Opening the door and moving into the room, she smiled as she saw him looking at her. ‘Adam,’ she said from the doorway, ‘we have to talk.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gabrielle felt her bedroom physically move and saw the water in the glass by her bed tilt. It was like being on a cross-channel ferry in a heavy swell; the only difference was that they were twenty storeys from ground level. The Elliotts tried to convince her it was perfectly normal and the blocks were designed and built to withstand much worse, but it was still very frightening.
The storm raged for many hours and as the time slowly passed Gabrielle’s belief that the block of flats was going to crumble under such a force, did not lessen. Even when she saw her hosts showing little concern, it didn’t help. She had also seen Eric looking at her and smiling, but that just added to her fear. How could he be so unworried? Surely the previous storms had not been as intense as this one?
The storm also gave Gabrielle time to think. From the moment she had decided she had to find Adam Harrison and try to explain how she felt, she’d been living in a whirlwind which in many ways was far worse than the storm outside. She had known from the outset that unless she followed her instinct she would always regret it, even if her impulsive behaviour led to nothing.
Trying to explain her behaviour to her parents, the drive down to Ashbourne, her meeting with the police, Jeremy Jacobs, Annabelle Tregarthen: they all seemed so long ago and to a great extent inconsequential now. Even the tragedies of Winterbourne Kingston were ages in the past.
What was real was now.
She was in Hong Kong and she was close to achieving her aim, if she even knew what that was. She had never ached for a man before so it could not be that, but she did want to touch him and for him to touch her. They had spent hours together when they had touched, although that could have been no more than a means of communication. But maybe it had communicated more than either of them realised.
Gabrielle felt the building shudder under another sudden gust and she shuddered with it.
She wanted somebody to hold her. She wanted to feel the security of someone’s arms around her, telling her that it was all going to go away. She wanted Adam to hold her; to feel his body against her body. She wanted to feel his warmth, she wanted to feel everything they could give to each other.
Was that love?
Elizabeth had said she thought Gabrielle was in love. How could she know? And what did being in love really mean? Did being in love mean sacrifice? Did it mean putting the other person’s needs above your own? Did it mean the person you loved was your best friend, who was more important than life itself? She had gone to the other end of the earth for him and fully intended going back with him. Was that what being in love meant?
She got out of bed and walked over to the window, pulled back the curtains and looked at the wild scene below her. The rain lashed against the window and blurred the street lights. The palm trees were putting up a good fight and staying their ground but there wasn’t a soul out there, not even a car, nothing to show that there was any life besides her own.
She shuddered once again and wrapped her arms around herself.
Yes, she was in love. She had to be.
‘Adam, where are you?’ she asked her window reflection.
* * *
Outside the hotel the typhoon still raged. The storm-blurred harbour was a fitting backdrop to Leila as she told her story. Once again she was kneeling on the bed, her hands in her lap. She was still wearing the bathrobe but it had fallen away from her thighs.
Sitting up in bed with a single sheet over his legs, Adam listened. She told him everything. She told him about her initiation at the age of fifteen into The 7th Dragon Triad. She told him about her life for the last twenty-two years: how on the surface she led a perfectly normal existence except she had neither husband nor boyfriend; how this normal existence was a cover for the control the 7th Dragon Triad had over her. How she wished she could go back all those years and change what she had done, because once she was in, there was only one way out.
Adam could not believe what he was hearing.
She even told him she had lost count of the number of men she’d slept with just to get the information her Master needed, and how she killed two of these men on the Master’s orders. She told him about her controller and that his number was Sixty-Six and hers was Thirty-Nine. She explained she didn’t know who her controller was other than his number, and didn’t know anybody else who was in the 7th Dragon Triad.
And she told him she’d been ordered to kill him.
Even then he just sat and listened.
And only then she told him that by revealing what she had to him, she had signed her own death warrant. Another member of the Triad would be tasked to kill them both and whoever it might be, they would not fail.
As she finished Leila dropped her head as she waited for a reaction.
His eyes had been on hers all the time but still he didn’t move.
When Leila came out of the bathroom and said they needed to talk, Adam had no idea what it was she wanted to discuss. Even after she knelt down on the bed in front of him he didn’t notice how serious she had become. Watching her move around the bed he wondered why he was so lucky, so he didn’t have the slightest inkling what was going to come next.
But it only took a few seconds before he realised what Leila had to tell him was not only serious but also unbelievable. Of course he was aware of the existence of the Triads in Hong Kong but had never taken them seriously because as a young teenager they had no impact on his life whatsoever. When he was sent back to school in England he forgot anything he’d been told by his Hong Kong Chinese friends.
As she moved on from her initiation into the 7th Dragon Triad many questions began to form in his mind but he did not interrupt her because his brain was still trying to take on board what she was telling him and why. Explaining that her role within the organisation was to gather information seemed to lessen the seriousness of her involvement but when she added that she had killed twice on the orders of the Master, things moved onto a different plain.
From the moment she started, and regardless of how unbelievable her story was, he did not doubt one word she was telling him. She didn’t add any detail to her confession about being a murderer, and the way she said it seemed so matter-of-fact.
Reaching the point where he’d arrived in Hong Kong she became a little more hesitant; it seemed as though her conscience, regardless of her past, had suddenly kicked in. Admitting their meeting at the airport was contrived appeared difficult, but immediately Adam wondered why he had been singled out. He didn’t have long to wait before he found out. The Master wanted information about him and Leila was tasked with finding out as much as possible.
But why?
Why did anybody in the Hong Kong underworld want to know about him and how the hell did they know he was in Hong Kong in the first place? He could think of nothing that happened before he left Hong Kong in 1984 that might be of interest, and certainly nothing since his return to England. For a fleeting moment he did wonder if there was a connection with the loss of his family but then dismissed the thought just as quickly.
When Leila paused before telling him she had been tasked with his own killing, he knew she had reached the crucial reason for relating her story. This added confession did not have to penetrate an already confused mind because her lucidity and transparency had never wavered. On hearing of this direct threat to his life, Adam actually smiled to himself. When he was telling Leila about the loss of his family, he deliberately left out any detail concerning his trip to Loch Lomond, so she knew nothing about Gabrielle Brooks and the main reason for him going there in the first place. The irony of being stopped from taking his own life only to be told it was now to be taken by somebody else struck him immediately. But he did want to know why. When walking into the cold water of Loch Lomond he would have known exactly why he was doing it. But now that his life had been plac
ed in somebody else’s hands, he needed to know why. He had no fear of dying - he’d been through all that - but he did want to know why somebody else felt they had the right, the arrogance, to decide whether he lived or died. Without an explanation it was a little too much to take on board.
With everything she told him slotting into the correct compartments in his mind, and regardless of the questions generated, one incongruity remained. His appointed assassin was sitting less than two feet from him dressed in no more than a towelling dressing gown, and unless she was hiding a knife or a pistol close by, she looked more vulnerable than he felt.
Leila was now waiting for him to say something. So what does a man say to a woman he’s just had sex with, when she tells him she is under orders from the Master to kill him? But Adam was not just any man, he was a man who had come very close to taking his own life anyway. The threat didn’t worry him; the reason behind the threat did. And as for his self-confessed assassin, she wasn’t exactly playing the part.
The irony continued when he thought back to when she’d told him she would also be killed if the Master ever found out how she’d opened up to a stranger about the 7th Dragon Triad. So why was she telling him? Why was she putting her own life on the line? Perhaps that was where he should start.
‘You might be surprised to hear I’m not angry, Leila,’ he said, putting his hands behind his head and relaxing. ‘Anger would achieve very little. I also don’t feel threatened at the moment because I doubt you intend killing me in this room while dressed in a white towelling bathrobe. For a start we’ve been seen together a lot over the last day or so, and unless you propose using poison, blood and white bathrobes don’t go together.’
‘I -’
‘No, Leila,’ Adam said. ‘It’s my turn now. Actually I only have a few questions and the first is just one word - why? Why does the 7th Dragon Triad want me dead?’
‘I don’t know. That’s my problem also.’
‘Your problem, Leila? Were you told why you had to kill the other poor sods who were taken in by your feminine charms?’
‘No, Adam, I was not told. I had no idea why I had to kill them but I killed them anyway.’
‘So why doesn’t that surprise me?’ Adam held up his hand as Leila tried to speak. ‘My next question is: why am I not already dead? Why are you sitting here as you are? Why have you told me your life story rather than getting on with what you have to do, especially as telling me all this has made your own life forfeit?’
In answer to his questions Leila undid the belt round the bathrobe and lowered it to her waist. Turning round on the bed she pushed the bathrobe down until Adam could once again see the tattoo on her lower back. ‘Do you know what that means in English?’ she asked over her shoulder.
Adam looked at the tattoo - 你在哪裡. ‘My translation skills are a little rusty but something like - Where are you?’
Pulling the bathrobe back over her shoulders, she turned round again. ‘That’s exactly what it means. I had it done about ten years ago when I first realised I’d made the biggest mistake of my life in falling under the spell of the Triads.’
‘And who have you been looking for?’ Adam asked.
‘Somebody who might be able to help me escape from the prison I created for myself over twenty years ago.’
Suddenly a light went on in Adam’s head. He still didn’t know why Leila’s master wanted him dead but he now understood why she was sitting where she was: her vulnerability was a deliberate statement, a cry for help. ‘And in me you think you’ve found that person?’
‘Yes, Adam, I think I have.’
* * *
By the following morning the storm had blown itself out and now there was only the aftermath; the debris to clear away. The forecast was right: the storm’s bark was worse than its bite. It had battered, it had blown, it had swirled, it had done everything expected from a typhoon but for many it had been a mere puppy dog. Many who lived in the shacks on the hillsides breathed a sigh of relief; they had homes for another day, another typhoon.
‘So, what’s the plan today?’ Eric asked as he and the two women tucked into their boiled eggs and toast. He had enjoyed the two days of isolation. He did not and never would regard Gabrielle as a substitute for their lost daughter because Jane had been something very special - their flesh and blood. But regardless of her ill-chosen vocation - what a waste, he thought - Gabrielle was a rather splendid diversion. Eric always felt uncomfortable when they were faced with a typhoon. He felt so helpless, as though he could offer no protection to Elizabeth at all. So Gabrielle had been a very welcome distraction. And what a distraction! He had watched her as closely as he dare and then he’d gone to bed and dreamt about her. Silly old fool! No, he wasn’t a silly old fool, he was just an old man who could still appreciate a nice figure, a pretty face and a welcome smile.
‘You always want a plan,’ Elizabeth scolded. ‘Why can’t you just let things happen?’
‘Because,’ Eric told her as he dug into the bottom of the egg shell for any remnants he’d missed, ‘this young lady wants to find her Adam, and sitting here and waiting for things to happen will achieve absolutely nothing.’
Elizabeth smiled. ‘He can be quite forceful when he wants to,’ she told Gabrielle.
Eric ignored his wife’s cynicism. ‘I would suggest we go and see Patrick Yong first. I’d be surprised if he didn’t know his brother was in Hong Kong, so he might know where he is.’
* * *
‘It’s blown itself out,’ Adam said peering out over the harbour. ‘We have no reason now to stay in the hotel,’ he added without turning round.
Leila looked across the room. She was still in a state of shock. She could not believe that something she considered she would never find had come into her life after all. Adam’s questions and answers were still fresh in her mind.
‘So why does this master need to know you’ve told me anything?’
‘He will find out.’
‘How?’
‘My controller will detect something.’
‘This controller, or number Sixty-Six as you call him. He is the one who told you to kill me?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the order will have come from this master?’
‘Yes.’
‘So how long were you given to complete my murder?’
‘Adam, please don’t refer to it like that. I’ve told you I could never have done it.’
‘Sorry, but how long?’
‘My controller knows I have to be confident with whatever plan I came up with because nothing must ever lead the police back to the 7th Dragon.’
‘But surely the timing of your plan and its execution wasn’t open-ended?’
‘No, previously I was given a two week window unless I found out my target was due to leave Hong Kong before then.’
‘So, assuming the same applies to me, we’ve got over a week to come up with an alternative plan which includes you and me getting the hell out of Hong Kong and disappearing?’
‘We could never disappear.’
‘There’s always somewhere to hide. So just over a week?’
‘I don’t know, Adam. My controller seemed impatient for me to … to complete my task.’
‘But he thinks you’re still working on me and your plan?’
‘Yes, but I’m due to meet him again soon. Now the typhoon has blown itself out, it could be today or tomorrow.’
‘But if you were to tell him you’d decided how you were going to do it, and within the next two or three days, would he buy that?’
‘Possibly.’
‘So let’s come up with a plan that would work, and one you can tell him about.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘Of course. In planning my death we may just preserve both our lives.’
Leila’s dream was now almost coming true.
Almost, because there were any number of hurdles they had to clear before they could even think about being able to st
op looking over their shoulders.
‘Are you going to stop daydreaming and answer my question?’
‘I can think of a few reasons for staying here,’ she said, leaning back and putting her hands behind her head. ‘One of them is called stamina.’
Turning from the window Adam looked at Leila’s nakedness. ‘I think that if we gave our bodies some form of nourishment then stamina would follow automatically.’
‘How can you be so blasé about all this?’
‘Experience, Leila.’
She held out her hand. I’m not going to ask you what you mean by that. So what do you want to do?’
Crossing the room Adam sat on the bed and took Leila’s hand in his. ‘I want to go for a walk and plan my death.’
* * *
It was late afternoon on the Saturday.
The streets and roads were coming back to life as people accepted the typhoon had actually passed. There was minor flooding and some of the very young trees had succumbed to the battering and were lying uprooted, the odd one or two somewhat precariously. The humidity was high.
‘This is very good of you,’ Gabrielle told her hosts as the taxi splashed its way through Stanley to the north side of the island, and the tunnel to Kowloon. She was actually very pleased Eric had suggested they accompany her. Patrick Yong was the obvious starting point but after what Lolita had told her she certainly would not have been happy trying to find him without help. She hadn’t the faintest idea what these Triads were all about but she would not have wanted to risk meeting Adam’s brother on her own. On the other hand she found it hard to believe that the hostility that may have existed between Patrick and Adam so many years ago could possibly still exist.
‘You’ve been in Hong Kong for five minutes,’ Eric said from the front seat, ‘although compared with some, you’re an old hand now, having experienced your first typhoon. But these back streets, although mesmerising, can be just a little dangerous. It’s also easy to get lost if you take a wrong turn.’
In Denial Page 30
