“I can’t do…”
“Do it, Klein, that’s an order!” Taylor coughed.
With fresh tears running down her face, Donna communicated the general’s suggestion to Chu who instantly yelled orders to a squad of commandos. The men ran over to Taylor and set him up near the open door.
Donna forced herself to look away from Taylor. “Where are we going?” She asked the Chinese officer mechanically.
“The American ambassador’s residence, of course. We are defecting.”
“Defecting?”
“Look, no time to talk now!”
Donna didn’t want to talk anyway.
One commando held each wing tip. Chu gunned the motor and the small craft leapt forward with surprising power. Only 30 feet before reaching the three-foot high wall at the edge of the building’s roof, Chu pulled back on the stick and the collection of nylon, aluminum tubes, cable, and a large two-cycle motor scooter engine was airborne.
Donna looked back and saw General Taylor pulling the pin on a grenade and rolling down the stairwell. Her tears rolled straight back to her ears as the air rushed against her face.
Chu circled once around the hotel, picking up wingmen, organizing his formation. It was all precision and purpose.
Chu swooped down to about 100 feet off the ground and flew away from the sunset, towards the east and Taipei. He followed the darkened lines of Tollway 1 below.
The road soon became almost impossible to see. Chu shifted to the softly glowing readout of a GPS receiver clamped to the metal frame in front of him. Chu pulled back on the stick and began climbing.
Donna’s butt was beginning to grow numb from the hard metal seat and its severe vibration from the motor mounted just to her back. She figured they must have been airborne at least an hour. She thought about Taylor the entire time, praying for him as she had never prayed for anyone or anything before.
Suddenly, Chu jinked the aircraft’s wings back and forth, then climbed steeply. They circled tightly gaining altitude for at least three minutes. Then the engine died. Donna immediately panicked, “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I want to glide in. I assume your people are not expecting me?”
“Right.”
“Then as we come in over the Ambassador’s roof I want you to call out to the guards, ‘Don’t shoot! I’m an American!’ Can you do that?”
“Yes.” Donna suddenly wasn’t so sure everything was as it seemed. “Why are you doing this? Why should I trust you?”
Chu began strapping on his night vision goggles. He remained silent, busy with his controls. Donna saw the big man’s frame heave. He spoke just above the tugging wind, “I’m doing this for my nation. My father. My mother. Fu Zemin’s father was a corrupt Party boss back in my home county. His father tried to squeeze every last drop of sweat and blood from my father, then he asked for more. My father confronted him one day. The authorities say my father was an assassin. I don’t really care why he killed Fu Zemin’s father, only that he did, and was in turn killed for his rebellion. My mother is now in jail. The Party says they may be lenient with her if I perform well in combat. They’ll never let her go. She’s a Christian, a true danger to them. She isn’t afraid of the Party. Now I am no longer afraid as well. I finally realized that China could never be great with leaders such as these. I am only sorry that my father didn’t live to hear me say that.” Chu fell silent again.
Donna put her hand on Chu’s shoulder.
“Look, we’re 500 meters away and about 200 meters above the target. I’m going to line us up and bring us down. There may be antennas and wires on the roof, so hold on. When I say so, start yelling at the top of your lungs. If something were to happen to me, take the skyrocket out of my right cargo pouch and fire it, then ignite the flare that’s in my left cargo pouch. Do you know how to use those?”
“No.”
“Well, I guess I’ll try to stay alive. My men need them to find us. I’d hate to have them drop in behind enemy lines right now, especially without a good explanation.”
Donna chuckled, she was beginning to like this colonel.
“Now, start yelling!” Chu was madly sweeping his goggles back and forth, trying to make up for their lack of a wide-angle view. At the last instant he saw it, a large antenna probably supported by guy wires that extended right across their path.
Donna couldn’t see a thing, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! This is Donna Klein! I’m an American. I’m an…”
The ultralight’s left wing caught a guy wire, spinning the small craft violently around then flipping it upside down. Donna heard a snap and felt a wrenching pain in her shoulder. “Owwww! Help! Damn that hurts! Heeeeelp!”
Two seconds later Donna heard a gruff voice command, “Quiet! Shut-up!” She heard footsteps on the roof running towards her.
“Just hurry up Marine! I think my collarbone is broken! Get a medic up here quick!”
The Marine flashed a small red-lensed pen light in Donna’s inverted face, “I recognize you, you were here a couple of days ago!”
“Right, now cut me out of here!”
“Who’s your friend?”
“Colonel Chu, PLA commando. He’s defecting.”
“He’s in bad shape.”
“Look, he has flares in his pocket. We need to signal the rest of his men that we’re all right and show them where to land.”
The Marine cut Donna down with his K-bar. With only one arm working to break her fall she landed painfully on the roof.
“We can’t do that. One guy I can handle. A flock of commandos at night at this place — you’ve got to be out of your mind, ma’am. Besides, we’re expecting the extraction force to arrive any minute now.”
“Extraction force?” Donna asked from behind a rush of pain as she stood up.
“Yes. Marines out of Okinawa. They’ll be here in a few minutes to evacuate the Army troops.”
“Day late and a dollar…” Donna was angry at an Administration that had obviously waited until the Chinese situation deteriorated to the point where they knew they could get away with snatching the potential hostages out from under China’s nose.
Donna turned back towards the fabric-covered aircraft. She could barely see it in the dark. Its ID strips glowed softly. She reached down to a softly groaning Chu and found the cool metal cylinder of the skyrocket in the pocket of one of his dangling legs. She remembered once from a movie how the devices worked. If this one worked the same way, she’d set it off. She tried to work the cap loose with her good hand, but couldn’t.
The Marine called back to her, “Are you okay ma’am?”
“I think I need a stretcher.”
Donna put the tube’s cap between her knees and pulled hard. The cap came loose and clattered to the roof.
“Hey! What are you doing?” the Marine asked.
Donna found the cap and, cradling the tube between her knees, placed the cap on the other end of the tube. “Doing the right thing,” she said as she firmly smacked the end cap and tube on her thigh. A blinding flash and loud pop announced the ascent of a green star cluster skyrocket. The rocket soared about 200 feet up then broke into five balls of green light. The roof of the ambassador’s residence was momentarily illuminated by the flare. Donna could see a few other soldiers on the roof coming her way. She looked at Colonel Chu. He was stirring to life painfully.
The Marine ran at her and raised his rifle to butt stroke the insolent civilian when he heard the sound of far off helicopters.
Colonel Flint and newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Ramirez were in the lead CH-53E Super Stallion only a mile off from the ambassador’s residence when the pilot’s voice came over the intercom, “I see a star cluster over the LZ. I don’t remember a star cluster being part of our command and signal.”