Conspiracy

by Allan Topol

  Tanaka's next call was routed to a small town three miles away, where two Boeing Apache helicopters sat on a grassy field, pilot and copilot at the ready. "Come immediately," he said.

  The engines were started, whining as they spooled up.

  Once the rotors were at maximum speed, the choppers lifted off into the heavy darkness. Clouds blocked out light from the half moon.

  * * *

  Inside the glass-enclosed gatehouse, three bewildered sentries watched the Sato forces, heavily armed, approach. The leading edge of the unit was now twenty yards away.

  "Do you know what's going on?" one of the sentries turned to a second and asked. Before he had a chance to respond, there was a blast, a burst of fire, and a crash as the glass walls shattered. A hail of bullets ripped through two of the sentries before they could grab their guns from the holsters. As those two fell to the ground, the third one, miraculously unharmed, threw himself on his comrades and covered his head with his hands, protecting himself from flying glass and pretending he was dead.

  * * *

  Behind the advancing Sato soldiers, Akashi led his troops stealthily out of the catering trucks. He knew that they had the advantage of position and surprise. He was determined to use it to his advantage.

  At a distance of thirty yards, he whispered into his mouthpiece, "Fire now!" The sound of over a score of firing Uzis drowned out every noise of the night.

  Never expecting an attack from the rear, and intent on advancing into the compound, the Sato forces were slow to react. In the first seconds ten members of their unit were hit and down, most dead, some seriously wounded. The others recovered quickly. "Take cover in the trees!" the commander of the Sato forces shouted. His troops spread out and ducked behind trees to return the fire. They were part of a fierce fighting unit Ozawa had picked for this assignment.

  The two groups fired at each other from only twenty yards away.

  Akashi was behind a tree when a shot slammed into the trunk and ripped off the bark. He blasted away, returning the fire with a staccato burst that caught the soldier in the neck. The man let out an animal-like cry and fell to the ground.

  * * *

  Cady tried to twist his hands free, but it was hopeless. He looked around, seeking a way out. All the while he was cursing himself for not arguing more forcefully to talk Taylor out of taking this damned trip.

  He tried to catch her eye, but she was straining to watch Sato and the others, waiting for them to give her and Cady an opening. What happened to Fujimura? she wondered. If he was still alive, he'd find a way to get them out.

  * * *

  Nakamura refused to remain behind the wooden chest. Over Tanaka's objections, the prime minister stood at the window, straining his eyes in the darkness to follow the action. Cold fury surged through his body. He couldn't believe this was happening. Japan was an honorable democratic nation, but Sato wanted to turn back the clock over sixty years to her militaristic past—a past that had caused so much pain and death. Until his dying breath, Nakamura was determined that Sato wouldn't get away with it.

  Suddenly a fierce firefight erupted in the compound as the ten remaining Sato supporters began firing at the other troops. A deafening noise filled the air. The Sato forces mowed down six in the initial burst of fire.

  Now it was the Nakamura loyalists who raced for cover and began firing back. Gunfire was blazing everywhere. Bursts of automatic weapons pierced the night, the flames from firing guns sending a continual series of flashes into the darkness.

  Tanaka threw the switch that turned on the floodlights for the compound. He shouted to his two colleagues inside the house, "Guard the prime minister. I'm going outside to try to secure this building."

  Tanaka slipped out through the side door and quickly took stock of the situation. He looked up at the roof of the main house just as one of the two soldiers stationed there, a Sato follower, took down the other one in a hail of fire. Tanaka dropped to one knee, aimed his submachine gun, and got off a burst of fire that hit the other one in the stomach. The man screamed and tumbled off the roof to the ground below.

  Tanaka moved along the side of the building to the front. To his horror he saw Kenji, who had been guarding the front entrance and who he thought would be loyal, running into the main house through the front entrance, gun in hand. He must be going for Nakamura. Tanaka raced through a side door and cut him off.

  "Stop right there," Tanaka shouted.

  Kenji whirled around and opened fire. Tanaka took a bullet in the left shoulder, but got off two shots of his own, the second one of which blew Kenji's face away.

  At the sound of fire, one of Tanaka's men raced over. When he saw what had happened, he grabbed a bedsheet and tightened it around Tanaka's shoulder. Then each of the three security men inside the main house took up positions at one of the entrances to secure it and protect the prime minister.

  * * *

  From the window of his cottage, Sato watched flashes of gunfire erupting all around the compound. There was more firing in the distance.

  "What the hell's going on?" Sato shouted at Ozawa. "We knew it would be tough inside the compound, where they had us outnumbered, but your troops from outside should be here by now. Where are they?"

  "Any second," Ozawa said. "Any second. They'll be here. Then it'll be over."

  A shot crashed into the wall of the cottage.

  Sato grabbed a gun and stood next to Ozawa and Terasawa, who were firing Uzis. A soldier in front of Sato's cottage was behind a tree, blasting away with his automatic weapon at the cottage. The window shattered. Sato, Ozawa, and Terasawa ducked. As a Nakamura loyalist leaned out for a better aim, Terasawa, wearing his night-vision glasses, drilled a bullet through his head. The man collapsed onto his gun.

  On the floor, Taylor and Cady tried to figure out what was happening. When they heard the sound of glass shattering, they pressed their bodies together to protect their faces. Shards of glass landed on Taylor's bare legs. She felt blood oozing down her calf.

  Cady saw the blood and was horrified. "Are you okay?" he asked. Pieces of glass were embedded in her skin, and it hurt like hell.

  "Yeah, it's nothing," Taylor said through clenched teeth. "Just a little souvenir I can point to when we make it out of here."

  "I sure hope you're right," Cady said.

  She heard not so much fear in his voice as resignation.

  * * *

  At the gatehouse, the troops were firing furiously at each other from behind trees when the two Apaches appeared overhead. With their night-vision glasses, the gunners in the choppers looked for the white bands of the Nakamura loyalists. Once they had their positions noted, they opened fire on the others. Flashes of light suddenly lit up the night sky. The commander of the Sato forces cursed. He had never figured that Nakamura would bring in helicopters. The choppers were hovering just above the treetops, close to the ground. One of them let loose with a Hellfire missile. It wiped out five enemy soldiers and set some trees on fire.

  The pilot of that helicopter saw one of Sato's troops pull something out of a case and hold it up. It was a missile launcher he had planned to use inside the compound. He aimed for the Apache.

  "Oh, no!" the pilot cried out. He tried to pull up. It was too late. The missile tore into one of the two engines. The chopper veered wildly for several seconds with the pilot losing control. It crashed into the woods, setting off a huge fireball.

  The other Apache moved into position and took out the missile launcher with a Hellfire. Then he supported the Nakamura troops by firing more Hellfire missiles. The copilot lobbed a grenade into the forest at Sato's troops.

  * * *

  From his vantage point inside the cottage, Sato saw the choppers. Now he knew he was in trouble.

  "Your soldiers!" Sato screamed at Ozawa, who pulled the cell phone out of his pocket again. "We need them now!"

  Ozawa was frantically punching in numbers.

  From the floor across the room, Taylor saw Ozawa
's face fall as he listened to the other end.

  "Well?" Sato demanded.

  Ozawa solemnly put the cell phone away. "We are ruined. Nakamura outsmarted us. He had troops of his own hidden in catering trucks at the entrance to the property. They ambushed my people. The battle's raging now."

  "You idiot!" Sato shouted at Ozawa. "You destroyed me! First you tell our secrets to Glass. And now this. You should have anticipated a counterattack."

  Sato raised his gun and slammed the hard steel against Ozawa's face, breaking his jaw and nose and knocking him unconscious. As Ozawa fell to the ground, his gun dropped out of his hand and skidded across the floor.

  * * *

  Two of Sato's supporters saw that the battle was going poorly. Armed with Uzis, they made a mad dash for the front of the main house, intent on killing the prime minister. At least they would have that much to show Sato.

  Finally, having yielded to Tanaka's frantic pleas, Nakamura was now back behind the heavy wooden chest with Fujimura and Suzuki. One of Tanaka's colleagues, guarding the front door, saw the attackers coming and yelled for help.

  He killed one before taking a bullet in the ribs. Tanaka, a gun in his right hand, a bandage on his left arm, opened fire and took the other one down.

  * * *

  At the gatehouse the shooting was dying down. The rest of Sato's troops were no match for the Apache. All of them were on the ground, dead or wounded. Akashi rallied the remainder of the Nakamura supporters, the twelve survivors. "Let's go," he said. "Let's finish this up." They ran inside the compound with their guns in their hands.

  * * *

  On the floor of Sato's cottage, Taylor had an idea. She twisted around. "Slide with me," she whispered to Cady. Awkwardly and with great difficulty, she moved the two of them so her hands tied behind her back were close to the fire. Terasawa and Sato were facing the other way, firing their weapons out the window.

  She bit down hard on her lower lip as she forced her hands against a burning stick that had fallen forward out of the fire. The heat seared her skin and flesh. The pain was intense, but she felt the rope loosen as the fire burned through it. Her hands were free.

  Cady was watching her closely. She put an index finger to her pursed lips, then placed her hands behind her back, hiding the fact that she was free until she decided on her next move.

  A booming voice on a loudspeaker from the main house overrode all other noises and stilled the guns for an instant. "Yahiro Sato, you are surrounded," Tanaka announced. "You have no chance. You must come out with your hands in the air."

  An Apache helicopter hovered overhead, the gunner ready to let loose with a Hellfire missile on Sato's cottage. From her position on the floor, Taylor saw the helicopter. If it fired she and Cady were as good as dead.

  Terasawa looked at Sato, prepared to follow his decision.

  "I will never surrender," Sato cried out.

  That was all Terasawa needed to hear. He grabbed one of the Uzis Ozawa had brought with him and began firing it furiously. A hail of shots blasted back into the cottage and flew over Taylor and Cady. Sato began creeping toward the kitchen and the rear of the house.

  He must be planning to escape through the back door, Cady thought. He was leaving Terasawa to die defending the cottage while he escaped. They had to get out. Taylor had to make her move now. She reached into the fireplace with a pair of tongs to grab a small log that had caught fire only at one end. She used it to burn through the other ropes binding them.

  The first thing Cady did when his hands were free was remove the fragments of glass from her leg. It stung so badly that tears rolled down her cheeks. Her leg bled more freely. He hated causing her pain, but at least the glass was out. Then he pointed to the back door and whispered to Taylor, "Let's get the hell out of here."

  The Apache was hovering closer. Its searchlights bathed the cottage in an incandescent white glow.

  Taylor and Cady were crawling on the floor away from the fireplace when Terasawa ran out of bullets. He cursed loudly, dropped his gun, and turned around to grab another one from the floor. From the corner of his eye he saw that Taylor and Cady were free.

  Locking eyes with Terasawa, Cady knew that the instant the assassin got his hands on another gun, he would kill them.

  Cady propelled himself through the air from his crouching position and smashed into Terasawa. They went down to the floor with Cady on top. Terasawa clawed at Cady's face and eyes, refusing to be pinned down. Cady was strong, but he was no match for Terasawa. With a grunt, the assassin pushed his body up and rolled, forcing Cady to roll with him. In an another instant Terasawa was on top, with his hands around Cady's throat.

  Taylor was ready to attack when she spotted Ozawa's gun on the floor. She grabbed it and aimed as Terasawa was cutting off Cady's breath. With the two men struggling, there was little margin for error. Taylor's hand was slick with perspiration. She aimed for Terasawa's head and pulled the trigger.

  Despite the sound of the hovering helicopter, in the small cottage, the roar of the gun was deafening. At the last instant Terasawa jerked, but the shot still grazed the side of his head. He gave a bloodcurdling scream. The assassin staggered to his feet, reaching for Taylor, but his body suddenly sagged. He collapsed on the floor.

  "For all the evil you've done," Taylor shouted, and fired three more shots at Terasawa's heart to finish the job.

  Now that the shooting from inside the cottage had stopped, those outside held their fire as well. Again the demand to surrender was made on the loudspeaker.

  Cady picked up one of the guns, and the two of them walked slowly and cautiously toward the back of the cottage. At the door to the kitchen, Taylor stood and gaped in horror. In the manner of a samurai warrior, Sato stood naked except for a cloth around his loins. His feet were planted firmly on the floor. In both hands he held in front of his body a sharp knife used for deboning fish.

  Taylor wanted to scream, "No!" She wanted to fire her gun. To run over and grab him. To do anything to stop him from committing seppuku, but she was paralyzed and immobile. Sato was in a trance. He had no idea she was even there. In the way of the bushido, he was preparing to join other Japanese warriors in the land of honorable soldiers.

  In a single swift motion he inserted the knife into his abdomen. With all the force in his body he brought the knife upward, twisting it as it went in to complete his disembowelment. At the end, at the moment of death, a smile of peace and harmony appeared on his face. He collapsed in a pool of his blood and intestines.

  Taylor turned to Cady, who looked as stunned as she felt. Slowly the two of them backed away. She was reaching for him, needing his support, when two soldiers burst in the front door.

  Chapter 33

  At the American air base outside of Tokyo, the pilot was ready to take off for the United States, but Taylor insisted on using the secure military phone first. When she had General Clayton on the line, she told him everything that had happened. He promised to report it all to Chief Justice Hall.

  "One other thing, General Clayton," she added. "I see no need to disclose these events to anyone other than Hall. Do you agree?"

  "Absolutely, and I'm certain Gary will as well."

  "It's finished, then."

  "It's all finished. By the way, you want to know about the presidential election?"

  "Oh, my God. I forgot about that."

  "Webster won," Clayton said. "All three networks are predicting a clear victory for him."

  As she hung up the phone, Taylor felt none of the disappointment she thought she would have only days ago. She now believed that other things in her life were more important.

  "The election is over," she said softly. "The election is finally over."

  Cady shrugged, reflecting the indifference he felt. Then he threw his arms around her and kissed her for a long moment.

  She called to Lieutenant Farnsworth, "Can you drop us somewhere close to Mendocino, California?"

  "Anywhere you want," he r
eplied.

  Cady put an arm around Taylor's back. Together they walked toward the waiting airplane.

  The End

  Excerpt from

  The China Gambit

  by

  Allan Topol

  National Bestselling Author

  Copyright © 2012, Allan J. Topol

  Before Craig had a chance to answer, his cell phone rang. He didn't recognize the number.

  "Craig Page here."

  "Mr. Page, this is James Anderson, Deputy Police Chief in Calgary Canada."

  Craig's heart was pounding. Two day ago Francesca had sent him an e-mail, telling him she was in Calgary, working on a big story.

  "Are you Francesca Page's father?"

  "I am."

  Craig held his breath.

  "Unfortunately, Mr. Page, I have to inform you that your daughter died in an auto accident this evening. Her car collided with a truck on an icy road."

  "No," he gave a bloodcurdling cry. "No. It can't be."

  Not Francesca. I love her more than anything in the world.

  "You're mistaken. It's not Francesca."

  "I'm sorry, Mr. Page. She had a passport and other ID in her jacket pocket."

  The fool was lying. "You're no Calgary cop."

  "I'm very sorry, Mr. Page. She had a Tiffany's wristwatch. Engraved on the back 'To Francesca With Love...'"

  He'd given her that when she graduated from Northwestern.

  "And a scar on her left ankle."

  He vividly recalled the ski injury she suffered during their trip to Megeve two years ago at Christmas.

  The man's accent and inflections were from Calgary. As the reality drove home like a spike through his body, in agony, a rash of grief covered his face, distorting his mouth, turning his grey eyes black. Francesca was dead.

  "I'm so sorry," Giuseppe said.

  But Craig barely heard his words.

  "Leave me alone," Craig said, rising abruptly. "I am alone."

  He left Sabbitini and wandered the streets of Trastevere. Crossing the Tiber on the Ponte Sisto, he recalled his father, four years old, so alone after the carnage on the farm, his whole family murdered.