Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 ________________________________ This is a story about a sexual FANTASY
written for consenting adults.  If you're not both of those, don't read it.
Characters in a FANTASY don't get sick or die unless I want them to.  In
real life, people who don't use condoms and other safe-sex techniques do
get sick and die.  You don't live in a FANTASY so be safe.  The fictional
characters in my stories are trained and experienced in acts of FANTASY -
don't try to do what they do - someone could get hurt.

   If you think you know somebody who resembles any of the characters here,
congratulations, but you're wrong - any similarity between the characters
in this story and any real person is purely coincidental, since all of
these characters are figments of my dirty little imagination.

   This is my story, not yours.  Don't sell it or put it on a pay site. 
You can keep it and/or give it away with all of this information intact,
but if you make money off of it without my permission, you're breaking the
law and pissing me off.  _________________________________ Body Guards II:
Stolen Secrets - Chapter 6 (nosex) (C)Copyright 2005 - Shakes Peer2B
shakes_peer2b@NONOsbcglobal.net (remove 'NONO' from the above address to
contact me)
http://storiesonline.net/library/author.php?name=Shakes_Peer2B
/files/Authors/Shakes_Peer2B/

   ________

   I caught the shuttle from the airport to the Crowne Plaza Beijing, near
the Forbidden City, and got checked in without too much hassle.  I'm not
usually a patron of five star hotels, but the room rates were about what
I'd pay for a three star in the US and it was centrally located with many
English speaking staff members.

   I first checked in with the American Embassy, then started trying to
stir up a very large hornet's nest.  Starting at the Ministry of Foreign
Trade, I began inquiring into the whereabouts of a certain Mr.  Huang who,
I assured them, owed my company a great deal of money.  Naturally, I was
shuffled back and forth across the city from Foreign Affairs to the
Ministry of Communication, to the Ministry of National Defense, and even,
for crying out loud, the ministry of Geology.

   With wait times, interpretation delays, bureaucratic snafus, etc., I ate
up the whole three days it took Sun and Jun to reach the city.

   On the fourth day, the front desk rang my room as I was preparing to
embark on another day of hornet nest stirring.

   "Mr.  Winchell?"

   "Yes."

   "There is a gentleman here from the Ministry of National Defense who
wishes to speak with you.  I shall send him up right away."

   It's a good thing I wanted to see the guy.  From the tone of the desk
clerk's voice, he was probably quaking in his boots.  I'd just about bet
the guy was on his way before the clerk called.

   Sure enough, it was barely a minute after I hung up that a sharp rap
sounded on my door.  I peeped through the spyhole because it was expected.
I already knew there were two of them in the hall, neither in particularly
threatening postures.

   "I don't suppose you are Mr.  Huang?" I asked the young man who was
clearly in charge of the task force of two as I held the door open for
them. They walked past me into the room without speaking.

   As soon as the door closed, the leader asked, "May I ask, Mr.  Winchell,
what it is that you want of Mr.  Huang?"

   "I have it on good authority that Mr.  Huang initiated a transaction
which caused me, as a confidential courier, to be engaged to transport a
stolen item to Europe.  I did not know, at the time, that the item was
stolen, and frankly, don't give a damn.  What I do care about is that I
have not yet been paid for transporting that item."

   "Do you still have the item in your possession?" the chinese gentleman
asked.

   "I do."

   "Then give it to me, and I'll see that Mr.  Huang gets it," he replied.
"I'll see to it that you're paid as soon as he receives the disc."

   This was getting closer to home.  Not only did this guy not deny the
existence of Mr.  Huang, or that he was involved in this fiasco, he
volunteered the information that the Item was a disc.

   "I'm afraid I can't do that," I said.  "There have been too many
attempts by unauthorized parties to take the item from me by force,
including attempts on my life.  I shall make the exchange with Mr.  Huang
in person, or I shall destroy the disc."

   "That won't be possible, Mr.  Winchell," he said, stepping aside to let
his larger, more athletic companion take the lead.

   I wasn't too surprised when the guy drew a gun.  He was pretty surprised
when I took it from him, ejected the clip, and jacked the slide in case
there was a round in the chamber before tossing the pieces on the bed.

   Like a good soldier, that wasn't the only tool in his box, so I had to
take a knife away from him and block a few punches and kicks before I found
the right opening and doubled him over with a hard punch to the solar
plexus before putting out his lights with a fist to the side of his neck. I
rested one foot on said neck while I continued my conversation with Huang's
agent.

   Turning to him as if nothing had happened, I said conversationally,
"Then I'll just have to destroy the disc and let it be known that it's bad
business working for the Chinese."

   He backed up a couple of steps.  I hadn't used any particular style of
fighting, but had casually taken out someone he thought was a tough guy, so
he was naturally wary of me.

   "How did you come to know of Mr.  Huang's involvement in this issue, Mr.
Winchell?" he asked.

   "The two young men he sent to Austria told me before they died," I
replied, matter of factly.  It wasn't quite true.  Sun and Jun happened to
know that Huang was in charge of the program that bred them, and had been
keeping tabs on him as a matter of course.

   "How did they die?" He backed up another step, his eyes wide.  Clearly
he had known the capabilities of those two.

   I shrugged.  "They were killed by two young ladies who work for the
original owner of the disc."

   He relaxed visibly at the knowledge that I wasn't quite THAT bad.  "And
they let you keep the disc?"

   "Yes." I answered truthfully.  "They said it had been erased by remote
control shortly after it left the Hastings building, before I ever received
it."

   "Then why should Mr.  Huang pay you for it?"

   "It was Mr.  Huang's incomplete knowledge that resulted in the disc
being erased and his people being killed," I replied self-righteously.  "I
am owed for my services.  Since the disc was already compromised before I
received it, I fulfilled my contractual obligation by ensuring that it
arrived at its destination in the condition in which it was received."

   "I will deliver your message to Mr.  Huang," he said sourly, as the guy
under my foot began struggling to get up.

   Well, this was progress.  I planted bugs on both of them as they left
the room.  Sun, waiting near Tiananmen Square, verified on her pickup that
both devices were working.  Jun followed them as they left the hotel.

   'Ministry of National Defense' Jun told us later as we watched the two
enter a building, through her eyes.

   A few minutes later, Sun listened in as my visitor reported to his boss.
I could not understand the Mandarin, but I understood Sun's understanding
of it.  Thought is apparently language independent.  Our own minds
translate it into concepts that are comfortable for us.  I should have
realized this earlier since English is not the girls' first language, but
it took this instant understanding of conversation in a foreign language to
bring it to my attention.

   Since I was getting the semantic content of the conversation, without
the syntax, it would be difficult to present it here as dialog.  The gist
of it was that Huang was more than a little suspicious of my motive, but
not terribly concerned about me.  I was a stranger in a strange land with
no visible means of support.

   He quizzed both of them long and hard about whether they had been
followed, or if they had seen anything out of the ordinary.  The tough guy,
at least, had been trained well enough to look for such things, but
reported nothing out of the ordinary, except for a crazy American (me) who
thought he could get a Chinese Government official to pay him money.

   Several hours later, long after the Ministry had closed for the evening,
Jun, from her vantage point atop a nearby building, watched Mr.  Huang get
into a non-descript sedan and leave the area.

   The next day was uneventful.  I made several calls to the Ministry of
National Defense, by phone and in person, ostensibly to set up an
appointment with Mr.  Huang.  It was mostly for show.  I didn't expect him
to pay any more attention to me, but having come this far, I needed to play
out my hand for whoever might be watching.

   The bugs I had planted in the clothing of my two visitors were now
picking up only random noise as, presumably, those clothes languished in
closets or laundry hampers.

   Sun and Jun ran team surveillance on the Ministry, and try as I might,
when I paid my visit, I could not spot them, even though I knew, from what
they were seeing, approximately where each of them was at all times.  The
crowds on the neighboring streets were in full bustle, and a watcher must
keep moving along with them to avoid standing out from the crowd.

   The girls did laps around the ministry, ducking out of sight at certain
points to change their appearance slightly so that even keen observers
would have a hard time recognizing that the same person kept coming past
the building.  Sometimes they were on one side of the street, sometimes the
other.  Occasionally, they changed directions, too.

   In the evening, again long after most others who worked there had left
the Ministry, Huang's car left the building with the girls following, Jun
on a Mo-ped, Sun in a cab.

   From my hotel room, I rode along with them as they followed Huang home,
sometimes in front, sometimes behind, switching out occasionally, but never
looking directly at Huang's vehicle or staying very close to it.

   Unlike many of his contemporaries, Huang kept a large walled estate
outside Beijing, with the house set in the middle of a large open area. 
Little was wasted on aesthetics.  The entire place was built to be defended
against one intruder or an army.  As the girls cautiously surveyed the
grounds, it became clear that Mr.  Huang had guessed that they might come
after him.  There was a small army of heavily armed guards in and around
the house, as well as patrolling the grounds inside and outside the wall.
The guards wore the uniform of the Army of the People's Republic of China.
I watched through their well-trained eyes as Sun and Jun identified
sensors, hidden weapons, and booby traps.

   When they could learn no more about the place, the girls headed back to
the Ministry.  Without too much trouble, they slipped past the antiquated
security system, staying out of view of the cameras.  My 'vision,'
interpreting the energies that impinged upon our shared chi, served to
locate the few guards and janitors on duty at night as the girls made their
way to the location from which the bugged conversation had come the day
before.  Sure enough, the characters on the door (as understood by my
mind-mates) of one locked office identified it as belonging to one Mr. 
Huang.  Their primary mission for the evening accomplished, the girls set
about memorizing the locations of cameras, sensors, utility accesses, etc.,
and plotting several possible egress routes.

   When they emerged from the building, I stayed with them until they got
back to their separate hotels, then bid them a goodnight and hit the sack.

   The next day was more of the same, for me - putting on a show of
increasing irritation as I again sought an audience with Mr.  Huang. 
Again, I was ignored.  No big surprise.  I decided to call it quits a
little early and get some sleep.  That night would be the critical night,
and we would all need our wits about us.

   Sun and Jun also slept most of the day, emerging around closing time for
the Ministry of National Defense.

   I went out and bought a small bottle of cheap booze, then walked around
the streets of Beijing acting a little sloshed.  I poured about half of the
liquor out and splashed some on myself for effect.  Besides being the
'radar' for this operation, I was also the distraction, should they need
one.

   It was a couple of hours later that Huang headed home for the evening,
and I started shuffling erratically toward the Ministry as the girls made
their way inside.  The lock on Huang's office was new, but presented only a
minor delay.  A longer delay ensued while they scanned the interior of the
office carefully for surveillance equipment, cameras, etc.  I guess, like
most of us, Huang didn't want people spying on him at work, and there were
no such devices.

   Sun and Jun left their package, carefully positioned to have maximum
effect on the recipient.  I watched with approval as they used at least as
much caution getting out of the building as they had getting in.  In
SpecOps I had constantly had to caution the young bucks about getting
careless once their primary objective was met.  It was almost like they
figured they were in a video game, and since they had won, everybody could
just stand up and walk out of the combat zone.  SHEESH!

   Safely outside again, the girls headed off to Huang's house.

   I finally found a cab and threw a handful of Renminbi (People's
Currency), in Yuan notes and a few Jiao coins, into the front seat,
demanding loudly that the driver take me to the address I had gotten from
the girls' visit to Huang's home last night.  I threw another handful of
Yuan notes to the driver as I stumbled out of the cab in front of Huang's
estate.  Sun and Jun were already in position, so I staggered up to the
gate and started pounding on it, proclaiming loudly that Huang had cheated
me and demanding to see him.

   Naturally, the guards converged on my position.  At first, only one or
two confronted me, telling me in broken English to go away.

   "That shon of bitch in there owes me money!" I shouted loudly, bringing
even more guards, "An' I'm damned if I'm leavin' without it!"

   "You must leave now, Mr.  Winchell!" This was the guy who had been to my
hotel the other day, now in the uniform of an officer in the Army of the
People's Republic.

   "Hey!" I said, as if I'd just met an old friend.  "Hey!  How you doin'?
Shay, why don't you be a pal and go tell Mr.  Huang he owes me money?" I
put a conspiritorial arm around his shoulders, saying in a stage whisper,
"I'll make it worth your while..."

   "Mr.  Huang has retired for the evening," my buddy said stiffly,
brushing my arm off his shoulders.  "He already knows of your claim and
does not believe it to be valid, so please leave."

   "Doesn't believe...?" I swayed as if dumbstruck, then took up my litany
again, "But he owes me, man!  Get 'im out here and I'll tell 'im myself! 
This is bogus, man!"

   About the time Sun and Jun entered the house, the Captain ran out of
patience.

   He said something to his men, pointing at me.  About all I could catch
was 'Crowne Plaza'.  Jun confirmed my suspicion that he was ordering them
to take me back to the hotel.

   I've never practiced the Drunken Monkey style of Gung Fu, but I'd guess
I did a passable imitation for the guards.  I noted in passing that, true
to Sun and Jun's belief, no one had bothered to wake Mr.  Huang.  He slept
peacefully while they delivered the second package.

   I staggered and stumbled and pushed and shoved, somehow slipping out of
everyone's grasp, 'accidentally' hitting or tripping a few in the process,
until the girls slipped back over the wall.  Then I allowed myself to be
caught.  A truck was brought around and I was unceremoniously dumped in the
canvas-covered bed with an escort of several of the guards.  They barely
even slowed down when they pushed me out of the bed in front of the Crowne
Plaza.

   The hotel staff sniffing self-righteously at my booze-sodden clothes,
made even more disreputable by my scuffle with the guards and subsequent
tumble from the bed of the truck, gingerly helped me to my room.  As soon
as they were gone, I showered, changed, and packed my little bag, just in
case.  Sun and Jun, traveling close enough together to help each other in
case of trouble, but not so close as to seem to be together, were already
well out of the city.

   I caught a couple hours sleep, and was just getting ready to check out
when the door to my room burst open, spilling armed men in uniform into the
room.  Huang's right hand man was there also, still in the uniform he had
worn last night.

   "Hey, keep it down will ya!" I complained, feigning a headache as I sat
on the edge of the bed, head in hands.

   The crowd parted, and in walked Mr.  Huang, who strode up to me and
slapped me across the face.

   "What the fuck was that for?!" I bitched, putting a hand to my cheek. 
"Shit!  That's not going to do my headache any good!"

   "Where are they?" Spittle flew from Huang's mouth as he screamed his
question.

   "Where are who?" I was still playing dumb.

   "Sun and Jun!" He screamed, "I know you are working for them, now tell
me where they are!"

   "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Huang," I scowled,
"but while I've got you here, there's the little matter of that money you
owe me!"

   "Ha!" He exclaimed, as if he had caught me in some kind of trap.  "How
do you know who I am, and how did you know where I live?"

   I snorted.  "What, you think your identity's a secret?  I spread a few
Yuan around and pretty soon I've got somebody to show me which car you ride
home in.  I wait around, and pretty soon, here comes you, climbing into the
back seat of that same car.  It was no real trick, even in this town, to
follow you home.  Jeez!  Now, about the money you owe me..."

   "I don't owe you any money!" He looked like he would blow any second
now. "Tell me where Sun and Jun are or I'll have you arrested, and you will
be thrown in prison and tortured until you tell me where they are."

   "I don't know where they are." I answered truthfully.  I could have
described their whereabouts in detail, but I didn't know where they were.
"What makes you think I have anything to do with them?  What makes you even
think they're in this country?"

   "So you DO know them!" I swear this guy was starting to sound like
Inspector Clouseau.

   "Of course I know them," I answered disgustedly.  "They were the ones
who killed those two Chinese guys in Salzburg.  You know, the guys that
wanted to have me killed instead of paying me!  They're Steve Hasting's
Security people - the guy whose company you stole the disc from."

   I'll give him some credit.  Instead of exploding again, the guy visibly
got control of himself and tried another tack.

   "What would you say, Mr.  Winchell," he asked, "if I told you that I
woke up this morning to find the decapitated head of one of those 'Chinese
guys' staring at me from the pillow next to me?  Or if I told you that the
head of the other 'Chinese guy' was found on my desk at the Ministry of
National Defense this morning?  Hmmm?"

   I pretended to think about that for a while before answering.  "I guess
I'd have to say that somebody was pretty pissed at you, Mr.  Huang, and
that they were sending you a pretty strong message."

   "And who might that someone be, might I ask?" His voice turned syrupy on
that question.

   "My guess would be those girls," I answered, all innocent-like.  "I'd
guess they weren't too happy about you trying to steal their boss' stuff."

   "You fool!" Ah!  That was the Huang I had come to know and love!  "Those
men were sent to kill or capture four defectors from the People's Republic,
of whom Sun and Jun are two!  The theft of that disc was simply a ruse to
draw them out!"

   "Yeah, well," I shrugged, "didn't work too well, did it?  I thought they
were supposed to be some kind of superwomen or something.  How come you
only sent two guys after 'em?"

   Sun and Jun had been following the whole conversation with me, and I
could feel their amusement at this.

   "Those 'guys', as you insist on calling them," Huang explained
patiently, though he was seething underneath, "were the other half of the
program that produced Sun and Jun and Mei and Wei.  They were the safety
net.  They were engineered and trained since birth to know everything about
those 'girls' and to be able to defeat them in combat - to kill them if
they ever got out of control, as they obviously have."

   "Well," I shrugged again, "best laid plans and all that.  Seems to me,
though, that if those girls really were out of control, you'd be dead by
now, instead of standing here acting like some B movie bad guy.  Look
Huang, if you're not going to pay me my money, I've got a plane to catch,
so..."

   I picked up my bag and headed for the door.  The soldiers closed ranks
between me and the door.  I counted seven in the room, counting Huang and
his pet Captain, and only one in the hallway.  It was that one in the
hallway that gave me the most concern.  His chi was very strong and very
controlled.

   "It's like this, Huang." I said, turning my back on the soldiers.  "I'm
a US Citizen.  I've broken none of your laws, and I won't stand still while
you trump up some charges against me.  I've seen the damn surveillance
cameras all over the place in this hotel, in your Ministry, and even at
your home.  Have you got any evidence that links me with these fugitives
you're hunting - or are they hunting you?"

   "This is not the United States, Mr.  Winchell," he answered with a
theatrically evil smile.  "You have no rights here, and I don't need any
evidence to hold you."

   Okay, that was clear enough.  Huang went down first, then the Captain.
By the time the soldiers started to react, I was among them.  They had
brought rifles, for chrissake, and in those crowded quarters, couldn't
bring them into firing position.  The last guy had the bright idea to use
his as a club, but by then it was too late.  He dropped like a stone as the
door opened from the hallway.

   "Master Sung!" I echoed Sun and Jun's recognition of the old man who
entered.  "Your pupils send their respects."

   "You know me?" He eyed me speculatively.  "Which of my many students
send their respects through an American?"

   "I do not know you personally," I replied, "but I have been made aware
of who you are by Sun and Jun."

   His eyes glittered with recognition at the names.  "Ah.  Two of my best.
What has become of them and their cousins Mei and Wei?"

   "Mei has met with misfortune but is recovering well." I said,
maintaining a slight bow of respect.  "Wei and Sun and Jun are well.  They
are living and working in America."

   "But not at the moment..." he continued for me, with a twinkle in his
eye.

   "No comment." I smiled back.

   "Hmmm," he said, "I sense their presence, even though you are clearly
the only one here, except for these..." He indicated the bodies strewn
around the room.

   "No matter," he continued, "I have been ORDERED not to let you leave
this room."

   The way he said 'ordered' sounded like something that tasted bad.

   "Does the Master follow orders from such as these?" I asked.

   He gazed deep into my eyes before answering sadly, "He does if he does
not wish to see his family harmed.  It is rather a large family, you see."

   "I see," I replied, and I did see.  My mind, sensing changes in his
energy, gave his chi a darker, more forlorn color in its visual rendering.

   I bowed and he returned the gesture.

   I was stronger, with longer reach, and the combined energies of three
people were at my command, but that old man knew more tricks than you could
put in a bushel basket!  Deception was his main weapon, and had I not had
the guidance of Sun and Jun, who had experience fighting him, I would have
been hard pressed to even keep up with him.

   I got hit, hard, many times.  Each time, I learned, and adjusted.  Each
time he saw me adjust, Master Sung, the consummate teacher, nodded
approval.

   "Sun and Jun have taught you some of my ways," he laughed, after I
evaded one of his traps, "but the wise Master never teaches all that he
knows, lest one day his students turn against him."

   "The wise student does not stop learning after leaving his teacher," I
replied, taking advantage of my longer reach to land a punch as he leaped
to avoid my sweeping leg.

   "A wise student, indeed." He replied, rubbing the spot where I had hit
him.  The twinkle was still in his eyes, and I knew the lesson wasn't over
yet.

   I was thoroughly pummeled by the old teacher before I finally got
through his guard and landed a series of blows to pressure points that
temporarily disabled his limbs.

   "Thank you, for the lesson, Master Sung," I told him, bowing again, all
four of us knowing he had 'thrown' the fight, "I shall remember it well."

   "You have been a good student," He replied, his eyes still atwinkle.  "I
only wish I had more time to teach you.  Remember this: the wise student
would not go to the airport or the US Embassy."

   I did him the courtesy of rendering him unconscious so that Huang would
be hard put to find fault with his effort.

   He was right, of course.  Those would be the places they would look for
me first.  The airport would be covered as soon as Huang or one of his
minions got to a phone, and there would be a cordon around the Embassy.  Of
course, finding a way to get an American fugitive out of China wasn't an
easy prospect, either.  Thank god for Sun and Jun and whatever head start
the unconsciousness of the men in the room would give me.  I used belts,
phone cords, electrical cords, and anything else I could find to tie them
up and maybe give myself a few more minutes.

   I took a taxi to the southern edge of town, then caught another back to
the train station.  I bought a ticket to Shanghai, then jumped from the
train in a remote area, just as it was getting dark.

   Sun and Jun met me where I left the train.  When I say they 'met' me,
what I meant was, they were around, and we watched out for each other
through our mental connection, but we didn't get together until full dark.

   What should have been a one day return flight turned into weeks of
hiding, moving mostly at night, avoiding people, and, finally, taking a
small fishing boat to the Philippines.  The journey, while not easy, wasn't
as bad as it could have been.  My 'vision' helped keep us clear of other
people, and Sun and Jun, wearing various disguises, were able to keep us
supplied with food and relatively clean water.  There were troops looking
for us everywhere, especially me, but since no one had seen me since before
I left the train, and no one even knew, for sure, that Sun and Jun were in
the country, they were spread pretty thin and we found them easy to avoid.

   It was more than two months later that we finally caught a flight from
Manila to San Francisco, having circumnavigated the globe since the
beginning of our quest.

   During that time, our bond grew stronger as we learned more about it and
about each other.  We learned to depend on each other and to borrow from
the knowledge and abilities of the others as needed, much as I had borrowed
from Sun and Jun's training while fighting their teacher.

   I also learned to lean more and more on my unique ability to 'see'
through my chi.  The clue had come when I 'saw' Master Sung's energy change
color.  With practice, I learned not only to sense others' emotions, but
the character that formed the core of their being, simply by 'tasting,' for
lack of a better word, their chi.

   By the time we cleared customs at SFO, I knew my life had changed
forever.  Through no real choice of our own, Sun, Jun and I were bound to
each other for life.