In 2002, Senior Colonel Fang Sun of the People's Liberation submitted a concept of operations to the Central Military Commission, suggesting the People's Republic of China (PRC) develop a biological weapon to help achieve foreign policy goals without resorting to military force. His plan would have PRC agents covertly release the highly transmissive viruses or bacteriological agents in the targeted country.

To execute this plan, he wanted to build a laboratory placed under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences but run and funded by the PLA. What he needed was a virologist.

Enter Jun Lìn, a native of Guangzhou, whose doctoral thesis from the University of San Diego describes the risks of viruses such as poliomyelitis mutating. Senior Colonel Sun enlists her in the PLA's scheme to develop a biological weapon under the guise of wanting to prevent diseases from affecting the PLA's ability to defend the PRC.

Unknown to the Ministry of State Security and Senior Colonel Sun, Lìn has a cousin, Yan Huàng, who is a U.S. Navy intelligence officer. Horrified at what she is being asked to do, Lìn passes information on Sun's plan, code-named Insidious Dragon, to Huàng and suspects that Senior Colonel Sun is planning on launching an attack on the West. Afraid she will be arrested, tortured, and sent to a re-education camp, Jun Lìn asks to be extracted.

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