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The pressure of the num chuk chains loosened a little.
“I’m Dynomite, Luke, Hack. Don’t hurt me. I just need to look at a GPS tracking system on the computer.” Lucas Jenson gasped. “I know I’m not supposed to be here, I just have to help my partners...please mister, don’t choke me.” Luke was talking fast, unsure of his assailant and as frightened as he could remember. This guy was strong and could kill him in seconds, Luke thought.
“What partners? Who are you trying to help?” the voice was still deadly.
“My partner, his mom...he’s my best friend and his mom was on this helicopter. The dude, the pilot, did something...to her and our friend Smokey.” Luke stammered, wondering why he was volunteering so much information. This was probably a security guard.
“Do you know Chloe? “asked the steely voice.
“Yeah, my friend’s little sister.” How could this guy guess Ho’s sister’s name?
“Who is your friend, his name?”
“Uh, Mohonri Tanner. I have to save ‘em,” rasped Luke.
“Wrong answer, who the hell is Mohonri?” the voice hissed.
“Ho, we all call him Ho, short for Mohonri.”
The pressure of the chains went away. There was moment of silence, which scared Luke even more. The person who was trying to kill him was obviously processing some things. What he said was the last thing Hack would have guessed.
In a low, heavy breathing, raspy voice, the man behind him growled, “Luke, I am your father.”
Luke wasn’t sure if he should laugh or play along with the Darth Vader mimicry but his heart slowed its rapid drum beat. He doubted anyone who would say such a thing in this circumstance was really deadly or meant him harm.
“Scare the crap out of me, he would not,” chuckled Hack. “How do you know about Ho Tanner and his sister?”
“I—am—her—husband,” the voice continued in the raspy, low imitation.
“Chloe is not married,” Hack insisted.
“Yesterday, married she was,” he still mimicked. Then in a friendly tone, with the chain num-chuk removed, Jade Black asked, “So you are the brains behind MJD? They call you, Pahana.”
Luke twisted around and looked at the burka covered intruder. “You are the guy who eloped with Chloe, freaked her mom out and got her chasing you guys across the South Pacific...and got her lost somewhere?”
“Well, yeah. Some of that. Chloe and I flew to Malaysia and got married. Our honeymoon went to hell, thanks to big brother. Then I got arrested...had to escape to try to find my mother-in-law, who I have never met. I think there are clues in the on-board computer of this helicopter and I’m guessing you are following the same lead.” Jade seemed legitimate and concerned. Luke stuck out his hand to shake.
“You got that right; pleased to meet you, Jade. Are we on the same team or are you working another angle?”
“Same team. My grandpa san has merged Tanaka Resources with MJD. We are in business together and family together.”
“What was your plan coming to Guam?”
“To find out what Touchdown Terrence did with Mrs. Tanner and rescue her. What is your plan?”
“About the same. I thought we might steal this chopper but I couldn’t get fat boy Aquin through the fence. He was supposed to fly this thing along the reverse line.”
Jade stared at Hack, while he realized why the cHOPPER office phone was always going to ‘message’. “Aquin is here?”
“Sittin’ outside the perimeter chain link fence. I brought him here, sort of against his will.”
The black clad ninja started to laugh. Jade took off his head covering. Luke noticed he was a handsome devil. That would explain Chloe flipping out over him.
“He’s a pretty tough dude; how did you make him come with you?”
“He is in a body cast, kind of like a big pet turtle.”
Jade Black laughed again, this time shaking his head in disbelief. “You were going to make him fly this thing out of a secure US air base? If the surface to air missiles didn’t knock you down, an F-16 would, a few seconds later. Your plan is half baked, Luke. You’ll need inside help to pull that off and I got the inside. Are we working together?” Luke nodded, realizing his plan was half complete and sure to blow up. “It’s getting light, we better move, if we are going to do this.”
“Will you help get Aquin through the fence?”
“Better. I’m going to fly us out, forget Aquin. You get that GPS tracker working, navigator, while I make a call and visit your turtle.” Jade snickered, looked at Luke with admiration and pulled a little square plastic wrapped package out from under the pilot seat. “Gotta take a leak and drop this off.”
Hack looked quizzical for a moment then, thinking Jade was delivering some dope, blurted out a warning.
“You are not getting me involved with narcotic distributing. Aquin can’t deliver that package, he’ll sell us out in a New York minute,” Luke sounded desperate and exasperated.
“They’ll find it when they take his cast off; he and Touchdown will be cell mates.” Jade grinned, with the devil’s own smirk. “I got this, Pahana.”
Luke was about to panic. They were adding drugs to the helicopter theft; but, maybe no one would believe Aquin’s story. Maybe his new partner could get them out of Anderson without getting blown up.
Jade was only a couple minutes. He really had planted the heroin on Aquin, laughed right in his bulging eyes and called his MMA groupie; all while urinating on the fence. Sweet talking didn’t work with the fan nor did a bribe for money but front row tickets to the next MMA Championship in Manila did. He finally agreed the defense anti-aircraft batteries and any kind of pursuit would be mysteriously non-functional. The radar track system was developing a glitch—it would just quit working. Probably something electrical.
Luke had finally gotten power to the dash monitor. Jade slipped quietly into the cockpit, slammed on a helmet and hit the start switch. The sheer audacity of the helicopter escape was a story Luke would tell the rest of his life. Ho would be pretty proud of him and Jade is who made it all happen, well, not quite all. Luke had still brought the big Samoan to Guam and left him.
They cleared the immediate base, the helicopter had been refueled, Jade was happy to announce. The anxiety was etched in both the pilot and the navigator’s faces. If any part of the MMA groupies sabotage plan failed, the fate of the latest MJD partners would be just ‘missing’.
Any second they expected a siren and flood lights. Anderson Air Base was silent. The stolen helicopter raced out of the immediate range of shore guns, only some kind of missile could get them now, Jade reassured Luke, who was holding his breath. He had just released a big lung full of anxious air, when Jade startled him with a cold edge to his voice.
“Damn, I was afraid of possible incoming flights. See those two blinking lights to the right, they have landing lights on and gear down, except the computers that help them in are dysfunctional. They will probably pull up and circle, waiting for ground control to advise.” Jade was tense and assessing the change of plans. Hack Jensen’s heart leaped into his throat, as they both saw the lights of the approaching F-16s suddenly arc upward. Then, with a sinking feeling, they watched the military planes bank and head right at the purloined chopper.
“If we land and hide, they will find us with ground police. Can we run for it, Jade?” asked Luke.
“A mouse against a lion but I guess we could try,” Jade answered, morbidly.
There were spots of cornflower blue ahead in the now brightening sky; but all around the helicopter was gray and quite dark. The immediate cloud ahead was puffy popcorn cumulus and a few layers of cirrus but, above them and mostly around them, was a soupy fog type cloud. Further up ahead were tall majestic towers of thunderheads, with obvious storm systems raising high into the air, up where only the 747 eagles flew. The helicopter couldn’t make those heights but it could hide in the puffiest stacks of bubble upon bubble of white tops, tinged with the morning sun. It was beautiful, the serenity of the sky, however, was not appreciated in the cabin of the chopper. Jade banked immediately for a dense row of scudding clouds.
“We have radar equipment, so do they. They have missiles, most likely, armed for intercept, if they decide to chase us,” Jade cautioned.
“And 50 cal. cannons,” Hack added, glumly. “Maybe they won’t know about us and we are stressing for nothing.” They were just disappearing into the closest fog bank.
“Watch the radar monitor closely—if you see those two blips turn into four or eight, we are in deep shit.” Jade began to circle the helicopter in a tight holding pattern. Buying some time in the misty cloud cover, they were hoping the fighter planes were busy with something else. For a couple of minutes everything was peaceful.
“Jade,” blurted Hack, “I can’t see the blips anymore. I took my eyes off them for a second and they disappeared.”
“That could be good or really bad.”
The silence was suddenly shattered by an explosion of sound and fury.
“What the hell...” Luke screamed, as the chopper bucked in the turbulence of an F-16, immediately ahead and climbing into the sky akin to Apollo from Cape Canaveral. It looked comparable to an angry bull that had just missed a matador, as it began a wide arc to prepare for another pass.
“We just got buzzed, dude. He’ll be back in a couple seconds and demand we take it to the ground.” Jade seemed pretty much in control, after fighting to stabilize the bird. He quickly banked and dropped into another white puff of cumulus. “This is important, Pahana. Unhook your belt and get in the back. I noticed some oxygen tanks, a couple small fuel drums and some cables for anchoring the chopper. Get that stuff all together by the door and wrap the cables around it all. Just do exactly what I tell you. Take that Emergency flare pistol with you. Ever shot a gun, dude?”
Lucas Jensen was scared. This was Ho stuff they were into but he answered as macho as he could. “Yeah, we always went hunting and pheasant shooting. I can hit what I shoot at.”
“Good,” yelled Jade, as he flipped off the intercom and radio set. “Now we hide and wait. I don’t think they will shoot but be ready. It would be similar to you hearing a noise and blasting at the sound, if you were deer hunting. They have us on radar and we are sitting ducks, if they decide we are terrorists.”
The radio silence and the hiding in clouds must have pissed off the pilot doing the buzzing. He decided whoever was flying the helicopter was an enemy of American interests and just as a trigger-happy cop at a drug bust, he fired two air-to-air missiles. Jade could see the streaking lines honing in on them on the choppers radar monitor but they couldn’t see a thing in the cloud bank. The damn fools were shooting blind. He had a plan that might work or he and the Pahana were toast; they probably wouldn’t find enough of him and Luke Jensen to ever identify the bandits. Jade was tense but wired—his focus on the incoming radar defense monitor was trying to time the estimated impact.
“Luke, sit your ass on the floor where you can push the tanks out the door when I yell “Go”. You want to get the stuff out and immediately lean out and shoot the containers with your flare gun. OK?”
Luke had wrestled the tanks and equipment into a pile against the door; he opened it and sat down on the other side of the pile of cabled equipment. Jade yelled, “Now, Luke, NOW.” The brains of MJD had to use some serious brawn. Hack Jensen grunted and pushed with all the strength in his stumpy legs. The tanks and drums all fell out together; he scrambled quickly to the door and sighting, fired the flare. It hit the oxygen tanks and exploded. Luke felt the shock of the explosion behind and below the helicopter. Almost immediately another violent huge explosion rocked the rental chopper; it was flicked away from the blast like a used cigarette butt. Luke wasn’t watching anymore. He was slightly concussed; his eyes were tight shut and he was praying. He had faith God would save him.
The cartwheeling helicopter was falling in a near dive. Jade glanced back, hearing nothing from Luke. Seeing his frozen and what seemed a calm pious demeanor, with his eyes clamped tight, sort of pissed Jade off. The Pahana could at least be afraid, Jade was. He fought the vibrating stick, trying to control the plummeting bird; but knew the best thing they could do now was get in below the defense radar and find a flight corridor a few feet above the water and wind in between the small islands of the archipelago around Guam. He guessed they were heading east when he finally got the flailing blades to grab air and give them some stability.
“Pahana,” Jade yelled, sarcastically, “you can quit praying now; the divine protection of below radar is going to help.”
Lucas opened his eyes and could almost feel the waves touch the runners on the helicopter. It was still cloudy above them and he doubted the jet fighters would come down looking for them. He whispered thanks to Heavenly Father. They had almost been blown apart as a tin can of Pepsi on a fence post. They were that kind of target; but, miraculously, the wobbling dragonfly was still flying.
“Look out,” screamed Luke, glancing down at the water that seemed inches below them and looked right into the eyes of a couple Asian fishermen in a ratty shrimp boat, who looked ready to jump overboard. Somehow the runners of the landing struts didn’t snag in the huge nets hanging from the short mast. Jade had seen them at the last second and banked hard to the left. They could hear the men on the boat yelling and cursing at them as they zoomed across the barge. The downdraft from the big blades slapped the choppy water into a smooth circle of outgoing centrifugal waves, which rocked the little vessel; its passengers pointed and shook a fist until the fists were needed to hold their goofy lampshade hats on. Their clothing flapped as if a typhoon had hit them.
Jade looked over as Luke settled into the passenger seat and studiously buckled up. Jade grinned, “Good thing we ran into each other, Pahana. That was fun.”
“Whew, I’m dying over here, dude and you are laughing; that was not fun. Then that boat almost drowned us.” Luke chastised him, as he tried to hide his extremities from shaking—his knees were jelly when he had tried to get back in the front seat and here was this crazy Japanese guy laughing. Once again, he remembered to realize God could provide help anyway he chose. Touchdown Terrance and Aquin couldn’t have done this. Luke was thankful the way things had worked out. He had figured the Lord let him down when the num-chuk was cutting his air supply an hour ago but it was just the man upstairs painting a masterpiece, kind of as when Mother Lode had showed up and handled the four-wheeler bullies three and a half years ago, he reminisced. Now here he was trying to save Ho’s mom and Smokey and, ultimately, Mother Lode himself.
“We dropped off their radar like a rock, the fly boys probably thought it was because of a direct hit, you did well, Pahana. The timing had to be perfect to get the missiles to hit on the tanks. Good shootin’ pardner.” The dare-devil pilot high fived.
Jade Black was something, as he continued chatting, even drawling as if he thought he were Texas Ranger Walker. “Now show me some magic with the GPS computer and let’s see where this tin bird has been.” The line followed by the cHOPPERS charter was clearly etched across the GPS tracking map. Luke wondered if they should just head straight to Eniwetok then backtrack.
“I know they set up equipment at the west edge of the Marshalls; they were definitely there; so that is where I think we should begin to trace.” Luke reasoned.
He was overruled by Jade. “Listen, they could be anywhere along this line. We could have flown over them already if Terrence dropped them just before entering Guam. We have to fly directly on this line, hopefully cross over them and get some kind of visual. There are thousands of atolls and reefs and little unmarked coral spots. We are literally looking for ‘the needle in a haystack’. Just read me the heading when we are right on line and every time it changes, we’ll set a new heading.”
Having the line at least made the search possible. It was not going to be the same as the 2014 manhunt for the Malaysian Airlines 370. They had an on-board; it was just ‘follow the yellow brick road’.
But would they find the Wizard, in this case, the Native Americans?