The Meeting Place: Qing Dragon Discovery

By Stanley Larson

An American businessman coaxed into a partnership with the dangerous 14k Triad in Hong Kong; A newlywed couple make a startling discovery; A young Will McGuire is just trying to live a normal life as a high school sophomore but fate and circumstance will change his life forever when he makes a gruesome encounter. The FBI teams with the Department of Ancient Antiquities in Washington DC on a whirlwind adventure from the northern California town of Pleasanton to the remote shores of Stanley, Hong Kong to tract down a rumor that could rewrite a chapter in China’s history. Will grows up quickly in a world of greed, deceit, power, competition and young romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483583020

Book preview

Herald

Chapter 1 – Saturday Morning

Pleasanton Ridge

Sweat was beginning to bead up on his forehead despite the cool morning air.  Ahead he could see the opening from the oak forest he had been climbing through for the last twenty minutes.  Just beyond the last set of trees was a barbed wire fence connected to a three stair-step gate used by hikers to quickly cross over the fence.  There was also a larger gate alongside for the occasional park service vehicle, but this was Saturday morning just before sunlight in early autumn and no park rangers would be working today, or tomorrow.  In fact, there were only two assigned park rangers to six regional parts in this section of Alameda County, and this was the most often missed place when they went on their infrequent rounds. 

The Ridge Park was seldom visited by anyone because the trails were steep, and access to the best views in the valley were hard to get to even for the toughest fitness geeks.  But that was exactly why Will liked coming here.

At fifteen years old, William Riley McGuire was about as ordinary of a teenager as any of his classmates at Amador Valley High School, one of two high schools in the upper-middle class ‘town’ of Pleasanton, California.  At six-foot-tall with a slender build, he blended into most crowds.  Even with his silvery blue eyes and light brown hair, he just had one of those faces that most people didn’t remember. 

That suited him just fine.  He wasn’t shy, nor was he afraid to speak up in class, or to take to the basketball court in front of large home crowds at the Skip Mohatt Gymnasium, but he preferred to let others fill the limelight and get the attention.  He was more focused on his schoolwork and basketball.  Talking a lot and goofing off just wasn’t his style.  He once confided with his sister that he planned on marrying a talkative, energetic girl so she could do the talking, and he would just listen and smile.

Saturday mornings were his release…a time to refresh his body and mind from the rigors of homework.  Almost every Saturday morning he would ride his bike to one of three regional parks.  Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park, or the Ridge, was the easiest for him to get to.  Only a couple miles south on Foothill Road and past the historic Castlewood Country Club was a small gravel parking lot that was always empty when he arrived. 

The other two hiking choices were Sycamore Grove Regional Park that led to excellent trails near Del Valle Reservoir, five miles east of Pleasanton, and Mount Diablo State Park, 18 miles to the north.

On Mt. Diablo, or Devil’s Mountain as the native Indians called the place, was an outcropping of granite called Rock City, a favorite childhood climbing place his dad had introduced him to one 4th of July when he was seven.  In the years that followed, he learned to repel, then climb strait up with a rope, then finally free-style climb, which his mother never liked.  Occasionally he rode his bike to Mt. Diablo from Pleasanton, but he preferred getting a ride from his older sister who would drop him off just outside the south entry gate, then she would spend the day shopping in nearby Danville, before picking him up just after lunch. 

Today, on The Ridge, the sun was still twenty minutes away from peering over the hills east of Livermore off in the distance.  But, now he could begin seeing the expansive valley as he hiked beyond the oasis of oak trees that covered the east side of the hill.  Deftly climbing the three-step gate, he paused only briefly at the top, a kind of king of the mountain feeling coming upon him before he shrugged it off and stepped down to the other side and the open expanse of the top of the Ridge. 

Turning to the north, he picked up his pace, hoping to be in his favorite spot just above the 8th fairway of Castlewood Country Club as the sun peaked over the distant hills.  The sky was turning a purplish orange color as the light from the sun began mixing with the haze that settled in the valley overnight. 

With less than 200 yards to go, he rounded a small stony covered ridge and was jolted by three small deer running strait towards him.  He froze briefly as the deer instinctively changed direction, two heading up the hill to the west, and the other shot straight past him, veering slightly to the east and south.  It came so close to him that he could have reached out and tackled it, but instead he froze as both mammals on different parts of the food chain momentarily made eye contact.  In the large brown eyes of the young buck, Will could see fear.  Deer were always afraid.  A fear inbred for protection that made them huddle silently in tall grass or dash to thickets of brush from danger seen, sensed or imagined.

Still stunned, Will pushed on ahead through an area with heavier oak trees to the right.  In another 50 feet, it would open up to his treasured view of his majestic valley.

Chapter 2 – Six Days Earlier

Hong Kong

The Agent sat with his back against the wall near the kitchen door of this small dumpling restaurant on Canton Street in the middle of the busiest shopping district in Kowloon, and not far from his guest’s hotel at the YMCA on Salisbury Road.  The Din Tai Fung restaurant owners originally came from Taiwan and immediately became both a local and tourist favorite for its handmade dumplings.  An aging autographed picture of George W. Bush eating dumplings with chopsticks was mounted on the wall behind the cash register right next to another black & white photo of the former Chinese President, Hu Jintao, also eating dumplings.  The picture of President Hu was slightly larger on purpose.

The Agent was nervous, and continued to watch other late breakfast patrons closely.  So far, he didn’t recognize anyone, and doubted that they knew who he was.  No, if he were being followed, it would be more discrete; someone in the shadows that he wouldn’t see until it was too late.  Just the thought of it started a slow trickle of sweat to slide down the middle of his back.

His guest was an American kid.  Well, not a kid, but compared to the Agent, the 32-year-old Darren Hicks was but a boy.  Darren traveled to Hong Kong three times per year in his job as a programmer for Amazon.  His trips were, at first, exciting and fun.  But lately, they had morphed into a boring routine of travel, taxi’s and four days of meetings that lasted well into the night as was customary in Hong Kong, then an hour taxi ride back to the airport, and a 12 hour flight on Cathay Pacific back to San Francisco. 

This meeting was not scheduled.  Nor was it boring or routine.  It was staged as an interview by a large international trading organization that was looking for an American partner.  In fact, it was actually a clandestine recruiting meeting by one of the most dangerous Triads in Hong Kong.  The 14K Triad is the second largest organized crime gang in Hong Kong with agents and runners placed in nearly every country in the world, and within most large, multinational organizations.  Darren had no idea who he was dealing with.

The agent didn’t say a word as tea was served.  When the waitress left, he reached across the table and handed Darren a partially opened envelop with a picture peaking out. 

Open it, he said with a strong Cantonese accent as he bored his eyes into his guest.  Is this the stone tablet you received three days ago?

Yes.

Where is the tablet now?

A safe place.

The Agent thought for a moment, then asked, Do you know what to do once you arrive in San Francisco?  They’d been through this before, but the agent was nervous about this new recruit. The young man seemed too relaxed; too cocky.  Usually new runners were nervous and asking a lot of questions.  Darren had no questions.

I clear customs in San Francisco, then I take BART to the Powell Street station.  I exit to the north and walk to the Hilton Hotel on O’Farrell Street, Darren rehearsed again in a humdrum voice for the old agent. 

I check in to the hotel and wait to be contacted in my room. 

The Agent nodded in approval while taking a sip of his tea.  Remember, you must not leave your room until contact is made, he scolded as if talking to a 10 year old. 

Darren had been through this already and was anxious to be on his way to work at the Amazon offices on the main island of Hong Kong before he was missed.

As he rose to leave, the older Agent firmly held his arm down, nearly thumping him back into his seat.  We have put a lot of trust in you with this first assignment.  You will be paid handsomely for your professional services. He paused for affect.  But, don’t mess up.  We do not look kindly to careless mistakes. 

Up until this point, Darren had felt he’d hit the jackpot.  Only three days early, on his flight to Hong Kong he was sitting next to this old man - - the Agent - - who conned and persuaded the young computer programmer to ‘do a little simple work on the side for some extra cash.’ 

Actually, it didn’t take much to recruit Darren.  He was up to his eyeballs in debt, having just purchased his first home, a fixer-upper home in Castlewood Country Club.  A golf club that was originally built as Hacienda del Pozo de Verona by William Randolph Hearst in the 1890’s as a get-away from his busy job as a progressive newspaper tsar in San Francisco.

The fixer-upper was a once grand Spanish style home with a red tile roof and stucco exterior walls.  Two previous owners had gone bankrupt in Silicon Valley trying to make millions in the high tech world.  Nearly in shambles, the home had been on the market for over a year when Darren spotted it while playing a round of golf at Castlewood Country Club’s hill course.  Sandwiched between the 7th green and the 8th fairway, the location provided incredible views of the golf course and Happy Valley road eastward in the distance. 

Multiple trips to Home Depot and nearly seven months later, the home was beginning to look like it fit in this exclusive Country Club again.  Even neighbors who once turned their noses up at the decrepit hacienda, now waived to the young bachelor when they drove by on Saturday mornings while he was doing yard work.  The neighbors had their lawn services; their personal gardeners and landscape architects to dote over every detail on their estates, but young Darren was the labor detail at his home.  Long days in the office all week made the weekend chores around the house therapeutic for him.  He actually looked forward to the next project, and took great pleasure with each stop at Home Depot where he shopped for ideas and materials.

But all this cost him money. 

Seven months after closing on his fixer-upper, he had racked up over $40,000 in credit card debt from Home Depot alone.  Another $7,000 was spent on new stucco for the front of his house.  The back of the house would have wait until later. 

He also spent $18,000 on a new tile roof.  He’d negotiated down the price of the home by convincing the sellers, Bank of America in downtown Pleasanton that the roof would need to be replaced.  His estimates came in at $12,000 and the bank readily discounted the price of the $800,000 home by a measly $12 grand to get it off their hands.

But when he actually began the roof replacement, he found that the entire support system needed to be replaced.  In the end, his necessary improvements to the roof combined with his other projects amounted to $65,000 in short-term debt with monthly payments a grand more than his $3,700 mortgage payment. 

Darren was swimming in debt with no way to get out when the old Agent approached him on his flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong. 

After some friendly small talk, the Agent had merely planted a seed by asking, oh, by the way, do you know anyone who would be willing to work as a secured transporter of valuable materials for a little extra cash?

The hook had been placed, then set after a few drinks and stories of easy money.

With the warning now in place, Darren stood up slowly and walked out of the restaurant.  His dumplings still uneaten, were now getting cold on his plate.  He didn’t have an appetite any more.

Exiting the door, he turned south on Canton Street toward the famous Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower and cursed as he noticed it was nearly 10am.  He scurried across the turnaround on Salisbury Road and scampered down the long ramps to the waiting Star Ferry. Scanning his blue Elephant card he sidestepped through the turnstile; turned the corner and hopped aboard the waiting ferryboat for Hong Kong Island across the harbor. 

As he stepped inside the ferry and flipped the seatback so he could sit facing forward, he noticed for the first time a small piece of folded paper tucked into his coat pocket.  He sat down and unfolded the paper.  When he read the words written in both English and Chinese he felt the blood begin to boil inside him with anger.

Chapter 3 – One Month Earlier

Stanley, Hong Kong

Kwan Au Yeung is a fortunate young man.  He recently acquired an old home on the steep hillside above the old fishing village of Stanley, Hong Kong.  To say that Kwan acquired the home is generous.  In fact, the home was given to him by his new father-in-law as a wedding gift. 

His father-in-law had arranged to purchase the small cottage from a quiet old widow two years’ earlier when he had met the woman at the small temple in town.  The woman, who had been meditating in the temple, approached the man outside the temple and asked if he had any daughters.  The man said, yes.  And with that, the woman told the man she would sell him her small home if he would agree to give the home to his daughter as a wedding gift. 

It wasn’t a negotiation as much as it was a command.  The old woman, who had lived there for 78 years wanted a young family raised in her home.  The transfer was completed when the old woman passed away peacefully in her sleep one night a few months later. 

Along with the home, young Kwan was given a position in his father-in-laws’ company as a fleet manager for the company delivery trucks.  It was a simple job, but it paid enough to provide for his new family with the promise of future advancement if he worked hard. 

He did.  Every day, seven days a week, for two years he accounted for each delivery truck as they left the dairy before sunrise, and as they returned just before noon.

The rest of the day was his to spend with his new wife, and to fix up his new…old home. 

After two years of tinkering, he finally took on his biggest project to date, adding plumbing to his ancient home including modern amenities like an indoor toilet to replace the small wooden hut just outside the back door with its worn wooden floor and the traditional ‘missing plank’ for human waste.  He would also add a bathtub, hot water and additional faucets to the antique water valve found in the kitchen.

He’d begun replacing the water pipes under his home after his morning assignments at work. The new piping was installed in the crawlspace under the flooring of his home.  Like a maze, he ran pipes up, into his home to the new water closet, or WC as they are called, next to the master bedroom.  He’d also added indoor laundry facilities, a luxury in this part of Hong Kong. 

As he carefully laid out the new pipes he pulled himself along in the narrow crawlspace by grabbing the old rusted iron pipe dangling loosely from the floor joists and twisted his way through the dust and dirt. 

Nearing the middle of the home it was getting darker.  His flashlight was sufficient, but it made him focus only on