Two Peasants and a President (36 page)

The captain descended the ladder to the engine room like a man in his twenties.   Lacking words, he simply turned his palms upward and a raised his hands emphatically, as a preacher might raise his congregation from its knees.  One by one the frightened fugitives huddled there stood and e
m
braced each other.  

******

If there’d ever been a cup of coffee that tasted better, he couldn’t recall it.  Sharing it in the captain’s quarters of the USS George Washington (CVN-73) made it one to remember.  His quarters on the cruiser had certainly been comfortable, but Captain Samuel Johnston’s quarters on this 1094
foot aircraft carrier looked like the last Hyatt he stayed in.  But the Hyatt hadn’t been anywhere near as noisy; the whole ship shuddered every time the cat
a
pults shot another Hornet into the sky. 

“At that point, I was crouched on the deck of the
Dawn Flower’s
bridge looking through one of the bullets holes the chopper’s machine-gunner made and getting ready shoot the Chinese sailor who was trying to board us.  I was just feeling mightily grateful that I’d gotten my granddaughter and her hu
s
band off, ‘cause the odds of my Chinese 9mm against four AK’s weren’t very good.  So how the hell did the
Hawaii just happen to show up
before the curtain went down?”

“Richard, I honestly don’t know,” answered Johnston.  As you know, the battle group is based out of Japan and we were on routine patrol off the coast near
Cheju
, South Korea.  A priority message was handed to me stating that the whole damn Chinese Northern Fleet was
sortieing
.  My XO and I looked at each other like ‘would somebody please wake us up?’”

“Then, when the North Koreans started deploying their ships, we were ordered to head up to just north of
Seosan
in case we were needed.  That’s when we heard your Mayday.  I was hearing your voice, Richard, but I was not believing what I was hearing; it was just too damned implausible.  If I didn’t know the sound of your voice, I probably would ha
ve assumed it was some sort of
ruse.  Hell, I had no idea you were in Asia.” 

“Then we saw the Hawaii surfacing on our radar; we thought they must be out of their minds.  I don’t have to tell you of all people how often a n
u
clear attack sub surfaces in the middle of hostilities.  It’s a number with a whole
lot
of zeros and a decimal point at the beginning.  Actually, I was hoping you might be able to tell me how the hell they got there.”

“I’ve got a hunch, but that’s as close as I could come right now.  Maybe we’ll both find out in Pearl,” said Richard.

“And maybe we won’t,” answered Johnston, chuckling.  “So the Chinese actually had the balls to think they could get away with kidnapping American tourists and turning them into organ donors?”

“Yeah, at least some of ‘
em
did.  They were real close to cutting up Holly when I got there.  I saw several European-looking women in the rooms down the hall who probably
were
the intended recipients, so I told ‘
em
they were going to be the donors and not the
donees
.  You should have seen the looks on their faces!
I couldn’t stick around long enough to find out what happened next, but I’ll bet
it wasn’t pretty
.”

“Listen, Sam, I wanted to ask to you about the Chinese men and women who were with me on the fishing boat; I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them, and my daughter and her husband would be in pieces by now.”

“We got ‘
em
showers and clean clothes; some of ‘
em
were pretty ripe.  They’ll be going back to Japan with us.  I don’t know what’ll happen from there, but after what you’ve told me, I’d be willing to bet they’ll be allowed to settle in the good ole US of A.  Meanwhile they‘ll have all the good chow and movies they can handle.”

“Sam, I appreciate your optimism, but there are some very powerful people on both sides of the Pacific who would prefer this story never be told.  Thanks to you, China lost round one, but if they were willing to send pract
i
cally their entire northern fleet to stop us, they’re not going to just roll over.  Frankly, I don’t think the lives of those people are going to worth a dime once
they’re off this ship.”

“You really think that something could happen to them in Japan, Richard?”

“Of course I do, Sam.  How much do you think China would be wil
l
ing to pay just to make this go away?  They’ve spent millions already sen
d
ing those warships out to sea.  If they have to spend a few million more, they won’t hesitate.  Who’s going to protect them in Japan?”

“Well, as long as they’re at the
Yokosuka
Naval Base, I’m sure as hell they’ll be fine.  The base has the best security that the Navy can provide.”

“OK, but what then?  What if the President or the State Department orders them turned over to Immigration?”

“Well, then the Navy would have to turn them over.  Listen, Richard, you don’t really think that the United States Government is going to harm these people, do you?”

“Not for a minute, Sam, but I also don’t think for a minute that once my friends are in the custody of Immigration that they’ll be allowed to speak to anyone.  And I’m not at all sure that China couldn’t put enough pressure on the State Department to have them returned.  I didn’t see the State Depar
t
ment rushing in to Hong Kong to help find my family.  If I hadn’t gone there myself, they’d be dead now.  Let’s face it Sam, State looks out for State and not for its own citizens, much less some very inconvenient Chinese imm
i
grants.”

“What do you want me to do, Richard?”

“Just do your best to keep my friends safe at
Yokosuka
until I can figure something out.  OK?”

“I’ll do everything I can, Richard.”

“Thanks, Sam, from me and from my family.  Say, you don’t happen to know where the Hawaii’s headed, do you?”

“I’m afraid that’s above my pay grade, but I’m sure your daughter and her husband along with that amazing Chinese lady are having the ride of their lives.  I’d love to spend some time on that boat myself; I hear she’s got some gear unlike anything else in the fleet.” 

“You know, for a minute there,” said Richard, “I was thinking that d
e
stroyer was going to try to shoot down your Hornets.”

“Yeah, that crossed my mind too.  They knew we were close and I figure they just weren’t ready to die yet, much less start a full-blown war.  It’s one thing sinking a seventy-five year old Filipino destroyer in the middle of the night, but quite another attacking a United States Navy Carrier Battle Group in South Korean waters.   We
woulda
scratched that Chinese d
e
stroyer in less than five minutes, that I can assure you.” 

“Sam, you know, when your Hornets went over, I thought for a moment that the Chinese might have decided to show us who’s got the biggest bollocks on the block these days.  The worst part was, when I asked myself what the president would do if that happened, the answer I came up with wa
s –
  nothing.”

“Between us,” said Sam, “I’ve asked myself that question a time or two and come up with the same answer.  It was a close thing out there today; it could’ve gone off the tracks.  I guess somebody in that destroyer or maybe in Beijing had a bout of common sense.  One thing’s for sure, there’s some boys in the Pentagon right about now who are throwing back a few.”

“I expect your right.  I think I’ll go below and have a talk with my friends.  Thanks again for saving me and my family, Sam.  I owe you one.”

5
5

“To any South Korean naval vessel, this is Captain Richard J. Davis, United States Navy Retired.  I repeat; To any South Korean naval vessel, this is Captain Richard J. Davis, United States Navy Retired.  We are being pursued by unknown Chinese warship attempting to return us against our wills to Tianjin.  There are three Americans aboard who were kidnapped by Chinese authorities and are attempting to escape.  Please acknowledge.  Out.”

To the ham radio operator in Sydney, Australia, it was a very strange broadcast, as it was to an operator in Hawaii and at least six other locations around the world.  At any given hour of the day or night, thousands of ham radio operators worldwide with sophisticated radios and tall backyard a
n
tennas sample the myriad radio signals that constantly circle the globe.  The unusual message could likewise not escape the attention of thousands of South Koreans whose scanners picked up the distress call.

Across the Yellow Sea, captains monitoring their ships’ radar screens watched in fascination as what had begun as a few blips gradually merged into an armada heading out to sea.  And in a now familiar pattern, these puzzling and alarming events quickly found their way onto the ‘social media
.’
  In less than two hours there had been more than a hundred thousand hits and almost as many questions.  The electronic sieve known as the internet was dripping fuel onto countless fires. 

The South Korean Embassy in Washington was the first to receive a call, but it was not long before the Chinese Embassy’s phone began to ring.  To an ambassador making final preparations for the visit of the heir-apparent to the Chinese presidency, a skeleton had fallen out of the closet just when the guests were arriving for dinner. 

Members of the media began to contact the State Department for an explanation.  There was none, at least not for the time being, but in more than a few State Department offices men and women were attempting to do something akin to putting the water back in the bathtub.  It was not going well.  Their counterparts in Hawaii and Japan had been instructed not to issue any visas to the fugitives, and to do whatever they could to keep them away from the press.  But those at the State Department whose fingers were madly stabbing at new holes the dike weren’t even aware of the USS Hawaii’s role in
the drama or the people she carried.

****** 

“We’re on our way back, Sally, and were all safe; that’s the important thing.  Next, we get Brett out of Hong Kong.  Once the world learns what’s been going on there and in Tianjin, I think the Chinese will be only too happy to say goodbye to him, but we have to make sure that the world hears about it.  There are powerful people who will do their best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I want you to get in touch with the senator who’s been helping and alert him to the fact that I, along with the people responsible for helping Holly and Ray, will be arriving in Japan soon.  They’re aboard a submarine with the Chinese woman who s
aved their lives.
I don’t know when or where they’ll dock.  What’s critical is that we not allow our Chinese heroes to fall into a black hole somewhere. We’re going to need an ally in Washington and the senator sounds like a person who cares.”

******

“Would someone like to explain to me what just happened?” the president said to a room whose occupants all seemed to have noticed som
e
thing fascinating on the backs of their hands. 

Turning to Melvin Larimer, his secretary of defense, “All right, since it seems we almost started World War III, why don’t you tell me what’s going on, Mel.”  With a look of a schoolboy whose incomplete homework a
s
signment left him hoping for
a reprieve, the secretary began:

“Mr. President, the George Washington Carrier Battle Group was on routine patrol off Southern Korea when a mayday call was received.  The voice was that of a retired US Navy captain, known to the commander, who claimed that Americans had been kidnapped by the Chinese, had subsequently escaped and were being pursued by Chinese naval assets.  From what we understand, a Chinese frigate pursued them into South Korean waters and shots were fired.  At that point, at pair of South Korean F-16’s made a low pass over the frigate, which then retired.”

“Let me stop you right there, Mel,” said the president. “Is this co
n
nected in any way with the alleged kidnapping in Hong Kong?” 

“To our best knowledge at this point, the two honeymooners who were kidnapped in Hong Kong were members of the captain’s family.  Apparently  he went to Hong Kong to fetch them.” 

“And this ‘kidnapping’ results in the intervention of half the Chinese navy?” the president asked incredulously. 

“I think I might be able to fill in some of the gaps,” said Thomas Benedict, Director of Central Intelligence.  The president’s expression was now at half mast in unwelcome anticipation of the bad news he felt sure the DCI was about to share.  He kept thinking:
If only this were happening in Ireland and not China.