Two Peasants and a President (24 page)

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Authors: Frederick Aldrich

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“Sally, it’d Dad.”  It was the middle of the night but she had been too upset to sleep.

“Oh, thank God it’s you,” she said.  “Is this private?” she asked.

“Yes, go on.”

Sally proceeded to relate every detail from the moment the lady with the balloon showed up on her doorstep.  When she had finished, her father said very little:

“Thanks for letting me know
.
  I love you and Holly very much.”

Then he was gone.

“Everything OK, Captain?” asked the commander.

“Yes, seems to be.  Commander, my daughter has been contacted by
someone who claims to know that Holly and Raymond were kidnapped by parties on the mainland.”

“Did she give you any details?”

“Only that they said they will contact her again,” the captain lied. 

“Commander, once again I appreciate your allowing me to use the Consulate.”

“You’re welcome, Captain.  P
lease let me know immediately if you learn anything else?”

“Most definitely.”

After he had escorted the captain to the building entrance, the co
m
mander returned to the communications room and accessed the system again, playing back the recording that is automatically made of every secure call in or out of the Consulate. 

 

******

 

Th
e cab ride to Happiness Balloon
Company was a study in contrasts.  Situated in an industrial area of Hong Ko
ng, the difference between this
and the magnificent buildings in the tourist and business sections of
Kowloon
and Hong Kong island was truly striking.  Here cheaply constructed warehouses and factories were tightly squeezed together with overhead wires festooned everywhere in seeming endless tangles.  

The cab dropped him off in front of a building where the number sign was larger than the three plaques announcing the companies residing there.  The front door opened into a narrow hall leading to a peeling, painted metal door that was obviously the elevator.  It was the most unsettling elevator ride of his life.  The lift rattled sideways and made screeching noises as it rose haltingly to the top.

When to his relief, it reached the third floor, the door opened onto a floor filled with machines that appeared to seal the balloon halves as well as apply the artwork.  There were pallets stacked with balloon blanks scattered about the factory floor.  In one area, collapsed boxes waited to be filled and shipped.  A man looked up with a questioning expression:

“Yes?” he said finally.

Almost yelling to be heard over the machines, the captain replied: 

”I’
m looking for Dong
Heng
.

“What?” the man said.

“I’m looking for Dong
Heng
,” the captain said even louder. 

The man stopped what he was doing and walked over.  When the captain repeated what he had said, the man just shook his head.  Across the
floor in a glass walled enclosure, another man with a tie had looked up.  He got up and walked across the floor.

“Yes?”

“I’m looking for Dong
Heng
,” The man looked at Richard for a m
o
ment and then motioned him to follow.  Once they were in the enclosed glass space, he waved his arm toward the chair in front of his desk.  Then he walked around and sat down. 

“Your name?” he said.

“Richard Davis,” the captain replied, “Yours?”

The man ignored the question and just stared at Richard for a moment. 

“Who told you Dong
Heng
works here,” he finally asked. 


Your balloon did,” replied the captain.  The man turned his head slightly sideways in puzzlement for an instant before the captain continued:

“Does the name Sally Petersen ring a bell?” the captain asked, b
e
coming irritated.

“Sally Petersen is?” asked the man.

“Sally Petersen is my daughter,” the captain said with growing a
n
noyance  “and Holly Petersen is my granddaughter,” he added.

The man seemed to visibly soften.

“May I buy you a cup of coffee, Mr. Davis?”

Ten minutes and a block later they were sitting in the corner of a re
s
taurant that looked like it would be hard to find a table during lunch rush. 

“Dong
Heng
is a fictitious name, Mr. Davis,” the man said once their coffee arrived.  “The name means strong pillar or pillar of strength.”

“My daughter indicated that a letter she received from your company was signed with that name . . . Mr. . . . . ?”

“Gang
Guo
,” Mr. Davis.  “Call me Min, please.”

“Why did you send my daughter that letter, Min?” the captain
asked
straightforwardly.

“Because we wish to rescue your granddaughter,” he
replied
simply.

“Why do you want to do that?” the captain asked, stifling the excit
e
ment that was rising in his chest.

“Two reasons, Mr. Davis.  First, and most importantly, because it was a crime against humanity to kidnap your granddaughter and her husband.  No country should e
ver abduct an innocent person,
Mr. Davis

Second, we want to use your daughter and her husband to make a point to the world, that China will do anything to anyone to further its interests, whether they be money or politics.  We want your granddaughter and her husband to tell their story to a camera and we want that video to be seen around the world.”

“How do you know about the abduction, Min?” asked the captain.

“If what I am about to tell you, Mr. Davis, were to become known by the authorities, my life would be very short.  I am one of many in this country who seek true freedom, not just controlled economic opportunity.  We seek freedom of thought and of speech, freedom to ask questions and expect a
n
swers and finally, freedom to choose those who represent us.  Many of us have been imprisoned, others have been murdered in places like Tiananmen Square.  Our government continues to silence us everywhere, but they cannot silence our message.”

“My group is aware of corrupt officials and police officers who are taking advantage of the lucrative trade in human organs to enrich themselves.  In the past, it has been mostly unfortunate Chinese who have been swept up and turned into involuntary organ donors.  More recently, a demand for Caucasian organs has arisen among certain wealthy persons who are squeamish about having organs from an Oriental in their bodies.   They are willing to pay very large sums, Mr. Davis.  That is why, I believe, your granddaughter and her husband were abducted.”

The captain sat stunned as the enormity of what he had just heard sank in.  Finally he said:

“How do you propose to help my granddaughter, Min?”

“We intend to abduct her from her abductors.  She and her husband are being held in a hospital in Tianjin where many of these operations are pe
r
formed.   We do not know now much time she has, but we believe it may be as little as a week, based on what we have been told by our people there.”

“My daughter mentioned Senator Baines.  How does he figure in this?”

“The senator more than any
one
, we believe, has placed himself squarely in front of the immoral ambitions of Beijing.  He has taken steps to shine a light on things such as the sinking of the Filipino ship.  We believe he is our most important ally in Washington, perhaps our only hope.  Our goal is to rescue your loved ones and, with the help of Senator Baines, to put them in front of the world as an example of the evil of our leaders.”

“I was under the impression that a rogue organization is responsible for these abductions,” said the captain.

“You are correct to an
extent, however, there are certain high officials who are being paid to look the other way.  The harvesting of organs from hundreds of
unwilling donors could not happen
without the knowledge of people in high places in Beijing.” 

“Let’s get started, Min,” said the captain.

“Mr. Davis, I appreciate your love for your family and your desire to help, but my concern is . . . how do you say? . . . you are a stranger in a strange
land.”

“I may be a stranger in your land, Min, but I am no stranger to danger and, conflict.  Before I retired, I captained a billion dollar warship with the power to incinerate an entire city.  I had the best training that the United States Navy can provide and I understand military planning, which in some form I am certain you will be applying to this challenge.  And believe me, Min, there is no one in your organization who has one tenth the will to rescue my family that I have.  You would be foolish not to utilize the skill and e
x
perience that is sitting in front of you.” 

 

******

 

Fed Ex had to be safe, he reasoned; the authorities simply couldn’t read everything that left Hong Kong.  He stood at the counter for several minutes, composing his letter to Sally and Jim, telling them that they must contact the senator immediately and that he would be leaving H
ong Kong on the next train

41

 

 

 

 

A deluxe sleeper car was $270 from
Kowloon
to Beijing and would take a day and a night, followed by a 33 minute ride from Beijing to Tianjin.  A travel service in Hong Kong that Min’s friend owns made the arrangements and booked the hotel in Tianjin.  As the Chinese countryside rolled by, he began to immerse himself in both the city of Tianjin and the organ transplant trade that existed there. 

The I-Pad he bought in Hong Kong took a half hour or so to get used to.  It was an amazing little gadget.  You could search the internet as with a desktop computer or do what appeared to be a million other things.  And the screen was way larger than a cell phone which ma
de a big difference to his old
eyes.  

Tianjin is a large, modern city with an adjoining
Binhai
New Area, a companion city of sorts.  Both sit on land created by sedimentation laid down by the Yellow River as it flowed for millennia into the Bohai Gulf on China’s northern coast.  Like several other cities in China, it had been forcibly opened to foreign trade and the major trading nations once had concessions here.  It had also been involved in the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion.  During the Second World War, like so many other Chinese cities, it had been brutalized by the Japanese.

Given what Commander Moore had told him about how skillful the Chinese are at eavesdropping, he considered the possibility that his internet searches might be monitored.  But there had been no indication that any connection had been made between him and his granddaughter who has a different name and resides in a different city.  American tourists are co
n
tinually accessing information on their I-Phones and I-Pads, and even a b
u
reaucracy the size of China’s could not possibly keep track of all of them.  Besides, he reasoned, they are focused on keeping information away from their own people more than tourists who have unfettered access at home.  To be on the safe side, he avoided certain words which he had read triggered the censors.

It nagged at him that Min had insisted that he not fly and instead take the train, so that he could familiarize himself with Tianjin and so that Min could prepare his colleagues for his arrival.  The thought that something might happen to Holly and Ray while he was sitting on a train haunted him,
but he had no choice.  The long ride did provide hours to study and learn.  They also gave him time to consider the outline of the plan that Min had shared with him. 

Aside from the constant worry for his granddaughter and her husband, his only frustration was that his research was often stymied by what seemed like an army of censors filtering what is available on the net in China.  Even tho
ugh he avoided many words,
things he did not expect were blocked.  It not only emphasized what he was up against, but illustrated how many things the government here considers as secrets not to be shared with its people.  But persistent effort did provide some details: 

 

Organ transplants had been going on in China since the 1960s.

 

In 1984 it became legal to remove organs from executed criminals.

Possible ethical abuses due to coercion and corruption led to human rights groups’ protests the 1990s.

 

In 2004, there were over 12,000 organ transplants in China

 

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