Hendrick peered over the top of the ladder toward the bridge trying to locate Konaka, but saw no movement anywhere. He climbed the last few rungs of the ladder and leaped onto the deck running for the bridge. He brought his assault rifle up in front of him and opened fire, sending a brutal stream of lead across the bridge windows. The remaining few that weren’t shattered were destroyed in an instant. Hendrick got to the bulkhead of the upper cabin and peered through the broken windows. Nothing moved inside the bridge. Hendrick slid over to the door and cautiously opened it. He walked inside and surveyed the area. There was no one.
A small, round object arched through the air and sailed unimpeded through the now-open windows. Hendrick knew immediately what it was and leaped through the doorway to the aft upper deck. The grenade went off a split second after he hit the deck, sending shrapnel into the sides of the cabin and blowing the door off its hinges to ultimately land on Hendrick’s back.
After the debris from the explosion stopped raining down on him, Hendrick got to his feet and tried to work his way forward on the starboard side but was stopped by the starboard bridge bulkhead which was leaning at a precarious angle across the starboard walkway. He heard Malik open fire, sending bursts of lead toward the bow section. Hendrick quickly ran over to the port side and crawled until he could view the forward deck. He immediately spotted a shadowy figure hiding behind a storage container, fitfully returning Malik’s gunfire. Hendrick aimed his weapon and opened fire.
Konaka quickly got behind the container as soon as Hendrick’s bullets whistled by him, and then began to return fire as Hendrick’s weapon fell empty. Hendrick wondered where the second man was. He reached for another clip, finding to his horror that he had none left. Konaka’s fire began to land uncomfortably close by. Malik fired a burst but it went wide of the mark. Hendrick carefully left his AK47 with the barrel exposed to Konaka’s view and swiftly slid backwards to get away from the area. He leaped to his feet and ran back for the aft ladder. After sliding down the ladder, he quickly entered the lower cabin and ran right into Konaka’s man who bounced backwards a step then quickly recovered.
The man shouted something and started to bring his assault rifle up to bear. Hendrick closed with his enemy, grabbing the rifle barrel, keeping it pointed away from him. The man squeezed the trigger, sending a burst into the cabin overhead, showering them with pieces of wood. Hendrick swung the rifle barrel around in an arc, breaking the man’s grip on the weapon. They both struggled for control of the rifle but only sent it skittering away from them.
Hendrick’s opponent was smaller, but was strong and wiry. Hendrick finally managed to push him to the deck, freeing his hands for a moment. He pulled the metal cylinder out of his belt bag and swung it at Konaka’s follower who was struggling to his feet. The blow sent the man reeling. Hendrick was on him immediately, sending the metal tube crashing down on his head again and again.
The man suddenly stopped moving, and Hendrick backed off immediately worried about Konaka’s whereabouts. He jammed the cylinder back into the bag and tried to get his breathing back to normal. He glanced at his assailant and saw blood seeping from his head as he lay prostrate on the deck. Hendrick went to a forward window and peered through it to the forward deck.
He could see Konaka behind the container studying the upper deck and the exposed part of Hendrick’s assault rifle. Gasoline fumes filled the air in the cabin, and Hendrick noticed an open hatch leading to the engine room. Probably hit a fuel line, he thought. That’s what stopped him. It wasn’t the holes in the hull from our gunfire as I had thought.
Hendrick looked around quickly for any kind of a weapon, spotting scuba gear stacked up near the stern. No weapon there, he thought. He continued searching and finally located the automatic weapon dropped by Konaka’s follower. He checked the clip and saw with mounting panic that it was empty. He scrambled around the deck looking for a full clip but found none. He reached down and touched his ankle where his diving knife should have been, but he hadn’t taken the time to replace it. He cursed under his breath, then heard a slight noise on the starboard side. He peered out the windows and caught a glimpse of Konaka moving toward the cabin. He pressed his back against the bulkhead next to the starboard door and breathlessly waited for Konaka to enter.
Maggie stared into the rapidly thickening darkness and wondered anxiously what was happening to Hendrick. The explosion on the bridge had panicked her as she thought of how Steve may have been injured by the blast. Loh’s boat rolled up and over the top of a wave, but now it was sluggish compared to moments before. Loh came up from below in a rush and stopped at her side.
“We’re sinking, and we can’t stop it,” he said in an out-of-breath voice. “The grenade blew open the patch we had put in the hull. We’ll go under in a few minutes.” He held up a life jacket. “You had better put this on. Wong is trying to radio for help.”
Maggie gratefully took the life jacket and slipped it on. She suddenly shivered in the deepening gloom as she gazed in the direction of Konaka’s boat. The small fire created by the blast in the upper cabin had gone out, leaving only a black shadow in the water. Malik was on the bow deck squinting into the gloom for a clear shot.
“Oh God, let him come back to me,” she murmured under her breath.
Maggie jumped as a loud gunshot split the night air.
Hendrick held on to Konaka’s wrist with all his strength as they struggled and slammed around the lower cabin. Hendrick had gone for Konaka’s weapon, all but ignoring his opponent’s body. He had gotten both hands on his weapon, but Konaka had squeezed off a shot in an effort to shake him loose.
Hendrick swung Konaka’s arm around violently from right to left in a swift motion to dislodge the weapon from his hand. The action was to no avail as Konaka tightened his grip on the gun, then reached up with his free hand to grab at Hendrick’s face.
Hendrick, who was heavier than Konaka ran them both toward the cabin wall with Konaka’s gun hand out in front of them. They smashed into the bulkhead bending Konaka’s wrist around and loosening his grip on the weapon. Konaka grunted with pain, then grabbed Hendrick’s hair and pulled it back as hard as he could. Hendrick’s head snapped backward as if he were hit by a powerful fist.
Konaka yanked on Hendrick’s hair with all his strength and kept up the pressure, spinning them both around in a circle. Hendrick let go of Konaka’s wrist with one hand and grabbed at the gun, knocking it from Konaka’s grasp to land on the floor in darkness. Konaka released Hendrick’s hair and immediately grabbed his neck and squeezed with all his strength to crush his windpipe. Hendrick gagged then let go of Konaka’s wrist and spun around, knocking Konaka’s hand away from his throat.
Hendrick charged into Konaka, backing him up and spreading apart his arms. Hendrick reached back and punched Konaka full in the face, sending the Japanese terrorist sprawling backwards on the deck. Hendrick staggered forward, trying to follow up his advantage but bent over double as he tried to get some air through his injured throat.
Konaka got to his feet and lashed out with a kick aimed at Hendrick’s face but missed and struck his chest throwing him backward to trip and fall heavily to the deck with his body half-in and half-out of the open hatch leading to the engine room. Hendrick massaged his throat and got breathing again then got up on all fours for another attack on his opponent. He looked toward the doorway leading to the aft deck, his eyes searching for Konaka’s dark outline among the shadows in the cabin.
Konaka wasn’t in the cabin. A small object came flying through the partly open doorway bounding off the deck and landing at Hendrick’s feet. He knew that he had only a few seconds to get rid of the hand grenade, less if Konaka had delayed throwing it after pulling the pin.
In a panic Hendrick swung around to pick up the grenade and accidentally kicked it in his haste. The grenade skittered along the deck and bounced off the hatch edge. It popped a few inches into the air and fell through the hatch to the engine room below.
&n
bsp; Maggie strained her eyes in the darkness to make out any movement on Konaka’s boat but could only see a dim outline of the craft as it bounced on the waves. She heard someone yell with pain, but then there was nothing. Maggie bit her lip with anxiety. What was happening? Was Steve all right?
In a split second, the gloom of night was replaced by an intense ball of light. The fireball expanded, then was driven upward by the air returning from its sudden displacement by the blast. Maggie ducked and winced as debris from the conflagration flew at Loh’s boat and slammed into its side.
She peered over the gunwale at the falling pieces of what used to be Konaka’s boat, her mind refusing to comprehend what had probably happened to Steve Hendrick. Loh’s boat began to tilt at a strange angle, and she vaguely heard Loh shouting something in Chinese to Wong, but she didn’t bother to figure it out. Water rushed in around her ankles, sucking the boat down below the surface. She ignored that she only had seconds before she was totally in the water. Her eyes were riveted on the burning wreck, searching desperately for movement, any hint of a survivor. She saw none.
The remains of the boat burned brightly for a brief period of time, then the sea consumed the wreck, leaving only a few pieces of floating debris.
CHAPTER 27
Konaka’s Island
EAST CHINA SEA
The water above turned pitch black as the fire from Konaka’s boat died out. Hendrick held his breath as long as he could, then moved swiftly to the surface. He broke out into the air and inhaled with relief. The stern of Konaka’s boat floated just ten feet away and Hendrick immediately swam for it. His buttocks hurt from what he thought to be a part of the boat hitting him during the explosion. He reached the stern and hung on the side, his eyes trying to penetrate the gloom to locate Loh’s boat. It was nowhere to be seen.
Hendrick climbed cautiously on the bobbing stern section of the boat, and settled gingerly on the slippery wood. Hopefully Konaka is dead, he thought grimly. But the diamonds are lost, too. An idea came to mind, and he fumbled around his scuba harness until he found his GPS receiver. Moments later he had his location stored in the instrument. He decided he would come back later for a salvage attempt.
He felt around in the darkness for anything useful, fervently wishing for a flashlight or a flare gun. His hands fell on the cold metal of an air tank. On one end were a regulator and a mouthpiece. He remembered seeing scuba equipment near the stern during the battle on the boat. He turned on the regulator and put the mouthpiece between his teeth. Air flowed coldly but clearly into his lungs.
Great, now I’m set when the stern section sinks, he thought. Where was Maggie? And Joe and the others? He strained his eyes to make out anything on the water. A dark form sat low in the water about thirty yards away. A boat? He was about to shout out when he heard a voice, a very deep voice, a voice that he would never forget.
Konaka was a short distance away.
The waters of the East China Sea rushed up around Maggie, taking her breath away. She ignored the chilly water as it penetrated her clothes with one thought on her mind.
Steve! Where are you?
The life jacket billowed around her, settling under her armpits, keeping her face an inch from the water. The sea splashed up around her face, sending some water into her nose. She rapidly blew it out and began to instinctively tread water.
Maggie began swimming in the direction Konaka’s boat had been, started to shout Hendrick’s name, but a wave drove seawater into her mouth, causing her to choke. She splashed about for several minutes as her feelings plummeted into despair. Steve Hendrick, to her seemingly invincible, was nowhere to be found.
Hendrick slowly broke the surface, the idea of killing Konaka, and stealing his boat uppermost on his mind. He closed within ten yards and could see the tall, thin form of Konaka silhouetted against the barely lighter horizon. Suddenly a second head rose above the edge of the boat, and he could clearly see the distinctive outline of an AK47. Konaka had an extra man with him, not just the two as they had thought.
The chances were slim that he could take both of them quickly enough without getting shot. He turned, looking in the opposite direction for the others but saw only the deepening night. An outboard motor sputtered and died. Konaka was trying to start the motor and leave the area. Hendrick dove down ten feet, leveled off and swam up under Konaka’s rubber boat. The blades of the outboard motor suddenly came to life a few feet away. Hendrick grabbed a strap sewn to the underside of the boat and hung on as the small craft puttered off to the north.
The steady thrum of an oar in the water floated to Maggie. Suddenly Malik, Loh, and Wong were next to her pulling her into their life raft.
“We have to find Steve!” she shouted at them. She saw no movement in the darkness. “What’s the matter with you people? Start searching!”
Malik’s quiet voice cut through the night and her spirit as well. “We’ll never find him at night,” he said slowly. The implication was clear. Malik thought he was dead.
Maggie stared at their shadows for a moment then turned her head away. She quietly wept.
Konaka’s zodiac boat chugged along steadily through the fog that had developed quickly after the sun went down. Hendrick, hanging onto the short strap underneath them, was beginning to tire. He estimated that he had been under for about an hour and wondered how much air was left in the tanks. Where was Konaka going? To Tung-yin Tao? And who would be there to greet him?
The outboard motor slowed, ran for another ten minutes, then stopped. Hendrick realized that the boat, which was small and light, might be quickly lifted out of the water. He let go of the strap, taking a chance that they had reached their destination, and began to swim away from the boat. Feet slammed into the water just inches from him, and he suddenly realized that he was in very shallow water, only three feet deep. Hendrick cautiously groped along, trying to put distance between him and his two enemies. He got a hundred yards down the coast, then risked raising his head to look up.
The rubber boat was up on shore and Konaka and his man were nowhere to be seen.
They seemed to drift for hours, fog closing around them, wrapping them in its peculiar mist blanket, muffling the sound of the waves as it slapped against the rubber sides of the raft. Maggie was silent in her grief.
Loh mumbled something in Chinese to Wong then he translated for Malik and Maggie’s benefit although she understood the language fairly well. “Lighthouse,” he said, pointing into the distance.
She wiped her face and gazed at the pulsing light diffused by the fog.
“Tung-yin Tao,” said Wong quietly.
Maggie bit her lip. This was the island near where Steve’s brother was murdered. First Steve’s brother, then Steve himself, she thought in devastation.
Loh and Wong got their oars out and began paddling toward the mysterious island in the distance. After an hour they reached its rocky shore, the beam from the lighthouse cutting a path through the night above them. A foghorn intermittently split the night’s quiet with a booming sound. They jumped out of the raft and pulled it up on the beach on the other side of a line of rocks.
“This island is controlled by the communists,” said Loh in a breathless tone. “If they find us here, we’ll wind up in one of their prisons for twenty years.”
Maggie took a deep breath, the pain of Hendrick’s loss still clutching at her insides. She glanced at Joe Malik and saw that he grieved for Hendrick as well. Her heart went out to him. He had been Hendrick’s friend longer than she had known him. She looked up the steep slope toward the white buildings above the lighthouse.
“Weather station,” said Loh as he followed her gaze. “It’s not them that I worry about.” He turned to Malik and Maggie, his face a mask of concern in the stray glow from the lighthouse. He pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket, and shielding it with his body sketched the outline of the island on the ground. There were two islands. The one they were on was rectangular with small outcroppings on its north
eastern and southwestern corners. There was another, smaller one to the northwest shaped like a tooth, roots and all. Loh pointed between the islands. He spoke to Wong in Chinese, then translated for the others.
“There’s a small anchorage on the other side of the island called Bertha Cove,” he whispered. “We might be able to steal a boat.”
Maggie numbly fell in behind the three men as they started off down the shoreline. The night’s chill was intensified by her soaked clothes. Soon she was shivering.
An hour later, they cautiously approached a source of light diffused into a soft glow by the thickening fog. Loh, Wong, and Malik got on their hands and knees to crawl through the scrubby brush. They crawled up a small rise and peered through the undergrowth. Maggie reluctantly followed, pressing her teeth together to keep them from chattering.
The ground sloped downward toward the northern shore of the island. At the edge of the water, the land flattened and was covered with asphalt. A large building was at one edge of the pavement, one entire side open, revealing the tail of a large helicopter.
“Strange. No markings on the buildings or the helicopter,” Malik said in an undertone. “I expected a red star, or something like that.” He looked around cautiously. “Let’s get to the cove before they spot us.”
They retraced their steps down the slope back to the water’s edge. Suddenly a bright light pierced the night fog and blinded the three of them. They froze for a moment then dropped to the ground. A gun went off only feet from Maggie. The light winked out just as Maggie realized that Wong had fired at the light. A hand grabbed her arm and immediately pulled her in the opposite direction from where the light had been.
Hendrick looked over the cove with its boats, freighter, and a seaplane, thinking that there was enough transportation around when he wanted to leave the island. A quick survey of the island gave him an idea of the number of buildings. This must be Konaka’s headquarters, he concluded. He resolved to find out what Konaka was up to.
Hidden Sun Page 31