McCarter leaned forward and poked a finger at the image of another man in the group, sitting a little back, but listening intently to what was being discussed.
“Well, well,” the Briton muttered. “Our old chum from Santa Lorca. Jack bloody Regan.”
James studied the face of the man in the crumpled suit and old Panama hat.
“You are not wrong, bubba,” he said, using the man’s favorite expression.
“Still in the business,” McCarter said. “Regan has good contacts for moving ordnance. Looks like he sub-contracted to Shadow.”
“That going to be a problem for T.J.?” Brognola asked.
“No. He never met Regan on that mission. T.J. was backup on a warehouse roof. They never even saw each other.”
They spent a few more minutes tossing facts back and forth until one of the phones rang. Price picked it up and took the message.
“Phoenix, your ride is ready to take you to Andrews.”
McCarter stuck the file under his arm and stood, the rest of his team following suit.
“We’re gone,” the Briton said. “Hey, hotshots, you look after my mate. He’s a pain in the arse, but he’s my pain. We’d like him back in good working order.”
Lyons nodded. “He’ll be fine. You know our rep.”
“That’s what worries me,” McCarter said, grinning.
“Take care, guys,” Price said.
“Easier said than done,” Manning replied.
“You sure you old boys can manage without me?” Hawkins asked.
“You really sure you want an answer to that?” James asked, a wide grin on his face.
CHAPTER TWO
The aircraft waiting to ferry them to Bagram was sitting on the end of a runway, engines already warmed up. The vast cargo space of the C-17 housed the Stony Man combat helicopter, Dragon Slayer. Jack Grimaldi was inside carrying out detailed preflight checks that would go through everything from the twin-turbine power plant, electronics and computer aids. He would also run thorough checks on the chopper’s impressive ordnance capabilities. Dragon Slayer carried an awesome catalog of weapons, multibarrel chain gun, missiles and pilot-activated aim and fire through a slaved helmet array. Within the electronic heart of the machine were sensors and range-locating instruments. The satellite-linked communication setup enabled Grimaldi to call Stony Man at the flick of a button and also connect in to air-traffic feeds so he could maintain instant locations. Where they were going on this particular mission his sources would be the U.S. Military Communications Net.
The men of Phoenix Force, carrying their gear, crossed in driving rain and climbed on board. Grimaldi raised a hand in welcome as he watched the team arrive, then returned to his checking procedures. As they stowed their gear, McCarter spotted a familiar figure sitting patiently on one of the benches the far end of the aircraft.
It was Mei Anna. She wore a camou-pattern combat suit and boots, the same as Phoenix Force, her jet-black hair pulled back from her face. A backpack lay on the floor at her feet, along with her P-90 assault rifle. She carried a 9 mm Beretta pistol in a shoulder rig. She offered McCarter a brief, silent acknowledgment when he met her gaze. He nodded in recognition, then turned and made his way to the flight deck and immersed himself in the technicalities of the pre-takeoff discussion with the flight crew.
While he did that, James, Manning and Rafael Encizo secured their equipment, then joined the Chinese operatives.
“Where’s T. J.?” she asked.
“Working undercover on another piece of the mission,” Manning said. “We thought it was time he had a grown-up job.”
“It’s good to see you,” Anna said, standing and greeting them all with a quick hug.
They responded warmly. There wasn’t one man among Phoenix Force who didn’t hold Mei Anna in great esteem. Since their first encounter during a previous mission to China, she had proved herself to be a formidable young woman. Her dedication to her Pro-Democracy group was intense, and her fight against the repressions of the Chinese government and the often brutal suppression of civil and personal rights was something she believed in with a passion. Her fight had taken her all over China, and she was a wanted woman by Beijing. She accepted it without making a point over the matter. Her courage was something Phoenix Force was fully aware of. Her being back in action didn’t surprise them. It had been something they had all accepted as inevitable now that she had recovered from the aftermath of a wound that had taken its toll and forced her into a long recovery period.
“We had no idea you were involved in this until a short while ago,” Manning said.
“Things happened fast” Anna told him. “We’ve been monitoring the activity at Guang Lor for some time. This particular incident has given us something definite we can focus on, and it seems to have happened just as you became involved.”
They felt the aircraft vibrate as power was applied to the powerful engines. After a few seconds they felt the plane start to move, the whine of the engines increasing.
“Is David okay?”
James grinned. “He’s being David,” was all he said.
Anna touched his arm. “You don’t have to say any more.”
They braced themselves as the aircraft gained speed, the sound of the engines filling the cavernous interior, and then the deck beneath their feet tilted and they felt the momentary hollowness in their stomachs as the aircraft lifted off.
“No going back now,” Manning said.
McCarter appeared and made his way along the plane.
“Talk to you later,” James said.
They nodded to McCarter as they passed him halfway down the length of the plane and took their seats, leaving the Briton to join Mei Anna.
The woman had sat again and made a point of looking out the window. She kept up the pretence for a couple of minutes before turning to face McCarter.
“What do you want me to say, David?”
“Hello would be a start. Might make up for vanishing the way you did,” he stated.
“I had no choice.”
“Bloody hell, Anna, we all have choices.” McCarter controlled his outburst, lowering his voice. “What do you think I would have done? Locked you in the cellar and hidden the key?”
“Something like that,” the woman replied.
He moved to sit beside her. “Am I that much of an idiot?”
She laid a hand on his. “Of course not. You’re a caring man I have learned to trust and have affection for.”
“So why the disappearing act?” the Briton queried.
“You know why. If you had found out you would have tried to persuade me not to go. I was afraid you might succeed, so I decided the best thing to do was to just go. The last thing I intended was to hurt you. You have to understand my feelings in this. I was doing this kind of thing before we ever met. You know that. I would never change the times we have together, and I want that to go on. Truly. But what I do in China is something I can’t turn my back on. If a matter comes up and I’m needed, I have to respond. That was what happened, and it was why I had to go. Don’t hate me for that.”
McCarter put his arm around her shoulders.
“Hate you? Not going to happen, love. You are the best thing to happen to me in a long time. It’s just bloody hard to watch you haring off on some dangerous trek with a gun in hand and that look in your eyes. Honestly? It scares the pants off me. And I miss you.”
“Really? I haven’t given you a single thought since I boarded that plane out of England.”
“Comforting to know.”
“And not true. It was nice having you around. London can be a dangerous place.”
“Don’t I know it. Talking of dangerous places how was it going back to HK?”
“We have to be so careful now. The authorities have been coming down hard on any kind of antigovernment groups. Beijing is showing its tough face right now. Harsh penalties for anyone getting caught. It doesn’t show them in a good light when corruption or repression
is exposed, so they use any means to strike back. Every so often they have a purge. Round up suspects, jail them without trial. Send them off to labor camps for reindoctrination. There are public executions, too. It doesn’t stop the groups though. Just makes the survivors more determined to carry on.”
“What the hell is it with Beijing?”
“The government is scared. They see the people getting restless, wanting change and being prepared to suffer, and die, to get it. The ruling group is terrified of allowing China its freedom because it would signal their end. They cling to power so desperately, the country pays the price.”
“So this missile deal is part of that paranoia?”
“Exactly. America is still the most powerful nation on Earth. Now Russia is updating its missile system, claiming it’s for defense. Beijing sees all this and has to respond, to bolster its own strength and to convince the people they are safe in the government’s hands. It’s all to do with saving face and maintaining the balance of power. No one has learned a thing, David. The wheel goes around and comes around.”
“More or less what we talked about back at base when we got the mission brief.”
“So we’re all after the same thing,” Anna said. “Only for slightly different reasons.”
“Not that different.” McCarter smiled. “I only said yes because I knew I’d see you.”
“Flatterer. But don’t stop, I like it.”
“Tell me about Xinjiang.”
Anna pulled a folded map from her pack and spread it. She pointed out locations.
“Northwest China. Close to Afghan border here. Some pretty harsh country where we’re going. Some desert areas. Rocky terrain. Desolate and isolated. Which is why China’s nuclear test site is located in the area. Here at Lop Nor. It’s a long way from where we’ll be operating, so don’t worry about picking up anything to make you glow in the dark. The missile research and development facility is here at Guang Lor, with a village close by to house outworkers. There is also a military presence in the area because the indigenous population, the Uygur, want autonomy from the rest of China. The Uygur maintain their Islamic religion, and they refuse to relinquish it. Some years back Beijing decided to send in Han Chinese to bring the area under control. The Uygur opposed that, believing it would erase their ethnic identity, which is probably Beijing’s intention. So there is unrest, resistance, military repression.”
“So there’ll be more military than we might normally expect?”
“Not necessarily where we’re going.”
McCarter frowned. “I don’t know whether to take that as a yes or a no.”
“Take it as an ‘I’m not certain either way.’”
He smiled at her firm reply. One thing he had learned about Mei Anna was her refusal to be intimidated in any way, as slight as the intention might be. At her strongest, she took no prisoners.
“Here, take this map. I have another. Use it to work out what you need to do,” the woman stated.
McCarter folded the map and tucked it under his belt. “Okay. Let’s talk about your people. How many? Where are they and can we get to them without ending up with the local militia coming down on us?”
“The latest report we had said they’re on the run from the military. They located the downed missile before a search party from Guang Lor could get there. They extracted the circuit board and took photographic evidence. But they were spotted and the military pursued them. From what I managed to pick up, there had been a running fight. Hung and his surviving team took refuge in the foothills. Something about a deserted village. It was shelled by the army during one of the strikes against the Uygur. Planes razed it to the ground, the people relocated. In real terms it means many of them were killed and buried in a mass grave.”
“Do they know we’re coming in?”
Anna nodded. “We managed to get a short message through to Loy Hung. He’s our team leader in the area. He understands we have people coming in to help and to collect the evidence because he’s been prevented from delivering it to Hong Kong.”
“The board and the photographs?” McCarter queried.
She nodded and pulled a group of photographs from one of her pockets, handing them to McCarter.
“Loy Hung, Dar Tan and Sammy Cho. They are all that is left of the team. The others died during the escape into the hills.”
“And what about this Major Kang character?”
“He is head of security at the Guang Lor site and for the region. A very ruthless man. He will not have taken this incident well. It will reflect on him personally, so he will be doing everything in his power to regain possession of the board.”
“Okay.” McCarter paused as a thought intruded. He realized it had been niggling away at the back of his mind, kept at bay by more pressing matters, but it was suddenly demanding his full attention. “Anna, the information that came out from Guang Lor said the only reason the U.S. board was used for the trial was that the copies weren’t completed yet?”
“Yes. Why?”
“If we get the original back, that isn’t going to stop Lin Cheung’s development people from finishing what they started. They’ll go right ahead and complete their counterfeit boards, and still have what they want.”
“In other words, they’ll still be on a par with the U.S.”
“Not much use the President waving the genuine board and shouting, ‘We got it back, Beijing.’ All they’ll do is smile and rattle their newly equipped missiles at him and yell, ‘So what?’ They’ll do their best to stop the news leaking out about what they’ve been up to, but in the end they aren’t going to pack up developing their missile system, using technology they stole. And they probably still have other hardware they’ve bought under the counter.”
McCarter leaned back against the bulkhead. He could feel the power of the aircraft vibrating through the metal skin of the fuselage. He focused on the information Anna had given him and the implications of his own thought process and what it meant. Whichever way he turned it around, it looked as though Phoenix Force’s incursion into China was about to have its stay extended and its mission upgraded. Whatever lay ahead, it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Phoenix Force was going to drop in on a potential minefield of problems just waiting to jump up and bite them.
He paused in his thoughts. There were never any guarantees of an easy time. Stony Man didn’t exist to take on peaceful missions or easy tasks. It was here to handle situations that required on-the-spot-down-and-dirty solutions to ugly scenarios. When in doubt, send out Phoenix Force or Able Team. It was what they did best, and they were the best at what they did. He smiled at his own clichés.
He felt Anna’s eyes on him. She had a wistful smile on her lips, head slightly to one side as she observed him.
“What?” the Briton asked.
“I was just imagining what I’d like to be doing right now if we were back in London. Maybe breakfast in that café near the flat,” Anna told him.
“You just fold those thoughts up and store them away, love. Keep them safe until we get back.”
“Okay. I have something else for you. Loy Hung has a man inside Guang Lor. He’s been established for some months. It’s why we got the information on the circuit board and the downed missile. Hung’s man has also passed him detailed information on the security setup and locations within the site. Could be helpful.”
“Will we be able to depend on this man if we hit the site?”
Anna shrugged. “We can’t say. The last time they spoke, Hung’s man said he was concerned Major Kang might be on to him.”
“Let’s hope he’s okay.”
Anna glanced at her watch.
“David, I’m going to get some sleep. It feels like I’ve been in the air for the last week.”
“You do that. And I’d better go have a chat with the lads. Tell them what a pleasant spot we’re going to drop into.”
He pushed to his feet and made his way along the aircraft to where Manning, James and Encizo wer
e checking equipment.
“Briefing session over?” Manning asked.
McCarter joined them. “Oh, yes. You want the good news or the bad news?”
“What’s the bad news?” Encizo queried.
McCarter couldn’t resist a wide grin. “The bad news is, there’s no good news.”
“I hate it when he gets that smug attitude,” James said.
“He likes to think he has comic timing,” Encizo said.
“I do,” McCarter announced.
“Miss-timing more like,” Manning said.
“I just talked to Anna,” McCarter said. “Her people are on the ground and hiding out, waiting for us to make contact, haul them out of trouble and take this circuit board off their hands.”
He passed the photographs Anna had provided so the team would know Hung and his men.
“These are the people we have to locate and lift out,” the Phoenix Force leader said.
“But?” James asked, waiting for McCarter to drop the bombshell he was keeping to himself.
“Collecting one board isn’t going to make the problem go away. And the problem is that the Chinese will still have the copied version of whatever they stole from the U.S.”
“I feel something’s coming that I’m not going to really want to hear,” Manning said.
“Along the lines of we have to neutralize the missile center,” Encizo guessed.
“And make sure all the stolen technology is destroyed,” James added.
McCarter didn’t respond until he felt three pairs of eyes on him.
“Well, yes, something like that.”
“Let’s take a stroll in the park suddenly turned into a rumble in the jungle,” James said.
“We have to be flexible, chums. This was part of the mission brief so we had to expect it.”
McCarter produced the map Anna had given him. He spread it out, and his teammates leaned in closer as he pointed out the various locations.
China Crisis (Stony Man) Page 3