Crime was still on the increase. Every store was empty and often burnt to the ground, but underneath the snow, people lived away from the wind-chill factor that was present on a daily basis, and many dug tunnels from one house to the other and became scavengers, eating whatever they could find.
Luckily, the temperatures had been near or below freezing for most of the time since January 1st, because it kept the millions of dead bodies frozen, but once it warmed up, most people who were still alive had plans to evacuate the high population areas. These places would become cesspools of rotting corpses and diseases once spring arrived.
Many had already tried and found places as far south as they could go in the States, but winter was long and it would take months to walk to the warmer areas of Florida, Texas, and even Mexico.
Here, gangs had begun to get very powerful, had daily battles for territory control, and killed indiscriminately. Thousands died on a daily basis. Unfortunately, there really was no better place to go. Most people shot first before asking who was there, and nobody was safe.
*****
On the other hand, Panama was much warmer than the northern states, and gang violence was nonexistent due to the 10,000 Chinese soldiers who were in control of the area around the canal. It was probably one of the safer places to be at the moment.
Mo Wang, holding a suitcase in each hand and dressed in local attire, including a Panama hat, walked down a street in Puerto De Balboa, a couple of hundred yards from the massive Naval ships being supplied, and looking very much like a tourist. It had been a long journey to get off the ships.
Once they had dropped anchor to take on fuel and supplies from the military supply ships already there, he had carefully packed his two suitcases with some clothes and three satellite radios, his smaller suitcase of money, and all the valuables he had. He got himself and the suitcases aboard a large woven supply basket, about the size of a basket used by a hot air balloon.
The basket and several others like it hung from two thick ropes and transferred food stuffs across the water from one ship to another. It was impossible to get down to sea level from the aircraft carrier and he waited for dark before he made his move. The crew was hard at work transferring supplies from the smaller ship to the aircraft carrier’s supply doors three floors higher than the supply ship itself. He waited carefully until one of the baskets arrived and was unloaded before he made his move. Mo Wang walked up to the now empty basket, threw in his cases, told the sailors manning the basket that he was going to have a meeting with the supply ship’s captain, got in the empty basket, and was transferred to the supply ship within five minutes.
Nobody had expected him, or questioned him. It wasn’t their duty. He gave a few sailors on the other side a shock when his head suddenly appeared and he climbed over the side with his two suitcases and demanded where the captain was.
He was escorted halfway there when he told the sailors that their services weren’t needed anymore and asked if smaller boats from the Panama shore had made any appearances selling goods. He was told that they had, during the daylight hours, on the shore side of the ship and opposite the side of where the aircraft carrier towered over the smaller supply ship.
He slept through the rest of the warm night in a lifeboat, out of the way and under a tarp, and awoke to much noise early the next morning. There were at least 30 boats of all types close to the ship’s side several floors below and, carrying his belongings, he arrogantly walked down the stairs, as close to the small boats selling their wares as he could.
Nobody seemed interested in him, and since the Chinese sailors were busy with the supplies, he reached a crane-looking winch where most of the small boats had congregated. Two armed guards were there making sure that nobody used the crane to lift themselves into the boat. Mo Wang asked the men if they knew who knew how to work the winch because he needed to hitch a ride to shore to look for some girls for the officials on the aircraft carrier.
They automatically asked what was in the suitcases, and Mo Wang looked at them as if they were stupid and replied that they were full of money—useless money to entice the girls aboard. Not thinking that they had any control over what the officials wanted, they allowed the official-looking man to get into the smaller woven basket and he was winched down the three levels to the boats below.
The vendors tried to sell him fruit and clothing, but he finally motioned with his hands and in bad English stated that he wanted to go to shore. One boat captain, his boat a little bigger than the others, pushed his way through and asked in English what he was prepared to pay for the 300-yard boat ride to terra firma. He had already pulled three $100 American bills out of the thousands in his suitcase. The man agreed and then pointed to Mo’s old Rolex wristwatch. To Mo who had a lot of money, it was a fair deal for his 10-minute ride. Expensive, but at least he would be free, and his Rolex was 20 years old anyway. He was sure that he could find a replacement if he needed to know the time in his new world, which seemed unimportant at this precise moment.
He walked along the road in Puerto De Balboa and realized that even though little had changed here, it was still a port and a far more dangerous place than he was used to. He searched and located two Chinese soldiers walking around, he presumed to keep order, and he ordered them to escort him to a hotel or place of safety since he had important orders from his comrades on board the military ships.
His Chinese identification made them come to attention and salute him, and together they walked for an hour towards the better part of town where they found a decent hotel on the outskirts of Panama City and opposite a large bus depot where it seemed that old and colorful buses were still running.
Mo Wang thanked his two guards, gave them an American $100 bill each, and they seemed extremely happy, telling him the American money still worked well in Panama.
He then paid a $100 American Ben Franklin, got several local notes in return as change for two nights, and checked into the hotel under his real name. He went up to his room and changed into clothing that he had bartered for with the boat owner while he was bringing Mo into the harbor. He left his Chinese clothes in his room, one suitcase with warm clothing he wouldn’t need, pulled out a couple more Ben Franklins in case he needed to purchase something, and walked out of the back door, his remaining red suitcase in his left hand, the silver money suitcase in his right hand. With the large Panama-style hat covering his head, Mo Wang took the first bus out of town an hour later.
Being a man of means, he already had three passports, one Chinese, one American, and one British, all with his photo in them with different Chinese names. The first bus out of town was going north. It wasn’t that he really wanted to go north, but it was the first bus out of town and it was heading into San Jose, Costa Rica and could hitch him up with points even further north.
Mo Wang didn’t really know where to go, but he had heard nice things about Honduras, and an island called Roatán just off the coast of Honduras, where one of Lee Wang’s aunts had moved years earlier. It sounded better living on a small island than on the more dangerous mainland. He had enough money to last him the rest of his life, and he could start all over again, maybe becoming a fisherman, or a chicken farmer—something simple.
*****
The chairman hadn’t thought or cared about Mo Wang for a couple of days. He had more urgent things to do, like go over the battle plans with his ship’s captains and the several colonels on board the ships to make sure that the attack was successful.
The Chinese fighters had completed several take-offs and landings on the carrier deck and only one aircraft had been destroyed so far. The pilot had missed the catch-rope across the deck and the aircraft had fallen over the end of the ship, taking a couple of soldiers manning an anti-aircraft gun with him.