Cheryl joined Noah as he surveyed the open body of salt water. “I never tire of this. There’s a calm, a serenity, that only the ocean affords. It’s a perfect medicine for the troubled mind.”
“Troubled mind? Insulting your client by saying he has a mental problem is hardly good for customer relations,” remarked Noah with amusement.
“Noah, it doesn’t take a genius to see that you’re carrying the universe on your back. And Master Wu? He should be in a hospital, not on a boat to Shanghai. That he’s not says there’s something on his bucket list that he has to get done. I don’t care what you call it—mental, spiritual, psychological. I’m carrying troubled cargo.”
Cheryl sidled closer to Noah and rubbed her body next to his. Noah didn’t move away as her fingers danced up his arm and playfully tapped his cheek. She turned his head to her and gazed into his eyes for four seconds. “Tonight,” she whispered, then quickly walked away.
Noah gawked at her sumptuous tush as Cheryl climbed to the upper deck to check on Master Wu. Feeling a moment of guilt, he quickly turned away.
“How’s he doing?” he asked Dr. Tang.
“He’s fine.” Dr. Tang took a look at Noah and saw how haggard he was. “Get some rest, Noah.”
Noah didn’t need to be told twice. He curled up on the floor and was asleep within seconds.
Chapter 16
Noah was rocked from his sleep when he heard a terrified Master Wu scream. “I have sinned.”
He jumped up to see Dr. Tang and Lisa trying to still the trembling Master Wu.
“I must go to Heaven,” panted the sifu.
“I’m going to delay that journey as long as I can,” exclaimed Dr. Tang.
Suddenly, Master Wu went limp. He whimpered, “It’s time for me to go home.”
Noah was freaked. He had never seen Master Wu in any state except calm. The sifu had always been a rock and now Noah saw raging sands billowing. “Dr. Tang, do something. Please.”
“I’m trying, Noah, but I have never seen anything like this. According to Master Wu’s tongue and pulse, there is nothing wrong with him and his conversation is like someone hallucinating.”
“What are you going to do?”
Dr. Tang fretted, “I can only think of continuing acupuncture.”
Noah looked over to Lisa for a second opinion. Her face looked as if all the blood had been drained from it. There was no point in asking for her thoughts. Noah nodded. “Do what you think best, Dr. Tang.”
As Lisa joined Dr. Tang in inserting the thin needles, her worried face belied her inner satisfaction at how well the clinical trial of her creation was working.
Noah lost track of time as the hours passed. While he didn’t interrupt the treatment, Master Wu’s outbursts, Dr. Tang’s sweating brow and Lisa’s glassy eyes told him everything he needed to know: things were not good.
Realizing his friend was devolving to a state he was unfamiliar with, Dr. Tang announced, “I’m going back to my room to get new supplies.”
A few minutes later, Noah saw Dr. Tang’s panicked face. “What’s the matter?”
“We must go back to Hong Kong. Somehow, all my supplies are gone,” gasped Dr. Tang. “I was sure I packed them but they’re not here.”
Noah objected, “We’re almost halfway to Shanghai. We can’t go back. Come on. I’ll help you look.”
“There’s no point. I’ve searched everywhere.”
“Always knew you were a quack,” called out Master Wu. “You should be eating those awful memory pills you force me to take.”
“We can call to shore and get new supplies within an hour,” said Noah.
Dr. Tang shook his head. “The suitcase contains medicines and rare herbs that are not easily found, especially those I grew myself. More immediately, though, I want to start with a new regimen of fresh needles.”
Noah was stuck. He knew going back to Hong Kong was a bad idea but would continuing without proper supplies be worse?
Lisa offered, “I brought my own acupuncture accessories. Shall I bring those?”
Dr. Tang exhaled a sigh of relief. “Yes, yes. Of course, Thank you,” he told her. “I’ll start cupping while you go.”
Lisa made her way to her stateroom, entered her room, locked the door, and put her suitcase of supplies on the bed.
It contained an assortment of regular Chinese medicines, herbs, acupuncture, and cupping paraphernalia. She took out one packet of needles, removed six of them, and placed them on her bed. She then carefully pushed several buttons on the inside of the suitcase. There was a comforting clicking sound revealing a false bottom. She lifted the lid, uncovering two small medicine bottles, two micro-syringes and a small plain packet.
She opened the packet. Inside were half a dozen acupuncture needles. Outwardly, they appeared indistinguishable from the five-cent needles that every acupuncturist used, including the regular needles she placed on her bed. However, these were no ordinary acupuncture needles. They were specially modified to be hollow inside, no easy engineering feat considering the five-inch needles were less than a tenth of an inch in diameter. Designed to be filled with tiny amounts of fluid, body heat and a little more pressure upon insertion of the needles into a patient’s body triggered the release of a toxin.
After removing the tops of the special needles, she placed a micro-syringe tip into one of the medicine bottles and used it to suck in one of her designer potions. With surgical precision, she deftly placed the tip of the syringe into an acupuncture needle and pushed the liquid inside. She repeated the process four times, and then screwed the tops back onto each of the needles.
She took the other micro-syringe and filled the remaining two needles with a toxin from the other medicine bottle. Holding the needles up to her eyes, she did a visual check. Satisfied, she put them carefully on the bed. Then she cautiously and quietly opened the stateroom window in her room and tossed out the medicine bottles and the micro-syringes.
Lisa put the needles containing the first poison inside the package of regular needles, carefully noting their placement. She taped the two remaining needles to her leg.
There was a banging on her door. “Dr. Mah, Dr. Mah! Dr. Tang says to hurry. Master Wu has lost consciousness and Dr. Tang can’t revive him.”
“I’m ready,” she called.
Thus far, everything was working like clockwork: the staged timings of release of the initial poisons, Dr. Tang’s “missing” briefcase, the preparation of this next batch of needles.
She took out her cell phone and sent out a three-word text. “Right on target.”
Moments later, the one-word reply came. “Fantastic.”
As she walked out of her room, she allowed herself a moment of indulgence to think about King. About the hours they spent together perfecting the right combination of venoms and chemicals, about how she was making herself indispensable to him, how he needed and wanted her.
Noah charged down the flight of stairs and onto the bridge where Cheryl was steering. “Can you help? We’re too far from land for my cell to work and Master Wu has collapsed into unconsciousness. Can you get someone here quickly?”
“No problem. Can you give me more details?”
She turned the marine radio to Channel 16. “Hello. This is the Tao Princess from Hong Kong. Can you read me?”
“Yes, I can, Tao Princess. How can we be of assistance?”
She motioned for Noah to speak into the microphone.
“We have an elderly Chinese male, early seventies, healthy although recent heart problems,” Noah blurted. “Not responding to Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments including acupuncture and cupping. He was unable to move earlier but was able to talk. However, now he’s lost consciousness and there is a slight foaming at the mouth.”
Cheryl jumped in. “That’s potential congestive heart failure. Can you get an amphibious chopper here ASAP?”
“Will do. Where are you located?”
Cheryl looked at the marine GPS chart pl
otter. “23° North, 121° 22’ East.
There was a brief pause. “I’m sorry. No can do. We’re not licensed to go there. That’s too close to Senkaku.”
Senkaku was a group of uninhabited islands whose ownership had long been disputed by China and Japan. This collection of five islands and three rocks was less than five square miles in total, but their proximity to valuable shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and potential oil and gas reserves made them much more valuable than their diminutive size.
Noah barked, “Just do it. We’ll pay whatever extra it takes.”
“Much as I’d love to take your money, sir, I am not risking getting into a fight with the Japanese.”
Arriving back on the upper deck, Lisa saw Dr. Tang frenetically using Tui Na bodywork massage on Master Wu. Pushing his fingers and thumbs into the sifu’s body channels, he increased the flow of body toxins into the cups.
“There was a sudden change. He and I were debating about whether martial arts or Chinese medicine were more spiritual, when suddenly he lost awareness and started foaming at the mouth. I have never seen anything like this. My fingers have done as much as they can. I need the new needles,” clamored Dr. Tang.
“Yes, of course.” Lisa took out the package of altered needles.
“Take off the cups,” ordered Dr. Tang as he opened the package of needles and began inserting them into Master Wu’s body. “It’s a good thing that you brought…” Dr. Tang suddenly stopped and quickly pulled out the last needle. “There’s something wrong with this one.”
Lisa took the offending needle from Dr. Tang. “Doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong to me.”
“Not the look, the feel. I’ve inserted more than five million needles in my life and there is something wrong with this one.”
Dr. Tang picked out another one. “This one’s not right, either.” He turned to her, alarmed. “Did you…”
Before he could finish his question, Lisa whipped out the needles taped to her leg and jabbed them into Dr. Tang. She stuck one behind his left ear, then forced open his mouth and shoved the other one into his tongue. Two places that, if someone were to ever check, they would never think of examining.
“I despise you, you lecherous old man,” she whispered close to his ear viciously.
The poison worked quickly. Dr. Tang began to shake violently and collapsed to the deck. “For years, I’ve been teaching you everything I know,” he stammered as the poison began to work its way through his system.
“And I paid for it with every second of your smelly breath and farts and you groping my body with leathery hands,” she said vehemently.
“I never did anything to you.” Despairing tears ran down Dr. Tang’s cheeks.
“That’s because every time we had tea, I made sure there were plenty of anaphrodisiac Vitex leaves in it. You could never get hard so I never had to endure a night in bed with you.”
Paralysis had set in. Dr. Tang, crumpled on the floor, was unable to speak.
Lisa completed the task Dr. Tang started by placing the remaining poisoned needles into Master Wu. She knew no one would ever suspect anything because these needles were known to be Dr. Tang’s favorite.
She knelt down and leaned over the doctor. “Asshole.”
Noah exploded at Cheryl. “We’re paying you over a hundred and fifty grand for first class service. You’ve got to get us back to Hong Kong. Now!”
“We’ll lose our license to operate if we do.”
The radio operator interrupted. “Excuse me but, off the record, there’s a private helicopter operator that can handle the gig, but he’s expensive, and his chopper can’t land in water. But these guys are damned good.”
“If it’s not amphibious, how are they going to land?” asked Noah.
Cheryl responded, “Depends on how big the chopper is and how good the pilot is. If it can fit onto the sundeck we’re good but, if not, the helicopter will have to hover over the boat. We’ll load up Master Wu, and they’ll pull him in either manually or with a winch if they’ve got one.”
Without other options, Noah’s choice was forced. He spoke back to the radio. “Done. Can you coordinate for us?”
There was a pause.
“I’ll pay you five thousand bucks when I get back,” Noah snapped.
There was a bright spark in the radio operator’s response. “Of course. Someone will be there within the hour. It will be twenty-five thousand…”
But before the operator could complete his sentence, Noah heard Lisa’s voice shouting, “Help! Help!”
King inhaled confidently. Everything was going to plan. First, the distress call that Cheryl made did not go to marine emergency but was re-directed to him. His men made sure of that when they first boarded the Tao Princess.
Secondly, Noah, Master Wu and Dr. Tang were at the brink. The mind is a fragile playground and it wouldn’t take much for Master Wu or Noah to break.
He made a call to Xiao, the leader of the six-person elite squad he was sending to the Tao Princess. Personally, trained by him, every team member was not only a master of Hung Gar Shaolin martial arts, but was also a bona fide snake handler. “Are you ready to rock and roll?”
“Absolutely,” answered Xiao’s steely voice. “Supplies are all onboard and we are getting on the chopper now.”
“Xiao, you represent me. Don’t forget that. There is nothing I want to do more than to join you but I cannot risk being recognized.”
“No explanation needed. We will take care of everything,” answered Xiao.
“I will see you soon.” With that, King disconnected. Actually, the real reason King did not want to join this expedition was that he anticipated his entire squad would become collateral damage.
Chapter 17
Noah and Cheryl bolted from the bridge and back up onto the upper deck. Now both Master Wu and Dr. Tang lay motionless. Noah knew Master Wu needed help but it was a shock to see Lisa kneeling over Dr. Tang, putting acupuncture needles into his head and legs. “What happened?”
“I don’t know.” Lisa kept her head down as she began tapping the needles. “We were both working on Master Wu when, without warning, Dr. Tang keeled over and blacked out. His heart is beating crazy fast.”
Noah pulled rank. Yes, Dr. Tang was his sifu’s friend and needed help but it was Noah paying the bills. “Can you get back to Master Wu?”
Lisa blurted out, “Only if you work on Dr. Tang. We’ve got to try something different. Acupuncture’s too slow. Even if we can resuscitate him, there will be permanent brain damage. Do you have a defibrillator?”
Cheryl’s eyes sharpened. “Let me check the infirmary.” As Lisa moved back to treating Master Wu with acupuncture tapping, Cheryl dashed off. Like Noah, she was more concerned about Master Wu’s welfare than Dr. Tang’s.
The captain was back in less than two minutes, carrying the defibrillator case. “How’s he doing?”
“Heart’s changed from beating fast to an irregular beat,” said Noah, “but it’s still beating. I can do the CPR.”
“Good.” Cheryl put the defibrillator beside Doctor Tang and took off his jacket and shirt. She opened the lid to the AED, Automated External Defibrillator. A few seconds later, the status indicator lights came on and an automated voice announced, “Tear open the plastic package and remove the electro pads.”
As she did, the voice instructed, “Peel backing off one pad and place on top of bare upper chest above the nipple.”
Cheryl followed the instruction and the next instruction came. “Peel backing off the other pad and place on bare chest below the nipple on the opposite side.”
As she positioned the pad, the voice then commanded, “Under no circumstances should you touch the patient as heart rhythm is analyzed.”
After a few tense moments, the voice announced, “Shock advised. Charging mechanism.”
A few more seconds lapsed, then the Shock Light turned on. “Stand clear. Do not touch patient. Press flashing button to deliver s
hock now.”
Cheryl pressed the button and the voice announced, “Shock delivered. Do not touch patient.”
Moments later, the voice ordered, “Begin CPR now. Perform thirty chest compressions, then deliver two breaths of air.”
The seconds were sheer agony for Noah as he waited for the defib to start up. Now, given the green light, he performed the thirty CPR chest compressions. After completion, all eyes were on the defibrillator as it re-analyzed Dr. Tang’s heart rhythms.
The machine announced its verdict. “Shock advised. Do not touch patient. Press flashing button to deliver shock now.”
Noah balled his fists, then repeated the process. No heart beat. No breathing. Dr. Tang was dead. How could that have happened so fast?
Lisa yelled, “Acupuncture’s not working on Master Wu either.” What she didn’t say was it didn’t work because she discreetly injected Master Wu with further toxins.
Noah stepped over to Master Wu and touched his chest. There was no movement in his body. Then Noah noticed something that totally freaked him out. Master Wu’s complexion was turning blue.
“He’s coding,” said Noah, doing his best to stay calm but not succeeding.
Chapter 18
Noah despaired. There was nothing he could do for Master Wu or Dr. Tang and it seemed they were getting worse by the moment. Then, in the distance, Noah heard the glorious “whomp, whomp, whomp,” sound of a helicopter’s blades slapping the air. He gave a grateful gaze to the iron bird and uttered quietly, “Thank you, God.” The only thing that could save the elderly men was a rapid visit to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, which was known for its emergency management of poison victims.
The helicopter slowed dramatically as it neared the Tao Princess. The landing area was barely ten feet square and it would take critical pilot judgment to ensure nothing went wrong.
The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series: Books 1-3 (plus special bonuses) Page 31
