Ming sees me and grins. The Triads all turn and look at me as I approach. Zdrok eyes me with fear and hate. His expensive suit is covered in soot and grime, and one of the sleeves is nearly torn off his arm. There's a gash above his eyebrow but otherwise he looks none the worse for wear.
"You look terrible, Mr. Fisher," Ming says.
"I feel terrible," I answer. "Thank you for coming."
"It is our pleasure. Look what we have here. What shall I do with him, Mr. Fisher?" Ming asks.
"Was he armed?"
"Only with this." Ming shows me the pair of brass knuckles that Zdrok used to make mincemeat of my stomach. I take them and slip them on my right hand. Zdrok's eyes widen and he shakes his head.
"No! No!" he cries.
I slug Zdrok as hard as I can, crushing his nose and possibly fracturing the bone beneath it. The man screams and falls to the ground. The Triads cheer.
"He's all yours," I tell Ming as I let the brass knuckles fall to the ground.
Exhausted and weak, I push my way into the command post to see what's left of it. The place is littered with bodies and the equipment has been destroyed. The body of Mason Hendricks lies awkwardly on the floor, his torso riddled with bullet holes. Close to him is Oskar Herzog, also perforated in a dozen places. His body is draped over the smashed control panel that might have disabled the MRUUV.
I press the implant in my throat and say, "Colonel, if you're there, I really need to talk to you." But all I receive is silence. "Colonel Lambert? Coen? Anyone?"
I collapse into a chair as a wave of nausea and dizziness overwhelms me. I'm about to lose consciousness when Ming comes in and squats beside me.
"Mr. Fisher," he says, "Americans are here. They're looking for you."
37
ONCEagain I sleep through a series of transitions. My dreams are troubled and feverish. Part of the time I believe I'm back in Towson, Maryland, working out in the gym or practicing Krav Maga with Katia. Then I'm teaching a very young Sarah how to swim in the military base's pool in Germany. Images of Andrei Zdrok and Yvan Putnik interrupt the serenity and suddenly I'm dodging bullets. The final part of it is terrifying. I dream that Third Echelon has Protocol Sixed me and left me to rot in a Chinese prison. I see myself growing old and thin, wasting away until finally there's no reason for me to keep living.
And then I wake up. The first thing my eyes focus upon is the face of Colonel Irving Lambert. He has a goofy grin on his face and he says, "There you are. Welcome aboard, Sam."
My tongue feels heavy and my mouth is dry. "Hi," I say. What did he mean by aboard? Then I'm vaguely aware of a gentle rocking motion. "Where the hell am I?"
"You're aboard the USNS Fisher," he answers. The Fisher? How appropriate. I recall it's one of Military Sealift Command's LMSRs, a large, medium-speed, roll-on, roll-off navy ship, mostly used for transporting armies, equipment, and vehicles. "How long have I been here?" I ask.
"About eight hours. We flew you to Hawaii yesterday afternoon and gave you a sedative to help you sleep. We then dropped you onto the Fishera few hours later and here we are."
"Where are we going?"
"California. We're three hours away. How are you feeling?"
I take stock of my body. There are aches and pains everywhere. My stomach is the worst but it doesn't seem as bad as it was.
"Okay, I guess." I try to sit up and realize I've got an IV in my hand and there's a tight bandage wrapped around my middle. "What's going on?"
"We're building up your strength, Sam. You were dehydrated and had gone without substantial nourishment for what, a week?"
"Something like that."
"You'll be happy to know that your insides are all right. Nothing badly damaged. You had a ruptured peritoneum but by some miracle you didn't develop peritonitis. The doc says you should have received a very bad case of it and perhaps even died, but someone upstairs is looking after you, Sam. The tear in the peritoneum began to heal on its own and you're well on the way to recovery. Doc says it's most likely due to your healthy lifestyle, the fact that your abdominal muscles are in tip-top shape and you do a million sit-ups a day, or whatever it is you do. You're living proof that exercise and diet can save your life. What happened to you, anyway?"
"Andrei Zdrok punched me in the stomach with brass knuckles."
Lambert almost laughed. "I understand you paid him back with interest."
"Yeah? What's happened to him?"
"The Chinese have him in custody. He's in a hospital in Fuzhou and probably not a very good one. You messed him up pretty bad, Sam. The front of his facial bone plate is broken and the orbit of his right eye dropped. If he doesn't die then he'll stand trial for terrorism and espionage in China. He and Eddie Wu, too. They caught him trying to run away from General Tun's base."
"Wait. What happened at the base? The Triad--"
"Your little talk with the head of the Lucky Dragons apparently did some good. The Triad brought an army of three hundred men up from Hong Kong and bombed the place with some Stinger missiles and mortars before rushing in and taking it over. Of course by then most of Tun's men had already moved out. The Lucky Dragons didn't know it, but the Chinese army was three miles away, standing ready for orders from Beijing to do something about General Tun. Those orders never came. When our spy satellites picked up on what was going on, the CIA got together a crew posing as a Red Cross team. They asked for and received permission from China to do a reconnaissance flight over the base for the sole purpose of locating you. We knew you were still alive. Those implants told us that."
"Why didn't you get a message to me? Colonel, I thought I had been . . . I thought you had abandoned me."
"Sam, I won't lie to you," Lambert says. "We almost activated Protocol Six. If Tun had attacked Taiwan and forced us into a skirmish with China, then that's what would have happened all right. We would never have been able to get you out. We couldn't communicate with you because Mason Hendricks was monitoring our transmissions. We had to stay silent. I'm sorry, Sam."
I nod and shrug. "And the Triad?"
"Most of them got away. When they attacked the encampment, Beijing gave the orders for the Chinese forces to storm the base. That happened shortly after the CIA got you out. The Triad dispersed because technically they're traitors. It's a very strange situation. We think China wants General Tun to fail in a big way before he attacks Taiwan so they don't have to lose face in stopping him. If he doesn't mess up, then they'll have to appear as if they're supporting their general. The hard-liners in Beijing agree with Tun's motives. Anyway, some of the Triads were caught and will most likely be tried for treason."
"What about Jon Ming?"
"As far as we know he got away."
"And nothing has happened in Taiwan?"
"Not yet. It's been a standstill for twenty-four hours. Tun has threatened us with his nuke off the coast of California--he won't say where exactly. I'm hoping you have some things to tell us."
"That I do." I proceed to relate everything I learned. That Tun's submarine launched three MRUUVs off the coast of Los Angeles. One of them is armed with the nuke. Since the control panel at the base in Fuzhou is destroyed, the MRUUVs are operated solely from the sub. Lambert confirms that the U.S. was aware of the Chinese sub when it approached American waters but now it's moved out to international waters where it can't be touched. However, Naval Sea Systems Command provided Anna Grimsdottir with all of Professor Jeinsen's MRUUV specifications. She's currently working on how the guidance system can be altered if the correct "barracuda" can be found. Certain satellite technology will be instrumental in locating them in the water.