Burns waited for a full ten minutes, watching the roadway leading to the stairs and scanning the entire abutment. When he was sure the man had not been followed, he too went back to the stairway and down to the wharf.
The big man stood on the pier, haggling with an ancient and toothless crone who stood at the rear of one of the boats. A small child sat at her feet playing with an empty soda bottle. They appeared to be arguing.
“Gow, gow,” the woman yelled in a voice tortured with age.
The big man shook his head. “Tie goo-why. Laok.”
The old woman glared at him with anger. “Laok. Laok! Hah! Um ho gow gee aw!”
The big man laughed. Burns stepped up behind him and said, “Why fight with the old crone? There’s plenty of other boats around.”
The heavy-set man jumped and turned quickly, startled by the words. He stood close to Burns and the two men stared at each other for several moments. Finally the big man smiled, very vaguely, then said, “She is telling me I am cheap, to stop bothering her. It is a game we play, senhor. She wants nine dollars, I offer six. I pay her seven and tip her two.” He spoke with an accent that seemed part Spanish, part German.
“Gay doa cheen,” the old woman yelled, “um goy?”
“Chut,” the large man replied.
She grumbled. She looked wounded. She chattered and pointed to the child. Then finally she motioned him aboard.
“Are you taking a sampan?” the large man said. “Perhaps we can share a ride.”
“Sounds okay to me,” Burns said.
The big man offered his hand. “I am Victor DeLaroza.”
“Howard Burns.” They shook hands.
“I am going to the Tai Tak,” DeLaroza said. “It is the finest floating restaurant in the city.”
“What a coincidence,” Burns said. “So am I.”
“Excellent. Are you a visitor?”
“Yeah,” Burns replied.
“Well, perhaps I will be able to recommend some dishes.” DeLaroza took seven Hong Kong dollars from his pocket and gave it to the woman. She counted it and glared at him. “Aw tsung nay,” she muttered. DeLaroza laughed. “She says she hates me. When I tip her, she will tell me she loves me.”
Burns stepped into the sampan and walked to the seat in the mid-section. He was hunched over and walked with his hands on the sides of the tenuous skiff, and he turned cautiously before he sat down. DeLaroza followed, walking upright with ease and sitting beside him.
“You do that like a champ,” Burns said to him.
“Ho!” the old woman cried out and cackled.
“She tells me ‘good’,” DeLaroza said. “I was like you at first, overly cautious. She is the oldest of the old. Jung-yee Pau Shaukiwan, the grandmother of Shaukiwan.”
“What’s a Shaukiwan?”
“Shaukiwan is the Chinese settlement, a floating village around on the southeast side of the island. You have never seen greater poverty.”
The old woman stood at the rear, moving the scull with arms as thin as twigs, expertly guiding the sampan around the hundreds of other boats and moving it toward the open water of the harbor. Ahead of them, to the west, was a great three-story junk, its pagodalike awnings stretching out over the water and its garish red and yellow trim gleaming in the sun.
“That’s Tai Tak,” DeLaroza said. Behind him the baby started banging the empty bottle on the bottom of the boat.
“Hell of a place to babysit,” Burns said. “What happens this thing, you know, dumps over?”
“She and the child will probably drown. He is her grandson. She watches over him while her daughter works in one of the whorehouses in West Point, the old city. When he is a little older, they will sell him.”
“Sell him!” Burns was shocked. “Sell their own kid?”
“It will be better for him. He will be sold to a good family, possibly even British or American.”
“Jesus, don’t they have any feeling for the family?”
“Life is harsh on the harbor,” DeLaroza said, and then, “I almost bought the boy myself.”
Burns turned to him and stared for a moment at one corner of his sunglasses. Burns never looked anyone directly in the eye. Then he looked back at Jung-yee.
“It’s all right, you can speak freely. She does not understand English.”
“You’re crazy,” Burns said flatly.
“A little, I suppose.”
“You got pretty fat and sassy there, uh, uh …”
“Victor. V-i-c-t-o-r. I am Victor, you are Howard.”
“Yeah. Anyway, you learned a lot out here, only a coupla years, too.”
“You haven’t changed much at all,” DeLaroza said.
“Yeah, well, a little gray hair maybe. Fifteen years is a long time, right? I wouldn’t recognize you. Not at first anyway. The weight, the hair. You done something here too, around the eyes.”
“It is called a stretch. They pull the skin tight to the ears on both sides. Gets rid of the wrinkles. I do not have the proper bone structure for a face lift, but …” He let the sentence dangle.
“The accent’s good too, pal,” Burns said. “Now what’s this about buying the kid? Some kind of guilt thing?”
“No, loneliness. And pride. I am building an empire and there is no one to carry on the line. When Victor DeLaroza dies, then what?”
“So what, that’s what. When you die, who gives a damn?”
“They have a saying here. If a dragon smiles on you, you have luck. If two dragons smile on you, you have love. And if three dragons smile on you, you are immortal.”
“Quite the philosopher there, ain’t you, Vic, old boy? Well, goes with the new look. We got a saying too. You can’t take it with you.”
“Exactly. That is my point.”
“You got a lotta time. So far the dragon’s been pretty good to you.”
“So far only one dragon has graced me.”
Burns did not answer immediately. DeLaroza took out a cigar, snipped off the end, and lit it with a small gold lighter. He puffed it until the end glowed evenly. Then he turned abruptly to Burns, offering him one.
“I don’t smoke. That a real Havana?”
DeLaroza nodded.
“I got a lotta pals, business pals, right?, gonna drop millions down there, that fuckin’ Batista runnin’ out like that. Castro’s closing up the casinos, now the word’s out he’s gonna take them, just take ’em.”
“Castro is an enigma.”
“I don’t know about that,” Burns spat out. “He’s a goddamn Commie thief is what he is. We oughta go in there, blow the whole dingo outa the pond with an A-bomb, you ask me. Start over.”
Burns’s sudden vehemence startled DeLaroza. Then just as quickly the American’s mood changed and he started to laugh. “You hear about Castro going to a costume party. Stuck out his tongue and came as a hemorrhoid.” He laughed even harder at the foul joke and the old woman, caught up in his gaiety, laughed with him. “Listen to that old crone,” Burns said and laughed even harder. DeLaroza puffed on his cigar. “Anyway,” Burns continued, “you got the golden touch, Victor.”
“We may be expanding again,” the big man said.
“How’s that?”
“It is becoming more and more profitable to manufacture products out here in the Orient—Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan. Then assemble them in the States. There are certain tax advantages.”
“You thinking of opening up something in the States?”
“It’s obvious to me now. In another year or so it will be obvious to many.”
“Well, you got the instincts there, Victor. I’ll give you that. Fifteen years, you ain’t made a mistake yet I thought you were nuts, movin’ out here from Brazil. What did I know?” He paused, then added, “Don’t you ever wanna stop, sit back, listen to the grass grow, drink a little vino?”
“Not yet. The bigger it becomes, the more challenging it is. We may have to go public. It is all becoming too big for one man. Too cumbersome.”
>
“Sell out, then.”
“Perhaps. Get out of all this, try something new, different. Something small.”
“Look, I don’t care, see? I mean you do what you do. That’s your end of it, I got no complaints, no complaints at all. Me, I’m here to do what I do, see? I figure, you used the Pittsburgh drop, it had to be something serious. I got here in three days, pal. Think about it. Had to get things set up, a passport, like that. I was twenty-fucking-one hours on the plane. I don’t even know what day it is, flying up and down and around, across datelines, that kinda shit. You know what? I was on Wake Island for four hours, can you beat that? I went out, looked at the monuments and all. I never been this way before, Europe but never over here. For all I know, I get back, it’s gonna be the day before I left. You just be careful, that’s all. You get too greedy, you’ll be like the monkey, you know, kept puttin’ his paw in the jar, bringing up a peanut, finally he puts it in there, grabs a whole fistful of peanuts and he can’t get the fist out and he won’t drop the peanuts and you know what. He got the old blasteroo, that’s what.”
“I shall keep that in mind.”
“So what’s the problem? What am I doin’ here?”
Burns was beginning to sweat. He took off his coat and draped it over his lap.”
“You remember Halford, the major in Firenze?”
Burns thought for a moment.
“Vaguely.”
“He was in charge of Stitch. Tall man. Very straight, tough. Very smart.”
“Yeah, sure I do. The paisanos called him, what was it?”
“Gli occhi di sassi. Stone eyes.”
“Right. A very suspicious man. He didn’t believe shit. What an asshole.”
“You know him. Four days ago I saw Halford, on a restaurant like the one out there. In Aberdeen Harbor. He is a colonel now, a full colonel.”
“Is that what’s got you goin’? Hey, I hardly recognized you and I was looking for you. Is that what this is all about?”
“He recognized me. I am sure of it.”
“Ah, c’mon.”
“We were not five feet apart. I was paying the check and I turned to leave and he was just sitting down at the next table and we stood there and stared at each other and I swear, for a moment he almost said something. Then I got out, very quickly. But as we were pulling away in the launch I looked back up and he had come outside. He was at the rail, watching me.”
Burns said, “Humh.”
“I have been terrified ever since. It is frightening, to be afraid to walk on the street. My company is in Mui Wo, on the island of Lantau, to the west of here. Only occasional tourists come over there, to visit the silver mines. And yet I have been afraid to go outside. Today, coming here, my stomach hurt. I sat in the back seat of the car looking out the window, looking at every face.”
“Take it easy.”
“It has been a nightmare.”
“So far you did everything right. You didn’t try anything. No phonecalls. Didn’t try to get a line on him, right? Nothing to set anybody off?”
“No. I followed the plan. I contacted you and waited.”
“Okay. Good for you.”
“There is a danger. He may have reported it to someone.”
Burns said nothing. He stared straight ahead, his brain clicking off the options, the odds. Finally he said, “Okay, we got to go on the assumption he didn’t. I mean if he did, it’s too late anyway. So we got to figure he’s here on vacation, okay? Was he in uniform?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, nine, ten to one he’s on a furlough. So it’s a fluke. Maybe he got a little shot, see? Thought to himself, Hey, I know that guy. But it’s fifteen years. You changed a lot. What were you then, anyway? I don’t see him putting it together. I don’t see that at all. Maybe, if anything, he’s probably still trying to put his finger on it.”
Burns thought some more.
“Thing is, if he’s on vacation, he’s too busy having a good time. He’s outa the element right now. He’s thinking, maybe. Maybe even he’s touched it around the edges. But it’s a long shot, he made you. I promise you. What we gotta do, we gotta locate him fast and then …” He snapped his fingers and smiled. DeLaroza stared at him and a chill passed through him. Burns went on:
“Okay, okay. You relax, see? You forget it. We have a good lunch, you go back over there to whatever, Mooey Pooey, whatever you call it, lay low another day. By tomorrow it’ll be over. You don’t worry, see? This is my end of it. This is my business. I’m glad you didn’t panic. Anytime there’s trouble, I handle that. What I don’t want, I don’t want amateurs fallin’ in the soup, know what I mean?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Forget it. My problem. It’s done. Besides, I may be needing to call on you one of these days. I may have to make a big withdrawal.”
“What happened?”
“Well, you know, this and that and the other thing. Some friends of mine, used to be friends of mine, they may have tumbled on to our little freelance thing down there in Brazil. It could be just I’ve got the butterflies like you. But just in case …”
“How much?”
“I dunno. Couple hundred thousand maybe.”
“It will be no problem, my friend.”
“Good. One more thing. About Halford. I want a good description. And I’m gonna need money, Hong Kong dollars.”
“How much?”
“I dunno yet. Could be, maybe fifty thou Hong Kong. How late can you do business with the bank?”
“Up to six is no problem at all. It will come out of the box. The president of the bank and I are friends. We play golf together.”
“Ain’t that sweet? Six is okay. I’ll probably need to make the tap about five. Deliver it to my hotel. In a shoebox, wrapped up like I bought some shoes, had them delivered. You call me at five, I’ll give you the tally. Where’s the bank?”
“Right around the corner from the hotel. The China Bank, behind the old Supreme Court building just before you get on the Star Ferry in Kowloon.”
“No problem. You ain’t five minutes away.”
“Right.”
“Okay, how about Halford? What’s he look like?”
“His full name is Charles David Halford and he is a full colonel,” DeLaroza began, and then described the military man.
“That’s beautiful. Look, you can forget it, okay, Victor? Now, what are we gonna have for lunch?”
“Well, I would suggest starting with shark’s fin soup and then either the Shanghai crab or empress chicken…”
_____________________
At 2:30, Burns made his call from a public phone booth in the lobby of the Excelsior Hotel, directly across the causeway from the Typhoon Shelter. Chan answered.
“Royal Oriental Rug Company.”
“Is Mr. Wan there?”
“Which Mr. Wan?”
“George.”
“This is George Wan.”
“It’s Johnson again.”
“Yes sir. Do you have the information yet?”
“Yeah. An eagle colonel, U.S. Army, name of Charles David Halford. H-A-L-F-O-R-D, Halford. Six-one to two, hundred-eighty pounds, white hair cut short, one of those curled-up type mustaches. I’m guessing he’s down from Tokyo or maybe the Philippines. I don’t think he’s here permanently. That’s all I got.”
“It is enough.”
“I was planning, I’d like to be outa here tonight, know what I mean? Can it be handled that quick?”
“I feel certain, if there are not complications. Call back each hour. If there is no answer, I have nothing to report.”
“That’s fine, just fine. Did you make the shipping arrangements?”
“Uh, yes, uh, you understand, there is a risk in moving the object about. There will need to be an additional charge for, uh, packing and insurance.”
“Of course. You get too greedy, I’ll let you know. Dor jeh.”
“Dor jeh.”
_____________________
/>
There was no answer at 3:30. At 4:30 the line was busy and Burns began to get nervous. Another hour would be pushing the bank deadline. He waited a minute and tried again. The phone rang several times before someone answered.
“Jo sun,” a high, whining voice said.
“Is this the Royal Oriental Rug Company?” Burns asked.
“Um ying gok yun,” the voice said.
Jesus, he can’t speak English, Burns thought.
“George Wan? You know, George Wan?” he said, speaking the name slowly and distinctly.
There was a disturbance on the other end, a flurry of Chinese words spoken in anger and then:
“This is George Wan. Hold a moment, um goy.” Then he heard him snap out a stream of Chinese, followed by another flurry. Finally: “I am sorry. This man was using the booth for business calls. I had a small problem with him. Is this Mr. Johnson?”
Burns paused. Then: “Where do you work?” His voice was flat, harsh, and suspicious.
“Royal Oriental Rug Company. It is George Wan, believe me.”
“Okay, what’ve you got?”
“The eagle colonel Halford is with military intelligence. He comes from Korea by way of Tokyo and is on rest leave. It required many calls. I had to prevail on a friend in Japan in the Yakuza and …”
“Forget the road map, okay? I don’t care where he came from, how he got here, all that. You got to understand, George, you and me we’re in the same business. You don’t have to jack up the price with all these details. All I want is essentials.”
Wan paused, then he said, “Yes. Halford is at the Ambassador Hotel on Nathan Street in Kowloon. Everything is arranged for tonight.”
“You got the shipping thing set up?”
“Hai, nin.”
“I’m changing signals a little. It’ll be two.”
“Two?”
“Yeah, two.”
“But I don’t understand, who …”
“Think about it, George. You can figure it out. I said I wanted shipping and insurance, see?”
This time the pause was longer. “That could make things very difficult for us, Mr. Johnson. It will really not be necessary to …”
Burns cut him off. “Look, you come over on my turf, you got a job to do, we do it your way. This we do my way. What happens afterward, that’s your problem. Whatever it’s worth, okay?”