by Jack July
“A friend in the field.”
“Well, whoever it is, knows their stuff. Okay, put this on,” he handed her a robe, “I’ll be right back.”
Thirty minutes later, the X-rays were complete and the doctor did his final exam, “Well my dear, you’re bruised up but the only thing broken is your right ring finger, and it’s just a slight fracture. You probably suffered a mild concussion, but I doubt it’ll slow you down. I could cast that finger, then you would be out of commission.”
“Could you shoot up my finger? I may need to use that hand.”
“Yes, I can.” He did so.
“I also want the vile and the needle so I can do it myself.”
“Sure. You know how?”
“Yes sir, I was a combat corpsman.”
“Then you know if you don’t let it heal you’ll do permanent damage.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You need to learn how to duck or fight. If not, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”
Elle smiled, shook her head and said, “Thank you doctor.”
“Okay, you’re cleared, go. Take care of yourself.”
“Yes, sir.”
Edie escorted Elle back to the underground facility where she was led to a small two-man room. T looked asleep on one of the beds so Elle quietly took off her clothes and slipped under the covers.
“Before you get comfortable, put your clothes in that plastic bag at the end of the bed and set them outside the door. They’ll wash them.”
Elle got up and put all her stuff in the bag, sat it outside the door then climbed back into the bed.
“Did Doc Kennedy clear you?” asked T.
“Yeah, he said I’m fine.”
“You know he can send you home. By the time you’re finished they will have a pretty big investment in you. They will not lose it over an infection or something like that.”
“Yeah.” Elle was quiet for a minute and said, “Sorry about Brandon.”
“I’m not thinking about that right now. You will learn to put feelings away and focus on where you are and what you are doing. Get some sleep, you’ll need it.”
Elle was hoping she could talk about Bogus. Killed another one, she thought to herself. Then she leaned back and closed her eyes. Sleep didn’t come easy. But eventually, it came.
CHAPTER 37
November 26th 7:00 A.M.
Sanjay wasn’t a bad man and hardly a ruthless a killer, at least not until now. Killing the captain weighed on him. He even took the time to hold a late night funeral service before giving the captain to the sea. Now he stood on the bridge feeling daunted by the responsibility of command. He knew how the captain ran things so he would try to mimic that, however, the crew knew he was no Captain Bastos. Being an outlaw freighter they would have to stay outside normal shipping lanes so he plotted a new course. They continued the swing north. Then the SAT phone rang.
“Captain Sanjay,” He answered with authority.
“Captain, my name is Lew. I am checking on my passengers. A woman named Aida and a small girl.”
“Yes, they are on board and they are safe. Would you like me to give them any messages?”
“No, no, just checking. They are very valuable, only the best for them, right captain?”
“Yes, of course,” Sanjay replied. Then he felt a small chill. Something about the man’s voice, it was evil.
“How long before your arrival?”
“Depending on winds and currents, somewhere between 20 and 30 hours.”
A short but twisted inappropriate laughing cackle proceeded Lew’s final words, “I will be waiting. Do not disappoint me.”
Is he threatening me? thought Sanjay. “We do our best for all of our customers,” said Sanjay respectfully.
“Yes, so they tell me. Goodbye,” and Lew hung up.
Sanjay did not dislike Kristy, and the times he saw the captain bathe her with attention made him smile. He began to think hard about what he had done. He had condemned the captain to death over this one child. He had reasoned to himself that Kristy was in no danger. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
Amy walked through dark mist until she came upon a large room. It looked like some sort of dance hall. Moving like a ghost, Matt Oliver appeared from the corner of the room in his dress blue Navy uniform. He was smiling, beckoning her forward. She ran to him and collapsed in his arms as a strange music began to play. They danced, a ballroom sort of dance, twirling around the room. She could feel her long red dress as it brushed against her calves. She could smell his aftershave and feel his muscular shoulders. Out of her peripheral vision she saw Bogus and Brandon sitting at a table, smiling. Arturo Ramos, Monty and Lesta sat next to a table surrounded by Taliban soldiers, with Achmed’s severed head sitting in the center, smiling at her. Her mother and older brother Kerry were also there, smiling. Then they all began to laugh, softly at first, then louder and louder. She couldn’t figure out why until she turned to look at Matt. His face was rotting off of the skull; there were no eyes in the sockets. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. Backing away she looked around the room again, and everyone was in various stages of decomposition. Turning to run she discovered her legs would not move. Across the room Kristy was skipping toward her, then stopped. Behind her the man in the mask crept slowly forward, and Amy screamed “KRISTY, RUN!” Kristy wouldn’t move. Then slowly the knife came up, Amy screamed, “NO, NO, NO, STOP!!!” Then the knife came down and Elle roared in terror, waking herself. She sat up in bed, hair matted with sweat and head looking side to side while she figured out where she was. T sat cross-legged on the other bed, cleaning her SIG. “Bad dream?” said T.
“The worst,” Elle said in almost a whisper.
“Dead people?” asked T.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“They will go away, I promise. It’s almost time to get up anyway. Go take a shower, and we’ll get something to eat.”
Elle nodded and slowly put her feet on the floor, stood up, tried to stretch then let out a small wince and a little moan. Her body was sore. She gathered her things and walked to the showers across the hall. Hanging outside the door on a hook were her clothes, clean and folded in a bag. The hot water felt good blasting on her muscles. Her thoughts were scattered. The dream had shaken her. The violence she had seen, the things she had done and the people she knew, liked, even loved then lost all dancing in her head. T called it a job. This isn’t a job. This is who you are. Is this who I really am? Those thoughts spinning in her head were difficult to control.
Tatiana and Elle sat in the cafeteria. At first Elle wasn’t hungry, but the smell of decent food made her appetite kick in. Tatiana could tell Elle was a little off. She wasn’t making eye contact and she was slouching just a bit. “You okay?”
Elle just shrugged.
“That dream shook you up, didn’t it?”
Elle nodded, looked up and said, “How am I doing?”
T cracked a smile and said, “If you are waiting for a report card, you will be disappointed. This is pass or fail.”
“I was barely able to climb out of bed this morning. You don’t have a scratch on ya.”
“Oh, I’ve taken my share of what you would call ass kickings. Eventually you will figure out you don’t want to get hurt, and you’ll do things differently. It’s all part of learning.”
Elle nodded then Tatiana continued. “You are doing well. You are alive, and we are making progress. This down time we are having right now, waiting for information is a helpless time, especially when you are racing a clock to save someone’s life.”
“G’day ladies, what do ya know?” said Cody, taking a seat.
“Nothing. We are waiting,” said Tatiana.
Cody wrapped a sausage up in a cured ham slice, sat it on a big piece of rye bread covered with cheese, mashed it together and took a huge
bite. Tatiana rolled her eyes and shook her head. Elle said, “Now there is a man that knows how to eat.”
“What?” said Cody.
Ten minutes later Edie appeared at the doorway on the other side of the cafe and waved to the team. They nodded back and walked to their communications room. After they were seated Adele appeared on the screen. “Hey, Cody,” said Adele.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Do you know who the Chinese Ambassador to Germany is?”
“No,”
“Long Cho.”
Cody’s normally calm demeanor went dark and angry in a blink. “Where is his son,” growled Cody.
“We don’t know,” said Adele. Then in her thick Texas accent she said, “But I spect ya’ll are fixin’ to find out.”
The Story of Long Cai
Long Cho came from a linage traced back to the Ming Dynasty. His family was made up of merchants who had ingratiated themselves to whoever was in power. Long Cho was no different. He was in the right place at the right time in China’s history. As China moved out of the secretive shadows onto the world stage, Cho began to purchase real estate both domestically and internationally. He felt none of the sting from the controlling government because he married the daughter of the vice premier of the Chinese politburo. By the mid 1980’s he was one of the richest men in China, worth over a billion dollars. He maintained himself as a high profile figure in the communist party by loyally serving. His first post was as ambassador to the United States of America. Other than ceremonial and diplomatic duties, the Chinese embassy did little more than serve as a base of operations for the spy network operating in America. It was in this environment that his only child, Long Cai was born.
Long Cai’s name, loosely translated meant rich dragon. He was rich, or at least his father was. He was a dragon in his eyes only. He was every classic caricature of a Chinese young man. Straight black hair that lay atop his head styled as if someone had set a bowl over his skull and cut around the edges. His large teeth had a gap between the front two, and at a towering five feet four inches and a solid one hundred twenty-five pounds, he was hardly anyone’s version of a dragon. However, there would come a day when evil would reside in his heart—an evil so great it would make a dragon run from him in terror. His journey began with hero worship and unrequited love.
Long Cai attended the prestigious Georgetown Day School and was an academic star. There were other Chinese kids in his school but he did not like being around them. They called him names like Twinkie and Banana (yellow on the outside, white in the middle). In his off time he enjoyed everything American, especially movies. Posters of action film stars covered his walls in his room, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal, Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme. They all had one thing in common: European ancestry. They were something Cai could never be. Cai knew that, so he became a student of the film industry. He decided he would be a Hollywood director. They had all the power and money. As he began high school his attention turned to girls. Once again his tastes were decidedly European. He was especially fond of blondes.
One in particular mesmerized him. Cassidy McConnell, whose father was an energy lobbyist and her mother an NSA analyst, was a cheerleader and gymnast, a little blonde beauty. She was friendly to Cai for her own nefarious reasons.
Cai did whatever Cassidy wanted, mostly homework and term papers. He fantasized about her daily, placing himself in the roll of a strong, daring, steely-eyed action hero, rescuing her from certain death. Then she, of course, would fall madly in love with him and they would live happily ever after. Cai’s father saw the train wreck coming. He maintained a paid spy, another Chinese child in the school, who kept him up to date on Cai’s activities. Cho knew Cassidy did not like his son and was using him. He tried to explain to Cai about Americans and how they had no real love for his gifts of knowledge. They only loved how things looked, not how they really were. Cai’s affections were so deep that he could not listen. His fantasies turned to obsessions. He would have her for his own. He reasoned he could have her because he could give her anything she wanted. He would be rich, like his father. And isn’t that what every American woman wanted: a rich and powerful man? Cai’s whole worldview would change on a cool fall night after a basketball game.
During the game Cai sat in his favorite place, the front row by the cheerleaders. Cassidy would cheer, smile at him, wave... and on this day she pointed at him while talking to the other cheerleaders, and they smiled and laughed. No doubt, Cai reasoned, she was talking about her affection for her good friend. After the game she invited Cai to take a ride with her and her friends to the park, where there was going to be a party. Cai had no idea he was to be the guest of honor.
Making their way through a local park, then down a small dirt road, they ended up at an easement between two high voltage power towers where they parked. Cai heard Cassidy’s friends giggle as they jumped out of the car and walked away. Cassidy seemed nervous when she moved close to Cai and said, “Take off your clothes, let’s play a game.”
Cai did so, unable to believe what was happening. He had waited so long and wished for this moment. Suddenly, the door opened on Cai’s side of the car, two or three people grabbed him, dragged him out of the car and threw him to the ground. The car started up and drove away. He stood and strained to see in the dark but was suddenly blinded by headlights that circled him, and laughter echoed across the field. He covered his genitals with his hands and began to turn in circles looking for a place to run. That’s when the first shot stung his side. He reached with his fingers and felt the wetness, then screamed in terror thinking it was a gunshot. Holding up his fingers he saw the orange paint. That’s when the barrage of paintballs came.
Running a few steps in every direction trying to dodge the pellets didn’t work because he was surrounded. He didn’t see Cassidy trying to stop the assault. She had no idea the jocks were going to go this far.
Cai finally fell to the ground and balled himself in the fetal position. Paintballs continued to rain in from all angles until suddenly, the assault stopped. He lay shaking with his eyes squeezed shut, the cold wet dew from the grass giving him a chill while laughter faded in the distance. When he opened his eyes, his first vision was the crushed beer can in front of his face. Cars started and drove away until he was alone. He began a moaning wail. It was the wail of someone who was injured and doomed to die.
A half an hour later his moans stopped as the chill took hold. He stood and began to walk with no clue where he was going. He eventually stumbled onto the road that wound through the park and began to walk the wrong way, deeper into the park. Coming from the other way, Cassidy and one of her friends went back to find him. She thought someone else had picked him up and had no idea he had been left there. She was furious.
A police officer patrolling the park saw Cai walking like a zombie. The officer turned on his cruiser’s lights and saw a naked, hollow-eyed boy covered in paint and stumbling along expressionless. The officer demanded he stop but Cai didn’t hear or see. The officer roughly threw him to the ground and cuffed him.
Cassidy had the unenviable job of calling Cai’s parents to tell them he was missing after the party. She did not tell them the whole story. A BOLO be on the lookout) was issued. Meanwhile in the police station, Cai was left to suffer further indignities at the hands of the local police. These indignities included but were not limited to an invasive cavity search. He wouldn’t talk but instead stared at the wall. An hour later he didn’t acknowledge the commotion when FBI, State Department and Chinese embassy officials stormed into the police station demanding Cai. A large Chinese official scooped him up and carried him to an awaiting limousine for the ride back to the embassy.
The warm bath began to bring him back a little as his mother washed the paint from his bruised and welted body. Tears fell from her eyes, as she understood what her son went through. After his bath he pu
t on his pajamas and went to bed. His father stood outside the door listening to him sob. He knew something like this would happen. He couldn’t know it would be this brutal. He would wait awhile before talking to his son about the incident as well as other things.
For three days Cai sat in his room doing nothing. On the evening of the third day, his father walked in and sat down. Cai could not look at his father because he was ashamed. He felt as though he’d embarrassed the family. Why didn’t he fight back? Why didn’t he say or do something, anything, instead of cowering. His father began to speak, “Look at me. It’s okay,” his father said softly. “What happened is not your fault. You did nothing wrong.”
Cai looked up at his father and said softly, “Why? Why did they do that to me? I never hurt anyone. I was not mean to anyone. I don’t understand.”
“Americans are dogs. They are barbarians and not worthy of you. They are barely above the black ghosts (Africans). Your knowledge is a threat, and they must bring you down. They cannot hurt you Cai, you are beyond them. As a Chinese man you are superior in every way. Yes, they play their animal games but someday we will enslave them all. That day grows closer and closer. When that day comes you will have ten Cassidys and they will bow to you. I promise you Cai, they will.”
“I hurt, I hurt so bad I think I wish to die,” Cai said while bowing his head.
His father raised his head and spoke with force, “No Cai, suicide is completely out of the question. You must refuse to end the supposed suffering of others. If you die, their suffering will end. You will quickly be forgotten. I would rather you contemplate homicide and end the suffering of one, yourself.”
Cai’s head rose quickly and with a shocked expression asked, “Are you telling me to kill?”
“I tell you nothing. I ask you to think. I ask you to do what is right. When it is time you will know what that is.”
Cai nodded and said, “I do not want to go back to that school.”
“You have a tutor. You will finish your studies here.”