April 3: The Middle of Nowhere (21 page)

"Code phrase," the Brit observed.

"Yes and she didn't want to hear it, but they will be safely away in about two hours if she does as we carefully planned. I
owe
you for this."

"I'm not trying to turn you," he said embarrassed. "We've always played straight with each other and this is just decency to let you know, not business," he protested. "If we didn't watch out for each other the big boys would treat us all like a ruddy sani-wipe."

* * *

"Thanks for confirming it," Jan said to the French fellow who was married to a Chinese lady. A one-time dancer who had come to Paris in a cultural exchange and decided to defect. She called her mother in Kumul once a week and yes, her mom had mentioned an earth tremor a couple days ago. Jan swore him to secrecy and told him what the quake really was. That made thirty-seven spooks, business people, military officers, ex-pats, travel agents, importers, professors and just plain gossips who were all told his tale in confidence or to who he tried to deny that there was anything going on while pumping them for information specific to the day and region. He was exhausted and sure if he knew human nature at all the lines were flooded with rumor and even more questions than he had answers. He went to bed pleased with his effort no matter how it played out.

Chapter 14

Jeff slept and upon awakening was bullied by both April and Heather to go home and take a shower and change clothing. When he hurried back they went home and did the same, but one at a time, like he couldn't sit a board alone. Gunny had taken the opportunity to go freshen up the same time as Jeff with far less urging. Now Gunny volunteered to get a carry-away pack for them all from the cafeteria. They had been on watch now from breakfast to breakfast. All of them were tired of being cooped up and checking their own business by com or searching through the news looking for anything related to the strike. Louis was gone home to sleep and recharge. He hated to leave, scared he'd miss something, but exhausted.

* * *

Huian herded her children in front of her watchful but confident. They were obedient children, far more than average because her husband had impressed upon her that their lives might depend on obedience some day. This seemed to be the day. Her twelve-year-old son understood what was happening more and could assist her in a number of ways, but even her eight year old daughter would not create a fuss or argue with her in public when she was told it was a 'mission'.

She carried a common shopping bag but it didn't contain the results of a shopping trip. It had a change of clothing for each of them and a bottle of water and a couple energy bars for each. The substantial amount of cash she carried was in a belt next to her skin. Although the boy was entrusted with a similar belt with a small cache of currency, her belt was also heavy with twelve ounces of gold in small coins. The everyday things in their apartment were abandoned. She didn't have any silly attachment to things like a rice-cooker.
Things
were less important than their lives.

Her passport was in her purse under her jacket on a shoulder strap and the stiffener in the bottom of her shopping bag concealed her false Korean passport and papers for her fictitious Korean husband and children. She had several items that didn't appear to be weapons to the average person, but her husband had trained her in their use if necessary.

She paid cash for rail tickets, not paying for the full journey to the Vietnam border but only to an intermediate stop. They killed time, had a light snack and ended up on the platform as the first passengers were already loading. Converging on the same train car was a woman with a girl about the same age as her son. She didn't know the woman's name, but her husband had looked up and given the woman's husband a silent nod of greeting in a restaurant some months ago.

She'd asked why he didn't go visit or ask them to come share their table, but her husband had explained it was better for his agency workmates not to socialize outside the secure environment in which they worked. She'd looked and could tell the woman was giving her husband a similar inquiry. Now she wished she had been introduced and she could ask the woman if she was evacuating the same as her. How many spouses were fleeing Beijing?

They got in their tiny private compartment and her girl picked a seat and got lost in her hand com reading a novel. Her boy understood too much about what was happening to relax and sat tense and unsmiling despite usually loving train rides.

The platform was clearing, people who were there to see someone off turning away, when there was a rap at their compartment door. She immediately pulled her tickets out of her jacket pocket and slid the door open, but it was not the conductor, it was a uniformed officer of the military police and he had tabs to indicate he had Inspector ranking.

"Ah, madam. What is the occasion of your travel with such haste? We have noted several families of  special officers buying tickets at the same time. You seem to have avoided using a card to purchase yours. But your face is in the data sets and you were noted at the cash window. It almost looks like a conspiracy of some sort for all of you to have the same sudden urge to seek fresh air and visages in the countryside."

"If you watch me so closely you must know I've been in no contact with any other families, special officers or others. I have an aunt who is in ill health and needs some help for a few days."

"We have not seen any communication it is true, but you did talk briefly to your husband." The train started up with a smooth motion while they talked.

"That's true. He is rather faithful about calling at least weekly when away."

"Do you by any chance have your passport on you, madam?" he inquired.

"I do. I'd never leave it behind, crossing the border or no. There are too many burglaries."

"I'll take that for now since you are concerned about its security," he said holding out his hand. "You will be getting off at the next stop and returning. I suppose it is a huge surprise to you," he said sarcastically, "but I have three other families on this train to interview and inform them they will be returning also."

"Momma, my asthma is acting up," her son said all breathy, holding his hand on his chest. He fumbled around and got out a self-inject pen.

"Go to the washroom to use it and wash your face with cold water and come back when you feel better," she instructed. The boy gave a curt nod and stood up to leave.

"I don't think so," the MP said warily, throwing a blocking arm across the doorway in front of the boy's chest. "You can use it just fine right in your seat," he instructed and turned back to the mother. His eyes got suddenly big and he looked back. The pen was stuck in his upper arm.

He suddenly gave a convulsive little shudder like he was having a chill and would have collapsed, but Huian and her son supported him on each side and walked him to the rear seat away from the window. She put a pillow behind his head and her son did as she instructed and forced the man's ankles crossed. She ripped the rank tabs off his collar and cap. When they pulled the now plain cap down over his face he looked like he was a private, slouched down in the seat taking a nap.

"You did very well," she praised the boy. His sister was looking attentively from the forward bench, book forgotten in her lap. "Give me the cap," she instructed. She yanked the needle and covered it with exaggerated care. "I shall dispose of this and try to contact one of those families of who this man spoke. I saw a lady on the platform I have reason to believe was such. It seems a good time to have allies. You two stay here and keep anyone from disturbing your father's nap," she said nodding at the corpse. "Tell them he is drunk if anyone tries to rouse him," she said with a smile. She wondered if the train engineer would believe Beijing was not a good place to return to right now?

* * *

"These old men find it too easy to die," the head of Space Forces told the Head of Army, nominally the head of all armed forces but really the head of conventional land armies. They were not youngsters themselves, but still twenty and thirty years junior to most of the top party hierarchy. "We faced a nuclear exchange with the Americans and the Russians for years, but it was a known quality. Even if we knew they had an advantage we were certain we could make them pay a price they were not willing to risk. With Home we can't say, They wouldn't dare! They have already dared. They have weapons we do not know and the ones we do know we have no idea of the numbers. We have not even faced their main force as their militia is so far a disinterested group watching this one family clan and us squabble from the sidelines. Do you really want to let these old fools destroy our nation because they have no vision?"

"This is not traditional," the head of Army mused. "Coups are supposed to be led by colonels, not general officers," he pointed out. "high enough in the structure to command a significant force, but young enough to not be so hidebound and set in their ways that they won't take risks."

"Fine, call up a firebrand colonel or three and motivate them to act," he urged. "Let us introduce them to my commanders and get this action launched before we are all arrested and doomed to see the flash marking our destruction from inside some holding cell."

* * *

"Jeff, the street traffic in central Beijing suddenly started dropping off about a half hour ago," Heather said in an odd tentative voice. "It doesn't match any normal  shift change or seem in anticipation of any special holiday tomorrow or anything. There's another odd thing here. Several of the trains that left Beijing in the last twelve hours have stopped before reaching their scheduled destination. And several that were supposed to go into the capitol are sitting on sidings making unscheduled stops."

"Look at this," Louis sent an image to the main screen.

"What are those?" April asked, "and where?"

"They are loading light armor, troop carriers, on road trailers. They don't drive them long distances if it can be avoided. They use too much fuel, need more costly maintenance than a road tractor and the tracked ones tear the roads up something awful. These are about two hundred kilometers west of Beijing at a large Army base. Question is, where are they going?" he added. It didn't take long to answer. They headed east, with an escort of anti-air vehicles and spaced out at five hundred meter intervals like they might come under fire.

* * *

Huian sat on winter wheat leaning back on her elbows to avoid the fabric canopy close overhead. It was warm and the grain smelled strongly, but pleasantly, to an unaccustomed city girl. They'd got off their train far before the first scheduled stop and avoided any other officials waiting to arrest them. The policeman was dumped along the tracks some distance before their stop minus any uniform or ID. Locals would eventually find him and he'd be identified. But long after it was not of any concern to her.

The trailer she and two other families and a single spouse, of 'special' officers were riding in was headed on a normal delivery to grain elevators near the border of this farming district. When they arrived at the terminal she had been assured it would be easy to bribe another driver to let them ride in a similar but empty transport on to the south-west into another agricultural district. Indeed, their driver was eager to arrange it for a small additional fee.

There was a flow of wheat in this direction and a trade in soybeans the opposite way. Each of them had contributed a few bank notes for their ride. If anything she was shocked how cheap the bribe had been. None of her gold had been needed so far.

* * *

"There is a sudden great deal of activity at an airbase to the south of Beijing," Louis noted. "They have a tanker going down the line fueling up a bunch of helicopters and working from the other end of the line they have munitions carts hanging a serious load on these babies. I think the Chinese are about to have a serious family discussion about how to deal with Home and what has to shake-out from Jiuquan."

"That
could
be what they are arguing over," Jeff admitted. "But I'm really uncomfortable just guessing. What if there was a big coup brewing and it didn't have anything to do with us?"

"Well then I'd guess we'll see them act against us pretty quickly once they have whatever this little tiff we see building is over," April told him. "If they don't I'd be pretty confident we can stand down and not be looking for a strike. At least not any more than we did before they snatched the
Rascal
," she added.

When all the converging traffic got close to Beijing there was a lot of activity that stirred in the city itself. Other armor blocked the advance of units from outside the city. Helicopters broke up formations of light armor with missiles and even cannon fire. Heavy armor started loading ammo and crew outside the city core and received a flight of ground attack jets before they could even roll. The plumes of smoke from burning armor surrounded the city.

Fan platforms dropped special forces deep in the city, sometimes on building roofs. There was a general blossoming of a great many thermal sources in the city core, including whole blocks of various ministry buildings going up in flames. April hoped it was obvious enough things were going bad that the office workers stayed home today and were not trapped in those burning buildings.

When the Chinese announced their top official had died suddenly of a heart attack and a provisional committee was acting for him until a successor could be appointed, Jeff had to admit it looked like they would have no interest in Home for the immediate future. That change of leadership was announced even before the fires were put out or the shells of burnt armor vehicles cleared from the streets, all of which was entirely absent from the news. It was a good sign they wanted to show there was stability as soon as possible.

"Okay, I'm disengaging our launch on default program. Heather, you and April both check me that it is cleared and we'll sit the board until the next ten minute period clears with no action." They had been on alert for almost three days and were exhausted.