The Pandora Box

by Lilly Maytree

  But no bullets came.

  She heard footsteps and then the chink of something being set down outside the door. There was a quiet hiss of…water heating…or air escaping through an open valve. Then a sickly smell and a horrible heaviness pressed down. The last thing she remembered was hearing the outer door snap closed.

  When she opened her eyes, she sensed Hawk close by, but her happiness melted into a horrifying despair when she reached out to him. She could not move. She had a splitting headache, and her ears were ringing. Reality fell like a crushing weight. The reason she felt Hawk’s presence was because her head was on his pillow, and it still carried the distinct scent of his aftershave.

  She had no idea how much time had passed, but she could see a bit of gray daylight through the open porthole. There was no way of knowing if it was dawn or dusk or somewhere in between. Something felt different about the boat, though. They were rocking, dead in the water, on a considerably choppy sea.

  She could hear muffled voices outside the door.

  Someone squeezed her hand. “It’s all right, Dee, I’ll get you out of this, I swear. Just hold my hand. Can you hold my hand a little? Can you say something?” he whispered.

  Scott Evans was on Pandora?

  Dee couldn’t speak because her entire head was wrapped with gauze. The small slits for her eyes and nose were suffocating and she felt a rising sense of panic. She did manage an ever-so-slight movement of her hand in his to indicate that she had heard him… but how had he gotten here?

  “They’ll kill you if I don’t go along with them.” He continued to whisper close to her ear but she couldn’t see him. “They killed my girlfriend, Dee, because she wouldn’t cooperate. But you and I have one last chance to get out of here. It’s our only hope. You’ve got to trust me, Dee, do you hear?”

  “She’s in here.” It was the nurse’s voice.

  Heavy footsteps followed.

  “We’ve made her as comfortable as we could. This bed has the least motion of all the others, so we moved her in here. There was too much swelling to stitch the wound but we gave her morphine. As you can see, we had to wrap everything and make her as immobile as possible. This is her fiancé, Evan Myers. I’ve already shown them your passports, Evan, they just need to check everything over.”

  “This delay could cost her life.” Scott’s voice was distraught. “There’s a surgeon waiting in Tokyo, but we’ve got to beat the weather!”

  “Her father had one flown out from the states, when we first called in the accident.” The nurse’s voice was soothing.

  “Sorry, Mr. Myers, but our orders are to board every vessel in the area. If all your papers check out and we get full cooperation, you can be on your way, in about fifteen minutes.”

  “Everything is just like they said up forward, sir,” another man’s voice drifted in from the companionway. “All the papers check out, and they’ve got a picture of them on this boat that goes back a good twenty years.”

  “Kind of you to say so,” said the nurse. “That picture was actually taken in the sixties, when we were on our world cruise. But there’s no mistaking it was Andor.”

  “Let’s just get on with it!” Scott implored.

  They all shuffled out and then Dee could hear the unmistakable sound of an idling engine a short distance away.

  White Fox had arrived but they were getting ready to leave…were they all blind? What was this charade Scott was putting on? The only plan he needed was to open his mouth and call them back.

  And where was Marion?

  The thought of Marion being dumped the same way as Starr sent a shudder through her. All of them were dead and that caused a blind despair to swirl into an unbearable sense of loss. Where was God? Where were the angels?

  All of a sudden, terrible sobs that should have wracked her entire body with their release, welled up inside her until her heart and throat felt as if they might burst. Yet, the great and heavy stupor of whatever monster drug they had used, allowed only a whimper to escape her. She moved frantic eyes but could still not see anything other than the ceiling and a sliver of the open porthole beneath it. The only things in her direct line of vision.

  All was quiet until she heard the nurse’s voice through the porthole, as everyone moved up on deck.

  “This was supposed to have been the vacation of a lifetime. But I don’t think we’ll go beyond Tokyo now. It’s all been so upsetting!”

  It was very convincing. Whatever her real name was, Dee knew it was not Ellen Stevens, even as Dr. Von Hayden was no yachtsman named Robert Stevens, either.

  “You can get underway,” the voice of the man in charge replied. “Everything seems to check out all right, and we still have another vessel in the area to board before the weather gets prohibitive. Appreciate if you’d stay in radio contact until further notice, though, Skipper.”

  “I’m not the skipper, I’m just the deckhand.” It was Scott’s voice this time. “Mr. Stevens up there, he’s supposed to be the guy who knows everything about sailing. Nearly got us all killed in that storm!”

  “Let’s not trouble anyone with our personal differences, shall we?” Von Hayden spoke. “What we’ve been through the last few days was close to a hurricane, as I’m sure these men will attest to. What happened to us could have happened to anybody. Ready to fend off, gentlemen?”

  “Yes, sir, we are. Let’s get a move on, Henry. Thompson, let go those lines so we can shove off. Good luck, sorry for the inconvenience.”

  “Inconvenience.” Scott sounded as if he were close to a breaking point. “My fiancée could die over your inconvenience.”

  “We have a doctor aboard White Fox, Mr. Myers, if you want us to transfer her to sick bay.”

  “I’ve got a doctor right here, but he isn’t a brain surgeon! Just leave so we can—”

  “It doesn’t help to shout, Evan,” the nurse interrupted. “They’re only following orders.”

  “Haul up the foresail, Ev,” said Von Hayden. “That’s about all we’re going to need in this wind to get underway again.”

  After that, Dee heard only the sound of boots along the deck and then the idling engine of a launch shifting into gear before it pulled away. She tried her best to scream or cry out, but succeeded in nothing more than a muffled moan. They were leaving. Eddinton’s plan was not working.

  Next came the familiar sound of lines running through winches, and Pandora leaned into the wind and picked up speed, sailing through the choppy seas as beautifully as she had for Hawkins.

  34

  White Fox

  “I am positive she is somebody’s darling.” ~ Nellie Bly

  At 7:20, Eddington and his partner came aboard the USS White Fox. Their small float plane had landed in choppy seas a short distance from the ship, the last leg of their journey having brought them from a United States aircraft carrier cruising some hundred and fifty miles off the coast of Japan. Because of the weather, the plane did little more than tumble its passengers onto the waiting launch before taking off into the darkening sky.

  “You head for communications and set up the equipment,” he said to Reynolds as he took the last ladder up to the main deck two steps at a time. “I’m going to the bridge and find out what’s going on. We should have had an intercept by now.”

  As he ducked through the door, the captain looked over at him.

  “You Eddington? Looks like you had a rough trip.”

  “What’s the last radio contact you had with the Pandora?”

  “Sometime around dawn this morning we picked up a partial mayday.”

  Eddington breathed out a sigh of frustration.

  “Let’s head on down to communications, and we can talk to search and rescue.” The captain picked up his hat. “Mr. Ramsey, have some coffee sent down, will you? This guy looks like he’s spent the last two hours in a deep freeze.” He called to a lieutenant on watch.

  By the time they arrived in the communication center, his partner had already set up thei
r equipment. “Got ‘em, Ren?” Eddington peered at the small scope over his shoulder.

  “Yeah, barely,” his partner replied. “They changed course, Ed.”

  “What?”

  “Looks like they’re heading south. Right for the Tsugaru Straits. The most direct route to Vladivostok.”

  “Well, what happened? He was on zero, three, niner before we left the carrier. I thought sure he’d stick with it. I would have bet money!”

  “That’s nowhere near the search area.” The captain took his hat off and scratched the close shaved gray hairs with the same hand before setting it back on again. “I better call my helicopter back.”

  “Search and rescue, sir,” a young man on the ship’s radio announced. “They just spotted a demasted sloop. Heading zero, three, niner… radios are down, but they’re going to lower someone in to assess the situation. Standing by.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Eddington moved over to stand behind the man as if he could watch the radio like a TV. “Pandora’s a ketch. Did Hawkins report any storm damage when you talked with him yesterday?”

  “No, sir, he didn’t,” the young man replied. “It’s possible it could have happened before we got here, though. The vessel we boarded this afternoon had a crew member seriously injured by the rough weather, last night.”

  “You boarded somebody?”

  “We boarded a vessel earlier this afternoon.” The captain took a fresh mug of coffee brought in by a steward as he talked. “But they were just cruisers blown off course on their way to Japan. No reason to detain—”

  Eddington stopped the captain. “They made the switch already! Get me a—”

  The man at the radio perked up and listened to his headset.

  “Unplug that thing so we can all hear, son.” The captain came to stand next to Eddington.

  “Just a routine weather transmission, sir.” The man flicked a switch so that the tail end of the message rang out over the room.

  “… along the east coast and the island of Honshu. Typhoon Hikari is expected to reach the southern tip of Hokkaido before midnight.”

  “Right through the Tsugaru Straits,” Eddington moaned. “What else can go wrong?”

  “Don’t worry about us,” the captain assured. “We might get a little backlash from the tail, but this far out there’s no need to worry too much about it.”

  “Not us—Pandora!” Feeling suddenly stifled by the warmth, Eddington unzipped his thick leather jacket and moved back to the scope to look over Reynolds shoulder again. “At her present heading, she’s going to run right up over the back of that thing. We’ve got to change course and try for another intercept.”

  “I can’t change course.” The captain looked over at him as if he had lost his mind. “I’m in the middle of a rescue. Even if I could, I wouldn’t run my ship up the back end of a typhoon, I’d get court marshaled.”

  “Captain, I…”

  “Fox Wing to White Fox,” the radio sparked to life over the room again. “Confirm sailing vessel Seascape located with three crew members aboard, one dead. Skipper is Major Wayne Hawkins. Standing by for damage report.”

  “Let me talk to Hawkins,” Eddington headed back for the radio.

  “The radios are down, sir,” the young man reminded him. “Any messages will have to be relayed through the pilot.”

  “Tell him this is Eddington here, and I need to know who’s aboard Pandora.”

  The radio operator repeated the message into the mike and then there was a long, agonizing silence while it was relayed to the man on deck. A minute and a half later, the pilot’s voice broke into the heavy silence of the communications room where all eyes were now turned toward the operator.

  “This is Fox Wing to White Fox. Skipper confirms D.J. Parker, Marion Bates, Scott Evans, Anna Keller, and Doctor Eric Von Hayden…”

  “Bingo…” Eddington breathed, as he listened to the rest.

  “…says to tell Eddington they took the bait. The rest is disrespectful, sir, over.”

  “Let’s have it, let’s have it!” Eddington nudged the young man impatiently.

  “Request full message, Fox Wing. Over.”

  “He says, Eddington, stop messing around. Get off your butt and go after Pandora. He wants his wife back. That was a paraphrase, sir. Over.”

  “Dang…” Eddington straightened up slowly as the full realization dawned on him. Those ladies are in some big trouble.

  “Get me that damage report,” the captain snapped. “And an exact location so we can change our course accordingly. We should be able to pick them up in…” He glanced at his watch.

  “Captain Fergusen,” Eddington said, “if we take time to rescue the sloop, Pandora could reach the protective waters of the Russian coast. That’s if they manage to beat that typhoon through the straits. Either way, we’ve lost them unless we change course right now, and concentrate all our efforts in that direction.”

  “I already told you we can’t do that, Eddington,” the captain said firmly. “That sloop might not make it to port in this weather, and there’s a death under questionable circumstances involved. If they get the slightest backlash from that typhoon, they’re as good as finished.”

  “But, sir―”

  “We’re going for the rescue.”

  Fox Wing to White Fox. Hawkins requests permission to take sailing vessel Seascape to nearest Japanese port. Says he can make it. I can’t get them all off in one trip, and the way it’s kicking up out here, I won’t even be able to get my man back aboard if we don’t hurry. Over.

  Eddington sensed he was losing control of the situation and tossed a pencil he held back onto the desk again. “Captain,” he spoke quietly to the ranking officer, “Can we talk privately? What I have to tell you, is classified.”

  35

  The Pandora Effect

  “Some strange magic seems to rob one of all care.” ~ Nellie Bly

  The captain cast him a knowing glance and then motioned him to follow with a resigned sigh. “Let me know as soon as that damage report comes in,” he said, as they left the communications room.

  Eddington followed silently along the long gray corridors until they entered what was obviously a private cabin. After they were inside he handed over his identification and sank into a chair across from the desk where the captain had already seated himself.

  “Just what I figured.” Captain Fergusen tossed the wallet back to Eddington. “Another one of you guys who aren’t really here.”

  “What we have, Captain, is…”

  “I’m well aware that national security takes precedence over everything else, Agent Eddington. Just give me what I have to know.”

  “Our objective is the arrest of a Soviet agent.”

  “The chaos that country’s in these days, you’d think they’d be busy with other things.”

  “They’re busy, all right. Besides being a channel for U.S. military information for over twenty years, this one heads up one of the world’s most lucrative black market rings ever dreamed of. Enough to finance half a world take-over, if that’s what they were up to.”

  He paused “Well, what is it? Drugs? Selling arms to crazy Arabs? What?” the captain prompted.

  “To be exact, the sale of healthy human organs, sir. For transplant and experimentation.”

  Captain Ferguson was quiet for a moment. “One up on the drug trade, that’s for sure,” he finally admitted.

  Eddington leaned forward and rested his forearms across his knees. “Captain, we’ve spent years trying to track this guy down, only to finally find out that he was just a clever decoy for something much bigger than selling two bit military secrets to the Soviets.”

  “Was he selling military secrets?”

  “Yes, sir. And that’s what threw us off. That and the fact that the real culprit in this thing wasn’t him at all. It was his daughter. Anna Keller. She used her father as a front for years. When he finally found out and balked, she killed him. Just like that,
” he snapped his fingers. “Her own father.”

  “And that’s her on the boat out there, is it?”

  “Her and a Dr. Von Hayden. He’s the master-mind behind the black market ring. With the high cost and low availability of healthy organs, I guess the hospital set-up turned out to be more lucrative all the way around.” He felt the unnerving agitation of wasting valuable time, but he pressed on. “They’ve got an elaborate organization set up, with years of experience behind them.”

  Eddington sat up straight again, drummed impatient fingers on the arm of his chair, then caught himself, and quit. “They’ve already covered their tracks at the asylum, leaving absolutely no trace of evidence behind. They’ve even managed to point some pretty incriminating evidence at Parker—that’s Hawkins’s wife. She’s an investigative reporter out of Portland, Oregon, who first blew the lid off this thing.”

  “So the boat we boarded this morning was the Pandora? I find it hard to believe my officers were that easily misled.”

  “These people are masters at the art of deception. I’m telling you, sir, if we don’t catch them red-handed now, our chances of ever catching up with them would be next to nothing. Especially out of the country and with the kind of connections they have.”

  Eddington sighed and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I’m not trying to be dramatic when I say they could actually spearhead the biggest wave of widespread euthanasia the world has ever seen. Something that would make the Holocaust look like child’s play.”

  “Now that’s a scary thought.”

  “I’m not kidding.”

  “I know you’re not, son. You’ve just thrown me quite a curve, here.” The captain was quiet for a moment, thinking. “If these people are what you say, what makes you think they still might have Parker alive?”

  “I’m hoping they still think she has information they need. But I’d feel responsible if something happened to her, because…well, like he said over the radio…I used her as bait.”