Girl Rides the Wind

by Jacques Antoine

  “That sword belonged to a friend. It represents a debt, and once I’ve repaid it, I can return it.” She glanced at all three of them, at Danko who knew that if she had a friend and was capable of recognizing a debt, she can’t be like David Walker, and at Hsu Qi and Tammy who searched her face for a different sort of confirmation. “David came to my home with a team of mercenaries, and with the help of a few friends, who occupied his men… I tore the life out of his chest.”

  The tone in which she muttered those last few words froze the three of them, so quiet in that room, but blaring in their ears. Danko picked himself up off the floor and turned to Tammy and Hsu Qi to get a reaction, and maybe a judgment.

  “You haven’t told me about my friend, the wounded man who arrived with me. Where is he?”

  “Your friend is safe,” Tammy said. “My sister has seen to that.”

  “And what about you,” she demanded, now standing, with one hand touching his wrist, the hand he held the photograph in. “Who are you, and what are you doing in that picture? How do you know my father?”

  Danko wondered what he should tell her? What was safe for her to know? Hsu Qi took the photograph and pressed it into her hands.

  “This is important to you, isn’t it?” she said. The girl nodded, and he noticed what he thought was a tear trembling in her eye. “Keep it safe.” Hsu Qi turned to the others and said, “Leave us alone.” When nobody moved, perhaps startled by the request, and concerned for their lady’s safety, she spoke more firmly: “Everybody out… now, except you, sifu Danko.”

  Once they were alone in the room, Danko closed the door and, at a sign from Hsu Qi, reached up to disconnect the video camera dangling from one of the light fixtures. The women sat on one of the lower bunks together, but since he couldn’t fit his frame into one of those spaces in a seated position, and he didn’t feel comfortable lying down or dangling his legs from an upper bunk, he ended up leaning against a wall. Hsu Qi explained what was safe for the girl to know about who they were.

  “Our people, the Shan, have been persecuted for decades by the Burmese junta. Our father organized the first military resistance, before my brother and I were born. But the only way to fund his operations was to take over the drug trade in the Golden Triangle.”

  “Khun Sa chased out the smuggling rings and organized the poppy farmers,” Danko added.

  “Unfortunately, once he got involved in the drug trade, he was unable to extricate himself from it.”

  “He even offered to suppress poppy farming in the Golden Triangle in exchange for US military support,” Danko said. “But the people sent to negotiate the deal used the occasion to try to assassinate him.”

  “They must have been working some sort of deal with the junta,” the girl observed.

  “Yes,” Hsu Qi said. “I’m sure you can understand why we’ve been keeping a careful eye on the the joint naval exercises that have been so active recently.”

  “Operation Seabreeze.”

  “Can I suppose that you are here in connection with that?”

  The girl hesitated a moment before responding. “Yes… and no. The main point of the operation is to encourage cooperation between China, the Philippines and Japan, but…”

  “But everyone has a hidden agenda, right?” Danko said.

  “Yes, and the Chinese seem to have more than one.”

  “Of course, they do,” Hsu Qi said. “One of them that we know of is to locate this base, under cover of searching for supposed terrorists. They hope to use that knowledge to gain influence with the junta and maybe even sign a long-term treaty. If the Shan Tai Army is neutralized, and if we are painted as terrorists, things will go very badly for our people.”

  “Another agenda, though I’m not sure whose, is to destabilize the governments in Japan and China,” the girl said. “That’s how I ended up shipwrecked on your island.”

  The story she unfolded for them grew more incredible by the minute. The possibility of a coup in China could turn out far worse than anything the Burmese junta had done or could do to the Shan people. Of course, the thought that Japanese conspirators could be in league with the Chinese was the height of improbability, not with tensions running so high between both countries over territorial claims, not to mention older resentments from the previous century.

  “I imagine there are many in the Philippine government who would drop territorial claims in the South China Sea for a favorable trade deal with China,” Danko said. “But I can’t see any Chinese being willing to work with the Japanese.”

  “All I know is that the Chinese contingent of Operation Seabreeze manufactured a friendly-fire incident in order to kill me, or take me into custody, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Chinese cruiser on the horizon searching for me any day now.”

  “What do they want with you?” Danko asked.

  “It’s complicated. The short version is that they hope to use me to embarrass the US Navy so we won’t intervene and prevent a coup in Japan, you know, in order to protect our bases there.”

  “But why you?” Hsu Qi asked.

  “That’s the complicated part. It has to do with the Crown Princess, and how her daughter took a liking to me once during an embassy visit. Apparently, some people in Japan object to me…”

  “You mean because you are a mixture of races?”

  The girl nodded. “It’s easy to appeal to people with extreme views on that basis. I don’t know what they’re planning, or even who they are, but I think they mean to use me as part of some sort of attack on the Imperial family. I don’t know any more than that, and the longer I stay lost…”

  “… the better it is for the Crown Princess,” Danko added. “I mean, if they need you to make the plan work, whatever it is.”

  “Or the worse,” the girl said. “Who knows if I might not be able to put a stop to it before it happens.”

  Hsu Qi spoke to the girl softly, her voice almost maternal, and Danko couldn’t make out much of it – his knowledge of Mandarin was less than perfect, even after all these years. Bits and pieces made some sense to him.

  “You have killed many men, haven’t you? Necessity has required this of you.” The girl nodded, but said nothing. “You seek some respite from the violence, I can see that in your eyes, and you search the heavens for a sign.”

  The terms of the conversation became too mystical for Danko to follow, or perhaps it was merely his limited vocabulary that prevented him. Hsu Qi had a way with people, of understanding their deepest desires and fears, and he’d learned not to question her insights, no matter how strange they seemed at first.

  “My sensei used to tell me that the true master uses the sword to give life as well as to take it away,” the girl said. “But I only seem to know how to take life.”

  “I saw you look up to the moon for guidance. The reassurance you seek is there, I’m sure of it. The moon will show you the way. You are his child, after all.”

  Hsu Qi wrapped her arms around the girl as if she were her own daughter, and their shoulders shook as if they both wept, though Danko knew that only one of them did. “Come, let’s go find your friend. I’m sure you’re anxious to see that he is well.”

  He held the door for the two women, and out in the passageway, Tammy and the armed men were waiting impatiently. Hsu Qi whispered something in her brother’s ear, and Lt. Tenno looked up at Danko. “You still haven’t told me how you know my father.”

  Chapter 22

  Television

  “The news is bad,” Michael said, looking at his watch and letting the front door swing shut. “Really bad.”

  “Omagod.” Andie covered her mouth and looked around to make sure Yuki wasn’t within earshot. “Is it about Emily?”

  “No, thank goodness.” Michael glanced at his watch again, and stripped off the suit jacket he’d obviously been wearing for too many hours. “But it couldn’t be much worse than it is.”

  “You were there all night long for the second night in a row. Yo
u must be exhausted.”

  “The morning news shows in Tokyo should be carrying the story any minute now. Get Yuki and meet me in the study.”

  Andie sent Li Li to look for her out in the garden and followed Michael into the study. “How bad is it?”

  Michael flicked through several screens on his laptop before sending a streaming video to the projector. A newsroom set flickered on the blank wall between two bookcases, and a talking head spoke in Japanese in front of a graphic showing a ship smoking in the distance.

  “Last night, a Japanese destroyer was fired upon by a Chinese cruiser. They returned fire and sunk her, lots of casualties.”

  Yuki followed Li Li in through the study door, and when Andie shook her head, she shooed the girl out. “No, sweetheart. The grown-ups need to talk.” She glanced back at the image on the wall. “Why don’t you go check on Stone?”

  Li Li protested, but to no avail, and when the door clicked shut Yuki turned to Michael. “What’s happened?”

  “That’s what we need you to tell us.”

  She stared at the screen intently. “Turn up the volume.” More video footage of smoke plumes out at sea played, but revealed little about what might actually have happened. “ A Chinese warship… a Jietai destroyer… they fired first, a clear-cut provocation…”

  “At least, that’s what the Tokyo news is reporting,” Michael said. “As to who fired first, that’s anyone’s guess.”

  “This is terrible. They are reporting massive loss of life, almost the entire Chinese crew. It was a confrontation off the Senkaku Islands. Has there been a response from the Chinese government?”

  “Yes, and no,” Michael said. “The situation around Beijing is chaotic, and much of the Central Committee seems to have gone into hiding. Resistance from loyal units about fifty miles south of the city has stalled General Diao’s troops. But he already controls the southern provinces and all the major cities along the east coast, including Shenjen, Nanjing and Shanghai. The whereabouts of the members of the Standing Committee are unknown, and that’s who wields the real power. But a spokesman for the Defense Ministry promises that there will be a response.”

  “It sounds like Diao’s already won,” Andie said.

  “A lot still depends on what the Air Force decides to do. Without air support, Diao’s troops are totally vulnerable. If they go against him, he’s finished.”

  “He wouldn’t have started something this dangerous without securing the cooperation of at least some part of the Air Force, would he?”

  “That’s what everyone at DoD thinks, but all of our intell points to something else. Satellite images show almost all the land-based fighter groups are still on the ground, even at the southern bases. We can only confirm six airwings from the Nanjing region as active, and all of them are in the East China Sea.”

  “You mean they’re preparing a response to the sinking, right?” Andie looked over to Yuki as she said this, knowing that this line of thought could hit close to home for her. But she was preoccupied by the news unfolding on the wall.

  “Wait,” she cried. “They’re about to make an announcement.” In what must have been an unexpected development, the news-anchor stood up to be replaced by an older man in a grey suit, who said a few words before bowing to the camera. The feed cut away to a stage in what appeared to be an enormous hall. An elderly couple entered from stage-left, and the man unfolded a sheet of paper and proceeded to read a prepared statement.

  “Oh, no. I can’t believe it.” Yuki reached back to support herself on the back of a chair.

  “Who is that?” Andie asked.

  “That’s Tenno Heika, and he’s just abdicated.”

  “Tenno… his name is really Tenno?”

  “Not exactly. He doesn’t really have a name. Tenno is his title. It means roughly ‘Son of Heaven’, or Heavenly Sovereign. Tenno Heika means the current Son of Heaven. When he dies, he’ll get an ordinary name.”

  “Never mind that,” Michael said. “Did you say he’s abdicating? We don’t have any intell on this. It’s happening live.”

  “He says he’s stepping aside to make room for… it’s hard to translate, maybe for ‘younger powers.’ He doesn’t name a successor… and now he is calling for the dissolution of the government and national elections.”

  “Is that the Empress?’ Andie asked.

  “Yes, that’s Kogo Heika, Empress Michiko.”

  The Emperor folded the sheet of paper with a patient precision and slipped it into an inside pocket of his jacket. A functionary appeared at the edge of the stage and bowed deeply, and then escorted the now former imperial couple offstage. The video feed shifted to a scene in front of a massive, stone building with rectangular columns and a pyramidal central roof. After an off-camera voice said a few words, the feed cut to a closer angle on what appeared to be a press conference of sorts.

  “Who are those women?” Andie asked.

  “I recognize the one on the left,” Michael said. “She’s the chief executive, I’m not sure of her exact title, but she effectively runs the Takenouchi Corporation. That’s their largest defense contractor. I think her name is…”

  “Soga Jin,” Yuki said. “That’s what the caption reads. The other one is Heiji Gyoshin, and they’re announcing that the Prime Minister and his cabinet have been placed under house arrest. Apparently, they are speaking for their fathers, who are establishing an interim government… They claim to have the blessing of the Emperor… something about new elections, but they say the military threat from China requires a temporary reorganization… and the debacle involving the Crown Prince’s family shows the incompetence of the current government.”

  Michael pulled out a phone and placed a call.

  “Should we know who these people are?” Andie asked.

  “As Michael said, Soga Jin is a substantial figure, though probably few Japanese would recognize her. The other one is a complete mystery. At least, I’ve never heard of her.”

  “What about their fathers? Aren’t they the ones behind it all?”

  “The Soga clan is one of the most ancient families in Japan. They controlled the imperial court over a thousand years ago, and the Heiji clan is another one, and even more influential over the centuries.”

  “Is this what the Crown Princess was trying to tell Emily?”

  “Well, it certainly looks like two ancient families have taken control,” Yuki said. “But could they have been involved in the attack on the Imperial family?”

  “She lied about having the Prime Minister under house arrest,” Michael said, after he ended his call. “We have intell that he escaped to Hokkaido, which means that the coup plotters don’t have the whole country locked down yet.”

  * * *

  “I’m not ready to call this our last day.” Lt Gunderson stared down her two superior officers, waiting for a reaction as they stood under the wing of the seaplane. They’d already used most of the money in Michael’s briefcase to purchase it from an uncooperative tour operator. “There are still islands to the southeast we haven’t overflown.”

  “You’re out of leave time,” Connie said. “Are you prepared to go UA for this?”

  “Kathy may have a point,” Perry said. “We’ve been assuming the currents would have carried them further west.”

  “That’s where all the storm surveys pointed…”

  “Yes, ma’am, if they didn’t put out to sea until zero-three-hundred,” Gunderson said. “Move that up to zero-two-hundred and they’d only need to make it twelve miles south to catch the outer edge, and the winds blew across the prevailing currents all night out there.”

  “Okay, fine.” Connie pulled a satphone from the gear stowed in the back of the plane. After punching in a code, she waited a few seconds for a voice from the other end of the call. “Yes, sir, we need a few more days… No, sir, no sign so far, but we want to expand the search grid to the southeast… Yes, sir, we have a theory… I understand, sir.” After a long pause, during whic
h Connie’s facial expressions indicated the kind of bad news Perry and Gunderson would have to pry loose from her, things seemed to go more smoothly. “One more thing, sir. We’re going to need your help extending Lieutenant Gunderson’s leave… She insisted on coming, sir,” – the first smile glimmered on Connie’s face – “No, sir, it turned out to be the condition of our proceeding with the mission… Yes, sir, she is a piece of work… Yes, sir, Commander Bantry at Ulugan Bay… Thank you, sir.”

  “Well?” Perry asked, with Gunderson ducking behind his shoulder for cover.

  Connie made them wait as she took a breath and gathered herself. “Things have taken a turn for the worse… and maybe there’s just a sliver of hope in this storm.”

  “Don’t keep us hanging, Connie.”

  “Are we fueled up?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Gunderson piped up, still in Perry’s shadow. “We’re good to go.”

  Connie gave them a quick briefing of the situation in Japan and China, as well as the Admiral’s intell on unrest in the Philippines. “He’s gonna pull in a favor and buy you three more days leave, Lieutenant. After that, he says you better have your butt back on Palawan.”

  “That’s it?” Perry asked.

  “The Admiral believes Diao’s men are trapped on an island at the northern tip of the Philippine chain. The BHR, the Nimitz and the Ronald Reagan have taken up positions off the coast of Taiwan. He thinks there’s no way they could have slipped through the cordon.”

  “Are they going to engage?” Perry asked.

  “Officially, he can’t do anything. The rumor in Japan is that we backed the attack on the Imperial family, and it’s been picked up in the Philippine press. We are currently persona non grata pretty much everywhere in the East China Sea. A ‘light touch’ is the Admiral’s word. Not even a SEAL team. You know what that means, right?”

  “Shit. He wants us to go in without any support.”

  “… and do what?” Gunderson asked.

  “Whatever it takes,” Connie said. “The Jietai contingent is still on the BHR…”