China Jewel (26 page)

Bill said, as he watched through the cockpit window, “They don’t seem to be surprised by planes coming over. I expect they think their camouflage is good enough. Besides if they start running around, that might tip off anyone searching from above.”

Cutter and Bill prepared the high-powered sniper rifles. Each moved ammunition to the window ports for the coming firefight. They planned to strafe the pirates to cover the attack of the Philippine Seal Force commandos. Meanwhile Willoughby relayed their discovery and the layout of the camp to the rest of the forces.

The sea surface was smooth. The plane slowed, its engines cut back. It cruised in a wide circle around nearby islands, at about five hundred feet.

Jenks and Cutter took positions at the lounge windows, the sniper rifles poking out, and ammunition ready.

Willoughby coordinated by radio with the commandos below. Sunlight cut back the shadows from the jumble. The water surfaces glistened. Suddenly smoke began pouring from the hut.

“Tear gas,” said Jenks. “The army is attacking.”

Cutter saw men with rifles jumping off the careened clipper hull and running towards the hut. “They are going to fight for the captives,” he said to Jenks as he pointed.

“Our boys and girls are probably still tied up.”

In a small boat tied on the side of the brig closest to the jungle shoreline, a man stood up. He was dressed in shorts and tennis shoes with his long hair held in a red headband. He lifted a rocket launcher to his shoulder and aimed it directly at Cutter’s port window as the plane got closer.

Willoughby called. “We got trouble.”

“Got him,” said Cutter. He took careful aim and fired the fifty-caliber rifle. The pirate jerked back and fell overboard, then floated face down in the lagoon. His rocket launched but streamed backward into the trees where it exploded harmlessly.

By now they were flying a hundred feet over the water, to the lagoon side of the brig’s careened hull.

Willoughby said, “We’re getting more information on the arrival of the Philippine patrol craft. They should be entering the lagoon momentarily coming in from the ocean. The Chinese have a team in the air from their own frigate and the Coast Guard has two small craft coming in too.”

Cutter kept his rifle on the jungle behind the brig as the flying boat banked again and began its second slow circuit of the little island.

A guard then moved his head from the protection of the shed and looked around. Bill took him out with two shots.

A moment passed and the man was pushed aside. A naked man and woman crawled out the door, ropes hanging from their arms. The man tore the shirt from the dead guard and draped it over the woman. She pulled the revolver from the guard’s holster while the man picked up his machine gun. They kneeled and shot two terrorists rushing from the careened Peregrine. Men in black uniforms moved across the beach and added their fire at these pirates. In a few moments the crew of the Peregrine swarmed from the hold of the captured ship and attacked the remaining pirates.

The faded Huey helicopter raised from the jungle across the lagoon, its propeller sending prop wash across the water surface. Willoughby pointed to it and called on his radio for the Seal Force. The Huey fired a rocket of some sort at the flying boat which was coming back over the water toward it. Willoughby dove the big plane and the missile travelled overhead. Jencks whistled, “That was close. Better do something before he reloads.”

The seaplane leveled and kept heading directly toward the ascending helicopter. From across the lagoon, the Philippine soldiers raked the Huey with machine gun fire. Cutter lifted a rifle and climbed up on the wing through the crew door. He pushed out into the wind slipstream and looked forward over the cockpit. He managed to swing the large rifle forward and saw the Huey coming toward them. Bullets whizzed by his head. The helicopter was about one thousand feet away. Willoughby dove the big plane again. Cutter aimed the sniper rifle and began sending fifty caliber rounds into the glass windshield of the chopper.He could see his shots tearing into the Huey, pieces of windshield and metal tearing away.

The seaplane and the Huey closed. Only a few hundred feet remained as they moved forward nose to nose.

Cutter said to himself, “Chicken. He’ll give. These guys all the same. Ain’t got the guts.” He kept firing the powerful Barrett rounds.

Suddenly the Huey burst into flames.

The seaplane flew amid the flotsam of the Huey explosion. Tumbling toward them was a piece of burning plastic. It caught on the windshield wiper of the seaplane. Its flames died. Cutter had rejoined them in the cockpit.

“Good shooting,” said Bill. “I think you saved us from that maniac.”

Jenks pointed to the burnt plastic stuck to the flying boat.

“Looks like a melted pair of sunglasses,” said Jenks.

Bill said, “Believe it does. Big ones. Whoever had them one won't have to worry about the sun no more. He’s roasted.”

Willoughby added, “We’ve done all we can. We’ll put her down now.” He took some time to set the big plane carefully into the ocean beyond the entrance to the lagoon. As she rode easy, he turned the plane toward the entrance. When the rig had taxied into a spot near the brig, Cutter secured the mooring by sending out the plane’s anchor. He put the rubber raft overboard and waited for Willoughby and Bill.

When the powerful engines were silenced, Willoughby came down to the doorway below in the bottom hull and smiled at Cutter who was already launching the rubber raft. He pointed at the approaching Philippine patrol boat with its gray stripes and yellow star.

There, flat on the boat’s deck by the railing, guarded by two commandos, was the dead burned body of Angel Slidell. His tortured eyes were little more than black spots on what was left of his face.

Cutter said to himself, “So it was Angel after all. Got him for sure this time. That’s the last time that son of a bitch will try to call me a coward.”

He looked around. At the side of the lagoon Cutter saw his son holding a pistol, two men with their arms raised in front of him. Behind Jamie and carrying her rifle was Madeline.

It took some time for the hostages to get medical care. When they got to shore, his son stood with Captain Hall and some of the Peregrine crew.

Bill asked, “Anyone hurt?”

“No just roughed up,” Hall said. “Remember, these bastards figured on them being worth a million apiece alive.” Hall had a large bandage on his forehead. “They came up on us too fast. We could not maneuver. I had to surrender or they would have machine gunned the crew.”

Bill said, “You did right, Captain. It’s not worth getting people killed. You were right, Jimmie.”

“About what?”

Bill said, “Risking people’s lives to make money. It’s not what I want to do anymore.”

“What are you going to do then?” asked Cutter.

“Get out. I also realized that the more money I make, the more I have to give to others. There’s no advantage to either way. If folks get hurt, I don’t like that. If I working myself to death, so everyone else gets rich, I don’t like that either. Time to get out.”

Cutter said, “I figured that out a while back. I mean, a person needs to pay his or her way in life, but there’s got to be a limit on how much you want to do.”

“You know, Jimmy, I used to get a rush making a score. It was like a drug.”

Cutter nodded and said, “So here we are, beating up on some ignorant pirates out in the Pacific. Turns out they were led by one of the smart businessmen who doesn’t know any limits.”

“You’ve always talked about growing flowers.”

“Yeah, I have. I enjoy that. Like my mother used to do,” said Cutter. “Plant lots of flowers.”

Bill swept his sniper rifle across the jungle. “All of the pirates are dead or surrendered. You know, Jimmy, this was a close one. Good lesson for this old guy.”

Cutter asked, “You still got the dancing girls back there on Wake Island.”

Bill said, “Call it my swan song. Practice makes perfect. I wanted a real greeting for the winning boat. I tried to get a movie star but after dealing with the insurance and lawyers I gave up, hired a few singers and dancers with big boobs.”

“You worried about the Chinese reaction?”

“Hell, if the Chinese men don’t like to look at pretty women, I don’t know what they do like, Jimmy.”

Cutter grinned, “We’ll get the flying boat back up to Wake so you can continue your rehearsals for the grand finish. With Strand being investigated because of Slidell, Louis 14 wrecked, and the Brits out of it, Peregrine is the winner if she can make it the final miles to China.”

“You got that right.”

They stood on the sand of the lagoon beach, near the burning pirate hut.

For once, Cutter did not pay any attention to what Bill Johnson was saying to him. Instead, his mind focused on the two young people coming to him, the blue and ill-fitting US Navy overalls now covering their thin tortured bodies. Cutter felt the tears starting down his face, his tough Ranger face that had never felt his own tears. He went to his son and hugged him. He didn’t let go of either of his children.

A few hours later a freighter arrived at the opening of the lagoon. She had been sent out from a Philippine ship repair yard.

Bill walked down the beach toward it. He shouted over his shoulder, “Come on Jimmy. We’ve got to rebuild our clipper.”

Already small boats were being lowered from the freighter.

As cutter and the others stood watching, Bill said, “Every expert Johnson money can buy is coming in here. Monroe bet on our finding the Peregrine and had them pack up.”

“Our River Sunday people too?”

Bill pointed. Cutter looked at a small figure coming out of a large Navy helicopter. Even at this distance, he recognized Jolly’s Leprechaun grin. Behind his friend he saw two others, Big Smithy and Bilge, both carrying tools.

Chapter 22

September 25, 5 AM

Staten Island

Cutter’s call from the Pacific woke her up very early. His time was ahead of her by at least ten hours. Katy sat up in her bed and shook the exhaustion from her head. Around her small room were several pieces of aluminum and rubber diving gear. She listened as he related the island attack.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. The bad guys are the ones that got hurt. We killed most of them and the Philippine Seal Force took the rest to jail. They were pretty unhappy looking pirates or terrorists, whatever they called themselves.”

“Is Jamie all right?”

“He and Madeline are busy restoring the ship to sailing trim.”

“Was the brig wrecked badly?”

“It lay on its side beached as we had figured. However, except for the rigging they took off to careen her with, she’s in pretty good shape. Paint scraped in a few places. Jolly has been out here going over everything.”

“Was it a terror attack?”

“No. We shot down a helicopter that was trying to escape. Guess who was killed in it?”

“Who?”

“Slidell. He was trying to kill us with a rocket from his chopper when Willoughby went after him. They found enough on his burned body to identify him.”

“Slidell? The Strand people are involved, just as you thought.”

“Not sure. Right now the FBI is working with the Chinese to find out who Slidell was working with. They think he and Dela were behind all this. They also think that Strand knew nothing about it. Turns out Slidell and Dela had huge bets on Johnson stock going down if the race was lost.”

“Can you get to China?”

“As soon as we can. I have to return with Bill to Wake Island.”

“The actresses?”

He chuckled, “Yes. Are you diving today?”

“It’s our first good day since Peter has been back.”

Peter knocked at her motel door. “We’re ready, Katy.”

She called, “I’ll be there.” Then she said to Cutter, “We’re heading out now. Let’s talk again tonight.”

“Love you.”

“I love you too,” she said as she rang off.

As soon as she got her gear to the dive boat, they headed out.

Even though it was still early, Peter looked around and said that he had never worked with so many observers. He went on, “The media coverage of the Peregrine and Captain Tolchester is driving this. We can’t hide what we are doing any more. This is like the crowd that attends a police manhunt, a search for a murder victim. It’s the same audience that surrounds the police lines waiting for the first glimpse of a suspect.”

Over the last few days, reporters from the television shows had brought out boats of their own. Large fifty and seventy-five foot floating offices, complete with dozens of technicians, observed the dive area. Overhead helicopters sent shadows over the sunlit water as the reporters looked for stories. Their videos cast out on television to millions across the United States and perhaps the world who were now more than ever fascinated by this drama. After the release of the Tolchester letter, the media went into overdrive. Pictures of the American captain and his Chinese girlfriend as well as her emerald were pictured on special shows. The Chinese did not miss this opportunity either. The car manufacturer wanted to celebrate the ancient lovers. A red cruise boat held dozens of Chinese newsmen and dignitaries, some from the consulate in New York and others from the United Nations posts nearby. They were there to photograph everything and to celebrate the romance. The launch also carried executives from Johnson Company, the likely new automobile partner of the Chinese.

The marine police and the Coast Guard had been out early on the water. They set up barriers of restraining buoys to insure swimmers and scuba divers could not come close to the wreck site.

 Hoffman Island came up quickly and a flight of protected seabirds lofted as the dive boat moved by them, its engine noise as muffled as Captain Tate could make it.

Peter and Katy were planning to dive the site right away. The first target was the contact they had at the end of their former research. Identification of relics required months of reviewing recovered items and they had to start as soon as possible. In the interest of the press and the current attention to the ship, they had to accomplish as much as possible today. Once others knew the exact spot of research, it would be hard to patrol and keep away thieves. Second and as important, they were alert for a treasure of emeralds although none of them felt much chance in finding a tiny cargo like that. A great amount of mud sand and bottom debris inhibited any success.