Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 6: Magic Beach
As Art Swanson pulled the van up at the main entrance to the Royal Hawaiian, Cindy jumped out of the back and ran to the two girls pushing a luggage cart loaded with coolers.
The three young women embraced, then Cindy backed up and looked at Ash. “You look in great shape. You actually put on muscle and lost the little bit of chubbiness you had.”
“Raw fish and seaweed for over a week. Nothing to do but gather food, sleep, exercise, and keep a watch out for ships and planes. I was so bored; the exercise was the high point of my day.” Ashley smiled. “It was the one good thing to come from my stay on the island.”
“This is Jon Swanson and his father, Art. Ashley Sawyer and Sarah Pierce.” Cindy made introductions.
“Ashley, how did you catch fish?” Jon had been intrigued by Ashley’s survival on the island.
“There was a tidal pool. I just enlarged the channel to the ocean, and I had plenty of fish.”
“That’s a lot of food.” Art was looking at the five coolers.
“They’re not full of food. Cindy, her brothers, and cousins may need a way to carry some weapons to the beach without them being seen. We also brought some other stuff.” Ashley’s smile was not friendly. “We don’t expect any guns or bombs there when they attack, but they won’t be unarmed.”
“You sound like you know there will be an attack.” Art wasn’t happy with the idea of civilians, especially teenagers, getting into an armed fight on the beach.
“We spent the morning shopping. We asked a lot of questions about Magic Island, the beach there, and what we would need to bring when our friend picked us up. They know where we will be.”
“But how do you know they know?” Art could tell they were holding something back.
“Detective Tanaka received a tip about a Russian gang heading to Magic Island. You may want to give a call to him to coordinate with him.” Sarah answered, then glanced at Ashley. “We don’t want to mess up Ash’s chance to get a little payback.”
“Eddie mentioned you were good with computers. Would you give HPD a hand afterwards so we don’t have others getting into our system?”
“We left a message for your IT department and copied you and Tanaka on how to correct the problems we found. Where can we put the coolers?”
“In the back.” Art realized he might have to explain why he was copied on that message. He handed his keys to Jon and pulled out his phone. “Jon, load the coolers. I need to call Danny Tanaka, so you’ll drive.” He headed up front to the passenger seat.
Jon pulled the van up next to the Wong’s car in the parking lot. As they got out, Mei-Xing ran from under the tree where she had been waiting to greet her cousin.
“Cindy, you’re not hurt.” She hugged her oldest cousin, whom everyone had been worried about last night. “Mom and dad won’t tell me what happened.”
“I was looking at my tablet and not paying attention as I was walking home last night. Someone snuck up behind me and knocked me unconscious.” Cindy bent down and turned her head. “See the bump where they hit me? Luckily, Dad and other members of the Coast Guard rescued me.”
“Cindy, I want you to meet Anita.” Cheng Wong, the oldest at nineteen of Cindy’s cousins, looked even more nervous than he sounded.
Cheng’s nervousness made Cindy realize Anita was more than another girlfriend. Like her, he had never been serious about anyone he dated. He needed to finish college before he got married, but having a serious relationship might help with his studies. Anita might one day be one of the family, so she put on a big smile as she turned around. When she saw her, she was confused. She looked unlike any of the other girls Cheng had dated. They had all had been the type who had worn make-up to the beach but never went in the water. They were beautiful, but their idea of exercise was walking from store to store shopping. Anita wore no makeup, not that she needed any. Her hair was worn in a bun. Oversized sunglasses hid a good bit of her face. The baggy sweatshirt and the loose exercise pants made it hard to estimate her figure. She was tall, almost as tall as Cheng’s six feet. The one thing Cindy could tell was she was nervous meeting Cindy.
That was what convinced Cindy to ignore the offered hand and give her a hug. What had Cheng told her about his older cousin?
Anita was startled when Cheng’s cousin had ignored her hand and hugged her, but she felt the love in the embrace and returned it.
Cindy broke the embrace but kept one arm around Anita as she turned to face Cheng. “Why didn’t I meet Anita when I got home? If I hadn’t been kidnapped, I wouldn’t have met her until the next time I was home. Or were you going to keep her hidden until the wedding?”
“We will finish college and have jobs before we are married.” Anita’s voice showed Spanish was her first language.
Cindy reached out her free arm and grabbed her cousin into a one-armed embrace while also drawing Anita tight against her as well. “I am happy for the two of you. I take it from Bao’s expression that you haven’t told anyone. Cheng, have you even asked Anita or have you only talked about it?”
“He doesn’t have to ask me.”
“Yes, he does.” Cindy pushed the two of them together and backed up. She looked hard at Cheng, who was blushing and looked unable to speak.
Anita pushed her sunglasses up on her head and took Cheng’s hands in hers. She tilted her head to the side with a questioning look.
Cheng looked into her eyes and smiled. He then dropped down on his knee, still keeping his eyes on hers. “Anita, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
Cheng bounced up and wrapped his arms around her. The kiss lasted a minute. When they broke, Anita grabbed Cindy in an embrace and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Bao and Mei-Xing embraced their future sister. Shen, Cheng’s brother, and Cindy’s two brothers, Tom and Derek, congratulated Cheng.
Jon and Art Swanson stood to the side. They were smiling. Sarah and Ash had watched the family drama unfold. Both had tears in their eyes, but they continued to look around. There were people coming who intended to kill Ash. Sarah had been keeping an eye on her best friend. She was surprised how long Ash was able to keep the sight of a happy family from getting to her. When she started to break, Sarah took her into her arms and let her cry herself out.
At first, Cindy didn’t understand why Ash was crying. Then she looked at her family standing around, their happiness only slightly disturbed by Ash’s crying. As she started forward, Ash shook off Sarah’s arms and turned to Anita.
“Anita, perdóname por arruinar su tiempo de felicidad.” {Forgive me for ruining your time of happiness.} Ash’s accent was the Mexican she had learned from her friends.
Anita had been unsure why the blonde girl was crying. She had seen her somewhere but didn’t remember where. She looked to Cindy, who had arrived with her.
“Ashley survived the plane crash which killed the rest of her family except for her grandfather. She will never know our happiness with them.”
Anita’s eyes clouded with remembered sorrow. She walked over and hugged Ash. “The memories of them will always be with you. You must continue your life and seek new happiness.”
Ash realized Anita’s words stemmed from her own experience. “Share your story with me so I can understand that it is possible to have happiness like you have found.”
They separated and Anita went back to Cheng. She put her arm around him, then she turned to face the others. “I have only told Cheng that we had to leave Columbia, not why or how. This is not the time to tell the whole story. My grandfather was the mayor of our town. He opposed the cartel which sought to take over the town. He and one of my uncles were killed. We knew the rest of the family would be killed as an example, so we fled to the United States. I was ten. A year younger than Mei-Xing. I’m glad now that I came.” She looked at Cheng. “I just wish the reason I came had been different, and my grandfather could have met Cheng.”
Cheng wrapped Anita in a fierce embrace. He remembered the worry he had had for Cindy as they looked for her the previous night. He realized it was nothing compared to actually losing ones you loved.
Everyone was introduced. They made their plans and preparations for an afternoon spent on the beach waiting for the attack.
The teenagers and Mei-Xing continued to play Frisbee on the beach. They had been there for over an hour. Cindy and Jon sat under an umbrella talking. Their voices were low, but the radio between them transmitted it to where Art and other members of HPD waited. Eddie and Charlie Wong also had a radio and listened as they sat at a table playing Go. They were much closer than the police but still a hundred yards away from the beach.
“I see them. Looks to be about eight, no, make that twelve. There are four more joining them. It looks like they are going to discuss it before they get any closer.” Jon paused as he watched two girls who had stopped as they saw the young men grouping together. One said something to the other, and they moved away from them. “They just scared off a couple of girls. Others are noticing them. I just saw one of the guys check his waistband. They are armed, but I don’t know with what.”
“We are moving in.” Art’s voice was heard over the radio. “This will be the last transmission until we get there.”
Eddie and Charlie stretched, then started putting away the game. Charlie had a view of the gang members. He was describing what they were doing to his brother. They had watched the men approach and would be coming in behind them.
Tom had seen the boat approaching the beach. He called Mei-Xing over. “Tell Jon to tell my father about the boat. Then go to the coolers and be ready to get the weapons out.”
Mei-Xing hurried over to Cindy and Jon. “Tell Uncle Eddie about the boat.”
“Dad, there’s a boat coming closer to the beach.” Cindy knew her father had heard Mei-Xing. She got up and moved to the coolers with her cousin. They opened one and then a second.
Eddie picked up a second radio he had and contacted the Coast Guard boat, which had been standing further out. It had been practicing rescuing people from the water. They quickly got everyone on board and headed towards shore.
The young girl going over to the couple under the umbrella had alerted the gang that the two of them were also part of the group which included the girls they were after. They were discussing whether they should take the other three girls besides the two they were being paid to kill. They had already decided to take the two girls and have some fun before killing them. None of them was in disagreement since all five were beautiful, but the leader put his foot down at taking the young girl. His daughter was nearly as old.
Three of them moved towards Jon, Cindy, and Mei-Xing, who were looking through the coolers with their backs to them. The other nine headed towards the eight teenagers on the beach.
The teenagers stopped their play as the men approached. Sarah held the Frisbee in her hand. She had picked it up off the beach after she had flubbed her first catch of the day. They broke into pairs as Cindy had told them to do. There had been objections to Ash and Sarah being paired together, until Cindy had told them they should be paired with the ones that knew them best. Shen and his sister, Bao, took their position between the two California girls and their brother and Anita. Anita was the weakest member. She and Cheng had met at one of the classes he was assisting his father with, but she had just gotten her brown belt a month earlier. Tom and Derek were on the other end of the line. They all were calm as they faced the approaching men.
The men slowed as they saw the teenagers waiting for them. The leader glanced over at his other three men approaching the couple who still hadn’t turned around. They were further away and would probably turn around when his men attacked the teenagers.
Cindy, Jon, and Mei-Xing watched the screen of the laptop. The picture cycled through the three of the four cameras Sarah and Ash had placed when they got there. Cindy had turned off the image of the third camera since it was looking in the wrong direction. She held nunchucks in each hand. Jon had only one pair of nunchucks, but his skills were way below Cindy’s. Mei-Xing held a half dozen throwing stars. She was to stay away from the action once it started.
Cindy gauged her attack for maximum effect on the men approaching the teenagers. Both groups of men now held knives in the open. “Go help the others. I have these. I’ll be right behind you.” Cindy spoke softly before she spun around and shouted. Her first attack was on the man on her left, which would keep him from going after Jon and Mei-Xing as they headed for the beach. Her left hand’s nunchucks broke the man’s wrist, causing him to drop the knife. The strike by the other nunchucks knocked him out of the fight. She had reversed her third swing to keep from killing the first man. That nunchuck hit the second man’s raised hand with the knife poised to strike at her side. The left hand’s nunchucks broke his knee as she moved under the upraised hand. The third man was in shock as he saw his two companions fall within seconds, but the woman was still coming towards him, so he instinctively raised his hand with the knife to protect himself. Cindy wrapped the right hand’s nunchucks around the knife hand as her kick hit his right knee. His knee bent backwards.
She shook her head as she ran towards the beach. Her kick had been too strong. She had forgotten to make allowance for having the hand trapped and pulling it past her as she spun. She had pulled the man into the kick. He would be maimed for life. As her attention switched to the beach, she saw the effect of her attack on the men there. Five of them were staring at her, while the other four continued their attack, but she could tell they had seen it before turning to press their attack.
The leader and one of the two men who had planned to attack Ash and Sarah moved towards them. Suddenly, Sarah’s hand whipped out, and the Frisbee sailed towards the men facing her, but her hand whipped back and out again as soon as the Frisbee was thrown. The man’s arm had gone up and knocked the Frisbee to the side. This left his face exposed to the sand Sarah had picked up when she had picked up the Frisbee. Half-blinded, he flailed at Sarah with the knife, which she easily blocked before she planted the sole of her foot solidly in his stomach. He doubled up and was out of the fight.
The leader had shifted his attention to Sarah’s attack, which had allowed Ash to get a hit in on the wrist that held the knife. The result was not decisive, with both of them having stepped back but with the leader still firmly holding the knife.
The other two attackers had lost their knives to attacks by Cheng and Tom. Derek had also hit the man who faced him and his brother, which left another attacker out of the fight. The five men who hadn’t entered the fight were backing away, followed quickly by the man who had lost his knife. None had sought to help their fallen companions.
The leader looked at the odds. He had lost five of his men. The others were retreating. Their targets weren’t injured except maybe the blonde primary target, who was shaking the hand she had hit him with. He knew how she felt. He shifted his knife to his other hand and shook his arm, trying to offset the numbness he was feeling. Then he saw the hellcat who had taken out three of his men within seconds. She had stopped and was exchanging something for one of the nunchucks she was holding. “Назад. Мы будем ждать лодки, чтобы добраться здесь. {Back. We will wait for the boat to get here.}Лодка имеет винтовки.” {The boat has rifles.}
“Master Chief, the boat has rifles.” Sarah yelled to Eddie, where he and his brother had approached behind the gang members.
“Commander, the boat is armed with rifles. We have everything under control here.” Eddie radioed Fred aboard the Coast Guard boat.
The gang leader looked behind him. Two men who could be brothers and looked like most of the group they had faced were behind them. One was talking into a radio. He casually held a pistol in his other hand. What had they gotten into? To whom was he talking?
Suddenly they heard the horn of the Coast Guard patrol boat as it sped towards them and their boat approaching the shore.
The leader looked out to sea and saw his men on the boat raising their hands. The machine gun on the patrol boat was trained on them. He looked back to see if there was a way to escape, but saw police approaching with long guns. It was a trap. Had those sheet heads set them up? He dropped his knife and slowly raised his hands. “We surrender.”
The gang members, that could, dropped their weapons and raised their hands.
Eddie Wong expected it would take hours before they could leave the beach. That was before Sarah had walked up to the Russian leader. Eddie moved closer to hear what they were saying. The conversation was in Russian and she was scolding them. At first, the Russians had been defensive but then their anger had turned to embarrassment. Ashley intercepted Lieutenant Swanson and the other HPD officers. Whatever she was saying, Eddie was too far away to hear but the officers were listening though they were keeping an eye on Sarah and the Russians. That the Russians were being talked to by a teenage girl and were looking embarrassed, probably kept them back as much as whatever Ashley told them.
Eddie Wong wasn’t fluent in Russian, but he had picked it up along with a number of other languages, which were useful when he came into contact with foreign ships. He was amazed by Sarah’s fluency in Russian as much as by what she said. She started off by asking how they could work for terrorists who blew planes out of the sky. Next, she told them it seemed like a very strange coincidence that the terrorists had decided to bomb a plane in the Pacific just as the North Koreans started firing missiles. Then she wondered if the terrorists had known what the North Koreans planned and might even have been working with them. When she asked if they wanted to return to Russia and help ensure such a surprise attack never happened again, the Russians had shouted ‘Aa’.
Eddie Wong had decided he needed to talk to Lieutenant Swanson. “Art, what would HPD say to all of these Russians and maybe more going back to Russia and HPD ignoring what happened here?”
“They have been trying to find a way home since Moscow was hit.” Detective Danny Tanaka was part of the police unit which tracked gang activity. “This is way outside of what I would expect this group to do. Most of the stuff they have been doing was legal, but something happened when Moscow was destroyed. I have heard rumors that their boss was killed, and the guy who took over has too many other problems to worry about them.”
“Is that what Sarah has been talking to them about?” Art didn’t know Russian.
“After she convinced them that the terrorists bombing the planes may have known about what the North Koreans were planning and timed the bombing to coincide with the attack. She didn’t offer any evidence, but it’s a coincidence.”
“When we have major crimes occurring at the same time, we have to consider if they are connected. Why is she telling this to these Russians?”
“We want to get the Russians starting to reconsider their support for terrorist organizations, especially ones who have nuclear or other WMD capabilities. There is chaos in Russia at this time. If we start them thinking about the fact that a terrorist group may have known about the North Koreans planning an attack, it may start a shift away from their support of such groups.” Ashley explained.
“It isn’t likely to get any results.” Art Swanson knew these Russians wouldn’t have much influence.
“It will be cheaper to have them return to Russia than try them and put them in jail. If they start people thinking about the tie between terrorists and the North Koreans, we have a small gain.”
“They want to tell us everything they know about those who set a bounty on Ashley and me. We need to have Senior Special Agent Poe and Captain McRae there so they can ask questions.” Sarah interrupted Ashley.
“You trust them?” One of the officers asked.
“Not to leave one of the terrorists alive if they get to them before we do, but the idea is if we help them get them back to Russia, they will allow us to get the first try at the terrorists.”
When Mark arrived at Tripler Army Medical Center, Doctor Stanley explained the reason for each of the tests he wanted to have conducted. He had just nodded at appropriate times while the doctor talked and held his questions to the end. None of the tests seemed too intrusive, but there were a number of x-rays, but they seemed well thought out.
Mark thought about the tests before replying. “I think we can combine two of the x-rays. I had arthritis in both my hands, though it hasn’t bothered me in the last couple of days. I broke my left pinkie when I was young, but Mom took care of it, so it’s not in my medical records. An x-ray of my left hand should cover old broken bones and the arthritis. The chest x-ray for the lungs would show something about improved lung capacity, but wouldn’t a full set of MRIs when we get back to California give a fuller picture of the changes my body is undergoing? I want to keep my radiation exposure low since it may affect the changes. That also means I would like to have only one dental x-ray, which should be of where my bridge is. If the changes will also help my teeth, the area of the missing teeth would be the first location I would expect to see something. The tests of my body’s abilities, I have no problem with at all. In fact, I’m very curious to know those results.”
“I don’t have the funds for MRIs. I’ll have to file a report and convince my superiors to spend the funds.”
“Barnaby, I’m going to pay for tests when I get back home. The tests you are running will make it easier to convince those doctors they should conduct the tests. I plan to make the results available to you and your superiors. I hope you would be interested enough to participate in the planning and then the discussion of the results. You would also be a big help when I request Sarah and Ashley being included in the investigation about what has happened to me.”
“Oh, that will be very entertaining, but you will need a well-known researcher to convince the doctors who you are going to want looking into this.”
“Sarah has been exchanging emails with Dr. Marjolaine Tuilier of the Paris Descartes Medical School. MSI has been doing some research in both armor and micro lenses, which ties in with her research into artificial joints. She is scheduled to be in California in a couple of days to discuss combining our research efforts.”
“Yes, I have heard of her. Why is Sarah communicating with her on this? Don’t you have anyone else who speaks French?”
“Sarah is the one who identified the connection between the three research projects. She did it in the less than three hours she was at MSI before we got Ashley’s call. I’m not sure if Sarah has mentioned her age, only that she is a member of MSI’s board of directors. I think Dr. Tuilier may be in for a surprise.”
“She is on the board of directors?”
“Yes, the company was owned by the family. I was the only surviving member of the family when I appointed her. Since then, I also appointed Ashley to the board. Between her and me, we control all of the shares of the company. We’ll be selecting others to join the board, but I think we can await a while for that.”
“I would like to be there when Dr. Tuilier meets you and the girls. I may be needed to explain why you look thirty.”
“I don’t look thirty.”
“You will in a few days. I’m not sure how old you will look when the changes are complete, but I expect somewhere between nineteen and twenty-three. I also don’t expect you to age during at least the next fifty years. In fact, you may not age for a real long time.”
Mark stared at Doctor Stanley. Finally, he shook his head. “Let’s get started with these tests.”
“That is the last of the test results. Your body is doing more than growing younger and reversing body deterioration. Where your finger healed, the bone has changed, removing most of the signs of where the break healed. If we had waited for you to return to California, there would probably be no sign of the fracture. We will have to wait to tell if you are growing new teeth, but something is happening. You may experience pain for which you will need something stronger than over-the-counter medicine.”
“I have some at home, but I’ll have to find where Carol hid it.” Barnaby could see the pain in Mark’s eyes when he mentioned his dead wife’s name. “She hid it from me after the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.”
“I put copies of all the test results on this DVD. I’ll contact you if I won’t be able to clear my schedule to make your meetings. I don’t expect I will have any problems. I suspect between Captain McRae’s and my reports, the Navy will be very interested in what you are doing even if it will take a bit of creative thinking to make it fit with what we should be doing.”
“I expect the problem may be that you will have different groups with different reasons for why they are interested.”
There was a knock at the door. “Commander Stanley, Captain McRae needs to speak to Mr. Sawyer.”
“Transfer her call to the phone in here.”
“Barnaby, I’m here. Can I come in and talk to Mark?”
Barnaby looked over at Mark, who nodded. “We were just finishing discussing the test results.” He opened the door.
“Linda, thank you for your help.” Captain Sheila McRae thanked the nurse before entering the room.
“You are welcome, Captain.”
Mark could see Sheila was excited but not worried. He let out a sigh.
“Yes, the girls and all their friends are fine. We have some Russian gang members who would like to tell us anything they know about the terrorists. I’ve been invited to help in the questioning. I figure you would be interested in hearing what they have to say. Ashley emailed me that you need to be there. Sarah promised them help in returning to Russia. Ashley says it is related to her project. I’m very interested in how they expect to make use of them. Not that I doubt that they can, but the how will be interesting.”
Barnaby laughed. “I don’t doubt it either. Get Mark to explain about Dr. Tuilier on your ride to the police station.”
“I’m ready to go. Commander Stanley, I’ll get information about the meeting with the doctors to you as soon as they are set up. Thank you for sharing the test results with me.”
“They are about your body. Some of how this happened may be secret but not what happened to you.” They shook.
Carol Turbeck, the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, walked into the room expecting to see some Russian mafia members being guarded by police officers. She had heard there were twenty-one of them, so the use of the large room had made sense. The assembly of people she found was very unexpected. There were only four HPD officers present, including the Chief of Police, and they were not guarding prisoners. Everyone was listening to a teenage girl. Then she realized she had seen the girl on the news about her rescue.
“Ms. Turbeck, I am sorry for the late notification about the meeting. Chief Bradley suggested we would need you to ensure no charges would be filed.” Ashley had seen her enter.
“No charges?”
“Yes, we are going to help these gentlemen, other of their associates, and their families return to Russia. Grandfather is making arrangements to have them flown in on some of the relief flights, but we need them not tied up with some charges since they wish to go home. They are supplying information on those who bombed the flight. FBI Senior Special Agent Marsha Poe says the information they have supplied has given the FBI enough information with which they can make a number of arrests. We just need you to agree not to file charges against anyone who leaves the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Carol realized the cost of trying and holding these many prisoners would be a major expense. Most would not get jail time but would have a record, making it harder for them to find work. She was always being pressured to request alternate sentences to jail time. This might be a good solution. When she looked at Lucas Bradley, the Chief gave a small nod. “Tell me more about this plan.”
They had ended up at The Sicilian Gardens. Captain Sheila McRae had joined them, but Agents Marsha Poe and John McHale had rushed off to work on the arrests of the terrorists. None of the Russians had been invited. Fred and Kay, who hadn’t been at the meeting, had also joined them.