Two Peasants and a President (14 page)

Seven hours into this flight and still only half way across the Pacific, the little things became magnified due to boredom and four hundred bodies crammed into a long, narrow tube.  You got tired of watching movies, and you can only eat so much.  And if you tried to sleep, a baby in the back, or a grumpy child somewhere up front always seemed to start to whine or scream bloody murder. 

Maggie and Brett were three rows up.  Once in awhile Maggie would turn around and roll her eyes, like when is this going to end?  Sally thought about the businessmen and women who do this all the time, wondering what they do to keep from going crazy.  Maybe their doctors give them knockout drops or something.  Jim was reading his second paperback, something named Absolute Zero; it sounded like she felt.  Her father, several rows back, had somehow managed to fall asleep.  Sally pushed the attendant button, thinking maybe another drink might help.

******

When they finally landed, they looked and felt like zombies.   Most of the other passengers looked like that too, like survivors of a plane crash, plucked out of the jungle somewhere and deposited at the end of a cu
s
toms/immigration line, the final tribulation before they keeled over dead.  But this was no vacation and they made an effort to be alert, focusing on looking like ordinary tourists. 

The formalities weren’t all that bad, really.  A look at their passports, the usual questions and on to customs, where someone looked them over and then passed them through.  They had decided that once they were on the
ground in Hong Kong, they wouldn’t
look at or speak to each other –
two couples and a lone man traveling separately.  It almost seemed silly with hundreds of other zombies moving through the airport at the same time, but better to be safe.  China liked to project an image of peace, harmony and all that, but they were in the biggest police state on the planet.  Best not to forget that. 

They found the taxi queues to their respective hotels and waited.  Since their flight arrived late at night, they’d decided just to get some sleep and begin their tasks in the morning.  Clean sheets, decent beds and no more hissing made that easy.  It seemed like only three or four hours later when their wake up calls announced that their first day in Hong Kong was about to begin.  But they were rested and starting to feel the nervous energy of their reason for being here. 

Jim and Sally’s assignment was to go to the place where the junk tours departed.  It had been decided not to just go barging in and start asking questions.  Instead they found a little restaurant, and had a leisurely lunch, all the while pretending to take snapshots of the harbor from the restaurant window.  When they’d spent about as much time as they could at the re
s
taurant without drawing attention, they moved to a spot that was out of sight from the restaurant.   Sally sat on the bench taking a few pictures while Jim strolled around as a sightseer might.

About a half and hour later, Maggie and Brett appeared across the street and strolled out onto the pier where a junk was moored.  Their assignment was to pose as tourists thinking about a cruise and checking things out.  They snapped a few shots of the junks and then spied what appeared to be a crewman.   Brett walked up to him and asked if he worked there.  He ind
i
cated he didn’t speak much English and pointed toward what looked like it might be the office for the cruise outfit. 

When they entered, an efficient looking Chinese woman in her forties looked up from a desk surrounded by travel posters and smiled:  “May I help you,” she asked, with only a slight accent.  They proceeded to tell her that they were thinking about a cruise, preferably a dinner cruise with a good view of the harbor.  The lady was quite disarming and proceeded to ask where they were staying, perhaps to ascertain what they could afford to pay.  When they demurred about naming their hotel, the lady went ahead and gave them the full rundown, even trying to close the sale on the spot.  They thanked her and accepted the proffered brochures and turned to leave. 

From their perch on the bench, Sally snapped a shot of Brett and Maggie as they left the cruise office.  From farther off, Richard was taking his own photos using a telephoto lens, his goal to ascertain if either couple
seemed to have attracted any attention or was being followed.  

They had discussed this surveillance in depth before they left.  The girls seemed to think it a bit excessive, but Richard reasoned that unless Holly and Ray’s disappearance was a random kidnapping, someone had done some planning.  Richard said that anyone who planned such a crime would u
n
doubtedly assume that the families might come looking for them. 

They’d debated who might carry out such a crime.  It was generally felt that a criminal organization was a distinct possibility, but no one wanted to rule out completely the possibility of government involvement at some level.  It was not inconceivable that a sophisticated ring of some sort was at work.  If that were the case, it was also not inconceivable that they might have an ally in local government with access to lists
of
the names and a
d
dresses of travelers’ coming in from the US.  Computers made the rest easy.  What no one spoke about, at least not in front of Jim and Sally, was that this could be about white slavery.  Many speculated that had been the fate of Natalie Holloway, the young American college girl who went missing in Aruba. 

Richard had not seen anyone following or watching any of his family.  That seemed to bode well, at least for now.  But it was not to say that the woman who booked the cruises didn’t have the photos of family members in her desk in case of just such a visit.  Richard had chillingly reminded them before they left:  “We already know first hand that people go missing in Hong Kong.   We don’t yet know how, but we don’t want to find out by joining them.” 

The problem that had taken the longest to resolve was how to meet and compare notes.  They had been required to list their hotels as part of the formalities to enter Hong Kong.   That alone precluded meeting in one of their hotels.  Since China is notorious for grabbing data from traveler’s electroni
c devices, I-Phone
s etc. were out.  They’d finally settled on the Star Ferry, the ubiquitous green ferries that have crossed the harbor between
Kowloon
and Hong Kong island for decades.  They reasoned that as long as each couple sat in rows toward the rear, but sat directly behind each other, they could appear to be talking to the person next to them, while the couple behind them could listen and comment while scanning the crowd seated forward.  If someone insisted on sitting near them, they would simply wait, split up on the other side of the harbor, then reunite an hour later and try again on the return trip. 

Richard would remain the outlier, always apart, always where he could watch for watchers.  Toward the end of each day, Brett inconspicuously passed a tiny cassette and a data card to him in a nearby crowded bar, which
would vary from day to day.  Later in his room, Richard would listen to the days notes and commentary and look over the data card photos in his camera window.   Then, very early the next morning, he would take a brisk walk and, once he was sure he hadn’t been followed, would visit Brett and Maggie’s hotel and pass his own cassette and data card under their door.  It wasn’t exactly CIA tradecraft, but it was the best they could come up with on short notice.

The first day wasn’t particularly productive.  The data cards from the cameras didn’t have anything on them that jumped out, and the cassette pretty much just verbalized that they hadn’t seen anything that caught their attention.  One thing did catch Richard’s eye, however.  When Brett and Maggie had left the cruise office, the sailor they’d spoken with on the junk seemed to follow them with his eyes for a long time.  At first Richard didn’t give it much thought; people stare at other people all the time, especially when they think no one’s watching.  Then something clicked. 

Raymond is the spitting
image of his dad, and vice versa. 

Richard would share that via his morning cassette.  He also saved the sailor’s photo for future reference.  Finally, he decided that Brett and Maggie should not go back to the pier.  Later that night, as he lay in bed, another possibility occurred to him.  What if Brett
did
go back to the pier alone, to take some pictures or ask some mundane questions about the junk?  If the Chinese sailor’s look had been more than casual, he might be spooked into revealing something by his actions.  Richard resolved to give that more consideration.

The next morning the two couples went shopping like normal tourists in the world’s foremost shopping paradise.  It would provide some props for future use and give Richard time to explore another avenue.  He was at the door of the American consulate when it opened.  When he got to the front desk, he asked the duty person if he could speak with the naval attaché.  He wasn’t even sure if there was one in Hong Kong, but he’d decided he needed an ally and for him, the navy was the best place to start. 

The consular representative said: “What is the nature of your visit?”

I was the captain of a United States warship, and I have a few questions I’d like to ask,” replied Richard. 

To his surprise, “Let me see if he’s in this morning,” came the answer.  “Please have a seat over there.”

“Some ten minutes later, a tall, erect man with dark hair walked over to the desk and was pointed toward Richard.  He walked up smiling and i
n
troduced himself as Commander James Moore.  “What can I do for you, Captain?”

“Davis, Richard Davis, Retired,” he replied.  “I wonder if I might have a few moments of your time?”

Richard was now winging it, at altitude, in fact.  He hadn’t decided if he would decide to trust this man, regardless of how their conversation went.  He thought it more likely that they would pass the time of day for awhile and he would end up deciding not to involve the Co
mmander at all.  Navy
regs
are N
avy
regs
and disobeying them is the fastest track to a ruined career; he knew that firsthand.  The young navy man in front of him was no doubt also well aware of that. 

“I understand that you skippered a warship, Captain,” the commander inquired.  Richard took a deep breath and put one foot in the water. 

“Yes, that’s true, but unfortunately, the warship I commanded is sitting on the bottom off the coast of Louisiana.” 

The commander looked puzzled for an instant, and then it clicked.

“You’re the one with the Cubans and the Iranians,” he said.

“Actually, I was trying very hard to
defeat
the Cubans and the Iran
i
ans,” Richard replied.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way,” the commander sputtered.  “I meant that you’re the captain who saved us fr
om the worst attack since Pearl
Ha
r
bor.” 

“Had it succeeded, it would have been far worse than Pearl Harbor, Commander,” Richard added solemnly.  The commander eyed him for awhile, letting what he had just learned about the man before him sink in. 

“Actually, I read a restricted report about the incident, Captain.  Based on that, I, and others, for that matter, thought they should have given you the Medal of Honor.”

Richard half-smiled:  “It didn’t work out that way, commander.”

After a long pause, the tall officer said: “What brings you to Hong Kong
, Captain
?”  

Captain Richard J. Davis, US Navy, Retired, knew that he had arrived at the moment of truth.  The decision he was about to make could either r
e
sult in their being thrown out of Hong Kong entirely, or, and this was a very distant second, could conceivably result in some manner or form of assi
s
tance.  He looked at the officer sitting before him and asked:

“Do you have any children, Commander?”

The officer seemed surprised at the question and hesitated.

“Yes, actually I do,” he finally said.  “Why do you ask?” 

Richard paused, framing his words carefully:

“I have a very beautiful granddaughter,” he said slowly.  “Besides my daughter, that’s all I have, since my wife has passed away.  Commander,” he
continued, looking the officer in the eye, “My lovely granddaughter disa
p
peared several days ago in this city.  She was on her honeymoon.”

The young officer sat stunned, not knowing what to say.  The two men were silent for several moments.  Finally, the officer said:

“I’m n
ot sure what I can do to help, C
aptain, but I
am
sure that I will do whatever I can.”

25

Senator Baines knew that another opportunity like this might not come for a long time.  The public outcry over China’s actions in the South China Sea was growing.  Even some Democrats were beginning to realize that r
e
fusing to back tariffs could have a steep price because their constituents would feel that once again the United States had caved before the growing power of China.  The very labor unions that had placed the president in power began to criticize him, reasoning that punishing China might result in jobs coming home.