by Clive Hindle
"What did you tell him?" he asked Diana as soon as they were alone.
“Oh, I told him you’re a very important person back home. I said the gang you brought has been told by your contact in Moscow that you cannot be cheated. I said they are due to meet up to divide up the money and we can lead him to the meet. He’s only interested in the loot.”
“Wow!” Once again he was astonished by her speed of thought. It might just give them an edge if Peter turned up now and if, somehow, he could intervene.
A few moments later there was a loud banging on the door for a second time. "All right, all right," Jack shouted back. He opened the door and the two of them walked out. "Can we do a deal?" he said to the Police Chief, "Fifty fifty?"
The Chief looked at Jack like something the cat had dragged in and said, "You hold no aces Mr. Lauder. The deal I may do with you, if you’re lucky, is to let you go."
"Like my friend was let go?"
"I had no knowledge of that, it was a very clever operation by Chernenko. He thought he'd cheat me of my share by disposing of the evidence. He made out the Australian had left town. Just think of it, I wouldn't have known who the corpse was if you hadn't come along. Lucky for me, eh?"
Jack grabbed the suitcase and Diana looked at him askance, “What are you doing with that?”
“It’s got every possession I own in it.”
She shook her head in disgust. In the reception they insisted on paying their bill, much to his annoyance. He was impatient to get going and they were buying time. "Where are you meeting them?" he asked Jack irritably.
"No aces?"
The Chief wagged a finger in his direction and replied, "Don't even think of trying to double-cross me!"
They paid the intimidated manager with an American Express card and then headed for the door, hoping Peter had arrived but not knowing what he could do out in the open in broad daylight.
The Police Chief motioned them towards a Police Car occupying one of the taxi ranks outside the hotel foyer. Jack looked round frantically for his pal and, just as he’d begun to despair that he’d deserted them, he saw him parked across the road. He signalled with his eyes towards the Chief but Peter was already alert to the problem. Was he going to try something desperate? It was one thing stinging the local mob, but taking out a Police Officer, even a corrupt one? That was heavy action. Just then he saw Peter’s brother and Georgi nosing down the street the opposite way in yet another vehicle. It was still touch and go, what could they do out here? Suddenly, just when he was desperate for a flash of inspiration, it was Diana again who saved the day. A taxi pulled up in the rank immediately behind the Police Car and she said, "That's the signal!"
"What?" Both Jack and the Police Chief looked at her uncomprehendingly.
It was Rudi, his grinning face pointed in their direction. He’d obviously enjoyed being a celebrity. He was leaning out of the cab gesticulating towards them. "English, English!" he shouted.
"They said they'd send a taxi," Diana said to the police chief.
The Police Chief looked at her then at the driver trying to attract their attention. It all looked kosher. The Chief mumbled something about it being a possible trap. "I want back up," he said. "Stay here, I'll find out where he's taking you and I'll arrange for my men to meet us there." He sauntered over towards the taxi and Rudi leaned out in his direction. In the meantime Peter pulled in behind in another battered Lada and shoved the back door open. Diana piled in first. The Police Chief, alert now to what was happening, broke off his interrogation of the frightened taxi driver and lunged towards Jack, whose heart was in his mouth but, reacting quickly, he hurled the suitcase at the Chief as he rushed to cut him off. The Chief went headlong into it, tripped over and fell heavily on the floor as Jack slammed the door shut. The car took off with screeching tyres across the street into the opposite flow of traffic.
"See," he told Diana, "I knew it would come in handy." She threw him a withering look.
If the Police Chief thought he was going to give immediate chase in the Police Car he was mistaken because Rudi panicked. He bolted and pulled out into the road. The driver of the Police Car, seeing the Chief go down and Rudi trying to run away, swerved out, siren blaring, to chase the taxi and slammed straight into Georgi’s judiciously placed vehicle. The two aggrieved men jumped out and began remonstrating with the Police Officer, who turned back to the Chief and nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw he was all right. The Chief screamed at the wrecked Police car, his last hope of pursuit gone and what looked like a bureaucratic mess to clear up into the bargain. As he and his officer argued, Peter’s relatives disappeared into the crowd of onlookers. The three in the Lada were busy congratulating themselves on a pretty good ruse when Peter brought them back to earth. "They'll be watching every exit for you now," he said, "the airport, the train station, the ferry. Everyone will be looking for you."
The euphoria evaporated. "Can you get us out of here?" Jack asked, “by the sea route?”
“Oh no, that isn’t safe. Not from here. The coastguard will have that covered.”
“Is there no chance then?”
The fisherman turned and smiled as they sat looking anxious in the back seat. "No problem," he replied, "the tiger's route." Jack and Diana looked at each other and wondered what the fisherman was talking about. “We are going to take you north,” he added, “to Primorsky Krai. It’s a long journey and an arduous one but no one goes up there. In the winter the frost bites deep. In the summer the insects bite deeper.” He smiled cheerfully. They were at the outskirts of the town now and he pulled into a transport park. “This is where we pick up our lift.” Jack was grateful that Peter was coming with them.
The transport turned out to be a Kung, the Russian Army’s Humvee equivalent. It was four wheel drive with tyres which came up to a tall man’s waist and inside it was fitted out with custom-built bunks for four people. It had a winch, a gun rack and even a wood-burning stove. There was no standing on ceremony. Another of the team was the driver and soon the engine was revving away happily as they moved north, following the main highway which led north to the Ussuri River and took the line of the Trans-Siberian railway towards Khabarovsk, 800 kilometres north of Vladivostok and at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. Jack knew what Peter meant by ‘the tiger route’ now as the land they were going to, which was once considered part of Manchuria and was basically a forest sea, was the last stamping ground of the great beast known as the Siberian Tiger. After several hours’ driving they reached the Ussuri where they turned east towards Ariadnoye. Then any semblance of road ran out and they began to take forestry tracks further east until, finally, as dawn began to break, they once again caught sight of the Sea of Japan and the narrow road which ran up the coast towards a village called Kamenka. They hid up in the hills until dark and then made their way down towards the settlement. A flashing light out at sea told them that Peter’s friends had arrived and a motorized dinghy came in-shore to collect them. The trip wasn’t over. The fishing boat had to act as if it was fishing. It couldn’t spirit them straight out to sea but had to head for the traditional fishing grounds so they could give the coastguard the slip.
Three days later, after a bumpy crossing, they were in Hokkaido, the north island of Japan. They went ashore in the dinghy at the Shakotan Peninsula and said goodbye to Peter. “You are on your own now, old friend,” the Russian said, “I would like to thank you again for your kindness.”
“My kindness? We are very much quits, my friend.”
“You know, Jack, I didn’t expect anything good to come of that fit up in Newcastle. But it has done me a great deal of good.”
The two of them shook hands one last time and they took off into dark. A long walk took he and Diana to Otaru and from there they got a train to Sapporo. They took the midnight flight into Tokyo where, after an overnight stay, they got on the JAL flight for Hong Kong. “Well, Jack,” Diana said as soon as they settled into their seats, “it wasn’t wha
t we wanted to discover, was it, but it certainly brings the curtain down?”
“I’m not so sure. I still don’t understand why I was a target, why someone thought Gerry had passed something on to me. It still doesn’t add up.”
“Oh leave it out!” she sighed, “can’t we just go off somewhere and get a couple of sun-beds?” But she knew it was in vain. There was an itch and, one thing she had learned, it was in Jack’s nature to scratch it.
PART 5
CHAPTER 1
When they arrived back in Hong Kong, Jack assumed they’d simply go back to Diana’s apartment but she was oddly reticent and he figured she was concerned that maybe it was a bit small. He wanted to say how incongruous that sounded after they’d been cooped up in a bunk in a Russian ATV for a few days but she wasn’t forthcoming and he didn’t want to trespass on her feelings so he let it go. They headed instead for the Mandarin and on this she did comment, “Feeling squeamish about returning to Gerry’s flat, are we?”
There was no hiding the hint of sarcasm in her voice and it grated on him to some small extent that she was so unforgiving. The man was dead, for God’s sake! He didn’t expect her to grieve like him for the loss of a good friend, because, whatever was the cause and it was another place he didn’t really want to go, their experiences had been far different and she clearly didn’t miss him at all, but this feeling of triumph about finding him laid out in the dead files cabinet just didn’t square with him at all. He’d have to have a word with her because, if their relationship was going to work, they needed to iron out some of these differences. What did he like about her? That was easy: she was vivacious, brave as a lioness; she was gorgeous to look at; she could be warm and tender; oh and the sex was exquisite. If he parted from her he’d lust for her body for years to come. But the flip side of all these characteristics was that she could be icily sarcastic and she had the capacity for the type of vengeance that could bring down dynasties, continents, the whole human race. You wouldn’t want to cross her. Is that what he wanted? Well, yes, he wanted quite a lot of her actually. He decided to start now. “You know,” he said, “one thing I find very difficult with you is you don’t ever seem to forgive and forget?”
“I never forget, Jack! Once you’re off the Christmas card list, that’s it, mate.”
“That’s very bleak. Besides it means you’ve got to be pretty well perfect yourself.”
“I don’t pretend to be perfect. I don’t want to be judged by my own standards. I intend to impose my own standards. It’s the way it is. That’s all.”
“Where does that leave me? Assuming of course that I don’t always come up to these exacting standards.”
“Well, you’ve done surprisingly well up to now so why not just suck it and see?”
No sooner had he checked in than reception told him there was a letter waiting for him. The envelope showed it had been posted to his office and re-directed here. There was another letter inside it and a note from his PA which explained that it had arrived a few days after he had left and she had thought it important enough to send straight on to him because it related to his reasons for going to Hong Kong. He tore it open and frowned as he saw the postmark on the envelope inside. The original letter had been posted from Vladivostok three weeks before. Hands trembling he opened this second envelope. A key fell out and two pieces of paper. One was a short, scrawled letter from Gerry, which read:
Good day mate,
Sorry for the late contact but there's been a couple of ricks. I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out but I figure my secret’s safe with you. I’m eternally grateful for your generosity as always and I’ve made it so that if all else fails you will get yours back. The way this works is this: if you’re reading this letter and something’s happened to me so you can’t check up with the author directly, you'll be pleased to know this key opens a safe deposit box at the Honkers and Shankers, Victoria Head Office. It's a computer system and the numbers you need to push are 1997 666 (The number of the Beast!). Open Sesame, mate. What's there is yours. Also, there's a box. There's some things in it of more than passing interest, I’m sure, if you can get it all translated. Also there's this piece of paper. Haven't a clue what it says but I'm no bloody calligrapher. Anyway, I am pretty certain that others might want it quite badly, if you catch my drift, so I am sure you’ll know exactly how to handle them. Ciao for now. I'm going walkabout mate. Got just the sheila for company on a cold night in the outback.
Jack looked at the second paper while Diana read the letter. The paper was in written Chinese. He could pick out odd characters here and there but his facility with the spoken language didn't extend to the script. "Well," she said brightly, "let's go and open the box."
Shortly the secrets of the Montrose box were at least partly out. Partly because it was all in Chinese and although Diana was good with the spoken language she wasn’t up to much when it came to the written. The simple facts were: Gerry had rather poignantly left a deed transferring his apartment to Jack, so that was obviously what he’d meant about repaying the loan; also in the box there were computer disks they couldn’t access without hardware; and there were some more documents in Chinese script. They needed someone to translate all this. Diana was as pragmatic as ever, "Let's start with the piece of paper from Gerry's letter," she said, "there must be someone here who can translate it."
After a phone call to reception they walked into the Business Centre where a young lady took the document from Jack and began to study it carefully. Her mouth fell open as she read. "Where did this come from?" she asked.
Jack was going to explain but Diana cut him short by saying that someone back home was playing a trick on them. It was a puzzle, a kind of treasure hunt. The girl seemed partially reassured by that explanation. "Okay," she said, "but it is very unusual. You wait ten minutes and I give you a full translation. It will just go on your room bill." She was as good as her word and she came back with the fragment of text translated. "See," she said, "I told you it was unusual," and she looked at them both oddly. "We're not allowed to mention those names."
She pointed with a long, elegant, pink-tipped index finger at three of the words she'd translated. Jack nodded. He knew exactly what she meant. Diana was looking curiously at the words, Wo Shing Wo. Neither of them noticed the curious look the girl threw at them as she disappeared back into her office. She closed the door and got straight on the telephone. "What did she mean?" Diana asked.
"It's a Triad society," Jack said, "a very powerful one, probably the strongest here after the 14k."
“I know that, dummy. What do you think I’ve been doing here all this time, hibernating in a roo’s pouch?”
“Well, she meant they can’t mention the names. It’s an offence to claim to be a member of a Triad Society and Chinese people talking about them can be misconstrued.”
Jack looked at the rest of the fragment. It didn't altogether make sense. It wasn't complete because it had been torn off something larger. What was decipherable read:
"…. end … 2nd Session …. Council… point ..closure ..hil…han… must be dead. ….Democrats …not recover ….time… no blame… China…. be seen… work … faction of Wo Shing Wo. All….the Dragon rises….the one … must do … K.K. Chow …. reward… untold wealth…. Act…not… forgotten. The grass sandal is yours."
"What do you make of that?" Diana asked.
"I don't know," Jack replied, "but I don't like it. No wonder that girl looked at us strangely."
“What about getting the things in the box translated,” she asked, “and those computer disks printed out?”
“I’m not sure,” Jack said, “I’ve got a funny feeling about this. You remember Gerry said in his note he couldn’t make out what half of this stuff was. That girl was pretty gobsmacked by the mention of the Triad Society’s name. That’s just on a scrap of paper. What’s on the rest could be lethal. K.K. Chow told me Gerry had stolen something from him. This must be what he was talking about. It’s what
they’ve thought I had all along. That’s why they came after me and it’s kind of why I’m here. It must be serious stuff or they wouldn’t have gone to those lengths to get it back. I don’t think we can afford to hand it to just anyone to translate. If this fell into the wrong hands we could be in serious bother. It might even be illegal to have it in our possession!”
“Right, but it can’t get us into trouble can it? We’ve come across it innocently.”
“I’d rather not take the risk. Maybe I should hand it over to someone official, Graham Witherspoon for instance?” The look on Diana face suggested she wasn’t impressed with that idea. "What? Graham's about the only person in the Hong Kong Government I would trust as far as I could throw!”
"Well, I’m not so sure, I’d be careful if I were you." Try as he might he couldn't get her to amplify that. She just said, "Play your cards close to your chest, that's all I'm saying."
