Golden Buddha

Another five minutes passed as the Dalai Lama spoke.

“Brilliant,” Cabrillo said when the Dalai Lama had finished.

“Thank you,” the Dalai Lama said, “but to sway the vote will take funds—will you bear the cost?”

“We made a little money on a side deal,” Cabrillo said, thinking of the $100 million in bearer bonds. “So the costs are not a problem.”

Overholt had remained silent as the two spoke. Now he interjected. “If you can pull this off,” he said eagerly, “the president will kiss you.”

“Mr. Cabrillo,” the Dalai Lama said, “this gives us both an opportunity to keep the bloodshed down, while at the same time offering our actions a legitimacy that is indisputable. If you can make this happen, I will agree to your deal as offered.”

“Thank you, Your Holiness,” Cabrillo said.

“Good luck, Mr. Cabrillo,” the Dalai Lama said. “May Buddha bless your mission.”

After a short meeting with Overholt, Cabrillo collected the translated pages and maps, then climbed back in the helicopter and was flown back to Amritsar. President Putin had been promised the meeting would be worth the effort. Cabrillo would not fail to deliver.

JUST after midnight, the C-130 carrying the members from the Corporation landed in Thimbu, Bhutan, and the plane was surrounded by a dozen Philippine Special Forces soldiers. Off to the side, the eight Bell 212 helicopters were aligned in a row, with ten feet separating each ship.

A large domed hangar was nearby, with the door open and light spilling out onto the runway. Carl Ga

The others followed Seng and Ga

Alongside the table were several corkboards displaying maps of Tibet, satellite weather images and other documents. A chalkboard was erected on an easel, where Seng could make notes and draw the plans, as well as a large plastic-covered map showing the city of Lhasa that was taped to a piece of plywood and sat atop another table.

Off to the side, milling around an area with a large coffeepot, small refrigerator, and cardboard boxes containing food, were the eighteen mercenary pilots. Murphy made his way to the coffee, poured a cup and greeted an old friend. “Gurt,” he said, “you old dog.”

Gurt, a mid-fifties blond-haired man with a crew cut and a gold tooth in front, smiled.

“Murphy,” he said, flashing the tooth, “I thought this might be something you’d be involved in. It had the smell of a Corporation operation.”

The men continued visiting while Seng flipped through the information Ga

“For those of you who don’t know me,” he said easily, “my name is Eddie Seng. Please call me Seng and not Eddie so there is no confusion. I will be commander in charge of this operation until the time that our chairman, Juan Cabrillo, arrives in the theater.”

The group nodded.

“The breakdown of flight operation will be as follows. Six of the helicopters will be tasked with offensive operations, one for the chairman when he arrives, one for medical. We will draw the assignments out of a hat on who is assigned to what, to be fair. Each of the helicopters will carry one member of our team, and the pilots will be required to fly this person anywhere he requests. Gentlemen, we will potentially be under fire and in harm’s way for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. If this is not what you signed up for, let me know now so you can be replaced. If not, I want you to understand that as pilots you will be answering to the team member aboard. If you hesitate or refuse to comply with a request, you will be replaced by one of our team that is qualified in helicopter operations, and you will forfeit your second half payment. Any questions?”

Gurt raised his hand. “When do we receive our first half?”

“Ah…a real pilot,” Seng said. “The answer is, as soon as we are finished here. Everyone okay with that?”

Heads nodded.

“If you have personal property or letters to loved ones or wish us to transfer the funds to another party if something happens to you,” Seng noted, “please see either Ga

Ga

“Now, are there any other business matters before I explain the operation?”

The hangar was silent.

“Good, then,” Seng said. “Here’s the plan.”

THE Gulfstream G550 was at forty-one thousand feet racing toward Moscow as Cabrillo talked over a secure satellite telephone to the Oregon. “Go over them again,” he said as he scrawled notes on a yellow pad. “Okay, I’ve got them.”

The line was silent as Cabrillo studied the list.

“And Halpert set up the main corporate entity in Andorra.”

“Correct,” Hanley said.

“Lucky break,” Cabrillo said, “but then, by looking at this list, the Dalai Lama is a lucky one too. If this had been scheduled last year, I don’t know if we could have pulled it off.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Hanley said.

“Here’s how I see it,” Cabrillo said. “Of the fifteen members of the United Nations Security Council, we have three of the five permanent members: the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia. China is obviously not going to vote our way, and France is currently trying to sell whatever they can to the Chinese, so they’ll probably vote with them so as not to upset any deals they have in progress. The remaining ten will be tricky—we need to pull six out of the ten to give us the nine we need for the resolution. Let me go over it with you. Afghanistan we’re not going to get—even with the U.S. involvement a few years ago, there are still too many pockets of anti-Buddhist revolutionaries for their leaders to risk voting with us. Sweden is and will always be pacifistic, at least at the start, as will Canada. Cuba receives too much aid from China to risk voting our way, not to mention they almost always vote the opposite of the U.S.”

“Sounds about right,” Hanley said.

“That leaves us Brunei, Laos, Qatar, Andorra, Kiribati and Tuvalu.”

“Correct,” Hanley said.

“It’s blind luck that we have two tiny South Pacific nations on the Security Council at the same time,” Cabrillo said.

“It’s like a couple of years ago, when Cameroon and Guinea were both members at the same time,” Hanley said. “It happens.”

“Each country in the United Nations has one vote,” Cabrillo said, “but this is the first time I really considered the impact.”

“Same here,” Hanley said.

Cabrillo thought for a moment. “I know the emir of Qatar,” he said. “If we offer him a favor later, he’ll order his people to vote the way we want. What have we got coming up?”

Hanley thought for a moment. “Nothing right now, but that can change. The last time he went in with us, he made something like eighty million. If we call in the past favor and dangle something ahead, you got the vote.”

“You’re right,” Cabrillo said. “I’ll take care of dealing with him.”

“Good,” Hanley said. “Laos should be easy. They’re Buddhist, and the general wants his car.”

“Offer him several,” Cabrillo said.

“Where are we funding this from?” Hanley asked.

“We’re going to try to use around half of the hundred million windfall for everything.”

“Easy come easy go,” Hanley said. “Brunei should be ours. The country is fifteen percent Buddhist and the sultan can’t risk alienating his constituents.”