The nurse showed Wu into a makeshift exam room, clean enough to pass for a clinic room at a temporary airfield for pilots and maintenance teams. There was a long exam table on wheels, a large counter, plenty of cabinets, a trash can, and a weight scale. The walls were white, with no windows or artwork, and glass jars of items like cotton balls and tongue depressors. Old school medical clinic supplies… not much here….crap!
“Please undress and slip this on, Captain Lee. I’ll weigh you in, then the doctor will come in for the exam,” the nurse said. She handed him a green medical down.
“Yes, yes, of course,” Wu replied. He was thinking there was no way this little exam was going to prevent him from taking Devil Dragon and freedom. Wu had to make this fire happen, or he was in an official and certified major shit storm.
“These are your slippers, and here is your specimen cup for urine,” said the Nurse, putting the cup down on the counter. “You do have to go, yes? Urine? I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
The nurse left the room, and Wu felt he had only five, maybe ten minutes, at best. Got to make this shit happen now he said in the empty room. He immediately got up off the table and started searching the cabinets. Wu bent over and rifled through the bottom ones as rapidly as he could, and found they were mostly empty. Just a few plastic bins, some staples, alligator clips, an old mouse and computer keyboard, tampons, and some old yellow faded printer paper. Not much for him to work with. Wu went through the top cabinets, and they were full of folders, some ink cartridges, a can of old hair spray, and masking tape. He had nothing, and was near frantic. Shit. Shit. Shit! Wu did not have much time.
He looked up at the ceiling, and noticed they were drop down tiles. Wu pulled the seat over, and stood up on the counter, popped the ceiling tile up, and looked around the crawl space with his eyes, searching. That’s when the idea hit. Hairspray!
Wu quietly climbed down and grabbed the old yellow printer paper he saw. He put it up in the ceiling, and did three trips. He filled his flight suit pockets with the tampons, stuffing them in his legs. On the last trip up, he noticed the old-style, building mineral insulation, the kind that burned easily. Perfect, he thought.
“Captain Lee, are you almost ready?” asked the nurse. She knocked on the door.
“No, no. Not exactly. Can you give me just five more minutes? Just wrapping up a call with the leadership. Thank you,” he replied while standing up on the counter.
“Oh, my. Yes, of course. Take your time,” she replied.
Wu got a hold of the hairspray and held it up above the ceiling titles. It felt heavy, so he was pleased that it must have been pretty full. He lit those cigar-looking tampons like a torch and chucked them as far as he could in one direction. Then he repeated the same thing in another direction. And another. And then some more. He had at least a dozen flaming tampons going, all accelerated with gorgeous, flammable, hairspray.
Wu then did the same thing with the yellow pads and placed them in the ceiling just above him, and they, too, immediately took with flame and smoke. Wu sprayed the entire area with a purpose, like he was using a flame thrower on steroids. Full effect, with determination. The flame sprayed with vengeance about three feet, and reached far ends of the crawl space that he could never reach if he were to crawl. Wu was almost giddy at his progress. It was almost fun, knowing this was his ticket out.
Wu was lucky that hairspray was available, mainly because of the polymers in the solvent made it flammable. Combined with the propellant gas of propane, and the solvent of an alcohol binder, it was the perfect combustible mix. Wu had in his hands a personal beauty product that any woman of the world would use to keep her hair in place. Except for today, though, where Wu held a personal aerosolized sprayer that was an exceptional incendiary device.
The room did not start to fill up with smoke just yet, but he quickly replaced the ceiling tile so it did not look like he was the catalyst for the fire. He waited and listened, and heard nothing outside the doorway. No sprinklers or fire alarm yet, either, but he was sure that the fire was raging up there. The tampons he threw first and the furthest must be a God damn inferno about now, he thought. Where the hell is the fire alarm?
He dropped his flight suit to around his waist and took off his shirt. He was immensely embarrassed at the jaundice, and his excessive weight loss, so he quickly put the shirt back on, and decided to take his boots off. That way would look like he was in the process of undressing.
RING. RING. RING. RING. RING. RING.
The fire alarm was finally going off, and he realized in his room that there were no fire sprinklers. Wu flung open the exam room door with full theatrical effort, and the entire hallway was full of smoke and the ceiling at the far end and across the hall was fully engulfed. The nurse ran towards him.
“CAPTAIN LEE. THERE IS A FIRE. ARE YOU OK? WE MUST LEAVE RIGHT NOW!” the nurse yelled.
“Yes, yes, let’s go,” as Wu ran out holding his flight boots in his hands. “Let’s go!”
Outside the building, people started exited from every door possible. Even people were coming out of the first floor windows. The older building was dry, not to modern code, and was engulfed in flames quickly. The building did not have that many people inside, and the senior doctor present was Dr. Kong. He conversed with his staff, and verified that all the patients and medical folks were out. Doctor Kong then approached Wu in the crowd of people.
“So sorry, Captain Lee. Certainly we can reschedule another time. Would that work with your flying schedule?” he asked.
Wu was secretly rejoiced on the inside, and let out a sigh to look somewhat bothered. “Yes, tomorrow will work if we must. I will come back tomorrow morning for the exam, depending on the flight schedule,” Wu answered.
“I’ll let the General Chen know of the situation right now. Sorry, again, Captain Lee.”
Wu turned to walk away towards the flight line and hangar, and by now the entire one story makeshift clinic was engulfed. The sirens could be heard in the distance as the fire fighters made their way over to the clinic building.
On the way in, Wu spotted the Aide, gave him a nod, and then made his way towards the Devil Dragon in the hangar. Wu could tell she was all ready for flight since the covers were off the air intakes and engine nozzles, and the ground crew was polishing the canopy windscreen for improved visibility. Wu picked up his flight and overnight bags and climbed inside the cockpit to set up for the flight. He saw Liu was already up there.
“Hey, Wu, ahh, I got a little stomach issue brewing, but nothing to cancel the flight for. Must have been the hotel food,” Liu reported to Wu.
Whoa, that eye drop stuff works, Wu said to himself. “Understand, Liu. Thanks for telling me. If it’s not an issue, I’m ready to go, then, if you are,” Wu commented.
Just as Wu was getting ready to buckle into his seat, he saw General Chen march out of the maintenance offices and over to the nose of the Devil Dragon. He waived with his hand for Wu to come down. Oh, boy, Wu said under his breath.
Wu climbed out of the seat, and reviewed in his head if he let on of anything regarding the plan. It would be near impossible that he or anyone in Chinese military or intelligence would know of the plan, but you never knew. He could have easily slipped up, though.