Operation Breakthrough by Dan J. Marlowe Read Free Book Online Page B

give the impression of outright management. His
machismo
will not permit that.”
    Was she giving me a subtle warning about Candy’s unreliability? I began to eat while I considered it. I finally decided it didn’t make much difference. Candy might be a rusty tool — and I was only guessing about that — but he was all I had.
    I had three cups of coffee, the last one with a dark, tightly rolled cigarette Chen Yi gave me from a box on a shelf. “It’s not marijuana,” she said when she saw the caution with which I took my first drag. “Just Turkish tobacco. I learned to like — ” She paused with her head cocked to one side. “Can that be Candy at the door so soon? He’s hardly had time to — ”
    She didn’t complete it but hurried from the kitchen. I heard the sound of the heavy slide bolts being thrown back from the door, and then in what seemed the same instant Candy burst into the kitchen, his black face suffused with emotion. Chen Yi followed a few yards behind him. “Listen, you!” Candy growled at me harshly. “What kind of a mess are you tryin’ to get me into?”
    “Mess? No mess. I’m just — ”
    “I’m sure he has no intention — ” Chen Yi began in what was obviously intended to be a placating tone of voice.
    “Shut up!” Candy barked at her. “You know what this stupid bastard’s done? It’s all over the island that him an’ his crazy partner cracked a box in the bank that was loaded with syndicate papers, that’s what! The syndicate’s lookin’ for this guy twice as hard as the police are!”
    “The syndicate controls gambling among the little people,” Chen Yi explained, seeing my bewilderment. “Candy, I — ”
    “I’d run you out’ve here this second if I wasn’t afraid someone’d see you leavin’ in daylight an’ finger me for keepin’ you here,” Candy snarled at me. “But as soon as it’s dark you’re gone! I can’t stand no static from those people!”
    “I’m sure there’s a way it could be handled if — ” Chen Yi began again.
    “Shut up!” Candy roared. His eyes glittered. “I want him out’ve here!”
    “But I’m sure we could — ”
    Anger threaded his voice. “I know a bear trap when I see one, woman! They’d close me up in a minute!”
    I stacked my dishes and carried them from the table to the sink. I had no desire to be the focal point of a quarrel between these two. Candy was glaring at Chen Yi as though she was the cause of all his problems.
    “Candy — ” she said quietly.
    “SHUT UP!!” It was an outright bellow.
    “But if I can explain to you how — ”
    Candy’s voice was suddenly calm when he interrupted her. “Get the cane, Chen Yi.”
    She appeared surprised. She looked at Candy, glanced at me, then back at Candy. “You will have time for that later. For now you should know — ”
    “GET THE CANE!”
    For an instant I thought she was going to refuse to obey. Then she went behind the kitchen door and took down from a hook a pliant looking cane about twenty-four inches long, the type I’d seen in movies involving British schools. In silence she handed it to Candy. He bent it double upon its own length, testing its flexibility, then gripped its knobby end. “Get your belly down on that table!” he commanded. “That smart mouth of yours will make your ass smart!”
    Again I thought she was going to refuse until Chen Yi stretched herself out the long way on the kitchen table. Her beautiful face was an ivory mask. Candy grabbed the trailing edge of her long gown and threw it up onto her back, exposing the long legs, full bare thighs, and splendid nude buttocks. The cane in Candy’s hand swished through the air and struck Chen Yi’s taut flesh viciously, curling around her seat.
    The cane rebounded violently as though rejected by the soft mounds. The Chinese girl’s thigh muscles clenched and unclenched, but she made no sound. A long, livid stripe sprang up across her twin globes. I could see a weal rising even