Two Peasants and a President (28 page)

“At that point, it’s starting to creep me out, but by then I was done so I just packed up and left.  Halfway back to the car I heard someone behind me and the next think I know I’m in the hospital with an egg the size of a baseball on my head.”

“Listen, Cliff, I’m just glad you’re OK.  We can live without the r
e
cording,  I should have known better than to send you into enemy territory.”

“We don’t have to live without the recording,
Virg
,” he said.

“What?  I thought you said they took all your gear.”

“They did, but whenever I make a recording, the first thing I do is put it to sleep on the cloud.”

“You just lost me,” said Baines. 

“I have an internet account with online storage,”
Virg
.  “I just hit a button and the recording goes to the server in the sky where I can retrieve it later.  Before I came here I checked; it’s still there.  I made another backup and put it in a safe place just in case.”

A smile crept over Baines face.

48

At 10:30 pm an ambulance pulled up to the emergency entrance of the Tianjin Hospital
#77
.  A taxi following it parked nearby.  The ambulance honked and the overhead door rose slowly, allowing it to back up to the dock.  A police officer and three others got out of the taxi and walked into the dock area before the overhead door closed again. 

The ambulance driver greeted a familiar face, telling him that he was there for a pickup and not carrying a patient, in which case they would have called ahead and had emergency personnel waiting.  The man on duty r
e
turned the greeting and looked briefly at the others, noticing that one was a police officer. 
When the police appear, a wise man disappears
goes an old saying in China.  He smiled and then said hello to the doctor, whom he recognized as one of the staff.

The group strode purposefully past a now closed visitors kiosk and into the elevator.  A minute later the light on the numbers over the doors reached four.  In unison the group walked up to the nurses station where Dr. Min, dressed in his hospital uniform, asked the nurse for the room number of the young American woman.  He was told that she was not on this floor.  Her eyes followed the group as they headed back to the elevator.

The captain watched the lit numbers climbing toward seven, trying not to think about the possibility that Holly would not be on that floor either.  The march to the nurses station was repeated, but this time the nurse, who a
p
peared both sterner and more fearless than the first, asked the reason.  The police officer showed her the forged set of orders indicating that they had been ordered to take the patient to People
’s Liberation Army (PLA) No. 1602
Hospital in Beijing.  The nurse was well aware that the Army hospital also did transplants and she seemed to relax, pointing down to the end of the hall, but then something struck her and she picked up the duty board she had just set down a moment earlier.

She looked puzzled because her duty board clearly showed that in other rooms on this floor a Scandinavian woman, a Spanish woman and a Russian woman were all awaiting organ transplants scheduled for later tonight.  When it occurred to her that the only patient being prepped as a donor was the one they were about to move, she said:

“Wait!  You can’t remove her, she’s scheduled for surgery in two hours.”

Dr. Min, whom she recognized, said evenly:  “It’s OK, there’s been a change.  The PLA has ordered her moved.  They will be here shortly with another female.”

The familiar doctor’s soothing words and the police officer watching her seemed to abort whatever it was she was about to say and she decided not to protest further.  But when she noticed that the tall one with them appeared to be an American, it seemed rather strange. 

As the group moved down the hall, they saw that a police officer was seated outside the closed door.  He looked up when he saw another officer with a doctor.  Presented with what appeared to be a legitimate set of orders, he unlocked the door.  The doctor went in first.  Then the guard who had been seated outside was invited in by his fellow officer and the others fo
l
lowed, closing the door behind them. 

Holly looked up in fear at the sudden arrivals, two of whom were police officers.  Then the tall man in back moved between them and approached the bed, saying simply:

“Hello,
darlin
’
.”

She was speechless.  Her eyes told her what her brain said was not possible.  Her grandfather reached out and took her into his arms and she began to sob. 

“Holly, you’ve got to pull yourself together,” he said.  “There’s no time now.  We’ve got to get you and Ray out of here.”  She looked up into his eyes:

“Ray is here?” she asked, her tear-streaked face a mixture of joy and incredulity. 

“Yes, but there’s no time to talk.  I want you to get in the wheelchair and look like you’ve been sedated.  Now!  Hurry.”

The police guard looked over at his fellow officer as what was taking place began to dawn on him.  But his words were stillborn as the Taser touched his neck.  The others quickly cuffed him, relieved him of his sidearm and radio and filled his mouth with Kleenex.  Then they dragged him into the tiny closet, folding his legs so they could close the door.  Two minutes later, the procession emerged from the room with an apparently sedated patient and proceeded back down the hall.  Glancing into the rooms they passed, the captain noticed a Westerner in the bed of one.  He ducked inside.

“You’ve been duped,” he said in his most intimidating captain’s voice.  “You have not been brought here to receive an organ.  You have been brought here to d
onate them –
all of them.  Wait ten minutes and then raise the alarm.  We will be back for you.”

He noticed there were western faces in some of the other rooms. 
Quickly, he repeated what he had said to each patient.  Then he rejoined the group as they passed the nurses station.  The duty nurse’s eyes followed them, her unease growing. 

They took the elevator all the way down to the basement this time.  There was no one there and all the doors were locked.  The group spread out pounding on doors, peering into the little windows and calling Raymond‘s
name
, some in heavily accented English.  Finally a muffled voice on the other side of one could be heard.  But where were the keys?  They looked up and down the hall, no sign of a key closet.  The captain stepped forward.

“Raymond, can you understand me?  This is Richard Davis, Holly’s grandfather.”

Holly yelled: “Ray, baby it’s me!  We’ve come to get you.”

The captain moved her aside.  “Step back from the door, Ray,” he yelled.  Then he held out his hand for the 9mm sidearm taken from the other guard.  Stepping back at an angle, he fired where the lock meets the door.  The shot boomed like a cannon in the long concrete hall.  The door would not budge.  He fired once more, the shot resonating in the enclosed space.  The lock was now loose but it took two more shots to fully disengage it. 

Holly rushed out of her wheelchair and into the arms of her husband.

“Oh, Ray, baby, I thought you were dead,” she sobbed. 

“We’ve gotta
move
people.  Now!” boomed the captain, pulling Holly out of Ray’s arms and putting her in the wheelchair.  “Are your clothes in there?” he asked, seeing that Ray was dressed in what looked like prisoner pajamas.

“No, they took them away,” he answered.

“That’s OK, son,” said the captain.  “Let’s go!”

The group reentered the elevator and pressed (1).  When the door opened
,
they noticed an orderly wheeling a patient down the hall.  He didn’t seem alarmed at all, either because he had not heard the shots in the basement or because he assumed that executions were taking place outside.  They turned and headed back toward the ER exit.

The ambulance driver’s friend stood watching as they began to load Holly and Ray into the ambulance.  Obviously puzzled, he had tentatively raised his hand to say something when the shock hit his neck and he collapsed.  They moved his limp body behind the counter, pulled the phone cord out of the wall and tied his hands.  By the time the large garage door reached the top of its travel, the ambulance was already in the parking lot, pausing only long enough for the others to climb into the taxi. 

They headed east toward the distant harbor. 

49

The fearless nurse on the seventh floor had watched the unusual pr
o
cession with growing suspicion, but she was confused.  She had known the doctor for years; there was no reason not to trust wha
t he said.  And you had always
to be careful when questioning a police officer, even when you are as self-assured as she.  The police are part of the Ministry of State Security and one was ill-advised to cross their path.  But there was just something out of place about this group, not the least of which was the unidentified American male.  She also mulled over the fact that the police officer who had been guarding the room let the group in, apparently without challenge, as if he’d been expecting them.  This gave her pause. 

The nurse was still vacillating between returning to her growing workload and calling someone for clarification when it occurred to her that she had not seen the guard em
erge from the patient’s room. 
She had just set off down the hall to investigate when the Swedish patient suddenly flew out of her room fully clothed and carrying her suitcase. 

“You can’t leave!” barked the nurse, but the large blonde female, who was at least six inches taller and forty pounds heavier, round-housed the hapless nurse with her suitcase and without looking back continued charging down the hall.  The nurse hit the wall and collapsed to the floor.  Dazed, she had just begun to pick herself up to call security when the Spanish woman, also fully clothed and carrying her suitcase, emerged from her room and b
e
gan swearing at her in vivid Spanish.  This time the nurse wisely stepped aside. 

Remembering that the police officer/guard was only a few doors down, the now somewhat less fearless nurse first peered around each door frame before scooting past it to the next.  When at last she reached the room where the American had been, it was empty.  She had turned to head back to the nurses station when the Russian woman bolted from her room, her face a mask of rage, and turned to face the nurse.  As with the Swedish woman, the nurse was hopelessly outweighed by the gargantuan Russian and started backpedaling furiously, assuming the behemoth was about to murder her.  But the Russian abruptly turned and headed for the elevator like the others. 

By this time, other patients hearing the commotion and picking up snippets of conversation, began streaming into the hall.  There they started
talking to one another.  Soon, the original rumor planted by the captain was spreading like the plague.  Then, as if on cue, they all turned and headed back into their rooms to gather their belongings.  Realizing she had a full-scale mutiny on her hands, and taking advantage of the temporary lull, the nurse fled to the nurses station.  There she grabbed
the phone and crouched
behind the counter
with it
where she hoped to go unnoticed by the gathering mob while she called for reinforcements. 

******

For the first time since the unimaginable ordeal had begun, Holly made no attempt to hold back the tears.  She clung to Ray desperately, sobbing uncontrollably, scarcely able to comprehend that she was being rescued.  

“What’s the game plan, Richard?”  Ray asked, cradling his wife.

“First, we’re gonna ditch the ambulance,” he said.  This thing’s not
h
ing but a large police magnet; everyone who sees it will remember.  Our friends have something else stashed in a place where we can make the switch.  Then we make a run for the port where hopefully there’ll be a boat waiting.” 

“I hope it’s the fastest boat on the planet,” said Ray. 

“I wouldn’t hol
d out too much hope of that,” Richard
replied.

The captain pulled out his cell phone for the first time on the mainland and dialed Commander Moore’s number at the consulate in Hong Kong.  When he reached his voice mail, he said:

“Commander, this is Richard.  I assume you recognize my voice.  I have my family and I’m leaving.  You can deduce by what route, I’m sure.  If you can send help in any way, shape or form, our liv
es may depend on it.”  Then he
removed the battery
and
sim
card from his phone, depositing them
and the now dead phone in his pocket so that it could not be tracked.

The ambulance was now heading at high speed east on the
Fukang
Lu, lights flashing but with no siren. 
Jun’s
taxi took another route, one that would take him directly to the port.  They had decided that for the first segment of their escape, speed was paramount.  The gamble was that they would be able to reach their first way point before the alarm was raised.  Assuming that was correct, any police vehicle they might encounter would be unlikely to stop an ambulance speeding to an emergency.