Empire of the Dragon Page 8

  As the uneasy geologists bent to the task of assisting Anderson in removing the long lost American aviator, Ryan moved off to search the area for the missing Ellenshaw. Sarah placed the dog tags around her own neck and then helped with the recovery.

  The three members of the Department 5656 personnel knew in their gut, from their many experiences with the Event Group, that something strange was awaiting them, and as usual it wouldn’t be good.

  With the exception of Ryan calling out the name of Charlie in his search for the crazy cryptozoologist, the desert around the group had become preternaturally quiet.

  * * *

  Event Group Complex,

  Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

  The most amazing fact about the complex, which was constructed during the years of 1941-45, were the vaults that housed the world’s greatest archeological finds. Each were one-foot thick solid stainless-steel and were protected by the most complex A.I. computer system ever created—Europa. Her number one priority at the complex was to protect the secrets hidden there. The complex itself was secondary and was relegated to the human staff that worked security. This daunting task had since fallen to the second generation of security personnel that had been trained by the most influential duo in the history of special operations—Colonel Jack Collins and Captain Carl Everett, army and navy respectively. The man chosen to replace them in their absence, Major William Mendenhall, was not too happy about his recent promotion, nor the duties that promotion entailed.

  Mendenhall felt alone in a complex that housed the most influential minds in the nation. With Collins and Everett on assignment, and Jason Ryan off galivanting through Mongolia with Sarah, Anya and Crazy Charlie, Will was left to ponder if this was his future—a future that required him to stay stateside while the rest of the security department went out on field assignments. He had a horrid feeling that would be the case.

  He sat at the same desk that Jack Collins had occupied for the past twelve years, and it was that act alone that made him uncomfortable in his new settings. He had noticed the way in which men and women he had served with for the past many years didn’t joke with him as they had before. They confided in Ryan far more now than himself. He was now higher management and that just wasn’t sitting well with the newly promoted Major. After going from enlisted man to officer, and after endless hours in the officers training courses set up by the Colonel, Mendenhall had earned the respect from everyone in the Event Group Complex. Now he sensed that respect was born out more of fear than friendship over his new duties.

  Will shook his head and started the endless paperwork his new job called for. He glanced at the roster and saw that a good portion of the security department was out on field assignments. The need for more security was a result of learning about the Russian black operations group in Siberia, who had a deep cover department attached to the hidden section that mirrored their own Event Group charter. He read the personnel reports of previous weeks and had concluded that enough of his personnel were on assignment that they had kept on the security department retirees to replace those at Gates one and two. The new policy was handed down by Director Compton. Every field excursion was now under very close scrutiny by the military element inside Department 5656 due to the bad guys knowing that the Event Group existed, something that had never officially occurred before the Simbirsk mission the prior month.

  He checked off the names that were unavailable to the complex. The last name was that of Jason Ryan, who was in Mongolia serving with Sarah McIntire’s field operation in assisting the Chinese government’s bid to gain the mineral riches of the barren landscape of the northern region—Mongolia, after the devastating attack by the Grays in Beijing that destroyed most of the city and three quarters of their economy. He was well aware that the mission was not what was advertised. Sarah and the others were there to see what the strange readings were about that was uncovered by Boris and Natasha.

  “Damn you Ryan, leave me here while you have fun in the field? Well, just wait until you get back, asshole, you’re going on vault detail for a month, see if you like sitting on your ass.”

  “Talking to yourself is not a good habit to get into, Major. Group psychiatrists would have a field day with that.”

  Will looked up from the printed roster and saw Department 5656 Director Doctor Niles Compton leaning against the door frame watching him. Mendenhall started to stand but Niles waved him back down. Compton removed his hands from his pockets and the balding man entered and smiled at the startled Mendenhall.

  “Have a minute?”

  “How many minutes in a day?”

  Niles smirked as he sat down in a chair facing the new commander of the Group’s security arm. “Well, there are eighty-six thousand four-hundred seconds, and fourteen hundred and forty minutes.”

  “Is everyone out to make me feel stupid today?” Will shook his head. “I knew that. So, you asked if I had a minute, yes. I have fourteen hundred and forty minutes I can spare.”

  “That bad, huh?” Compton asked while he pushed his horned-rimmed glasses back up his nose as his smile grew. “When you’ve been cooped up in an office for as long as I have, you’ll learn those numbers by heart.”

  “What can I help you with, Sir?” Mendenhall asked as he stood with a wary eye on the director and went to a filing cabinet and placed the daily roster inside. He turned back and then sat and waited for another terrible and boring part of his new duties to be announced.

  Before Compton could answer, Virginia Pollock, assistant director for Department 5656, stepped into the outer security office and made her way to the private office of the security director. She tapped on the door and Niles waved her inside.

  “What’s up?” she asked as she went toward the pot of old coffee, smelled it, wrinkled her nose and then faced Niles. “We’re having a hell of a time installing that damn electron microscope down in nuclear sciences, and that bull of a man’s engineering department is no help. The Master Chief is really chafing my ass. So, again, what’s up?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Niles said. “Doctor Morales called my office and asked if he could meet privately with you, Will and myself. Said it had to do with something he didn’t want to bring up in the morning’s daily brief.”

  “Mysterious,” Mendenhall quipped.

  “Come to think of it, Xavier looked a little morose this morning. His comp center report was a little boring to say the least,” Virginia offered.

  “Yeah, when he doesn’t brag about some new feature of Europa, or how he and that box of circuits and diodes may have saved the world, something just may be wrong.”

  Niles sat down as he listened to the endless possibilities of Xavier’s circumstance from Virginia and Mendenhall.

  They sat silently when the speculation dwindled. Will was feeling a little uncomfortable with the total amount of brainpower sitting in his office. Finally, he saw motion in the security bullpen. It was Morales. He slowly wheeled his non-electric wheelchair into the security office, not even looking up as two of the security men nodded and said good morning to him. He came to the door and after a few hesitant seconds, knocked on the frame. He wheeled in and looked from face to face and then slowly closed the door.

  “Thank you for meeting me here. I figure no one voluntarily likes coming in here, so we should be undisturbed.” The small man lowered his head and placed his hand over his face. After a moment, he looked up with tears in his eyes. He reached under one of his thin legs and pulled out a sheet of paper. He handed it to Niles who scanned it. His brows rose over his thick, horned-rimmed glasses, and then folded the note and fixed Xavier with a stern look.

  “Resignation?”

  Both Virginia and Will looked at Niles as he made no further comment.

  “Did you and Europa have a lover’s spat?” Will joked, and then quickly saw his humor was somewhat out of place.

  “Yes, I don’t deserve my post,” Morales said without looking up.

  Niles had se
en this reaction before from men and women inside the group that had done something they weren’t too proud of. He gave Xavier space. He had learned in his past experiences to allow the guilt of that person to tell the story.

  “I may have assisted in getting two of our people into some deep trouble.”

  Niles reached into his shirt’s front pocket, and behind his ever-present six pens there, pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “Does it have something to do with three communications packages from Jack and Carl that were not listed on Europa’s field team communications log?”

  Mendenhall looked at Morales and saw a barely perceptible nod of his dark hair.

  “Colonel Collins contacted me five days ago and requested two Canadian passports for he and Captain Everett, and I was instructed to list them as farm equipment reps. So, Europa fixed them up with John Deere product catalogues and sales rep paperwork and the Canadian I.Ds.” He stopped and wiped his eyes. Mendenhall stood and got a bottle of water from the small refrigerator and uncapped it, handing it to Xavier. Morales nodded his thanks and then took a long pull. He sat the bottle on the front of Will’s desk and then fixed Niles with his wet and reddened eyes. “He said they had a lead on that Russian, the arrogant man we met on the Nimitz after the Simbirsk mission.”

  Will remembered. “You mean that strange old man, that Doctor Leoniv Vassick, the head of the organization that mirrors our own Group?”

  “Yes. They said while they were in the Ukraine on their authorized part of their mission to gather intel on this Group, they received a hot lead that Vassick was in Thailand on business. What sort of business the Russian was there for, the Colonel didn’t know. They said the Director would only worry and that the request was theirs and theirs alone. I sent them the two Canadian passports and other forged material to the Marriott in D.C.”

  “Jack and Carl pulled the old, ‘Pete Golding did it for us all the time maneuver’, I suppose?” Virginia asked with a knowing look toward Niles who was sitting silent.

  Xavier could only nod his head.

  “What went wrong?’ was all Compton asked, with his face a growing mask of concern.

  “Excuse me, Major, is your terminal on?” Will nodded that the Europa link was indeed on. “Europa, display Colonel Collins and Captain Everett’s transponder coordinates on the main viewer in security, please.”

  All sets of eyes went to the large fifty-two-inch screen on the wall of the office.

  “Current location for Colonel Collins is near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The location for Captain Everett is currently 10°49'22.87"N, 106°37'46.74"E.”

  “These map coordinates are not in Thailand,” Mendenhall said. “It’s somewhere in southern Vietnam.”

  “Correct, Major Mendenhall. Exactly twenty-two miles east of Ho Chi Minh City to be precise,’” Europa corrected.

  All eyes want to Morales once more. “Captain Everett and Colonel Collins have been separated.” Morales again lowered his head, and this brought Niles Compton to life.

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start explaining what happened, or you’re going to see a side of me that you wish you hadn’t, Doctor.”

  Morales straightened in his wheelchair and then nodded determinedly. “Europa, display the last medical update on Captain Everett’s transponder, please.”

  Europa didn’t verbally respond. Instead she placed the last information available on Carl’s location and medical transponder on the screen.

  “My God,” Virginia said as the data started scrolling across the monitor. For Mendenhall it was easier…his heart froze.

  Virginia stood and approached the large screen and started running down the list. “Sudden drops in blood pressure, heart rate and respiration, and look at this, his brain activity output is barely perceptible. Is this all the data?” she asked, turning to face Xavier.

  “He’s hurt bad,” Mendenhall said as his anger flared momentarily toward Morales.

  “Europa, exact location for Captain Everett’s transponder?” Morales continued.

  “Coordinates are—”

  “Just the name of location,” Morales snapped.

  It was the first time they had ever heard Morales lose his temper with Europa.

  “Location…the town of Bin Hua, three hundred miles north of Ho Chi Minh City.”

  “I checked earlier,” Morales stated. “Bin Hua is a small fishing village on the Mekong River. Nothing but a bunch of clapboard houses and poor fishermen, at least as far as Europa can tell. Nothing extraordinary.”

  “Doctor, I have further classified information on Bin Hua from U.S. Army records in St. Louis.”

  “Continue,” Niles said to Europa, not waiting for Xavier.

  “The town of Bin Hua was a cooperative entity in the battle of Ang Nah. The villagers assisted United States Army Special Forces in eliminating drug trafficking along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1972, a month before the withdrawal of American forces from South East Asia. It is still considered by the present-day Vietnamese anti-drug forces as a current trade route of heroin smuggling coming in from Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.”

  “Thank you,” Niles said. He stood and placed his thick arms behind his back and paced as he thought. “In the presidential brief delivered by the FBI fifteen days ago, they stated Russian money and influence from illicit drug trafficking could be a financial resource for organized crime figures in Russia. The C.I.A. claimed it was possibly a drug cartel in the old Soviet Republic. But now I see it may turn out to be a possible way in which an illegal regime could launder money and smuggle it back into Russia without much notice. The shadow regime could be using drugs as a money scheme they can hide adequately.”

  “You think that Jack and Carl figured this was the lead, or was it just for this Doctor Leoniv Vassick?” Mendenhall asked, a bit ahead of Virginia’s thinking.

  “Perhaps both,” Niles said. He suddenly stood rigid and then wadded up the resignation letter from Morales and tossed it back to the wheelchair bound doctor. “Resignation not accepted…at this time. I’m afraid you have a lot of work to do and a short time to do it in.”

  Morales took the balled-up scrap of paper and then nodded his head sadly at the director.

  “Will, get as much information as you can on this small village. Europa may be able to fill you in a lot more with precise questioning. Get all the human intelligence that you can on the area. There’s only one person here with the experience and knowledge of the area in question as far as I know.”

  “Don’t tell me—” Will started to say as he froze after standing.

  “Get with Master Chief Jenks. He’s the only man who had actual duty near there during the war, he was just a kid SEAL, but he may have some thought as to the situation. He can get into detail about the people and who we may be able to trust.”

  “Good luck getting him to reminisce,” Virginia added.

  “If he gives you a problem, come and get me. I guarantee you he will be cooperative,” Niles said with the most severe look on his features that any of them had ever seen. “Xavier, I want Captain Everett’s condition and exact location immediately. If his transponder moves, track it. I don’t care if you have to break into the Communist national assembly computer files in Hanoi to do it. Get me that info.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said, grateful to be doing something.

  “Virginia, you have the toughest job. Do whatever it takes, find me Colonel Farbeaux as fast as you can.”

  “Henri? What in the hell for?” she asked, stunned. “He won’t assist us. We called his marker to the Group as closed after he helped us in the Atlantic last month.”

  “Find him, he’s the only man we know with connections in Vietnam. The relations between our two countries are getting friendlier, but I don’t think the government there would take too kindly if they found out an entity of the United States has reinvaded their country. We need Henri to get Mendenhall and the Master Chief in there to get our people out. Check out Monte Carlo, Henri likes to hide there.
”

  “Okay, I’ll look, but don’t expect Colonel Farbeaux to come running,” Virginia concluded.

  “Also, Xavier, get me an exact location of Colonel Collins and most importantly, and I hate to drag him in on this, but contact Sergeant Van Tram. He’s in Vietnam’s 2nd Special Forces Element. He assisted us during the war with the Grays, both in South America and in the Antarctic. He knows and loves Jack. Find him and covertly, and I mean covertly, explain what’s happening. If you’re not cloaked in black on this, you could very well get Van Tram killed by his own people.”

  Xavier did not wait, he wheeled out of the office, anxious to do something, anything.

  Compton went silent as he pursed his lips. “I’ll fill in the President, we may need his help.” He turned and faced Mendenhall and Virginia. “You two, find my people!”

  They both watched as the Director left the security office.

  “I haven’t seen him this angry in years,” Will said watching Compton’s retreating form.

  “That’s not anger,” Virginia corrected.

  “Then what is it?”

  “For the first time ever, you’re seeing Niles Compton scared.”

  Chapter Two

  Gobi Altai Mountains,

  Mongolia

  As the echo of Jason Ryan’s calls dwindled to almost nothing in his search for Charlie Ellenshaw, Sarah, Anya, Professor James Anderson, James Lee Hong, and the Australian Professor Louis Birnbaum, eased the skeletal remains of the Army Air Corps flier onto the stainless-steel table. After the skeleton was found, their anxiousness to leave the barren desert flared brightly in all remaining members. Most didn’t want to be around the body of the American flier any more than they had to.

  “Poor bastard,” Anya said as she bit her lower lip and studied the remains. “So far from home for so long.”