Girl Rides the Wind (28 page)

“I got you, brother,” Racket said. “I got both of you.”

“No, take the LT. Get her to the medevac. I can still cover you from here.”

Other voices joined Tarot’s, though she couldn’t place them. In a quick handoff, Tarot practically poured Emily into Racket’s arms, who then took off at a dead run.

She looked again over Racket’s elbow, her mind now coming into better focus, and saw Kano and his men rushing across the clearing where Tarot had fallen. Kano took six men to drive toward the Chinese line, yanking free the
wakizashi
still sticking out of Diao’s chest on the way, and sent the rest of his men to pick up Tarot. Then, gripping a Mil-9 in his left hand and leading the charge, he slashed at anyone who made it through the fire his men laid down.

She faded out again and the next thing she heard was the corpsman tending to her inside the bird that carried her back to the
BHR
. She didn’t recognize him, his face still pink from razor-burn.

“How old are you?” His face slipped out of focus while she waited to hear his voice.
Why didn’t he respond?

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” someone said. “You’re in good hands.”

The corpsman seemed to have other things to tell her, but his voice faded out of her hearing again. She wanted to ask about Tarot, since she didn’t see him in the Phrog. Just before she drifted away again, her mind turned to the image of Kano seizing his father’s sword and carrying it into battle. She felt equal parts sorrow for the prospect that he would experience the death of another by his sword, and satisfaction that he might finally come to understand his father’s sacrifice.

When she came to next, she found herself in a trauma bay on what she assumed was the
BHR
, though it seemed unusually quiet. IV’s sprouted from one arm, and a cuff on the other arm gave a read-out of some vital functions, as did a clip covering the end of one finger. A nurse bustled about her for a moment, and then removed the cuff.

“Are you ready for a visitor, Lieutenant?” she asked. “She’s pretty insistent, and she has an entourage.” Emily nodded, and touched the woman’s hand.

“Where are the other casualties?”

“They were mostly taken to the
BHR
or the
Nimitz
, but Admiral Crichton had you brought to the
Blue Ridge
.”

“Do you have any news of the others?”

“Is there someone in particular?”

“Tarot… I mean Lance Corporal Stallings.”

“I’ll make an inquiry for you, Lieutenant. In the meantime, I’ll send in your visitors.”

Emily took a breath and waited to see who would enter, and was surprised to see that Perry and Theo were not members of the entourage. Of course, it made sense once she had a chance to think about it. Kano entered first, followed by Princess Toshi, and then Tsukino, whose hand she clutched tightly.

“Ama,” the little princess cried out and ran to the side of her bed. She chattered at Emily at top speed, until Kano intervened. In very stately Japanese, no doubt influenced by the presence of royalty, he inquired about her condition, told her about her men, and tried to hand over the sword, which he’d recovered from the battle.

“No, Kano-san. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to return this sword to you. It belonged to your father… and now it belongs to you.”

Kano stared at her, emotions swirling behind his steely demeanor, but still visible in his eyes. Something in him undoubtedly wished he could refuse it, but there was no easy way to do so, not with her in this condition, and not in the presence of the princess. But something else in him was gratified to close a circle of debt and obligation, and she had counted on this.

She reached for his hand and said, “Thank you for taking care of my man.”

“I am only sorry we could not do more for him.”

Kano took his leave, and Tsukino bowed his head to her.

“I am in your debt, Tenno-san.” Emily could see what it cost him to address her with such respect. “You have retrieved my lost honor. May I ask why you took such an interest in me and my troubles?”

“I saw the pain it would cause a noble lady.”

Tsukino fumbled for words. “Gyoshin-san? How do you even know her?”

“I met her at Sasebo, and it was easy to see what really matters to her.”

“But she is guilty of treason. How can you sympathize with her after what she has done?”

“Yes, that may be true. But I suspect she is trapped by the ambitions and desires of others. I think she is not entirely the author of what has been done in her name.”

“Is this a woman’s intuition?” Tsukino smiled at her for the first time since she’d known him.

“Two women’s intuitions. Even if I’m wrong about Gyoshin-san’s role in the coup, I am not mistaken about her feelings for you, and I know she would have done everything in her power to keep you clear of it.”

“… and so you entrusted her highness’s safety to me?” Emily didn’t answer, and when he looked down at the princess, he realized he didn’t need one.

“
A
re
you sure you’re up to this, Lieutenant?” Admiral Crichton asked. Emily looked around the Admiral’s wardroom at a circle of expectant faces.

“The doc cleared me, sir, at least for this meeting.”

“You know most of the people here, but let me introduce Captain Kim, the Airwing Commander of the
USS Nimitz
.”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Lieutenant. I hear you did bloody work last night.”

Emily nodded and Crichton patted him on the back, and then took over the conversation.

“First of all, allow me to express our gratitude for what you accomplished yesterday. I have a feeling we owe you the largest debt no one is ever going to hear about.”

“Thank you, sir, but I think it’s important that all the credit goes to the
Jietai
. Whatever happened on that island will be wasted if my name is connected to it.”

“I thought you might say that.” Crichton turned to the others in the room to secure their assent. Kano stepped forward and bowed his head to her.

“My people… our people owe you a debt, Tenno-san, and we may never be able to repay you.” Kano finished this very elegant speech by bowing at the waist, which was all the other people in the room needed to understand.

“Now we have some other decisions to make,” Crichton said. “First, how do we return the princess to Japan? She must arrive safely, but also in such a way as to rally public opinion against the coup plotters.”

“If we can put her in an F18-E Superhornet, we can have her on the ground in Nagasaki in less than thirty minutes.”

“Is that really feasible?” Emily asked.

“If we put her in the second seat, and give her the entire airwing as an escort, we can skim the waves and avoid all ground radar.”

“Is she even big enough for the harness?”

“Excuse me, sir, but has SECNAV weighed in on this?” Theo asked.

“State and ONI recommend flying her to Naha on Okinawa,” Crichton said. “Fewer chances for mischief along the way.”

“Okinawa’s no good,” Emily said. “With all due respect, sir, the US presence is too great there. It will look like we were behind it all along. We might as well fly her to Sasebo as to Naha.”

“CIA thinks the Crown Prince is in hiding in Hokkaido. A family reunion would play well.” Crichton turned to Kano and gestured to Emily to translate for him. “Is there any way we could coordinate with his security people?”

Kano waited for the translation and then shook his head. “I don’t know how we could contact them, if they’re even still alive.”

“Is it worth asking your mother if she knows a way?” Emily asked.

“It could place her in danger, if the plan does not work.” Kano rubbed his chin and pondered the suggestion, and Emily took the opportunity to translate their conversation for the others.

“This is no way to run an op,” Capt Kim said. “We can’t really rely on someone’s mom for intell.”

“What other option do we have?” Theo asked. “We’re flying blind as it is. People gave their lives to rescue that little girl. We can’t just drop her anywhere.”

Kano asked Emily if they had a way to contact his mother.

“It might be as simple as placing a phone call,” Crichton said. “We can patch one through Sasebo.”

Once Emily had translated for him, Kano said, “I believe my mother would choose to take such a risk.”

“
T
he problem is figuring
out where in Japan it’s safe to return the princess to,” Michael said, on another one of his brief stops back home.

Andie and Yuki had stayed up most of the night to celebrate the good news he’d managed to find the time to leak to them from work in the middle of the night. It came as a cryptic phone message: “Our girl plucked a chrysanthemum blossom.” They wept for joy and screamed at the very wonder of it all, and now fatigue had set in.

“The answer is simple,” Andie said. “Reunite the princess with her family.”

“If only it were that simple. The Crown Prince went into hiding after the attack, and forces loyal to the new regime have been scouring the countryside for him.”

“Surely you must have some idea where he is.” Yuki said.

“I have an idea where I’d be, if I were in his shoes. I’d be on Hokkaido somewhere, because public support for the coup is weaker there. I might hide in the mountains around…”

“Asahikawa. It’s a popular tourist area, but it’s probably deserted now. We used to go there when I was a child… and it has its own airport.”

“That’s not a bad guess, but it’s not just about finding the Crown Prince. We need the reunion to take place in front of cameras. If it’s splashed all over the news, that may spell the end of the coup… and Asahikawa may be too isolated for that purpose.”

“Monbetsu? It’s a port town, big enough to have local TV news…”

“We thought of that, too. It’s risky. The
Jietai
constantly patrols the northern channel because of the proximity to Sakhalin.”

“What’s left, then? Hakodate?”

“I wish we’d had you with us last night. It took us hours to figure that out, and you got there in three minutes. Hakodate is the right size, and it’s so close to Misawa Air Force Base that going there would be unexpected. That’s what we recommended to the DCI, but with all the noise surrounding this business, it’s not clear our recommendation will be heard.”

“What’s SECNAV think?” Andie asked.

“Tom seems to have come to his senses, after he got burned by the Chinese, he’s open to all suggestions. He thinks we should let the Admiral decide, since he’s on scene.”

“Ted Hannifin?”

“No, Admiral Crichton. He runs the Pacific Fleet, and he can respond to developments faster than we can. But we still have no way to communicate with the Crown Prince.”

“Oh, that should be the easiest part,” Yuki said. “I bet his people are looking for a way to get a message out.”

“You know what this will all come down to, don’t you?” Andie said. “Some back-channel no intelligence service would think to use, like the mother of a chance acquaintance.”

“I don’t think the Crown Prince has chance acquaintances.”

“Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure the Crown Princess does. She wasn’t raised under the watchful eyes of the Imperial Household Agency, and you already know someone she communicates with.”

Working out the details with Kano’s mother turned out to be easy enough, once the Admiral indicated that she was willing to serve as a go-between. She would get a message to Ozawa, though she would probably not confirm that the Crown Prince really was on Hokkaido, even if she knew.

“
I
t’s in our laps
,” Crichton said. “SECNAV says we’ll have to make the decision on our end. There’s no time to wait for further clearances. We have an advantage as long as the Chinese don’t know we’ve eliminated Diao. Once his father finds out, he’ll probably move to attack any planes we send north, which means we need to act fast.”

“There’s way too much riding on this,” Theo said. “We lack key bits of intell to make a good decision. If we get it wrong, the best case is that the entire region is realigned, and probably antagonistic to western interests.”

“… and the worst case is a shooting war that we’re sure to get sucked into.”

“I don’t know how those generalities are going to help us,” Kim said. “Admiral, we can control some of the risks.”

“How?”

“First of all, a feint. We make like we’re going to Tokyo, maybe even seek clearance to land at Hamamatsu with our main squadron.”

“Right, and in the meantime, we send the princess up north in something inconspicuous, like a C-2A Greyhound.”

“It’s risky,” Theo said.

“But it just might work. We can minimize risk with a fighter escort.”

“It’ll have to be discreet or it may tip our hand, too.”

“We have six EA-18G’s in theater,” Kim said. “We use them to jam electronic signals. That’ll protect against SAM’s. But we need to set things in motion soon.”

“I agree,” Theo said. “Speed is our ally in this. If we wait to have the perfect plan, we only give the coup plotters more time to solidify their position.”

“If we send Kano and the
Jietai
north now in a C-2A to give them time to lock down Hakodate, we can have the princess and her retinue arrive thirty minutes later on another one.” Kim paused to work out some calculations on a map. “We’ll have to send them wide east to avoid any threats in the East China Sea, which means a six-hour flight from our current position at a cruising speed of two hundred fifty knots. Meanwhile, the F-18’s push supersonic up and down the Tokyo corridor, you know, make a lot of noise and indicate an intention to land at Hamamatsu…”

“I get it,” Theo said. “The whole time, they’re actually riding shotgun for Kano and the Princess.”

Crichton paced the room, occasionally running a hand through a thinning hairline. After a moment or two, Kim cleared his throat. “Sir, we can make…”

“You’ve already sold me, Captain. Contact Hargrove on the
Nimitz
and make it happen.” Crichton stood up and ushered his officers out, but Theo lingered behind.

“I have to ask, sir…”

“If it’s about Lieutenant Tenno, there’s nothing I can do.”

“It’s just that, without her, there’s no way…”

“You don’t have to convince me, Mr. Leone. If things turn out as we hope over the next day or so, the debt we all will owe her is… well, it’s huge. But she can’t receive any recognition for it, even if she were willing.”

“You mean what she said about giving the
Jietai
all the credit?”

“It’s more than that. The stunt she pulled, taking on Diao, it was foolish, and it got people killed.”

“In the heat of battle, sir, decisions are never perfect.”

“You’ll have to convince her of that.”

Eventually, Theo conceded the impossibility of arranging any sort of commendation for Emily, and the Admiral managed to guide him out of the wardroom. All that remained for his morning was to figure out what to do with just over forty surviving Chinese soldiers, most of whom had already indicated that they’d rather not return home.

W
hen a royal personage makes a request
, you don’t turn it down lightly, even if she’s only three feet tall. That’s why Emily found herself in the helicopter carrying Princess Toshi to the
USS Nimitz
, along with Tsukino and a few of Kano’s men. From there, a fixed-wing turboprop would take her on a lumbering, roundabout journey to Hakodate Airport. Emily would not be on that plane, though she had yet to determine the best way to break this news to the princess.

For most of the twenty-minute flight, Toshi sat next to Emily, holding her hand or resting her head in her lap – she’d have climbed on if not for the bandages. What did the princess care about the puzzlement of her bodyguard? Tsukino looked like he could hardly keep from laughing at the scene, or perhaps at the complete inversion of values he’d cherished for so long. Emily tried to imagine what he might be thinking. Here she was, an outsider, and not only did the little princess prize her attentions above all others, but….

“You were right about Diao,” he said.

Emily raised her eyes to meet his. “Right about what?”

“He was scarcely human. You tried to warn me that day in the hangar deck.” He gestured to his bandaged wrist. “How were you able to defeat him?”

“I got lucky. He was not able to keep his cool around me.”

“That’s not what I heard. They said you practically sacrificed yourself. He nearly killed you.”

Weary of this topic, Emily tried to turn the conversation to something else, while she stroked Toshi’s hair. “I hear you will leave the
Jietai
. Is that true?”

“Yes, Tenno-san. I no longer feel at home there.”

“Will you enter the priesthood?

“That is what my family wishes.”

“But not you?”

Tsukino let out a long breath and examined his shoes with some care. “These last few weeks, I’ve come to see… much more clearly than ever before, how entirely our lives must be shaped by forces outside ourselves.” He paused to think for a moment, and met her eyes again. “It is a fortunate person whose desires are in accord with those forces.”

Emily nodded, but said nothing. If only Tsukino knew how much the two of them shared from that perspective. Her mind traversed the world she knew and found much to marvel at. How little had she expected to meet someone like Hsu Qi, that strange woman who had seen so deeply into her soul, and who had known her father. The island she shared with her brother, a haven from reprisals by the junta in Myanmar, it also tugged at Emily’s consciousness. She’d heard the voices urging her to return there, to let herself die there and be buried among the trees, her bones dissolving into the volcanic soil, while the atoms that once formed her personality would find their way into the foliage and the grass. If she thought it might give her shelter from the ghosts that crowded in on her at unguarded moments, she would obey them.

Hsu Qi referred to her as a moon-child, and the thought offered some consolation. She found comfort in the shadows, and in the dark of night, and
Amaterasu-omikami
’s interest in her had always felt intrusive. When the disk of the moon spoke to her that night, she knew to heed it… him.

The helicopter put down on one side of the deck of the
Nimitz
, and men in yellow jerseys guided them over to a C2-A at one end. Emily stopped at the tailgate of the cargo plane, and crouched down to embrace the princess.

“It is time to be brave again, your Highness. If all goes well, your mother will be waiting for you at the other end.”

Toshi squeezed her neck, not wanting to let go.

“Go with my friend, Moon-san,” she whispered into Toshi’s ear. “He will take good care of you.”

Tsukino bent over to lift her into his arms, and turned to allow the princess to wave goodbye. A few moments later, the turboprop roared across the deck as Emily watched from the side of the Phrog.