Flower Girl: A Burton Family Mystery

by David Marshall Hunt

  We finished our visit to the clinic in twenty minutes as advertised and said our goodbyes, but not until we had learned that Dr. Park Junior would be visiting the Cheju-do Home for Girls on the morning of the 31st of May.

  Reddy met us ten minutes later at Hamish's office in the hotel bar. "He has the same evil look as his father."

  "Yes, he does, the same devil's eyes. He's kind of scary," I replied. "Junior meets Reddy's Rule # 1 on appearance alone. And speaking of Rules, the second target is out of country for several weeks."

  Reddy replied, "Sincere can wait for another day. Besides, you and I will be too busy for a twofer."

  "Where were you all this time, hiding in the markets and watching us with your scope?" I asked a bit too sharply, as I began to tear up, releasing some tension. I was misty eyed for nearly a minute as my thoughts returned to a memory that had so recently been retold to me. I have no real memories of my mother; however, the visit to the place where she died while giving birth to me left me feeling the pain of her demise more intensely than ever before. I wondered how I would feel if I ever got to visit her grave.

  "We find ourselves once again investigating a case involving the Park's family business," Reddy said to Hamish as we lounged in the hotel bar for refreshments before driving to Incheon Airport to catch our flight back to Cheju-do. "Sometimes I think we'll never be free of these bastards. Shannon and I are taking care of some family business as well as Zubaida's case while in Cheju-do. Give me a call on my cell when Junior departs for the island."

  So, I thought, Hamish is in on the Zubaida case. It figured that he was all along.

  Standing in line on the domestic side of Incheon airport, waiting for the same flight Reddy and I are scheduled to take back to Cheju-do, was a familiar looking slender athletic woman.

  "Might you folks be in need of a Pilatus PC12 qualified co-pilot for a return flight to the USA?" she asked nonchalantly. It was a rhetorical question; however, I answered with a rare hug. Reddy nodded knowingly. Rhyly said, "You tell me when you’re ready to fly back to the States. Don't forget, you promised me a three day stopover on Kamchatka to do my research on the Ainu. Meanwhile, I’ll keep out of the way and out of sight. Secrets are my specialty."

  Hamish said goodbye to the three of us at the domestic departure gate at Incheon, and in an hour we were flying back to Cheju-do to what we hoped would be a successful mission.

  Zubaida's Case: Enacting the Rescue Plan

  "Okay, here's the plan," Reddy said. "I'll handle the breakout at the Parks’ Home for Girls. You take up position on the mountain on Udo Island. Securing the girl is step one. This has to be synched with a distraction. Your first assignment is to provide this distraction, drawing the guards to the front of the compound away from the girls’ dorm while I make a break for the Zodiac with the girl. Step two is getting the girl to the PC12 and off the island quickly, before all hell breaks loose and the airfield is shut-down by the police."

  Reddy calculated that if the PC12 was fueled the night before, already had a flight plan, and was wheels up within twenty minutes of his departing the Park’s compound with the girl, then we just might pull this rescue off. He broke his no partners rule and solicited Rhyly as pilot for this part of the plan. Somehow I knew all along she was going to get involved.

  Step three of our plan is for Rhyly to drop the girl off in Hakodate where she’ll be picked up by Ms. Betty-Sue Curfew's Bombardier jet and flown to Bahrain on the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia to be reunited with Princess Zubaida and Zinni.

  I thought back to Reddy’s referring to his magic, thinking we would need some magic to pull this off, but I didn’t push it.

  Critical to our plan was getting the timing right on the two separate but simultaneous activities: first, Reddy’s breaking Zubaida's granddaughter out of the compound and second, my providing the distraction by completing my first assignment.

  If we were to make a successful exit from the island before the authorities could track us, especially if our tourist cover didn't hold up, we would need to move fast, immediately after both parts of the job were done. To be honest, before Rhyly reappeared and volunteered to be our co-pilot for the return flight, I wasn’t sure that Reddy had a getaway plan.

  Reddy turned to me. "You can handle the distraction by yourself. Check the computer results and get the hell out of there for my place. Rhyly will have the PC12 refueled and waiting with engines running and a call in to Jeju Tower for clearance for take-off. I briefed Rhyly and she knows the timing and will file a flight plan first thing in the morning, then hang around the aircraft as if she's checking or repairing something, refueling and all that. Rhyly has corralled a few local kids to join her in the hangar area, to deflect attention from me when I arrive with Zinni's daughter. By the way, thanks for purchasing a couple of changes of clothes for the girl. I want to change her appearance as soon as possible after I snatch her.

  "You need to complete your assignment as soon as Junior arrives. I will take my cue from the frantic activity at the front gate of the Park's compound and move in with the Zodiac from the seaside entrance. Then I'll make the extraction, reverse my route, abandon the Zodiac a kilometer or so south on the beach, and drive over to the airport to meet Rhyly at the PC12 with our cargo. Then I'll join you at home and we’ll continue playing tourist for a few days."

  "So this is what you really meant by a twofer," I replied with a smile.

  "I reckon so," Reddy answered. "It is not always a matter of two shooters and two targets. Actually, Sincere did us a favor by being out of country. It's an issue of coordination that means extra risks as multiple partners and multiple targets are involved. Besides, breaking my rule about no partners is flexible when it comes to having a competent family partner as a shooter and a crazy female professor as a co-pilot."

  Reddy often finds humor in the riskiest of circumstances. I found myself smiling, not at what I was about to do, but at the trust Reddy was extending to me for a difficult task.

  Once again Professor Marshall Hunt's quote came to me, "No plan is worth spit, if it cannot be properly implemented." The timing and coordination challenges were not the only unexpected implementation issues Reddy and I would encounter during the rescue and escape from the compound and the distraction.

  I don't think the Parks and their guards ever recognized that their sea route to the offshore Texas tower was a weakness to their security system, a way to transport girls both in and out of the compound.

  Reddy had noticed during his reconnoitering of the compound and the Texas tower owned by Russo-Grey Enterprises that similar Zodiacs were used by the Parks to transport four or five people or small cargoes back and forth to the tower. He chose the same model Zodiac and painted a number on the side, Parks’ Clinic # 7, to make it appear that the craft was one of theirs, at least if one did not look closely.

  In spite of Reddy's careful plans, he was not able to establish the pattern followed by the single external guard that patrolled the beach on the west side of the compound with a guard dog. Another guard and dog was stationed on the east side of the compound, and a third at the front gate. All the guards carried Israeli mini Uzi machine guns. Reddy decided to carry a tranquilizer gun in case he should run into one of these beautiful beasts.

  31 May was Liberation Day, at 5am I cracked open my soft boiled egg, then start up on my walnut muffins, and a pot of French pressed Kenya AA. Reddy downed his usual bowl of oatmeal and sliced banana and poured a second cup of Kenya AA when the house phone rang.

  "Godfather Hamish," I said as I picked up the phone.

  "Please do not tell me my goddaughter is a psychic," Hamish replied. "I've got some details on the Zubaida case. Is Reddy there?"

  "Your name appears on the screen when you call. I have you under my contacts as Godfather," I said with a laugh. "I thought you were more hi-tech. I’ll put you on speaker."

  Hamish was again the one who provided a vital clue. He informed Reddy, "I have some more info on that r
ecent arrival of two girls at the Parks’ Home for Girls on Cheju-do Island. One is likely an Arab girl close to three years old. I'm sending you a photo taken by my investigator yesterday."

  What of the second girl? We assumed that she was old enough at five to remember her real parents; however, if she were another still-born case from the Parks' Singapore Clinic, then we would still have to do some serious investigating. Worst case scenario, no one was looking for her, at least not to our knowledge. Reddy said, "I need to alter my plan to include two girls. It may make it easier if Zinni's daughter has a friend along for the rescue and flight."

  By 6:30am I was back on Udo Crater on a grassy knoll where Reddy and I had previously determined that the winds were least likely to alter the trajectory of my shot. I set up my blind near a line of trees that rustled when the wind either increased in velocity or changed direction, sort of an early warning system. I was careful not to set up in the same spot we had practiced from before. I checked the satellite video on the laptop, and the picture clearly showed the exact spot where I was lying beneath the camouflage. I could not see myself. I knew I could trust my skills; I was getting better at six direction recon.

  Meanwhile, Reddy had departed for the shoreline where he had stashed the Zodiac. We stayed in touch over our walkie-talkies as the time grew near to enact our two part plan.

  I scanned the beach on the west edge of the compound to locate Reddy in the Zodiac, then turned my attention to the parking area where Junior would soon arrive at the front of the compound. The first thing I noticed was the black motorcycle with the red dragon on its bumper parked in the corner of the parking area.

  Reddy landed the fifteen-foot Zodiac rubber boat as the sun rose. This tactic made it hard for me to see him except for flashes of sunlight bouncing off the Zodiac as it bounced toward the shore line of the compound. He had painted the Zodiac to look like one of the Park's fleet of Zodiacs that went back and forth to the Texas Tower regularly. Reddy approached the compound from its beach side, facing the Sea of Japan. I watched his progress through the scope. I also noticed some strange gunships heading in his direction before they were run off by South Korean gunboats that had been patrolling the area since the North Koreans recently started posturing and testing missiles. His decision to use the Zodiac was almost a disaster.

  "This compound is one damn secure place. They've beefed up their firepower and security since I broke you out of here fourteen years ago. Can you still see that guy walking the guard dog near the corner on the seaside of the compound?" Reddy asked.

  I clicked the mike button on my walkie-talkie and said softly, "Reddy, that's the same dude who has been stalking us on the black motorcycle all through our tour and stay in Seoul."

  Reddy double clicked back.

  "I thought he looked familiar. He must have got the dog out of the security shed. He has a submachine gun and he's slinging it as if he just might know how to use it," I replied. "I had lots of practice using the sniper rifle scope as a telescope during our summers at Skeleton Lake,"

  I found myself pointing and absentmindedly starting to hand Reddy the scope. However, he wasn't with me on the mountain; he was at the compound. Then I told him, "There's someone inside that shed with the smoke coming from it, near the seaside entrance."

  I glanced at Letia’s blueprint which had provided us with the final piece in our plan. I laid it out on the ground in the blind and soon discovered that the hut was both a guard shack and a communications center for the compound. The roof of the hut had five dish antennas and two pole antennas. A notation on the blueprint indicated that the shed was once a crematory for a mortuary.

  "Make that two," Reddy said, "and they're both packing mini Uzis."

  "I still can't see you. I assume that's good," I said.

  "We need to go silent for the rest of the mission," Reddy said. "See you back at my pad." I double clicked my mike in acknowledgement.

  I watched the compound for what seemed to be an eternity. It was long enough to see a white mini-van, with Parks’ Clinics stenciled on the sides, enter the front gates which opened electronically. While peering through the steel bars, with the aid of the rifle scope, I saw two young girls wearing yellow smocks bound out of the van and run into the dormitory. They looked to be around three to five years old and the smaller girl had long black hair braided into a waist length ponytail, but I could only see a profile of her face. The other was a plump brown-haired girl, maybe Eurasian. I took some pics with my digital camera and 2,000X telephoto lens. Hamish's intelligence was right on. This was the girl in the photo he sent this morning.

  Now here I was, alone on a volcanic mountain thousands of miles from Berkeley. I had been trained by the best, and I was as good a shot as he was. "Trust your skills," a father's advice, echoed in my head as I watched Reddy carry out the first step, approaching the compound in the Zodiac. Was this what "like father, like daughter" really means?

  While Reddy handled the rescue, I positioned myself to provide the distraction. I set up the sniper rifle and laptop and settled into the prone position, nestling invisibly in the deep grass. I took several sightings, made an adjustment to the rifle sights, and waited for the arrival of my target in the Benz limousine.

  Reddy told me later that before he could tie the Zodiac down, he was staring at the orange, pink, and red sunlight reflected off two steady golden brown eyes. "I felt like I was in someone's gun sight, not a feeling a sniper likes." Reddy started to unclip his gun which was already loaded with a dart full of tranquilizer. He said he was talking to the guard while watching the dog, careful not to make any sudden moves. A voice spoke from behind the rocks on the shoreline saying, "No need for that gun. He won't attack except on my command." The guard gestured for Reddy to move in the direction of the girls’ dormitory. Then he and the dog continued their rounds.

  Meanwhile, I had to concentrate on the business at hand. I didn't have long to wait to do my part in this rescue, creating a distraction at the front gate at precisely 6:14am. The alarm on my wrist watch vibrated. It was 6am and simultaneously my smartphone rang with Paladin’s tune.

  I was already positioned on the mountain on the west side of the volcanic crater overlooking the compound and Reddy was carrying the two girls, one under each arm, heading for the Zodiac, on the shore from the Park's compound.

  Hamish said, "Dr. Evel Park Jr. left his mansion on the south side of Namsan Mountain near Seoul. His charter jet took off at 4:46 and is expected to arrive at Jeju airport at 5:43. He should be arriving at the compound in thirty minutes. He’s wearing a white suit and white shoes and riding in the back seat alone."

  The limo arrived at the Clinic at 6:13am and drove up the semi-circular drive to the front entrance. The chauffeur drove into the parking area, stopped, came around the Benz and opened the right rear door. A head appeared on the top of a wide set of shoulders dressed in white. Instantly the head dropped, abruptly jerked to the front of the Benz and almost simultaneously to the left, depositing an inert and very dead Dr. Park Junior back into the Benz's rear seat. The compound guards swarmed the front gate and pandemonium spread. Before the chauffeur could react, the perpetrator of this kill was packing up and driving her motorbike back to Halla-san and Reddy's house.

  I double clicked my mike, the signal for Reddy to start his extraction. He double clicked back and quickly moved to the point on the shore where the chain link fence topped with rolls of razor wire met the water. The fence was electrified, likely to several meters out to sea, so he waded out, carrying his gear over his head, and came back onto the beach sand on the opposite side of the wire, then he made a dash for the corner of the girls dormitory. There, he quickly found Zinni's daughter who was only three years old and terrified. There was also a second girl, age about five, and she was also screaming and calling for the compound guards. Reddy had to carry the two of them kicking and screaming from the dormitory to the Zodiac.

  I arrived back at Reddy's place on Halla-san Mountain from
my first assassin job with the feeling that someone had shadowed me the entire time. When I confronted Reddy, he just laughed and said, "I'm sure you checked for spies in the sky. You're developing a healthy sense of paranoia. That's going to keep you alive. Besides, I was at the Park's Compound. Can't be two places at once, can I?" Reddy said. "It's as if a phantom was following you or a good fairy." Reddy grinned ever so slightly. I should have caught the hint.

  I forwarded the pics I had taken of Reddy carrying the two girls to Hamish. I clicked on the PhotoChange software. Staring at me with sad brown eyes was the face of an Arab girl who bore a striking resemblance to Princess Zubaida even at her tender age of three. Hamish sent the pics to Princess Zubaida for verification. Most importantly, the little girl had a genetic characteristic that definitely identified her as a member of Zubaida's family. A small rose shaped birthmark on her upper lip was the same as the birthmark in the pics of Zubaida and Zinni, an amazing family resemblance. Short of a DNA sample, this was the best evidence we were going to get that we had found her granddaughter alive.

  Having completed my first assignment, I was expecting a reaction. Grief, sorrow, satisfaction, a diminished sense of anger, and revenge were all possibilities. I never asked and never received any praise from Reddy for an assignment well done. Frankly, I got all the gratification I needed from performing a challenging task with skill. However, I felt none of these. The killing element did not bother me and that bothered me. I was merely relieved that the assignment was over. Hell, I thought, I was more like my father than I ever imagined. I really needed to have a face-to-face session with Matte.