46.

As she cleaned each room on her list, Ping tried to appear calm, struggling not to show the excitement that was growing within her. She knew that although her mission was nearing its culmination, danger was everywhere. She hoped to be able to deliver her new message, and that once again the lethargic guard would just sit in his chair looking at his hands.

Her mind kept drifting back to her son, who is the sole reason she drags herself from bed each morning and soldiers on, desperately working to make this succeed. She tried to force herself to think only of what she must do. But as she and the guard once again approached the door to the room of the young American, she felt her heart beating faster. The guard inserted his key and swung the door open, motioning for her to enter.

She shuffled into the room pushing her mop and bucket and looked up. Suddenly she felt a tightness in her chest and everything began to swirl around her. Unconsciously she reached for the arm of the guard to steady herself.

The room was empty.

He asked her if she was sick. For a moment she said nothing as her mind reeled. Then, as she regained her balance, she let go of his arm, excusing herself.

"I'm a little under the weather. What happened to the patient?" she asked, trying to sound casual, as though only curious.

"Probably upstairs," he replied disinterestedly. "They said to clean the room just the same."

Ping was scarcely aware that she was mopping the floor. Upstairs could mean two places, either the operating rooms on the 11 or 12 floors or the patient rooms on the 4 and 7. She had learned that the transplants usually took place in the middle of the night when fewer people were about, so the young lady was probably on the 4 or 7 being prepped.

She finished the room and the next two and then was taken to the other side to clean. This was where the young American man was being held. She had not communicated with him at all, fearing that his youth and testosterone might tempt him to try to escape on his own, which would certainly result in his capture and death. But now she knew what she must do. As she had with the woman, she slipped the tightly rolled message into one of the small holes in the sink drain. Then she glanced over at the American and tilted her head toward the sink twice.

When they were walking down the hall she turned to the guard and told him she needed to use the restroom. There she pulled out the cell phone that they had given her to use if something went wrong. She had to wait in a stall until the restroom was empty. Then she dialed, finally hearing a voice on the other end.

"h.e.l.lo."

"She is not in the room. They have taken her out. The male is still in his room."

"Where have they taken her?" the voice on the other end asked.

"I am not certain, perhaps 4 or 7, I have no way of knowing," she answered. The line clicked dead. Someone entered the rest room then and Ping emerged from the stall and washed her hands. It would be another six hours before her shift was done. Then she would go home and wait, wait to find out if she and the Americans would on that night leave their nightmare behind or if a far worse nightmare had begun.

"We have a problem," Jun said. The captain's heart skipped a beat. They were having their planned breakfast in a crowed restaurant where they could talk more.

"They moved your granddaughter."

"Where?" asked the captain.

"The cleaning lady says maybe to the fourth or seventh floor, she doesn't know for sure. I think that's where they prep patients for surgery and where the patients recuperate afterward, but I'm not certain."

"Then we need to move now!" said the captain. "If I have to, I'll go in there alone and find them myself. I'll raise so much h.e.l.l they won't be able to go through with it."

"One man?" Jun hrumphed. "They will knock you down and stick a needle in your neck," he said. "Then you will become just another unwilling donor. You are in China, captain, they do what they want here and to h.e.l.l with everyone. No one would ever hear from you or your family again. Do not act stupidly. Listen carefully, they only do the operations in the middle of the night to make it easier to keep them secret, so we still have a little time. Let's go back to the place where we met yesterday and try to reach the others. Then we will make a new plan."

47.

The Thai food tasted much better without all the drama. Clifford had driven most of the night and had agreed to meet Baines and Molly for lunch.

"Cliff, I am so very sorry. I had no idea I was putting you in so much danger," said Baines.

"Virg, I've had folks come after me before; it goes with the territory. I just didn't expect to get rolled in broad daylight in an upscale neighborhood."

"What happened?" asked Baines.

"Well, I gave the sleaze ball the bug and told him all he had to do was drop it in Brewer's jacket pocket. Since he'd already told me that Brewer always hangs his suit jacket on a hook in the outer office, and the secretary is gone at that hour, it seemed like a cinch. And it was. Brewer was on the phone when the dirt bag came in and he just dropped the bug in the jacket pocket on the way into the inner office, slick as snot. Rawles told Brewer that the camera malfunctioned and he didn't get anything. But he said that Molly had gotten close to you and they could try again. Then Brewer started giving Rawles s.h.i.t 'cause he screwed up and the thug blew up and stormed out."

"So the bug's in Brewer's jacket pocket at this point?" asked Baines.

"Broadcasting like a loudspeaker. I got every word. So then Brewer leaves to go explain things to Shumer. I'm sitting downstairs by the window of a restaurant listening to everything being said on the third floor office, which is also next to a window. I would have preferred that it had been a bit more explicit, but the conversation left no doubt that they were blackmailing you."

"So what you recorded was unmistakable in terms of what it was they were trying to do," said Baines.

"Let me put it this way, Virg, a slick Washington law firm could probably keep Brewer and Shumer out of jail, but everyone would be crystal clear about what they were trying to do."

"So then somebody hit you over the head and took the recording," said Baines.

"Well, sort of. You see, while I was sitting in the bar listening to everything, I noticed someone in the third floor window of the building right across the street, the office across from Shumer's. The guy's looking down at me, and I'm wondering why someone up there would be lookin' at me, but I figured maybe he's just taking a break and lookin' out the window. So, anyway, a little later I happened to look up and the guy's back in the window with someone standing next to him. One of 'em's pointing his finger right at me, you know, like the first guy saw something interesting and called the other guy over to show him."

"At that point, it's starting to creep me out, but by then I was done so I just packed up and left. Halfway back to the car I heard someone behind me and the next think I know I'm in the hospital with an egg the size of a baseball on my head."

"Listen, Cliff, I'm just glad you're OK. We can live without the recording, I should have known better than to send you into enemy territory."

"We don't have to live without the recording, Virg," he said.

"What? I thought you said they took all your gear."

"They did, but whenever I make a recording, the first thing I do is put it to sleep on the cloud."

"You just lost me," said Baines.

"I have an internet account with online storage," Virg. "I just hit a b.u.t.ton and the recording goes to the server in the sky where I can retrieve it later. Before I came here I checked; it's still there. I made another backup and put it in a safe place just in case."

A smile crept over Baines face.

48.

At 10:30 pm an ambulance pulled up to the emergency entrance of the Tianjin Hospital #77. A taxi following it parked nearby. The ambulance honked and the overhead door rose slowly, allowing it to back up to the dock. A police officer and three others got out of the taxi and walked into the dock area before the overhead door closed again.

The ambulance driver greeted a familiar face, telling him that he was there for a pickup and not carrying a patient, in which case they would have called ahead and had emergency personnel waiting. The man on duty returned the greeting and looked briefly at the others, noticing that one was a police officer. When the police appear, a wise man disappears goes an old saying in China. He smiled and then said h.e.l.lo to the doctor, whom he recognized as one of the staff.

The group strode purposefully past a now closed visitors kiosk and into the elevator. A minute later the light on the numbers over the doors reached four. In unison the group walked up to the nurses station where Dr. Min, dressed in his hospital uniform, asked the nurse for the room number of the young American woman. He was told that she was not on this floor. Her eyes followed the group as they headed back to the elevator.

The captain watched the lit numbers climbing toward seven, trying not to think about the possibility that Holly would not be on that floor either. The march to the nurses station was repeated, but this time the nurse, who appeared both sterner and more fearless than the first, asked the reason. The police officer showed her the forged set of orders indicating that they had been ordered to take the patient to People's Liberation Army (PLA) No. 1602 Hospital in Beijing. The nurse was well aware that the Army hospital also did transplants and she seemed to relax, pointing down to the end of the hall, but then something struck her and she picked up the duty board she had just set down a moment earlier.

She looked puzzled because her duty board clearly showed that in other rooms on this floor a Scandinavian woman, a Spanish woman and a Russian woman were all awaiting organ transplants scheduled for later tonight. When it occurred to her that the only patient being prepped as a donor was the one they were about to move, she said: "Wait! You can't remove her, she's scheduled for surgery in two hours."

Dr. Min, whom she recognized, said evenly: "It's OK, there's been a change. The PLA has ordered her moved. They will be here shortly with another female."

The familiar doctor's soothing words and the police officer watching her seemed to abort whatever it was she was about to say and she decided not to protest further. But when she noticed that the tall one with them appeared to be an American, it seemed rather strange.

As the group moved down the hall, they saw that a police officer was seated outside the closed door. He looked up when he saw another officer with a doctor. Presented with what appeared to be a legitimate set of orders, he unlocked the door. The doctor went in first. Then the guard who had been seated outside was invited in by his fellow officer and the others followed, closing the door behind them.

Holly looked up in fear at the sudden arrivals, two of whom were police officers. Then the tall man in back moved between them and approached the bed, saying simply: "h.e.l.lo, darlin'."

She was speechless. Her eyes told her what her brain said was not possible. Her grandfather reached out and took her into his arms and she began to sob.

"Holly, you've got to pull yourself together," he said. "There's no time now. We've got to get you and Ray out of here." She looked up into his eyes: "Ray is here?" she asked, her tear-streaked face a mixture of joy and incredulity.

"Yes, but there's no time to talk. I want you to get in the wheelchair and look like you've been sedated. Now! Hurry."

The police guard looked over at his fellow officer as what was taking place began to dawn on him. But his words were stillborn as the Taser touched his neck. The others quickly cuffed him, relieved him of his sidearm and radio and filled his mouth with Kleenex. Then they dragged him into the tiny closet, folding his legs so they could close the door. Two minutes later, the procession emerged from the room with an apparently sedated patient and proceeded back down the hall. Glancing into the rooms they pa.s.sed, the captain noticed a Westerner in the bed of one. He ducked inside.

"You've been duped," he said in his most intimidating captain's voice. "You have not been brought here to receive an organ. You have been brought here to donate them all of them. Wait ten minutes and then raise the alarm. We will be back for you."

He noticed there were western faces in some of the other rooms. Quickly, he repeated what he had said to each patient. Then he rejoined the group as they pa.s.sed the nurses station. The duty nurse's eyes followed them, her unease growing.

They took the elevator all the way down to the bas.e.m.e.nt this time. There was no one there and all the doors were locked. The group spread out pounding on doors, peering into the little windows and calling Raymond's name, some in heavily accented English. Finally a m.u.f.fled voice on the other side of one could be heard. But where were the keys? They looked up and down the hall, no sign of a key closet. The captain stepped forward.

"Raymond, can you understand me? This is Richard Davis, Holly's grandfather."

Holly yelled: "Ray, baby it's me! We've come to get you."

The captain moved her aside. "Step back from the door, Ray," he yelled. Then he held out his hand for the 9mm sidearm taken from the other guard. Stepping back at an angle, he fired where the lock meets the door. The shot boomed like a cannon in the long concrete hall. The door would not budge. He fired once more, the shot resonating in the enclosed s.p.a.ce. The lock was now loose but it took two more shots to fully disengage it.

Holly rushed out of her wheelchair and into the arms of her husband.

"Oh, Ray, baby, I thought you were dead," she sobbed.

"We've gotta move people. Now!" boomed the captain, pulling Holly out of Ray's arms and putting her in the wheelchair. "Are your clothes in there?" he asked, seeing that Ray was dressed in what looked like prisoner pajamas.

"No, they took them away," he answered.

"That's OK, son," said the captain. "Let's go!"

The group reentered the elevator and pressed (1). When the door opened, they noticed an orderly wheeling a patient down the hall. He didn't seem alarmed at all, either because he had not heard the shots in the bas.e.m.e.nt or because he a.s.sumed that executions were taking place outside. They turned and headed back toward the ER exit.

The ambulance driver's friend stood watching as they began to load Holly and Ray into the ambulance. Obviously puzzled, he had tentatively raised his hand to say something when the shock hit his neck and he collapsed. They moved his limp body behind the counter, pulled the phone cord out of the wall and tied his hands. By the time the large garage door reached the top of its travel, the ambulance was already in the parking lot, pausing only long enough for the others to climb into the taxi.

They headed east toward the distant harbor.

49.

The fearless nurse on the seventh floor had watched the unusual procession with growing suspicion, but she was confused. She had known the doctor for years; there was no reason not to trust what he said. And you had always to be careful when questioning a police officer, even when you are as self-a.s.sured as she. The police are part of the Ministry of State Security and one was ill-advised to cross their path. But there was just something out of place about this group, not the least of which was the unidentified American male. She also mulled over the fact that the police officer who had been guarding the room let the group in, apparently without challenge, as if he'd been expecting them. This gave her pause.

The nurse was still vacillating between returning to her growing workload and calling someone for clarification when it occurred to her that she had not seen the guard emerge from the patient's room. She had just set off down the hall to investigate when the Swedish patient suddenly flew out of her room fully clothed and carrying her suitcase.

"You can't leave!" barked the nurse, but the large blonde female, who was at least six inches taller and forty pounds heavier, round-housed the hapless nurse with her suitcase and without looking back continued charging down the hall. The nurse hit the wall and collapsed to the floor. Dazed, she had just begun to pick herself up to call security when the Spanish woman, also fully clothed and carrying her suitcase, emerged from her room and began swearing at her in vivid Spanish. This time the nurse wisely stepped aside.

Remembering that the police officer/guard was only a few doors down, the now somewhat less fearless nurse first peered around each door frame before scooting past it to the next. When at last she reached the room where the American had been, it was empty. She had turned to head back to the nurses station when the Russian woman bolted from her room, her face a mask of rage, and turned to face the nurse. As with the Swedish woman, the nurse was hopelessly outweighed by the gargantuan Russian and started backpedaling furiously, a.s.suming the behemoth was about to murder her. But the Russian abruptly turned and headed for the elevator like the others.

By this time, other patients hearing the commotion and picking up snippets of conversation, began streaming into the hall. There they started talking to one another. Soon, the original rumor planted by the captain was spreading like the plague. Then, as if on cue, they all turned and headed back into their rooms to gather their belongings. Realizing she had a full-scale mutiny on her hands, and taking advantage of the temporary lull, the nurse fled to the nurses station. There she grabbed the phone and crouched behind the counter with it where she hoped to go unnoticed by the gathering mob while she called for reinforcements.

For the first time since the unimaginable ordeal had begun, Holly made no attempt to hold back the tears. She clung to Ray desperately, sobbing uncontrollably, scarcely able to comprehend that she was being rescued.

"What's the game plan, Richard?" Ray asked, cradling his wife.

"First, we're gonna ditch the ambulance," he said. This thing's nothing but a large police magnet; everyone who sees it will remember. Our friends have something else stashed in a place where we can make the switch. Then we make a run for the port where hopefully there'll be a boat waiting."

"I hope it's the fastest boat on the planet," said Ray.

"I wouldn't hold out too much hope of that," Richard replied.

The captain pulled out his cell phone for the first time on the mainland and dialed Commander Moore's number at the consulate in Hong Kong. When he reached his voice mail, he said: "Commander, this is Richard. I a.s.sume you recognize my voice. I have my family and I'm leaving. You can deduce by what route, I'm sure. If you can send help in any way, shape or form, our lives may depend on it." Then he removed the battery and sim card from his phone, depositing them and the now dead phone in his pocket so that it could not be tracked.

The ambulance was now heading at high speed east on the f.u.kang Lu, lights flashing but with no siren. Jun's taxi took another route, one that would take him directly to the port. They had decided that for the first segment of their escape, speed was paramount. The gamble was that they would be able to reach their first way point before the alarm was raised. a.s.suming that was correct, any police vehicle they might encounter would be unlikely to stop an ambulance speeding to an emergency.

The first test of their theory was just ahead.

A police car was sitting on the shoulder, its radar gun poking out the side. Everyone held his breath. The front compartment of the ambulance where the driver and doctor were sitting was well lit, and the police officer simply waved back when the clearly identifiable doctor waved to him. But they had been seen and once the alarm was raised, they would be remembered. Ten minutes later they turned off the expressway and the flashing lights. From now on they would travel as low profile as an ambulance can travel late at night.

They followed a series of side streets for some time, seeing little other traffic. Finally they spotted a lit sign ahead that said hospital. They pulled into the parking lot and over to a small van. The parking lot of the children's hospital was the perfect place to hide an ambulance. They parked, piled into the van and resumed their journey to the port. Now free of the ambulance, they were beginning to feel more confident that in their new conveyance, they might be able to move unnoticed through the city.

Meanwhile Jun's taxi had made a brief stop. Ping sat quietly in the back, looking out the window. She looked so placid, sitting there like she was on her way to visit a friend. She had sacrificed much for the movement and now it was time to repay her. Jun dared not speed, but he would do everything in his power to make sure she got her reward. To fail would mean her death and quite possibly his.