“And one of the most densely populated,” said Scarlet.
“How do you know this?” Reaper asked Hawke.
“We overheard some of the Russians as they loaded the device onto the tender before going back to the yacht. They were speaking Russian but we clearly heard them mention Tokyo several times, and then laugh.”
“That could mean nothing,” Reaper again, casually pulling a cigarette from behind his ear and lighting it with his Zippo as a bullet traced over his head. “It could be where one of them is going on his honeymoon, no? Or maybe even they knew you were there and were playing you like a violin, is that how you say it?”
“Playing him for a fool is more appropriate in this case,” Scarlet said.
Hawke frowned. “No, I don’t think so. The yacht is sailing at top speed towards Japan as we speak. It’s pretty clear to me that Tokyo is Sheng’s target destination for the Tesla device. That’s my call and I’m making it.”
“In which case, this is no problem,” Reaper said, shrugging his shoulders. “A yacht like that would not go faster than seventy knots, so…”
“And what’s that in English?” Scarlet asked.
Hawke rolled his eyes. “SAS… it’s eighty miles an hour. You’d know that if you didn't let us to all the hard work at sea.”
“Don’t get me started, Joe.”
“Either way,” Reaper interrupted, “Tokyo is over a thousand miles from Shanghai so sailing at top speed it’s going to take them twelve hours to get there. We have plenty of time to organize an assault force to take them down. Nothing could be easier, and we will be enjoying a cold beer before sundown, no?”
“No,” replied Hawke grimly. “There was a Sikorsky S-98 Scout on board. I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Never heard of it,” said the Frenchman dismissively.
“It’s a gyrodyne.”
“A what?” said Ryan.
“A very high-speed compound helicopter with an extra propeller at the rear to provide extra forward thrust. As far as the world is concerned it’s still under development back at Sikorsky HQ, but somehow our mysterious Russian friend seems to have got hold of one, and it looked like it might have been modified.”
“And how fast does this thing go?” Reaper asked, interested enough now to move his eyes from the tip of the cigarette to Hawke.
“It can go well over two hundred and fifty miles an hour, and has a range of over seven hundred and fifty miles. If the Russian takes his yacht out a couple of hundred miles — three hours’ sailing — then they can launch the S-98 and be in Tokyo in less than four hours, and the water here is packed with similar vessels. They could easily hide out in busy water and it would take us all day to find them.”
“So in other words Tokyo could have less than seven or eight hours until it’s totally destroyed,” Scarlet said. “Even less depending on how that gyrodyne has been modified, right?”
“Exactly,” Hawke said. “But sadly for Sheng and the Russian, that’s not going to happen because we’re on it.”
As he spoke, he saw the familiar outline of Sir Richard Eden’s private Gulfstream as it descended onto the airfield. It had come to collect them now the fighting was under control.
“So what’s the plan?” Reaper asked, flicking his cigarette over the wall.
“I’ll take Lea, Lexi, Reaper and the Commodore and finish this here. Cairo, you lead Karlsson, Sophie and Ryan to Tokyo and take out the Russian and our old friend the Lotus. We’ll take Sheng down in Xian, secure the map and meet up with you later.”
“Excellent,” Scarlet said. “More shooting! But…”
“You need him, so don’t even ask.”
“Seriously, no one needs Ryan Bale, Joe.”
“Hey!” Ryan protested.
“As it stands at this moment, Cairo, he knows more than any of us about the Tesla device and its capabilities. It could come down to your life in his hands as much as the other way round on this one, all right?”
“My life in his hands? That’s the sort of traumatic thought you never forget, Joe.”
“Ryan saved my life in Greece. I’ll never forget that and neither should you. If you mess him about you’ll have me to answer to.”
“Easy tiger, I’m sure I can babysit Ryan Bale for a few hours in Tokyo.”
“If that thing goes off in Tokyo it’s going to be total carnage on an unprecedented scale,” Ryan said.
“Right,” Hawke said. “Which is why you’re going to stop them before they do anything naughty, all right?”
Scarlet smiled at the prospect. “Ooh, this is exciting! I’ve never been to Japan before.”
“It's not a bloody sightseeing trip, you fool,” Lea said.
Hawke stopped Scarlet from replying and turned to face the group. “This is it, everyone. Right now it’s up to us to save the world…”
“And that’s a worrying thought,” Scarlet said. “A very worrying thought.”
With the Lotus and her team sailing off to the east in the super yacht and Sheng flying his team west to Xian and the temple, it was now time to kill two birds with one stone, and that mean breaking everyone up into two teams and finalizing their plans.
All around them Sheng’s men were deserting the island, and now in the midst of the clearing smoke of the battle, they stood and listened to Hawke as he finished detailing the plans and gave everyone their final orders. These people had become his friends over the last few weeks, and in some of the toughest circumstances he had ever known.
Scarlet would lead the team going to Japan, backed up by Ryan, Sophie and Karlsson. Meanwhile, Hawke would lead Lea, Lexi, Hart and Reaper into the battle at Qin’s tomb in Xian. But around twenty minutes later, as he was finishing the briefing, he suddenly stopped talking and pointed at the sky. “What the hell are they?”
The others turned to look at several F-15s racing toward the island from the northern horizon, armed to the teeth and ready for action.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Bradley Karlsson spoke first. “Look like Eagles to me. Must have come over from the new deployment on Okinawa.”
“The Yanks have sent three F-15 Eagles to attack Dragon Island?” Lea said. “That’s just plain arsing brilliant.”
“Pretty much,” Hawke said, shaking his head in disbelief. “It could start world war three! Must be McShain, but how did he find out?”
All of them turned to look at Bradley Karlsson.
“What?” Karlsson said. “Okay, I might have just told Eddie about your Tokyo discovery.”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. You tell Kosinski and now there’s three bloody tactical bombers launching an attack on the People’s Republic of China.”
“The ambassadors are going to be busy tonight,” Ryan said. “How the hell did they get here so fast?”
Above their heads the powerful jets screamed and roared and strafed the remaining soldiers of Sheng Fang as they scattered all over the island.
Karlsson shrugged. “Sixteen hundred miles per hour, Ryan, and only four hundred miles from Okinawa — you do the math.”
“We can’t waste time talking about this — we still have work to do!” Hawke shouted over the roar of the jets. As he spoke, a series of massive explosions from the main complex indicated the Eagles were already at work. “Let’s move out!”
The groups split up and Hawke watched as Scarlet and her crew moved down to the airfield and climbed into Eden’s jet.
“What about us?” said Lea.
“We’re not going anywhere until we rescue Han!”
They watched Eden’s Gulfstream and after a few moments trundling along the runway it turned and roared up into the eastern sky. If they failed, Hawke knew the Lotus and her thugs would kill them in a heartbeat, or they would die in the earthquake. Either way he would never see any of them again. Thoughts like that could cripple a man, he knew. Thoughts like that projected images of ghosts into your mind. The ghost of Liz, dying in Vietnam was enough. He didn't want to add any more to that particular horror show.