Forged in Honor (1995)

by Leonard B Scott

  Stephen climbed behind the wheel and started the engine.

  "By the gods, this is a powerful beast," he exclaimed after depressing the accelerator just a fraction.

  "And she is a willing beast," Chen chortled. He waited until Stephen was back on the road before dissolving his smile.

  He stared straight ahead and spoke as if in a deep tunnel.

  "Stephen, when we arrive at the house I become Ke Ping again, and you will be a polite but boring guest. I will drink too much and go to bed drunk, and you will ask my wife to have my security men take you back to the hotel. Make advances-she will like that, for a true friend would not do so. She may even respond and pleasure you, but whatever you do, speak nothing of me. You do not remember me, but since we attended the same school you felt obliged to come.

  The servants will report everything to my father's people.

  Remember-I carry the memory of those good days with me always. You helped me far more than in my studies."

  Chen's face slowly brightened and he managed to grin again. "Seduce this red demon and let her show you her wonders!"

  Washington, D. C.

  Josh, Crow, and Grant got out of the military sedan in front of the Channel Inn. Grant faced the two men as soon as Crow's suitcase was unloaded. "I know you don't like having me around, but it's the way it has to be so there is no question of compromise. I'm here to help with the cover stories and assist you in clearing up any matters you have to take care of before you leave for Camp Pickett. I suggest we all have dinner in an hour and talk over how I can help."

  Josh lifted Crow's suitcase and spoke coldly. "Just pick us up tomorrow. We don't need your 'help.' "

  Grant met his glare. "Look, Colonel, I've got a job to do.

  You know as well as I do I'm supposed to play nursemaid and watch you two until you get to the training camp. Give me a break and cooperate. I won't be in the way, and I won't even speak if you don't want me to."

  Crow nudged Josh with his elbow. "Knock it off, Hawk, she's right. We know they gonna have us covered tonight anyway. Let her do her job. Shiiit, they coulda assigned us an ugly infantry major."

  Josh kept his hard stare on the woman. "Okay. We're going to the boat to drink a few beers, change, and get Hondo settled in. Any security problems with that?"

  Grant ignored the last question. "That's fine. I'm going to my apartment and change clothes. I'll come back and meet you at the boat. There's a team inside the lobby watching you right now. When we link up I'll have them back off. And please don't make any phone calls. I'll see you in an hour."

  Crow watched the lady officer walk away and leaned over to Josh. "If we had officers built like that in our day, we woulda followed 'em anywhere."

  Several minutes later Josh approached the Lil' Darlin' cautiously; Crow had hung back just far enough to listen and wait for a sign that it was safe.

  Wearing knee-length khaki shorts, a Hawaiian flowered shirt, and a scowl, Stefne tapped her foot until Josh stepped within range. "All I get from you this morning is a note? A note saying you're going to be gone all day and for me to wait until you get back. What's going on, Dad? I called Detective Kelly, the boathouse, and even Mr. Ky. They hadn't seen you. How come you didn't call me? And why are you wearing your watch? You never wear your watch."

  Josh put down Crow's bag and shrugged. "I've been recalled to active duty for a few weeks. They need help and picked me because of my experience on the Drug Task Force.

  Bob will be here in a little while and we'll talk about how you two will run the business while I'm gone."

  "Gone? Gone where? They can't ship you off like that!

  You're retired," she exclaimed loudly.

  Josh picked up the bag again and glanced over his shoulder. "I've got a friend here you haven't seen in a long time.

  He's gonna stay with me tonight. I'll explain all this later, when I get him settled in. Relax, will ya? It's only for a few weeks, and then it'll be business as usual. I promise."

  After introducing Crow, whom Stefne didn't remember from their time in Burma, Josh led his friend into the cabin.

  Crow looked over his shoulder and grinned. "Damn if she don't look and sound jus' like-"

  "I know," Josh said with a smile of pride. "Isn't she something? Well, this is it. Home. I'll take the couch. The head is in the passage on your right, and my berth, where you'll crash, is straight down the passage. You change first. We'll eat fancy tonight 'cause it may be our last good meal for a while."

  Crow ran his fingers along the lapels of his too-big sport jacket. "This is the best I got. I picked it up at Kmart for a funeral the old lady made me go to a couple months back."

  Josh smiled. "It's fine. Damn; you haven't changed a bit.

  I've missed you, Hondo. I'm glad you're here."

  Crow slapped Josh's back. "We're a team, Hawk, jus' like the old days. We can do it. They was smart enough to at least get the best."

  Josh kept smiling, although he didn't mean it anymore.

  Stefne eyed the attractive, auburn-haired woman sitting across from her at the restaurant and raised an eyebrow. "So you're in charge of my dad while he helps out the army?"

  Grant smiled. "I think we both know that nobody could be in charge of your dad. No, I'm just assisting in the task force and providing input from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

  Your dad will be an adviser because of his experience. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him for you."

  Stefne liked the answer as well as the woman her dad had introduced as Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Grant. She felt better knowing the woman would be keeping an eye out for her dad. Stefne shifted her eyes to the seedy-looking man her dad seemed to like very much. He was crusty in a cute way and reminded her of her father. She just couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was that made them alike.

  Josh picked up his wineglass and nodded at Bob, who was seated at the other end of the table. "Bob, this is to you. I wish you luck in running the shifts while I'm gone and especially luck in having to put up with my daughter. And remember, only a dozen a day to Ky, and leave the King alone till I get back."

  Bob raised his glass. "Boss, come back quick. I think I can handle the company business and Ky, but Stefne is-"

  "Shut up, Bob," Stefne snarled.

  Bob winked at Josh. "I think that makes my point."

  Josh laughed. He had seen a big difference in Bob since going on the hunt. He seemed more confident and was meeting Stefne's barbs and verbal swordplay with equal skill.

  Grant furrowed her brow. "Who is Mr. Ky?"

  Stefne frowned. "Don't ask. It will get Dad started."

  Crow said, "Yeah, I wanna know too. Nothing worse than being left out of a conversation."

  Josh sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Ya see, I've got this little business on the side, and ..."

  After dinner Grant and Stefne followed Josh and Crow toward the boat. Grant chuckled and brushed against Stefne's shoulder. "Was your dad kidding about catching turtles?"

  Stefne rolled her eyes. "Don't I wish. He's been doing it for about two months. We were at the fish market and Ky asked Dad if he ever saw turtles when he was out on the river. One thing led to another and now it's his new diversion. Before that he hired out as a fishing guide and would take fishermen to good spots on the river; before that he taught small-boat classes for the park service. I could go on, but you'd get bored. He just has to be busy ... but not like when he used to work at the Pentagon. That job almost killed him."

  Grant noticed the change in her tone. "He worked long hours, huh?"

  Stefne stopped and looked across the channel in the direction of the ugly, five-sided building. "He'd go in at six in the morning and wouldn't come home until eight or nine. He lived for the weekends, when we could all go out on the boat and relax. It was the only time my mother and I ever got to talk to him. He'd come home from work with a briefcase full of paperwork and stay up till midnight. I remember waking him up at his desk and-" She stopped he
rself and took Grant's hand. She looked into the other woman's eyes and said, 'Don't let them do that to him-again. Please don't let them."

  Grant squeezed her hand and felt sick to her stomach for what she was about to do. Lie. "I won't, Stefne. I'll make sure of it."

  Back on the boat, Josh handed Crow a beer. "Sit and keep Grant busy for a few minutes. I gotta go say good-bye to a friend."

  "Lady friend, by any chance?"

  Josh rolled his eyes. "It's not like that."

  Grant saw him coming toward her, but he veered off and climbed down to another motor sailer. "Where's he going?" she asked.

  Stefne smiled. "Meg's. He's gotta tell her what's going on or she'll worry herself to death."

  "I didn't think your dad had a girlfriend."

  "Meg? Oh no, it's not like that. Meg is like family, kinds like a nosy aunt. You'd have to meet her to understand. She looks after us, and Dad does things for her. He has to tell Meg, believe me."

  Once Josh returned, Stefne said good night and walked toward the wharf. A little later, Crow yawned and handed Josh an empty beer bottle. "Hate to leave you two up here alone, but I gotta get some sleep. See ya in the morning, Colonel."

  "Good night, Sergeant Major," Grant said.

  Josh settled back on a cushioned seat and took a sip of his beer, feeling uncomfortable with the woman. He wanted her to go so he could be left alone to enjoy the evening. "Grant, you gonna stay here all night and guard us?" he said, hoping she would get the hint.

  She smiled, seemingly impervious to his cold tone. "No, I was just enjoying the stars. It's funny, they seem brighter here on the water than from across the street in the apartment."

  Josh decided to try something different and got up. "I'm gonna have a couple more beers."

  "Could I have one too, please?"

  Shit, he mumbled to himself. He returned seconds later with two beers, handed her one, and gestured toward the cabin. "You oughta hear Hondo, he's already snoring. Poor guy oughta be home on his lake."

  Grant took a sip as Josh resumed his position across from her. "Tell me about the unsanctioned mission you two went on," she asked. "It was authorized, wasn't it?"

  Josh gave her a cautious look and thought what the hell.

  He took a long pull from his bottle and looked up at the stars. "Yeah. The Company needed some information. It actually worked out fine. My friend Stephen Kang was taking a lot of heat about that time from the DDSI for being a minority and especially being the son of a warlord. I volunteered for the mission as long as Stephen could turn us in afterward to prove his loyalty to the government."

  "Was he an Agency informant?" asked Grant.

  "Stephen? Hell no. He wouldn't do anything against his government. For better or worse he loved his country more than anybody I know. The only thing he did for me was tell me where to find his father, Sawbaw Xu Kang."

  "Sawbaw?"

  "Yeah, it's Shan for 'warlord' or 'leader.' In Xu Kang's case it definitely means warlord. Hondo and I slipped our secret-police tails and took off for the north in a prepositioned Company Land Rover. We were posing as photographers for National Geographic. Jesus, you should have seen us. Hondo didn't even know how to load the film in the cameras they gave us, let alone use them. It took us eight days, avoiding the army checkpoints, and we hadn't made it even to the foothills when Xu Kang's people spotted us first."

  Grant got up and sat down beside him so he wouldn't have to talk as loudly. "What information did the Agency need?"

  Josh took another sip of beer before answering. "The junta was claiming the communists were taking over the north.

  The Company had some of their indigenous Intel people telling them it was bullshit. They needed to confirm or refute the information. I was a logical choice 'cause I spoke the language and had lived up in the area. Their all-important plausible denial story was that if we got caught the embassy was going to say I had taken off with a buddy to check out my old home. Anyway, Hondo and I were escorted by Xu Kang's people to his camp in the mountains. I'd been there before, in '73, when I was first assigned to the embassy. The camp had changed a lot. The Company had put tons of money into new radio equipment and weapons for the Chindit's army. `Chindie is what everyone calls Xu Kang. To get an idea of what he looks like, think of Anthony Quinn but six feet tall, broader-shouldered, and Chinese. He has a lordly, charismatic presence and a quick laugh. He rides a black horse, and when I saw him last he had a Mexican saddle all tricked out in silver and-"

  "Where did he get a Mexican saddle?" Grant interrupted.

  Josh smiled reflectively. "The CIA gave it to him back in the sixties to impress him. God, do the Shan love their horses. Ponies, they call 'em. Nobody can ride like a Shan Horseman."

  Josh yawned and continued, "We found out the government was lying as usual. They had hired Sawbaw Kang's little army to fight the communists for them. There were a few pockets of hard-core Marxists but nothing the mountain tribes couldn't handle. The junta was making the threat up to get support from the U. S."

  Grant shook her head. "Wait a minute. You say the Burmese Army hired this Sawbaw to fight the communists? I thought the army was trying to destroy the mountain rebels."

  Josh wiggled his brow. "That's what we all thought. You see, the army knew better than to go after the mountain rebels. They had been trying for years, and for years they'd been getting their asses handed to them. They made a deal instead.

  The deal was Kang would fight the communists and the army would stay out of the mountains and not interfere in his black marketing. Xu Kang was a sly old dog-he had changed sides with the army three or four times before. He didn't deal in opium, but he moved jade, rubies, and silver from the government-owned mines. Most of his work for the army was turning in competitors who had tried to move in and take a piece of his action. He was the best con man I ever saw, but make no mistake about it, he was taking care of the people who lived under his protection. That old man took his title of 'the Protector' very, very seriously."

  Grant smiled at the look on his face. "You really liked him, didn't you?"

  Josh nodded without hesitation. "I loved him and still do.

  He always treated me like a son. When my folks died in the plane crash, I was here in the States going to school. It tore me up pretty bad. A few weeks later I got a letter from him.

  He reminded me that my mother and stepfather had died fighting and that I should rejoice. The Shan gods and their Christian God were blessed with their presence, he said, since they had died fighting to save souls."

  Joshua sighed and looked at his empty beer bottle. "You don't understand what that means ... but to me, at that time, it was what I needed to get through the pain." Josh forced a smile. "Sorry, you asked a simple question and I took off on a tangent. The answer is yes. I love the old warrior. He's like a father in many ways to me."

  "And Stephen really did turn you in when you got back from the mission?" asked Grant.

  Josh nodded. "Yeah, after we got back to Rangoon I told Stephen what we did and made him call it in to the DDSI.

  Their government protested our trip, and you know the rest.

  The embassy kicked us out to show the Burmese they didn't condone that sort of thing. The Company made sure the written reprimands were pulled from our records as' soon as we were back in the States."

  Grant folded her legs under her. --Fell me about how you came to live in Burma as a boy. And Stephen, when did you meet him?"

  Josh gave her a questioning stare. "Are you working now, Grant?"

  She raised her hands palms up and smiled innocently. "No, just interested. I was given the Burma desk because I studied the country in college and wrote a paper on its history, but I've never been there. Hearing this helps me understand the people."

  Josh could tell she was being honest. He leaned back again in the seat and looked out toward the dark waters of the channel. "In the summer of 1960, when I was eleven, we left Leavenworth, Kansas, and began the 'great adv
enture'--at least that's what my mother called it. Jesus, what a pistol she was." Josh couldn't help but smile as he remembered those first days on the river. "My mother and I . .."

  Grant listened to his entire story without saying a word or moving a muscle so as not to break the spell. She could see the Master Horseman and his bushy white moustache and could see Henry preaching before his Shan congregation. The image of the village was clear in her mind, as was the mission and the rugged mountains that Joshua so lovingly spoke of. She felt his sadness when he and his family bade farewell to the Ri.

  Josh's eyes focused back on the dark water of the Washington Channel, then he shifted his gaze to the woman beside him. "I'm sorry if I've been rattling on too long. It's just been a long time since I thought about those days. Have I bored you?"