Hong Kong (50 page)

As the seconds ticked away, the crowd gradually fell silent. All that could be heard was the buzzing of the television helicopter overhead. Looking around, Cole tried to guess how many people were there. A quarter million, he thought, more or less. Most were unarmed, of course, but that was not the point. In human affairs numbers matter.

At precisely seven o'clock, Wu Tai Kwong nodded at Cole and he clicked on an icon.

Alvin York stepped forward, seized the gate, and tore it from its hinges. The robot threw the gate off to one side, then walked through the opening with its head scanning and minigun barrel spinning. Behind it walked the Scarlet Team, and behind them, all the people in the world.

The waiting soldiers threw down their rifles and stood aside. Alvin York and the Scarlet Team walked on by.

The Scarlet Team was not around when the crowd found Governor Sun hiding in a storage closet in a barracks. They dragged him outside and stripped him naked.

By the time Wu and Cole fought their way through the packed humanity, it was too late for Sun. The crowd used their fingernails to

rip the flesh from his bones, then they pulled hts limbs trom their sockets and wrenched them from his body. He screamed some, then succumbed. Even if Wu could have reached Sun's person, it is doubtful that anyone could have stopped the mob.

The blood riot was captured by the television camera a few hundred feet overhead. Fortunately the human wave that swarmed over the base was fairly well-behaved and Wu's armed men were able to prevent wholesale looting of the military stores.

By noon the crowd had thinned considerably, and by midafternoon Wu's lieutenants began herding civilians off the base so they could see what was left.

Wu and Cole departed soon after Sun's death. They had much to accomplish and very little time.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Jake and Callie Grafton went to bed in the consul general's suite in the U.S. consulate while the rebels were fighting the PLA in Kowloon. After the television chopper brought them back to the consulate from the
Barbary Coast,
Jake merely nodded at the marines at the gate, who snapped him smart salutes, and walked through. He informed the consulate duty officer that he was expecting a call from Washington, which was an untruth of a low order of magnitude.

The duty officer was juggling telephones as he tried to coordinate the efforts of the staff, which was trying desperately to keep Washington informed of the progress of the battle in Kowloon as they learned of it. The duty officer muttered "Yessir" at Jake, who wandered off with Callie in hand. When the duty officer was out of sight, Jake made a beeline for Cole's bedroom.

They were under the covers with glasses of champagne on the night-stand ten minutes after they locked the door.

"I have a serious question to ask and I want a serious answer," Callie said.

Jake sipped champagne and wriggled his toes under the silk sheets.
Silf( sheets!
God, how these billionaires lived! "Sure," he said, to humor her.

"Okay, here goes: If you were asked, would you accept an appointment as an officer in the Free Chinese Navy?"

"Have you been mulling that for the last two days?"

"I just wondered. What's your answer?"

"Hell, no. They might not make me an admiral. I'm not going to join anybody's navy unless they make me an admiral."

"What if they offer to make you an admiral?"

"I'd have to think about it."

"Really?"

"No. I'm pulling your leg. Turn out the lights and let's snuggle."

"I'm too sore to make love," she said.

"And I'm too tired. Turn out the lights, lover, and let's pretend until we collapse."

She reached and got the lights. "Do you mean it? If Wu Tai Kwong asks, you'll say no?"

"He won't ask, but if he does, I'll say what an honor it is to be asked, blah blah blah, but unfortunately blah blah blah."

"You're absolutely sure?"

"You and I are hitting the road the first chance we get. We are going back to the land of Coke and hot dogs as fast as we can get there."

"Level with me, Jake."

"You're really serious, aren't you?"

"Yes."

He thought about how he should say it. "If you hadn't been kidnapped, I wouldn't have had to kill those guys tonight. I'm not blaming you; I just don't want to have to fight this fight. This is a Chinese civil war—it's
their
problem. I'm willing to fight for my country and my family, and that's it. Sure, those guys tonight got what they had coming, but I'm not God, don't want His job. If we go home we're out of it. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She
did
understand, and she felt relieved. "I was damned worried about you, Callie. Staring at the spectre of life without you was not pleasant. Maybe it's post-traumatic shock—I don't want you out of my sight, not for the foreseeable future."

"I was pretty worried, too," she whispered. "I kept thinking there was something I should be doing to get out, and I finally calmed down

when I realized you'd come for me if you could. Jake Grafton was my ticket out."

"You're one tough broad, Callie Grafton."

"It's crazy to tell you this: I
knew
you'd come. I could feel your presence." She was going to say more, but he lowered his mouth on hers and the thought got lost somewhere.

It turned out he wasn't too tired and she wasn't too sore.

Afterward, as they lay back-to-back, she remarked, "That's the first time I ever took a bath in a whorehouse," but her husband didn't respond. He was already asleep.

An hour later the telephone rang. After he grappled with the thing, Jake managed to get it up to his ear.

"Grafton."

"That call you were expecting from the states is on line two, sir. Before you answer it... we just received a flash message appointing you the American charge d'affaires in Hong Kong. Orders are coming via satellite now—tomorrow afternoon the American and British navies are bringing a half dozen ships to evacuate non-Chinese citizens who wish to leave."

Jake took a few seconds to digest all that, then said, "Who is on line two?"

"The Secretary of State, sir."

"Thanks." Jake sat up in bed, turned on the light, then pushed the button for line two.

He gave Callie the news while he dressed.

"Oh, Jake, I wanted to go home, too."

"It'll be a few weeks, at least, the Secretary said. The main thing is to get out the non-Chinese people who want to leave."

"Will that be many people?"

"Who knows?" he said as he strapped on the ankle holster. "The real question is what the Communists will do. I assume the rebels will leave Hong Kong soon. Maybe the Communists will try to retake the city. Maybe they'll sail their navy down here and assault the place. I don't know and neither does anyone in Washington. On the other hand, if the Chinese try something big the recon satellites will pick it up and Washington will give us a warning—a few hours, anyway—for what-

ever that's worth." He reached for the shoulder holster, decided he didn't want to wear the heavy Colt, then changed his mind and put it

on.

"Some of the Americans won't leave," Callie said. "And you know that a lot of the British and Australians will refuse to go. This is their home."

"They stay at their own risk. They're betting Wu Tai Kwong and Tiger Cole can protect them. In my opinion, that isn't a very good bet."

He bent over and kissed her. "Get some sleep. If I'm going to be responsible for the way the consulate staff performs, I'd better find out what they're up to."

"I'm not leaving this city without you," she told him as he started out the door.

Jake grinned at her. "I didn't figure you would."

Callie didn't think she could get back to sleep, but she was so exhausted she soon drifted off.

The sun was up and Jake Grafton was drinking coffee at Tiger Cole's desk in the consul general's office when the rebels walked into the army base. He was on the satellite telephone to the State Department when the television showed Governor Sun Siu Ki being torn to pieces by the mob.

The power was on throughout the city, so everyone in Hong Kong who wasn't in the streets got to watch the rebels' final victory.

When the conversation with Washington was over, Jake Grafton went to the window and pulled back the drapes so that the morning sun shone full in the office. He was standing at the window looking out when he heard a voice at the door. Tommy Carmellini, sporting a bandage on his head.

"Just the man I wanted to see. Come in and drink a cup of coffee."

"I hear you're now the head hoo-ha around here."

"Yep. You're still working for me."

"I dunno, Admiral, if I'm up to it. Another night like the last one and I'll be a hospital case."

"Thanks, Tommy, for everything. You saved my wife's life when you figured out that Kent was up to her eyeballs in this mess."

Carmellini was still there when Callie came in.

"Did you get some sleep?" she asked her husband.

"No."

He kissed her and held her awhile before he told her that the rebels had won in Hong Kong. The city was theirs. "At least for a little while," he added under his breath.

The three of them were eating breakfast when the secretary buzzed and announced Cole.

He breezed in, dirty and tired and elated.

"We've won the first campaign," he told them.

"Congratulations."

"And congratulations to you," he said to Jake. "The secretary said you are now the charge d'affaires."

"I'm moving right up the ladder. Who knows how high I'll go? How about some breakfast?"

"I'm starved. Order me some while I tell you all about it."

Jake picked up the telephone and dialed the kitchen. When he hung up, he waited for Cole to finish his summation of the night's adventures, then told him, "A federal grand jury in Washington has issued a warrant for your arrest. Washington announced it an hour ago. You are officially a fugitive."

Cole shrugged. "I volunteered. I'll live with it."

"So where do you guys go from here?"

"Shenzhen, which is a special economic zone right across the border. It's actually sort of a suburb of Hong Kong. We'll cross the bridge this evening and try to take the town. If all goes well, we'll head for Canton in a day or so."

"How are you going to get there?"

"The old-fashioned way—we're walking. We'll move the York units and our heavy weapons and ammo by truck, but the people will have to hoof it. We've got ten thousand men and women under arms, about half of them former soldiers who volunteered. With the trains out of commission, walking is our only viable option."

"Can you win?" Callie asked. "Can you really topple the Communists?"

"If we can convince the people that the Communists have lost the mandate of heaven, the right to rule, then, Yes. Mao Tse Tung always said political power grows from the barrel of a gun, and he couldn't have been more wrong. Every dictator who ever lived believed that

fallacy. The truth is that power comes from the consent ot the governed. So far the public reaction to the rebellion, at least in Hong Kong, has been better than anyone hoped. Wu always argued that the people were ready—events seem to be proving him correct."

"You've bet your life that he was correct," suggested Tommy Car-

mellini.

"Life is meant to be lived," Cole replied and helped himself to a cup

of coffee.

He grinned—a rarity for Tiger Cole—then offered a coffee toast, "To life and good friends, wherever they are."

They were finishing their breakfast at the conference table by the window, enjoying the morning sun and their last hour together, when the secretary burst through the door. "Admiral, I'm sorry, but—"

He was knocked out of the way by Charlie York. The one-armed robot limped into the room and took up a position near the window, facing the three people around the breakfast table. A few wires hung from the robot's shoulder where its arm had been attached, and the minigun turret was visibly damaged. The skin was spattered with a dark substance, probably a mixture of blood and mud.

Behind the robot came Sonny Wong and Kerry Kent. Kent's nose was taped in position on her face. A portable York control unit hung from a strap around her neck.

Sonny Wong had a pistol in his hand, a nasty-looking automatic. He pointed it at Cole, then at Grafton, as he said, "Sorry to interrupt your breakfast, my friends, but we owed you a social call."

"The marines let them in, sir," the secretary squeaked, "because they thought they were with Mr. Cole."

Sonny pointed the pistol at the secretary. "If anybody comes through that door I'm going to shoot these people and turn loose the York. Tell that to the marines. Now get out!"

The man went, pulling the door closed behind him. Kerry Kent sat in the consul general's desk chair and put the control unit on the desk. Jake saw that she was stirring the cursor around while Wong talked.