Today’s excerpt is from Back
To China, a standalone book featuring Jim Scott and many old friends
from previous books. Jim, Holly, and
Hector on way to Washington, D.C. to meet the British Prime Minister and SIS
(MI6) Chief Sir Anthony Henry at the White House. The idea is for Jim to come up with a plan to
get back two physicists (one American, one Australian working for the British)
who have been kidnapped. Enjoy and have
a great day.
m.j.
As soon as Holly
had the plane on a heading to D.C., Jim called Sir Anthony. “Okay, pal, Holly is flying Hector and me to
Andrews. I’ll give you my plane info
shortly. But right now, I’d sorta like
to know what the hell’s going on.”
“Kevin Hogan and
Marlin Walendy have been kidnapped. They
were working on a special project at Area 51.
Those two are world-class…”
“Physicists…I’m
familiar with some of their concepts.
Let me guess—they were kidnapped in Las Vegas. If so, where were your people?”
“They were
waiting at the casino hotel, where the two were going to enjoy some
R&R. DOD had a six-man team, in
three SUVs, pick them up at Nellis Air Force Base, for transport to the
hotel. They made it less than a mile. As of right now, they—or at least Hogan, and
presumably Walendy—are heading west from Las Vegas. Their present heading has them winding up in
China—if, of course, I’m correct in assuming the Chinese are behind this.”
“You’re probably
right. So you want Hector and me to
snatch them back?”
“Yes.”
“I suppose you
have no idea where in China they might be taken?”
“Just a
hunch…one of the Jim Scott variety….one of your gut feelings. There is a recently constructed Chinese
facility in the middle of nowhere…Qinghai Provence, to be precise. It was built into the side of a small
mountain—more like a hill—and has a nice new road running quite a distance, to
and past the facility. They have only
recently moved the heavy construction equipment out of the area. Umm…one more thing—the road leads nowhere
once past the facility. It may or may
not be completed.”
“How long did
the construction take?”
“Roughly six
months.”
“How long have
Hogan and Walendy been at Area 51?”
“The better part
of a year.”
“I’d say you may
be right, but I’ll draw up two plans:
one for populated area, and one for the ‘middle of nowhere.’ By the way, since you seem to have sure
knowledge of where at least Hogan is, I assume you have a GPS device imbedded
in him somehow.”
“Correct. Now, give me your plane info. You’ll be met at Andrews and flown to the
White House. We’ll meet you there.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
“The Prime
Minister and me.”
Jim nodded to
himself and gave Sir Anthony the information.
Then he got down to serious planning.
While he worked on the plan, Hector watched. At one point, Hector asked, “You know we’ll
need at least four, don’t you?”
“What I was
thinking. You’re figuring out who the
other two will be. I’m not real sure on
timing, but I’d say we’ll have very little, so probably none of the folks who
readily come to mind will do.”
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