I turned to my ‘team’ and sat down once more at the table, as the four of us came together and they might understand why I’d made the strongly worded requests to Robert Burns that I had.

“We aren’t going to need or want heavy weapons of any sort and no pyrotechnics either,” I said, before going on. “I wanted Burns to know that this is going to be a high-risk mission and stay the hell away. Fear of getting shot or killed may do a better job than any cautioning I might have done. The last thing we need is any of his amateur staff wanting to get a piece of the action, the way they might see it, to impress him.

“The other reason?” Kingsley asked.

“You don’t miss much, do you Ben?” I asked, with a genuine smile.

“Erhard purportedly kept the photos of my family to send me a message that I could also be personally vulnerable and that I would not be acting without having skin in the game, so to speak.”

“Purportedly?” Kingsley asked, “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means that we are basing almost everything we’re doing on verbalizations. I know Erhard understands that someone has been sent to interdict his plan to sell to the Chinese. How he found that out we’ll never know. The Agency might even have told him. My trust level there is still low. The fact that he is apparently going to see me, as there’s no plan being discussed to launch an assault on whatever place he’s staying also means that this is probably a price thing as well as what Herbert told me about a good chunk of that price nobody else on the planet could ever offer.”

I reached into the wallet box and picked out my new Mont Blanc.

“Get me the notepad by the phone over there,” I said to Wing, who immediately ran to that small table and grabbed it.

“We don’t have known security in this place, or anywhere in Hong Kong, including the embassy. Maybe once aboard the plane but I don’t know about that either.” I wrote some big bold letters on the pad, tore the top sheet off, and reread it before folding the sheet in half and handing it to Kingsley.

“The Agency has seen fit to grant Erhard clemency and allow him to return to the USA from which he was stricken for a variety of violations unknown. No one else can grant him access to either his huge following in the U.S. or to his nuclear family located there.”

Kingsley read the short message and then handed it to Nguyen.

“Not a recipe for violence but there was a little more we’ll discuss later,” once we get some idea where we are going, when, and also what might be able to expect. Erhard doesn’t sound terrified, or he wouldn’t have pulled that stunt on me when I arrived…or just maybe the whole affair got a little out of control. Without Wing here I might have been seriously or terminally compromised.”

“So, you are saying Taipan, that this should be what we call a walk in the park in America?” Kingsley asked, although he didn’t phrase the remark as a question at all.

“So far, with the Agency, I’ve learned that there’s no such thing or I wouldn’t have been brought in all this way. There’s danger and I am supposed to be the point for that, like I’m an FNG in the A Shau Valley again. From what I’ve figured out so far, Erhard knows about the offer and isn’t taking it. He knew about me coming, and was able, probably with his planted cult followers, to interdict me as I arrived at the airport…and then didn’t kill me. He watched me survive like a bug with a pin through it that’s on the wall but not dead yet and doesn’t know why it can’t get down off the wall.”

There was a faint knocking at the front door.

“Must not be anybody important,” I murmured, turning to face in that direction and getting ready to acknowledge the intrusion, although that proved unnecessary as there was no verbal announcement.

The door opened and a man dressed in a black suit, carrying a thin leather briefcase walked into the room, right behind my room attendant.

“Mr. Smith, a courier from the United States Embassy is here to see you, sir,” my room attendant said, before bowing and departing.

The man named Smith, humorous as the name seemed, didn’t bother to confirm nor deny his name or what he was. He merely laid what was really a folded folio on the surface next to me, undid the two narrow belts, and removed a document which he held close to his chest.

“Would you please sign for acceptance, upon producing U.S. photo identification?”

I sighed. I had my Amex card back but no driver’s license or anything else that might satisfy the man, but I knew I needed the document as it had to be from Herbert. Nobody else, outside of some of the Marines at the embassy who knew I was in Hong Kong but not likely knowing I was staying at the Regent.

“My U.S. passport is in the possession of the front desk manager located in the lobby. Do you want to accompany me there to get what you apparently need?”

I got up from my chair, as ‘Smith’ had already turned to head for the door he’d just come through.

Once back in the lobby, the approach to the front desk took no time at all. I showed the passport to the courier and he headed out. I walked back to the front desk and told the clerk there that I was keeping my passport. She looked back at me but said nothing, which surprised me. Was I entitled to keep it and still stay checked in or was I to be checked out because of broken protocol? I moved to the center of the lobby and sat on a couch before taking the document out of its unmarked envelope and reading the contents. I looked around carefully for either cameras, which so many hotels were adding, or anyone who might be the least suspicious but there was no one of any kind in the vicinity of the spot I’d chosen.

My eyebrows went up at to whom was addressed at the beginning of the short paragraph of more printing. It was addressed to 4416. That was the address number on Magnolia in Albuquerque to my home. That address was never used to receive mail as I’d already been advised to have a P.O. box or different place to get my mail, and then make sure the address given to get such a distant address was not my home address. I presumed that the United States Post Office would frown on my doing that, but nobody said anything when the box was rented.

The paragraph detailed exactly where Erhard was located on a mountainside called Victoria Peak and referenced a photograph. I checked inside the envelope again and discovered a very detailed and clear picture of some estate dug into the mountain to one day become, apparently, Erdman’s home away from home.

“Eyes only,” was stamped in red between the edge of the photo and the edge of the paper or parchment or whatever material the image had been transferred to. A smaller line under the red stamp said, “Destroy at earliest convenience- highly flammable.” I smiled to myself, wondering why whoever had put the exempt diplomatic pouch container together had not added a pack of matches. The instructions were clear as to what Erhard was already offered, without his accepting it, and indicated that 4416 should exercise limited full approval with no reservations except the application of ‘cautious wisdom.’ If Mr. Erhard should find no middle ground to reconsider and come along or Mr. Erhard’s ground should be removed from under him.

I reread the note twice more, trying to comprehend the arcane way the wording was laid down. What in hell would be considered ‘cautious wisdom,’ and by whom, after the mission was over? What did removing the ground from beneath Erhard truly mean? Putting him in the ground would have been a plain and understandable order that could be either agreed to or denied. How did one say no to the way it was really worded, however?

I stood up, looking around once more before tucking the photo and the message back into the envelope. I walked back to the front desk and asked for a cigarette lighter.

“Here’s a disposable BIC which you can keep at no charge, sir,” she said with a smile.

I thanked her and walked straight toward the Lobby Lounge which had not filled yet with a lunch crowd. Everything ran late in Hong Kong except appointments, or so I’d heard from Wing. Appointments were invariably kept to the minute, just as Burns had returned just as he said he would, right on time. Lunch and dinner were served late, as they were in most countries in Europe. Touching was also to be abstained from, in an area of the world much more crowded than downtown Manhattan. There would be no kissing of maiden’s hands or patting friends or subordinates on the back either.

I walked through the mostly empty restaurant until I reached the far end, where I’d seen a door. Pushing through the door allowed me to see a set of concrete stairs that led down to a jetty by the water, exactly as I’d hoped. Once on the jetty I pulled the documents from the envelope and steadily, but also a bit clumsily, ignited the corners of the photo, the letter, and even the envelope. I let them burn until almost extinguished before tossing the remains into the murky filthy harbor water.

I went back inside the way I’d come out and rode the elevator up to my floor, thinking back to my first room when staying in Seoul. The cheapest room, which I had had, was right next to the ding-dong ringing elevator that ran all night long and I wanted to make certain I never booked such a room again.
My room attendant saw me coming and opened the door without saying a word. Later I would discover that the entire hotel was run through with small telephones located in black boxes set into the walls almost everywhere. A client of my supposed stature would probably have generated half a dozen phone calls as to where I was likely headed before I ever got there.

The door didn’t close behind me as I’d expected, as my room attendant had followed me inside. Stepping up next to me he held out one hand toward a stocky stranger with short red hair near the table where Kingsley still sat. Neither Wing nor Nguyen were visible, but I knew they had to be somewhere close by.

“I have the honor to introduce Mr. Murphy, an executive with Mr. Burns’s company operating the Regent Hotel of Hong Konk,” my attendant stated as if the introduction had been recently prepared for him.

“Murphree,” the man corrected, having turned to face me while waiting for the unexpected introduction. “It’s Scottish, not Irish, although it’s said the origin is indeed from Eire, although the word is pronounced ‘Ava’ by those unfortunate bastards.” He smiled then and held out his hand.

“You’d be the special man Mr. Burns told us about?” I asked, taking his hand and gauging the man’s grip as I adjusted my own to meet and fit it.

“Recently of the SAS,” he said then, changing everything I had begun to think of him. The British SAS was quite possibly the best special operations outfit in the world. Even the U.S. Marine Force Reconnaissance units, Army Special Forces, Navy Seals, and many more fell short of this famed unit’s exploits, training, and difficulty in qualifying for and then remaining a member of.

Murphree looked to be about thirty-five, meaning he’d likely been SAS for almost fifteen or more years. Burns was no slouch in picking ‘special’ employees.

“Did Mr. Burns fill you in on what we are about to do?” I asked.

“Mr. Burns told me to do whatever it is you want me to do and get whatever it is you want me to get in a damned straight away manner.”

“Well, that’s good news,” I said truthfully, “And one potential result would be to remove the ground from under the target’s feet.” I waited as the smaller but more powerful man thought about the question.

“Ursa Nitrate, explosive velocity of just over forty-five hundred meters per second would make a grand pushing substance, demanding more arcane material than say C-4 which blows at about eighty-four hundred but that would make a sound likely heard all the way in Shanghai.”

I looked at the man and was impressed and my facial expression showed it. He was the real thing, and his numbers and knowledge of ballistics were spot on.

Murphree smiled then. “A test, that was a test, was it not? How did I do?”

“Yes,” I lied, laughing with him, having already decided that we were not going to blow up part of Victoria Peak with any kind of explosive.

We settled on a Colt .45 which would likely just make me feel comfortable in a potentially dangerous theater of potential violence, while Nguyen and Kingsley would carry factory-built bull barrel-silenced .22 caliber magnums which, for reasons unknown, Murphree had on hand. Two flash-bang grenades would clear the area of workers, neighbors, or anyone else close in if violent actions were called for.

“The magnum cartridges are downloaded to drop the delivery under sonic limits or sound, but I must tell you that meetings or business get-togethers requiring such equipment are not common in Hong Kong,” Murphree once more demonstrated his ballistics knowledge and then prepared to leave and get what we needed. I didn’t ask him why such exotic killing weapons were so readily on hand if Hong Kong never needed for them. He turned and looked at me oddly.

“And…” I said, wondering what he was waiting for.

“Like old times…” he replied, not making a move toward the door.

“You want to come?” I asked, finally getting it, while beginning to think that Murphree hadn’t seen as much action as I’d first thought, because those who’ve seen the nightmare chaos and experienced the real terror and horror of combat seldom want to return to more of it…unless they’d stayed at such things too long and grown to like living inside such insanity. The other possibility was that Burns wanted his own man on the scene to report back or potentially take over if things went in some direction toward a conclusion he didn’t want.

“We’ll need special ear plugs if the Colt or the flash-bangs are brought into play,” Murphree replied, accepting the offer I hadn’t directly made, by using the word ‘we.’ Site disposal will be handled by some of my people who will be there dressed as utility workers and an EMT emergency vehicle must be nearby so we can exit the scene with speed and arrive at the airport in short order.”

“You’re getting on the plane?” I asked, surprised by how much planning the man had already done and covering the areas of my plan I hadn’t even considered, which made me feel faintly embarrassed as his plans seemed to nicely fill in the holes in mine.

The man knew so much which also meant my guess had been correct about the sumptuous suite being fully bugged. I was most definitely and obviously not equipped for such a civilian operation. The A Shau’s secrets, revealed to FNGs when they were dying, and the rest of us at well-chosen distances, were violent, abrupt, and obvious after the fact. Civilian or special unit operations were a whole lot more complex, and I was now proving that I was one of those effing new guys in putting my first one together. I didn’t want Murphree along, but I suddenly realized that I needed him, not just for his equipment but for his experience.

“About time I return stateside and see the family,” Murphree replied, “now I’ll go and return with what we need. I’ll dispatch the support teams before we depart ourselves. The hotel limo will transport us since the target is aware of Burns’ role in whatever this really turns out to be.”

I loved the old Jaguar sedans that served as Regent limos, so that idea pleased me. It wasn’t being seen in the gray Jags that I liked so much, it was my imagination in traveling in such a vehicle. I could be a notable in my own mind, which, after meeting so many unhappy real notables, was enough.

Murphree departed and went to do the things he had to do to make the whole thing work, or to make sure that if things didn’t work that they would be survivable, at least for me and the members of my team.

I excused myself and went down to the lobby to call my wife. When I got there and reserved a booth the front desk clerk uncharacteristically asked where I was placing the call to. I hesitated and then told her it was to New Mexico in the U.S. She informed me that it was about two in the morning there. I stared back at the woman across the counter, before shyly smiling.

“Thanks, please cancel the booth reservation,” I said, looking at my new Rolex to check the time. There had been no book in the box, but I hadn’t searched the entire contents of the ornate container either. I knew the watch could tell me the time in New Mexico if I set it properly but that education would have to come later.

I headed toward the elevators until I saw Burns sitting in the lobby near the entrance to the Lobby restaurant. I changed direction and walked to where he was sitting with a man dressed in an Arab headpiece and full-flowing robes.

As I walked up both Burns and Arab stood up.

“Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Prince of Saudi Arabia,” Burns declared, in a hushed voice.

The prince bowed slightly and extended the fingers of his right hand, not his open hand. I hesitantly gripped his fingers lightly and then let them go, wondering why Burns hadn’t followed up in introducing the obviously important man with a mention of my name.

“Mr. Burns indicated that you do sensitive work, and I would like to meet you later today, if possible, to discuss some additional sensitive work.”

I didn’t recoil back at the prince’s delivery of such a strange comment but now understood why Burns hadn’t given my name. Burns was waiting for me to tell the prince whatever name I chose for this strange occasion of being introduced.

“I’ll return from my duties in a few hours if that would be convenient,” I replied. “I assume I can reach you…” and I stopped talking, as three men attired like the prince but wearing black bands around their headpieces instead of gold, closed in on us.

“While you are away it would be convenient if one of my people waited in the hall with your room attendant if you would approve,” the prince said, his tone and presentation feeling every bit like it was coming from a real prince used to being obeyed in an instant and completely.

“Of course, your Highness,” I replied, wondering how I was going to avoid meeting the prince in my rush to get on the plane and get out of Asia as fast as I could.

“Royal highness, he means,” Burns added.

“A pleasure Your Royal Highness,” I corrected, “and I will look forward to our meeting. I must go and call my wife.”

The prince waved one hand slightly in obvious agreement and dismissal.

I went back to the front desk and got a booth.

In booth number two I called the agency. The attendant, after I checked in, indicated the indelicate time in D.C. which I ignored, only letting him know that my need to talk to Herbert was a ‘flash’ need, the common term taken from the media for emergency traffic coming from a reporter in the field.

“What the hell’s gone wrong?” Hebert asked, obviously displeased by the time of the call.

“A Saudi prince named Bandar was just introduced to me by Robert Burns, and the prince wants me to meet with him to possibly perform a ‘sensitive’ job. What do I do as I want to leave Hong Kong as soon as possible right after the mission?”

“Jesus Christ, how do you do it?” Herbert replied, but I didn’t respond as I knew he wasn’t asking me anything.

After a short delay, Herbert continued, “I’ve got to take this upstairs but it’s not a good time. You have to meet with the man. We have to know what he wants and how you must handle it. Meeting him is of great importance as no one from our company has ever met with this bastard prince.”

“Bastard prince?” I asked in shock.

“He’s the son of a slave woman now part of the royal family and growing rapidly in stature,” Herbert replied and then hung up.

I stood, phone receiver in hand. That was it. I had to meet with the prince and in doing so I was on my own. I couldn’t leave on the flight until that meeting was over, which didn’t sit well with me, but I also knew I had absolutely no choice.

I went to the elevators and then to my room, the elevator tones dinging away reminding me of the Arguello song played continuously while the Alamo was falling to Santiago.

Somehow, Murphree was back already, waiting with my three friends, all sitting at the table we’d occupied earlier.

“Weapons with carriers and grenades will be issued in the limo, which is waiting. The workers will have been dispersed and well paid to be so by the time we arrive, and the others will be positioned on-site for whatever assistance is needed,” Murphree said.

“Already?” I could not help asking.

“What role do you want me to play? My bag is packed, and will be at the plane for our departure.”

“No role,” I said, “Unless everything turns to crap, and then you’ll know what to do. The men here already have a good idea of what you can do and what you are.”

Murphree passed out small containers holding his special earplugs. “Put them in any time before we get there, as they won’t diminish smaller sounds or human voices unless there’s a sound above a certain decibel level.”

“Make sure the limo driver understands that we must come back here where I have a meeting before we head to the airport. I’ll meet alone in the room with that person. Wing returns to the hotel and takes up his life here. Nguyen and Kingsley, you stay with the limo and make certain it waits for me. If things go south during the mission, and there’s violence that goes down, then survivors head directly to the airport and depart as quickly as possible. Wing, you would then make your own way back to Burns and the hotel at that point.”

I wanted to let him know that we needed to talk before I left the area but there was no time.

“Wing, find me through Burns after I’m gone,” was all I could think to say before looking at the rest.

“Questions?” I asked.

There were no questions, and in truth, I hadn’t expected any. Nguyen and Kingsley had been in combat, so they knew there would be no point in going through possible scenarios. If things went to hell, then logic would fly right past us all along with bullets and pyrotechnics.

“Wing, we might need you at the airport for culture and language if things get dicey.”

Wing nodded but said nothing. His life had changed dramatically since he’d met and helped me out, better than even I’d hoped, but we had no time to discuss that or the future.

I pointedly took the small eraser-sized plugs from their little plastic container and stuck them into my ear canals as deeply as they would go. I’d packed my bag and wanted to have it in the limo in case we weren’t coming back to the hotel, so I grabbed it and headed for the door which opened before I could get to it. No more instructions or communications needed to be made to the men I was with that I could come up with.

The ride was faster than I’d thought it might be, given that the cross-harbor tunnel was only two lanes each way, but for some reason the traffic was light. The drive up the narrow curving road up Victoria Peak took most of the time but we were still able to arrive before noon if the time on my Rolex was right, and I was certain it was.

The construction site, with foundations dug into the side of the hill, was abandoned, Murphree’s work having been completely effective. I wondered what kind of cash that had cost Burns, which also reminded me that I knew nothing about what his role was in anything I was being ordered to do. There was a modern motor home parked just off the road in front of the site.

Nguyen and Kingsley wore holsters over their shirts as there was no point in concealment at this juncture. I carried the .45 in a rig under my left arm for a cross-draw if necessary. Wing was unarmed while Murphree carried everything he’d brought in an athletic bag, so what his personal weapon was remained unknown. I opened and stepped through the motor home door without knocking, hoping our target was inside. I made no move to unholster the .45.

A man sat behind a desk, facing the door, just back from the vehicle’s driver’s seat and steering complex. I went up the three steps and stood in front of the desk.

“You,” Erhard said, his tone one of a whisper more than a clearly spoken word.

I’d extended my right hand out to him but slowly let it fall back to my side, my fake smile smoothing itself out to remain impassive.

“It was a long way back there,” Erhard said, this time speaking clearly. “Those things that you know that you don’t want to know,’ if I recall your original comment of the time.”

“Actually, it was ‘the things that you don’t know that you don’t want to know.’”

“They found you somehow and sent you here to see me for what arcane purpose,” Erhard replied, shaking his head, as I recognized that his ego had probably grown way too large to allow admitting a mistake.

“Yes, I’m here, with my friends.”

“You should have come to work with me back then,” he said, still not evidencing any curiosity in why I was standing in front of him at all. “What brings you up to Victoria Peak?” he asked, in a way that made it sound like we were tourists visiting the area.

“I was sent because you can’t go home, which I know you know. I want to make sure you understand that your back taxes owing will be forgiven, the felonies you’ve been charged with will be withdrawn and your United States passport will again be valid.”

“I already know all that,” the man said with an audible short laugh. “You’re here about the money. I wondered how long it would take them to get their act together, but I expected some ambassadorial type or long-time accounting bureaucrat to show up, not a nearly make-believe action figure.”

The plastic G.I. Joe fictional toy soldier’s image filled my head, and I wanted to laugh myself or inform him that G.I. Joe was Army and I was a Marine, but I instead decided to wait. There had been no mention of any money, although in thinking about his statement I knew the Chinese, who could offer none of the things I’d listed, probably were offering a significant amount of cash for the information and the exclusivity of it.

“Three million in a government check or cash will do it, along with the other things you mention since I won’t be able to stay here, which also means I would need to leave Hong Kong for home immediately. If you must consult with someone then I will understand but the next time we talk the amount will be five million.”

I closed my eyes and ran one hand across my face in a slow massaging way. The man in front of me was brilliant, there was no question about that, but he was playing with fire and not understanding just how flammable he might be. He was a gifted motivator and businessman, working now on me to motivate and do business. What he wasn’t was a player of the ‘game’ he’d dropped himself into.

“I’m not here about the money, and neither are my friends. I’m here about your condition should you be rejoining your family back home.” I said the words slowly and flatly so Erhard might just be able to read a message of a deeper and more serious mortality threat than he’d ever experienced before.

“Hence the action figure and not the ambassador or accountant” Erhard immediately replied, his tone so light and casual that it caused me to wonder if I’d been wrong about his being a real player.

“There’s a United States Air Force C-141 Starlifter cargo plane with all four engines being constantly refueled and running at the airport right now. No customs, no immigration, and little time. I have complete carte blanch, so I need no consultations with anyone.”

The courier-delivered document was folded up and in my breast pocket but I didn’t want to have to show it to him if it wasn’t necessary.

“So, what you’re telling me is that we make a deal or I’m a dead man?” Erhard said, his tone, however, was not one of humor or disbelief.

“We four are action figures, not ambassadors or accountants,” I repeated his own words back to him, my body completely unmoving, my breathing gentle and slow.

Only my steady stare with unblinking blue eyes gave me away at all as to what might have to transpire if Erhard said no. I didn’t want to hurt the man, in the worst way, but I knew I would if required, as thousands of lives were likely at stake. The Chinese could eliminate the threat they perceived by simply rounding up all the gamblers, regardless of position, and summarily executing them.

Erhard sat still, his eyes directed out through the motor home side window, which was angled and tilted enough to see most of all Kowloon down in the distance.

“It’s your call,” I finally said, holding my body still, my hands down but ready to move instantly, with Nguyen and Kingsley flanking me to each side but slightly back.

<<<<<< The Beginning |