Enjoy this free excerpt from The Shangri-La Code

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It was early June in France. Young Brad West, son of the former CIA case officer Bradley West, ambled through a spacious exhibition hall at the Paris Air Show. Booths and displays had all the hype and glitz of a typical trade show, but Brad’s attention was drawn exclusively to his delectable Chinese girlfriend, Yu May Hua.

     “Lookie. An Israeli Arrow.” She rushed over to touch the upright missile. “This is the only active missile defense in the world.”

     She sure knew her military hardware.

     “But it does not work,” she finished with a frown. Then her eyes landed on the next exhibit, and her face lit up. “Our infrared missiles!”

     How could Brad get excited about weapons systems when they could be enjoying Paris? At least he had her companionship.

     May pulled her friend Jade over to the missile. “Only last year this was top secret. Now it is bottom secret.”

     Jade, taller and more muscular, looked just as tiny next to the Chinese air-to-air rocket. The two young ladies, already clad in their orange flight suits, looked like walking advertisements for the Chinese Air Force.

     Brad shuddered at the thought. In the futuristic pavilions of the world’s largest aerospace and defense trade show, merchants of death gathered to do business on a global scale. And all were invited. It took only money to buy weapons. Diplomacy and trade restrictions no longer applied when billions of dollars were involved.

     His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of barfing. He turned around to see his best friend, the rotund yet agile Earl “Skeeter” Skitowsky, bent over an airsick bag, part of a firm’s display. Above him the garish graphic read, “Blow chunks. We catch it all.”

     Brad sighed with relief. Earl was some joker. The barf bag in his hands was just one of the diverse products related to the airline industry.

     “Get your head out of the puke bag and let’s catch up with the girls,” he called.

     Earl wiped his mouth and joined him. “Damn omelet. Shouldn’t have had it for lunch.”

     At close range he did have an odor about him. Brad decided to ignore it. “Looks like Jade’s got a cruise missile by the tail.”

     Earl looked ahead to his girlfriend, who was demonstrating to May how to adjust the tip of the missile to direct its flight. Her thumb and index finger gently flexed the tip up and down.

     “I taught her that,” he said, and rushed forward enthusiastically.

     Brad closed his eyes. What in the world was May watching? She was too young and innocent to be exposed to such vulgarity. Yet he could tell from her expression she was taking Jade seriously and submitting her instructions to memory.

     Brad pulled up behind his diminutive dream girl and gently turned her away. “Don’t you have a plane to catch?”

     May’s saucer-like eyes flashed down to her army-issue watch. “Ay-yo! We have to go.”

     “Okay you little vixens,” Earl said. “It’s off to work you go.”

     Jade strolled up to Earl until she was chest to chest. Eye to eye glasses. Brad couldn’t watch as she screwed her lips around Earl’s mouth and didn’t let him go for an embarrassingly long time. “Bye, my love sac,” she said.

     Brad searched for his own terms of endearment for May, but could only come up with “Maysters,” and punched her in the shoulder.

     Finally Jade pried away from her Napoleonic boyfriend and stared at him. “Have you been vomiting recently?”

     Earl leveled his eyes dreamily at her, and she blew him a kiss.

     Brad prepared mentally for another half hour of touring the exhibition hall without May’s enthusiastic guidance. “Well, looks like you gotta split.”

     She examined her jumpsuit from armpits to crotch. “Where is my split?”

     “I mean,” he sought to clarify, “it looks like you have to go.” He pointed to his watch. He had to be more literal with the love of his life.

     She smiled and stood on her tippy toes to kiss him good-bye. He enjoyed the moment when her broad lips puckered up and lingered hard and passionately against his. It didn’t matter that CEOs, admirals and generals were walking past with official delegations, that the overcast sky had suddenly turned dark as night, and that Earl was urging him to give her a full frenchie.

     When she drew away her hands dragged reluctantly across his broad shoulders. “I am split,” she said.

     He nodded, understanding her implicitly. “Stay safe.”

     Then she and Jade turned in unison and headed down the hall to begin their demonstration of the latest Chinese fighter jets.

     “Ah, so beautiful. So busy,” Earl sighed. “One could never settle down with such a prize.”

     “Why not?” Brad said, surprised. His eyes lingered on May’s long hair as it swung across the small of her back. “I plan to marry that girl one day.”

Excerpt from The Shangri-La Code​

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