Chapter 26

Sunday

When I commed Cooper after breakfast, he had both Red and Blue Squads ready to pick up where we left off Friday. There were no new danger vectors from Chongqing, so we headed north. I’d already taken second vectors to complete the vectors for the rest of China.

I hugged and kissed my wives goodbye as the Talons began arriving to take my family home. The Mistresses of the Dragon stayed here, and I had instructions from Sally to make sure Zan, Nuo, Wei, and Jia were pregnant since that’s what concubines were for. That made the four young women beam. The way Zan and Nuo’s mother Zhen was beaming and being so solicitous of Aunt Peggy this morning, she might end up pregnant right along with her daughters.

Shun, Yin, and Zien each had an infant six months or younger, so they would have to wait at least another year to get pregnant. Still, it looked like I had nine children now. Juana had four ages six and younger, Zien had three ages four and younger, and Shun and Yin had a three- or six-month-old. I quietly mentioned to Don that it would be a good idea to make one of the new homes we were building about three times the size of the others.

“Already working on it,” he laughed, slapping me on the back.

Once again, as we checked every threat, what we located was usually high-ranking military officers now at home, licking their imaginary wounds. Others were high-ranking members of the provincial governments who had skimmed enough and taken enough bribes to provide them with a lavish retirement. In some of the larger cities, we began encountering the remnants of China’s notorious Tongs. Since each tong had been centered in one of China’s biggest cities, Taiwan’s Revenge had eliminated the vast majority of the gang members.

Most of the remaining members ended up serving in the military, and not voluntarily. Those who survived were now attempting to revive what they had before. We quickly put an end to their plans. Giving them plenty of warning to throw down their weapons and surrender, the troops didn’t waste any tranq rounds, although I used a few on the leaders.

Aside from draining bank accounts and looting stashes of valuables, we found several young women in one city who had been kidnapped to sell in Europe as sex slaves. We managed to get enough detailed information that European authorities were able to break up a large human trafficking ring and rescue more than a hundred girls.

When Cooper teased me about collecting more women, I shook my head vigorously. That made the troops with us happy, and they claimed the girls as concubines in less than an hour. We made sure to let the girls’ families know that their daughters had been rescued.

I was a bit surprised that Ensigns Warner and Torres each wanted a female concubine since the main purpose of a concubine was to have babies. Torres addressed that question when she asked if I was up to impregnating her concubine. “As long as she’s okay with being with me, and Sally agrees,” I replied. “I’ll warn you that I want the baby to know I’m the father, and I’ll want to be at least a small part of his or her life, maybe having him or her visit a couple times a year. You’d both be welcome to come, too.”

“Maybe I can parlay that into a civilian job when my enlistment is up,” she chuckled.

“Ever drive a tractor?” I teased, getting punched in the shoulder by a grinning Torres.

“Have I been hogging the single women?” I asked Cooper later.

“Nobody was really interested in a concubine until we realized how much we’ve earned from looting in the last month. We could all retire and never work again if we really wanted to; although I doubt if anyone will. We’re all Type A personalities and have to be constantly doing something. We’ve even gotten enough that we plan to donate half of it to organizations helping war widows and disabled vets,” he replied.

“I’ll match whatever you guys donate,” I offered.

“Nope,” he said definitively. “You’ve already got your own version of a charity going in Louisiana, Nicaragua, and Honduras. I’m sure that you’ll find something to do here in China, too,” he chuckled.

“There are over a hundred mines in Xinjiang Province and in Mongolia owned by Russian companies. I’m sure they will be confiscated after the Russian invasion into territory the U.S. had already claimed. Someone will need to operate those mines, replacing any Russkies working there. Supposedly, there are many potential sites in Mongolia for mines that haven’t been developed because the local officials we arrested wanted too much in the way of bribes,” I mused aloud.

“I’m sure there will be huge tracts of farmland available where I can start a Lucky J China, and the people here need the food,” I added.

“How do you know all that?” Cooper asked.

“I researched a lot about China before we arrived hoping to find a few good opportunities to help the people here. Nicaragua just happened when I noticed the ore deposits. The only thing I had decided to do before we left for Nicaragua was start farming in Louisiana, and that took off all on its own just days after I decided I wanted to do it. Now, I check in with Don and my wives when I can. They keep me up to date and ask my opinion if there’s a question about what to do.

“Mainly, I just keep my eyes open for opportunities to provide something people need and to put people to work. The supervisors we got from the different Lucky Js have been doing the lion’s share of the planning and providing all the leadership. I wouldn’t have the first clue how to go about starting what they’ve already done. After this mess is over, I need to finish college and get a business degree, so I have a better idea of what they’re doing and what still needs to be done.”

Monday

This morning, one of the remaining danger vectors increased in intensity. Had it remained at the same level as the others, we would have investigated it tomorrow. Instead, we headed right there. Lieutenants Cortez and Ames brought their two strike teams of Marine Raiders, too. What we found was troops belonging to one of the drug lords preparing to attack a company of U.S. Marines who were clearing a minefield near a Chinese village.

While the Raiders flew in and got their shielded grav sleds between the Marines and the drug lord’s troops, the SEALs flew in behind the drug lord’s troops and began firing at them. By the time the Marine sentries noticed something amiss, the drug lord’s troops were unconscious or had surrendered, even though they weren’t sure who had been attacking them or from where. Cooper had commed General Conklin who finally managed to get the com unit number for the C.O. of the Marines. He commed the Marines to let them know what had happened.

Once the drug lord’s unconscious troops were on their way to a holding facility until they were questioned and tried, I helped the Marines. When I asked if they preferred me to mark the mines or detonate them, they chose detonating them. I sat back using my 10 mm and the sled’s targeting system. Once I located a mine using my expanded awareness, I shot the main pressure plate, detonating it. I had to change magazines five times before I finished.

“You sure you got them all?” The Marine Sergeant asked nervously.

“If Jim says he got them, even the kids can play safely out there,” Cooper assured him. I still checked once more, making sure there were no threats coming from the minefield before we headed for the home of the drug lord who had sent the troops today. The men we captured told us that he had hoped to delay the U.S. advance another week so they could finish harvesting the poppy sap. They hadn’t expected such a sudden end to the war.

The drug lord had heard the explosions from me setting off the mines and figured that his men were doing what he had sent them to do. We collected him and his top lieutenants who supervised growing the poppies and collecting the sap, along with the chemists who extracted the various compounds from the sap. This guy’s operation almost looked like a professional pharmaceutical company, even though it was inside modular homes. The RCC troops packed everything that had been inside each of the twenty-three modular homes and stowed it securely inside the module it had been used in.

Each module was ready to be transported with one of the drug lord’s cargo helicopters. They also had four passenger helicopters and two attack helicopters. I was surprised that the drug lord hadn’t used the attack helicopters but realized that it would have brought U.S. air support which would have located the headquarters.

Along with enough precious metal to make jaws drop amongst the Marine Raiders, we found intricately carved wooden chests filled with pearls and gemstones. We also found a four-meter-by-four-meter room completely filled with boxes of currency from the U.S. and Russia, as well as every Asian country. There were even three large pieces of jade weighing ten to fifteen kilograms each in another room.

Cooper went back and talked to the Marine sergeant, who commed his CO, who arranged for crews to transport each of the choppers to the nearest airbase. When I commed Don, he said to claim the choppers and the modular homes, although the military could have the contents of the buildings.

It was well after dinner Sunday before we finished the southwest quadrant of the country. Sichuan and Yunnan provinces had been heavily involved in the drug business. Originally, a substantial portion of the opium-based drugs from the Golden Triangle had flowed through those two provinces to Chinese ports for export, again, with the knowledge and approval of the Chinese government. In return, many of the necessary precursors for extracting the myriad of illegal narcotics from opium poppy sap had flowed back through those provinces from Chinese ports to the Golden Triangle.

The major players in the drug trade usually kept well ahead of the U.S. advance into southern China, making sure they had time to harvest their crop before U.S. troops reached the area; at least until the sudden and unexpected end to the war.

When the U.S. took over Afghanistan at the end of the MEW, they had finally managed to end the opium production after several years. It had shifted to Myanmar and northern Laos, as well as southwest China.

By the time we finished, we had sent 936 prisoners and bodies back, split fairly evenly between the two. Most of the bodies were men who thought they had a better chance fighting against us than they would have in military courts. We also rescued another ninety-three girls and young women. Some would have been sold to opium growers and some were destined for Russia. Others had been forced into the beds of the drug lords and their top lieutenants.

The last of the two SEAL platoons chose who they wanted as concubines, leaving sixty-two for Cortez’s squad and the other Elite Force troops to choose from. I suggested that they also check any young women still staying at the stadium. They probably had no job and no place to go.

I begged off the fun and games when we headed for bed and made a mental note to check the families of the captured Chinese government officials, both the officials from the national government that we had captured here and the dangerous ones we had picked up in the last few days from the provincial governments. Aside from the girls that had been concubines, several daughters had looked old enough for the troops to claim them as concubines and many of the wives were far too young to have children as old as those officials had.

Tuesday

Even though I was awake early, the ladies wouldn’t let me leave until I fulfilled my duty to them. Shun, Yin, and Zhen finally took pity on me and let me escape, although they warned that they each got a turn with me tonight. I checked and made sure their birth control devices were activated. Their bodies still needed time to recover, especially Shun.

I asked General Conklin if he had anything I could help with. “Done with everything so soon?” he asked.

“I could help locate and neutralize any remaining minefields,” I suggested. “I should also check the families of all the government officials and other prisoners. A lot of the younger second wives and older daughters would make good concubines for some of the troops,” I suggested.

“You already bagged your limit?” he asked teasingly.

“I’m surprised that nobody’s after me for exceeding some sort of arbitrary limit,” I teased back.

“The limit is whatever you can afford. Just with what you’ve managed to collect in the last month, you’re far from that limit,” he riposted.

I contacted Lt. Cortez to see if they wanted to go with me. He had me contact Lt. Colonel Byrd to take Green Beret commando units with me. When I thought about dangerous minefields in China, I suddenly felt six vectors. The strongest one was almost directly south of us. Once we arrived, I could see why. The mines were in the fields a small town needed to plant since they were the only available place in the mountainous area that they could grow crops. The village had two teenage girls checking the field with two metal detectors they had gotten from somewhere.

I stopped one girl right before she stepped on a mine. When we checked, the detector she was using had a dead battery. Using the grav sleds, we lifted the girls out of the minefield. Then, the Green Berets made sure everyone was well clear of the field and formed a perimeter to keep them away. I suggested to Lt. Colonel Byrd that he have two of his units go hunting to provide game for the people in the town. They should ask what types of wild game the townspeople ate and then see what they could bring back. As far as I knew, I’d identified all the common game animals, and even some of the less common ones, so their nav computers should identify what was available in the surrounding jungle.

While they hunted, I spent two hours shooting at and detonating mines, and then double-checked the area to make sure I got everything. The two girls sent to clear the minefield understood why they had been sent. Their families each had two sons to continue the family name. In their culture, girls were considered less valuable than boys. Just because they understood the reasoning didn’t mean they liked it. By the time I was done clearing the mines, those two girls, along with eight others who had been given the same task the previous four days, had found a soldier eager to accept her as a concubine.

As we were preparing to leave, two of the troops approached me. The girls had told them that there was supposedly a cave in the mountains several kilometers to the south where retreating Chinese troops had stashed the valuables they looted before being driven out of Myanmar. The Chinese vehicles had been damaged or destroyed by U.S. airstrikes and the troops had been forced to carry everything. It slowed them down enough that they finally found a spot to hide it, hoping to return when they drove the U.S. troops back out of China.

The villagers had searched for the cave for three years before giving it up as just a rumor. I searched for an hour, finding several empty caves. Just as I was ready to conclude that the troops had already returned for their stash, I found one more cave, albeit much smaller than the others. It was crammed full of “valuables,” although much of it was wrapped balls of what I guessed was opium poppy sap. I had no idea if it was still potent three years later.

We called the drugs in, and then managed to pull out enough precious metals, gems, and five-year-old foreign currency that the troops with me were happy.

We cleared three more minefields before dark and then hurried home for a late dinner.

Friday Feb 19

The minefields had all been cleared. The sources of danger I’d felt had been dealt with or were in the hands of the military, and the wives and daughters of the top-ranking Chinese officials had been divvied up as concubines amongst the elite forces troops. Most of the young women who had been forced to be concubines of Chinese officials had no family left to return to and gratefully accepted a life as a concubine of one of the elite forces.

That I felt no danger from nine of the Chinese State Legislators surprised me. I spoke with each man separately. They admitted that they hadn’t supported the war but shut up and voted for it anyway because five who had spoken out against the war had suddenly disappeared.

I gave General Conklin a final salute. “It’s been a pleasure working with you, Jim,” he said emotionally as he returned the salute.

“Nothing personal, but I hope we don’t have to work together again,” I kidded.

An hour later China time, but 0500 Friday morning in Blanc Bayou, the Talon dropped me off at home. I was surprised that the military was assigning a Talon to me, but realized that they could have me halfway around the world in the same time it took me to get to Washington or Fort Bragg on my grav sled. Besides, I still had Russian intelligence satellites to knock out. I had a feeling that would take several days.

As we approached the house, I noted that Don’s helipad had grown. It was big enough for his little helicopter and three Talons. There were even new hangars for the Talons.

Everything looked different now. In a brief time, the housing islands to the north and south had been extended to the next house in each direction and new houses were rising from the island to the south. Don’s old house, which was the house to the immediate north, was gone. In its place, atop the new island was a house that was going to be a monster, and I realized that it was probably for me. The old barn was devoid of animals and was instead, filled with racks of grav sleds. I saw the old-style sleds that we took from the two compounds Don and I raided in New Orleans and Atlanta. There were racks of the Chinese fusion grav sleds, as well as old style Chinese battery-powered grav sleds.

The cows and horses were in huge, new barns at the old Arceneaux places. On the new island were eight new greenhouses. Each was several times the size of one of the original ones. The new smokehouses and the new room where game was processed and then stored under refrigeration had also been completed. The smokehouses looked like they were full.

When I had commed Don last night, he told me the new dairy had begun operating Tuesday morning, although they’d been using the milking parlor for some time. All the milk they produced was used here or at the Lucky J Tensas, so Don was keeping his eyes open for more Jersey cows to expand our dairy herd.

Despite it being early morning, after greeting the four dogs who ran over to me, I went inside and crawled into bed, having to wedge my way in between Sally and Gina. “You’re cold!” Sally exclaimed as she shivered. She stayed and warmed me up while the rest of the women got up to start chores.

“Wake up,” someone said in a sing-song voice.

Once she saw that I was awake, Idania joined us in bed. “I’ll let everyone know that you’ll be down for lunch in a few minutes,” Lurdes laughed and hurried back out the door.

“We missed you,” Idania said emotionally.

“I missed you, too,” I replied as I pulled her face down and kissed her.

“We were about to send up a rescue party,” Don teased when we made it to the dining room.

Walking around the table, I gave each of my wives and significant others a kiss before sitting down to lunch. As I did, everyone was eyeing the large paper-wrapped package I had set just inside the dining room door.

“What’s that?” Sally asked, motioning to the package.

“I realize that I’m five days late, but it’s Valentine’s Day presents,” I replied nonchalantly. Don and I chuckled, as did my mothers, when my wives all jumped up from the table and rushed over to the package. The sound of paper ripping was quickly replaced by squeals and exclamations of excitement as my wives found the exquisitely crafted silk dresses. Mom and Aunt Peggy winked at me, having given me the necessary dress sizes.

Sally motioned to my concubines. “Come on, there are presents here for you, too,” she exclaimed. After giving me a look of surprise, the concubines were quickly elbows-deep in shredded brown wrapping paper. “You, too,” Sally added, motioning to my mothers. Even Mom was surprised. She had sent me the 3-D scans for the girls, including my sisters. Sally had sent me the scans for my mothers, thinking that I was getting them something nice as a gift. Sally even called Izzy, Zoe, and Ai over since there were also dresses for the three girls. Technically, Ai was now my daughter. Izzy and Zoe would be my daughters once Juana and I were married and I formally adopted them.

Don, Heng, Chao, my brothers, the little kids, and Louis were the only ones left at the table with me as the women headed for bedrooms to change into the dresses. “I take it your Chinese garment workers had a hand in this,” Don commented, grinning.

When I learned that fifteen hundred women who made uniforms for the Chinese military would lose their jobs, I stepped in and bought the factory. I had them start making everyday clothing for us to use here. Some of them started making uniforms for our Reynolds Security forces. Others were making pants and T-shirts in common sizes, mainly for work clothes for the rapidly increasing number of Tensas Parish employees. Once we had what we needed, I figured we could sell any extra or build up a surplus.

One thing I did was to fire the male supervisor. He had forced several women to have sex with him to keep their jobs. I left three women in charge of the factory with instructions to let me know if any man ever again bothered any of the women working for me.

“Oh, yeah,” I replied. “I asked if any of them could make some beautiful silk dresses for my wives. By the time they finished telling me what they were going to do, they were making dresses for my wives, mothers, sisters, and dozens of the people who are busy supervising the work in Tensas Parish and Nicaragua. I had to call Jim the Third to find out if the guys were married and to discreetly get the measurements for their wives’ dresses, as well as suggestions for colors. I even added dresses for Jim the Third’s five wives.

“Ohmigod,” one of the women shrieked excitedly from somewhere in the house.

“I think they just opened the second package,” I laughed. Don raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“Real silk stockings and garter belts color coordinated with the silk dresses,” I chuckled.

“Shit, I only gave Janice, Audrey, and Heather a handmade card for Valentine’s Day,” Louis said glumly.

“That’s all we usually do,” I explained. “I intended to get the dresses for my wives because I’ve been gone so much and wasn’t here for Valentine’s Day. It just snowballed out of my control, much like everything else in my life.”

“Speaking of which,” Don interjected. “Ed Scott commed me last night. They finished drilling test holes at the first three mines, one gold, one copper, and one wolframite. All three assayed high enough to be extremely profitable. They’re already drilling the next three, and then they’ll quit to concentrate on opening the first set of mines. He almost has the rebel gold mine up to code. He thinks they’ll be ready to restart mining in a week or so.

“He says that Ernesto, the guy he hired to oversee the preserve, is like a kid in a candy store. He’s already had people from the Lucky J Cuba visit each of the Mayangna villages and work with them to improve their crop yields while abandoning the slash and burn system. Most of the widows in the villages are working for him now, collecting seeds for the various indigenous trees, and starting them in pots.