Chapter 18

Zeus

January 11

Okinawa Island is in the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan and is a small island in the chain of islands that run from the southern tip of Japan to Taiwan. It is in the middle of the sea; officially it is between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. Compared to the other islands in the Prefecture, it is very large; compared to the islands in the rest of the world it is pretty small. Although someone will say that it is officially sub-tropical, I'm here to tell you that in January it is bone chillingly cold and damp. Lows in the 50º F neighborhood and highs in the mid 60ºs F. The locals told me that it wasn't typical, usually it was much warmer. Didn't help. That's what it was when I was there. And of course, since it was usually much warmer, the heat in the barracks where Arti and I were billeted was inadequate.

We actually weren't in Okinawa proper for very long. We'd met Hollowpoint and 42 in Nevada, and had a nice round of blackslapping and 'what the hell have you been doing' and 'have you met my wife, Arti?'-ing. The next morning, we climbed aboard the two Hornets and flew to Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.

After two days in the lovely land of Marines, we loaded up like any other SEALs and took a long leisurely boat ride to a significantly smaller place called Kume Island, some 50 or 60 miles due West. Fifty miles across open ocean in what the SEALs laughingly called a boat would have, at one time, been routine for me. It still was for Hollowpoint – excuse me, Commander Hollerith. Now, I had been out of the SEALs for a long time, and I was feeling a little whoopsie in the stomach as the flotilla of small boats crashed through the ocean swell.

Arti was leaning over the side and spewing chunks that I'm sure the fish found tasty, but nobody else would. After an extended period of heaving, she came and sat with me in the cabin. She was just this side of green.

"First time in a small boat, Mrs. Chesterfield?" one of the SEALs nearby asked. On this trip we were Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Chesterfield.

"Yeah, but I've usually got a cast iron stomach," Arti said. "You know, riding roller coasters, sitting in small planes over the mountains while I'm invading countries, jumping out of airplanes. That sort of thing," she answered with a big smile.

The SEAL laughed. But he looked at her with a questioning glance. She could have said roller coasters and bumpy airplane rides. And she was here with a backpack at her feet and wearing fatigues. She didn't seem like a Missus anything. She looked tough enough, even if she was green around the gills. There were stranger things in this man's Navy.

The SEAL team – well, this platoon of the SEAL team anyway – practiced making an amphibious attack on the beach at Kume Island. Arti and I watched, as did Hollowpoint. After the exercise was over, we beached the boat and marched ashore like MacArthur in the Philippines. Hollowpoint ignored the platoon of SEALs, who were busy making the beach safe against – I dunno ... maybe some out of season tourists? They were busy with their platoon leader.

Hollowpoint motioned us to the side, and then we marched up the beach and got in a rental car that just happened to be here. I tossed our backpacks into the trunk and we got in. He handed us some baggy pants and tunics that would button up to the neck. "Put these on. They'll cover what you're wearing. No boots," he said, tossing us some 'made in Japan' athletic shoes.

As I watched Hollowpoint drive, I realized just how out of touch with Io I was. And Martinez could only talk to me.

The closer we got to China, the more uneasy Martinez seemed to be: he kept on saying he didn't think this was going to end well. I reminded him that he thought his daughter was on the way to getting killed – when it was just a school mate saying 'She's going to die. He'll kill her.' That was over asking some guy to a dance or something. He pointed out that she had been kidnapped by a human trafficker and was on her way to the slave pens in Asia when we rescued her. We agreed it was a draw: he was wrong and he was right.

I kept all that from Arti. It wasn't really something she needed to know. Well ... maybe it was something she should know, but I didn't want her to know. She was ... touchy, was maybe the right word. Touchy. Easy to get annoyed. Then she got weepy. And then she'd go into like a trance, staring at the horizon. Everything was out of character for her.

You ever hear about the thousand yard stare? Some soldiers who'd been in rough combat situations would get it. I got it. I guess it was sorta PTSD, but not as bad. You just got to thinking about something and the rest of the world would zone out of existence for a while. Artemis showed a thousand yard stare sometimes, and it worried me. So I didn't tell her about Martinez' concerns.

We had Io in our ITEs, of course. That's In The Ear communications devices. She'd gotten some enhanced ITE units: they sent a signal that went about two feet to the satellite uplink we carried in our pockets.

"You'll stay here at the hotel," Hollowpoint said. "I'm not going in. Sometime later today you'll meet Zhengfu. I don't know who he is or even if he's a he. Zhengfu means 'traveling soldier, ' kinda. Chinese is a mixed up language; there are probably thirty words for traveler, and they have about twenty different dialects. Zhengfu will ask about your lodging. Say it is quite comfortable. He'll ask if you have comfortable shoes for hiking. You will say that boots would be better.

"I'll meet you at dusk tomorrow with your equipment, and you'll go to China." We nodded, got out of the car and he sped off.

Arti pulled a Yomiuri Giants baseball cap out of her pack, stuffed her head in it and pulled the cap down. She looked a little apprehensive. I smiled at her and gave her what I hoped was a reassuring hug and we checked in at the hotel. There was – of course – a reservation for Arthur Chesterfield.

We went up to the room – a slightly cramped room with a comfortable double bed – and she sat on the bed.

"What are we doing here?" she asked me. I could tell she was on the verge of tears. "Secret passwords? Boat rides across the ocean?"

"We are here, my little sniper spotter, to save the world. That's what we do, right?"

"Right," she said quietly to herself. She nodded, wiped her nose on the rough cotton sleeve of her tunic and fell backwards on the bed. After a minute she touched the ITE and got an immediate response from Io.

"Io," Arti said, "give me a rundown on this mission ... Again ... Please?"

Starting with the outing tomorrow, Io gave her all the details she had. I listened to the start and recognized the briefing – I'd heard it more than ten times already. I touched the ITE and said, "Io, can you give me a little 'El Paso' on this channel."

It took but a second, and I closed my eyes as Marty Robbins started to croon in my ear:

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl
Night time would find me in Rosa's cantina
Music would play and Feleena would whirl

Blacker than night where the eyes of Feleena
Wicked and evil while casting a spell
My love was deep for this Mexican maiden
I was in love, but in vain I could tell

One night a wild young cowboy came in
Wild as the West Texas wind
Dashing and daring, a drink he was sharing
With wicked Feleena, the girl that I loved

Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys
Off to my left ride a dozen or more
Shouting and shooting I can't let them catch me
I have to make it to Rosa's back door

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side
Though I am trying to stay in the saddle
I'm getting weary, unable to ride

And I'm being jostled out of my stupor by Arti.

"Zeus! Zeus! There's somebody at the door," she whispered.

Slowly I grogged back to the current existence. Why did I keep coming back to that night time exercise off Pendleton?

I went to the door. I opened it and a young, slight, Chinese girl was standing there. She was dressed in baggy pants and tunic – all black. Her hair was cut short, close to her skull; it was black, too.

"Greetings, honored guests. Are the accommodations to your liking?" she said. Her English was heavily accented. I couldn't tell if it was Japanese, Chinese, or Ryuku (the old language of Okinawa) that was underlying her speech.

"Yes," I answered, "Quite comfortable."