“Who’s this guy?” she asked.
Hendrick peered at the photo, showing a black and white picture of a man. “Oh, that’s a guy who was on Niushan Dao in 1945. He became friendly with the family there, and they took his picture to remember him. He was probably a flier shot down over the Taiwan Strait.”
A smile pulled at the corners of Maggie lips. “Not a bad looking man.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” said Hendrick in mock jealousy. “He’s got to be in his seventies or eighties by now … or worse.”
“Too bad,” replied Maggie with a full smile and a lingering glance at the photo. “What’s his name?”
“His name was, uh, let’s see - Robert Lindsey, I think,” said Hendrick.
Near noontime Hendrick left the house to gather more firewood. The rain had let up, leaving only a fine mist in the air. He walked quickly to a shed a hundred yards to one side of Loh’s house, then saw with resignation that he had to split some of the thick logs that were stacked neatly to one side. He split ten logs, piled some of them in his arms and stepped out from under the shed’s roof into a steady rain. He pulled his rain hat low over his face and trudged back towards the house. The rainfall matted the leaves and sent rivulets running through the small depressions in the ground.
Hendrick grunted to himself as he looked into the distance through the large window next to the front door. Maggie was walking around the living room with a cellphone in her hand and was having a conversation with someone.
Who could she be talking to? he wondered. His curiosity piqued, he kept to the right side of the house, out of sight, with the idea of eavesdropping on her conversation. He walked quickly and silently to the rear door, silently put the wood down, then slowly opened the door. He tiptoed across the kitchen toward the hall leading to the living room. Hendrick leaned on the wall and cocked an ear down the hallway.
“ - Hendrick’s not around -” There was a short pause as Maggie listened. “Yes, we’re working together on this - know what it is -” Her voice faded as she turned away from the entrance to the hallway. “Where?” came the clear question. Her voice then faded in and out. “Yes, all right - get away somehow.” Maggie hung up and walked down the hall to the kitchen. He looked up just as Maggie entered.
“Got some more wood,” he said. Maggie nodded then rubbed her arms to show him that she appreciated his effort at wood gathering.
“By the way, who was on the phone just now?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Someone looking for Loh,” she said.
Hendrick was stunned at her blatant lie. His mind raced with the possibilities. Maggie was working for someone, but he had no idea whom. He didn’t know why, but Maggie’s secret, whatever it was, didn’t surprise him. A number of little things about her were incongruous, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that were slightly misshapen and didn’t fit snugly together.
The worst possibility was that she was working for Konaka.
After dinner Steve and Maggie sat in front of another cozy fire in the living room, talking about Stalin’s letter and what to do with it. The evening wore on, Hendrick’s curiosity mounting about how Maggie would make a graceful exit to get away to her clandestine meeting.
Maggie abruptly got up, made an excuse and went to the first floor powder room, leaving Hendrick to stare into the fire. She came back moments later but didn’t sit next to him. Instead she started to put on her coat.
“I’ve got to go to the store in Wulai. Do you want anything?” she asked.
He gazed at her, surprised only at her casual manner. He decided not to let her go easily.
“What do you have to get?” he asked.
A semi-embarrassed smile crossed her face. “Feminine things.” She pushed her arms through the sleeves of her coat.
“I’ll go with you,” he said and started to slowly get up.
“No, you stay here and keep warm. I won’t be long,” she answered and gave him a smile.
Hendrick sat back down and waved to her as she went out the door. Just like that, he thought. Was I thinking she would make a graceful exit? Her departure was much better than that. It was casual, cool, smooth like a professional. A professional what? He resolved to find out later that night.
He got on all fours to avoid being seen through the living room window and crawled over to the coffee table where the envelope containing Stalin’s letter and the photos were lying. He scooped them up and shoved them into an attaché case that he had left on a living room chair. He swiftly donned a jacket and moved down the hall to the kitchen. Seconds later he was outside in the chill night air. The sound of a car’s engine turning over spurred him to race to the back of the driveway where Loh kept a dilapidated auto. He had found the keys during the day and had absentmindedly dropped them into his pocket without Maggie’s knowledge. He got into the car, threw the attaché case on the front seat, and stayed low in the seat until he saw headlights from Maggie’s car swing away and point down the road.
Maggie sped quickly over the steep incline from the end of the driveway to the road, causing the headlights to spray light wildly over the countryside for an instant until the car steadied on the road.
Hendrick peered over the steering wheel and saw that Maggie had gotten far enough down the road to allow him to start moving. He started the car, kept the lights off and swung onto the road to follow her. She slowed at a curve, her brake lights causing the surroundings to glow red for an instant, then she was off again, her foot on the accelerator and the car increasing speed down the quiet country road. He hung back, letting her put some distance between them.
Hendrick turned on his lights to avoid running off the road. He made the curve in the road only to see Maggie’s taillights disappear over a rise in the road in the distance. Afraid that she would turn and lose him, he pushed his foot down and felt the car speed up the rise.
He came over the rise and saw Maggie’s taillights go down a small dip in the road then up the hill beyond. Her lights disappeared in the distance. Hendrick stepped on the gas.
The road led through an intersection and down a hill along a winding road with Hendrick lingering well behind her. Maggie slowed to a stop at another intersection and looked around in indecision.
Maggie hesitated. Hendrick had no choice but to turn off his headlights and pull off the road. He kept his head low over the steering wheel and prayed that she would not think to look behind her. Maggie looked around then turned right. Hendrick lingered for a moment then followed her.
Maggie went up a hill and pulled off the road near a small temple on the crest of the hill. She turned off her lights, and he could see her leave the car as he pulled off the road at the base of the hill. She was obviously going to meet someone. Maggie disappeared into the temple.
He jumped out of the car and ran up the hill. After cautiously rounding her car, he peered into the small entrance walkway to the temple. The entrance let only a narrow shaft of light through from the security light above the entrance road. The light was meager and shaded by the upturned corners of the roof and its lavishly decorated edges, but it was enough to make out Maggie and her surroundings. Inside the temple in the center of the courtyard was a small wooden building equally lavishly decorated with fanciful dragons. Maggie was standing next to the building, glancing about expectantly.
Out of the shadows came a man in a long overcoat. He briefly shook hands with Maggie, and they started to converse in muted tones.
Hendrick tiptoed the short distance to the temple’s entrance, then abruptly gave up the pretense of secrecy and boldly walked through the entrance. The shaft of light was interrupted by his rapidly lengthening shadow as he walked up to them. Maggie and her companion looked toward Hendrick simultaneously. Maggie gave a start, and the man took two steps backward just enough to return his face to the shadows.
“Hendrick!” Maggie exclaimed.
Hendrick walked up until he was five feet from them. “I decided that I needed some masculine t
hings,” he said in an acid tone of voice. He looked from Maggie to the man in the shadows and back again. “Now tell me what all this is about,” he demanded.
Maggie gave a helpless look to the other man and said nothing. The tension built up until the man’s voice came out of the dark.
“You’re Steve Hendrick?” asked the man.
“Yes. I suppose it’s no secret by this time,” Hendrick replied with a withering glance toward Maggie.
The man took a step forward and allowed the light to reach his face. His skin was wrinkled and aged, with gray hair surrounding his head. Hendrick thought the man to be in his eighties.
“I’m Robert Lindsey,” he said.
CHAPTER 34
Night Moves
Steve Hendrick stared at the face of the old man in front of him. Robert Lindsey was the man whose picture he had taken from a photo on Niushan Dao. A thousand questions arose, but Hendrick suppressed the whirlwind in his mind and forced himself to ask one question at a time.
“You were on Niushan Dao in 1945?” asked Hendrick.
The old man nodded but didn’t speak. Hendrick looked at Maggie. “And why are you here?” he asked.
“Mr. Lindsey called and arranged for us to meet. He apparently has something on his mind,” replied Maggie in a steady voice.
He turned back to Lindsey. “Why were you on Niushan Dao?”
“I was shipwrecked,” Lindsey replied simply.
The whirlwind sprang up in Hendrick’s mind once again and suddenly many of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “Your ship was the Awa Maru, wasn’t it?”
Lindsey hesitated, then nodded. Maggie gave him a look of surprise.
“An American on a Japanese freighter four months before the end of World War Two,” stated Hendrick. “What were you? OSS?”
Lindsey gave him a frozen look. Hendrick didn’t wait for Lindsey’s confirmation and plunged ahead with his best shot at what happened over sixty years ago in the Taiwan Strait.
“The ship was torpedoed and sank with only one survivor known to the world,” said Hendrick. “But there were other survivors. You managed to swim to Niushan Dao before the USS Queenfish got over to your area to pick up survivors. And then there was my father.”
“You are quite correct,” replied Lindsey. “Your father was my partner.”
“Why were you on board the Awa Maru?” asked Maggie.
Lindsey sighed and looked at the ground. “A Soviet delegation was on board the Awa Maru, and it was our mission to find out why.” He suddenly looked up and gave Hendrick a piercing stare. “That is why I set up this meeting. I want to know what you found on that wreck.”
More pieces fell into place in Hendrick’s mind as the entire picture on a jigsaw puzzle suddenly becomes clear with the placement of only a few critical pieces.
“I found a skull with a bullet hole in it in the Russian compartment,” said Hendrick. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the bullet he had retrieved from the Awa Maru. He had kept it with him as a sort of good luck charm. He carelessly flipped it to Lindsey who caught it with surprise. “Some of your handiwork, no doubt.”
Lindsey looked over the bullet and held it tightly in his hand. “We had a secret hiding place in the engineering spaces where we stayed during daylight hours. At night we searched for the Soviet staterooms. We eventually found them on the night that the ship was torpedoed. We gained entry, thinking that no one was there, but as we began to search the compartment, I heard a noise behind me. I pulled out my sidearm and we grappled with each other. I forced him back on the bed where he had been sleeping and shot him in the head.” Lindsey let out a sigh at the memories of so long ago.
“At that moment,” Lindsey continued. “The ship shuddered as if hit by a huge fist. I could hear the explosions in sequence as each of the four torpedoes struck the starboard side of the ship. It began to roll to starboard almost immediately. I could hear people screaming.” His words tapered off to a whisper as if he were out of breath. He inhaled deeply and continued.
“I spent most of the night in the water. At dawn I found that I was near Niushan Dao and after several hours of swimming I crawled ashore. The Wong family took good care of me, but I spent most of the rest of the war on that island. They took my picture to remember me by, and that is the one you took a photo of. I always meant to go back there, but I never did. It’s in Communist hands now, you know.” He lapsed into silence.
Hendrick looked at Maggie. “Lindsey called looking for me, but you lied to him and me, so you could be here without me. Why?”
Maggie gritted her teeth and shook her head. “When he said his name, I recognized it as the man who had been on Niushan Dao in 1945. I wanted to find out what he knew.”
“Did you tell him?” asked Hendrick.
“No. Do you think it wise?” asked Maggie.
“I think he has a right to know,” replied Hendrick. “He nearly lost his life for that information.”
Lindsey perked up. “What information? Did you find something on the Awa Maru?”
“First tell me what you did after the war,” said Hendrick.
“I can’t do that,” Lindsey said softly after a moment’s hesitation.
“Goodbye, Mr. Lindsey. Nice talking to you,” said Hendrick quickly. He turned to go.
“No, wait,” said Lindsey in a louder tone of voice.
Hendrick looked at him and could see the struggle within the old man. He suddenly felt sorry for the former OSS agent.
“I lost my best friend on that ship,” said Lindsey. “Ed Hendrick had saved my life several times during the war. One person can’t get any closer to another than we were. Even though he survived, I only saw him years later after Alzheimers had taken his mind. I’ve been living my whole life wondering why the Soviets were on that ship.” Hendrick said nothing. Lindsey gave in. “I was CIA after the war. So was your father.”
“And now?” asked Hendrick.
“I’m retired, but I still keep my hand in,” replied Lindsey. “Now that I’ve broken my oath of secrecy -”
“All right,” replied Hendrick and turned back to face him. “The Soviet delegation was going to Japan to offer atomic bombs to the Japanese in order to keep them in the war against the Americans.”
“How do you know this?” asked Lindsey, barely concealing his excitement.
“We have a letter signed by Joe Stalin himself making the offer,” said Hendrick.
Lindsey’s face, tight with strain, softened as he savored the answer to the six decade old question.
“Ah, yes,” he mused. “So that’s when it all started.”
“When what all started?” asked Maggie.
Lindsey hesitated and looked back and forth between the two of them. “You have uncovered only the tip of the most carefully kept secret of the last six decades.”
“Only the tip? There’s more?” asked Hendrick.
Lindsey nodded. “Perhaps it is time for the secret to come out.”
“Tell us,” said Maggie.
“You’re not going to believe this,” began Lindsey and started to reach inside his coat.
Hendrick caught movement in the shadows behind Lindsey. Two men came out from the darkness in the rear entrance to the temple, walked boldly up behind Lindsey, then stopped ten feet away. Hendrick could see the light glint off the guns in their hands. Their gunbarrels appeared unnaturally long. Hendrick knew they had silencers. He slipped his right hand up belt-high and started to reach slowly inside his jacket.
“Stop, Mr. Stephen Hendrick,” said a familiar voice with a Russian accent. The man stepped forward into the light. It was Loshak, the SVR agent who stole the bank notes from Hendrick and the sub crew on Itbayat Island. “Put your hands up where I can see them at all times.”
Hendrick raised his hands shoulder high. “Is your fascist buddy with you?” he asked disgustedly. He stared into the shadows and made out the outline of Loshak’s constant companion, Drukarev.
�
��Shut up, Hendrick. Now to the business at hand. Now that we are all here, we will discover who has the diplomatic documents which were taken from the Awa Maru,” said Loshak.
“What documents are those?” asked Hendrick who tried to put as much sincerity into the simple question as he could.
Loshak sneered at Hendrick’s attempt to play innocent. “If we get them, then no one will be hurt.”
“Why ask us?” asked Hendrick belligerently. “Why not ask Konaka?”
Loshak’s eyes narrowed, the muscles in his face growing taut. Hendrick realized that Maggie’s assertion was correct. Loshak and Drukarev really were working for Konaka. Hendrick saw Maggie give him an I-told-you-so glance.
“Why does Konaka want the letter? He already has a copy,” said Hendrick. Loshak gave him a grimace and said nothing.
“Maybe it was burned up in the fire on Tung-yin Tao,” replied Maggie. “Or maybe he wants to cover up the existence of the letter.”
Loshak shifted his aim from the center of Hendrick’s chest to Maggie as Drukarev moved slightly to Hendrick’s left from ten feet behind Lindsey to get a better aim on Hendrick himself.
“The first one to get hurt will be your girlfriend,” said Loshak and stepped forward to emphasize his threat. Hendrick held his breath as Loshak stopped within two feet of Lindsey.
The old OSS agent didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Loshak’s weapon and immediately shoved the barrel toward the ground. That was all the opening Hendrick needed. His right hand shot toward his belt and the waiting handgun. For the next few seconds Loshak was not a problem as Lindsey struggled with him. Taking out Drukarev was Hendrick’s top priority.
Hendrick got the weapon free of his belt before Drukarev took his eyes off the two men fighting over Loshak’s weapon. By the time Drukarev saw what was happening, Hendrick had his sights in the SVR agent’s vicinity. Hendrick snapped off two quick shots, sending them an inch away from Drukarev’s right shoulder. The Russian crouched down and ran back behind the building in the center of the courtyard.
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