China Star

by Maurice Medland

  “Suit yourself,” the captain said, his voice trailing off, “but I want them released and that soldier, or whatever he is, disarmed at once.” Matt heard a door slam.

  “Take care of it, then bring in the man named Connor,” he heard the senior colonel say to someone he couldn’t see.

  Matt stepped away from the door just as Wong opened it.

  “Release them,” Wong said in Mandarin. “Remove the clip from that rifle and unload it.”

  “It’s about time,” Beth said, holding out her hands. “When can I see James?”

  Wong didn’t answer her. He waited for Corporal Wu to remove Matt’s bindings. “Mr. Connor? This way, please.” He nodded toward the office door.

  “Hey, what about me?” Beth said.

  Wong ignored her and ushered Matt toward the door. Matt walked into the office ahead of him, rubbing his wrists. Wong closed the door and positioned him in front of the desk. Matt glanced around for the captain, but he was gone.

  “May I present Senior Colonel Lao Jintao, chairman and managing director of China Aerospace and Technology.”

  Matt studied him. A senior colonel in the PLA was the equivalent of a brigadier general in the U.S., and chairman and managing director made him CEO of the largest aerospace company in China. Even wearing the corporate uniform - navy pin-striped suit, white shirt, and silk tie - he looked too young to be either. A security badge hung from a bead chain around his neck. The badge was trimmed with a green border, unlike the one Wong wore, which was orange. Given the senior colonel’s status, green must mean unlimited access.

  “Commander Connor, I presume,” James Lao said.

  “That’s me.”

  “You’ve been busy.”

  Matt shrugged. “Idle hands . . .”

  Lao flashed a Jimmy Carter smile. “And how are you enjoying your time with my cousin Beth?”

  Matt thought he looked a little jealous. “She’s delightful. Beautiful. Intelligent. Caring. Hard to imagine she’s related to you.”

  Lao’s smile slipped a rung. “Beth has always had an overactive imagination. I understand from Captain Chen that she’s told you some wild tale right out of Star Wars.”

  Matt raised his eyebrows and waved a hand to indicate the command ship and the escorts. “So far it seems to be checking out.”

  “He also said you’ve passed this nonsense along to . . .”

  “CINCPAC. Commander in Chief, Pacific.”

  Lao sighed. “The arrogance of the U.S. never ceases to amaze me. ‘Commander in Chief, Pacific.’ As though America owns the Pacific Ocean.”

  “We do,” Matt said, “I assure you.”

  Lao’s face began searching for an expression. A smile caught, but it didn’t hold.

  “And exactly when, where, and how did you make this contact?”

  “Is that why you brought us here?”

  “Answer my question.”

  “In the early morning hours of the fourteenth, by satellite phone to the USS Observation Island, an intelligence-gathering ship off the coast of China. From there it went to Admiral Vern Taylor, from there to the president.”

  Lao studied Matt’s face. He shook his head. “I can tell by your eyes that you’re lying. You may have fooled Captain Chen, but you haven’t fooled me. I don’t believe your story for a minute.”

  He’d brought them there to interrogate them, but his mind was already made up. What was up with this guy? He seemed to have everything. Why was he so intent on starting a war with America?

  “I can see you don’t,” Matt said. “That must be why you ordered this screen of warships.”

  “Merely a precautionary measure.”

  Matt bristled. “Did you also give the order to sink my ship and kill my crew?”

  “Get over yourself, Commander. In a war, people die.”

  “Yes, they do, and you’ll be next.”

  “Not likely. Even on the outside chance that you did make contact, I doubt you’d be taken seriously. And even if you were, America isn’t about to make a preemptive strike.”

  “That’s what Saddam thought.”

  “And even if they did, nothing will get by this screen.”

  “You mean these obsolete frigates and destroyers? The U.S. Navy wouldn’t waste a shell on them. They’ll just send out a nuclear-powered attack boat and wait for you to set up the rocket on the launch pad. One torpedo and it’s all over. It’s probably there now, waiting for you.”

  “We have submarines too, Commander. I’m not worried.”

  “I would be. Time is running out.”

  “Yes, time is running out. For you.”

  The door burst opened and Beth flew into the office, Corporal Wu tugging at her from behind. “James, what the hell is going on here?” She struggled with Wu, who was trying to pull her back through the door. “Let go of me, you asshole.”

  Lao nodded to Wu. “Release her.”

  Beth shook herself free and stood glaring at Lao. “What’s up with this? You’re not going to see me?”

  “Hello, Beth. You’ve lost weight.”

  “No shit. Do you have any idea what I’ve been through the last three months?”

  “Sorry, but it couldn’t be helped.”

  “What the hell does that mean? You could have gotten me out of there with one phone call. Your father sure as hell could have.”

  “That wasn’t possible.”

  Beth stared at the security badge hanging from Lao’s neck as though seeing it for the first time. “What are you doing here?”

  “Senior Colonel Lao is in charge of the launch,” Matt said.

  Beth looked at Matt, then back to James.

  “Is that true?”

  “Some projects are too important to be delegated.”

  Beth stared at him with a stricken look. She pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead. “What are you saying? Was it you? Did you plant those documents? Did you put me in there?”

  “For all the good it did.” He threw an angry glance at Matt, then turned to Wong. “Take them below and assign them staterooms. One for the three men and a separate one for Ms. Grayson. Put them in the Russian crew section. The filthy Russians are too stupid to speak another language. Post armed guards outside their doors. They’re not to leave their rooms under any circumstances.”

  “James, what in the hell are you doing? It’s me, Beth.”

  “Then get back here,” James said to Wong. “We have work to do.”

  Wong gathered them up over Beth’s shouts of protest and escorted them to an elevator that went down four levels. Corporal Wu followed. They stepped off into an area marked “Crew’s Quarters” in Russian, Chinese, and English. Beth had told him that half the technicians aboard the CCS were Chinese. It looked to Matt like the support staff was exclusively Chinese. Wong motioned for an old woman pushing a cleaning cart to follow him. She scurried along behind, fumbling with a ring of keys in her apron. He found two adjacent staterooms that appeared to be unoccupied.

  “Put them here and here,” he said in Mandarin. “Get them food, towels, blankets, and whatever else they need. Is it understood?”

  “Yes, master,” the old woman said.

  He turned to Corporal Wu. “I’ll send down more guards in a few minutes. They’re not to leave their rooms. No one is to speak to them. Do you understand?”

  “Wo dong,” Corporal Wu said. I understand.

  Wong turned on his heel and left as quickly as they’d come. Corporal Wu took up station opposite the two staterooms. He slumped down on the deck with his back against the bulkhead, his empty rifle across his lap. The old woman pointed to the three men and motioned them toward the first stateroom.

  “Thank you, elder sister,” Beth said in Mandarin.

  “Bu yong xie.” No need to thank.

  “As you can see, I’m not well. Surely you wouldn’t separate a wife from her husband at such a time?”

  Matt stared at her.

  The old housekeeper sm
iled a toothless grin and wagged her finger. “Xiao cong ban doufu, yi qing er bai.” Like scallions on tofu, it’s green and white.

  Matt’s Mandarin teacher had battered him with that old saw every time he’d been stumped. It was the Chinese way of saying, “It’s as plain as the nose on your face.”

  “I can never be fooled about such things,” the old woman said. “The minute I looked at you two, I said to myself, ‘Those two are one.’”

  “Ni zheng congming.” You’re so smart. Beth smiled at Matt. “Come along, dear.” Leaving Sam and Charlie smiling, she opened the door with one hand and pulled Matt in with the other.

  Matt closed the door behind him and leaned against it with his arms folded.

  “So we’re married?”

  “Don’t get any ideas, buster.”

  “I’m fresh out of ideas.”

  Beth started to pace. “That rotten son of a bitch. He used me. He knows I’m a pacifist. I hate the military, hate the thought of war, especially between China and the U.S., the two countries I love most in the world. He lured me over on false pretenses, then expropriated my work for military purposes. When I figured out what was going on, I went to him and raised hell. I thought he was as innocent as I was about the whole thing, how they were planning to use the satellite. Now I can see - he was heading it up all along. He had those documents planted in my room to shut me up, get me out of the way. He sent me to prison, for God’s sake. His own cousin.”

  “He could have had you killed.”

  “He wouldn’t go that far.” Beth stifled a sob. “The bastard. I don’t know what’s happened to him. He told me he loved me when we were kids. I trusted him.”

  “Let’s find a way to screw up his plans,” Matt said.

  “That’s why you’re here.” Her face brightened. “I’ve got a plan, and I’ll need you to pull it off.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’m still working on it.”

  Matt locked the door behind him. “In the meantime, there’s something I’ve got to do.” He reached into his briefs and pulled out the pistol. “This thing’s been killing me.”

  Beth actually laughed. “Well, you’re just full of surprises. What else have you got in there?” Her face instantly colored. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean . . .”

  Matt chuckled. “I know you didn’t.”

  There was a soft rap on the door behind him. He slid the pistol into his hip pocket and opened it a crack. Two of the ship’s security guards had been posted by the door, along with Corporal Wu. The old woman bustled past them with two small cardboard boxes and a stack of towels.

  “It’s just a box lunch left over from the night crew. What the Russians eat.” She reached into her apron pocket and came out with a tube of something. “Tiger Balm ointment. For your wounds.”

  “Ni dui women tai hao le,” Beth said. You’ve been too good to us.

  The old woman’s face lit up. “Here are clean towels. I’ll bring more food later, but I won’t disturb you two. I’ll just leave it outside the door.”

  The woman left, and Matt and Beth stood looking awkwardly at each other.

  “Look,” Beth said. “This is embarrassing, but I’ve got to get cleaned up.”

  “Go ahead.” Matt picked up the boxes. “I’ll fix dinner.”

  While Beth showered, Matt laid out the contents of the boxes on the small table. Sandwiches made out of some kind of processed meat on coarse Russian rye bread, a container of plain yogurt, an apple, a wedge of chocolate cake wrapped in clear cellophane, and a bottle of Russian beer. He laid out the white napkins as place mats, arranged the food as attractively as he could, and poured the warm beer into plastic cups. Beth emerged from the bathroom wearing a terrycloth robe. Framed by the collar, her face seemed more beautiful than ever. Matt tried not to look at her.

  “I know, I know. I look terrible, but at least I’m clean.”

  “You look terrific.” Matt spread his hands. “And dinner’s ready.”

  “It looks wonderful, but I’ll wait for you. There’s another robe behind the door.” Beth smiled at him. “One size fits none.”

  Matt took a quick shower, washing out his underclothes at the same time. He hung them over the shower curtain rod next to Beth’s and pulled on the robe. He could tell by the tie around his waist that he’d lost weight. He ran a hand through his wet hair and stepped out into the room.

  “Let’s eat.” He picked up his plastic cup and waited for Beth to pick up hers. They touched the rims together. “To life.”

  “To life,” Beth said. “I thought it was all over when we got on that helicopter.”

  “So did I.” Matt took a bite of the sandwich. The bread was as dry as sawdust, but it tasted delicious.

  “Then I thought we were saved, my cousin had finally come to the rescue. Now we’re in deeper than ever.”

  “He brought us here to satisfy himself that we haven’t made contact with the outside world. Funny thing. I got the sense that his mind was already made up on that score. It was like no matter what I said, the launch has to come off, come hell or high water.”

  “No one’s ever had much luck telling James anything he didn’t want to hear.”

  “The other reason he had us brought here - maybe the main one - is to keep us quiet. We’ll probably be okay until the launch is over. After that . . .”

  “James wouldn’t do that. He’s a rat, but he’s no killer.”

  “Someone ordered my crew killed.”

  “Captain Chen.”

  “On his own? No chance. He had to have orders from Beijing.”

  Beth didn’t answer. They ate the rest of the meal in silence. Matt cleared the table away.

  “Now, what about this plan of yours?”

  “We wait until everyone’s asleep. Then we sneak out, find the satellite, and sabotage it.”

  “Wow, what a great plan. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Listen, I helped design that thing. All we have to do is find a way to get to it. I can disable it in such a way that they’ll never know. They’ll get it into orbit, and it won’t work. It’ll be just another piece of space junk floating around out there.”

  “Sounds like a piece of cake. All we have to do is get past two - or is it three - guards outside the door, then prowl around the ship for an hour or so to find it, then get into a highly restricted area, then roll up our sleeves and get to work on that baby. I’m sure no one will notice.”

  “I haven’t quite worked out all the details yet, but . . .”

  “Let me know when you do.” Matt picked up the tube of medicine. “Let’s have a look at those burns.”

  He squeezed a drop of ointment onto the tip of his index finger and moved his chair closer to Beth’s. He leaned in toward her and tenderly rubbed ointment on the burns around her wrists.

  “What are those from?” Beth said, looking at his chest.

  Matt glanced down at the burn scars on the left side of his chest and shrugged the robe closed.

  “Wounds from another life.”

  “On the submarine?”

  Matt glanced up at her.

  “It wasn’t exactly a secret that you were a submarine officer.”

  “I’m sure you disapprove.”

  “I disapprove of everything military,” Beth said. “The world would be a better place if none of it existed.”

  “Including guns? Then maybe I’d better get rid of that pistol.”

  “Not just yet.”

  Matt smiled. “Therein lies the problem. If the good people give up their guns, the bad people will still have theirs.”

  “I’ve heard all those arguments before,” Beth said. “You’re not going to change my mind.” She peered at Matt’s chest again. “What happened?”

  “Fire. My old nemesis. It was only a matter of time before it caught up with me.”

  “How?”

  Matt looked at her. He’d never talked about it before with anyone, but for reasons he couldn’t
explain, he wanted to tell Beth. Maybe it was because there wasn’t much time left.

  “It happened one Christmas Eve. I was twelve. My little brother, Eric, was ten. I woke up in the middle of the night, smelled smoke. His room was at the other end of the hall. My dad was at sea, and I was the man of the house, but there I stood, frozen with fear, doing absolutely nothing. I can still see his face melting into the flames.”

  “You were twelve.”

  “Been afraid of fire ever since. Faked it all through the academy. In firefighter’s school, I was a wreck, but I got through it. I worried about it for years, what would I do if there were ever a fire on the sub, and then it happened.”

  “How did it start?”

  “In the galley, that’s where most fires start. But the point is I froze up, just like I did back then. I hesitated. That’s all it took. By the time I got in there, a man had died.”

  “But the point is, you went in.”

  Matt shook his head. “The worst part, after the fire was out, I freaked, went completely nuts. A severe and instant case of claustrophobia. I couldn’t stand it down there. Sam was a master chief, leading a SEAL team aboard for a special assignment we were on. He saw it right away. I don’t remember what I was doing, but he hit me so hard he knocked me cold. He half carried me into my stateroom, got the chief corpsman to shoot me with something they reserve for nut cases, kept me doped up and in my room until we got to the nearest port. The word was that I’d been injured in the fire. Only Sam and the skipper and the chief knew what was really going on.” He gave her a wretched look. “Can you imagine? The executive officer of the boat falling apart like that. You don’t know how much I’ve hated myself.”

  “I want to see them.”

  Matt pulled the robe closer. “No, you don’t.”

  Beth hesitantly opened the top of his robe. Matt didn’t stop her. She gently traced the scars on his chest with her fingertips.

  “They’re not so bad.”

  Matt looked into her eyes. He’d never seen a look of caring like that from anyone before, certainly not from Barbara. He came to his feet and pulled her to him.