Caribou Kid, thanks for the challenge. I hope this makes us even. :-)

Crown of Thorns

By JSRobertson

Lee Crane, Captain of the submarine Seaview and part time ONI agent and fellow agent Jason Weldon had flown into the airport in the resort town of Sha-pa in the country of Taqiao near the southern coast of the People's Republic. Sha-pa was known for its warm weather and beaches. It was also where the rich went for vacations. Pretending to be rich tourists, Lee and Jason had checked into a five-star hotel in the town and would wait until morning to pick up the intel on the PR's development of LRASM (long range anti-ballistic ship missile) capable of being launched 2500 miles away from its target. They would be extracted by a private airplane. The only information they had is that the contact would meet them in the Crown of Thorns church.

Early the next morning, the two men met outside their rooms. They both had day old beards. Lee was dressed in black pants with a white shirt opened at the collar and a black leather jacket. Jason also dressed in black pants but had on a gray shirt and a black jacket. They blended into the crowd as they walked down Yangmey Blvd, the main street in town. Jason had bought a map showing the points of interest which included the church. After stopping for a quick breakfast, they took in some of the sights as they continued their search for the church. Once at the church, they stood outside admiring the architecture before entering. Since there were quite a few tourists also looking around the church the two men fit right in.

((()))

Across the border in the PR, Hai Phong was leaving her estate for her weekly jaunt to Sha-pa. She loved its beaches and would spend the day there sunning and looking at the men. Maybe today would be her lucky day and one would come home with her. She looked out the window of her limo as it drove down Yangmey Blvd. She noticed a man in a black leather jacket and was surprised to see Lee Crane walking down the street. She would know him anywhere with or without the beard. She figured Lee wouldn't be vacationing here so he must be on an ONI mission. Even though she retired from the spy business as one of the PR's top chemist a few years ago, she had no trouble reporting Lee's presence to the PR's head of security.

"Follow those two men," she ordered her driver as she placed a call to her former boss the head of the PR's Security, Ghag Huchay. She had worked under the direction of Huchay at the PR Security's laboratory developing a more potent type of truth serum among other type of drugs.

"Yes, ma'am," the driver replied as he kept Lee and Jason in his sights. Traffic was heavy that morning so it wasn't too hard to follow them.

"Good morning, Ghag. I have some interesting information for you," she said. "I've spotted Lee Crane here in Sha-pa. I don't know why he's here but I'm betting he's on a mission."

"Damn," Huchay remarked. "I don't have anyone available to trail or take him. I don't suppose I could talk you out of retirement to pick him up and coax some information from him? I know you loved working for us as a chemist and I'm sorry things didn't work out for you, but he's been a thorn in my side for years."

"I have no issues detaining him," Hai replied eagerly. He's been a thorn in my side too, she thought.

Just as she hung up the phone, the driver stopped the car when Lee and Jason got to the church.

"Why are we stopping…you better not have lost them," Hai said irritably.

"No ma'am, they stopped outside the church," the driver answered and waited for more instructions.

"Abel, George," she barked to her two bodyguards, "get out of the car and follow those two men. I don't care how you do it but I want the man in the black leather jacket brought to me," Hai ordered.

The two men got out of the car and followed Lee and Jason until they had the right opportunity to snag Lee.

((()))

As Hai Phong waited for her bodyguards to grab Lee she thought back to her first encounter with Lee Crane.

After work, she had gone to her favorite restaurant for dinner and a drink…alone again. When she finished dinner she went into the bar and sat down. The bartender knew her order and placed the drink in front of her. She sat there listening to the music when the most handsome man she had ever seen walked into the bar.

He strode over to her, "Is this seat taken?" he asked pleasantly.

Smiling, "No, it's not," Hai replied surprised to see him standing next to her.

Lee sat down, "I saw you here the other night and was hoping I'd run into you again," he said as the bartender walked over to him and he ordered a drink. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"That would be nice, thanks," she replied as the bartender made her another Lemon Drop Martini.

"I'm Lee Williams," Lee said giving her a very sexy smile as he extended his hand.

"Hai Phong," she answered and shook his hand.

((()))

As Jason and Lee approached the door to the church, two women also wanted to enter. Lee held the door for them and caught a glimpse of a limo with two men leaving it and heading for the church. Lee and Jason followed the two women into the church. After admiring the stained glass windows and carved statues for thirty minutes, they looked at each other. The two men had worked together before and were thinking the same thing, where was their contact?

As they stood there looking at the large stained glass window at the back of the church, a priest walked up to them, "Are you enjoying the church? It sure is a beautiful ornate building and very old. I was assigned here a few months ago and I'm still trying to learn all its history especially the Sect of the Crown."

Lee looked at the young man, "Yes, very much. It's hard to believe it's been around all this time," he remarked noticing the church was built in the 1800's.

"Yes, the church has been here for a couple of centuries with no major problems but it's finally starting to show its age and needs to be renovated. We don't have a large congregation and as with most churches, money is an issue so we're asking visitors to help contribute to the renovations."

"Just one more question," Lee asked double checking he was actually their contact. "What is 'Sect of the Crown'?"

"'Sect of the Crown' was an all-male society formed in the 1900's to help families struggling to make ends meet. I haven't had a chance to delve into it too much more but it might be something we can re-introduce once I find out more about it."

"We would like to make a contribution," Jason volunteered surprised the young priest knew the code words of 'Sect of the Crown' and what it meant.

"Thank you," the priest replied. "There's a gold box over by the candles to place your contribution. You can also light a candle showing you contributed." They walked over to the candle area where most of the candles were lit except one.

"I see there is only one candle left," he said as he looked at the candle and discreetly dropped in a small disk from under the sleeve of his robe. Lee saw him drop the small disk into the candle. "Excuse me, I need to get some more candles. It was a pleasure talking with you."

"The pleasure was ours," Lee replied as he picked up a small wooden stick, pulled the wick up on the candle as he took out the disk, put it in his pocket and pulled out a lighter to light his stick. He lit the candle as Jason deposited their money into the gold box while the priest walked up to the front of the church and into the sanctuary.

The two men continued to look around the church before exiting out the door and into the street. As they walked down the street, Lee said softly, "I think we're being followed. I noticed those two men exit a limo when we first got to the church and they've been with us the whole time. I don't think they saw the priest drop the disk into the candle."

"Yeah, they've been with us since we left the church. How about we stop for some lunch and see if they don't disappear."

"Good idea," Lee agreed as they walked a little further up the boulevard before coming across a small café with outside dining.

The two men were seated by a young woman who couldn't take her eyes off Jason. Lee and Jason could pass for brothers but the biggest difference was Lee was a couple of inches taller and had amber eyes.

A waitress arrived at their table and took their drink and food orders. Lee continued to look around noticing the two men had also entered the café and were seated a few tables away.

"I see we still have our shadows," Lee commented as he took a drink of the coffee the waitress had set down in front of him.

Jason took a drink of his soda looking to see if there were any other exits. "Unless there's an exit in the restroom area, the way we entered is the only way out." He got up from the table, checked out the restroom and discovered there were no other exits. He returned to the table just as the waitress was setting down their food. Jason sat down and shook his head letting Lee know there was only one way out. Both men knew the chances of the two of them making it to the extraction point were slim.

They talked about the sights they had seen as they ate their lunch. When the waitress returned to see if they wanted anything more, Lee asked for the check.

"I'll flip you to see who's going to pay for lunch," Lee said as he took a coin and the disk out of his pocket and slipped it under the napkin. Jason knew he was flipping the coin to see who would bring back the intel to the US.

"Lee, you pay for lunch," Jason replied giving Lee his 'I have nothing to lose look' knowing Lee had Janet waiting for him so he wanted Lee to take the intel back to the States.

"No, we'll flip for it," Lee insisted and Lee being the senior agent had the last word.

As Lee flipped the coin, Jason called heads and when Lee looked at the coin, tails was facing up.

"You lost so you pay for lunch," Lee said truthfully knowing that it was now his job to set himself up as a decoy so Jason could escape with the disk.

Jason picked up the napkin along with the disk, wiped his mouth as he tucked the disk into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out his wallet. Jason put the money on the table with a tip. The two men stood up and walked out of the café.

"Thanks for lunch," Lee remarked as they reached the sidewalk in front of the café. "I'll make sure the information and disk gets to the head of security back in the States," he said as he stood near the table with the two men.

The two men looked at Lee and Jason as they stood there pretending to show an interest in what Lee was telling Jason. Before Lee started to walk away, he nodded to Jason letting him know he was sure the two men had heard their conversation so Jason could get the intel out of the country with no problems.

"Yeah, I'll meet you in a couple of days for the meeting," Jason replied unhappily as he headed in the opposite direction of Lee.

The two men were joined by a third man a few minutes before Lee and Jason left the café. It was no surprise to Jason that two of the men started to tail Lee while the third one followed him. He knew his friend was in trouble but also knew he couldn't help him as he had to get the intel back to the States. If he went back to help Lee, he would jeopardize the whole mission. He quickly lost his tail, ducked into a cab and made his way to the airport. Once he had the intel in the hands of ONI in Hawaii he would return to Taqiao and find Lee.