Hidden Sun

by John Campbell

  She did nothing all day except sunbathe and have lotions rubbed into her skin to make it more smooth and supple. All in all, she was being pampered beyond her wildest dreams. But she wasn’t free, and that was everything.

  One of the crew shouted something up to Li Tai Su in some strange dialect of Chinese that Maggie couldn’t understand. She had taken Oriental languages in college and had learned Japanese and a fair amount of Chinese, but there were parts of the far eastern world where the Chinese was unintelligible. Li Tai Su said something back to the man then went over to Maggie to rouse her.

  “Miss Ramsey, put on your clothes,” she said.

  Maggie opened one eye and rotated her head around to look at her female custodian.

  “I was just getting used to the sun roasting my butt yet one more time,” said Maggie in annoyance.

  “Come on,” said Li pleasantly. “Mister Yum has some news for you.”

  Maggie sat up and pulled a shirt over her torso. “News? What is it?” They had been waiting for word from her stepfather about the ransom demanded for her release.

  Maggie slipped on a thin pair of slacks and sat in a chair facing aft. She looked around carefully but saw only the stark blue-green of the sea with a small island on the horizon. No chance to escape here, she thought. She was used to disappointment as she constantly looked in vain for a chance to escape over the past month.

  Yum climbed up to the top deck and walked casually toward Maggie. He stood and made inane pleasantries, talking about how wonderful the sky looked and what a beautiful day it was.

  “Get to the point, Yum,” demanded Maggie. “How much is Nagata willing to pay?”

  Yum suddenly stopped talking and gave her a look bordering on compassion. “I’m afraid, dear girl, he’s not willing to pay anything.”

  Maggie’s reaction to the devastating news was one of acceptance. She was not surprised that her stepfather wouldn’t pay. This well-known captain of industry was also the head of the Defense Intelligence Headquarters created a few years ago to centralize Japanese intelligence gathering. He was adhering to the policy held by most nations not to deal with terrorists, although one had to stretch a point to consider a criminal like Chang a terrorist.

  There was something else. Nagata had been wholly uninterested in Maggie from the beginning, acting as if she did not exist. He had her mother acting that way as well, almost from the moment he had started seeing her. She bit her lip at the thought.

  “Lord Chang was disappointed briefly but has decided to sell you for a great price,” replied Yum as he studied her face.

  Maggie was relieved to hear of her impending sale. She was to be one of the unusual ones, a woman not immediately brutalized by him and his men. Apparently Chang was afraid that she might contract some venereal diseases, which would either kill the deal or lower the price. Chang didn’t want to cross whoever her prospective buyer was. But it only postponed the brutality.

  “Chang’s an animal,” said Maggie with conviction.

  “You are lucky that Lord Chang cannot understand English, or you might not be so lucky to just be sold,” replied Li. “Think of the future.” Li rubbed Maggie’s back to soothe her. She pointed to the island on the horizon. “There is Itbayat Island where we will meet your Stephen Hendrick once again.”

  Maggie groaned to herself. If only she could have kept that information to herself! But she had already revealed that she wanted to go to Itbayat Island to the three thugs in the Taipei hotel. The pirates had threatened all manner of disgusting treatment, and she had caved in immediately. She bit her lip again in agony over her cowardice. Would her lack of courage lead to Hendrick’s death? Or would he be able to save her from Chang?

  “Itbayat Island,” said Li Tai Su slowly as if the name itself held some sort of magic. “Then you will be off to a life of leisure and contentment after we find someone for you.”

  “A life of rape, you mean,” growled Maggie.

  “It will be very pleasant, you’ll see,” said Li. “You will get used to it.”

  Never, thought Maggie as her gaze locked on to the island on the horizon. Yes, Itbayat Island, she thought. Hendrick will be there.

  Maybe there was hope.

  CHAPTER 16

  Itbayat Island

  KURCHATOV

  BASHI CHANNEL

  Steve Hendrick leaned over the thick railing on the top of the superstructure of the old Golf class submarine. The warm waters of the northern Luzon Strait slid by the vessel’s sides as the sub’s hull efficiently parted the waves at ten knots. The throbbing of the diesel engines filled the air around the vessel as they made their way on the surface to the southeast toward their rendezvous with the ship he had chartered to haul the Awa Maru’s treasure back to the States.

  The sea air acted like a tonic to him, and he breathed it deeply to counteract the effects of the long time they had been submerged. Dodging torpedoes and depth charges, any one of which could have killed them instantly, had jangled his nerves to the point of exhaustion. He and every member of the crew were glad to get away with their lives and whatever treasure they had accumulated.

  Hendrick glanced aft at the decompression chamber that was attached to the top part of the hull just aft of the submarine’s sail. It was a miracle that Golubev and his Russian crew hadn’t found the bank notes he and Joe Malik had hidden there just before they got run out of town by the PRC Navy. How much money did that represent? Was any of it intact after over sixty years underwater?

  Joe Malik climbed out of the hatch near the front of the open bridge and walked down the starboard side toward Hendrick. He had a calculator in his hand.

  “I just got done counting,” said Malik with a twisted smile on his face. Hendrick knew that meant his friend was happy about something and mad at something else.

  “One hundred sixty-five crates of gold bars,” began Malik. “At six bars apiece. Plus another eighty-four loose gold bars. Twenty-seven and a half pounds apiece at about fifteen hundred dollars an ounce.” He held the calculator display up for Hendrick to see.

  The number on the display was over seven hundred million dollars! Hendrick grabbed the calculator and stared at the huge number. He gave the calculator back to Malik and hugged him with all his might. They both laughed out loud. Golubev who was ten feet away at the front of the bridge looked over his shoulder briefly at the two gleeful Americans. He gave them a half smile and turned back around.

  “Of course, we don’t get it all,” said Malik with a stern look at his partner. “Remember the deal you made with the Russians?”

  Hendrick nodded ruefully. “All right. All right. So what’s thirty five percent of seven hundred million?”

  Malik punched in a number and stared at the calculator’s display. “A skosh under two hundred fifty million.”

  “Not a bad return on investment,” said Hendrick with a broad smile. “The Russian crew performed magnificently, especially Captain Golubev. They deserve a share of the treasure.”

  Malik mumbled to himself for a moment then gave in. “Yeah, I suppose so.” He punched in a few more numbers and looked at the display once again. “After we split with the divers and the crew that will haul the gold back to the States, we’ll have about sixty million apiece.”

  “So, you’re sixty million richer than a month ago,” said Hendrick. “So, what do you have to be sad about?”

  A smile worked its way on to Malik’s face. “Well, if you put it that way -”

  Hendrick slapped his partner on the back and got a wide smile from Malik in return.

  “Stephen,” said a voice behind Hendrick. He turned and looked at Golubev.

  “Itbayat Island,” said Golubev simply and offered Hendrick the binoculars.

  Hendrick took the glasses, walked up to the forward part of the bridge, and centered his view on the large island that was just a few degrees off the starboard bow. Itbayat Island is roughly eleven miles long by four miles wide and lies in a northeast-southwest directi
on. Hendrick could see that the island had two peaks, one at either end of the island. The mountain on the northern end of the island, Mount Santa Rosa, was about nine hundred feet high, and Mount Riposet to the south was approximately seven hundred fifty feet high. The island appeared to be a solid mass of green except for one or two brown spots, which were landing areas or cultivated fields - he couldn’t make out which. The island was occupied by only a few inhabitants.

  Golubev gave out an abrupt order in Russian, then translated it for the Americans. “Clear bridge,” he said and gestured to the hatch.

  Hendrick nodded. The plan was to approach the island as inconspicuously as possible. He followed Malik back into the depths of the submarine with the Russian crewmembers on their heels.

  Golubev took the sub down to one hundred feet and leveled off. After an hour of running submerged, he slowed the boat and ran up the periscope, examining the island’s northern coast. When he arrived at a predetermined point, Golubev ordered a course change to the south to traverse the deep channel on the eastern side of the island. He gave Hendrick a glance and offered him a look through the periscope. Hendrick readily accepted and peered through the scope at the rugged coastline of Itbayat Island.

  The edges of the island were marked by high cliffs that made any sort of landing impossible along most of the coast. They were presently heading toward the only landing spot on the east coast, a point about one mile northeast of Mount Riposet on the southern third of the island. Another landing spot was on the southern coast and two more on the western side of the island. None of the landing places were sheltered harbors. When planning the project months ago, Hendrick and Malik had decided to make the transfer of treasure from the submarine to the ship as quickly as possible. The Russian crew agreed for the very practical reasons that the sub had limited range and they didn’t want to stray too far into the Western Pacific.

  Hendrick took one last look around and turned the periscope back to Golubev who needed to take bearings from various navigational points in order to pilot the sub into the landing area. He walked over to the chart and studied the island. The plan had been to stay submerged and wait for the ship from the States to arrive. They had made a call earlier, and the ship’s master told him that he was about a day away from Itbayat. Everything was on schedule. This was the easy part.

  Golubev bellowed out a series of orders in Russian, and his conning crew took bearings and recorded range to the two main navigational points in the area, Ruducaen Point which jutted out from the east coast of the island, and Diogo Island to the southeast, which was little more than a volcano that had pushed its way up from the sea.

  A half hour later Golubev gave the order to stop engines, then turned to Hendrick. “We have to surface to repair the leak in the aft torpedo room.” The old Russian wanted to surface right away rather than wait until Hendrick’s ship arrived.

  “I understand,” replied Hendrick. “I hope the Philippine Navy won’t detect us here. They might not understand that we’re not a threat to them.”

  “Yes, it is a risk, but I have no choice,” said Golubev.

  Hendrick nodded in resignation. A new thought struck him. “Captain, we can unload the gold while you’re repairing the leak. It’ll save time and with my other ship so close by, it’ll be minimal risk to us that anyone will see what we have.”

  “Da! It is good,” said the Russian with a brief smile. He turned and gave orders to surface while Hendrick and Malik went off to organize the unloading of their share of the treasure.

  The submarine broke the surface, and Golubev was the first, as always, to open the hatch and climb to the bridge. A half dozen men came out of the hatches in the forward and aft parts of the narrow outside deck and ran to the extremes of the ship to handle the lines. Golubev expertly maneuvered the vessel alongside the small, narrow pier that stuck out from the island and watched with satisfaction as his men tied the ship to the pier without him giving any orders at all.

  The rickety pier was barely a hundred feet long while the submarine was in excess of three hundred feet in length, leaving two thirds of the ship sticking out into the channel. Golubev shook his head as he surveyed the short pier but reasoned that he would be there only as long as it took to repair the leak and to unload the gold. The Americans would then be on their own, and he would return to Russia a very rich man. His share would be in excess of thirty million American dollars. In Russia these days, that sort of money would make a man obscenely rich. He smiled at the thought and found that he couldn’t stop smiling. He heard movement behind him.

  Loshak and Drukarev approached with their eyes fixed on him. They had something on their mind, and he could not ignore them. Golubev knew who they were - SVR agents on some sort of mission. They had carefully looked over every article that Hendrick’s divers had brought back from the wreck of the Awa Maru. They had been looking for something, something they hadn’t found. Loshak spoke up - he was obviously the leader of the two.

  “Captain,” began Loshak. “Why have you agreed to stop here?”

  Golubev gave him a cold stare before he replied. “We must repair our hull, and the Americans have to unload their share of the gold.”

  Loshak took a step closer. Golubev could smell the man’s fetid breath.

  “That gold would be better used in Russia’s treasury,” said Loshak in a low voice.

  “You want me to violate the agreement I made with Hendrick?” asked Golubev as he tried to assess how adamant Loshak was about taking the gold from the Americans.

  “We need your cooperation and your men’s cooperation in this,” said Loshak in a louder voice.

  Golubev leaned forward so close to Loshak’s face that the younger man backed away slightly.

  “What’s the matter, Comrade?” asked Golubev through his teeth. “The two of you don’t want to go up against the Americans alone?”

  “It will make matters much easier if you cooperate,” said Loshak defensively.

  “Listen to me, both of you,” growled Golubev. “Back in Russia you have some power no doubt, but here -” The old Russian pointed violently to the deck. “- here I am the law! There will be no stealing of gold from these Americans. I gave them my word, and that is the way it will be!”

  Loshak studied the captain, his eyes working him over furiously. Golubev held his stare and leaned even closer to the intelligence agent until Loshak relented, and the two agents walked away in frustration.

  Golubev knew his tactic was a calculated risk, but he knew the crew would follow him rather than these two SVR agents. The SVR was less than popular due to its progenitor, the infamous KGB who was hated more by the Russian people than anyone.

  Golubev watched the men’s backs as they disappeared through the hatch to go below decks. He also knew he hadn’t heard the last from Loshak and Drukarev.

  “Thirty-five percent of one thousand seventy-four bars of gold is three hundred seventy-six bars,” said Joe Malik with a glance at his calculator. “That’s sixty-three crates. We’ll leave the loose gold bars to Golubev.”

  “We have to lug sixty-three crates weighing one hundred sixty-five pounds each up from deep inside the sub?” asked Hendrick incredulously. He looked about impatiently as they stood on the narrow outside deck of the submarine. They could hear the crew preparing the cofferdam to be fitted over the crack in the sub’s hull so that it could be welded from inside.

  Malik shrugged and gave his partner an annoyed look. “I told you we should have had a better plan for offloading the sub. If we asked the Russians, they’ll want ten crates in payment. Let’s see, that’s -”

  “I don’t care how much it is. I’m not going to pay it,” declared Hendrick, his voice rising. “We’ll get Howard and the divers to help us.”

  Malik squinted at the failing light in the waning day and wrinkled up his nose. “Better wait until tomorrow, otherwise we’ll have to guard the gold all night.”

  “It had better be the crack of dawn,” grumbled Hen
drick.

  Malik took a step closer to Hendrick and eyed him conspiratorially. “Have you given any thought to our other problem?” His eyes flicked to the decompression chamber attached to the deck behind the submarine’s sail.

  Hendrick scratched his chin, thought for a moment, and shrugged. “God only knows how much is there, or what condition the bank notes are in. The gold has to be the first priority then …” His train of thought petered out.

  “We can’t just leave it there,” said Malik.

  “No, we’ll get it somehow,” replied Hendrick. “We’ll create a diversion to get the crew away for a while, then we’ll get it.”

  Malik created a sideways glance by turning his head while keeping his eyes on Hendrick. The movement conveyed Malik’s disbelief at Hendrick’s ghost of a plan.

  Hendrick shook his head and wondered how this had become such a dangerous game. What would the Russians do if they caught them taking more treasure from the submarine? He and Malik could very well walk away from this adventure with nothing.

  “Joe, tomorrow when we unload the gold,” began Hendrick in a low voice. “Everyone wears a weapon.”

  Lin Ju-Ya peered through the binoculars from his perch in a palm tree on the side of the hill overlooking the landing. The submarine seemed to be resting for the night except for the busy crewmembers aft who were obviously, even to Lin’s untrained eyes, trying to repair something on the side of the sub away from him. He looked them over for a while then shifted his gaze to the man on the top of the superstructure whom he thought to be the captain. The man wasn’t giving any orders but just watching the progress of the men who were working aft. No one seemed to be ready to leave anytime soon.

  Lin shifted his large bulk around to ease the pressure of the tree branch on one side of his buttocks. He centered the view in his glasses on the two men quietly conversing on the deck near the forward hatch. One was small compared to Lin but had the look and the eyes of a tiger. The other was large, almost the same size as Lin. After a few moments Lin had to admit that the Westerner would be a significant enemy if they engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Lin had the edge in size, but the man on the submarine looked strong and fit.