by Ed Nelson
That had to be the shortest ground stop ever. Well, probably not but it was a quick turnaround.
We landed in Anchorage for another refueling. I had told the flight crew that speed was of the essence, not fuel efficiency. You would have thought I had declared a snow day at school.
I had two meetings in flight, one with the stewardesses and another with the flight crew. I told them that the Crown Prince of China had been murdered and that we were going to help.
We would probably provide passage out to the new heir to throne Princess May-ling and her mother Ann. I knew that under no circumstance would Empress Ping leave of her own volition.
There was the long flight down the Siberian coast with all its extinct volcanoes taking care to stay well out in international airspace to avoid attracting the attention of the Russians. At least I thought they were extinct, but they don’t call it the ring of fire for nothing.
This time I hardly noticed them. I was trying to play out scenarios in my mind. I realized the variables were too great to do a good job, but I had to do something.
I then remembered the suitcase Dad had brought on board. I took it back to my office and closed the door. It was heavy.
When I opened it, I saw why? It was stuffed to the gills. There were two big envelopes on top. I looked in them and saw stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills. A quick estimate resulted in one hundred thousand dollars.
Beneath that were racks of gold coins. American twenty-dollar gold pieces. I estimated it to be fifty thousand. That had to be almost a hundred pounds of gold at thirty-five dollars an ounce.
Under that was a Sterling Submachine gun. That made me think of that actor who had me beat up. It had ten magazines of ammo. There was also a Colt 1911 .45 caliber handgun with a dozen magazines. There was also a magazine in the well. I looked but there were no hand grenades.
No wonder the suitcase was so heavy. I replaced the 9mm I was carrying with a forty-five.
In Japan, we refueled once more and set out on the final leg to Beijing. I had tried to sleep on the flight but had too much nervous energy to settle down.
I finally did get a long nap of four hours to tide me over. Not the best way to go into a possible battle but you deal with what you have, not what you want.
We landed in Beijing in the middle of the night. It was raining, but not a thunderstorm. As we pulled into our assigned spot stairs were being moved into place and a van pulled up.
Six people started moving up the steps before they were even in place. I was watching out of a window near the forward door so got a good look at the Dowager Ann and Crown Princess May-ling. They looked miserable.
The other four people were carrying cases. I hoped they contained their clothes.
When the door opened the lead figure, one of the bodyguards I had met before told me; we are cleared for immediate take-off to Hong Kong.
The Chief Pilot had come back to see what was going on. He looked at me, and I nodded so he went back up front to get us moving. Doing rough arithmetic in my head we had more than enough fuel to reach Hong Kong with safety margins intact.
All of the six new passengers were buckled in as we started moving once more. I had the odd thought that we must be nearing some maintenance requirements by now. However, Needs must when the devil drives.
After we were in the air I sat back as our stewardess made our new guests comfortable. The ladies were shown the restrooms in the back of the aircraft which were nicer than the ones up front. Those were configured the same as in commercial aircraft.
Once they had all refreshed themselves and had a cup of tea in hand I was updated. Ann told me that Haoran had to be behind Chun-Chieh’s murder, but he was a thousand miles away at the time in a public venue.
That just meant he had hired someone to do it. Empress Ping had finally declared publicly that Haoran would be questioned when he was brought in. There was an active search ongoing and if anyone knew his whereabouts please come forward.
Chapter 16
I noticed one of the bodyguards kept looking around. I put it down to him doing his job no matter how safe his charge was. Still, it made me keep an eye on him.
About half an hour into our trip I was glad. I saw him reach for his shoulder holster. I was sitting down, and my Colt was in the small of my back.
I had automatically buckled up so had to unbuckle, stand, and reach for my weapon. In the meantime, he had started shooting the other bodyguards. Later I figured it was because he thought they were the only ones armed. The noise was deafening.
By the time I stood and had my weapon in hand he had shot the three bodyguards and was turning his semi-automatic towards May-ling. I let out a shout and as he was turning shot him in the chest twice.
It was one of those events that were over before most of those present knew it had started. It had taken seconds, not even a minute.
I quickly checked the three bodyguards. They were all dead. So was the one I shot. I did a fast look around and saw that no one else had been injured.
I told a stewardess that had been serving more tea to take May-ling and her mother to my bedroom and stay there with them. Keep the door locked until I said otherwise.
Like most stewardesses, she was trained to handle emergencies in a cool manner. With no questions, she guided the two ladies away.
That left me alone with four dead bodies. I used one of the inflight phones to call the flight deck and asked the Chief Pilot to join me.
You could tell he was former military, how he reacted to the dead bodies or didn’t react.
“What happened here?” he asked.
I explained about the one agent going rogue and shooting the others, and that I was able to take him down before he hurt the Crown Princess.
He made a phone call upfront.
“We are maintaining cabin pressure, so nothing punctured the fuselage. I will feel more comfortable if we can ascertain where each bullet ended up.”
Using a pointer from my office we traced the trajectory of each bullet that had been fired. I stood with the pointer in my hand as though it were his weapon. We had propped the dead men up so we could estimate where the bullets had gone.
We found the first man had two through and throughs and they were buried in the seatback behind him. The second guy had only one exit wound and it was also in his seatback.
The third guy had no exit wounds at all, so we knew his 9mm bullets hadn’t done any damage to the fuselage.
My .45 bullets could be a different story. He had two great gaping exit wounds in his back. We were able to trace them to a restroom wall. Inside the restroom, they continued through the next wall into the cockpit.
In the cockpit, we saw where they came through that wall and buried themselves in the back of the pilot's seat.
I almost threw up.
The Chief Pilot gave a very nervous laugh.
“I guess I dodged two bullets tonight.”
“I almost killed you!”
“But you didn’t, and you saved those ladies and our lives. He would have had to kill everyone in the back end to have half a chance of getting out.”
“I guess so but that was closer than I like. I will get some sheets and wrap the bodies.”
“Maybe you should call ahead to Hong Kong, we will be there shortly.”
“You are right.”
I went up front and used the radio to contact Hong Kong air traffic control. I identified myself and declared an inflight emergency. The aircraft was safe, but I needed to talk to Her Majesty’s Governor, so would they patch me through on a landline.”
One thing you can say about all air traffic controllers they don’t get excited about anything.
In a surprisingly short time, the Governor was on the line. I didn’t try to explain everything to him. I requested that he have army troops surround the plane when it landed.
He knew that I was bringing the heir to the throne in, so he didn’t ask a lot of questions. I did say the important packages
were fine but that there were four bodies on board.
After that, I returned to the front cabin where the Chief Pilot had laid sheets over the bodies.
I continued to my bedroom where I knocked on the door and identified myself. The door opened and I found myself looking at the business end of a small pistol held by the Dowager.
Once she saw it was me and under no compulsion, she lowered it. I didn’t say anything, but I approved of her action.
I told them that all was under control. All the bodyguards were dead, but the integrity of the aircraft had not been damaged.
We hadn’t had a chance to talk.
“What were your plans after arriving in Hong Kong.”
“We thought we would be safe there, but now it seems like Haoran has a long reach.”
“I agree. Were you provided with passports in different names?”
“Yes.”
Thinking back to my Siberian experiences I replied, “It must be nice to own the government printing press.”
That brought a strained smile to Ann’s face. This woman had lost her husband and son in the last month and now the same person was trying to kill her daughter.
“I think it would be best if you disappeared for a while.”
“The Empress suggested that but where would we go?”
“Have you ever been to Spain? I have a large ranch there; few people know of it. You could stay there until Haoran is tracked down and it is safe to go home.”
The two ladies looked at each other. Like all women, they could communicate without using words. It must be in the woman’s handbook.
“That sounds good. We will need new clothes for that.”
As I said, there must be a handbook.
The ladies accompanied me back to the front of the plane. They avoided looking at the bodies which by this time were covered with sheets.
We landed in Hong Kong, and we were led to a remote area of the airport. There must have been a hundred or more troops guarding the area.
When the ladder was pushed up to the aircraft door the Governor was the first on, he was accompanied by the Chinese Ambassador. They both looked around.
The Governor stated, “As I thought, I have a team here to remove the bodies and a cleaning crew to remove the blood and other matter.”
This was a tough crew I was running with; bodies didn’t faze them in the least. Maybe I was with the right crowd as I didn’t feel fazed by making the bodies.
While the teams took care of business, I and the ladies explained what happened. May-ling was most complimentary in describing how I had reacted so fast.
The Chinese Ambassador told us he would provide the story to Empress Ping. He then asked where we were going. May-ling started to answer but Ann stopped her.
“We would rather keep it a secret for the moment.”
“As you wish. Will you contact the Empress?”
I broke in, “Yes, I have a friend she knows who will contact her as to our whereabouts.”
He didn’t seem to like that answer but I wasn’t trusting anyone at this point. Haoran had gotten to one of the bodyguards. Who else was his?
After the bodies were removed and the aircraft cleaned the Governor and Ambassador departed the plane. I held the Governor back a moment.
“Would you please tell Her Majesty we are going to Spain? She will know where. Ask her to call Ping and let her know the ladies are safe and sound and that they are to communicate directly with each other from secure rooms only.”
I didn’t know if Buckingham Palace even had a SCIF. I could see the Queen in her crown and robes being escorted to Whitehall to make a phone call.
After the two officials departed, we taxied across the airport for refueling. While there the pilots and copilots filed a flight plan to Tokyo and obtained the latest weather data. They all needed to stretch their legs.
Even Harold with a stewardess on each arm departed the plane for a stroll. Not good operational security, but as long as the ladies stayed on the plane it was okay.
The nonstop flight was only four and a half hours, but I used it to sleep on the couch in my office. I gave my bedroom to the ladies for the duration of the trip to Spain.
I had no trouble falling asleep. I think the adrenalin had worn off.
Chapter 17
We refueled in Tokyo and headed for Anchorage. I would have to get off the plane there someday just to say I had been in Alaska.
Meals were served on that leg. It gave me a chance after we finished eating to ask what had happened to the Crown Prince.
It was hard for his mother, Ann, but she told me that he was being picked up by his bodyguards and one of them shot him dead. There was a gun battle between the bodyguards resulting in the shooter being killed along with two other bodyguards.
The fourth bodyguard was wounded severely and was not expected to make it. That many guns firing that close must have been a mess. No wonder the result was so bad.
“Have they found any indication of why the shooter did it?”
“MSS is investigating but they had nothing when we left.”
“What agency did the bodyguards work for?”
“MSS.”
“Who provides Empress Ping’s bodyguards?”
“It was the MSS, but she had them removed, and now it is the army.”
“That is a relief.”
“Yes, Haoran’s people seem to have infiltrated MSS.”
“Maybe not; those guards were all on suicide missions, I wonder how their families are?”
“The families and their finances are being investigated.”
“I bet the younger children were killed and the oldest threatened unless they did the shootings. That seems to be his pattern.”
“Oh, those poor families.”
“In the meantime, we have to go somewhere you aren’t known and that neither MSS nor Haoran knows about. We will hide there until the funeral. I know that you will be there even if I tell you, it isn’t wise.”
“You are correct. The priest told me the almanac says we must wait two weeks.”
“Then we need to keep out of sight for two weeks.”
“Do you have someplace in mind?”
“I have a ranch in Spain, and not many people know about it. MSS or Haoran could find it, but it would take them longer than two weeks to find it and set anything up.”
‘So, you aren’t ruling MSS out?”
“I’m only ruling out you, Empress Ping, and May-ling.”
May-ling had sat quietly through our meal and the conversation. She seemed stunned by the events. Even in her grief, she looked regal.
It took a while in Alaska for the fuel truck to get to us. It seemed it was a busy time of day, whatever day, and time it might be. I hadn’t bothered to reset my watch. I had gone through so many time zones in the last week that my body clock was totally out of whack.
Since we had to wait for an hour, I got off the plane and walked around it just to say I had been to Alaska.
Next to the taxiway apron, there was a little stream. If I had a pan, I would have panned for gold, just to say I had done it in the Yukon. Where is the Yukon anyway? I was getting punch drunk.
I managed to sleep some more on the trip down to Ontario. Once there we had a charter fly us to the Forestry Service station and from there a jeep to Jackson House.
Mum and Dad were waiting for us. Mum took the two ladies in hand and showed them the rooms that had been prepared for them. We only intended to stay for two days, but we needed the rest and time to sort things out.
I was wide awake at this point. Not thinking clearly, but wide awake. While the ladies were cleaning up and changing clothes, I brought Mum and Dad up to date on the situation.
I told them the only positive thing I saw out of this whole mess was that Empress Ping had finally realized that it had to be Haoran behind the killings. We no longer had to worry about due process. He was dead if she could find him.
In the meantime, I had
to keep Ann and May-ling safe. We would fly to Spain, but not on my plane. It was too well known. We would take a charter out of LAX. It was a large enough airport that one more charter flight wouldn’t be noticed.
We all sat down for dinner together. It was dinner time in California even if my stomach said breakfast. The ladies looked a lot better for having some rest and a chance to clean up and put on fresh clothes.
Mary asked May-ling if she was a real Princess. May-ling told her she was. Mary replied it was a shame she was so old, or she could model for her collection.
You could see from their confused looks that neither Ann nor May-ling had a clue about Mary’s clothing line. The explanation got convoluted.
Mum finally broke in and explained that Mary had bit parts in my movies, which led to her doing tv and radio advertisements. Then there was, “Feed the Puppies.” After that the T-shirts, then the clothing line which had expanded to the Princess collection.
From their looks, you could tell the two women were wondering what sort of madhouse they had come into.
It didn’t help when Denny asked if he could take their pictures for his portfolio and maybe use them in a photo contest or an advertisement.
Ann asked Eddie what he did to earn a living.
“Mostly run errands for Mary and then blackmail her about not telling Mum what those errands were.”
I think the two littles were in deep doo-doo.
The next day I felt a little more put together. When I was going down for my morning run, I met May-ling. She was dressed to go running. I asked and she confirmed that was her goal.
I told her she could run with me along the state park trails. I thought that I would have to slow down and probably end the run early. How wrong I was. That girl had stamina and speed. She had to slow for me.
At least she couldn’t bench press as much as I could. Though she wasn’t shabby.
I asked her if she played golf. She didn’t. I told her my next stop was the Forestry Service station to hit a few balls. She asked if she could come along. I told her it would be my pleasure.
Ben had the driving range open, and I had a spare set of clubs stored there so I hit a bucket of balls working my way through the clubs. May-ling asked if she could try.