On Dangerous Ground

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph 1994

Copyright © Harry Patterson 1994

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

Photography and illustration © Nik Keevil

Harry Patterson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Certain elements of this book are inspired by an earlier work, Midnight Never Comes, published in 1966.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008132385

Ebook Edition © May 2015 ISBN: 9780007352302

Version: 2015-04-01

For Sally Palmer with love

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

1993 LONDON

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

About the Author

Also by Jack Higgins

Further Reading

About the Publisher

CHUNGKING

August 1944

The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Joe Caine of RAFTransport Command, was tired, frozen to the bone, his hands clamped to the control column. He eased it forward and took the plane down, emerging from low cloud at three thousand feet into driving rain.

The aircraft ploughing its way through heavy cloud and thunderstorm was a Douglas DC3, the famous Dakota, as much a workhorse for the American Air Force as for the RAFwho together operated them out of the Assam airfields of north India, flying supplies to Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Army. On their way they had to negotiate the infamous Hump, as it was known to Allied aircrews, the Himalayan mountains, trying to survive in some of the worst flying conditions in the world.

‘There she is, Skipper,’ the second pilot said. ‘Dead ahead. Three miles.’

‘And the usual lousy blackout,’ Caine said, which was true enough. The inhabitants of Chungking were notoriously lazy in that respect and there were lights all over the place.

‘Well, here we go,’ he said.

‘Message from control tower,’ the wireless operator called from behind.

Caine switched on to VHFand called the tower.‘Sugar Nan here. Is there a problem?’

‘Priority traffic coming in. Please go round,’ a neutral voice said.

‘For God’s sake,’ Caine replied angrily, ‘I’ve just clocked one thousand miles over the Hump. We’re tired, cold and almost out of fuel.’

‘VIPtraffic to starboard and below you. Go round. Please acknowledge.’ The voice was firm.

The second pilot looked out of the side, then turned. ‘About five hundred feet below, Skipper. Another Dakota. A Yank from the look of it.’

‘All right,’ Caine said wearily and banked to port.

The man who stood on the porch of the Station Commander’s office staring up into the rain, listening to the sound of the first Dakota coming in, wore the uniform of a Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy, a trenchcoat over his shoulders. His name was Lord Louis Mountbatten and he was cousin to the King of England. A highly decorated war hero, he was also Supreme Allied Commander Southeast Asia.

The American General in steel-rimmed spectacles who emerged behind him, pausing to light a cigarette, was General ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stilwell, Mountbatten’s deputy and also Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek. The greatest expert on China of anyone in the Allied forces, Stilwell was also fluent in Cantonese.

He perched on the rail. ‘Well, here he comes, the great Chairman Mao.’

‘What happened to Chiang Kai-shek?’ Mountbatten asked.

‘Found an excuse to go up-country. It’s no use, Louis, Mao and Chiang will never get together. They both want the same thing.’

‘China?’ Mountbatten said.

‘Exactly.’

‘Yes, well, I’d like to remind you this isn’t the Pacific, Joe. Twenty-five Jap divisions in China and, since the start of their April offensive, they’ve been winning. No one knows that better than you. We need Mao and his Communist Army. It’s as simple as that.’

They watched the Dakota land. Stilwell said, ‘The Washington viewpoint is simple. We’ve given enough lend-lease to Chiang.’

‘And what have we got for it?’ Mountbatten asked.‘He sits on his backside doing nothing, saving his ammunition and equipment for the civil war with the Communists when the Japs are beaten.’