Hidden Sun

by John Campbell

  “The Soviet Union wasn’t at war with Japan when this offer was made,” continued Howard. “They only entered the war against Japan in August, 1945, just a few weeks before the war ended.” He began to tick off the facts on his fingers. “So, they make an offer of atomic bombs knowing that they didn’t have any. The offer never gets there because the Awa Maru is sunk in the Taiwan Strait. Then several months later, the Soviets declare war on Japan. First they try to help the Japanese, then they attack them.”

  “There was a lot of post war maneuvering in Europe as each side tried to establish their influence over the different countries that were getting back on their feet after World War Two,” said Hendrick. “There was a great fear that France would go Communist, and there were all sorts of elections in the eastern European countries where the Soviets tried to get the Communist party into control.” He leaned toward Howard. “Suppose the Soviets wanted to keep Japan in the war to keep the U.S. preoccupied with defeating Japan. Then the Soviets could do all this political maneuvering in Europe, and the U.S. would be distracted by the continuing war with Japan.”

  Howard nodded. “Yes, and the Soviets had another reason to keep Japan in the war with the U.S. The Soviets wanted to grab the Kurile Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula, which the Soviets felt were used by Japan to isolate them from the Pacific Ocean. They also wanted to get a friendly government into Manchuria and throw the Japanese out. The Soviets apparently were afraid that Japan would surrender to the U.S. before the Soviets could get their army out to the Far East to grab some of that land.”

  “So they prop up the Japanese with the offer of two atomic bombs to drop on American forces as we were about to invade Japan,” said Hendrick, nodding his head.

  “But why have them go by the Awa Maru?” asked Maggie.

  “I think I can answer that one,” replied Hendrick. “In the spring of 1945, the U.S. had virtually isolated Japan from all contact with the outside world. The U.S. Navy had completely encircled Japan and had destroyed most of their shipping. It would have looked very suspicious if the Soviets had asked the United States for safe passage for one of their diplomats to begin talks with the Japanese. The allies had all agreed to press for unconditional surrender, and the U.S. was controlling the war in the Pacific at that point.”

  “And the Awa Maru had safe passage back to Japan,” added Maggie.

  “Right. It was the only ship with safe passage. So the Soviets got their diplomats to Singapore, which was a hell of a lot easier than getting through the U.S. blockade, then they boarded the Awa Maru there,” finished Hendrick.

  Maggie nodded. “It makes sense.”

  “Suppose the Awa Maru hadn’t been sunk, and the Soviet diplomats had arrived in Japan,” said Hendrick. “And the Japanese had held out longer, anticipating the delivery of atomic bombs which weren’t coming any time soon. How many more lives would have been lost? Supposed the Japanese had held out until 1949 when the Soviets really did have atomic bombs? And the Japanese dropped them on our forces. Can you imagine the devastation if that happened? Instead of about three hundred thousand killed in action in World War Two, we would have had twice that many at least. How many more atomic bombs would we have dropped on Japan to get them to surrender? How many millions of Japanese would have died as a result?”

  “How many people wouldn’t be alive today if that had happened? All the sons and daughters that never would have been born, and grandchildren,” asked Maggie in a hushed voice.

  “Thank God that it was all just a con game,” replied Hendrick. “And that the war had ended when it did. The Soviet Union would have ruled the world if they could have precipitated a nuclear war between the U.S. and Japan.”

  Maggie looked at Steve with an awed expression.

  “The Russians will be very embarrassed to have this tidbit of history become public knowledge,” said Howard.

  They fell silent as they considered the historical implications of Stalin’s offer of nuclear weapons to the Japanese. Howard stirred to go.

  “There must be more to Stalin’s bomb offer than meets the eye,” said Howard. “That was over sixty years ago. How could it affect anyone now?”

  “How could it give Japan to Konaka?” asked Maggie. The question hung among the three of them unanswered. Howard walked to the door.

  “I must be off. We’re working very hard trying to locate Konaka,” said Howard. He said his goodbyes and was out into the night.

  Steve and Maggie prepared dinner from food they had bought at a local market and sat at a small table he brought into the living room from the kitchen. Hendrick explained that he wanted to be near the fire.

  Midway through the meal Hendrick stared across the table at Maggie Ramsey. She had her back to the fireplace, and her upper body seemed to be outlined in fire.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked, pausing before raising a food-laden fork to her mouth.

  Hendrick blinked quickly several times before answering. “I was just thinking that I don’t know much about you.”

  She gave him a half smile. “What would you like to know?”

  He shrugged.

  She launched into her life story. “I was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, but my family moved to Schenectady, New York when I was five years old. I went to UCLA and graduated a few years ago Cum Laude majoring in Asian languages, primarily Chinese and Japanese. I did some post graduate work in Japan, but dropped out to take a job with The Far East Trading Company.”

  “So how come you can just take off and stay in Taipei with me?” he asked, trying to keep the suspicion out of his voice. He wasn’t sure he succeeded.

  “They gave me some time off after my ordeal with the pirates,” she replied. Her half smile disappeared.

  Hendrick tried to ask the next question in an offhand manner. “Are you going to visit your parents in the states soon?”

  A cloud passed over her face. “My father died five years ago in an automobile accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. And my mother married a Japanese man and moved to Tokyo. I already told you that.”

  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I mean about your father.” They ate silently for a few minutes.

  “How come your mother married a Japanese guy?” he asked.

  “She was always fascinated with the Orient, particularly Japan,” sighed Maggie. “I always had the feeling that she was frustrated by her marriage to my father. She suggested that they move to Japan, but he always just laughed at her.” Her face clouded over again. Hendrick had never seen her so sad. She glanced at him and gave a cynical smile. “Did I tell you that my stepfather refused to pay any ransom for me to Chang?”

  Hendrick shook his head in sympathy.

  “Apparently he wanted my mother, but not me,” she finished with a surprisingly firm voice.

  Hendrick thought he should change the subject. “What exactly do you do for The Far East Trading Company?”

  She eyed him closely. “I do market analyses for them.” She paused. “You’re the curious one, aren’t you?”

  He shrugged again. “Well we’ve been together a while now, and you haven’t said anything about yourself, so I figured I’d ask.”

  She nodded to herself and seemed satisfied with his answer. “The grand inquisition is over then?”

  He smiled quickly and took a sip of wine. “Not at all. We haven’t gotten to the pit and the pendulum yet.”

  She laughed, then gave him a wary glance. “As long as I don’t have to be searched for weapons again.”

  “I was suspicious of everyone back then,” he replied in an apologetic tone.

  “Joe told me the reason why you don’t trust women. A woman dumped you because of your father’s illness.”

  Hendrick grimaced at the memory. “Joe’s got a big mouth.” He stopped. “- had a big mouth.” He lapsed into painful silence. “I’ll never get used to him not being around.”

  Maggie slid her hand across the table and touched his hand.

  He was grate
ful for her sympathy for Joe’s death, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was hiding something from him. Why did she have him say that coded phrase over the phone to an answering machine in Taipei? Maggie had said that the answering machine belonged to her employer, The Far East Trading Company. Was it just a coincidence that she escaped from Chang soon afterwards? Hendrick got up after a moment and stirred the fire behind her, then sat down. She smiled just as flames leaped up, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney.

  An hour later, Steve and Maggie sat in front of the fire on the floor, leaning on large cushions taken from the sofa. The flames caused the light to waver and flicker, sending the shadows in the room into a random dance across the walls and ceiling. The remnants of a drink in his bloodstream soothed him, causing him to relax for the first time in days.

  Maggie rested in his arms with her head on his chest. Her hair, radiant in the firelight, gave off an indefinable fragrance to delight his senses. He closed his eyes, letting the light from the fire play over his eyelids, penetrating with only dim intensity to let him know the flames still continued their frantic dance over the wood.

  “I can’t believe what happened on that island. It’s like a nightmare,” Maggie mumbled. “You could have been killed.”

  “We could have been killed. Just a few days ago, we were dodging bullets,” he said, hardly believing it happened. He opened his eyes and looked into her hair an inch away. He thought of Maggie firing over the rocks at Konaka’s charging soldiers. “You were pretty good with a gun, once you put some bullets in it. Where did you learn to handle weapons that well?”

  “Well, Love, a girl has to protect herself,” she replied, avoiding the question. Hendrick closed his eyes again and savored the feeling of Maggie’s body next to him. Hendrick opened his eyes and looked at the jittering flames in their job consuming the firewood.

  “Steve?” she said quietly. He mumbled a yes. “I’m sorry about your brother.”

  They sat silently for a long moment, then he began to talk in a quiet, melancholy voice. “Frank was my older brother. He was only two years older, but he was always bigger, stronger, more aggressive. I guess I looked up to him. One of the reasons I left the navy was to see him more often.”

  Maggie looked at him with sympathy. “Are you sure that it was Konaka who killed him?”

  Steve nodded his head. “I’ll never forget that face. The rest were killed by the sharks. Joe Malik came down after we were overdue, and dumped shark repellant all over. By that time there was only pieces left of them, and Frank. Konaka must have slipped away somehow.”

  “I’m surprised you can talk about it,” she said.

  Steve shrugged. “Time is the great healer, isn’t it?” He paused for a moment. “Only I don’t feel healed.”

  “Are you sure revenge is the thing to do?” asked Maggie quietly.

  “He’s killed my brother and my best friend,” he replied savagely. “I owe them something.” He fell silent and a moment later he shook his head. He wasn’t sure. “It’s just that Frank and Joe were there one second, and gone forever the next. Forever. No appeal. No chance to get the decision changed. Gone - and there’s nothing you can do to bring them back.”

  Maggie squeezed his hand sympathetically. “Konaka scares me.”

  “When my brother was killed, my father never knew. He’s still back on the Awa Maru trying to discover what the Russians were doing there. I wonder how he would feel if he knew it all came to nothing.”

  “Did it?” asked Maggie provocatively. “Konaka was very happy to read that letter.”

  They both lapsed into silence. Hendrick started to speak again softly. “God, I regret some things.”

  Maggie looked at him with wide-open eyes.

  “When my mother died, I thought that the wrong parent died. It should have been my father. He was useless anyway. Why didn’t he die and leave my mother alone?” He closed his eyes tightly, fighting his emotions. “I always wanted my father to be proud of me. I guess I transferred my relationship with my father to my brother. When my brother was killed, I felt that there was no one left to be proud of me.”

  “And if you completed your father’s mission he would be proud of you if he knew what you had done,” asked Maggie.

  He nodded sadly. “Yes. And look where it got me.”

  “Do you realize the Awa Maru had led to nothing but tragedy for over sixty years?” asked Maggie. “First over two thousand people were killed when it sank. Who knows how many Chinese divers. Then your brother, then Joe. How many more will die? When will it end?”

  Hendrick gazed at the fire for a long while, then gave Maggie a piercing look. “Did you mean what you said a few minutes ago?”

  “When?” she asked.

  “When you called me Love,” he replied, his eyes searching hers.

  Her face softened and a look of longing filled her. “Yes, I meant it.” Her voice was soft among the shadows of the room.

  Hendrick smiled and gave her a brief hug. He sighed and leaned his head back on the cushion as exhaustion passed over him like a wave, engulfing him in weariness. Staying alive was a wearisome business.

  “Last night was fantastic,” Maggie said with a smile. He smiled back, then closed his eyes, lingering over the memory of the most erotic and explosive lovemaking he had ever experienced.

  She began to stroke Hendrick’s hair. She waited for him to respond. When he kept his eyes closed, she added, “Maybe you have someone else on your mind.”

  He opened his eyes. “It’s only been you, Maggie. Ever since we ran in from the rain together on the salvage ship in the Taiwan Strait, it’s only been you.” He had the swift realization that with this woman, with Maggie only, he wanted to be with her forever. His feelings came into crystal clear focus - then slipped out again as the rigors of the last few days took over.

  He tried to keep his eyes open as long as he could, staying with the look of Maggie’s face by firelight and feeling her fingers run slowly, languorously through his hair. Then he closed his eyes and was done for the night.

  Maggie stared at him, blinking back tears of emotion. He had just told her the most romantic thing she had ever heard. Was all this love? Is that why her heart seemed to pound out of her chest when he would draw near? She knew the answer and had tried to pretend that it wasn’t happening, but she could ignore it no longer. She was in love with him, totally, completely.

  He hadn’t yet told her he loved her, but he had thought of no one else over the past year. She smiled and wiped away a tear that had gotten loose on her cheek.

  Desire boiled up in her. She wanted to wake him up and have him make love to her in a rage of passion as they had the previous night, and she would respond with all the pent up desire she had built up for the last months she had known him.

  Maggie stroked his hair and gazed at him through tears of love, listening to his regular, slow breathing and feeling her heart fill to the breaking point. She wanted to wake him up, but did not, instead settling for just lying next to him and reveling in his closeness. She laid her head down next to his and closed her eyes.

  CHAPTER 33

  Dark Rendezvous

  Steve Hendrick awoke slowly. His first sensation was one of friction as he tried to move his arm. He popped one eye open and noted that the quilt from the sofa had been thrown over him sometime during the night. He rotated one eye, looking for Maggie but saw only a depression in the cushion where she had rested her head next to his.

  He forced the other eye open and looked toward the window. The day was gray with storm clouds, and he could see raindrops on the window with more being added every second. They ran together and formed meandering wet lines down the outside of the windowpane.

  Hendrick licked his dry lips and rolled over onto his back, feeling the fatigue that still lingered from the day before. He didn’t want to move, but he knew he had to, if for nothing more than to find where Maggie had gone. He pushed the quilt away feeling the cold invade h
is body, then he stretched and yawned. The smell of toast and bacon suddenly filled the air around him, and he instantly became ravenously hungry. He couldn’t remember when he had eaten last - it was probably a fast food hamburger that he had wolfed down yesterday afternoon while on the run in downtown Taipei.

  Hendrick pushed open the kitchen door and saw Maggie hovering over a pan filled with scrambled eggs. She turned and smiled at him.

  “Oh, you’re finally up,” she said. “Sit down and eat.”

  He wasn’t about to argue and practically inhaled everything she put in front of him. After gorging himself for ten minutes straight, he eyed her with gratitude. “Thanks,” he said while wiping his lips with a napkin.

  “So, what’s on the agenda today?” she asked.

  “I think I’ll get the film developed that’s still in my camera,” he replied.

  “Quick then, go shower and shave, and let’s go get those pictures developed.” She gave him a little push to get him moving.

  “All right, all right, don’t get a wedgie over it,” said Hendrick.

  “A wedgie? What’s a wedgie?” asked Maggie with a short laugh.

  “You have been out of the country for a while, haven’t you?” replied Hendrick. “A wedgie is when your panties get up into places where they don’t belong.”

  Maggie laughed out loud. “Oh, is that what you call it?” Her laughter tapered off, and she pushed him again with a broad smile on her face. “Now, go, good Hendrick, and be quick about it.”

  He stood up and turned to go then looked over his shoulder. “Last night it was Love. Now it’s Hendrick,” he said with mock wounded feelings.

  “Oh, go on,” she replied with a grin.

  Hendrick spread the pictures out on the kitchen table. Maggie hung over his shoulder to get a look at the pictures he had taken over the last month. She flipped through them, then stopped at one of them and held it up so Hendrick could see it.