The Lost Kingdom

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hayden watched as a major part of her team vacated the room, illogically intent on rescuing Mai Kitano from the world’s biggest criminal organization in their own back yard. Of course she would not even try to stop them, and if it had been up to her, and Dudley hadn’t just resurfaced, she would undoubtedly be climbing aboard the same plane with the same motives.

Once they were gone, however, the remainder of the team needed refocusing. Hayden encouraged Karin to concentrate on Dudley, his friends and Walcott, and what they may have stolen, then asked Kinimaka to keep tabs on the police visit to the Smithsonian’s boss’s house. Her own first task was to inform her boss — Robert Price the new US Secretary of Defense — as to Callan Dudley’s new venture. The man sounded genuinely shocked and supportive, but Hayden was beginning to detect a peculiar detachedness there, as if Price didn’t give too much of a hoot. Obviously, although he was in the same job as Jonathan Gates, the man’s motives were a whole lot different. Don’t be surprised, most officials have different notions about how to perform their duties once they’re in office. It’s not unknown.

At least Price was leaving them alone. But that only reminded her of Jonathan and how he had died. A tragic, tragic waste. Same as my father.

Karin spoke up. “Okay, well, the FBI have taken charge of the Smithsonian robbery. They’re not taking any chances with Dudley. They’ve drafted in Walcott’s underling, guy called Kyle, and one of the old relics who's worked there practically since he left pre-school. They think they’ve identified what was taken.”

Hayden leaned forward. “Which is?”

“The Peking Man.”

“What’s that?” Smyth barked. “Sounds old.”

“You’re right. Peking, now Beijing — the older English spelling was the Chinese postal map Romanization Peking — the city is three thousand years old. This city alone has seven World Heritage sites, including the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall, so it’s not surprising that such an ancient, momentous find was made there.”

“This Peking Man?”

“Yes. Discovered in the 1920s the bones are said to be three quarter of a million years old. The site also revealed teeth, bones, skulls and tools. Some of the fossils even ended up in Uppsala University.” Karin smiled wistfully. “Neighboring unearthings of animal remains, and fire and tool usage were used to identify this find as the very first tool-worker, actually a great example of human evolution. He is chiefly a human ancestor and the earliest known ancestor of the Chinese people.”

“So why the hell isn’t he in China?” Smyth wondered. “Instead of being stored in a dusty vault underneath the Smithsonian?”

“Well, that’s where it gets even more interesting. We know from the Odin quest that there are many out of place artifacts — OOPArt — in this world, artefacts that defy time-stamping and challenge accepted historical chronology as being far too advanced for the accepted level of civilization of the time. These objects are usually collecting dust in some vault somewhere. Though not an OOPArt, the Peking Man has been subject to the same kind of concealment.”

Hayden shared a look with Kinimaka. “I heard something about this. The bones were lost, right? And the Americans had something to do with it.”

“Not exactly,” Karin stressed. “In 1941, while Beijing was under Japanese occupation, the fossils were squirreled away. Packed into two large crates they were loaded onto a US Marine vehicle heading toward northern China, near a Marine base at Camp Holcomb. This was of course before the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and the Allied Forces in the Second World War. From this camp they were to be shipped to the National History Museum in New York, possible for safe-keeping, or some other reason, no one really knows.”

“And?” Smyth urged her.

Lauren put a hand on top of his. “Relax.”

Karin continued, “They disappeared en route. Many, many attempts have been made to find the fossils, mostly frantic attempts by the Chinese, but nothing was ever found. Most theories suggest the fossils were aboard the Japanese ship, the Awa Maru¸ and that’s where our mystery deepens.”

“Shit.” Smyth shook his head. “I’m gonna need espresso for this. Anyone else?”

Komodo gave him a thumbs up, also mentioning cookies. Lauren nodded. Smyth used Dolce Gusto pods to deliver the strong, steaming brews.

“In 1945 the Awa Maru was being used as a Red Cross relief ship, carrying essential supplies to American and Allied Prisoners of War in Japanese camps. An agreement — Relief for POWs — had been signed by all and was universally being adhered to. She was supposed to be given safe passage by everyone and all commanders had orders issued to that effect. Now, once she’d delivered her supplies the stories around the Awa Maru begin to get more captivating. It may be intrigue… but then again? In Singapore she took on several hundred marine officers, military and civilian personnel and diplomats. She also carried a treasure worth over five billion dollars, that’s—”

Smyth choked. “Five billion?”

“Yup. Forty metric tons of gold. Platinum. Diamonds. There are even reports of the docks being cleared for several more precious cargos to be loaded in secret.”

Hayden cleared her throat. “The Peking Man?”

“Like I said, nothing’s written down in black and white. But the likelihood is there. It all fits. Her subsequent voyage coincided with the last sightings of the Peking Man fossils which were in Singapore at the time and, of course, priceless in their value. Many believe the bones were aboard that ship.”

Smyth was intrigued, despite himself. “What happened to it?”

“On April the first, the Awa Maru, outfitted and sailing as a civilian and a hospital ship, under the protection of the Red Cross, was mistakenly identified as a destroyer by the US submarine — Queenfish. Intercepted in the Taiwan Strait and despite previously disclosing her route to the Allies, she was torpedoed by the Queenfish and sunk.”

“Shit.” Hayden and Kinimaka shook their heads, having heard something similar at different times before. The Awa Maru sinking was not something the American administration had been able to sweep under the mat.

“There was only one survivor.” Karin grimaced. “Kantora Shimoda. And he later told authorities that no Red Cross supplies were aboard the Awa Maru, they having been previously unloaded.”

“What? Why?”

Karin shrugged. “Clearly, it was a clandestine mission, the civilian transport front exactly that. A front. The Awa Maru was being used for another purpose.”

“Okay, okay,” Kinimaka said. “Say that’s true. Why in hell was a US sub secretly in the Straits of Taiwan? And why fire on a ship supposedly transporting supplies to their own POWs?”

“Good questions,” Karin said. “Both unanswerable for now. But the story isn’t finished yet. In 1980 China launched one of the biggest salvage operations in history. Five years and one hundred million dollars were spent in their search for… what? It must have been something incredibly valuable, significant to them, or both.”

“The treasure,” Hayden said. “And the bones of the Peking Man.”

“Sounds reasonable to me.”

“What did they find?”

“Nothing. Not a single thing beyond a few personal artefacts. The ship was pretty much stripped clean.”

Smyth looked shocked. Even Hayden was surprised. “They found nothing?”

Karin sat back. “Even the NSA were intrigued after that. They sifted through literally thousands of intercepted communications to discover what had happened to the bones and the treasure. Their conclusion was that it ended up in Thailand somewhere.”

Smyth spread his hands. “Eh? The NSA said that?”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Hayden placed her hands palm down on the table in front of her. “So,” she checked off her fingers as she spoke, “why was the USS Queenfish hanging around the Taiwan Straits at that time? Why did they sink a known hospital ship? And what happened to all that cargo?”

“And what would Callan Dudley want with the Peking man?” Kinimaka added. “Which somehow ended up in the Smithsonian.”

“If Dudley is working for the Pythians,” Komodo said, a hand on Karin’s shoulder. “The question is — what do they want with the fossils?”

“I just can’t help thinking there’s a reason the Americans were in that place at that time,” Hayden continued, “As much as I love my country the motives of its power players sometimes lead me to despair.”

Karin fielded a phone call. “They found Walcott,” she said and proceeded to tell them the details of the man’s kidnapping. “I’m just shocked both his family and he are still alive. The family were tied up and left in their house. Walcott was deposited on the Interstate. He did have one snippet of interesting information though — Dudley mentioned a second vault that he was about to visit.”

“He means raid,” Hayden said. “Shit, there’s even more to this than we know. Could it be another artefact? The treasure itself?”

“If there was any treasure,” Komodo said. “I doubt that it’s been sitting in a dusty vault for fifty years.”

Hayden looked down as her cell rang. Seeing Robert Price’s office she sighed and offered a few suggestions to the team. As she answered and waited to be put through to the new Secretary she couldn’t help but remember General Stone’s words: “In any war there are unintended casualties. Just ask your new Secretary of Defense”.

What the hell had Stone known about Robert Price?