Toey. Those had been That soldiers joining Hsiao's men, and Hsiao's questions had been aimed at finding a weakness in Jefferson's defenses just hours before an attack was launched against her. There had to be a link between Hsiao and the coup!
Tombstone's debriefing that morning had been cursory, even rushed. He'd described to Neil and the other officers of the admiral's intelligence staff his capture and interrogation, with the emphasis on the man Hsiao and his questions. Tombstone wasn't sure that Neil even believed him, and he had to admit that a lot of what he thought about the Chinese officer was guesswork.
He only had Hsiao's word, for example, that several of the other men at the warehouse were Burmese. What if Hsiao had been trying to make it look like the Burmese were involved, for reasons of his own?
'What about the reasoning behind the attack, Commander?' Dick Barnes asked. 'I mean, what was the point?'
Neil shook his head. 'Unknown. There are possibilities. Someone might be trying to get us involved in a war with Burma. That is the DIA's guess, based on the attack made by the MiGs. Their theory is that the PRC is secretly ferrying J-7s to a remote base in Burma in order to provoke border incidents… and war.'
'Maybe someone wants to frighten us off,' a voice said.
'Another possibility,' Neil agreed. 'The ultimate in 'Yankee go home' signs. Point is, we don't know. And while it's damned tempting to see some vast, international conspiracy behind everything that's going on, the real world doesn't work that way.'
'And what is your recommendation, Commander?' Admiral Magruder asked.
'That we pull back and take a longer look, sir. We shouldn't get involved until we know what the real target is.'
'What about this… this Hsiao Kuoping?' Commander Dick Barnes, the senior CIC officer, said. He was reading a pocket notebook he'd been writing in earlier during Tombstone's debriefing. He looked up. 'Mr. Magruder described him as Chinese… and definitely in control of certain Burmese elements. That says conspiracy, doesn't it?'
'With all due respect to Commander Magruder,' Neil said slowly, 'we just don't have enough to go on. Certainly, there is nothing to link this Hsiao character or his Burmese allies with the coup leaders. It is possible, possible that Hsiao has something to do with the Chinese MiGs. I've queried the DIA files in Washington, and they report that Hsiao is indeed a high-ranking member of the PRC Intelligence community. A general, in fact.'
'My God,' Captain Glover said softly. The ship's Exec looked stricken.
'Chinese Intelligence? Are you saying the enemy is China?'
'Possible, but unlikely.' Neil did not sound sure of himself. 'The DIA and the CIA are looking into it, but this could well be an independent operation. Hsiao setting up in business for himself.'
That possibility had not occurred to Tombstone, but it felt right. If Hsiao was a high-ranking Chinese spy, what was he doing running things personally in Bangkok?
'It is possible,' Neil continued, 'again, only possible, that Hsiao was somehow connected with the attack on Jefferson last night. The questions he asked of our people point to that, certainly. But we cannot link Hsiao to the coup, except circumstantially.'
Tombstone thought about that. He was certain that Hsiao was tied to the coup somehow because of the That soldiers he'd seen. There was a common factor, and it tied Hsiao in with both the communist rebellion and the That military coup. Some factor, some person…
Tombstone's eyes opened wide. The connection had been staring him in the face all along, and he'd not seen it. Neither had anyone else.
Tombstone raised his hand. Neil nodded toward him. 'Commander?'
'This is a little embarrassing, sir,' Tombstone said. 'But I think I know what the link might be. Who the link might be.'
There was a buzz of murmured conversation around the room. Tombstone waited for it to die down. He should have seen the link earlier, should have been able to pass it on to Neil and his people that morning. It was obvious, now that he thought about it.
'What do you mean, Tombstone?' Neil asked.
'Bayerly and I were captured and interrogated by this Hsiao character.
It only just now occurred to me… how did he know where to find me?'
Neil frowned. 'You told us during your debriefing that you were with the news correspondent, Pamela Drake. In her hotel room…'
'And the only other person who knew I was there was Colonel Kriangsak, our liaison with the That military command.'
There was stunned silence in the room for several seconds.
'You're sure of this, Tombstone?' Admiral Magruder asked. He was standing to one side of the room, his arms folded across his chest. 'I think we've been assuming you were picked up at random. Anybody at that hotel could have been an agent for Hsiao.'
'Positive, sir. Kriangsak called me, after I'd been getting a bureaucratic run-around from his office all day. He had me meet him at the Americana.' Tombstone felt embarrassment coloring his face, not so much from the admission of where he'd spent the night, but from the realization of how easily he'd been trapped. He'd been as trusting as a sailor on first-time liberty getting rolled for the change in his pocket. 'I told him I would be at the Dusit Thani, but I didn't tell anyone else. Later I called him to cancel a car he was sending for me.'
Tombstone shook his head. 'Now that I think about it, he could have picked up Commander Bayerly at the same time. Some of his people helped the commander out of the Americana. And Colonel Kriangsak was the only person who knew where I was… who knew I was staying at the Dusit Thani in… a certain hotel room.' He glanced at Neil. 'Sorry, Commander. It just now came together for me ? But the pieces fit. It's too much of a coincidence that both Commander Bayerly and I were grabbed at random.'
Neil appeared to be digesting the information. 'If that's true, Hsiao is playing both sides of the game, helping the rebels and organizing the coup.
He's also behind the attack on Jefferson, since he could have put that together through Kriangsak, who in turn could have been in on the coup.'
'What's the point of organizing both a communist rebellion and a coup which wants to take more effective measures against that rebellion?' Admiral Magruder asked.
'Confusion,' Master Chief Buckley volunteered. 'Maybe they figure the United States won't intervene if we don't know what's going on.'
'That never stopped us before,' someone else added, and there was a round of subdued chuckles. The tension in the room seemed to have been broken.
Neil looked hard at Tombstone. 'My guess would be that the Burmese incidents, the communist insurrection, the attack at U Feng, all of those were engineered by General Hsiao to create the proper conditions for a military coup. Kriangsak and any other traitors Hsiao was able to recruit with promises of money or power were brought in to organize the coup, to get it rolling. If he could start a war with Burma too, that would just add to Thailand's instability. Now, if Hsiao is behind Kriangsak, it could mean he's planning on toppling the present That government and replacing it with one of his own.
'Of course, U.S. intervention would be a problem. Hsiao couldn't afford to have us get involved too deeply helping the legitimate government. By attacking Jefferson, he either leaves us in doubt about who the enemy is ? and therefore out of the game ? or he convinces us that our carrier is vulnerable and forces us to back off. Same result. By God, it fits!'
'Okay,' Admiral Magruder said. He stepped to the front of the room and took Neil's place. 'Thank you, Commander.' He waited while Neil took his seat, then addressed the entire group. 'Very well, gentlemen. The question is, what can we do about it? Intelligence sharing ought to be our first step.
Tell the legitimate rulers what we know… help them clean house themselves.
We'll need to establish communication directly with the That military, bypassing Kriangsak. My impression was that Duong was honest, even if his chief aide wasn't. Commander Neil, check into that, please.'
'Aye, sir.
'What else?'
CAG Marusko spoke up. 'Admiral, it seems to me if our orders are to support the legitimate That government,
