River of Ruin

continuous metallic squeal that set teeth on edge.

And then the Englander Rose was free. She shot past the end of the second lock and the flood surge spread and slowed as it met the brackish water that stretched the last few miles to the Bay of Panama. She’d survived the wildest ride a ship had ever taken, a journey that would have taxed a white-water raft to its very limits.

A normal passage through the Miraflores Locks took thirty minutes. They’d done it in less than thirty seconds. Bruneseau and Foch whooped while Lauren screamed in delight and threw her arms around Mercer’s neck. Their mouths met.

“Oh, that’s just freaking great!” Harry shouted at the couple. “I do all the heroic stuff and Mercer ends up kissing the girl. I am not happy about this. Not happy at all.”

Lauren released Mercer, crossed to Harry, and brushed her lips against his bristled cheek. “Better?”

He grinned lecherously. “How about some tongue?”

“Even Mercer hasn’t gotten that-” she looked over at him “-yet.”

The ship’s buoyancy had changed when she hit the salty, less-dense water. She should have become lighter and easier to control, but as Harry worked the wheel to avoid the drifting freighter to starboard, he noted the ship was sluggish. Dangerously sluggish.

“We’re taking on water,” he said, his pronouncement ending the celebration around him.

Mercer snapped a look at Foch. The Frenchman called Munz and Rabidoux.

“We know,” Rabidoux answered. “We can hear water rushing into the spaces below the hold.”

“Can you tell how fast?”

“Fast enough. When the ship tipped forward and her bow hit, it sounded like we were inside a bell that had just cracked.”

“What’s the status on the timing device?”

“We couldn’t bypass the security code pad so we’re taking off the entire cover. We just backed off the last of the screws securing it to the device. These aren’t ideal working conditions and every one of the screws was booby- trapped to prevent tampering. Someone didn’t want the crew disarming it once it had been set. I think that’s why they just let it sit out like it is. The crew must have known that tampering with it would detonate the bombs.”

“How much time is left?”

“Ah, twelve minutes nine seconds. From the sound of the flooding in the bilge, I don’t think it’ll matter.”

Foch addressed Harry and Mercer. “Twelve minutes remain. Rabidoux thinks the ship will sink before he can deactivate the timer.”

Mercer nodded. “Will that prevent the explosives from going off or will it short out and set them off prematurely?”

The Legion commander made a balancing gesture with his hands as if to say it was fifty-fifty.

Mercer looked at Lauren. Her face shone with the adrenaline rush of their ride through the locks and her smile touched deep inside his soul. He knew they would never be able to explore their growing feelings for each other. If they evacuated now, there was no hope of getting far enough away to avoid the worst of the blast. They were all as good as dead.

They’d saved most of the canal by wrecking part of it, and saved countless lives by moving the ship into a relatively deserted area. It was the best any of them could hope for.

The left bank of the canal was overgrown jungle interspersed with a few ramshackle houses. Around a curve up ahead lay the town of Balboa and the sprawling Hatcherly container port nestled in the shadow of Quarry Heights. Here was as good a place as any to stop the ship and let her blow. Collateral damage would be minimal once they moved a little farther from the locks.

“Tell Munz if he wants to knock off he and Rabidoux can come up to the bridge,” Mercer said slowly. “Harry, take us up to where that open field runs down to the canal. Doesn’t look like anyone lives close by. If anyone wants, I guess now would be a good time to abandon ship. Maybe you can make it.”

As he suspected there were no takers. They knew the odds. They’d lived together, fought together, and now they would die together.

To cover his surprise, Liu Yousheng snapped to attention. “General Yu. What brings-?”

“Shut up, Liu,” the general snapped. “Captain Wong, get out here, please.” Wong emerged from his cabin with Sergeant Huai and Mr. Sun. “Captain, get to the bridge and make ready to leave port. Inform the dockworkers that the rocket-launcher trucks should be brought aboard immediately. I fear that Liu’s operation hasn’t gone as planned.”

“Yes, sir.” Wong skirted past Liu in the cramped passageway.

Yu continued to address Liu. “You aren’t the only one receiving reports from the locks. I already know about the Englander Rose being hijacked. I assume by the same commandos who rescued Philip Mercer from the mine, attacked your installation near the River of Ruin, and a number of other acts that you assured me were merely annoyances.”

Yu’s anger suddenly exploded. “Your arrogance led to this disaster. You’ve reached far beyond your limits and now you are about to fall.”

Liu swallowed. “We can still recover. We can get the second ship back into the Gaillard Cut. I have men-”

“It’s over. Operation Red Island was a foolish risk to begin with. I tried to tell the premier that you couldn’t do it, but he thought you deserved a chance.”

“You told the premier I couldn’t. .” Liu wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “It was you who recommended that I propose this operation to him.” And then he understood just how well he’d been set up by the man he considered his mentor. “There aren’t any missiles on this ship, are there?”

Yu smiled as if to say of course not. “Only the small circle of workers who assembled them know they are mock-ups. Partially for your benefit, had you chosen to inspect them, but also because several of the more militaristic members of the politburo wanted to be on the docks in Shanghai to see them loaded. Captain Wong doesn’t even know they are dummies. The Korvald’s true reason for being here is to return the launcher/erectors, which, I might add, are genuine.”

“You did all of this just to get me out of Hatcherly.”

“Oh, it’s much more than that. It’s also to teach your generation that you only have power because we decide you can. There are thousands of companies under the COSTIND umbrella, each headed by men such as yourself, men who sometimes forget their place. China is going through dynamic changes, sweeping economic shifts that sometimes threaten to spill over into full-blown capitalism. Which we both know fosters thoughts of democracy. These thoughts must be crushed.

“Tiananmen taught us that punishing the people just gives our enemies more reason to denounce us. However, targeting men like you, men whose overreaching ambition makes them vulnerable, is just as effective at reducing capitalistic, and thus democratic, aspirations. The people don’t care about men like you. They resent that your grand lifestyle is a result of their labor. They love to hear about a corrupt executive being executed for misappropriation of state funds. They see your downfall as the state protecting their interests.”

“While we both know it’s just the state clamping down harder on their rights.”

Yu smiled. “It’s like Ronald Reagan’s trickle-down theory. Executives, factory managers, and many others will know by what happened to you that they aren’t as free as they believe. Your defeat will keep their dreams of autonomy dormant for another ten years at least. And with them subdued, the people who work for them will remain compliant.”

“What if I had succeeded?” Liu asked.

“I would have reaped the rewards, but the risk of failure was too great to back you completely. I chose to give you just enough to encourage you but not enough to embolden you. That you did on your own.”

“How much has this cost you? The gold, the mining equipment, all the ships. Was this power play worth all that?”

“To maintain absolute control of China for another ten years? Of course. Besides, the ships are all tired rust buckets destined to be broken up. The remainder of the gold you didn’t turn over for Quintero’s televised photo opportunity has already been recovered from your vaults by Mr. Sun here. Certainly there were costs, but it seems enough damage has been done to the canal to ensure they will be recovered by Hatcherly. Freight still has to move