Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) (8 page)

He stepped around the counter, pulled up his pants that were already well above his waistline, and extended his hand. “You must be Miss Riley.” His voice was strong, but the enunciation sounded mushy, like that of a person who could no longer hear himself speak.

She reached out and found his grip surprisingly strong. “Hello,” she said. “And you are?”

“Irving Weinstein, but all my friends call me Peewee. Or you can call me Irv.”

She smiled. “Nice to meet you, Irv.”

“Come here, we got a couple of chairs.”

The young girl pushed a teak chair out from behind the counter. Riley sat and perched her backpack on her lap. Peewee sat on a similar chair that was part of a display. The girl disappeared through the curtain, and Riley sat staring at her own entwined fingers resting on top of her backpack. The silence stretched out. She could feel Peewee’s eyes on her, but she wasn’t about to speak first. He was the one who called this meeting. Let him figure out how to get started.

“You’ve got your grandmother’s eyes,” he said at last.

“You knew her?”

“Oh yeah, I was best man at the wedding. Is it all right if I call you Maggie?”

“Actually, Irv, most people just call me Riley.” Only Cole had called her Miss Maggie Magee, then shortened it just to Magee. She’d found it both irritating and charming.

Irv chuckled. “Riley. That’s what I called your grandpa when we were kids. Most folks called him Ozzie later on, though.”

“You knew my grandfather as a kid?”

“Hell yeah.” He bunched his hands into fists and made like he was throwing a couple of pretend punches. “They called us the trouble twins. Everyone thought we were brothers. We even looked alike. Grew up together in Middletown, Rhode Island. It was the Depression, but we were just kids, and when we weren’t in school we were playing in the woods or building sailing dinghies. My pops was a jeweler—he learned the trade in Europe and then did real well for himself when he immigrated to the US, so they let the Jews into the neighborhood.” His eyes met hers and he winked.

“So, what did you want to see me about? And how did you find me?” Riley noticed he watched her mouth as she spoke.

“I thought you’d want to know about your granddad. Especially after losing your pops the way you did, may he rest in peace. I read about that in the papers, and that’s when I learned Richie had a daughter. My condolences on your loss, Miss Riley.”

“Just Riley.”

He looked at her for a long time, working his lips over his teeth. Riley decided it was an unconscious thing. He’d probably be surprised to see a video of himself doing it.

“Okay, then.
Fine feathers do not make fine birds
. Even with a man’s name, you are still the
crême de ma café
.” He winked at her again.

Riley didn’t know what to make of him. Was he flirting with her? “About my grandfather,” she said. “What can you tell me?”

“Let me show you,” he said. He slid one hand into the inside breast pocket of his blue canvas jacket. He removed something small wrapped in what looked like a white silk handkerchief, then just held it without unwrapping the cloth. “When we graduated high school, Ozzie left for university down in New Haven, and my pops wanted me in the family business. Wasn’t what I wanted, though. So, in July of forty-one, I enlisted in the infantry. I knew we’d be in the war soon, and I wanted to see Europe. Imagine my surprise when after boot camp, they shipped me out to a place called Manila.”

The Pacific. That was where her grandfather had disappeared.

“Are you saying you met up with my grandfather again during the war?”

“Yes, ma’am. See, in Manila, I trained with the Philippine Scouts. Went on expeditions all over Luzon. Most of those Filipino boys couldn’t drive, so I became a jeep driver. Next thing you know, I’m driving General MacArthur’s chief of staff, General Sutherland. Moved out to Corregidor with him, too, when the Japs invaded. After the brass and the SIS guys hightailed it out of there, me and the rest of those boys hung on as long as we could. We surrendered after four months of hell.”

“SIS?”

“Signals Intelligence Service. Those were the code-breaker boys who were listening in on the Japs’ chatter.”

“I’ve read about the siege of Corregidor and the Bataan Death March. I can’t believe I’m speaking to someone who was actually there.”

“Not for long. I escaped in Bataan. Spent the rest of the war in the mountains with some of my buddies from the Scouts. Guerrillas. We captured a Jap radio and caused a little mayhem with the help of the OSS. Then long about the end of the war, who shows up but my old friend, Ozzie.”

“What was he doing in the Philippines?”

“It’s hard to say what their mission was. But he arrived on a US submarine.”

“A submarine,” Riley said slowly. She shook her head.
Not another submarine
, she thought.

“Yup. Last time I saw him alive was in the Philippines. He said if anything happened to him, I was to give this to his son.” The old man folded back the layers of silk cloth to expose an ornate gold tube just over two inches long, with pointed caps on both ends.

“It’s beautiful.”

“And old. Real gold, too. Ozzie said he got it off a Jap officer. He said the guy claimed he was a prince or something. So that’s called a Tibetan prayer gau. See this little end to the tube here? It slides off and inside are some small scrolls inscribed by monks. They’re prayers, so that’s why they call it a prayer gau. People are supposed to wear these on a chain around the neck to keep the prayers close to the heart.”

“What was a Japanese officer doing with a Tibetan artifact?”

Peewee chuckled. “Listen, sweetheart, the Japs looted every place they went. I saw things you would not believe when I was with the guerrillas.”

“Like what?”

“Let me put it this way. You know how people dream of finding a pirate treasure chest full of gold and jewels? What I saw wasn’t just a chest. It was truck convoys and every truck full of crates.”

“Crates of stuff like this?” She held up the gau.

“That’s right. Anyway, Ozzie’s boy Richie was maybe six years old at the time. Ozzie carried a picture of him he showed to everyone he met. I always meant to go back, find Richie, and tell him his dad was thinking of him right at the end. But the army makes you sign these papers promising never to tell about the secret stuff we did. And you know what they say,
Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.
Always thought I had time. Never thought I’d outlive the boy.” The old man reached up and dabbed at a moist eye.

“Do you know how my grandfather died?”

He coughed, then glanced behind her, apparently at a new customer who had just entered the stall. He sat up straighter. “Listen, you’ve heard enough of my stories today.” He reached for her hand, placed the silk-wrapped prayer gau in her palm, and then folded her fingers over it, making her hand into a fist. “Ozzie thought there was something special written inside this, and I think you’re a smart enough cookie to figure it out.”

Riley was surprised at how heavy the small gold object was.

“This is the closest I can come to fulfilling that promise I made,” he said quietly.

“Irv, do you know what happened to him or the submarine?”

He wasn’t looking at her. His lips were working his dentures furiously as he watched something over her shoulder and behind her. “Both are listed as missing,” he said quietly.

“What was the name of the sub?”

“The USS
Bonefish
,” he whispered.

Aboard the USS
Bonefish
Sea of Japan

June 18, 1945

Ozzie stared at the man for several seconds.
Holy shit
, he thought,
that’s where I’ve seen that flower before.
Then he drew a pencil line in his notebook under the name Lieutenant Colonel Miyata and beneath it wrote “Prince Kaya Masako.”

“So the other men drowned rather than get into a boat with you?”

“That was their duty.”

Ozzie shook his head. “So what should I call you?” He knew a little about diplomacy from the years working for his father at the bank back home in Newport, Rhode Island. The rich were America’s royalty.

“Colonel Miyata is fine.” The man lifted his mug and took a small sip. His lips compressed as he swallowed, then the corners of his mouth turned up in a small smile. “We are not encouraged to reveal our identity to the enemy.”

“Then why tell me?”

“Because I think you and I might be able to reach an agreement. You look like a man who has seen much and now is interested in a better life than this.” The prince waved a hand through the air to indicate the submarine.

Ozzie leaned back and stretched his arm out along the back of the chair next to him. He looked from the prince to the boy and back to the prince again. “Are you saying you think I can be bought?”

“Lieutenant, every man has his price. It is no insult to say I will find yours. Japan has been building her empire for more than fifty years. From Korea to China to the countries of Southeast Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and yes, the Philippines. We have dealt with many enemies.”

Ozzie noted that this guy’s grasp of English was improving the more he talked. He’d started out playing dumb. Now he had shifted his game.

“Yeah, yeah, but things aren’t going so well for you now. Germany’s surrendered. Won’t be much longer until your cousin’s got to do the same thing.”

The prince’s dark eyes were fixed on Ozzie’s, unblinking behind the round gold-rimmed glass lenses. He continued speaking as though Ozzie hadn’t said a word.

“These countries once had enormous wealth. From the noble citizens to the temples, the banks to the museums, Japan has been acquiring the riches of all she has conquered.”

“We call that looting, Colonel. When you guys surrender, and we march on Tokyo, it will be ours.”

The officer’s mouth stretched wide into a toothy grin. Ozzie could see the high cheekbones, the skull beneath the bald head, and the ridges under the gums that held his teeth in place. He thought of the grinning death heads they painted in Mexico to celebrate the Day of the Dead.

“Not if you can’t find it, Lieutenant.”

“Oh, we’ll find it all right,” Ozzie said.

That grin. Ozzie really wanted to punch him just to make him shut his mouth. That grin was giving him the creeps.

“Not if you’re looking in Japan, you won’t.”

“What do you mean?” Ozzie said.

“Lieutenant, I see from your uniform that you are not a regular American naval officer. May I ask what is your position aboard this ship?”

“I’m asking the questions here, Colonel Miyata.”

“I thought perhaps if you are involved with your intelligence services”—the man paused and lowered his voice—“you might be interested in Operation Golden Lily.”

Ozzie took a drink of his coffee before answering. It was already cold and acidic. Just what he needed. He forced himself to swallow. It pissed him off that the prince had manipulated him like this, but there wasn’t any way of pretending he wasn’t interested. “What is it?”

The prince grinned again.

Ozzie looked away.

“Operation Golden Lily has been under way for many years. Prince Chichibu was tasked by the emperor himself with collecting the valuables from the countries that have joined our empire. Three years ago, it became more difficult to transport this cargo back to Japan. Several ships carrying Golden Lily cargo were sunk by your submarines.”

The steward stepped into the wardroom and asked if there was anything more they needed. Ozzie asked him for a glass of water, then told him to feel free to go take a smoke topsides. After the man left, the prince continued.

“Since it was no longer safe to transport these goods to Japan, the emperor decided to store them in the Philippines.”

Ozzie removed a small bottle of white powder from his pants pocket and shook some into the water. He noticed Miyata was watching him with a questioning look on his face. “Sodium bicarbonate. It’s
for my stomach,” Ozzie said. “Helps with the acid. If this war doesn’t end soon, I’m not going to have a stomach left.”

“You have been fighting a long time, Lieutenant?”

“Since before Pearl.”

“I see. You have seen many terrible things then. Do you think your country is going to appreciate all you have suffered?”

“I’m not the only guy who’s been in this mess a long time. Sometimes, though, it does seem like I’ve outlived most of them.”

“Lieutenant, when this war is over, Japan will surely keep the islands of the Philippines. It has been my job to turn many of the natural caves in those islands into vaults for these valuables. I know all of the Golden Lily locations, Lieutenant.”

“You’re saying you know where all this looted treasure is hidden.”

“I do not like this word
loot
. The word implies that we are stealing. It is not stealing if we already own it. These countries are Japan’s possessions, part of our empire.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“It is no accident that I am here and your ship has picked me up. This was meant to happen.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”