Chapter 7

We landed at Kow Chin Lo airport, a military base, as several fighters circled above, our escort I thought. China was not known for its willingness to have 'round eyes' go anywhere which had not been sanitized, that is, made to look more like the West.

Li Wu must have really pulled some strings to get me here. Mei Li seemed to read my mind. "My father wanted you to see the real China, to experience what he faces every day, and perhaps understand why things are done the way they are."

The reception at the airport seemed, well, a bit odd. We were greeted by a dozen men in uniform. When they saw Heather they got attentive. Mei had dressed her in silk, and if you have never seen a blond haired, blue eyed Chinese Doll you never saw Heather. When Mei exited the plane those same smiling men just stiffened and almost jumped out of their boots. I guess she could have that affect on people.

I got a better understanding of the Wu family here when several things happened. First three of the largest dogs I had ever seen were brought off the plane and on leashes then handed to Heather. Mei laughed and merely said, "I really did get her dogs!" (Like Hell! these were giant Wolves, not dogs, I thought).

"I always wanted cats, so I got some for me, too." Mei was handed three sleek and shiny leopards. One spotted, one black, one white, but with green eyes. Green was lucky in China, very rare in a leopard, though, but after all, this was Mei and of course it would be rare.

From out of nowhere some airport official of some sort ran up and was screaming about the animals. Something to the effect he was going to take or shoot them. It was probably the wrong thing for him to say to her. Mei dropped the leashes on all three cats. They must have been trained well, for at one word, 'kill' in Mandarin, arms, legs and the throat of that man became targets of the cats.

Another look to Heather from Mei saw her drop her leashes, and now the cats were being protected by the three wolves. The man was dead in a few seconds, his throat ripped wide open. The cats then sat and waited, still flanked by the wolves. Dogs and cats working together to a common purpose was unheard of. Then again, was that not what Li Wu and I were trying to accomplish? Mei patted the wolves then handed them back to Heather. Saying she had to learn some Mandarin. She bent down to the purring cats, gave then a hug, placed their heads on her breast and scratched their ears. Hell, I wanted to trade places with them now.

No one had moved. Mei made a gesture and several men came up and removed the lifeless body. Mei pointed to above us. A dozen guards with the largest rifles with scopes I ever saw were looking down at us. It was possibly the reason no one had even moved. This was real power, I thought. It was not over.

In the distance there came a sound, it became a crescendo. The sound was unmistakable. Thousands were marching towards us, they were shouting over and over again: "Wu ... Wu ... Wu." Mei told me, then whispered to Heather, that we had our own escort home. 2,500 men wearing several coloured uniforms were now passing in review. Wu had his own army. I guess it would soon be ours, then.

What she was not telling me was that unlike the empire he had built throughout the West, Asia, especially China, was different. In a sort of 'slip of the tongue' Mei Li said something like, "So that I would know what to do and how to act when he was gone." Mei confided that Li Wu was 81 years old. I would never even have come close in my guess.