Girl Rides the Wind (20 page)

“This is important,” Connie said, “…important enough for the Admiral to send us here.”

“Important enough for you to fill me in on what is likely to be the end of my career?”

“You don’t need to know more than that a couple of Marines are depending on what you decide to do next.”

“Even if I wanted to help you, all we have here is a couple of Ospreys, and there’s no way I can justify taking one of those out of service, not to mention the fuel and the crew… and are you even cleared to fly one of those things?”

“That’s all you have?”

“There’s a four-seat chopper, but it doesn’t have the range for a grid-search, and even if you stumbled on them, you couldn’t pick them off the water in that. If you could give me something to take to the CO, maybe I could get an authorization…”

“This is strictly need to know…”

“… and my CO doesn’t need to know, is that it?”

“Nope.”

“Does SECNAV need to know?”

Perry picked himself off the throne he’d constructed out of packs, and decided to investigate this stubborn lieutenant whose voice seemed so familiar. Craning his neck around Connie, when he saw who it was, he pushed past her into the shed.

“Kathy Gunderson, is that you?

“Yes, sir, Lieutenant Commander.” She’d snapped to attention as soon as she saw him. “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

“She’s no use to us,” Connie said.

“What’s on your mind, Lieutenant?”

“What, exactly, is a SEAL officer and an ONI spook… no offense intended, ma’am…”

“None taken. It’s a fair question. I wish we could tell you.”

“What’s so important about these two Marines that you would run an op off the books…”

“It’s Tenno.” Perry blurted out the sensitive information Connie had been tap-dancing around. “She’s one of the Marines. That’s who we’re looking for.”

An awkward silence gripped the room for a long, uncomfortable moment. Perry took a deep breath and glanced over at Gunderson, whose chin trembled, before she spoke.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me? I mean, all due respect, but…”

“What difference does it make?” Connie asked. “You’ve already made it abundantly clear…”

“I know where we can find a six-seat Otter.”

“An Otter?” Perry asked.

“Pontoon-style?” Connie asked.

“Yup, and with a range over nine hundred miles at sea level, we should have seven hours of search time.”

“We?”

“Sorry, Lieutenant,” Perry said. “It’s like you said, this whole thing is off the books. We can’t ask you to make a sacrifice like that.”

“It’s likely to be dangerous,” Connie added.

“How dangerous is a sea rescue likely to be?”

A sickly smile crept across Perry’s face as he watched the lieutenant trying to process what they were telling her. “Have you forgotten who it is we’re searching for?”

“Fair enough, but no plane if I’m not coming.”

“Are you willing to go UA?” Perry asked, but Connie had already fished a sat-phone from her pack.

“Yes, Admiral,” Perry heard her say. “We’ll need you to pull some strings to get her a leave.”

“It looks like you’re in, Lieutenant,” he said. “We’re also going to need some ordinance.”

“I can’t help you there, sir.”

“I’ve already got a lead on what we’ll need,” Connie said, once she’d ended the call.

G
yoshin shook
her head when she heard the shriek coming from downstairs. Her brother was glued to the latest news reports on the little TV Hana kept in the kitchen, the only TV
Ojii-san
ever allowed in the house. It probably wasn’t wise to leave him alone with her. The old woman came running up the stairs with the bad news, her face streaming tears.

“It’s okay, Hana.” Gyoshin touched her hand, a tiny gesture to reassure her, though it wasn’t as effective as she’d hoped. A hug might have been appropriate under such circumstances, in a different household, but not this one, at least not yet.
What more can I do for her?
Perhaps she ought to make an effort to appear more surprised. “We’ll be safe here.”

In the way one does when confronted with a sudden shock, Hana had convinced herself that riots would engulf the entire country. Some civil unrest had already emerged, but the main uprisings in Tokyo and Osaka would not happen until that evening and the next morning, that is if Jin’s plans went off without a hitch.

“Hey, Sis, are you seeing this?” her brother called up from the landing.

“Yes,” she said, lying. Why did she need to see her own handiwork?

“Commandos attacked the Crown Prince’s family and kidnapped the little princess.”

Gyoshin waited to hear the second half of the report in her brother’s voice, that the Crown Prince and Princess were dead, but strangely he said nothing further.
Something’s wrong
, she thought as she pushed past him on the stairs, rushing to get to Hana’s TV to see for herself.

Sitting in the corner of the main counter, its rabbit ears stretched under the cabinet and making for a snowy image, the TV blared it’s primary message: Attack on the Imperial family. A news ticker stretched along the bottom of the screen with details that emerged at an infuriatingly slow pace – an organized attack; an unknown paramilitary force; the security team overwhelmed as the Crown Prince toured Amami Oshima, an island some two hundred miles south of Kagoshima; severe casualties; the Samurai guard were able to secure the Crown Prince and Princess; unfortunately their daughter appears to be missing.

As soon as she saw the news confirmed by a member of the Imperial Household Agency, Gyoshin stepped out the back door and paced through Hana’s garden.

“Diao’s men failed,” she said in to the mobile phone, as loudly as she dared. “The Crown Princess is still alive.”

“I saw it too,” Jin said, her voice as cool as ever.

“There’s no mention of American involvement. Have we heard from Otani?”

“All she knows is that the girl is listed as missing. They think she’s lost at sea.”

Gyoshin’s head swam with the news, glancing at the possibilities, but unable to focus on any of them. If Diao’s people failed to capture the American, it would be harder to implicate them. But the situation might still be salvageable. The government would fall regardless, and Jin’s people were already in position to place the principal figures under house arrest, though it might be necessary to keep them alive a little longer than originally planned. Her thoughts kept returning to the central fact – the American girl was unaccounted for.
Could she still be alive?
Gyoshin needed to be angry at this turn of events, if only for Jin’s sake, but some part of her was relieved at the thought.

“We’ll need to move deliberately now.”

“The video of the
hafu
holding Princess Toshi will air on the evening news,” Jin said. “That’s almost as good as finding her body at the scene. Once a suitable pitch of outrage is attained, we can move against the Crown Princess.”

“Are the army units in position?”

“Yes. The opposition party is already calling for a suspension of trading on the Nikkei, which should cause a panic, and the troops have surrounded the Diet. The situation will be stabilized shortly after midnight, in time to respond to a massive demonstration that will take place in Tokyo. Have you taken care of things on your end?”

“Our man in the Household Agency is preparing
Tenno Heika
to announce a loss of confidence in the government. We should arrange our press conference for shortly after that. Once we broadcast, the Household Agency will close the palace to all news media.”

The thought of standing next to Soga Jin in front of the cameras would have terrified Gyoshin a few months ago, so short and slight compared to her elegant co-conspirator, like Caliban at the elbow of a fashion model. But so much had changed since then, and now she even relished the prospect to the point of thinking that next to her, Jin would appear to a frightened populace more like a foreign adventurer than the representative of one of the nation’s ancient, trusted families.

She’d have to meet the Sogas in Tokyo later that day, and had arranged for her car service to come by within the hour – a perk of the job she was beginning to appreciate the usefulness of. Another perk: she’d arranged for a personal bodyguard for herself and Mr. Saito. His was for appearances, but hers was so she could avoid being pressured into joining Jin’s armed entourage. Saito-san wouldn’t give it a second thought.

“Where’s Grandfather?” Her brother finally noticed the old man’s absence, even though he still stood on the landing, not even confident enough as an adult to engage with him directly. Gyoshin pushed past him and tossed a casual lie back down the stairs.

“He went up to Hokkaido to tour the lumber mills with Auntie Nagako. He’ll be back next week.” Of course, her brother didn’t even know that that they’d sold off the lumber interests a few years back, and a week was long enough to put him off. If he inquired again after that, greater events would have made the fiction no longer necessary. When she entered Grandfather’s room, Hana looked up at her through reddened eyes and began to protest, until Gyoshin put a finger to her lips. “Remember your promise.”

“Your brother deserves to know the truth.”

“No he doesn’t,” she said, in an urgent whisper. “Not for a little longer. Trust me, it really isn’t safe yet… and don’t forget that other errand.”

“Which?” the old woman said, having lost her bearings in the general confusion.

“You must persuade the Okamotos to come back here with you. They can stay in the rooms in the east wing. Also, I’ve arranged for some men to keep all of you safe here.”

“But Heiji-sama would not approve of having the Okamotos in his house.”

“It is no longer his house,” Gyoshin said, feeling empowered now to say that it was her house, even though the courts would in all likelihood find that it belonged to her brother… if he lived long enough to take possession, or even had the nerve to sleep in it. “We need to assure Haru-chan’s safety, Hana. It’s for her. Everything I do from now on is for her.”

M
ichael’s
daily briefing was a relief from the otherwise unrelenting fear that had gripped the house in Charlottesville for the last few days. He had barely cleared his throat and dropped his briefcase before Andie and Yuki began peppering him with questions.

“No, they don’t usually invite the DCS into the Situation Room, but the DCI told me everything.”

“You guys love your letters.” Andie nudged Yuki to let her know it was okay to laugh.

“You’re almost as bad as the Navy and their acronyms, SOCOM, SECDEF and SECNAV,” Yuki added. It was a relief to have another emotion to indulge, though her red eyes made this humor slightly less than credible. Michael knew to play along.

“Well, we’ve got nothing on the Secret Service.”

“Did the president authorize a new search?” Andie slipped this question in before Yuki had a chance to get too worked up.

“No. He’s still convinced by O’Brien’s political analysis, and the Director of Central Intelligence thinks they may be right. The base negotiations are too important, as they see it, to risk an incident. But the latest developments in China supported my analysis of the kidnapping.”

“What developments?”

“Satellite imagery shows elements of the Guangzhou and Jinan armies mobilizing.”

“Mobilizing?”

“Two armored divisions from Jinan have taken up positions about twenty miles south of Beijing, just outside Langfang. At the same time, elements of the 41st and 42nd armies from Guangzhou have occupied major arteries in the Nanjing region. This represents more than three hundred thousand troops.”

“That’s a lot of men,” Yuki said.

“It represents about a fifth of the combat troops in the Chinese army.”

“Is this General Diao making his move?” Andie asked.

“Yes. It’s a full-scale operation. He can’t turn back now.”

“But what about the rest of the military? Isn’t there more than enough to defeat him?”

“That’s the thing,” Michael said. “The Beijing units have not moved to counter his advance. The only thing that can mean is that General Gao…

“He’s waiting to see who to back,” Yuki said.

“Exactly… and there’s reason to believe President Liang has gone into hiding or is already under house arrest, along with several members of the Standing Committee.”

“Does that mean it’s all over?” Andie asked.

“Maybe not. It looks like most of the Air Force divisions in Guangzhou and Jinan have not moved to support Diao’s offensive. More than half of their aircraft have relocated to the Chengdu Military Region, including almost all of their fighter wings.”

“What does all this mean for Emily?” Yuki leaned forward, her arms spread out on the kitchen counter, as if to steady herself for bad news.

“Nothing, at least not directly.” Michael took a deep breath and looked into Yuki’s eyes. “We have to give Connie and Perry time to work. I’ve given them all the logistical support I can without tipping my hand.”

“Without tipping your hand?”

“Yes. If O’Brien finds out, he’ll have Perry and Connie arrested… and I won’t be able to do anything about it.” The two women glowered at him like the situation was somehow his fault. “They’ve been doing a grid search for the last two days, and I’ve diverted every high-res satellite image we have to Connie. If she’s out there to be found, Connie will find her.” That name worked as a sort of charm on Yuki’s mood, and her face softened as she looked at him.

“I’m sorry, Michael. I know you’re doing everything you can.”

“Now consider, for just a moment, what Emily’s going to want to do when they find her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean when she hears that the Crown Princess’s daughter is missing.”

“Is that what…”

“Exactly.” Michael’s eyes glowed as he related this part of his news. “If we’re right… I mean, if Emily was right, and Diao’s part of a larger conspiracy involving one or more of the powerful families in Japan…”

“You mean, if we assume Diao’s people were involved in the kidnapping,” Andie said, now keen on the trail of what he was thinking.

“Yes. They couldn’t rely on any Japanese forces to betray the Imperial family, and Crichton reported that Diao sent half his company home when the
Bonhomme Richard
put in at Sasebo after the first half of Operation Seabreeze.”

“What if they never went home… what if they stayed in Japan?”

“Reports said the attack was staged with military precision, and that they escaped in speedboats heading south.”

Yuki glanced at Andie and placed a hand on her shoulder. “But from Amami Oshima, if it was Diao’s people, wouldn’t they head west, since that’s the most direct route to the Chinese coast? It’s only a couple hundred miles from there. Wouldn’t they want to meet up with a Chinese patrol boat, or something?”

“That’s what I’d think, too,” Michael said. “But the
Jietai
scrambled every plane they have at Naha, Kanoya and Omura within minutes. There’s no way they could have gotten through that way.”

“But I thought you said the
Jietai
had to stand down when the Prime Minister stepped down,” Andie said. “Couldn’t they have escaped after that?”

“Yes, and no. They did stand down… officially. But it took more than half a day to recall all the ships and planes that had been deployed, and by that time the
USS Nimitz
was in place with Strike Group Eleven. In the meantime, the
USS Ronald Reagan
has taken up a position off the coast of Taiwan. That’s my big news – the DCI has persuaded the President to approve a blockade stretching from Oshima all the way down to the Philippines, two carrier strike groups, a handful of submarines, and nearly a dozen destroyers.”

“That’s amazing,” Andie said.

“What choice do we have? If China and Japan are radicalized, we’ll lose almost all of our influence in the region. You can bet we’ll lose our bases, except maybe in South Korea and the Philippines, and those ports aren’t large enough to support a substantial, long-term presence. It’s a huge gamble, but recovering the Crown Princess’s daughter might be just enough to undermine whatever is going on in Japan, and we don’t have any other cards to play anyway.”

Michael’s news had already begun to lose its efficacy on Yuki’s mood when the children squirted into the kitchen, which rendered that topic of conversation off limits. Ethan followed closely on their heels, having just picked them up from the day-camp Andie had signed them up for. How odd that she couldn’t quite remember what it was – a craft thing? or was it a swim meet?

“How was karate camp?” Yuki asked, in a sudden inspiration.

“Okay, I guess,” Li Li said, in that adolescent deadpan that a near-teenager was learning to simulate. Stone glowed next to her, while Andie rummaged through the refrigerator for a snack.

“Pie, anyone?” Andie asked. “It’s peach. Ellie made it this morning.” Michael reached over to crack off a crumb of the crust and she slapped his hand. “Okay, fine. You can have some, too.”

Once Ethan put his fork in, so to speak, the pie disappeared more quickly than Yuki could have anticipated. In some distant way, she imagined herself doting on the children, peppering them with questions, but somehow she couldn’t quite focus on the task. Andie caught her eye, and nodded to Ethan.

“Hey, guys,” she said. “Don’t you want to show Ethan what you learned today?” Stone beamed at her, and grabbed Ethan’s hand to pull him out onto the patio. But Li Li was less enthusiastic.