “What?” Aaron asked.

  She glanced up at him. “I don’t know what we’d have done if one of them had actually gotten shot.”

  Aaron nodded. “We were very lucky. No thanks to the Chinese. If Pa’s intelligence is accurate and they will just keep coming and coming...”

  “This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

  Aaron put his arm around her as they both watched Tyler sleep. “With all of the rumored defenses that this place has, it’s probably the safest place for all of us.”

  Marie yawned and nodded.

  “You and I won’t be able to stay here, though. Maybe when they wake up, we should talk to Lexi and Ty about that? Make sure they’re comfortable staying here with Ma and Pa?”

  “What about Emma?” She yawned again.

  “That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”

  “She’s only a couple days old. We can’t leave her, yet,” Marie said between yawns.

  Aaron peered at her. “Is our night catching up with you?”

  She smiled, apologetically. “Been running on adrenaline for most of it.”

  Aaron flexed his injured leg. “You and me both. Let’s get you upstairs and tucked into bed. You’ll be able to think better in the morning, too.”

  •

  After he’d tucked Marie into bed, Aaron traipsed back downstairs and sat heavily in his seat at the kitchen table. He grabbed his coffee cup and drained it in one swallow.

  Pa peered at him. “Maybe you should have crawled in next to your wife, son.”

  Aaron pursed his lips. “I’m fine, thanks. Besides, there are too many questions to answer.”

  “We’ll still have those questions in the morning.”

  Aaron took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d like to at least address the big question—do we have any idea what the Chinese are planning?”

  Pa shook his head emphatically. “Vague mumblings, at best. They’re playing it pretty close to the vest. Even our operatives in-country haven’t been able to suss it out.”

  Gloria rested her elbows on the table. “Shouldn’t we be trying to think like them?” She nodded at Pa. “If what you were saying about how they think about problems is correct, trying to figure this out using our American perspective may not give us the answer.”

  Ma put her elbows on the table as well, mimicking Gloria’s position. “I agree. It’s probably not thinking like them that’s holding up the State Department and their talks.”

  Aaron looked at Pa. “You got paperwork on all of it?”

  Pa shrugged. “Some. What are you thinking?”

  Aaron spread his hands out in front of him. “Names, locations, dates, how they came in—embassy, student, tourist. If we go over them, we might find a pattern or a gap that suggests their strategy.”

  Pa blew a breath out. “That’s a big job.”

  Aaron shrugged. “Got a better idea?”

  “I’ll go get what I’ve got.”

  Pa came back a few minutes later with six large binders full of paper. He smiled at Ma. “Lucky for us, Ma’s really anal about this kind of stuff.”

  Ma looked at him with mock indignation. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Well, you are.”

  Ma chuckled and nodded. “I am.”

  “She’s got all the names cross-indexed six ways to Sunday. Keep in mind,” Pa cautioned as he handed out the binders, “some of these names might be real students or tourists or even embassy personnel. We’ll have to rule them out as we go.”

  Aaron began handing out the binders. “How many people are we talking about?”

  Ma sat back in her chair. “In the past twelve months, nearly two thousand.”

  Gloria sat back in her chair. “Jesus...”

  “If I was running an op like this,” Aaron said, narrowing his eyes, “most of those wouldn’t be military. I’d funnel intelligence operatives in first, people who could work on their own, clandestinely getting everything set up before someone in China gives the go order.”

  Pa nodded emphatically. “You and I are on the same page, there, son. Makes perfect sense. But, and I hate to keep bringing this up, the question to ask would be, ‘Is that how the Chinese are thinking?’”

  Gloria opened her binder. “Oh, there’s even pictures of each of them.”

  Ma peered at her. “Passport photos, so they look like what they looked like when they entered the country. No guarantee they still look like that.” She gestured toward Doctor Richards.

  Pa began to fill in details as the rest of them opened their binder. “Keep in mind, the Chinese only have one embassy in the United States—in Washington, DC. But they have five—count ‘em—five Consulates General. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and right up the road in good ol’ San Francisco. Even those who didn’t come into the six cities could have been funneled to one of them. Just because they entered in, say, Seattle, doesn’t mean they aren’t being placed on the Go board.”

  Gloria flipped through the pages to her binder and looked up at Pa. “You keep talking about the ‘Go board’. You said it’s a complex strategy game, right?”

  Pa stuffed his hands in his pockets. “That it is. A complex Chinese strategy game.”

  She glanced up at him. “You saying we should be employing Go strategies, trying to figure this out?”

  Pa pursed his lips. “Couldn’t hurt. Can’t guarantee it’ll help. At least we’d be thinking more like the Chinese while we’re doing it.”

  “Better get us some kind of Go strategy guide, then.” Aaron’s eyes never left his binder. “In the meantime, let’s separate all of these people into embassy, consulate, tourist, and—”

  Ma held out a green binder, thick with paper, to Aaron. “Already done.”

  Aaron looked up at her and smiled. “I think I love you.”

  Pa glanced at Aaron. “Careful there, son. Don’t go bitin’ off more’n you can chew.”

  Gloria scoffed. “Yeah, he would never do that.”

  •

  Aaron’s eyes were beginning to cross. He’d been reading a book on Go strategies for nearly two hours, while the others sorted through the binders. He didn’t know much more about the board game than when he’d started.

  He knew the basics, but he was sure that the Chinese would use tactics that were far more sophisticated than those. Still, he had to start somewhere.

  Gloria caught Aaron’s attention and nodded at the book in his hands. “Figure anything out yet?”

  Aaron blew a breath out. “Nope. This game is incredibly complex. If I have to get a handle on it before we can do anything, we might as well surrender the country right now. It’ll save time.”

  Gloria leaned back in her chair. “What’ve you got so far?”

  Aaron rubbed the back of his neck. “Just the basics, really. Establish a foothold in one corner of the board. Keep your groups together and connected so they’re safer and you have fewer groups to defend. Disrupt your opponent’s groups as much as possible so he has to defend more of them. As often as possible, make moves that force your opponent to respond. That means you’re controlling the ebb and flow of the game.”

  Pa leaned his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers. “What if we went on the assumption that if we keep those four ideas in mind, we’ll probably be okay?”

  Aaron shrugged. “Probably be better off than if we don’t keep them in mind. We may have to adjust on the fly.”

  Pa furrowed his brow and snatched up one of the sheets from the table. “The locations of their embassy and consulates are all on the edges of the country. Have they sent substantially more people to one of those cities?”

  Ma flipped open the biggest binder and scanned through several sections, then ran her finger down the page. When she looked up, her gaze was haggard.

  “We’ll take that as a yes,” Aaron said.

  Ma raised her eyebrows. “San Francisco.”

  “Awesome.” Gloria dropped her chin to her chest. “We’re going to be right in the middle of it.”

  Aaron scratched his head. “The assassination of Senator Schumaker could fit into either disrupting a group or making a move to force your opponent to respond.”

  “Or both,” Pa added.

  “Or both,” Aaron agreed.

  Gloria looked from one to the other. “Okay, I can see how it disrupts the Senate Committee.”

  “Absolutely,” Aaron said.

  “How does it force us to respond? What response are they expecting?”

  “Knowing the American system moderately well, the Chinese would probably be expecting some sort of investigation,” Pa offered.

  Aaron perked up. “You mean they’ll be expecting the United States to flail around unorganized like they usually do—at least, as the Chinese see things?”

  Gloria chuckled. “That is what the U.S. usually does. They’re right about that.”

  Aaron’s enthusiasm grew. “If we know they’re expecting an investigation, that could give us a tactical advantage. We could surprise them.”

  Ma frowned. “Surprise them with...what?”

  Aaron growled in his throat. “I don’t know.”

  Pa looked exasperated. “Staying with the Go metaphor, if you’re playing a strategy game, most of your early moves are setup. Then, when everything’s in place, you lower the boom. I’d guess that they aren’t going to make any large, overt moves until all their setup is done.”

  Gloria crossed her arms. “You’re saying that assassinating a U.S. Senator isn’t a large, overt move? Or showing up at Aaron’s house to take him out?”

  Pa shook his head. “Our best intelligence, which I admit isn’t top notch at the moment, says the Senator was assassinated because he was holding up Chinese citizens’ entry to the U.S.”

  Aaron nodded. “And they may not necessarily have been at our place to kill us. It may be that they thought I knew something and wanted to capture and interrogate me. They had plenty of opportunity to outright shoot me if they’d wanted to.”

 

1 2