by Brett Baker
When the copter arrived the pilot spun the craft around toward the opposite direction, lifted it straight up, turned it back around, and then lowered it to its original altitude. The maneuver confirmed the copter’s identification for Mia.
The side door opened and a man inside threw down a ladder. Mia grabbed it, turned toward Randy, and said, “It’ll sway, but if you take it slow and hang on, you’ll be fine. He’ll hold the chopper steady. Nice and easy.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“It’s the best idea,” Mia said. She turned and began climbing up the rope. Just as she said, it swayed as she climbed, but true to form, the pilot held it steady, and in under a minute she sat safely inside the aircraft.
She looked down at Randy and saw him begin to climb. He looked sheepish, but he knew he had no choice. He began climbing, and despite taking a breather every second or third rung, he eventually made it to the top.
Two men in the chopper grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him inside. As he settled into a seat next to Mia, they pulled the ladder up, the pilot lowered the nose of the chopper, and they raced away, back in the direction from which the chopper had come.
The two men nodded toward Randy and then sat in seats across from him and Mia. Randy nodded his appreciation, leaned in toward Mia, and tried to yell loud enough so that she could hear him, but quiet enough that the men across could not.
“What the fuck is this? Who are these people?”
“Later,” Mia said.
“Later? When?” Randy waited for Mia to respond, but she just smiled. “And where the hell are we going, anyway? We’re in the middle of the goddamn ocean. Helicopters don’t have much range. I hope they took that into account.”
Mia patted his hand. Randy looked across at the two men opposite him. Neither seemed to pay attention to him, and instead looked out their respective windows.
Fifteen minutes later the helicopter slowed, and Randy strained to look out the side as it circled around a ship, and then began its descent. It landed on a large white pad near the stern of the ship. The pilot shut down the aircraft, and after the rotors stopped spinning the two men opened the doors on either side and motioned for Mia and Randy to follow.
“We’ll convene in the Roost, which is down those stairs and to the right,” said one of the men. “We’ve got some refreshments in there, if you need a drink. Bathroom’s just next door. We’ll give you ten or fifteen to get settled, unwind.”
“Thanks,” Mia said, and started walking toward the stairs.
Randy followed behind, hustling to keep up. He followed Mia down the stairs, and then into the small room to the right. Mia waited until he got inside and then closed the door behind him. The room had no windows, and the door was made of a thick, solid wood.
“What’s going on here?” Randy asked. “Who are these people?”
“We’ll touch on that soon,” Mia said.
“And what did they call this room? A roost? Do they think we’re birds or something?”
“It’s a meeting place,” Mia said. “But who cares, really? Right now we need to talk about why you were out in the middle of the ocean, and what those pirates wanted.”
“I don’t know what they wanted. I told you already, I don’t know anything about that. As far as I know it was just a robbery.”
“And you’re just a fisherman?” Mia asked.
Randy threw his hands in the air as if he had nothing else to add.
“Fine,” Mia said. She sat in a chair against the wall, and leaned back with her arms crossed. Randy began talking a number of times, but each time he uttered a word, Mia held up her hand to indicate she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
The two men from the helicopter, and a third man who they hadn’t seen before, joined Randy and Mia in the Roost.
“I’m Tom Oglesby. I think you’ve already met Krasner and Brown here. They were on the chopper with you.”
“Of course,” Mia said, standing up and shaking Oglesby’s hand, then Krasner and Brown. “Thanks for your help. We were cruising, but that craft wasn’t in great shape. I don’t know how much longer it would have held up, and I’m quite certain it wouldn’t have made it back to port.”
“And it was a rental,” Randy said. “Makes you wonder why anyone would take it so far out to sea.”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Krasner said, as he shook Randy’s hand. Krasner stood well over six feet tall, with brown hair and a jaw cut from stone. He had a naturally stern look, and a handshake to match.
Brown stood just an inch or two shorter than Krasner, but had a general demeanor polar opposite. His mouth settled in a perpetual half-smile, which made him appear pleasant.
Oglesby seemed like the man in charge. Older than the other two, but also tanner, and with neater, close-cropped hair, he looked like a retired CEO, counter to their tougher-than-nails look.
“It’s our understanding that the two of you were on a different boat than the one from which you were rescued, is that right?” Oglesby asked.
“Yes,” Mia said. “As Randy mentioned, the craft was a rental. We didn’t rent it. Intruders boarded the ship we were on, and then it caught fire, so we retreated to the trawler.”
“What did they want with your ship?” Oglesby asked.
Mia looked at Randy, who took the cue and began to speak. “I don’t know. They boarded, and their leader seemed to know Graham, who captained our ship. I don’t know the nature of their relationship, but there seemed to be some familiarity there.”
“Oh come on, Randy. You don’t expect us to believe that some pirates boarded your ship without you knowing what they wanted, do you?” Krasner asked.
“I think maybe we’re jumping the gun calling them pirates, actually,” Randy said. “Intruders, yes. Pirates? I’m not so sure about that.”
“They boarded your boat in the middle of the ocean and they weren’t there to help. I think it’s safe to say they were pirates,” Brown said. “So what did they want?”
“I don’t know,” Randy said.
“Well why the fuck were you out there? What did you have on board?” Oglesby asked.
“We’re fishermen. We were just out there to fish. We had nothing on board. In fact, we weren’t even fishing. We were scouting for places to fish.”
“Hundreds of miles from the nearest land and you’re scouting for places to fish?”
“International waters,” Randy said. “Fewer regulations.”
“That makes no sense,” Oglesby said. “There are dozens of regional fisheries management organizations, and they all have rules that you have to abide by.”
“All right, fewer enforceable regulations. More free reign on whatever we want to do.”
“So you’re out here to break the law?”
“No one even knows what the law is,” Randy said. “And anyone who does know what it is has no idea how to enforce it.”
“I could use that argument to defend the pirates,” Krasner said. “Why fight them off? No one knows what the law is. Maybe they were well within their rights.”
“We didn’t kill them because they were doing something illegal. We killed them because they intended to harm us and steal from us.”
“And that’s my question,” Krasner said. “What were they trying to steal?”
“The boat,” Randy said. “We didn’t spend much time on their boat, but I know a piece of shit when I see one. They were out there doing whatever they were doing and needed a better craft. We were there. Opportunists.”
“I might believe that if you didn’t already mention that one of their guys seemed to know your captain,” Oglesby said. “That’s rather coincidental. The ocean’s a big place.”
“Look, I don’t know what you want me to say. I can’t tell you what’s running through the minds of a bunch of dudes I’ve never met before. I don’t know who the fuck they were or what they wanted.”
Randy stood up from his chair and began
pacing around the room. He felt like a criminal being grilled by the police. And since he had no idea who these men were, or who Mia was for that matter, he decided to keep his mouth shut until he got some answers of his own.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you. But since you’re so keen on interrogation, how about I interrogate you?” He looked at the three men, and then turned to look at Mia. “Or you for that matter? How the fuck did you end up floating on a cargo net in the ocean? I don’t buy your ‘I was on the beach with my boyfriend’ story. That’s complete bullshit. So how about you fuckers start talking and we’ll see if that jogs my memory.”
Mia looked at the men, who stared back at her with no expression. She considered asking Randy to step out of the room so she and the other men could discuss the situation and how to proceed, but her training taught her to trust her own instincts, and to bend the will of others to force them to cooperate, if necessary.
“Let me explain something to you, Randy. These things have to work both ways. You’ve got to give to get. I’m willing to give, but before I do so, I need your assurance that after I give, you’re going to give.”
Randy glanced over his shoulder at Krasner and Brown who stood behind him. They both returned blank expressions. He looked back at Mia and nodded. “You give, I’ll give. Although I’m not kidding when I tell you that I don’t know what you’re looking for.”
“Oh, you know,” Mia said. “I knew as soon as you pulled me out of the water that you knew. And just so we’re clear, Randy, if I tell you what I’m about to tell you, and you have nothing in return, we’re going to kill you, and we’re going to throw your body overboard. Fifteen minutes from now you’ll be fish food. So before I start talking you need to decide whether that’s the result you want. And if not, there are two ways you can avoid it. One, you tell me to stop talking right now. Or two, you let me say what I’m about to say, and then you tell me what the fuck you were doing in the middle of the ocean.”
Mia paused and didn’t take her eyes off of Randy. He nodded as if to confirm his understanding. She paused again before explaining the situation.
Because once Randy knew, he could never unknow.
15
Chapter 15
The flight from Newark to Jinjiang took just over nineteen hours, including a two-hour layover in Shanghai. Fabrice never slept on international flights, and despite its length, he didn’t sleep on this one either. He landed just after six in the evening, and as he passed through the gate he saw a slight man, an inch over five feet tall, dressed in blue jeans, a red t-shirt, and bright white sneakers. The man held a sheet of white notebook paper with Fabrice’s name scrawled in red marker.
“I’m Fabrice Droit. Are you my ride?”
“Ahh, Fabrice,” the man said, crumpling the piece of paper and shoving it in his back pocket. “So nice to meet you. So nice to meet you. I’m your driver. My name is Dian. Pleased to meet you.” Dian shook Fabrice’s hand with enthusiasm to match his introduction.
“Nice to meet you, Dian,” Fabrice said.
“You have bags? Let me help you with them.”
“Just a garment bag. They wouldn’t let me carry it with this one,” Fabrice said, motioning to the duffel bag slung over his shoulder.
After retrieving the bag, Fabrice requested dinner recommendations and Dian assured him he had just the place. They drove a handful of miles to Quanzhou, and Dian stopped in front of a row of restaurants with people bustling about.
“Shi Hui Tang,” Dian said. “The one in the middle. Don’t go to the places on either side of it. They feed you garbage and make you beg for it. Whores and monsters, every damn one of them.”
“Whores and monsters?” Fabrice asked.
“Whores and monsters. They’ll steal your money and give you food poisoning and then laugh when you puke. Whores and monsters.”
Fabrice chuckled at Dian’s enthusiasm. “Why don’t you join me? I need a guide. Not just a driver. Are you hungry?”
“Are you going to Shi Hui Tang?”
“That’s what you told me to do, right?”
“I tell fucking Americans to do things all the time and they ignore me. Fine. What the hell do I know? But don’t ignore me about this. Shi Hui Tang is good.”
“Yeah, they’re not whores and monsters,” Fabrice said.
Dian shook his head and smiled, pleased that Fabrice understood.
“Come eat with me.”
Dian raced through traffic, veered off the road, and somehow squeezed the car in between two other parked cars. The car next to them was so close that Fabrice couldn’t open his door all the way.
When they walked inside Shi Hui Tang, a tall, leggy woman in heels towered over Dian by almost a foot, but smiled when she saw him. “My Dian, it’s been too long,” the woman said. “Where have you been hiding?”
“Americans,” Dian said.
“Of course,” the woman said, as if one word explained it all.
“This is my friend, Fabrice. He says he’s American, but I’ve never met an American named Fabrice, so I think he’s hiding something.”
“You’ve come to the right city if you have something to hide,” the woman said. “Quanzhou is Min for ‘the place where secrets are buried.’ So you’ll fit right in.”
“Danhong likes to tell stories,” Dian said. “Like that translation of Quanzhou. Come back next week, pretend like you’re someone else, and she’ll say that Quanzhou has a different meaning.”
“I’m not hiding anything. I’m just here on business,” Fabrice said. “Very simple.”
“What sort of business?” Danhong said.
“Well, it’s sort of complicated. And anyway, it’s not at all interesting, so I won’t bore you with details.”
Danhong looked at Dian and smiled. “But he’s not hiding anything,” she said with a wink.
“Americans,” Dian said. Danhong nodded, winked at Fabrice and led the two men toward the back of the restaurant to a tiny table with two chairs that seemed added as an afterthought in order to cram more people into the restaurant.
Although empty tables abounded, Fabrice could feel a certain energy inside the small space. A low rumble of voices floated throughout, but the place wasn’t loud. Fabrice couldn’t identify the smells wafting through the air, but he detected a base of garlic and vinegar, and his mouth began to water. The food on the airplane tasted marginal at best, so he hoped that Dian’s assessment of the place was correct.
Dian asked a few pointed questions about his food preferences, and then ordered for both of them. The food arrived in minutes, and Fabrice wondered if the cooks had begun preparing the food upon Dian’s arrival. Dian devoured the food as if he had just spent nineteen hours traveling instead of Fabrice.
When he finished eating he took a large drink of water and asked Fabrice, “So what’s this secret business you have?”
“It’s not a secret. It’s just not interesting. I could tell you about it, but you wouldn’t understand, and even if you did understand, you wouldn’t care. I’m just a boring American businessman who has a few loose ends to tie up.”
“So is it safe to assume that you don’t want people to know why you’re here?”
“That’s a safe assumption, yes. Thank you.”
Dian nodded. “I’m child-sized, but I’m not a child, Fabrice. I know some shit that you don’t know, especially about how things work in Quanzhou, and throughout Fujian as a whole. And let me tell you that if you want your business to remain secret, then it’s best not to say things like ‘It’s sort of complicated.’ That’s universal code for, ‘This is some crazy shit and I’m not talking about it.’ And when people hear that, they’re not going to stop asking you until you talk about it. You’ll have to kill them to get them to shut up, and then you’re a murderer, and your complicated shit just became even more complicated. So that’s why you need to learn to say, ‘I’m in IT and we’re opening an internet services company over here.’ Nobody knows what that means, b
ut nobody is going to want to admit they don’t know. So they’ll just say, ‘Wow, that’s cool,’ and then they’ll leave you the fuck alone. And if they do ask more questions, then you just make up some bullshit answers, because they won’t know what the hell you’re talking about anyway.”
Fabrice looked at Dian with a side-eye, but decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He seemed street-wise and might be just the sort of person whose assistance he would need. “All right. Then in answer to your question, I don’t have a secret business. I’m in IT and we’re opening an internet services company here.”
“No, no, no, my man. Do you think I’m some kind of fucking idiot, Fabrice? You can’t give me that explanation. It’s too late for that. You’ve got to tell that shit to everyone else if you don’t want them to know what you’re doing, but you need to tell me the truth. I want to know what brings you to Quanzhou.”
“The temples,” Fabrice said.
“Don’t bullshit me. I’ll walk out of this restaurant and leave you on your own. Let you avoid those whores and monsters by yourself. And good luck with that. They’re everywhere.” Dian took another drink of water and then scanned the restaurant, before looking behind him and leaning in close to Fabrice. “I don’t know why you’re here, but whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re looking for, whatever you hope to accomplish, is going to be much easier if you have some help. Americans can do nothing in this place without help. So quit the fucking games and tell me what you’re doing. Otherwise you’re just wasting your time.”
Dian’s explanation made inherent sense to Fabrice. He’d never been to China before, and knew nothing about the culture, the language or the geography. He’d come to Quanzhou without a plan, assuming that he’d figure out what he needed to do when he arrived. Dian seemed to possess street smarts and knowledge about the culture. Fabrice decided he needed someone like Dian.
“Do you know a guy called Yuzhan Li?”
“What? Are you serious? Yuzhan Li? Of course. I know him well. Our families go way back together. Yuzhan and I attended school together until we were twelve. We lost touch for a few years, but about ten years ago we saw each other on the street, met for a beer, caught up, and now we see each other all the time. We just went on a hiking trip together a few weeks back.”
