The Dragon Head of Hong Kong by Ian Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

judgement.
    It wasn’t quite one o’clock, and now that she had her visa she could easily get to Mong Kok and back to Shenzhen before six. She also had time to visit the Jupiter Boutique. The taxi driver hadn’t heard of it but he knew Winter Street, and on the first pass by they saw the store. Off to the right of the entrance was a plain wooden door that looked as if it would lead upstairs. Ava rang the doorbell. When no one answered, she went into the boutique and found herself surrounded by women’s undergarments.
    “Excuse me,” she said to a heavily made-up middle-aged woman, “I’m looking for two friends of mine named Carlo and Andy. I thought they were renting the apartment upstairs, but I rang the doorbell and no one answered.”
    “They must be out.”
    “So I have the right place?”
    “I’m not sure what you would want with them, but yes, it is the right place.”
    Ava took the same cab to Lo Wu station and within ten minutes was on the train to Mong Kok. Confirming the apartment had relieved one anxiety; now her mind focused on another — the lie she would need to spin to Johnny Kung.
    What she didn’t doubt was the look she could convey. With makeup and her hair pulled back, and in pumps, a tight black pencil skirt, and a pink shirt unbuttoned to reveal the swell of her breasts, she would be sexy. But Andy was right, that wasn’t going to be enough. She needed a plausible reason for approaching him, and it wasn’t until she was on the train heading back to Shenzhen that she had one that might work. And might was the operative word.
    Her train got into Shenzhen at five thirty and she caught a cab to the hotel, again overpaying for it. When she walked through the front doors, Andy and Carlo were where she’d left them a couple of hours before, Andy on the couch and Carlo lingering by the door. Carlo’s eyebrows rose when she passed him, but to her relief he said nothing.
    Pang wasn’t so passive. “Wow,” he said when he saw her.
    “Thanks.”
    “You look terrific.”
    “Let’s hope my uncle thinks the same.”
    “What?”
    “Nothing,” she said.
    Both Andy and Carlo were now sitting on the lobby couch. She walked over to the men she was now beginning to think of as partners. “Has he come back to the hotel?” she asked.
    “No, your timing is really good,” Andy said.
    “So how do we do this?”
    “Carlo is going to go outside so he can see Kung coming from a distance. When he does, he’ll signal to me. I suggest you stand over by the elevators so it doesn’t look like we’re together. When Kung reaches the door, I’ll raise my hand. Then you’re on your own.”
    “I have to say I’m a little nervous.”
    “Do you have a strong story?”
    “I have a story. Who knows how strong it is?”
    “You look fantastic, so the story may not matter that much.”
    “Thanks,” she said, pleased by the compliment and the non-lascivious way it was given.
    “Now, Ava, the best thing for us is if he takes you to a restaurant for dinner. Don’t agree to eat here in the hotel, or any hotel for that matter, because security could get involved.”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    “And you have to insist that it’s just him and you. You don’t want his guys anywhere in the vicinity.”
    “I know.”
    He smiled and lowered his eyes. “Now I’m getting a bit nervous,” he said.
    “Are you worried about grabbing him?”
    “No, we’re old hands at this stuff. He’ll come along easily enough if he knows he has no choice.”
    “You’re that persuasive?”
    “I have a gun and Carlo has a knife.”
    “Good grief!”
    “Don’t look so panicked. What did you think? That we’d say ‘pretty please’ and he’d co-operate?”
    “No. I just didn’t realize you’d need all those weapons.”
    “Well, we have them, but usually we don’t need them. Besides, Kung is a pro. He knows the game.”
    “I sure hope so.”
    “And if you’re really that worried about it and want to back out, it