“That’s a lot of men,” Yuki said.
“It represents about a fifth of the combat troops in the Chinese army.”
“Is this General Diao making his move?” Andie asked.
“Yes. It’s a full-scale operation. He can’t turn back now.”
“But what about the rest of the military? Isn’t there more than enough to defeat him?”
“That’s the thing,” Michael said. “The Beijing units have not moved to counter his advance. The only thing that can mean is that General Gao…
“He’s waiting to see who to back,” Yuki said.
“Exactly… and there’s reason to believe President Liang has gone into hiding or is already under house arrest, along with several members of the Standing Committee.”
“Does that mean it’s all over?” Andie asked.
“Maybe not. It looks like most of the Air Force divisions in Guangzhou and Jinan have not moved to support Diao’s offensive. More than half of their aircraft have relocated to the Chengdu Military Region, including almost all of their fighter wings.”
“What does all this mean for Emily?” Yuki leaned forward, her arms spread out on the kitchen counter, as if to steady herself for bad news.
“Nothing, at least not directly.” Michael took a deep breath and looked into Yuki’s eyes. “We have to give Connie and Perry time to work. I’ve given them all the logistical support I can without tipping my hand.”
“Without tipping your hand?”
“Yes. If O’Brien finds out, he’ll have Perry and Connie arrested… and I won’t be able to do anything about it.” The two women glowered at him like the situation was somehow his fault. “They’ve been doing a grid search for the last two days, and I’ve diverted every high-res satellite image we have to Connie. If she’s out there to be found, Connie will find her.” That name worked as a sort of charm on Yuki’s mood, and her face softened as she looked at him.
“I’m sorry, Michael. I know you’re doing everything you can.”
“Now consider, for just a moment, what Emily’s going to want to do when they find her.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean when she hears that the Crown Princess’s daughter is missing.”
“Is that what…”
“Exactly.” Michael’s eyes glowed as he related this part of his news. “If we’re right… I mean, if Emily was right, and Diao’s part of a larger conspiracy involving one or more of the powerful families in Japan…”
“You mean, if we assume Diao’s people were involved in the kidnapping,” Andie said, now keen on the trail of what he was thinking.
“Yes. They couldn’t rely on any Japanese forces to betray the Imperial family, and Crichton reported that Diao sent half his company home when the Bonhomme Richard put in at Sasebo after the first half of Operation Seabreeze.”
“What if they never went home… what if they stayed in Japan?”
“Reports said the attack was staged with military precision, and that they escaped in speedboats heading south.”
Yuki glanced at Andie and placed a hand on her shoulder. “But from Amami Oshima, if it was Diao’s people, wouldn’t they head west, since that’s the most direct route to the Chinese coast? It’s only a couple hundred miles from there. Wouldn’t they want to meet up with a Chinese patrol boat, or something?”
“That’s what I’d think, too,” Michael said. “But the Jietai scrambled every plane they have at Naha, Kanoya and Omura within minutes. There’s no way they could have gotten through that way.”
“But I thought you said the Jietai had to stand down when the Prime Minister stepped down,” Andie said. “Couldn’t they have escaped after that?”
“Yes, and no. They did stand down… officially. But it took more than half a day to recall all the ships and planes that had been deployed, and by that time the USS Nimitz was in place with Strike Group Eleven. In the meantime, the USS Ronald Reagan has taken up a position off the coast of Taiwan. That’s my big news – the DCI has persuaded the President to approve a blockade stretching from Oshima all the way down to the Philippines, two carrier strike groups, a handful of submarines, and nearly a dozen destroyers.”
“That’s amazing,” Andie said.
“What choice do we have? If China and Japan are radicalized, we’ll lose almost all of our influence in the region. You can bet we’ll lose our bases, except maybe in South Korea and the Philippines, and those ports aren’t large enough to support a substantial, long-term presence. It’s a huge gamble, but recovering the Crown Princess’s daughter might be just enough to undermine whatever is going on in Japan, and we don’t have any other cards to play anyway.”
Michael’s news had already begun to lose its efficacy on Yuki’s mood when the children squirted into the kitchen, which rendered that topic of conversation off limits. Ethan followed closely on their heels, having just picked them up from the day-camp Andie had signed them up for. How odd that she couldn’t quite remember what it was – a craft thing? or was it a swim meet?
“How was karate camp?” Yuki asked, in a sudden inspiration.
“Okay, I guess,” Li Li said, in that adolescent deadpan that a near-teenager was learning to simulate. Stone glowed next to her, while Andie rummaged through the refrigerator for a snack.
“Pie, anyone?” Andie asked. “It’s peach. Ellie made it this morning.” Michael reached over to crack off a crumb of the crust and she slapped his hand. “Okay, fine. You can have some, too.”
Once Ethan put his fork in, so to speak, the pie disappeared more quickly than Yuki could have anticipated. In some distant way, she imagined herself doting on the children, peppering them with questions, but somehow she couldn’t quite focus on the task. Andie caught her eye, and nodded to Ethan.
“Hey, guys,” she said. “Don’t you want to show Ethan what you learned today?” Stone beamed at her, and grabbed Ethan’s hand to pull him out onto the patio. But Li Li was less enthusiastic.
“It’s not as much fun without Connie. When is she coming home?”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Yuki said. “She’ll be back soon… before you know it.” Ethan shepherded the kids outside before Yuki had a chance to compose her face to match her words. Connie would be back, she was confident of that much. But what tidings would she bring with her?
Chapter 21
Just Another Island
“Enough.” The man stood over the table, eyes fixed on the photograph lying in front of him, sealed in a baggie, edges round from wear. “You are only guessing, but I see her father in her. How could I forget those eyes, the cold stare that murdered my wife and son. Take her outside and shoot her,” he barked to the armed men standing just outside the door.
“No, Tammy,” the woman cried, and nobody moved. “You mustn’t. You are better than this.”
“I’ve waited too long, Hsu Qi. You cannot deny me.”
Danko listened dispassionately to this conversation from the opposite corner of the room, as he examined the sword they’d taken off her unconscious body. The mixture of Mandarin, English and Shan-Tai they spoke had grown familiar to him. After more than twenty years, how could he have failed to learn their ways. Tammy had a point, he had to admit it… and the sword was so far out of Marine Corps regs, at least as he remembered them, only someone like David Walker’s daughter would think it worth the trouble.
There were reasons to doubt it, too. Her eyes were more blank than cold, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that she could only have inherited them from George Kane. Was he merely her uncle, or was he really her father? He ran his fingers over the chrysanthemum design at the base of the blade – this was no ordinary sword – and there were other things that troubled him.
“I don’t know, Tammy, your sister…”
“Not another word.” Tammy glowered up at him. “If you prefer, you can cut her head off with that sword, but my mind is made up.”
“It’s just that… the way she dealt with our me
n… you saw the video. She could have killed the two squads in the woods without breaking a sweat, and when they had her surrounded in the clearing…”
“You said it yourself,” Tammy interrupted. “She reached for the sword. The camera picked it up.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t pull it out. Her hand-to-hand skills are so good, imagine what she could have done if she’d drawn the sword. Do you really think David Walker could have restrained himself like that?”
“So she’s got a little more self-control than her father, that proves nothing.”
“She’s awake now,” the woman said, glancing at a nearby screen. “You should at least talk to her.”
“Fine. We’ll talk to her.”
Danko followed Tammy and his sister through the dimly lit passageway, rough stonewalls echoing on either side. It wasn’t a natural formation, the marks left by the excavating equipment were still visible, and water trickled down the wall on the left. The source of the water had never failed after all these years. When he first found the underground complex – it seemed so long ago now – Danko had guessed that the construction crews must have dug too close to the only fresh water source on the island. At least it hadn’t flooded the place.
Two armed men trotted on ahead to open doors, and were preparing to secure the prisoner’s room, when Tammy pushed past them. It had occurred to Danko that he ought to enter first, though if she was anything like her father or her uncle, whichever one was which, there wouldn’t be much he could do to contain her. The grainy image of her capture flashed before his mind – practically invincible moments earlier, and the glint of some sort of predator in her eyes when she reached over her shoulder for the sword, until the mere sight of her associate captured persuaded her to kneel… and suddenly passive, she gazed up at the moon as their man incapacitated her with the butt-end of a rifle. She cares about her friend... she even has a friend. No, such a person cannot have been raised by David Walker.
Tammy had already started yelling at her before Danko could insert himself into the doorway, nudging the guards inside to make room for himself. Hsu Qi’s hair brushed against his arm as she slipped past him, leaving only a vague, floral scent behind. She favored Chinese fashions, especially the sleek dresses he’d learned were called qipao or cheongsam, the last time he’d tried to buy one for her… the Hong Kong shop-girls explained to him that the style she favored was no longer current. What did he care for fashion trends? He found what he thought she’d like in a consignment shop, and struggled to explain himself in Mandarin to the old shopkeeper, who spoke only Cantonese.
“Who is this woman?” Tammy demanded in apoplectic tones, while he brandished the photograph under her nose. “What is her name?”
At least he’d learned something about interrogation after all these years – don’t ask what you really want to know first. The girl sat in the corner, her eyes closed, back pressed against the stonewall, the only place in the room where the wall wasn’t blocked by a bunk. Did she even hear him? After a long moment in which she exhaled slowly, interminably, she opened her eyes and contemplated Tammy – her gaze silenced him – and then Hsu Qi and the guards, and then finally she noticed him. Her eyes fixed him, black as coals, but something else glimmered there, a passion he recognized even in this dim light, that paradoxical mix of pity and ferocity he hadn’t seen in years. Hsu Qi whispered something in her brother’s ear, and he stepped back and handed the photograph to Danko.
“Do you know the people in this picture?” He knelt next to her, in case she spoke too softly for a room that size.
“I don’t know your name,” she said, in formal Mandarin. “Your hair is going gray, but it’s still you, isn’t it? You’re the man in the photo.”
Danko nodded.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes, I think so, if he’s in this photo. Can you point him out to me?”
“That’s him in the middle, standing next to you.”
“Can you tell me who the woman is?”
“That’s Connie. She’s the one who gave me the photograph.”
“How do you know her?”
“Someone sent her to kill me.” The matter-of-fact tone in the girl’s voice seemed oddly appropriate, especially in light of what he remembered about Connie Savaransky. Perhaps people as cold as her can only be handled with as much sang-froid as one can muster.
“Do you know who sent her?”
“A man named Meacham.”
Danko turned to look at Tammy and Hsu Qi, and nodded to indicate that she seemed to be speaking truthfully. He knew Meacham, and didn’t doubt that he might have done such a thing, though exactly why he could only guess at. Perhaps it was a final revenge for the loss of his island fortress. He turned back to look at her again.
“You give up information rather easily for a Marine. You are a Marine, aren’t you, Lieutenant Tenno?” He read the name off her uniform tag.
“You are only asking me about my family, not my unit.”
“How can you be George Kane’s daughter if your name is Tenno?”
“That’s my grandmother’s name. My parents thought it best to conceal my parentage… to keep me safe.”
“From Meacham? What possible interest could he have in you?”
The girl closed her eyes and sat in silence for a long moment, as if meditating on her answer.
“Is this question no longer about your family? Is that why you don’t answer?”
“Meacham labored under a dangerous illusion about me.”
“What would that be?” Tammy intruded into the conversation. The girl glanced up at him, and the sorrow in her eyes almost pushed the two of them back.
“He believed that I… that I am not human. He thought I was the product of some hideous experiment.”
Danko had to reach back to steady himself as old rumors and suspicions came flooding back to him. He’d heard of experiments, of efforts to change people genetically, to clone people, and he knew it was just the thing Meacham would have been up to his neck in. What he hadn’t understood was how closely his friend, George, might have been involved. Could he have allowed his own daughter to be experimented on? It was inconceivable.
“Why would he have believed such a thing?”
This answer was even longer in coming – he’d clearly touched a nerve – and yet, she seemed to want to tell them.
“Because my grandfather… and my mother…” She had to stop to collect herself. “My grandfather was crazy, his work… he was a geneticist, and he worked with Meacham. My mother worked in his lab, and… it’s all too complicated, but when the Chinese tried to steal his work, and he committed suicide, my father rescued her and they hid as far from Meacham as they could. They were trying to hide me.”
The girl’s story was fascinating – touching on distant memories that he’d suppressed for so long – but it was preposterous, too. Who’d believe it, if they hadn’t known George and his cousin? More importantly, it wouldn’t do anything to satisfy Tammy’s need for revenge.
“What about this other man in the photo, do you know him?”
“That’s my uncle David.” Her eyes flashed as she said this, some mixture of rage and sorrow glinting in them.
“What became of him?” Tammy demanded. “Where is David Walker now?”
“He’s dead.”
“No, you lie.” Tammy shrieked, now at the limit of his self-control. Danko turned to look at him, to see if he could regain some composure.
“Let Sifu talk to her,” Hsu Qi pleaded, and after a difficult moment Tammy acquiesced.
“Men like your uncle David don’t die easily,” Danko continued, now looking into her dark eyes again.
“No, they don’t.”
“How do you know he’s dead? Did you see it, or just hear about it?”
“I killed him.” Out of the corner of his eye, Danko noticed Tammy place his hand on one of the bunks to steady himself. This was difficult news for him to hear, but if it was the truth, he
needed to hear it.
“Why would you kill your own uncle?”
“He was an evil man, and he came to kill my children.”
“Your children?” Hsu Qi said. “Surely you’re too young to have had children. When did this happen?”
“They’re not really mine. But I’m the one they depend on in this world. David came to destroy my family, my mother and the family we live with. I had no choice. I loved him, but he was an evil man.”
“You loved him?” Hsu Qi stared at her in amazement. “He was a monster.” The girl nodded.
“I know, but after my father died…”
Danko’s mind reeled at this news. He hadn’t realized it before this precise moment, how much he relied on the thought that somewhere in the world, George Kane lived, and that if he needed to, he could search him out, find him, and maybe die next to him.
“… after my father died, David Walker was all that remained, and he looked so much like him. Monstrous as he was, I killed him. What else was there to do? But I still miss him.”
“How did George die?” Danko was surprised to hear the tremor in his own voice. Maybe no one else noticed.
“He died keeping me safe from the first teams Meacham sent after us.”
“What about Meacham? Is he still hunting for you? I mean, it wouldn’t be that hard for someone with his connections to find you in the Corps.”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think David killed him just before he came for me.”
“I don’t believe you,” Tammy said, after regaining some composure. “How could you kill David Walker?”
“I cut him down with his own sword.” Her eyes flashed as she said this.
“With this sword?” Tammy said, holding out the one they’d taken off her body the night before.
“I don’t think so,” Danko said. “This isn’t the sort of collectible Walker went in for. Judging from what’s etched at the base of the blade, I suspect this sword belongs to the Imperial Household.”
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