He grabbed it in his hands and, shaking, raised it up and pointed it at Lena’s beautiful face. She was on all fours. Before the three other men collapsed on top of her and tied her up, David swore that he saw a faint smile form on her lips.
Tom stood in the back of the Control Center. That’s what he called the room where all of the Chinese military intelligence men — or whatever organization they were from — observed the Americans on the other side of the island.
He looked at his watch. Three p.m. He looked around the room. Everyone was busy typing away or watching their monitors. Some of them were translating the reams of script that had been transferred over to them by Natesh and Major Combs earlier that day. Some were communicating with the two Chinese Navy ships one hundred miles to the north.
There were fewer men than earlier. Most of them normally were tasked with watching the daily meetings. Since it was lunch break, there was little attention being paid to the screens. But the afternoon sessions were due to begin any moment now, and Tom decided he wanted to watch. He wanted to see how twenty Americans were really planning China’s invasion of the United States.
One of the screens showed the main classroom. It was an auditorium of sorts, with four rows of tiered seating and a large Plexiglas window that wrapped around the upper level in the back of the class. People were starting to file into the room, Tom noticed.
He looked around the Observation Deck, and didn’t see anyone watching the screen — or watching him. He removed the flask from his breast pocket, took his third swig in as many minutes, and put it back. Lena could say whatever she wanted. It was nothing Mr. Johnnie Walker couldn’t drown out.
The short watch supervisor entered the room, talking in Mandarin to his subordinates. He looked up at the same monitor that Tom had been watching and let out something in Mandarin that Tom didn’t need translated. Every language had that word. As soon as he said it, several of the other men in the room began yelling and typing furiously. Two were pointing at the screen and yelling at each other.
Tom couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. He squinted and looked up at the screen. It was low resolution. The men that were monitoring it all had headsets on, so Tom couldn’t hear what was being said in the classroom.
Then he saw exactly what all the fuss was about. Lena and some guy in a military uniform were both being carried into the classroom. They were tied up. Bound with something around their arms and legs. Holy shit. Somebody better do something about this.
The next thing Tom knew, the one man in the room was on a satellite phone, screaming bloody murder in Mandarin. Tom had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded like he was repeating the same thing over and over. Then the supervisor picked up a handset bolted to the wall and started talking, and his voice was transmitted over the loud speaker. A minute later, several dozen men, including the supervisor, were running by Tom, heading down the stairs. They were all armed, and they looked scared.
The room was almost empty after they left. There was one young soldier at his monitor. He typed away. It looked like he was typing in some sort of chat room. Must be updating the Chinese high command on what was going on. Something like that. Maybe he was telling Jinshan himself? Nah. Guys like that had minions do the work for them. Tom had met Jinshan. That guy was probably in a hot tub with a cigar in his mouth. That’s where Tom would be soon. Screw Lena.
He looked around, didn’t see anyone watching, and took another swig from the flask. He squinted up at the screen and saw that Lena and the military officer — it looked like an Air Force uniform — were tied up in the middle of the center stage of the auditorium. Everyone was in the classroom now. There were several animated conversations going on, by the looks of it. Tom sure as hell couldn’t hear anything. He could ask sonny boy on the computer to put the sound on. Kind of like turning the volume up for the football game.
Shit. Football. Probably not gonna have much football for a while. That was a definite downside to all of this. He let out a deep sigh. Tom was already sick of all these Chinese assholes here. It was going to be a long few months until he could live like a king in the new version of America. He decided to go talk to the prisoner. Bill. Maybe that would cheer him up.
A few minutes later, David stood looking at Lena and the Major tied up in chairs on the stage in the middle of the classroom. This was the best place to gather everyone, Henry and he had agreed.
The Major wouldn’t stop screaming bloody murder behind his gag, so they left it on. Lena didn’t say a word. She just watched everyone behind those cold eyes. Everyone in the room was soaked from walking through the rain outside. The storm was in full swing.
David and Henry were surprised how easy selling the others had been. It had only taken a few minutes. They had taken a few at a time into Henry’s room and let them know what David had seen. Some were skeptical, at first. But after this many days on the island, people knew and trusted each other. They believed David’s story. Henry outlined their plan and explained why they needed to act fast. The initial group of consultants that they told were all military and law enforcement. They went for the bigger guys who they thought would know how to handle themselves in a fight. If David had known how close the contest would be to take Lena, he might have tried to wait until they could recruit everyone.
The second group of people they told were the civilians of the Red Cell. Some of them were just now getting the full explanation as to what was going on.. Dr. Creighton and Tess McDonald had first argued vehemently that David should immediately untie Lena. But after David had explained what he had seen, and they’d witnessed Lena’s cold, silent stare, they’d quieted down.
Henry looked at David and said, “People are all the same. We’re scared of our shadows. Every one of us here is frightened. We just need to know what to do. David, this is your show now. You gotta take charge. Let everyone know the plan.”
David nodded and walked to the center of the crowd. Everyone was talking at the same time. Some of the consultants were hysterical. Dr. Creighton and one of the military guys were helping to mend the gunshot wound of the guy who had been hit when the M9 hit the floor and fired off.
David said, “Everyone quiet down!” He motioned for people to come closer. Natesh and Henry were by his side.
Even the stewards were here now. Communication with them had been against the rules. But the rules had been thrown out the window. Tess, who apparently was fluent in Mandarin, discovered that they were all hotel employees at some Macau resort. They had been sent here two weeks ago. None of them spoke English. As David spoke, Tess translated for the stewards.
David felt the crowd’s eyes on him, looking for answers. He had become their situational leader. Even Natesh seemed to be looking to David to figure out what his plan was.
David said, “As all of you now know, this place isn’t what we thought it was. Bill wasn’t sent home. I saw him dragged unconscious by Lena onto the helicopter a few days ago—”
Someone said, “Why the hell didn’t you say anything then?”
Norman yelled, “Don’t freaking worry about that now! Let him speak.”
David said, “… and this morning I saw Bill again, a prisoner on the other side of this island. There is some sort of base camp there as well. And the occupants look like members of a foreign military. My guess is Chinese. I think that we have all been taken here by the Chinese as some part of… I don’t know… an intelligence-gathering operation. As a way to extract information from us.”