Thunder in Formosa

Opening Chapter

"How do you like the view?" May-lin asked.

Undercover CIA operative Alec Pierce paused on a wobbly mountain step, and panted in the humid jungle heat. A wall of salty perspiration washed over his forehead, stinging his eyes.

He brushed his sandy-colored hair aside, and looked up the full length of the young woman's gawky, ivory legs. Taiwan could be a disorienting place at times, but for now, the young female Professor of Geology was his focus.

"From here," he said, "the view's just fine."

May-lin leaned on a knee and studied him. "You are a dirty old man," she said, and swept her bell-shaped culottes between her legs.

"I object," he said between gasps for breath. "I'm only thirty-three."

"I am busy using an expression," she said, and tucked her long black hair beneath her baseball cap.

He directed his gaze downward. Water bounded past him in an uncontrolled plunge from pool to pool. Stone bridges arched over the waterfall as the trail snaked its way down the gorge, past mossy rocks, tree-sized ferns, and peaceful pools of floating lotus leaves. Far below, ancient trees folded over the view like the fingers of two hands.

"Are we there yet, oh master?" he inquired.

"I think it is coming ahead. And I am not your master. I am your mistress."

He drew up beside her, and pulled his most rakish grin. "Did you say you're my mistress?"

Her intense eyes studied him with incomprehension.

"Now we resume," she said. She spoke flawless English as if working directly from Webster's Dictionary. The trouble was that the grammar needed tweaking, and the connotations often sent out unintended messages.

Alec's two years in Taiwan had tuned his ear to the Chinese English spoken there. Yet, he never knew if May-lin understood all the implications of what she said.

Studying her earnest, heart-shaped face, he felt balding Professor Lien's presence like never before. The old man, with his half-closed eyes and the wisps of white hair clinging to his chin, had dictated the entire course of Alec's life on Taiwan. Alec's mission with the CIA was a simple one: practice Chinese, understand Taiwan's complex society and institutions, and follow whatever instructions Professor Lien gave him. For no reason obvious to Alec, the professor eventually assigned him to May-lin's Geology Department.

Alec had seen enough depleted zinc and half-excavated lead mines during his undergraduate years as a Chemistry major at the University of Michigan to justify the research position. Nearly two years had passed, and he wasn't quite sure of the enigmatic Professor Lien's intentions for him, and even less sure of May-lin's.

The reasons for ending up in the Geology Department seemed whimsical at best. The old man had hesitated for several weeks before assigning him anywhere at the university. He had hosted several dinners for Alec and his husky half-brother, Mick, and Mick's spirited wife, Natalie, who were both American officials stationed in Taiwan. In fact, the old man seemed more attracted to them than to him.

Perhaps it was Natalie's proximity to the State Department's visa department that spurred the vacillating man to show any interest in Alec at all. She was the economic counselor at the pseudo-embassy called the American Institute in Taiwan, or AIT for short. Since the U.S. didn't recognize Taiwan as an independent country, it only conducted business on Taiwan unofficially.

Pushing the limits of unofficial diplomacy with a government the United States didn't recognize, AIT looked after America's numerous interests in Taiwan. Every section of a normal Embassy was present in some form at the Institute, including that of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Perhaps the professor was waiting for word from Alec's half-brother, Mick, who played a more shadowy role at AIT, often not appearing at the office for weeks on end. Presumably the professor knew that Mick worked as Alec's case officer for the CIA. But why would Mick suggest the Geology Department?

Or was the old professor motivated by a romantic notion? Did he have May-lin in mind for Alec?

Alec's own interest in her was quite genuine. Dr. Hu May-lin's single-minded devotion to any cause but Alec had only served to intrigue him more. His slow penetration of her personal feelings and commitments ultimately led him to conclude that she had absolutely no personal feelings on any subject, and certainly none for him.

Only two weeks earlier, long after he had abandoned all amorous efforts, she had unexpectedly warmed up to him. Their increasingly personal conversations had eventually led to that afternoon hike.

She resumed the climb, and spoke over her shoulder. "The Lover's Temple is crowding today. It is better to come here instead. This is my favorite temple."

"What kind of temple is it?"

"Oh, one of these general temples. A little bit of everything. I hope you are not minding heights."

He grabbed a chalky rock turned yellow by sulfur. "If you can handle it, I can, too," he said. Never mind the fact that one step backward meant a fifty-foot drop-off to death. The young lady had an unusual appetite for danger.

At last, he heard a grunt, then a sigh of relief. Her sneakers had reached level ground. He squeezed his eyes shut, and mounted the final hand-carved steps.

When he opened his eyes, he stood on a terrace, May-lin's warm body close to his. Even in a vast subtropical forest, the Chinese had no personal space-not that he objected.

He removed his shirttails from his shorts to dissipate the heat. Blood pounded in his ears, and his lungs choked under a new assault: incense billowing from a joss prayer house. Exquisite green dragons and feathery red fish were mounted on the edges of the curving roof, their spirits protecting the shrine from consuming itself in fire.

"Can we sit down?"

"Of course," she said. She led him to a slab table. There they plunked down on a ring of stone stools.

He untied a water flask from his belt, and gave her the first sip, which she accepted without a word.

Gradually, his attention turned to the far hills beyond the clouds of incense. Taiwan's deep green, volcanic hills were truly the stuff of ancient paintings. It was difficult to imagine that so much turmoil existed between the tiny island nation and the Mainland, just ninety miles across the Taiwan Strait.

May-lin wiped her lips, and handed him the flask. Chugging the metallic-tasting spring water, he shifted his attention to the temple. Two men lingered inside the shallow yet elaborately decorated room. He heard the plop of prayer blocks on stones. If one moon-shaped block landed face up and the other face down, the men could choose a prayer stick and read their fortune.

It was a pretty red-and-gold temple, but it was a public place. "Let's find a quiet spot," he said.

She didn't seem to understand. "Is this not private?"

"Not private enough for what I have in mind."

She hesitated, fingering the shoulder straps of her Spandex tank top. He saw a line of perspiration seep between her shallow breasts.

"I see that you are looking at my blouse," she said.

"I have been for quite some time. Nice fabric."

"Thanks. I am buying him in Hong Kong."

"I like the way he stretches." He looked in wonder at her shining eyes.

Then he realized that he was hearing nothing. The prayer blocks had stopped.

May-lin's surprised eyes tore away from him as two shadows, one thin and one wide, suddenly crept over him.

He felt long fingernails pierce his shoulders.

"Foreigner," a tight voice said in his ear.

Alec stood.

A wraithlike man as thin as bamboo studied him with cold eyes.

Another Chinese man chewed a dripping wad of blood-red betel nut, and was working himself into a frenzy. "You do not belong with a Chinese woman," he hissed in Fujian dialect.

The thin man's fingertips drove into his solar plexus. Alec, his feet caught by the stool, crashed backward onto the table. He heard May-lin shriek as she jumped away.

Slowly, he rolled off the table, rubbing the pain in his chest. A cough welled up within him, but he fought to suppress it.

He lurched away from the table to divert attention from May-lin. The men stalked him. No words were spoken. The topic had been raised, and the issue would be resolved.

Alec didn't know their combat style. But he could guess.

He had one thing in his favor. He was calm, and it was easier to handle someone who couldn't control his anger.

Two kicks from the angry man's stout legs into Alec's ribs sent him scraping a shoulder and both knees on the flagstone terrace.

Then the thin man took his turn again. A propeller of knife-like hands sliced past Alec's shielding feet and into his throat and chest.

The men were more than angry. They had something else on their minds.

As he lay on his back, Alec gained some leverage with his feet and diverted the thin man's chi, hurling him away.

Vaguely he heard May-lin screaming in Mandarin.

The thin man rolled back onto his feet with one smooth motion. Alec regained his full height, his back to the drop-off he had just laboriously climbed.

Just as he initiated a lunge at the crouching man with the razor blade hands, he felt a sudden gust of wind, and caught a blur of color flying past. He used an elbow to nudge it aside as it bumped against his shoulder.

The blood-red lips and ebony teeth had jumped at him, and Alec had neatly, if entirely fortuitously, sidestepped the leap.

A moment later, he heard an agonized shriek vanishing below him.

The thin man froze.

The pudgy flailing body disappeared from view. Alec only heard an abrupt swish of leaves like the hungry chomp of a plant, then a pulpy thud on solid stone. There was no cry.

The thin man fled down the steps after his comrade. Alec felt a sudden dizziness, and dropped to one knee that was dripping blood. He touched his damaged throat.

May-lin's sneakers approached.

"Just tell me one thing," he croaked as he tried to dislodge what felt like crushed cartilage in his larynx. "Whose idea was this, anyway?"

"I am sorry," she said in tears. "He is my idea."