Enrique looked up quickly, and saw the svelte figure of Cheena Tao standing in the doorway. She was wearing an immaculate cream and beige business suit. She looked every inch the boss"s wife. Enrique held up his bleeding hand. " The b.i.t.c.h got her talons in me, look at it would you? I am probably going to need a shot.

Cheena Tao sashayed slowly into the plane and placed the large attache case she was carrying very carefully on the table next to the corpse of Calista Johnston. She looked down into the contorted face for a long moment and emitted a tiny grunt of satisfaction, "Tell me, did she suffer much?"

Enough, said Enrique gruffly. "You wanted her dead-job done. Now I want what I got coming." He looked at the attache case greedily. "That mine?"

Cheena Tao smiled brightly.

Enrique licked his lips. "Now I don"t like to say I don"t trust you and that husband of yours, Tao- but I don"t trust you. So you won"t mind if I take a look inside will you?"

A tight smile twisted across Cheena Tao"s face. She said nothing, simply held out one of her tiny doll-like hands and gestured towards the bag, as though inviting Enrique to inspect the reward at his leisure.

Enrique needed no further bidding. He s.n.a.t.c.hed at the bag and pulled it open. His face lighting up with greed and excitement-it was the greatest score he had ever pulled. He reached in and pulled out a thick wad of bearer bonds. "It better all be here," he said, reaching deeper in the bag. His fingers closed around something unexpected and he looked up quickly.

Cheena Tao raised the silenced automatic she had brought from behind her back and let loose two very quick shots at close range. The bullets took the wind out of Enrique. The thick wad of bearer bonds fell from his fingers. He staggered backwards in shock, clutching at his chest. He pulled his hand away and saw blood. He looked at Cheena Tao, a question forming on his lips, but she stepped forward and shot him again-this time in the head. He went down and stayed down, his heels rattling softly against the plush carpet as the final death spasms ran through him. She stood over him for a moment admiring her handiwork. Then, very slowly and methodically she emptied the bearer bonds out of the attache case, and removed the explosives. She set the digital timer for forty minutes hence and placed the explosives in one of the overhead lockers. Next, she replaced the bonds in the case and made her way out of the aircraft. She turned briefly and threw a wave to the pilot. He had received his instructions and a handsome bribe. He had been told to head for Guadalajara Mexico, but the only place he would get to would be the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

65.

Santa Monica More helicopters roaring over head, Blackhawks this time, followed by Cobra gunships and a flight of V-22 Osprey short take off planes, with their tilt rotors angled for level flight.

In the beach side parking lot, Reed had the door of the Range Rover open. Carly was already inside, but Julia stood by the vehicle and looked up at the sky. "Look at that, they are having an air show. You think they are putting on a display for the President honey?"

"Get in the truck would you-I don"t know how much time we have, but we have got to get out of here and fast. I am guessing those aircraft are pulling an evacuation, moving out all those G20 leaders to a place of safety. Soon as they have done that, there will be an announcement and all h.e.l.l will break loose."

"An announcement?" Reed frowned. "Yeah, an announcement on the radio and stuff."

His words were cut off by the sound of an old-fashioned siren, wailing siren, that sounded like something out of an old war film, or a cold war news bulletin.

"What the h.e.l.l is that awful noise," asked Julia, her face scrunching up.

"That is the tsunami warning siren," snapped Reed, jumping into the Range Rover. Small groups of people were beginning to gather, looking with puzzlement for the source of the awful noise.

"I guess no one has ever heard it before," said Reed as he slammed the Range Rover into gear and burned out of the lot. The SUV bounced over the sidewalk and pulled through the intersection on red. Horns blared, but Reed paid them no mind. As he hit Ocean Avenue, he found the traffic was backed up as far as he could see. The road was cordoned off and large crowds were gathering on the sidewalks, looking down towards the Pacific Coast Highway to see if they could catch sight of the President or other World Leaders.

Julia braced herself, her feet rising onto the dash, as Reed pulled through the traffic like a mad man. "All these people, surely if there is a tsunami coming..."

"They should be warned, of course they should," said Reed his face grim. "It is a cla.s.sic play, the authorities want to evacuate the most important folks first before the panic starts. Everyone else is expendable."

Julia looked shocked. "How big is this wave exactly?"

"If it is a level nine threat you can bet it is big, real big." Reed pulled over the central divider and cut through oncoming traffic. He took a turn onto 4th street then over to 7th moving north and east, away from the ocean and towards Pacific Palisades. Reed sped along the back roads at a breakneck speed, with every turn he headed up to higher ground. The winding, palm-lined Avenues curved lazily into the hills, then down, rolling west to the sea. Every turn Reed took, the coast road was cordoned off by Black and Whites from the County Sheriff"s Department and California Highway Patrol. He glanced down at the GPS screen with frustration. "These d.a.m.n roadblocks have us boxed in," he growled, we are never going to get into the mountains unless we get creative." Pausing for a brief moment Reed flipped screens on the GPS navigation system and narrowed his eyes.

Are we going to get ice cream now daddy?" enquired Carly.

"Sure thing, but you are going to have to sit tight for a little while longer princess."

"I talked to her about ice cream Reed. It wouldn"t hurt you to be supportive would it? I can"t bear it when you undermine my decisions."

Reed put his foot down and the powerful Range Rover burned up the hill with a squeal of smoking rubber. "Kids like ice cream," said Reed.

"Well, I don"t agree. Ice cream is

unhealthy-"

The end of the street was coming up fast now and there was nothing but a chain link storm fence between the pavement and a dry scrub covered wilderness that stretched high into the Santa Monica Mountains.

"You are going to have to save the lecture and hold on to your seat, we are going off piste."

"Cool," said Carly. "I love skiing."

"Are you crazy?" shrieked Julia. "You just got the car detailed, and besides, off road driving invalidates the dealer warranty-you know that."

"Hey, screw the dealer warranty, there is a giant tidal wave heading our way."

"Tidal waves and tsunamis are different, said Carly."

"How would you know?" snapped Julia.

"We did about it in school," said Carly proudly. "Tidal waves are caused by the moon and tsunamis are caused by earthquakes."

"How can the moon cause a giant wave? It doesn"t make sense."

"Gravity," said Carly.

Julia pulled a face. "Are you hearing this Reed? She is talking back to me again."

Reed took a breath and hit the gas. The Range Rover powered over the dry hillside and smashed through the chain-link storm fence-they were in a lemon grove now, driving parallel with the steep hillside. As they sped through the trees, leaves and branches clutched at the windows and plump yellow lemons bounced like tennis b.a.l.l.s across the hood.

"You are going to kill us all," wailed Julia.

"Let me out, I have had enough."

"Chillax. " said Reed. "We got ourselves a 4 wheel drive vehicle here, the only place we take it is Beverly Hills and back every day of the week. I reckon it"s about time we put it through its paces." "This is fun," said Carly, "I like this better than ice cream. Can we listen to the radio please?" Julia made an impatient noise and rolled her eyes, but she turned the radio on anyway. The gravel voiced announcer from KNX 1070 was reading the news headlines "Boring," trilled Carly. "I meant, can we listen to some music?"

The radio announcer was running through, the usual dry stories concerning the economy and politics. Julia reached out to switch the channel, but a sudden electronic alarm pulsed out of the speakers. There was a pause, static filled the air, then, a dead voice announced-This is an emergency broadcast, from Los Angeles County Sheriff"s office. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill.

Reed slammed his foot on the accelerator and the big-wheeled SUV burst out of the orchard, smashing its way through a white painted wooden fence and emerging once again onto a hard pavement roadway.

The dead voice was warning of a tsunami now, telling folks they should move away from the ocean, to the highest ground they could find.

Reed tore up Temescal Canyon, heading through the trees towards the park. As they cut higher through the woods, vast panoramic views of the South bay and downtown Los Angeles stretched out behind them.

By the time they had reached the trailhead car park at the top of Temescal Canyon, the tsunami warning, had finished. They sat in silence and looked out towards the endless blue horizon.

The baritone rumble of the talk radio pundit cut through the silence. His easy delivery filled with long breathy silences was gone. He talked quickly of a catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mauna Loa and of a ma.s.sive area of land collapsing into the ocean- The Hilina slump rift zone has fallen into the sea, creating a phenomena known as the curtain of fire-the big Island of Hawaii is burning. A ma.s.sive slab of rock twice the volume of Manhattan has broken away from the Island creating a mega tsunami taller than the Chrysler building. This giant wave of water is now travelling toward the Western seaboard of the Continental United States faster than a jet aircraft. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the tsunami will make landfall in less than two hours. Wherever you are people of Los Angeles head for higher ground. This is an apocalyptic event and it is coming our way!

"Jeezus," sniffed Julia, "I am scared." Reed sat thoughtfully for a moment, looking out to sea. Then he snapped open the door and got out.

"Hey, where are you going?" squawked Julia.

Reed looked upwards, towards the mountain trail then said, "We are going up the trail, all of us."

"But I don"t want to go hiking. Are you crazy?"

Reed looked out to sea again and said, "If this wave is as big as they say, we aren"t high enough yet, not by a long way."

Julia looked bewildered, but she needed no further bidding, the next moment she was out the car and jogging up the mountain trail at a steady clip.

"This is soooo cool," said Carly. "Last time we were up here I saw snakes."

Reed just smiled, held out his hand and helped her out of the car.

66.

Honolulu International Airport Deng Tao"s personal Boeing 767-33A/ER rose up from the runway of Honolulu International airport, heading west towards China. In just over ten short hours he would be back in Shanghai the greatest city in the world. America meanwhile was finished. The Western seaboard would be devastated by the wave train of the Megatsunami-not just one colossal mountain of water-but dozens of them rippling in across two thousand miles of ocean and smashing every city in the west into flotsam.

Americans were such fools, thought Deng Tao happily, so subservient and easily manipulated. It would take them many long decades to recover from his clever attacks. First they would reel from the strike to the west, then they would feel the power of a second more powerful attack on their Eastern sea board-the towns of Washington New York and Boston all destroyed. The deception had been almost too perfect. Those fools in the CIA had fallen so completely for his slight of hand. They had concentrated their efforts on his Hawaiian operation and completely failed to discover his Atlantic operation-a second geothermal power station on the tiny Spanish island of La Palma off the coast of Africa; the monster wave created there would be even bigger than the one from Hawaii. The colossal energy it created would be equivalent to the combined output of every power station in America. The waves would be deadly, creating catastrophic damage greater than a hundred nuclear weapons.

And from the destruction, the new world he had long dreamt of would emerge from the ruins, then the Humanistian vanguard would rise up and the Corporate and Federal figures he had groomed for success would step into the breach, forming a new consensus amongst the ruins-a new world order, a network of freedom devoid of the old constraints of government. America would become a slave state, governed by the Tao Corporation and subservient to the needs of the new China As the plane gained height, Deng Tao looked down at Hawaii through the portside window, observing with satisfaction the vast plume of volcanic ash rising high into the upper atmosphere. "It begins," he said. "In a few short hours America will be back in the dark ages where it belongs and the new age of mankind will rise up triumphantly from the ashes."

Cheena Tao gave him a cold look, devoid of emotion, as she fingered the pearls around her neck.

"So tell me," asked Deng Tao. "Did you find the death of the servant satisfying?"

Cheena Tao parted her heavy glossed lips and said, "I would have preferred to kill the Johnston woman, and Karyn Kane, too."

Deng Tao gave her an oily smile. "I am sure you would my dear, but successful delegation is one of the key attributes of an effective business leader."

"You should have allowed me to kill the Kane woman. That was a mistake," said Cheena Tao. "I cannot get the same satisfaction from males-you know that."

"It was cruel of me to deny you my dear, but you can rest a.s.sured there will be many others."

"Caged birds give me no pleasure. I like to take lives that have value."

Deng Tao nodded. "You have served me well Cheena, such things can be arranged-you know they can-but first there is a little matter I would like to discuss with you."

Inspecting her manicured nails now, Cheena Tao raised an eyebrow fractionally.

Deng Tao beckoned over two servants, and smiled at his wife, "Ambition is to be admired always my dear, but when it comes in the form of betrayal-well, such matters must be promptly dealt with. I am sure you understand."

Cheena Tao pounced from her chair, moving faster than a leopard. But the servants caught her by the arms and forced her back into her seat.

"The way you killed the senator and the governor was very creative but you were sloppy- and deliberately so, weren"t you my dear?"

Cheena Tao struggled violently, but her captors held her fast.

"Did you perhaps think for a moment I knew nothing of the young prost.i.tute you murdered with our two governmental friends? She was an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency wasn"t she Cheena?" Deng Tao held up his hand and shook his head with benevolent amus.e.m.e.nt. "No, don"t try to deny it my dear. I have known for some time that you have been pa.s.sing information to the Americans. And I admit your treachery was useful for a time. But now, that usefulness is at an end."

A smartly dressed servant appeared wordlessly at Deng Tao"s side and offered up a silver tray. The tray was part covered in a white linen napkin, and on the napkin were two sets of bra.s.s knuckles, gleaming like gold. Deng Tao slipped them onto his fists and tightened his fingers around them.

"I think it is only fitting my dear that your death should match the nature of your life." Deng Tao stood up and started pounding his wife, whilst his servants held her down. Then, when the deed was done and the b.l.o.o.d.y and broken corpse of the woman who had once done his bidding was zipped away in a rubber body bag Deng Tao stripped off and showered in his golden bathroom.

Afterwards, when his servants had toweled him down and dressed him in an immaculate white silk suit, Deng Tao sat down to dine, eating a delicious meal prepared by his new Parisian chef Francois. After dinner, Deng Tao had two gla.s.ses of vintage champagne. He relaxed back in his plush, overstuffed chair and contemplated a successful day; as he did so, he glanced out the window and saw a chilling sight. An American fighter plane in US Navy colors flying alongside his aircraft, so close you could see the heavy racks of missiles strapped under its wings. Deng Tao rose from his seat, with a cry of strangled outrage. Quickly, he lunged over to the other side of the aircraft and looked out the window. The news on this side of the aircraft was even worse, a flight of three similar fighter aircraft flying alongside in tight formation. They were so close he could see the black-visored aircrew looking back at him-one of the pilots was making a gesture-Deng Tao exploded with anger, a string of violent obscenities pouring from him.

67.

Vice President"s residence, Washington DC "I can"t pretend I am pleased Jack. You should have come to me sooner, the very moment you knew how deep this thing reached." Vice President d.i.c.k Hanssen perched on the very edge of the white wicker porch chair, and drummed his fingers together pensively. He looked first at Jack Senegar and then at Karyn Kane, then back again. Senegar sat impa.s.sive, his craggy suntanned face inscrutable in the soft morning light.

d.i.c.k Hanssen"s eyes flitted quickly between them, as thoughts boiled and formulated. At last he said, "We had to let him go of course, those Chinese p.r.i.c.ks wouldn"t let us take a guy like Deng Tao out, not in a million years." d.i.c.k Hanssen paused, his furtive eyes settling like flies on Karyn"s b.r.e.a.s.t.s, before flitting quickly away. "He is their biggest entrepreneur, the richest man in the world for Christ"s sake. You bring a man like that down and stock markets worldwide would drop into the toilet. I told you to resolve this affair in a sub-rosa manner Senegar-a beyond the rim operation. Instead what do we get? a G.o.dd.a.m.n apocalypse, live on national television.

"You let him go?" asked Karyn.

"We had to sweetheart, but I wouldn"t expect a bare-faced killer like you to understand a d.a.m.n thing about international diplomacy. In fact, the only reason you are here at all, is so I can see your face when I tell you your six-shooting career is over."

"You got it wrong," said Karyn smoothly. "Deng Tao planned for his power station to cause that eruption in Hawaii."

"You haven"t got a d.a.m.n piece of evidence to prove that though have you?" sneered d.i.c.k Hanssen. "You were tasked with bringing the person or persons who murdered Governor Geryon and Senator Johnston to justice, not mount some c.o.c.kamamie a.s.sault on a billion-dollar business operation."