Thirst BY THOMAS L. SCHUETT
Hadron Publishing, Incorporated, March 2010. Copyright Š 2010 by Tom Schuett All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Hadron Publishing, Inc., Minneapolis, MN. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ONE
North China Plain (April 2, 2019) Sam Holman could not linger and enjoy the scenery. From atop the Qin Ling mountain range, the North China Plain appeared purple, green and endless. But he was running for his life and the only colors he longed to see were the red, white and blue of freedom. Scaling the mountainside with the skill of an accomplished athlete, he could hear voices in the distance, barking commands in Mandarin. His clothes were tattered and his arms and legs replete with contusions and abrasions. The patches of clothing that were not torn, were smattered with blood. His breathing was rhythmic as he raced toward the rendezvous point. His extraction would not be a simple matter. He was on communist soil, under the most draconian regime China had endured. If they found him now, he most certainly would be executed. There would be no trial, his existence denied by the very government that had sent him. A firing squad or a single bullet to the head followed by a makeshift grave would be his reward for failure. The knowledge of the danger he faced had always been in the recesses of his mind, now it was consuming his thoughts, as he raced toward freedom. The sheer wall of the mountainside dropped eight thousand feet. He was still three miles from the rendezvous, but it would only be a matter of minutes before he arrived if everything went according to plan. Reaching the summit, he looked for the marker. Glancing to his left, he saw it exactly where it was supposed to be. Under the boulder was his salvation. He pushed with all his might, groaning as the voices drew nearer. He had four, maybe five, minutes before gunshots
would be peppering his position. Beneath the massive rock, he found the box, just as he had been told. He brushed away the loose dirt, struggling to unlock it. Opening the box, he pulled out the suit, sliding it over his frayed garments. He stood and tugged on the zipper. Nothing. Pulling harder, it finally moved and he pulled it up just below his neck and sprinted toward the cliff, as bullets whizzed past his feet, exploding the ground all around him. Reaching the cliff he threw his body over the edge. His pursuers looked at one another stunned, certain their hunt was over. They lowered their rifles and ran to the edge of the cliff. By the time they reached the edge, Sam Holman was a speck against the valley floor, his wing suit carrying him through the sky at speeds approaching one hundred and eighty miles an hour, his shadow racing along the purple and green backdrop, undulating with the valley’s floor. The wind whistled past his ears as his suit flapped loudly. The Yellow River was screaming towards him as he leveled off and began to lose velocity, his wings gradually losing the ability to provide lift, slowly lowering him toward the ground. One hundred and fifty feet above the ground and two and a half miles from his pursuers, he pulled his rip cord and an air foil chute deployed. In thirty seconds he was on the ground, a quarter mile from the boat that waited to take him to Lanzhou.
OVAL OFFICE–Six Months Earlier (OCTOBER 1, 2018) The White House lawn had faded from a glamorous green to a benign brown. Winter was approaching. Inside the White House faces were turning from pale white to bright red, following the embarrassing disclosure just made to the President. "Damn it! What do you mean we can't be certain the Chinese have complied with the provisions outlined in SWADI?" Jack Landry was beside himself, the veins on his forehead pulsing as he yelled at no one in particular. The Strategic Water Distribution Initiative had been negotiated six years ago. Faced with an ever growing population, the Chinese were experiencing severe water shortages. The United Nations had brokered an initiative to save millions who faced dehydration and death. Landry had been a supporter of the initiative, sending millions of dollars in aid to China to build infrastructure to distribute water and supplement China’s dwindling supply. By so doing, his advisors told him democracy would have a chance in China. Support the common people and they will rise up, they said. Today his assistants informed him of the difficulty in attaining verification the Chinese had implemented the initiative. "Mr. President we need to send someone to confirm ..." Steve Kaminski was cut off in mid-sentence.