She forced herself to smile at Chen Lu. “You were a long time. Did you have to start at square one, telling Gallo all about your plantings? You must have thousands.”
She nodded. “Yes, but Gallo has an amazing memory. He tells me he made a fortune at card counting in the casinos. Then he parlayed that base into even higher stakes in the stock market.”
Catherine knew about that. What Chen Lu had probably not been told was that he had trained that memory in the depths of a Korean prison just to retain his sanity. “I’m sure he didn’t try to memorize all your wonderful plants.”
Gallo smiled. “Only a dozen or so that I’d never seen before. I’m rebuilding my place in Utah that burned to the ground and a lot of these plants wouldn’t survive the winters.” He seated Chen Lu at the head of the table, then sat down beside Catherine. “But most of the time I prefer the hardy plants anyway. There’s a special beauty to a flower or tree that doesn’t bend, doesn’t break, and can survive to bloom again.” He looked at Catherine. “They offer both a challenge and intense excitement.”
Bastard. She refused to look at him. “Chen Lu, you must find the same problem with your place in Ireland.”
Chen Lu nodded. “But I’m here most of the year. I only go back when I need a good jolt of reality. You can’t live forever in paradise.” She looked at Hu Chang. “Though I do try, don’t I?”
“That’s because you’re an eternal optimist.” He lifted his glass to her. “And there are too few of you in the world today. I will always help and applaud that optimism.”
“You’d better.” She sipped her wine. “We need all the help we can get.” She turned to Catherine. “You’re very lucky to have Hu Chang for a friend, you know. Treat him right, and he’ll give you the world.”
“Chen Lu,” Hu Chang said.
She grimaced. “Oh, all right, I’ll be quiet. But it’s true, dammit. I’ll talk about something else.” Her eyes were suddenly twinkling. “How is this? The real reason I took so long with our friend John Gallo was that I’m considering becoming one of those cougars I saw on television. I’m at least as attractive and clever as those women. Gallo seemed a good candidate for experimentation.” She shot him a mischievous glance. “How about it, Gallo?”
He chuckled. “Anytime.”
Catherine was not laughing. Any other time, she would have been amused at Chen Lu’s bold, outrageousness. Instead, she was feeling an entirely irrational surge of anger.
Get over it.
“Good. I’ll start thinking seriously about it,” Chen Lu said.
“Well, now that we’ve settled that world-shaking question, I believe I’ll say good night, Chen Lu.” Catherine smiled as she put her napkin on the table. To hell with civilized customs and Irish coffee. “Wonderful dinner. Fantastic hospitality. Thank you.”
“I think we’ve got a few other important matters to discuss before we let you retire for the night.” Hu Chang rose to his feet. “Good night, Chen Lu.”
“I’m being abandoned?” She turned to Gallo. “You, too?”
He stood up and inclined his head. “With the greatest reluctance.”
“Oh, I do like you, Gallo. You lie so beautifully I can’t even tell if you’re doing it.” She waved her hand. “Go away. I’ll call Rory, and we’ll go to the garden and drink ourselves into a sublime state of oblivion.” She looked up at the stars. “Isn’t it a lovely night? The stars seem so close you can hear them sing to you.”
“You must be already in that sublime state,” Hu Chang said. “Stars don’t sing, do they?”
“They do if you listen. That’s what life’s all about. You only have to listen.” She reached for her phone. “Rory, meet me at the fountain near the veranda and bring a bottle of champagne.” She jumped to her feet. “Go do your thing, you boring people.” She gave them a final exuberant grin over her shoulder as she headed for the steps to the garden. “Maybe, if you’re lucky, you won’t even know what you’re missing.”
* * *
“TAN HAS LOCATED THE SPEEDBOAT,” Fowler said as he hung up the phone. “It was parked at the dock of a restaurant near the ferry access to Lantau Island.” He held up his hand. “No, they weren’t in the restaurant, but Tan found out that the boat had been taken to the restaurant by a Chinese servant who paid very well to rent the space.”
“Whose servant?”
“The woman who owns a huge place nearby, a former temple.” Fowler unrolled a map on the coffee table. “Chen Lu Moriarty. She seems to be well-known in the area.” He pointed to a place on the map. “There it is. They call it the Golden Palace.”
“And she has a connection to Hu Chang?”
Fowler shrugged. “Tan doesn’t know if she does or not. No one seems to know anything about who Hu Chang’s friends are.”
“Except Catherine Ling.” Nardik stared down at the map. He almost had them in his hands. If he handled this right, he could have the bitch. “What kind of security?”
“Tan is checking it out. He thinks it may be heavy-duty. You don’t own a palace in Hong Kong without the means to protect it from predators. And Chen Lu Moriarty has contacts with the Chinese government in the city. She can call on them if she needs to do it.”
Not good. He didn’t need to cause an uproar that might call attention to him right now. The deal was too finely balanced and the client too nervous.
Shit. But he knew where they were. He couldn’t let the opportunity pass. Even if the chances weren’t as good as he liked, he had to try. He could still see Ling’s mocking expression as she’d lifted that glass. He felt the blood pound in his temples as he remembered how he’d felt in that moment.
Do you feel safe in that Golden Palace, bitch? You’re not safe, you’ll never be safe from me. There’s always a way, and I’ll find it.
“What do I tell him?” Fowler asked.
“We go after them.” He got to his feet. “But we don’t screw it up. I can’t have any publicity. It has to be done with a scalpel, not a machete. Tell Tan to come and pick me up in thirty minutes.”
“You’re going?” Fowler asked, startled.
“Didn’t you hear me? I told you, I can’t risk a bungle.”
Fowler moistened his lips. “Do you wish me to go along?”
And Fowler was praying that he wouldn’t say yes, Nardik thought. He was tempted to tell him that he was to come just to see him wet himself from sheer panic. “Why? You’re not any good at this. Save your strength for something you can do right.” He could see the relief on Fowler’s face. “But when I bring you Catherine Ling, you’d better entertain me.”
CHAPTER
13
CATHERINE HEADED FOR THE BATHROOM as soon as they reached the suite. “I’ll be right with you as soon as I change out of this caftan. I don’t feel as comfortable in all this silken splendor as Chen Lu. I think there’s a bottle of wine in that cabinet over there if you’d like a glass.” The door closed behind her, and she drew a deep breath. It had been a strange, volatile night, and she wanted to get back to the familiar. She tore off the silk caftan and kicked off the matching slippers. The next moment, she had pulled on her black jeans and black sweater. Her boots were in the other room by the bed, she remembered. She ran her fingers through her hair and went barefoot back into the room.
Gallo and Hu Chang were standing together on the balcony. Not speaking. Well, even if they hadn’t been definitely cool toward each other, she hadn’t given them more than a few moments alone. They could hardly have started much of a conversation, she thought as she joined them on the balcony.
“I feel better now.” She gazed down at the garden below. She could see Chen Lu sitting by the fountain some distance away with Rory. The next moment she heard Chen Lu’s robust laugh ring out. “She’s certainly enjoying herself. I’ve never seen anyone quite like her.”
“No, she’s quite rare,” Hu Chang said. “I had to take that into consideration in our association. One can’t always compare her reactions to what oth
ers might feel.”
“Is that supposed to make sense?” Gallo asked. “If it is then, I’m missing something.”
“It makes sense to me.” Hu Chang smiled. “I’ll try to make my thought process more simple for you to understand.”
The jabs had been gentle, but definitely pointed, and Catherine wasn’t having any more. “We’re not here to discuss Chen Lu.” She turned and went back into the suite. “I want to know how we can get Nardik before he gets us.” She dropped down in a chair and tucked one leg beneath her. “Where is he vulnerable, Gallo?”
“Nowhere. He has four bodyguards around him at all times when he’s out of an area he regards as secure. He has no problem with delegating mayhem and hiding behind his goons. We’ll have to pick a time and place where he chooses to come out of the dark.”
“But he came here to Hong Kong.”
“Hu Chang was the impetus.” His lips tightened. “And you added fuel to the fire. He has an ugly temper. I’d judge Hu Chang was a business decision. You’re a different matter entirely.”
“You always manage to make yourself an exception,” Hu Chang said. “In this case most regrettable.”
“Not necessarily,” Catherine said. “If I piss him off enough, he might be persuaded to take a wrong step and blunder into the trap. It might be the quickest way.”
“No,” Gallo said sharply. “That’s not the way we’re going.”
“I agree.” Hu Chang leaned against the wall and crossed his arms across his chest. “Don’t be in such a hurry, Catherine. We have a little time. We don’t need to stake you out as bait for the tiger.”
“What do you mean ‘a little time’?” Gallo’s gaze was fastened on Hu Chang’s face. “What aren’t you telling us? You dribbled a little information out to Catherine tonight, but it’s not nearly enough.”
“Indeed? Then I’m sure that Catherine would have asked me to elaborate without your assistance. She’s never shy about pinning me down.”
“Neither am I,” Gallo said. “And I have the advantage of not trusting you any farther than I can throw you. While she regards you as a friend who seems to have the ability to mesmerize her on occasion.”
“Mesmerize?” He chuckled. “I regard that as a compliment but a major fallacy. Not with Catherine, Gallo.”
“Stop this,” Catherine said. “Ask your questions, Gallo.”
“Oh, I’m asking. I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I’ve learned about you, Hu Chang, and how it fits into what’s been happening. The story is that Jack Tan captured you and took you to that island to torture you into giving over the formula. Now you’re very clever according to Catherine and Venable. Off the charts. Unless they caught you off guard, I’m surprised they’d be able to get you so easily.”
“Easily? I fought like a lion.”
“I don’t think so. I think you wanted to be taken by Tan.”
Hu Chang’s eyes were suddenly bright with interest. “Now why would I have wanted to do that?”
“Why? Because you wanted something that Jack Tan had in his possession. My bet is that it had to do with your precious Pondera. Maybe the drug itself? You hid something of value in the woods that night, and we all took it for granted it was something that Jack Tan was trying to squeeze out of you, something that you’d managed to hide from him. Venable assumed it was maybe a formula you’d hidden in a body orifice or something and were desperate to keep from Tan or anyone else.”
“Very logical of Venable,” Hu Chang said.
“Unless you turn it around and go on the premise that Tan had something you wanted, and you were willing to risk being taken by him to get your chance at stealing it. Maybe that dose of Pondera you were so desperate to get back?”
“Very good. I’m truly impressed. But you’re phrasing is wrong. You can’t steal your own property, Gallo. And you’re not totally correct but very close.”
Catherine was staring at him in disbelief. “Hu Chang?”
He shrugged. “I would have told you, Catherine. I was just trying to decide how best to do it. It was a little complicated.”
“Since you set Venable up,” Gallo said. “You leaked info through one of his informants that not only put you in the position of victim but gave just enough information about the importance and deadliness of your formula. He had two reasons to come and save your ass.”
“After all, I had to have an exit plan.” Hu Chang nodded. “I knew that it was going to be a bit risky.”
“Risky?” Catherine’s voice was shaking with anger. “You almost died. You willingly walked into their hands? I could strangle you. Why, dammit?”
“I didn’t walk. I told you, I fought like a lion. It wouldn’t have seemed authentic if I hadn’t.” He grimaced. “I’d known for several days that I was being stalked by someone, but I was able to elude them. Then Jack Tan grew impatient and contacted me and told me that his employer, Nardik, had the remainder of the drug that I’d given to Ali Gazaran, the prime minister who had rid the world of Ben Salan. But Nardik needed to know how to administer it so that there would be no question of any suspicion falling on his client. The prime minister’s wife had told them under torture that I’d said Pondera was very volatile, that I’d made her husband give me every detail of Ben Salan’s physical condition before I could guarantee that there would be no interference in the way that the drug worked. It was quite true. It was necessary that I know every detail of the health of the potential victim so that there would be no chance of its failing. The height, health, race, age, and any possible weaknesses due to past illness or accidents. Everything. I had to make sure nothing would keep it from being a valid experiment.”
“Experiment,” Catherine repeated.
“A trifle cold-blooded for you? But it was an experiment for me. Would you prefer to think of it as the glorious victory of democracy over oppression? It was that also. By all means, choose whichever pleases you.”
“It pleases me to know how you managed to manipulate Jack Tan.”
“And it pleases me to know why the hell you let a dose of that stuff float around for anyone to pick up,” Gallo said harshly.
“Don’t be absurd. I hadn’t been able to judge the exact amount since this was the first time it had been used outside my lab, so I gave Gazaran an extra dose in case it was needed. But I told him that any excess was to be destroyed immediately after Ben Salan died. He lied to me and told me he had done it.”
“You should have known better,” Gallo said. “It was too tempting to have that extra insurance in case he ran into another political ‘impediment.’”
“I realized I was taking a chance. But I truly believed in Gazaran’s integrity. I respected the way he’d turned his country from a dictatorship to a democracy with just a little help from me.” He added sadly, “But in this world, honor toward one’s country doesn’t necessarily translate to every endeavor. At any rate, I knew I had to get the drug back before it was used in a manner of which I did not approve.”
Catherine shook her head. “So you decided to try to trick Jack Tan.”
“He seemed to be the logical path. Not too bright. Nardik had told him that Pondera might prove ineffectual depending on the physical condition of the intended victim. Only I could determine whether it would work or not.” He paused. “And also that I was the only one who could furnish the additional amount of the drug if I judged the dose would prove too weak. It was clear they realized at least that was the truth. Nardik had probably already tried to have the drug duplicated.” He smiled. “No one duplicates a drug that I create. I learned long ago how to prevent that from happening. They were finding it very frustrating that they had to come to me. I had all the answers. I could give them the formula. Or I could possibly give them a safe way to use the drug they already had in their possession.”
“So what did they do?”
“First, Tan tried to bribe me for the formula. While I was stringing along negotiations, I was able to pull enough information fro
m him to realize that Nardik already had a target in mind. I had to find a way to identify that target. So I backed away from the deal, and Tan started to use threats.”
“So what happened when Tan took you to the island?” Catherine asked. “Other than that they gave you a beating that you probably deserved for being so crazy.”
“It was not crazy. It was necessary. I had a chance to either get back that extra dose of Pondera Nardik had stolen or discover the name of the potential victim.” He shrugged. “But it went as you guessed. Very painful. Tan started with trying to get the formula. And then, when my endurance proved exceptionally stubborn, decided to postpone that tactic and went on to try to determine if the dose Nardik had in his possession would prove adequate for the current job. That was the direction where I was trying to lead them after I realized I wasn’t going to get that dose of Pondera back. There had been the slimmest chance Tan might have the actual dose himself, but I soon found I was out of luck on that score. But Tan had indicated he’d been given a basic profile of Nardik’s target while he was trying to bribe me before I let myself be taken. I had to get my hands on that profile. When Tan was questioning me on the island, he took out a dirty leather book in a waterproof sleeve and was firing questions at me. Medical questions concerning a victim’s age, possible effect on the victim of past injuries, and so forth.” He made a face. “Some profile. It was just Tan’s dog-eared leather notebook in which he’d obviously scrawled some notes he’d gotten over the phone from Nardik. Another disappointment.
“I was getting very irate about the punishment I’d taken for so little when the Special Ops team broke in and did what they do best. I managed to grab the book with the victim’s supposed profile, then allowed myself to be extracted from the jaws of death by those valiant warriors.” He thought about it. “Or at least serious harmful consequences.”
“Then why hide it in the woods? Venable wouldn’t—”
“Venable is a clever and patriotic man, but I couldn’t have him involved with Pondera. I didn’t know what might be in that notebook. Venable would do what was best for the CIA and his government. That would mean that I’d lose control of the drug.” He added gently but firmly, “That cannot happen.”