“You know as well as I do that the monks never kick anyone out. They work you tirelessly and themselves as well, but in the end, when you leave the monastery, you leave honorably. You do not leave in disgrace. Wing Ping was the first to be cast out at the Shaolin Monastery. It has been said the elder Wings died in disgrace and that Wing Ping is finally trying to reverse all of that.”
“That’s bullshit!” The words exploded from Harry’s mouth like gunshots.
“What do you want from me, Harry? I told you it was all rumor. I don’t know anything. Once I left the monastery, I took over my family’s business. I’m a businessman. I got married, started a family, and I mind my own business. Yes, I saw Jun Yu from time to time for a dinner or a lunch when he would come to Hong Kong. He stayed at my house. My children played with his children. My wife and Jun Yu’s wife shopped and had tea together. Jun Yu and I talked. I stayed in touch with you because that is what friends do, they stay in touch. It was your decision, Harry, to send your daughter to the monastery, not mine. Had you asked me, I would have told you not to do that, but you did not ask me. You can’t blame me for any of this. I did what Jun Yu asked of me. As I would do for you. I would hope that you would do the same for me.”
“So you’re going to cut and run, is that the bottom line?” Harry barked.
“Yes, Harry, that was my original intention. However, in these last minutes I am thinking I need to stay here, or you’re going to get yourself killed. I think you are going to need me. And, as you pointed out, I probably won’t like living in Mud Flats, Mississippi. So where does that leave us?”
Harry looked around at the group to see their reaction to Dishbang Deshi’s little speech.
Charles stepped forward. “I personally think Mr. Dishbang will be an asset. Poll the others for their opinion.”
Avery Snowden spoke up. “Can you hold up on your voting here and give me the go-ahead. By now, whoever these guys work for are going to be expecting some kind of progress report.”
Dishbang Deshi moved then, quickly like a panther stalking his query. He headed for the back of the showroom and threw open the huge metal doors to reveal a service truck used to haul the huge bolts of silk. In the blink of an eye he had the truck’s rear doors open. He stepped back as Snowden and his men loaded the bolts of silk containing the five men inside the tubes. They were not gentle.
“Where are you taking them? There are eyes everywhere. You will be marked before you reach the main road.”
Snowden rolled his eyes at the little Chinese for a moment before he turned away. “I’ll call you or Harry to let you know where you can pick up your truck,” was his response. Dishbang Deshi shrugged. He closed and locked the showroom doors with not one lock but three. He was back in the main part of the showroom within seconds.
“Now what?” Nikki asked. She pointed to Dishbang Deshi and asked if he was going with them or where else he was going.
“What’s it gonna be, Dishbang Deshi? You travel with us, they’ll know we made them. Whoever they are. Or you take your security you aren’t too comfortable with at the moment and head back to your offices, where you aren’t sure whether you’ll be safe. It has to be your decision. They’re onto you as it is, and there is strength in numbers, and we have quite a few numbers right here,” Harry said, waving his arm about. “If you plan on going with us, you need to get rid of that snappy custom jacket you’re wearing. Dennis, give him your Windbreaker and ball cap.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Dishbang Deshi’s lips. He raised his hand to stop Dennis. “Well said, Harry, my good, old dear friend, since you put it like that, I think I will, as they say, join up. I just told you that. A no-brainer, no? That’s a favorite expression of my oldest daughter. She loves American slang.”
“We need to get out of here right now. We’ve been here too long as it is. Those guys are probably past due in checking in with whoever,” Isabelle said as she nervously looked around.
Harry quickly explained about the van they’d hired and where it was parked.
“How do you lock up here?” Charles asked.
“It’s a spring-loaded latch, the door is steel, and it will automatically lock behind us. It’s dark out, which is a good thing. Move quickly once the door closes.”
Cooper sat back on his haunches and howled. Then he did his circle dance to get everyone’s attention, still howling. Everyone stopped in their tracks.
“What?” Jack bellowed. “What’s up with Cooper, Harry?”
“Someone is on the loading dock out back. The dog senses or smells them, and that is why he is barking,” Dishbang Deshi said. “What do you want to do, Harry? Invite them in?” This last was said with a cocky grin that made Harry laugh out loud.
“Jack, Dennis, Yoko, and I will stay with Dishbang Deshi. Take Cooper and head for the van. Go back to the hotel. Be quick about it. If anyone is in front, take them out,” Harry barked.
Dennis grew light-headed at the prospect of Harry’s thinking his martial-arts expertise was good enough to be part of whatever was going to go down. His stomach churned like a windmill in a wild hurricane.
“With pleasure,” Kathryn said, saluting Harry as Charles ushered everyone, including Cooper, out the front door.
“Do you want to open the bay doors, or should we wait for them to kick them in?” Jack asked as he bounced on his toes to flex the muscles in the calves of his legs.
“Let’s make them work for it.” Dishbang Deshi grinned. Harry agreed. Yoko just laughed. Dennis fought to keep all the snacks he’d eaten on the plane in his stomach.
“Hey, Harry, these guys any good?” Dishbang Deshi jerked his head in Dennis and Jack’s direction.
Harry laughed, an evil sound. “I trained them both. Jack is a black belt, the kid is third-degree brown. You saw my lovely lotus flower in action. Any more questions?”
Dishbang Deshi grinned. “Nope. Like old times, eh, Harry?”
“Sounds like they’re using a sledgehammer on the doors,” Dennis said in a jittery voice.
“It does sound like that, doesn’t it,” Yoko agreed. She sounded as if she was discussing whether it was going to rain.
“What do you think, Harry, ten minutes? Five? This must be a mind-your-own-business neighborhood since no one is coming to your friend’s aid with all that racket,” Jack observed.
“It’s live and let live,” Dishbang Deshi said. “No one wants to get involved.”
“The door is weakening,” Harry said, peering at the hinges that held the massive double doors in place. “But to answer your question, Jack, I’ll go with five minutes. Want to guess how many guys are out there?”
“Sounds like a dozen or more,” Dennis said.
“Four would be my guess. I read somewhere, or possibly I saw it in a movie, but I think the triads send out groups of four. They take no prisoners.” Dennis shivered at Yoko’s ominous tone.
“Yes, that’s how it works. They’re well trained, and they work in sync. I love to gamble and go to Macau at least once a month. Want to place a wager, anyone?”
“On what?” Jack asked.
“Them. Us. Who takes who out. There’s always a winner and a loser. I have never been a loser. Well, once when the Abbot picked Jun Yu over Harry and me. But right now, that doesn’t count. Oh, one last thing. These guys fight to the death. That’s what taking no prisoners means. You all need to know that.”
Jack looked at his watch when another earth-thundering blow hit the double doors. Two and a half minutes to go. He rolled his neck on his shoulders in an effort to loosen his cramped muscles. While he wasn’t loose as a goose, he nonetheless felt confident that he could hold his own and not let Harry and Dishbang Deshi down. He sighed. Why did life always have to get so complicated?
BOOM!
“One more good hit and the doors will cave in,” Dishbang Deshi said as he held his hands up, his fingers moving like pistons. Jack knew those stiff fingers could kill if they hit the right targets.
/> “I think we should all sit in a circle and pretend we’re meditating. That will throw them off for a few seconds, just enough time for us to spring up in surprise,” Dennis said as he flopped down and assumed the lotus position.
“Good thinking, kid,” Harry said as he dropped to the floor, Yoko at his side. Dishbang Deshi did likewise. Jack was the last to drop, his eyes never leaving the heavy metal doors, which were slowly caving in.
“Does he shave yet?” Dishbang Deshi hissed in Harry’s ear.
“Once a month,” Harry hissed in return.
Dennis heard the question and laughed. “Actually, it’s twice a month these days.”
BOOM! The hinges on the heavy metal doors gave way and the doors sagged. Four men, all dressed in loose black clothing, advanced into the room. Dennis was right—for the barest seconds, the scary-looking men stood rooted to the floor as they stared at the small circle of people.
“On the count of three, guys,” Harry whispered.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
Chapter 11
The moment the five Americans heard Harry hiss three, their legs were spring-loaded pistons, and they were airborne, arms windmilling in all directions, leaving the four black-clad figures spinning in shock and dismay. It was over in less than five minutes. It took an additional two minutes to use up the rest of the duct tape Snowden had used on the first group of thugs and left behind.
“Good job!” Dishbang Deshi said as he eyed the four bound men. He watched as Yoko searched their baggy pants for cell phones.
“Burners,” she announced. “These look just like the others, one number programmed in. My first thought is these phones were used to call the first guys. I guess that when they didn’t report in, this group knew something was up. What’s next?”
Jack was already on the phone with Snowden, telling him he needed to return to the showroom to pick up another delivery. He held the phone away from his ear so the others could appreciate the man’s rich vocabulary. “He said if nothing goes wrong, he should be here in thirty minutes.”
Dennis found himself giggling and didn’t know why. It rubbed off on Yoko, who also started to giggle. Harry glared at both of them until Yoko flipped him the bird.
“We need to get out of here, and we need to do it quickly,” Dishbang Deshi said. “Timing is everything with these goons. The first string will be within striking distance. Your friend driving my truck might not be so lucky this time around. Let’s take another crack at the one with the pigtail. He looks to me like he knows something. Just a gut feeling, Harry.”
Yoko held up her hands and said, “Allow me to do the interrogation, my dutiful husband. Unless you think you can do it better.”
Harry wasn’t going there. He simply stepped back and watched his petite wife hitch up her white knee socks, scuff her ballet slippers on the carpet, then adjust the wire-rim glasses on the bridge of her nose. “Does he have a name, my dutiful husband?” Yoko singsonged.
“Um . . . he said it was Shen, but they all said their name was Shen. Obviously, they’re all lying.”
“Do you think any of them understand English? This one in particular?” she asked.
“Not sure.”
“It doesn’t really matter. I think I can get my point across in English. It’s all in the expression, in the eyes, the flare of the nostril. Stand back. Allow me to proceed,” Yoko said in the same lilting tone.
The others watched, mesmerized, as Yoko made her way over to the man Harry and Dishbang Deshi thought might be the ringleader. She dropped to her knees and studied the man for a full minute before she removed her wire-rim glasses. She made a slow-motion production of prying off the cap that cushioned the back of the ear and was left with a slender, sharp wire in her hand. Slowly and deliberately, she leaned over and whispered, “I am going to stick this wire in your right ear until it comes out your left ear.” She gave a brief demonstration. “Then I am going to shove it up your nose and wiggle it around inside your brain.” She tickled the end of the man’s nose to demonstrate what the wire could do. He recoiled in fear, his eyes wild as he started to jabber hysterically in Chinese.
“If that doesn’t kill you, I will stick it in each eye, and after that, it will go into your . . . penis. That is, if you haven’t bled out by then.” The wire moved in all directions, the man’s eyes filling with tears. “Just so you know, the pain will be unbearable.” To make her point, she dug her clenched fist into the man’s groin. “That was a love tap.” The man howled in pain.
“What’s she saying?” Dennis demanded. “She’s just trying to scare him, right?”
“Trust me, kid, you do not want to know. The reason you don’t want to know is, she will do everything she’s telling him she’ll do. From the look on his face, the guy knows it, too. Just watch and . . . learn.”
Dennis wasn’t sure he wanted to learn, so he squeezed his eyes shut.
The man thrashed about as he tried to move his head as far away from Yoko as he could get. “See, my wonderful husband, he does understand English. How astute of you and your friend to figure out he is the one. I say that only because he looks so stupid.
“Speak!” Yoko shrieked.
“I know nothing. I follow orders. I know nothing.”
Yoko looked up at Harry with an adoring look. “What is the Chinese word for bullshit, my wonderful husband? When you say it to him, say it forcefully, to make sure he understands.”
Harry barked out the appropriate word in Chinese.
“Then tell us everything you don’t know,” Yoko said. She put the wire right up to his ear. The man tried to pull away, but Yoko held his shoulder to the floor with amazing strength. The man stared up at Harry, his eyes pleading for mercy as he tried to struggle free to no avail.
In Chinese, Harry warned the man that his little lotus flower had no patience and loved the sight of blood. The man started to babble. When he wound down, spittle oozing out of the corners of his mouth, Harry said, “What he said is all the English he knows. I think he’s telling the truth,” he said in disgust.
“He’s lying,” Yoko said. “I can see it in his eyes. I changed my mind, I’m going to start at the bottom and work my way to the top. Tell him that in Chinese, Harry.”
Harry laughed out loud when the bound man rolled over onto his stomach. “So much for my insight. I was wrong and you were right, my precious flower petal.”
“Pull his pants down, Harry.” Harry happily obliged, but he had to keep his foot on the man’s back to hold him in place.
Yoko crept closer. “This is going to really hurt!” She wiggled the wire to make her point. Her arm was raised and then lowered to plunge the wire into its target when with a Herculean effort the man rolled away from under Harry’s foot, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“I know nothing. Maybe one little bit. Not much. I hear . . . maybe something.”
“What?” Jack exploded.
“Fix my pants. Not good exposed. Is cold here. Not like you look.”
“It’s cold here because of the silk, you weasel,” Dishbang Deshi bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“I like the view. Makes me laugh. See me laugh, ha-ha,” Yoko said.
“Oh, jeez,” Dennis muttered.
Dishbang Deshi’s face was a study in confusion.
Harry turned away so his earsplitting grin with Jack couldn’t be seen by the bound, half-naked man.
“What time is it?” the man asked.
“What difference does it matter? You aren’t going anywhere,” Dishbang Deshi said.
“More men come if I no call. I miss call. They kill me and you and all in room. You see. Soon they come.”
“Yeah, right! Them and what army? We took you guys without breaking a sweat,” Dennis said bravely, his eyes now open wide so he wouldn’t miss anything.
“The bastard is stalling us. I know a stall when I see one,” Jack said as he craned his neck to listen to any strang
e sounds that might be coming from the loading dock. “Dishbang Deshi, turn off the lights! Let’s not make it easy on them. If that jerk is telling the truth, no sense giving them an edge. Snowden can find his way in the dark.”
The room turned dark, only a faint yellowish light coming through the loading dock’s open doors. Then a bright light appeared. It was Dishbang Deshi’s delivery truck, being driven by Snowden and his people.
“We need to go in the truck, too. Your man can drop us off away from here. We can make our own way back to your hotel. They won’t bother us there. Hurry!” Dishbang Deshi said.
“What about these doors? Won’t someone rob you?” Dennis asked.
“Without a doubt. It is only silk. My life, your lives, are more important than bolts of silk. Hurry! The phones. Who has the phones?”
“I do,” Yoko chirped. “Oooh, one is ringing now.”
“Don’t answer it,” Harry bellowed.
“Bring the duct tape!” Jack ordered. “These guys might try screaming. At this hour of the night, that is not what we need.” Dennis picked up the tape and slid his hand through the opening to wear it like a bracelet.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Dishbang Deshi shouted as the last man was dumped into the back of the van. He stood watch until all the others were safely inside before he climbed in and pulled the doors shut. “Go!”
The big truck trundled out of the narrow alley and onto a congested thoroughfare.
“We’re going to be a target. My shop does not make night deliveries, so we have to get rid of this truck as soon as possible. Go straight, make the next two rights, then a left, go maybe half a mile, and let us out. Then go wherever you plan on going and ditch this truck. Slash the tires, pull out the battery if you have time, and be sure to take the keys.”
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